Baptism tonight!!!

well hello everyone! well another monday is here so this week has been really good, on wednesday we got to go to the temple and do a session with 4 other zones and with our President and his Wife so that was awsome!!! it was soo cool we all went through together in the same session there were about 80 or 90 of us it was amazing i loved it, and i got 3 packages!! 2 from my family and one from shonna, but those are the only ones ive got so far ( the 2 from you guys was just christmas stockings and candy so yeah not sure about the other ones) so we set a baptismal date for a family of 4 for the 19th and we have 3 others for the 21st and we ave one TODAY at 7pm!!!! wooo hooo im really excited and we also have one on christmas day the 25th so i cant wait im excited, so we had an elder return from his mission this week and we were talkig to him and he served in Guadalahara south and he knew Elder Hamblin!! haha so we talked for a while, my comp also has a friend in rays mission too soo thats cool, oh soo yesterday we had a family who is investigating come to church with us and we got there just in time as they were starting when as soon as i sat down, the 2nd counciler came down to us and he asked me to give a talk!..... so i coulndt say no so i had to borrow a book of mormon and prepare a 5 - 10 min talk haha it was a little stressfull but it turned out good haha so this month is going to be crazy with the baptisms and for the rest of the month its going to be big "posadas" or parties till january 3, this is that time of year so it should be fun, there are piñatas everywhere and there has been the soccer championships going on all month so its crazyness well gotta go but ill try to send some pictures later today i love you guys soo much bye
elder curtis

special transfers!!!

wow this week has been sooo crazy, so first we had divisions on tuesday so in the morning we had a few meetings and then i went to Chalco with an elder who is one of our zone leaders Elder Sanchez, and it was crazy! we taught 7 really good lessons with some good families and then we did a lot of contacting in the streets because there are soo many people in the streets so we found 11 NEW PEOPLE!!! and they are good too it was such a big difference i loved it everyone we talked to accepted us to go to their house to teach them more another day so that was sweet! so then we headed back to our house that nght and we got a phone call from the zone leaders at 10 15pm and they said they had big news...... we had special transfers!..... so i figured my comp was leaving but they said i was leaving!!! i was soo happy and then they told me my new area was the delegation(delegations are like the burrows of new york harlem and stuff except there are about 15- 20 in our part of districto federal so its a huge city)..... Iztapalapa in the Quetzal ward, and so now im in the actual city, its in the districto federal about 30 or 40 minute metro ride from the Zocolo which is like the center of the city so its really cool and my new comp doesnt know ANY english so thats cool i like it, and his name is Elder Benavides hes from Monterrey Mexico and has been out 20 months, he goes home in march so thats cool, so his last comp was in my same group coming here and apparently they really didnt get along at all so thats why we had special transferes but everyone here compliments me on my spanish, they are surprised when i say ive only been here 2 months, everyone says like 10 months haha so thats cool i love this language its soo much fun to learn something new and be in a totally different culture and learning new stuff every day! sooo my area is really big! we have about 3-4 million people between 3 companionships so its really cool there are soo many people and they are the total opposite from my other area. these people want to learn so much about our church and are soo kind, so in my first 5 days here we set 7 baptismal dates for this month! and there should be plenty more i love it. so yeah that 16 year old girl from my old area, we convinced her parents to let her be baptized so that shouldve happened this past sunday but i got transfered, so yeah its going really good i LOVE LOVE LOVE being in the big city! its soo fun our area is one of the more poor areas of D.F. and one of the more dangerous but no one has messed with me yet haha so yeah thats the news this week and i put all my photos onto CDs so sometime this month ill get those sent out, the pictures are just kinda random pictures of stuff but oh well ill give you something to look at and put into scrap books and stuff well im not sure when ill be calling but when i find out ill let you know well i love you guys soo much thanks for everything haha i like the christmas pictures of you guys! give lia and sam hugs and kisses well peace out!
te amo!!! mucho!!!!
Elder Curtis

more showers from a bucket :(

Dec. 1, 2008
Well it sounds like you guys had a fun trip! I loved thanksgivings when the whole family did stuff together, well yeah my thanksgiving was kinda a bummer, it was just another day for us here I didn’t even remember it till Friday! so no fun but it’s ok, so other than that this week we woke up Tuesday morning to find that we were out of Gas to heat our water for showers so...... you guessed it.... more showers from a bucket, I really don’t like showering out of a bucket but it’s warm and gets the job done, but the water here is soo dirty and nasty that when I get out of the shower my whole body itches soo bad! it sucks but it just depends on the area you’re in, well this week we found out that the girl that we were going to baptize... her mom said NO, so tomorrow we are going to go talk to her to find out why she doesn’t want her to be baptized so who knows how that will end up but we found some new investigators so hopefully someone will want to learn. so yeah, today we went to this place called Tepito, it’s this HUGE place where you can buy ANYTHING you could want for really cheap so we bought some stuff and mostly just walked around it was awesome. So yeah tonight we have family home evening with the ward so I have to hurry up cause it starts in like 15 min but I’ll get back on after and write more or reply if you write me back, but I love you guys and ill talk to you later

