St. Patrick's Day

WHERE DOES THE EMAIL TIME GO?!?!

 

First and foremost: HAPPY BIRTHDAY CORTNEY MY SWEET MERMAID!! <3

 

Transfers are tomorrow!

We checked out LDS.org last week! All of you go look at the new Mormon Message, "Happiness is the Sum of Obedience"! SO GOOD! Also, I'm loving the Youth theme #embark :)

And Meet the Mormons donated their proceeds to the American Red Cross! Sweet! :D

 

Hermana Chavez made us papusas this week! SO GOOD!!!! Flan de queso, papusas and arroz con pollo (the one made by the lovely Hermana Castillo) are my favorite foods now!

 

We got more miles for our car! So we went to Opa-Locka and found a golden Spanish-speaking area down there! We also went to Miramar! Everything is gated in Miramar, but we tried our hardest! :)

 

Nerida is still the bee's knees! Such an awesome recent convert <3

We visited the Javiers, Maria is the funniest Latin lady! :)

We found Johanna, she's great! :)

We also found Selena, and she wants to come to church this Sunday!

 

Susie Robles hosted a wonderful St. Patrick's Day dinner for our district! :) Sister Miles is going home, and Elder Blaser and Elder Call are transferring, so it was awesome that we got to have that last bit of time.

 

We had a prompting to go help a woman unload her groceries. Turns out she was from Honduras and asked us if we were "Elders". We said that we were hermanas, but it turns out that she talked to missionaries in Honduras, and she wants us to come back and teach her daughter! :)

 

General Conference is in a month!! :D

And I get to Skype home in a month! YAY!

 

I literally love every day of my mission! This is the best! I love you all!

The gospel is true! Keep moving forward!

 

Su amiga e hija,

~ Hermana Curnow <3

 

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March 9th, 2015

I'm so sorry I have basically no time! I'm gonna make this way quick!

Trainer/Trainee meeting was awesome! The English sisters that came in on the same transfer as me have become so bold, and they want to learn Spanish! And I chatted with Elder Sauyun, so that was cool.  The trainer/trainee meeting was my ONE MONTH MARK IN THE MISSION FIELD. WHAT?! How is time going by so quickly?!

And on Cortney's birthday, (Happy Birthday/Happy St. Patrick's day, love!) I will have completed the first 3 months of my mission. CRAZY.

Bikes are awesome, it is a great way to talk to people and I love it!
We went to Menchie's this week! Ray (he works there), has seen the sister missionaries there tons of times, so he always recognizes us and says hi! :)

Right now we are working with: Gisel, Betty, Jack and Juan. They're all awesome and I love them!

The church is true! I love hearing from you all, and I hope that you continue to increase in your faith everyday! :)

   Con amor,

 ~Hermana Curnow

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Time doesn't make sense.

Seriously, how does so much happen in one week? How does time go by so quickly??

I'm gonna try to do a quick synopsis of this week.

    We FINALLY got to use the Chic-Fil-A gift card! That was exciting! :) I love their food. But we can't go often because it is pretty far in our area, and I'm already struggling trying to balance my caloric intake and exercise. ;P

    Gisel, Jack and Betty are awesome! We saw all three of them yesterday! :) I didn't realize until I came here how many people are ready for the gospel in their lives! Missionary work is VIGOROUS.

   On Friday we went biking, which was a little difficult just because of how the roads are set up. And almost everyone that we encountered was "Anti". I should've felt discouraged, but oddly enough I thought that our encounters were hilarious! I love talking to people as a missionary, even if I'm getting chewed out! :) (Please note that as missionaries, we NEVER set out to cause debate or contention. When it does come up, we don't do anything to further the bad feelings).

