In other news, I met the cutest ever old Hindi woman the other day who actually had good English, and as we finished our conversation she got real close to me and said "You give me good energy." and I was the happiest Hermana because really that's all we're trying to do!!!!!!!!!!!!! And also help people get closer to God and find salvation and such. It's a process.

Lots of little things happened this week, including finding Abriana, golden investigator, and Gema POR FIN setting a baptismal date for March! But to be perfectly honest all I want to do is tell you about Maira.

SHE IS THE GREATEST IN ALL OF EVER.

Mairi is from Colombia, she's 20, and we are absolute homies now. She somehow met, like, all of the elders in the zone at the mall one day I think, and they invited her to our Noche Internacional back in November. I met her there, we hit it off, but I hadn't seen her since because the elders were teaching her. Yesterday she walked into church, and I died a little bit. We sat together and somehow got on the topic of temples, and lo and behold she says to me, "Oh yeah, I actually went to the Saint George temple a couple weeks ago". And I died, again. 

So for those of you who are wondering how a non-member, Colombian-Canadian ended up at the Saint George temple in Utah, let me explain.

Long story short she met a cute Mormon boy at a tournament in Vegas a couple months ago, they've been in touch ever since and she went down to Saint George to visit him  where he lives! Sorry if this doesn't make any grammatical sense, time crunch as always. ANYWAYS they were up on some mountain top (probably Dixie Rock lol), and she saw the temple, recognized it, and was like, "Hey, I want you to take me to the temple." This poor boy was probably so bewildered. But, they went, and she met a darling little old man outside the temple who talked to her about God and all kinds of lovely, important, wonderful things and she had feelings that she had never come across before and she got on the plane to come home knowing that she needed to give some more time and effort and energy to God and that she needed to learn more from us. So then she came to sacrament meeting. 

MIRACLES.

So yeah, I love Maira, and she's for sure coming to Utah when I get home (weird that that's in less than a year) and all I know right now is Hermana Archibald and I are going to teach her this week and pray super hard and go from there. I don't think I've ever loved my mission more than sitting next to her in sacrament, listening to that story, feeling all kinds of things about how good God is at putting us in the right place at the right time and how much goodness comes from this Gospel.

I'm off, but I love you all with absolutely everything I've got and the Church is true.

xxx Reags

AND ALSO I WANT TO TELL ALL OF YOU SOMETHING SUPER COOL and my junior high self would have died but we went to White Rock this week and Psych was filmed there, and I got to see Shawn and Gus's office :))) and run around on the pier :))) And we had God Bless the USA absolutely blasting the whole drive down and went thrift shopping (didn't compare to pay-by-weight thrift shops in Paris though) and simply loved our lives.

 

 

Mostly because, like I said my area is beyond massive, and we took a trip out to Chiliwack and Abbotsford to go Latino scouting out there. Surrey is really urban, but out there it's all farms and mountains and I literally felt like I was in the Alps PRETTIEST DRIVE EVER. We had lunch with a darling member couple out there who drive over an hour for church every week without fail, and the four of us realized that we would be the beginning of a Spanish branch out there. Just sitting at a tiny kitchen table. Planning for salvation and such. It was such a moment, really and truly. I say this roughly 4 time per email I know, but I am so grateful to be a part of this work.

Also I promised Hermana Archibald that if she catches a squirrel I'll buy her Timbits (donut holes in Canadian) so that's been thrilling as we're out knocking doors and such.

Other highlights of the week included THE BEST STAKE CONFERENCE IN ALL OF EVER. As a special treat they let the missionaries  go to the Saturday night session instead of working and it was a dream. Elder Peter F. Meurs of the 70 was the special guest, plus Pres. and Sis. Burt, so nearly all my favorite humans. And Elder Meurs talked about the need for religious freedom and I was very nearly exploding I was so thrilled about it!! YES! POLITICAL SCIENCE ON THE MISSION! TENDER MERCIES!!

Vanessa and Pablo Acuna spoke too (sorry sorry no idea how to do accents on this keyboard cause Canada), and Ray and Diane would have been SO very proud. The coolest moment was sweet Pablo talking about meeting Vanessa on his mission, and how everything that President Heyman (aka Uncle Ray) had taught him changed every piece of their lives. And then mentioning that I was in the audience as a missionary, and how tiny the world is, and how good God is at pulling all of us into each other and I just am so grateful for my family.

