May 11, 2015

Greetings!


Okay, so it was kind of a slow week, but still kind of exciting and there were definitely highlights.


We sustained the new second counselor in the branch presidency yesterday as well as an entirely new relief society presidency. We are anticipating an entirely new elders quorum as well. So many changes!


Unfortunately we haven't been able to meet with Brian or Samantha and just about every other investigator is pretty much at a stand still right now. Some of them we'll have to drop unfortunately.


We are still able to keep solid appointments with some investigators such as, Mike, Brandon and Mason. It's frustrating with Mason and Brandon because they are both so ready for baptism. We've gone through absolutely everything they need to prepare and they're keeping all of the commitments they can, they just can't come to church. UGH!... One day. One day.


When we go see Mason we never know what we'll see, hear or learn or what to expect. When we arrived this week to teach them, we ended up being taught how to give someone a tattoo- practice with a real tattoo gun included (It was on paper, not skin).


The best lesson we had this week was easily the one we had with Robert. We taught him the restoration. The lesson went well I think; Robert was very attentive the whole time and participated well and we testified by the Spirit often. As we began wrapping things up I asked Robert "Do you believe that these things are true?" He looked at me and with a light in his eyes he said, "I know they're true." Slightly taken aback at his surety, but feeling the spirit of what he said and seeking the Spirits guidance I looked back at him and simply asked "How do you know these things are true?" and he firmly replied, "Because of the way I feel."
What a perfect answer! It was obvious that he was feeling the Spirit and was able to recognize that its reassuring feeling which he was experiencing were a witness to the truth of what we had told him. We were so pumped up with the Spirit after that lesson! I still get stoked about it when I think of it. Moments like that are the golden gems of missionary work.
Robert is pretty dang solid. We knew he wouldn't be able to come to church yesterday because he was really sick the night before when we were teaching him. But I believe he will be there next week.


Hopefully we will get things going with our other investigators. Thanks for your prayers!


Love, Elder Curtis

May 4, 2015 (Star Wars Day)

Happy Star Wars Day everyone!!!


Man, there's so much to share and not much time. Hopefully I can get through it all. You might not get many details though.


