It's gotten cooler which is way nice, had another rough week but we did get out.

Dear family,

     It has gotten cooler here too, the last couple of days have been way nice! In fact, it got pretty chilly on our bikes and that was way nice!!!  We had a rough week again.  I actually choked on some steak last Wednesday when we were out with some members.  Another missionary had to perform the Heimlich on me so I ended up in the ER.  And come to find out I have something called Eosinophilic Esophagitis. But the doctor said that I can heal from it. I will be using a handheld inhaler for 2 to 3 months and it should heal up and I won't have any more problems swallowing.  We were able to get out and see some people and we got in to Lavell Whitty who is getting really close to baptism. 

     I'm glad to hear that Grandma is doing better. I've been a bit worried about her all week.  I was also glad to hear that Ingela had a good endowment session. I will definitely go to the Oquirrh Mountain Temple when I return! Me and Aaron want to go on a big temple trip when we get back home.  I heard that Jackson will be getting a temple once they get one more stake.  I love temples!  

     That is awesome for BYU and that is very surprising to hear that Utah State beat Utah! Utah State seems to get better every year.  Speaking of college football, the college here in Monroe, ULM (The University of Louisiana of Monroe) beat the 10th ranked team in the nation, Arkansas! So people are going nuts here. ULM is a small university like Weber State, so it's pretty awesome that they did that!  And I'm looking forward to the package and the BYU shirt!!

     My companion taught me how to make Shepherds Pie this week. Have you heard of that? It's pretty good. This is the last week of the transfer so either Elder Crockett or I will be leaving next week on the 18th. It most likely will be Elder Crockett and I will be training, I bet. Well I'll end for now. I love you and I hope all is well with you guys. The Presidents wife should have called the house and left a message about me.  She will need some insurance information.  

Love your son
Elder Kerr

It rained, and rained and rained and the Hurricane went around us.

    

     So this whole week was not the best for doing the work.  Monday was P-Day.  Tuesday, I had my first leadership training it's a meeting directed toward District Leaders and I got to see my trainer Elder Blomquist that day. The first time I've seen him in around 3 or so months. It was good to see that guy, I do miss serving with him at times. We tried a bunch of people after that but only got in with one person.  Wednesday, we had our district meeting which instead the Zone Leaders taught this week.  We were instructed on how to use our time wisely and basically reminded everyone of the chain of command. Which means anyone under District Leaders should be asking District Leaders instead of going straight to the President or Zone Leaders.  The President wants us to be better about making decisions.  We tried to go on exchanges this day with the Zone Leaders as well but it didn't work out because we needed to help fill sand bags.  We spent the rest of the day filling sand bags.  Thursday, it rained all day and it was recommended we stay inside. It rained and rained and rained, it finally slowed down around the end of the day and the Hurricane went around us for the most part. So there was no flooding.  Then Friday, Saturday and Sunday Elder Crockett was sick and I found a bump on the back of my neck that's been giving me a headache and causing my neck to be sore when I turn my head.  President Pena who is also a doctor looked at it and told me what he thought it was and what I should do so hopefully that will take care of it.     

     Wow, what a change in the Bishopric!! So now I will be coming home to a new Bishop and a new Stake President!! Thats intense! I didn't see that coming at all. Bishop Mendicino did a fantastic job! He is a great man and has been a big help for me throughout my life.  Congratulations to Bishop Heslop, Ray Corry and Myan Burton. Thats awesome for them!!

     I hope Grandma Ivy gets better. Send her my love, please.  I'm glad that she seems to be recovering just fine thats a good sign. Hopefully, she can get out of the ICU soon. I have been in that place here on my mission and it's a place that scares me. I went to the ICU in Meridian to give a blessing once and a family came out just crying so that place kinda freaks me out now.

     That is awesome that Hillcrest got turf in there stadium now. That makes it that much nicer of a field. I already think that Hillcrest's Football stadium is one of the nicest in the state because it's a bowl, not just a field with bleachers.  That's way awesome that they got a new soccer field! How does that look?  I can't wait to see these fields.  Have Megan take pictures of them and send them to me.

     I sent Brendon a letter, I hope he got it. I think he gave me the actual MTC address instead of his specific address and box number but he should get it.  I hope.  Love ya!

