My New Address in Idaho Falls

Elder James Curtis

1460 East Benton

Apt #4

Idaho Falls, Idaho 83401

12/02/2013

Well hello all this has been a really really slow week this week because of the holidays and almost everyone being out of town. I missed not being able to go out and do the crazy black friday this year but I still had a really fun thanksgiving. So this email will prob just be about thanksgiving and thanksgiving was an all day pday for us. So all of the zones in Idaho Falls started out thanksgiving with doing service from6:50am till noon helping with a turkey run marathon food donation thingy to help the less fortunate during the holidays. It was really cold but really fun mainly because the radio station was out there and we got to listen to popular songs that are currently on the radio. So we helped set everything up and got to stand near the finish line and cheer everyone on to the finish. We got to meet a lot really cool and crazy people (they were crazy because it was really cold and some people were not wearing thermals to run in) but we had a lot of fun. Then Elder Badoni (my companion and I) then went home and took a nap then showered and then the turkey feasts began. We originally had 5 dinners that wanted to feed us but we our investigators had priority and so we ended up only eating 2 thanksgiving dinners and at these dinners we were able to watch a couple football games on thanksgiving (cowboys vs raiders and ravens vs steelers). Those were fun games too and were being played at our dinners so we accidentally watched them with the families ;) And that was basically the summary of the wonderful thanksgiving that we had here in Idaho Falls. I hope that everyone else great one too in California. I better go do some shopping now so that I can have some food for this week. I love and miss y'all very much!!

11/25/2013

Well my new companion is pretty awesome! His name is Elder Badoni and he is from Albuquerque, New Mexico and he has a cousin that lives in the Klein Stake and she is currently serving a mission in Las Vegas West. Elder Badoni has come to visit his cousin a couple times and one of the times he came there was a stake dance and he believes that he has seen me there before. So that was really cool to find out but back to information about the area. I am currently serving in the Idaho Falls Central Stake covering the 3rd, 11th, and 26th wards and so far right now the area is very slow and has not had a baptism in almost 5 months but I am determined to get at least one this transfer. We do not have the biggest teaching pool currently but that will be changing soon. I have high hopes for this transfer and believe that it is going to be the best one yet! I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving and I look forward to what the Lord has in store us this next week. I love y'all very much and hope y'all have a great Thanksgiving week!!!

11/18/2013

Well hello hello another week has zoomed on by and so has another transfer. Unfortunately I will be leaving on Wednesday to go to the next zone north. So I get to stay in Idaho Falls another transfer but it will be in a new area for the holidays which sucks but I have met my new companion a couple times and I think it is going to be great transfer. We got our first good snowfall this past weekend! On Saturday morning my companion and I woke up to 4 inches of snow on the ground which was pretty cool. I still love the snow as of right now but I am sure I will get sick of it soon especially since I will going into another biking area. Elder Vigil and I were blessed with 2 more baptisms this weekend Carly Gray and Haileigh McOmber got baptized and that is always a great experience so if there are any baptisms in your ward coming up if you have time go to the baptisms and support your local missionaries and the new members of your ward. :) The baptisms were awesome and we were at the church like all day but it was still awesome! Well I have to go now and do some shopping and some packing but I love y'all very much!!!!!

11/11/2013

Hey so I don't have time to send emails today because it is veterans day and like 6 different missionaries are trying to use the computer to send emails. So to sum up this week we didn't have too much happen but we should have 2 baptisms on Saturday so next week I will definitely have more to write and have a fairly good email and hopefully I will have some pictures for y'all too. We also gave talks this week in Victorian Village and I spoke on Faith and I think it went really well. This was probably the first talk that I wasn't nervous at all to give! Well sorry again for this email being so short and not too good but I love y'all very much and am very grateful for all the support that y'all continue to give. 

Nice email from James:

Dang that's really cool about Dallin and the missionaries. I will have to give them rides and hang out with them when I come home!! Hopefully they will still live there when I come home! Thank you so much for the package those cookies are amazing and not good at all for my diet right now. Haha they were actually the wrong shoes but thats ok because I forgot about these shoes and they fit me better than the other ones. But I have to go now :( I love you very much and really do appreciate all that you do and have done for me my whole life because without you and dad I would not be on a mission right now. I love you very much!!