Transfer calls came. Elder Abbott and I are staying here in Litchfield! So my address remains 1120 N Montgomery Litchfield IL 62056 for at least another 6 weeks. I am glad I am staying here. We are anticipating a very good transfer with lots of exciting changes and improvements. The work here in the past has been very slow, (near stagnant). I'm told that general authorities in SLC have had their eyes on it and have asked a lot of questions why it has been in that condition. But over the past 3-8 months it has slowly been making great improvements and just recently some changes have been made in the auxiliaries and there has been a general shift in attitude in the branch lately so things are beginning to progress and function well again! I'm glad to be a part of it. Much of the success in the branch is due to the Nance's, the senior missionary couple who have been here for 18 months, living right next door to us. But they completed their mission and moved back to Utah just last Monday. Oh how we miss them! They were the best missionary couple ever! We owe so much to them and they have really earned a special place in my heart forever. (It's so weird without them, but on the bright side we have very nice furniture now.) It will be difficult without them but we are eager and excited to keep working hard with this branch. I am seriously so thrilled with everything happening here. You could only understand if you were here and involved with everything like we are. It's miraculous!
Last week we had something interesting happen as well. We do service at a local thrift store and while were there we started talking to one of the other volunteers named Robert. He asked us where our church is located. After explaining it's location he pleasantly exclaimed that it is a lot closer than the lds church he and his wife had already been going to. We were a little perplexed. He explained that his wife is a member of our church but we didn't recognize her name after he told us what it was. We got his number and later set up an appointment with them where we met his wife, Jinnifer. She was so thrilled to see us. She had joined the church in an alternate stake and married Robert but moved into our branch boundaries about ten years ago and had assumed that the closest meeting house was in Edwardsville, which is about 45 minutes south of us and still in a completely different stake. Some how she was able to slip into the unknown for ten years and yet still went to church off and on without being found out where she lives and that her records need to be moved. Thankfully she is found now, her records are being sought after, and Robert was picked up as a new investigator! He said the only thing that would probably stop him for joining the church is his anxiety of someone asking him to give a talk... I think we'll just deal with that.
Last week I also went golfing for the first time. That was actually quite thrilling. I'm horribly bad at it, I think, but I was starting to own that 4 iron. We didn't keep score but I think the best I did was a bogey. I still really enjoyed it and we'll probably go again next Monday.
Okay, so get this. About a week and a half ago we got the announcement that we were going to have another mission conference on May 2. We already had a mission conference this year where Elder Sitati of the Seventy presided. But suddenly we were having another one. Well Okay! So on Saturday the whole mission met in St. Louis for this spontaneous mission conference. Oh! It was so awesome to see everyone in the same place again; that just doesn't happen. I got to see almost all of my so many missionaries I've served around and have grown to love like many previous companions, Elder Ivey, Elder Julian, Elder Davis, Elder Johnson, Elder Lazaro, both Elder Andersons, and Elder Cook... And by Elder Cook I mean, Elder Quentin L. Cook. That's right ELDER QUENTIN L. COOK!!!!! The one that's an APOSTLE!!!! He and Elder Ulisses Soares of THE PRESIDENCY OF THE SEVENTY and Bishop Gary E. Stevenson, the PRESIDING BISHOP OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS (these are in all-caps because I just can't get over those flipping awesome titles!!!) were coming to Saint Louis for a multi-stake priesthood leadership meeting which I guess happens every four or five years. With two hours of extra time in their schedules, Elder Cook wanted to meet with all the missionaries. We all got to shake their hands and they all spoke to us. They did a Q and A and Elder Cook bore probably the most powerful testimony of Jesus Christ and the church I have ever heard, especially in person, and then he gave us an apostolic blessing! POWER. That's all I feel like I can say to describe the whole experience with them and the Spirit that was so abundant. It was an occasion I will never forget. I'm still so giddy about it!
Jesus Christ lives. This is the church of the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the Leader of it. These are facts. I know they are true. I have been assured that that is true, not just by an apostle of the Lord, but especially by the Spirit of God. It has become so real to me that these things are true since being a emissary of Christ myself, and Saturday just solidified it so much in my heart. I know that Christ lives and this is His church! It's true guys. It's all true! We are so blessed to have this knowledge! God really is our Father and we are going to live with Him again! Christ really is our Redeemer and paid for our sins. He really does. Joseph Smith really did see them, exactly the way he said he did and they really did call him as a prophet and have called each prophet since. I know all of these things to are true. They are reality. I am so grateful for these truths. I testify of these things in the Savior's name, Jesus Christ. Amen.

Apr. 27, 2015

Hey everyone! We had a busy day today and we got to emailing late. I have stuff to say but literally no time to say it. So basically this is for you to know that you were not forgotten/neglected completely and I am doing swell! I have exciting news to share next week so get on the edge of your seats!
I love you all!


-Elder Curtis

Apr. 20, 2015

Hey everyone!


So not much happened this week. Nothing new anyway. We're teaching and finding every day almost so that's super nice and I'm loving it!
Brian was not able to come to church and neither was Samantha. They were up all night with the baby crying. At least it wasn't a one-sided bummer that no one came to church sometime. Brian and Samantha were both pretty bummed about it as well.
That is pretty much it and I'm really tired, so I'm going to go even though this is probably the shortest shortest and driest email I've sent. (Sorry Mom)
Thank you so much for your love and prayers!
I love you guys!


-Elder Curtis

Apr. 13, 2015

I have some very exciting news today. It will sound great to you but I don't think you will fully understand the joy that I feel because of this...
BRIAN CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! That's right, you read that correctly. Brian Hilt, our investigator from Litchfield, Illinois, came to church on Sunday. And get this, he loved it! He liked how multiple people speak on different things and the feeling there. I was deeply pleased with how many of the members of the branch came up to him and introduced themselves and made him feel welcome and comfortable. He told some members that he would be back next week! I a so happy!! I thought I would end up going my whole time here without someone even coming to church but now I don't have to worry about that anymore. Brian in progressing very well. Things with his adoption are now final and the baby is his. This is such a huge relief for him and his family. On Friday we were able to meet him at his house where we were introduced to his daughter, Samantha. Brian told us at an earlier date that she is even more interested than he is and she would often take his Book of Mormon to read it, so we were definitely pleased to finally meet her and teach her the restoration, which went very well. Samantha was unable to come to church because she had to watch Roger (the baby). I think part of Brian coming alone was to see if he would be comfortable bringing Roger with them so Samantha could come too. Hopefully he will do that. Thank you for everyone who kept Brian in their prayers. He and Samantha are now working on picking a baptismal date. And Brian also informed us that his oldest daughter is pretty interested in the church as well!


