Homecoming Talk June 19, 2016

Elder McOmber’s Homecoming Talk Outline

Introduction 

 Just returned from serving in the England London Mission. I served in 6 areas – Maldon, London North, Dereham, Norwich, Aylesbury, and Chelmsford – and had 15 companions. Sorry, no British accent!

President Uchtdorf’s Talk 

I’ve been asked to base my talk on President Uchtdorf’s April 2016 General Conference address “He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home.” The main point that President Uchtdorf makes in this address is that even though we may sometimes feel hopeless in our lives, God can still rescue us and enable us to improve. President Uchtdorf illustrates this principle with one of his own life experiences. As a boy, President Uchtdorf witnessed the devastating events of World War II in his home country of Germany. During the war, a neighboring city named Dresden was bombed many times until it was almost completely destroyed. To President Uchtdorf and many others, the future looked hopeless; however, even though the city of Dresden was “utterly destroyed” in World War II, years later it was “restored and even improved” (President Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home”, April 2016 General Conference). In his talk, President Uchtdorf makes the connection between man repairing and improving the city of Dresden with God’s ability to repair and improve us.

As I read this talk, the thought came to mind again and again about our Heavenly Father’s grace, the redeeming and enabling power of the Atonement. It made me think about my experience of serving a mission. At certain points on my mission, I felt hopeless. I felt like I wasn’t doing well and that I was never going to get any better. To those who may feel lost or hopeless, the Savior invites, “Turn to me” (Joel 2:12), “Come unto me” (Matthew 11:28), and “Draw near unto me and I will draw near unto you” (D&C 88:63). President Uchtdorf promises that as we do so, “God will extend His love toward you, and His work of rescue and transformation will begin” (“He Will Place You on His Shoulders and Carry You Home”, April 2016 General Conference). Throughout my mission, I saw this promise fulfilled in my own life and in the lives of those around me as we faithfully followed this counsel. There were many lessons my mission taught me that helped me to turn more fully to the Savior, and I definitely felt an enormous difference in my joy and success as a missionary as I applied them.

Lessons I learned on my mission that helped me turn to the Lord 

1.       Need to find joy in the work! This is a gospel of joy! Probably the biggest lesson I learned.

a.       “WWJBD?! Stay Positive!” – big turnaround in my mission when I was in Dereham.

b.       1 Miracle & 1 Funny in missionary journal every day – idea from Courtney. No matter how good or bad the day was, it helped make the day better.

c.       Make friends with everyone! – investigators should be friends! Goal as zone to use the word “friend” instead of “investigator.” Example of Caroline & Joanna in Aylesbury vs. example of Dan the Christian in Norwich.

d.       Don’t compare yourself with others – “A Successful Missionary” in PMG. Success not always reflected in key indicators. Difficult one for me, but made a massive difference.

2.       Importance of developing Christlike attributes
Some of the attributes I strove to develop were:

a.       Patience

                                                               i.      Needed to improve patience with myself, companion, and others.

                                                             ii.      Tina, Taylor, and Angel. Always cancelling appointments, didn’t ever seem to progress for a long time. Do everything you can, leave the rest to the Lord.

                                                           iii.      Companions sometimes did things I didn’t understand. Sometimes everyday situations and things to accomplish required patience.

b.       Charity & Love

                                                               i.      Need to love those I serve in order to be patient with them and help them.

                                                             ii.      Nobody cares how much you know until they know how much you care.

                                                           iii.      Example of the Holdens in Chelmsford. Needed to love them so we could adjust our teaching to their needs.

c.       Obedience, especially exact obedience

                                                               i.      Obedience brings blessings, exact obedience brings miracles.

                                                             ii.      Example of Samson given at every 3-Week New Missionary Meeting.

3.       Be diligent!

a.       “Make Every Last Day Count!” – Sister Jordan quote that helped me to make sure I was staying focused and getting everything done that I could.

b.       GAPs! – Explain “Mind the Gap” and where the GAPs came from, what it stands for, what we do, purpose, etc.

Testimony – 

Father’s Day – my dad has been an amazing example to me. Grandpa Pittard & McOmber have both been wonderful examples to me as well. Grandpa Pittard shared his conversion story with me, and it was wonderful to see how the members had made such a big impact on him.

