November 18, 2013

Dear Family,

The Co's are beyond excited to meet you as well. Especially Sister C since she talked to mom on the phone. That was weird because we had brought an investigator over and so I was right there when mom called...haha. I'm excited for the holidays. Not so much Thanksgiving actually...mostly because I was informed that I will most likely be transferred seeing as I have been in this area for 6 months, and transfers are the day before Thanksgiving so I will be eating with members that I don't know at all. But if I don't end up being transferred we are eating with a family here in town because the C's will be in Idaho with their family. It should be fun. I honestly don't know if we will be working that day. I can't imagine us working...but you never know.
Ha I knew you were going to say something about Christmas and how people celebrate it too soon. Haha well, we put up the tree with the C's because they wanted Sister K and I to do it. I was shocked though because no one cried. I feel like whenever we put up a tree at home, mom or someone always ends up crying. Anyway they turned on the Christmas music (church music of course) and I was like oh man, it's too early for this. But it was still touching. :) Also their Christmas tree rotates, it's pretty sweet. Putting lights on that was a piece of cake. ;) I'm glad you were able to have a good time in Las Vegas...even if it's super sketchy. Ah man poor Aidan I'm glad he's doing a little better. Do you and mom get any sleep with him whimpering? What can he eat?

Well this week was the usual crazy missionary week. We had a sick Sister K. Then we had exchanges with the coolest Sister Trainer Leaders this mission has ever known. :) We taught a bunch of lessons that day, so it was pretty incredible. I personally got some one on one time with one of my best friends her name is Sister V she's from St. George. Oh man she's just awesome and a great example of a  missionary. She has taught me how to have a blast on a mission while respecting the dignity of our calling. :) Our recent convert S is doing great. We went to see her and her scriptures were all marked up and she was explaining the tree of life to us. I just can't get over this because she's 11! She really is like this great little peacemaker in her home. I feel lucky to even know her. :) I heard some unfortunate news about another missionary I was really close to who was sent home for disobedience. I was devastated! I was seriously mourning the loss of this missionary. But the Lord knew what I needed to hear and I was reading in the Ensign the talk by President Uchtdorf "You Can Do It Now." from the priesthood session. This talk was so  powerful to me, which I love because that's how I know that Heavenly Father knows what I am struggling with and helps me out. Woo! It just talks about how we all fail, we all stumble, and we can all get back up. "Our destiny is not determined by the numbers of times we stumble, but by the number of times we rise up, dust ourselves off, and move forward." I was filled with hope. :)
Anyway well J one of our investigators texted us before church yesterday and said that he didn't want to meet with us anymore. The last lesson we had with him we talked about baptism. So we were expecting some opposition. We had promised him that if he came to church then he would get an answer. This is the hardest part of the mission. Seeing people know and feel of the Spirit, gain a testimony of the Book of Mormon and then run from it. Heartbreaking. But on the more positive note we met a lot of new people this week and people in the community are talking about us. :) A lot of the people we come in contact with are like"yeah we've heard about you around town." Creepy...but cool at the same time. We also had dinner with a family last named the B's they are converts.  They were HILARIOUS. :) Some families hide the fact that they're not perfect and try to make it seem like they are. But this family was so real and so down to earth. It was so refreshing! :) Oh my goodness their family was just so funny. They have twin boys about Daemian's age and one of chimed into the lesson we were having, which was about striving to do our best and stuff, and he said "Mom, it's okay, no one is perfect everyone farts." haha Oh man we all laughed for a long time after that. (Sorry if that was to irreverent, I thought is was funny.) 
Although things like J happen, at the same time we meet people  who lift our spirits and encourage us. My favorite thing about being out here is connecting with people and being able to be my real self around everyone I meet. I know scary thought. But it works out here. :)

I love you all and I hope everything is going well. Keep praying and communicating with our Father in Heaven and he will help us out in all that we do. :)

Love, Sister Curfew

November 13, 2013

Dear family,

Sorry this is so late. The library was closed Monday and then my companion was sick all day yesterday so we were unable to go out. So now I'm emailing. Sister K is feeling better. :)

Crazy to hear about Aidan! I hope he gets feeling better soon. I will  continue to study the scriptures to gain an understanding of the Atonement as best I can.. :) Which is working.

This week has been good. We met a lady named L. and her brother and sister in law are preparing for a mission and are in the MTC right now as Senior couples. That's crazy right?! We are going back, and she is feeding us dinner! :) We had an investigator of ours decline the baptismal invitation even though she had felt the Spirit and knew it was what she needed to do. That was hard and upsetting. But we did our best as servants of the Lord. :)

We had an awesome FHE with J. and some members in Le Mars. J. opened up and really enjoyed being taught by "real people" evidently we're fake haha. :) The lesson was awesome he sounded just like Joseph Smith. We committed him to follow Joseph Smith's example and pray to know the truth of what we are teaching him. :) We are meeting with him so I look forward to hearing about his experience.

We had this crazy day on Wednesday. We received at least 7 or 8 promptings that led to nothing...we could tell that we were being tested to see if we would actually follow our promptings. Thankfully we passed. Haha.

