The Church is true and the Spirit lead him to talk to us!

October 21st-27th

 

Dear Mother,

     I will let you know when I get Grandma's package! I probably got it today but I haven't been home to check the mail yet.  Training is going great, I love Elder Fisher! We haven't heard anymore about the baby we blessed and we will try meeting with the Baptist this week.  So this week was an interesting week to say the least.

Monday the 21st

We had our P-Day! We played some basketball and hung out with the other missionaries! It was a lot of fun! Then later that night we went on exchanges. Elder Paul and I went to Long Beach! We had a blast! And also I had my very 1st BIG MAC hahahahahaha. Kinda weird to think about but I had my very first one today and it wasn't bad hahaha. Anyways, that's that. Paul and I went home and started planning and then realized that we were suppose to give a guy in the ICU a blessing today, totally forgot! So we rushed straight to the hospital! It was crazy but it wasn't too serious! He was doing fine but we gave him one anyway. Then we went home and talked all night about all types of stuff back home and in the mission.

Tuesday the 22nd

So today was the official exchange day! It was way fun! We went out and heading home because a senior couple was expecting the apartments today.  We road by a missionary Baptist church and we noticed that they were having a funeral and so we thought. "Hey we are clergy we should go pay our respects".  We went in and were told that it didn't start until 1. So we head home and get the apartment checked! Then we head back to the church at 1. And holy crap that was the 1st time I've gone to a different church and it was so extremely different than what I'm use to! hahaha! There is something called prayer talking down here. Where during the prayer people are just yelling out loud!. "YES LORD!" "AMEN" "THANK YOU LORD!" (I"m totally going to start doing this when I get home!) hahaha  Then the pastor got up to speak! He just went off yelling!! IF YOU BELIEVE IN JESUS YOU WILL BE SAVED AND IF IT WASNT FOR JESUS WE WOULD ALL GO TO HELL AND IN HIS NAME WE CAN RETURN TO THE FATHER!! Just all kind of stuff and yelling until he was blue in the face! I thought the he was going to blow and then he busts out in song! hahahaha I was just like holy crap! I felt the spirit on that one, ha! Right in my ear hahaha! People standing up clapping! Yelling Amen! I tried to be reverent! There is no such thing as being reverent in that church! hahaha good stuff!

Anyways, after that we went to a place called Lil's rays! And I had my 1st Po-Boy! And the legend behind the Po-Boy is that it started in New Orleans! They were sold for a nickel for the poor people that could barely feed themselves! It's just some bread, meat, lettuce, mayo and tomatoes! It was pretty good! Then we met with a bunch of different people and it was a decent and adventurous day! I loved it!
Wednesday the 23rd!

Today we had our DDM and then did our practicing afterwards! It was good but it took up a lot of the day! We ended up double working South Gulfport and then went to dinner! Which was another great time! I loved it over there! I haven't laughed that hard for a while! We were just giving people a hard time through out hahaha!

Thursday the 24th

We ended up doing service for this guy named JIM HEAD.  It basically took the whole day! A lot of yard work! I officially hate vines now! HATE THEM HAHAHA! They're a pain to clean up! He is an older guy (in his 70's) and since we are helping him he wanted to learn more about our church. He is going to come to church and we are going to start teaching him, hopefully! Anyways, we basically helped him get his yard all put together and took out vines and weeds! He has a hard time doing that stuff! And that was our day!

Friday the 25th

We went back to Jim Heads and helped him some more! It didn't last all day but we basically did the same stuff as the day before! But we had a really cool experience today! We went to Subway for dinner and we were just sitting there enjoying our food and a guy walks by and heads to the restroom. When he returns, he comes up to us and says, "Hey, what do you guys do exactly?" We told him that we are missionaries and we talk about our church. Then he was like, "This is going to sound weird but.." And I'm thinking, oh boy, here comes some guy to try to argue with us about our beliefs!" But he said! "Something told me to come and talk to you guys!" And I'm just like no way hahahaha! He said that he was going through a difficult time and that he has never been great with God and wanted to make things right! He asked for our phone number and we got his info and before he leaves he tells us "PLEASE CALL" And so I'm just like this is legit hahaha! Love it! The Church is true and the spirit lead him to talk to us!

