Burt ❤️

Bonjour à tous !  

       This week has been busy comme d'hab. We only have 1 day in the Center now so we spend a lot of time finding. Strikes are nearing an end so we can get around easier and the mission office was kind enough to lend us the mini semi truck for the week. His name is Burt and he is SO much fun to parallel park on the streets of Paris lemme tell ya.

       We've been doing a lot of service and working with returning members especially. I adore working with returning members, and right now more are coming to church than I've seen since the beginning of my mission! It's crazy because sometimes people haven't gone to church in years but all they need is to know they have a friend there. The strongest testimonies can be greatly shaken by the feeling nobody cares about you - we can't let anyone at church fall through the cracks. I especially love how our ward is not afraid to ask returning members to give testimonies and talks because they hype up the gospel so much. Our returning friend, Nadège, gave a talk yesterday about the tree of life and she was like "YO but have ya'll heard about the Tree of Life?!? This is beautiful ya'll gotta read this stuff! We've got the best fruit in the world right here at church, can I get an AMEN??" So happy to see people rediscovering the scriptures and finding joy in the gospel again. 

I hope all of you are having a great week,

Sending my love from France x

Sister McOmber 

What a cute lil winter bunny ❤️

The temple closed this week for cleaning, so this is us scrubbing every individual crack between the tiles of patron housing. Meanwhile, the elders are inside the temple cleaning the chandelier ~I'm not bitter~

Free book boxes and a pain au chocolat. A good day

Letting the elders borrow Burt for a day

Crockpots

Bonjour mes amis ! 

       So ya'll know my new companion is Sister Ribeiro and lemme tell ya this sister goes hard. She's super motivated which is amazing because we can get so much done. I've never had a comp so absolutely down to work and it means we get so much done in our sector. We met tons of potentials and did a lot of finding this week. Chesnay isn't ready for this équipe. 

       We also discovered the crockpot! So sitting on top of our fridge for about 6 months was this massive crockpot and last week we harvested the powers within. We've been making crockpot dinners practically every night for ourselves and every person in need. You literally just put in tons of ingredients and leave it for 6 hours and it becomes a masterpiece. Now that I am a culinary goddess, thought I'd just share that in case other missionaries have a crockpot and didn't even use it like me.

        Moving on, this week we had a lot of rdvs with people who wanted to learn more about the church. They came from mostly Christian backgrounds, and we spent a lot of time ~discussing~ the Bible. It's interesting to see how many drastically different ways a single book can be interpreted. God is not a God of confusion (1 Cor 14:33) so I'm thankful for the fact He has enough love for us to give us another book of scripture, along with prophets and apostles to guide us through so many differing claims and voices. I know God loves us enough not to leave us in the dark, and I know all those who are sincerely searching for truth will receive answers in the Church of Jesus Christ. This is what I say to myself when the Bible Bashers come for me.

        We also visited the Barcelo family. They're a member family from the Philippines and I'd never had the chance to meet them. We planned on teaching Plan of Salvation and when we got there, the mom told us most of her children had disabilities. When we taught about how their bodies would be perfect someday, it was like it was the first time their mother was hearing it. She turned to her kids like "you hear that? One day you're not going to have to worry about your hand problem!" And it wasn't that she wanted them to be different, but as a mom she could see how much struggle it caused them. She just loved them and wanted them to be happy, and I know our Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy too. Any physical trial we face today will be overcome in the life to come - old men will be able to run and everyone will have all their appendages! And that's a pretty cool blessing. 

Bon, have a great week everyone! God is so good. 

Sister McOmber 

Sœur Tulieva. Wow combien I will miss this Ewok.

And Sœur Madsen!! <3 She served her entire mission in Metz, never underestimate the soldiers of the boonies.

Aaaaand story of the week my permanent retainer randomly fell out while I was doing studies. So naturally I threw it away because it looked like a pretty cheap piece of wire. False. We got home only minutes before the Sisters were going to take the trash out. So for my mom (only for my mom <3) we dug through the trash together to find this tiny piece of wire, bless Sœur Ribeiro for saying a prayer to find this rebellious lil guy. 

Dinner parties at the VC ayeee

Final moments 

The Cartier du Chesnay lives on 

Art museum, je sais pas 

Off to her eternal companion ❤️

Donc

         Transfer solutions came and I'm getting a new companion in Chesnay! I'll probably die here honestly (die is a term missionaries use for the location they end their mission in). President just likes keeping an eye on me I guess HA (jokes, there's nowhere else I could have even gone), but I'll be with Sœur Ribeiro - she's from Spain and her dad is from Angola so I might get to learn some Portuguese :)) It's crazy, I've had more companions from other countries than Americans. It's really interesting to see so many different cultures and every transfer is so drastically different. But it's going to be an adventure and I'm looking forward to the next 6.

       Bon, we had a lot of goodbye rdv's for Sœur Tulieva this week. Meanwhile the apartment is dying from all the African food we brought home. I don't know what they put in it but it ~does things~ to your body. I just need to keep eating and pray one day my body adjusts so I can still serve in Burundi.

        All in all though, a pretty bittersweet week. It's weird to watch somebody finish their mission. Sœur Tulieva worked hard until the very end and she loved all of our amis and members with her whole heart. I almost started crying with her when she had to say goodbye. She has great things waiting for her at home though. (*cough* eternal companion ;))

Hope everybody had a great week!

Bonne semaine à tous!! 

Sœur McOmber 

Nadage makin' things 

Soeur Curtis, Sœur U, Sœur Tulieva. Sœur Curtis has been our STL literally my entire mission, I adore her. She only has one hand but you would never know because she can destroy you at any sport. She's also such a sweet little rainbow at the same time and the funniest human. 

Galettes des Rois! It's a celebration for the wise men. Basically, they hide a little fève in a cake and if you get the piece with the fève you wear the crown HA Sœur Tulieva was pretty excited to win this one. 

Our favorite African mamas- Nadege, Sœur Valentin, Sœur Dacoury 

Hillary! She studies law and in our lessons she always has the most profound questions. We go in ready to teach about faith and end up talking about The Dead Sea Scrolls, I don't know how this happens. She's a sharp one. 

Thursday Tutties - Sœur Brown and Sœur Kleinman. They're like an old married couple going on 5 transfers together 

Loriane! This beautiful woman just showed up at church last Sunday! She actually lives in Versailles sector but we taught her a few times and she's just a sweet genuine soul lookin for some more Jesus in her life <3

new year new baby ❤️

Hello everyone! 

      No I am not pregnant but I did get to meet my new nephew via telephone this week!! This is really exciting because it means I'm an aunt!!!! Also he's so so cute, I have showed pretty much every person we've met pictures of him - sometimes multiple times. It's great though, as soon as people see him they let me give them the spiel about eternal families.

Bebebebebbebebe ahhhhhhhhh

Hudson Hinckley McOmber

        We also went on exchanges this week so that was an adventure. I went to Paris Lilas with Sœur Sandres and she's like "we're going to a sector a lil chaud (spicy) today" and by that she meant St. Denis. It literally looks like a post apocalyptic world in that sector. Transfers ago, it's also where Sœur Ilizarbe defended me with her umbrella HA! But I've always had brown people with me and nobody messes with me when I have my brown soeurs by my side. So! We were planning to give bread to homeless people but it rained and apparently they all get together and become dangerous when it rains...so we had a dinner appointment there instead. 

        This week, we had zone conference and President talked to us about motivation. Everybody has days in the mission where they are exhausted or unmotivated, but the key to overcoming that is doing what helps you find joy in the work. For me, I've found that joy in serving others. All we do all day everyday is things for other people, and yet some of the happiest days of my life have been on my mission. I invite you all to continue to look outward - not just by making casseroles, but by truly doing things that let other people know you love them. Elder Bednar said "the character of Christ is being able to recognize the suffering of others when we, ourselves, are suffering." The only way to overcome the feelings of fatigue is helping a soul who is even more tired.

I love this work and I'm so so happy to be a missionary here in France.

Avec amour, 

Sister McOmber

Saint Chapel. It tells the entire story of the Bible in stained glass - starting with Adam and Eve. Sœur Tulieva and I recognized literally 0 of the scenes. I think we need to study the Bible more.

Poissy

The leftover bread after St. Denis HA we will be eating bread for a long time (the family that gave this to us works at a boulangerie so don't worry, the homeless will still get their bread) 

The Chesnay ward is about to lose 2 of the best missionaries of all time - Sister Tulieva and Elder Thomas

Versailles, Chesnay, and Mantes missionaries 

This is Givette! She's a friend we're teaching and she has such a giving heart. She wants to sew our future children tiny African clothes.