Love,

Elder Curtis

11/4/2013

Well we had a somewhat good week here in the Taylor Mountain Stake. Part of the Plaisance family was able to be baptized which was awesome!! But unfortunately Haileigh did not get baptized because she accidentally wore a bra that had pink hearts on it and she was really embarrassed and did not want to get baptized. Her friend Carley Grey has a baptismal date for November 16th so we are hoping to see Haileigh and Carley both be baptized on the same day. Our other investigators are progressing some faster than others but that's expected and we are super glad to see them progress. The weather here the past couple days has been freezing cold!!!!! It sucks to bike in so we have been trying to find members to go out with us and we will have them pick us up. So usually in the evenings we try to stay out of the cold especially since with the time change the sun goes down at about 6. So for a typical day we will bike during the day and find a ride to dinner and then a member or a priest age youth to go out with us in the evenings. Well I have to back into the frozen tundra again and hopefully I will live to be able to hear from y'all next week. I love y'all very much.

Love,

Elder Curtis

10/28/2013

It has been a fairly good week here with Elder Vigil we are continuing to work very hard to meet a district goal (25 baptismal dates) that Elder Miller and Lopes (the APs) have set for us. We are very close and have till the end of the evening tonight to reach that goal and hopefully we will be able to accomplish that goal. We have a baptism this weekend for the Plaisance family (Crissy, the mom, Haileigh, and Marcus) and we are helping Ross, the father, to be baptized 2 weeks later. This family has been meeting with missionaries since February and they have really been progressing well this transfer and are ready to be baptized and to make that next commitment in their lives. I am so happy to be able to be here for this baptism and am super excited for their family. Please pray for this family that they will follow through and be excited to make this covenant with Heavenly Father. I love you very much and really appreciate all help and prayers that y'all have given to help me out!! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Curtis

10/21/2013

It has been a pretty slow week so I don't have much to report. Sorry a bad email but everything is still going well Elder Vigil and I are still doing great we were not able to teach as many lessons as we planned on but we are continually trying to teach more. We currently have 8 investigators with a baptismal date and there names are Crissy Plaisance, Ross Plaisance, Hailey Plaisance, Marcus Plaisance, Evan Velasco, Sharron Hill, Rachel Judkins, and Brock Judkins. If y'all have sometime please pray for these people that there baptisms may go through and that they will have a desire to  come to church every week. Our closest baptism will be on Nov 2nd at 1pm for Crissy, Hailey, and Marcus. I am really looking forward to this baptism because we have been working with this family for a long time now. The weather is great right now not too cold yet but also not too hot. Well I have to go now but I love and miss y'all very much!! Have a great week!

Love, 

Elder Curtis

10/14/2013

Hello Hello how is everyone doing?? Well it has been a great week here in Idaho Elder Vigil and I were able to set 3 more baptismal dates this week. Elder Vigil is my new companion and he is really awesome. He is from Kansas and has been out 16 months. We are continuing to do really well in the area. The investigators are doing awesome! Some of them will be a little tough to work with but thats ok. The one I am talking about is Michelle Cravings and she is a Jehovah Witness but doesnt really practice it anymore. So she will be a tough investigator but she seems really interested in learning more. We had a baptism this weekend for a little 9 year old girl named Florence Burgess. She was solid since day one when we started teaching her. She wanted to get baptized right away and it was a really good weekend. Her baptism went really well and there was a few people from the ward there to help support her. Our next baptism is scheduled for October 26 at 1pm and it is for the Plaisance Family and I would really appreciate it if y'all could please pray for this family they need all the help that they can get. I am on a bike again which is really nice because I need to continue to loose weight and train for something called the LOTOJA (a bike race from Logan to Jackson). I have to go now but I love y'all very much and look forward to hearing from y'all next week!

