One year anniversary!

January 25, 2016

Hey Family,

So this week has been an okay week. Just trying to deal with the death of Monica and to be honest, it really hasn't hit me yet. It doesn't feel real. But I'm just keeping myself busy, which has been good.

We have gotten to spend a lot of time with members this past week. I love the members here. They are so loving and caring. We got to go see Adrienne this past week with the Zieber's and it went very well. Her family was all there and we got to talk with her about Personal Progress. We invited her and her mom to go through it. Then we went to the church and met with Bishop Williams to go over the ward roaster. It was very helpful to figure out who we need to visit.

Wednesday we had interviews and we had to get there early so Elder Schliep could get there for a meeting. So we got there and just did our personal studies. But first we had a World-Wide Missionary Broadcast. This has been the first broadcast that has gone world-wide for about a decade. It was pretty cool. We learned so many new things and things that just add to what we know. Then we went out to lunch to Crackle Barrel. It was pretty good. Then we had interviews with President and of course we are near the end. Interviews went okay. He did something different this time. We only got to talk for about 5 minutes then Sister Poulson came in and we did a role play teaching the Restoration. It went good. I just felt like the interview was rushed and wasn't personable. But oh well :( Then we went and had dinner with Bobbi Scaturo. I always love going over to her house and hanging with her family. Then we went to the church for a meeting. Well when we got there, the elders weren't there so we decided to go hang out with the Young Women. We decorated cakes that would show a scene from the Book of Mormon. Me and Nissa got Captain Moroni burying the golden plates. Ours was pretty legit, if I do say so.

Thursday, we got to go out with Katie Morgan. She got her mission call a couple of weeks ago and she is going to the Czech Prague, Mission. She leaves in May. So we got to go out with her and visit a couple of the less-actives in the ward. Most of the people weren't home but the ones we visited were really spiritual. We got to visit with Thelma and Sister Morong. Sister Morong just had a baby and she was telling us that she quit her job so that she could be a stay-at-home mom. We got to talk with her about miracles and it was just amazing. Then after we went and had dinner with the older ladies in the ward. We had dinner with Sister Maisch, Sister Stewert and Sister Agradi. I always love going over to her house and visiting with these sweet ladies. We got to talk with them about the Book of Mormon and how it is such a sacred book. I got really emotional sharing my testimony about it and that it is a true book. The spirit was very strong.

Then when we got home. It has been storming the whole night. With a lot of rain, wind, thunder and lightning. It was insane; we actually were in tornado watch during the night. Friday, we got to go out with Sister Chesley to visit with some people and we had a lot of fun. Then we had dinner with the Cardon's. We had soup which was very nice with it being cold. I shared them the story from Huge B. Brown with the God is the Gardner. It was really great being able to talk about how trails make us stronger. Then we got to read from the Book of Mormon with the Thomas's.

Okay so Saturday was so crazy and busy. We had Bishop's Storehouse in the morning and that was pretty crazy. Then we hurried and got ready and went back to the church for a funeral. So the big Oliver family, their father passed away back in December, so we went to help out with that. It was Sister Poulson, Sister Golder, Sister Thompson, Bobbi Scaturo, Sister Necaise and me helping out. We were having a good ole time with setting everything up with the lunch. The funeral was really beautiful and a lot of people showed up. The whole family was very thankful that we helped out and the family didn't have to worry about anything. It was such a great time talking with the family and most of them are less-active so hopefully this will help bring them back and know that they are loved by many. After cleaning everything up, we went out with Sister Ganschow to go visit with people out in Vancleave. And of course, no body was answering their doors. So after a while, she dropped us off at Bobbi's house for dinner. So at Bobbi's house, she had invited a bunch of her friends to come over for dinner. We made pizzas in their pizza oven and it was so much fun. We had a bon-fire outside and made pizzas. What was great about it, is that one of her friends is from Italy and we got to talk about it for a little bit. Then she asked us about our missions. I got to tell her how we were called on missions by a prophet and then got to talk about prophets. And she was interested about that. Then later on during the night, a bunch of the little kids would ask us about our mission and we would answer and tell them that we were from Utah and we are serving here in the south for 18 months. It was a great opportunity for them to see us just laid back and not being pushy with the gospel. We had such a great time and had some good laughs!!

On Sunday, we had to give the lesson in Gospel principles and it was about Temple Work and Family History. I didn't have time to prepare the lesson, so I just relied on the spirit. And everything went very well. Everyone shared great comments and it just felt so good talking about it. I was so happy. Then after church we got to have dinner with the Chesley's. They are such a great family. We got to share with them the God is the Gardener and I asked them how they were able to see the blessings after the trial. We then got to watch the Mormon message of it and it was a great way to finish the night.

So this week has been good and bad. I can't believe that i have been out for a year. It has gone by so fast and it is weird to think that I have about 6 months left. I love y'all so much and am so grateful to know that Families can be together forever!!!! Wish y'all a great week.

Love and miss y'all!!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

Young Women's activity. Nissa and I making our cake.