Small Town Service

Hello Family and Friends!

This is my Silver Tuna!
I will tell you more on
Christmas! (I'm sneaky!)

     Merry Christmas! Oh my goodness I can't believe how fast this Christmas season has been. I'm not ready for it to be over. This week has been pretty good. There really is just something about this area. Carlton is the best! There is always work to do and people to teach. I am so glad to be here.

     So I have one funny story. Some of you may not know this, but we are supposed to be getting iPads soon... we don't have them yet. So we had to improvise, missionary style. We have really been focusing on sharing, He is the Gift with the people that we meet. So this week we put the video on a DVD and then we carried around our portable DVD player so when we were at peoples doorsteps we could share the video with them. It’s kind of crazy and people are a little irritated because there is no excuse to not watch it but we are been able to share it with a bunch of people. Its been a great finding tool. I truly am so jealous of all the missionaries who have iPads! Missionary work would be so wonderful! And EASY! ha

This is a smart mom trick!

     This week we were able to see Trevor 3 times. He is the greatest. He is 19 years old, a quick little background on him. We were walking around one day in a small town called Esko, as we were walking we saw Trevor, We asked if we could walk with him and we shared the restoration with him. Ever since that day he has been meeting with us at least twice a week and he loves everything we teach him. He has been very sad for most of his life he has had a lot of hard things happen to him. He loves the gospel because it makes him feel good inside. The day we met him he told us that he was asking God for help and guidance and then he met us. I know that the Lord placed us in his path for a reason. He came to the Christmas party last week and loved it and every member we have introduced him to he has really liked. He said he loves how nice everyone is to him and how he can tell that they are sincere. That was another thing that he told us, he said that he can tell that we are doing this because we want to not because we have to and that we are sincere in trying to help him that we don't have a quota that we need to reach. He opened up a lot this week and he even came to church for the first time. We had one of our other investigators, David, pick him up and they came to church together. This week we even set a date with him for January 24th. He is preparing for that date and is excited. We are just a little worried because we don't think that his family is going to be very supportive. Keep him in your prayers. As for right now things are looking good. :)

     David is also doing really well. We also saw him 3 times this week. As of right now we hasn't smoked for almost a week and he is really excited to get baptized as well. He is going to be baptized on January 3rd. He is in his 30’s and is going to college right now to get his PHD in project management or something. The timing of all of this is just working out perfectly because the college he goes to is in the city so he has to travel a lot so he can typically only meet with us about once a week but now because of Christmas break he is able to meet more. He has been to church every week that we have been here and he really likes it also.

Luke

Rosie (she is so cute!)

Haylee and Kayla our young women

     It’s awesome to see all the miracles that are happening here in Carlton. This week we were able to work with quite a few less actives. The branch has given us a list of less active members to go and stop by and we have quite a bit of success with it. The branch president is really happy with all of the people that we have been able to get in contact with.

     We had an awesome service activity this week. We went to a members home and we helped him sort out wood for his creepy wood burning furnace. I have never seen one of these in real life before. I think the only time I have seen one before is on Beauty and the Beast. It was a lot of fun Sister England and I had a great time! I hope we get to do some more "small town" service like this.

     I've run out of time this week... I am super excited for Christmas! Three more days! :) I hope you all remember to make it special! I love this time of year. I wish it was this magical all the time. I love you all!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis

This is what we get when we walk up to doors!

This is what we give when they open the doors!

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!

# 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!

Carlton is a Winter Wonderland!

Family and Friends!

     Merry Christmas! Its that time of year again and I am so excited! So much went on this week so I guess I will just have to start at the beginning. This week was full of goodbyes. That’s one thing I have learned to be really good at. It’s sad to leave so many people that I have grown to love and care about so much. But I know that one day I will be able to see them again. Whether it is on Facebook or at my wedding! Kidding. I'm not planning on having one of those for a while. But just saying. This isn’t the end. Thank goodness! Another reason why I am so grateful for the plan of salvation. The relationships we make here in this life, are meant to last for eternity. That brings me so much joy. I have met so many amazing people here in Minnesota. 

     I am really excited that Sister McCullough is going to be taking over the area with a brand new companion. She is going to do so great. There are lots of good things going on in Apple Valley. We were able to talk to a couple potentials and set up appointments for her. Then my last night we were able to have dinner with Jacki and Tom the investigators. They were so nice. We had some great conversations and they asked us a lot of questions. It was really neat they should be going back to teach them the plan of salvation, well I guess they would have already done it. Man. I wish I could still get updates about all the people. But ya great things area going to happen there. 

