Teaching on the way to the Twins game!

Hello Family and Friends!

Target Field at the Twins game!

     I am sorry this is going to be a really short email. Today we had our P-day switched because we were able to go to a Twins game.  It was super fun.  We were able to go with our whole district.  It was a day game, today was Dollar Dog day (hot dogs for only $1) and they were playing the Diamond Backs!  It was a lot of fun. The only problem was that in the 7th inning it started pouring rain.  It was raining so bad that they had to stop the game and put a huge tarp over the diamond. So they weren't able to finish, or if they did we left before they started back up.  When we left the score was 2 to 1 with the Twins winning.  Honestly... I am not the biggest baseball fan.  But I was really glad that I could go! 

    On our way to the game Sister McCullough and I were able to teach a lady named Deborah on the Light Rail.  It was a really neat experience.  I always love how no matter where we are there is always a time to share the gospel with someone. 

     Today I probably only have time to tell one story.  I wanted to share it about one of the less actives that we have been working with.  Her name is Mallory and she is wonderful.  She has made some mistakes in her life, like everyone does and she was able to find her way back.  She made some big changes got married and is living a good life.  It is hard for her now because her husband isn’t a member and she feels it is hard to keep it up on her own.  We have been meeting with her and we have been able to have some amazing experiences. We challenged her to start reading from Preach My Gospel so that she can strengthen her testimony and make it stronger.  She has been doing that and it has been going good.  

Tiuana and her girls

     Last week we were able to have her come out teaching with us.  She was super scared and Satan was working really hard to tempt her not to come, but in the end she was able to make it.  We had a lesson with Khalia and Tiuana.  They were both there and it was perfect.  Mallory bore a powerful testimony about the power of prayer and how she knows that God is always listening.  The spirit was so strong, everyone felt it.  I know that she needed to be there that day. That she is here for a reason and the Lord has a plan for her to share her testimony with others.  I am so excited to keep working with her.  She came to church this Sunday and she stayed for all three hours.  I just love the gospel.  I love that no matter what we do, there are always second chances.  He really does love us.

     Yesterday we were able to have a Zone Training.  I felt like it was exactly what I needed at the time.  A lot of the training was about faith.  We talked about how if you have more faith then you will have more success.  This is something that I really need to work on.  I started thinking back to when I was first a missionary.  I really miss those times.  A year ago all I had was faith, faith to find, faith that we would meet someone if we knocked one more door, faith in myself, faith in everything!  And now after all the time I have been a missionary and after all of the miracles I have seen for some reason I have let my faith die down.  I know that if I focus more on the Lord's work and realize that it isn’t mine but that it is His, I know that I will have more success.  As we exercise our faith, it shows that we trust the Lord and then that is when the miracles come.  I am excited to work on this goal.  Apple Valley is a great place to start renewing my faith.  Good things are about to happen here!  I can feel it!

Elder Manoa

Karem at the Presidents fireside

     I am sorry this is so short.  I had an amazing week full of miracles but no time to write about them. :(  I sent a lot of pictures.  They are worth more than a thousand words right??  

This is my boyfriend!

Okay I love you all.  Have a wonderful week!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

This is the funniest little five year old.  His name is Leo!

Look Mom!  We saw a rainbow the same day we got your rainbow package!

Birthday lunch for Sister McCullough

We got our flu shots today!

Mom and Nicole!  Look I got a selfie with a biker too! Can I have $20? :) :)
(last week Nicole jumped out of the car and took a selfie with a biker for $20.00)

It's a small work after all!

Hello family and friends!

Getting our sign on!
(I LOVE YOU!)

     I am loving this new chapter in my mission.  Apple Valley is such a wonderful place.  The ward is really close and they are very missionary minded, AND they are all sooo excited to have Sister missionaries in the ward.  We had a dinner every night last week and the dinner calendar is full for the next 2 weeks.  We are so blessed to be here.  I love being here with Sister McCullough.  I haven't had this much fun in a while.  We get along great, we are very similar but we are different at the same time.  It is perfect for missionary work because she is good at the things that I am trying to improve on.  I am so happy to be here with her!  It has been fun helping her with ASL.  I am not really good at it and it is even harder to try to talk to people.  But it is really fun to learn the different signs and they are so grateful to be able to learn and participate.  Sister McCullough is so cool!

We love Apple Valley!

