28 June 2016 Your cat lost 30 pounds?!

So I think over the past year Ive established about how strange this place really is. I'm sure that any of it truly does it justice though! Sorry its been two weeks since yall have heard from me. The computer was a struggle last week and it just wouldn't let me on my email. So I've got lots of updates. I am being transferred, I am going to Lafayette, LA. Which probably means nothing to yall but I'm way excited. Ive heard nothing but marvelous things about this place. Apparently they have the best fried chicken in the country... My insides might die but its worth a try. Also, way back when in March of last year I was supposed to go to Lafayette, but then President Hansen felt the need to change me to McComb mid sentence. I know I was needed in McComb and so I'm so excited to know that I'm needed in Lafayette too, and that NOW the timing is right for me to be there.

We had the most phenomenal lesson this week with a less active! We have been praying about how we can help her and we finally thought of bringing Sister Cox with us to see her. It sounds simple but it took a lot of planning sorting and consulting with the relief society president and by the end Sister Cow was officially crowned as Sister Burnett's visiting teacher with us missionaries as her partner! So we had a stellar lesson which just happened to be on Temple covenants and ordinances... can I just say that the First Presidency is inspired! We have been focusing on the temple with her since General Conference! But Sister Cox and her got along so well and then we realized how similar their life stories were. It was so inspired by God. Sister Hyer and I were just so excited we had followed the spirit step by step with this one. It went so well that she even came to church on Sunday, it was a miracle. We also had another less active couple, Carol and Alferedo come to church too! We met them this week and had a powerful lesson with them too. We were so excited to see them walking into sacrament meeting.

We had a lesson with Shane and Leesa this week too. It was so fantastic! Shane opened up and shared his concerns and questions. Surprisingly the Book of Mormon was the answer to every single one of his questions! Surprised?? I wasn't... not even in the slightest... that BOOK is no ordinary book. It is the word of God and because its the word of God the SPIRIT speaks peace to our souls. So what do you know? Can you guess who is going to be reading the Book of Mormon this week?? Shane :) I am so sad to leave them, my heart is literally breaking at the thought.

We got a new investigator named Alison. She is the daughter to an active member. Se just moved from Ohio to here to get to know her dad better, she is 19 and I am super sad I am leaving so soon because we got along great!

We were at this ladies house and she let us know that her incredibly obese cat had recently just lost 30 pounds and that that was why all its skin was dragging on the ground.... What?!! Ive recently lost 30 pounds how the heck can a cat lose 30 pounds!? Oh and yes its official I am back down to my pre- mission weight!! Mississippi did me dirty!
Oh I have a funny story that I don't think Ive told yall about yet, we were at Kathie's house, a recent convert when I got a phone call from the mission office it went like this
Elder Bunn "Hello Sister Kerr!"
Me"Why hello there Elder Bunn, how can I help you?"
Elder Bunn" Well I have an officer on the other line telling me that your car has been abandoned and has been called into him as suspicious..."
Me"Oh boy.... we parked it outside a less actives house... what should we do?"
Elder Bunn"Well there should be an officer at your car right now! Go talk to him!"
haha so we ran down the road and talked to him. He was super nice and friendly and forgave us immediately. Later the less active called and told us her side of the story. She said that her nosey neighbor had called her while she was at work and told her that there was a car abandoned in front of her house and that the situation looked really suspicious! So she called the police! Our less active just kept apologizing and saying "I almost put to Mormon missionaries in jail! I would have felt so bad! Can you forgive me!?"
It was so funny!!

Well God Bless yall and Prairieville, the land I've come to love.
Sister Kerr

13 June 2016 Spiritual Juice

Super week yall! We had Elder Kapishke come and visit! It was so special! I learned so much as he just unloaded his spiritual knowledge on us! He taught so powerfully and so boldly about our roles as missionaries and the things that we must accomplish. He talked a lot about our Diving Nature and the ground work behind it. It really was like a fire hose to the face... and I went to 3 of his meetings. But in every meeting he brought up something that I had specifically prayed would be addressed or talked about. It was remarkable. One of my favorite things said was "Joy shared is joy multiplied and pain shared is pain divided." It was beautifully put :)

We were able to visit lots of families this week! God just kept reminding me about how His plan is centered on these families! They are the plan! Sister Hyer and I just keep talking about everyone's potential and it just makes us so excited to be apart of them!

