Wow! This weekend was one of the happiest of my life. First, on Friday, we had the baptism of Hans and Rozlynn Weig. Elder Grange baptized Bro. Weig and I baptized Sis. Weig. It was a great service. We had a musical number, two talks, and some welcome to the ward talks. We had a couple non-members there and I think it turned out great.
The baptism of Hailey Tweter was even more amazing. We scrunched over 120 people in the RS room, which has a cute sign that says 57 maximum capacity. Hailey invited lots of friends, lots came from the ward, and a good number from the Garden Grove stake came too because Hailey’s friend Rachel lives there. Rachel’s family is the one who took her on a three week vacation to Utah over the summer. She also went to a summer camp at BYU, though that may have been before the car trip. Oh, and she went to girls camp with Rachel as well. The baptism was incredible. Rachel’s family took up most of the program. Her dad, Bishop Stoughten baptized her, Rachel’s brother confirmed her, Rachel sang, and sister Stoughten gave a talk (the younger brothers said the prayers). Me and Elder Grange were the witnesses and also helped in the confirmation. They usually don’t do it right after the baptism, but she wanted the Stoughtens to be there. Anyway, the spirit was really strong and penetrating. There were a decent number of non-members there including Hailey’s grandparents (her legal guardians). Her grandma said she knew the spirit was there and some of Hailey’s friends wanted to know more. Oh, the miracles never cease.
Sister Moaddeli and her two kids are getting baptized on Oct. 2nd. She is super solid and ready, just like the last three. We also got a new investigator Michelle Christian who we taught and set a date with for Oct. 11th. A member from Irvine saw her struggling in the grocery store (she has MS) and went up and talked to her. She said she’s looking for a church so she was happy to listen to us. We have a good number of potentials as well so things are just rolling and I’m just grateful to be a part of it all.
We also had stake conference yesterday and it was incredible. We got to sit on the very front row (there were probably over a 1,000 people there) front and center since we had Hans and Hailey with us. It was super powerful to have everyone singing in there—the spirit was quite strong. The speakers were great and the spirit was overwhelming. How blessed we are to have this gospel!
We had dinner with a newlywed couple in the ward Thursday. The wife just got reactivated and her new husband John Guyer is one of our investigators. He comes to church all the time with his wife. He is a cyclist and often has races on Sunday, but the racing season just ended so hopefully we will be able to teach him more and seal the deal. He’s already had great experiences and Elder Grange was teaching him before he left this area. John was able to quit coffee and he knows it’s because of divine intervention.
We are also working with another man who was recently reactivated. He wants to be a better father, and the fact that his son is on a mission has really motivated him to change. The only thing his is working on is stopping the coffee, but he is also very limited in his knowledge of the gospel so we gave him a PMG and are discussing all the lessons with him. His wife, sister Emerich reminds me a lot of Aunt Mel. She is just full of energy and enthusiasm and has a soft sweet voice (plus she’s tall and skinny :).
We taught an interesting boy named Edward twice this week. He comes from Asian background and his parents are anti-Christ. He’s interested in learning more, but does not want to join the church right now. He is very smart and has some very interesting ideas so it’s a new challenge to teach him.
Anyway, wow what a week. Hope you all have a good one. The Gospel’s true.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Monday, September 21, 2009
Monday, September 14, 2009
A Letter from Hot Rod Country
A Letter from Hot Rod Country
Dear Family, We are so excited for this upcoming weekend. The Weigs are getting baptized on Friday and Hailey on Sunday. Things are turning out really well. I’m excited as well because the Weigs asked us to baptize them so Elder Grange is Baptizing Hans and I’m baptizing Rozlynn. They have four kids, but they are all under the age of 6.
As I said, we went on exchanges on Tuesday so I missed the lesson with the Moaddeli family, but they are doing well. I don’t think the father is too interested still, but she and both their children can’t wait to be baptized. We will probably do it on October second or third. We will start teaching the children (who are 8 and 10) this week.
The day after 9/9/09 we tried a new tracting method that President did on his mission. It is a method of following the spirit. Instead of knocking on every house on a street, you just knock on the ones you feel inspired to. It’s pretty cool and President Watrous said that one time on his mission when he used that method they taught a lesson at every single house they knocked on for three days straight. Of course that was in Argentina…but still it’s a cool story and we’ve enjoyed trying it out.