   The members are great! Every time I talk to Hermana Trini, I learn a new Spanish pet name. She has called us her "lindas hermosas preciosas amores". That one was the longest so far. She calls us her: amores, preciosas, "mi vida", "mi cielo", etc. She is darling! <3 Hermana Chavez is a ward missionary and she is BOSS. I love listening to her speak about the gospel! :)

   I haven't caught another lizard yet. My Dad (Elder Ortiz; your first district leader is your dad and your trainer is your mom *that's how it works for sister missionaries*) wants me to catch one and put it on my ear. So I'm gonna try and see if it works out. ;)

   We had zone conference! I learned a ton, got to see Pres. and Sister Richardson <3 and I saw Elder Sauyun from another zone! He and I talked on the plane, and we're both Spanish speaking missionaries.

   On Saturday, we got permission to leave our area to visit Betty, a referral from stake President Robinson. She used to be the family's housekeeper and she's been investigating the gospel for quite some time now. We had a great discussion with her, but it rained like CRAZY while we were in her apartment! It was already getting pretty flooded when we drove over, but by the time we left we had to drive through about 2 feet of rain water!!! The intersection especially was really bad. We thought that the water would come in through the door cracks! We literally had no choice but to drive through it, but everything turned out fine.

   And yesterday we went to the Robinson home for an MPL. The Robinsons are great, and do their best to answer Betty's questions, and Betty speaks good English. The problem is that she had some doctrinal questions and the Robinsons don't know Spanish to that extent. So we answered some of Betty's questions, found out that she has a SOLID testimony and translated a bit for the Stake Pres. She knows a TON about the gospel already from prior lessons, and she wants to be baptized!! I'm so excited! :D <3 She's going to be baptized on March 8th!

  Later we saw Jack, and he has TONS of deep doctrine questions and life and religion in general. He's gonna STUDY the Book of Mormon and he will share his thoughts and questions later! :) Gisel came to classes at church this week, which is great. She and the girls really love church and the environment here. I see a bright future for them! <3

     The best way to introduce a friend to the missionaries: dinner. Members, investigators and missionaries can all sit down, have some food and have a nice discussion. My little bit of advice for the week, and it helps missionaries SO much!

 

Love you all so much! The gospel is absolutely true, I know it with all of my soul! I invite all of you to ask God and receive this answer for yourself! :)

Romans 8:16 <3

 

Con MUCHISIMO amor,

   ~Hermana Curnow 

 

P.S. I'm still trying to do the "hand snap" thing. And when you do it, you need to say "Ay, mama mia, papalote, policia!" :)

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Halfway through my first transfer! :)

    Every week is packed to the brim with awesome stuff to talk about. Every night, I end up journaling two or three pages of amazing things that happened that day. And yet, when I sit down at the computer to email, I seem to forget all of it. So for time's sake, I'll just say that this week was pretty normal, haha!

    I SO enjoy receiving letters! Thank you all so much for writing me! :) I promise to do my best to respond to everyone in a timely manner.

   Right now we have some progressing investigators, a couple of which are families. I love these people so much, and desperately want them to know of the sheer joy that the gospel can bring into their lives. I pray for all of them every chance that I get. <3

   I also need to bike. The people here give us so much food! This is a real issue, haha! I exercise every morning, but it doesn't balance out! If anybody knows of some intensive, high-calorie burning exercises that I can do besides running (I already do that), please tell me! ;)

  We went on a full-day exchange on Friday! It was my first one! :) Hermana Lightheart went over to the STLs' area and I took over our area. Which is really unusual! It is only my third week in the field, and I took over the area! But it went pretty smoothly. Sister Furner and Hermana McAfee are our Sister Training Leaders, and Hermana McAfee came over here to do work with me. Thank goodness she speaks Spanish! The only really stressful moment of the whole exchange was when we got lost trying to find a member's house for Noche de Hogar, but that turned out fine in the end. But yeah, that was the bee's knees! Sister McAfee and I have similar senses of humor, so we got along pretty well. We also had a pretty miraculous experience after the NdH when we visited a former investigator that Sister McAfee had found. And now we're visiting her again! :) I'm hoping and praying for this sweet lady all the time!