Love,

Elder Curtis

Here is my new address for at least 5 more weeks:

Elder James Curtis

433 W 20th St

Idaho Falls, Idaho 83402

9/30/2013 and 10/07/2013

9/30/2013

Sorry I was not able to send an email last week the elders that I am with write their emails really quick and I ran out of time. So I'll try to do a 2 week update and hopefully I won't be forgetting anything. It has been another good week with Elders Heisler and Carroll. We have been working really hard to accomplish the goals that we have set for ourselves. Our investigators have been progressing really well as they come to learn more and gain a testimony of what we teach them. We currently have 10 baptismal dates and have a goal of gaining one more next week. These investigators are really progressing well and they are really fun to teach. We are always looking for more people to teach and trying to get more referrals from members. The members in the Idaho Falls area are amazing, really nice, and for the most part really missionary minded. I love working with members especially bringing them to lessons and teaching investigators in their home. Friends of investigators that are members really have helped in breaking the ice and help the investigators really understand the lessons. The most important thing that I have learned about member missionary work is how important it is to teach in a members home. The spirit is already there and the investigators can feel it the minute they walk in the house and that is really important for us as missionaries because we teach by the spirit and really need his influence when helping us teaching lessons to testify of what we teach. So please do all that you can to help the missionaries in your area 2 pretty simple things that you can do is offer to go out with the missionaries or invite the missionaries to have a lesson in your home. Missionaries everywhere are always looking for a good fellowship for their investigators and at the same time you feel joy more in life because you will gain the blessings of being a missionary and/or helping missionaries. I love y'all very much and hope y'all have a great week.

Love,

Elder Curtis

 10/07/2013

Hey sorry to do this again but it has been a crazy day and I don't have time for a big email so for a quick update I am staying in the Taylor Mountain Stake another transfer. I will get my new companion, Elder Vigil, on Wednesday. I dont know anything about him yet but he is going to be the new district leader so it will be good training for me because I feel like leadership/training may be near in the future. I am moving into a new apartment because they want to move sisters into sister newman's basement. So I will have a new address for y'all next week. Sorry again and I love y'all very much! Have a great week!!!

Love,

Elder Curtis

Here is great video that has given me completely different view on being a parent and has given me great appreciation for my mom and dad.  

9/9/2013

It has been a pretty good week here we had a baptism on Saturday! Karli Schmitt was baptized and her 16 year old brother  was able to baptize her which was awesome! It was an amazing program and a great experience to be able to see that. So as for me and Elder Viana most likely he will be going back to Spanish work on Wednesday so I may be getting a new companion soon. So it will probably be a short companionship but it has been fun while it lasted and hopefully this new one will be just as fun. The work is going really good here but after a few baptisms our teaching pool is a little low right now and we are constently trying to find more people to teach. We average about 13-15 lessons a week but they want us to be teaching at least 20 lessons a week. I was able to go on exchanges with the zone leader this week which has really helped me to strengthen as a missionary and realize how to become the missionary that everyone wants to be. I have been reading a book called the Continuous Atonement and it is super good and I am on chap. 3 and recommend all to read it! It was one of my birthday presents, thanks mom and dad :), and it is really good in breaking down the Atonement and making it very simple to understand and how to apply it into our everyday lives. The best part about it is that it is very helpful for people that may think that their sin is too big to be forgiven or they think that they can't be forgiven for the same sin multiple times. It is a real convidence booster and everyone should read it. If y'all would like to pray for some of the investigators in my area right now our current progressing investigators are Monica and her son Ivan, Florence, and Shailyn McAbee (Alysha Cook's daughter). I love y'all very much and GO TEXANS!!!!!!!!!

Love,
Elder Curtis

Catch Up

The blog posting has been switched to me (Amanda) so I am playing catch up today.

08/19/2013

We had another great week here. We had a baptism for a girl named Tahja Snooks and she is a wonderful 9 year old girl that has a ton of faith and is amazing to see in a girl that young. My companion, Elder Eldredge, got to perform the baptism and the confirmation and that was really amazing as well. We got 4 new investigators this week which was really awesome most of which were thanks to the Spanish speaking sister missionaries in our area. They found a guy named David and his family for us to teach and a girl named Monica and her family to teach and while we were out making visits with the ward mission leader we found a girl named Florence Burges who is also 9 years old and lives a few trailer houses down from Tahja Snooks. So when we teach Florence we are going to try and bring Tahja with us so we can have a fellowship/member friend for her and someone that will help get her to want to go to church with her. Other than that it has been a pretty awesome week hopefully these new investigators will have an open heart to the message that we have to share with them. 

P.S. - Attached is a picture of the group that me and my companion went with to Yellowstone (Our District and the Zone Leaders) and also a couple pictures of my super awesome mountain bike. Thanks mom and dad :)

8/26/2013 (6 months!!!)

So the inevitable happened the Texas Dream Team is over. :( Unfortunately my companion, Elder Eldredge is getting transferred this Wednesday. I will miss him but we both had an idea that this was going to happen since he has been here his whole mission so far (6 months) so we have been preparing for this most of this transfer. So yesterday we had a surprise baptism which was an amazing blessing. Alysha Cook, one of investigators who had been taught for 6+ months, last weekend finally found her answer that she should get baptized. So we met with her on Thursday and she said that she wanted to get baptized on Saturday, August 24th, and so we scrambled around trying to get everything planned and organized to have the baptism on Saturday and we were able to get it all worked out. We show up at the church on Saturday at 8 am to start filling the font and in the parking lot is a hearse and we started worrying and then we went into the relief society room and there was a dead person in there and then we started freaking out what are we going to do. So we tried pushing the baptism back a little bit but Alysha had to work later that day so that wasn't going to work for her. Eventually we realized that there was nothing we could do to have the baptism of Saturday so then we rescheduled it for Sunday, August 25th, at 5 pm and it went great quit a few members of her ward came to support her and it was a really amazing service. So its safe to say that it was a very stressful week for us but it ended up turning out great and was probably one of the most spiritual baptismal services that I have been to yet. This next week we should be gaining 2-3 more baptismal dates so this area is growing really strong and hopefully I will be able to continue strengthening this area with my new companion. We still 1 baptismal date right now and her name is Karli Schmitt and she will be getting baptized on September 7 so I am really looking forward to that too. Well I hope everyone is still doing great and I am always praying for y'all and love y'all very much!

Love,

Elder Curtis

9/2/2013

So I don't have much to say this week because it has been pretty slow because we are doing a little clean up in the area and acting like it was a white wash (2 new missionaries coming into a new area). Unfortunately the lady we baptized last Sunday did not come to church on Sunday so she still has not been confirmed yet. We are not sure why she didn't come but most likely she had to work so that was pretty bummer. The work in the area moving along great we have a baptism set up for this Saturday for a girl named Karli Schmitt who is an amazing 11 year old girl. She has progressed really well and has been ready for a couple weeks now to get baptized but she wanted to wait for her dad to come home and be there at the baptism and confirmation. We have also been teaching a girl named Florence who also has a baptismal date for Sept. 21 but that might be pushed back to Oct 6because she didn't come to church on Sunday. My new companion is Elder Viana and he is from Venezuela and he is 19 and has been out 6 months like me and my old companion (Elder Eldredge). He doesn't have an accent but he has also been living in Salt Lake for the last 5 years. So he speaks really good English which is nice so we can still communicate well. So far we are working really well together and we both think this is going to be a great transfer. Well I know I am forgetting some things that happened like always but I have to go run some errands and do some laundry before we go to zone activity at iJump (a trampoline park). I love y'all very much and look forward to hearing from y'all next week :)

P.S. - Thank y'all sooo much for the birthday wishes and presents It made my day getting cards and presents from y'all. They were amazing and Michelle you can send me cookies anytime you want those cookies were delicious!! 

7/29/13 Idaho Falls

Hey everyone it has been a great week here in Idaho Falls. I forgot to tell everyone last week but the area that I am in is a biking area. It really sucked at first but I have grown to love it. I have a pretty good tan on my arms and it forces me to work out so I am getting in shape. The biking was really hard at first but it is getting easier and I'm not getting too sore anymore but unfortunately the bike I am currently using is just a loaner for right now and I will have to go get a bike soon. We have 3 baptismal dates and hope to have one more on Tuesday!! The names and dates are Karissa Myrdahl which will be on Aug 1, Tahja Snook which will be on Aug 17, Shannon Hill on Aug 24, and the one we hope to place the invitation to on Tuesday is Kailey for Aug 17. Some of these people are struggling a lot and will need a Heavenly Father's help to be ready by the date that we have invited them to be baptized. Other than that we have just been doing a lot of searching trying to find more people to teach which is always a tedious process but has to be done in order to progress the work of salvation. I love you all very much and look forward to talking to y'all next week.