Well FHE was good learned some good stuff. so tomorrow we have divisions so I get to go to Chalco with one of the zone leaders for a full day it’s like 20 min away and it’s a pretty big city lots of people to talk to so it will be fun to have a little change in things, so there was special changes last week and the only other American in our district got transferred so now it’s only ME and 5 mexicans but it’s not bad. well hmmm your questions... what I dislike about my mission...hmmm that’s a tough question not really anything besides the people who don’t want anything to do with us and try to argue with us and stuff but the thing I love about my mission is meeting a bunch of new people every day and teaching people and seeing them feel the spirit and see them be changed by the spirit, it is the most amazing thing I have ever seen I love it, seeing peoples lives being changed right in front of us, so yeah thats it, sorry it’s not very much today don’t have too much time today, well have fun and tell lia and sam I love them and give them hugs for me, well I love you and miss you sooo much thanks for everything,
adíos
con muchisimo amor
Elder Curtis

a couple of posts

Hey make sure you scroll down, there were a couple of posts yesturday!!!
Cindy

Elder Claus

so this week has been interesting.... on tuesday we woke up at 6 30 to shower and stuff and to find out there was no water in our whole house no showers no toilet nothing! so we got to shower out of a little 5 gallon bucket... that was interesting, and don’t ask about the toilet...... haha jk so that lasted till sunday morning when the water filled back up, I was sooo happy to take a real shower, I never realized how much I took for granted and didn’t realize how nice I really have it with more things than just water..... with everything, my family, Lia and Sam, my friends it was interesting. So yeah I tried on the Santa costume its complete with jacket, pants, hat, beard, and glasses and its actually really big on me haha I don’t know how it looked with a little Mexican in it hahahah so yeah we get to stuff it with pillows or something, so thats way cool that Ray got to see me! haha he has my email I don’t know why he didn’t send me an email haha i'll write him next week but yeah that’s awesome, so yeah that’s what it’s like here and on saturday the elder that was here right before me went home this last change this was his last area so he came back with his parents to visit some people so we hung out with this lady who lives across the street her name is Hermana Beeges she is soo cool she feeds us all the time like almost a meal each day and we get to wash our clothes in her washing machine which is really awesome and she’s just super cool but yeah so with the other elder and his parents it was cool she cooked up a nice lunch for us all and turns out that family is from Gilbert Arizona haha cool stuff so it was funny trying to watch them speak the tiny bit of Spanish they thought they knew haha so yeah it was just cool to see actual Americans its weird already and its only been like 7 weeks here haha well gotta go, I love you guys soooooooooo much give lia and Sam a hug and tell them I love them and to take care of their fish! Well I miss you guys and take care
adios for another week!
Elder Curtis

Elder Hamblin

We got this letter from Josh's best friend, it made me laugh! Oh I miss having the guys over to hang out, what a great group of kids!!! I called his mom and I guess he already told her, he said as soon as he saw Josh he was yelling "HEY IT'S FAT CURTIS,,,,I KNOW HIM!!!!!!" ha ha

hi rickert family
hows life?? life here in the dirty dirty south of guadalajara is pretty good crazy sometimes!! it was good to here from you guys im glad to here everything is going good i sure do miss you guys it was always nice to just come over to your guys house and chill. sorry i cant make this a longer letter but im out or time i gots to go back to work!! o one other thing im sure josh or elder curtis has told you about the event for the re dedecation of the temple they had ya i got to watch it here and i SAW HIM haha i was so excited it was awesome so tell him i got to see him!!!

love elder hamblin

Christmas

Hey family,
I've got lots of phone calls about what to do for Josh for Christmas. Truth is I'm not sure. There is no guarantee he will get anything we send him, I sent a package a month ago and he still is waiting for it. He's got letters and that kind of thing but the package thing is a mystery. I was going to put what we would spend for his Christmas in his savings account so if there's something he needs he has access to the money, otherwise he will have something when he gets home. Anyway he'd love to hear from everyone so cards letters are always wonderful! Don't forget to add pictures so he can see how families are changing. It's wierd to think he won't be here for the holidays but what a blessing for him to be where he is...especially since he gets to be Santa for the ward! ha ha!
love you all
cindy

Pig brains?

well i still havent gotten any packages from anyone so im still waiting but its all good, not sure what i want to do about christmas ill think about it today and let you know tonight, but it sounds like our family is keeping the hospital busy as usual thats no surprise congragulations to chelsea and richard on the new baby girl thats cool i got to see one of the pictures of the 3 of them the other pic didnt work, so yeah im going good down here besides it being SUPER SUPER COLD!! it sucks i sleep with 1 pairs of sweats 2 shirts 2 pairs of socks and my big jacket and then 4 blankets! and im still cold, and it stays cold till about 11:30ish and then its HOT till about 7pm then it gets really cold again it sucks but oh well.
Soo big news this week........ one of the teenage girls weve been teaching accepted a baptismal date for this sunday!!! woo hoo but shes 16 so we have to wait to see if her parents will let her go through with it but we hope so. Other than that the other day my companion convinced me to eat a thing called a SESADILLA its a quesadilla with seso, and they were only 1 peso a piece witch is in our price range cause we are SOOOO POOOR haha so we each got a couple and after we had finished them, they werent too good but its food, he explained what SESO was...... its pig brains!!! haha so i wont be making that mistake of trusting in my compnion again haha so yeah it was pretty gross, but i can say i ate pig brains now. not much else has been going on just work, work, work we had changes last monday but niether of us got changed so were together for another 6 weeks so thats not bad, and somehow i got chosen to be SANTA CLAUSE for the christmas ward party on the 23rd of december so that should be interesting haha, i might have to be sick or something on that day ha so yeah its crazy to think ive already been gone 4 MONTHS!! crazy-ness its going by fast. well i gotta go but ill get back on again tonight and write a little more if you reply, peace out
Elder Curtis

