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Dearest family & friends,

I know I didn't get an email out on Monday like usual, but here I am to write about the last week in the mission and update on how things have been since I got home. I'll start by talking about the last days in the mission.

Last Monday was a busy p-day! After the zone activity in the morning, we headed to Brasilia and I stopped by Guara II really quickly to visit some members from there. Then we headed headed to Taguatinga 1 to stay the night there. The members there are so sweet! They planned a special family home evening in the chapel for me so that I would be able to see a lot of members. I was super happy; it was good to see everybody. Tuesday morning we returned to Formosa and made the last rounds visiting some members and investigators. We knew the rest of the week would be pretty busy and wouldn't leave much time to make too many visits. Wednesday morning we had district meeting in Planaltina DF and then headed back to Brasilia for my last interview with President Gaertner! I couldn't believe it was my last one. I love President Gaertner & Sister Gaertner.

Thursday was my last day in Formosa. I spent my last night watching the opening Brasil game in the World Cup and then watching a girl in the branch open her mission call. President gave all of us permission to watch the game at a member's home who lives close to our house because he knew it would be nearly impossible to get anybody to let us in during the game. I never imagined I would spend the last night of my mission watching the World Cup start in Brasil but it was awesome! I thought it was even more special that afterwards I was able to watch somebody open her mission call; my mission was ending and hers was starting. Kerollyn has been called to the Brasil Florianopolis mission and will report to the MTC in mid-September. 

It was funny because all of last week I was super calm, and for anybody who knows me, you know that is not how I normally am haha. I think I was in a state of disbelief. It never really hit me that the mission was ending. For as much as I said goodbye to the people, packed my bags, and did all of the other necessary preparations to leave I never actually accepted the fact that I was leaving. Friday morning, Sister Alves & I woke up at 4am, I finished packing my bags, we went to rodoviaria and then headed to Brasilia. My last day in Brasil was perfect...absolutely perfect. 

I said goodbye to Sister Alves and then spent the rest of the day with the elders because I was the only sister leaving that transfer. We went to the mission home, had a meeting with President & Sister Gaertner, ate lunch at the mission home with them, and then went to the mission office because we had nothing else to do. But before going to the airport, I was able to realize one of my dreams in Brasilia...I went up the Torre de TV! It had been closed for several months but reopened early last week. We asked for permission to swing by before going to the airport and President Gaertner said yes! Elder Sowards and I were excited beyond belief (don't worry, it wasn't just the two of us)! It had been one of his dreams too haha. I ended up traveling alone with Elder Sowards back to the states, but it was cool because at the airport I ran into two Americans I met the week before in Formosa so we sat and talked with them. 

My layover was in Atlanta and then I got into Orange County around 11:30am Saturday morning. My family is so cute they were all waiting with posters for me at the airport :) The first place I went when I got home was the Newport Beach temple. I was shocked at how easy it was to get back to being "normal." I love the mission and leaving was reaaaaally hard for me so I thought I would be that weird missionary that didn't know how to survive in the real world, but so far I have been doing just fine. I miss the mission a lot but here I am, getting by. I haven't been up to too much these days, but I am working on what comes next. 

Once again, I just want to say thank you all for your support during the mission. It made the biggest difference! I am thankful for the blessing I had to serve a mission because I truly learned so much. I would encourage all of you to really think about the gospel and what it means to you. I am experiencing a bit of a culture shock coming back to the states because I just spent the last year in Brasil getting by on very little and being genuinely happy. It is very easy to get distracted by the things of the world, but we should never let that get in the way of what is truly important. The material things will stay here when our time comes; our knowledge, our testimony, and our families are the things that will have eternal value regardless of where we are. These are the things we should put first. 

Hope you are all happy & healthy! Love you very much.

Love,

Tarah

I can´t believe it...