Lately we’ve been visiting members and getting to know the new ones or less-actives. We usually see one or two families after dinner.
Sunday was really neat because the ward had an “open house.” All the meetings were geared towards non-members and less-actives. The new bishopric is super excited to get involved in missionary work and they’ve been great. In sacrament meeting they explained all that was going on and were really simple. There were like 4 or five talks on Christ and even a musical number by the choir and primary. After church there was a “linger longer” with lots of food and a chance to meet the bishop.
The Weigs had their interview after church and then we went back to the church and taught Hailey the last lesson about all the commandments. It’s been great to have members at all the lessons and even members of the young women. I think there are going to be tons of people there on Sunday.
This morning we went on a super cool hike right by the beach. Not on the beach (“where the sand begins, the mission ends”), but super close and I got some really cool pictures. I even got to see the little place called Treasure Cove which is what they did a painting of in the creation room of the NB temple.
I heard someone got murdered in the university last night and made national headlines. It’s also strange because Irvine is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the world. Someone asked if I’d want to live here someday. It’s not bad, but there are probably lots of places I would pick before this one and yes I think I will settle in one place someday and not move a lot.
Anyway, guess that’s about it for this time. Have a good one, everyone.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Dear Family, We are so excited for this upcoming weekend. The Weigs are getting baptized on Friday and Hailey on Sunday. Things are turning out really well. I’m excited as well because the Weigs asked us to baptize them so Elder Grange is Baptizing Hans and I’m baptizing Rozlynn. They have four kids, but they are all under the age of 6.
As I said, we went on exchanges on Tuesday so I missed the lesson with the Moaddeli family, but they are doing well. I don’t think the father is too interested still, but she and both their children can’t wait to be baptized. We will probably do it on October second or third. We will start teaching the children (who are 8 and 10) this week.
The day after 9/9/09 we tried a new tracting method that President did on his mission. It is a method of following the spirit. Instead of knocking on every house on a street, you just knock on the ones you feel inspired to. It’s pretty cool and President Watrous said that one time on his mission when he used that method they taught a lesson at every single house they knocked on for three days straight. Of course that was in Argentina…but still it’s a cool story and we’ve enjoyed trying it out.
Lately we’ve been visiting members and getting to know the new ones or less-actives. We usually see one or two families after dinner.
Sunday was really neat because the ward had an “open house.” All the meetings were geared towards non-members and less-actives. The new bishopric is super excited to get involved in missionary work and they’ve been great. In sacrament meeting they explained all that was going on and were really simple. There were like 4 or five talks on Christ and even a musical number by the choir and primary. After church there was a “linger longer” with lots of food and a chance to meet the bishop.
The Weigs had their interview after church and then we went back to the church and taught Hailey the last lesson about all the commandments. It’s been great to have members at all the lessons and even members of the young women. I think there are going to be tons of people there on Sunday.
This morning we went on a super cool hike right by the beach. Not on the beach (“where the sand begins, the mission ends”), but super close and I got some really cool pictures. I even got to see the little place called Treasure Cove which is what they did a painting of in the creation room of the NB temple.
I heard someone got murdered in the university last night and made national headlines. It’s also strange because Irvine is supposed to be one of the safest cities in the world. Someone asked if I’d want to live here someday. It’s not bad, but there are probably lots of places I would pick before this one and yes I think I will settle in one place someday and not move a lot.
Anyway, guess that’s about it for this time. Have a good one, everyone.
Love,
Elder Curtis
How cool is that?
Hello from Newport Beach! As yesterday was Labor Day, all the libraries were closed so we get to write today. :)
This week we taught the Weig family on Monday and Tuesday. They are all set for their baptism on the 18th. Hailey is doing super well. We taught her the Gospel on Saturday and the Plan of Salvation on Sunday after church. She already knew like half the stuff we taught. She went on a trip to Utah a while ago and saw temple square and even went through a temple open house—I’m guessing the Draper temple. She is super smart and is super ready for her baptism. We were thinking of having it on the 13th, but her grandparents (who are her legal guardians) said no. We’ll probably do it the 19th or the 26th. Saturday she came to the temple tour we had and seemed to enjoy it. She is so excited about everything. She even bore her testimony in sacrament meeting. How cool is that? She is super solid.