Ok so this week was pretty crazy with everything, we had Zone Conference and that’s was with 2 other zones and President Doxey came and spoke it was the first time I’ve seen him since the first day I got here 6 weeks ago so that was cool, it was about 7 hours long, we practiced teaching lessons and then president Doxey spoke to us about the temple stuff this weekend and about a bunch of other stuff it was way cool and all in spanish and I actually understood it all so that was good, after I got a letter from Macy, but still no package from you guys it’s been a while, a trick the other moms use is to put Virgin Mary (virgin guadalupe)stickers on it they usually don’t mess with those. So hopefully I get it soon. The cultural event was way cool the stadium was pretty dang big! there was 6 missions I saw a lot of friends from the MTC my companions and others I finally found Justin Crick(his friend from High School is in Mex City West) when we were getting ready to leave so I got to talk to him for only a few minutes but I got a picture and talked for a minute, on sunday we got to go to the stake center and watch the rededication services and it was awesome I loved it, so yeah cool stuff that’s about it, well I love you guys I hope you’re doing good, tell Sam and lia to get me a fish for their fish tanks but only if their good and earn it, and give my fish cool spanish names haha well I really gotta go now its bed time. cheer up and keep a smile on your faces! Tell lia and sam to smile big and be nice to everyone, love you
adios
Elder Curtis
**at the cultural celebration I heard from another mom that the missionaries came in singing Called to Serve in Spanish to the Prophet and Pres. Eyring. They said it was awesome. What a blessing for him to be there. -cindy

broadcast

From Cindy
I got a email from one of the Mom's in my Missionary group:

In our program at church yesterday {maybe in yours, too} it said that
we can go to Mesa South Stake Center to watch the cultural celebration.

Here's what it said:

"The Mexico City Temple has recently been renovated and will be
rededicated on Sunday, November 16th, 2008. A cultural celebration
will be held in conjunction with the rededication and broadcast on
Saturday, November 15th, at 5:30 p.m. Mountain Standard Time. The
Temple dedication will be broadcast on Sunday, November 16th, at 6:00
p.m. Mountain Standard Time. Those who wish to attend the rebroadcast
of the rededication must have dedication recommends. There would be
no limitations on who may enjoy the broadcast of the cultural event on
Saturday. Tickets to view the cultural celebration broadcast are not
required. Locations for both broadcast events have been set, and our
nearest location would be the Mesa South Stake Center, 1415 East
Southern Avenue. If you wish to attend the rededication broadcast,
please contact your Bishopric today."

I thought I'd share. If you have a Spanish branch in your area you might have the same opportunity. I haven't heard anymore but will post more if I see it. What a blessing Elder Curtis has to be able to have this great opportunity! He will be a very tired missionary when this is all over.
Cindy

Temple Rededication

well this week is going to be soo crazy we have soo much going on with the temple and stuff, today we had the usual district meeting and then tomorrow we have zone conference with a few other zones and then thursday is just work and friday more work and then saturday we are going to the Aztec Stadium (i think its the 2nd biggest stadium in the world or something) for the cultural event and like 6 whole missions are going to be there(the 4 missions from Mexico City and Cuernavaca and Toreon) with us to sing some songs like Called to Serve so thats going to be cool i cant wait and President Monson and Elder Eyring are going to be there and a bunch of other stuff is going to happen there too, then sunday its the rededication so yeah crazy busy week, so this last week our president gave us some bad news...... we cant use the......... crappy bikes anymore! its kinda not good cause or area is kinda big and so now we have to pay to ride in a combie (vw bus or taxi)to the other towns so were going to be poor now but other than that i was sooooo sick on saturday i was throwing up and stuff and i dont know why so bummer but other than that its just the usual well see ya later! love ya
Elder Curtis

pyramids!!!

Nov. 3 2008
welll helllooo world and family,
well today was soooo coool we went to Teotihuacan (pyramids) and spent the whole day there! i spent about 360 pesos buying some touristy stuff that was really fun cause none of the mexicans think we know spanish so they try to sell really high but i talked a guy down 450 pesos (about 45 american) on these 2 obsidian statues about 4 or 5 inches high it was cool looking and i love to bargain in spanish cause they just think were stupid gringos haha so i payed like 200 pesos so 20 bucks on the statues not bad but more than i wanted to spend , i also bought a cool obsidian knife with turqouse handle thats about 13 inches long for 125 pesos (11bucks) haha he was asking 450 pesos!!!! crazy mexicans haha so the pyramids were super cool but about 5 million stairs!!!! but it was worth the 4 hour travel one way and everything it was cool ill post some pics sometime, so the food here is good im sick and tired of people asking if i thought mexico was going to be sombreroes and meriachies haha and i explain how many mexicans live in arizona! and they ask about the food and think we only eat hamburgurs and pizza haha so the food isnt to hot its really good! ive been sick a few times mostly its the chicken that gets us we had it that was like ice cold and raw but this lady is super poor and gets offended really bad if you dont eat it all so we ate it......and payed for it but it wasnt too bad its happened like twice, and yeah we only eat once a day besides cold cereal for breakfast, its at 2 in the afternoon but its not bad cause they feed us a bunch, other than that just the normal mission work but this week we spent everyday in Temamatla(look at your map) and had a lot of succsses found 8 new investigators which is more than the last month put together and those 8 were in 2 days of hard work so its looking good one is the sanchez family with 3 generations of family who look really promising so thats sweet but who knows, but yeah sounds like its going good back home well im doing good here and love it soo much well
adios
Elder Curtis

1st pictures from Mexico!

Photos!