Dearest family & friends,

I am having trouble comprehending the fact that this is the last email I will send as Sister Kerr. I will probably send one or two more next week to talk about my last week in the mission and to share a list of pointers I have been compiling throughout the mission, but this is it. How is it possible that 18 months have come and gone so quickly? To be quite honest, it still hasn´t hit me that this is it. It feels like any other p-day. In sacrament meeting yesterday I kept telling myself, "You go home this week. Next week you´ll be back in Cypress for sacrament meeting." I couldn´t picture it. I couldn´t see myself back in Cypress listening to the speakers in English, not having to worry about investigators coming to church, not having a nametag or anything. It almost hurts my heart to think about not being a missionary. But I know this is the next step in my life. Nobody stays in the mission forever nor would it be good for our progress. What makes the mission so special is that it is a short time in life that comes and goes and leaves a significant mark for the rest of our lives. 

I have so many things I want to say but I think I will save it all for the email I send next week. I would like to end my last email home bearing my testimony in the language I have been called to speak for these 18 months. 

Eu sei, sem sombra de dúvida, que esta é a igreja verdadeira. Eu sei que Joseph Smith foi um profeta de Deus e que o evangelho foi restaurado por meio dele. Sou muito grata ao Pai Celestial pelo grande privilégio de ser missionária de tempo-integral e por poder compartilhar esta mensagem com todo mundo na missão San Fernando e na missão Brasil Brasília. Sinto o amor de Deus na minha vida cada dia e sei que Ele é um Pai amoroso. As palavras não são suficientes para expressar minha gratidão nem os sentimentos que quase não cabem no meu coração. Só quero dizer que o evangelho vale a pena. Toda visita que fazemos de mestre familiar e professora visitante, todo domingo que assistimos às reuniões da igreja, toda noite que nos ajoelhamos em família para orar juntos....tudo isso vale a pena. 

Minha missão valeu a pena. 

Com amor,

Sister Kerr

Last Full Week :(

Dearest family & friends,

Today starts my last full week in the mission (our weeks go from Monday to Sunday in our daily planners) which means next Sunday will be my LAST Sunday in the misison. It still doesn´t feel real. It will be the last time I hear the sacrament blessed in Portuguese, the last time I hear the teachers speak in Portuguese, the last time I hear the hymns in sacrament meeting in Portuguese, and the last time I read the scriptures in Portuguese in church as a full-time missionary. I would be lying if I said I didn´t let a few tears fall during sacrament meeting yesterday when it hit me that June has started. I can officially say this month I will be home. Only those who have served missions will be able to fully comprehend the mixed emotions I am feeling. My poor companion has had to deal with me being excited, anxious, sad, stressed out, and slightly freaking out every time I think about the mission ending haha. 

This past week we had SO many miracles happen. Remember a couple of weeks ago I said I would tell Gabriel´s story after it unfolded? Well, here it goes.

Gabriel met the elders in Cabeceiras over 5 years ago when there was still an official operating branch there. He didn´t really have too much interest, the church left, and that was that. Last year in Planaltina DF he met the elders again. He was 16 years old, had some interest, and took the lessons. Shortly after, he moved back to Cabeceiras where the church still hadn´t started up again. He "fell away" for a short period of time but then Silvio, one of the members in Cabeceiras, found out about Gabriel and started visiting him. The group in Cabeceiras started up a couple of months ago and Gabriel has been going ever since. Our first Friday in Cabeceiras we visited Gabriel and I thought to myself, "What´s keeping him from being baptized?" That Sunday, President Gaertner came to Formosa to do interviews because he is in charge of the district, and Gabriel came, too. He came up to us and told us he wanted to be baptized. We technically aren´t allowed to proselyte in Cabeceiras but we asked for persmission from President Gaertner and he said we could teach Gabriel. 

This past Saturday Gabriel was baptized and yesterday he was confirmed :) He is super excited to go on a mission next year and is already preparing himself. Even in those months he wasn´t going to church, he continued studying and has a ton of knowledge about the church. It was so great to see the support he is receiving from the members in Cabeceiras. He is the first baptism there in over 5 years; his baptism is a milestone for the members of Cabeceiras. In a couple of months I think Cabeceiras will open as an area with missionaries full-time and in no time will be a branch. 

Picture of Gabriel with the members from Cabeceiras and his family.

