Hey everyone! Thanks for all the letters.
I'm writing a tad later because we went to the temple a little early to do initiatory, but the wait was already 45 minutes so we did sealings instead. Elder Peterson hasn't done either so it was a great experience. Then afterwards we sat in the Celestial room for a while.
This last week we got some new roommates. They already know Spanish so they'll leave before us. They are from the US and are going to Mexico on their missions. They are great elders.
I know I'm improving my Spanish cause when I think back to how bad I used to be I can tell I’ve improved, but during each week and day it's hard to notice the progress, but I know I'll eventually get it down so I'm not worried. Ross wrote some Spanish in his letter and I was surprised by how much he remembered especially after learning Thai :)
On Sunday we have Sacrament meeting at 8 and priesthood at 11. Each week they randomly pick an elder and a sister to give a short 2-5 minute talk (in Spanish). We have to be ready every week in case we get picked. I haven't talked yet, but I have lots of good lessons already :) Then after the two talks, one of the presidency, or a visitor, or a wife talks for the rest of the time. In priesthood one of the presidency usually teaches the lesson.
I can never remember what I have told you and what I haven't so bear with me if I ever repeat myself. We live on the third floor of our building so we are constantly climbing stairs :) I don't mind too much though – I need all the extra exercise I can get since I sit around the rest of the day.
I've been able to play the piano at least once a week which has been nice.
Elder Peterson plays trumpet but he wanted me to teach him bass clef. He is so funny though, because for some reason he just plain can't relax his muscles. Tense up all the muscles in your hand and that's what it looks like when he tries to play. That's also why he can't roll his r's because he can't relax his tongue! He also has a hard time with his back and he can't get adjusted very easily because he can't relax! It is so weird. I'm grateful I can relax my body :)
On Friday we went to the doctor because Elder Peterson's back was bothering him and he found out he has a nasal infection. The doctor also "tried" to adjust his back a little. Normally they ship medications to the MTC, but we couldn't go back that day so we got to leave the MTC and walk to the BYU health clinic to get some meds for him.
I heard from one of my teachers that gas prices are below $2 and I was SHOCKED! That's absolutely crazy.
I heard about the BYU game. Kind of disappointing.
Oh, guess who came to devotional last Tuesday? Jeffrey R. Holland! It was so powerful of a talk!!! We've seen a talk he gave a couple years ago here and he repeated some things, but also said lots of new things. He is so passionate about missions!!!!!!!!!!!! I loved it. I also watched the "Gift of Teaching" talk he did for a teaching broadcast. It was from earlier in the year I think and I enjoyed seeing it again. I saw it on Sunday. He is such an amazing apostle.
For TRC this week we prepared everything for it, but we didn't get to do it since they never have people here on Fridays to teach. Plus we had to go teach Alessandro again. We are actually making some progress on him so that's encouraging. We talked about prayer. I don't have any more time but have a good week!
Love,
Elder Curtis
Tuesday, November 25, 2008
Tuesday, November 18, 2008
Email 11/18/2008
Hi everyone. Once again, thanks for all the letters and prayers. I know they helped me this week. It was kind of a crazy week.
On Wednesday my teacher Bro. Lindahl made us sign up for this "investigator" thing where we go and teach this guy – but not just once. We keep teaching him and progressing with him until he is either "baptized" or stops the discussions. The worst part is we have to do it in Spanish. :) He is from Europe so he has that pride and he is probably harder than any real investigator I’ll ever have for real. He has all these objections and questions that are hard to deal with – esp. in Spanish. It's going ok though we have a few things up our sleeve, but we've already taught him twice and haven't gotten through the first lesson yet ha-ha.
Then we had another surprise in the RC this week. They made us do some Spanish calls so we had to talk in Spanish. The one person I did get a hold of was like "just speak English" then went on to tell me to take him off the list. It hurt. Not only did he not want to talk to me in Spanish (because he could tell I wasn't great at it) but he also didn't want us to contact him anymore. I guess it's good practice for when I get rejected in California. :) So yeah, I've been doing a lot more in Spanish.
