Teaching a GREAT family. Being sick. Freezing fun at CARNAVAL! My first ice castle. It's all about FAMILY. COOL PICS!

Hey guys!

So. Um. Seriously one of the best weeks ever.

First off. We found this SUPER cool family of Africans from Benin. They`re so cool! We dropped by the address of a former investigator, but they had moved away and this family had moved in. They invited us in immediately and we taught them right then! They moved here in October, and they have 3 boys, with another baby on the way. :) We taught them again a couple days ago and they are just so excited and great! Their kids weren`t there until the very end of the lesson though; which was actually awesome because when their youngest son, who`s about 6 years old, came in the door, he immediately ran over and gave my companion a hug. For no apparent reason. It was so adorable! I was hoping he`d give me one too... but no such luck. Aw. Maybe next week. But yeah, they`re amazing.

Funny story from this week­­... well. So... I got a little sick. And I slept for like an extra 10 hours on Thursday. I woke up finally at around 6 PM, still feeling pretty out of it, but I just wasn`t able to sleep any more. So I walked out and sat at the table and just... stared at the wall while sucking on a ball of the worst tasting menthol that ever existed. Ugh. I hate cough drops. Anyways. So my companion felt pretty sorry for me, and he decided since we weren`t going anywhere that evening, we might as well find something interesting to do. So... we pulled out the board games. We played the fastest game of Risk I`ve ever seen in my life. (I lost in 25 minutes. Seriously. I`m SO bad at that game.) Then we played a few games of chess, and then I ate some rice. (Side note. Valentina sauce is seriously the best hot sauce EVER. It`s this Mexican hot sauce that makes anything taste good. It`s also great for helping you clear out a stuffy nose when you pour it all over your rice.) Then I went to bed at like 9. I woke up feeling much better.

I`m not sure why I said that was funny. It really wasn`t. Hmm. What else was funny this week? Umm...

Well. Maybe not super funny. But more of a cultural thing. So... here in Quebec, they have a carnival. It's called... wait for it... Carnaval. And it's like... in the middle of winter. And it's outdoors. And somehow... we volunteered to help out.

The goal of Carnaval is basically to freeze all of your extremities off while still managing to keep a smile on your face. There are a ton of cool things to do. For example, there's a big hill where we do giant bowling. You know those giant balls where you stuff a person inside and they run around like a strange human hamster? Yeah. So we would just throw people in and then push them down the hill and watch them tumble around inside the whole way down.

Hilarious.

The problem I found with Carnaval is this: alcohol. You see, for those who drink, Carnaval is great. Because there's apparently some sort of special mixed alcoholic beverage called "caribou" that they can drink and it keeps them warm no matter how cold it is outside. As we don't drink, however... WE WERE STINKIN' COLD. I think my smile froze to my face. I also fell down a hill once. So that was fun.

I want to bring up something very important this week.

Family.

Dad, Mom, Morgan, Colton, Kyle... I miss you guys. Like... a lot. I think about ya'll every day. I just hope you know that. There is nothing I regret more than the times I thought that my family could wait, and I wasted precious time I could have spent with them.

So for all of you who are lucky enough to still be with your loved ones. I just gotta tell you... don't you dare waste that chance. The family is the central unit in Heavenly Father's plan for each of us. They're... everything. The whole point of this life is to eventually return to live with our Heavenly Father and the rest of our family forever.

So quit wasting time! Call your family! Visit them! Talk to them! God put us together like this for a reason! The ability to live in families is a gift that we cannot waste. The Creator of our very spirits asks us to call Him "Father." Why? Have you ever thought about that? It's because the family is everything to Him! HIS family is everything to Him! And we want to be like Him. Shouldn't that mean family should be the greatest priority in our lives?

So my challenge to each of you is to never waste another moment. Love your family. Give them your heart and soul and your time and your energy. Love the Lord thy God... and love thy neighbor as thyself. Our closest neighbors are our families. Give them everything. That is where joy is found.

