Friday, November 8, 2013

From two weeks ago...

Hey everyone!

I hope everyone is doing well! 
Things are so great here! So I told you about all of those referrals we got, right? Well we went to go see these potential investigators but none of them followed through except one. His name is Jerry Porter and we were able to sit down with him and have a really good lesson with him. He seemed so sincere and interested. He said he wanted us to come by the next day at 2:30, so we did. Well, there was no Jerry. So for a back up we had a whole list of people to go see. But we only found disappointment; nobody opened their doors and we were having no luck at all. We had another scheduled appointment at 4:30 so we made our way to that. Well, no answer. We were close to Jerry's house again so we tried to see if he would answer this time... no answer. We decided to give the other appointment another try but... no answer. We just wanted someone to talk to, but even the streets were simply empty. It was so bizarre! 
You might think this was a discouraging day, which it could have been, but I just knew Heavenly Father had something great in store for us. Well needless to say, I was right. Since nobody wanted that on the next day we would go see one of our "not very progressing" investigators, Antonio who is always willing to talk to us but is distracted so easily and usually cuts us off short in our lessons. but since he was the only one of our investigators that we hadn't tried yet we decided we should give him a try. 
We arrived at his door and knocked... but no answer. Then we heard someone calling for us behind us. This guy came running up the steps to us. He told us his name was Levi and said he really needed help. That's when he burst into tears. He explained how his family is falling apart and he doesn't have a clue what to do. He was desperate for anything and that's when he saw us and he just knew we would be able to help. We talked very briefly about how the gospel we teach about is designed by God Himself to bless our families. It was just what he needed to hear and he cried even harder. It was so touching. Unfortunately we couldn't teach him more because he had to get inside to some meeting. Turns out that starting on Friday he will be moving in right next door to Antonio!! How perfect! We gave him our number and told him we will be by real soon to talk to him more. Thanked us and then said, "If you're looking for Antonio, he's in the back." 
So we journeyed to the backyard and found Antonio and his wife there. They were thrilled to see us. We grabbed some chairs, sat down next to them and began talking about how they've been and all that stuff. The moment we began our lesson with him this guy just plopped down in a seat next to me and began listening to us as well. It seemed like he just came out of nowhere, but he was actually playing some catch with Antonio's son in the yard over and he decided to stop and listen to us. I hardly even noticed him when we entered the yard. 
But anyway, we continued our lesson. We taught about faith and felt inspired to read parts of Alma 32 with them. We stopped at every verse of so to explain and expand on what it was saying. Man, there was a great feeling there! It was the best Antonio has ever listened. And this random guy had all sorts of insights that led us to teaching even more then we expected. Many of his comments inspired me to read other scriptures and to ask them questions. This really got them thinking and many times they weren't quite sure how to express their answer (they were very deep questions). We would then read another scripture to answer for them or share our own insights and testimonies and they would just light up! They would then say things like "this is true!" and "wow, I've never thought of it like that. I like that." 
We could see the Spirit testifying to them of the truths we were sharing. It was so amazing and uplifting. We concluded with a commitment and a prayer. After that I turned to Kevin, (the random guy that sat down next to me) and offered him the Book of Mormon. He looked at me in awe and said, "You just read my mind. I was just thinking I want to get me one of those books." he graciously took it and a card with our number on it. On our way out we spoke with him about coming to church with us. He was a little skeptical at first for some reason but he said he will see if he can... 

Man, I wish you guys could have been there that day. It was a blessed day full of many more miracles. As is every day. I absolutely love my calling as a missionary!!! I love these people so much!! I know this gospel is our guide to eternal happiness and life with each other and with our loving Heavenly Father! I am so humbled and honored to wear Christ's name on my chest everyday. He is our perfect Savior. He is our perfect example. I am so grateful for the trust He has placed on someone so imperfect as me to bear His name and to represent Him to these people. It really just blows my mind how perfect He is and as missionaries and members of His church we need to be perfect as well. But He doesn't expect us to be perfect. He expects us to simply do our best. His grace is sufficient and His mercy is full to those who will follow Him and keep His commandments. The only thing we can be perfect in is repentance, and that is such a blessing!! 

I am so grateful for the atonement! I am so grateful for all of you! I love you all so much and I pray for you every day. I know that if we continue to do all that we can possibly do for The Lord then we will qualify for His eternal blessings and will one day live with our Heavenly Father once again, and we will bask in His glory which we too will obtain. Oh I can't wait for that!!!!!!!!!! 

I hope you all have an amazing week! I love you.

Love, Elder Curtis

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