Earlier this week we picked up a nice elderly woman named Vanessa, who lives two housed down from Brian. We had a very nice discussion on the restoration on her front porch and I could tell that she was deeply touched by the Spirit as we shared that message with her. We hope to be able to get her progressing as well. We explained how to get to the church from her house and she seemed willing to go but was out of town this weekend.


On Thursday we picked up two more investigators in a town called Gillespie. Their names are Jacob and Wendy. Jacob comes from a religious background but Wendy does not. She had many questions about God and the world and how it's hard to be a good person. We had a really great discussion about the atonement, Christ's grace, the restoration and so forth. Before we left Wendy said "I feel a lot better now than before you got here. It's no accident that you came here today, especially after the week we've had." Hearing things like that just warms my soul.


We also received a bunch of referrals this week! There has also been a giant shift in the state and attitude/progress of the branch this week. My hope for this area is really catching some flame.


Also on Thursday we had some severe weather. There were supposed to be tornadoes but nobody spotted any, which I'm honestly kind of bummed about. I think it would be really cool to see one of those. But just before the storm the sky got deep, dark yellow and soon the rain was coming down in sheets and the wind was very strong. After an hour or so all the heavy rain was gone and the the worst of it was over. We got reports from our mission vehicle coordinator that six mission vehicles were totaled due to soft-ball sized hail that landed on them and made giant holes. Though we were clear of any hail we did end up with a nice little lake in our back yard which we subsequently called Lake Curtis, located in the Abbott National Forest (which consists of the three to four trees we have in the back yard). Below is a picture of me in Lake Curtis.


I think that is all I had for this week! Thank you for all of your prayers! They are being answered. Have a great week! Sure love ya!


-Elder Curtis

Apr. 6, 2015

Hey everyone!


Wasn't General Conference just glorious? I loved it so much!! How blessed we are! I am so grateful for living prophets on the earth today. I am so grateful to have a fullness of the gospel in my life. I am grateful to be a missionary and have the responsibility to serve the Lord full time. The gospel is the best thing on earth!
Time is sparse today; we need to be somewhere at 1. So first off I need to do a little correction regarding my address. I gave you the address of the people living next door to us who are senior missionaries. The reason being that when I first got here we were told that we would be moving into that apartment at the end of April and closing the lease on ours. So instead of having to switch addresses on you in the middle of a transfer I figured I would just give you the address next door since I would be in there soon. Turns out I had to switch addresses anyway The people in the office have changed their mind and we are actually keeping our apartment and the one we were going to have to move into is going to be closed. So, the address you need to write on any mail is:


1120 N. Montgomery st.
Litchfield IL 62056


I want to make sure you caught that. 1120 NOT 1122.


We had a fair week with its typical ups and downs. We had an awesome lesson on the plan of salvation with Jeff and Natasha. They thought it was "really cool" and made a lot of sense... (DING!) but they won't agree to a baptism date until they see what the church is like. In the past they've had some bad experiences at church so they want to see what we're like. Understandable.


We had another great lesson with Mason! His parents even broke out their old quads and were reading along in the scriptures with us. It was a lesson all about Jesus Christ and the atonement. It was so good!


Please keep Brian in your prayers! He is our really solid investigator that we just can't meet with. He's going through some adoption issues right now and it's really got him stressed out and we haven't been able to meet with him lately because of it.


Okay, time to go. I love you guys! I do. I do. I do. Have a great week and remember, the blessings of general conference come AFTER the conference is over. Review, study and live the principles taught.


Sure love ya!


-Elder Curtis

Pictures!

The scar




​Can we be any more cool?






​I finally found someone who would just listen! He was very quiet, but his name is Abe. I was impressed with the high standards he has and his baller outfit.






​Getting stitches!