Favorite scripture from my mission: D&C 100:4-8

Home! June15, 2016

Week 101: Last Letter!

May 6, 2016

Wow! It has been another crazy crazy week here in Chelmsford!! There's been so much to do that each day has pretty much filled up to the brim before we sit down to plan the day! We pretty much have this week mapped out with what we'll be doing, so we're looking forward to making it the best week EVER!

On Tuesday this week, we went on an exchange with the Maldon elders, and it went pretty well! We set up loads of teaching appointments for that day, 6 to be exact, but almost all of them fell through! But we still made it work! I went with Elder Lindsay and taught Scott's family and then we went and taught Tina. Unfortunately, because we haven't been able to teach them frequently or consistently the past few weeks, neither of them is ready for baptism on June 11, so we had to push their baptismal dates all the way back to July 2. We thought they would still be ready in time for late June, but they wanted to push it to July. I won't be there for either of their baptisms, but I'm so grateful for the opportunity I've had to find and teach them! I'm so excited to get the pictures from their baptisms on July 2! We'll be taking both Scott and Tina to a baptism this Saturday, so we're excited to see how they like it!

On Wednesday, we had a miracle! A few weeks back, we went to a less-active's home to try to contact them. Many members try to get in contact with them, but this family is so busy that almost nobody can even talk with them. This day that we knocked on their door though, the father answered the door! He said he was right about to walk to his son's school to pick him up, so he invited us to walk with him. We got to know him a little bit better, and then we ran into his wife and his son walking back to the house, so we got to talk with them too! We set up a return appointment for this past Wednesday, which is when we went to see them! His wife wasn't home, but he was there with his 9-year-old son, so that was good! We talked with him for a while about how he joined the Church back in South Africa, and then we shared a very brief lesson about the Restoration. We stacked plastic cups with little labels ("Apostles", "Prophets", "Jesus Christ", "Revelation", etc.) to demonstrate how Jesus Christ's Church was built. As we read from Ephesians 2:19-20 with him, his eyes lit up and he smiled. He told us that he loved these verses because there's a famous song back in South Africa that talks about what Christ's church is built upon. We could feel the Spirit so strongly in that lesson! I'm so grateful for our Heavenly Father and the guidance He gives us! He truly will help us to say and do the right things to help us accomplish his work!

We had our Zone Training Meeting on Saturday, and it went really well! We have some really good DLC goals that will really help us this month! There were some really good trainings today as well, so we're excited to apply them. It was really good but really weird to give my farewell testimony in that meeting.

We had a miracle on Sunday too! A family that the Maldon elders referred to us came to church and had a pretty good time! Their names were Dan (the son) and Dee (the mother). The mother had some big, persistent concerns about Joseph Smith, but Dan was more willing to listen. My favorite part of the lesson we had with them before church was his response to our invitation to him to read and pray about the Book of Mormon: "Ok, I'll do it. I know God will lead me in the right direction, so tonight I'll go home and read and pray about the Book of Mormon." Miracle!! They came to some of the fast and testimony meeting, but they eventually had to go. We're excited to follow up and see how reading and praying about the Book of Mormon is going!

That's just about everything for this week! Hope everybody had an amazing week! I don't know if I'll be writing another letter, so if not, thanks everyone for reading! See you soon!

Elder McOmber

Funnies of the Week: 

We had dinner with Bishop's family yesterday, and his little 3-year-old girl kept repeating, "Pink to make the boys wink!" Apparently her Primary teacher taught that to her class at church.

The Chelmsford sisters are teaching someone really good right now, and his name is Paul. On Saturday, I gave him a baptismal interview, thinking it would take 15 minutes and then we'd be on our way to our appointment afterwards. An hour and 15 minutes later, we left the church. Still learning.

Dinner with Bishop Schwartz's family

Last Zone Conference!

Week 100: London Temple!

May 30, 2016

We went to the London Temple on Saturday!! It was so amazing!!! 

