Make this Christmas Different!

Hello Family and Friends!

I got my Christmas Count Down!
Only 10 more days til Christmas!

     Merry Christmas! This week was awesome! Guess what! It is like 40 degrees! It’s super weird and the snow is melting, this is just a crazy time for the weather. I hear that Utah has no snow either.

     We were able to meet with Trevor twice this week. We met with him once in a Wendy's that was the only place he could meet. There we shared with him He Is The Gift. We then talked to him more about the restoration and how the gospel has been restored on the earth. It is really neat how natural it is to tie in the restoration after talking about Christ. Trevor is very interested and ready to learn more about the church. We then were able to meet with him again with a member. We went over the For the Strength of Youth booklet. We explained to him what it was and we asked him to pick out a topic that stood out to him. He chose Physical and Emotional Health. As we were reading it, he kept saying that it made a lot of sense. We were able to find the deeper concern as we were talking to him. He said that he hasn’t truly felt happy in over 2 years. That he constantly feels bad for the things he is doing and feels a lot of shame. He felt that that is what repentance meant, to be really hard on yourself. We taught him the importance of change and how Heavenly Father knew that we couldn't do it on our own. We would need a Savior, someone to help us. He seems completely different as we have been teaching him. He seems happier and has a different light in his eyes. That is my favorite part of missionary work, watching the change in their eyes. We are excited for him to come to church so he can feel it even more. He did come to the Christmas party. Hopefully next week he will come to church.

     We were also able to have a lesson with David. He is doing good. We had a lesson with him going over the baptismal interview questions. He is truly ready to be baptized the only hold back is that he is still smoking. He told us that by this week he is going to stop. We are going to try everything we can to help and uplift him. We set a baptismal date for January 3. If he is able to stop smoking he will be able to make it. He was able to come to church and to the Christmas party. He has been able to be pretty involved with the branch which is good.  

     One miracle that we had was we were going to go try and visit a less active member of our branch. She is really busy she is going to school, working, recently got divorced and has 4 kids. She is really hard to catch and we just found our where she lived. We were ready to go track her down. On our drive there, I saw a sign at a gas station that said free hot chocolate. I was so excited. I felt the urge to go get some. We got some hot chocolate then carried on to got visit this sister. When we got there the lights were completely out. "Darn. Well let's pray and see if anyone is home." We then started to pray and right as we said Amen, they pulled up in their car. I couldn't believe it. We were able to help them carry in some groceries and we then were able to meet the family and share a message with them. As silly as it sounds I am so glad that we stopped to get that hot chocolate. If we didn't we would have missed them. The spirit talks to us in many different ways and he really does warm our hearts. Even with hot chocolate. We are going to start seeing them at least once a week and we are going to start teaching the 10 year old daughter who isn't baptized yet. 

     This week we were able to go up to Duluth to have our Christmas Conference. It was a really good meeting we talked a lot about the “He is the Gift” initiative and how we need to take advantage of the time to use it. It was really awesome. Then it was super weird because we got to watch a video. Last year we watched Miracle. It was super awesome and we were so pumped. So this time we watched "Its a Wonderful Life." It was super weird I don't suggest it for other missionaries. Maybe for after but not during. There is a lot of kissing... 

Getting ready to watch Its A Wonderful Life...
strange to watch as a missionary

     Every year for Christmas the zone comes up with a Christmas present to give to the mission President and his wife. We were talking to the zone leaders and they had no idea what to do. I came up with the perfect idea! We decided that for their gift we would give them ugly sweaters. Then after the whole zone would take a picture wearing ugly sweaters. THEN we are going to take that picture to Walmart and we are going to put it on a blanket and give it to them for Christmas! It is going to be the funniest gift ever! The Forbes thought it was really funny and they looked really good in their matching sweaters!

Imagine how great these pictures will look on a blanket!

Best Christmas Sweaters ever!

     Then after the Christmas Conference I went on an exchange with Sister Simpson. It was awesome exactly how I pictured it. We had such a great time. It was like the MTC all over again except this time we knew what we were doing! We were able to teach a couple of their investigators and it was pretty neat. Sister Simpson is serving in the Duluth ward. It was weird to be in a ward again. I really like my branch better. Great things come in small packages, like the Carlton Branch, and ME! :) Kidding. Anyways we were able to see quite a few people and we were able to, of course, #ShareTheGift. I truly love the Christmas season. Everyone's hearts are so tender and full of love. We were talking to a member of the Duluth ward and she was really sad. She was telling us how she doesn't feel like she has the Christmas spirit because she is so far away from her family. I felt so bad. We then watched the Mormon message, What Shall We Give?  In that video it shows some people who have places to be and things that they need to do but at the same time they don't miss the opportunity to serve. We challenged this sister to take advantage of this time, her spare time to look for and to be aware of opportunities that she can serve and love others around this time of year. The spirit was so strong. It made me think a lot about what more I can do to help others. I am going to try really hard to observe, then serve! :)

Look someone gave us the cutest Christmas gift!  The nose is Eos Chapstick!

     After our exchange we meet back up with the sisters at the Carlton building for our Branch Christmas Party. It was really great and we had a good turn out. We had a dinner and then afterwards we had a program with a bunch of musical performances. We were even in it, the "Carlton Carolers" We sangs 3 Christmas songs and we even wore our ugly sweaters. It was a really beautiful night. Then at the very end we showed everyone He Is The Gift. After the video Sister England and I got up and we shared our testimonies and invited everyone to take the He Is The Gift card by their plate and to share it with someone. To share with them the true meaning of why we celebrate Christmas. It was a great night and the spirit of Christmas was touching a lot of hearts. 

Brother Faerber who knows Grandpa Curtis

These are the two young women in our branch!

     Again I want to challenge everyone to do something different this Christmas, make a difference in other peoples lives, whether it is someone you love or a stranger on the street. Everyone needs a sense of hope in their life. Christ is that to me. And that is what I hope to do and share with others. The spirit of Christmas which truly does bring light to others. There is so much joy in bringing joy to others! Don't forget to make this Christmas different. I love you all!

Sister Kendra Curtis

A member gave us this drink! It's from the 90's!

I really like Sister England!

Finally made some chicken noodle soup!