Our investigator Shane came with his wife to the adult session of the stake conference, and then his son too on the Sunday morning session. It just made me realize the love and respect he has for his family and his desire to support them to the best of his ability. We have been praying about a fellowship family for the Richards and only one families name would come to mind! Cool, only problem is, is we know nothing about them! Come to find out the wives have the same job and basically same background story because the dad of this family wasn't a member of the church for the longest time.

We needed one more hour of service yesterday to reach our goal that we had set for the week, so we went to the nursing home and sang hymns! The little old ladies adored us! They were so sweet and loving, the spirit was so strong! One lady asked me where I was from like 6 times, every time I would say New York & she would gasp and say "BUSY BUSY BUSY!" haha it was funny, people have no idea that there is a small town New York.

I got to see Sister Paulo this week she has grown so much and she hits her 6 month mark in a couple of days! Also on the 16th Sister Hyer has been out 3 months. Time is so weird and so hard to keep track of!

FUNNY STORY!: My companion forgot her name tag, I noticed while she was backing the car up. She had the funniest look of panic on her face and I immediately started laughing! But we really needed to go because we were going to be late to our appointment. She ran to my window in a panic "Sister, Sister! I forgot my tag!" I told her "I see that, we don't have time to grab it, just get in and we will come back for it after the appointment." She gives me a look like I was asking her to jump off a cliff. She finally got in the car and we drove off. I think she was mad at me.... So I said "Sister, it will be ok!!" She just whispers "I hope so...." I just busted out laughing and told her "Sister, do you hear yourself? Your name tag is not what makes you a missionary! You will be just fine, I promise. What do you think is going to happen? Your name tag does not give you magical powers....!" Then she started laughing too. Oh the greenie drama just keeps me going! It was a lesson well learned for her though.

Terribly sorry if these are getting drier and drier every week. I just get so dang bored sitting at the computer. So much happens in my week that I also don't even know where to start! We are busy bees and life never ever slows down! The work is good. We got a new Stake President and he said that he had a vision of our area having 3 stakes! I can totally see it. The vision of the south is coming true!

Love Sister Kerr

06 June 2016 Jehova-Hireh

Why hello there my dears! I pray all is well. All is well here for sure. The Lord's influence in my life is pretty dang powerful. Sorry this one is going to be kind of short! But some highlights from my week are we had an incredible lesson with Bernadine, we were at a restaurant but even in the atmosphere the spirit was overwhelming! We got to talking about how much God can truly change us and strengthen us if we let Him. She is 75 and in the mind set that she is too old to change, that she is too set in her ways to change perspective. But we really felt like she needs to make changes in her life so we brought it up and told her to pick something to work on to change, I told her about my experience with giving up fear and she cried. She also told us she is finally willing to read the Book of Mormon with us! It is so exciting.
We had the most spiritual lesson with the Richards this week, we had a lesson about where the Book of Mormon came from and then Sister Hyer and I just both bore our testimonies about how we knew it was true and that it plays a huge part of the plan because it leads us back to our Heavenly Father. We were basically whispering and you could hear a pin drop. I then took the moment to tell them how badly God wants them to be an eternal family. Then we closed with a prayer and left. As we were pulling away I just had the most reassuring feeling that Shane was truly effected by the spirit that was in that room! I love this family so much!
We had a really special lesson with Kathie, she is prepping for the Temple so we are reading the "Preparing to enter the Temple" pamphlet with her. There were several things that I learned and was just blown away by the spirit with! haha I looked at Kathie and we both just had goosebumps! I love that we will never know everything!
We studied A LOT this week because I was either super sick or it was awful weather out. But I learned a ton :) I have truly seen that if you have an inquiring mind the Lord will answer any question for you, if youre willing to prepare well for the answer. One of my favorite studies was about Abraham and Issac in Genesis 22. It talks about his willingness to do whatever the Lord asked, no matter the extremeness! I am just so amazed with the Faith he had I hope I can mirror it someday. My favorite part though is when Abraham is told that he doesn't have to kill Issac and so he then names the mountain or place where they are at Jehovah- Jireh meaning "the Lord will see or provide." This has been my motto for the week and it hasn't proved me wrong once!

It truly came in handy right after a dinner appointment when we found out that the people we had visited had Mersa... ummm flesh eating infection! Well that is great news, my companion looked so scared and I just smiled at her and said Jehovah-Jireh! And God really did because the family across the street told us that they had Mersa and sent us home with an anti microbial wash to disinfect our skin! haha It was a great time.. no signs of infection yet!

