Snail Mail 2/2/2009

Hey everyone! I’m not going to lose my letter this time!

This week was pretty good. On Tuesday I went to the new missionary orientation because a new group of missionaries arrived, and I hadn’t been to those meetings yet. It took almost all day, but now I am oriented. We went to ward choir that night which was pretty funny – only one man was there besides us and one other missionary companionship, but there were a decent number of women. The only problem is that Hispanic people don’t sing very well – the choir director was pretty good though, but he was busy directing.

On Wednesday we went to a member home and did service. We removed a bunch of weeds, plants, fences, etc., and then they fed us pizza. It was really fun. I could have got burned if I hadn’t been wearing sunscreen. I’m glad winter ended early.

It was fun to have lots of dinner appointments the last two weeks. They cook really good food and it’s funny b/c the same people like to sign up to feed us every week.

The work is going pretty good. We don’t have any solid investigators, but we do have some, plus some less actives to visit – so we don’t have to knock doors too often. Mexican people are pretty funny. They are too nice to reject you half the time, even if they aren’t interested, so a lot of our appointments just fall through. We went knocking yesterday, but the first house let us in. They were really nice, and we taught a lesson so hopefully they turn out good.

On Friday we went to a blood drive and gave blood. I thought that was a pretty good thing to do as a missionary. It wasn’t too bad either. It was my third time, and I think I’m getting better. I even got a sweet t-shirt. It says “Warning: prone to sudden acts of heroism, let the hero in you fly – donate blood.” It’s pretty cool.

Yesterday was fast Sunday, and I fasted. In church, the pianist was late, so I had to play prelude and the first hymn.

Okay, I officially hat that library – the internet is so slow! I had my hard drives with me this time so I didn’t lose what I wrote, but I thought after the time ran out, I’d be able to make a new computer reservation, but I was wrong – you can only use it once a day unless it’s like completely empty of people. So I used a little of another missionary’s time and printed my letter out. At least I don’t have to rewrite it this time.

Anyway, today was a pretty good day. I got some cleaning supplies from the store and cleaned our bathroom. The other elders in our apartment have their own bathroom, so just me and Elder Swenson share it. It was so gross though – months of elders never cleaning it – really gross!

It’s interesting to go shopping for groceries, since I never have till my mission. It’s hard to know what to buy – there are so many choices, and only so much money on my card. It’s fun though and I even bought plenty of healthy stuff so don’t worry. It’s kind of dumb though b/c when I arrived it was close to the end of the month so they didn’t give me a lot of money since you get more at the beginning of months, but I had to buy laundry stuff – which was more than I thought it’d be, and stuff to stock up since I was starting from scratch. For example, I bought peanut butter and jam which can last me several weeks before I have to buy more. Anyway the point is that I had to buy last week’s groceries with my own money – from my debit card instead of the monthly money on my new credit card. I also bought a blanket so I don’t freeze at night. Okay, I’ll stop complaining now – it’s not a big deal anyway.

We got a pretty good referral that we visited today. He’d seen a church commercial and called in for a DVD so we took it to him and watched it with him (“The Lamb of God.”) Then talked for a while – it was really good and we set up another appointment with him. His name is Juventino (J is like an H).

We went on splits Saturday for an hour. I went with Elder Funk and we taught this girl, Erica. The spirit was there, and I felt like she definitely might get baptized.

On Sunday Antonio got confirmed in Sacrament meeting. I even got to stand in the circle. Like I said though, I had to play the piano on the spot lol. Good thing I knew how to play the opening hymn! I also got sucked into playing tomorrow at zone conference. Sister Watrous asked me to accompany a musical number, then tonight I got asked to be the pianist for the other hymns as well. It’s kind of crazy, but I guess I better get used to it.

Have a good week everyone!

Love, Elder Curtis