I had to say goodbye to sister McCullough! 

This is Sister England!

     Then Wednesday morning was transfer meeting. It started snowing like crazy! We couldn't believe how bad it was. Then all the sudden we got a text from our mission president saying that he was going to be pushing back the meeting so we could be careful and drive safe. I drove and we were able to get there without any problems. There I had to say goodbye to Sister McCullough and I was able to meet my new companion Sister England. She is really nice. I think we are going to really like each other. She is from Rigby Idaho, 21 years old, she has been on her mission for about 6 months now, she was going to BYU before studying dietetics, and the last area that she served in was Dinkytown! We have a ton to talk about so that has been pretty fun. We were also glad to find out that we were going to be getting a Jeep! Just like my mama! Ha ha I am super stoked! I would love to have one after my mission! Maybe I will just have to settle with driving around in my moms. 

Look who has a Jeep now!

     After we jammed our car full of all our luggage we were ready to go. The drive up north was a little over 2 hours. We had a set of Elders follow us the whole way just to make sure that we were safe. But I was totally prepared for the road because of all my driving heading up to Logan. We totally got there safely. Then I was able to see Sister Simpson! I was so excited we have literally both been praying that we could serve with each other ever since we left the MTC! Heavenly Father finally answered our prayers. And it is always in the best timing. :) I can't even explain how much I love her. We grew so close in only 2 week and I am so excited to get to know her even more and to finally be able to teach some "real" investigators together. We have both grown so much!

This is so beautiful!  It's a winter wonderland!

Yea!  Sister Simpson!

     Carlton is so cute! It is beautiful! Our apartment is in the woods! Wow! The only reason I am going to be able to stand the cold all winter is because it is so pretty! It was funny because as we were driving through all the trees Sister England said, "Wow this totally reminds me of Island Park." I was like HEY! My family goes there! It totally does look like Island Park. It kind of reminds me of Huntsville too. Our branch boundaries cover a lot of small towns. I don't think that we will be able to go to all of them because there is quite a bit and some are really far. But we are going to try! :) Our very first night we were able to go have dinner with our branch president. He is really nice, his son-in-law is in the bishopric so we were able meet him also. Their family is really nice. I think I am really going to like it up here. 

     Then the next day was Thanksgiving. Very first thing Sister England and I went to go get some groceries because we didn't have any food. We are so blessed because there is a Walmart only 2 miles away from us so we aren’t totally in the middle of no where. Oh I forgot about our apartment. We have spent a lot of our time cleaning our apartment. There were Elders who lived in it before. It might be clean to Elders standards but we were not satisfied. So when we went to Walmart we got food and some cleaning supplies. We are not quite settled in but almost there.

     We were able to have Thanksgiving with the Martindale family. He is also in the bishopric and they were super nice. It was a little strange because we didn't know anybody but they were all so nice. It was really kind of them to invite us over! All the members that we have been able to meet so far are very nice. 

     We were also able to have some tracting miracles. We picked someone on a potential sheet out of the area book and we went and tracted around their house. We were able to teach 2 restorations and one of them said that they are going to come to church next week. We are super excited to go out and do some more finding. We were also able to go to some less active members and some single women in the branch. Again it is just so amazing to me that the Lord is so aware of his children. Carlton needed sister missionaries especially the sisters of he branch. We are able to help them in ways that the Elders can’t. I love being able to open so many areas because that is the first thing I recognize every time. I am so glad that the Lord is letting me open one last area. :)

     We then went to church Sunday morning. We got there at 9:50 and we were the first people there. We both looked at each other and said, "It started at 10:00 right?" We went in and saw the bishopric and they confirmed that it was the right time. The branch just tends to show up a little later.... Sister England and I both gave talks on gratitude. It was a good way for the branch to get to know us. All 25 of them. But hey, it was a holiday weekend. There will probably be more next week.

     I am so excited for this transfer! Some amazing things are going to be happening here! I am so grateful to be here and that it is going to probably be my last area. What a blessing to be able to serve in a branch. We are going to have to work extra hard and expect miracles! I can't wait! 

I love you all. Have an amazing week! 

And of course... MERRY CHRISTMAS!!

Love, Sister Kendra Curtis