Hey guys! :)
Well, it's been a
great week! We got a TON of snow. I discovered that if you make snowballs for
long enough, it stops hurting your hands because you just can't feel them
anymore! :) However, then your hands get snow hangover and it feels like a
thousand little gremlins are stabbing your fingers with those little swords
they put in sandwiches for the next hour or two. Question: are my fingers
supposed to still be purple? (just kidding, Mom. :) )
We had a pretty funny
development this week. One night before bed, Elder Colunga and I were talking
and we discovered a very key fact: French is absolutely hilarious if you try to
speak like Yoda. Nothing makes much sense, but we were laughing for about
thirty minutes straight and kept repeating phrases we use all the time with a
Yoda voice. That's one thing about being a missionary: once you've been out on
your mission for a certain amount of time, almost anything can be funny. If you
don't learn to laugh at everything, life can become very discouraging. :P One
of Elder Colunga's favorite catch phrases to start talking to people (which he
dreams of using but has not yet actually used... but give it time) is, "My
mom likes your hat." Yeah, it doesn't make sense. But translate it into
French and say, "Your hat, my mom likes!" with a Yoda voice and I
guarantee people are going to be curious about who you are and how you managed
to get out of the mental institution from which you came. Anything to talk to
people, right? :)
I had a thought that
came to my mind this week while someone was giving a talk in church about
optimism and positivity. As he was speaking, I had a very clear thought come
into my head:
God is an optimist!
I think that
personally, I can get into this thought process where I start to put my
personality on the Lord and think that He looks at me like I look at myself. As
if when I wake up in the morning, He thinks, "Oh man. He's barely gonna
make it through the day." Or something along those lines. As if after I
struggle through an awkward conversation with some guy on the metro, He's thinking,
"Yup. That was pretty bad. You should probably practice more because that
was awful." And I kind of realized, that is absolutely not His
personality!
The best coaches and
leaders and role models I've had in my life were those who smiled and praised
and lifted me through my less-than-perfect efforts at things that they
understood far better than I did. If it worked so well with them, as imperfect
but wonderful men and women, why do we sometimes think that Heavenly Father or
the Savior would be any different? They love us infinitely more than we can
comprehend, They understand exactly what we need, and They see in us the
potential that we can't see in ourselves. When we try, but don't quite make it
to perfection (sometimes nowhere near), They are not hanging their heads on the
sidelines, trying to avoid being associated with us. I see Them much more like
the soccer mom, who no matter what you do on the field is up in the stands
telling everyone she can, "That's MY son! That's MY son! Did you see how
far he just ran? Did you see how he passed the ball?" Meanwhile we can be
down here on the field destroying ourselves for every error, and yet at the end
of the game she comes down to meet us and is praising us for everything in the
whole world! Because in her eyes, and in the eyes of the Savior and of our
Heavenly Father, as long as we tried, we played wonderfully. We
could lose the game 10 to 0; she puts us up there with Ronaldo and Messi! It is
the same with so many other moments in our lives. As we try, and as we repent
when we didn't try our best, They are always proud of us!
So always remember,
when things get grim and discouragement looms overhead: God is an optimist!
Elder Bryan McOmber
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