It has been FOREVER since I've updated this blog, haha! I literally haven't updated this since last transfer. :P Oops. Updating this thing is kinda hard, though. It's starting to turn into a little bit of a burden, email time is so short and I really would need a full hour to write a blog post about all of the amazing things that happen in day to day life. Just trust me; there is no way to accurately describe what missionary life is like and the immense emotions and blessings that come from it. It is the literal best. :)
So transfer calls came on November 23rd at about 10PM, and I learned that I would be staying here in Naples for another transfer, and that Sister Jones was leaving. :( She is actually serving in my first area right now, over in Miami Lakes. I try not to get too jealous of her. ;) I love Naples, but I do miss everybody in my past wards and areas.
And then I got my "daughter" (<mission lingo for a sister missionary trainee), Sister Evans! :) She is so fun! I joke around and say that she is like my own Kate Hudson. She reminds me a ton of what I was like as a greenie. We're working hard on the 12 Week Training program, learning Spanish together, knocking lots of doors and we have tons of fun doing it. Can't complain, life is good. :)
We had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner with some members of our ward and it was delicious. such good people and such a wonderful holiday. <3
The sisters that lived with us (Vanderbilt), we in a trio for the first week and then Sister Garlick got emergency transferred over to Davie. It was interesting. 5 sisters and one bathroom. We worked out a system. :) Oh, Elder Allen went over to Coral Springs and his last companion is actually my mission "dad", Elder Ortiz. Sister Abad is still in the Naples zone! Now she is in the YSA as a Sister Training Leader. I joke around and tell her that I can't get rid of her, haha! Sister PK is an STL now, too! And Sister Rammell got a trainee! :) So much fun stuff happening!
Umm... what else? I really like my current planner cover. I put a ton of dinosaur stickers in my planner. We're doing volunteer service at an assisted living center in the early afternoons. Got to go up to Estero with Sister Abad for a full-day exchange.
MIRACLE!!! On December 8th, we were out knocking at about 6:30 PM; tired, small teaching pool, but not quite discouraged. We couldn't figure out a good spot to knock, and ended up driving in circles for a minute or two. Finally, we decided to just go ahead and knock the next street over. It was really dark, but we decided to go for it anyway. 5 doors in, a Mexican man opens the door and we introduce ourselves and ask if we could share a prayer with him. His girlfriend came to the door and eagerly invited us in. We shared the prayer with them, and then the girlfriend, Adriana started to shed a couple of tears and told us that she was going through a VERY difficult time over the past few months, especially in Colombia. But while she was there, she had a dream one night. She has always seen missionaries passing by and wondered if they would ever come to visit her. In her dream, God told her that two missionaries would visit her in a distant land. So then she moved to the United States, moved states, ended up in Florida. One day she asked God, "When will those two missionaries that you told me about come and visit me?" And He told her, "This afternoon I will send them to you." 6pm came, and Adriana was saddened because no missionaries had come and it was dark outside. But on 6:30 we knocked on the door, and she recognized who we were immediately. MIRACLES HAVE NOT CEASED, PEOPLE! I have known for a long time that God still speaks to us individually, still gives us revelation, but this experience strengthened my testimony of that so much! At this point, we have taught Adriana and Bardomiano everything, and they are READY for baptism, we're just waiting on the marriage license. I love them to death. <3
We've been doing a good amount of volunteering at an assisted living home. We have gotten to know a good amount of the residents there fairly well, and they really are delightful people. I enjoy doing service around them. :) Carolyn (the optimistic one), Elizabeth (the Yugoslavian), Mary Ellen (the Southern Belle), Ruby (the college counselor), Jaye (the cute 105 year old woman) and Harold (a quiet, neat man) have all particularly earned a special place in my heart.
One night, it dropped to 65 degrees Fahrenheit and Sister Evans and I were FREEZING! You had better believe that we were blasting the heater in the car!
I had a neat little revelation come to me through another sister as we discussed what we had learned in our personal studies lately, and the thought was this: "Learn to listen for what God wants; not what 'you' want or 'think' He wants." THAT is a struggle, haha! Talk about the natural man right there! Mosiah 3:19 is probably one of the most difficult challenges- learning to fully accept God's will over your own. And then later, I had another thought: "Sister Curnow- Look at your nametag. You have been dreaming of these amazing 18 months. You have been eagerly awaiting your mission for years. Live every moment, have no regrets, take every opportunity. Live it up while it is here!" We become so caught up in thinking about the future that we forget that we are currently in the future period that we once eagerly anticipated. Personal revelations are so cool!
Another miracle! Sister Rammell and I had taught this one man and his wife that had had family members that are members of the church. We went over to teach them, and he just bashed us the whole time, was not willing to listen to us. We peacefully ended the get-together and left him with a copy of the Book of Mormon and an invitation to read it and pray about it with real intent, we promised firmly that God would answer him if he sincerely wanted to know if it was true. Several months go by, and about two weeks ago he showed up to sacrament meeting out of the blue. He spoke with the bishop, and then the bishop had Sister Evans and I go inside and meet with him. The man looked at me, recognized me, and said, "I have been reading in the Book of Mormon, and I have been finding beautiful things in it. I'm working on quitting coffee, and I want to see if my wife and I could get baptized." Bishop thanked us for planting that seed. I'm just very grateful that the Lord has allowed me to see some of the fruits of past efforts. <3
We also went to Fort Lauderdale on the 23rd for the mission-wide Christmas conference! :) It was delightful! Great to see everyone again, especially the missionaries that are going home at the end of this transfer, I have worked around many of them! And many of the skits that the various zone put on were hilarious!
We worked on Christmas Eve and on Christmas Day. On Christmas, we made a nice big breakfast of pancakes, eggs, bacon and eggnog. <3 then we opened packages (thanks Mom, Dad, Gran & Sampa and Grandma Jo!) We got down to studies, went to volunteer and visit at the assisted living home, and then Skyped our families! Gus brought in the dogs for me to see them, and Gran brought Cosmo down! I miss that guy, he tried to climb on my shoulder through the computer screen, haha! And it was nice to just chat with them for an hour. We had a good dinner with a member of the English ward, and back to knocking doors!
Yesterday was a great day, too. Giselle and Giallyn, my first investigators in the mission field, were baptized on Friday and received the gift of the Holy Ghost yesterday. :') I'm so happy for them and love them to pieces! Sister Jones and Sister Soza helped them get baptized, and my trainer, Sister Lightheart even got to be there! :)
Before church yesterday, our ward council got a special training by Elder Thompson of the Seventy. It was great, I'm so glad that I got to be there! :)
Church was very nice, and our sweet Relief Society gave us missionaries some stocking stuffers. <3 Then we had dinner with a member, met a part-member family, knocked doors, met a nice Dominican family that we're going to go visit tonight.
That's all, folks! Have a great new year! :)
La iglesia es verdadera! Con amor,
~Hermana Curnow
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