Wow, what a week! I guess the news from me is that I’m staying in Harbor Hills for another transfer with Elder Grange. He is going to be the new district leader since Elder Cunningham is done with his mission. I’m happy to be here another six weeks. The news I’m excited about is my new niece though. I haven’t heard much, but I’m happy she decided to join us in this world. We need all the good Mormon kids we can get :)
On Monday we did some serious cleaning of the apartment. Tuesday was my first experience as senior companion. Elder Cunningham came on exchanges with me in our area and I got to be in charge. It was a great day and things went really well. On Wednesday Sister Emerich in the ward invited us over for a “photo shoot.” She’s a maniac picture taker and has taken pictures at our baptisms and stuff so she invited us to come over and she took over 200 pictures of Elder Grange and I and then printed a bunch out (and even gave us the pictures on CDs). I might send a few with this email. It’s funny because Elder Grange and I have ridden our bikes a couple nights a week lately just for fun when we had close appointments and we wanted to save miles. So when sister Emerich saw us on the bikes she insisted to do all the pictures with us on bike and in helmets :-)
Thursday we did this really cool thing at the high school. The world religion teacher over there invited us to come by for the class period and share Mormonism. It was really neat. We talked to a class of juniors and seniors for over an hour about who we are, what we do, and of course the Restoration of the Gospel and the basics of what we believe. It was really cool to be guided by the spirit in answering misconceptions and bearing testimony of the truth. They had some great questions and seemed to enjoy it.
Friday was a pretty good day because we got to teach three lessons in one day, which doesn’t happen a lot in this area. We taught Bob, Jane, and Hailey (new member discussion). Jane is a new investigator and a referral from temple square. She is Chinese and Christian and really wants to know the difference of our religion and hers because she is new to Christianity. Hailey’s grandparents were really nice and let us teach at their home for the first time. Then they took us out to eat at a nice Chinese place. Then we had dinner at the Emerichs lol
Oh yeah, conference! Wasn’t it awesome? I noticed a big emphasis on Love and all aspects of it. Everyone write me back and tell me your insights. Even Nicole and email is fine. I just never get to hear from most of you and this is a good chance! Wasn’t Elder Holland’s talk powerful? He is amazing and one of my favorite apostles ever.
Yesterday was Elder Grange’s birthday. He got three packages, two cakes from a past companion, and our dinner put a bunch of candles on the brownies for him to blow out. It was lots of fun. Conference on your birthday sounds pretty fun to me :) I guess mine is pretty close.
Have a super week everyone!
Love,
Elder Curtis
Monday, October 5, 2009
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
As I Do
Well, guess what? It’s week six again so send all letters to 2500 N Bristol St Santa Ana, CA 92706. This has been a great transfer and it’s amazing it’s almost over. I have no idea what is going to happen this weekend so we’ll see if I stay and if E. Grange stays. I don’t have any guesses because anything could happen.
I can’t wait for Conference this weekend! I’ve been reading the talks from the last two conferences lately and they are so good that they make me super excited to hear more! Remember to pray for the general authorities this Thursday as they meet at the temple and prepare spiritually for this weekend. I’m so excited for my recent converts and investigators to hear the words of the prophets. I want them to have the love and appreciation for their teachings and who they are as I do.
This week we started to have trouble with the Moaddeli family. The father thinks his wife is the reason for the children’s desire to be baptized and that they are being pushed too much. The truth is they are the ones who’ve been asking their mom to be baptized and how they can do it. It’s been tough and I guess it’s causing contention in the home. I guess one of the concerns Bro. Moaddeli has about our faith is all the opposition and persecution. Hopefully we will be able to resolve that soon. It’s also tough because of his radically different background. Pray for them this week! As of now we are at least pretty sure Sister Moaddeli will be baptized this Friday and even if the kids don’t, I think it’ll happen eventually, but three more baptisms would be really nice!
Wednesday we had our oil changed so that took a while in the morning. We also taught a man named Bob who’s had the discussions for a while but is pretty simple minded and still isn’t sure if there is a God, but he has a desire to know. The hard part is getting him to pray and read. He has lots of silly questions that a teen or child would ask, but it’s fun to try and help him. We also taught a less-active member and her non-member daughter. They are Spanish so it was another great opportunity to practice teaching and talking in Spanish. Luckily we also had a member from our ward that grew up in Uruguay come so he filled in the holes of our lesson. They are the De La Cruz family.
We taught the Weig family on Friday and it was so fun to talk to them now that they are members (half members on Friday) and just on fire. They also had their confirmation on Sunday so that was really neat. They are really cool people. They are still looking for a job.
Saturday we ate with the only member family that lives in the same complex as us so that was fun. The wife cooked all the food (yummy bbq meatballs) then went to the broadcast so us men had a great meal and talked about life and a spiritual message about trials and the ensign article “lessons learned from liberty jail” (a must read).
Yesterday we also found out that our investigator Michelle Christian was in the hospital most of the week. She’s the one with the medical problems such as MS. We finally talked to her though and she is still really interested in learning more. We’ll also hopefully be able to do some service for her since her helper just quit without notice this week. Keep her in your prayers as well.
Anyway, guess that’s about it. Have a super duper week everyone!
Love,
Elder Curtis
I can’t wait for Conference this weekend! I’ve been reading the talks from the last two conferences lately and they are so good that they make me super excited to hear more! Remember to pray for the general authorities this Thursday as they meet at the temple and prepare spiritually for this weekend. I’m so excited for my recent converts and investigators to hear the words of the prophets. I want them to have the love and appreciation for their teachings and who they are as I do.
This week we started to have trouble with the Moaddeli family. The father thinks his wife is the reason for the children’s desire to be baptized and that they are being pushed too much. The truth is they are the ones who’ve been asking their mom to be baptized and how they can do it. It’s been tough and I guess it’s causing contention in the home. I guess one of the concerns Bro. Moaddeli has about our faith is all the opposition and persecution. Hopefully we will be able to resolve that soon. It’s also tough because of his radically different background. Pray for them this week! As of now we are at least pretty sure Sister Moaddeli will be baptized this Friday and even if the kids don’t, I think it’ll happen eventually, but three more baptisms would be really nice!
Wednesday we had our oil changed so that took a while in the morning. We also taught a man named Bob who’s had the discussions for a while but is pretty simple minded and still isn’t sure if there is a God, but he has a desire to know. The hard part is getting him to pray and read. He has lots of silly questions that a teen or child would ask, but it’s fun to try and help him. We also taught a less-active member and her non-member daughter. They are Spanish so it was another great opportunity to practice teaching and talking in Spanish. Luckily we also had a member from our ward that grew up in Uruguay come so he filled in the holes of our lesson. They are the De La Cruz family.
We taught the Weig family on Friday and it was so fun to talk to them now that they are members (half members on Friday) and just on fire. They also had their confirmation on Sunday so that was really neat. They are really cool people. They are still looking for a job.
Saturday we ate with the only member family that lives in the same complex as us so that was fun. The wife cooked all the food (yummy bbq meatballs) then went to the broadcast so us men had a great meal and talked about life and a spiritual message about trials and the ensign article “lessons learned from liberty jail” (a must read).
Yesterday we also found out that our investigator Michelle Christian was in the hospital most of the week. She’s the one with the medical problems such as MS. We finally talked to her though and she is still really interested in learning more. We’ll also hopefully be able to do some service for her since her helper just quit without notice this week. Keep her in your prayers as well.
Anyway, guess that’s about it. Have a super duper week everyone!
Love,
Elder Curtis
Monday, September 21, 2009
The Miracles Never Cease
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
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 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
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