 

 

                                                                        Elder Kerr

 

P.S.   I heard about the BYU game that is very exciting!!! And thanks for the new BYU shirt I can't wait to get it!

Zone Conference with the new President and looking forward to the hurricane!

Dear Mother, 

     I did here about the hurricane coming in but I heard it is only a Cat 2, so not that big.  And it's probably not going to hit Monroe until Tuesday or Wednesday. We will see though. I hate to say this but I kinda want to experience a hurricane on my mission. I know that is terrible to say but I'm actually looking forward to seeing how much rain we get from this hurricane!!! 

     Elder Crockett's hand is healing just fine.  He did have to go to the doctor but it wasn't too serious since the dog had had all of his shots. 
     This has been a fun transfer.  There's a bunch of awesome missionaries and I've been having a lot of fun with them, playing some basketball and such.  A big thing missionaries like to get here in the south is Rebel stuff like the Rebel flag. It's kinda funny!  

     That is exciting that Ingela is going to go through the temple! That's really cool! And thanks for that wonderful scripture (Helaman 5:12)!!! I loved it! And it's so true! 

     This week we got to meet with Lavell Whitty who is a recent investigator.  He's an awesome guy, and he said not to give up on him so we don't plan to. But he might be moving to West Monroe with his family, who are members.  We also helped Johnny clean out one of his storage units.  He works for a storage place and some people didn't pay.  There were a  lot of big things to move out and guess what, we got a deer head for our apartment.  So now we have a deer head for a decoration.  Thursday was the best day we had Zone Conference, our first one with the new President.  Zone Conference is always a great meeting to get together with all the missionaries.  Then we had exchanges right after with Greenville.  And double worked the area of Monroe.

     So tomorrow I'm going to my very first leadership training as a District Leader and I'm pretty excited because I will be seeing my trainer again Elder Blomquist, hopefully! I heard he was going to the same meeting as me but we will see! We also did some tracting this last Saturday! We decided to do some tracting on the south side of town the poorest part. We didn't get much but we did give out 4 BOM's so that was good!  

     Debra Christy is also doing very well she came to church and is still very solid. I still need to get a picture with her I keep on forgetting! It's frustrating, haha! I'm glad to hear that Grandma Ivy is getting better.

     Well I will end for now I love and miss ya Mom! And I hope all is well.  Love your son. 

                                                              Elder Shawn Kerr

Honored to be a tool in the Lord's hands.

     I cant believe that Brendon will be going into the MTC this Wednesday, it's amazing!  Everyone in our group of friends are growing in many different ways.  I'm grateful to have them as my friends and the example they give to me. 

    The Baptism did go through and it went very well she even came the next Sunday to be confirmed a member and received the gift of the Holy Ghost. I had the opportunity to be in the font during the Baptism. She is a really heavy set woman so me and Elder Crockett helped her in and out of the font. I was behind her when she went under and I had my hands under her back to help her up. It went really smoothly, only had to do it once. It was an amazing moment on my mission. There was some worries that she wouldn't be able to endure baptism but she did. She put a lot of faith into it and it was just an absolutely amazing experience. She is already talking about going through the temple in a year. The Lord has prepared her very well for baptism.  I was honored to be a tool in the Lords hands, to teach her and prepare her to enter the waters of baptism. 

     I also can't believe that I'm heading toward my 7 month mark. Aaron told me it even goes by faster after the 6 month mark. Im going to have another fun transfer I believe. The new Zone Leaders here are awesome guys and I'm getting along with them great. And Elder Crockett is as good as always. One of the new Zone Leaders here is a pretty good baseball player. He is from Kanab, Utah.  He played for Eastern Utah and he is probably going to be drafted by the St. Louis Cardinals. It's pretty cool to be serving around him. Since I have been in Monroe I have come to like baseball a lot more. 

     That is an awesome quote from Brigham Young, "I want to tell you, each and every one of you, that you are well acquainted with God our Heavenly Father … , for there is not a soul of you but what has lived in his house and dwelt with him year after year; and yet you are seeking to become acquainted with him, when the fact is, you have merely forgotten what you did know."  And I do feel something about this Anthony Smith. I hope he is lead to baptism either by us or someone after us. It truly was an amazing experience. I love this work. Sometimes it gets hard to put forth my full effort but I don't want to be anywhere else but here, on my mission, for this next year and half or year and 5 months soon. I love this church! It is so true! 