Tuesday we taught Bro. and Sis. Moaddeli the Plan of Salvation. Both of their kids along with sister Moaddeli came to church this weekend, but Bro. Moaddeli still hasn’t.
Today I’m on exchanges with Elder Vaha in his area. I get to drive and they have a Mazda 3 as their car so it’s been pretty sweet. All I’ve ever driven are old Toyotas. It’s pretty funny because we both bought (at different times) the same green tie at the 99 cent store so today we are matching :)
Thursday we had zone conference and it was inspiring and enjoyable. We got to do the musical number as a district. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since most of the guys didn’t know how to sing, but we arranged the song to sound pretty good. I really came to realize how natural singing comes for me. I was working with Elder Cunningham, the district leader, and he couldn’t even match his voice to a note, much less carry a melody. He has very limited range and I came to realize how much a blessing my ability to sing is. We all have our strengths and weaknesses I guess :)
Friday we had interviews with President Watrous and we tried to contact and teach some referrals we got. One of them has MS and avoided us when we went for the lesson. Hopefully we can teach her in the future. Maybe she really wasn’t feeling well, as her friend said.
Last P-day we just played basketball at the church, but yesterday we went to a park and played soccer AND basketball lol it was fun. It’s been really great having Elder Grange as my companion. He is really good for me to learn from and be with.
I was super excited to hear about BYU’s game from the BYU fans down here. That is so exciting. Don’t forget to send me the articles and info for the games like you did last year :D
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Curtis
This week we taught the Weig family on Monday and Tuesday. They are all set for their baptism on the 18th. Hailey is doing super well. We taught her the Gospel on Saturday and the Plan of Salvation on Sunday after church. She already knew like half the stuff we taught. She went on a trip to Utah a while ago and saw temple square and even went through a temple open house—I’m guessing the Draper temple. She is super smart and is super ready for her baptism. We were thinking of having it on the 13th, but her grandparents (who are her legal guardians) said no. We’ll probably do it the 19th or the 26th. Saturday she came to the temple tour we had and seemed to enjoy it. She is so excited about everything. She even bore her testimony in sacrament meeting. How cool is that? She is super solid.
Tuesday we taught Bro. and Sis. Moaddeli the Plan of Salvation. Both of their kids along with sister Moaddeli came to church this weekend, but Bro. Moaddeli still hasn’t.
Today I’m on exchanges with Elder Vaha in his area. I get to drive and they have a Mazda 3 as their car so it’s been pretty sweet. All I’ve ever driven are old Toyotas. It’s pretty funny because we both bought (at different times) the same green tie at the 99 cent store so today we are matching :)
Thursday we had zone conference and it was inspiring and enjoyable. We got to do the musical number as a district. I wasn’t sure how it would turn out since most of the guys didn’t know how to sing, but we arranged the song to sound pretty good. I really came to realize how natural singing comes for me. I was working with Elder Cunningham, the district leader, and he couldn’t even match his voice to a note, much less carry a melody. He has very limited range and I came to realize how much a blessing my ability to sing is. We all have our strengths and weaknesses I guess :)
Friday we had interviews with President Watrous and we tried to contact and teach some referrals we got. One of them has MS and avoided us when we went for the lesson. Hopefully we can teach her in the future. Maybe she really wasn’t feeling well, as her friend said.
Last P-day we just played basketball at the church, but yesterday we went to a park and played soccer AND basketball lol it was fun. It’s been really great having Elder Grange as my companion. He is really good for me to learn from and be with.
I was super excited to hear about BYU’s game from the BYU fans down here. That is so exciting. Don’t forget to send me the articles and info for the games like you did last year :D
Have a good week!
Love,
Elder Curtis
Wednesday, September 2, 2009
Troy Bolton
What a week! I have sure seen a lot of blessings this week. My companion is “stellar”! He has a super optimistic and ultra friendly personality. He’s super excited about the work and is really easy to get along with. He is close to the spirit and really great at being obedient. He’s also a super athlete. He played soccer, tennis, and cross country in high school. He was also into drama and was in several plays including high school musical (he was the main character Troy Bolton). He has a super voice and we love to sing together. I sing the melody and he sings tenor, then he sings melody and I sing bass. We love to do it at lessons and even tracting. Most mornings we go running. He’s been running six days a week for the last year so he’s in pretty good shape. When I’m too worn out I just ride bike and he keeps right up with me on foot.