This week was week five so everything had to be in Spanish from now on. The only thing that was supposed to be in English was our TRC lesson, but Bro. Lindahl set me and Elder Peterson up with a lady that didn't know English so once again it was Spanish and I was left wishing I could express myself like I can in English. Thankfully my comp got a 34 on the ACT so he knows Spanish better than me since he can learn so fast.
We always sing our hymns in class in Spanish. I bought a small Spanish hymn book when I first got here. There aren't as many as in the English one and the numbers are all different, but it's fun. Since they have to follow the music, they don't directly translate the hymns so lots of the same hymns have slightly different meanings or words. It's interesting.
It's really hard not to gain weight here. I have to run during gym or I gain weight. I'm already like 155. I'm trying to get back down to 150 so I can fit comfortably into my black suit again lol. Other people have gained like 15 or more, but one guy lost 35 so I guess it depends how well you take care of yourself. Usually I like to play a little four square and then run about 2 or 3 miles on the track above the gym.
On Sunday we got to watch "Joseph Smith, prophet of the Restoration." I really like that movie.
I gave my comp a blessing the other day. He hurt his leg playing soccer and he also wanted me to bless his back and help him get over his sickness. A couple weeks ago the whole district pretty much had a cough, but he's the only one who hasn't gotten completely over it yet. He said he was already feeling better the day after the blessing though so I'm sure he'll be fine.
It's so fun to hear about Stormie's baby. I'm glad everything is working out well. To answer her question, getting up at six thirty isn't too hard, but I always get really tired between 10 and 12am. I'm doing fine with the schedule though.
Anyway, things are still going well here. Going by fast, but I'm trying to enjoy my MTC experience. All the sunshine sure has been nice. I'm not excited for snow and ice but it will be a short winter. :D
The laundry room is huge, there are like a million washers and dryers and it is still hard to fine empty ones lol. It's nice to get clean clothes though. We always get 100% on our room check every week. We have like the cleanest room on the floor. Of course it helps to only have two of us, but anyway, we are both very clean :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Curtis
On Wednesday my teacher Bro. Lindahl made us sign up for this "investigator" thing where we go and teach this guy – but not just once. We keep teaching him and progressing with him until he is either "baptized" or stops the discussions. The worst part is we have to do it in Spanish. :) He is from Europe so he has that pride and he is probably harder than any real investigator I’ll ever have for real. He has all these objections and questions that are hard to deal with – esp. in Spanish. It's going ok though we have a few things up our sleeve, but we've already taught him twice and haven't gotten through the first lesson yet ha-ha.
Then we had another surprise in the RC this week. They made us do some Spanish calls so we had to talk in Spanish. The one person I did get a hold of was like "just speak English" then went on to tell me to take him off the list. It hurt. Not only did he not want to talk to me in Spanish (because he could tell I wasn't great at it) but he also didn't want us to contact him anymore. I guess it's good practice for when I get rejected in California. :) So yeah, I've been doing a lot more in Spanish.
This week was week five so everything had to be in Spanish from now on. The only thing that was supposed to be in English was our TRC lesson, but Bro. Lindahl set me and Elder Peterson up with a lady that didn't know English so once again it was Spanish and I was left wishing I could express myself like I can in English. Thankfully my comp got a 34 on the ACT so he knows Spanish better than me since he can learn so fast.
We always sing our hymns in class in Spanish. I bought a small Spanish hymn book when I first got here. There aren't as many as in the English one and the numbers are all different, but it's fun. Since they have to follow the music, they don't directly translate the hymns so lots of the same hymns have slightly different meanings or words. It's interesting.
It's really hard not to gain weight here. I have to run during gym or I gain weight. I'm already like 155. I'm trying to get back down to 150 so I can fit comfortably into my black suit again lol. Other people have gained like 15 or more, but one guy lost 35 so I guess it depends how well you take care of yourself. Usually I like to play a little four square and then run about 2 or 3 miles on the track above the gym.
On Sunday we got to watch "Joseph Smith, prophet of the Restoration." I really like that movie.
I gave my comp a blessing the other day. He hurt his leg playing soccer and he also wanted me to bless his back and help him get over his sickness. A couple weeks ago the whole district pretty much had a cough, but he's the only one who hasn't gotten completely over it yet. He said he was already feeling better the day after the blessing though so I'm sure he'll be fine.