Saturday the 26th

So today I wasn't feeling really good and the same with Sunday the 27th so we didn't do much! But at church we had the primary program and that brought tears to my eyes! The spirit is strong with the children especially when they sing! You can really feel that GOD loves all of his children no matter what they do! It was way awesome!

That was my week! PRETTY AWESOME!

 

 

 

October 14th-20th

 

Dear Mother,

 

This was my week 4 of my 1st transfer training!

 

Monday the 14th

We had our P-day and we had a good time doing our usual P-day stuff! Playing basketball and hanging out with the other missionaries! Loved it! We ended up going to Academy Sports and Elder Paul bought some Golf Khakis which were so nice.  I don't know if you heard but the missionary attire has been changed and missionaries are able to where Khakis now and lighter colored clothes! Not like crazy colors but just lighter! So I definitely want some nice Khaki's. And you might think I'm crazy but when I get home I want to get a Khaki suit hahaha! I just think it would be way cool! Anyways, at the end of the day we went on exchanges! Elder Kent came down to Long Beach with me. We headed to bed after that.

Tuesday the 15th

Today we had an appointment with this guy named Michael. He is a former investigator, and he called us and wanted us to come by.  So we did. Now I had heard of this guy before from Elder Henrie who said he was weird so I was like, oh boy! But we went and we discussed! And the whole time he was trying to show us up with the Bible.  Pulling out the Revelation scripture on us to try to prove The Book of Mormon was false! I"m just thinking people really don't know what the Bible is down here or where it came from. There is a scripture at the end of Revelations where it says that if any man should add or take away from this book he shall be cursed and they think its referring to the Whole Bible! The Bible isn't just 1 book, it's a collection of books! But some people down here believe that GOD wrote the bible himself! Like he himself wrote everything in it! Hahaha it's crazy, but we were able to explain and challenge him and his friend to read and pray about The Book of Mormon! After that we went up to Brother McDaniel's and had Lasagna for dinner! It was good! When we were talking with him I could feel the spirit strongly! It was interesting because when you 1st meet him you wouldn't think he would be so spiritual!

Wednesday the 16th

Today was our Zone Meeting where the whole Zone got together and the Zone Leaders taught us! Afterwards we went and had lunch and then practiced. That basically took up the entire day! It was crazy! When we got back it was time to go to our dinner appointment! We had red beans and rice! Now that's a southern meal that I LOVE!!! Red Beans and rice, good southern cooking! LOVE IT!

Thursday the 17th

We did our weekly planning today! Then we went out tracting most of the day! We found 2 potentials! One names Shawn Pratt and the other's named Jay! I was pretty stoked! We hope to see them again and they seemed legit! Jay just walked right out to us and just started talking with us! It was awesome! Later that day we went to Bishop's for dinner! They fed us Hamburgers! Nothing beats a good old hamburger! Then we watched this old missionary movie which was really good!

Friday the 18th

So today we also did a lot of tracting not too much success but we did find a potential! I hope that she does well!  Today was a really cool day! It's starting to really cool off and I like it! I might not ever have to live through a hot humid summer again hahaha! It's weird to think that I will be home before spring hits! (That's crazy stuff!) We then went over to the Slatten's for dinner and had a good time there! After that we went to coorelation meeting and that was fun!

Saturday the 19th

Today we went out to Lunch with Sister Wood! Well, all of the missionaries did! Tjen we went to get Elder Fishers bike fixed and that took about an hour! Anyways, after that I wasn't feeling to good! That sucked and so we basically just went back to the pad and rested a bit!

