# Share the Gift

Hello Family and Friends!

Sister Shumway!

     This week has been so awesome and full of miracles. I am so happy to be here in Carlton. We are already seeing a lot of success. I know I have said this before but it is so true, the world needs sisters! I am so grateful to be reopening the area with Sister England. Her and I have been having a lot of fun together. I am really excited that she is my companion at the end. She is really good for me and I feel like she is really going to help me stay focused all the ways to the end.   

     Another thing that was really neat, Saturday night we got a call from President Forbes, he called to tell us that he was planning on driving up Sunday morning to come and check out the Carlton Branch. It was a really neat experience our church attendance from last week literally doubled. There were 53 people there. We invited a couple less active families to come to church and we had 3 investigators attend. It was wonderful. President Forbes really enjoyed church and he said he has heard nothing but great things about us from the members. He wanted to come and check out the branch because he wanted to make sure that we were settling in and that everything was going good. He was very impressed he even wrote about us in his letter to all the missionaries it said, "Yesterday, Sister Forbes and I were attending a branch in Carlton that was recently reopened by the sisters. Several members came up to me and shared with me how the sisters in just over a week of work had made an impact on the branch. They identified several members who had come to church because of the efforts of the sisters. We have many opportunities to perform missionary work and help the wards and branches as we work the inactive."

     One of the focuses that our mission has right now is the NAC (North American Central) initiative, or as the stake is calling it the "Rescue Report". This initiative was presented by a 70 who is over our area. He wants us to focus on reactivating families and helping the whole family to be baptized. Some of the ways we are able to help with this is by looking at the people who have part member families, are perspective Elders and have a child off record. As we reach out to these specific families we will not only be building the kingdom of God but we will also be strengthening the people already in it. As Sister England and I have been trying to identify these families we have been able to see a lot of success. We are really happy to be here in Carlton.

     Along with the NAC Initiative we have a other initiative that we have been asked to participate in by the first presidency, hopefully some of you have already heard of it. "He is the Gift" The church has made a really awesome video. It shows how the world gets so wrapped up in all of the crazy things that Christmas entails that they forget the meaning of it all. When we are able to reflect on the true Christmas story we are able to realize that HE is the gift. That Heavenly Father loved us all so much that he sent his Son Jesus Christ for us. Christ's birth was the beginning of it all. This Christmas season we have been asked to #ShareTheGift with everyone we meet. It has been a great way to get into gospel discussions because Christ is the one things that we have in common with almost everyone we talk to. And the video is made so well, all faiths appreciate it. I love the part at the end were it challenges everyone to do three things. Discover the Gift, Embrace the Gift, and of course #ShareTheGift. This is something everyone of us should focus on this Christmas. As we do so I know that each and everyone of us will naturally draw closer to the Savior. After all, He is the reason for the season.

     With these two initiatives we have some new key indicators that we are recording. NAC: which is whenever we make contact with the people on the list. TCI: This stands for Tract-Contact-Invite. I have really enjoyed this change. I have felt like it has made the quality of our lessons better. Instead of trying to hurry and teach a lesson to the people we meet our new motive is to have a meaningful conversation with them and then to invite them to do something, whether that is to come to church, go to Mormon.org, or even to watch He is the Gift. It has become a lot more natural and we are still able to teach lessons even though it isn’t our intent. We are excited to see the investigators that come as we have this new mind set.

This is Rosie!  I will tell you about her later.

     A lot of other wonderful things happened this week. We have been able to meet with a lot of the members of the branch. Active and less active. It has been great to get more familiar with everything in the area. Oh! A couple of random things I have forgot to mention. Our church meetings are only two hours right now, they are hoping to make it three again but right now there is only sacrament meeting and Relief Society/Priesthood. Our apartment is pretty nice. The only downfall is we have a super small kitchen. We don't have a stove so we have to use what is called a hot plate (which I didn't even know was an actual thing), we don't have an oven so we have what would be a step up from the Easy-Bake-Oven that I had as a child, and we only have a little mini fridge, but on the plus side is we have the biggest freezer you could ever imagine. All you have to do is open up our front door, unlimited space. We just have to worry about bears. (Just kidding grandma. I haven't seen a bear yet!) I already told you about the Jeep so I guess that pretty much brings you all up to speed. Oh did I mention its pretty cold up north?? Well it is! I am super grateful for my fur hat! I even talked Sister England into buying one. The one thing I love is how pretty it is! I LOVE IT! The pine trees are so beautiful with all the snow on them. Anyways back to real missionary work.

Mine is homemade inspired by
J&K Christmas Sweater INC.

     We were about to go up to Duluth and help with a Stake Youth Activity that was going on. We had a ton of fun. All of the missionaries decided to wear ugly sweaters (there are a couple of things that we are going to be wearing them to I will tell you about them as they come.) I made mine! Isn't is funny! Sister England got a package in the mail with this stocking and it was perfect! If there was a contest I would win for sure. I really like it up hear in the Duluth Zone because we are so far away from the city the missionaries are really close. We are able to call and share miracles with each other its really cool. Again I am so happy to finally be serving with Sister Simpson! I love her!

Ugly Christmas Sweater Party!

     Another thing that Sister England and I tried is we sent out a text to all the people in our phone: former, potentials and people who had recently had been meeting with the Elders. We sent out a text saying that we are new in the area and that we would love to come over and introduce ourselves to them. We have been getting a lot of responses and we have set up quite a few appointments. 

     Yesterday we had an awesome miracle. We had called a girl named Marci and we asked her if we could come visit her. She said yes. We then found out that she has been meeting with the missionaries for about 10 years and has never been baptized. We asked her what has been holding her back and she said smoking. I then looked at her and I said, "Would you like to stop?" She said very humbly, yes. Sister England and I then taught her about the power of the Atonement. She then committed to stop smoking and we took the last of her cigarettes from her. It was neat to see at the very moment when she needed missionaries we were able to come visit her. It just shows that the Lord knows his children. We are looking forward to meeting with her again and helping her replace her bad habit with a good one.

     Another day we were out knocking doors in a small town and we met a boy named Trevor. He was just coming back from the store so we started walking with him back to his house. He told us that he was just thinking about how he needed a change in his life and that he needed religion. We are also going to be meeting with him later this week.

     There is also a man that the Elders in Duluth have been driving down to come see named David. He has been meeting with the missionaries for a little over a month now. He is prepared and wants to be baptized. We are planning on setting a date with him next week.

     There are a lot of things happening here in the Carlton branch. Lots of work for us to do, people for us to see and people for us to find. Again I love the Christmas season. There is no better time to share the gospel with others. Everyone's hearts are so soft and full of love. Don't miss the opportunity to 

#ShareTheGift!

I love you!

Love Sister Kendra Curtis

p.s. For those of you that don't understand social media and hashtags here is a site that you need to check out made by the church of course. 

https://www.lds.org/media-library/social?lang=eng You're welcome.

Lunch with the Sisters!