Freezing...AGAIN. Blanket fort to stay warm.😂 Second attempt at making Griot. I LOVE the Bible and the Book of Mormon!📖

Hey guys! :)

No pictures... again. I`m really bad at that. I promise I`ll be better this week.... I`ll write it down in my planner so I remember.

We had a couple FREEZING days this week. There were a few nights where we were walking and I had my scarf AND hat on (which I honestly don`t wear very often unless it`s SUPER cold) and I was still dying. My face felt like I was dunking it in ice water over and over again. It was crazy. And this week it will be back above 0 again. I do not understand Canadian roller coaster weather. :P

My companion made a blanket fort for himself on the bottom bunk. I have no words other than those.

So... I attempted to make griot (a Haitian dish where you marinate pork, boil it, then fry or oven bake it) again this week. We were super excited because we got this nice pork on Monday that was on sale and we stuck it in the slow cooker to marinate for a while and then turned on the slow cooker during weekly planning so it could cook. Well, we went in later and our pork had the consistency of tuna. Have you ever tried to make fried griot with the consistency of tuna? Yeah, it`s not the best. We had a wonderful dinner because it reminded us how great some of the other meals we eat are. Opposition in all things, right? :P

This week I just want to share my testimony of the Book of Mormon. For those of you who are not LDS and are reading this email, first, I want to explain that the Book of Mormon does not replace the Bible in the least. We use both books of scripture together to understand God`s plan for us, in the same way as a student uses more than one source to research a certain topic. And I love the Bible. There are so many passages and chapters, especially in the New Testament, that touch me and help me to understand better who the Savior is and what He did and what He wants me to do. It is in large part due to a study I did on the Four Gospels that I came to feel that I know the Savior`s personality better than before.

The Book of Mormon is a record of a people who lived in the Americas thousands of years ago. Their records were written on plates of gold by a prophet named Mormon (thus the name of the book), who gave them to his son Moroni, who buried them in the ground to prevent them from being destroyed in about 420 AD. Over a thousand years later, in the 1820`s, this same Moroni appeared to Joseph Smith, who had been called as the first prophet of these modern days, and directed him to the place where these plates were buried. Joseph Smith then translated the writings on the plates into English, and it was printed as the Book of Mormon: Another Testament of Jesus Christ.

And I know it`s true! I`ve read it. I`ve studied it. And I`ve applied the teachings of these ancient prophets in my life in the same way I`ve applied the teachings in the Bible, and they work! The Savior said, "My doctrine is not mine, but His that sent me. If any man will do His will, he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God, or whether I speak of myself." (John 7:16-17)

First we apply, and then we know. I`ve applied it, and I now know that the Book of Mormon is true. I have studied and prayed and worked to gain that testimony and I can say that it`s true because I`ve felt it! In a world so full of confusion and arguments, where hundreds of different religions argue over what a passage of Biblical scripture means, we have another witness, another point of reference to help us understand what we can do to be truly happy.

If you haven`t read the Book of Mormon, or if it`s been a while since you`ve simply read it through, my invitation is to do so. That`s it. Just read it for yourself. No strings attached. You don`t have to tell anyone. Just read it and see for yourself. And I promise, as a representative of Jesus Christ, that you will feel it. No matter how many times you`ve read it before, no matter what you`ve heard or read, you will feel it. I know it!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Chasing buses. Giving Him our will, and also our heart! ❤️

Hey everyone! :)

I`ve got no pictures or videos this week (sorry, Mom). :( It`s been a week of comprehension, in which I`ve come to understand some cool things.

We had a pretty funny moment earlier this week. We were running late to get home and we needed to catch a bus. As we came out of our appointment we starting running for the bus stop, only to watch the bus pull across the intersection in front of us. We looked at each other and then at the map, and then at the bus schedule, and realized it would take another half hour or so for the next bus. We needed to take this bus to another bus that would take us home, and this would throw our whole schedule off and get us home like a half hour later than we needed to be home. So what did we do?

