Remember the Church is True!

Hello Family and Friends! 

     Guess what this week is a very very special week!  Why you might ask?  Well let me give you a scripture hint.  Alma 50:16 "And thus ended the twentieth year."   

     Yeah!!  My Birthday!  Weird right!  On August 30th I am going to be turning 21 years old!  Isn't that weird!  I can hardly believe it.  I am getting so old. :)  So as my mom could probably tell you I love my Birthday!  I think it is so much fun.  I love the sweets, I love the presents, I love it all!  I have had no shame at all about telling everyone that it is my Birthday Week.  This next week Sister Noe and I practically have a week full of parties.  I am so excited we have already had 2 early Birthday dinners and they were so much fun!  I am going to be an expert at blowing out candles by the time we get to the 30th! :) 

Sister Noe and Me

We love Wonderful

One of my Birthday dinner's African style

     This week we were able to start teaching a Native American mom and her 7 kids, almost 8.  She has been investigating the church for about 3 months now.  The Elders were teaching them but now Sister Noe and I are going to try and teach them.  We are going to try and see if we will be able to help her open up more and help her so she will be able to meet more of the sisters from the Relief Society.  So far things are going great.  We have been able to get some new sisters there that she hasn't met before and we have been able to really get the kids engaged.  The kids are amazing!  They love coming to church and they love the people.  We are really excited for them.  They are heading down the right path.  I will tell more about them next week. 

     Last week I had said that I was going to talk a little more about Desirae and her family.  She is Native American and she has 8 kids.  She and her family have been investigating for about 3 months now.  She is 31 years old and she has a lot of kids who are going to go down some really hard paths if they don't change soon.  The biggest thing that is holding them back is her.  Yes, she wants to change and she wants her kids to have a better life.  But she isn't taking any action.  She needs to exercise her faith and start making changes in her life so that the kids can follow.  The kids are all really smart and they have good hearts.  But they know a lot of things that they shouldn't at their age.  Last Monday we were able to have a Family Home Evening  with them about the Word of Wisdom and it was okay.  It is kind of hard sometimes to teach them because they don't take the lesson very serious and they joke around a lot.  It is hard to help them recognize the importance.  Especially when their mom is joking around with them.  But they all came to church on Sunday and it was a good experience for them.  This next week we are going to have to be really bold with them in telling them, mostly the mom, that she needs to step it up.  That is our next step with them so hopefully we will be able to help them progress towards baptism.

Making dinner with Sister Kooper

I Love Sister Kooper and Brother Mentoe
(they are married just have different last names)

     This week Sister Noe and I had a pretty cool experience.  We were out knocking doors and we started talking to this guy who was atheist.  He was asking us some questions but then said, "I don't really want to talk to you about this but you should go down a couple of houses there is another guy who is atheist and he would love to talk to you." Then he shut the door. 

     Sister Noe and I looked at each other and smiled.  That is exactly where we went.  Why not we thought.  We knocked on the door and an older man in his 60’s came out and said , "Well hello Sister Curtis and Sister Noe.  What are you here to talk about?" 

     Then with a big smile I said we are missionaries in the area from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints." 

     That's were it all started.  We were able to have a super interesting discussion with him that lasted for about a hour.  It was super interesting.  You could tell that he has talked to many people about religion before and he really knew what he was talking about, but lucky for us so did we.  It was really cool because no matter what he said about us and about our faith there was nothing he could do to change it.  He was really impressed with both of us and what we had to say.  He even told us that we were adorable and that if he could he would adopt us. ...Ahhh thanks Scott.  The coolest part was at the end we were able to talk about the Book of Mormon with him.  It was funny because he knew a lot about our church and he doesn't agree with a lot of things yet, he has never read the Book of Mormon!  Crazy right?  I know?  When he said that I was like, "What!  Come on Scott!  You have to read the Book of Mormon before you diss on our faith.  Basically anything you have said so far isn't valid because you haven't read the Book of Mormon." 

     We were able to leave him with a copy and he promised us that he would read it.  We are really excited to go back this week and see what he thought of what he read.  It is always a little scary to talk to atheists because they really do test us and our faith.  There have been times where I don't exactly know what to say but in those times I have always just share what I know to be true.  That's really all you can do.  Just bear testimony and because we did he now knows something that he didn't know about Mormons. :)

     As for me, a lot of what I have been working on is charity.  I'm not perfect at this, but I am trying to be.  This week I was able to give a brief training in District meeting about having Charity.  It was exactly what I needed at the time and I truly felt that I learned way more then the people I taught.  Isn't that how it always is.  I started of by reading in Moroni 7: 46-48 it says,

"46 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, if ye have not charity, ye are nothing, for charity never faileth. Wherefore, cleave unto charity, which is the greatest of all, for all things must fail.