This has been a great, crazy week! It feels like it just began and now it's over! We're starting to go a little crazy because both Tina and Scott are on date for June 11th, but we didn't teach either of them even ONCE this past week! Aaahh! We keep scheduling appointments with them, but they keep falling through. We're going to see if they can still be taught everything before their baptisms, so hopefully everything goes well this week!

I had my last District Meeting this week, and it went really well! We went on a blitz as a district afterwards, which went really well! We found some referrals for missionaries in other areas, so that was good.

My favorite miracle from this week was on Friday. We had planned to teach Tina, but she had to cancel the appointment, so we followed our backup to contact an inactive member named Linda. We came to her door and knocked on it, but she wasn't home, so we decided to tract around her home. Just a few doors down from Linda, we met a fun young father named Sean who started to tell us it wasn't for him. We started a good conversation with him and found out that he had some questions of the soul. We told him that God has revealed answers to these great questions in the Book of Mormon, and he was like, "Really? So then what is the Book of Mormon? Who wrote it?" We continued teaching him about the Book of Mormon and set a return appointment for tomorrow, so we're super excited for that! The Lord really does place people in our path, we just have to find them!

Another miracle happened on Friday as well! We had just finished our weekly planning and walked out of the flat. As soon as we got out of the flat, we bumped into somebody, and he started talking with us! He told us that he was a member of the Church and that he was good friends with some of the members still. He hasn't been active for a long time, but he said that he wanted us to come over and start teaching him again! MIRACLE!!

The Lord really is looking out for us and showering out blessings upon us! I know Heavenly Father loves us and wants us to be happy. I know the Book of Mormon is true, and I know that this Church is true.

Love you all and hope you have another amazing week!

Love,

Elder McOmber

Funnies of the Week:

We participated in a ward activity this morning: a 5k run! The only thing is that the tape stopped working when they were setting out the trail markers, so almost everybody got lost along the way, including us. Haha we were wandering around a field for about 20 minutes until we met somebody who pointed us in the right direction. We still had fun though :)

The Bishop brought us chocolate from Poland - delicious!

We found a beautiful footpath through the woods!

BIG BEN!

More pictures from our wonderful time at the LONDON TEMPLE!

Week 99: Another Amazing Week in Chelmsford!

May 23, 2016

This has been another amazing week in Chelmsford! The weather has been
great and our investigators are slowly progressing! Some of them are
on date for the weekend of June 11, so hopefully we'll see a few
baptisms before the end of the transfer!

We had a good lesson with an investigator named Rica on Tuesday! We
brought a different member with us this time, and he got on really
well with her. She opened up and asked us two really big questions:
(1) "what is the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible?"
and (2) "what is the purpose of life?". We focused on the first
question and taught her about the Restoration, which she enjoyed! Her
husband is Scottish, and the member we brought with us served his
mission in Scotland, so he's excited to meet her husband next time we
see her! Sometimes it's awkward asking members you've never taught
with before to come teaching with you, but I learned that you should
still do it - you never know if they'll be the perfect fellowshipper
for the investigator!

Scott and Lisa are doing well this week! We've taught them a few times
this week, and it's been going pretty well, but there have been loads
of distractions. Be sure to eliminate as many distractions as possible
while you teach, otherwise teaching will be extreme difficult! Scott's
enjoying coming to church, reading, and praying, so that's been great!
He's made some good friends with the youth in the ward, and that's
made a big difference for him too. It's only a few weeks till his
baptism now, so we're pretty excited for him!

Tina's also been doing well, we're just trying to get good, solid,
regular return appointments with her right now. Our visits keep
getting cancelled because of various things - make sure to schedule
wisely! We set her back on date for June 11 on Tuesday, and she
accepted our invitation with an immediate "yes!" We're excited for her
too!

We received a specialized training on Thursday, and it was really
good! We learned about how everything in The Restoration lesson we
teach should center on and point towards the First Vision. We also
focused on the importance of the Book of Mormon and helping our
friends read from it regularly. At the end of the trainings, I was
interviewed and received my temple recommend! I'll be attending the
London Temple this Saturday with the ward - I'm so so excited!!

I went on an exchange with Elder Chu on Friday, and it went great! It
was awesome to be serving with a former companion again!

