Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!

Extra! Extra! Read All About It!!

This week seriously flew by, and so many things happened; I'm gonna have to use bullet points to hit all of the important stuff:

• Yes, my tan is definitely coming along (for a third of my body at least); the members like to tell me that I'm a little meat pastry browning in the oven of São Paulo.
• In case you all were curious as to what you need to do to gain 3 kilos in 3 months, I have the program for you! Make rice AND pasta AND potatoes and a fatty meat of your choice (I recommend sausage), fill your plate full, clean it, and then get seconds so you don't seem rude. Then just when you think you can't eat any more, shove some cake/ice cream down your gullet, because it was specially made just for you, and VOILA! 
• Jefferson, a guy in the ward of the other sisters, took us all around Riberão this week, and we were interviewed by two newspapers and a radio station for our free English classes here, and we made the front page! (I'm gonna send a copy or two home and a pic next week.)
• Cobblestone is a creation of the devil, and I'm pretty sure he lives at the top of a giant cobblestone hill, because trust me, there´s nothing good about them.
• We went to a family home evening with the other sisters in their area, and got lost on the way home (in the... almost in the jungle, with MANY cobblestone hills), and Sister Moura almost had a breakdown. Everyone was getting panicky, except for me, and they were like, "Why are you so calm, Sister Curtis?" And I was like, "I made 70 contacts today, the Lord´s gonna protect me." lol (Don't worry we arrived home safe and sound soon thereafter.)

Love you all and hope you have a fantastic week!!

Sister Curtis (or as the Brasileiros say, Seester Kurts)

#BLESSED

#BLESSED

I'M IN LOVE AND I DON'T CARE WHO KNOWS IT!!! I love everything about
this transfer, no joke. Ribeirão Pires is so fantastic, and my new comp,
Sister Bennallack, (who is almost 21, from Adelaide, Australia and has 8 months
in the mission) is the BEST. I love her so much already. She´s super
friendly and loving and very excited to be here serving the Lord and
people of Brazil. Also, it´s really weird and awesome to be able to
slip in an English word or two when I don't know how to say something
in Portuguese.

Our area here is HUGE, especially after coming from teeny tiny
Eldorado, but it´s so green and jungly and beautiful here. We live in
Centro in the middle of Ribeirão (with lots of shopping, supermercados,
and a post office!!). It takes us about an hour to walk
to the eastern edge of our area, and we have to take a bus to get to the
western part because it´s too far to walk, lol. We've only explored like a
third of our new stomping ground so far, and we get lost pretty much
every day haha, but we´re getting the hang of things here. The members
are super duper and have welcomed us with open arms and open hearts.
Pretty much every time we meet a new member they tell us how happy they
are that they have Sisters instead of Elders now, lol.

- Story of the Week: In the beginning of the week, I talked with a
lady on a random street of a neighborhood we were visiting. She was
pretty nice, but not really interested in receiving a message. A
couple of days later we happened to see her again, and she stopped us and
said she talked with her mom and that we could visit them and teach a
lesson, so of course we went. We arrived and were greeted by an 80
year old woman with one eye, bad hearing, and a see through shirt
without anything under it; AKA I knew we were in for a ride.

Basically for every 1 minute we talked she talked over us for 10
more, generally complaining and gossiping about her neighbors. After
30+ minutes of this, Sister Bennallack got fed up and called her to
repentance right then and there (basically yelling because the lady´s
practically deaf) for talking smack about other children of God.The
lady sat there for a minute, almost as surprised as I was, and then
started laughing and told us she decided she liked us after all. Moral
of the story, be bold and stand up for what you know is right because crazy
old ladies will love it and then stand up and start clapping and
swaying and singing a prayer for you, and then invite you to come back
for some juice and another lesson the next week.

Love you all and hope you are half as happy as I am this week :)

- Sister Curtis

Tchau Gente!!

Tchau Gente!!

Well the results are in and.... I'M OPENING A NEW AREA IN REBEIRÃO
PIRES!! That means bye-bye Eldorado. I´m excited and sad and nervous
to leave, but I know it´s where I need to go, so I´m happy for the
transfer.

Story time: So the secretaries in the mission office forgot to pay our
electricity bill and our power got cut, so we spent the night in the
house of the other sister missionaries in our zone. They have this
super jank shower, and as I was trying to turn it off, I accidentally
broke the knob off. Water started blasting out of the wall, and let
me tell you "naked and afraid" is more than a funny phrase; it is a
very real and very specific emotion ( 0/10, do not recommend).

We had been fasting that day too, and it was the hottest day yet.
Frankly, I have never been so tempted to break a fast in my life, and
thing after thing went wrong that day and the next, but I persevered
and the Lord more than came through for us. With just a few days
before transfers, and after a month and a half of basically no
progressing investigators, we found people almost every day this week
who are ready and willing to be baptized, and our contacts went through
the roof!

My time here in Eldorado has been a bunch of little lessons wrapped up
in one big lesson: The Lord truly does have a plan that He will help
us help Him fulfill in His own time. We have to be patient and work
diligently and obediently and have a lot of faith and love, but
there´s always someone that is ready and waiting to hear the gospel. I
have felt the Lord´s hand in this work, and I have been magnified far
beyond my own abilities. I know that as we pray and seek guidance in
humility, being willing to change and do what God would have us do,
that we will become instruments in His hands. I love you all and hope
your week is muito legal!

- Sister Curtis :)

Feliz Ano Novo :)

Feliz Ano Novo :)

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It´s so weird to think that I
finished 2015 in Brazil, and I am going to spend all of 2016 here as well,
but I´m excited for the miracles, struggles, happiness, and heartaches
that I´m sure to experience this year.

Since Brazilians REALLY enjoy their festivities and party harder than
any other group of people I´m aware of, President Broadbent told us we
needed to be em casa by 8pm on New Year´s eve. We got permission to
spend the night at the house of some other Sisters in our Zone. There
were 8 of us and we had a right little party; and yes, we did indeed get
to stay up until 12:30. The next day we all cooked a giant almoço for
our Zone and played capture the flag. It was awesome.

What was slightly less awesome was the journey back home, because just
like every time I forget my umbrella, it started to downpour. The bus we needed to
take wasn't taking cash, so we walked and walked and found another one. Then
we took another (which broke down); and then 2 more buses later, we finally got
 home and collapsed into bed, very wet, very tired, and very happy.

All in all it was a very good, if uneventful, week. Pretty much
everyone in Brazil goes to the beach/ travels for Christmas and New
Year´s, so we've had very very few people to teach and hardly anyone in
the street, but hopefully this week we can return to some semblance of
normalcy. Next week is transfers, and I have no idea if I´ll stay in
Eldorado for another 6 weeks or move on to the next area, but I´ll be
excited to keep on keeping on either way. I hope everyone has a great
week and remembers to be grateful for their dryers because waiting 3 days
for your laundry to dry is the actual worst.


LoooOOOoovveeeee,
Sister Curtis