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November 17, 2014

Dear Family, 

That was a really cool story about that boy! I'm glad he's alright. Yikes! I have no idea who the Griffeth family is.

Occasionally I have a really hard time focusing but that's alright. I'm beyond grateful I've had this opportunity to serve

and my favorite thing about it is that I will continue to be a missionary for the rest of my life. I just won't have a badge on. 

Which will be great because then people won't stare me while I eat!! Biggest pet peeve ever. 

Anyway sounds like things are moving forward with the remodel. I can understand how the clutter would get to you...cleanliness is

next to Godliness right? 

Sound like winter season has hit just about everywhere...it's gotten really cold here as well. I'm still trying to figure out whose idea 

it was to put sister missionaries in a skirt in the middle of blessed Nebraska for the winter. Not my favorite rule ever! I'm thankful for long boots,

fleece lined tights, gloves, and a coat. Granted it takes me like 8 years to get dressed in the morning but I'm warm. 

This week was really the usual up and down week of a missionary. I'm getting so tired sometimes I just dream about sleeping. I don't know how

Elders do this for two years...missionary work is so hard. It's a great work but it's hard work. 

Some miracles that happened this week was we had a zone conference in Lincoln!! So I got to spend some time in a city that I served in for 9 months. 

It was great and a couple of Holmes Lake members came to the church and said hi! Oh my goodness it was so great to see them. 

But a really cool miracle happened on the way to Lincoln. We were driving on I-80 just chugging along and we were coming up on this car. It had Iowa license plates

and a Montana sticker. I was like I know that car! Where do I know that car? Then it dawned on me that it was my ward mission leader from Sioux City!!! 

We came up side by side their car and we honked and sure enough it was the Walkers!! AH!! It was such a tender mercy to see them. I hadn't heard or seen from them 

in a year. So we pulled off at some random exit cried and talked and then Bro Walker was like this is great but I'm cold meet us at Perkins in Lincoln and we'll all go get

hot chocolate! :)  It was wonderful. The exact timing of meeting them on the freeway was for sure not a coincidence. :) 

Zone Conference was wonderful we had Elder Nielson from the 70 come. Both Elder and Sister Nielson answered some of my questions and concerns and it was 

really great to see some of my past companions like Sis McCauley!!! I also saw some Elders and Sisters from my MTC district. It feels like just yesterday we were all 

there goofin off. 

Then another miracle happened yesterday...my comp and I felt like we needed to go visit this member. So we did and we were just talking to her because she was having 

a super rough time and was just struggling so hard with some things. So we went over and she's making pumpkin muffins and cuts her finger on the can of pumpkin. The cut is really deep, so blood is everywhere and she can't handle blood at all. So I'm holding paper towel after paper towel on her thumb and we're like Sister we need to go the ER. So we do. Luckily I know the ER people and they totally remembered me! So this Sister is just crying as she getting shots and stitches and what not and we're trying to distract her with funny stories. We make through the ER and then it dawned on us that we hadn't planned on seeing that Sister at all. She just came in my thoughts and in the thoughts of my wonderful companion. Sis Harris and I had been struggling so much this week, a lot of things have happened and this area is just so hard sometimes.  Yeah it's been rough, we hate going to church here because of some people. Anyway needless to say we felt like we weren't making a difference at all. We were discouraged. We felt like God didn't trust us at all in this area and many more emotions. But we realized that we are worthy to have the Spirit with us despite our weakness and despite our discouragement we can do the Lord's will. It's amazing how the Lord teaches us things. But yeah. 

We can only pray that we can see peoples hearts change this week.

Now that I wrote a super long email....whoops. Love you guys and thanks for all the support. 

Love, Sister Curfew 

November 10, 2014

Dear Family, 

Glad church went well and that the house is hopefully put back together. Let me know how EFY goes. That'll be cool. 

Mom, I love your testimony. It's the simple ones that are powerful. :)  And I want to get my foot zoned? Is that even how you say it? 

This week was full of crazy busy service. We mowed lawns, raked up leaves, organized a garage, cleaned a LA apt, and helped a LA 

after her surgery. We taught a couple lessons here and there and then we went to Omaha to the trail center with our investigator. She's 14 and 

really wants to get baptized! All we need is permission from her guardian and we should be home free to teach her the lessons. :) 

We were really blessed this week. I'm sorry this is so short but we didn't really do anything else this week. 

I'm doing alright. I'm really really tired we might just sleep for the rest of the day today. But hopefully we can get our energy back somehow. 

Love you guys! 