I tried until way to late last night to figure out a slideshow....but it'll take more figuring than I have brains right now. The pictures are at the bottom of the page, scroll down and you'll see them! HOPEFULLY soon I'll get this all figured out.
love
cindy

hey hey hey hows it going?

well im doing pretty good down here in mexico, the spanish is getting better and better each day its cool, so will kim be in papa and pattys mission right? thats way cool i hope so, haha she was hopeing tolearn spanish so that when me and ray start talking about stuff she will know what we are saying haha especially when we are talking about her! hahha well cool cool we still havent found any solid investigators so thats a bummer, so the mexico city south mission is one of the highest baptising missions in the world but the area im in is the lowest of the whole mission... kinda a bummer but its good because i will never have another bad area they will only get better! haha the other day as we were on our way to the mission office after working in the temple it was about 9 30 at night and there was a group of about 12 missionaries and there were 4 of us "gringos" hangingback a ways when a man from behind us started yelling " hey, hey you guys!!!" we were a little hesitant to turn around with it being late and not so good of a neighborhood but we did and it was a guy late teens early 20s and he asked who we were and why we were all dressed up and what we had in our backpacks.... haha so we explained the whole we are missionaries and all that so then we showed him what was in my backpack and it was my scriptures and pass along cards and pamphlets and stuff like that and he sterted asking questions and we gave him a pamphlet and a pass along card and bore our tetimonies and the second a tear rolled down his face it was the coolest thing ever to see his heart get touched from 4 gringoes on a dark street in the middle of the city, it was way cool, but yeah we dont have those kind of experiances in our area which is kinda a bummer but the members are way cool in our area there are 237 memmbers and only 60 or 70 come to church so a lot of our time is trying to reactivate people, well our house is really cool we have 3 bedrooms dinning room kitchen living room and about a million HUGE spiders haha its cool i love it, well thats the story of the week, i might get back on later today and write more but who knows, i love you guys sooo much tell sam and lia i love them and give them hugs and kisses, i love you too mom and dad!
nos vemos, adios

Elder Curtis

I got some pictures!!! I'll be adding them later tonight! -Cindy

how dear elder works

I thought I'd add a page here about dearelder.com for those of you who don't know how it works. If you have any questions call me or put a message here.


The Mexico Mexico City South Mission is part of the Pouch Mail Program. Cost: FreeShipping Method: Pouch Mail SystemContinue reading below to learn exactly how our system operates
What is the pouch mail program?The Church has established the Pouch Mail program to help families to communicate better with their missionaries in countries with poor mail systems. When you mail your letters to the Pouch Mail Department in Salt Lake City, the Church places all the letters bound for one mission in a big package and ships them to the mission through an express carrier service. When the letters arrive at the mission office in the destination country, the office Elders open the package of letters and distribute them to the Elders and Sisters throughout the mission.
How does DearElder.com work with the pouch mail department to get letters to the missionaries?The Pouch Department only sends one package per week to each mission. In order for your letter to go out in a certain week's package, the letter must reach the Salt Lake City Pouch Mail Department by 5:00pm on Friday.In order for DearElder.com to get your letter to the Pouch Mail Department by Friday at 5:00pm, we require you to submit your letter by Thursday at 12:00pm (MST). The Pouch Mail Department doesn't actually mail your letters until the following Tuesday. If you pay for DearElder's Pouch Plus Service ($4.95/month), your letter cut-off deadline is moved forward to Sunday night at midnight (MST). The Pouch Mail Department allows us to squeak in a few letters right before the mission packages are sent on Tuesday morning. Pouch Plus will save you as many as 4 days to a week in letter delivery time.DearElder.com is fully compliant with the USPS Private Express Statutues. Property postage is applied to all mail delivered to the Pouch Mail Department.

What advantages are there to using DearElder.com to write a missionary?There are a number of advantages to using DearElder.com to write your missionary.
Your letters will always arrive to your missionary as fast and usually faster than if you were to mail your letters to the Pouch Mail Department. This especially applies to those who live outside Utah and have a 2-6 day delay in their mail to Salt Lake.
DearElder.com makes writing your missionary much more convenient. It is much easier for most people to sit down and type out a letter--and simply hit send--than it is to write the letter by hand, stick it in an envelope, search for a stamp, and try to run it to the mail box or post office.
Your missionary will actually be able to read what you wrote. --Joke
DearElder.com makes communication much easier for busy people and younger siblings who find it more difficult to stay in touch with a missionary.
It makes communicating much easier for those who travel a lot.
It's free, saving you time and money... You can't beat that!
How do I get started?The process for writing a letter to a pouch country is very simple.
Go to our home page. In the drop-down menu, select the Mexico Mexico City South mission and click, "Write Letter".
Fill in the required information and write your letter. When you are finished, click send.
If you sign up for a DearElder.com account, you can access and print your letters after you have sent them. Just make sure you log in before you write each letter. It's that easy! Click Here To Create A DearElder.com Account

emails

quick letter, i can receive letters from anyone emails or anything, so yeah and sometimes i can print them it just depends on where im at,
well nos vemos
Elder Curtis

his email is joshcurtis@myldsmail.net or you can still use www.dearelder.com and they give him a printout of the letter.

Riding a bike?

Monday Oct. 20, 2008
hey hey hey que pasa??
well im in mexico and i got my companion his name is Elder Peredo hes from Vera Cruz and knows a little english so he translates a little for me, and my zone is called Chalco, but my area in that zone is called Atlazalpan and he cover 3 or 4 smaller towns, we live in a town called San Pablo and we travel by bici's, or bikes in america which are the saddest looking bikes ive ever seen haha they look like the ones macy's dad used on his mission and i bet they are that old too! we ride to the other towns which are about a 10 mile ride one way and we usually dont just go over to the other towns once in a while, its usually at least once a day if not more,but i love it, the people are way nice and humble, their humility is amazing i love it, the food is good a lot of chili and beans and tacos and coke! and we eat every meal with a stack of freshly made tortillas which i love!!! tomorrow we are going to the temple to welcom people and answer questions so thats gonna be cool. well there arent a whole lot of people here who want to hear our message so thats a bummer but we keep looking for the elect everday, well the weather here is awsome but its pretty cold at night and early mornings, and from our little town we have an amazing view of the 2 volcanos which have snow on the top but we only see them on clear days, the smog is really bad here. well not much else is going on just work work work, well i love you guys soo much!!!! hasta luego,
Elder Curtis

1st area!

I got a phone call from a woman who asked if this was the Curtis residence. I kinda paused and said kind of....she says well I have your son.... She sounded so sweet, and instantly realized how that could sound. And quickly followed by telling me he was safe at the Mission home and that she was the Mission President's wife. They are Brother and Sister Gary Doxey and are from Salt Lake. They had a great visit with him and she laughed when she told me "you just want to hug him!" She appreciated his sweet testimony and how excited he was to be on a mission. She thanked us for sending such a well prepared young man out to the mission field...I explained it was a group effort. He spent his first night in the mission home and his companion (who is native) will pick him up in the morning. His first area is a town about 25 miles east of Mexico City called Chalco. (We added a map below that you can click on to make larger, or you can zoom in or out) His p-day will be on Mondays and I will get an email then. I'm not sure yet who can email him or who he can email yet, hopefully he answers that on Mon. She said the pouch is reliable, or you can mail actual letter or pictures. If you have some you want to send but are unsure...email them to me and I can print them and put them in a package from me. He loves to hear how everyone is doing! It was great to hear from someone that would be taking care of him. It's harder than I ever thought to have him gone...I know though that this is so important and the things he will learn will benefit his family for generations. I loved being able to hear his voice this week and hearing how confident and peaceful he sounded. Please keep him in your prayers and keep in touch with him. I know he feels the support and love from such great family and friends.
cindy

Safely in Mexico!

He made it to Mexico!!!! We haven't heard anything from him yet, but we were able to track his flight. It was so great to be able to talk to him this morning. It was funny said he never felt out of place until at the airport and no one else was wearing a suit. Also at one point he lost his companion and was a little freaked out. And then my favorite as he's yelling at his companion to order him a sandwich from Burger King and forgot the word "whopper". He sounds great and is sooooo excited. More details when I get them!
Cindy

Flies out 10/14/08!!!!

We got a phone call from Elder Curtis and he flies out in the morning!!!! He sounded so excited! He'll call when he gets to the airport but it will be a short call, and it's a direct flight so no long layover. He's not sure if he'll be able to call from the MTC when he gets there but promised to let me know soon where he is. Keep him in your prayers!
love you!
Cindy

Got his Visa!!!

well hello!!!!!!!!
how are you guy doing? im doing fantastic!! we went to the "Consalado de Mexico" aka mexican consolate!!!! which means we got our VISA's so that was crazy, the first time leaving this tiny campus in 10 weeks its was cool to see the outside world, i cant wait till we get to see a whole new country! so we still wont be able to fly out till probably monday night or tuesday sometime with monday being a holliday and stuff(not sure which holliday i dont even know what is going on outside our little bubble) but i love just knowing when we are leaving for sure this time so thats awsome, so the other day we went to the refferal center to do some chats and i had a lady get on and was saying how she had seen a vision!!! haha kinda crazy, BUT we talked for an hour and a half, and i got her to say that she really wanted to read the book of mormon and find out for herself if it was true and it wa really cool, she was from England so thats always a good day when you get people to make commitments, and also we've been making phonecalls to people who have requested free bibles and dvds and other stuff and now i can make them all in SPANISH!! its pretty cool, i still have a LONG way to go before i will feel comfortable with getting my point accross but im getting there, so yeah im not sure when our flight is or anything so i dont know about layovers or anything but hopefully ill be able to call you guys again, hopefully when Seans around ill try to call in the evenings on your cell phone(that i thought you were canceling???) hahahah but tell me how everything is going in Safford, oh and if you guys are getting forwards from like papa and patty and stuff( i got one today) they are cool to read i wouldnt mind to get Tami and Jays weekly letter or whenever it is, its good to hear about everyone, well its about time to go soo i will talk to you guys later!tell sam and lia i love them and give them a big hug! and thanks for everything you have done so far its been awsome. i love you soo much, tell sean too.
ADIOS
Elder Curtis
p.s. im like 10lbs over on my luggage so ill be sending some stuff to aunt vicki

10/3/08 email

Friday Oct. 3, 2008

well today was good we went to the temple and i did sealings again, i love doing those, temple work is so differrent when its just you and your companion because your companions become to be your closest friend. its awsome, but i love it. i cant wait till we get our VISA's and head out to the field! i cant wait, ive only heard good things from our mission so thats cool. i saw macen and kellin (these are his friends from high school) so that was good to see some familiar faces. and it was good to call back home i was a little worried you would just sit there and cry but you did good haha lia and sam sound like their doing good. it was wierd to talk to them they seem so much different from 9 weeks ago. but lets see other than that not a whole lot going on just waiting around to see about the visas we are supposed to be next in line but the mexico consolate doesnt like us too much right now so they take their sweet time with everything they do. thats way cool that Dustin and Amy (Cindy's brother and sister in law, Dustin served his mission in Ireland) went back to Ireland, i cant wait to go back down to Mexico City after i get back, you guys better start saving if your wanting to come pick me up down there!!!that would be pretty cool. but i hear from Ray (his best friend is in Guadalajara right now) every once in a while so thats cool. and today we got our 2nd haircut and its a little wierd having girls cut your hair here because we're not used to being around any girls haha but its funny and i cant wait to get out of this place, after a while i think im starting to go crazy confined in this tiny area and with our room being infested with MICE!!! there are all over haha its crazy we had to move all our food up high so it might be safe. other than that it was good to get the package we love getting stuff from the real world, but i know once i leave the MTC im gonna miss it soo much because of the powerfull spirit this place has its amazing to feel it and its gonna be different once we're in mexico and realize thats not what the real world is like but anyways its time to go so i love you guys and miss you
ADIOS
Elder Curtis

Delayed!!!

