transfers and trainer

Homies,

this week we met with a man named stephen. We were going through some of the previously taught people a while back. We prayed to the Lord that we would find someone to teach from the phone calls that we would make that evening. Our first phone call was to Stephen! We met with him and he told us how he has recently had to rely on God due to surgeries and what not and has been wanting to increase his faith more. He is also a descendant of Joseph Smith! He showed us a book that he had from his ancestors who helped build the St george temple. A few days later we say the Gowans (less active family) and they pulled out this same exact book and were tellin us about their ancestors! Our less active and investigator are related! weird...they live 10 mins away from each other and never would have even known. We're excited to teach him!

So now for the big news...transfers!! Moves calls were last night. Alright every body make your guesses!! but really, guess. keep guessing....what is going to happen...??? oh my goodness the suspense just keeps building and what if i leave you hanging and never even tell you, that would be so mean of me!! Alright alright here it is: Sister Hymas will be leaving the land of Milton Keynes and entering Kingsland which is way up North. She will be with a sister who was in the MTC with her! as for me, president called and gave me my new assignment. I will be staying in the land of Milton Keynes for my 3rd transfer in a row! Aaand I will be TRAINING!!!! Whaa?!?! I'm going to be a trainer? I will be training a brand new missionary! I feel very blessed that the Lord and President Jordan trust me with this calling. I also feel very inadequate but Im trying to brush that off since I know those thoughts are not from the Lord. I'm happy that the Lord trusts me with one of his children; the future of this mission. Any tips?
Harry is great. He is still scheduled for baptism on October 19th as long as he keeps his commitments. 2 great things from him: i think i already told you this but he said how before meeting with us he used to hate some people but now he just loves them and doesnt hate anyone! Also, yesterday in our lesson he told us how he was on mormon.org and he tried out the chat thingy they have. He was chatting with them and he was really excited when  he was telling us about it cuz he asked the person if he could share about God and the gospel and the church after he was baptised and the chatter person told him he could and he was happy cuz he wants to share it with other people! for lack of a better word, presious!
On another note, this week the missionaries in our district were asked to sing at an 8 yr olds baptism. Well, there are 6 missionaries in our district. One of them got really sick (there is something nasty going around everybody has it) so that companionship couldn't make it. And the other elders got a last minute dinner appointment with a family from the ward so of course they took that and bailed leaving only Sister Hymas and I!! We ended up singing at the mike in the chapel in front of like 50 people for this baptism. Yikes. we had like a day heads up to practice. It went really well though! we sang "i hope they call me on a mission". It was fun!

On a second another note, our ward had an activity this week! you have to understand, this is huge on the account of we never have activites. twice a year maybe. The missionaries were the ones who instituted this activity and the RS president put it together (she is so great. Sister White for president!). It was a cultural food night where every one brought food from their cultures and and was way fun! Only problem was, sister H and I had like 2 months to figure out a dish and of course we waited til the day of. We stressed about it we had nothing! Plus, it doesnt help that we are poor as dirt (how can dirt be poor? that doesnt even make sense) and couldnt afford anything! we ended up buying brownies cuz apparently they are american (who new?). It was a stinkin from the box foods where all you have to do is add like water, egg, and oil and guess what?? we FAILED. we did not have a proper pan so we put half the batter in a bread pan and the outside cooked but inside was gooey. then we decided to put the rest of the batter on a cookie sheet and they got burnt and would not even come off of the pan and they were so hard! I attached a piture so that you could see. Well, in the end it actually turned out great cuz, being the geniouses we are, decided to take the batch from the bread pan and scoop it all out then roll it in to balls then stick it back in the oven then melt a chocolate bar and put that on top. That is pure magic right there. They ended up great and all got eaten! i've attached a picture of that as well.

On a third another note, a girl from our ward, Briony Web was so stinkin nice to us! She knew sister H was sick at the beginning of the week and dropped off a present for us! i know people say this and might not mean it, but it was probably on top 5 list of nicest things any one has done for me. I attached a picture.

im so excited for general conference! yippy! we are so blessed to have a prophet that leads and guides the church today. Im very greatful that I did not live in a time of apostasy.

