Ribeirão Pires: Round 2!!!

Ribeirão Pires: Round 2!!!

We had transfers yesterday night and I'm staying here with Sister Bennallack (and pretty much the rest of my entire zone) for another transfer!!! WOO HOO!!! I can't say that I'm super surprised because we were all new here, and Sister B. and I have been pestering President Broadbent about staying here together for like the last 3 weeks. I got a little nervous because all our Elders and Zone Leaders kept saying that I was gonna train as soon as I finished my own trainamento (aka the first 2 transfers in the field), but thankfully Papai Broadbent came in clutch yet again.

Summer has officially ended here in Brazil and that means that it´s still gonna be hot but with more rain and less daylight hours. Awesome. The good news is that we get to continue teaching all of our investigators even though most of them are currently out of our ward boundaries. One of them is Angelica and she is incredible! We've been teaching her in the home of a member lately, and we were walking over to the Irmã´s house with her the other day, and she was telling us how her arms were hurting and how her extremities just hurt sometimes for no reason and it was really hard for her. After we arrived and taught about the Restoration we asked her how she felt, and she said she felt so light and that she didn't know why, but that her arms had stopped hurting. And I was like Umm I KNOW WHYYY!! #EspiritoSanto. (Except not exactly in those words). And she´s also already gone to church twice and loved it even though it´s really far and complicated now because she has to go to the stake center! I'm so excited to keep teaching her and get her down into those águas de batismo!

Love you guys lots and keep on keeping on!

Sister Curtis

Vegemite Toast

February 15, 2016

Vegemite Toast

This week was the weirdest week of my mission thus far, hands down.  It was also a Jeremiah 4:19 kinda week for our entire household. Here´s a story that illustrates why: We had a lunch appointment yesterday and ate until rice and beans were coming out of our noses. Then the irmã asked us if we wanted ice cream, and when the irmãs here ask if you want dessert they don't actually care if you want it or not, you´re gonna eat what they give you. So we plowed through a bowl of ice cream, and just when I saw the light at the end of the tunnel, she pulled out a cake from the fridge and plopped a plateful in front of us, watching expectantly as we force fed ourselves what we were given. It´s a hard-knock life being a missionary in Brazil.

Also our ward has been merged with the ward of the other Sisters here, pretty much out of nowhere, and the area where we work the most and have 6 investigators is now in the stake center in the next city over. For now we will continue working there but I don't know what´s to come. I´m gonna be bummed beyond belief if we have to hand them all over to the Elders after transfers next week.

Also I tried vegemite this week and it´s surprisingly delicious, thanks Sister B.!

Love you guys lots and guarda a fé!!

Sister Curtis

[More Than] 17 Miracles

[More Than] 17 Miracles

Wow wow wow, I could spend all day writing this email and still not cover all of the incredible things that happened this week, but I'm gonna do my best to squeeze in as many of the miracles that we experienced this week as I can.

First off, I had my FIRST BAPTISM THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! WOOO HOOOO!!!! Her name is Isabelle; she´s 15 and the daughter of a recent convert, Alice. Isabelle´s been coming to church all on her own for a month, but we just met her last Sunday. Almost every day this week we walked an hour to her house to teach her because she accepted to be baptized Saturday during our very first lesson with her! The Lord truly prepared her already because all we had to do was teach her and ask her to read and pray, and Heavenly Father did all the rest. Because of many complicated reasons, her baptism was at the stake in another town, so we set out and walked for nearly 2 hours (without getting lost) to arrive there, but it was all worth it. Isabelle was glowing when she came up out of the water, and the spirit was so strong and she hugged us and told us how happy she felt, and I was like "Me too!!!"

Secondly, I had one of the most special, incredible experiences of my whole life. Sister Bennallack and I have been teaching this sweet older woman, Marina, since almost the first week we arrived in Ribeirão Pires. Marina is really really kind and caring and has a grown daughter that was in a really bad accident and can´t speak or do many things for herself, and Marina takes care of her pretty much full-time. I always feel such a sweet spirit when we´re there. This week we made a surprise visit there, and Marina and her daughter met us at the door and invited us to teach in the part of the house where the daughter lives. We were teaching the restoration and everything was going normally until we started talking about Joseph Smith. The second Sister B. started testifying about the first vision, the spirit flooded the room. I took out a Book of Mormon, and with tears spilling down my cheeks, barely able to speak, I testified that it is the word of God, that it testifies of Christ and the Love he has for each one of us.

I was completely overcome, my heart full to overflowing, as I looked at Marina´s daughter, a beautiful special daughter of our Heavenly Father, in front of me--holding a bib to her mouth because she can´t control her salivation, unable to speak, but with eyes full of understanding. I testified to her that you don't need to be able to speak to pray, that God hears and answers every sincere prayer of our heart. Her eyes began to fill with tears and she nodded fervently. I continued to cry with her, holding her gaze, and testified that she is a very precious daughter of God and that He loves her so much and that we love her too. Sister B. told her that she didn't know why we have trials that are so hard and frustrating and that just seem unfair, but that Heavenly Father really does love her and would help her through hers.

As we were getting up to go she stood up too and and hugged me with everything that she had, and conveyed to me more sincerely and clearly than any words could say that we had said exactly what she had needed to hear, that she understood every word and was grateful. I can´t explain in words the sheer love I felt for her in that moment; I only know to say that it was greater than me or any feeling that I´m able to conjure up. I got to feel just a little piece of the pure love that the Lord has for each and every one of us, an infinite love. A love so powerful that our Heavenly Father gave up everything that was precious to Him, allowed his perfect Son to come here and be mocked, humiliated, suffer beyond what we can even begin to imagine, and be lifted up on the cross so that He could then lift us up. I know that my Redeemer lives. I know that He loves each and every one of us individually, that He knows our every pain and heartache, and that He is waiting for us to reach out to Him so that He can comfort us and help us bear our burdens. I love you all and hope that each one of you try to recognize the little miracles this week, the little signs of the Lord´s love for you, a precious son or daughter of the Most High God.

com muito amor,

Sister Curtis

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