I just got to talk to Elder Curtis....I didn't even recognize him at first!!!!!! He was just letting us know he won't be flying out on Mon. He's a little bummed, he was so ready to go. I still should get an email today with more information, so I'll post that as soon as I can. It was so great to hear his voice. He sounds so mellow and calm....probably because I was crying.
Love you guys!
Cindy

"Chat" from Friday 9/26/08

From Cindy
Okay the "chat" thing did not work out to well. There is like a 10 min lag. It was still neat to think that we were doing the same thing at the same time. Made me feel a little less lonely for my boy. He's doing great, little attitude, but that's to be expected. Here's the highlight of our chat.

From Elder Curtis
lo siento for being a little late elder Montalvo took forever to wake up from his nap, how is everyone doing?

Ok well this e-mail chat thing is taking forever and I only have 10 more minutes so this kinda sucked but I hope everyone is doing good and having fun, how do the kids like their book of mormon kids book? I hope they like it, well big news, we got our flight plans today! so that was cool, we're still not sure about our VISA's for sure but hopefully they are in. I get homesick when I don’t hear from anyone, so the more the better, but I’m on here for another 5 minutes, a few things I need haha for the next package is,,, my red diamondbacks hat, and a calling card for the airport, we have a 4 hour layover in LAX so not sure how many minutes I will need but no more than 4 hours worth haha alright


From Cindy
So he will fly out Mon 10/6/08!!!! I am so excited for him! I will keep updates posted here or you can call if you want to know more. We mailed out a big package for him today which was a little sad....we aren't sure he will be able to get packages in Mexico. I found a couple of sites that give suggestions. We'll have to see. We are grateful he is doing so well and are so excited for this next step.

hand written letters to family - Sept. 18, 2008

I'll have to summarize a letter we got from Elder Curtis this week. He really wants some raquetballs to play with in their down time, and here I thought they were working him so hard he barely has time to write. Hmmmm. I guess they have been having massive tournaments in their room. I can't imagine how they squeeze everyone in that room. He is bored of his music and wants more. I'm hoping he will get me his ipod asap so I have time to put more music on it. He put off deleting his other music until like Sat. or Sun. before we left so he didn't have much time to put "new missionary" music on it. He wants some church CD with bagpipes? I'll have to get him to be more specific. A few others are the "Lord of the Rings", "Star Wars" and some Beatles without words. I was surprised to hear that they can listen to anything without words. So I better get busy, he loves his music. But....once he gets to Mexico it might be spanish music that he finds he likes better. Oh well, I've got some music and some great talk tapes that we are going to get to him. Feel free to send him some just let me know so we don't duplicate. :) He also is begging for red bulls because there is no caffine in the MTC...so of course we got a package together. I'm enjoying it while I can in case I can't send him packages to Mexico. We heard they are redoing the Mexican mail system so it will be more reliable. I hope it works. Josh sounds like he's doing great, he is enjoying being at the MTC and is learning so much. I love to see how he changes from week to week. He sent a letter to each of the kids and drew a picture of his room. That really helped them to not miss him so much. Sam didn't like being called a picklehead but really liked hearing from his big brother. Josh had to make sure that Lia knew he wasn't teasing his compainions too much. She worries about it and hassles him in every letter she sends him. We miss him and love him so much! I'm grateful he's doing so great. We got to go to two of his friends farewells today! He will still be in the MTC when they get there and is excited to see them. I love his friends and love to watch them turn into such great men. What a blessing to have so many serving a mission at the same time. Please include Josh in your prayers, he's headed for some serious changes and will need it. Call if you want more information or how to get a hold of him. Dear Elder.com is still the easiest. I can walk you through it!
We love you!
Cindy and Sean

Elder Curtis' Room

This is Elder Curtis' room at the MTC. His chair is the very little yellow one, and his companions desk is right next to his. The bunkbeds are to the far right and on the left in the front. Somehow they play raquetball/2 square with another group all in this little bitty area.

Also a picture of him hanging out with the roomates, Elder Friend and Elder Montovlo.

The MTC district

This is Elder Curtis district at the MTC. One of his teachers Hno Salmon is kneeling in the middle with the white name tag. Don't they all look soooo young! They should find out this week when they get shipped out of the MTC.

New Pictures!!!