I love my family; both my heavenly family and my earthly one. My Father in Heaven has given me everything. And it is for that reason that I have chosen to leave my earthly family for 2 years; because others need to know what He has done for me. Others need to know how to be sealed to their own families forever in a holy temple of God. That's what I'm teaching. That's what I'm sharing.

And I know it's true.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

The Lucero family from Victoriaville! They're so great!

 

Pictures from Carnaval

 

Quebec from the Carnaval

  Parliament

We took these pictures in the ice castle by Carnaval! 

The bonhomme de neige! (An incredibly long French phrase that means snowman)

 

Me with the bonhomme de neige. :)

Adjusting... & He Is Always There

Hey all y'all people!

So. Yeah. I'm not dead yet.

Yet.

Quebec City is BIG. Like... really big. People are everywhere. And yet it also feels really small. How does that work? I don't know. Someone please explain this to me. Because I'm still trying to get used to life here. Also, Quebec City, which I will from now on refer to as just "Quebec" because adding in "city" is far too complicated, is like much colder than Victoriaville.

It's been a really long and short week. We had some crazy stuff happen, too. For example. There are two teams of missionaries serving in Quebec, ours and a team of sisters, Sister Clark (who was in the MTC with me! :)) and her greenie, Sister Paine. This past Thursday night, we ended up driving through the city at probably criminal speeds because a creepy man was apparently "waiting outside to kill the sisters." (According to them over the phone.) So that was fun. It's just been an interesting week.

I know this is a really short email... but I'll be better next week. Here's what I have to say to finish up.

The Atonement of Jesus Christ is REAL. When we aren't good enough, when we are confused or lost or scared or in any number of situations that pull us out of our comfort zone, we HAVE to remember that our Savior both understands and will help us. He is THERE. If you're wondering if that's true, trust me. It is. I could not be doing what I'm doing right now without Him. I'm simply not good enough. I'm not strong enough or loving enough or in any way capable of doing what I'm doing right now without His constant aid. He is my Lord, my Savior, my Redeemer, and my Friend. I love Him with all my heart, and I KNOW He lives. And I KNOW He will be there for me, and for you, and for all of us, through every second of triumph or trial.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

My First Transfer...SO Sad to Leave! Here I Come Downtown Quebec City!

Hi guys!

I'm dead.

I'm really, really dead.

I'm seriously just... dead.

So... I have been transferred. In two days, I am supposed to board a bus to go to downtown Quebec City, where I will be serving with Elder Peery. I have been unable to sleep for the past two nights. It's like I'm leaving home all over again. I've grown to love the people in Victoriaville so much; the thought of living in a large city (with the accompanying TERRIBLE traffic) almost drives me to tears. I'm... just... I don't know how to react. I'm going to miss everyone so much. The good news is that I will be remaining in the same stake (for those of you who aren't LDS, that means a group of congregations who all meet together twice a year), so when we have stake conferences, I will be seeing the members from Victoriaville. So at least there's that. And I will still be able to go on exchanges with Elder Gutierrez. So... life goes on. I guess this is the mission. I know this call comes from the Lord, and so I will fulfil it to the best of my ability, knowing He will carry me to greater heights than I can reach on my own.

Normally, I would place something funny into this letter. Well. I'm actually going completely insane and am struggling just to focus with all of the stress I have right now; so humor is (amazingly) not on the forefront of my mind at this current point in time. I guess if you would like something to laugh at, picture my face when I heard I was being transferred. I don't think my jaw has come up from the floor since (which makes eating a struggle). But... yeah. The state of my mind is pretty hilarious, you could say.

I'm just freaking out.

To finish, I would like to share an experience I had this week.

For those of you who know me pretty well, you know that I am a very critical person; mostly of myself. I tend to get down on myself when things aren't going my way, and I start to blame all of the problems surrounding me on my own imperfections. (Do not do this. This is not smart. Just for the record.)

