Hello My Dearest Family and Friends!
Merry Christmas for the last time this year. I can't believe it is almost Christmas! Time really does go by so fast! I have almost been on my mission for 5 months! 5 MONTHS! That is too weird. Enough small talk and on to the good stuff :)
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| L. Children |
This week we were able to have another fun Family Home Evening with the L family. They are so dang cute. I love whenever we get to go over there. This time we talked about being a child of God and then we talked about the nativity story. We started off with the Mormon Message, I am a Child of God. They loved it and the 6 year old, Skyler told us that he already knew this song and that he wanted to sing it by himself. So we also got an unplanned Solo! It was the cutest. Then we talked about the Nativity Story and all the important parts of the story. We also sang my favorite Christmas song, Picture Christmas! It is so simple and so true. The best kind. Then we did another little craft and we made a paper tree out of their hands that we cut out then on the hands we wrote the important words that we learned. The lesson turned out really good and they remembered a lot of it!
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| Thankful Christmas Tree made by little hands! |
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| Sharleen S. at Ward Christmas Party! |
We were also able to have a couple lessons with Sharleen S this week and we also were able to get her to the ward Christmas party. We were able to finish up the Plan of Salvation with her this week. We brought a member to one of our lesson with her and they were perfect. They had so many things to relate to. They both like crafts (Scrapbooking) Yes I told her about Mom and Me. She said she is going to look it up and tell all her friends! HA! They also both have abusive backgrounds and they both LOVE family history work. One of the first things Sharleen told us about when we met her was her love for family history work. That was actually the thing that got us a second lesson with her 3 weeks ago. We said that we would come back and give her the church web sites so she could try using some other resources. She also came to church yesterday and she loved it. There were a lot of complications in the morning. Her ride to church got sick and all kinds of things but then long story short she actually drove us to church so it worked out perfectly. At church she felt the spirit so strong and she loved each of the different hours. She really enjoyed gospel principles. She even pointed out the section in the manual where it was talking about doing temple work for those who have passed on. She truly is prepared for this gospel and we are so excited for her and for what the future holds.
This week we were able to do quite a bit of tracting. We were out knocking doors at some apartments and not a single person was answering the door. We were starting to wonder if this was where we were supposed to be and the cold wasn't helping us out either. Then we started to walk back to our car. But in my head I thought to myself lets try one more door. So we went to the next door and someone finally answered. It was a mom with lots of kids running around the house. The first thought that came to my mind is that we would have to keep it quick because she probably had to go back to watching her kids. But we asked a couple questions about her and we found out that she was going to school. We then asked her what she wanted to do and she told us about how she wants to be a nurse and how she wants to make a difference. We then related that to the gospel and started teaching the restoration lesson. She was very interested and she truly had the light of Christ. I mentioned that to her as we were talking and she said that she has heard that before from other people. She then mentioned how she has been going to church but hasn't felt like it was true. Then we talked about Joseph Smith and his experience. She was able to feel the spirit and relate to what Joseph Smith was going through. It was such an amazing experience and she was prepared and waiting! We then invited her to baptism and she said yes! We are so excited to meet with her this week and to be able to help her learn more. What a miracle! I am so grateful that we continued knocking and able to meet Tasia. You never know who is going to be behind that next door!
We had two great lessons with Phillip I. this week and we were so excited for him to come to church with us today. He even pinky promised that he would come so we knew that this time it was going to be different. But guess what he didn't come. We were so sad. We went over to his house last night to see if everything was okay. He then told us that he was ready to go but that he needed some kind of oil for his car and that he couldn't find his shoes and by the time he did he would have been too late.... Oh my Goodness! He couldn't find his shoes. Sometimes you can't help but laugh. He pinky promised this Sunday that he FOR SURE will come to church. We are going to make this happen! Next Saturday we will help him get everything layed out and then Sunday morning we will go wake him up. No more excuses! But other then Sunday mornings the lessons are going great and his testimony is growing so much.This week is the week!
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| Delores and Bryon L. at the Christmas Party |
Last week we had many awesome lesson with the Larson's. I really do love them so much! For one of the lessons we were able to bring an awesome member to the lesson and it turned into a great discussion about the gospel. We were talking about repentance and the ability to forgive yourself and how that is so hard for some people to do. As we were talking about this an experience popped into my head that we just had the week before. We knocked into this lady named Kimberly and we were going to have a lesson with her about the Restoration. But then she got on this tangent about how she has done so many bad things in her life. She said she knows that God has forgiven her but she will never be able to forgive herself. Not for all the bad that she has done. This experience was really strange when we were in the moment of it. She didn't want to talk about it and got really stressed about it and then told us to leave. All we were able to leave her with was our testimony about how God loves her and would never want her to feel this way. It was very strange. I wasn't quite sure why that story came to mind and why I should share it. But as I started talking I started testifying of the wonderful blessing that we have as members to know the truth. To know that we will all make mistakes in life and that God knows that. He made it possible so we can overcome that. He wants us to repent and forgive ourselves and the only way that we are able to do that is through the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It reminded me of Alma 36. It talks about how Alma had made all these mistakes in life and how he felt horrible about them. But he then remembered the love of his Savior and how he could be relieved of that guilt and shame. He then was overcome with joy that was even greater then the pains he had experienced. The first thing he wanted to do after that was share that joy with others so they could feel that same way. As I testified of that I felt the spirit so strong and I realized in that moment, the crazy lesson that we had with Kimberly was able to strengthen my testimony and I didn't even realize it. God truly does have a plan and a purpose for everything that we do and I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to recognize that.
One last Christmas Message for everyone. We watched this in Relief Society and I loved it.
Merry Christmas! I love you all so much. Thanks for all the prayers and support! Have fun with your families and remember the true meaning of Christmas.
The best presents is your PRESENCE!
Love, Sister Kendra Curtis
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