Love,

Elder Curtis

7/22/13 Idaho Falls

So everything is going good so far in Idaho Falls. Funny story my companion is actually from Spring, Texas but went to a different high school and we were in different stakes. We have a couple mutual friends but never knew each other before the mission. Whats even funnier is that I have only been out one week longer than him because of the transfer schedule of the ogden mission so most likely we will be on the same plane home. But yeah everything is going really well with me and him he is an extremely good missionary and has a very strong testimony. So some may have heard that I am senior companion but really we are co-senior companions and he has been in this area his whole mission so basically he is really the senior companion. I look forward to seeing what comes of this transfer and what Idaho Falls has in store for me! Well I'm off to do some grocery shopping now. I love y'all very much and pray for the best for y'all! :)

Here is my new Idaho Falls address:

 

Elder James Curtis

285 Plantation Circle 

Idaho Falls, Idaho 83404

7/15/13

Well I'm going to Idaho Falls!!! I will be leaving Paris, Idaho and going to the Idaho Falls South Zone on Wednesday! So as y'all can probably tell I am pretty excited to be going to Idaho Falls once I found out that I was moving into this mission this was one of the places that I wanted to serve before I went home. Maybe some of my friends/old roommates will come visit me. Tolan has already told me that he will come and feed me and my companion lunch sometime when I am up there so I am pretty excited about that. It's going to be a little weird at first being on a mission so close to where I was going to school but I think it's going to be a lot of fun and after my mission I will be able to go back and visit the people there. But yeah well I better go and start packing now. :)

Missionary Fireside

Email from James to Mary:

"Hey Mary there is a missionary musical fireside that will be this Sunday, June 30th at 7:00pm in Roy (near Logan) and since I'm leaving the mission my mission President said that I could invite you and Steve if y'all want to come that would be awesome! Well I hope y'all come."

And here's the picture proof of their meeting up:

6/28 Paris, ID

Honestly not much has changed in the past week. We are still consistently trying to find more teaching opportunities. Me and my companion, Elder Felton, are getting along really well and work really well together. I really started to notice this when we were teaching this less active and he had a ton of questions for us and he didn't really like the answers that we were giving him but lesson really well and me and my companion were really good at noticing when the other was getting a little frustrated and we would transition really well and give the other a break and time to cool down. I hope that everyone had an opportunity to watch the worldwide leadership training broadcast from the general authorities. It was amazing and is a really eye opener on how the church feels about missionary work. I feel like the church is pushing for a dramatic increase in missionary work and bringing others to restored gospel of Jesus Christ. If you did not watch it I recommend all to watch the video because the training was great for all members of the church. Oh and in the video when they were talking about missionaries getting the internet they were talking about how each missionary will be getting an iPad and each companionship will get an iPhone. These devices will be used to replace area books and daily planners and to teach people over the internet. This month alone in the Ogden mission there has been around 30 lessons over Facebook and face time. This is already being tested in a zone in both the Salt Lake and Ogden missions and once it passes it will move on to the whole missions (Salt Lake and Ogden) and once it passes that trial it will be spred out throughout many other missions including the Idaho Pocatello Mission :) So now that I am moving missions I will have to wait a little bit longer to get those but I should have the opportunity to use them by the end of my mission. I will be creating an Elder Curtis facebook page because there has already been a couple auxiliaries in the Paris Stake that have asked to add me and my companion so everyone should add me :) I will post a link below.

