Loving the England MTC-Faith

June 21, 2017

Hey I’m alive!!! Well its crazy hot out here!!! But it’s been really good. I’ve gotten really close with Elder Dawe and Elder Carlson. It’s been really good. it’s really cool and doesn’t seem real. I hope you know I love you guys so much!! 

June 27, 2017

Oh my well this week has been pretty crazy Mom!!! First of all I’m sorry about my knee, I don’t want you guys to be stressed about it!  President Bunker and I are taking care of it. Today I have this call thing to do for the UK to decide if it is worth getting an MRI. It will be weird, but nothing to worry about. I have Faith in the Lord. I know that everything will be fine.

I love it here so much. It’s the best thing ever. I've made so many amazing friends!!!! I’ll tell you about a bunch of them. First I’ll tell you about the 3 missionaries in the picture!!!  First its Elder Carlson, he’s the really tall one! He’s like my best friend; we both know tons of people and just love talking. We both love sports and just love the same thing!! Next is my boy Elder Dawe (he’s the one on the right).Wow so he’s so chill and I love him. He went to Spanish Fork and is super cool. I got to sit next to him for the crazy long flight to England. We are like the 3 Amigos!!!!!  Then the next is Elder Young to the left. He’s so funny he’s one of my favorite people here as well. He and I can just have nice conversations and he is super good with gospel doctrine and nice to have him close.  I love these guys.

This week I honestly have grown so much! My testimony has grown so much! I feel like I’ve come so far in such a short time.  I know this is where I’m supposed to be and I just love my Father in Heaven so much!!! I love you guys so much. I hope you know I think of you guys and miss you guys!!! I’d love to know what’s going on so just tell me what’s happening!! I love you guys so much!!!!    "My purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End".

I love you!!! Pictures are on the way! Tell daddy I love him, Tell Kenna I love her, and tell Ash I love her.

Love, Elder O'Connor

Later that morning this email came….

Oh my mom you aren’t supposed to try and make me cry silly head!!!!! My flight went really well. It was so hard not watching movies but I made it through mostly both flights.  For the 2nd flight I sat right next to Elder Dawe and then Elder Palmer sat close by as well. The first day in the MTC was super chill. The classes have gone really well.  At times I wish that I would have studied way more, but I know that I'm growing and getting better! My companion is Elder Siswick. It was weird at first but we have grown closer and have worked hard to get better as taught. So now we are way cool. He’s from here in Chorley!

The first day here the weather was so hot but it’s got loads better. It is how I pictured it would be here. Cloudy and rainy, that’s what I like. My District is wicked fun!!! Us Elders have a little too much fun at times, but we work really hard. I hope you know I love this gospel. I feel like I’ve grown so much already. My testimony and Faith grows each and every day. I feel just an insane amount of joy that I cannot even explain. I love all of you and am so thankful for your thoughts and prayers.

I just want to leave with saying this. In the movie Collateral Beauty, Will smith says "What’s your why?" I know my why! I know my purpose is to invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored Gospel through Faith in Jesus Christ and His Atonement, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, and Enduring to the End. I don’t know if I’ll be a good missionary but I know why I’m out here I am going to work my butt off until the Lord says the work is done. 

Love, 

Elder Michael Patrick O'Connor II

The following are letters sent to me by Elder Dawe and Elder Palmers parents and shed more light on the experiences of his knee injury.

From Elder James Dawe

But Elder O'Connor and I have become very close, when he hurt his knee he was able to receive a blessing, after that I told all the other Elders they could go change and get ready and it was just me and him in the room. We got to sit there before one of the MTC presidents came in and talked to him. He started crying because he didn’t want to be sent home. At this time I said a prayer, and asked to know if God knows that one of his children that were set apart to serve him was feeling this way. As soon as I started this prayer I was filled with the Holy Ghost, and I thought of my Savior and the words came around "I have felt all pain too" and it hit me pretty hard. I shared this experience with him as we cried a little bit together.

From Elder McKay Palmer

The crazy miracle for the week is actually one of the most unbelievable experiences of my life! So Elder O'Connor is in my district (oh BTW I'm a district president haha) and we actually share a room too. He's an awesome guy and we've become super good friends. On the second day, however, while playing bball, he went to turn and just fell down in bit of pain complaining about his knee. Background info, Elder O'Connor tore his ACL and MCL about 8 months ago and was just getting done with physical therapy. So obviously we were all a bit concerned. We got him over to the MTC, and we were sitting in a room with just me, him, Elder Orchard, and his comp Elder Siswick. We decided it'd be good to give him a priesthood blessing. Elder Siswick annointed him and I said the blessing. In the blessing I was never really sure if I should say his knee would be better or not. And then at the very end, the words just came out, ''your knee will be ok, and you will serve this mission.'' They took him to the doctor and he said everything was in place! So that was like yay that's the end of it! But then the next day O'Conner took me aside and told me he knew something was up, and thought he needed an MRI, so we talked to Pres Bunker about it and he agreed. However, the healthcare system here makes it very hard to get appointments like that in a short amount of time, so the soonest he can go get one is't till later this week. So that left me with plenty of time to wonder why the heck I said the things I did in my blessing. I was wondering if it was actually the spirit or just me... And was so distraught about it I talked to Pres before our Sunday devo and asked if I could meet with him. I didn't, however, tell him why I wanted to meet with him, which is relevant because of what the devotional was about. He gets up there and says were gonna watch a MTC Devotional given by Elder Bednar (my favorite) from about a year ago on... How to tell if it's the Holy Ghost or just me! I was like score!! My favorite apostle is gonna tell me how I can tell if it's the spirit or me! And then Elder Bednar basically reached through the screen and slapped me in the face when he said, '' In concern to the question of whether it's the spirit or you, QUIT WORRYING ABOUT IT!! You keep being a good boy and a good girl. You honor your covenants. You keep the commandments. And then as you work in faith, the Lord will use you through his Holy Spirit.'' This hit me like a ton of bricks. Why was it my place to worry?? I had said the blessing in faith, and now it was ultimately in the Lord's hands, and I know he knows way more than I do what Elder O'Conner needs in his life right now. So that's my challenge to all you at home, just do what you know you should and the Lord will bless you and use you through your Faith!--
Elder Palmer