Dad- a man in my ward keeps asking me and i feel really bad that i dont have an answer for him. Are we related to a David Curtis? He is from the first wife of Brigham Young. The man in my ward was baptised by him 50 yrs ago. David just left on a mission with his wife. This is about all the info i have but maybe you can do some research with that? Also, i would LOVE more research from our ancestors from England! that would be really great!
Mom-sounds like you had a busy but fun week!
josh-paha your letter made me laugh a lot it was so funny to me. Our district does moves predictions with each transfer! last transfer i got every missionary right!
kirsten-how is interior designing and the blog?
zane- thanks for the update on the jazz. Hope school is going well.
Jake- good good.
Gil-have you decided what you want to do with your life yet? I think i know if you dont already. Youre going to be a personal trainer, i can totally see it. p.s. your quotes from sjs quote book are hilarious.
sarah-i got your letter this week! i will write you back today. are you still putting my emails up on the blog? Also, could  you tell brian lingham that our sport night had 22 people at it last week! he will understand. he is the founder of sport night and its only ever had like 7 people there. its growing!
Pokie-i got your letter this week also! and will write you back hopefully soon. Keep being awesome.
jett-can you draw me another picture sometime soon please? thanks.
jane- im sorry your brother is mean to you sometimes. He is just in that phase so dont take it personally.
bandit-there are a LOT of dogs here in England. Dont worry, none of them are as cute as you.
romie- oh wait...awkward.

pictures:

 me planking outside our flat in the morning right before running. it was really foggy that day and i wanted a picture

 the present

 brownies... the end result!

 brownies...i think

  me being betty crocker with our brownies

subway

well hello there,

Hi family. How are you? How is school? How are the elections? How is P-town? How is Bandit? How are the Utah Jazz?

well guess what?! transfers are next week. crazy right? it seems like it was just transfers for the last one. So, because sister Hymas and I have been together for 2 transfers now, it is unlikely that we will be again so i will probably get a new companion. WEIRD. I really like sister h so its really super sad but at the same time change will be fun! Any guesses of what will happen to me? My guess is that Im staying and sister h will be leaving. Who knows though? not me thats for sure!

So let me tell you about one of our investigators! His name is Harry. We met him 2 P-days (so 2 weeks ago) ago at Subway. (sorry if i have arleady told you about him i really dont remember but as i am typing this i actually do remember that i have never told you about him but i am too lazy to delete this so i will just keep it anyway). I was really bumped that we had to spend money to eat out cuz i dont like to do that but we had no time to go back to the flat so we went to subway. Harry works at subway and he was making me my salad and sister hymas' sandwich! we were talking with him and invited him to church and to learn more. Because there was a line, we didnt have much time but we gave him our card with our number on it and told him to message us. We got a text ten minutes later! We taught him the next day and long story short he is set for babtism on October 19th if all goes well! he is making and keeping commitments so with a lot of prayers he will keep progressing. only sad part is that transfers are soon but thats ok. it will be sad to miss his baptism if i get transferred but i guess thats just all a part of mission life!
Sister Hymas woke up saturday morning feeling really sick and it has gotten worse. its not anything too bad its just a bad sore throat, headache, cough, stuffy nose, etc. We worked all day saturday and went to church sunday but she was just too sick so we spent all day sunday after church in the flat. Well, let me tell ya, that was weird.  Dont misunderstand me when i say this, but it was REALLY great to just get to stay in the flat all day. When does that ever happen?! Not often thats for sure. She spent the whole day sleeping and trying to get better. As for myself, I had a grand ole time! I went through the old area book from 5 yrs ago when the last sisters where here and tried to find some people to teach, i ate, i watched a movie about how families can be together forever. I tried to take a nap but my mind WOULD NOT let me. haha how sad is that? I seriously couldnt sleep because all i wanted to do was study! so i got up and studied for the rest of the time. I did some of what i like to call "selfish studying". This is where I got to study whatever i wanted that did not pertain to being a missionary! So of course i studied the doctrine and covenants because thats my favorite. Then this morning i made her breakfast in bed! it was so fun i got to be her mommy. and i made her dinner last night as well.
HAHAHA speaking of sister hymas, she told me this morning that i slept talked last night! And guess what? I was teaching a lesson to Harry in my sleep! I was teaching him about the 10 commandments and asking him quetions n such. Funny huh?
also, david is doing great! he has come to church 4 times in a row now and we dont even have to encourage him or call him or anything. he is making this journey back in to the church and im so grateful we were able to help initially get him back in. Also, he is praying and reading with his kids so hopefully his partner will give the ok soon for missionaries to come teach their family! (p.s. partner in england does not mean what it means in america. it just means spouse)
dad- I had a dream about your elections. Cant remember much but we were just doing a lot of campaining! How are they going?
mom- hi.how is tennis? how are things?
kirsten and josh- how is/was denmark?
zane- HAPPY BIRTHDAY on Sunday! wow, 33 years old. I swear those years just flew by! It seams like just yesterday you were only 26.
mary-how is florida and being the wife of someone who im sure is studying alll the time?
jacob-your pictures are cool. im assuming since i didnt get an email from you this week that you were in a serious car accident and that you have been stuck in a coma, in the hospital and you asked for a computer to email me but they wouldnt let you on the account of your in a coma and that actually would not even be possible for you to ask them cuz youre not talking. get better soon, no more car crashes.
gil-thanks for your email. i guess this is where the phrase "its the thought that counts" would come in. haha no i liked your email it was great. you make me laugh so keep it up.
sarah- how is school? i bet its really hard. good thing your smart or that would be a bummer huh?!
pokety- stay out of trouble. remember who you are. choose the right. keep your standards. do your homework. dont hang out with boys. keep your room clean. and write me letters:) love you.
bandit-you have my permission to rade the cupboards for any food that you want to eat.
jett- you've been in my dreams a couple times. thanks for the drawing.
jane-sorry but you have not been in my dreams, at all. i guess that means i dont love you as much. sorry its not my fault its just that you never talked or played on the tramp with me or told me you loved me or gave me hugs when i was around so its kinda inevitable since jett did all of those things.