Just look up this email: james.curtis@myldsmail.net in the facebook search box to find me I haven't put up a picture yet but that will find me

6/18/13 Paris, ID

Everything is going pretty good in the Paris Stake. It's just a little hard in the area that I am in right now I'm having a hard time staying motivate when nobody is really home during the day. So yeah 1 to 5 time slot is a hard struggle right now but our evenings are going pretty good talking to a lot of members and we have gotten a few referrals for people to go talk to and see if they would like us to come teach them. What we have found out though from the past couple weeks that this area is really in need of some help in reactivate the less active members of the church. On June 29 we will be starting to be guides at the Paris Tabernacle and we will continue to be guides every other week on Saturdays from 1:30 to 5:30. So that will be good for fill up the time that nobody is home.  

The wards here are really nice and in the 2 Garden City wards they have a ton of people come. To show how many people come picture the Gleannloch building and it being filled all the way to the stage and that's what last week was in those wards. It was crazy but most of the people there were just visiting. We spoke in the Bern ward this past week and it went well I accidentally went over like 10 minutes but the nice thing about being a missionary is that I am starting to get pretty good at preparing and giving talks. Haha I still get really nervous and sweat a lot until I actually get up and start talking. But yeah I hope everyone is doing well and I hope that y'all have a great week!

Love,

Elder Curtis

6/4/13 Paris, ID

So this week hasn't been too eventful we are "white washing" the Paris Stake which means Elder Felton (my new companion) and I are both brand new to the area and know nothing about it. So for right now we are trying to get to know people and trying to find some people to teach. It is a really nice area and it's more of a summer towns so now is the best time for us to be here in the Paris Stake. Oh and most likely we will be doing tabernacle guides on Saturdays for the Paris Tabernacle. Well I don't have much more to report but here is a funny pic I took with a wood carving on a tree trunk which we found on the side of the road. I think it might be Mulan from the disney movie :)  My companion and the stake are really good but the missionary work will probably be really hard here.

 

My new address:

Elder James Curtis

455 S Main apt # A
St Charles, ID 83272

This will prob be my new address for at least 7 more weeks because the pocatello mission transfer schedule is off by 2 weeks from the ogden mission transfer schedule.

 

Here is a few pics from my new area. My new area covers half of Bear Lake.

 

 

5/28/13 Garland, UT

Well I just found out today that I am leaving Garland, Utah and I am going to Paris, Idaho. Unfortunately as of July 1, 2013 that area will not be part of the Utah Ogden Mission. I will be moving to the Pocatello, Idaho Mission will no longer be in the Utah Ogden Mission so that's going to be an interesting move this next transfer.

 

Here are some more pictures from docking sheep, branding, and lunch with the Kunzler Family:

 

5/21/13 Garland, UT

Honestly I don't have much to report this week. We don't have many investigators right now. We found a few less actives to teach and visit. We are still currently trying to find more people to teach by tracting, yes I said tracting haha, and going through the unbaptized list. I got letters from Lindsey, Amanda and Mom this past week and I will try my hardest to write y'all back this week. Thank y'all so much for the letters!! In my opinion they are way better emails. This last Saturday we went and docked some sheep with the Kunzler family out in Park Valley which is pretty bloody but it was still a lot of fun (sorry I don't have any pictures of that). So most likely I think I will be getting transferred this Wednesday so my address might be changing next week so keep that in mind if y'all are thinking about writing or sending me anything. I hope y'all are all still doing great and I look forward from hearing from y'all next week.

5/14/13 Garland, UT

Hey it was another good week here in Garland. We had another baptism on Saturday his name is Henry and he is 11 years old and he was pretty much ready to get baptized before we even met him. He had been going to scouts and knew a lot about the church and all he had to do was go to church 3 times. So we taught him the lessons and he came to church every week and he got baptized last Saturday. Sorry I didn't get time to call everyone but hopefully at Christmas we can get everyone on gmail  and do a google hangout so that I can talk to everyone. For mother's day the ward's here gave out flowers that could be planted in their gardens at home. I hope y'all had a great mother's day weekend and that y'all have another great week this week :)

5/7/13 Garland, UT

Sorry I dont have a lot of time this week again but I did have a baptism this last Saturday it went great and I will attach pictures below. Her name is Debbie and she is 11 years old. We have another baptism this week and his name is Henry and he is 11 years old too. Other than that it was a kinda slow week. We are still trying to find more people to teach. I went to the Logan temple today and it was really fun and great to be able to have the blessing of going to the temple every month. I have to go now hopefully next week I will have more time for emails. I love y'all so much and look forward to talking to y'all next week.