God Bless I love you all :)
Sister Kerr

 FHE with the Cox family, Cameron and Brady.

... meet Brady. He is special!

It is so rainy!

30 May 2016 Words Can't Describe

This was a rewarding week! Highlight was Caden's baptism! It was on Saturday and it went so smoothly! I always get so stressed for baptisms. I have decided I could NEVER be an event coordinator/planner because I am too much of a perfectionist. I am nerves the whole time making sure everything goes perfectly. I only forgot one thing... because there is always something, I forgot to make sure the WML reserved the church building. A not so happy Spanish Branch President came up to me at the end of the baptism to inform me he had reserved the building!... Well there is always something... So on Thursday night I started feeling really sick, dizzy and nauseous... immediately I thought Caden's sickness has finally caught up with me haha because Shane had it, then a week later Caden got it and now a week later I had it! so I ended up having to stay in bed all day Friday and I as getting worried about being sick during th baptism because I had to at least have the energy to speak at the baptism. I got a blessing and it was short sweet and to the point. It told me I would be better for the baptism. Saturday morning I woke up still not netter but just went about doing all that we needed to, it wasn't until we got to the church and walked in that my sickness just went away! It was a miracle, I felt completely better, I felt as though I hadn't been sick at all! The baptism was so spiritual and so wonderful. Shane, Caden's dad cried he was so proud of his son. He told us later "Words can't describe what I felt as I watched my son be baptized." It was so so incredible. He was confirmed right after his baptism so that all his family members from out of ton could be there. When they said "receive the Holy Ghost" the spirit flooded into the room so powerfully! Then at the very end when we were shewing everyone out of the room so that the Spanish branch could move into the room Caden just started bawling! I got kind of nervous thinking what happened? This was so good why would he be upset! His dad and Leesa went over to him to find out what was the matter. He told them "I've never felt this way before! I am just so happy!" It was the cutest thing ever. That by will perform miracles someday. I hope he serves a mission himself! I love the Richard family with my whole soul!!!
         We had an amazing lesson about the temple with Kathie. She and Bill are getting ready to go in September. It will probably be the last week of my mission. She wants me to be there really bad! I pray I will be able to go! She is an ANGEL and spoils us rotten. She is a total mother to us!!

The work is good.... Now its back to ground zero again!
God Bless and have a nice day
Sister Kerr

 Sister Hyer is getting a neice!

 The Richard family.

Caden has bunny ears.

 Sharing Jesus with the churrin. (children)

 Caden's baptism day.

Gene and Carlos.

23 May 2016 Paid the Price to Serve

So... the price paid....drum roll please.... ANT BITES.... I know yall are probably thinking "Again?? you'd think she would learn." Well that is exactly what I was thinking too! But apparently God needed to humble me a bit. I am allergic to the ants so my feet always swell up and burn for days! Luckily I only got 2 bites this time but it still swelled right up. It was so funny we were in a lesson with the Richards and they saw my pathetic fat ankle and offered me a bag of frozen corn to hold on it for a bit. Ahh man I love the south. I've come to the conclusion that when the Bible talks about people burning in Hell it will be a place covered with fire ants.... I literally couldn't think of anything more Hellish than ant bites. Personal opinion though.. not doctrine ;)

So this was a really good week. There was a Tornado... again! It touched down near a cyclery store and took out some of their glass windows. Most of the damage was in a development named Shenandoah. We have oodles of members and less actives living there so we went and helped. Mainly Kathie, our recent convert and the Sister Rebstock a less active. I had to scoop tons of branches out of Kathie's pool because my arms were the only ones long enough. We were so glad we could help her because her husband was out on the riverboat where he works. Then a tree had fallen on Sister Rebstocks house and she was just giving up depressed! I told her we would figure out how to get rid of it without spending all the money she doesn't have! I called 6 different active men in the ward and only one answered and had no help to offer! I was starting to think "Man, maybe I shouldn't have offered our services so quickly.. because apparently we have no services to offer!" right then the elders pulled up and offered to help! They went and introduced themselves to Sis Rebstock and told her "Why pay to have the tree removed when we are strong and stupid?" haha they got on the roof and threw down branches while Sister Hyer and I drug them to the road. We got it ALL off the roof and most of it cut down, all with Elder Elison's leathermans pocket knife saw.

Caden is ready to be baptized this Saturday! We are so excited. Its at 2 o'Clock. We had our last lesson with him last night and one of our first lessons with his dad! It went so beautifully. They sent us home with 3 packed containers of Jambalaya leftovers.... he said that is how much he was told to cook for 5 people. He said he used 6 cups of rice! haha He wasn't kidding though that is completely normal for people to cook that much for one meal!

We watched the woman's broadcast with Bernadine at Kathie's house finally! It went great too. It was a really full week! Biggest lesson learned : Mosiah 2:17 "when ye are in the service of your fellow beings you are only in the service of your God"

These people go through SO MUCH!
We aren't earning Heaven though, we are LEARNING it!

Love Sister Kerr

 Bunkering down in the tub with our bike helmets the night of the storm!

 Cleaning up the storm mess from Kathie's house.

 

We served and in return, she bought us a hamburger and fries from jack in the box... the first fast food burger I've had in over a year! 

Clearing the debris with Elder Elison's leatherman pocket knife saw.

17 May 2016 Free Lemonade and Gospel

Such a great week! We visited lots of people and shared lots of testimonies! Sister Hyer is learning and growing a ton and I am too! I'm struggling to remember all that went on this past week. All I know is that I am exhausted and have fallen asleep faster than ever lately! We had a fabulous visit last night with the Richard family! They have opened up so much and we just love them with all our hearts. Caden's baptism is still on for May 28th and he is beyond excited. He asked me to speak at it :) I love baptisms! His dad Shane is doing great too, even if he isn't too interested in making the changes in his life he is INCREDIBLY supportive of his wife and son. He really is also noticing the impact of having us missionaries in his home is having on his family. I do see a bright future for this family :) I just got a call from Leesa, the mom, and she was letting us know that Caden woke up at 3:30am puking and that we may have been exposed to the horrendous virus that Shane had last week. Hahahaha I laughed so hard! She couldn't believe I was laughing. I just said "We don't care, we love yall anyways!" She said that Caden's first thought while puking in the night was "Oh no, what if I got the Sisters sick!?"

Our wonderful Relief Society president had the idea to take us Sisters and Sister Banta out to lunch for Sister Banta's birthday. It went so great! It was the first time we had been able to really see Sister Banta since she told us she was no longer interested 2 weeks ago. She loved the attention and company! We shared a scripture about being able to know that we can rely on Christ! The discussion became so spiritual that everyone was touched. I just had the biggest feeling of my bones on fire as we all spoke and it made me realize that maybe this whole discussion was for me! It's funny how God will do that sometimes, turn it to effect what feels like just you! But I needed that reminder that Jesus Christ is here to help me! Once the conversation died down Sister Banta looked at me and said "We are on the same page again!"  I was thrilled to hear that, we have another appointment set up with her for tomorrow.

We had interviews with President this week and it was a super positive experience! We had a great visit with them. They are so sweet. I had my interview with president first and then my interview with Sister Hansen second. President said "Let get the interview no one wants to do done so you can get to the one that you look forward to!" haha I laughed so hard.

We had a great study with Bernadine this week and she fed us lunch. We had scrambled eggs and lots of 'em! Her husband has a friend who works at a chicken farm and he gave him all the eggs that wouldn't pass inspection. Most of them were just oddly shaped. As I started cracking them I found 6 out of the 8 eggs we used had double yolks! It was way cool. We just giggled after every egg. She is literally the sweetest thing in the south.

We had a lemonade stand this week! We did it at Kathie and Bill's house! We gave out FREE lemonade and pamphlets. It was so fun, we had nearly every person want to give us a donation so we just asked for people to be willing to meet with us instead of paying us! We got 4 people to sign up! So far only one will meet with us but hey, that is success right there! Also we had a less active family stop for lemonade and they asked if they could help with the stand! Of course! The more the merrier. This led to us setting up an appointment with this family! I've been trying to see them for 3 months now! So lemonade stand was definitely a huge success. We ran out of lemonade just as 3 sheriff's  pulled up wanting some free lemonade! We gave them pamphlets haha they weren't too interested though. But they let Jacoby, Kathie's 4 year old grandson get in the cop car to get his picture taken! It was really cool. Then Kathie and Bill took us to a Japanese buffet for dinner! We stuffed ourselves. Then I called to confirm our evening appointment with a less active elderly couple we've been dying to see and she was so excited to tell us she was surprising us with dinner! Oh boy... to say we were stuffed is an understatement. It was like twice as bad as thanksgiving! All in all is was a great and satisfying week. Apparently over half my family is in Texas now! Well that's cool :)

Love Sister Kerr