Well, I don't know if anybody back home knows this, but the culture of Quebec is very standoffish towards religions in general, due to some events in its history related to religion. We have been threatened, yelled at, insulted, ignored, flipped off, and had doors slammed in our faces more times than I can even begin to count. Multiple people have looked me in the eyes as I testified of the Savior and told me that I shouldn't be here, that I should be back in the United States at school, learning how the world actually works and keeping my faith to myself.

As I have been prone to do, I began to blame all of these struggles on myself. I got pretty low. I had some nights where I would come home and just want to hit something, and other nights where I just wanted to sit in the corner and ignore everything for a while. I was pretty darn depressed. I was certain that if I could just be better, everything would magically start going my way. No, I wasn't expecting people to come by the thousands, begging to be baptized. But I was very, very, very low in my self-esteem and self-confidence.

I talked to my mission president.

I would like to share with all of you what he shared with me.

Perfection is a very strong word. It is a state of being, a state of completion in which we, by definition, can be no better. And when we expect this of ourselves, we will never live up to that standard. Because perfection is the end goal. And it is quite a long staircase to get there.

The work and glory of our Heavenly Father is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. The term "bring to pass" does not denote an instant change, as in "let there be light." Not at all. And when the Savior said, "Be ye therefore perfect," He was describing a process, not a flip of a switch. That is why He included the word "therefore." The "therefore" was referring to His teachings in His Sermon on the Mount, which had preceded His final statement in Matthew 5:48. It is through TRYING, through our own EFFORT to live His gospel, and through the marvelous gift of repentance through the perfect Atonement of Jesus Christ that we can stay on that path that eventually leads to perfection. Of course we're imperfect! That's part of life, that's being human!

So find the balance. Don't place the bar so low that you don't have to stretch to reach it; but don't place it so high that the achievement is impossible. The Lord desires progress toward perfection from us; not the state itself; not yet.

"Wherefore, beware lest ye are deceived; and that ye may not be deceived seek ye earnestly the best gifts, always remembering for what they are given; for verily I say unto you, they are given for the benefit of those who love me and keep all my commandments, and him that seeketh so to do; that all may be benefited that seek or that ask of me, that ask and not for a sign that they may consume it upon their lusts."

Doctrine and Covenants 46:9

I love the Lord. I will strive to give Him everything I have, and when I fail, I will use the incredible gift of His Atonement to help me back onto the path to perfection. I love our Father in Heaven, and I will testify of Him and His Son to anyone who will listen, and even those who won't.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

The Furlano family! They invited us to lunch to see me off to Quebec. I'm gonna miss them a lot. They're the best! :)

 He's just the cutest kid ever. I'm gonna miss Esteban.

 Quebec sunsets... pas pire.

10 Reasons My Comp Is AWESOME! Priorities. PLEASE WRITE ME! More pics!

Wellllll hey there folks!

So. It's been another lovely week in Victoriaville. The snow is in fact gradually melting and I am having a rather incredible time serving here. Snow has become one of my worst enemies and I enjoy warmth so very much. I loooooooove you Aaaaaaarizonaaaa.

I have decided that Elder Gutierrez and I have a good companionship. Let me give you some reasons why.

1 - We tell extremely funny jokes. Nobody else laughs, but we do. Other people are just not quite up here on our level.

2 - We are both from Gilbert. Automatic win.

3 - We both love Nashville Tribute Band. Double automatic win.

4 - We can both make Tahitian chicken.

5 - We both eat Toaster Strudel. (A delicacy in Quebec ;))

6 - We can both quote a movie for a solid 20 minutes, realizing only then that the movie from which we were quoting was, in fact, The Princess Diaries. True manhood.

7 - We both use Old Spice.

8 - We both have awful vision.

9 - We both speak extremely weird French that only we can understand.

10 - We both love the gospel! :)

I have thought for a while about what I could share this week, and I suppose the greatest thing I could say is this: happiness is found through hard work and prioritizing.

