Tomorrow we get to start working with Elder Zelnick. This is his last transfer before he goes home so we are “killing him.”
Anyway, this week was good. We finally got Erasmo to commit to a baptism date so that’s a miracle. We are planning it for the fifth of July. We also had Edith and Juan with a date as well as Edwardo who is 10, but none of them came to church so we’ll have to push those ones back. We are also hoping to set a date with Julia soon.
We tried to set one with Rigo and Michelle, but didn’t get a firm yes. We had a really good lesson with them on Saturday and told them they have to do what the Lord asks and he will provide the way for them to get baptized. They are really scared that Rigo is going to get deported though. He goes to court on July 6th. We are praying that the judge will make the right decision and that he will maybe even take Rigo off of probation. Then he could get baptized. Otherwise, it will probably not happen soon. We are sure Michelle will be good to go sometime soon, as long as Rigo gets divorced and they get married. If he gets deported that might also solve the problem, but that would be sad. That’s not what we want. Those people down in Mexico need to get to work and get the divorce to happen. Rigo is doing almost everything he can, but if they don’t do anything I don’t know that it will happen.
A less active family fed us at the mall this week. It was at a place called Gangis Khan. Julia Rico, a less active, also fed us at a place very similar a couple weeks back called Mongolian BBQ. Anyway, I wanted to tell you how cool these places are. All the food they have is frozen. You take your bowl and fill it with frozen meat, vegetables, noodles, etc. then put the oils and sweeteners or whatever you want in and give it to the cooks. Then they put it on this super big hotplate and cook it in front of you. They use these giant chopstick-like things to cook it then put it back in the bowl and give it to you. It’s super good!
We also had zone conference this week and it was really good. I always learn so much there and get uplifted and excited about missionary work.
We had some more miracles I wanted to tell you about. One of them started by us going to IHOP the middle of last transfer. We met some members there and one of them recently moved into a rest home because of a brain tumor. They asked us to visit her so one day we did. It was one of the days when Elder Sharp wasn’t feeling very good energy/attitude-wise. As he was trying to help her feel better he sort of healed himself by the advice he gave. Anyway, after Elder Sharp left we decided to go back to see the lady and watch the Testaments with her. Afterwards the receptionist was talking to us and it turns out she is a member and wants to refer her co-worker to us! There are like three members there and they have been working with this lady named Vanessa and even took her to church a couple times. Well Vanessa turned out to be GOLDEN. Unfortunately we had to pass her over to the English sisters who work in our area, but we had a great lesson with all four of us there and they set a baptism date. It’s great to see the hand of the Lord in the work!
We also just found a really great investigator that’s Spanish. He was a church headquarters referral and he’s pretty solid. This work is great, I’m happy to be a part of it. I just hope a couple of our investigators get baptized soon because I think I’ll be transferred next month.
Everyone keeps talking about their garden and I think it’s funny we kind of have one here too. Elder Fraga is growing sunflowers as I’ve already told you (I think). They are growing super fast actually and are already like 10-12” tall!
That’s pretty crazy you guys are putting in a fence. Finally Comet will have room to roam around (after he goes to the orchard of course:) !
It’s pretty cool to have an investigator with a baby exactly one month older to the day than Miyah. I can see what she’ll be like in a month. It’s the son of Rigoberto and Michelle.
Yes Ross, I did reach my six month mark. It was on May 20th. No my time at home did not count towards my mission so yes, I’ll be staying an extra transfer at least. I came back on January 20th so you can just add two months to the time it’s been since that day and that’s how long I’ve been out.
That’s cool that you’re teaching flute lessons Mom! I’m proud of you. I remember when you were teaching Stormie how to play the flute.
As I look back on my mission I am amazed at how much Spanish I’ve learned. I know I’m being blessed. I don’t even feel super scared to talk to people on the phone any more.
I’m still playing the piano in all the church meetings since there really isn’t anyone else. I even played the organ one week (without the pedals) so it’s been fun.
We also confirmed Joaquin this Sunday. The other elders had 4 others so that made a total of 5 confirmations in one sacrament meeting! It was pretty crazy. The people giving talks didn’t have to talk as long.
Anyway, I’d better be done. Elder Fraga is ready to go. It’s been a good day though. We played soccer again so I’m glad I’m getting some exercise. Hopefully that will help me burn off the 20-25 lbs I’ve gained on my mission so far.
Love you all,
Elder Curtis
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Tuesday, June 9, 2009
He’s a great kid and is really smart.
Hey Everyone,
This week has been interesting. We’ve had to get used to only being in a twosome. I guess the new missionaries won’t get here till June 16th. So guess what? I got to baptize Juaquin yesterday! It was a neat experience. I was grateful for that opportunity. So we had a lot of lessons with him this week to get him ready. He’s a great kid and is really smart.
Michelle finally decided to make some changes in her life. She really wants to change. So she told Rigo that he needs to leave until he’s divorced. We were happy she finally did something to get this divorce moving along. Rigo did leave but didn’t take anything with him so of course he had to come back. When he finally did come back he had drugs in his pocket and Michelle freaked out. She started yelling and throwing stuff so the neighbors called the cops and since Rigo is on probation they came right over and threw him in jail. So then Michelle and her mom Sonia (a member) had to go bail him out by paying $1600. Imagine how hard that would be for a poor Mexican family. And Sonia was upset because that didn’t have to happen. Anyway, I was excited they were separated, but now Rigo and Michelle are back together. I just hope they can get the divorce done soon so they can get married.
We got to do a little service on Saturday and help a member Hno. Urrelos clean his pool filter. Then he fed us pizza so that made me happy. We also got the mechanics to bring a carpet shampooer so we could clean our carpets. It helped a lot, but some of those stains are impossible.
Erasmo has started to notice that whenever he does something to get closer to God, something bad happens to him in his life. Last transfer he got in an accident and totaled his car and of course he didn’t have money to get a new one. He also said he is having family issues at home. Then last of all he lost his job. He blames it on the fact that he bought a bible lol. Who knows if that’s true, but he is really having lots of difficulties and so I really hope this helps him instead of pushing him away from the church. He is really looking hard for an answer of what he should do. Pray hard for him. I really hope he can pull through and make the right choice. His “home” is a garage and half the time he sleeps at the Pantoja’s house. He’s actually got a pretty good attitude so that’s good. I just hope he can make it. He’s been to lots of baptisms and goes to church faithfully. Most of the members probably think he is baptized lol. He’s really nice and makes lots of friends. I think he’d fit in really well if he decided to make the step of faith which is baptism.
Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Today has been good. We’ve cleaned our apartment, the car inside and out, played soccer with the district, and gone shopping. Now we are going to eat dinner with the Martinez family here in the mall so I better go. Have a good week everyone! Wish I could be there for the party at home! :)
Love,
Elder Curtis
This week has been interesting. We’ve had to get used to only being in a twosome. I guess the new missionaries won’t get here till June 16th. So guess what? I got to baptize Juaquin yesterday! It was a neat experience. I was grateful for that opportunity. So we had a lot of lessons with him this week to get him ready. He’s a great kid and is really smart.
Michelle finally decided to make some changes in her life. She really wants to change. So she told Rigo that he needs to leave until he’s divorced. We were happy she finally did something to get this divorce moving along. Rigo did leave but didn’t take anything with him so of course he had to come back. When he finally did come back he had drugs in his pocket and Michelle freaked out. She started yelling and throwing stuff so the neighbors called the cops and since Rigo is on probation they came right over and threw him in jail. So then Michelle and her mom Sonia (a member) had to go bail him out by paying $1600. Imagine how hard that would be for a poor Mexican family. And Sonia was upset because that didn’t have to happen. Anyway, I was excited they were separated, but now Rigo and Michelle are back together. I just hope they can get the divorce done soon so they can get married.
We got to do a little service on Saturday and help a member Hno. Urrelos clean his pool filter. Then he fed us pizza so that made me happy. We also got the mechanics to bring a carpet shampooer so we could clean our carpets. It helped a lot, but some of those stains are impossible.
Erasmo has started to notice that whenever he does something to get closer to God, something bad happens to him in his life. Last transfer he got in an accident and totaled his car and of course he didn’t have money to get a new one. He also said he is having family issues at home. Then last of all he lost his job. He blames it on the fact that he bought a bible lol. Who knows if that’s true, but he is really having lots of difficulties and so I really hope this helps him instead of pushing him away from the church. He is really looking hard for an answer of what he should do. Pray hard for him. I really hope he can pull through and make the right choice. His “home” is a garage and half the time he sleeps at the Pantoja’s house. He’s actually got a pretty good attitude so that’s good. I just hope he can make it. He’s been to lots of baptisms and goes to church faithfully. Most of the members probably think he is baptized lol. He’s really nice and makes lots of friends. I think he’d fit in really well if he decided to make the step of faith which is baptism.
Anyway, that’s about it for this week. Today has been good. We’ve cleaned our apartment, the car inside and out, played soccer with the district, and gone shopping. Now we are going to eat dinner with the Martinez family here in the mall so I better go. Have a good week everyone! Wish I could be there for the party at home! :)
Love,
Elder Curtis
Thursday, June 4, 2009
it was cute ...
Dear family,
I didn’t get transferred this week. The funny thing though is that I’m still in a threesome, or at least I will be. Elder Sharp is being moved to an English ward (he almost went home when they told him that—no joke) and we are getting a new elder here in La Habra. Elder Fraga will be staying here as well. Anyway, I guess they have a flu in the MTC so new elders are being held back for two weeks. That means one of the English elders in Fullerton that is going to be training doesn’t have a companion for two weeks so the elder replacing elder Sharp is going with him (Elder Zelnick) and then will come and be with us when the new elders get here. So not much has changed for me.
This past week has been pretty good. On Saturday our investigator Michelle held a party for her son and her brother who had birthdays this month so we went and had food and talked to our investigators etc. I even got to help with the piñata by moving it up and down while the kids tried to hit it. The piñata was Mario—it was cute. We had four investigators at church so that was a good thing. Juaquin finally came so we are going to baptize him this Sunday. Michelle decided she wants to start coming to church so we were really happy when she walked in.
Our ward mission leader moved! So now I’m the only one in the ward that can play the piano…which means I sight read lots of hymns on Sunday for sacrament as well as elder Keeler/Gillespie’s baptism. It was pretty intense, but I did all right.
Hopefully someone gets called as the new ward mission leader soon. I thought that’s pretty cool that Ross gets to do that job [ward mission leader]. I have no idea how things work over there, but here the mission leader does a lot to help us. We meet with him every week and talk about our investigators and their needs and then he talks to the ward leaders about it. That’s going to stop this transfer though. I guess they’re trying to cut back on how many meetings we have. He also helps arrange the baptisms by printing out the programs, directing the meeting, etc. It’s really nice to have someone like that in the ward helping us out that knows everything we are working with and is a member of the ward. One thing that he was supposed to do that he didn’t was to assign people to feed us every week so we can eat with less actives, recent converts, investigators etc. and so we don’t eat with the same people every week, but that’s okay. They just pass a calendar around every week and people sign up.
We started teaching some new investigators this week so hopefully things work out with them. I’m hoping we have lots of baptisms this transfer of people we’ve been working with that are getting close. I’d really like to see Julia get baptized before I get moved. Hopefully our baptism works out this weekend and we’ll already have met the mission goal for this year of one baptism per companionship per transfer. The mission as a whole finally met that goal this last transfer with 67 baptisms. I think there are less than 60 companionships. Anyway, the work is moving forward and I know great things are in the future. Keep praying for us and the missionaries around you. This is a great work and it can not be stopped. Love you all, have a great week.
Elder Curtis
I didn’t get transferred this week. The funny thing though is that I’m still in a threesome, or at least I will be. Elder Sharp is being moved to an English ward (he almost went home when they told him that—no joke) and we are getting a new elder here in La Habra. Elder Fraga will be staying here as well. Anyway, I guess they have a flu in the MTC so new elders are being held back for two weeks. That means one of the English elders in Fullerton that is going to be training doesn’t have a companion for two weeks so the elder replacing elder Sharp is going with him (Elder Zelnick) and then will come and be with us when the new elders get here. So not much has changed for me.
This past week has been pretty good. On Saturday our investigator Michelle held a party for her son and her brother who had birthdays this month so we went and had food and talked to our investigators etc. I even got to help with the piñata by moving it up and down while the kids tried to hit it. The piñata was Mario—it was cute. We had four investigators at church so that was a good thing. Juaquin finally came so we are going to baptize him this Sunday. Michelle decided she wants to start coming to church so we were really happy when she walked in.
Our ward mission leader moved! So now I’m the only one in the ward that can play the piano…which means I sight read lots of hymns on Sunday for sacrament as well as elder Keeler/Gillespie’s baptism. It was pretty intense, but I did all right.
Hopefully someone gets called as the new ward mission leader soon. I thought that’s pretty cool that Ross gets to do that job [ward mission leader]. I have no idea how things work over there, but here the mission leader does a lot to help us. We meet with him every week and talk about our investigators and their needs and then he talks to the ward leaders about it. That’s going to stop this transfer though. I guess they’re trying to cut back on how many meetings we have. He also helps arrange the baptisms by printing out the programs, directing the meeting, etc. It’s really nice to have someone like that in the ward helping us out that knows everything we are working with and is a member of the ward. One thing that he was supposed to do that he didn’t was to assign people to feed us every week so we can eat with less actives, recent converts, investigators etc. and so we don’t eat with the same people every week, but that’s okay. They just pass a calendar around every week and people sign up.
We started teaching some new investigators this week so hopefully things work out with them. I’m hoping we have lots of baptisms this transfer of people we’ve been working with that are getting close. I’d really like to see Julia get baptized before I get moved. Hopefully our baptism works out this weekend and we’ll already have met the mission goal for this year of one baptism per companionship per transfer. The mission as a whole finally met that goal this last transfer with 67 baptisms. I think there are less than 60 companionships. Anyway, the work is moving forward and I know great things are in the future. Keep praying for us and the missionaries around you. This is a great work and it can not be stopped. Love you all, have a great week.
Elder Curtis
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