Here are pics of my ankle from last weekend (so y'all can see how bad it was) and a guy in one of the wards that looks like Robert Downey Jr.

4/30/13 Garland, UT

Hey nothing big too big or exciting happened besides me spraining my ankle Friday night at investigator soccer and then branding cows on Saturday. I forgot my camera so I will probably have to send the pics next week. So this week missionary wise we picked up one baptismal date and if everything goes according to plan they will be on 5/11/13 and 5/18/13. We are still trying to find more people to teach so we have been tracting a lot but we haven't been having too much luck finding non-members to let us in. We found a couple less actives that we are going to start teaching and hopefully get them ready to go to the temple. As for branding and soccer I had a lot of fun doing both maybe a little too much fun. Haha when we were playing soccer I had the ball and a guy came up to take the ball away so I passed it right before he kicked it and he ended up kicking my ankle instead. The next day we went cow branding and it was loads of fun except I got really sun burnt but it was still really fun and I want to do it again! I want to work on Brother Black's ranch when I come home that would be so much fun. So that's what I did last week :)

Love,

Elder James Curtis

(PS I have a new address for the now:

Elder James Curtis

138 W 100 N

Tremonton, UT 84337)

 

 

4/23/13 Garland, UT

It has been a pretty good week here in Garland. My companion is pretty cool. He is like all work and no play so it will be an interesting transfer but I think it will be another great one. We picked up a baptismal date for this 11 year old girl named Debbie on Friday and we hope to have 1-2 more dates by this Friday as well. Not much else happened this week. We had a couple lessons and a couple new people to teach. I'm going cow branding on Saturday in a town named Howell which is in my area! I need to get some cowboy boots so I don't get any crap on my shoes. Haha I'll try to get some pictures of it so I can send to y'all. Well I hope y'all have another great week and I will talk to y'all again next Tuesday.

4/16/13 Garland, UT

So this week was pretty good. We had a couple appointments cancel but for the most part it was another good week. We are continuing to teach Amber and Ronny and they are progressing well. We finally have another lesson set up with Amanda on Thursday and hopefully things will go well with her too. So I survived the transfers and am staying in the Tremonton apartment and I will still be covering the Garland Stake so that's some good news but unfortunately I will be loosing my trainer/DL because he is now becoming my ZL. I will be receiving a new trainer tomorrow and his name is Elder Haas. Everyone has told me that he is great and that we should get along real well so that's good news too. So I learned how to tie a new knot with my tie. It is called the trinity and it's kinda hard to tie but I think it looks pretty sweet. I attached pics to show what the knot looks like.

And here is a picture of my first zone: 

Top Row (Left to Right) - Elder Torres, Yorgesen, Manuel, Aragon, Lafond, Kipp, Rogers, Curtis (Me), and Grant.

Bottom Row (Left to Right) - Sister Wright, Minarchik, Howard, Sonasi, and Elder Ottley

4/9/13 Garland, UT

I'm doing great. It has been really cold here and it has been super windy too last night I thought I was in a hurricane. It hasn't really been snowing here recently but we got some snow last night. Yeah I watched a lot of general conference 10 hours is a lot but they had a lot of great talks so it wasnt that bad. My favorite session was priesthood I have always liked the priesthood the best for some reason and this conference was no different Beck and Uchtdorf had the best talks at priesthood. I really liked when someone in their talk this weekend said that it isn't called missionary work but that is actually missionary fun. It's hard work but I have to keep in my mind to have fun while doing it or it will be a miserable 22 more months. So yeah we picked up a non-active (Amber) and her fiance (Ronny) who is not a member and they seem really interested we go visit them on mondays and fridays. They have a hard time understanding everything so we have to break up our lesson to just one topic a visit vs. teaching a whole lesson each visit. But yeah they are really nice and I could see her becoming active again and when they get married I could see Ronny getting baptised. Thank y'all so much for all that y'all have done for me to be here today! Also, this mission has really changed my view on member missionary work. They talked about this at general conference don't be afraid to talk to neighbors or friends about the gospel. They worst thing they can say is that they are not interested. So look for opportunities to help the missionaries in your area by talking to your co-workers, friends, and neighbors and I promise you that you and the people you talk to will be tremendously blessed by you doing that.