 47 But charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him. 

48 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." 

     This scripture is so perfect.  It says it so plain and simple.  Charity is the pure love of Christ.  What an amazing gift that we are able to have.  But it is something that we need to learn as well. My favorite part in Moroni 7 is verse 48 were Mormon counsels us to pray to the father with all the energy of heart that we might be able to be filled with that love.  This is really cool to me because not only are we able to feel of the pure love of Christ but it is something that we can help others feel of it through us.  I personally have decided that the greatest Christlike attribute is charity.  Because when we are able to have charity then everything else will follow.  We will then be able to be humble, patient, diligent and grateful.  Through charity or the pure love of Christ, everything else will come.  This is something that I am really going to focus on this week and I invite you to try it as well.  The best part about trying to develop Christlike attributes is that in the end they are there so that we can help others.  And we know that when we are in the service of our fellow beings we are only in the service of our God.  What better of a way to please Him.  I love you all so much!  I hope you have a wonderful week.  

Remember, the church is true!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

Another Birthday party with the riggers!

The Riggers plus Mini their rat

Chantee gave me an Ohio State shirt for my birthday! I love her!

Super District

Hello Family and Friends.

     I don't have much time to write this week because we have district P-day but things are going great.  I am just going to go right ahead and get started with all of the awesome things that happened. 

My favorite Elders, Berry and Vargas

     I am really enjoying this transfer.  We have a bunch of awesome people that we are working with. I am really grateful for our district leader, Elder Berry and his companion Elder Vargas.  They are so awesome.  We had the best district meeting this week.  He makes it really fun and it is great because you can really see that he loves what he is doing and he wants to be able to help us in our areas.  He wrote on the board, "Super District" and said how we are all helping others and saving lives.  He mostly just wanted to do that because his mom sent him some super hero masks and he hasn't found a reason to use them yet.  It was so funny.  He also gave us these super awesome charts that we can use when we are out teaching.  It is a great visual to help others see the patterns that God works in.  It has been working great. 

     So one day this week Sister Noe and I were out knocking doors.  We went and we were talking to the sweetest old lady.  Then all of the sudden some girl came up in the middle of us talking to her and she was a Lutheran missionary from a local church.  What the heck.  She totally came up in the middle of us talking and introduced herself to the lady and then asked us if we would talk to her.... Okay.  So we did.  We walked around and we talked to each other about who we were and where we were from.  Her name is Sophia and she was born a Lutheran and knows that it is the true church.  She has lived all over the world doing many different kinds of missionary work with her family.  She is only 17 years old.  Holy cow, she acts like she is in her 30’s.  It was really cool though because after she told us a little bit about herself we were able to teach her the first lesson.  We told her all about Jesus Christ, the great apostasy and Joseph Smith.  She has a lot of things that she doesn't quite agree with but she wants to meet with us again and learn more.  Sweet!  I am just going to take a wild guess but I am pretty sure that when her dad finds out that she is meeting with us he won't be very happy. 

     This week we were were able to finish up Stacy's house.  We finished painting and it looks great.  She is super grateful for the help the ward was and I think it has been able to soften her heart a little.  She is more open to meeting with us and learning with us which is good because we are putting most of our focus on her instead of Sophia.  We really want Stacy to come back to church and to be there with her daughter.  We can't wait to see what will happen with this little family. 

Finally done painting!

     This week we were able to start teaching a Native American mom and her 7 kids, almost 8.  She has been investigating the church for about 3 months now.  The Elders were teaching them but now Sister Noe and I are going to try and teach them.  We are going to try and see if we will be able to help her open up more and help her so she will be able to meet more of the sisters from the Relief Society.  So far things are going great. We have been able to get some new sisters there that she hasn't met before and we have been able to really get the kids engaged.  The kids are amazing!  They love coming to church and they love the people who are their.  We are really excited for them.  They are heading down the right path.  I will tell you more about them next week. 

     Guess what!  Eva is going to get her Patriarchal blessing next week!  I am so excited for her!  She is so wonderful!!

Eva and Kim came to the Presidents Fireside

YSA reunion: Sister Pao, SIster Huang, Elder Hicken, 

Elder and Sister Soelberg, and Niay

I miss the YSA ward!

Elder Burts last transfer

     This week throughout my studies something I have been coming across a lot is the pure love of Christ.  In Moroni 7:48 is says, 

"Wherefore, my beloved brethren, pray unto the Father with all the energy of heart, that ye may be filled with this love, which he hath bestowed upon all who are true followers of his Son, Jesus Christ; that ye may become the sons of God; that when he shall appear we shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is; that we may have this hope; that we may be purified even as he is pure. Amen." 

And a couple verses before is says, 

"Charity is the pure love of Christ, and it endureth forever; and whoso is found possessed of it at the last day, it shall be well with him." 

     I feel that charity or love is the most important Christlike attribute.  I feel that as we are able to love others and ourselves, then everything else almost comes naturally.  This is something that I continually pray for.  It is easy for me to love others who I haven't met before.  It is easy for me to see the good in them and to hope that one day they will have something more.  But I have realized that it can be a struggle for me to have that same love for others who I know a little better.  It is sometimes frustrating to watch those we love and care about make decisions or choices that we know won't do them any good. 

     I have been trying to be filled with Christ like love, in those moments of frustration, I try to pause for a moment, because if anyone knows me they know that I can get a little snappy and that tends to get me into trouble.  But I pause for a moment and I think to myself, How does the Savior feel about this person?  The answer is always the same.  He loves them.  The Saviors is so patience and loving to each of us.  The least we can do is show that some kindness to those we are around.  

     I hope that when others look at me they will be able to know that I am a true follower of Jesus Christ.  That I am some one who represents Him by what I do and say.  Someone who shows the same love that He would.  I know that I can't do it on my own but as I continually pray and ask for help and support that it can be given to me.  I am so grateful for Jesus Christ and for the hope that he brings to us.  I know that it is never to late and that there is always time for change!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

Dinner with the Stacey's 

Lake Harriet

These are the best doughnuts!

Early Birthday cake!  I made it myself!
(yes this girl does get pretty excited for her Birthday)

It is Always Worth it!

Hello Family and Friends!

Nature in Minnesota

     This week we were able to have Zone Conference.  It went really good we learned a lot about working with the ward council.  I really like President Forbes and I like the way that he teaches.  He told us about when he was a bishop and how important the time is where all of the auxiliaries are together.  It is a very important time where we can get a lot of help and support if we ask the right questions and use our time wisely.  I am very blessed to be serving in the ward that I am in because our ward is very missionary minded already and is very willing to help.     

     We also talked about the 5 responsibilities that we have as missionaries.  1.Find  2.Teach  3.Baptize  4.Retain  5.Activate.  As we are continually fulfilling our purpose and telling the ward council about it, they will begin to trust us and help us with our work as we help them.  Because truly we all have the same purpose, we just have different roles.  I love going to Zone Conferences because I love to just sit back and learn.  Learn about how I can be a better missionary and what I can do better in the area that I am serving in.  I was able to get a lot of revelation and answers to my prayers while I was there. 

     Oh guess what!  Our new mission president is changing up a lot of things and they are all really awesome and I am super excited about them.  He has told us that for our P-day we are now able to travel outside of our ward boundaries so that we can go and do some sight seeing. We also are going to be able to have a Zone P-day.  We are going to be able to have dinner after 6 so that we can give some of the other families the option of feeding us, because many people are still at work so this will be able to branch out the people who are typically feeding us.  But then are you ready for this rule... He wants the missionaries to be seen more so he is asking that each of us ride our bikes for 10-15 hours a week!  What? That's going to be..... a lot of biking.  In a skirt.  Man.  Fun, new changes to mix things up.  

Cool new park we found to go contacting in.

Exchanges with the STLs

     After Zone Conference, the mission president has interviews with new missionaries, the trainers and others who request an interview.  Since neither Sister Noe and I were planning on having an interview we went to get ready to exchange with our Sister Training Leaders.  When all the sudden the Zone Leaders came up to me and told me that President Forbes wanted to meet with me.  I was so nervous.  My instant thoughts where, Oh no what did I do!  I have never really liked meeting with the Mission President.  I always feel that it is very scary and intimidating.  I loved my last mission president a lot but I never really felt like I had a very good personal relationship with him.  I just really appreciated him and all that he did but I didn't feel like he knew me.  I had no idea what to expect from President Forbes.  But I went to meet with him and he is super nice.  I like him so much.  I won't say all that we talked about but it truly was an answer to my prayer.  It was exactly what I needed to hear and what I needed at this point in my mission.  I was so very grateful for him and for his counsel and for him listening to the promptings of the spirit and calling me in to have an interview.  It got me thinking about a lot of different things.  I know that he is my mission president for a reason and I am excited for all that he is going to teach us. 

     We then went on exchanges this week.  I was with Sister Chapman again.  She is fun.  We were able to have a couple great lessons.  But like I said, after my interview with President Forbes, my mind was all over the place.  Every single lesson we taught that night I felt like it was more for me then it was for those that we were teaching.  I felt the spirit so strong because I knew that what we were talking about was true and that it was something that I personally needed. 

     Then we were able to go and stop by Eva's with the YSA Elders as well.  They were also on exchanges so Elder Hurst, and an Elder who was previously in our ward were there as well.  Again the whole lesson was exactly what I needed to hear and during the whole lesson I felt the urge to ask for a priesthood blessing.  I didn't want to.  I always hate asking for blessings, especially when they aren't from my dad, because I don't want others to think that I am struggling.  It is definitely my pride.  But after we closed with a prayer I knew that I just needed to swallow my pride and ask.  I am so grateful that I did.  Elder Hurst was able to give me a blessing and I know that it was truly from Heavenly Father.  No one in that room knew that I was in need of guidance and help but when Elder Hurst began to speak it was exactly what I needed to hear.  I am so grateful for the power of the priesthood and for all of the worthy priesthood holders.  It is such a blessing to know that even though my dad, my go-to-man, is a couple of states away.  I can still get a blessing and it is from the same authority. 

     This was another answer to my prayer that helped me with some of the different concerns that I had.  As you all know, I hit my year mark on August 7th.  I officially only have 6 months left of my mission and honestly, it is pretty scary.  I can't believe that my mission is coming to an end.  I don't feel like I am done.  I feel like there is so much more that I need to do and that I need to accomplish.  I have been thinking a lot about the person I have become over the past year and what I am still hoping to achieve over the next 6 months.  Looking back, I have been so caught up in my area, the people I am serving, the person that I want to become and all that is expected of me, that I have started to forget one of the most important things, my companion.  I have been so caught up in everything that I have started putting her on the back burner.  I have forgotten that she is one of the most important people I am around.  I know that I have a lot to learn from her and a lot that I can teach her.  But more importantly I need to humble myself, I need to quit being so selfish and focusing on what I want to get from my service here in Minnesota and focus a little more on serving.  I know I have a lot more that I can offer and for the next 6 months, I am going to focus on forgetting my self and loving others, especially, loving my companion.

     As for the work in our area our bishop is having us do a lot of less active work.  We have been meeting with a lot of less active women and it has been going really well.  We have been able to help a lot of them and they have been coming to church.  But the real miracle has been that we truly have been able to get a lot of teaching opportunities from being around less actives.  It was something that our mission president had counseled us to do at Zone Conference, to be in less active members homes, and as we do that we will be able to find non-members to teach.  Sister Noe and I have been very blessed to see this happen and in the process we are also able to help reactivate members who have left the church.  We are super excited to see what is going to happen with the new people we have met.  I will update you next week. 

One Year Mark!

     Well that is all I have time for today. But I just want to let you all know that I am so grateful for my time here in Minnesota.  I can't believe it has been a whole year.  I am also grateful for every challenge that I have gone through.  In the end it is always worth it.  The different trials that we go through are just a small price that we pay to become acquainted with God.  And what a privilege it is.  I am so grateful.  I hope you have a great week!  I love you!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

I found the first book that I am going to read when I get home! ha ha

First Birthday Present!  Thanks Grandma Stott!

Look at my future car!

Saying goodbye to Interns and a future missionary

Hey Family and Friends!

     So this week was okay.  It wasn't extra special or anything.  Things are good though.  I said goodbye to one of my best friends Rachel.  She was in the YSA ward with me and now she is leaving for her mission next week.  It is crazy how fast time goes by.  It was fun to have lunch with her and talk about all that she is going to learn in California.  We are already planning the next time we will hang out in 18 months.  

Last time seeing Rachel before she leaves on her mission

She is the cutest! We are already planning
on hanging out in 18 months!

     Then Sister Noe and I got our hair done by Wonderful.  She is amazing at hair.  She is a really good braider!  It was really tight!  But we loved it!  (I also loved when I was able to take it out!) :)

     This week we were able to go over to Sophia's house with the young women to go and help her mom get started on painting the trim on her house.  We weren't able to do any painting but we did a lot of scraping and it went really well.  There was a really good turn out and we were able to work with the young women.  I have always loved the young women so much.  It was one of my favorite things about church.  It was really great for the young women to serve and it was really good for Sophia's mom so see some of the girl come and be willing to help out.  It turned out to be a really good thing.  They weren't able to finish but we were able to help her get started.  Which is always the hardest part.  Now we are going to be coming back over on Saturday with her home teachers and some of the high priests to help her finish the job.  All of this service has been really good for her.  It was good to start with the primary, move up to the young women and then finish with the high priest.  We practically got everyone involved.  She is very happy.