Sunday the 20th

We had church and Daniel Reilly spoke today.  He's one of my baptisms with Elder Henrie! It was awesome! ( I don't know if I told you but Daniel, in a year is thinking about going on a mission!) I was way excited to here that he might go! I hope he does! :) ) Anyways, we did some tracting again today but nothing! We went and taught this guy named Michael and we had a fantastic lesson! We talked about faith. The spirit was really working because our intentions were to teach The Plan but we ended up talking about Faith! Next time we teach he is going to try to get his family in! We committed his family to try and come to church next Sunday! I'm super excited for this family! I hope we can help him do it! :) The church is true! It just is!

Well I'll end there.  I hope all is well back home and I love you and miss you all!!

Love

Elder Kerr

 

We put our hands on the baby's head. . . . . and the spirit rushed into the room.

Dear Mother.

Not a whole lot of detail for this week because it was a slower week but it was a decent one though. We had a couple of good experiences! We met with Frank again this week and taught him the Plan of Salvation. That went really well. He told us he is still very interested and that he is going to read and pray more. He was talking with us and I'm pretty sure that he already has his answer but just doesn't know it yet. Anyways, we also found out that he won't be in Long Beach anymore! He will be moving to Gulfport so the other missionaries will be teaching him the rest of the lessons! Which is fine, I just want to see him join the church. =)

We also had an oppurtunity to go to the hospital to give a newborn baby a blessing. He wasn't doing so good. I had never given a blessing to a baby. They had him in a separate room to make sure he wouldn't catch anything. I don't even think the parents had a chance to hold him yet. Anyways, we went in and the doctors were hesitant at first but they let us in.  We walked in and saw this newborn baby just laying there and he looks directly at us and starts crying a little.  We put our hands on the babys head as gently as possible and I gave him a blessing. At first he started to cry but as we got further into it he stopped crying.  And then the spirit rushed into the room and it was so strong. One of the times in my life that I have felt it the strongest! I finished the blessing and he was looking right at me with the most peaceful eyes I have ever seen. It was like he knew everything was going to be alright. And that he knew that we were there to help him. It was the most undescribable feeling! But I left there knowing even more that there is a God! I was tearing up the whole way out of the Hospital I couldn't hold back my tears. =) It was an amazing experience! It strenghened my testimony of God even more!

Another experience we had this week. On Saturday we went out tracting and ran into this hard core Baptist. He was telling us that our religion is wrong. I told him straight up that we weren't there to argue with him! And from that point on the spirit took over and we were able to explain to him about The Book of Mormon. He accepted a Book and we challenged him to read and pray! When we testified even his apperence changed and it seemed like he was tearing up a bit! It was another cool experience, another time where the spirit was so very strong! I can't even remember most of the things we even talked about! Anyways, that was our week!

I love ya and I hope all is well.

The CHURCH IS TRUE!!

Love

Elder Kerr

I sure did LOVE conference, I always do now!

 

Dear Mother!

I sure did love conference! I really loved it! I always do now! It's hard to say what my favorite talk was, I loved them all. I have been trying to let the Holy Ghost teach me while listening lately. So when I write notes it's just whatever the Holy Ghost brings to my mind. Sometimes it's something that has to do with what they're speaking about and sometimes my notes are nothing to do with what they were talking about! It's actually really cool when you do it this way! Anyways, I did really like the talk by President Monson in the Priesthood session! It was way awesome and I loved it! He was talking about Home Teaching! I love President Monson!

Yep, I love Steve's Blondie's! So good hahahaha I ate them right up! I was so stoked opening that package and seeing them there hahahahaha good stuff! Thanks Steve! So on to my week!

Monday the 30th

P-Day! We had a great p-day! played some volleyball and surprisingly some Soccer, hahaha, I suck at Soccer but it was a lot of fun! We didn't have a basketball so we weren't able to play any B-ball! We went out to eat at a Mexican restaurant and emailed and that was about it! It was good stuff!

Tuesday the 1st

So today we tracted a ton but didn't really get much, in fact, we went up to one door and a lady comes running out and is like what church are you guys from? "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter day Saints" GO AWAY!!!!! hahahaha and we saw a few other people outside their houses and then went in when they saw us and wouldn't open the door when we knocked hahaha Oh well, hopefully the Lord will soften their hearts one day!

Today we had an appointment with a guy named Frank that we found tracting.  We taught him The Restoration. The Lesson went great! Elder Fisher is a great teacher already! He is like 50 times better at teaching then I was when I first started teaching! I didn't even speak! hahaha But we had a great lesson and he was really interested in learning more so we are going back in a week to see what he like about The Book of Mormon!

Wednesday the 2nd!

We had district meeting held my Elder Paul out District Leader! We had a good lesson on finding investigators mixed in with planning to find them! It was good! We then went to Raising Canes for lunch! I'm going to miss Raising Canes so much when I leave here! After that we went and practiced teaching and then went back home. Later that day the Waits brought us food and it was Pizza Hut! Good stuff! We also got a referral for a Micheal Parrow! We were excited for that!

Thursday the 3rd!

So today we went out to see a bunch of less actives! And did a lot of tracting! It was good but not much came from it! I felt good because I was working way hard but sad because not much came out of it! Oh well, we did find a potiential! That will be exciting! Then we went and ate at Subway! I'm greatful to get free subway once a week here! hahaha good stuff!

Friday the 4th!

So today sucked because my front bike tire went flat and there was no fixing it! We had to walk all the way to Walmart and back to get a tube! We got it and fixed it up and then we went and did some tracting. We met with the referral that we received the other day and him and his family seem way legit! I'm way excited to teach them! After that it was pretty late! We were picked up by the south Gulfport missionaries and spent the night there so we could go to the church in the morning to watch conference and play ball! It was way awesome!

Saturday the 5th

We got up played some backetball and went and watched conference all day! It was a lot of fun. The hurricane sucked, we had a couple of rainstorms here and there, a couple of really dark clouds went by but nothing much at all.   I was disappointed hahahaha! But General Conference was legit and I loved every minute of it! We were fed some pizza in between and then had some rootbeer floats after priesthood!

Sunday the 6th

It was the same good stuff and then afterwards we went to the Harper's for dinner and we were basically done for the day! It was a good week! And I loved Conference! It's the best! And it is my last conference in the mission the 4th and final one in my mission! THE CHURCH IS TRUE! Doubt your doubts, don't doubt your Faith!

love

Elder Kerr

 

 

 

 

Sept 23rd - 29th

Dear Mother

So we had a pretty good first week Elder Henrie's last day was Monday the 23rd.  We basically just did things that Elder Henrie wanted to do! We went around so Elder Henrie could say his goodbyes. I also got my haircut professionally, this is the first in the mission field. The last time I did that was in the MTC. HAHAHA. It was good! Sister Slatten usually does my haircuts for me! I love it!

Tuesday the 24th

Transfer day! I said goodbye to Elder Henrie and Elder Mossman, who were leaving the District. Then basically just hung out at the church all day until the new missionaries got there. Got a text message saying that I would be training Elder Fisher. He came in and he is a way awesome guy. He just barely graduated High School so he is about Megan's age. He's part Tongan, he loves sports and especially Rugby! A sport that I really want to try out when I get home. Sounds way fun. hahaha. We had a dinner appointment with the Clawson family. His first dinner appointment with the guy who played for the BYU football ( I think I told you guys about him, he was the one that took Sam Bradford with a broken collar bone!) haha anyways it was good. I was planning on taking Elder Fisher tracting right away but it was raining super hard all day! It kinda sucked! Oh well, we went to the pad and he unpacked and we then planned!

