Lots of Rain

March 14, 2016

Hey Family,

Looks like y'all had a fun week with Prom and mission call openings. I am so excited for Brielle and she will be a great missionary. I really loved seeing Mikey's picture of Prom. He and his date look so cute. This week has been an okay week. 

On Monday, all of the missionaries ditched us so we just chilled at the apartment, which kind of stunk. Then we were able to have a combined FHE with the Scaturo's and the Thomas's. We had a really great lesson talking about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. It was really great and was able to feel the spirit. This past week, we were able to have Zone Training Meeting with everyone from the Zone and also President and Sister Olson were there as well. We talked about working with members and having them help us out with finding people who are ready to hear of the gospel. We learned a lot of great information to help us and our areas. Then after the meeting, we had a meeting with President and Sister Olson with just the Sister's. It was really great and just being able to talk with them. We also had learned that from this last transfer in the MTC that there were 51% of the missionaries were Sisters. We were really surprised to hear that. The talk that was given this past October conference given by President Russell M. Nelson, "Plea to my Sister's" is coming true.

When we got back from our meetings, we got to go out visiting teaching with Bobbi and Shunta. One of the ladies we visited, her husband is really sick and is almost his time to return to our Heavenly Father. His daughter was also there who is active in the church and you could see the sadness in her face. She then asked us to come in and to give a prayer. SO we walked in and the room was just all lite up and it was so peaceful. As Sister Poulson was giving the prayer, I was just consumed with the love that filled this room. I could feel past loved ones there comforting the family, and I could just think of Grandma and Grandpa Wright and how it must of felt when Grandma finished her mission on this earth and just how peaceful the room must have been. And right then, I got really emotional and needed to leave the room because of what I was feeling.

We were able to see Tonia and Brittney also this week and when we got there, they were a little hesitant talking to us. We asked then what was going on and they told us that they don't think that they can see us anymore. Friends of theirs    have told them not to talk with us anymore because we have weird beliefs. So we tried answering some of their concerns. And they were a little more open, can y'all just keep them in your prayers so that they will continue to learn more. We then got to see Thelma and talk with her a little bit. She always loves when we come over. We then had correlation with the Elder's and Brother Bahr. After the meeting, we had to leave and drive to Wakeland, MS (which is about a 40 min drive) for exchanges with the STL's and it was about 8:30pm by the time we left. As I was driving, it was pretty windy but we were able to get to the STL's apt. safe. While in Waveland, we got to go to the Soup Kitchen and help out there. Sister Uffens and I got to help out in the closet while Sister Poulson and Ali-Savory helped out in the kitchen. We had a lot of fun helping people out to find things that they need. We then got to go try a couple and had a good time talking.  Then we went to the stake center to finish the exchange and we did a companionship inventory.

Friday we were able to go to seminary in the morning and I always love going to be with the youth and they are always excited when we come. We read from Isiah and talked about putting our trust in the Lord. It was really a great discussion. As we headed back home, it was raining cats and dogs. It was coming down really hard, the roads were flooded and it was hard to see. But we were able to make it home safe. We also got to try to visit a couple of people; we got to see Elizabeth which this was going to be our last meeting because she leaves to go back to Texas. So the elders were able to come and give her the sacrament because she wasn't going to be able to take it this Sunday. So that was cool to see her take the sacrament and how important it was for her. After we got to go try Blake but he wasn't home so we just tried people and somehow we found ourselves at a less-actives home. So we knocked on the door and she was home, so she let us in and we got to visit with her. Sister Booth is an older lady and is just so sweet. She is just so nice to us and she loved that we had stopped by and we need to do it again.

We were able to see Carla Cannon and she was happy to see us. She is having a hard time and we are trying really hard to lighten her load and to more days get her back to church. Then we got to see the Haley's and I always love going to see them and talking with them. They always pick on me but I’m used to it, ha-ha. We then went to see Tonia and Brittany but they weren't home so we tried potentials in that area. We got to see Jolynn, which it has been about a month or two since we have seen her. We got to talk with her about some of our beliefs and it went very well. After when we got in the car, Sister Poulson and I were not feeling to good so we decided to head back in. We don't know why but we were having a hard time but we got feeling better.

Sunday was Day-light savings time so we woke up and it was 6:30am but as I was getting ready something didn't feel right so we texted someone to figure out the time and we found out the it was actually 7:30am, Opps. But we were able to get to church on time which was good. In sacrament Bethany Shumaker was talking, which she is deathly afraid of speaking and she was crying before she went up. So when she got up there, she started crying and it took her a min before she started talking. She gave a really great talk about modesty and as soon as she finished she ran outside crying, my heart just broke for her. Then her dad got up to talk and he was too emotional and was just telling us how happy he was that Bethany was brave enough to get up there and how he loved her so very much. It was so cute!!!! Church went really well and after we were able to go see the Jellums. The kids and the wife came out and talked with us. We were there for about 45 minutes just talking about how her and her husband met and it was really good. Right now it's a little hard to teach them a lesson but our focus right now is to gain their trust and we are making such wonderful growth with them. Then we got to go visit with sweet little Sister Leonard. She is such a sweet lady and love coming over to give her company. She was just talking our ears off but we could tell that she loved it. We are going to see if we can come visit with her more often.

So we had a pretty good week getting to visit a lot of less-active members.

Hope y'all have a blessed week. Love and miss y'all!!!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

All my planners so far