Deus Vos Guarde (God be with you til we meet again)

	Uncle Brad, thanks for the advice with the spelling, and your letter. Mom, just so you know, I have no idea when my visa is going to come, I just know that the Lord knows, I quess that will be good enough for me. Dad, I keep forgetting to tell you, Elder Galbraith is going to Portugal, he leaves in 2 weeks, we have been swapping stories, if you could give me a story that would be a great thing for Elder Galbraith to have, btw he said that his dad says you were legend! I have been so blessed in my service in the MTC, I wouldn't mind going to Brazil, but I am happy where I am. I have really learned to love the other missionaries that I serve. This past week has been awesome, but it has been bitter sweet. The portugal district in my zone has been very close to my heart, they left this past week to their mission, since they have left I have missed them greatly. Before they left I had many good talks with them, and when we did "contacts" they would always be creative new people, they were also very fun, we didn't know it until we left but the week we gort here they gave us a box of candy and a districty tie, we have in turn done this for all of the new districts. But the sunday before they left they got up in front of all of us and sang Deus Vos Guarde (God be with you til we meet again) I cannot describe how I felt, I have loved serving them so much and visa versa and now they were leaving to a totally different continent, but when they sang I felt comforted, also in portugues that song is more beautiful to me. I thought about how grateful I am to be here, to meet people like this, and to be able to have experiences like this. Since then we have recieved a new district into my branch this past wednesday, one of the members of that disctrict is an Elder from Belgium, he speaks a little english, and at the same time is trying to learn Portugues. I will never forget him standing there and telling us that his parents are seperated and neither of them like the church, he has been a member for a year and he has payed for his mission by roofing, but he told us, struggling with every word, that he wishes that the whole world could feel the love of Heavenly Father. His story is one of many who have made great sacrifices to be here, all so that we can serve the Lord and benefit the lives of others. I hope that whoever reads this letter will want to invite their friends to hear the words of the Lord, because I think that many times we don't think of how much it can change someone else's life, just look at how much the Kyiv temple blessed people as far as Khazakstan. I am so proud to be here, and that I grew up in a family that has prepared me so well for this work. Once someone said "I am afraid to talk to other people" My companion said, "Thats ok, I bet everyone but Elder McOmber, his father, and his grandfather had to go through the same thing." I love all of you, thanx for all of your support, until next week Elder McOmber

Christian is called to be a Zone leader in the MTC!

This week has been amazing, as always. We started a new tradition this week, we have a rock of English, it weighs 10 pounds. Whoever speaks English has to carry the rock, I have been very blessed, I have been praying throughout the day that I won't speak English, but so far it has gone well, I have only had to carry the rock once this week. Also, I forgot to mention that my companion and I were chosen to be zone leaders a couple of weeks ago. This has kept us very busy, but it is an honor to serve our fellow missionaries. The highlight was this week when I showed up to welcome the 29 new missionaries into our branch and I saw an old friend, Elder Krulish!! It has been fun showing his district around and seeing him again, I can't wait to hear his first talk in Portuguese!!! Maybe I will ask the branch president to give him a talk in a couple of weeks. This week has been really cool. I have spent a lot of time thinking about how I can better myself as a missionary, I have been working on obtaining more virtue, the best way of doing this is to keep working constantly, on top of my new responsibilities as zone leader my companion and I have taught 26 lessons and did 20 contacts this week, we are working hard to help our district achieve a new goal of over 100 contacts and a total of 100 lessons, it has been a blast!! It is just like the stories I have always heard of missions, setting really high goals and working until you drop, luckily it is fun work. The best thing is, the more we practice the more prepared we will be to teach and preach the word in Brazil. I wish I could transmit all of my feelings, excitement, and joy of missionary work to all of you. The closest thing that I could find is a video on LDSW.org: Kyiv Temple cultural celebration video. I love watching this video, I can't wait to share my talents with the people of Brazil, I hope that if I keep working hard Heavenly Father will be proud of the work I have done for Him. I am doing the best I can to make an affect on as many people as I can now, and to assist in preparing the other missionaries as best I can so that we can better serve Heavenly Father. Please watch the video on the Kyiv temple cultural celebration, I promise it will make your day, and it wouldn't hurt to share it with a few of your friends, everyone needs some light every once in a while. I just want to finish by bearing my testimony: eu sei que a igreja de Jesus Cristo dos santos dos ultimos dias e' a verdade. Eu sei que um dia podemos ser com nossas familias para sempre, e eu sei que quando temos fe em Jesus Cristo e em pai dele, Pai Celestial podemos fazer todos as coisas na terra, e eu sei que un dia eu vou falar com Gragory a mesma que meus otros irmaos, e ele nao precisa ter seizures e otras coisas dificil eu digo estas coisas em nome de Jesus Cristo, Amem

4th letter from the MTC-he is getting his visa :)

Uncle Paul and the fam, thanx a million for the package!! And Grandpa, thanx for the letter. Also, Uncle David and Aunt Danny, I read over the note you guys gave me in the front of my portugeese kids book of Mormon, I was very touched, thanx a million! I am glad to get the letters from my family, I am glad that Heather and Justin are doing awesome in sports, I am also glad that Gregory is doing well in school, I hope he knows I am on a mission. I miss everyone, but I promise that I am all about the work, also I JUST SENT MY ONLINE VISA APPLICATION!!!!!! I am real excited to get to Brazil, it has been awesome, right after I got it I was like a celebrity, And since then a lot more online applications have come.

