Lesson 1: Kolob

Hey everyone! 

      Good news! I finally ate Portuguese food at a real Portuguese person's house!!! It was like Jumbalaya on steroids with spicy crockpot meat. Coming up this week we have African food and Peruvian food (that's actually tonight I'm super stoked). That means for an hour I will be nodding and just saying "bueno" while my colleague speaks Spanish heh (yes I know I need to learn). 

       Last week I talked about Rolof, the man we met on the train and he came to church yesterday!!! He is going to be baptized, without a doubt. The sad thing is, we can't teach the opposite gender so we have to pass him to the Elders. But it's okay LA FOI (faith) they will take good care of him. 

        It's been a learning experience to go from a more rural area to a huge city. I learned that yes I love finding, but I really do not like trajet ("path" in English) contacting. It usually goes like this:

Me: "Hi, how was your day?"

*entire metro looks up from their phones and stares at me*

Human: "Fine"

Me: *laughs uncomfortably* cool so we have a message about Jesus Christ...

And sometimes people are really interested in what we have to say. Sometimes not so much. One advantage is that they are trapped on the metro so they can't run from us mwahaha but no you definitely have to let go of your pride when you're a missionary because rejection happens to everybody. When Elder Anderson came to our mission he said "I love you because I know what kind of missionaries the Lord sends to France." It's true it's not always a cakewalk, but I have invited over 1000 people to come unto Christ in the time I've been here and I know the Lord is in the details of the work we do here in France. 

        For example, yesterday the elders brought a woman from Nigeria to church and she couldn't understand anything so I had the ~wonderful blessing~ of translating. After a little while of talking about Kolob (French people like to go off on rants sometimes, bless their hearts) I realized she wasn't getting a lot out of it. I was like "Okay so she's saying that Kolob is here in the Bible...anyway so Joseph Smith is actually the prophet of our dispensation..." and I just started teaching the first lesson because she was about to fall asleep. But when I started talking about Joseph Smith she started whispering "Amen" HA and it was really cool to see her change because she recognized it was true. It's proof to me that the Lord has prepared people in France to hear our message. 

        

Anyway that's all the time I got, have a good week everybody!! Maybe send me some Cholula or cheddar cheese if you're feeling crazy. 

Sœur McOmber

This is audio of a celloist (CLICK HERE) that played at the Visitor's Center fireside (honestly a party). Have I ever talked about how much I love being at the Visitor's Center? 

I've been seeing these orange swirly things all over Paris and one day I was like "hmm this little guy does not look like his friends. l wanna try this." And it tasted like if you took a bunch of honey and straight-up fried it. Very interesting. OH AND I have a new flag pin from Peru!! My comp is so cute she gave that to me and l've been wearing it like every day HA

Taking on the ghettos

Bonjour mes chers amis!

       We're about to head off to the French Toast Party for the Temple Sœurs later today but I have a lot to say so buckle up kids. 

 

      Alright so this week was an adventure to say the least. Starting off, last p-day we were riding the metro and some guy was eyeing me and my companion a little bit. So naturally, we pulled our bags a little closer and tried to walk to the other side. The next stop was ours, so we get off and this man literally sprints after us. I almost had a heart attack I was so afraid until he said "you are missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ, right?? I noticed your plaques and I have had questions for you for a long time. I lost my brother a while ago and I know your church believes you can live with your families again. Can you please teach me more about that?" It was so genuine and honestly just warmed my heart because that doctrine was a big part of the reason I'm on a mission right now. The miracles of St. Ouen, n'est-ce pas? 

       Also last p-day Sœur Lizarbe, had me so hyped up for a "Mexican restaurant." I hadn't had Mexican in months so I was honestly super stoked. The whole week she was like, "you have to try this restaurant, I don't remember the name, but it's the best Mexican food you'll ever have." We get there...and it's Chipotle. HA I was laughing so hard. If my dad has taught me anything, it's not ~true~ Mexican unless there's corn tortillas and habaneros.  But it was still good HA I appreciate a good Chipotle every once in a while. 

 

      Another fun thing (plug your ears mom lol), we went to the ghettos of our sector for a mangez-vous (member dinner) and I feared for my life that day. Unfortunately, when we were looking for a parking spot, the closest we could get was about a kilometer away. So there we were, speed walking through gangs and sidestepping blood stains on the sidewalk trying not to look like tourists. When we got out of the rendez-vous, one of the members yelled across the street "OKAY AU REVOIR LA PETITE AMÉRICAINE!!" HA Pretty much the last thing you want in St. Denis, is people to know you're not from there. So basically every gang on the street turned to look at us. Might be an overreaction, but we speed walked to the car and locked the doors so quick- all while Sœur Lizarbe had her umbrella ready to use as a weapon. HA so that's a day in my sector.

      Okay I have more but you'll have to wait til next week because the French Toast is calling my name HA

Je vous aime infiniment! Au revoir! 

Sœur McOmber 

This is Camila!! She's an ami that a member brought to church and she is the cutest thing ever. We planned a rendez-vous and Monday morning she's like "OK so 10:00 we're going to a park, and 11:00 we can go to a Greek Restaurant (she's from Greece) and 1:00 we can go to a cemetery and talk about Jesus!" HA she planned a whole itinerary for us...I love her.

