11 Months!

Dearest family and friends,

Tomorrow I will have 11 months in the mission! The next month marker will be 1 year. Whaaat! Time has been flying by. So right now I am wearing jeans because we had a zone activity and since soccer has been banned in the mission as of 2 weeks ago, we weren´t able to play today. It was banned because an elder was playing with his zone and then broke his foot. He had to have surgery and then go home to wait for it to heal. I have been enjoying this time in jeans, a v-neck and a cardigan...I feel like a real person! haha. Anyway, the last time I wore these jeans was in North Hollywood and they still have the smell of the apartment. It´s funny because I will get a whiff of the laundry detergent and all of the memories from NoHo come rushing back to my mind. Funny how smells can do that. I kind of didn´t want to wear these jeans today because I don´t want to have to wash them and lose the smell. 

Sister Blair and I are now pie experts after having baked two apple pies last week. It´s the holiday season and we feel like we are missing out on the holiday cooking from the states so we decided to bake an apple pie. It actually turned out really good! The second one was better than the first but I liked both of them. We gave two pieces to the American elders in our district for them to have a taste of home, too. One thing I am really looking forward to when I come home is having time to bake and cook again. 

Last week we planned to visit more members instead of planning as many lessons so that we can develop a better relationship with the members and gain their confidence. Choir on Sunday night was the first step and the rest of the week went really well. We still have a lot of work to do but we are getting around to it. We went to choir again last night and I loved it even more. I got to sing with the altos which made me happy. Why did I never do choir? Oh wait, I did it once and got stuck with bell duty (my mom and Annalisa probably remember that quite well haha). Barbara actually put everyone to sopranos and then only had Sister Blair, Lilian and me as the altos. We are practicing Christmas hymns to go singing door to door for some investigators :) 

Weird thing that happened a lot this past week: people kept telling Sister Blair and I that we look alike. I understand that our names sound alike, but us looking alike? No way. We just think it´s funny and wonder how anybody can come to that conclusion. It´s weird because it´s been more than one person who has said it. 

The work in Taguatinga Norte has gotten so much better since I first arrived. Maybe the only thing that changed was my attitude, but whatever it was, I have seen a lot of miracles happen here. I think back on my first week here and how I was so upset to have left Guará I, but now I love this area. News from Guará I - Raimunda got baptized on Saturday! She has been an investigator for over a year. The best part was that she wrote me an email to tell me about it. I felt special because she thought to send me an email and tell me about her baptism. The fruits of the mission are not few, just like it says in Alma 26:31. 

Well, this is the last week of this transfer. I am really hoping to stay here one more transfer! Whatever happens next Monday I know it will be for the best, but I can still hope that God´s will and my will line up one more time ;) 

Hope everybody has a great week! Love and miss you all!!

Love,

Sister Kerr 

Our first apple pie

Sister Blair and me in jeans today! Woo hoo! :)

The cuia, bomba and erva a member bought for me so I could make chimarrão

Random pic from the zone activity 

Another random pic

Picking amora (mulberry) from the trees :)

Happy Veteran´s Day! Even though it´s not a holiday here I am thinking about it and remembering it today :)

So this last week was a good week. Gilmar was confirmed yesterday and was happy as could be :) I can´t even explain how much he has changed in these two months that I have known him. He is so awesome. 

Our week was kinda busy doing damage control in our house. On Wednesday we decided the worm problem in our shower was kind of gross so we called Sister Gaertner and asked what to do and she said to just put clorox in the shower. When we did that we saw that it was worse than we expected. A ton of them started to appear and come out of the little cracks. Don´t worry, though, we found out they weren´t worms...they were larva. Apparently because our shower head has been leaking the bathroom has been kind of wet and this type of bug likes to live there. Gross, right? We killed them and have been trying to be better about keeping it as dry as possible, but until we get our shower head fixed it has been a bit of a problem. We also have a ton of weird looking fly things. I don´t know, our apartment is starting to gross me out haha. 

The best part about being in Taguatinga is definitely having Sister Blair as my companion. This past week we had the urge to eat McDonald´s, which is weird for me because I don´t really eat fast food, but we went and ate a ton!! Halfway through the meal I wondered why I ordered so much but we pressed forward haha. We also decided to sing in the ward choir as a way for us to get to know more members and develop more of a relationship with them. Last night was the first time we went and I really liked it! I don´t sing very well and they put me with the sopranos which probably wasn´t the best idea but there were a ton of altos and only three sopranos. Since Sister Blair actually knows how to sing alto we left her there and sent me to the sopranos haha. On our own time, Sister Blair and I have already started memorizing Christmas hymns in Portuguese. Gotta get ready for Christmas! :) 

One funny thing is that in Portuguese my name and Sister Blair´s name rhyme which people love to comment on. In English they aren´t even close haha but with the pronunciation here they are almost the same. 

I normally make a list of things to write about in my email home but this week I am just trying to remember off the top of my head. Oh yeah, Thursday afternoon we helped a girl carry home some groceries because it looked like she was kind of overloaded. Her name is Amanda and we went back to visit her on Saturday. She said she wouldn´t be able to go to church on Sunday because she had to bake a cake for a friend for him to pick up Sunday afternoon (sounds like a fake excuse, right?) but we said we would bake it for her that night and then drop it off in the morning when we went to get her for church. She agreed so we baked Saturday night and gave it to her Sunday morning; she went to church with us and left the cake for her friend to pick up. Daniela, Célia and Thaís also went which was a nice surprise. Overall I had a pretty good week :) 

Hope everybody is happy and healthy and getting ready for the holiday season! I find myself a little more homesick with all the Christmas decorations going up, but that´s ok. Next holiday season I will be home :)

Love,
Sister Kerr 

Here is a picture of our zone this transfer. As you can see we acquired two new sisters in the zone.

Elder Sanders, Elder Pedroso, Sister Blair, me, Elder Redd, and Elder Grisham (Our district).

Sweet Novemeber

Dearest family & friends,

It´s November! Next month I will have been in the mission for a year. I am starting to freak out a little bit because after my one year mark comes Christmas, then New Years, and then there will only be six more months until I come home. That´s too soon! Ok, I am getting a little ahead of myself, November just started.

So I am still loving being Sister Blair´s companion. It is such a small world, too, because we discovered today that one of my friends from college is the daughter-in-law of one of her super good family friends. I hope you understood that haha. How funny, huh? 

Last week was really busy and passed by so quickly. On Halloween, Sister Blair and I dressed in orange and black in honor of the holiday we weren´t celebrating. That same day we also had the lock on our apartment door break and had to call a locksmith to change out the lock. Friday we helped the bishop and his wife do some food storage stuff for their house. We were putting beans into cleaned out Coca-Cola 2 liter bottles. Saturday night the ward had a talent show that was a success! So many people came out to watch and perform. Of course I had to miss the last act because we had to be home at 9:30pm and the show was running late. I was bummed but that´s ok. 

Yesterday, Gilmar was baptized! Like always, the ward was very supportive. A lot of people came out and brought refreshments and whatnot. To give a quick background on Gilmar, he has been an investigator since July. My first month in this area he stopped going to church even though he had been attending pretty regularly. Then, he called us one night to tell us he didn´t want to meet with us anymore because he was going to go back to his old church. Since Gilmar had met with the missionaries in July he had stopped smoking, drinking and had made a lot of changes in his life. That night we went to his house and met with him. We told him he needed to do his part, namely go to church and read the scriptures, to know what he really wanted to do. 

From that night on we started calling him every night to see if he had read that day. Sometimes we would call at 10pm and he would say he hadn´t read so we would tell him he had 25 minutes to read before we called back haha. Tough love (or just plain annoying), but it totally worked. Once he started reading daily he started coming to church and decided he wanted to be baptized. He was so happy yesterday after the baptism :) The best part was he had been a little unsure about getting baptized, but during church yesterday so many people as part of their testimony commented to him from the pulpit that getting baptized is the best thing he could do and he would never regret it. We hadn´t told anybody about his doubts but clearly the Spirit was working in them. It was awesome for him to get so many reassurances the day of his baptism. He even brought a friend to church and to his baptism! 

Fernanda is still doing great. We wanted to pass by her house to bring her to the baptism but we were running late so didn´t have time. When we got to the chapel she was already here practicing with the choir! She went to Institute on Saturday and is totally taking charge of her own fellowshipping. We don´t even sit by her in the classes or sacrament anymore because she already has a group of friends. Iolita, too, doesn´t sit with us anymore because she sits with another family.

Ok, I have more to write but this email turned out to be really long so I will leave it at this for now. Hope you are all happy and healthy! Oh yeah, you guys got to "fall back" an hour but two weeks ago we had to "spring ahead" here. Lame. So now I am 6 hours ahead of west coast time just as an FYI. Anyway, love you all very much!!

Love,

Sister Kerr 

Gilmar´s baptism :) (obviously)

Happy Halloween

Dearest Family and Friends,

Happy Halloween this week! How is October already coming to a close? It seemed like General Conference was just yesterday. 

So this past week was pretty great. I love looking back on even a short amount of time and seeing how much things have changed. When I first came to Taguatinga it was a pretty difficult adjustment for me. I loved Guará I and wanted to stay there. Getting used to a new ward here (and them getting used to having sisters) was definitely an adjustment period. I am pretty sure my emails kind of showed that I was a little down and tired from the challenges that I was facing. In just a short amount of time I have come to LOVE Taguatinga. When I first came here I asked myself, "Why did I have to leave Guará I?" In the past few weeks I have had that question answered a million times. There are so many reasons I am here. It is so humbling to see how perfectly Heavenly Father´s plan is for me. 

Having Sister Blair as my companion has also been a huge blessing! She is hilarious! You probably all remember how much I loved Sister Ryan in the MTC (She is doing well, by the way. We send emails almost every week. That girl still cracks me up with everything she says haha), and Sister Blair reminds me of her. Her sense of humor fits perfectly with mine so we spend pretty much the whole day laughing about everything. There are some things that my Brasilian companions wouldn´t have found funny, but Sister Blair and I cannot stop laughing. I missed joking around in English but this transfer I have been able to be sarcastic (a trait I should probably try to leave behind) and make jokes that wouldn´t have made my other comps laugh. Sister Blair is always laughing and happy which is great. I love her! 

I am happy to be her companion because I remember what it was like for me after having served in the states. Even after only one transfer in the San Fernando mission I fell in love with the mission president, the missionaries, the area...everything. Falling in love with a mission and then having to leave stinks. Getting used to a new country is difficult, but it is even harder after you have had a taste of serving in your own country where you speak the language and know the culture. I see her going through what I went through, but I imagine it has to be even harder for her because she spent 2 transfers there. I am just thankful the Lord trusted me to be her companion and help her get used to the mission here. What´s the point of passing through difficulties if you never have the chance to help somebody else with what you learned? 

This transfer I have felt like our district is more fun. Maybe the only difference is that my attitude and perspective have changed :) I am loving the work in Taguatinga. The beginning of this month, President Gaertner gave us the challenge to read the New Testament before Christmas. I started October 1st and am planning to be done by December 24th but it will be tough. If I only used my hour of personal study to read the Bible it would be easy, but I only allocate like 20-30 minutes so I can use the other half to study for our investigators which is what we are supposed to do. I am currently in John 10. 

Anyway, hope everybody is happy and healthy! Enjoy Halloween this week! :) Love you all very, very much

This is a picture of me eating pequi for the first time! People either love it or hate it. It is a fruit that you have to like scrape with your teeth because if you bite it it has little spines that go into your mouth. Yeah, sounds dangerous right? One of the irmãs made arroz & pequi for me because I wanted to try it. 

10 Months!

Dearest family,
Two days ago I completed 10 months in the mission! What the heck...only 2 more months and a year will already have gone by? That´s so crazy.

Ok, well these days it seems like I have a lot to say. Let me start by talking about my companion. Her name is Sister Blair and she is from St Louis, MO. She had been serving in New Jersey waiting for her visa and stayed there for 2 transfers. Technically she has already been trained but we are doing it all over in Portuguese for her to learn the language. She is so great! I am super lucky to have her as my companion. I can already tell she will help me be a better missionary.

One thing I love about her is that her Portuguese is like straight out of Preach My Gospel which means it is really simple and direct. Don´t get me wrong, she speaks Portuguese really well. It´s just that the phrasing and everything is what we learned in the MTC. I love that! For sure I am going to learn a ton with her this transfer. PS She loves to giggle! haha

The only bad thing is that this is my first time having an English speaking companion which means sometimes we speak English! I try hard to only speak Portuguese with her so that she can learn but sometimes one word in English will trigger a whole convo in English. And since our district leader and his companion are Americans sometimes our reports at night are like half English, half Portuguese! I even find myself thinking in English at times! Nooooo! Before, the only thing I would do in English was count if I had to do a super quick count of something. Anyway, I will be better about that because I really want her to learn Portuguese as quickly and easily as possible. 

Last Thursday we had a mission conference with Elder Snow (of the Seventy) and his wife. The conference was super great and the best part was, of course, seeing all the missionaries :) Afterwards all of the missionaries went out to lunch together and I got to chat it up with Sister Munger, Sister P. Gonçalves, Sister Muniz...and everybody else I miss. It was awesome! 

Yesterday was an amazingly wonderful day. Fernanda was baptized!!! Yay! So, LONG story super short, we met Fernanda two weeks ago. She was a referral from a member who lives in the US but was here visiting family and randomly started talking to Fernanda on the bus. The member passed by the chapel ten minutes before the second session of General Conference and told us we should go get Fernanda so she could watch GC. We went and got her, she watched conference, stayed to watch Iolita´s baptism, and the rest is history. She is so wonderful! The best part is the ward has totally taken her in and she has a ton of friends already. Her baptism was perfect :) There was a lot of member support and a lot of goodies to eat afterwards. She was really happy. 

Well, that sums up the week. I am extremely tired for some reason but very happy. Hope everybody is happy and healthy! Miss you all and love you!

Love, 

Sister Kerr

The cake Sister Bezerra gave me in the morning

My birthday party with the ward 

Sister Blair & I the day she arrived

Some more pictures that didn´t fit in the last email from Fernanda´s baptism :

So much to say!

Family!!

This week I have so much to say. Prepare yourselves because it´s going to be a long email! :) Last week was an amazing week and I hope this one continues to be as well. There were a million good things leading up to my birthday but I will start with my birthday and go on from there. 

Honestly, I couldn´t have asked for a better birthday in the mission. My day started with Sister Bezerra singing "Parabéns" to me with candles and bolo de mandioca (my favorite). We had our studies as usual and after lunch we went out with a member from a different ward. Amanda is 18 but wants to serve a mission next year. I love when members are willing to go out with us! It changes the routine for us and for our investigators. 

One of the lessons we taught was with Fernanda, an elect we found last week! She is perfect. At night we had already marked a family home evening in the chapel but Elder Pedroso called to say that at 8pm there would be a going away party for Elder Bay, who was going home, and Elder Cottrell, another elder in our zone who had passed through Taguatina 1. We told him that was fine because we would be there anyway.

The family home evening was perfect! We had 4 investigators there and had invited some members to come as well. Little by little more members started showing up for the going away party. The activity we planned was about the plan of salvation and everybody was participating. Fernanda even taught some parts! She had learned the plan of salvation only an hour earlier and already understood everything. 

By the end of the family home evening there was at least a third of the ward there with cakes, brownies, soda, and salgados. Everybody gathered together and they started singing happy birthday to me ("Parabéns para você" in Portuguese). Sister Bezerra told me the ward had planned the party as a going away party but it was mostly for my birthday :) Some members gave me little presents like earrings and sweets. I felt super special that everybody had driven to the chapel to celebrate my birthday and the elders going away. Most of the members live in Vicente Pires which isn´t exactly close to the church building. 

If I had to sum up my birthday in one word it would have to be "perfect." :) 

To be honest my birthday has continued until today haha. Every day since my birthday I have received a little present from a member or missionary. Today at the transfer meeting Sister Muniz gave me a little present and when I opened my emails I had even more birthday emails. I don´t know what I did to deserve such great family and friends but I am truly grateful.

Onto transfers...I stayed in Taguatinga 1! Hooray!! Even though the last transfer was really difficult in the beginning I learned so much. The fruits of our labors will be realized this transfer! I would send a picture of my companion but I don´t know who it is yet. I will find out tomorrow because I am training! I knew this day would come but I didn´t think it would be this transfer. Everybody had already been telling me for some time that I would most likely train when the next group of sisters came in.

Since I got to Brasil in March only four sisters have arrived - two in April and two in July. We will be getting four more sisters tomorrow and one of them will be my companion. Two Americans have been serving in the states since July waiting for their visas and they finally got them. I am nervous to train so all of you have to pray extra for me! haha. 

I have a million more things to say but I have written enough. Just know that I am extremely happy in the mission. This past week was awesome even though it was kind of rough to miss Bren & Carlie´s wedding. I laughed/cried so hard when I saw all the pictures today haha. I have a sister-in-law now!! 

Hope all of you are happy and healthy! Love you and miss you lots.

Love,

Sister Kerr

PS This computer isn´t letting me send pics so I will send some next week.

Great Weekend! :)

Dear family,

I hope all of you are doing well! General Conference on Saturday and Sunday definitely brightened my week and probably the rest of the year as well. Hopefully all of you had the chance to take advantage of all 4 sessions (or 5 with Relief Society or Priesthood sessions). Saturday was kind of a rollercoaster for me because our zone only has us two sisters and obviously Sister Bezerra was going to watch in Portuguese. I had nobody to watch in English with me but a member from a different ward, who has a mission call to Temple Square here in a couple of months, said she would watch with me because she speaks English pretty well. She got there late but we watched the second half of the first session in English and I watched the first half in Portuguese. I think during the first session she realized she didn´t know as much as she thought and wasn´t eager to watch with me in English the second session. In between the sessions we watched a rebroadcast of the RS session but they only had Portuguese. Taking notes was a little challenging because I wanted my Conference notes in English so I listened in Portuguese and then took notes in English. I was pretty proud of myself haha ;)

I watched the second session on Saturday half in English and the other half in Portuguese. Like I said before, it is such a blessing to hear the prophet´s and the apostles´ voices!! I told Sister Bezerra she has to learn English for the sole purpose of watching Conference in English someday. Iolita, one of our investigators, had said she would be at Conference for Elder Bay to follow up on the baptismal interview but she didn´t show up and wasn´t answering our phone calls. After the session we went to her house with the elders and found her at home. Elder Bay finished the interview and we planned her baptism for Sunday night.

Yesterday was an amazing day! One of the members from another ward, Gabi, has studied English for 4 years and said she was willing to watch with me in English. Not only was she willing but she was excited! I can´t even explain how grateful I was for her to be willing to watch. Conference only happens every six months and it´s not like I have a ton of time in the world to watch the talks online to catch up. I had the privilege of listening to all four hours yesterday in English :) 

In between the sessions we had to find a way to empty the baptismal font and fill it up again because for some reason the water was greenish. The drain wasn´t working and we tried everything to get it to drain. Finally, the elders managed to get it to drain and we filled it up again. The second time the water was only very slightly tinted some weird color haha. Iolita didn´t mind, she was excited to be baptized.

Because it was after Conference there were a ton of people there! The chapel was more than half full with everybody who stayed to watch the baptism. Everything went perfectly :) 

This morning we had a zone activity so we played soccer and then had a "talent show" which was really some of the elders improvising and doing the most random things. Of course while we were playing soccer it started to rain and then there was thunder and lightning so it was cut short.

Anyway, I have definitely written a novel. Next week is transfers! I am almost scared to write this, but I hope I stay one more in Taguatinga I. It has been a hard area for me but I think there is more work to be done here. 

Thank you thank you thank you for all of your sweet emails and birthday wishes! I can´t explain how much I miss each one of you but your emails and updates each week keep me motivated in the mission. Hope all of you are happy and healthy!

Love,

Sister Kerr

Victor (Iolita´s son), Iolita, Me, Cida (a member in the ward) and Sister Bezerra

Iolita and us outside of the church before the baptism :)