It's so fun to hear about Stormie's baby. I'm glad everything is working out well. To answer her question, getting up at six thirty isn't too hard, but I always get really tired between 10 and 12am. I'm doing fine with the schedule though.
Anyway, things are still going well here. Going by fast, but I'm trying to enjoy my MTC experience. All the sunshine sure has been nice. I'm not excited for snow and ice but it will be a short winter. :D
The laundry room is huge, there are like a million washers and dryers and it is still hard to fine empty ones lol. It's nice to get clean clothes though. We always get 100% on our room check every week. We have like the cleanest room on the floor. Of course it helps to only have two of us, but anyway, we are both very clean :)
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Curtis
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
Email 11/11/2008
I'm glad I got to hear from Stormie what she is having before mom told me. Another niece!!! I am so excited. Now I'll have two Sobrinas :)
Yes, I did hear about the election. It's kind of sad. People had no idea what Obama really stands for. His wife is like even more liberal than he is and I hear he is quite liberal. Like 96 percent of African Americans voted for him and like 70 percent of the new voting population. I'm sure most of them weren't too educated about the different candidates. Isn't he a high school drop out? They did a survey and asked people if they were voting for Obama because he is lowering taxes or because he wants to keep medicine how it is and people were like "both those reasons" when in reality Obama is doing opposite those things. I guess we should have hope that he can do it, but I don't know, he's not the one I would like picked.
Have you heard about Proposition 8 in California? It was like a HUGE thing over there. One of my teachers Hermano Lindahl is from California and went to help with the election. Thankfully it passed (with lots of help from the church) and so now gay marriage is still illegal over there. It's probably one of the issues I’ll have to deal with a lot on my mission. The church actually came out and took a side and told members to vote yes for it. Anyway, enough about politics.
Sunday was a great day. I got to watch the Testaments of one fold and one shepherd. The fireside was also good and I felt the spirit really strong that night.
I mostly liked last Tuesday's devotional though. It was Sister Julie Beck, the general Relief Society president. I guess she is related to the Bangerters because all of a sudden she started talking about my stake president!! It was SO cool. She told the story pres. Bangerter had told me before I left about how he got to be companions with his brother the last three days of his mission. It was so touching; I loved hearing it again – especially from the younger brother's point of view. She said he learned three things from his brother during those three days. I won't tell the stories, but the lessons he learned were: love your companion, love the people, and love your stake president. It was a really cool talk.
I had a cool experience in the RC Wednesday. I got to accept some inbound calls and I got one of them to accept the missionaries to her house so that made me happy. The other one was like "Me and my husband like to watch Christian videos at night instead of TV so I called for the free DVD" and I was thinking "RIGHT ON!!" There are good people in the world :)
The TRC was good on Friday. We taught an amazing Hispanic man who was supposed to act like an investigator (and he did) but it seemed like he was teaching us a lot more than we taught him – he just kept talking. It was great; he had lots of cool insights. We only taught like half our lesson though lol.
There are surprisingly quite a few people here at the MTC I know from High school, college etc. It's fun to see so many people I know and talk to them. Most of them will be gone pretty soon though, but then Bradley will come! That will be way fun. Anyway, now I get to go to the temple. Hope everyone has a good week!
I love you all. Good luck in all you do. I'm excited for all your letters this week.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Yes, I did hear about the election. It's kind of sad. People had no idea what Obama really stands for. His wife is like even more liberal than he is and I hear he is quite liberal. Like 96 percent of African Americans voted for him and like 70 percent of the new voting population. I'm sure most of them weren't too educated about the different candidates. Isn't he a high school drop out? They did a survey and asked people if they were voting for Obama because he is lowering taxes or because he wants to keep medicine how it is and people were like "both those reasons" when in reality Obama is doing opposite those things. I guess we should have hope that he can do it, but I don't know, he's not the one I would like picked.
Have you heard about Proposition 8 in California? It was like a HUGE thing over there. One of my teachers Hermano Lindahl is from California and went to help with the election. Thankfully it passed (with lots of help from the church) and so now gay marriage is still illegal over there. It's probably one of the issues I’ll have to deal with a lot on my mission. The church actually came out and took a side and told members to vote yes for it. Anyway, enough about politics.
Sunday was a great day. I got to watch the Testaments of one fold and one shepherd. The fireside was also good and I felt the spirit really strong that night.
I mostly liked last Tuesday's devotional though. It was Sister Julie Beck, the general Relief Society president. I guess she is related to the Bangerters because all of a sudden she started talking about my stake president!! It was SO cool. She told the story pres. Bangerter had told me before I left about how he got to be companions with his brother the last three days of his mission. It was so touching; I loved hearing it again – especially from the younger brother's point of view. She said he learned three things from his brother during those three days. I won't tell the stories, but the lessons he learned were: love your companion, love the people, and love your stake president. It was a really cool talk.
I had a cool experience in the RC Wednesday. I got to accept some inbound calls and I got one of them to accept the missionaries to her house so that made me happy. The other one was like "Me and my husband like to watch Christian videos at night instead of TV so I called for the free DVD" and I was thinking "RIGHT ON!!" There are good people in the world :)
The TRC was good on Friday. We taught an amazing Hispanic man who was supposed to act like an investigator (and he did) but it seemed like he was teaching us a lot more than we taught him – he just kept talking. It was great; he had lots of cool insights. We only taught like half our lesson though lol.
There are surprisingly quite a few people here at the MTC I know from High school, college etc. It's fun to see so many people I know and talk to them. Most of them will be gone pretty soon though, but then Bradley will come! That will be way fun. Anyway, now I get to go to the temple. Hope everyone has a good week!
I love you all. Good luck in all you do. I'm excited for all your letters this week.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Wednesday, November 5, 2008
Email 11/04/2008
Once again I had a great week. At our teaching appointment Friday there weren't many volunteers since it was Friday and Halloween so we taught the Hermana in our district and I thought it was the best we've taught so far. In the RC we learned how to take incoming calls. None came during the short time I was there, but I can continue doing outbound calls--though it seems like 80-90% of numbers just go to answering machines.
Oh, another reason today is a sad day is because the two elders from our district who are going to Guatemala left today! They are going to the MTC down there so they left this morning. It is so sad. Almost like part of the family just up and moved. It will be lonely without them, but soon we'll all be gone. There is an MTC in Chile, but I guess gringos don't go there, just natives.
Sunday was another really nice day, though we didn't eat two meals. Instead of priesthood we had a mission conference with all the MTC. They do that every fast Sunday. I got to use my rain jacket for the first time since it was raining so much that day. We still went to the temple and took pictures in the rain. We wanted a district picture before the two elders left. It was a good day--the fireside was pretty good too. After, we watched "Mountain of the Lord" I've never even heard of that movie, but apparently it's been around for a while. It was so good! It's the story of the saints building the Salt Lake temple and the story is told through Wilford Woodruff. If any of you haven't seen it, I suggest you do.
My Halloween wasn't that exciting. I didn't do anything different except eat some candy from my friends and switch nametags with another elder so I could be "Elder Land" for Halloween. :)
Anyway, life at the MTC goes on. People come, people go. I hardly get to know people and then they're gone! Oh, guess what? I played the piano in sacrament meeting Sunday. I might play at least one song this Sunday too. I'm glad to be able to play the piano every once in a while. There are some really good people in my branch. It's great to learn from them and hear their testimonies. Anyway, guess I better go. Have a wonderful week. Once again, thank you so much for all your support, letters, and love.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Oh, another reason today is a sad day is because the two elders from our district who are going to Guatemala left today! They are going to the MTC down there so they left this morning. It is so sad. Almost like part of the family just up and moved. It will be lonely without them, but soon we'll all be gone. There is an MTC in Chile, but I guess gringos don't go there, just natives.
Sunday was another really nice day, though we didn't eat two meals. Instead of priesthood we had a mission conference with all the MTC. They do that every fast Sunday. I got to use my rain jacket for the first time since it was raining so much that day. We still went to the temple and took pictures in the rain. We wanted a district picture before the two elders left. It was a good day--the fireside was pretty good too. After, we watched "Mountain of the Lord" I've never even heard of that movie, but apparently it's been around for a while. It was so good! It's the story of the saints building the Salt Lake temple and the story is told through Wilford Woodruff. If any of you haven't seen it, I suggest you do.
