February 10, 2014

Dear Family,

Good to know that I am second to the Olympics. :) haha just joking. I'm jealous you're watching them! Record it for me. Haha :) I sent Aidan a birthday card. Tell him Happy Birthday
for me. :)  I LOVE the Lord family. They are the best. They are the most giving, generous, loving, kind, and witty people this world has ever known. My favorite that Sister Lord says to me is.

"What's up Buttercup". Their cats try to eat my hair every single time we go over to their  house.

So yes we are moving but not for 2 weeks. I need to tell the whole story. So we get a call on Monday night from the Assistants to President Weston. They informed us that
some other Sisters would be living with us in our apartment until the end of the transfer and we would be moving out hopefully into a members home. Oh also we are no longer serving
in the Trendwood ward. We are now the "Holmes Lake Sisters". So we were "emergency transferred" with 3 weeks of the transfer left... We will be opening up the area for Sisters! Peace out Trendwood!!

Plus it snowed like crazy here and all the cars were grounded for a couple of days and we were unable to go anywhere because our area is 10 miles away from our apt...we did a lot of area
book stuff.  But yeah. It's been kind of insane this week. I was very happy for the phone call. I was struggling quite a bit in Trendwood...I was discouraged all the time and I just hated it. We were not
supported very well. I am very sad to leave the people we were working with because they were making incredible progress! I am sad not to work with the Elders and a couple members of the ward. But other than that I am so pumped to be in Holmes Lake now. Church yesterday was incredible! Everyone was so excited to see us. For once ever since I've gotten here I actually feel like I'm needed and wanted and that we aren't burdens. I've been praying
for this ever since I left Le Mars! This ward is so excited to do the work. Also our ward mission leader is going to be the next prophet...he's amazing. We call him every night to tell him what we did and who we saw
and what we taught and etc...Then he gives inspirational "pump up" talks to us. I can't even tell you how huge of a tender mercy it was to get transferred. Because of this experience I have learned quite a bit. One, God does hear

our pleas at night. He really does know what we need. Don't ever doubt that. Two, President Weston has been called of God and acts under His authority. I never said anything to him about this ward. Three, God places us in certain

places for a reason. I got a blessing from our ward mission leader and after the blessing he said I feel very strongly that "you will find and baptize many people in this area. You really are here for a reason." After he gave my companion
her blessing he said  to her "with you I feel like this ward needs your personality and your love. You are here for the ward."  Fourth, Satan really does seek to destroy us. I felt so bogged down the other day and I knew that these feelings were not from Heavenly Father but it was crazy how real Satan is. I am very thankful we have power over him.

So funny story...I got our car stuck in the snow...on a hill...covered in ice. Well it wasn't my fault, if the snow plows actually plowed here we would've been fine. But no, plows don't exist in Nebraska!! Okay it was my fault.

But thankfully I am kind of  buff and pushed it out while screaming at my companion turn the wheel to the right, okay now left,  now right. Oh my goodness that was hilarious. I wish someone would've filmed

that experience. Afterwards Sister S was like...can we never do that again?

Oh also we have gotten permission to keep working with Laura Rodriguez. She is getting baptized this week!!! On Saturday!!! She passed her baptismal interview and she is ready! PLEASE pray for her extra this week.

The baptism week is always the hardest on investigators.

But yeah so that was my week. Filled with many adventures.
Love ya'll!

Love, Sister Curfew

February 3, 2014

Dear Family,

Thanks Mom for your email. I heard the super bowl was pretty good. Good to hear that the boys are doing well. I'm jealous that you're going to
time out for women. That's sounds really fun. :) Yeah it's still really cold here always...it's a bitter cold and there is no snow on the ground so
it's gross looking outside. I use hand warmers like crazy and we drink more hot cocoa than anything.

This last week was a very long week. Obviously it was rough with the ward mission leader...but we talked with the Elders and they calmed me
down a little bit and then we had interviews with President Weston and it helped a lot to talk with him about it.

When we had interviews I was explaining to him what happened and President Weston was so funny and just shakes his head and says

Sister don't worry about it you can teach and you know what you're doing. He told me that when we choose to serve missions and we become

representatives of Jesus Christ we will go through things that Christ did as well. He committed me to read the New Testament and study his life.

So I am enjoying that. He also told me that he wants me to be 100% myself always. He said the Lord sent me to this area because He knew my

personality would be best fit the people here and that the way I teach is for someone here. He was like don't let Satan in and let
him change you! It was a great interview and was much needed. :)

Oh funny story. So we ate with this family and the mom, her name is Sis Y, lived in France for a couple of years and so she taught us how
to make Croissants last night. It is quite the process. It just made me laugh because she sounded like she was on a French cooking show. I was
just pumped to learn how to make Croissants. We also had a funny moment with our investigator L. So she dumped Broccoli soup down her
toilet and her toilet clogged. Don't ask me why. (A lot of people pour stuff down their toilets here, it's the weirdest thing. Like soggy cereal and stuff like that.
Nebraskans are weird!) We were on our way over for an appt with her and she calls and says not come over but we convinced her we could

help so we went home and changed and then went to her house and unclogged a toilet for about an hour. I am kind of professional at snaking out
toilets now...When I was snaking it out in my head I was like "L, you better get baptized cause this is really gross." It was funny it ended up being
a good laugh and the lesson we taught her afterwards was really powerful. She's still on board for baptism... please keep praying for her!

Oh great news!!! We got a car!!!!! Yay!