Wednesday the 25th

District meeting today! It was a great meeting with our new District Leader Elder Paul. He has been out about 8 months or so! He is way cool. So I guess president wants young leadership in the mission. I guess he doesn't want missionaries going home as leadership anymore. We have a lot of young leadership. Anyways after the meeting we went out to lunch and then we went out to see Howard and the Smiths! After that we went out tracting for the first time and surprisingly the first door we knocked on, the guy is a less active Mormon hahahahaha. I was like well that's convenient! His name was Gilbert Dasiova and we are going to try to come back and see him. Anyways, we didn't have a lot of success but we got a return appointment with a guy named Tim. We lent him a copy of The Book of Mormon and got a return appointment! We will see where that takes us!  He was pretty dang nervous! But so is everyone really there first time haha! After that we went to see the Slattens. Some really cool members and we talked with them for a bit. Sister Slatten loves missionaries coming over (she was the one to cut my hair) and we got to talk to her for a bit.  After that not much happened but it was a pretty good day to break him into missionary work.

Thursday the 26th

Now today was not a good day we went tracting and got nothing we tried a bunch of people and no one was home. But the Gulfport South missionaries hadn't emailed yet so we went and picked them up and took them to the library. Then we went to the Stevenson's for dinner and they made us MANTI TURKEY!!!!!!  I WAS LIKE, YES!!! I REMEMBER GRANDMA SHARON MAKING THIS FOR US! It was GREAT hahahaha!

Friday the 27th

We did our Weekly Planning! It was kinda slow because basically I was trying to show Elder Fisher how to do it and he was basically making the decisions. But it made sense, he's brand new but he definitely is catching on.  Then we went and tried contacting this referral that we received! She was hesitant at first but we lent here The Book of Mormon and got a return appointment with her so, hopefully, she is solid!  Then we went and got subway because we get free Subway once a week here in this ward! It is sick!!! Love it! We did quite a bit of tracting today, it was good! We did about an hour and a half tracting which can be a long time. But we tracted this big long street! Mt. Bass! And really for most the part no luck but we were going to this house and for some reason I thought this guy was going to yell at us so I was hesitant! But I said a prayer and we went anyways and he comes out and is like, "I'm not interested in anything you're selling boys" and we just say "We aren't selling anything", He says "is it free?" and we say "YES" and he says "can I eat it." You could but it wouldn't taste good haha. We started teaching him right there and he was interested he started reading The Book of Mormon right when we walked away and we got a return appointment and he said that he is looking forward to it! So me and Elder Fisher are really excited! His name is Frank and we are planning to see him on the 1st (so tommorow!) It will be good I hope :) After we tracted we went out with Brother Clawson and went and tried seeing a bunch of less actives! We got to meet 2! One was Amanda Cross and her husband Daniel. We just told her straight up, "we are here to invite you back to church" and she started to open back up to us! We got in and left a little message and we are going to start teaching them. I don't think Daniel, her husband, is a member! So I'm excited about that! Then we met a girl named Sherri Allen and we were straight up with her as well and invited her back and she started opening up to us. She said that she is interested in giving us a call and having us teach her and her family!  This is a part member family so the first thing that popped into my head was to teach them that Families can be together forever! It's going to be good!

After that we went to correlation meeting with our new ward mission leader, Travis Engebretson! And then went back home and planned! It was a great day!

Saturday the 28th

Today we saw Howard again, with the Smith's and then afterwards we went and saw Ezzard a recent investigator. We invited him to be baptized and he wants to! He basically has been taught everything, he just needs to read and pray and come to church. And have the Faith to do it! So we will be working with him! It will be exciting! We committed him to come to church and to read and pray to prepare himself! It will be good!

Sunday the 29th

Fast and testimony meeting!! I love it!  It was a great Sunday! Elder Fisher's first Sunday in the mission field! He got up and bore his testimony! And it was awesome! Not much happened after church but it was a great week! I loved it! And I love Elder Fisher!  He is from St. George my 2nd companion from that area. Elder Averett was the first!

Well I'll end there! The church is true everyone, the church is TRUE!

love

Elder Kerr