This is Elder Curtis' roomates. Elder Friend is to the left (blonde hair), not sure where he is from. Elder Montovlo is to the right and is from Mesa, AZ. He is Joshuas companion.

e-mail #6 Sept. 1

Sept. 19, 2008
I think im just gonna send my ipod back home and then you can just send it with macen (one of his friends report to the MTC Oct. 1) when he comes up here or mail me another package... ill probably be sending some stuff home before i leave too i just dont know what or if i will have to. but yeah other than that i need some sandals for showering, i figure some of those Old Navy ones that are like a dollar or whatever in a size 14. Antoher CD if you can find has bagpies and is called ''praise to the man'' its all about the Joseph Smith songs, other than that just cool music that you think i might like and as much as possible! and if you give it to macen to bring up see if he has any music to put on it to just make ABSOLUTELY sure NOT NOT NOT to sync my ipod cause then it will erease everyhting but it shouldnt on our computer, and yes some john bytheway would be cool and talk tapes for sure thats a good idea, what picture did you get on my cards?? (We ordered some missionary business cards to hand out with his home address on them) well other than that my favorite candy???? not sure the jerky was the first thing gone out of your other package so that was good! gum is orbit sweet mint, and yes im serious about the Red Bulls! and yes it is allowed kids get them all the time, other than that im doing good just learning spanish all the time and having a blast!! i love it here i cant imagin what its gonna be like down in Mexico!!! no word on VISA's yet so thats a bummer, but today at the temple we did sealings so we were proxies for sons and also whitnesses so that was way cool, me and another elder were in a room with 3 other older couples who had served at least 3 missions together as couples and they came to do the work for their neighbor so we helped them and the man of one of the couples was the Sealer so that was cool, they would take breakes every so often and teach us about the covenants we were making for them and the blessings that come from this and it was AWSOME! i learned so much i cant wait to do that for myself!, it was really cool to see it happening and the amazing spirit that was in the room with us as we were doing their work, well that was the excitement for today not much other than the senior district just older than us is packing this week, its kinda wierd seeing them get ready to leave, we've all gotten really close so its gonna be wierd without them, but im excited for them they are all going to Santiago, Chili so thats cool. but yeah how are you guys doing? how is everyone else doing? i haven't heard from anyone else in a few weeks.... did you get that book i sent??? (he sent the kids an illustrated Book of Mormon book) how did the kids like it? i thought it would help them understand and get more from your readings, well i better go we are heading to dinner now but next friday at 5:20 ish i think for you it will be 4:20 in the afternoon you should get on your email and we can talk back and forth like chats, it could be cool hahah okay well i love you guys so much thanks for everything.
p.s. tell macen to write me!!!!

ADIOS
Elder Curtis
i love you

e-mail #5 9/12/08

hey hows it going?

im doing good, om learning tons every day and today like 10 minutes ago the district that lives in the 2 rooms next to us got their flight plans today!! so that was crazy! it was cool seeing that happen and to hope that our VISA's will go through, cause we are supposed to get our flight plans in 2 weeks!!! its gonna be wierd to see them go cause me and Elder Montalvo have gotten to be really good friends with all those guys so its gonna suck when they leave, but when they leave our district will be the senior district so we get all of the hand-me-down traditional stuff so that will be cool. other than that its been just a normal week, oh besides Dieter F. Ucktorf coming to talk to us on tuesday!!! haha we got really good seats and he gave a really good talk on missionary work and to never give up and to endure to the end. ok so other than that nothing has really happened just A LOT of class but time seems to go pretty fast around here so thats good. Ray e-mails me sometimes so its always awsome to see hows he's doing. oh and before i forget a few things that i want haha it some raquetballs to play with haha in our rooms it gets a little boring so we make up games and we even have a 2 square court in our room that us and the other district have some fierce tournaments on so yeah, and as many CD's as you can! music is the only thing that i like to listen to and im sick of what i have and and music is good but i really want the Lord of the Rings cd and other soundtracks that might be cool maybe some Beetles as long as there arent words on that kind of music they said we can listen to it! ther is a really coll church cd out with just bagpipes which is a really good one that i want and other than that just anything that doesnt have words, so like acoustic and orchestra stuff, i think there is a good Star Wars cd too, but ill write you a letter today so you dont forget! well i hope you guys are doing good and i love you all but my time is up so i will talk to you later!I LOVE YOU!!

p.s. try and e-mail me by thursday night cause we check them friday morning at like 7 so tell everyone else if they e-mail, FYI

Adios
Elder Curtis

e-mail #4 9/5/08

Hey everyone,

How’s it going? Well I’m doing good, especially since today is P-Day AND we went to the Temple as usual AND it’s my halfway mark for the MTC!!!! It’s pretty crazy it doesn’t seem like I’ve been here that long. but ya other than that a few things that have been going on is so far we've had 2 members of the Twelve Apostles so far, Dallin H. Oaks AND Quinten L. Cook, it so cool and we got the closest seats to both of them we were front row! I love them. (I have been after him about his favorite scripture for his plaque at the church, he finally answered) Oh ok and I think my favorite scripture is going to be Helaman 5:12, or around there it talks about building your foundation on the rock of the lord and Satan wont have power over you. But yeah other than that we go to the RC (referral center) and answer phone calls and chat with people who are curious about the church its way cool. I was chatting with this girl from Caracas Venezuela and I have talked with her before and I challenged her to read some chapters in the book of Mormon, one was 3 Nephi 11 and I told her to pray and ask heavenly father if it was true and so on Wednesday when we were scheduled to chat again she said she did pray and she feels that the book of Mormon is true and that this church is the only true church!!!! so I was kinda giving her the whole first lesson and she was loving every minute of it, it felt so cool to see the change that takes place in someone, and I’m going back in on Saturday to see how she is doing on some other commitments I gave her and I can’t wait to talk to her she has been amazing to talk to and I told her to try and find the missionaries and talk to them if she can!! other than that nothing really, OOOHHH so we were sitting out on the grass last weekend I think it was and all the sudden I started to hear some cheering and stuff and it turns out the MTC is right next to the BYU stadium!!!!! and when the football game actually started it was crazy we could hear almost everything so we followed the score for a while, that was the first time I was kinda bummed out but I didn’t feel like I wanted to be anywhere other than on a mission cause football will still be there when I get back! Well ill talk to you later love you guys!!!