Alsooooo we had interviews with President Burt which was a dream as per usual. I feel like when I'm sitting there with him one-on-one I am the realest me I have ever been. Not Hermana Curtis, not home-Reagan. Just me and everything that I can be and that sounds terribly cliche but email is limiting sometimes when I'm trying to tell you about the things I learn and feel and love out here in The Great North.

Favorite miracle of the week would have to be Ingrid, this cute Colombian woman that we knocked into last week. We were beyond shocked to have actually found a latina. But she was probably even more shocked to find two white girls speaking fluent (kinda) Spanish on her doorstep. Super cool stuff. So we left her a pamphlet about temples and families because she had zero time for us, and went back yesterday, and she invited us in and told us she had read the pamphlet with her 18 yr old daughter who looooved it and wanted us to come teach her next week when she wasn't working. YES. 

 

Oh, and I feel the need to tell all of you to go check out mormonandgay.lds.org as well as religiousfreedom.lds.org because these are important things and real things and you have to go to the right source to get answers, which I personally feel is common sense but the vast majority of the world seems to have missed that. 

Love you all millions, keep being good!

And thank you THANK YOU for the letters and notes and prayers. Means more every week.

xxx, Hna Reags Curtis

Las Photos:

 

 

Running about in the mist-rain which is SUCH a thing here.

 

 

 

 

Failed to get a decent picture of the mountains and vineyards we were  driving through but here is the tiniest sneakpeak.

 

 

 

 

- Teaching with Vanessa! Still blows my mind.

If I had more time to take the scenic road instead of talk to people on the street I would have a million gorgeous photos for all of you of Surrey / BC. This week the sky was lavender, like, everyday. I love it. And all the nice little East Indians are out trying to chip the ice off their driveways with hoes and rakes and such, bless their hearts. We have also witnessed some sweet Chinese friends (@Micah) pouring water on the snow to make it go away, in the negative weather. Very good. Very many service opportunities.

Before I explain the subject line, I need the whole world to know that Reese Ivy Curtis turns 16 today and I love her. And I miss her a whole lot, and I am thoroughly alarmed that she is now driving and dating (I sound like such a mom I know, TRAINING) but thrilled for her as well <3 Love you Reeser. 

In other news, President Burt heads home in July I believe, and for some reason they already announced our new Mission President! Chi Hong Wong from Hong Kong. This is real life. He is a 70 and currently serving in the Asia Area Presidency (hi again Mikes, and also AJ and Brigham and about a million other missionaries) and his picture came up on the screen in zone mtg and I was like "Oh, I actually already love this man and I actually know nothing about him. What." and then I realized that this means President Burt is actually going to leave us one day and then there were tears. Oh, how grateful I am for my mission president. I promise you, all presidents are not created equal. <3

ALSO

Most of the people we teach actually moved backwards this week, so that was more than a little bit frustrating, but Hna A and I are learning all kinds of terribly important things and meeting all kinds of terribly interesting people including Hal, from Bosnia, who is a Communist and therefore does not want to learn about God BUT is now our homie and now he's going to learn whether he likes it or not :))))) I also met a family from Kenya and a woman from Poland within about 10 seconds of each other, so that was cool, AND Hermana A and I have taken it upon ourselves to become regulars at one of the little legitimate Mexican restaurants in our area. We are officially the only gringas that they greet in Spanish when we walk in, and we actually have yet to buy any food there. But they said we can teach there whenever we want so we're thrilled! This weekend consisted of Hermana A's first miracle-find (we walked down a street until we felt like stopping and knocked on a Colombian's door, THIS DOES NOT HAPPEN IN CANADA) and we also helped a nice Indian named Paul move a ton of tile, only to find out that the sister missionaries up north visit his wife, and after about 14 loads of tile she accepted a Book of Mormon from us!

Love you all millions, be good and thank you thank you for all the prayers and thoughts and emails and such. Really and truly more grateful everyday.

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Reagan Curtis

PICS

1. backyard of the stake center, prettiestttttt

 

 

 

2. for those of you who have ever wondered what we look like knocking doors

 

 

 

 

3. HAPPY SWEET SIXTEEN REESE <3

 

 

4. mission essentials, when you don't own forks but at least you have taco bell sauce. (disclaimer: this is sis seiter/paxton's drawer not ours. but still. please appreciate.)