We’re working on following the spirit more in our lessons so we don’t have it set who will say what—we just follow what we feel. It’s been incredible to recognize the spirit working in me. I just start talking and end up saying things I never meant to say and/or never thought of.
The apartment is nice here, though the laundry is a lot more expensive lol. It’s crazy how many rabbits are down here in So. Cal! We see them all the time. Our downstairs neighbors have a little garden so there are always little birds in there. At the top of the fences are planes of glass so whenever we leave the birds try to fly away and one usually smacks into the glass :D.
This area is amazing! We have super solid investigators! The Weig family is super close to baptism. We taught them 3 times last week! They should be ready by the 12th or the 19th. Their names are Hans and Rozlynn and they have four kids under 5.
Hailey Tweeter is 17 and we taught her yesterday. She is already friends with the young women and young women leaders and she even went to girl’s camp up in Garden Grove. He best friend lives up there and is a member so that’s been a big help for her. She has a date for the 19th and is on the way there.
We also taught the Moaddeli family. They live right under the brand new bishop. He invited her to church on the day he got sustained (last Sunday) and she accepted to have the lessons. She also had them in Japan so she is also preparing for the 19th. We had her husband sit in on the lesson so we weren’t alone with her and at the end he said he was interested and wanted to be baptized. It’s a huge thing for him though because he’s from the Middle East and was previously a Muslim. He’s not ready to set a date yet but we are okay with that for now.
Other people you can pray for we are working with but who are not as close are John Geyer and Jocelyn. We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday. That’s the most I’ve had my whole mission!
The new bishop is great. He’s only 34 and is tall and skinny. He’s super nice and really mission work oriented. The ward is great and it’s pretty big. UCI is in our area so there are a lot of people in the ward who go to college. I think there are like 5 nurseries! Sacrament is pretty loud because of all the kids but it was still good. Saturday we went to a high priest BBQ. It was held at a part-member family’s home. They have a lot of money :) As do many others in the ward. I’m definitely not in a third world country! Hopefully I can still learn and grow from the experience haha.
Last evening we went to a baptism of a different ward. Elder Grange knew the kid (15) getting baptized so he spoke. They asked me to play the piano. We even got Hailey to come and she really enjoyed it. She said it was “really inspiring,” and indeed the spirit was really strong. Anyway, I’m super excited for this transfer. Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Love,
Elder Curtis
We’re working on following the spirit more in our lessons so we don’t have it set who will say what—we just follow what we feel. It’s been incredible to recognize the spirit working in me. I just start talking and end up saying things I never meant to say and/or never thought of.
The apartment is nice here, though the laundry is a lot more expensive lol. It’s crazy how many rabbits are down here in So. Cal! We see them all the time. Our downstairs neighbors have a little garden so there are always little birds in there. At the top of the fences are planes of glass so whenever we leave the birds try to fly away and one usually smacks into the glass :D.
This area is amazing! We have super solid investigators! The Weig family is super close to baptism. We taught them 3 times last week! They should be ready by the 12th or the 19th. Their names are Hans and Rozlynn and they have four kids under 5.
Hailey Tweeter is 17 and we taught her yesterday. She is already friends with the young women and young women leaders and she even went to girl’s camp up in Garden Grove. He best friend lives up there and is a member so that’s been a big help for her. She has a date for the 19th and is on the way there.
We also taught the Moaddeli family. They live right under the brand new bishop. He invited her to church on the day he got sustained (last Sunday) and she accepted to have the lessons. She also had them in Japan so she is also preparing for the 19th. We had her husband sit in on the lesson so we weren’t alone with her and at the end he said he was interested and wanted to be baptized. It’s a huge thing for him though because he’s from the Middle East and was previously a Muslim. He’s not ready to set a date yet but we are okay with that for now.
Other people you can pray for we are working with but who are not as close are John Geyer and Jocelyn. We had 7 investigators at church on Sunday. That’s the most I’ve had my whole mission!
