Waiting Game

Ola!

Last week flew by! (Finally, right?) There is so much to report today! So when I checked my email I had two very important and exciting emails. Don't get too excited, I didn't get my visa. BUT Sister Hunt, Sister Wolfley and Sister Ryan all got theirs!! Some of the elders from Sister Hunt's district got theirs as well. Sisters Hunt and Wolfley got theirs on Tuesday and Sister Ryan got hers on Wednesday. They all leave today! It's crazy to think tomorrow they will all be in Brazil meeting their new mission president and speaking Portuguese.

We had interviews with the mission president last week, and he is kind of already planning on me leaving by the end of the transfer which is next week. Still no word on my visa, but it could come any day now. Truthfully, I want to be in Brazil, but I'm happy serving in NoHo for a little longer. There is still so much work to be done here! I have come to love the ward and the area. Missions are kind of mean. You get super close to people and then are taken away from them haha. Sister Ngalu and I have some great ideas we want to implement in the ward, so I would totally be okay staying here for a few more weeks.

Last Tuesday I had such a tender mercy. After an appointment in the early afternoon, Sister Ngalu and I decided to go contact some referrals from the sister missionaries before us. On our way I had a feeling we should help the Farrs pack. We drove by their apartment complex and I knew they were planning on moving to Utah so I suggested it to Sister Ngalu. She reminded me they had planned on leaving that morning, so they were probably gone. I agreed, but I couldn't stop thinking we should go see if they needed help packing. So we turned around and drove back. Their apartment is very inconveniently located and I kept hoping we weren't wasting our time.

"Hi Brother Farr, do you need help packing?"....He replied, "Nope, I think we're good." Dang it. Why the heck did I think we should come by? "But," he said, "you can come give my wife a hug. We just found out this morning we lost the baby." Sister Farr had been about 12 weeks pregnant but that morning the doctor told them the baby stopped growing around 9 weeks. She was sitting on the couch with tears streaming down her face. We went over to her, gave her a hug, then sat and talked with them for a little bit. I am so grateful I listened to the prompting. It was a humbling experience to be able to walk into somebody's life at a time like that and give them a little bit of comfort. We were definitely the Lord's arms when we gave her that hug. He sent us there for her.

Being a missionary is unlike anything else. It is so great! I hope everyone has a wonderful week. Love you all!

Sister Kerr

:)

Oi!

I know my last few letters have been less than enthusiastic, but I'm glad to report I'm not such a Debbie Downer anymore. Well, at least not this week haha. I've been having a really hard time in NoHo, no secret there. But I am starting to lose myself in the work and try to remember that it doesn't matter where I am, the work is always the same. Do I still wonder why, out of the vast United States, I am serving only 40 miles from home? Every single day. But then I get a nice sunny day like yesterday and today and remember it's good to be in Southern California :)

So for those who don't know, with the creation of the new Bakersfield mission in CA, the San Fernando mission will be drastically reduced. Anything Palmdale-Lancaster area and north will now be part of the Bakersfield mission. San Fernando will only be a mission of valleys now! This goes into effect July 1st, so hopefully I'll be in Brazil and it won't affect me at all :) But we'll see haha.

To update on Sister Hunt and her district, she was reassigned to the Oregon Eugene mission with two other sisters. The elders were sent to St. Louis. They've been there for 2 weeks now. Sister Hunt also said 4 people got their visass at the MTC before she left. So fingers crossed! I got a letter from Sister Ryan. She is loving Spokane which was so great to hear! She's still funny as ever.

It hailed on Friday here. This is Southern California...it's not supposed to do that! Oh, and I drove a car for the first time in almost 3 months on Friday! It was scary haha. One of the sister companionships lost their driving privilege because they scraped the car pretty badly. But they needed to move some stuff to their new apartment so I got to drive our car and Sister Ngalu drove theirs. We also had a Zone Training Meeting on Friday that was so awesome. Our zone leaders, Elders Kottcamp and Whiteley, are really great.

Saturday was Portuguese Day and I loved it!!! President Hall paid for us to eat at Gamela Grill which is Brazilian food. It was SO good! And then we had a lesson with Elder Marcal de Lima. It was very helpful. Hearing Portuguese just makes me so happy :) I even gave a pass-along card to the waitress...and I said it all in Portuguese :) She's super nice and from Brasilia! My mission (someday haha). I think that's part of the reason I'm happy. I was reminded that I get to speak Portuguese and live in Brazil, whenever that day comes.

What's funny is the restaurant is in Canoga Park which is up the 101 from where we live. I used to drive that freeway all the time to go to and from Santa Barbara. That was the first time in my mission here in NoHo that anything has really been familiar to me. It was a strange feeling to drive that freeway beacuse I felt like I was home. NoHo doesn't trigger any memories, but the 101 definitely does.

Anyway, the Mexico visa waiters all got their visas. They got a call Wednesday night that they had to be on a plane the next morning to fly to Vegas and pick up their visas from the consulate or whatever. So Thursday morning they got on a plane, flew to Vegas, got their visas, then flew home that night. Maybe I'll get a call to jump on a flight soon :) Truthfully I think I have one more transfer, at least, here in NoHo. But fingers crossed!!

Ok, well I wrote a novel. Hope everyone is doing well!!

Amo voces!

Sister Kerr

Only 2 Weeks?!

Ola!

These have been the slowest 2 weeks of life. Not necessarily in a bad way, but they have dragged on a little. Everyone in the mission says that days and weeks trade places...Days feel like weeks and weeks feel like days. Well for me right now days feel like weeks and weeks feel like weeks. The MTC flew by but I looked at a calendar yesterday and was shocked that I've only been out for 2 weeks. Maybe it's just cause it's an adjustment period.

As of now we aren't going to be moving apartments. We are getting it fumigated on March 14 and will see from there. We spent Friday doing service for some of our investigators. They are moving so we helped them load and unload a U-Haul truck which was hard work, but it was fun. 6 of the elders from our zone came and helped out and it was nice to get to know them a little better. I think everyone kind of thinks I don't consider this "my mission" because it's not where I was assigned. But for now it is my mission and I want to get to know everybody the same way I want to in Brasilia. It was a lot of fun to do work and kinda forget about everything else. The elders are super nice, but I still miss my MTC elders! I wonder how they're doing in Portugal.

So I don't know if I said this before but the ward I serve in is comprised mainly of elderly people, like very elderly people. It was interesting because yesterday for fast and testimony meeting they had two young men walk around with microphones for people to bear their testimony because they can't make it up to the podium. How weird! I've never seen that done before.

I know there are a million things I'm forgetting. I'll be better about making a list throughout the week of things I want to include. We had new missionary training on Tuesday which was awesome. I loved it. This Saturday from 1 pm - 3 pm, President Hall is letting us Brazil waiters get together with Elder De Lima (who's from Sao Paulo) to practice Portuguese. I am so looking forward to that!!

Hope everyone is doing well! Thank you for the continued love and support I get. Every letter, email, package...everything lifts my spirits and brightens my day. I appreciate everything you do for me! Love you all.

Tchau!

Sister Kerr