Monday, January 30, 2017

We are His focus...not the agenda. Making time for those we love. Pics!😎

Hey guys! :)

I am feeling MUCH better this week. Last week was quite the experience, and I spent a lot of time in bed. I have grown to love my little Neti Pot... kind of. :P I actually went on exchanges this week with Elder Sykes and he used it himself (don't worry, we sanitized it before and after). XD It was a pretty funny experience.

So this week we learned that the missionary daily schedule has been adjusted, giving us more freedom to decide how we want to organize our day and get the things done that we need to. I love the changes, especially because it allows me to create a schedule that I can still apply when I no longer wear a name tag. We also have an extra couple hours added to our P-day, which I'm pretty sure caused a cheer from every missionary the world over. :P But I'm excited!

I really loved church yesterday. Not really sure why, but I just was sitting there through the meetings and I just had this wonderful feeling of love for everybody around and it was the best thing ever. I think what I loved most was that I was watching how so many different things weren't necessarily going perfect; the organist missed a few notes, not everybody knew how to sing, there were some awkward moments where things didn't go perfectly, and I was just sitting there watching things happen and I had this incredible feeling of love for these people and the missionaries around me. I think I got just a glimpse of how the Lord feels about us. Things were so imperfect and yet everybody was happy and everybody was trying. I think the Lord looks down on our imperfect efforts and just loves us to death. He is so proud of our efforts; because His goal is not that everything happens perfectly, but that we learn and progress. We are His focus, not the agenda. I love that.

I was thinking a little bit about love during sacrament meeting this week. A man gave a talk in which he related a story (which many of you may have heard before or seen in a video) that goes something like this:

One day, a man had a really tough day at work. He was cut off, flipped off, and ticked off the whole drive home. When he finally walked in the door, the house was a mess and his wife looked as exhausted as he felt as their kids ran around making the disaster worse. Wanting simply to relax for a little while, he sent the kids to get ready for bed and walked into the living room to lie down. After a few minutes, his young son walked in and asked, "Dad, how much do you make an hour?" 

The father responded exasperated, "I don't know, about 40 dollars. Go finish getting ready for bed." 

His son started to walk back, then turned around and asked, "Dad, can I have 20 dollars?"

The father's temper flared. "No! I've had a really bad day, please let me rest."

His son quickly ran back into his room. After a few minutes, the father began to think he'd been a little harsh on his son; perhaps he really needed 20 dollars for something. He walked back to his son's room and handed him 20 dollars. His son took the money and pulled out a little box full of bills and change from under his bed. The father's temper flared again, "Why did you ask for 20 dollars if you already have money?!"

The son didn't respond, but continued to pull bills and change out of his little box. After a few seconds, he turned to his father and handed him all the money he'd pulled out. "Dad, this is 40 dollars. Can I buy an hour of your time?"

This story brought tears to my eyes.

One way to measure love is with time. What time do we make for our loved ones? As a parent, do you really make time that you consecrate to your children? As a child, do you really make time that you consecrate to your parents? As a brother or sister? As a spouse?

My invitation this week is to make time for each of those you love. I know my dad loves me, not because he gave me money or a car or an iPad or anything like that, but because he gave me time, showing up after his work to so many of my school soccer games, knowing I probably wouldn't play very much. I know my mom loves me because she gave me time, staying up very late after I'd get home from dates to listen to me talk about how things had gone and what I was feeling like.

Remember most of all that the Lord gives us all of His time.

I love you all!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

We were doing weekly planning when Elder Colunga turned and saw that I had my sunglasses on. Can I help it that my future is this bright?

Have you ever heard of Kinder Eggs? I hadn't until I got here. We have begun a tradition of getting one every P-day when we shop. These are my favorite toys that I've gotten since I arrived.

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