Elder Braden Kerr Mission

Man, this was a crazy eventful week! We had so many things that normally don't happen. We had our zone conference, we went to the temple, we had a baptism, and we had transfers! Because so much happened, I won't be able to write about all of it. So here are some highlights:   We had our zone conference, we went to the temple, we had a baptism, and we had transfers!   Well, sorry for the 95 percent of you who didn't laugh, but it was worth a shot. Anyway, I will share a couple cool stories. First was at the zone conference. Elder Haleck from the Seventy came and it was awesome! And even cooler, two Elders were chosen to have a personal interview with him, and I was one of them! I actually helped translate for someone else's interview, and then he kind of just did it with both of us at the same time, but it was awesome. Getting some pretty personal advice from a Seventy was a very cool experience.   Also, we had the baptism for Teraimateata Saturday! She ha

Hey everybody! This week was crazy, had some big ups and some big downs. Probably without a doubt one of the hardest weeks of my mission, but I learned a ton! I noticed so many tender mercies right when I needed them, I know that God answers prayers and that he is there to help us every minute we need it.   The thing that's so hard on a mission is seeing people you love so much making choices that you know are just going to hurt them. It is not easy to see people give up on God and give up on themselves, but unfortunately I'm learning that we can't change people's free agency. All we can do is show our love, work hard, and pray.   But, no use dwelling on the sad, I've got a pretty funny story that I want to share. There is a little kid in our ward, and the best way I can describe him is he is like Choncho, from Nacho Libre. He is probably only about 5 or 6, but I'm pretty sure he could take me in a fight. Anyway, he was sitting in front of me at churc

 Hey everyone! Hope you are all doing fantastically! Because I sure am. Sorry I have been slacking on the emails, I've got some stories and pictures this week to make up for it!    So one really cool experience with prayer this week. We promised someone that our Ward Mission Leader, fr Ah Sing, would be able to take them to a fireside, but then we could not contact Fr Ah Sing. We called him and his wife, and we went and yelled at their gate (Which is the equivilent of knocking on a door here). We couldn't really think of what to do, so we just went back to the car and said a prayer. When we opened our eyes, there was Sr. Ah Sing in front of the car waving at us! We went over and were able to organize everything to get our recent convert to the fireside, it was a really cool and immediate response to our prayer.     Another cool story. So a lot of things here have everything on the packaging written in French and English. I like comparing the languages to improve my vo

 One year ago from today, I was already in the MTC. One year from today I will be home! (Actually, I may be on the plane home, but same thing really). I hit the one year mark this Thursday and that was pretty crazy honestly. I still feel like I just started. I thought that for this email I would just send some fun things that have happened during the year.     I got to serve on both sides of a little island named Tahaa, and I now know almost every active member (and a whole lot of other people) by name. Tahaa is my second home!     I have given blessings to lots of great people, sometimes with very hard Tahitian names. The longest one was " Hiotua Teahui Tuiroaomatautuiahitihuamaitura e Clovis". We had to write it down.     I have eaten a lot of new foods, including Taro, Breadfruit, passion fruit, Dragon fruit, Manioke, and lots of different types of raw fish. Sashimi and poisson cru are delicious. Fafaru was not easy to get down.     I have read the book

 Hey everyone! Not a ton of time this week, but I've got one story worth telling, so here it goes!   We did a split this week with an awesome member, frere Aiamu, and we had a great lesson with him, but it went way long and by the time we left we were already pretty late for our next lesson. Well, by some miracle while we were driving back we saw our investigator for the next lesson running home on the side of the road. So we just pulled over and ended up doing the lesson with him and two of  his buddies. Not gonna lie, I felt pretty cool  just sitting on the side of the road preaching to these guys. I guess Frere Aiamu was thinking the same thing, because I noticed he started taking pictures of me on his phone. I was really hoping the investigators wouldn't notice, but then I guess he wanted some shots at a better angle, so he stood up, walked around all of us, and started taking pictures standing up from the other side. Not so descreet, but it was pretty funny. I'm no

 The family Qui, who were some of my favorite Investigators at Haamene and who are now baptised were in town and came to visit at church! The dad wasn't able to make it but here are some pictures!  Well, we got the news for transfers and I could not be happier!! I am staying in Papara, and Elder Bennett is going to take over Maraa, so we will still be in the same house together. Then one of my all time favorite people, Elder Brown, is coming to serve with Elder Bennett, and I get to finish the training of Elder Browns son, Elder Bellows. Good times!!    This week was a little crazy. One of our Zone Leaders got transfered a week early, so I actually ended up spending most of the week on splits with the other Zone Leader, Elder Hemon. It was really fun because he is from france, and I have only ever had American companions, so it was a nice change up, he is awesome.   Well, France won the world cup! And I realized that people here in Tahiti really don't care that much