Crazy Week

Olá!

So for anybody who has been watching the news, I imagine they have been showing the protests that are going on in Brasil. All I will say is Guará II is super calm and nothing is happening here. We live about 30 minutes from Brasília where everything is going on. President Gaertner is taking good care of all the missionaries and we are taking all the precautions necessary to stay safe :) 

This past week was busy, busy, busy. Brasil had two soccer games because of the Confederations Cup which made it really difficult to find anybody home. Seriously, the whole city shuts down during the game. The grocery store closes for like 4 hours because of the game; almost everything closes and then re-opens later. Or sometimes it closes and then just stays closed the rest of the day haha. Honestly the week was really rough in terms of lessons and people we taught, but this week will be better. 

On Thursday we had zone conference in Asa Norte. I loved zone conference!! Everything Sister Gaertner, President Souza (Sister Gaertner´s dad who was a mission president before), President Gaertner, and the zone leaders said was exactly what I needed to hear. It was a tender mercy for sure. One of the things the zone leaders said that I really like is, "When you get home from your mission be able to say ´I was a missionary` instead of `I went on a mission` because almost everybody goes on a mission but not everybody actually becomes a missionary." This is something I am still developing.

Last night we got to watch the broadcast from Provo about the changes in missionary work. It will be super delayed for the changes to reach Brasil, but I loved the video segments they showed during the broadcast. I never realized what a blessing it is to speak English. I started the watching the broadcast in Portuguese, because I didn´t know they had English showing in another room, and it was sad because I didn´t get to hear the voices of the apostles for that short time. But then I discovered they had English and I went there haha. It made me realize what a privilege it is to hear not only the words of the prophet and apostles but to hear their voices as well. Listening to the Portuguese translator didn´t have the same feeling for me. 

Anyway, I think that´s all I will write for this week! Hop you´re all doing great!

LOVE YOU! 

Sister Kerr

PS I am still LOVING Sister Muniz. She is crazy haha.

6 Months!

 Oi família,

This week I am going to have 6 months in the mission! It´s hard to believe I have 1 year left here in Brasil. 

So this past week with Sister Muniz was really great. She is a lot of fun and she works the same way I do. She likes to go contacting and I am learning a ton from her. We´ve been working a lot with finding new investigators because ours aren´t really progressing for now. After almost 3 months here in the area I feel like I´m running out of ideas of how to help them. Sister Muniz will definitely help bring new ideas and new approaches to the work in Guará II. 

Yesterday we had ward conference and the talks from the bishop and the stake president were really good. They talked a lot about marriage and how to have a successful marriage. On Thursday we have Zone Conference and I am really excited. It will be my first one in the mission :)

I hope everybody has a copy of the Liahona or Ensign with the Conference talks from April and that you are all reading it! Even though I watched Conference in English I am re-reading all of the talks in Portuguese. All I can say is I am grateful I got to watch it in English haha.

I love all of you very much!  Thank you for your continued support!!

Sister Kerr

June 12th was Dia dos Namorados (like Valentine´s Day) so Sister Muniz and I had a date night complete with pizza and soda :)

Saturday, Brasil had a soccer game against Japan so of course everybody was decked out. I took a picture in front of a house to show what it´s like

Sister Muniz and I. This is an example of the faces she makes all the time haha

Same Area, New Companion

Oi familia,

So today was transfers! I am staying in Guara II for one more. I´d be lying if I said wanted to stay, but I am at peace because I know everything has a purpose. Truthfully, when we got the call last night that Sister Damaceno and I would stay, I cried. And I cried again this morning realizing I would be here another 6 weeks. It´s not that I don´t love Guara II, because I truly do, it´s just that I need a change of scenery. Not to worry because my attitude totally changed when I heard who my companion would be!....Sister Muniz! She spent a week here during my first transfer (I sent a picture of us pretending to be dressed as elders). I had been praying that if I stayed I could be companions with her or Sister Munger. She is awesome and I am super excited to work with her! :)

This past week was full of ups and downs. Downs that were so low I didn´t think there could be another up. It was a very long week. But the best part of the week was going on exchange with Sister Tsukuda again, only this time I was in Lago Norte. Sister Tsukuda was seriously an answer to my prayer. I needed a day break from the work here in Guara, and she is so great. Four sisters live there in Lago Norte so I actually spent part of the day with Sister Muniz and Sister Carlomagno.

