Mega short post!

I seriously am going to type this so fast! MyLDSmail acted up on us (the sisters) and so we had to try and fail at logging in about 15 times before it let us back in. UGH. Technology. But that's okay! Things are better now!

   We had Specialized Zone Training! Kind of like a surprise Zone Conference, and it was amazing! We got to see the new video about Easter! I HIGHLY encourage you to check it out, it is only about 2 minutes long!

    English: http://www.mormon.org/easter?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

    Spanish: http://www.mormon.org/spa/pascua?cid=HP_FR_3-27-2015_dMIS_fMRMN_xLIDyL1-A_

Read Mosiah 15. I have a challenge for all of you members and missionaries: Go read Mosiah 15 and ask yourself, "How beautiful are my feet?" Sounds weird, but do it!

  The Gonzalez family is still awesome! They're so welcoming and warm! "Alberto" is a professional clown, and he showed us his little fake dog that he uses at parties, and I'm totally rambling but whatever, I LOVE THOSE PEOPLE!

  We also have some really stinkin' awesome investigators right now, too! Martha is from Cuba, and when a neighbor started telling her that the Book of Mormon was false doctrine and started bashing the church, she totally stood up for herself! She said that the Book of Mormon is not to replace the Bible, but to work with it! So true!! :)

  Went on a full-day exchange into the city with one of our two AMAZING STLs! Sister McAfee came to our area, and I went to stay with Sister Mahterian. They're both so dang awesome! And their area is English, so speaking to people in English all day was a neat experience. :) I still prayed in Spanish, though. I have to translate my prayers mentally from Spanish to English if I want to say an English prayer out loud.

   And Exchange Day miracles are SO REAL. We met the most amazing people, and finding was a blast! :)

   Gladis (Mariela's mom) got baptized! It was so exciting, and she loved it so much! Such an incredibly sweet lady! <3

Also, the general Women's broadcast was SWEEEEET! I love those! And I'm SO EXCITED FOR GENERAL CONFERENCE! Everybody go and watch every session! :) I love y'all! Have a great week!

      Estoy mejorando todavia. Mejoramos todo el tiempo. En el idioma, en obediencia, en amor. La vida de una misionera es una adventura! <3

        Con muchisimo amor,

    ~Hermana Curnow

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#MiracleMarch - Where did these numbers come from??

What a terrific week!!

  So for St. Patrick's day, Susie Robles had us over for dinner. She's such a sweetheart, and it was plenty of fun.

   Sister Miles died. :( She finished her mission and is home now. But we took funeral pictures and made a mega-bed (had a slumber party) before she left. so it's cool. I realized something when she was packing to go home: I'm already DREADING the end of my mission! The joy and enthusiasm that you feel as a missionary is something inexplicable. All that I know is that I LOVE serving as a full-time missionary and I LOVE the people that I come in contact with daily. I'm going to make an extra special effort to live every moment, have no regrets and put forth ALL of my effort into the work.

   We taught the less active Gonzalez family. Juan (Sr./padre) welcomed us in enthusiastically and pointed to the Bible that was in on the kitchen counter, declaring that his house was a house of God. Hermana Lightheart walked over and picked it up, and saw that the pages were dirty and crinkled (it was opened to Salmos). She turned to some other pages and exclaimed "Oh, look how CLEAN and UNTOUCHED these other pages are!" The ex-wife, Dalia (who was cooking dinner) got a good laugh out of that. Juan padre also had a friend, Jose, there, and so we talked to him, too. Then Juan hijo (who prefers English),came out and started to chat with us. So I did some follow-ups on his commitments while Hermana Lightheart taught Jose and preached arrepentimiento a Juan padre. So we had this really weird, bi-lingual, three-way lesson going! I chuckled a little at how funny the situation was. :)

   And we got in a car-wreck on Thursday. Not our fault, everyone was fine, we're still using the car (even though a couple of the doors don't work LOL).

   We're currently working with Raul and Maria Gonzalez, from Cuba. Selena, Martha and Enoch from Peru. Johanna, Lino and Joel from the Dominican Republic. Martha from Cuba. They're all AWESOME! I'm so excited to keep working with them and watch them grow in the gospel! <3

   On Saturday, we got to go to the baptismal service of Mariela! :) Elder Ortiz and Elder Coburn have been teaching her and her family, and she got baptized! The spirit was so strong! I gave a mini-talk on baptism. Then the font door was locked, we didn't have keys, so Hermano Roger Ortiz Jr. unlocked it with a butter knife. Skills.

    Then we had the BEST SUNDAY EVER!!  We had a rescue (Osvaldo is coming to church regularly), 2 LAs came (one of them was Liliana, and she is a friend of Johanna! What a coincidence)! And Johanna came with Lino and Joel to sacrament! President Richardson gave a talk to our ward in SPANISH and we visited Selena, Enoch, and Martha with Herman Trini AND THEY'RE WORKING TOWARDS BAPTISM! I can't describe how full my joy is! I LOVE the gospel, it is true, and the mission work is PLOWING forward!

Love y'all! Talk to you next week! :)

Con MUCHISIMO amor,

~Hermana Curnow

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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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