For the most part I am doing well. The work is progressing we have more and more LA coming to church each week. It's really cool to watch them

use the Atonement in their lives and improve. :) The members here are amazing. They build us up and support us everyday. The ward is improving
slowly. They are struggling a lot but it was better than what is was when I got here.

The days are flying by like crazy! I love you guys and I hope you have a good week.

Love, Sister Curfew

January 27, 2014

Dear Family,

That's crazy about Ryan's mission call!!!! Tell him congratulations for me! Oh that'll be so fun! I know it's crazy how fast time flies. It seems like just yesterday All of these missionaries that are coming home were just leaving! I just don't understand time at all. I hit my halfway mark next month. Now that's weird.

Well yet another challenging week in the mission field...missions are hard.

Things I have learned this week. 1. I now know the first symptoms of Hypothermia...2. When you drive 3 different Chevy Cruze's in a day make sure that the automatic lights are on before you get pulled over...3. Walking around the block with a couple pot heads is really enlightening.

1. Well we were with out a car for half the week. Which was actually really fun. Nebraska is beautiful and walking is slower but is so relaxing. It's also a lot easier to street contact people...obviously. :) But is also very cold. Very very cold. I underestimated the power of the wind here. So we were walking and we had been walking and trying to see some of our investigators. (Who weren't home.) And all the sudden the wind on our face got warm! Sis Sommers and I were like "Thanks Heavenly Father for making the wind warmer." Then we went to our  next appointment and we were relating the experience and Brother Rogers, a LA, looks at us and says "Sister's that's not a good thing." Turns out one of the signs of hypothermia is getting warmer. Therefore I have concluded freezing to death wouldn't be that bad because you think you're warm because your body is going into shock. It made me laugh a little bit. :)

2. Well the other half of the week we were playing musical cars. Some Elders wrecked their car so the Elder over cars put us in charge of handling all of the car changes making sure this set of Elders gets this Chevy Cruze and this set of Sisters gets this Chevy Cruze and so forth. By the end of the day when we finally got our Chevy Cruze the automatic lights had turned off. There is no other option in these cars...Me being me didn't notice my lights weren't on at 8:00 at night so I get pulled over and me and this cop spend like 10 min trying to get the stupid lights to work no fear I got a warning because he couldn't figure it out either. Ha it was a fun experience. :) Now that I look back on it I should've give the cop a Book of Mormon. What was I thinking?!

3. Pot heads. They are the funniest people. :) So we made an appt with a LA her name is B. She is my age and she has not made the best choices...Well we

got a team up with to come with us her name is Sis M who is a recent convert and was basically in the same situation as B a couple years ago. We show up to their house and B is yelling at her husband D and they were in a huge fight. I was like well I think this is a bad time...and Sister M being the amazing soul she is said or is this the perfect time? It was the perfect time. We walked around the block with B and her sister J and they were both has high as you could be...We were trying to get them to calm down so B would stop screaming "I want a divorce" insert a couple swear words here and there. Well during this whole experience I felt USELESS! I couldn't help them at all.  They did not want us preaching to them or telling them what they're doing wrong. They already knew. But Sister M was incredible she just related all of her experiences and then was like you can't overcome any of this unless you turn to our loving Heavenly Father. I know  you don't want to hear this right now because He is the furthest from your mind but He needs to the first thing on your mind. I was just blown away how the Lord uses His people as instruments. He really used the simple and humble to do His work. I was just so impressed by her. Sis M is having a hard time quitting smoking but the Lord understands her weaknesses and is so merciful! I just can't get over that. :) People in here are the best people this world has ever known.:)

Dad, I really liked your thoughts of negativity. It's hard. But I will accept your challenge and work on being positive. :) Something that Sis Sommers and I like to do before we go to bed is ask "What was your tender mercy for the day." Yesterday mine was hot cocoa from Rosetta. Just stuff little stuff like that. It just reminds me to look for the good in each day. Which is hard sometimes. :)

Thanks for all of your awesomeness! Please continue to pray for L for us! We need all the prayers we can get!

Love, Sis Curfew

January 21, 2014

Dear Family,

Hopefully Blaine's birthday party is exciting. :) Tell him Happy Birthday for him. So funny thing about people here...they think we don't celebrate holidays or birthdays...weird huh. :)

Well this week was interesting. I got yet another sickness...I really hate the cold weather. But that's alright we had a lot of success this week. We had L's grandson D come to church and now he wants to be baptized as well. However we are expecting a lot of opposition for Laura's baptism because she is doing so well! We taught her the Word of Wisdom and she really likes tea and explained to her that she couldn't drink it anymore and she just threw it away and said I'll do whatever the prophets tell me to do. :) I was very taken aback. Happily taken aback. :)  So if you could please pray for L that would be MUCH appreciated. :) We experienced a lot of change in the past week...our ward boundaries were changed, we lost our car, and our ward mission leader was released. It was very stressful to balance and handle all the change. No we did not get our car taken away because I was a bad driver.  To many missionaries and not enough cars. The ward members have been helping out and giving us rides. Which is perfect because that's missionary work. Wooo! :D

So I think of the biggest things I am learning on my  mission are respecting the leaders who I work with even though I disagree with them...a lot. But it's been really cool as I have respected their leadership that the Lord takes care of my concerns and my opinions. Although it's hard to follow the directions that I don't want to do I follow in hopes I am being blessed...:)

I wish I had more to say and something a lot more uplifting but I can't remember anything that happened. As soon as I write it in my journal it's like the day never happened. Time flies so fast and I can't hardly keep up! But yeah. I hope all is well and I love you guys!

Love, Sis Curfew