Late Email

Hello everyone!


Yesterday all of the libraries were closed due to Martin Luther King day, so I get to write you a day late.


I am really confused with Missouri. When it comes to weather, it has some major, and I mean MAJOR bipolar issues. It is more bipolar than Utah, if you can imagine that. Yesterday was up in the 60's! The 60's in January?! I forgot it was winter; we didn't even have Jackets on it was so nice. But this morning it was -4 with the windchill and the high today is supposed to be 21. It's just so weird how the weather can change so much is so little time. So yeah. There's my spill on weather. Hope you enjoyed that.


Everything has pretty much crashed and burned this week. We struggled with the amount of lessons taught. We had 6 lessons cancel on us in a row. It was just horrible. I always psych myself up before a lesson and convince myself that it is going to be the best lesson ever and then to have the person not even show up really dampens my spirits. But oh well. We carry on.


I've found that it is dangerously easy to waste time on your mission. Even if you are tracting, or planning, or studying or even in a lesson you can still be wasting time. A missionary wastes time when they don't have their head in the work. I've found that if I'm not personally fully invested in what I am doing at any given time then that time is wasted. A mission is one of the greatest opportunities to grow and develop as a person and we only benefit personally from a mission if we are fully invested in it. I could spend all my time doing exactly what I should be doing while my head could be somewhere else; thinking about something else; not necessarily anything bad, just something else other than the task at hand.
That's something I've been trying to do lately, is focus on my purpose, full time. I've noticed that I have been much happier when I do this and I enjoy the work even more, even when facing rejection and disappointment.
I think this is a principle that applies to everything; especially living the gospel. The more we allow ourselves to be consumed by things other than the gospel the less happy we are. It's silly how often we don't do the things Christ expects of us or if we just do them less than fullheartedly and still we expect a great outcome. When will we learn that only following Christ will bring us complete and full happiness? When I think like this I can't help but imagine how frustrated Heavenly Father must get with us. This is a major thing I struggle with still and probably always will, but I sure will try to improve as time goes on because that's what the plan of salvation says this life is for right? I love Heavenly Fathers plan so much. :)


I feel like my emails are not really what they should be. I feel like instead of telling you about how I'm doing and what I'm doing and how I like it I give sermons. Maybe I'll work on that too, or maybe I'll just keep doing what I do and if you really want to know what's going on over here then you can write me a letter and hope that I have time to write you back, or you can hold your questions until the end of my mission and take me out to lunch and ask me all about it then. Yeah. That sounds good.


Until then I hope you all have a fantastic week and that you all recognize the Lords hand in your life. Always look for ways to serve everyone around you!
I love you all!


-Elder Curtis :D