  Life in Florida is amazing. I get more out of the scriptures than I ever have before, I meet and love more people than I ever thought possible, and I have seen miracles. Real, true evidences that our Heavenly Father is real, loves each of us and knows us individually. I have absolutely zero doubt in my mind that this gospel is true, and is the only true path. Invite everyone to experience the joy of this knowledge. And if you're not a member of the LDS church, I implore you with every ounce of my strength to talk with some missionaries, read the Book of Mormon with a sincere intent to know if it is true. I promise that the gospel of Jesus Christ can and will bless your life in ways that you didn't think possible.

   My time is running short, but I love you all! Send me an email or letter to let me know how you are doing! :) The church is true!

       Con todo de mi amor,

        ~Hermana Curnow

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Second week in Miami! :)

   Hey, so looking back on my last blog post, I've come to realize that when reading some of the things that I said through a blog, some of the things that I may have said may have come off sounding derogatory. I sincerely apologize if anybody thought that I was speaking negatively, I can assure you that that is not the case! I LOVE Florida and the people here, I just may have expressed that inappropriately. I'll be more careful how I phrase things online from now on. :)

    But this week was awesome! We have a progressing investigator and found a family that seems SUPER ready to receive the gospel! I'm way excited and I love teaching the people here!

    I've never had so much juice in my life. I don't even particularly like fruit juice, but the people are so nice and almost always offer you something when you visit them. Most of the time it is juice, so I've learned to love juice. And saltine crackers, they give you lots of those, too. And all of the women have been telling me to wear a jacket, or I'll catch a cold (its 65 degrees outside LOL). One member even GAVE me a cardigan so that I wouldn't "freeze" on our way out to the car. People are so sweet. <3

   Tons of birds here! I was a little surprised, but then I remembered that birds fly south for the winter. And would ya look at that, I'm in the south! So the telephone lines are literally just LINED with birds!

    We've been listening to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's Christmas CD while we drive, and we especially enjoy the tracks in which David Archuleta accompanies them. It gives some nice variety. :)

     I got to see the temple a week ago! The Fort Lauderdale temple is definitely my new favorite, and I can't wait to go in one at some point!

    I CAUGHT A LIZARD AND A TOAD LAST NIGHT! Best night ever! I saw a gecko on the pavement as we got out of our car last night (it was about 8:57) and I caught that little beaut! He was SO gorgeous! I don't know what kind he is, but he had some sweet looking stripes on his tail!

After planning, I saw a bigger gecko on our window! So I grabbed a sister and went outside to catch it. It got away, but I heard something bigger moving nearby. I crept over and found a TOAD!! So I caught it. :) We took a selfie with it and let it go. Pretty dandy.

    Ummm... So yeah, that is my life right now. :) Send me a letter and let me know how all of you are doing! The church is true, and the missionary work is PLOWING forward! The Lord won't stop for anyone, so you can hop on board or get out of the way! ;)

           Con mucho amor,

    ~Hermana Curnow

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Fwd: First week in Florida! THIS PLACE IS A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!!!

Due to my lack of time, this blog post is made of bits and pieces of my massive group email to missionary friends. Thank you for understanding! <3

 

I was ready to leave the MTC. All of my friends were either leaving or had left. But now I'm in Florida, I'm working hard and life is so, so good! I love teaching and I love the people here so much! <3

 

So Florida is pretty tight. Not too hot or humid yet. My trainer's name is Hermana Lightheart and she is the sweetest little person to ever walk the face of the Earth!! <3 <3 <3

 

 I'm as far South in my mission that sisters are allowed to go, and seriously EVERYONE speaks Spanish! There are three people that you NEVER see down here: whites, Asians and Mexicans (I've met just about every other ethnicity of Spanish speaker).

The drivers are insane. Nobody knows how to use a blinker. Oh, and the CUBAN FINGER!!! If you see someone stick their hand out the window and point to a lane, it means "I'm coming over and I'm coming over NOW whether you move or not". So yeah. Life is dandy on the road. I haven't needed to bike yet, but I have one.

 

No gators yet. :( I'm waiting 'til the iguanas and lizards start coming out (they're as common as chipmunks here).

 

21 new missionaries came in during transfers! That's a TON of missionaries! I was the only Spanish speaking sister so I spoke in Spanish with the elders so that the English elders and sisters got really confused. Mortals.

