Hello Dearest Family and Friends!
This week has been CRAZY! Everything was going perfect all the way up until..... Christmas. But let me tell you about all the good parts first.
We were able to have a lesson with a 18 year old girl named Sophia. She was actually a Media Referral that we were finally able to get in contact with. She went on a youth trip this summer and became really good friends with a Mormon girl from Provo. She said that they have already talked a lot and that she noticed something different about her and she wants to learn more. We were able to have a wonderful lesson with her and she had lots of great questions. She doesn't have a very religious background but she told us how she prayed and was able to feel the love of God. It was cool because one of her questions was just to basically bear our testimonies to her and tell her how we came to know for ourselves that this church is true. It was such a powerful experience and it was so easy to just share what I know. She was very happy for us coming over. She is going to be out of town for a couple of weeks but we were able to leave her with a Book of Mormon and she said that she would start reading it while she is gone. We are excited to see her again and answer more of her questions.
We also had another Christmas Family Home Evening with the L family. We talked more about the Christmas story. We showed them the video "What Shall We Give?" And we talked about service and the meaning of Christmas again. We then made ornaments for the tree that we made last time. On the ornaments we wrote down different things that they can do to serve others around them. Then we went over the Nativity again and we pointed to the different people and asked them who they were. My favorite was when I asked the four year old Skyler why they had to go to a stable? He answered really loud throwing his arms in the air "Because there was NO ROOM!" Right at that moment his mom ran over and hugged him and said,"Yes...YES! Good job! You are learning!" Then he was so excited and ran around the room hugging each of us saying, "I'm learning! I'm learning!" It was so cute! Sister L was so happy to see all of her kids learning the true meaning of Christmas and the different parts of the Nativity. 
Then at the end, we gave them little stockings that had little finger puppets of the nativity and then a nativity puzzle! They loved it so much and they knew who each of the different people were! I love that family so much! They are so cute and they really are the best little learners. Sister L was so grateful for us coming over and truly we are the ones who are grateful. What a cute family!
Okay let me get to Christmas now! So Christmas Eve was great. We went to District Meeting and it was fun to be together as a district and talk about mission work. Then after words, we went and had a District Lunch. We went and ate Juicy Lucy’s! Juicy Lucy is a Minnesota thing, it’s a hamburger with a big ball of melted cheese inside the patty. It was pretty good. All the Elders loved it! The place that we went to is the place where Man vs. Food went. It was really fun to spend Christmas Eve together eating Juicy Lucy's. Something we will probably never do again. We then were able to have dinner with a really fun family and it was really yummy. It was a yummy buffet style dinner.
Sister Pead was so funny in her big bunny footie jamies. They made me think of the Christmas story! Then we went to bed and we were so excited for the day ahead of us! We couldn't wait for all of the Christmas magic and we planned every second of it out, spending time with members, playing games, skyping our families, Christmas dinner and then all of the missionaries were going to go Christmas Caroling to some less actives and some other members in the ward.
Then we woke up and it was CHRISTMAS! We were so excited we hurried and got our last minute things together and we were getting ready to go set things up. Now I forgot to mention.....Long story short. We are watching a dog for 10 days. The members who we are living with are out of town for ten days and we have to watch it for them. Now to start off with I don't like dogs all that much so we always keep the gate up so the dog can't come down stairs. So we were excited to go open our presents but when we ran into the living room guess what! The dog sneaked past the gate and found the chocolate coins that Sister Pead sprinkled around my stocking. Number one dogs are allergic to chocolate, number 2 this dog is diabetic! We had to stay home all Christmas taking care of a Sick, Dumb Dog. We almost thought that we weren't going to be able to Skype our families, but we were able to work it out. I was so happy to talk to my family! I love them all so much and that was the fastest 45 minutes of my life! But I didn't care it was so great to see everyone again and to hear their voices! I really do have the best family ever! After we got done Skyping our families we just stayed home. The whole day. We couldn't leave the dog alone because it was throwing up chocolate and we had to clean it up. At dinner time one of our favorite families came over and brought us some food and we were able to talk to them for a while so that was fun but other then that it was a really rough day. We didn't do anything. But honestly I was just so grateful that I was able to talk to my family. Even though I didn't get to do any of the other fun things that we had planned at least I was able to do the most important. Talk to my family.
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| Kendra took this picture. You can see her in the left hand corner. |
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| Kissy face picture! (Oh boy do we love this girl!) |
As for all of you who are worried about the dumb dog. It is completely fine. I will never look at it the same. It is the dog who ruined Christmas. You know they always say that you will never forget the Christmases that you get to have on your mission. And I promise you this is one Christmas that I will never forget!!
Delores and Bryon L are doing great! Delores's baptism is this week! January 4th! She has been ready for such a long time. It was funny because yesterday at church everyone was coming up to her and telling her that they were going to be there on Saturday and she was starting to get a little embarrassed because of all the people. But it is going to be so great to have all the support there. I know that it is going to be such an amazing service and I am so excited! She is really funny! Yesterday she introduced Sister Pead and I as her granddaughters. I love her so much. I love how easy it is to love these people! What a blessing that I am here in Stillwater!
We were also able to have more lessons with Phillip I. He is so great and has been taught every lesson. The biggest problem that we are having at this time is trying to get him to church. He always has different excuses. This week we are going to really focus on the importance of coming to church. When we went to teach him one time there were 2 other Africans there from Liberia and they have been there before but this time they wanted to sit in on a lesson. We started by watching a Bible Video, Sermon on the Mount:
Treasures in Heaven.
This video was perfect for all of them and it was amazing that we decided to pick it because both Sister Pead and I have never seen it. But the Liberians have an amazing faith and have a great understanding of the Bible. So it was perfect that we showed the teachings of Jesus Christ and then related it to our lives today. Both of them want to keep learning more so we were able to set up another appointment with both of them. We left them both with Books of Mormon and they can't wait to read and find out more for themselves.
I love this work so much. I know without a doubt that this is the work of God. I see so many miracles each and everyday. I am just so grateful that I am able to be part of it at this time. I am just an instrument in the Lord's hands. As I follow the spirit I am able to do as he would have me do and I am able to help share the joy that I have with those I meet.
"A mission is the best years FOR your life."
I know that all the different experiences that I will have on my mission are things that I will be able to take with me forever. Someone once said to me that the reason that they lowered the age for girls to go on a mission is because they need strong mothers to raise up a righteous army. I have already seen in many different ways that this short 18 months is going to be one of my greatest tools for being a mother. What a wonderful blessing that I am able to be part of this wave of mission work. It is not only blessing me but many others to come.
I love you all thanks for the many prayers.
I feel them everyday!
Love, Sister Kendra Curtis
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| This is the picture we took. When ever I have the camera out and all four of my kids are together I say, "squishy face picture" (they all do a quick pose, just so they can get it over with) Yea!!! Family Christmas picture for 2013. I have a feeling 2014 will be tricky with Jake serving in Jamaica. |
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