     We have a really fun district this transfer.  There are 3 sets of Elders and 3 sets of Sisters.  I am stoked I have never had so many sisters.  It is usually just a bunch of boys.  I am so excited it is going to be great to get some more Sister insight on things.  It was fun too because after district meeting we all went out and we had lunch together.  It is much better then lunch with the Elders.  It isn’t as awkward. :)  The other sisters in our district are Sister Tingy, Sister Jacklin, Sister Hulet (she was in my MTC district), and Sister Pead!  It is so fun to see Sister Pead again! 

Lunch with the Sister's in our District

     This week we are meeting with two investigators Kahliya and Tiuana.  The Elders who where here before us where teaching Kahliya.   Kahliya is 20 years old and and has a one and a half year old son.  Her mom and sister just got baptized and now she is interested in learning more.  When we went to have our first lesson with her she invited her friend Tiuana to join us.  Tiauna is 33 years old and she has 3 kids and one on the way.  Her husband is a MMA fighter/trainer but he hasn’t sat in on our lessons yet because he is very busy with work.  We are teaching both of them now and separately.  They are both doing pretty good.  They haven’t come to church with Sister McCullough and I hopefully next week.  I will tell you more about them next week.  But things are looking pretty good.

It is getting cold!  We have to wear our hoodies!

     This week was surprisingly really cold.  It felt like it was November instead of September, it is already in the 50's.  Hopefully it doesn't stay that way.  On one of the really cold days we were trying to decide where we should go after all of our plans were falling through.  We even got lost for a little bit and were in a completely different place then we had originally planned.  I felt that we should look for some apartments and that if we kept driving we would find some.  We eventually did and we went inside.  We started walking down the hall but then I felt that we should turn around and go the other way.  We started knocking and then at the second door we knocked on they invited us in before we said anything.  I was surprised and I said, "Do you know who we are?" 

     She then said, "Yes, the missionaries""

     We then found out that she is a less active member who hasn't gone to church in over a year.  Over the past year she has really been struggling.  Her family was baptized a couple of years ago but then the husband got a hold of some anti literture and hasn't come to church since.  It has really been hard for the mom to come on her own with her 3 kids.  In that moment, as she was very emotional and opening up to Sister McCullough and I, two strangers that she just met.  I knew that we were her angels.  Heavenly Father sent us to her at that very moment, she needed us, she needed someone, she needed a sign from God to show her that He does care and that He is aware of her.  It was amazing to see how because we were in tune with the spirit we were able to touch this sisters heart.  We are going to keep going back and hopefully help her come back to church.  I am so grateful that we followed the spirit and that we were able to give light to her life. 

     This week went great.  We were able to have Parbarti (Joyce) go to church again for her second Sunday in a row.  Things are going very well with her. She has been getting really involved with the ward.  I really enjoy the Apple Valley ward.  It is great to see them reaching out and inviting our investigators to activities.  Parbarti's biggest struggle is that she has an autistic grandson she is trying her very best to help and support and it is a lot of hard work.  We were able to help her to meet with our bishop and he was able to help her a little bit.  We will hopefully be able to help her realize that as she shows her faith in Christ and continues to learn more, he will bless her.

This is baby Elinor ...

Helping Romeres after church!

     This week what stood out to me the most is truly just how aware the Lord is of those in Apple Valley.  Especially the Sisters.  We have had countless moments where we ran into active members, less active members, part members and even investigator women who need the gospel and the spirit in their lives and they need visits from the missionaries but if Elders were still here, they couldn't get to them.  We have been able to go into their homes and we have been able to share messages with them that have completely lifted their spirits.  I know that we are here for a reason.  I know that there are so many sisters out serving for a reason.  There truly is something special about sister missionaries.  I will always have a soft spot for them in my heart.  I know what they are sacrificing and I know what they have to offer.  The Lord is aware of the sisters here in Apple Valley.

     I am so happy right now.  I love how things have been going.  Change is good.  I am grateful for change.  It helps us repent and to become the people that Heavenly Father wants us to be.  I love you all. 

Thanks for the support.

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

It's a small work after all!

First of all look how funny this is!!  So I was talking to one of the 

members in my ward Rob Amott, and he went to 

Cottonwood High School!  Look who was in his year book! 

Then I was talking to another member of my ward, Dan Thatcher, he is the 2nd counselor and he went to Murray High School and knows Uncle Tyler!  He even said he remembers you dad. (He said you wouldn't remember him so don't worry.)  He said he has an older brother named Mike Thatcher that you might know.  Funny huh!  What a small world!

