My new area is huge! It even takes in Arkansas and Louisiana!

Dear Family

     I wasn't able to email last Monday because it was MLK jr. day so the Library was closed.  My last week in Monroe was mainly spent saying goodbye and taking pictures. I also took a lot of pictures of Monroe in general. It was good. We had quite a few dinner appointments too. 

     My new area, if I remember correctly, is the Texarkana Zone.  My new companions name is Elder Averett. He was actually trained my Elder Whitehead (who I was in the MTC with) and that is whose place I took.  Elder Whitehead went to Jackson.  So my old district consisted of 12 missionaries and my new district consists of 4 Elders. So I went from a 10 member distict not including the Zone Leaders to now a 4 member distict and the other 2 Elder are in New Boston, TX.

      I'm not District Leader here because President had already picked someone that has been in New Boston for a while. He has been out way longer then me over 18 months actually. So I guess I will be taking a break from doing that for a while.  When I first found out that I wasn't going to be DL anymore I thought I had done something wrong.  But President told me that he wasn't done with me being in leadership so we will see what happens during my time here in Atlanta!

     Well anyways on Tuesday was our transfer day and I didn't head up to my next area until like 1:30.  Just waited for a long time but we did play alot of basketball and stuff and talked with all the missionaries. There were missionaries heading East from my Distrcit around 8:30.  We said goodbye to them and Sister Jenkins went down to Picayune, Mississippi and Elder Whatcott went to Meridian, Mississippi. My first area!!! So I got to tell him about there! Sad time, I never like leaving an area and people I have grown so close to. It's like leaving home again and again. But anyways it was fun and when the transfer van got back to pick people up to head west, I rode with Elder Ison, my follow-up trainer! He actually just left the area of Meridian and is going to be one of my Zone Leaders up in the Texarkana Zone! I got to talk to him about what's been going on there.  Alot has happened there with, new move ins, new leadership, some members have gotten married, and members with new kids! It was awesome to here about whats been going on there! It was way good!

     When we got to Bossier city I met up with my District and my new companion and headed up here. Once I got here I didn't even fully unpack yet when we were invited over for dinner. The Nielsen's are an awesome family!!!! They're going to be a fun family here. They apparently feed us often which I'm excited about. We ate and talked about things in the area. There is quite a bit of Redneck stuff going on here in Texas hahaha.  It's what they say anyway. They have a small farm with chickens, a goat and a pig! So that will be fun.

     The next day, Wednesday the 23rd, we got up and did some studies and got picked up by a member named Elder Simmons to take us to District Meeting in New Boston. We talked with him and had a good district meeting. My district consists of Me, Elder Averett, Elder Poole and Elder Percival our DL. And I feel like we are going to have a lot of fun here in this Zone and District! We are a car share area which doesn't make too much sense to me because our area is huge!  We have Atlanta/Queen City and like 10 other small towns around us. This area also takes in both Arkansas and Lousianna as well, it's huge! I wish we had a full time car here but we don't. We actually walked to the Library today because my bike is giving me alot of trouble. 

     But anyways after District Meeting we helped brother Nielson start to build a chicken nest and I really enjoyed helping with that.  Then we had a lesson with one of the investigators, named Dale Wilson, who actually has a date set for baptism.  So we are working hard with him. The lesson went really well. We talked about The Word of Wisdom, The Law of Chasity and Tithing! We read 1 Nephi chapter 2 and we got him to be more comfortable praying in front of us. I really want to help this guy enter into the waters of baptism. 

     We also had a recent RM come with us to the lesson to teach him. His name is Logan and he went to Samoa on his mission and he actually graduated the same year I did. Before his family moved here, while he was on his mission, he lived in Utah. He actually lived right down State street from us by the Megaplex Theatre! It's a small world. Somebody in the Ward told me about a Gravity hill somewhere in the Salt Lake area. Apparently you go down the hill just for a little bit and then put the car in Neutral and it will go backwards back up the hill. Do you guys know anything about that? Anyways I have enjoyed my time here so far.

     I love and miss you all and I hope to talk to you soon.

Love
Elder Kerr