 

 

Nothing terribly new this week, other than the fact that Hna Archibald and I got a little sick of knocking doors so we decided to go Latino-Hunting in a little Mexican restaurant we found. And LO AND BEHOLD we came across a miracle named Jaime. 

Mostly what happened is, since store-contacting is frowned upon here, I took a solid 30 minutes to pick out which jar of salsa I wanted to purchase while we made friends with everyone in there. Jaime, our new friend from El Salvador, totally received the charlas from the missionaries there and is totally down to come to church next week!! We love him and we love our salsa. Win-win.

In other news, our sweet little Indian neighbor Harjit scraped our car for us which felt like the biggest act of service in all of ever, we found a family of 3 to teach from Honduras and we showed them the DVD of the Restoration and the teenaged girl WAS IN TEARS which in turn nearly brought me to tears, Hna Archibald is killing it in week 2 of the mission, I hit six months, and I straightened my hair. And Reason 341 that I love Latinos is how very opinionated they are, and how every single woman in the ward came up to me yesterday with an opinion about my straight hair and some of them were nice and some of them were thoroughly disappointed in me but I appreciate that they felt the need to share:))

I love my people here, I love the roomies (Sis Paxton and Sis Seiter still putting up with me), and I love my trainee and MISSIONS ARE SO IMPORTANT IF YOU ARE DEBATING IT JUST GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! JUST GO DO SOME GOOD AND LET HEAVENLY FATHER CHANGE YOU BECAUSE IT CAN BE SUPER SCARY BUT WORTH IT A MILLION TIMES OVER!!!!!

xxx

Hna Reags Curtis

PICS

Really though I have nothing to share so here's a pic of Hna A and I in the "mist rain" which is such a thing here and also Sister Seiter and I being friends <3 

Seriously love each of you more than you know. Be good, be real. Talk to you soon.

 

 

NYE here consisted of weekly planning to keep us off the wild streets of Surrey, and dinner cooked by our cute Filipino landlord :) This week was MADNESS. I've had a grand total of 8 companions in the last transfer, since Hna K left I've been bouncing around but the greatest night was knocking doors with one of the Chinese sisters, Sister Money. Please everyone now picture two very white, very American girls knocking Indians' doors with Spanish and Chinese nametags on. All kinds of language barriers to overcome. 

 

The next morning I got to pick up mi hijitaaaaa Hermana Tia Archibald! Ah guys I adore her. She lives on a dairy farm in Benson, Utah, so she can deal with the cold, and she's so cute. Wants to be obedient, wants to learn Spanish, responds well to sarcasm. Very pleased :) Training is more than a little scary, it's a lot of silently second guessing yourself and praying loads, plus at the same time trying to keep someone else emotionally stable and come off entirely confident, but I LOVE IT. We are about to work some miracles in Surrey Span. I'll keep you posted friends. 

 

Other than bouncing around areas and companions and such this week was nothing too out of the ordinary. Besides the fact that we got straight powder and I want to hit Whistler with everything in me (someday) and literally no one here knows how to drive in the snow (we're super close to the ocean, like 30 minutes, so it never snows here!) so that's slightly alarming but ALL IS WELL. I love you all millions, sometimes I just get a little, like "Ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Thanks Heavenly Father!!" because there are so very many people that I love in my life. Near and far. 

 

 

Do something different with 2017. Be good. Think nice things. Read the Book of Mormon. God, very literally, put it in our hands for a reason. Figure it out. Yes, it's been a few thousand years, but they wrote it for you. 

 

 

I finished reading the Book of Mormon again this week, and I was on my knees asking if it was true, again. There was no miraculous sensation, no tears, nothing terribly remarkable. But, my dear friends, I felt steady. I felt love. I felt good in every part of me, and all good things come from God. A missionary told me once that if ever you feel discouraged when you're out working, open to any verse of the Book of Mormon. It will remind you who you are. This is real life my friends, and we have a lot of work to do. <3

 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Reagan Curtis

 

PICS - in no particular order

1. Told you I live in India.

2. "Hood Life" titled by Hermana Archibald

3. Sister Money and I about to become teen moms (actually 20 year olds picking up our trainees)

FELIZ ANOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO <3