I don't know that I'd be able to express how up and down but all around great this week has been so I'll just stick with the highlights. Things were really getting hard because we were doing all that we could to get things moving here but it seemed like everything we were doing didn't amount to anything, and that was how our week went until Thursday which is the first highlight.
We had President interviews! It's always good to see "the big man" and his wife (President and Sister Morgan). My interview was great. They're usually pretty short because he has a lot of missionaries to go through but I ended up spending a good 20 minutes with him just talking. It was nice. He knew our area has been struggling but he trusted us to get it going and he promised things would look up soon.
Well they did. We picked a new investigator who investigated before but was dropped for unknown reasons. We taught him the plan of salvation on his front porch. He lives with some baptists (baptists really hate us in this town. They are literally out to get us) so they wont let us teach him inside their home. It was cold and there were some workers cleaning out the sewer in the middle of the road with a big machine so it was loud and really stinky as well, but it was great! Roger understood it better than we had anticipated and he had been reading in the Book of Mormon and was retaining everything in it really well. We'll be seeing him again this week.
On Saturday we had a lesson on the plan of salvation with two investigators Glen and Tracie Tofte, who have been investigating for a couple weeks now. They know the bible extremely well but really seem open to our message and are very interested in understanding us. They seem sincere but it will probably be a process with them. We're just trying to focus on helping them get a spiritual confirmation that it's true, then all the questions will take care of themselves. It was a really good lesson I think.
It snowed a lot that day and after the Toftes we went tracting. Tracting has produced so very little results for me personally but every now and then we find someone from it and on Saturday we did! An 89 year old woman by the name of Luara. She was convinced we were trying to sell her something of take her stuff from her because "that's all people ever want from me" she says. We finally convinced her otherwise and that we were actually there to give more to her. We had a wonderful discussion on the restoration of the gospel and she seemed very moved by it. She said she can't just accept this right away. "I have to pray and ask God about this first". She has great faith and we are looking forward to meeting with her more. We shoveled her side walk and drive way after that but it didn't do much I think because soon the snow was back falling even harder. We had to drive in it for 40 minutes to get to our dinner appointment. It really wasn't all that bad of a storm, I've been in worse, but there were people going 15 mph on the interstate. I need to work on patience I think...
On Sunday there was more snow and church was cancelled. Our cars were even grounded so we weren't allowed to drive them anywhere. So Elder Anderson and I stomped around town all day yesterday trying to get in some homes. By the end of the day my socks were drenched. It was the first time on my mission I wish I had boots. I've always hated snow and I never enjoy being in it, but despite that I really enjoyed being out there working. There really is no excuse for getting out of our responsibilities and doing the things the Lord expects us to be doing. We simply need to decide to go and do, no matter what.
A few days ago we were trying some people in a town called Hillsboro and we noticed a former investigator named Brandon on our list. We decided to give him a try because his record seemed pretty solid. We ended up meeting his grandparents who are actually less active members of the church. We had a good discussion with them and asked them about Brandon. Turns out Brandon was really into the discussions and wanted to be baptized but was not allowed to because his father is against the church but that Brandon would definitely be interested in investigating again. We set up a time to meet with them again with Brandon which was this morning. We met them at their house and Brandon is definitely eager to learn more and make the steps toward baptism. We're going to see him again on Friday and I am so excited for that. Now that he is 18 he doesn't need the approval of his father. I have a really good feeling about him.
Overall it was a great week. Things won't always go smoothly or be easy, but when we are spending our time doing the things the Lord would have us be doing we are happy and that makes it all worth it. I do love the Savior and the atonement which allows us such joy which is everlasting. I am so grateful for the time I am given to represent Him. I promise all of you that if we do all that we can to please Him then the pleasure will be returned to us a hundred fold.
I love all of you very much! Have a wonderful week!
-Elder Curtis
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