We started running. We felt pretty proud as we counted up the distance and the time later that night and realized that we ran a mile in about 8 minutes. In dress shoes and a white shirt and tie, after a year and a half of poutine, that`s not too bad! :P

On Friday we had a zone conference with the combined Montréal Nord and Montréal Sud zones. It was awesome. President Phillips had asked us to come prepared to give a two-minute talk based on a talk given by Elder David A. Bednar, one of the members of the Quorum of the Twelve. His talk was about how we can come to better know the Savior. President would be calling on some of us to share our talks in the conference. As I prepared, I also studied a talk called, "The Fourth Missionary," and I learned something very interesting that I thought I already knew, but I learned it with my heart this time, rather than just my head:

In order to be changed by the Savior`s grace, we have to give him our will.

This is more than just obedience. Being obedient without enjoying it does practically nothing for us; it`s like giving a gift without really wanting to. It might profit others around us, but it profits us nothing. And that`s not the point of commandments. While we might be giving the Lord our might and strength, our minds are wandering to what we wish we could be doing, and our hearts yearn for those other things. Obedience without our heart is like trying to win the Tour de France without a bike chain; you may be spinning the gears, but you`ll never get anywhere.

So how can we give Him our will? It`s honestly as simple as just doing it. We just have to come to Him in prayer and promise Him that we`ll hand it all into His hands, our families, our job, our schooling, our everything. And in those moments where we have to make a decision, we have to ask ourselves what He would do, what His will is, and then do so. It`s simple, but not always easy. Getting out of my comfort zone to walk over and talk to a huge, scary-looking Quebecois man is not always (or really ever) easy. And I may not necessarily love the action itself of pushing myself out of my comfort zone to do things. But I love serving the Lord, and I love following the Spirit. And I`ve come to find that regardless of the outcome of my decisions, I am always happy as I recognize that I did my best and tried to do His will.

I was sitting in church yesterday, looking around at everyone, and a phrase came very clearly to my mind. "Suffer the little children to come unto Me." (Mark 10:14) I love this section of the New Testament, as Christ`s disciples recognize He is exhausted and try to turn away a group of parents who are bringing their children to be blessed by Him. Christ rebukes His disciples and invites all the little children to come unto Him. This thought came to my mind as I was looking at a family with many little children, all of whom can be a bit rowdy on occasion. I was rebuked personally for perhaps being a bit annoyed when these situations would occur. But then I had a lightbulb moment.

Can`t we all become little children?

Mosiah 3:19 - "For the natural man is an enemy to God, and has been from the fall of Adam,  and will be, forever and ever, unless he yields to the enticings of the Holy Spirit, and putteth off the natural man and becometh a saint through the atonement  of Christ the Lord, and becometh as a child, submissive, meek, humble, patient, full of love, willing to submit to all things which the Lord seeth fit to inflict upon him, even as a child doth submit to his father."

These aren`t just adjectives that describe us as we are somehow instantaneously and magically transformed from sinner to perfect saint. These are steps, attributes to be acquired through doing what people with those attributes would do. If we want to give the Lord our heart, we must be submissive. Meek. Humble. Patient. Full of love. We must be willing to submit to all things He seeth fit to let us struggle through, remembering that our Father wants nothing but the best for us.

Give Him your heart!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Above zero temps finally!☀️ Heart, might, mind & strength. Don't miss the scenery!🌹

Hey guys! :)

As I write this, I`m looking out the library window and all of the snow is melting. Seems like spring is already arriving... it`s super weird!! We`ve had above-zero temperatures for the last couple days, accompanied with a little bit of rain; yesterday we went to church without our winter coats, just in our suits, and it felt great! :) I love spring. Here`s hoping the spring temperatures will stay!

Funny moment this week: Elder Colunga and I were lying in our beds talking the other night about some of the goals we`d set and how we would accomplish them. It was a somewhat serious talk, nothing crazy but we were just trying to figure out how to improve and be better missionaries. And as we were talking, I asked, "But here`s the thing, Elder. We need to be accountable to these goals or it just won`t work. How can we make sure we hold ourselves accountable to these?" The response came quickly and without hesitation from the bottom bunk, "Get tattoos."

That pretty much ended our conversation because I may or may not have exploded, causing our neighbors to wonder why we had a pet hyena in our apartment. (And no, Mom, I promise I did not take Elder Colunga`s suggestion seriously). ;)

My thoughts this week have been focused a lot on how to put my heart into things. As missionaries, part of our calling is to give the Lord our "heart, might, mind and strength." Well, I`m the kind of person who with reasonable effort can put my mind and might and strength into something, but putting my heart in as well is difficult for me.