     Then the next day we were able to go and have another lesson with them.  We have taught her for about 3 months now so she knows practically everything.  For our lesson we asked Sophia the baptismal questions.  It was really good because we were able to see what Sophia remembered and we were also able to gauge where her mom's testimony is.  Sophia has a great testimony of everything.  We started off by asking her if she believed that God was her Heavenly Father?  Then if she knew that Jesus Christ was the Son of God?  And if she knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God and restored the church back on the earth.  She answered yes to every question and she explain why.  But when we would asked her mom we came to find out that she doesn't have a testimony of any of that.  She wouldn't tell us why either because she didn't want to tell us in front of Sophia.  Technically we could baptize Sophia right now but we really want to focus on reactivating her mom first.  We want Sophia to be baptized but we want her mom to have a testimony as well so they can grow strong together. The gospel truly does strengthen families and we want them both to be able to strengthen each other.  Now our focus is going to be to help her remember those things that she once learned about.  We are going to be meeting with just the mom because then she will be more open with us about her thoughts and beliefs.  We are praying that she will be able to see the desires that her daughter has and then be able to soften her heart and be willing to learn more. 

Look at this cute little puppy!

     This week we have been stopping by a lot of members houses so that we can get to know the members of the ward a little better.  While we are at their house we try to share a message with them.  We were able to go to the Fuluvaka's house and we were actually able to practice our teaching.  Sister Noe and I taught their family and they pretended to be investigators.  It was a really great experience.  We taught them the first lesson that we teach everyone when we first meet them, the restoration.  It was such a powerful experience.  My favorite part is every time whenever we share Joseph Smith's story the spirit is so strong.  They even commented about that, they asked if that was just because they already knew that it was true or if that was something that others felt the first time we taught them.  I told them that the reason they felt something was because it was the spirit.  That is how the spirit helps us to recognize truth.  Almost everyone can feel something.  But a lot of the time, it scares them.  They don't want to believe that it is true so they fight it but those good feelings come from the Holy Ghost.  They wouldn't feel good if they weren't from God.  I love whenever we are able to practice our teaching with members because the spirit is so strong.  It is cool to hear the questions that they ask and see the spirit in their eyes.  Then after we taught the lesson we asked them if anyone came to mind.  One of the girls said yes.  She told us about one of her friends and about how she has invited her to activities before.  We are so excited.  I love when members are able to feel the spirit and then they are able to think of a specific person who needs it in their life.

     This week we were able to go and say goodbye to some of the awesome interns that were here for the summer. They are all so great it is so sad that they have to go.  But it was really cool because as we were saying our goodbyes to them we were also able to share a short message with them.  

Saying goodbye to the Jakeman's

     We read a scripture to them 2 Nephi 2:8 “Wherefore, how great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth, that they may know that there is no flesh that can dwell in the presence of God, save it be through the merits, and mercy, and grace of the Holy Messiah, who layeth down his life according to the flesh, and taketh it again by the power of the Spirit, that he may bring to pass the resurrection of the dead, being the first that should rise." 

     My favorite part about this scripture is that is says "How great the importance to make these things known unto the inhabitants of the earth." I mean truly, how great the importance!  Each and everyone of us has taken on the name of Christ when we were baptized as a member of the church.  We may not all have his name on a black badge but we all have his name on our heart. We have the opportunity to make these things known. We were able to challenge the interns who were getting ready to leave to think about the different people who they were able to meet while they were here in Minnesota, and to think about who was placed in their paths while they were here and who is ready for the gospel.  As we asked them this question you could see that they truly did know someone.  Someone is in need of the gospel in their life.  We are excited to talk to the interns before they leave and get the information of their friends, so that we will be able to share with them what has made each and everyone of us the people that we are today. 

I love you all so much!  

I hope you have a great week!  

Choose the Right!

Love Sister Kendra Curtis

So we have some really strange Elders in our ward and they

 like to draw.  So we asked them to draw a picture that we

 could but in the dinner calendar and this is what they drew... 

we are not putting it in the calendar. ha 

Minnesota is Gnome Sweet Gnome!