Some of the saddest and most ripped apart families I've met on my mission are as such because the members of the family don't understand these two important principles. We bring food to families whose pitiful parents spend all their money on alcohol and strip clubs, leaving their children to be fed from the unwanted garbage of nearby grocery stores. It's depressing. And these people are not happy; they are depressed and unhealthy and filthy in dress and attitude.

The Lord has prescribed His recipe for a healthy and happy life. And we will ONLY find true and lasting happiness in charting our course with the proper priorities, and then giving everything we have to get ourselves there. There are many priorities to be made, but if I were to list the two most important to lead to happiness, they would be these:

1 - Live the gospel of Jesus Christ. His commandments and His teachings were given for the benefit and joy of all mankind, and there are NO exceptions to His way. True happiness is ONLY found in living the way He's shown us. He loves us immensely, and He wants so badly for us to be as happy as He is. Follow the Savior!

2 - Love your family with everything you have. I promise you, you will never, ever, EVER regret placing your family before yourself in your priorities. My greatest regret from before my mission is the time I spent doing trivial things when I could have been serving, talking to, or simply just being with my family. We address Him as our Heavenly FATHER and we are His CHILDREN; the family unit is central to His gospel. If we place that to the side, we are tearing the heart out of chances at a happy - and eternal - life.

I love you all. You help me be better and you set amazing examples for me. Keep going. You're in my prayers!

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

P.S. I don't know if any of you knew this. But. I happen to really enjoy letters and emails. Like a lot. But don't worry, you don't have to write me. Except you should. Even if I don't know you, I love making new friends. :) So yes. Just a thought.

P.P.S. But seriously. I love letters. ;)

 

Before our morning run.

After our morning run. :)

 

This is me basically every night. Welcome to the mission. XD

Selfie time! Not sure why Elder Gutierrez made this face. Somehow it just fits. ;)

 

Awkward wedding invitation. Humbled by ice. When we get knocked to our knees, remember the sparrow. More Pics!

Hello people of Earth!

Canada is, in fact, still north of the United States. I know. Surprised me, too.

I don't know. It's been a weird week. To start the week off, we were talking with Claire Jeremie, a young woman who's preparing to serve a mission, and she asked Elder Gutierrez when he was planning to get married.

Elder Gutierrez: "I don't know. Probably not for a long time."

Claire: "No, you'll be married within a few months after you get home."

Elder Gutierrez: "No way. Probably not until Elder McOmber gets home."

Me: "Yes! That means I can crash your wedding!"

Elder Gutierrez: "Absolutely not. You're not invited."

Claire: "Well, can I come?"

Elder Gutierrez: "Yes."

Claire: "Perfect. Then I'll just bring Elder McOmber with me. Nobody goes to a wedding alone."

Me: "........"

Elder Gutierrez: "........."

So. I've been invited to a wedding. It was awkward. That happened.

Also. I may or may not have slipped on some ice and nearly killed myself.

Here's what happened. I was already having a really bad day. (Yes. Missionaries can have those, too. :P) It was late. All of our appointments had fallen through all day. We were walking up to a building to see if we could set up an appointment with some former investigators. And I took a step and then the world flipped upside down. Elder Gutierrez said I did like a 360. I basically just did a back flop on the ice. And there wasn't really any snow to cushion my fall. So... it hurt. Like... a lot. I basically just laid on the ground and focused REALLY hard on not exploding. It was one of those moments where you have to just sing the song "I'm Trying To Be Like Jesus" in your head over and over and over and over again. Because if you don't, some less fun words will come to your mind. I think I sang it in my head probably 15 times before I had calmed down enough to not be angry at everything ever. Then I got up. Elder Gutierrez is a good companion... he didn't laugh at me at all. Until I'd calmed down. Then he laughed. And I did too. So ca va.

To end this letter... I want to talk about burdens.

I'll be one of the first to tell you that missions are hard. Like, really hard. It's supposed to be like that, if you're working hard. And we're working really hard. It just gets... really difficult sometimes. So I want to talk to everyone who feels like they're working as hard as they can, but feels like they're seeing no results, like they're having no effect.

I know the feeling. My dad once told me that my mission would knock me to my knees. Well, that's true and then some. I've hit my knees so hard so many times that I couldn't count them if I tried. It's seemed to be like the more I worked, the more exhausted I've been, and the less effect I've seemed to have. And I've found myself asking the Lord, multiple times, "Why? Why is this so difficult? I have nowhere else to turn. I'm giving everything I've got. I'm trying so hard to be faithful and to be selfless and to be patient and to be loving and to be a Christlike servant. So why do I feel so useless? Why do I feel so discouraged?"

I have a very short piece of advice from the scriptures.

Matthew 10:29-31

"Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing? And one of them shall not fall on the ground without your Father. But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Fear ye not therefore,ye are of more value than many sparrows."

He who cares about the fall of a sparrow will not forget us when we are knocked to our knees.

We are His children. He loves us. He gave His Only Begotten Son to save us.

So when the road seems too long, and the mountain too high, and the sea too rough;

Fear ye not.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

 

Icicle Lightsaber Fight

 Another view of the sunset from one of the main streets of Victoriaville, Rue Notre Dame.

 A selfie with Elder Gutierrez

 A super cool sunset we had this past week

 

Run, Elder, run! Icicle light sabers. Get off the screen and LIVE.

Hello all!

Two funny stories this week.

First. It's been fairly cold outside every morning... so Elder Gutierrez and I normally do our exercises inside. However... I decided I wanted to go running outside. It's not even THAT cold. And Elder Gutierrez seemed pretty anxious about it... but I made him do it anyways. It was SUPER fun! It felt so great to be running outside
instead of running in place indoors and I was loving it! Then we got home. And I turned around and Elder Gutierrez looked like he'd been hit by a plane. I started laughing.

Wrong decision. He nearly bit my head off. :P He was mad at me for like 3 days for making him run. Apparently... he doesn't like running.

So I'm back to running in place every morning. :P Oh well.

Second. The church building had HUGE icicles hanging from the roof the other day. We were waiting for a member to show up so we could help him with some service. Natural decision? GIANT LIGHTSABER WAR WITH ICICLES! So there we were, fighting it out and freezing our fingers off (forgot gloves... sorry Mom) like little kids. It was a blast. We took pictures... but I can't send them because this computer is being lame. I'll send them next week. Suffice it to say... I could give Luke Skywalker a run for his money, if I do say so myself.

Okay. Quick statement to finish. I wanna talk about video games.

Martin Luther King Jr. said once that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to do nothing. I heard somewhere else that the only way for evil to triumph in this world is for good men to be doing something ELSE. One of the BIGGEST issues here in Victoriaville is that so many young men are glued to their computer and television screens that it is extremely difficult for them to "find" time to do anything else. These young men have become adults, and they've continued the same tradition, and can now still be found, at 30 or 40, living in their parents' homes, glued to their screens and ignoring the world our God has given us for a fabricated one. Their example has rubbed off on other young men, who are now going down the exact same path. I say young men because these are the examples we have; however, many of the young women and even the older mothers are not exempt, and while they play far fewer video games, seem to spend much of their time stuck on their phones.

Here's my statement, short and sweet: get off the video games, the social media, and quit texting so much. The devil doesn't have to get you stuck in pornography or drugs to keep you from reaching your potential; all he has to do is distract you with something else. I don't profess to be perfect; I was very similar before I came here on my mission. But I've seen what "just a little" time on video games or social media does in the long run to men and women who were sent here to this earth to prepare it for the second coming of our Exemplar, Jesus Christ. A plane could crash right outside your door and you'd be so glued to that silly screen that you'd miss the whole thing.