We also attended a baptism in our ward ,a guy named L. who the Elders are teaching. It was so powerful. He was so pumped about the Book of Mormon. I loved what he said. "Every time I read I am quick to underline something that will help me or one of my friends." How inspiring is that. He will make a great missionary. :) It's moments like these where I LOVE being a missionary. Seeing people change is the greatest thing ever.

This week I'm working on be exactly obedient. I learned that it is possible to be EXACTLY Obedient through Repentance and the Atonement of Christ. Repentance is our theme this month as missionaries and has already made a huge impact in my life. I know that Repentance is a change of heart. "It's forming a fresh view of God, ourselves, and the world." I never realized the importance of repenting daily until now. I would encourage you to read about repentance in Preach my Gospel, and repent daily as well.

Sorry this letter is so rushed. I love you all. I'm glad Aidan is doing well. Have a good week.

I love you lots,

Love, Sister Curfew

November 4, 2013

Dear Fam,

You got snow! That's crazy. Well I guess that's not super abnormal for Utah weather. It hasn't snowed here yet. It is supposed to evidently tomorrow but the weather here is to unpredictable. We do observe Daylight Saving Time. The extra hour of sleep was really nice. Even though my internal clock woke me up at what my body thought was 6:20. It starts getting dark here around 4:30ish and 5:00 which makes missionary work really hard. Once the sun goes down people think it's to late for anyone to knocking on the door. So we are praying and trying to figure out different things to do at night. Well everyone is harvesting so the cornfields are no long cornfields. They are just fields. It has been really cool to watch them harvest. I never knew how difficult it is to harvest...it's quite the process. I will send you a picture next week. I've got to take one first...For Halloween President didn't give us any restrictions. He just said to follow the Spirit and fellowship with members. So we built a fire in a fire pit with the C's and roasted marshmallows and it was really cool because one by one the the 5 families in Le Mars came over and we just partied it latter-day saint style. :) haha So Brother C and I were talking family history and turns out we're related! Crazy. It's through Olive Durfee...if you have any questions you can get a hold of him...I can't remember. ha sorry.

That's cool that you're running another Ragnar. You're so awesome at running. I miss just going for a run. We only have 30 min to exercise and 20 min is cardio and 10 min of strength and stretching. So our time is scrunched. :)

The work here is going well. :) Our baptism did not fall through and it was a really cool experience.  Her non member father attended the baptism so that was REALLY cool! Then her confirmation in sacrament meeting yesterday was powerful. She is only 11 but she is so smart and so responsive to the Spirit. When we asked her about what she felt when she prayed about the Book of Mormon she said "I felt a pang of pleasure." haha I just really liked the description. :) There weren't very many people at the baptism because it was announced poorly, but she was welcomed right into the ward on Sunday. Hopefully the ward will keep fellow shipping her.

This week I did get sick and we had to stay home. But we taught a lesson over the phone and got our area book updated so it wasn't a total waste of a day. But I am feeling much better now! Stress+no sleep=sickness. But all is well now.

We also had Zone Conference on Halloween. It was 8 hours long! That may have been one of the longest meetings I have ever been too. It was really cool though. President Weston wants us to be praying vocally for personal prayers. So Sister K and I have to pray in different rooms. haha I really like praying out loud better though because one I don't fall asleep, two it makes me feel like Heavenly Father is actually listening, and three the Spirit is stronger.  It is really cool :) He also said to beware of pride. Which led to me read the Beware of Pride talk by President Benson. Still working on pride...it's a sin "that doth easily beset me" haha. Progression not perfection right?

We received a lot of instruction on how to get the members better involved in the work. Which is SO DIFFICULT! But we'll figure it out eventually right? :)

I really liked what you said about self analyzing our actions. If we are focusing so much on what we need to better then we will never see our improvement. That's something I am really grateful that Sister K is my companion. Sometimes when we get out of a lesson I am like shoot, I should've done this and this or I should've been said this and this and this. She is really good and keeping me focused on the positive.
Dad, you should email me all of your thoughts on the Atonement. Because I just am not understanding it as well as I think I should. 

So a couple of cool stories that happened to us this week. One we were walking out of Christian Needs, which is a place we serve at, and this guy comes walking to our car. We rolled down the window and he was like are you sisters from the Mormon church? Of course we said yes and he was like "I go to that church! I haven't been since my son got blessed a couple years ago. I need to go back. I live in Le Mars. What is the address to the church?" Holy cow! we were so blown away. God sent us a Less Active. :) We had to be in the right place at just the right time. God is a God of miracles. :) He knows his sheep.

Then we had a lady who we met last week and we were able to take a couple priesthood holders to go and give her a priesthood blessing. It's so cool because when she feels the Spirit she gets goosebumps. During and after the blessing she had very obvious goosebumps. I just thought that was really awesome. :)

Another cool thing is Sister C bought us fabric and we are all making a quilt together. Sister C is the most patient person I have ever seen when it comes to crafts and sewing.  And we all know that I am anything but patient. So it has been really neat to have Sister C deal with my impatience and teach me how to go slow and then the mistakes I were making wouldn't have happened. She's so great. I was meant to live with these members. They always have so much to teach me. :)

Well I love you all. Thanks for all of your support. Thank you for keeping me in your prayers, don't forget to include Sister K as well. :)

Love you,

Sister Curfew