Love, Sister Curfew

November 3, 2014

Dear Family,

Yes I got the Halloween package! Thank you they were awesome. :) Sounds like our house is in a bit of turmoil...But it'll look good when

it's done I'm sure. What kind of floor is going in? Yeah, we went to the Saturday session of Stake Conference and everyone was like let me get pictures

of you for the facebook page. I'm pretty much a model. :) haha joke. The pumpkin pictures were either from Adrienne or Elicia not sure which one you got. 

Sorry to hear that your phone went into the toilet...was it clear water?? Is Dad feeling any better? Yes, I've been taking the Chewy vitamin stuff. I'm actually all out. 

We had Stake Conference yesterday and they too talked a lot about going to the temple. I would love to go to the temple as well but we're not allowed too. Ha awkward. Also I will start sending packages home next week. I've got to get all of the stuff I need to send home gathered together. 

Well this week was great. I was not transferred!! So we begin a new transfer! And it'll be my last! We're hoping for some serious miracles. 

So hopefully this doesn't sound to rude, but to help me stay focused it would be a huge help to not talk about coming home or to talk about the future in emails. Hopefully 

that will be a little easier for me to say focused. No worries I haven't gotten trunky yet. I don't think it's hit me.

We were blessed with a lot of cool things this week. One, we found a solid new investigator. Again because of members she was a lot more interested than she would

have been on her own. And she's only 14! She's a really smart and prepared 14 year old. Two, branch parties are the best. We had LA and Inv come to the Halloween party 

the branch put on this week. They really enjoyed the fellowship and we were just pumped that people came! They didn't come to church but that's alright. One step at a time here. 

We also had a great Halloween. We were able to spend it with the Deakin family and man did they stuff us alive with food. :) 

A downside to this week was almost everyday we were yelled at. That's wasn't my favorite but oh well. One of our investigators decided she didn't want to be baptized and 

so she yelled at us and told us we were horrible and what not. Afterwards we were like...I don't think she's ready. She'll get there. Then Carol the lady we live with yelled at us. About laundry. Sometimes member housing is really hard especially when they make it very clear everyday that they never wanted us to live there and they were forced to house us by the branch president.  I love being a burden...but whether they like us living there or not they'll still be blessed.

Super funny thing that happened this week was we went to go see this LA. And he answered the door in his underwear...gross. So he is in his 50's and he just sat down 

on his front stairs because we didn't have a team up and couldn't go inside. Oh my what an awkward situation. But we preceded to teach him about prophets and it went well despite the awkwardness. Oh missionary work.  So yeah that was our week. :) This area is pretty much rockin :) 

Thanks for all of your support and prayers. Could you please continue to pray that I will be able to stay focused? 

Love you all very much! 

Love, Sister Curfew  

October 27, 2014

Dear Family,

Thanks for the email. Sounds like y'all have been busy. What kind of floor is going in in the kitchen and bathroom? I think God just wants 

me to cut wood for the rest of my life because one of our LA mentioned that she would like help splitting her wood this year...

Has it snowed in Utah yet? 

That's sad that people are falling away. I heard this quote in a Relief Society lesson once prophesying that things like this would happen. Then 

the quote went on and explained that if you don't have a foundation of the Book of Mormon than your testimony won't stand at the last day. It was quite bold. 

That's probably why are mission is focusing on the Book of Mormon. Everything we teach to anyone needs to be out of the Book of Mormon. 

We do have quite a few of investigators. We're teaching a lot of the first lessons, which I love because it's my favorite lesson to teach. We're also seeing 

a lot of success with Less Actives! They're starting to come to church! The members here really are what's making the difference. The members follow up, have constant contact,  and build friendships so easily with everyone. It's really cool because more and more of the members are changing and developing Christlike attributes! Praise the Lord! :) 

Although we're having much success Sis Harris and I both got really sick this week. We're not really sure what we had. But we slept a lot. Being sick on the mission

stinks. I hate it so much. But what can you do? 

We also went on exchanges this week.  It was a really rough exchange. I worked in Holdrege with the STL while Sis Harris worked in Kearney with the other STL. 

Usually exchanges uplift and encourage and inspire you to be better. Well this time when the exchange was done I felt like a failure. I felt like I had wasted 17 months of 

my life. Some of the comments she made really hurt my feelings. I felt like Heavenly Father was disappointed in me. It really sucked! For the first time on my 

mission I felt like quitting. It was a really scary moment. I didn't want to pray because I was afraid that Heavenly Father was going to be like Sister your STL is right. 

Our branch leader gave me a blessing and it brought a lot of peace. It didn't really say anything specific about anything, but I just felt more at peace. Which is really 

all you need right? So I prayed and did what one of the Apostles talked about in conference about how we need to express our thoughts, fears, frustrations, EVERYTHING in our prayers. So I did. I don't what Heavenly Father thought but I sure felt better. So I guess I just get over what happened and continue to do my best as a missionary. 

Oh trials. I guess they're needed but they're hard. 

We also stayed at another members house to keep her company and watch their dog for a day. It's a huge yellow lab and his name is River. I want them to get another dog

and name it Creek. ha ha I'm hilarious. :) But River does not leave my side when we go over he slept with me, he waits outside the door while I go to the bathroom, and I might bring him home with me. I don't know how, but I'll make it work. Ha just joking. :) 

So Robin and Carol have been out of town for like 2 weeks. Usually they let us know when they come home. Nope not this time. So in the middle of the night I wake 

up to the door opening and I'm like oh my gosh someone is breaking in. We're going to die. So I'm like freaking out and I sneak upstairs and see Carols white hair and I was 

like I'm going to kill you guys. They were like we thought it would be funny to surprise  you. I was not a happy camper.

Anyway, that's pretty much all we did this week. Thanks for everything. Love you guys!
Love, Sister Curfew  

October 20, 2014

Dear Family,

What other projects are you doing? Crazy that Blaine will be graduating this next year. Hopefully you don't get sick. 

I loved the picture of you guys at the Utah State game! :) That was super cute. Did Daemian and Aidan get my letters? 

This week was awesome! We found like 3 new investigators! It was really cool. So we now have a total of like 12 investigators! 

 We were looking at their names on the board during weekly planning and we realized that all of them except one were 

with members help. Whether it be a member referral or it be that a member prepared them by bearing simple testimony. There was only 

one investigator that we found through our own efforts. My testimony of member missionary work is increased so much! I used to think 

it was a lot easier without members getting involved because they make things complicated. Which is sometimes true, but once the members

are in a sense "trained" man alive they're really effective. :) 

We had zone training this week as well so we trekked off to North Platte. In the training our Zone Leaders basically told us that we were prideful and 

that we're horrible missionaries. I was like well then...I guess we better humble ourselves. But let it be known last time I prayed to be humbled I sprained

my ankle so I haven't prayed to be humbled quite yet. So instead I read the talk from President Uchtdorf from the last Priesthood session and I really loved it. :) I love how Apostles phrase things and I love how the Spirit motivates. I think this is my favorite quote from the talk:

"Brethren(Sisters), if it is your great desire to cultivate Christlike attributes of“faith, virtue, knowledge, temperance, patience, brotherly kindness,godliness, charity, humility, [and service],”¹⁰ Heavenly Father will make you an instrument in His hands unto the salvation of many souls." 

Go Christlike Attributes! Woo! But yeah, it was a great week and I love being a missionary. :) 

Love you guys! 

Love, Sister Curfew 

October 13, 2014

Dear family,

Well, thanks for forgetting me again...ha just joking. It's not a big deal. 

Hopefully things are going well for you guys in Mo-town. 

Well this week was kind of incredible....like really incredible. We got a sweet

new solid investigator. The members are changing!! They've done some crazy Christlike

things this past week. I gave a training in Dst Mtg that went really well. We had 7 investigators

come to church!! One was Patrick who dropped us like 3 weeks ago! He just randomly came to church. It was crazy! So we were fasting yesterday for branch unity and because of the branch unity we would be able to see a baptism. So just imagine fasting for that and then walking into church and seeing 7 investigators there. I was like man I'm fasting everyday! 

I can't even describe to you all the stuff that happened this week. It can be summed up by saying that our members are improving, the area is progressing, and this is the Lords work. I came to the conclusion yesterday that because this is the Lords work He can give us people to teach. He can give us a baptism. He knows each of his children individually and so He knows who's ready and who isn't. I was like why am I stressing when the Lord had totally got this covered. :) Wish I would've figured that out earlier in my mission. :) 

Funny story...so we went home to go eat dinner like we always do. As I was putting my stuff on my bed I hear Sis Harris ask me in a really hesitant voice "Sister please tell that's one of your head bands" I look down where she is looking and this snake is coiled up in our hallway. We all know that I'm crazy afraid of snakes. So I do what any girl would do. Scream for Robin and limp upstairs to find her. Robin just rolls her eyes and comes down and picks it up and takes it outside like it's no big deal...And this is why I was not called to foreign mission....:) 

So yeah. I'm doing well. I love you guys and I hope you have a great week! 

Love, Sister Curfew