 

The sisters' interview time with the mission president went over, so we didn't get to go place Books of Mormon. Elder Sauyun said that a Chihuahua bit his ankle and he practically had to shake it off. I'm slightly jealous of all the fun that they had haha.

 

We spent the first night in a hotel, "La Quinta". The elevator reeked of marijuana, so that was pleasant *sarcasm* lol.

 

In the transfer meeting, the new missionaries had to bear their testimonies. And there was a rule in our mission (that was just redacted) that sisters needed to wear cardigans in meetings. A certain Elder Rice was sitting behind us and he whispered to his comp, "Why aren't they wearing cardigans?" I had one with me, so I decided to take it up with me to bear my testimony. So I got up there and I explained the situation to the congregation of missionaries. I then told them what I heard Elder Rice say and I slipped on my cardigan, looked straight at him and said, "Satisfied"? I've made my sassiness known. The missionaries now know me as the "fireball".

Sister Richardson, Pres. Richardson's wife, spoke later and also addressed that sisters only had to wear cardigans if they were cold. BOOM! haha

 

Hermana Lightheart is my companion! She is from Eugene, Oregon and has been out here for a year! We love to rock out to Mormon Tabernacle Choir while we drive!

 

We went contacting after I put my stuff in our house (yes, I live in a one-story house with 3 other sisters. It has an A/C problem and tons of ants and I love it!!!!) we went and contacted. The VERY FIRST DOOR that I knocked on, a 50 year old Latin without a shirt opened up and after we introduced ourselves said, "Soy el diablo". Awkward. WELCOME TO THE MISSION FIELD! :D

 

It has been less than a week and we've talked to SO MANY CUBANS (they're everywhere), people from ages 3-96. I've met people of all different religions and from just about every Spanish-speaking country. We even attempted to communicate with a deaf, Spanish & ASL speaking Jehovah's witness yesterday. She was nice. :)

 

Also, people down here tend to be from third world countries, so we have some third world experiences. For example, evil spirits inhabiting houses and animal sacrifices are real things down here. Odd stuff.

 

Oh, and all of the birds here are different. Especially the ducks. They're black with white splotches and they have weird, red skin patches around their bills.

 

 Oh, and in this area called "Opa-Locka", there are tons of Beware of Dog signs. We've learned to heed them (it straight up says that in Philippians 3:2!!!). My trainer was going into a yard, and I got a really bad feeling. So we left, and right after we closed the gate a boxer came running out from behind the house! Thank goodness for the Holy Spirit!

 Alma 17:13 has given me tons of comfort when I miss my friends. <3

 

!! La iglesia es verdadera!!

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First week in Florida! THIS PLACE IS A THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!!!

    Missionary friends- you will want to print out this email. I don't want to take all of your email time.

 

So Florida is pretty tight. Not too hot or humid yet. My trainer's name is Hermana Lightheart and she is the sweetest little person to ever walk the face of the Earth!! <3 <3 <3

 

THIS PLACE IS A GEE STINKIN' DANG THIRD WORLD COUNTRY!!!! I'm as far South in my mission that sisters are allowed to go, and seriously EVERYONE speaks Spanish! There are three people that you NEVER see down here: whites, Asians and Mexicans (I've met just about every other ethnicity of Spanish speaker).

The drivers are insane. Nobody knows how to use a blinker. Oh, and the CUBAN FINGER!!! If you see someone stick their hand out the window and point to a lane, it means "I'm coming over and I'm coming over NOW whether you move or not". So yeah. Life is dandy on the road. I haven't needed to bike yet, but I have one.

 

No gators yet. :( I'm waiting 'til the iguanas and lizards start coming out (they're as common as chipmunks here).

 

21 new missionaries came in during transfers! That's a TON of missionaries! I was the only Spanish speaking sister so I spoke in Spanish with the elders so that the English elders and sisters got really confused. Mortals.

 

The sisters' interview time with the mission president went over, so we didn't get to go place Books of Mormon. Elder Sauyun said that a Chihuahua bit his ankle and he practically had to shake it off. I'm slightly jealous of all the fun that they had haha.

