This week was exhausting, but happy. I felt like over and over again I was being reminded of and tugged back to the beginning of my mission, in Surrey. We were out in Coquitlam for some appointments and got to have dinner with the sweet Hernandez family, my Bishop from the Surrey Spanish ward! SUCH a tender mercy. The Kim's got to try pupusas :) Thennnnnn the next night I was on splits with the Hermanas and they got to experience just a few minutes of a Latino Mormon party as they came to pick me up at the Spanish ward's activity hahahah how I WISH I could explain their reactions to you.  

The gym was full of hispanos of all ages just dancing and dancing as they cleaned up chairs and tables and food and such and the poor, bewildered Kims got trapped right in the middle of it... SIster KimKim looked up at me and yelled, "I WANT TO DANCE. I WANT TO GO TO SPANISH WORK." hahah I died. How lucky am I? 6 months in a Spanish ward and YSA ever since that <3 

Nothing much to report other than the fact that my Korean is not improving as much as I would have hoped, but you win some you lose some. 

With all my love,

Sister Curtis

Hey friends, another week of madness and miracles in Vancouver YSA!

We survived transfer week, which since we're the only sisters in Vancouver with a car meant that I spent a solid 11 hours just in one day hauling sisters around! We have the ferry, airport, greyhound bus terminal, and mission office in our area sooooo it was a grand exercise in faith that everything works out in the end hahah. I've come to the conclusion that leadership in the lower mainland is in reality just a glorified taxi service (just kidding, just kidding).

We had a great deal of miracles though whenever we found a minute to hop out of the car! Literally half our teaching pool is Japanese currently, so that's always a good time, and I made a new Latina friend this week named Andrea! She's soooooooo good. Like, so good. We set a baptismal date with her in our first lesson and found out that her mom has been attending the Mormon church in Peru for three months! GOD IS SO GOOD. FAMILY IS SO COOL. THE GOSPEL IS REALLY NEAT. It literally pulls people together. Ah.

Simone and Kaila are still killing it, just a few weeks after their baptisms and they're both already teaching with us and fulfilling baptismal covenants like I've never seen before. Still facing loads of opposition, but it's become so clear to me on my mission that Courage is a critical Christlike attribute for anyone who wants to find their way home to our Father in Heaven. Especially in today's world.

Speaking of covenants I just WISH I had enough minutse to explain how good my studies were this week. My entire mission I have looooved personal study. I focused a lot on why every covenant involves someting spiritual but also requires us to take physical action, whether that be getting in the water at baptism, taking the bread for sacrament, or temple covenants. I still don't understand it. But it's coming.

Also recognized how real the physical blessings of the Saviour's Atonement are. I woke up Sunday morning and wanted to DIE hahah I was so wiped. I prayed so hard for strength and though it didn't come all at once, it came like a sunrise. Hour by hour I saw so clearly that His power was present and lifting me, though it was nearly an undistinguishable progression.

Love you all!

Sister Curtis

(I think these pics include Thanksgiving, the Kims with their chicken nuggets to go on chopsticks of course, and some other happy things)

Soooooooooo I spent the first three hours of PDay driving sisters to and from the ferry and then the next hour or so typing transfer information with the Assistants SO I am trying my best to put at least some detail in this email, especially because Christl Bradley fully called me out on never actually writing a real email though I promise to every week :) 

What made it even better this week was ALL MY LOVES from Kelowna YSA and Victoria YSA came to Vancouver for a conference! Mostly it felt like a high school reunion and all of us missionaries were real out of our comfort zones running around with  music on at dinner and stuff BUT seeing the people that have made this past year and a half the greatest was so so so so good. Like, so good. I honestly think I am the luckiest missionary of all missionaries to have served with these people in such incredible places. 

Speaking of which, shout out to Ellie Bissett for making me cry.

I haven't seen her since I left the island, but we had a little moment at dinner in which she looked at me and said, "I don't really know cause I haven't served, but I feel like you've had a really sweet mission." And I said, 'Yeah." And then I got all teary. Because I totally have. And now Sister Seiter is sitting next to me (friends since high school graduation and serving together) and I'm about to send her home tomorrow and I got to see ROSA this weekend (recent convert from Surrey Spanish over a year ago) and I JUST AM OVERWHELMED with how much all of this means to me. How much I don't want to step away from this world that's become everything to me. My heart, my mind, my strength in every aspect has gone into the people here and I am crazy grateful.

Don't worry though team, I still have another transfer! The other highlight from conference was the fact that we and the Elders took a solid 20 or so of the YSA downtown with us to hand out Book of Mormons and I can't even tell you how funny it was to walk into the Skytrain station with an absolute gang of very determined, very frightened Mormon kids ready to hit the streets. Also, I lost both Kims. For a very long time. But all is well now.

Other news from this week includes the fact that President Wong made us pause interviews twice, once to buy him (and cook for him) Korean instant noodles, the other to buy frosties. I love him.

Here are pictures of people and places that I love including Thanksgiving Dinner, Stanley Park, and reunions:

I LOVE YOU MUCH!

Sister Curtis

Two years in a row now this has caught me off guard, but that's okay it was still a lovely day yesterday! We spent Thanksgiving running around to meet with different leaders in neighbouring cities, met a miracle named Roshni on our way out of the chapel so we gave her a quick tour and she loved it, and ended the day with dinner at Josh's house with Simone WHO GOT BAPTIZED, Kaila WHO GOT CONFIRMED, and Elder Nowatzke and Elder Chatelain (the YSA English elders we serve with). Honestly, I couldn't have been happier. Not only did I get the first home made meal I've had in absolute ages (yay YSA branches!!!!!) from Josh the Real Life Chef, but I got to spend it with the people nearest to family for me here in Vancouver. 

Simone's day though was by far the highlight. We had been holding our breaths and praying hard constantly since we first met her until October 7th and ALL OUR DREAMS CAME TRUE. She stood up to share her conversion story at the end of the baptism and some of the elders were just shaking their heads at me as she spoke because she really and truly sounded like she could have been speaking in General Conference. (Remember to send me tickets when you're up there in front of the whole world, okay Simone????) It seems terribly empty to try and describe her story via email. All I know is Heavenly Father is as near as we will allow Him to be and making a conscious effort to step closer to Him and our Saviour changes everything. I will never understand it, but it does. There has been a visible difference in Simone since she came out of the water, and I feel like the luckiest to have been a tiny piece of it. 

To end this email I feel the need to share this President Wong quote with all of you, do with it what you will:

Pres. Wong: "Do you know what is a bananana?"

Missionaries in unison: "A banana?"

Pres. Wong: "Yes, a bananana."

Elder Garbett: "..it's a fruit."

Pres. Wong: "Okay...."

Elder Kim (yes, he's Korean too): "It's an Asian. Yellow on the outside, white on the inside. It's a westernized Asian."

Pres. Wong: "YES."

I promised this applied to missionary work somehow but at the moment I cannot for the life of me remember what that was. But this was a very important moment of Zone Conference.

OH! Also we had MLC which was brilliant beyond brilliant as per usual. President Wong made me draw mini pictures for every conference talk on a chalkboard so that was interesting. ALSO AND MOST IMPORTANTLY after using the persuasive speech skills we've developed on the street as missionaries he said yes to us going to the temple with our zone today!!!! THE HAPPIEST. It's been over a year. AH.

More good news: over heard the Kims telling the Chinese YSA sisters that I'm actually really good at chopsticks. I made it everyone.

So much love from Canada,

Sister Curtis!

PICS AND SUCH:

Please note that there are THREE Sister Kims AND an Elder Kim in this photo. Go team.

I love YSA.

Really though Kaila is SO strong and so brave and totally doing this on her own but she's killing it and my world here is so good and so happy and I have a matter of seconds before I log off but I LOVE YOU ALL and I feel your prayers and General Conference was ridiculously good. 

Please enjoy these slightly fuzzy pictures of Kaila's day and the series of photos of our district in our coordinating beige, pink, and navy outfits at Zone Conference. I would also like to point out that it was actually the elders' idea to match, go team.

SO MUCH LOVE! 

I don't know what I did to deserve serving here. <3

x Hermana Curtis