Maybe I will be blessed with the gift of hands!

Hey Family and Friends!

Fun at the Minnesota Fair!

     This past week was crazy!  As you know last Monday I found out I was getting transferred!  But instead of going home and packing up my things Sister Noe and I had made plans to go to the Minnesota State Fair with the Spanish Sisters!  After we were done emailing we went to go meet the sisters at the church and then a member was able to give us a ride.  Holy cow!  That was the best P-day I have ever had.  
     

I have never been to the Fair before and it was so much fun!  I have heard that the Minnesota State Fair is the biggest one in the country.  I have nothing to compare it to but it was huge!  There were so many people, there was so much to do, there where tons of rides, and there was so much FOOD!  And weird food!  I had to put a limit on myself as to how much I tried because I am on a missionary budget with a little extra birthday money. :) I was able to try Alligator and cheese curds!  They both were super good!  I really liked the cheese curds. I think they are a Minnesota thing because they are everywhere.  It is fried cheese.  The alligator was really good too.  It tasted like a super juicy and flavorful hot dog.  What better place to try alligator then Minnesota right?!  

     They had so many funny things though and everything was on a stick and fried!  They even had fried candy bars!  I wasn't brave enough to try that, my pride wouldn't let me.  We ran into some other missionaries while we were there and we spent most of our day with them.  All of the other missionaries were Spanish speaking and Sister Noe knows a little bit of Spanish too.  So I was the only one who "no habla espanol".  

     We went into a Haunted House which was super funny and super random and we were able to go on 2 rides!  It was so much fun!  Our mission president said we could use our judgement on rides.  So.... ya we went to 2 rides.  It was so much fun!  Lots of fun memories!

I thought this was funny. Some of the Elders went to go play the balloon dart game
 and look at what one of the prizes was a Mormon Jesus picture!  Isn't that great!

     Then after the Fair we went back and we started being a normal missionaries again.  We were able to go and have one last lesson with Desirae and her kids.  We had a lesson about the scriptures and the power of scripture study.  The kids are so great.  I really hope that their mom will be able to step it up and help her family progress.  Those kids want to be baptized so bad but they need to be baptized as a family so they can progress together.  I was really sad to say goodbye to all of them.  They are so sweet and they need good examples in their lives.  I am so grateful that even though missionaries come and go the ward is always going to be there for them.  To help them feel loved and give them the support that they need.

Goodbyes to Desirae and her kids

This is the Family Home Evening Chart we made!

I am really going to miss the members of the Lake Nokomis ward!

Blessing likes the selfie camera!

I shared my Birthday starburst with them!

     Then on Tuesday we went and said goodbye to some of the investigators that we were teaching and to some of the members.  I am really going to miss the Lake Nokomis ward.  There are so many great members and they are all so helpful and have such a love for the missionaries and the work that we do.  I think I have said this before but I am so grateful that I will be able to continue to keep in contact with them after the mission and hopefully, one day, I will be able to come back and visit them.

The Wortley Family

I love this girl!  I will miss Eva!

Goodbye to Sister Noe

     Then, Transfer Day!  Those days are always so crazy.  I was able to get everything packed up and ready to go.  It was weird to think that it was my last time being in Edina.  I had been there for 3 transfers and that was the longest I have stayed in one place.  I should have guessed I would get moved again.  
     We then drove to Bloomington.  It is always fun to meet up their because you get to see a lot of missionaries. 

It was fun to see Sister Pao.  I miss her!

Hello Sister Ballif

Sister McCullough

     I was able to meet my new companion, Sister McCullough. (Mc- cole-low)  I really like her!  She is from West Valley, Utah.  She graduated from Hunter High School in 2012 and she was a cheerleader also.  Then she went to Utah State for a year!  We are very similar and so far we have been getting along great!  I have really enjoyed this week that we have had together!  She is a great missionary!  Then we were on our way to our new area, Apple Valley.  We were replacing elders so we were white washing the area.  And one of the main reason that we are there is because the ward has some deaf people in the ward and the person who used to interpret for them moved.  They have been struggling lately on helping those member be able to understand the meetings.  Sister McCullough took 3 years of American Sign Language (ASL) in high school.  She is a little rusty because she hasn't done it in a while but she has been able to pick it up pretty fast. 

Check out this huge chair!
Dad you should get one!

     I personally really enjoy white washing/opening areas.  I like the fact that we get a fresh start.  That there aren't specific things that you have to do but it is completely up to us and we get to decide how we want to do things.  We were able to go to the City Hall and get a map.  We then were able to see were all of the members live and split up the map into different areas so we can be more effective with our time and where we are going.  We also made a goal to stop and meet at least 2 active members everyday.  It has been going really well.  The ward is very excited to have sisters.  I really like it here.  There are a lot of youth in the ward and they are all very missionary minded.  I know this is going to be a great people for us. 

Our first week at church

     We went to church yesterday and it was our first time meeting everyone.  We decided that we were going to go try and meet everyone and put some faces to the names we had been looking over in the ward directory. We started shaking hands with everyone and it was going good.  But then all the sudden someone pulled us aside and asked if Sister McCullough was still planning on signing today.  She didn't know she was supposed to.  She was super scared because she hadn't done it in so long.  I had no idea what any of it meant.  I sat by her and I held the hymn book while she signed the hymns.  I guess you could call me the little ASL assistant.  I know the alphabet so I can spelling things out.  Hopefully I will be able to learn more so I can communicate better with them.  Maybe I will be blessed with the gift of hands! :) Church went really good it was totally different from any other meeting I have ever been in.  It was kind of hard.  Watching all of the signing and trying to listen at the same time made it hard to focus but it was really great at the same time.  The best is to look at the deaf members and how happy they were to be able to participate in the meetings and feel of the spirit.  We followed them around and we even went to Priesthood.  There is a first time for everything!  It was so great.  I really hope that I will be able to learn more so I can help out better instead of just holding the hymn book.  We are going to start doing language study in the mornings to help Sister McCullough remember everything.  This is going to be a fun transfer! 

     We were even able to get an investigator to church on Sunday.  Her name is Joyce and she lives in our apartment.  She is from a country by India and she has an autistic grandson who she watches over.  We were able to talk to her on Saturday night and we invited her to come to church with us.  She did!  She loved it so much.  She was able to listen to the testimonies and she felt that everyone was speaking directly to her. She even went up and bore her own testimony!  It was very good and she spoke about the love that she felt there and how the missionaries were sent to her for a reason.  That she has seen the boy missionaries before walking around but when she saw us, she felt that she should talk to us.  She said she knows that we were an answer to her prayers.  We are really excited to meet with her again and share more with her about the gospel.

     So far things are going really good here!  I love my area, I love my companion, this is going to be a good transfer.  I am so grateful for change.  This is a good change for me.  I am also grateful for the opportunities that I have to change.  Being in a new area with a new companion makes it easier.  I love you all.  Thanks for everything. 

     One quick quote before I go.  Earlier this week I was reading about prayer in my studies.  It said, 

"We don't have prayer so God can change our circumstances, we have prayer so we can understand what God would have us do in the circumstances we are in."  I know that this is true.  I know that things get hard and we don't know why, but if we would take a step back and ask ourselves "What does Heavenly Father want me to learn from this?" our attitude will change.  It is all about our perspective.

Have a great week!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

Off to Apple Valley!

Dear Family and Friends!

     Holy Cow!  I just got transferred!  I wasn't expecting that.  I am going to Apple Valley and I am white washing with Sister McCullin.  I don't know her very well but I am excited for a change.  Man transfers are always so hard because I have to say good bye to so many people.  I have really grown to love this ward.  I have stayed in this area longer then any other.  I am really going to miss it but I am excited to go to Apple Valley.  Sister Noe is going to do awesome and is going to do great things for the area! 

Wonderful and her girls!

     We had a really fun Zone P-day last Monday.  For the first time on my mission we were able to get together as a zone and hang out together!  We went to Martin Luther King Park.  We played volleyball, soccer, and football!  It was really fun!  I loved the chance we had to just get together and have fun!  It was fun to be with the other sisters as well. :)

     To start off we were able to have a lesson with Desirae and her kids.  We promised them that we would start doing Family Home Evening with them.  They were so excited.  We even were able to make them a Family Home Evening chart so that each of them would have their own responsibility.  But before we went to the lesson we went over the the Wortley's house and had dinner with them. We were really excited because they have 2 cute little boys Liam (3) and Alex (2), then whole family was going to come with us to teach.  But then all the sudden Alex started acting really ornery and sad.  Then all the sudden he threw up!  Poor kid.  So then Alex couldn't come out with us and neither could Brother Wortley but Sister Wortley still came with us with Liam.  Before we left Sister Wortley look at Liam and said, "Liam do you feel sick? How is your tummy?"  

     He looked at us very happy and said, " My tummy is good I don't feel sick.  I want to go with you and the missionaries."  He sounded convincing so we started driving over there.  We then started talking about the lesson.  Then all the sudden Liam said in a very sad voice, "Ummm... I don't think my tummy is feeling very good.." 

     Oh no!  And we drove together so we couldn't split up.  We felt so bad.  We got to their house and we said a prayer that Liam would be okay.  Then we went to have FHE.  We had a lesson with them about keeping the Sabbath day holy.  It was really fun.  We had the lesson with ice cream Sundays where you have good things to put on it and bad things to put on it.  Good things being: chocolate syrup, caramel, chocolate chips, nuts, brownies.  Bad thing being: salsa, hot sauce, mustard, soy sauce, and an egg!  The kids loved it!  It was very visual for them they will never forget putting salsa on ice cream.  But it was sad because before we said the opening prayer Liam ran to the bathroom, threw up, and then crashed on their bathroom floor. Poor kid.  His first attempt at missionary work wasn't very successful. :( But hopefully we will be able to come out again and get a redo.  But beside that it went really well.

     Then later in the week Sister Noe and Sister Chapman were able to visit with her alone while they were on exchanges.  From what I understand the lesson went really well.  They were able to get her to open up a lot and she was able to bring up concerns and problems that we didn't know about.  There are a lot of problems going on in her marriage and she is scared of baptism because she is scared to change.  But she sees the good in the church and she wants it for her kids. Now our biggest challenge with her is going to be to get her to see how it can bless her life also.  How she can be healed and how the guilt and shame can be removed through the love of our Savior.  Hopefully we will be able to have more lessons with her on her own so she can be able to address her concerns without the kids there.

     This week Sister Noe and I were able to go to the temple.  It was great as always.  This was a really fun experience because this was Sister Noe's first time going to the temple as a missionary!  She hasn't been in over a year because she has always been out of the temple boundaries.  I am so blessed for the chance that I have had to go to the temple as much as I have.  It really makes me appreciate all the times I have gone.  I truly know that we can be strengthened in so many ways as we go and do the work for others who are waiting.

I am so thankful for the temple!

We love Sister Haggen!

     I really enjoyed the exchange that I went on with week with Sister Schwartz in Bloomington.  She is an amazing missionary.  Every time I am with her I learn so much.  We were able to have a lesson with their investigator named Alexandria.  She is a 13 year old girl who is going through a lot in her life.  She was, at the beginning, a little closed off.  But as we had our lesson about the Plan of Salvation she really opened up.  She was able to ask some questions and share with us some very personal things.  What has been standing out to me lately is the importance of teaching eternal truths. As we teach the basics and the doctrine of Jesus Christ then people are able to feel the love of their Heavenly Father, then they are able to feel the grace of the Savior, then they can be healed.  I know that the message we share can change peoples lives.  That these truths that we know can make all the difference. That we are all children of our Heavenly Father and he loves us, no matter what.  I love going on exchanges it is great learning opportunity and a good reminder.

     Lately I have really been feeling the urgency of my calling.  I can't believe how fast time if flying by.  I only have 5 months left and there is still so much more that I want to accomplish.  I feel like this is the part in my mission where I can either plateau or I can turn it up even more and work as hard as I can to the very end.  I want to be that kind of missionary.  I have felt like I have been letting the Lord down.  It is now time that I change.  I am going to be better on all of the little things that are asked of me and then at the end I will hopefully be able to feel that I have given it my all.   

     Just this morning I was reading in Jacob 5, verse 41 it always stands out to me where it says, "What could I have done more for my vineyard?" At the end of my mission I don't want to ask myself this question.  I want to know and feel in my heart that I gave it my all and know that the Lord is pleased with me.  The greatest part about the gospel is that we aren't expected to be perfect but we are expected to repent and to change.  I am so grateful for the gospel and that I get to share this eternal truth with those we meet. 

     Well I have to get going.  We got permission from our mission president to go to the State Fair!  I am so excited!  I will send pictures next week.  I love you all so much have a great week!

Sister Kendra Curtis

Happy Birthday!

Eva was so happy to get Scriptures.

Kendra wanted me to get a CTR ring for Eva for her Birthday!

Pizza Rev (so yummy)