Sometimes you wait...but it's awesome when you get the fruit!

Hey y'all! We saw the blessings of God FLOWING upon us this week and it was SO great. Sometimes it is really hard to give everything you have and not see the fruits of your labors at the present time. However, this week we were blessed with the sight.

We were working super hard and barely having any success. Sunday was super hard because it was very hot and we were super tired from the work. Then, as we started work right after lunch, we met this amazing family that immediately let us in and were super receptive and we were able to talk with them about tons of stuff and make a friendship and they loved the message of the Gospel and want to learn a lot more!

So, this week I had a really funny experience that scared my companion a ton haha. I decided to just start speaking a ton of random things for 10 minutes in Portuguese. When we woke up the next morning, he was super confused and started asking me what the heck I was thinking the night before. This, in turn, made me really confused and for like 10 minutes both of us had no clue what was going on haha. It was fun though.

My thought this week is something I learned from "Jesus the Christ" (the book). Guys Jesus Christ was and is the Ultimate Teacher. He knew exactly what He was doing and set the perfect example for all of us. All of us, from Primary kids to the elderly have opportunities to teach those around us, and I encourage everyone to take the many teachings of Jesus Christ and try to apply them in these teaching opportunities we have in our lives.

With love from Brazil,

Elder Colton McOmber

Just cool things I saw this week

It's not all or nothing...be an example

Hey y'all! Hope everything is good back home! We had an awesome week out here in the Brazilian countryside haha. Sadly it got hot again, I think God was punishing me for making fun of you guys next week lol, but it was seriously a great week.

On Saturday and Sunday we met some awesome friends that I am super excited to teach. We also had two members give us food and I loved it! We had Pão de Queijo with one member and a full dinner with the other (usually we just make a small dinner at home at the end of the day). Another thing that happened was we saw a motorcycle crash and had the opportunity to be the first responders, helping him up, and moving the bike so he wouldn't get hit. Luckily, he was just scratched up a bit and didn't need to go to the hospital.

Something that was kinda funny this week was with a meeting we usually have with all the missionaries in our area on Tuesdays. We showed up at the chapel like normal and waited for the others to show up. We waited for like 30 minutes and still nobody showed up, so we called them, but nobody answered. We finally waited for another 20 minutes and finally our district leader called us asking why we called. It turned out this week we didn't have the meeting and he had forgotten to tell us. Luckily we had made good use of the time planning and studying, but it was kinda funny because our leader was like ''Oh shoot, sorry, uhhhh we don't have it this week'' haha.

To end, I want to share a scripture that I shared in a talk I gave this Sunday. 1 Timothy 4:12 says, ''Be thou an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.'' I was talking about doing missionary work as a member. The point I want to make this week is missionary work is not just for full-time missionaries and it is not all or nothing. If missionary work is super hard for you, just start with being an example! Then you can start talking more and helping others and growing until you are a day to day missionary like the Savior wants you to be!

I love you guys, keep being awesome!

With love from Brazil,

Elder Colton McOmber

Cool pictures and places in my area! It's so cool here!

We started talking to this guy near this restaurant and he ended up buying us both hamburgers and Coke!! I love people here!

This dog followed us ALL day haha, it was pretty funny and adorable.

Click here to watch the video (it's at night, so you can only see things every so often)

If you give a girl a cookie...🍪

Hey y'all! Is everyone enjoying the cold? I have actually been having absolutely perfect days of 75-80 degrees with a nice breeze, so HA to everyone who thought I was going to suffer (it really has been a blessing directly from God and I am so grateful).

This week was a little hard for me because I got sick, but it wasn't bad enough for me to want to stay home and rest, so I just had to work through it. The good thing about that is I received a ton of blessings for working through my trials! I am all better now, and super excited to continue teaching this week. 

This week was the 1-year anniversary of when my companion came into the mission so we ate a ton of food and bought balloons. It was really fun and the next morning I completely covered him in more than 40 balloons. Sometimes it's nice for you guys to realize that we are still teenage boys haha. I sent a picture and video for you guys to see. I thought I was pretty funny.

My spiritual thought is about a little girl I saw on Sunday. She was probably 4 and taught me a super valuable lesson. So we're in sacrament meeting listening to the talks and I look over and see this 4-year old that was given a cookie by another mom. I expected her to just gobble it up and ask for another, but no. She proceeded to offer the cookie to another kid and another mom before finally taking one bite. AND THEN SHE OFFERED IT AGAIN! My golly, if we could all be like this little girl, could you imagine how much better this world would be? So, my invitation for everyone this week is to share. It's not just a principle for kids, it's a concept for humankind and when we share the things that mean so much to us (for adults: TIME, energy, knowledge, etc. it doesn't have to be money or temporal things) we receive so many blessings for it! 

With love from Brazil,

Elder Colton McOmber

More landscape pictures, Patos is super pretty!

Random shenanigans with balloons haha

Click here to watch the video below

Click here to watch the video below

We have no clue what this bird was attempting to do...

Click here to watch the video below

This is almost a daily occurrence where we kinda just accept the fact that we are about to die. It's pretty fun lol.

Click here to watch the video below

This bird flew into our house and scared me to death when we walked back into the house. We barely got it out of the house because it was so scared of us even though we were trying to help it. Fun times as a missionary!

Click here to watch the video below

The Lord keeps His promises

Hey y'all! This week we walked A LOT haha. It was great though. Today we met up with another companionship in my district and played war for a few hours, it was a blast! A good time to let my mind rest from the constant pressure of trying to help others learn how to have salvation. 

Something absolutely amazing happened this week. We had three churrascos (Brazilian BBQ´s) this week, in a row, it was freaking amazing! I love the meat here and literally everyone knows how to cook it. I'm literally just thinking about it right now, and my mouth is watering haha.

A quick spiritual thought this week: D&C 82:10 gives us the promise that if we do what the Lord says, He will always hold up his end of the deal. In the gospel of Jesus Christ, this means eternal happiness living with family and God. Sounds like a really good deal to me haha. Sorry my e-mails have been super short, I will try to give a little more insight by writing them earlier so I have more time.

With love from Brazil,

Elder Colton McOmber

This Husky is SOOOO cute, I love huskies haha

The Brazilian countryside 

This lake was pretty cool, right in the middle of the city

When Brazilians try to spell words in English (I thought this was pretty ironic lol)