July 21st, 2014

Hey I don't have much to report this week because unfortunately Elder Wyllie and I have been sick all week with a nasty stomach virus. So it has been a pretty sucky week for both of us but we are slowly starting to recover from it. Umm....so last Saturday on July 12th we had a baptism for Ceilidh Clark. It was super awesome she was super prepared and we didn't really have to do any teaching at all. Of course we still taught all of the lessons but she already knew so much and knew the answers to almost all of our questions before we would ask them. Well I don't have too much else to talk about so I hope all of y'all are doing well at home and hopefully I will have more to talk about next week :) I love y'all tons!! 

So I have attached a few pictures from the past few weeks. One is a picture that a random lady took of us as we were walking to church a couple weeks ago. One is a picture of me in my sleep apneia machine. One is a picture of Elder Wyllie and I. One is a picture of our baptism that we had a couple weeks ago.

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Love,

Elder Curtis

P.S.  I also added some pictures taken at dinner with The Grandview Ward Mission Leader and his wife, Jeff & Sonja Jones last Saturday.  Elder Curtis and Elder Wyliie are in the picture.

Walking to church

Ceilidh Clark's baptism

Elder Curtis & Elder Wyllie

Eating dinner with Jeff & Sonja Jones

Trying out a CPAP machine

July 7, 2014

So I am super tired so I am going to be really lazy this week and keep it super super short and add some pictures. So Elder Wyllie and I are doing great together and we will be having a baptism this week on July 12th!!! Ceilidh (Kaylee) Clark is 9 years old and is super smart and knows pretty much all of the lessons so we only have to go over some of the bigger words and covenants with her but fortunately her mom sits in on the lessons with us and helps us to explain the lessons better. So we are super excited and super motivated to go out find more and more people to teach and baptize. I will definitely have more pictures for y'all next week but I love y'all very much and hope you have a great week!!

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Love,

Elder Curtis

P.S. - Those 4th of July pictures were from a members camera because I accidentally left mine at home :( Oh and someone saw us walking to church took a picture of Elder Wyllie and I as we were walking to church and then offered us a ride to church. So here is another picture of us. 

June 30, 2014

Hey I was able to find a computer to send an email this week. So today we only have a 2 hour p-day because they are going to give us an all day p-day on Friday for the 4th of July. Supposedly Idaho Falls got 2nd place last year for best firework show so I am super excited to see how great it really is. So we have been having a great week we have been teaching like crazy in order to be able to reach our monthly goals that we set for the area. We have been having a hard time trying to get in contact with our investigators because they are all busy between work and family that is the most common excuses that we have been receiving from them. Fortunately we have a super solid investigator named Ceilidh (it is gaelic and really pronounced Kaylee) and she is 9 year old girl that Elder Tovar and I found but the family wanted to wait for July for her to be baptized. Her family doesn't really come to church because the mother travels a lot and because there was a situation with them wanting to wear kilts to church and the Bishop wouldn't allow the son to pass the sacrament and the father and son got offended so we are trying to work with the whole family through the baptism of Ceilidh Clark. She has been coming to church with a member family for a while now and we never realized it but made us feel bad for a little bit for not noticing but at the same time it was one of those tender mercies/miracles that we have been praying for to be able to have a baptism this month. Our mission has recently changed some of its goals. In the past the goal for the mission was to baptize 1500 per year and we have been able to get really close but have never been able to accomplish it. So our mission president, Pres. Brinkerhoff, had a meeting with L. Tom Perry after a regional stake conference and L. Tom Perry wants each missionary to be baptizing 10 people per year which has increased our mission goal to 2500 per year! Well I have to go now but I love y'all very much!!

 

Elder Wyllie and I are continuing to grow tremendously together and we have set some pretty hefty weight loss goals for the next 5 weeks so we are currently trying to start waking up at 6am to get an extra 30min of workout time. I will be doing a lot of cardio and just trying to eat better and less so can be skinny again. haha

P.S. - The Mission office address has changed:

Idaho Pocatello Mission Office

135 South 7th Ave

Pocatello, ID 83201

My home address is still the same.-- 

Love,

Elder Curtis

June 24, 2014

Email from one of the ward mission leaders James worked with.  I thought this was nice of him to send us:

James is an outstanding young man.  He will do well throughout his life because he has been taught well by his parents.  He does love his parents.  Right now he is working hard and working to be the best he can be.  What he hasn't figured out yet is he doesn't have to be perfect to be a highly effective missionary.  We've had 4 missionaries so it is easy to talk to him.  I am hoping I can get to talk to him more.

 

Well, it is late this evening.  It was excellent hearing from you.  Thank you ever so much for your kind effort.  Have a fantastic week!

 

Your Friend,  Ken Gilbert

June 23, 2014

Well nothing too adventurous has happened this week with Elder Wyllie but we were able to set a baptismal date with a 9 year old girl named Ceilidh (Kaylee) Clark and her family has been planning for a while now to have her baptized in July so we went over to her house to set up a date. The baptism will be on July 12th so we will be having a baptism soon. We had to wait so long to be able to set that date because we were waiting for the parents to find out when family was planning on coming into town. Her Grandpa will be the baptizing her so we had to wait and see when he was coming down. As for Casey and Christine unfortunately neither of them came to church this week so that was a bummer but we will hope for next week. So other than that we have had a pretty slow week and were unable to teach too many lessons this week. This week should be better though and hopefully we will be able to find more people home. Elder Wyllie have been having a blast working together so we are looking forward to being together another transfer. Well like usual I don't have too much to talk about this week but I love y'all very much and am super thankful for all of your support!!

P.S. - The family history center will be closed next week for 4th of July so I am not sure if I will be able to send an email next week. 

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Love,

Elder Curtis

June 16, 2014

So this week has been really good Elder Wyllie and I are continuing to work really well together. So this Wednesday is transfers but we found out that Elder Wyllie and I will be staying together for another 6 weeks! We have some great potential investigators and we should have a baptism in July. Unfortunately Casey Forkenbrock was out of town all week and wont be home for a couple days but we found a new investigator yesterday and her name is Christine Price and she is super awesome and only believes in the bible right now but is open to finding out more about the book of mormon. So things are going great in the area we are finding more and more people to teach now we just need to start getting them to church :) Well I love y'all very much and am grateful for all the support!!

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Love,

Elder Curtis

June 9, 2014

I will start off by apologizing for not being able to send a mass email last week. We were off doing p-day shopping and horsing around for most of the day and then we forgot that we still needed to send off some emails. Instead of mailing off a mass email to mom and dad I decided to send a personal letter to each of them and about my current struggles. Um....so on that note on to this week we have been having a good couple weeks. We have been teaching a ton but we do not have a lot of people currently in our teaching pool. We have a couple in there but we are always praying more investigators. We have found a lot of people out and about and we will stop and talk with them and share a message but most of them have told us that they respect what we are doing but are currently not interesting in having the missionary discussions. Currently are only progressing investigator is Casey Forkenbrock and she is the one that we did the service for when we pulled out her stumps out of her front yard. She is a private investigator and doesn't know her schedule from day to day so our lessons have been just random stop by and hoping that she will be home. Unfortunately the only thing really stopping her from being baptized is coming to church. She will always tell us that she will definitely come to church as long as nothing gets in the way but most of the time between work and family coming into town something has stopped her from coming every week for the past month. We have talked to her about putting Heavenly Father first in her life and have promised her blessings many many times and she is slowly starting to realize that her priorities are out of order. So she is starting to realize the importance of things we ask her to do and soon she will come to church and feel the Spirit stronger and start to gain a testimony of what we have been teaching her. Well I better go now but that is a little update on the current missionary work going on in my area. I love y'all very much and hope that y'all have a great week!!

P.S. - I hope y'all are all reading Preach My Gospel and I will share an awesome quote that I have found as I am currently reading PMG from cover to cover instead of by topic.

“The most important of the Lord’s work you will ever do will be within the walls of your own homes.”