Quit it. Just quit it. Get off the screen and live as a Christian, anxiously engaged for a good cause. I fear that with every pixelated bullet fired at an imaginary enemy, our real enemy manages to send a spiritual one through our souls.

The trumpet has sounded and our Savior calls us to arms. Will we answer the call? Or will we listen more intently to the chime of a new notification on our phone? The war is on. Who's on the Lord's side?

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

Snow is awesome...but it can stop now...please. Turkey baster in the ear? Handing our load over to God.

Hello people of Earth!

It has been quite a different week.

First, it has poured BUCKETS of snow. I have never seen so much snow in all my life. And it just keeps coming down. Also, the temperature is dropping a lot. Tomorrow it is supposed to be like -30 Celsius... which is like -(*insert large number here) Fahrenheit and that's not even counting wind chill. I don't know what temperature bones freeze at, but I'm fairly sure we're approaching it. 

I wish I could go back in time and slap some sense into the me who said, "I want to live in the snow when I grow up!" No, you imbecile! Snow is the WORST! You have to shovel it and you slip on it and it gets on your glasses and makes it so you can't see and it's like IMPOSSIBLE to drive in.

Okay. So maybe it's not the WORST. It is actually quite fun to play in the snow sometimes. But... we don't get a lot of time to just play in the snow. So... yes. Snow is... interesting.

I would have to say the funniest part of the week was when Elder Gutierrez said he felt like he had water in his ear and couldn't get it out. So... what was the immediate solution that came to my mind? Obviously, use a turkey baster! You know, that long plastic tube with a little squeezy thingy at the end that sucks up water and squirts it back out? Well, there we sat, laughing hysterically while I stuck a turkey baster in his ear. He said it worked... but I'm fairly sure it's not the healthiest way to get water out of one's ear, so I won't do that again. But... worth a shot. :P

For this letter, I want to say a little bit about Matthew 11:28-30. It's one of my favorite scriptures.

"Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me, for I am meek and lowly in heart: and you shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."

I'll be the first one to tell you that missions aren't easy. Or I guess, that life isn't easy. Every human being that has ever lived has had trials and struggles and bitter moments. Most importantly, our Savior has endured all of those for each of us. He felt the crushing weight of sin; He endured the stinging whips of harsh words and criticisms; He knows what it's like to be knocked to one's knees by the bitter winds of discouragement and hopelessness. He performed an INFINITE Atonement for you, and for me, and for all of us.

So why do we refuse to use it?

I've met so many people who refuse His invitation to take His yoke upon them. I've been guilty of it myself. The thing is, His yoke is His gospel -- His commandments, His example. 

We're so funny. We live our lives as we wish, sometimes being obedient and holding to His gospel, and sometimes wandering from His path because we feel that we're responsible enough or smart enough to simply skip that commandment or ignore that advice. And when those difficult moments come, as they inevitably will... we find ourselves dropping to our knees, demanding of Him in all our ignorant naivete, "Why is this so difficult? Where art Thou when I need Thee the most? If Thou were there, Thou would not let me go through this! How am I supposed to do this on my own?"

His response remains the same. He's given us the way. He doesn't ask us to do it alone. He asks us to put the load on Him; to stop worrying so much about all our problems and trials and discouragements and to give it all to Him. All He asks is that we follow His gospel. That is the yoke He gives us; and if we focus on doing that, the load truly is easy, and the burden truly is light.

Keep the commandments. In this there is safety, in this there is peace.

I love and miss you all. You're in my prayers.

En avant!

Elder Bryan McOmber

That would be me sleeping on our couch. Also. The Labbe family gave my companion and I pantouffles - those are those knitted slipper things I'm wearing. They're the BEST and SUPER comfortable. I love them. :P And I also love the Labbe's!!

 

Our whole mission got together a couple days before Christmas to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional.  We had an awesome lunch and a lot of fun!  I am in the 4th row from the bottom, on the far right end.