This week has been real awesome, I have learned a lot but probably the greatest lesson I have learned is from my teachers about teaching lessons. We have a tradition here at the MTC, our teachers all just came back from missions and one thing that we do in order to practice to teach the people of Brazil is that we teach our teachers and they pretend to be the people that they taught on their missions, all down until their smallest mannerisms, this has brought me even closer to my teachers in so many ways, because now I think night and day about how my companion and I can better teach my teacher's old investigators. My favorite person to teach is someone that Irmao Shaeffer taught, one day my companion and I showed up for an "appointment" to come by and teach this young man, he invited us in and told us to sit on the couch, he tossed us a couple of air freshners disguised as beers and told us to watch the game. The week before we had spoken to him about prayer and feeling the holy spirit and that he can connect with his Heavenly Father, and that his Heavenly Father wanted to speak with him.

When we came in and this was happening it was very disheartening, I felt defeated the moment I walked in, but never the less my companion asked him to turn off the TV and that we wanted to speak with him. He did, and then he asks us why we don't like watching soccor, which was especially hard for my companion who is probably the biggest soccor fan in the MTC. This hurt my heart at first because I realized that this guy thought that people who love him come to his house and watch the game, and now I looked like I didn't love him after I had done so much to become his friend. We began to talk to him about how much God loves him and asked if he prayed as he promised he would, he did not. We started asking him questions and after a few minutes he asked, "Why do you believe in this?" After this I explained to this boy that we are a little different from his other friends, I told him that I would live to do nothing more than to watch a game with him after my mission, then I told him why I believe what I believe. For the first time, I told someone in a lesson about Gregory, and that how I knew that someday I can be with him, this boy has a brother who is off at war and I explained that he can be with his brother forever, then I explained to him that I knew that he was a great spirit, meant for great things, and my companion and I taught him about Jesus' love for us and we explained to him how he can be with his brother in the afterlife.

He realized that we told him these things because we cared about him and that we wanted the best for him, he said that he would read some passages from the book of Mormon and that he would pray to his Heavenly Father to know whether or not Heavenly Father was really there. I was so happy, after I left I came back in the room and looked into the eyes of my teacher, Irmao Shaeffer, I realized that he was trying to teach me an important lesson, that on your mission you can only teach through love. I have loved my time at the MTC, I have loved being connected to my teracher's missions by teaching their friends, and I am so glad to be a part of this great work. I know that there is no way that after 3 weeks I could have done all of that experience in Portugeese except through the power of God. I want to take my last minute and 11 seconds to tell everyone back home, thank you. Thank you to everyone who has helped me to get here, thank you for all of the love, and sacrafice you have all given me, I have been very blessed in my life, Elder McOmber

3rd letter from the MTC

Hey, everyone, thanx for the package, and Nick from Mail post, thanx for the little note haha.

I have really enjoyed my time here in the MTC, I have been thinking a lot about the kind of missionary I want to be. Ever since I was in this interview on sunday where I sat down with a counselor for the branch president and he explained to me the difference between a leader with position and a leader without position. He explained to me that some of the most valuable leaders are those without position. After that meeting I thought a lot about everything that has happened since I have been here and how my time at the MTC has affected me. I find it funny that my branch president has only known me for 2 weeks and already knows how to throw the world on my shoulders. But in many ways I think that he is right, it is important that everyone does their part. I am so glad that I have grown up in the family that I have, my parents have always taught me to do missionary work my whole life. At the MTC they show us videos of people from the NYTimes One campaign to show us all of the different people out there and all of the lives that we can touch. I am so excited to see the change in someone's life when they recieve the gospel and they leave all of their guilt and pain behind.

My district is the biggest portugeese speaking district, and whenever we watch these videos I can see that some of the other people in my district are sad that they did not teach tjhe gospel to their friends back home, because from these videos and then our discussions afterwards we can see how we can help these people. I can only imagine how sad they would be if they were sitting in the afterlife watching others and thinking of how they could have helped them more. I would admonish anyone who has a desire to help their friends and especially my family to not just mention the gospel to others but to really try to teach them, you owe it to them. I would challenge anyone to invite a friend to hear the first disscussion, even if they say no, at least they know that you care about them and you want the happiness that they can get from it.

But as for myself, in the MTC I feel unsatisfied with the missionary I am now, I know that Brazil needs a better missionary, and so I have been praying for revelation on how to be abetter missionary. Then one day my companion and I got "contacted" by a trio of cantoneese missionaries going to Hong Kong. We went to their room to hear what they had to say. We walked down these stairs into a little room, we asked them where their district was, they said that they are their district, then they asked us questions and testified of Joseph Smith and that if you poor your heart out in prayer that you can recieve answers to any of your questions. Something about them seemed different from every other district, they had a genuine look on their faces that spoke to my heart, so I told them that I would pray especially fervently that night. The next day my companion and I went to a large meeting with everyone in the MTC there, of everyone we could have sat next to my companion and I sat next to these three missionaries. During the meeting I just thought of how I could be a better missionary, then I recieved my answer, I could see in my mind the kind of missionary I wanted to be, it was the ultimate gift from my Heavenly Father, my prayer had been answered. I was so touched, when we left the meeting I wrote down all of the names of those three missionaries and then I thanked them for everything that they had given me and I told them of my experience, I will always have a special pl;ace in my heart for those three missionaries. I want to testify to everyone back home that the greatest thing you can do is become closer to your father in Heaven and the best way to do that is by helping others. Those three missionaries have brought me closer to my Heavenly Father, I hope that everyone back home will do the same for at least one of their friends.