The new bishop is great. He’s only 34 and is tall and skinny. He’s super nice and really mission work oriented. The ward is great and it’s pretty big. UCI is in our area so there are a lot of people in the ward who go to college. I think there are like 5 nurseries! Sacrament is pretty loud because of all the kids but it was still good. Saturday we went to a high priest BBQ. It was held at a part-member family’s home. They have a lot of money :) As do many others in the ward. I’m definitely not in a third world country! Hopefully I can still learn and grow from the experience haha.
Last evening we went to a baptism of a different ward. Elder Grange knew the kid (15) getting baptized so he spoke. They asked me to play the piano. We even got Hailey to come and she really enjoyed it. She said it was “really inspiring,” and indeed the spirit was really strong. Anyway, I’m super excited for this transfer. Thanks for all your prayers and support.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Monday, August 24, 2009
Whitewashing
Hello! Guess what? I got transferred again! In fact, both me AND Elder Chadburn got transferred. Elder Chadburn went up to Brea and will be on bike. I also heard that Elder Fraga got moved to an English ward :) It’s really crazy but I’m excited—my new area is great. Now I’m in the Harbor Hills ward. It’s not the city of Harbor Hills, but I hear it’s really good.
My companion is Elder Grange. He is from Anchorage Alaska, though his family moved to Idaho right before he went on his mission. He’s been out 14 months and just got released as a zone leader. He’s super cool and I’m way excited to work here with him. He actually used to cover this ward so he’ll be able to get us up to speed quick since we are whitewashing the area (meaning we are both entering the area at the same time). It doesn’t really count since he’s been here before though. However, when he was here he covered two wards and it’s been split since then.
We are getting a ton of new elders every transfer since our “capacity” or whatever you would call it has been raised to 190 missionaries. We had like 120 last I heard, but it’s going up, hence all the areas splitting.
It’s a little weird that this happened, but I like change so I’m not too worried. I didn’t have a ton of time to get super attached to the people in Costa Mesa, but I will look back with fond memories. There are some super good people there for sure. Harbor Hills is in the same stake as CM1 (Newport Beach Stake) but now I am in the cities of Corona Del Mar (which means crown of the sea in Spanish) and Irvine.
My new address is 17614 Rosa Drew Lane Apt. 5d Irvine, CA 92612. It’s a pretty nice place. It’s just as new as my last place so it’ll be nice. I’m a lot closer to the ocean now so I’ll see it a lot more often. To live this close to the ocean you have to have a lot of money so there are lots of rich people here. :) Plus the houses and neighborhoods are nicer etc.
This past week has been pretty good. We taught Ralph twice with two different members—Bro. Kolb and Bro. Ormond. It was good and he’s doing well, he just needs to go to church, quit smoking, and get an answer. I know someday he will, but it’ll probably take a while.
Wednesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Reidhead, who was Elder Large’s trainee companion. It was super fun, he’s a really nice guy and I enjoyed the day. I was in their area again and Elder Large went with Elder Chadburn. It was a pretty good week—we found some people for the new elders to see and work with. I hope that area really starts to pick up and do well.
Overall, I’m grateful for the opportunity I had in Costa Mesa with Elder Chadburn. It wasn’t easy work, it wasn’t an easy companionship, but as we did our best and relied on the Lord, things went well and I really am glad to be E. Chadburn’s friend and ex-comp.
The future is bright. “My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.” I am glad to be a missionary and be here in So. California in Orange County. I hope God continues to pour down his blessings on each of you. He loves you and is in every part of your lives. Nothing is without reason. Albert Einstein said “coincidence is just God’s way of staying anonymous.” As we press forward with faith and rely on Him, He will pull through in the end. He always does, he always has. I know the church is true and can bring strength to our lives. Hard times are there just to help us grow and learn and in the end, we will have rest from our labors, sorrows, and trials here on earth. I love you all and hope you have a great week. May the spirit be with you.
Love, Elder Curtis
My companion is Elder Grange. He is from Anchorage Alaska, though his family moved to Idaho right before he went on his mission. He’s been out 14 months and just got released as a zone leader. He’s super cool and I’m way excited to work here with him. He actually used to cover this ward so he’ll be able to get us up to speed quick since we are whitewashing the area (meaning we are both entering the area at the same time). It doesn’t really count since he’s been here before though. However, when he was here he covered two wards and it’s been split since then.
We are getting a ton of new elders every transfer since our “capacity” or whatever you would call it has been raised to 190 missionaries. We had like 120 last I heard, but it’s going up, hence all the areas splitting.
It’s a little weird that this happened, but I like change so I’m not too worried. I didn’t have a ton of time to get super attached to the people in Costa Mesa, but I will look back with fond memories. There are some super good people there for sure. Harbor Hills is in the same stake as CM1 (Newport Beach Stake) but now I am in the cities of Corona Del Mar (which means crown of the sea in Spanish) and Irvine.
My new address is 17614 Rosa Drew Lane Apt. 5d Irvine, CA 92612. It’s a pretty nice place. It’s just as new as my last place so it’ll be nice. I’m a lot closer to the ocean now so I’ll see it a lot more often. To live this close to the ocean you have to have a lot of money so there are lots of rich people here. :) Plus the houses and neighborhoods are nicer etc.
This past week has been pretty good. We taught Ralph twice with two different members—Bro. Kolb and Bro. Ormond. It was good and he’s doing well, he just needs to go to church, quit smoking, and get an answer. I know someday he will, but it’ll probably take a while.
Wednesday I got to go on exchanges with Elder Reidhead, who was Elder Large’s trainee companion. It was super fun, he’s a really nice guy and I enjoyed the day. I was in their area again and Elder Large went with Elder Chadburn. It was a pretty good week—we found some people for the new elders to see and work with. I hope that area really starts to pick up and do well.
Overall, I’m grateful for the opportunity I had in Costa Mesa with Elder Chadburn. It wasn’t easy work, it wasn’t an easy companionship, but as we did our best and relied on the Lord, things went well and I really am glad to be E. Chadburn’s friend and ex-comp.
The future is bright. “My past is redeemed, my present makes sense, and my future is secure.” I am glad to be a missionary and be here in So. California in Orange County. I hope God continues to pour down his blessings on each of you. He loves you and is in every part of your lives. Nothing is without reason. Albert Einstein said “coincidence is just God’s way of staying anonymous.” As we press forward with faith and rely on Him, He will pull through in the end. He always does, he always has. I know the church is true and can bring strength to our lives. Hard times are there just to help us grow and learn and in the end, we will have rest from our labors, sorrows, and trials here on earth. I love you all and hope you have a great week. May the spirit be with you.
Love, Elder Curtis
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
How to Jog Him
Hello :-) Transfers are this weekend so send letters to the mission office. Things are still going pretty well. Jonathan dropped us this week and Ralph still doesn’t feel worthy to come to church but life is still good.
Does anything remind me of those missionary movies? Tons of things actually. That’s what I’m doing out here—preaching, teaching, having hard times, having good times, punching my companion…just kidding. I don’t slam doors into my investigators either :)
We still are visiting lots of less-actives and trying to get more investigators. We do some knocking, but that isn’t always effective. It’s a great way to find mean people though haha. I thought it was a joke that people slam doors on you, but it isn’t! Remember that BOM cartoon movie where Alma is knocking doors? That happens to me sometimes. They open the door, and then close it before I can even say anything. It’s okay though, they probably think we’re really weird and even annoying. One guy said, “Come on guys!” Elder Chadburn: “Come on what?” “It’s Saturday night!” slam. We were like, uh…so? We should have said, come on in? ok. Lol It’s fun to be a missionary. There are lots of nice people too.
We had a lesson with Marla, a recent convert/less-active, on Tuesday and watched the Testaments. Hopefully she felt the spirit. I don’t think her husband did though. He’s not a member and he even slept through a bunch of it.
The ward is really trying to invite lots of people to the Luau we’re having next month. Not very many have reserved a spot yet so one of the members is getting really nervous and wants to start inviting people from the second ward. We hand out a lot of flyers to people and lots want to come, but since it isn’t till September 12th people put off reserving a spot till it gets closer and Bro. Lew (who is organizing everything) is getting frustrated. I hope lots of people call in as it gets closer. It should be really cool. We are having free food (Hawaiian) and Polynesian professional dancers coming so it’ll be authentic. It’s all about missionary work so members can’t come unless they bring a less-active or other friend. I hope we can find some people to teach from it.