Life is good. I am freaking out about the fact that the mission is almost over. Lately the scripture Isaiah 55:8-9 has come up a lot in my studies and in my life. People have said it to me, other missionaries have quoted it to me, and it comes up in one way or another during my studies. I don´t quite understand what the Lord is trying to tell me, but in due time, I am sure it will all click. 

I hope you are all happy & healthy! Thank you for your support these past 17 months. I can´t believe how quickly the time has passed.

Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Kerr

Happy Memorial Day!

Dearest family & friends,

I can´t believe that the next time I send an email it will already be JUNE! Where has this year gone? We are almost halfway done. So this past weekend we had a mission conference with Neil L. Andersen. I am so blessed to be here in the mission so that I could hear his words. I was super nervous when the meeting started because I had to say the opening prayer. Saying a prayer in front of an apostle is already a pretty good reason to be nervous…having to say it in Portuguese was even more reason! Haha. But I am glad to say I managed to say it without my voice shaking too much.

In attendance at the conference were President & Sister Gaertner, Elder & Sister Mazzagard of the Seventy, Elder Cappelleti of the Seventy and Elder & Sister Andersen. (Definitely might have spelled some of those names wrong haha) All of the remarks were really great, but I am going to talk more about what Elder Andersen said. He spent a good amount of time talking about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how we should know where the Book of Mormon specifically refers to the Atonement. We should be able to visualize the situation in that part of the Book of Mormon and be able to give background information without reading the heading of the chapter.

The parts of his talk that really stood out to me relate to the life after the mission. Obviously I am in the final weeks of the mission so the Spirit made it relevant to my situation, but even without the influence of the Spirit, the words Elder Andersen spoke were about what comes next. He said that main priority of the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve is our progress. He said it is a blessing to serve a mission, but it is an even greater blessing to be able to continue progressing after the mission. Elder Andersen said, “The result of life isn´t the result of the mission.” He wasn´t an assistant to the President or any great leader in the mission, but it wasn´t his time in the mission that was the only factor in his spirituality today. He continued progressing afterwards.

He also said, “Silence is a very important part of life. It is often in silence that the Lord speaks to us.” I rarely let myself have moments of downtime without worrying about what still needs to be done that day, that week, that month, that year, etc. I liked his counsel because it is something I came across a few weeks ago in another talk I read in the Liahona from a Seventy. I guess the Lord is trying to tell me to calm down from time to time :)

The thing that Elder Andersen said that has been running through my mind since the meeting was a simple phrase that doesn´t translate quite the same to English – Sua missão vale a pena. It means “the mission is worth it” but it has a different meaning to me in Portuguese. I can´t explain what I felt when he said that. He continued by saying that the mission is a time of preparation for the next chapter of our life. I know Heavenly Father sent me to the mission on December 19^th so that I would be here for the conference we had this past Saturday in my last transfer. Had I entered the MTC 6 weeks earlier I would have missed it, if I had entered later I might not have been in my last transfer only 3 weeks away from returning home. 

The conference with Elder Andersen was way more powerful than I will ever be able to convey. I could probably write a whole book on everything he said, what the other speakers said, and what I felt and thought about during the two short hours we had with him. But I am so grateful I was able to be in attendance.

Picture from Elder Andersen´s visit!

Hope you are all happy & healthy! Have a great Memorial Day & a great week :) 

Love,

Sister Kerr

1 year & 5 months!

Dearest family & friends,

Today is my last mission anniversary!! So all of us sisters normally know the "missionary anniversary" of everybody which is the date you entered the MTC, and today I am celebrating my last one :( By the time 1 year & 6 months rolls around I will no longer be a sister missionary! The mission is winding down so quickly! Last week flew by because of the exchange with Sister Barbosa & Sister Jackson, going to Cabeceiras, and just the weekly things as usual. This week will also fly by because on Friday night we will be heading to Brasília to spend the night there in preparation for the Saturday morning Mission Conference.

On Saturday I will see and hear the words of an apostle in the mission field! Finally! :) Elder Neil L. Andersen will be here with us. He speaks Portuguese which will be nice to not have need of a translator. Well, for me, either way would be fine haha, but I am glad the Brazilians won´t have to hear a translator talking for him. I am excited to hear what he has to say to us in this mission at this time! We are so blessed to have living-day prophets and apostles who lead and guide us. 

I have been studying a lot about patience these past few days because it something I definitely lack, especially opening this area this transfer! The addresses here are super confusing and the layout of the city is difficult. One bairro (neighborhood) can have like three different Rua 5 and there is no way by the address to know which one it is on. Also, the house numbers rarely follow any order. The order can be as follows: 28, 33, 47, 119, 40, 98, 112, etc. Just when you think you´re maybe getting close, some random number appears and you have no idea where to go haha. I feel bad for my poor companion because of how much walking we have to do but it is part of our area. We are trying to be more efficient with our planning to get to know the area and I am trying to keep my patience when we run behind schedule. For those of you who know me, you know how much I hate running late! The Lord is helping me develop the heavenly virtue of patience and humility :) 

I have more to write but am out of time. Hope you all are happy & healthy!! Have a great week! 

Love,

Sister Kerr

Week 2 in Formosa

Dearest family & friends,

Hope you all had a happy Mother´s Day yesterday! I was happy as can be talking with my family last night. I went to bed with a huge smile and a happy heart! :) The internet connection wasn´t the best and there was a dog that would not stop barking, but even so I loved being able to see them and hear their voices. I think I really needed that phone call to make me a little more excited to go home here in a few weeks.

Hooray for being able to talk with you guys yesterday!! Sorry for the bad internet, but at least we got to talk for a little bit.

This past week was very tiring but rewarding. My companion is Sister Alves from São Paulo, and she is great! She is super shy but has already opened up a lot. It´s kind of hard to be shy in the mission when we have to talk with everybody all day long haha. I am getting along really well with her. It´s funny because everybody here in Formosa asks how much time each of us has in the mission...she is in her first transfer and I am in my last! She has to be reminded of that everyday. I don´t think I am trunky and I try not to talk about home too much because that would really suck for her. She is such a champ, though. We ended up walking a ton this past week because our area is huge and we still don´t know the shortcuts and whatnot through the town to get from one side to the other, but she didn´t complain once. We walked a ton in Formosa and in Cabeceiras.

Sister Alves!!

Cabeceiras is a small town that is about an hour away by bus from Formosa. (Everything is an hour away from Formosa! Our district leader, our zone leaders, the nearest cities, etc). A lot of the members who live there work on the Church´s farm in Unaí, Minas Gerais. Apparently the farm is huge!! I really want to visit there but doubt I will have time. Anyway, we go to Cabeceiras once a week to help the group that is forming there. A few years ago they had a branch but it shut down and everybody fell away. Some members stayed active and drove each week to Formosa but they are trying to start a group and eventually form a branch in Cabeceiras. I am amazed by the faith of the members there and everything they are doing to reactivate members and really "lift where they stand." Here in Formosa and Cabeceiras I have seen great examples of strong members who are willing to do whatever it takes to build the Lord´s kingdom where they are. They could easily decide to move to a different town where the church is stronger or fall away, but instead they are dedicating themselves to a righteous cause.  It is a good lesson to learn, especially as my mission comes to an end. 

I think the Lord has put me in this area for a few reasons. One being I need to learn the importance of puttng the gospel first. It will always be easier to come up with an excuse and find a way out of fulfilling our duty and magnifying our calling, but it is exactly during these moments that we need to find the strength and motivation to do what is right. It may appear that we are alone or that we don´t have support, but the Lord is always by our side. I am also learning the importance of truly trusting in His guidance. Opening Formosa and having to train has been a good opportunity for me to learn to be humble and ask for His help. Not that I relied on the Lord less in my other areas, but it became something more natural the more time I was there. I have been reminded that we need to call upon His help daily so that we are led by the Spirit. 

I am excited for these next 5 weeks and for being able to discover the miracles the Lord has waiting for us. We had a miracle yesterday with Gabriel, but in a couple of weeks I will write about it. It will be better to tell the story after it unfolds :) 

Other good news from the mission: I finally know what people say when they talk about the "interior" of Brasil, in other words the towns that aren´t as developed. I have always wanted to know what the interior is like and now I know! Formosa is interior and Cabeceiras is even more interior! There are cows walking in the streets, horses walking around too, and the roosters wake us up in the morning. It´s not totally farm town because there are nice buildings, but there are plenty of dirt roads and open fields. The best part is the view....I continue to be amazed by how beautiful this earth is!

Welcome to Cabeceiras

View from our apartment balcony. To the left you can see the church building :)

Hope you are happy & healthy!! Keep me in your prayers, please! 

Love,

Sister Kerr

The beginning of the end...

Dearest family & friends,

What a busy day!! Well actually this busy day started last night at the rodoviária (bus station) in Palmas. Yes, sadly, I was transferred :( I was hoping to finish my mission in Palmas but I was at peace when I heard I was being transferred. I love that area, that ward, my companion, and everything I learned there, but at the same time I felt like a new sister needed to come in to help the investigators with new ideas. I am super happy because Sister Munger will be going to Palmas 3! :) She is so awesome, I know she will make a big difference.

So, yes. Last night all of us that were being transferred down to Brasília (eight in total) got on the bus at 7:30pm and spent the night traveling. We got into the Rodoviária Nova in Guará I at 9am, dropped our bags off with the mission driver and then had to catch the metro and a bus to get to the transfer meeting. When we arrived they had just started announcing the transfers. I am currently in my new and last area in the mission - Formosa, Goiás. I didn´t think President would send me so far for my last transfer but here I am. The only state I won´t get to pass in the mission is Minas Gerais, but three out of four isn´t bad. (Three states I passed through - Distrito Federal, Tocantins, and Goiás). I don´t know who my companion is because she will be coming in tomorrow afternoon. It was an hour a half busride to get here and tomorrow morning we will have to go back to Brasília and then I will come back to Formosa tomorrow night with my companion. Talk about a lot of traveling these days! Not to mention, Sister Nuñez and I went to Gurupi last Friday which was a four hour busride there and a four hour busride back to Palmas on Saturday morning.

Aside from all the traveling, my last week in Palmas was really great. I love that place. We had our activity on Thursday night and played the game Ninja. Yesterday Rômulo went to church! He is an elect we found two weeks ago. We visited him Saturday morning as soon as we got back from Gurupi to follow up with the reading we left for him. He said he read and liked it. He got really quiet and asked if we wanted to know what happened to him on Friday. He then told us after he took out his money from the bank two guys came up to him with a knife and robbed him. He had taken out his whole salary for the month and they took everything. Sister Nuñez and I stood there without knowing what to say but I kept feeling like I should ask him what he did when he got home after being robbed. I decided that wouldn´t be a very productive question and shrugged it off. Finally, I couldn´t shake the feeling that I should ask him so I did. He said he was really shaken up after what had happened and he needed to calm down. He saw the Book of Mormon there and that was when he grabbed it to read. He said it helped him and he was able to calm down because it brought peace to him. Instead of him thinking that the assault was a sign that he should stop meeting with us (which a lot of people would have done), he used it as an opportunity to look even more diligently for an answer. Rômulo said he liked church yesterday and wants to keep preparing to be baptized :) Hooray for great people like him!

Anyway, I have written a novel. Just a few sidenotes. You know Palmas is hot when I got to Brasília this morning and thought, "Ohh, it´s kind of chilly out. I should put on a cardigan." I then passed by this screen that had the temperature - 25 C which is like 77 F haha. Who would´ve thought I would find 77 degrees to be really crisp and chilly. In Gurupi on Friday night we watched a video from the church site as part of a ward activity the sisters put on. This video is perfect!! You might have already seen it but even if you have, watch it again!!

https://www.lds.org/youth/video/because-of-him?lang=eng

Hope you are all happy & healthy! Have a great week :) Happy Mother´s Day on Sunday!!

Love,

Sister Kerr

Our district last transfer - such a random pic! Haha

Picture after the ninja activity :)

All of the missionaries at Rodoviária last night