For example, we can go out contacting some days and as we`re walking down the street, yeah, I`ll stop people and talk to them, but I can sometimes be sort of a robot missionary, doing the things I know I`m supposed to do out of rote obedience rather than out of love and a desire to share the gospel. So I`ll be talking at people, and sort of picking from a list of multiple choice answers depending on their response to what I say. And while I could say at the end of the day, "Yeah, I talked to everybody," I wouldn`t really be honest in saying so, because I was more talking at people, rather than talking to and listening to people. I`ve been reminded a lot recently that this gospel, the message we share, is a gospel of joy. And I have felt that joy. But on those days when that joy seems a distant memory in comparison to the opposition and boredom and discouragement that can sometimes threaten even the best of missionaries (and really anybody), it can be very difficult to not just buckle down and grind our way through the day.

So how can we change that? How do we take those moments when we just seem to wake up on the wrong side of the rickety metal bunk bed and make them into days of joy?

I can think of two things which I will be trying to apply this week. The first is explained in Mosiah 4:27:

"And see that all these things are done in wisdom and order; for it is not requisite that a man should run faster than he has strength. And again, it is expedient that he should be diligent, that thereby he might win the prize; therefore, all things must be done in order."

We cannot think that if we simply buckle down and push ourselves harder, all of our problems will magically disappear. Diligence is not simply another word for "work harder," but also includes, "work smarter." Yes, we should continue to give our might and strength, and yes, we cannot slack off when the going gets rough. However, we also need to make sure we are not just trying to check off a list of to-do`s as fast as possible, thinking that our efforts are measured more by quantity than by quality. We must remember that, when dealing with people (including ourselves), it is the person who matters, not the activity or the chore. So we have to make sure the job gets done right, not simply quickly. This takes patience and perseverance.

Second, we must remember gratitude. One of Elder Colunga and I`s favorite things to say when we occasionally start complaining or venting is to say really loudly, "BUT I`M GRATEFUL." It can really lighten the mood, and although at first it feels pretty stupid, I try to start mentally counting my blessings. And I find that when I do this, and start really searching for what`s going right and good in the world, the hills of fear and discouragement before me begin to diminish in perspective to the mountains of blessings I have all around me. Things really will always work out.

So in those moments when we can be tempted to shrink back into our shell and try to just ride out the difficulties, let us remember to assess honestly what we are capable of and work diligently, and remember to count our blessings. Don`t run faster than you have strength; but give it what you can, and don`t miss the beautiful scenery you pass in this marathon of mortality!

I love and miss you all!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Doing language study with my Christmas teddy. :P His French is actually pretty good! (We use him for role plays as well.)

District photo! From left to right: me (Superman pose again... yeah I don`t know), Elder Baldabinos, Elder Sykes, Elder Landetta, Elder Colunga, Elder Higbee, Sister Zobrist, Sister Terou, Sister Davis, Sister Bryant, Elder and Sister Christensen.

Crazy TONS of snow!❄️ From pork bites to doggy kibble. Distractions. Pics & VIDEOS!!

Hey everybody! :)

So, I shared a few videos with my mom. I have no idea if you would all be able to see those... but if not, trust me, they were hilarious. Just envision the most jaw-droppingly incredibly hilarious situation you could ever possibly imagine, and multiply it by six, and that`s how hilarious they were. To us, anyways. :)

En tout cas, it`s been a good week. And by good, I mean cold and covered in snow. We got seriously a foot of snow yesterday. It was crazy. Trying to walk to and from the grocery store this morning was insane. But we have had some fun. I sent a picture of what our balcony looked like when we woke up this morning... I almost cried. It was great. But we got baguettes and Kinder Eggs and that made me feel much better. Then in a few hours we will be returning to La Banquise for some poutine (I hold myself to like once every month and a half or so :P). Québec is just the best. :)

Transfers came on Saturday! All of the six elders in our district will be staying, but sadly we will be losing three of our four sisters. One of them (Sister Hoffman) is going back home to Gilbert (crazy, right?) and the other two (Sister Johnson and Sister Poulton), who were serving with us in Hochelaga, will be transferred elsewhere in the mission. We`re pretty sad to see them all go, we`ve had some great times. But we`re also psyched to meet the new missionaries coming in!

