Sacrifice bring Miracles

December 21, 2015

Hey Family,

Hope y'all are enjoying your Christmas break. This past week has been amazing. I forgot to tell y'all that for 3 weeks we gave the car up and are walking everywhere. The reason we did this is because we have been struggling to find people to teach, so we did this to receive blessing and lose some weight, haha!!

On Monday, we went shopping at the mall and got some new perfume. Then we took pictures on the beach. The beach isn't the same as in the west. There aren't any waves and there were a lot of dead fish. Then the Cardon's fed us and we had Caribou lasagna. It was really good.

Tuesday was filled with miracles. So during companionship study, Sister Burgess told me that she was losing faith in the area. So we said a prayer before we went out to tract, and just asked Heavenly Father for motivation. So we start walking to the area where we are going to tract. When we walk around, I like looking for change on the ground. So Sister Burgess was looking for some change for me, and there was nothing on the ground. Then a car drove by and she waved to them, when she looked back on the ground, she saw a crisp $5 dollar bill. She grabbed it to show me, and there was another $5 dollar bill right next to me. The money was not there before and we have no idea where they came from. Then about 3 minutes later, I look at the phone and see we have a missed call and a voicemail. We listen, and this lady (Lona) tells us that we had prayed with her mother a little while back and she told us that she wants to come to church. Sister Burgess and I just look at each other in amazement. SO we call her back and she tells me a little of what is going on in her personal life, then we plan to meet her during the week, and to get a ride for her to church. We just couldn't believe that this had all happened within 5 minutes of each other. Then after lunch, we go tracting again and we had been tracting for about 2 and a half hours and nobody was answering. We came to the last house and a guy answered. He let us in and we got to share with him the Christmas video. After the video, he asked all the right questions about what the difference was with our religion. So we got to talk with him a little bit about the Book of Mormon. Then we got to give him a copy, which it has been a little bit since we have given anyone a Book of Mormon. We plan on visiting with him later. Then we go to visit a less-active sister and while we are sharing what had happened, an old investigator texted us and is wanting to see us again. We were so happy that this all happened and we know that it is because of our Heavenly Father telling us not to give up.

On Wednesday, we had interviews with President Olson. They went very well. We got to talk about what I had learned from Elder Kopischke and also about the holidays. It was just a simple day.

Thursday, we got to have dinner with Sister Stewart and Sister Maisch. We had a cute little Christmas dinner and got to talk about a lot of things. Then Sister Maisch gave us cards and she had to ask me what my name was again and she saw that it was Sister O'Connor. But she had thought that it was Sister Humphrey, so that's what it said on the card. It was pretty funny!!

Saturday, we went out with a bunch of the lady's and had lunch at Red Lobster. Our waitress was very nice and she asked where our church was. She told us that her mother is looking for a church and was referred to our church. We both looked at each other and we just couldn't believe that this was happening. We gave her our card and some of the lady's with us gave her their cards. Then one of the members brought their friends to the lunch bunch and they also want to hear more about the church and they in our area. We were just excited. Then Sister Cardon picked us up and took us to see Lona. So we got to meet Lona and got to talk with her for a little bit, and we got to set up a way for her to come to church.

Sunday was a great day. We had the Christmas Program and we sang in it and it went well. Also before church had started, we got to welcome all of our people in. We had 8 people come to church and we were so excited. The program went well and we got to see everyone. Then we had the Christmas Fireside that night. You got the picture of that.

This past week has just been filled with miracles and what a perfect week to have right before Christmas. I can't wait to see y'all in just 4 days. Love ya!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

Christmas Fireside in the Ocean Springs Ward