I love you Dad. I appreciate everything you do for me. I miss ya a ton.

                                                                  Love your son 

A GREAT week in the work!

Dear family,

     We had a wonderful baptism on Saturday but it wasn't Elder Crockett's and mine, it was the sister missionaries in the Monroe Area. They had the baptism. It was my first baptism interview though. As district leader I do all the baptism interviews in my district besides baptisms we do. The Zone Leaders interview those we lead to baptism. The mission average for each missionary is 4-6 baptisms throughout their entire mission so the 15 a month, you heard, could be right.  Our first baptism will be this coming Saturday, August 18th, at 2 o'clock so 1 o'clock there I believe.  And that's with Debra Kristy.    

          So this week was a pretty good week. We set up another baptism date on September 1st for Anthony Smith. He is a solid investigator right now who was referred to us from the Bishop of the ward. During our 2nd lesson with him he said something to us that touched me to the core.  We taught him The Plan of Salvation. And he said, "there is something about you two, it's like I have known you before.  Like I have always known you."  And that just confirmed for me that in the pre-existence I was pre-ordained to serve in this mission.  Probably the best experience I have had out on my mission so far :)  One I will always hold sacred.  I hope he will enter the waters of baptism.  Pray for him please.

     I'm glad to hear that Brendon's farewell went well.  And Megan's talk too.  I'm glad Megan saw what I saw as well when I started to prepare for my mission. I did see how much closer as a family we did get. So we will have 3 missionaries in the mission field from the ward now and just 6 and a half months ago we didn't have any in the field.

          The weather here is still very HOT but there have been a few cooler days.  It doesn't usually start cooling down here until the end of September but we have had such a hot year this year that it might not even cool down until mid October. So its pretty intense down here. The weather has been very interesting though maybe because the planets are lining up at the end of the year. 

     I do remember the olympics when they came to Salt Lake in 2002. I would probably enjoy them better now, at this age, because I was never really interested back then. And yeah people hear watched it so we heard about it. I heard that the basketball team won gold so Im excited about that. And I heard that the winter Olympics will come back to Utah. That will be exciting. 

      A GREAT WEEK in the work! I have felt the spirit many times throughout this week. From just learning how to show my love more to others to visiting Sister Meeks in the hospital (She had a stroke but is expected to make a full recovery), to helping 2 families move in, we did quite a bit of service. Another cool thing that happened this week is that the Stake President's son returned from his mission in South America.  Sunday was his homecoming.  I never even met him before but I can feel how much he has grown on his mission. It's weird to see returning missionaries when I'm still on a mission.  And then, of course, the wonderful baptism of Angie Mizel from the sister missionaries work was AWESOME! 

     I'm also glad to hear that Holly's blessing is helping her out. And I'm glad to hear that Marcelo is recovering. Well I will end for now. I love you and miss you. 

                                                                     

                                                                    Love your son 

                                                                    Elder Shawn Kerr

My first baptism, staying in Monroe and 6 months out!

     I'm staying in Monroe and I'm staying with Elder Crockett for another transfer! I can't believe that I'm 6 months out and on my 5th transfer.  I'll be a year out soon enough, Jared (haha).  Its crazy!  It's been an intense week!  Last Tuesday, Elder Crockett got bit by a German Shepherd on his hand pretty good.  But we did get to see some awesome people

     So our new investigator Debra Kristy is being baptized this Saturday at 2 o'clock. She is such a sweet lady and has been prepared well by the Lord. She used to smoke 4 packs a day but she has been smoke free for 2 years now. She told us on our first visit that she wanted to be baptized.  She believed everything was true.  She was giving up her coffee and tea from then on.  She wants to go to the temple.  She is such a sweet lady.  I automatically have come to love her to death. She has been to church the last 2 weeks, it's so exciting! 