We had an awesome day on Sunday! We got called in to teach gospel
principles at the last minute, only 5 in attendance including us, but
it still went pretty well. Because Tina was one of those 5, we were
able to really focus it in on her, so it was great! We also had a
Missionary Fireside in the evening, and we were able to help one of
the less-active members we're teaching, Brother Holden, to come, and
he loved it!

Thanks for reading! Hope everybody's had an amazing week!

Elder McOmber


Funnies of the Week

Damon, a 5 year old boy, told us in one of our dinner appointments
this week: "I would never honk at anybody! I would roll down the
window and shout at them!"

Just finished training with President Stevens - 

we are both wearing our new suits!

HAIRCUTS BY IRENE!

Below is the first haircut on my mission - given by Irene

And the next picture is my LAST haircut on my mission - given by Irene!!

Week 98: Cheery Chelmsford!

May 16, 2016

We have had an amazing, busy, crazy week here in Chelmsford! We have
been trying to make a bigger emphasis on working effectively with
members, especially in regards to teaching with them, so we've been
putting together a calendar of when members are available. It's been a
really big help so far, and we're already planning for at least 5
member present lessons this week!

We had loads more miracles this week! First miracle of the week: Tina
has quit smoking for over a week now!!! We're so excited for her! We
kept trying to see her during the week, but things kept coming up;
however, she had an amazing experience at church that just about made
up for it! Our gospel principles lesson was on baptism, and she had
some good questions that everyone helped her find answers to. After
the lesson, she was talking with the bishop's wife and the ward
mission leader and told them that she wanted to get baptized!! We
weren't able to teach her after church, but we're going to see her on
Tuesday with one of the members of the bishopric. We're so excited for
Tina and her kids!!

We were able to teach Scott again on Friday, and he told us about his
experience reading the Book of Mormon. He said that he could feel
really good as he read it, and we were just thinking, "AAAHHH! YES!"
He is doing so well and is loving coming to church and mutual! We're
so excited for him too!

Another miracle happened earlier this week! We just randomly got a
text saying hello, explaining that we had met her on the street and
left her a card with our number on it, and asking if we could meet.
WHAT?! We of course said yes, and we taught her on Saturday! After
answering her questions about the Church's views on certain topics, we
taught her about the Restoration and invited her to be baptized. She
said if she knew it was true, she would! She's super busy, so we can't
really see her that often, but we're excited to see her again on
Saturday. We really hope that things go well with her!

We had more miracles on Sunday! We had 6 investigators at church!!
Scott came and loved it, Tina and her kids came and enjoyed church,
and then we also walked with Peter and Christoph to church. Peter and
Christoph were definitely surprised by the difference in the
atmosphere in the church, but we think they really enjoyed it! Bishop
Schwartz, who served in Poland, had a great time talking with Peter &
Christoph in Polish and even invited them to have a BBQ with his
family sometime! We're seeing them again on Wednesday. We're so happy
they came!

Those are all the miracles I have time to share! I love being a
missionary and I love this gospel! It truly is a gospel of happiness.
I know that the Book of Mormon is true and that it was given to help
us have peace, direction, and happiness in our lives. I know Joseph
Smith was called by God to be a prophet to help restore His Church
back to the earth. I know President Monson is the Lord's prophet on
the earth today. I am so grateful for all the blessings Heavenly
Father constantly showers upon us - I know He lives and loves us all.

Thank you so much for reading! Hope you have another great week!

Elder McOmber


Funnies of the Week

Since Wednesday, we've baked 6.5 dozen cookies for members,
missionaries, and others. Everyone's loving my new companion.

Our toilet broke on Wednesday, the day Elder Salisbury arrived in
Chelmsford. Still trying to get it fixed.

My new companion - Elder Salisbury!!

Chelmsford District

Elder Salisbury, Me, Sister Phillips, Sister Cockerill, Elder Lindsay, Elder Chu

My study area in Chelmsford

Missionary Primary Activity

We took the kids through a "Day in the Life of a Missionary"! 

 It was so fun!

Had fun decorating our planners today at the district meeting!

Mother's Day 2016