The Church Is True!

Hey ya'll. Hope everyone's doing great! 

This week we had zone meeting. We talked a lot about how we can achieve the standards of excellence in our mission. Our standards of excellence are to baptize weekly, reactivate a male or family every month, have four progressing investigators at all times, and have 100% retention.

Now that can be kind of... well actually incredibly... challenging to reach those. But we learned a lot about how we can work towards actually reaching those goals consistently. The second half of zone meeting, I had to teach for a little bit on the Spirit of Elijah. Not gonna lie... I really didn't know much about it before I had to teach. But hey! Heavenly Father's really good at providing a way for us to learn things. That night, we had a lesson with a less active lady on genealogy and temple work. It was so spiritual and it strengthened my testimony of the Spirit of Elijah. 

And then this Sunday, my testimony was strengthened even more. She came to church for the first time in 8 years! Man isn't that awesome! The Spirit of Elijah is real!!! 

We had trade-offs this week. I got to be with Sister Bailey this time and it was the best day of my life. It felt just like being back in Nassau teaching with her... and that was the best time of my mission so far so it was a really great feeling :) I love Sister Bailey. 

We're teaching this guy named David right now. I think I've talked about him a few times... the rasta guy? Well David is amazing. Every lesson we have with him is so spiritual. Yesterday we extended a baptism date and he said that he needs to pray about it because he wants to make sure that if he commits to something, he stays with that thing. Which is a very good sign because usually people just accept a date without even thinking about it and then they don't make it to their baptism... but he has an incredibly strong desire to find the truth and every time we meet with him he tells us that he feels closer and closer to finding the truth. Woohoo it's the gospel! 

Sunday, we were supposed to have an area conference broadcasted live from Salt Lake City. But unfortunately, the internet failed and we did not get to watch it. So we sang some hymns and said a prayer and that was church! It was a little strange. I can't wait for fast and testimony meeting next week! (It got postponed due to the conference.) 

Sunday after church we went on splits. I went with Alexa, a darling member who is leaving on her mission next week! We had some delightful lessons and it was very fun. We went over to see a member, and there were some Jehovah's witnesses on the street. They started to try to teach us until they realized we were actually there to teach someone about a different church. So then they told us that they admire how strong we are in our own faith and asked if they could have more information about our church. So that was good! 

I'm learning a lot about agency this week. I was reading 2 Nephi 2 during personal studies and I realized something! It may seem obvious but it really seemed like an answer to my prayers at the time. We are all forces intended to act... not to be acted upon. Which means we get to choose how we react to people and events around us. We choose to be offended, or we choose to ignore the offense. We choose to be happy! So this week, I've decided that I'm going to be happy. I know who I am, I know why I'm here, and I know where I want to go after I die. So really, I have a lot to be grateful for! And because of that, I'm choosing to be happy. Life goes on whether we like it or not... we'd better just make sure that we are choosing an attitude that makes our life happy and not miserable. 

Also, last night Sister Llewellyn wasn't feeling well so we had to head home a few hours early. I wasn't looking forward to the prospect of reading the same Liahonas and Ensigns again, as bad as that sounds. So I just said a prayer that somehow I would be able to find some new reading material. Cuz I love to read. Right after I said amen, I felt like I should check inside this bag under a chair in our front room. So I did, and I found a pile of nasty, rotten old books that were all water damaged. I was just about ready to throw them out when I realized that I had been prompted to look in that bag for a reason. So I looked again and I found a pile of really old magazines that only had mild water damage. After a little bit of cleaning, I had hours upon hours of reading material. And I found so many articles that answered so many questions I've had over the last few weeks... about the work, our investigators, my life... everything! It was just a silly, trivial little matter but it was a big deal to me and Heavenly Father answered my prayer. 

The church is so true. And Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are so real. I'm so grateful for my knowledge of this gospel, and I'm more and more grateful every day for the time I have to share that testimony with the people in Jamaica :) 

Big up ya'll. 

xoxoxoxoxo,

Sister Oman 

Pictures: 

Me and Sister Llewellyn and all of us before the start of trade-off!