Hello Everyone!
They have a picture developing program at the bookstore and it’s really cheap so I decided to send you some pictures.
They have a picture developing program at the bookstore and it’s really cheap so I decided to send you some pictures.
This one is my district in front of the temple before Elders Ortiz and Winters left to Guatemala. From right to left – me, Elder Peterson, Elder Freeman, Elder Ortiz, Hermana Demers (she’s 27!), Elder Land, Elder Winters, Elder Hadfield, Elder Johns (DL), and Elder Skiles (sky-uls).
Left to right – Elder Kinser, Elder Peterson, Elder Lam, me – Elder Curtis.
A sweet card they gave me when I got here to carry with me on my mission. It’s not as big as it looks in the picture.
Every week we have a TRC appointment – Training Resource Center. I already told you about last week’s, but I wanted to explain it in general more. Every week we have a situation. We know ahead of time info about the “investigator” we’re going to teach so we prepare during the week. We have a beginning part where we have to use Spanish and talk to the person in different settings. The first week we contacted someone in “the park”; a different week we took someone to church on a “bus ride” and had to ask certain things during the ride. One week we “helped someone move” and had to know furniture words, etc., plus share a short message; last week we had to learn food vocab b/c we “ate at a café” an investigator owned and this coming Friday we are buying clothing at a store. These activities are mostly just to get us to learn certain things in Spanish and half the time we can’t do them b/c we don’t have time or there aren’t volunteers, but we prepare and learn the material so that’s what matters. After the 15-20 minute activity I just described we then teach a lesson. Before last week we did them in English, but now we teach in Spanish. Sometimes our teachers have us practice teaching people from other districts so we get lots of practice teaching.
Have I told you guys about my district’s obsession with the song “Come Thou Fount (of every blessing)”? There is a computer in our classroom and every day they get on to this certain general conference where MoTab sang it and they play it often, usually more than once a day. My companion is constantly singing/humming it and we are singing it for the second time in choir tonight. It has been talked about in at least 2 firesides. It was one of two special musical numbers in firesides (one was w/ piano, a cello, and voice), a district sang “O My Father” to its tune in Sacrament Meeting, and yesterday Jeri wrote and said she sang it in choir too! I was like AHH, this song is haunting me! Oh, and it was the closing song to a fireside (at least one). It’s really powerful, and I like it a lot, but too much of a good thing can get old pretty quick, and I swear I’m being haunted by the Ghost of Come Thou Fount. J
It was really cool in the fireside Sunday, because they talked about this documentary film they show all new missionaries called “The District.” The guy who was in charge of it talked to us about how it came to be. It’s like a reality-TV sort of thing. They had 4 missionaries trained in PMG for 5 weeks and then sent them to do missionary work for a couple weeks as they followed them around with cameras 24/7. It’s a really neat thing to watch because both companionships end up baptizing people at the end. It’s pretty cool they could teach and investigators could listen and respond pretty normally all in front of cameras. They had one of the sisters who was in it come talk to us as well. The mission they did was San Antonio TX.
As I said in my email, Elder Holland talked to us last Tuesday and it was so powerful! He speaks with so much passion he can’t hardly get all the words out he wants to say. He said VERY strongly “Don’t Go Home!” He talked about how WE are the most important ones to have a testimony. If we come home after the mission and fall away, PMG has failed because that’s one of its main purposes. He also talked about how important it is to teach w/ the Holy Ghost. We can have a member of the Godhead with us as we teach! The Father and the Son can’t come, but the Spirit can and it must. He also said very strongly “My mission means everything to me!” and said that quote about how he things of his mission every day. He’s an amazing teacher. He said he was exhausted but decided to come talk to us anyway – and boy did he talk! J
I got a haircut today so I’m not shaggy anymore. It sure is nice.
Hope you all have a good week. Love you so much,
Elder Curtis
P.S. I forgot to tell you who Elders Kinser and Lam are. They are some elders that left 1 or 2 weeks ago and they were awesome missionaries that really inspired me. They bore their testimonies to Elder Peterson and I and talked to us in Spanish for about 1 half an hour or more one time. They talked about how bad they were (at Spanish) when they first arrived, but through Christ have gotten much better. They are going stateside and are just awesome people.
Have I told you guys about my district’s obsession with the song “Come Thou Fount (of every blessing)”? There is a computer in our classroom and every day they get on to this certain general conference where MoTab sang it and they play it often, usually more than once a day. My companion is constantly singing/humming it and we are singing it for the second time in choir tonight. It has been talked about in at least 2 firesides. It was one of two special musical numbers in firesides (one was w/ piano, a cello, and voice), a district sang “O My Father” to its tune in Sacrament Meeting, and yesterday Jeri wrote and said she sang it in choir too! I was like AHH, this song is haunting me! Oh, and it was the closing song to a fireside (at least one). It’s really powerful, and I like it a lot, but too much of a good thing can get old pretty quick, and I swear I’m being haunted by the Ghost of Come Thou Fount. J
It was really cool in the fireside Sunday, because they talked about this documentary film they show all new missionaries called “The District.” The guy who was in charge of it talked to us about how it came to be. It’s like a reality-TV sort of thing. They had 4 missionaries trained in PMG for 5 weeks and then sent them to do missionary work for a couple weeks as they followed them around with cameras 24/7. It’s a really neat thing to watch because both companionships end up baptizing people at the end. It’s pretty cool they could teach and investigators could listen and respond pretty normally all in front of cameras. They had one of the sisters who was in it come talk to us as well. The mission they did was San Antonio TX.
As I said in my email, Elder Holland talked to us last Tuesday and it was so powerful! He speaks with so much passion he can’t hardly get all the words out he wants to say. He said VERY strongly “Don’t Go Home!” He talked about how WE are the most important ones to have a testimony. If we come home after the mission and fall away, PMG has failed because that’s one of its main purposes. He also talked about how important it is to teach w/ the Holy Ghost. We can have a member of the Godhead with us as we teach! The Father and the Son can’t come, but the Spirit can and it must. He also said very strongly “My mission means everything to me!” and said that quote about how he things of his mission every day. He’s an amazing teacher. He said he was exhausted but decided to come talk to us anyway – and boy did he talk! J
I got a haircut today so I’m not shaggy anymore. It sure is nice.
Hope you all have a good week. Love you so much,
Elder Curtis
P.S. I forgot to tell you who Elders Kinser and Lam are. They are some elders that left 1 or 2 weeks ago and they were awesome missionaries that really inspired me. They bore their testimonies to Elder Peterson and I and talked to us in Spanish for about 1 half an hour or more one time. They talked about how bad they were (at Spanish) when they first arrived, but through Christ have gotten much better. They are going stateside and are just awesome people.
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