Heart Attack and Happy Valentines Day service

February 15, 2016

Hey Family,

Hope y'all are staying warm and enjoying the snow. Looks like y'all had a great week and a lot is going on. This past week has been pretty good. Like I said briefly last week, that a lot of changes were made in the mission. President Olson is changing a few things that will later help the MJM.

So in the last couple weeks, we have gotten a lot of referrals and now that we have the car, we are able to contact them. One of the ones we contacted was Tonia and she asked for a Bible. So we got there and gave her a Bible and we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon and lent her a copy. We have an appointment with her and her daughter on Tuesday and hope it goes well. Everyone else we tried either no one answered or we are seeing them later.

So Friday morning we were able to go to early morning seminary at Sister Chesley's home. It was a lot of fun to be able to attend and get to hang with the youth for a little bit. We talked about Ezra 1-6 and it talked about Temples and Following the Prophet. It was a lot of fun. Then we got to go out to lunch with Sister Stewart to Fisherman's Wharf. Also while we were there, before we left our waitress was saying good-bye to us and also asked us to pray for her. I was so shocked that she had asked that and we didn't even talk about the gospel, but she saw our name tags and knew that we worked for the Lord. It was pretty cool. It's a local seafood place here and it is pretty good. I always love spending time with Sister Stewart and how much she loves us.

After that, we did our weekly planning and it took us almost 3 hours to do it. We just talked a lot about those we are teaching and what they truly need in life. After we went ad visited the Haley's and they were super excited to see us. We just had a great time talking with them and not focusing so much on the Gospel. They really appreciated us just talking with them.

So for Valentine's Day I decided to make little goodie bags for the single and widow women in the ward. So a lot of Saturday, I was baking cookies and cutting little hearts out. They turned out pretty cute. Then we went out with Sister Ganschow to go see people. We tried a lot of the referrals and most of them weren't home. Then we tried a couple less-actives and they weren't home. So before we called it a night, we went to go see Steve and Debbie. So we got there and they were really excited to see us. We got to talk with them a little bit more about the Book of Mormon and Steve was telling me not to cry because it would make him cry. Then he told me that there is something about me that opens people hearts and I was super honored by him saying that. Then we invited them to church and they said they might come.

So we had a great Sabbath Day and I loved how we also had Valentine's Day the same day. As we were welcoming people into church, a lot of people were commenting on our smiles and one of the members said that I looked like an angel and that I was glowing. That makes me feel so good. After church we grabbed the goodie bags and we headed out. The first person we tried was Dorothy Oliver, her husband passed away in December. So when we got there, the whole Oliver gang was there, so we were able to talk with them for a little bit and they really liked that we visited. Then we tried Sister Migues and she was really happy that we came by and she told us that she is trying to come back to church, so she might be coming in a week or two. Which I would be really excited if/when she comes back because it has been a couple years since she has been. Then we tried Sister Stewart, Sister Maisch and Sister Leonard. They were all super excited to see us and were so grateful to spend time with them and wish them a Happy Valentine's Day. Also while we were at Sister Leonard's, she kept on itching her legs because they were super dry and so I asked if I could put lotion on them. So I grabbed some lotion and started rubbing them on her legs. She was so happy that I was willing to do that. While I was doing it, I just thought of grandma and how she would love it.

Then we got to go to the Chesley's house to have dinner, and guess what we had... a Heart Attack Burger. So it’s a burger with a Krispy Kreme donut as a bun. At first I was a little worried about it, but it was dang good. I had two!. Then we got to share a lesson with them about the Gospel and invited them to somehow share it with others. Then we left and tried delivering at least one more goodie. So we delivered it to the Shumaker's and the Bahr's were there to, so we got to spend a little bit of time with them. They are both such great families.

So this past week has been pretty good and of course transfers are next week and we get calls on Saturday. I feel like I could stay in Ocean Springs one more but I have no idea. I feel like there are still things I need to do here, but it all depends on where the Lord needs me. Hope y'all have a great week.

I love and miss y'all!!!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

Heart Attack Hamburger-Krispy Kream donuts as buns. It was so good I had TWO!