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: