AY my back🥴

Yeah soooo. This week, not too sure what happened there seemed to be quite a train wreck of people that just decided to value other things over church this week so we're gonna be laser focused on church this week. So yeah if it wasn't too clear, church is cool and highly recommended✌️😉.

But with that note aside... I wanna mention my just absolutely shot back. Oh my we were in the process of helping this cool family with a move the other day. But we showed up to the house they were moving into and it was... at the bottom of a giant stairway. Normal. But still a tough sight to see when we were still in a white shirt and knew that we were gonna be here for a while moving all these things down. But anyways, we were there for like 2 hours helping them move and it was actually a blast, I had a ton of fun. But that shirt that I wore will never be the same, it was mad stained by the end haha. On the way down one of the times though, I was carrying just this big table trying to figure out how to see in front of me where the next step was and fwoooom. There I went. AS well as my back😬 Don't worry, the table is fine...

But anyways, we made it out of there alive and we had a fun time. I learned a lot from this week in experiences that I hadn't seen for a while, experiences such as these (just glad it was down stairs). Perseverance or endurance has always been a vital principle in the Doctrine of Christ. But not just waiting for the 'bombs' to finish dropping, but to be actively involved in making the world around you a better place, so when the bombs stop dropping, and the morning comes, not only are you one step closer to healing, but you are one step closer to God. For as we work with Him the good we see His Hand (miracles), and as we work with Him in the bad, we see His Face (grace and mercy).

Love y'all
Elder McOmber

NO MORE COFFEE🚫☕️🚫

Yeah, so the word of wisdom for somebody that is preparing to be baptized means that for at least 2 weeks before you are baptized (and forever after, obviously) you can't drink coffee(and some other substances). But coffee is just the main struggle over here apparently. It came to the point where we just brought some awesome treats over to some of our awesome friends with a little wrapping around that says 'wow, this is so much tastier than coffee huh?' that made them laugh until the little 9 year old was like OH NO! I drank coffee this morning. And then she got all depressed. She's doing so awesome other than that though. She's reading in the Book of Mormon and in the last 2 or 3 weeks she's read all the way to Jacob. Absolutely committed she's great we're going to be visiting that family tomorrow to see how they have been doing. They literally nailed a paper to their living room wall that has a big X through the 5 substances that you can't take😆

They are a dedicated family that really wants to please God and follow His commandments. I have learned a lot from the people here in Costa Rica and the desire many have to please God Not just to say 'I believe in God' but to actually do something about it. Repentance is the BIG step before baptism. So the big thing we look for in our friends, in those truly ready to make a covenant with God, is a broken heart and a contrite spirit with a desire to change and become like God. Many times we look for those who already express that on the first contact. But it can also take place within a few teachings and they feel the spirit testify to them the need to change their lives. I have taken much from that. Many times I have messed up something, knowingly or unknowingly, and felt the need to repent. To follow our friends✌️ so that is my ending invitation, seek and carry out repentance. Love y'all🫰

Elder McOmber

Paz✌️

This week... wow. This country really just loves celebrating holy week by going to the beach which ya know I'd great and all. But not for us😒 but it's fine I'm not bitter. It actually wasn't a terrible week as far as the work goes, just a ton of rescheduled appointments and we really had to kick it into gear but it was a blast. I will say I'm just real happy not to be sick like I was last week oh my gosh that was quite interesting.😅 

Anyways, so what the people seem to do here that I haven't really seen or noticed before, is a catholic tradition with a cross. What they do is they put a cross outside there house with a purple cloth over it, representing Christ as King. Then on Resurrection Sunday, they change the cloth for a white one. Quite interesting, I'm personally not a huge cross kinda guy. But I love the symbolism of the final change, on Sunday me and my beloved comp wore white ties for Easter and I loved that, it was a good sacrament meeting.

There was once an analogy that I really love to compare to these talks, whether at sacrament meeting or in some other setting, sometimes spiritually speaking, the speaker prepares a big bucket full of 'celestial juice' for the audience, and in his talk he pours it to each, some of the audience bring enough to carry all the 'celestial juice' so they are quite edified, some only bring a small cup, they are edified, but they didn't take away the spiritual growth that could have been and was prepared for them. Which is tough. Sometimes the relationship is vice versa, the listener may bring a big bucket hoping to get edified and the speaker only prepares a small cup of 'celestial juice'. Only a drop in the listeners bucket. This Sunday the speakers brought a bucket and it was really special, I hope I brought a big enough bucket to carry it all.

Love you guys,

Elder McOmber