Baby Mama

Baby Mama

9 MONTHS DOWN, WHAT??!?! (my comp told me I shouldn't make pregnancy references as to not give people the wrong impression but...)

I literally can´t explain how weird it is to think that half of my mission is already over and to be honest it makes me wanna cry a little bit (or a lot). Yesterday, our friend Gabriel opened his mission call and as I sat there in anticipation I remembered exactly how I felt when I was jumping around the front yard with my call in my hands and then crying as I read that I was called to serve in São Paulo Sul, and the spirit confirmed to me that that was exactly where I needed to go. After 9 months and a thousand tears and a million experiences, I can say from my own experience that this is not only exactly where I need to be, but it's where I want to be as well.

There is no other time or place in the universe where I could've met all of the amazing people that I have, or learned so much about myself and the gospel at the rate that I have here, or felt so much love. It's only possible on the mission. When we align our will with God's, we put ourselves not only on the fast track of life, but the fast track of eternity. I'm so so so grateful for the person that Heavenly Father is helping me to become and for the endless patience and help and love that He is not only willing but wants to offer us. I'm grateful for the Savior and the fact that he not only died for us but lived for us and lives for us still. I love you all so much and hope that you can make time to ask your Heavenly Father to help you feel a little of the love that he has for each of us individually.

Have a great week!!
Sister Curtis

Uphill Battles

This is the story about the week that almost kicked my butt, but then didn't. :)

A long time ago (1 week) in a galaxy far far away (Brazil), there were two happy little missionaries, Sister Curtis and Sister Paz. They had been working so hard and finding and teaching so many awesome people and were so excited for the baptisms they were going to have of a family they had been teaching for a reaalllyy long time. Just as they were leaving the house last week to write emails about their excitement, the investigator called them and told them all bets were off, and he and his fam weren't going to be baptized after all. And thus the week started and continued on.

Everything we planned fell through so completely and utterly that it was incredible; by Thursday we were pretty bummed out. But we had set up to meet with the ex-wife of our recent convert Clóvis, so that his daughter Yasmin could finally be baptized this week. I was fasting and we were praying super hard that we could have a miracle and that she could feel the importance of the change that baptism could make in her daughter´s life. And when we got there Friday morning and started talking to her about the importance of the gospel as the foundation of our lives, to our utter shock, she agreed with everything we said and told us how she´s seen Yasmin come out of her shell and is happier and better behaved at home, and she told us "I don't know if i can be there tomorrow but Yasmin wants to be baptized, so just baptize her, okay?" And we were just like, "Don´t you worry, no problem at all!"

But as usual, everything went wrong right up until the moment the last strand of hair went under the water (for instance, we were worried the water would be cold so we made sure the heater was working and everything and when the moment came to enter the font they could´t get two steps in because it was so hot, so we had to start draining the water and pumping more in and we were scrambling around and throwing buckets of cold water to try and cool it off, and the Bishop was like "Wow I didn't even know it was possible to get that hot" lol ). But it all worked out and was more than worth it, especially to have Clóvis and Yasmin´s mom thank us for helping her start out on the right path in life. :)

I love the Gospel of Jesus Christ, I love the fact that I have a Heavenly Father--A GOD--that loves me no matter what, and that hears and answers our every sincere prayer. "And whatsoever ye shall ask the Father in my name, which is right, believing that ye shall receive, behold it shall be given unto you." I love you all and hope that you have a great week!!

-Sister Curtis

Brazilian Rollercoaster Ride

Brazilian Rollercoaster Ride

I always want to start of by saying, "This week was a roller coaster!", but literally every week is a roller coaster; LIFE is a roller coaster! Innumerable ups and downs, parts where you scream because you don´t know if you're gonna make it out alive and parts where you scream out of sheer elation, and then it's all over before you know it! This week was no exception!

There are seriously too many things that happened this week to write about so I´ll do my best to sum them up. Me and Sister Paz are out for baptisms and we are working as hard as we can to achieve that goal! We hit 2 more personal records this week of lessons taught and new investigators, and I realized that something I've really learned to embrace on the mission is the value of hard work! There´s no better feeling than climbing into bed at night and knowing that you gave everything you have that day.

I also recognized one way that I've grown a ton in Brazil and that's the fact that I have pretty much zero inhibitions these days. Remember the time I had the miracle of finding the avocados in the middle of the road? Well this week we found a family in the middle of the road! They were just chilling in front of their house on the ground, and I saw them and walked right on over and plopped down on the ground next to them and struck up a conversation. It was funny because Sister Paz and the member that was with us that day were looking at me and then at each other, and then they both just shrugged and sat down too and we had a great lesson!

The moral of the story is even when nothing seems to be working out but we're being obedient and really giving it our all, Heavenly Father will whip up a miracle for us and everything will work out how it's supposed to, even if that´s not exactly how we expected. I love you all lots and hope you have a great week!

- Sister Curtis