The Southern Sister: 17 August 2015

Whoa we had a fantastic week! First off Brianna and Dottie got baptized! It was such a special day, they were so excited, happy and overwhelmed by the spirit. We were able to plan a beautiful baptismal service and Elder Ross performed the baptisms. We went and saw Bri on Friday to make sure we had the right size baptismal suit and we prayed with her. She offered it and my favorite part was "Lord, please come into my heart before I get dipped and after." She is so so set on becoming closer to Christ and I know that the steps she just took will help her so much. After her confirmation she just told us how much peace and comfort she felt. She loves the Holy Ghost! Dottie cried when she watched her daughter, Bri get baptized and had to cry in my arms before she was ready to be baptized herself. It was such a joyful moment to see people willing to make covenants with God. We made them baptism memory books, little 4x6 photo books. We passed out index cards and had every member write down their testimony, then we put them into the photo album so when they struggle or get knocked down or doubt they can stand on the Faith of others until they find theirs again. Sister Hansen gave us the idea and they loved it! During sacrament meeting I took on the job of hushing Emari while the sacrament was passed, she is 4, the one who wore my name tag :) I leaned over and told her that they were going to bring us bread so we could remember Jesus. Her eyes got huge as she asked me "Is Jesus coming here right now?!" It was so cute, little kids know more than you think, she really loves Jesus and it's adorable. She was coloring throughout sacrament meeting and one of the speakers mentioned the Book of Mormon in their talk and her head popped up and she asked "They read the Book of Mormon here too?" Emari will one day make a phenominal missionary. Dottie was telling us that Emari had her 3 year old cousin over and what they ended up playing was missionary. Emari got all the pamphlets out of Dottie's pile and then sat across Hailee, the cousin, and asked what she saw in the pictures and then when they got to the end and they saw the picture of the lady praying, Emari taught Hailee how to pray. I guess that goes to show kids absorb everything! So I challenge you Sky and Whit to fill your kiddos heads with good because they are so capable of learning the gospel now. That reminds me, Whitney sent me a letter about her kids playing missionary too. They were all dressed up with boots and backpacks and when Whitney asked where/ what they were playing they said "We are missionaries in Bermany!"
We had a couple of experiences this week including the gift of tongues.... We first met Lloyd in the mall when we were picking up some supplies for the baptism at Dollar Tree he stopped us and talked to us for a while. He was an old man who had lost his wife. He would talk and then we would relate a gospel principle. Just about everytime we would finish talking about a gospel principle he would just about gag on his words and then appoligize because he almost "slipped". We were so confused, then he saw that we were confused so he told us he was just so full of the spirit talking to us that he was struggling to hold back his words. So not sure exactly what he meant by that I just told him to go ahead and talk. The secod I said that the flood gate to gibberish dropped. As he mumbled unknown words I just turned to Sister Lanning thinking what is happening. The only word I recognized was Lord. So that was interesting. Then later that day we ended up seeing him 2 other times. He came up to us when we were talking to someone about the restoration and stopped us to tell the person we had just met and were teaching that we were Angel girls... Sister Lanning quoted "O that I were and angel..." from Alma 29:1 and I just giggled my head off because that is my favorite chapter of scripture as of a couple of weeks ago. We had to laugh it off because it really was so interestingly weird. Never thought that would happen in my life. Then later that evening we tracted into a lady named Connie and she was super against the idea of the Book of Mormon but as we taught the Restoration she softened up and agreed to take one and read it. Its amazing how the spirit can soften hearts, but anyway I was saying the closing prayer and she spoke in tongues throughout the whole prayer I was so distracted! I wasn't expecting it at all so as she mumbled I just prayed along. The only word recognized that time was Jesus. Im super confused because the Bible talks about the Apostles receiving the gift of tongues, defined as all the Apostles came from different countries and spoke different languages but when they were together they were able to understand and communicate with each other through the gift of tongues. The gift of tongues is a spiritual gift to be used to help people understand each other, and that is not what happened with the two people we met. If anything the lack of understanding nearly overpowered the entire conversations! We had a lesson with Mr. Joe and we read in 2 Nephi how they were blessed witht he tongue of Angels and he was confused. Sister Lanning explained beautifully that it is a gift from the spirit that guides our words to help others understand our testmonies and teachings better. Then he understood :) Speaking of Mr. Joe he came to church for all 3 hours and accepted a baptismal date! So excited for him. He has changed so much. He told us in our last lesson that his mom told him when he was over there to take care of her that he is changing, he is a lot less irritable and grumpy, that he is becoming a nicer and more patient person. It was the prime opportunity to be able to bear testimony that we knew it was the Book of Mormon changing him!
Well we welcomed 2 more lizards to the house! They just sneak in whenever we opn the door, whatever if the keep spiders out, come on in! Its been a great week and I know that God is in charge. That is one of the hardest things to learn. Plus I am a super planned person so when something falls through or doesn't work I get flustered because we worked so hard to det up those plans! But Sister Lanning pointed out to me yesterday that we have to embrace very moment to be a missionary, and because we did that we were bale to meet several people we wouldn't have. I swear she is training me. I know that this is where I am needed and I am grateful for the time I am able to spend here. These are my people. I love yall and thanks for the emails ma and pa you are the best :) Allow the work of God to change you, like it has me. I can honestly say I have grown more in this past week than I have in the entire 5 months!
God bless yall
Sister Kerr