Photoshoot, Arkansas, and Birthday!!

July 4, 2016

Hey Family,

This week was a pretty fun week. Durtschi and I decided to have a lot of fun because it is the last week of the transfer and probably the last week of us being companions. 

So on Monday, the Elders from Greenwood came down and we played some Apples to Apples and then we played Nerf Wars which was a lot of fun!! Then after we got to go visit Sherry and we had a really good visit with her. While we were talking with her, she had told us that she had decided to go to another church and my heart just sank inside. We are a little disappointed because she didn't really give are church a chance but we told her that we still love her and visit with her still. The best thing that we can do for her is to show her that we love her and are always here for her. 

We got to go out with Brooklyne and try to find some less-active members and we were driving all over the place. We figured out that some of the people don't live here anymore and when we were driving around, we ended up by Sister Herron's house. So we felt prompted to go visit her. She was really happy when we knocked on her door and had us come in. We just got to talk with her and we could tell that she really enjoyed it. She doesn't really get visitors, which is pretty hard on her. But I love when we get to be with her because she is just a sweet lady and loves us so much and we love her. After Brooklyne dropped us off at our house and went over to Debbie's. We got to clean her house and we always love helping her out. When we finished cleaning, we got to talk with her about prayer and was able to share videos with her about prayer. She really enjoyed watching them and we could feel the spirit. 

Wednesday, we went and helped out at St. Vincent's and I always love to help out there. Then we got to travel to Greenwood for a meeting. I had the chance to give the lesson and I talked about our missionary work and we should focus on the good things we have done as missionaries. I have been doing this a lot lately and it had really helped me out. I realize that even though I make mistakes, I have done a lot of good and that makes everything worth it. After the meeting, we headed back to Greenville to make it back in time for our scripture study class. So we got everything ready, but nobody made it to the class but we understand a little bit because of summer. 

We had a pretty fun day on Thursday. We got to go around Greenville and take some pictures. We were having so much fun just taking pictures and relaxing for a little bit. Then we got to go out with Sister Solomon and to go visit people in Lake Village, Arkansas. I was so excited to get to go out of Mississippi just for a little bit. We tried seeing a couple of people and the last person we tried was home. Susan has been pretty sick and it's hard for her to make it to church. We got to talk with her and she is such a sweet lady and I could see that she is in pain with the health problems but she is keeping it strong. We could see that she uplifted her spirit and so thankful that we could see her. After, we drove back to Greenville and we made it back in time to make it over to the Turley's for Elder Shreenan's birthday party. We got to have pizza and ice cream cake and we had soooo much fun. We had a lot of laughs and was just great time to be with each other.

We got to see Ora this week and she is such a sweet lady. Her floors got pretty damaged during the flood so we are going to see if we can help her out with that. We also got to go to Sister Washington's to have FHE, and we always love going over there. She has a great knowledge of the gospel and we read over Matt 10: 31-32. And it talks about how Heavenly Father knows and each and every single one of us. Sister Washington pointed out that is because He created us and He loves us so much!  It was a really good discussion and we always feel the love from Sister Washington. Clara had us over for a FHE and she also feed us pizza. This family is a lot of fun and we are trying to get them to come to church regularly. But they are coming a long way so far which is good. 

So we got the news for transfers and Sister Durtschi is leaving and Elder Shreenan. I will be sad that she is leaving but excited to see who I get. Also the Greenwood elders are leaving and they are putting Sisters in, so there will be 4 sisters and 2 elders in the district which will be weird. But I can't believe that I'm on my last transfer and in 6 weeks I will be back in Utah. Time does go by fast and I will be taking it one day at a time and just enjoy the mission.

Love and miss y'all!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor