"I asked God for an Angel, He sent me two!"

To my Dearest Family and Friends,

     This week was another great week! Too much happened!  I never have time to share it all.

Quick short random things:

     So Sister Callister and I went to Chipotle this week.... It is okay.  It is no Cafe Rio but hey, it’s the closest I can get to that here in the land of Minnesota.

The Crazy Bus!

     This week late at night when we were walking on the "main" street, this guy stopped us and asked Sister Callister and I if we wanted to get in this "Free Bus" and then he would take us to where ever we wanted... Ummm no thank you!  Haha we later found this bus parked near one of the members houses and we thought it was pretty funny.

U of M Gear!

     Sister Callister and I finally got University of Minnesota shirts and they were on sale! Only $8.50!  Heck yeah!  I miss campus sales.  Also I still bleed BLUE! (Go Aggies!)

I LOVE DINKYTOWN!

Okay now serious mission stuff:

     We were able to go to the temple this week and I was so happy.  I haven't been to the temple at all this year.  Like always it was a wonderful experience.  It was really neat because while I was at the temple I was able to see three different people from my previous ward.  It is really fun to look back on all the amazing people that I have met in the last 7 months and how it has truly changed my life.  I was also able to see the Relief Society President from the Hudson ward.  I asked her how everything was going and how Sister Pead was doing.  She said that everything was going really well.  Then she told me that last week Delores L. went to the temple for the first time and she got her Patriarchal Blessing!  How exciting!  I couldn't believe it.  It is truly the best feeling to know that these recent converts are continuing to change their lives and continuing to progress.  I love the amazing people that I am able to serve here in Minnesota!  After hearing that, my day was completely made.  The temple was the icing on the cake.  I am so blessed to be so close to a temple that I am able to go to.  Especially on my mission. :)

Temple Day! Finally!

Karem and Sister Curtis

     Earlier this week we were able to have a lesson with Eva.  She is so wonderful.  She is such a sweetheart and she is truly so ready to be baptized.  We wanted to watch the long version of the restoration with her so she could better understand the story of Joseph Smith.  We also brought Karem with us.  She is so awesome she was baptized almost 3 months ago and she is amazing!  She has such a great testimony and it means so much hearing it from someone other then the missionaries.  We watched half of it with her then we told her to watch the rest on her own.  She is so wonderful. 
     A couple days later Eva was supposed to come to the institute building so she could have her baptismal interview.  We were excited for her to come and to meet with our district leader.  We were trying to get her a ride but then all the sudden we got a text from her that said, "I don't think I am ready for the interview or to be baptized.  I got a lot going on right now.  Sorry about that." 

     What?  We were in complete shock.  We did not see that coming and we asked her what was wrong and we tried calling her but she didn't answer.  Sister Callister and I both felt like maybe we should go stop by her house and see if everything was okay.

      Her house is about 30 minutes away and it ended taking us even longer because of traffic but for some reason we felt like we should go there.  When we got to her apartment we noticed that all of the lights were off but we still went and tried.  We knocked on the door but no one answered.  We then decided that we would at least leave her a note.  We went and sat down on the stairs next to her door and I started writing while Sister Callister pulled out her scriptures to find a scripture verse.  

     All of the sudden a lady started walking up the other flight of stairs, she looked at us and said, "Is that the bible you are reading?" Sister Callister and I looked at each other and said yes.  Then she ran over and squeezed right in between us and said, "Can I read with you?" 

     We said sure.  We read her a couple verses then we told her who we were and what it is that we do.  We then taught her the restoration and it was so powerful.  Rita is absolutely amazing.  She then looked at us and said, "This morning I woke up and I asked God for an angel and He sent me two!" 

     I love this work that we do.  What a blessing to share these sweet and simple truths with others.  It really does change their lives!  We were able to get Rita's information and now the Sisters in that area have an appointment set up next week so they can go share more with her.  It truly is amazing to see how the Lord does his work.  If Sister Callister and I didn't follow that prompting to drive and see Eva, we would have never met this amazing woman who is clearly prepared for the restored gospel.  But still... No sign of Eva.

Sister Callister, Rose,
Sister Curtis and Ashley

     The next day we were able to go to a baptism in West St. Paul for a girl named Jenna.  She has been meeting with the missionaries in that area for a couple months and she is now getting ready to come to the YSA ward.  We were able to go with a couple people from our ward and also Rose and Ashley.  They both really enjoyed the baptism and they both mentioned how happy she looked as she came out of the water.  It is always such a great experience when you are able to take an investigator to a baptismal service.  After the baptism we were able to have a lesson with both Rose and Ashely.  They had a lot of great questions about the baptism and then Ashley had some questions about the For Strength of Youth pamphlet that we had left with her last time.  We then ended up going over that.  We let them pick some of the topics and then we helped then understand the different standards and why we are given these standards.  It turned into a really good lesson.  We talked about many different things.  One of those things was keeping the Sabbath Day holy. 

Ward Mission Leader, Karem, Sister Curtis,
Talisse (RS Pres)  and Sister Callister

     Now this is a selfish Sister Curtis moment.  So later that night we were planning on going to the Mormon Chorale with both Rose and Ashley.  The Mormon Chorale is a really good singing group that both Sister Callister and I were really excited to see but the only way that we could go is if we had an investigator to bring.  So we were excited because we were going to have two and we knew that they would both love it.  But then we got a call from both Rose and Ashley telling us that they weren't going to be able to come to the concert with us because they had a lot of homework to do in order to keep the Sabbath Day Holy...... What?  How funny is that.  Sister Callister and I were speechless.  It wasn't like we could tell them that just this once it would be okay.  So we just had to act like we were proud (which we were) and let them do their homework.  That meant no concert for us.  We were secretly pretty bummed.

     But because we had extra time we decided that we would try and stop by Eva’s one last time.  We drove all the way there again and when we got there this time we noticed that her lights were on.  We knocked on her door and she opened the door, looked at us and then buried her face in her hands.  She kept saying I am so sorry about yesterday.  I am so sorry.  She then invited us in and we went and sat on her couch.  We just asked her if everything was okay.  She then told us that she talked to her dad and he told her that he didn't want her to get baptized and if she did that he wouldn't talk to her anymore.  She then explained even more, it was so sad to watch how overwhelmed she was because of it.  She knows that this is true and she is frustrated because her dad doesn't see it and he won't listen to her and what she thinks.  He also asked her a lot of hard questions and she is now starting to doubt her faith.  It was truly heartbreaking to watch.  We asked her if we could kneel down right then and say a prayer with her.  She said the prayer and it was one of the sweetest most sincere prayers I have ever heard.  She expressed her confusion and she shared with her Heavenly Father that she wants to know for herself, for sure if this is that path that He wants for her.  It breaks my heart because I know that she is being tested right now.  Just like in any big moment in our life, Satan tries to stop us.  When we start to progress forward, he does everything that he can to drag us back down.  All we can really do is pray for her.  That's exactly what we decided to do.  We asked Eva if she remembered what fasting was.  She said yes.  Then we told her that we would fast with her on Sunday.  We then asked her what exactly she would like us to fast for.  She said she wants understanding and clarity.  We left with a prayer and a bunch of hugs.  I love that girl so much and I know that this is going to be one of the hardest and most important decisions that she is going to make in her life.

     We were sad yesterday because we weren't able to hear back from Eva. We are nervous that she talked to her dad again.  All we can really do at this point is keep her in our prayers.

     This experience made me realize how grateful I am for my family.  I am so blessed to have such a supportive family who loves me and supports me so much in everything that I do.  Especially after meeting so many amazing people on my mission and seeing the opposition that they get from their families it makes we look back and wonder why I have been so blessed and it makes me want to not take them for granted.  So thank you!  Not only my immediate family, but also my extended family.  You have all played such a huge role in my life and I will forever be grateful for each of you and the wonderful examples that you have been to me.

     I love you all!  
Challenge for this week. 

Don't under use that phrase. 
"I LOVE YOU!"

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

Check out the new bike vest we have to wear!  Are you jealous?  

 I don't know about you but safety green is my color!  It makes my eyes POP!