     Two Sunday's ago we were asked to speak and teach the combined 5th sunday meeting in Winnsboro. It's not our area but we did it. It is a small branch has like 26 members there last Sunday. It was my first time in a branch and not a ward. I think they are awesome down there. I can feel them closer together since there are so few of them. We talked on scriptures for sacrament meeting. Then for Sunday school we taught the 3 youth in the ward, about strengths through the Lords commandments on prayer, reading scriptures and paying tithing stuff like that. Then we taught the combined 5th sunday meeting. We taught about conversion and revelation. We taught all 3 hours but it was a fantastic Sunday. I felt the spirit strong there. A member from the Ruston high council drove us down to Winnsboro, his name was Brother Randle. He was a very nice talkative guy. He gives every member a 2 dollar bill so I got a 2 dollar bill now.
     Tell Liz thanks for her support, I appreciate it and tell her hi as well :) And yes I did receive your letter and grandma Sharon's package and money gifts.  Thank you all so much.  I enjoyed that cake mix grandma!  It was way good!  Sorry I havent replied yet.  I usually get funded by the mission, $155, the last day of every month.  Whatever day that turns out to be. 

     I'm so glad that Dad got both vehicles working. He is very talented with that stuff and I hope I can be able to do that kind of stuff as well someday! I do like doing things with my hands. 

     So you know the member that called you guys yesterday, Brother Boyle, who was feeding us? He said that if I got to a Junior college for 3 semesters and get A's I could have a good chance of getting into BYU. So Im going to do that! Go to SLCC for 3 semesters and get good grades and try to transfer to BYU! I would love that! (Brother Boyle called us yesterday and spoke to Shawn Sr. for a few minutes while they were feeding our missionary son.  He said he thinks he has a hollow leg.  And they were feeding the missionaries some good Utah food.  He has 3 degrees from BYU and thinks Elder Kerr should most definitely go there.)

     That is some terrible news! That makes me extremely sad to hear about Marcelo! And Hollys boyfriend Kim:(  Send my love! 

     I can't believe that Brendon is heading into the MTC soon. That's insane I'm way excited for him! Well , I've got to get going.  I  love you and miss you all!

                                                                  Elder Kerr

P.S.  In answer to your question mom I still do want a GPS for Christmas and I will for sure be needing some new garments maybe another pair of slacks and some new shoes but I'm okay with everything right now.  Just some ideas for Christmas like you asked.

There was this change in her eyes. It was a pretty awesome spiritual experience!

     So this week was way good.  We have a new potential investigator which we had a pretty cool experience with.  Ever since I got here in Monroe we have been trying to see a guy named Andre. Every time we go over there he isn't home but quite often we run into his wife.  At first she hated us missionaries. They had met her before I got here.  And everytime we've gone over there since and she is there and he isn't, you can just tell that she isn't interested in what we have. But the 2nd to last time we were there a thought came to me that if she was there I should ask her if there was anything we could do for her.  So again he wasn't there and then I asked her. "Well since he is never here and you are is there anything we can do for you?" When I asked her that, there was this change in her eyes.  Like a change in how she thinks of us. We said good bye and I got this thought that maybe we aren't meant to go see Andre but his wife Mary. So the next day we went to try again. And again he wasnt there.  So again we asked if there was anything we could do for her. And this time she really got interested.  So we got talking with her and I could tell there was now this desire in her eyes of what we have. It was a pretty awesome spiritual experience! She went from hating us to respecting us. The spirit is working on her very well!

     Last Thursday I got to meet the new Mission President.  He's visiting every missionary apartment in the mission and he came to our apartment at  9 am.  He is such an awesome guy! I think Im going to get a long with him great. He is such a chill guy! His wife is very nice also.

   We also visited a member named Sister Meeks who likes art like I do so I drew her a picture. I drew her a picture of the gold plates turning into The Book of Mormon. I took a picture of it so you will get to see it next time I send the memory card home but I need to get more pictures first.

     We also ran into a guy who had done some research about the blacks at the beginning of the church.  He was offended about the church teaching the mark of Cain. We tried to explain to him that the church isn't racist in anyway but he wasn't having any of it. But we put his name on the potential investigators list anyway. 

     I'm sorry you guys have been having so many car problems lately.  And I too am thankful that grandma Sharon and Connie and Johnny were there to help.  Well I'll end for now.  I love you and miss you guys and I appreciate all the support you have given me. 

Love your son 

Elder Kerr