My Halloween wasn't that exciting. I didn't do anything different except eat some candy from my friends and switch nametags with another elder so I could be "Elder Land" for Halloween. :)
Anyway, life at the MTC goes on. People come, people go. I hardly get to know people and then they're gone! Oh, guess what? I played the piano in sacrament meeting Sunday. I might play at least one song this Sunday too. I'm glad to be able to play the piano every once in a while. There are some really good people in my branch. It's great to learn from them and hear their testimonies. Anyway, guess I better go. Have a wonderful week. Once again, thank you so much for all your support, letters, and love.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Snail Mail 10/28/2008
Excerpts from two letters sent 10/28:
Half an hour is so short to write everything about my life (in an email).
Every Sunday (except for fast Sunday) I get to sing in a choir. It's just practice and then on Tuesday we have one more practice and then sing in the devotional that night. Then we do it again the next week. :) My companion isn't the best singer, but he wants to be better.
We just got to listen to L. Tom Perry speak in our devotional. It was really cool. I love all the amazing talks we get to listen to. Oh, and by the way, there are 500 people that sing in the choir, but when everyone is singing in all the bleachers and gym it is so cool!
So I think I misspelled the mission my comp is going to. It's actually the Chile, Rancagua mission -- not that you care, just in case. I've heard that Anaheim has one of the highest retention rates. One of the members of my branch presidency said his son went there and came back knowing Spanish better than his other missionary children since there are people from like all the Spanish-speaking countries there! He could tell where everyone was from just by how they spoke! He wouldn't say how many baptisms he got, I think he just said it could be a whole ward. :) I've also heard tons of people say they knew some awesome people who are there/were there. It's pretty exciting.
The people in my district are: Elder Freeman, Ortiz, Winters, Peterson, Land, Hadfield, Johns, Skyles, and Sister Demers. Oh, and the frosted flakes here are real. The guys in my district eat so much! Mostly Elder Land and Elder Peterson. I eat more now that I only eat 3x a day, but their diets are ridiculous and Elder Peterson has a smaller waist size than me! He's pretty athletic and very good at soccer. He likes to lift weights, break dance, play soccer, do the stock market, etc. When we first moved in he found out his spray deodorant had sprayed all over the plastic sack it was in. Our room smelled like it for like 3 days. Then his parents sent him his favorite salsa through air-mail in a cubby in a lunch box with an ice thing. The air pressure change made the vinegar in it go out and soak everything else in the package. That smelled even worse. Actually the cologne didn't smell bad at all, but when he dried the vinegar on the papers on our vent, our room smelled bad. :)
Did I tell you about the elders who moved into our room? They came up from the beginning class, but then one went back and the other moved next door, so it's just us again. Maybe some more will come and move in tomorrow since new arrivals come every Wednesday.
Guess what? We found some secret compartments in our room with hidden stuff inside. We found a little Styrofoam airplane and a flag and a paper frog. Isn't that cool?
We get to watch a movie every Sunday, and the movies change that you can watch (4 options every Sunday). So that will be cool. There are 2 classes every day (except Sunday and P-day) and one session where we study with our companion, by ourselves, and study the language. Then we have a zone meeting every Friday and after the meeting we go teach people lessons who aren't missionaries but come and pretend to be investigators. We so far only did part of it in Spanish. On Wednesdays we go to the Referral Center (RC) which is a place that you call real people on the phone to see if they want to talk to the missionaries. It's kind of scary. Most of them already got a pass-along card and got something for free from the church so we just see if they got it and see if they're interested. On Sunday we get to go take pictures at the temple and walk around the outside. On Tuesdays we can go inside.
I get to sleep on a bunk bed. I have to sleep on the bottom so I can use my machine. I never knew it was so hard to make a bunk bed and I bet it's just as hard to make the top bunk. I lost one of my black socks today while doing laundry so I'm kind of sad. :( Every Thursday morning I get to clean. They have missionaries clean so they don't have to pay people -- plus then missionaries keep it more clean. They only have to hire a few people and the rest is cleaned when we do our service time.
Make sure that Dad puts on my blog that I don't have hardly any addresses so people have to write me so I can write them!
It is so weird to not call people by their first names. When I hear what their first name is I think it sounds so weird. I guess I have to give up the name Shane for a while. :)
Love,
Elder Curtis
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