Going to Antony!!

Hi everyone! 

       Just got one of my last transfer emails and turns out I'm leaving Chesnay and going to Antony!! It's just south of Paris and I'm so excited I've heard such good things about this ward. It's been about 7 transfers in Chesnay (10ish months) and I will really miss some of the people I've met here but I'm thrilled to be in Antony with Sœur Busch. 

       Miracle of the week: in the beginning of my mission we met a woman named Sylvie at a hospital. We would come and teach her every week and she even accepted an invitation to be baptized! Unfortunately her surgeries required her to move around a lot and she moved to another sector. We lost contact with her until! The other day we were on our way to Chatou and I turned around and there she was!!!! We're not in Chatou much but we felt inspired to go that one day even though it's super far and our rdv was flaky. So this weekend, the Chesnay Sœurs have a rendez-vous with Sylvie and her sister! I was so happy to see her I nearly cried! Such a good soul, I miss bringing her white chocolate and listening to her testimony. She's happy to have refound the missionaries and it's gonna be great guys it's gonna be great 

Hope everyone is taking care! Remember to eat your fruits and vegetable and think of Jesus at least once a day x

Sister McOmber

Sylvie !!!

The restaurants in Saint Germain en Laye are top. The appetizer is onion soup and Sœur Ribeiro had some fois gras or something (fat you put on bread)? This is salmon pasta and a tasty beef thing. Sorry my food descriptions are lacking.

Pranked!!!

Mes chers amis, bienvenue 

       This week, we were walking through Chatou yelling bonjour at everything that moved (normal day) and we saw this one man carrying groceries. We said bonjour and continued walking because we were late for a rendez-vous. Then all of a sudden I turned to my colleague like, "He speaks Portuguese, we need to talk to him." And Sœur Ribeiro (speaks Portuguese) was like, "How do you know?" And I thought for a second like yeah...how do I know that? But then the man brought his whole family into the same building and my companion started speaking Portuguese with them!! We had to leave and were disappointed because we didn't have time to talk. But! We came back the next day and the first door we knocked on was them, and we have a rendez-vous with them next week! Turns out they're from Portugal! There's no way that we could have met them without being guided, the Spirit is real, I so testify.

       We also had a temple tour this week with a man named Prince from Nigeria. I loved it because it reminded me of all the amazing Nigerians we taught in Metz - such humble people. We were walking around the temple with the elders and he kept pointing to trees like, "I like these flowers." Sœur Ribeiro starts testifying and mid-sentence Prince points to the Tree of Life like, "THAT is my favorite flower." HA priceless. After showing the temple, we taught him about the kingdoms of glory and after every kingdom he was like, "Yes! That's where the people burn!!!" And we're like, "No Prince, God loves his children" and he's like, "but the Jehovahs..." and Elder Patrick was like "that is false doctrine." But everything we said, he tried to understand and he was just so happy to be there. I truly love being at the temple - we meet so many amazing people.

 

       We also continue to teach many people on Facebook from Burundi and hope they will be prepared for the next African pentecost so that's super exciting. 

J'espère que tout le monde a passé une bonne semaine, gros bisous! 

Sœur McOmber x

Our district was talking in a council about pranks and a senior missionary in our district, Sœur Harmon said "I think the best pranks are nice pranks. Like leaving chocolate on somebody's pillow!" HA and it was just so cute that we decided to start doing Sister Harmon's version of a prank. So my companion pranked me and bought me this crêpe 

Saint Valentine from the Bourroux and the Frogley's ❤️

Sœur U trying not to be distracted by worldly music, reading the New Testament 

Monet's Water Lilies! This is at L'Orangerie, but I had the chance to see the real gardens at Monet's house in the beginning of my mission. I love the impressionist paintings; if you look closely it's just big blobs of paint but from far away you understand the whole scene. Musée D'Orsay has a lot of Monet's work as well (I'm an art connoisseur now) 

Therapy

Hi friends! 

So me and my companion both got sick this week! We're better now but of course not before we spread the virus to the whole center. Send your prayers. 

We did have a few rendez-vous however! Sœur Ribeiro and I were talking about this - truly every person that is humble enough to accept the missionaries in our sector has some grave life problem hiding under the surface. We plan these lessons but the moment we show up, it feels these people just need somebody to help them through. They're just struggling to make it through every day, and we are there to mourn with them and pray with them. Sometimes that means we never teach the principles, but I know that Christ, while he wants us to learn, also wants us to feel His love. 

These past few days here we had a tempest (is that the right English word?) and a tree fell on our apartment so uhhh maybe pray for that too. The buses are flying all over the road and England straight canceled church yesterday so it's pretty intense. 

Hope my European friends are staying safe! Love you all!

Bisous 

Sœur McOmber 

Les Invalides - The War Museum 

Sœur Lai let me be a Tahitian for the day

Napolean's tomb

I thought this was such an empowering declaration. For me, I always saw America as a bit of a Savior during WW2 but I have a lot of respect for French soldiers and leaders that stood strong for their rights and liberties- and the turning point of it all was fought on French soil here in the north of France! This statement is written by Charles de Gaulle who now has his own sector of Paris named after him (translation bottom left). VIVE LA FRANCE!

And the rest of the World War sections I was singing "Proud to be an American" the whole way through. Sure my country is not perfect, but ya'll I just want to take a moment to thank those who came before me so I could be here today. We are truly standing on the shoulders of giants, God bless America 

The Sumner's had their 50th wedding anniversary!! Seasoned veterans. Their advice: love is selfless ❤️

Drinking my tears

Coucou mes amis!

     We had so many interesting rdvs this past week - one with a couple Frère Valentin found in his Ballroom dancing class! The members in France always tell us about how talking about religion is against the rules in any social setting, so I'm so proud every time a member breaks the social norms for Jesus. Not an easy thing to do. 

       Elder Frogley, the PowerPoint Sensei,  taught us a lot about the Parole de Sagesse (word of wisdom) this week. Me and Sœur Ribeiro have been eating so healthy. Elder Bourroux has been straight up not eating anything HA he was like "I've been eating only my larmes (tears) since Saturday." We've been blessed though we've had so much energy - everybody eat your fruits and vegetables (I'm learning so many life lessons truly). 

        We had a lesson this week with an ami named Marleine who had a lot of really insightful questions for us. We're learning a lot about finding the balance between answering everyone's questions and helping them find their own. Often, even if we give a logical answer, it's not enough unless the person has the chance to feel it for themselves. We all have to take the time to grow ourselves spiritually and not just rely on the testimony of others. But it's always good to ask questions, and we can always receive responses if we ask God with sincerity. 

Hope everybody had a good week! 

Gros bisous <3

Sœur McOmber 

Céline made us some secret French dish of her ancestors and refused to give us the recipe (sorry mom)

Monique! She's a sweet lady in Paris Lilas that gives everyone Craisins and plays the piano for them. I asked her if she was going to bear her testimony for Fast Sunday and she whipped out 8 written pages and read me the whole thing HA

 

Lucile! She's a returned missionary from Tahiti that works at the patron housing

Since I've been companions with Sœur Ribeiro, I swear everyone we meet speaks Portuguese! This is Nicolas from Brazil and he was companions with Sœur Ribeiro's brother 

The entrance to an extra fancy hotel 

Me, acting like I have more than 10€ in my bank account right now 

Window shopping @ Paris