Us playing basketball!

May 9, 2016

Hey Family,

It was super great to get to talk to y'all yesterday!

So last Monday we got to play basketball for p-day and that was a lot of fun. We played for a couple hours and got very tried after, ha ha! 

We got to go out to Sister Herron's house and go to help her with her lawn. We made a path for her to walk on and laid down some mulch. We were able to get it all laid down and then got to have lunch with her. She is such a sweet lady. Then we got to go help Debbie who lives right by us and clean her apt. We go over every week to help her out and to visit with her because not many people come over to visit with her. She really appreciated it and she treated us with dinner. We got to talk with her a little bit and we could tell that she really liked it. 

On Wednesday we got to go to Greenwood for our district meeting which is about an hour or so away. Elder Ross and Elder Butterflied are in Greenwood and so we got to see them and we had a really good meeting talking about faith and how much Heavenly Father trusts us enough to send us out on missions. Then we got to go eat and this pretty good Chinese place. Then we got back to Greenville and went and got ready for our scripture study class. We are starting at the beginning of the Book of Mormon and we went over 1 Nephi 1. We had about 7 people show up to the class which was really good compared to last week. Everyone had great comments and questions. We got to talk a little bit with Sammy after and he is starting to open up more. 

Thursday and Friday we went and tried to see a lot of people and most of them didn't answer or weren't home. We got to see a media referral named Jeffery, he asked for a Bible and he was also interested in a Book of Mormon as well. He has some potential and we will be visiting him on Tuesday so hopefully all will go well. We got to go out with Sister Turley and got to try a less-active. She was home and got to visit with her for a little bit and she was really nice. The only reason she couldn't come to church was because she didn't have a car and now she has one so hopefully she will start coming back. We got to see another less-active and her name is Naomi. She is a super sweet lady. She is very knowledgeable in the gospel and is awesome. 

We got to visit Kesha, her family and Sammy. And when we got there, it was a really weird situation that we walked into. We got to go over Faith with them and it went pretty well. Sammy wrote in his Book of Mormon, "Faith is the first step to change in my life." We can tell that he wants to change his life and we want to help him with it.

Of course Sunday was Mother's day and we had a really good time in church. The priesthood gave out flowers to all of the women and we got cookies in Relief Society. After church, we got to go over to the Turley's to help them make dinner. Then I got to talk to y'all which I really enjoyed and I didn't want to get off. 

I can't believe that I am down to double digits left on my mission. Time is going by so fast, next thing I know, I will coming off the airplane. 

I love you all and hope y'all have a good week.

Sister McKenna O'Connor     

Busy week

May 2, 2016

Hey Family,

So this week has been much better. Greenville is starting to grow on me and I am slowing understanding why the Lord wants me here.

So on Monday after emailing, we went and helped out a recent convert, Roseena with her house. It got flooded a couple weeks ago and there is still a lot to do. She built her own house (they call her the Lady MacGyver) and the water got up to 4 feet and the ground cracked because of it. So when we got there, we took a bunch of things out of the kitchen and got to knock out some cabinets. It was pretty insane and also we found out that Roseena and her granddaughter have been living in her car since the flooding. So the member we were with had an extra mattress and was figuring out a way to get it to her. During the whole time, I was just in shock that the water had gotten so high and all of the damage that happened because of it. It was a very humbling experience and it makes you think what is really important in life. 

So we were able to see Kyah this past week and she was able to read from the Book of Mormon. She read from 2 Nephi 32 and we were able to read Alma 32. Which both of these are really good chapters. We have tried focusing on faith and for her to exercise her faith in coming to church, being baptized and a bunch of things. Everything starts with faith but we need to act upon our faith. She has great faith but there is still a little more she can do. So we just pray that she understands that she will get blessings. 

So we had District Meeting and it went pretty good. We talked about the Plan of Salvation and the Atonement. After we got to go to lunch then we went and tracted, which it has been forever. So the first door we knocked on, this lady answered and she didn’t really want to talk to us. But we were able to share a scripture with her and after, her attitude was totally different. She was much nicer and very thankful for the scripture. Oh the power of sharing a scripture from the Book of Mormon. At the next house, this lady was in her garage and got to meet with her for a good minute. She told us that she is taking care of her boyfriend’s nephew because his mom, dad and grandpa had all passed away in the last 6 months and his grandma is living in Arkansas. He has no family and it was pretty sad while see was telling us this. She knows that she will see her family again and we got to talk a little bit about the Plan of Salvation. We had a really good conversation and hopefully we can see her again. Then we went back to the church to have our Scripture Study Class. We had one last week but nobody showed up so we were hoping that someone would come. So a member Sister Herron showed up, so were like okay at least someone is here. Then a new family came in, Kesha and her 3 kids just moved into Greenville from texas. Kesha is a less-active member and her youngest son Sir, isn't baptized. Also, they brought a friend to church and his name is Sam. Sam meets them in the hospital because two of the kids had poison ivy and broke their ankle. The family has gone through a lot and we are just trying to help them out. But we got to go over the Intro of the Book of Mormon and Sam and a couple of questions, so we were able to go over with him about it also about who Joseph Smith is. We got to give him a Book of Mormon and a Restoration movie. But the class went really good and hopefully we have a good outcome again this next week. 

So we went to go see Kyah and as soon as we got to her house, she was pulling out of her house and told us that she had to do a few things. So we tried to figure out what to do, then we saw some people outside so we decided to go over and talk to them. It was an older lady named Ms. Washington and her nephew Terrance. We got to talk with them and share with them from the Book of Mormon and they were willing to listen. Then after we decided to go to sonic right down the road for lunch and when we got there, there was this lady there and we got to sit down with her and talk about the gospel. Her name Lois and she could recite the Bible and she was understanding everything that we were sharing with her. We got to visit with her for about an hour was able to give her a Book of Mormon.

So on Sunday we had ward council in the morning and it was pretty interesting. Sister Durtschi brought up that no one said "Hi" to Kyah and a lot of people got defensive and kind of blamed us for it. It didn't go over very well and it is just hard when the ward blames you for some things. Also Kesha and her family came to church with Sam. Sam hasn't been to church in a long long time and it was pretty exciting to see him there. We talked about Covenants in Gospel Principles and it went pretty good. After church we got to go over to the Turley's house to help get everything ready for dinner. About 12 people are coming (Kesha and her kids, Sam, the Elders, Bro Doyle, Us and the Turley's). We got to eat taco salad and we had a great dinner with everyone. The kids were really enjoying themselves and I could tell that it had been a while since they have had this much fun. Then we got to start the lesson with a song and Kesha wanted to sing "I am a child of God". Then we got to watch "The Restoration" and it went really good. Everyone was paying attention and had questions after. Sam is pretty quiet but understood what was going on. I got to talk with him a little bit and he was telling me that he wants a change in his life and he feels good now. The Lord is working on him and i am hoping that I can help him make the change that needs to be done in his life.

As you can see, it has been busy week. Hope we are able to see these people next week.

I am so excited for this Sunday, Mother's Day. Can't wait to talk & see y'all.

Love and miss y'all!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

McKenna didn't send any pictures this week. I got these from Sister Durtschi's blog