Mardi Gras and Best Zone Conference yet

February 9, 2016

Hey Family,

Hope y'all had a great week in good ole' Utah. I heard that the Bronco's won the Super Bowl 50 :(. How's the snow treating ya, ha-ha!!! It's starting to get cold here, and with the cold here it goes straight to ya bone. So this week has been pretty good. Sister Poulson has gotten her voice back which has been really nice. We did a little bit of tracting and we had a lot of people not wanting to listen to us but we had a really cool experience on Friday.

So we went and tracted for a little before we went out with the Meline's. So the first man who opens his door grew up in the west and has family and friends who are members. He is an artist and said he doesn't have time, but we gave him our number and told him to call us when he is ready. Then the next house the man to answer the door was a guy name Ron. We asked him if we wanted to hear our message and he said, “yea come on in”, and I was super excited because it has been a while since we have gone inside to teach someone. His wife was there so we were able to talk with them for a while. They told us that they were looking for a church and everything that they were saying was just making sense to us and we got to talk to them about our mission and about gospel. We then asked them to come to church and they said that they could try to make it. We left and were just so excited about them and it has been so long. Then we looked at the time and started heading back to the apartment. So the Meline's picked us up and we headed to dinner. We had a great time and then after we went to the Ocean Springs Night Mardi Gras Parade. It was so much fun being able to experience this culture. So something that is really funny is that the first float that started the parade was full of flowers and they were giving them out. So I was cheering and one of the guys with a flower pointed right at me and when he gave me the flower. It was so much fun getting beads and just seeing all of it.

Then yesterday we had Zone Conference and it was the best conference that we have had. We focused a lot on the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we can use it every time we teach someone. Then President talked a lot about new things for the mission. He changed a lot of things, like they don't care how many hours we tract. They want us focusing on those we are teaching and also a lot on planning. I am super excited to see how this will help the mission and how the “Vision of the South” is coming true.

So this week has been great and I am excited for everything that is happening. Love you all and miss ya!!!

Happy Mardi Gras!!!!!

Sister McKenna O'Connor

Yeah, new mattresses!