We went to this cute little pizza place because the Greek place was closed. Could be because I haven't had pizza in months but I think it was the best pizza I've ever had. 

Planes!!! There was a space section too but to be honest I didn't understand anything. This is pretty much how it went:

Me: *looks at space contraption* You know what this is?

Sœur Lizarbe: no idea

Me: *looks at complicated caption about rocket science written in French* okay moving on.

~ Soy una misionera ~

Hello tout le monde!!

       And that's the first English I've spoken since Mother's Day HA sooooo last week I received a call. Me and my comp Sœur Montalvo were starting off the transfer in Le Chesnay, then in the middle of district council President calls and wants to speak to us ~alone~. So we go into the other room and he says "Sometimes...in life...we make plans. And sometimes...those plans..change." So here's the surprise I'm actually leaving Le Chesnay and moving to St. Ouen!

       I'm so sad to leave Chesnay because I loved my amis so much but also at the St. Ouen ward on Sunday 5 members gave us referrals and I have like 30 pain au chocolats in my fridge from our DMP so I think I'm gonna like this place. Also my new companion is Sœur Ilizarbe and she is one of the most amazing people I have ever met - so service oriented. I've been super sick this whole week which on a mission means ~15 minutes of extra sleep~ HA, but she's been taking good care of me. She's from Peru and moved to Montreal so we speak only French but we have a lot of Spanish speaking amis so she's teaching me a little Spanish. Soy una misionera. That's what I have so far. 

        So another big change for me is I'm living with 1 person now instead of 3 and that's been super different. Sometimes it feels really empty after 6 months of living with lots of people (and also my whole life living with my family) but I've gained an even greater appreciation of the power of music. Since my mom first taught me to play piano, I've always played spiritual music more than anything else. For me, music is how I feel the Spirit the most. One thing I love about my companion is we always sing before every lesson and every companionship study. She's actually tone-deaf (like diagnosed tone-deaf, it's okay she knows it) and she still sings with her whole heart and it brings the Spirit into every lesson. I know music comes from God and I invite you all to find music that helps you remember the Savior this week. Some you may or may not have heard:

1. Savior Redeemer of my Soul - Dallyn Vail Bayles and Jenny Oaks Baker  
2. Far Away - The National Parks 
3. "Joyful" - (Where Can I Turn For Peace?) Bishop Gérald Caussé and Nicolas Giusti 
4. I Am Here - Bonner Family 

~I invite you~ 

Love you all!! Have a good week!

Sœur McOmber 

We have Tahitian at the VC I REPEAT WE HAVE A TAHITIAN!!!! Her name is Soeur Lai and she is so cute, she's going to make us poisson crû and teach us how to dance!

The view from the new bat...

The French eat these lil guys for dinner. Look at him go... 

Another transfer in the promised land

 Hi folks

      So this is a wild day because we just recieved the répertoire for this month (that's all the information about transfers) and my whole district is changing basically- but don't worry I'm still in Chesnay ~the promised land~

       HA funny story...we were sitting in church yesterday and suddenly we got this call from an unknown number and we just spaz out and silence the phone because everybody is just staring at us. We think nothing of it, but a few minutes later a member runs up and says somebody is here for us. So we walk outside and whadayaknow it's somebody we talked to on the street a month ago (love finding ) and they just wanted to see what our church is like. It was like God just plopped them right in our paths, and so we sat with them and explained some of the Come Follow Me program. I don't know what it's like in other missions but for the Paris, France Mission, it was definitely a miracle. Anyway, they were super happy to be there and we set another rendez-vous with them this week. 

       On another note, I've been reading the book "Saints", and oh my gosh it is such a good book. Not better than the Book of Mormon but it's up there guys. So powerful to read what humble beginnings the church started with and how it's progressed so much in only 200 years. Everything about Joseph Smith's life is proof that God has a plan for our dispensation. If you haven't read it already, I encourage you to read it. I've gained a lot more of an appreciation for the early saints and their sacrifices for us to have the gospel today. As President Sorenson always says "we stand on the shoulders of giants." (One of his favorite phrases HA) 

Hope everybody ate some good tacos for Cinco de Mayo!! Have a great week!

Sœur McOmber

I like this one because it looks like France.

My mom kept a giant painting that looked like this on my wall until I was like 13. Reminds me of the good ol days HA. (Note from Danette: she's referring to the painting "Hollyhocks")

It's cool to see the artwork that's not finished because you can see the thought process.

Gardens of Monet. Pretty interesting because the garden he painted is actually in our sector.

Van Gogh's self portrait.

This game is called "How many crêpe rendez-vous can I have before I get diabetes?" HA That's our ami, Grace (turtleneck) with the Muniers (a couple from the Visitor's Center) and we polished a plate of 30 crêpes. Honestly I'm proud 

View from Musée D'Orsay 

Sylvie!!!! Ahhh she's such a bean I love her so much. 

 

Super cool to see African sculptures because I've been to a lot of museums in my life and this is not something you see very often. 

Last picture with Soeur Ethington as my companion.💕 She's off to Orleans...she's gonna be great!