The apartment for the sisters there is super fancy! They have a dryer for clothes, gas instead of electric for the water, and they have a fitness center!!! I woke up early on Friday and ran on the treadmill for 5 min, biked for 5 min, and then did hang cleans, front squats, bench press and some other exercises. It felt SO great to get a real work out. It was the first time working out actually made me sweat here in the mission. I was happy :) If I lived there I definitely wouldn´t be as fat as I am now. Sister Munger is there with Sister Carlomagno now. We both got lucky with our new companions.

I am on my third transfer in the field here in Brasil (four if you include my transfer in CA) and I am with my third companion here, too. Life is good. I am really looking forward to this transfer with Sister Muniz, who is carioca too. Today at the transfer meeting I saw Elder Lant and Elder Anderson who I met in the Provo MTC. I was happy to see them.

Hope you are all doing well!! Love you

Sister Kerr

Pictures:

Sister Tsukuda and I (a lot of people ask if we´re sisters)

Sister Muniz and I :)

I got an email today from an elder from the San Fernando mission. One day I made a contact at our apartment building in North Hollywood with Nicolas, an older guy who lived there and only spoke Spanish. I used my Portuguese-Spanish to talk to him a little bit everyday and eventually handed him over to the Spanish elders. Elder Guevara sent me a picture today from Nicolas´ baptism :) Maybe that´s why I spent a transfer there in North Hollywood. 

JUNE

Querida família,

Como vocês estaõ? I can´t believe it is June already! I have 1 year left in the mission. Time is flying. Well, truthfully, it depends on the day haha. I was talking with Sister Gaertner yesterday and I really liked something she said. She said she is counting the transfers until their mission is over and any missionary who says they don´t miss home is lying. She said she is dying of homesickness, but it doesn´t mean she doesn´t love it here and that she isn´t going to work hard. If the mission president´s wife can admit she is dying of homesickness and counting down the days, then I think I have the liberty to do so, too :) 

Saturday was a very long day...so long that Sister Damaceno and I skipped church yesterday! We spent the entire night at the hospital because she was having really bad back pains. We got there at 9:30 pm and left at 3:30 am. We ended up sleeping at the mission home (super chique) because Sister Gaertner was at the hospital with us and we had to return late Sunday morning to the hospital for one more test for Sister Damaceno. We weren´t planning on not returning home so we didn´t have anything with us. I slept in my clothes from the day - skirt and t-shirt - and used it again yesterday. Gross haha. 

Of course the one Sunday we miss church the whole world decided to attend. Seriously! Adlia picked us up to drive us to lunch when we got back to Guara II and she had a laundry list of the less actives who showed up. After weeks and weeks of trying to get these people to come they decided to go the one we week we weren´t there! haha. But at least they went :) The elders from Guara I attended our sacrament meeting to take care of our investigators. 

I am dead tired today after a long week and a long night on Saturday. Yesterday was super great because we did an exchange and I got to go out with one of the ward missionaries while the other one stayed home with Sister Damaceno. I was so worried about not being able to work but everything worked out. We´ll have to see how this week goes. This is the last week of the transfer!! I have no idea if I will stay or go, but if I am transferred my email will be later in the day next Monday because of transfer meeting in the morning. 

This beginning of last week, specifically Sunday til Tuesday, were the BEST days of my mission here in Brasil so far. I was ridiculously happy. I definitely needed that. Of course the rest of the week was super hard, but at least I had a little bit of happiness saved up from those first few days.

We have been working a lot with less actives here in Guara II. Within the past two weeks we have had 5 less actives approach us in the street and start a conversation with us. The work is going well. Missions are hard, but the good days make it all worth it.

I know I am forgetting a ton of things! This happens every week haha. You think I would be used to it by now, but I want to share every moment with you guys! I hope everybody has a great week and that the month of June has started wonderfully for each one of you. Thank you for your love and support! 

LOVE YOU

Sister Kerr