Weather and Service !!!!!

November 9, 2015

Hey Family,

So this past week has been pretty good. The beginning was really hot and this weekend it has been raining. It’s starting to get a little cold now which the other day, it felt like Utah weather. Which I miss some times.

On Monday we had a wedding. A less-active couple in the ward, it is his 5th marriage and hopefully the last. They have been married to each other before but got a divorce for medical help. So we had a little service at the church building and it was pretty cool. Now we need to get them ready for the Temple.

Tuesday, we went on exchanges with the STL's. I went to Diamondhead with Sister Winkel. Diamondhead is about 45 miles west towards Louisiana. We went out with the ward mission leader’s wife and saw some of her people on her visiting teaching list. We went for out in the country and got to visit a couple sisters. One of the lady's we visited has a daughter with a learning disability and we couldn't find the mother anywhere. We didn't have the right number and we were trying to clean the place up to find it written down. They live in a small trailer and they have a lot of stuff. I'm pretty sure a couple bugs crawled on my feet and walked into a couple spider webs. But luckily the mom showed up ad we were able to leave. Then we went tracting and got to talk with this man who had a couple drinks. He reads the Bible and hopefully he will read the Book of Mormon. Then we had Dinner at a member’s home and it was fun to get to know them. Then we went home and got some rest.

On Wednesday, we woke up and got to go to the beach for studies. It was so nice to see the ocean and to feel the breeze. We saw some trees that were from Katrina that had been carved into and it is called the "Angel Tree'. It saved 3 people’s lives during Katrina and it is so weird to think that that happened just 10 years ago. But after we went back to the apartment and heading back to Ocean Springs for District meeting. The meeting went pretty good and we talked about out motivation of being out on missions. Then after we went out to eat with everyone. It was fun talking with everyone.

Thursday was pretty hot and busy. We helped a part-member family move out and that took a good 3 hours. It was sooo hot that day, I'm pretty sure I got a little dehydrated. Then after we went to an older lady in the ward who fell last week trying to pick some sticks up in her yard. So we went there and racked her leaves. I then got to talk with her about Katrina because she lives right by the coast, and she told us that a lot of the homes next to her was taken by the storm or had about 4 feet of water in them. When a member went to check the house, the water line on the outside was about 4 feet high. But when we got inside, there was no water damage. The water had basically went around her home and got others. They call her house the Miracle House. I got the goosebumps when

she was telling me this. It is so amazing how the Lord works.

Saturday we went out to Vancleave to try some less-active/In-actives. We got to meet a few people. We also tracted and we had no luck. It was so hot and people were being ugly to us, so we called it quits. Then later that night, we had dinner at the Chelsey’s. They are such a fun family, and they were talking about Christmas at their home. They have a Hawaiian Christmas and it sounds so good. We will most likely have Christmas over there to eat and skype.

This week has been pretty busy with driving all over the place and meeting all these new people.

I am so jealous of y'all going to San Fran. That is so cool that they are going to Nationals. Who asked Mikey to Sadie’s and I hope he does his very best with Basketball. Sounds like Ashleigh had a lot of fun in Zion's and she is looking really good.

Also with the packages, Burgess said that our mail people are really good with them. One of them is a member and the other one is familiar with missionaries, so you can just send them here or if you feel more comfortable sending them to a member.

I love y'all soooo much and miss ya. Have a great week!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

Angel Tree from Katrina