Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Curtis

Lots has changed since last week, I'm now in a trio (for the fourth time on my mission). Still with Sister Gallagher in Kelowna YSA, but now covering a family ward too with Sister Davis! She's from Jamaica, which means I am the sole americana in the companionship. So I now only have one little flag in our car instead of two. Compromise. We also had to stop and take pictures with some school buses this week because, lo and behold, neither Scotland nor Jamaica has yellow school buses "like the movies" and that was just a thrilling experience for them. I was dying hahah. We were also out in Narniaaa in Vernon in the middle of nowhere that day so we stopped at Denny's for dinner and we had to take photos of that, too. Bless my sweet comps' hearts. Really though I love them and I love their accents and I love running at a million miles an hour to cover both areas! We found EIGHT new friends to teach this week which was very nearly mind-blowing. Heavenly Father has got our backs, and apparently really wants His other children to hear what we have to say <3

Also, speaking of accents, every morning when we read from the white handbook during companionship study I of course take the opportunity to practice my British accent with Sister Gallagher there to correct me. At the beginning of the transfer it was alarmingly Australian, but this week Sister G looked at me and said "YOU SOUND LIKE THE QUEEN!!!!!!!!!!!" 

Started from the bottom now we here, my friends. God save the Queen.

ALSO HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO HERMANA WOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDD my favourite roommate of all time. Thanks for filming me sleep talking and such all of freshman year. Que tenga muy buena semana <3 

Okay now this is the most important thing I have to say to all you people whom I love:

Heavenly Father made you, and He wants you to be happy. Every piece of every experience you're walking through are in order for you to be happy. Now and always. Obedience and happiness are not mutually exclusive, a God who loves us would never ask us to make that choice.  We got to church, we get on our knees, we read the scriptures, because we want to be near to Him. We want to know Him, because we are His daughters and sons. I love my Heavenly Father, I love my Saviour. Happiness is not conditional on circumstances, or even on understanding. 

Que tengan feliz dia!

xxx Hermana Curtis

PICS:

1. Shoutout to Soeur Laken Quigley <3

2. ELLEN has my heart. Her mother was murdered when she was twelve, and Ellen has wanted nothing more than to take her mom's name to the temple (like 5 hours away) so that her mom can receive the same blessings she has by being baptized. Finally got all the paperwork and such figured out, never seen her happier!

3. Found the Ogopogo.

I have much to say and hardly any minutes, but this week was eventfullllll. We had Zone Conference where President Wong blew our minds, as per usual. We also set a baptismal date with our friend Celia who, like, dances around the room when she feels the Spirit. She calls it "The Whack". It's intriguing to say the least. 

I just have to tell you all how much I loooooooooove my branch. For a variety of reasons. But also because they've taken it upon themselves to give us dinner appointments just like a family ward, but those often consist of alarming amounts of IndoMei (900x better than Top Ramen) because YSA. Thanks guys. <3

AND I SO WISH I HAD TIME TO SHARE MIRACLES WITH YOU. JUST KNOW THAT THEY HAPPENED.

One of those being the fact that I had some superrrrr random health stuff go on this week and had to get 4 tubes of blood taken and Sister Gallagher survived the experience. Bless her heart, the needle affected her far more than it did me hahahha. 

Love you all, the Church is SO TRUE, and I honestly think all of you are evidence of the fact that Heavenly Father wants me to be happy.

Con todo mi amor,
Hermana Curtis​

GUYS I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY. First of all I spent a grand total of 14 hours on a Greyhound, busing to Vancouver this weekend for MLC. Madness. Also I think I saw the prettiest sights I've ever come across. To the point that, as we were trying to plan a meeting with the elders, I would drop off mid-sentence, entirely distracted by the views. I also found a silver hair this weekend, and then went into denial about it until Ellen (RC) pointed it out againnnn. Thank you Ellen. 

This is my proof that I'm working hard up here.

MLC was remarkable as per usual, President Wong blows. my. mind. in every interaction. He shared all kinds of stories about everytime someone has told him something is impossible and he's proved them wrong, and then promptly raised our goals to SIX TIMES the current amount of people we're finding and working with. At first I was a little bit like "LOOK PRESIDENT THIS ISN'T HONG KONG PEOPLE DON'T LIKE TALKING TO US HERE!!!!!!! THIS NEEDS TO BE A GRADUAL THING!!!" But then I remembered that I'm doing the Saviour's work and preparing for Him to come again and I realized that we don't have time to work our way up. There are souls that need us now. More souls than we've been coming across. The entire meeting was an answer to my prayers, and each of us walked away certain that we could cut away the limits we've been living with.

Another high point of my weekend in Vancouver was the fact that Sister Lauren Hunt and I got to spend twoooo nights together!!!!!!!!!! Our poor companions, hahaha. But when you've known each other since Grade 7, and then serve together, even a few weeks apart require a LOT of catching up. These things are necessary. Ah, I adore her. I also got to go work in downtown Vancouver for a few hours and I honestly think I've been a bit in denial about how much I love big cities. I had the time of my life running around and stopping people and exploring :)

The two other moments worth mentioning are when Sister Gallagher asked a member who had been giving her crap about Scotland if he knew why it was called a "kilt". He said no, and she replied, "That's what happened to the last guy who called it a skirt." POINT FOR SISTER GALLAGHER!

Alsoooooo SISTER BROOKELLE TRIPP who's now not even a sister missionary anymore came to visit and I cannot even EXPLAIN what a happy thing this was. We lived together in Surrey for ages, and then served together on the island, and she just means the world to me. Seeing her kneecaps in shorts was super weird though guys. And her Snapchat filters. But I'll send the photos regardless.

Okay loving you all from the True North, keep praying for me, I see the miracles from it and I'm praying for all of you as well <3 

Con todo mi amor,

Hermana Curtis

PICS:

Dreaminess + Hermana Polanco came to visit too!! (plus Hna Bronson, MTC comp/bff)