elbow patches

Family,
 first things first, right now I am wearing my favorite sweater that I just barely bought and you wanna know why its my favorite? Cuz it has elbow patches! I love elbow patches. I bought 2 with elbow patches! So yes, I got a few winter items. I got some boots and sweaters. As you can see from my picture, my boots are a little worn...
crazy that Alison got her call to nashville tennessee on the account of i have so many friends that live/are from/are on missions there!
Jake says that Jane is not just a blob of boring any more so Im excited about that! dont let her grow up too much though!

I really love the scriptures.

Mom and Dad, thank you for the $$. I will use it wisely. The exchange right is thumbs down over here. for every $1.65 it is £1 over here.
Dad-whoa! just read your story right after I typed Kirstens portion and guess what?! your experience is even more like that talk about the man who did not drink the wine at the televised function and he was promoted for it! Wow. You should look that up cuz your experience is very similar to it.
Mom- you should do whatever makes you happy with your hair! if you want to get a wig then get a wig! i would suggest you dont though because you are beautiful the way that you are! You are so pretty. Where do you think that Kirsten, Sarah, and Nicole got there looks from? (no offense to you dad. Zane and Jake got there looks from you so no worries)
Zane-so one time you mentioned something in one of your emails that made me super happy and I jumped a little cuz I was pumped. This thing shall remain unsaid but hopefully you get what I'm sayin. If not, we can talk later.
Mary-thank you for the workouts. Ive tried most of them and am excited to try the rest!
Sarah- I am so happy that you won your race and you had to do the most running. You make me a proud sister.
Gil-I never thought about that before that the word for a female hero is also the name for a highly addictive drug. Though it may sound crued, I support you calling me Heroine 100%. Sister Heroine would be a bit more appropriate though I suppose.
Jacob- you put up a youtube video with over 600,000 views and a radio shoutout!? wha???haha i read your letter and I was laughing cuz it was so funny! But also SOO goood. (here all the missionaries say "soo goood" all the time and i dont know why but i dont like it. sometimes i catch myself saying it but i chastise myself err time that i do. I think they say it cuz no one here in england says "cool" or "awesome").
Also, I totally support your biking phase. I want to get in to biking when I get back for sure.
Kirsten- yay! Heavenly Father does answer prayers! Thank you for sharing that special story with me. I am so happy that you never lower your standards for anyone. It makes me think of the talk of the man who did not drink from the wine and he ended up getting a higher position at work for it.
Also, i know so sad that BYU does not have interior design that would be bomb. We will see what happens. I loved all of your suggestions!
Josh- so great about the investigator! serving in Utah would be so amazing to have members that are so readily wanting to help out.
Nicole- hopefully you have got my letter by now!
Bandit- stay alive!
Jett and Jane- stop growing!