Funny moments: well, we attempted to make griot last Monday. I was so excited, and then so, so disappointed. We fried it up and opened up the pot we`d fried it in to find that our wonderful pork bites were now tiny bits of doggy kibble. It was just the worst. We tried soaking it in banana Pepper juice to hide the burnt flavor but it didn`t work. At least the story made all of the Haitian members in our ward laugh when we told them, and they helped us see what we`d done wrong and shared their own recipes for how to make it again. We will give it another try next week. :)

I think I`ve been reminded this week of how little I can do when I lose some focus. I`ve been a little more easily distracted this week, and our schedule has been thrown off a bunch, and so I struggled to really stay on track with those things I really wanted to do and found myself going to bed feeling rather unsuccessful several days this week. So I have set some goals to improve my focus and organization so that I can handle changes to plans and adjust accordingly. I am very thankful for the fact that we have a merciful Father in heaven who loves us so much that He will let us repent time and time again as we strive to let Him help us to change and be more like His Son.

Sometimes it just becomes so easy to lose focus, to let our priorities change for a moment to accomodate a temporary desire. Too often I let my greater desire to share the gospel be drowned out by my momentary desire to just sit back and keep to myself. Too often I let my greater desire to have effective studies be drowned out by my momentary desire to think about soccer. It`s just how life works; we are tempted by the current wants of our natural man to give up the long term desires of our spiritual man. But my invitation to us all is to remember, in those moments of decision where our agency is so important, the goals we have set and the plans we have made, and as we choose to keep our word, we display the Christlike attribute of virtue and the Holy Ghost changes our hearts little by little until we truly one day have no more desire to do evil, but to do good continually.

I love this gospel! I know it`s true!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

There was a park completely frozen over by some freezing rain, so I crunched my way through and drank some soda that a member had just given us. It was entertaining. (I also look to be a little bit heavier than I actually am in this photo. I don`t know why... but I promise I`m not that big) :P

Elder Colunga took a photo before I was ready. :P

Hasso was baptized by Elder Landetta yesterday. It was a great service. She asked me if I`d be in a photo with her and them. How could I say no? :P She`s seriously super awesome. :)

Tracting through the snow.... in a Canadian winter breeze.... knocking doors we go.... trying to not to freeze!

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH

TRANSFER DAY.  (CLICK HERE to view the video)

MISSIONARY SILLINESS.  (CLICK HERE to view the video)

P-DAY.  (CLICK HERE to view the video)

MISSIONARY PRANKS.  (CLICK HERE to view the video)

SINGIN' AT THE BUS STOP.  (CLICK HERE to view the video)

I'm not dead!😀 Forgiveness is real...Christ makes us pure...it is WONDERFUL!

Hey everybody! :)

I am not dead! :) I just love not being dead. We`ve spent a good deal of this week running all over the creation and trying to adjust to the new schedule as well as the changing schedules of our investigators and members. Pretty entertaining. I`ve discovered something (or rediscovered) about myself: I can get frustrated with change. Just adjusting my habits and mindset is a bit awkward mentally and can put me in a little bit of a touchy mood. But I`ve been working on it and this week has gone pretty well. :)

As I sit here typing, Elder Colunga and I have some pork marinating in our fridge back home. We ate with a Haitian family this week and they fed us a bunch of Haitian dishes... and I have decided I really need to go to Haiti. One of the dishes is called "griot" (or something in that general spelling... I can say it in French though!). It`s basically marinated pork that you boil and fry and serve with plantains and I am learning how to make it so I can make it for my family when I get home (you`re welcome, guys). :)

I was sitting in bed one night this week, thinking about a bunch of things, and the topic of forgiveness came to mind. For those of you who know me well, you will know that my anchor is the Atonement of Jesus Christ. The first thing I ever truly learned and knew for myself is that Jesus Christ is real and that He is our Savior. And throughout my life, I have trusted in Him, in His perfection, His example, and His willingness to let me try again, and again, and again, and again. But I`m not sure how much I let that faith in Him turn into hope, recognizing just how entirely His promise of forgiveness applies to me and to each one of us, personally.

I`ve always strived to be perfect. I can be pretty critical, most especially of myself, and no matter how well I do something, I always tend to focus on what I didn`t do right. I was occasionally jokingly called the Hulk by my friends because after every soccer game, I would usually walk off the field looking angry because I could only focus on what I hadn`t done right. Sometimes no matter how well I did, as soon as I made a mistake it would just pile on top of all of the other mistakes I`d made and cover up anything worthwhile I`d accomplished. This applied not only to soccer, but to school, church callings, and a thousand other things, including (at times) my service as a missionary.

