In other news, the happiest thing happened this week and Kelowna hosted the YSA Conference!! That means all the uni - age members from across the province came for the weekend and my island friends came to see meeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!! The Victoria kids showed up in their Birkenstocks as to be expected, (it would have been Blundstones were it winter) except for Brianne, who only had on one Birkenstock due to a tragic toe injury. Go team. I was informed that they've come to the conclusion I'm actually a solid 1/4 hippie. I made it guys.

Also I love YSA Conferences because someone quoted Kendrick Lamar from the pulpit. Bless. 

Other miracles include the fact that Sabra, my recent convert, came out to hand out Book of Mormons with me and killeddddd it, Ellen bore her testimony in front of everyone at the conference, Kat is killing it as well, Emily (who I taught for 5 months on the island) got baptized this weekend, and three Japanese boys we invited to the beach activity on the street showed up with basically all of Japan (10 more of their friends) which was BRILLIANT. Except they speak veryyyy minimal English. But guys, contacting Asians is the most entertaining thing because they'll all whip our their phones and have you speak into this little translating app, which will then speak back to them in Japanese or Chinese, and then they speak into it and it translates to English. It is the most adorable, bizarre thing. I can't do it with a straight face.

UMMMMmmm. 

Yeah.

Life is really good and really hot in Kelowna. Also Snoop Dogg was here this week. The elders were circulating rumours that he's actually Mormon, but none of us were able to get near enough to confirm it. 

Also I love you all dearly and I hope you feel that. I love my Saviour because when things are hard I can put it in His hands, and I love my mission because I'm different than the last time you saw me. There are pieces of me that are now far more like Him, though this will take me the rest of forever. 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Reags

my cute Dad keeps trying to teach my about the power of gratitude, and I feel like I learned that on an entirely new level this week!

But the good news is THIS WASN'T EVEN THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK CAUSE PRESIDENT WONG IS MY NEW BEST FRIEND AND I AM MOVING TO HONG KONG WHEN I GET HOME.

POSSIBLY.

Okay but listen to this, bless the sweet Wongs, they're terrified of driving. Which is natural, coming from Hong Kong. So Sister Thueson and I were their chauffeurs for a few days while they were here in Kelowna. President Wong is exactly what we need. So inspired, so hopeful, and an absolute master at teaching by the Spirit. But on top of that he's hilarious. At one point we were driving along and I volunteered the fact that Sister Thueson does rodeo, so he responds, "Ohhhhhhh. You tie things up??? This why President Burt give you Sister Curtis as companion?" hahahah I was in shambles. Cute little President Wong was throwing down on me all day in his broken English, and intermittently teaching me about how God works. I love him. 

In other news there are currently about 250 wildfires raging in BC, one of them was just 4 k's from me the other night and we were watching 5 water-bombers trying to put it out. Crazinessss. A lot of the missionaries up north have already been evacuated. There were 10 homes lost in the fire by me the other night and hundreds evacuated. Send prayers friends <3 

Okay on to the miracle of all miracles, we found three new friends to teach this week! Prichie, from the Philippines, literally referred herself online. She was taught before in the Philippines and Edmonton, was too stubborn to get baptized, moved to Kelowna and realized she was entirely wrong and wants to get baptized in August sooooo bad. She's darling. Kaori, from Japan, is ALSO darling. I loved reading Kendra's email this week about how happy teaching people who God is makes her, because teaching all my Japanese friends here is exactly that. It's all terribly new and foreign and bewildering to them but so wonderful at the same time. She came to church yesterday and said "I have strange feeling. But it feel good." I said "Yeah Kaori that's the Spirit." For the win. Last but not least was Taeva, from Jamaica, who I met my first day here. Invited him to church and he never showed (quelle surprise / que supresa) and then literally a month later he calls us out of NOWHERE and is like "Hey sorry I never came, can I come this week?" Yeah sure Taeva. So yes he comes to institute which was this rather intense lesson on eternal marriage - which resulted in me holding my breath the whole time cause people were throwing around absolute deep doctrine - but he loooooved it and called us the next day to tell us he's still feeling "light" from the night before.

MISSIONS ARE THE BEST. GOD IS THE BEST. TEACHING TRUTH IS THE BEST. SISTER MISSIONARY SHOE TANLINES ARE THE BEST. AND ALL THESE THINGS OUTWEIGH THE FACT THAT I CURRENTLY LIVE IN A CLOUD OF WILDFIRE SMOKE!

Hey I love love love you all, and I miss you terribly! But I'm so grateful to be serving right now. These past few weeks have been an ongoing lesson in consciously choosing patience and positivity again and again, but I need this and I want this.

Be good and say your prayers <3

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Curtis

PICS!

Real-life kangaroos, a very windy very happy moment with the Wongs, and wildfires approaching.

HEY BY THE WAY President Wong told me I'll officially be home in time for Winter semester. Freaky. Someone please let me know if I have to, like, pull my life together or anything sometime soon in order to attend school then.

And I spent all week perfecting this opening line because IT IS SO HOT (43 degrees... according to our flip phone that's 110 Farenheit) and we are currently surrounded by forest fires and a couple apartment complexes burned down this week too. GOOD TIMES IN THE OKANAGAN EVERYBODY.

But really though this week was great because at long last we met cute President and Sister Wong!!!! Straight from Hong Kong and they're teeny tiny and adorable and still learning English and hilarious and exactly what we need. President Wong had the entire leadership council doubled over laughing (though we were slightly in shock the entire time) and then a minute later could have us nearly in tears with the Spirit. A sister raised her hand and asked what he expected of us as leaders, and he looked at her and said, "Well what would you like to become?"

Gold.

 I learned so much from him in one day. And he's coming to Kelowna this week for zone conference! He is also apparently terrified of driving so Sister Thueson and I will be picking him up and driving him around Kelowna. Please send prayers. My comp has literally made me use cruise control anytime we're on a straight-away so TiWi (the car monitor) doesn't harass me. 

Nothing terribly noteworthy to share this week, other than the fact that I'm a year into my mission. Madness.TIME IS SUPER WEIRD EVERYONE. Honestly, this current transfer has been one of the toughest, but I can tell you with all my heart that I love this work. I love knowing that my whole heart and mind and all the energy I don't have is going into doing what my Father in Heaven needs me to right now. Missions are these grand, exhausting, magical, terribly hard, wonderful things. You do not even understand a piece of it until you're wearing your own nametag, but I know more than ever how real God is. How real my Saviour is, Jesus Christ. Missions are not about religion, they're about acknowledging why we came to this world in the first place, and doing our best to bring our brothers and sisters home when all of this ends. <3

Okay I love you all to death, also the fact that my parents and all my favorite missionaries and the Burts got to meet this weekend does my heart SO much good! Crazy grateful for the people in my life, including all of you.

Sending so much love from the True North!

Hermana Reagan Curtis

Photoss:

1. Saying bye to Sister Pitts (kill me). SEE YOU AT BYU LOVE.

2. VIEWS of the Okanagan

3. Happy happy birthday to Sister Micah Richards!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Still not a clue how I did high school without you. Grateful for every hour we spent together in the periodicals (kinda), every Monet we found in Paris, and every other day we spent together right up through the MTC. You're working wonders in Taiwan love. See you soon enough <3

Yes.

Hermana Curtis.

Canada Day was a good time, we had perogies with the branch and I learned the words to "Oh Canada" <3

Also just for the record literally everyone throws down on me always because living in the True North for the past year or so has not diminished how patriotic I am whatsoever, though I do totally love it here. I've been driving around with baby American flags out my windows all morning. Bless.

OKAY REALLY REALLY GOOD THINGS HAPPENED THIS WEEKEND!!!!!!!

Fridayyyyy Ellen SE BAUTIZO!!!!!!!!!!! Okay watching my cute little Brazilian best friend get in the water was the most spiritual baptismal service I've ever attended. Her mom was actually murdered when she was 12, and really and truly you could feel her so close to us and her daughter. It was incredible and something I will always remember. The best part about watching those you teach get baptized is knowing their back stories, understanding just bits and pieces of everything they're leaving behind with that promise. She already got her temple recommend and is just kinda blowing my mind everytime I talk to her.

Also I think my best friend in all of Kelowna is quite possible the elders' investigator John... I really hope AJ is reading this because he is literally YOU AJ. But just cause he dropped out of university to start his business and is absolutely killing it. He's the polar opposite from everyone else in the branch but so down to turn his life around. Long story short, John took us to Cactus Club, this super yummy restaurant on the water attached to the yacht club, for dinner on Canada Day. Which is not something you generally experience in YSA work hahaha. 

Anyways, there we are in quite honestly probably the most worldly place I'm allowed to go to as a missionary, and he is absolutely firing questions off at us about how in heaven's name we lived the commandments back home, and then in some roundabout way we end up just testifying to him of Christ, and the clarity that comes from trusting Heavenly Father. I watched John change in the space of an hour. We walked back through downtown with him, and he stopped us and said "Sisters I really wanna tell you something." Sweet John starts telling me about the day he found himself homeless as a 16 year old on the beach and asked God to give him an opportunity. And promised that he would take it. The conversation that followed was one of the most important moments of my mission because all of our eyes were opened and I just felt this crazy love for him because I knew so strongly that Heavenly Father was pulling soooo hard for him. He's in a world right now where success is purely money and sex and he's cutting it away bit by bit.  

The next morning he showed up to church 30 minutes early, even though we knew he'd been at the club all night for Canada Day. He pulled us aside and said he had a story to tell us.  Long story short, he had driven home a girl who was far too drunk to take care of herself. When she asked why he wasn't drunk, he told her it was part of his religion. She said, "Wait, you believe in God???" And then entirely broke down in tears about how close she had been to ending her life this past week and John said he just testified soooooo hard about how real Heavenly Father is and His love for us and I ALMOST DROPPED TO THE FLOOR AS HE WAS TELLING ME THIS. I ACTUALLY ALMOST FELL OVER. And then he's like "Yeah so instead of sleeping with her I just testified to her about God and I think we both cried. And then I dropped her off and went home." 

FOR THE WIN JOHN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The grand finale of this story (for this weekend at least) is that John apparently leaned over to the elders during SundaySchool and was like "Hey, can we do August 5th for my baptism?" hahahah YEAH OKAY SURE THAT SHOULD WORK. Elder Norton comes up to me afterwards and is like "John is different today" and I'm like "Yeah I watched that happen in the middle of Cactus Club last night."

Missions. are. so. good.

Oh yeah, the other highlight was that John decided to come contacting with us downtown before dinner. Except he calls it "selling". And told everyone that we talked to he had been a member for two months and I was like "lol no John you're not even a member you just met the missionaries two months ago" but that's okay, we're not even mad.

OKAY I LOVE YOU ALL. 

I ALSO LOVE AMERICA. 

I HAVE SO MANY FEELINGS ABOUT THE UNITED STATES AND THE CONSTITUTION AND RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN GENERAL BUT NOT VERY MANY MINUTES SO SORRY.

xxx Hermana Curtisssss

PS Still love you Octavia, though it would have been quite hard for us to be friends this time of year in 1776.