Elder Russel M. Nelson: Round two!

     "Happy P-Day Eve!" has become a common saying in our zone on Thursday nights. Because Preparation Days at the MTC are AWESOME! Here's why:

We get to wake up in the morning, go to the temple and do a session as a zone (my favorite part of the day), eat breakfast at the temple, while my comps write letters/in their journals I take a long shower, then at 2:15 we do laundry, write some more letters and after dinner we have class again and we get to teach our investigators! Yay! :D I love P-days!

     Elder Sandall, Elder Anderson and I taught our last lesson with Brian Solis last night. :( It was sad, but we've had some great laughs with him and his testimony has grown TREMENDOUSLY. I'm proud of him. Oscar Villegas is progressing very well and tonight we get to teach Victor, who is a bit tough, but he has a desire to learn. 

      Two other awesome things happened this week! For our Tuesday night devotional, we were once again able to have Elder Russel M. Nelson speak to us! SO AWESOME! :D And Elder Keith got to give the opening prayer and Hermana Stanger gave the benediction. The rest of our zone acted as ushers. That was legit!! Sometimes the ushers can be a little pushy, but we all did our best to be Christ-like in helping everyone seat themselves so that we could fit all of the missionaries in. The elders became fond of wearing a "Secret service" expression as part of their ushering duty.

       Presidents and Sisters Nally, Hacking and Roach have been released from the Provo MTC Presidency calling. Gonna miss them. Still don't know who our new presidency consists of. Our district was taught by President and Sister DuVall the other night. On Monday they will fly down to serve as the MTC President and Relief Society President for the Colombia MTC. They spoke to us about how all of our actions should be in line with the Missionary Purpose. I really enjoyed that lesson! :)

        On Wednesday we got to host!!! That was SO FUN!! What happened was our zone was asked to serve as host missionaries for the new arrivals. So we all got these fancy white stickers that say "New Missionary Host". Then we stood on the curb while the cars pulled in. Last Wednesday, the sticky notes on the cars were pink for arriving sisters and yellow for arriving elders (that way, a sister could know in advance when a sister was pulling into her area, and same for elders). We greet the family, let them say their last goodbyes and help them with their bags. We then take the new missionaries to 1M, they get their tag and other essential items, and meet us at the other end of the building where we wait with their luggage. They then go through the bookstore, get their bag of study supplies and we take them to their dorm. We throw their suitcases in their dorm, find their classroom and leave them there to start learning. Afterwards, it is back to the curb to find another missionary to host. I got to host 3 new sisters yesterday. :) One was going to El Salvador (Spanish speaking), one to New Jersey (English speaking) and another to Germany (German speaking). They were all so sweet and ready to start their missions! They were all curious as to why I kept enthusiastically greeting certain elders and hermanas. I simply explained that they were in my zone, and your zone becomes a close family. :) I'm so happy that they get to experience that. 

We got 320 new missionaries in the span of one hour (that is how long the whole week's drop offs last).

          District A left for Argentina. Love them lots, miss them, but I know that they'll do amazing in Argentina! <3

          The Elders in my district would like to thank my sweet mother for the cookies she sent them, and for pictures she printed out for them. Elder Gonzalez and Elder Keith were THRILLED to receive letters from Gus. They think he is the coolest. They're not wrong. :)

         Hermana Stanger's birthday was yesterday. So we ate a ton of junk food before 10:15. Good times, hahaha!

         For those of you who have written me and not received responses, I am deeply sorry! I'm trying to catch up and reply to all of the letters, but know that I appreciate them so much! <3

If any of you are not aware, my email address is: samantha.curnow@myldsmail.net 

       My mailing address (until February 3rd) is:

Sister Samantha Curnow

FEB03  FL-FTL
2007 N 900 E Unit  68
Provo UT 84602

OH! And Elder Keith also has a blog, too! Check it out! eldertannerkeith.blogspot.com

LOVE YOU ALL!!!    !El Evangelio es verdadero!

   Con amor, 

~Hermana Curnow

Memorable quotes:

1. "I can't believe there's an outside world!" -Hermana Curnow

    "There's an outside world?!" -Elder Vorwaller

    "Don't listen, it's a lie, Elder." -Elder Mitchell

2. "On Wednesdays we wear pink." -Hermana Stanger and Hermana Curnow, regarding Branch 18's new tradition.

3. "I'm puttin' on my pants, woman!" -Hermanas Curnow, Clarke and Walfield 

P.S. I promise that I don't come up with all of the quotes, I just can't remember a ton at the second LOL.