 

We spent the first night in a hotel, "La Quinta". The elevator reeked of marijuana. Classy.

 

In the transfer meeting, the new missionaries had to bear their testimonies. And there was a rule in our mission (that was just redacted) that sisters needed to wear cardigans in meetings. A certain Elder Rice was sitting behind us and he whispered to his comp, "Why aren't they wearing cardigans?" I had one with me, so I decided to take it up with me to bear my testimony. So I got up there and I explained the situation to the congregation of missionaries. I then told them what I heard Elder Rice say and I slipped on my cardigan, looked straight at him and said, "Satisfied"? I've made my sassiness known. The missionaries now know me as the "fireball".

Sister Richardson, Pres. Richardson's wife, spoke later and also addressed that sisters only had to wear cardigans if they were cold. BOOM! haha

 

Hermana Lightheart is my companion! She is from Eugene, Oregon and has been out here for a year! We love to rock out to the Mormon Tabernacle Choir's "Showtime" CD; including songs like When You Wish Upon A Star, Bring Him Home, Impossible Dream, Lord of the Rings and the Circle of Life.

 

We went contacting after I put my stuff in our house (yes, I live in a one-story house with 3 other sisters. It has an A/C problem and tons of ants and I love it!!!!) we went and contacted. The VERY FIRST DOOR that I knocked on, a 50 year old Latin without a shirt opened up and after we introduced ourselves said, "Soy el diablo". Awkward. WELCOME TO THE MISSION FIELD! :D

 

It has been less than a week and we've talked to SO MANY CUBANS (they're everywhere), people from ages 3-96. I've met people of all different religions and from just about every Spanish-speaking country. We even attempted to communicate with a deaf, Spanish & ASL speaking Jehovah's witness yesterday. She was nice. :)

 

OH!!! There was this one Jehovah's Witness that we contacted! He was about 60 and told us that women weren't allowed to pray around other people. OH, HECK NO. I don't understand all Spanish, but I understood that! My trainer just kinda wished him well and we left.

 

FREAKY FREAKY FREAKY stuff has happened!!! This is partially because there are so many people here from third world countries!

In my trainer's last house, there were SPIRITS. YES, LIKE WE ARE TALKING GHOST STUFF. I thought it was a joke but it is legit! This one sister from Argentina would see figures in the house and heard one talking to her one time. Also, the doors would randomly lock and candles would be lit and nobody lit them. AAAGHHHHH!!!!!! So the sisters got special permission from the President to have the elders come into their house and cast out spirits. They ended up switching houses later anyway, partially because it was still going on!

 

PEOPLE DO ANIMAL SACRIFICES DOWN HERE!!!!!!!! There are tons of wild chickens running around. If you see any domestic birds, the people that raise them are Santeros, which are basically Catholics that perform animal sacrifices while wearing white.

 

We are teaching this WONDERFUL woman named Gisel from Peru. She has a strained relationship with her alcoholic husband, but she has 3 wonderful young daughters. Yesterday, we visited her in the early evening and we had been visiting mostly after dark. But this time we could see a part of their trailer-property that was gated and that we couldn't see at night.

We saw it yesterday. IT WAS FILLED WITH PIGEON CAGES!! HE'S A SANTERO!!!!

But that's okay, we'll deal with the problems as they come.

 

Oh, and in this ghetto area called "Opa-Locka", there are tons of Beware of Dog signs. We've learned to heed them (it straight up says that in Philippians 3:2!!!). My trainer was going into a yard, and I got a really bad feeling. So we left, and right after we closed the gate a boxer came running out from behind the house! Thank goodness for the Holy Spirit!

 

Anyway, those are my crazy stories for this week.

If you haven't sent me your mission office address, please send it!! I want to make sure that I'm sending mail to the right place! :)

Love you all! I miss you tons, but Alma 17:13 has helped me a ton!

!!!La iglesia es verdadera!!!

 

Con MUCHO amor,

~Hermana Curnow <3

 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.