 

Love,

Elder James Curtis

4/2/13 Garland, UT

I'm doing really well and I had my first baptism this last Saturday and his name is Wyatt Hickerson he is a 12 year old boy we were teaching. S transfers are coming up in a couple weeks and I don't want to leave Garland because there a few people here I want to see get baptized and some people we found that I want to continue to teach. But yeah we have a few investigators right now but none of them are ready to get baptized yet some need to come to church 3 times first and others need to get married first. On P-day we tend to go to a gym and play sports and once a month we go to the temple and play sports after. We play volleyball, basketball, and soccer. Today we went to the new Brigham City temple and it was really cool because this was built old fashion style with different rooms for the endowment session.

There is a guy here that makes hand made knifes and gives them to missionaries for free. He made me a dagger, yes a dagger! He ordered the blade and made the handle out of elk horn (maybe elk bone but I'm pretty sure elk horn). It pretty sweet and now I use it as my letter opener. :) Here are a couple pictures of mine: 

And here's a picture that was texted to Mom from a member's phone of Easter dinner:

3/19/2013 Garland, UT

It has been a pretty good week in Garland, Utah. I don't know if I said this last week my trainer/companion is also one of my district leaders and is from Iowa. I got to go to the Logan Temple this week and I had a great session. That temple is really cool and looks like a temple. We finally got in to teach a girl named Amanda this week. She has been really busy recently and had to last minute cancel 2 of our other appointments but we were finally able to teach her last night. Tomorrow I am going on exchanges with the Spanish missionaries so that will be and interesting day and hopefully I will learn a little bit of Spanish  The wards are great here they are really nice and welcoming. Its really hard being shared between 8 wards but its not that bad because it is a really small town and not that far to travel between the wards. I have a car in my area which makes it easier to get around between the wards. The car we drive is a Chrysler 200 its a small sedan. We get fed a lot here, 6 days a week, and each week a different ward feeds us. When I came into the area we had a few investigators that had already been taught all the lessons and 2 have baptismal dates and 1 we are waiting on the couple to get married and we just barely started teaching a girl yesterday who lives with her boyfriend. I got an awesome letter from Landon and Liam about the plan of salvation and how Landon wants to serve a mission in San Francisco but haven't gotten any of the dear elder letters yet so I'm guessing I will be getting those this week. :)

Email #1 from Garland, UT

I'm currently in a small town named Garland for my first transfer and most likely for the next transfer as well. It's in Utah and about 40 min north of Ogden. Garland has just under 2700 people in it and we cover 8 wards in the area. The people here, members and nonmembers, are really nice and great to teach. Yeah so far its been pretty rough in Garland we have a few investigators right now but they have had all the lessons before I got out here so right now we are just trying to get them to go to church, one couple needs to get married and commit to baptism. It's starting to warm now for spring and apparently I missed one of the coldest winters Garland has ever had. I have a new companion/my trainer and his name is Elder Grant. He's pretty cool we get along really well and we're still working on getting some new investigators. We have tried most of the referrals from the members of the wards in this area so now we are going to focus on tracting which hasn't been done in this area for few months (2 transfers we think). I can't wait to see what the Lord has for me in the future and I can't wait to see what kind a missionary I will become. Just before I left the MTC I restarted read the Book of Mormon because I forgot where I stopped so my roommate Elder Durant convinced me to just start over. I'm getting so much more out of it the second time round and know without a doubt that it is true. After about a week I am in 2nd Nephi 8 and I recommend everyone to read with me and then we can talk about it as we read. If y'all have any questions let me know so I can answer them. I love y'all and miss y'all. Only 101 more weeks left! :)

Love, 

Elder James Curtis

P.S. - Send me some real mail too cause hand written mail is awesome and I have a little bit of time at night to read and write back. :)

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Pictures sent to my mom from the mission president: