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.