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 :)

Happy October (almost)

Olá família!

Happy October tomorrow! Can´t believe September is almost over. Only 3 more months until we ring in 2014. 

So this past week was interesting. I guess "rough" would be a better word haha. Tuesday the rain came down hard! We left our apartment with the sun shining and then 10 minutes later it was a straight up thunderstorm. The streets were flooded, the wind was freezing cold, and we were walking with our umbrellas directly in front of us to protect us. The few appointments we had marked fell through and by that point I was freezing to death and decided I needed to change my clothes and grab my raincoat otherwise I was going to get sick. On the way home the buses that were passing by kept getting us soaking wet. One car even went out of its way to splash water on us. I was annoyed but I had to laugh haha. It was like a movie scene when the main character is kind of blue and thinks nothing could get worse and just then a car drives by and completely soaks the person. Yeah, that was my life. 

Thursday we went on exchanges with Sister Moraes and Sister Dandaluz. I stayed in Taguatinga Norte with Sister Moraes. Around 3pm I started feeling super sick and getting dizzy but waited to see if it would pass. It didn´t pass. I went to the bathroom thinking I needed to throw up but wasn´t able to. We left the house we were at and I continued to feel sick. Long story short I threw up in the street two times during the rest of the day. Talk about embarrassing. 

Now for the funny story. Friday I still wasn´t feeling well, but the work must go on. We ate lunch and then went to visit a less active for the first time. She was super welcoming and nice and kept telling us how much she loves missionaries. I was super sick and since she was so sweet I asked if I could put my head down on the arm rest for a little bit. I was super tired because I passed Thursday night tossing and turning because of how sick I felt. Well I ended up falling asleep for like half an hour right there on the couch. My companion told me I woke up because I twitched. At least Cristina, the less active, was offended or anything she was just worried about me. 

Last night we had a stake fireside about missionary work. All of us missionaries sang a special musical number. Us four missionaries in our ward sang a special number in sacrament meeting yesterday as well. 

Now that I have written a novel I will leave the rest of the week´s happenings for another email. Here are the funny pics we took for my 9 month mark. The sisters in the mission always take pics like this to commemorate nine months in the mission.

Love,

Sister Kerr 

Have a great week! Don´t forget to watch General Conference this Saturday and Sunday :)

PS. Last night I saw Elder Sowards and Elder Fonseca which made me happy!! I love them :)

9 Months! :)

Dearest family & friends,

This past week I completed 9 months in the mission. Woo hoo!! Sister Bezerra and I took some funny pics but this computer won´t let me send them so I will have to wait until next week. I can´t believe the mission is halfway over. Not gonna lie, the first 6 months seemed a lot longer than 6 months but these past three have flown by! Weird to think in less than 9 months I will be back home and return to being Tarah instead of Sister Kerr. Whoa, writing my name was super weird haha.

In other news, I gave a talk yesterday in sacrament meeting. This ward definitely likes to give the missionaries things to do. The bishop´s wife got up yesterday to announce instead of having a hymn in-between the talks they want to have special musical numbers. She then announced the missionaries would be singing the special musical number next week haha. We had no idea. 

This past Friday we had Elder Asconavieta and his wife in the mission. We had a mission conference on Friday morning and I was super excited to see Sister P. Gonçalves and Sister Munger. Hearing about everybody from Guará I made me happy and put me at peace. Sister Gonçalves said, "Most of the people don´t remember your name, they just know that they love you and hate me for sending you away" haha. 

Last week I guess I was really tired because Sister Bezerra said I was talking in my sleep one night. My first question was if I was speaking English or Portuguese; she said Portuguese. As you can imagine that made me super happy! Guess I can finally consider myself fluent :) 

Spring started for us yesterday which means the rainy season is coming. For now it is really stuffy and hot but I am trying to enjoy it because once the rain comes I have heard it doesn´t stop until like February.

I think that´s all the news I have for now. Of course I am forgetting things, like always, but just know I am happy. I decided last week since I can´t change my circumstances I just have to change my view of things. It helped me a lot. 

Hope you are all happy and healthy!! 

Love,

Sister Kerr

Our zone

Mission Tour this week

Querida família,

Taguatinga has been a bit of a challenging area for me, but things are going well. I have some funny stories and pictures to share :)

Yesterday as I was walking into sacrament, the second counselor asked me if I could play piano. I said no because I don´t play well at all and it would be better to sing acapela haha. He accepted my answer. Two minutes later our ward mission leader, Andreson, came up to me and said, "Sister Kerr, you have to play today." I tried to explain that I seriously can´t play but he didn´t accept my answer. Needless to say it was horrible! haha. I have never been so nervous in my whole life. My biggest question of the day was "In a ward this size how is it possible that nobody plays piano?" They have 3 pianists and none of them were there....just my luck, right? Yeah, I am pretty sure they won´t be asking me to fill in again haha. 

Last week I had the opportunity to make clothing for dolls that are going to be donated. How is it possible that every baby doll ends up without clothing? I don´t understand. But at least I got to use my non-existent sewing skills and fashion some pretty fancy clothing for Barbies and baby dolls. I think this week the Lord wanted me to view my weaknesses haha.

Friday was an awesome day because I got 8 cards! :) It only took them about a month to get to me, but that´s ok. Better late than never. Thank you to everybody for sending cards. It seriously brightens my day! Saturday we had lunch at a house in Vicente Pires that had the coolest backyard ever. It was more of a jungle than a backyard. They had trees of every kind: mango, pinha, graviola, banana, goiaba, and some others that I don´t remember the names. I also held a chicken. Elder Pedroso showed us how to put it to sleep, it was awesome. 

This week we will have Elder Asconavieta from the Seventy coming to visit and do a mission tour. I am trying to keep a positive attitude with everything, but this transfer is really hard because I was so in love with Guará I. I still don´t understand why I only stayed there one transfer. Tainá was baptized last week and Maria Eloisa will be baptized next Sunday. 

Anyway, hope everybody is doing well! I will be home in 9 months :) Start the countdown! haha. 

Love, 

Sister Kerr

Super Different

Olá família!

So our first week in Taguatinga was pretty good. Our area is HUGE!! I think I got used to being in a small, residencial area but Taguatinga is super commercial. To walk from one point of our area to the other would take an hour to an hour and a half. We definitely have to be strategic in our planning because we don´t have time to visit people who live in different blocks that are spread out. 

This zone is way different as well because we are the only set of sisters in the zone! Our last zone had 4 sets of sisters. It´s weird on Tuesdays when we have zone meetings because it´s a bunch of elders and then us haha. One of the elders in the zone is from Irvine...what a small world, huh? 

The bishop´s wife told us it has been 4 years since this ward last had sisters. Apparently the last sisters that were here didn´t leave too great of an impression so we have that to deal with. I have to admit before the mission I wasn´t too fond of sister missionaries either. Here in the mission I hope people like sisters but I am realistic and know that some people prefer elders haha. So far the ward has been really excited to have us and very welcoming. 

Our apartment is a 5 minute walk from the chapel which is nice. Here is a picture of us before our first Sunday in the ward :) 

Hope everybody is doing well!!! Love you

Love,

Sister Kerr

Transferred :(

So despite all of my prayers (or maybe because of all of them haha) I was transferred!! I cried a ton when we got the call last night. I hadn´t packed or anything because I thought for sure I would stay at least one more transfer. I had high hopes that I would stay at least one more. Today at the transfer meeting anytime somebody who had passed through Guará I asked how such and such person was doing I started crying again haha. Yeah, I was kind of a cry baby today. It´s hard to explain how much I love Guará I. It was a place that felt so familiar to me; it was like coming home to a place even though I had never been there before. We have a baptism this coming Sunday and a baptism the Sunday after that. I am sad I won´t be there to see the baptisms, but I am even more sad because I won´t be there to continue to see the people grow and make changes. I know Heavenly Father has a perfect plan. I am trying to remind myself of that. It´s crazy how quickly I came to love everybody there. It was only 6 weeks but it might as well have been 6 years.

I am now in Taguatinga I with Sister Bezerra. It´s funny because she totally called it that Sister P Gonçalves and I would be companions last transfer and she came up to me today and said, "What´s up, new companion" haha. She called it again! I have discovered my mission within the mission: open new areas for sisters. Last transfer Sister Gonçalves and I opened the area for sisters and this transfer I will be doing the same thing with Sister Bezerra. We will be the only ward in the mission that will have a set of elders and a set of sisters. 

I am nostalgic already for Guará I! I learned a lot in Guará, but Guará I was a different experience for me. I know I have a purpose here in Taguatinga I, I just have to discover what it is. This transfer is an important one for me. In less than 3 weeks I will be halfway done with the mission. Three weeks after that it will be my birthday. And in between those two dates I will watch General Conference! I am trying to be optimistic and remember that the mission isn´t about me. Funny how life works out, though. The one time I truly wanted to stay in an area I was transferred. I am now with my 5th companion here in Brasil, 7th overall including the MTC and the transfer in California. 

Hope everybody is having a great week!! I know I am forgetting to write about a ton of things but maybe I will remember during the week. Love you and miss you!

Love,

Sister Kerr

Oh yeah, here´s a picture from today. My bag was starting to rip when I was rolling it so I decided to carry it instead. Be impressed! That´s like 50 lbs haha. The sun was scorching and the walk was SUPER long, but I managed haha.