Adios, Elder Curtis

p.s. I get to print my emails out and read them before I respond to them, and I’d rather get them through dearelder cause I get them that same day and can write back to them throughout the week, so let everyone know that!!!!!!

email #3 8/29/08

hey hows it going?? pretty good on this end its been pretty crazy here but i still love it! its so cool to think about how crazy all this would be to someone who is a non member to see people come to this place ,some for 3 months or some only 2 months and to learn a language so they can go all over the world teaching the gospel for 2 years but i love it, im learning soo much and learning how to have good study habbits and how to "work hard" but not the hard work i thought of its the mental and spiritual hard work that we do here that is the amazing part... we hardly do anywork here and im more tired than a full time job, i kinda think of it as we are breaking our spiritual muscles down everyday so that the next day they get that much stronger so by the time we leave here we can help other people start this proccess but for the whole 2 years we never "should" stop progressing and building upon what we already have. its like 2-A-Days training for the best season of our lives!!! and i love every second of it. the spanish is coming good, starting monday we are only learning and teaching in spanish so we'll see how that goes but im not to worried just as long as we are willing to open our mouthes and try, the spirit will be there to fill it with the right words as long as we are doing our part, its an amazing feeling to fell that happen and you dont really notice till afterwards when you realize that you just taught someone for 10 minutes that i didint think i knew anything about but because i was willing to open my mouth and follow the spirit i was able to do that, that is the thing i love most about being here. well anyways hows everone doing? oh a few things i could use in apackage is some more gum maybe some jerky, and maybe just some stuff you think i'd like. ill wright you guys more later and mail it soon, i love you guys!!!!

AdiosElder Curtis

email #2

hey family well all is good so far here. maybe more news about whats going on with the world like olimpics and sports cause we dont hear anything like that here. OOHHH and if you guys could tell all the family about my email adress and make sure and tell the Nelsons, ****BUT i still want to get the dear elder mail so that i can write back to those cuz i only get 30 min on the computer and only on P-days. *****anyways so yeah sorry it takes so long for you to get my mail its like 4 or 5 days one way for a letter but ill try to write more often, so yeah i see karri quite a bit and she also got engaged to my districts spanish tutor so that was kinda cool and Elder Bortholomew (THIS WAS ONE OF JOSH ROOMATES WHO KINDA LOST IT AFTER 24 HOURS AND WAS IN THE HOSPITAL) ended up going back home on sick leave for about 2 or 3 weeks he's still a missionary and his call is gonna stay the same and what caused his whole ordeal is he took WAY to many sleeping pills one day and then he had an anxiety attack so they couldnt figure out what was wrong so they did a spinal tap and his spinal fluid was leaking out and causing severe headaches, but he's doing better. now for some good news!! every tuesday night we have a devotional and the first week elder Coleman of the 70 talked to us AND THEN this last tuesday Elder DALLIN H. OAKS talked to us on teaching by the spirit!!!! our district snuck aroung to the back doors of the gym ( my idea by the way) and snuck in before eveyone else cause we were hearing rumors about an Apostle but no one really knew, SOO we were on the first row of the elders!!! so like 5 rows from him cuz the first 4 are for senior couples. so we had better seats than the other 2,300 misionaries who are here right now! pretty cool! so other than that my origional companion E. montalvo is way cool and we get along really good but the new companion we have who is our roomate since his comp went home, his name is E. friend and he is probably one of the most annoying kids i know or ever will know and worse is he is the district leader but everyone is trying to get along with him but no one really likes him. but besides that little part its all good we went to the temple today and it was really cool as usual!! and now we're doing laundry. but yeah the spanish is comming pretty good just slow but its coming, i can understand everything my teachers are saying it just takes a little bit for me to make sentences and stuff but i do it ok. we are already teaching the 2nd and starting the 3rd lesson in english and we have started the first lesson in spanish too!!! sorry there wasnt much to read im in a hurry.
love elder curtis

email #1

hello everyone this is elder curtis i just barely got the chance to set my email up. so im kinda glad that i can email now but its a bummer cause i can only be on the computer for 30 min a week and thats only on my P-day which is today Friday the 15th. and another thing that sucks is it takes so long for my letters to get all the way down there but yours only take one day to get here . but anyways its going really good here we just got back from the Provo temple which was really cool with all the missionaries and stuff. everything else is going pretty good. i kinda told you guys everything that was going on in my last letter that i sent you guys almost a week ago which i still havent got any responses to. but the other guys in my zone are way cool and at nights we all have a crazy fun time messing around with everyone and telling stories and just talking. but i took a few pictures today at the temple with my 2 companions since the other guys comp went home cause he was still really messed up from all that stuff that was going on but he's gonna be coming back in 2 weeks but he's gonna start all over so we wont see him a whole lot but i just hope he will be able to serve. other than that its just a bunch of elders having a blast learning a new language and learning how to teaching the gospel. im really enjoying it and learning so much more as each day goes by. it seems like i was just dropped off yesterday but its actually been 9 days which is pretty crazy. the food is alright here nothing special just decent cafeteria food but im not complaining. i havent gained any weight yet so thats good but i know its gonna happen haha well its time for me to get off now so i can go do some laundry and maybe take a little siesta. i love you guys so much. ill send some pictures soon when i get some printed off. keep me informed about everyone in the fam! please! thanks.
Adios!Elder Curtis.