6-9-14

Hey everyone!
So, I'm in Waterloo, Illinois now. So that's fun. Every transfer puts me in a smaller town than the last. It's so weird here; it's so flat and there is corn everywhere... Everywhere. My first day here we got picked up by a member to go give another member a blessing. He picked us up at our apartment which is in the middle of town and then not even two minutes of driving later we were surrounded by nothing but fields of corn. One second we were in civilization, literally the next second we weren't.
On Thursday we had district meeting. After which we had district lunch at KFC. Looking out the window I saw a spacious corn field. On the other side of that, a Walmart. On one side of the more busy streets here there is a pizza hut, applebees, department stores and so on. On the other side of that street is nothing but corn fields. Everything neighbors corn here! I can't get over it.
It's kind of been a long week, but transfer weeks are always weird for me. We have many service opportunities throughout the week such as building houses and taking down hangers at thrift stores. When I got here we had 5 investigators. We had a lesson with one of them whose name is Alyssa. We taught her the word of wisdom. She took it very well and is committed to living it. She is progressing well; she has a date for July 19th. Awesome!! I am very excited to be teaching her. Last night we stopped by to teach her and her friend Tiffany, who is also investigating and has a date but she is technically the sister missionaries investigator. They had company over and we were able to teach them about the book of Mormon, the priesthood, and a little bit of the plan of salvation. We exchanged contact information and set up times to meet with them again. That's two new investigators!
The branch here is great so far. They are very friendly and eager for missionary opportunities. Elder Bowen and I are getting along well. He is from Wanship, UT which is a little bit south of Coalville. He has some of the best people skills I've ever seen. The trick is getting him to use them.
I definitely have my work cut out for me here, but whom the Lord calls, He qualifies. I am excited to serve in this area now, and I am going out with more eagerness than ever before! How blessed am I to be a part of this marvelous work! It truly is a marvelous work. I love serving the Lord!
I hope all of you are doing well and have a wonderful week!


Love, Elder Curtis


PS. Dad, good luck with your new project at work, as well as your self-inflicted project at home. Haha! I wish I was there to help you. Take care. I love you.