In case any one is confused on Jacobs, Kirstens, Joshes, or Dads, i have included clips of their stories to share so that it will make more sense:
Dads: The Chinese have a custom of toasting. Not just once at a dinner but all throughout the dinner. It starts with one toast by the host and then everyone at the table walks around and offers toasts to the others at the table. The last two nights I was at two of the largest round tables I have ever seen. The first night there were about 50 people sitting around one very large table. For several hours the guest walked around while they eat and toasted each other. It was impossible for me to avoid because even if I stayed in my seat they came to me. It was a table full of dignitaries. Mayors from around the world in including Africa, Australia and Thailand. As I sat down for dinner both times I found a wine glass full of wine at my seat with a picture of wine next to it. I quickly found the waitress and told her to please replace my wine with soda. For some reason both nights this very confusing for them. They ended up taking my wine glass totally away and I was left with only a glass of water in a very different shape than the wine glass. Four hours the toasting went on. I found myself posing for pictures with my silly glass holding it up to their wine glass. Finally I found the host and explained that I did not wish to insult them but rather I was not drinking wine for religious purposes. This was not easy for them to understand because they have so little religion in china. As I was explaining an interpreter joined us who had lived outside china for 10 years.  She was very helpful in explaining the religious significance of my situation.  
The host smiled and with a little joke in his voice said, “I need to join your church so I don’t have to drink anymore.” It was clear that while he didn’t really understand what it meant to join our church that he didn’t enjoy the drinking and thought it was pretty cool that I didn’t drink. As we were leaving for the night he once again smiled and said, “I found another reason to join your church. If I join I don’t have to smoke anymore.” I learned that my two other partners from Utah who sat at different parts of the table had similar experiences explaining why they were not drinking. It’s a very small thing but in a county where missionaries are not allowed and tourist are forbidden from talking about religion I was able to leave a very positive impression on some of the countries decision makers. This is significant to me because about a year ago I had am impression that I needed to regain my Chinese so I could serve the Church when and if they needed me. I had supposed it was for after retirement but it was fun to see the prompting so soon bear fruit.

Jacobs: Throughout the day, it slowly started accumulating views. I went to a class in the afternoon and it was at 1,000 views, and I was like, "oh man, that's awesome. I can't believe I put a video up that has a thousand views!" I thought that would be the end of it, but after class, it was at 10,000. From there, it just kept growing. By the time I went to bed it was at 90,000. The next morning, I googled my title and saw that a bunch of websites were talking about it. A bunch of people were talking about how we should treat customer service reps better, but a bunch of people were also talking about how customer service are terrible and were sympathizing with the customer. They were also trying to figure out which company it was. Everyone was guessing Comcast. I didn't tell anyone it was Vivint because I don't want to get in trouble with them. Anyways, By the end of Thursday night, it was like at 200,000 views. Yesterday morning, Kirsten called me because she was listening to the radio and a station was playing my call. So, right now, it's at 650,000 views.  I think things have kind of plateaued, which is fine. It's been a fun experience.

Kirstens:We spend the night last night with some of our best friends up in Park City and it was amazing. I have a semi-cool experience I"ll share with you. Our friends are amazing and wonderful people and all very strong in the church but not all of them share the exact same standards that we have. For example the plan for the evening was to go out to dinner and then hot tubbing. Keep in mind this was all on a Sunday. I never want to lower my standards for anyone but these are my closest friends in the world and I also didnt' want to offend them. We decided to eat dinner with Josh's mom so we were able to avoid going out to dinner with them. In turn they all figured out they'd rather eat with their families as well so no one ended up going out to dinner. However, there was still the hot tub situation. I was particularly worried about this one. I prayed in the car ride up to the hotel that it would all work out. When we got to the hotel our friend told me that she had forgotten her swim suit and she was so disappointed she wouldn't be able to go in the hot tub! Because she couldn't go everyone else decided that we would just stay at the hotel and play games instead. Although this was a small thing it is a very distinct reminder to me that Heavenly Father loves me and is aware of my needs and also answers my prayers. 

Josh: Something cool happened at church yesterday. We had a real live investigator come!  He lives in our ward and a member of our ward just invited him to come to church and take the discussions and he agreed!  I spoke in sacrament and for some reason he really liked what I said. I introduced myself to him after the meeting and he had me email him a copy of my talk. He also took notes in all of our classes!  Whaaaa!?  The missionaries teach him in the mornings and I want him taught in our home while I am home and not flying. It is a great and rare opportunity that doesn't come around a lot in Utah. So wish us luck. His name is Leslie. I know kind of a girl name but whatever.

Pictures:
1) me heal clicking in England
2)sister Hymas and I
3) my favorite boots that i wear every day that might need a break...what do you think?

 

Love always,

Sister Curtis

family

Family,

WOW. a lot happened this week. I dont even know where to start. In fact, I dont think that I will start. I feel like I can't explain all of this to you in one short email so I think I will have to gather my thoughts about it in a journal entry then email that to you maybe next week. What I will say for now is this: I had an incredible spiritual experience this week. I felt the Holy Ghost in a way that I have never before, or atleast in a way that i have never recognized so clearly before. Long story short (for now) David will not be getting baptised. BUT its alright:) i look forward to sharing with you my experience sometime down the road.

Alright so here is just a whole bunch of random thoughts that i am about to pour out of this brain! ready go!:

The other week sister H and i taught relief society and it was great! we talked about member missionary work and it went so well! we hardly had time to prepare for it but the spirit definitely helped us out. There were people crying cuz they were really touched and hopefully this can help the ward!
I am really nervous I will not have warm enough clothes for this place...
Any time that I get sad or discouraged out here i just think to myself "atleast im not in school and having to take a test!" haha. It helps!
Oh! so here is a noteworthy thing! I had a cool experience this week. There was one night where I woke up in the middle of the night and out of nowhere the thought came to my head "I need to be an interior designer!" Whaaa??? Really random. I dont know why that happened cuz Im not sure if i was even dreaming about it. Then right after I thought "i need to tell my family and especially kirsten!" So...this is me telling you. Also, super crazy cuz just that day we had visited a couple in the ward and he was asking us about what we would be doing with our lives and how it is not a bad idea to start thinking about it. I remember I used to want to be an interior designer. I dont know what happened to that i think it kinda just faded. I think that I would like it a lot! Not sure if this was inspired or not but I think somewhere down the road I will find out! Thoughts??

I am runnin broke hur so I am trying to be really thrifty these days. Money would help. The main thing I need is just a winter wardrobe. But maybe not. It would be good for me to face the cold with just a wee sweater and broken healed boots because I think that it would help me to build an immunity to it! So maybe you should just not send anything and force me to adapt! But ya, money would be good. Oh! ALso maybe some wool sweaters and tights and gloves. I thought this might be a good idea: you could buy some online and then just have them shipped to my address! WOOL would be great. But as I am typing this i am realizing how needy and selfish i am sounding so maybe you should just disregard this whole paragraph. But nonetheless, my idea can still be accounted for a great idea so lets not discredit that. Sister Hymas said she found some great wool at "woolovers.com" website.
so here is for anyone who loves me: hey! so here is a crazy idea. what do you think the chances of you getting a thumb drive and putting music on it and sendin it my way are? you are probably really busy with school or work or soccer or being mayor or your kids or in china or denmark or florida so thats alright if you cant. it would be great but is not needed. what would be REALLY great would be DAVID ARCHULETA and KALAI church songs. We are allowed to listen to anything that does not drive the spirit away. i listen to my music now on just a thumbdrive so that is the best way.

WOw i sound so needy in this email! Surry. I promise im not this needy to my companion. Only when i make her give me a backrub or tell me a bedtime story or kill a spider (ok wait i kill ALL this spiders around this place. i have killed about 7 now).

 

is jacob still crossfitting?! i hope so. i miss it. i wear my crossfit shirt every night to bed. my arms have lost all muscle that they have ever had. i took a picture but am too embarrassed to send it. maybe i will have the courage next week...i still exercise though!

 i think that we have the best family in the world. Jake, this week for some reason i kept thinking about you during halloween when you handed out the candy and for some reason that was the funniest thing to me. you were in your spongebob costume and would just throw all the candy at all the children and give them each like 5 candy bars! i dont know why but that was really funny to me. if you do that again this halloween, i am really sad actually that i will miss out on it so maybe you can film it for me? ok anyway, yes we have the best family. i love you all SOOO much. anybody who ever gets to marry in to this family should have to pay like 50 cows cuz we really are the best.

 

last thing. i want to answer any questions that any of you have that i have forgotten about or have not had the chance to answer so this week just send me lists of questions that you might have if you have any! then i can answer them all in one go!

Love,

Sister Curtis

p.s. sorry i ramble on and on and all i do is ramble but its the best way to express my thoughts so sorry bout it!

sarah said that you cant see my pictures? thats cool. Let me know if that is the case cuz i will stop sendin them.

pictures:

1) jacob at the airport sneaking a picture before i left for england

2) swan that hissed at me!

3)england fog

4) a really attractive picture of me in the MTC a while back