Monday, February 10, 2014

Just want to be sure you all are actually reading these.

Guess what I'm emailing you from?? My iPad!! We got iPads this week,
each one of us. We were all so excited and with good reason. It is
sooooo nice to not have to fumble through piles of paper and try and
read some past Elder's hand writing... Tragedy. We did however have to
take ALL of the records and type them into our area books which are
now on our iPads, so the bad hand writing wasn't completely avoided...
That was tedious. We finally finished though!! It probably doesn't
seem like that difficult a task when we just got our iPads this last
Tuesday and we had it done last night... No no, it was definitely a
mountain to climb. We were just snowed into our house for 3 days so
from 9:30am-9pm each day we read and typed and read and typed, with a
break here and there to run out in the snow and shovel some driveways
and of course the exception on Sunday when we watched a couple hours
of devotionals because church was cancelled.
It was quite humorous being home bound when there was only 4 inches on
the ground! There were sirens everywhere though because of all the
accidents on the road... Apparently Oregonians don't like the snow...
School has been cancelled since noon on Wednesday! I do have to say
though, for being trapped in a small house for 4 days, I was trapped
with the BEST PEOPLE EVER. I wouldn't have picked anyone else in the
whole state of Oregon to be trapped with. The Heslops are hilarious
and Sister Heslop is a gourmet chef so that definitely kept us
entertained and full, Sister Lyons is definitely my best friend out
here and Sister Porter is becoming another one of my favorite
people ever. We all went to bed with stomach aches last night and I
don't know if it was from the amount of Chinese food that Sister
Heslop prepared or because we were all laughing so hard while eating -
probably a combination of the two.

So here are some miracles for this week, because those are my favorite
things to talk about :)
Monday:
After a fantastic p-day we get a call from a less active member
needing the missionaries number for his friend who lives down town and
wanted a priesthood blessing! This friend has been out of activity for
agessss but called him to see if he knew any mormon's numbers that
could get her the missionaries to give him a blessing. He called us.
After two hours of searching for a number, we FINALLY found it, called
the missionaries, sent them over, and now that woman is going to be
taught! Maybe that doesn't sound too cool but when you are dedicated
enough to be searching and calling all amounts of numbers over the
course of two hours, you feel pretty attached and now this woman will
be able to recognize and access the atoning power of Christ :)

Tuesday: we got iPads!! I think that is a miracle within itself.
Missionaries carrying around iPads... Madness. It is an amazing tool
though. We are able to teach from them, with them, and access so much
more information than ever before. There is a program on here that
blocks iTunes and the App Store and only allows us access to LDS.org,
Mormon.org, and other missionary websites and tools, so for all of you
that are like, "how is this possible?!" That's how :) the church is a
very intelligently run organization. As one of the piloting programs
for the iPads, the church leadership is going to test it until April
and see how well it is going then make a decision on whether or not
other missions will have iPads or if this is an idea they're going to
abandon and come back to down the road.

Wednesday: we got our car back, but then they gave it to the other
sisters and gave us back the van.... Apparently they want to prepare
us for motherhood ;) Our zone leaders are convinced that I am going to be a mega soccer mom and that I need the practice!

Thursday: there is a woman named Jeni who we have been trying to
contact since November... We have seen her once and got her number but
haven't had contact since then. The reason we have been trying to
contact her is because we got a call saying that she has been cleared
to be baptized!!! (Based on certain situations, some people need to
have more clearance to be baptized. It's rare, but it does happen) So
here we are trying to get this information to her and we can't. Plus,
we've never met the woman so we thought that would be a weird first
introduction. Since we have had iPads we have had to write in every
lesson's progress into them. She had been waiting
for so long, there were A LOT of lessons to put in. As you read and
type up all these records it feels like characters in a book and you
just become attached. Jeni had an incredible testimony and so badly
wanted to be baptized! We couldn't handle the wait anymore, so what did
we do?? We called her. She didn't answer (we didn't really expect her
to), so we leave a message telling her we have exciting news. She
called back!!! (Which happens, never). And we tell her she has been
cleared and what does she do?? She gasps, with a smile in her voice
and says, "really?!?!?" Yep. "Well can we get together and talk about
it sometime?!" Duhhh! So we set up an appointment for Tuesday and
invited her to church on Sunday (it got cancelled... Lame!) and we are
all so excited!! I can't imagine having to wait for something so long
(it's been 7 months), especially something like baptism. It makes you
really reflect on the importance of the covenants you made when you
are baptized and how often we take them for granted.

Friday: snowed in = time to finish the area book which was a huge
blessing because we had to have it done by the 23rd and no one thought
that would be possible. It is when you're snowed it :)
The better miracle:
On Wednesday we went over to the Marrs' home to try and teach him and
his wife (he's less active she isn't a member) this is the same home
where Sister Lyons got locked in the smallest bathroom ever with a vicious cat
that was clawing and hissing at me, but I don't know if I ever told
you that story... Anyway, we went over on Wednesday for a lesson with
Sister Marrs, but a nurse answered the door, the whole family was
there and Brother Marrs was laid out on a gurney... Brother Marrs
passed away that night. We called the Relief Society to, well, provide
relief... They were going to wait until the snow cleared up.... If you
know me at all, you know I wouldn't take that for an answer, and
neither would Sister Lyons or Sister Porter. So we were working on our
iPads and Sister Heslop was sitting with us and we started asking each
other, what is there to do? Sister Heslop was like, "what are you
talking about?" So we tell her and she starts to cry. The Marrs had
only been married a month (together about 7 years) and were in their
50s. Sister Heslop couldn't stand the thought about loosing her
husband and having no support so she gets up, say, "Rod! We need the
chains put on the van!" And goes into the kitchen to prepare ham,
potatoes, a salad, dessert, and anything else that she would want if
she was in this position. So what's the miracle? We made it to the
Marrs home safely, Sister Marrs welcomed us in, and Sister Heslop's
example made other women buck up and make their way over to see her :)
Saturday: have you ever played telestrations, with the Heslops?? Most
hilarious game, especially with them. When else are you going to be
best friends with 50 year olds?? Only when you're on a mission... Or 50.

Sunday: we finished the area book! AND redid all the contacts in our
phone so that we could know who all these people were and if we
actually knew them! I doubt you will understand how annoying and
tedious that was, but trust me, it was a miracle.

If anything else noteworthy comes into my mind I'll be sure to let you
know. I love you all and I'm grateful for your love and support.
One of my favorite scriptures of the week is found in the Doctrine and
Covenants 100:12, "Therefore, continue your journey and let your hearts REJOICE; for behold, and lo, I am with you even unto the end."

Let us rejoice in our God :)

I love you, xoxoxoxox!
Sister Kensey Pence Kerr

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