On Friday we ate dinner with the people who live under us. They are both into religion for their careers so they were excited to talk to us. It was an interesting night and my companion tried really hard to convince then through just doctrine/proof. It didn’t really work well, but I got to share the restoration and invite them to pray so it ended well at least. I guess it’s something really tempting to try and do when you know the gospel is true. You start studying and come to see how everything supports what you know, but when you try to explain that to others it just doesn’t work as you think it would. I really believe in just teaching simply what we believe and then asking them to study it themselves and pray about it, because unless they feel the spirit they aren’t going to change. It’s hard sometimes to teach that to my companions, but I think they already know it, just have to learn to implement it.
We continue having really good lessons with Ralph, but he’s just scared to make that one step to start on the path to change and I’m not sure why. He reads and prays a little, but he needs to clean up his house, start trying to quite smoking, and come to church. I’m not sure how to jog him into action, but I guess that’s why I need to use the spirit.
A guy in our ward is the producer/director of a show on Nickalodeon called Yo Gaba Gaba for pre-school age kids so if you ever see it, remember I know the guy that makes it. I really like the members here; they are really cool and diverse.
Guess that’s about it so hope you all have a good week. Thanks for the continued letters, support, and prayers.
Love,
Elder Curtis
Does anything remind me of those missionary movies? Tons of things actually. That’s what I’m doing out here—preaching, teaching, having hard times, having good times, punching my companion…just kidding. I don’t slam doors into my investigators either :)
We still are visiting lots of less-actives and trying to get more investigators. We do some knocking, but that isn’t always effective. It’s a great way to find mean people though haha. I thought it was a joke that people slam doors on you, but it isn’t! Remember that BOM cartoon movie where Alma is knocking doors? That happens to me sometimes. They open the door, and then close it before I can even say anything. It’s okay though, they probably think we’re really weird and even annoying. One guy said, “Come on guys!” Elder Chadburn: “Come on what?” “It’s Saturday night!” slam. We were like, uh…so? We should have said, come on in? ok. Lol It’s fun to be a missionary. There are lots of nice people too.
We had a lesson with Marla, a recent convert/less-active, on Tuesday and watched the Testaments. Hopefully she felt the spirit. I don’t think her husband did though. He’s not a member and he even slept through a bunch of it.
The ward is really trying to invite lots of people to the Luau we’re having next month. Not very many have reserved a spot yet so one of the members is getting really nervous and wants to start inviting people from the second ward. We hand out a lot of flyers to people and lots want to come, but since it isn’t till September 12th people put off reserving a spot till it gets closer and Bro. Lew (who is organizing everything) is getting frustrated. I hope lots of people call in as it gets closer. It should be really cool. We are having free food (Hawaiian) and Polynesian professional dancers coming so it’ll be authentic. It’s all about missionary work so members can’t come unless they bring a less-active or other friend. I hope we can find some people to teach from it.
On Friday we ate dinner with the people who live under us. They are both into religion for their careers so they were excited to talk to us. It was an interesting night and my companion tried really hard to convince then through just doctrine/proof. It didn’t really work well, but I got to share the restoration and invite them to pray so it ended well at least. I guess it’s something really tempting to try and do when you know the gospel is true. You start studying and come to see how everything supports what you know, but when you try to explain that to others it just doesn’t work as you think it would. I really believe in just teaching simply what we believe and then asking them to study it themselves and pray about it, because unless they feel the spirit they aren’t going to change. It’s hard sometimes to teach that to my companions, but I think they already know it, just have to learn to implement it.
We continue having really good lessons with Ralph, but he’s just scared to make that one step to start on the path to change and I’m not sure why. He reads and prays a little, but he needs to clean up his house, start trying to quite smoking, and come to church. I’m not sure how to jog him into action, but I guess that’s why I need to use the spirit.
A guy in our ward is the producer/director of a show on Nickalodeon called Yo Gaba Gaba for pre-school age kids so if you ever see it, remember I know the guy that makes it. I really like the members here; they are really cool and diverse.
Guess that’s about it so hope you all have a good week. Thanks for the continued letters, support, and prayers.
Love,
Elder Curtis
What in the World?
Hello from Costa Mesa! Things are going pretty swell here. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with my district leader Elder Large. We had a good day and taught some lessons to some great people. It was fun to be with someone else for a day and a night.
This week our “investigator” Dorothy dropped us. She tried to give back the BOM so we asked her if she had read any of it. Nope. We took a member to visit a different person and still got a lesson in so it wasn’t a complete failure. His name is Scott and I think he has somewhat of a mental handicap, but he’s nice.
On Thursday we had to take our car in for an oil change. It took forever. They said it would take 1 hour or 2 at the max and we didn’t get it back for four or five hours. We spent some time at the other elder apartment and then they took us to our dinner. Bro. Pittman took us from there to the church and we went out with Bro. Lew to see some less-actives for the remainder of our day (and finally getting our car back). Friday we taught Ralph the Ten Commandments. He seems to be improving. He knows his main problem is smoking. He wants his new girl friend to come to church with him so he’ll feel more comfortable when he goes. He didn’t go this week but he might come to the big ward luau coming up in September that is being put on specifically for investigators and less-actives.
We had a good lesson with a man named Juan this week. He speaks both Spanish and English and is a new father. He seems pretty good, we just hope he will keep his commitments by reading and praying.
We had dinner with the Furman family on Friday. They are from Russia and Bro. Furman has had some really hard challenges in his life, but he is one of the most spiritual people I’ve met and teaches us a lot every time we go there. I don’t know if I’ve said this already, but he said I’m really lucky because I almost had Down syndrome. He also gave both me and my companion a watch because he really likes watches so he has a lot of them.
Friday was a ward activity that was similar to “Guess who’s coming for Dinner.” There were a number of families who hosted and they were assigned people to feed. We ate with an English lady (Sister McCraken) who happened to have signed up for us the following day. So the next day we ate with her again, but with her family instead of other ward members. They are a really cool family and I really enjoyed their company.
Thanks for all the fun pictures from Spain. Sounds like you guys had a good time. Now you know how it is to have interesting food served to you :) I had shrimp with the head and legs attached once too. It wasn’t my favorite lol. I was like, what in the world? I thought they were whole lobsters or something haha
Anyway, have a good week everyone.
Love,
Elder Curtis
This week our “investigator” Dorothy dropped us. She tried to give back the BOM so we asked her if she had read any of it. Nope. We took a member to visit a different person and still got a lesson in so it wasn’t a complete failure. His name is Scott and I think he has somewhat of a mental handicap, but he’s nice.
On Thursday we had to take our car in for an oil change. It took forever. They said it would take 1 hour or 2 at the max and we didn’t get it back for four or five hours. We spent some time at the other elder apartment and then they took us to our dinner. Bro. Pittman took us from there to the church and we went out with Bro. Lew to see some less-actives for the remainder of our day (and finally getting our car back). Friday we taught Ralph the Ten Commandments. He seems to be improving. He knows his main problem is smoking. He wants his new girl friend to come to church with him so he’ll feel more comfortable when he goes. He didn’t go this week but he might come to the big ward luau coming up in September that is being put on specifically for investigators and less-actives.
We had a good lesson with a man named Juan this week. He speaks both Spanish and English and is a new father. He seems pretty good, we just hope he will keep his commitments by reading and praying.
We had dinner with the Furman family on Friday. They are from Russia and Bro. Furman has had some really hard challenges in his life, but he is one of the most spiritual people I’ve met and teaches us a lot every time we go there. I don’t know if I’ve said this already, but he said I’m really lucky because I almost had Down syndrome. He also gave both me and my companion a watch because he really likes watches so he has a lot of them.
Friday was a ward activity that was similar to “Guess who’s coming for Dinner.” There were a number of families who hosted and they were assigned people to feed. We ate with an English lady (Sister McCraken) who happened to have signed up for us the following day. So the next day we ate with her again, but with her family instead of other ward members. They are a really cool family and I really enjoyed their company.
Thanks for all the fun pictures from Spain. Sounds like you guys had a good time. Now you know how it is to have interesting food served to you :) I had shrimp with the head and legs attached once too. It wasn’t my favorite lol. I was like, what in the world? I thought they were whole lobsters or something haha
Anyway, have a good week everyone.
Love,
Elder Curtis
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