But.

I can testify of the power of repenting daily. And this week, as I was kneeling in prayer, speaking with our Heavenly Father about what had and hadn`t gone right that day, I was reminded of the purity and power of the Lord`s forgiveness.

Look, we make mistakes. It happens. And for some of us, me included, we seem to make the same mistakes over and over and over again. But I had maybe never quite comprehended what was made clear to me this week: when we come to the Lord in sincerity of heart, recognizing what was done wrong and desiring to change and be better, and we ask for His forgiveness, He gives it.

Heavenly Father forgives us. The slate is wiped clean of any wrong. Our sins are not covered up, hiding behind an artificial layer of off-white paint, waiting to be revealed again by later sin. They are washed away by the blood of He who gave everything, even though He didn`t have to, even though He`d never sinned Himself.

And God doesn`t forgive us because of our efforts. He forgives us because of Christ`s efforts. Yes, we are asked to give of ourselves. Yes, we are asked to repent and change, because He wants us to be more like Christ and more like Him. And we cannot truly be forgiven unless we want to be, and we show that desire through repentance and obedience. And that is important. But we simply can`t do enough ourselves to be forgiven. But Christ can, and He did. And because of Him, we have that opportunity for a new beginning.

I could spend hours talking about this, but I don`t have time to and I`m sure you all don`t either. So let me just sum all of this up in the most simple and true testimony I could possibly give.

Forgiveness is real. Christ makes us pure. It is wonderful. It is not reserved for the best of us, those who commit the least sin. It is a gift of unimaginable proportions because He just keeps on giving it to us, every time we come to Him truly desiring it. I know this! I have felt it! There is no lie, no exaggeration in the statement that we can be completely forgiven, time and time again. I testify that there is no pit so deep that we can fall beyond His reach. There is no wound too deep that He cannot heal it, be it self-inflicted or caused by others. Heavenly Father loves us. Jesus is the Christ, and He loves us. And because of their love, we have second chances. New beginnings. There really is no such thing as the end.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

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.

First-time Neti Pot user!🤧 Weaknesses challenge us to decide where we stand.❤️

Hey guys!

Sorry this letter is a little late. I've had a little too much NyQuil and not quite enough energy these last few days. After a great week last week, I started to not feel so good going into the weekend, and found myself falling apart on Sunday and Monday. My companion has amassed a list of the funny things I say when I'm frustrated with being sick and my head hurts. I'll share a few of them with you.

(when some strangers were talking super loud a few flights down in the stairwell of our apartment complex and I couldn't sleep) *knocks quietly on wall and mumbles* "Yes, hello, um, I hate you."

(when I was completely congested and Elder Colunga got to witness me using a Neti Pot, which is an invention designed to let you drown yourself while also looking very foolish) "I hate that you laugh at me through your nose."

(when I was reading about the Pharisees) "Stupid Pharisees, arguing about divorcing their wives. Surprised you even have wives."

(when the suggestion was made that we get McDonald's for lunch) "Stupid McDonald's, making me pay money to eat food that's gonna make me more sick."

I promise, I am normally a very nice and kind person. But my filter and half of my IQ goes away when my brain is loaded with like 3 different medications at once.

I think that the only thing I want to share this week is about weaknesses. Sometimes we have things that occur in our lives that lead us to ask in prayer, "Why? Why me and why now? I'm trying!" But I was reminded this week that the Lord gives us weakness to help us to be humble, to recognize how much we need His help and how much we can become with His help. Sometimes, it takes lying in bed and sneezing your lungs out for a few hours to help you recognize that you just don't have the strength to do His work by yourself. But let it be very clearly understood, the Lord does not give us weakness to criticize or demean us. He gives us weakness to help us come to Him, so that He can make us strong. We must choose, in those moments where our greatest weaknesses are brought to light, to come to Him and let Him change us. There is a quote that I love from Martin Luther King Jr. which goes something like, "The greatest measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands in moments of challenge and controversy." When those moments of challenge and controversy appear, where do we stand? When our weaknesses bring us to our knees, we must remember Him who kneels beside us with His arms around us, lifting us higher. Let Him lift you beyond your weaknesses!

I love and miss all of you!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber