Elder Josh Curtis

2010-07-15T07:00:00.000-07:00

He's coming home!!!!

2010-07-11T00:58:00.000-07:00

He's coming home July 13! We can hardly wait! Yes it's a month early, but we needed to make arrangements to get him home a little sooner, there was a family conflict...anyway the arranged to send him home early. I'll post pics later!
Cindy

new comp Elder Martinez

2010-07-06T09:31:00.000-07:00

hey, so news from last week, we had changes and i now have a new comp. his name is elder martinez, hes from Merida, yucatan near cancun haha i now have a place to stay on vacation haha so ya i knew him his first day here in the mission he was in the area right next to mine and we took him to dinner his first day it was cool but that was 15 months ago but now he is gonna be the one to send me home kinda funny. so this week has been really good we have a zone baptism coming up on the 24th of july i think so it looks like we will baptize a few that day prob a couple. just gotta marry them first. but yeah other than that just trying not to think that my mission is coming to an end, but im happy, im happy with all that ive been apart of during these 2 years and how much its changed me. i think ive learned more on my mission in these 2 years than a lifetime without a mission, not just about the gospel but about life. its been amazing and i only have a short time left and i am going to finish the best i can. so yeah still no news on the return date but hopefully soon. but i better get going, i love you guys and thank you for all the support.
love
Elder Curtis

From Cindy
I got a couple of other messages from him later...he said that he talked to the mission pres. secretary and the Mission Pres. told him to try to get Josh a ticket mid July, thats kinda vague but it sounds like he'll be home in a couple of weeks!!!! I'll post as soon as we find out anything!

no letter

2010-06-30T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry this week there hasn't been much of a letter just brief messages with promises of a letter tomorrow. Big news this week though is that he may be coming home a little early! He was tentatively scheduled to come home the 1st part of August and there were a bunch of conflicts as well as a desire to go to school. We talked to the mission president and Josh had an interview with him on Tues. to renew his recommend and talk with him about his plans. No word yet on what the Mission President will decide or when we will get him home. Josh is supposed to call Pres. Chavez tonight and get a decision. We will see!!!! It's wierd to think of him coming home! Mixed emotions all around! The crazy boy said I better not be emotional when he gets home...hmmmm nice try! So excited and sad that this part of our life is coming to an end. It's over way too soon and at the same time drug on forever. We are so grateful for all the support our wonderful friends and family have given us. What a journey it has been. Cherish every moment! They are over before you know it....
I'll post as soon as we have a date!
Cindy

Happy Fathers Day

2010-06-21T19:13:00.000-07:00

well family first off, happy fathers day! dad thats to you! (haha in case you didnt know) well this week has been AWESOME we were working super hard and usually we get some good people and a lot of just alright people to teach, but this week we started and we had crazy good results we had a bunch of really good people to teach and hardly any just alright people and one of the best parts was that the people we found a lot were complete families which is always a plus, so we were super excited this week but with sunday being fathers day most of them couldnt come to church but they are all looking good for this sunday so we are happy here, and last sunday the bishop had all the recent converts give talks, and WOW it was amazing the talks they gave were soo good, simple and right to the point no fancy talk it was amazing i think it was my favorite sacrament meeting in my whole mission. so yeah my time here is going great even though its getting close to finishing but change is good. so im excited to see what else is in store for me after this. well im soo happy to hear that grandma is doing better with every day i cant believe so much stuff has happened in these 2 years. well this letter is short but it is what it is. haha well i hope all is going well and the kids are good, i love you guys and hope you guys are getting things settled in the new house.
well i love you.
Elder Curtis

2010-06-21T19:05:00.000-07:00

2010-06-21T18:50:00.000-07:00

World cup

2010-06-21T18:47:00.000-07:00

hey family, wow crazy stuff going on in round valley huh a plane crashing into the high school wow. well down here everything is going good nothing too crazy, besides the FIFA World Cup going on and all the mexicans thinking that mexico is going to win hahahaha yeah its along shot but anything for a party. so this week was good the work kinda slowed down with all the soccer going on and when soccer is on nobody answers their doors so its kinda lame but we are doing what we can. so me and my comp are still getting along good and enjoying our time here. today we had a brutal soccer game and the losers paid for lunch, well we won nuf said. so we ate good. other than that we had a zone conference on saturday and it was good, the president was the only one who spoke, and my spiritual thought for the conference is now our mission scripture haha cool, heleman 3:34-35, good stuff so yeah everything is going great and im loving it here, i cant wait to get back and see everyone, only 57 more days its going fast but im making the best of it. well im glad you enjoyed the pics and im sorry im not writing more haha i think its gradually gotten less and less over the 2 years haha well i love you guys!
love,
Elder Curtis

awesome soccer game!

2010-06-21T18:45:00.000-07:00

alright well this might be a short letter because i was sending pictures but it said they couldnt be delivered to your email so im doing it from a different email but its slower, so short email and hopefully the pictures work. so it sounds like things are going good soo far for you guys which im glad hear and especially for grandma thats great that shes doing good i cant wait to see her, hopefully she gets better soon. so this week has been really awesome down here we found some great people and are doing good, me and my comp are doing good and getting along great, i still dont have the adress but i dont think a package will get here in time so dont worry about it... haha sorry. so today we had our meeting then we had a brutal but awesome game of soccer and now we are here getting ready for the buffet again kinda a new monday tradition haha but yeah i better get going but i hope you got the pics if not tell me and ill send them again, well i love you.
love
Elder Curtis

from Cindy

2010-06-07T08:52:00.000-07:00

Sorry that i haven't got his blog updated as fast as I'd like. We are in Safford and well, things are still in boxes and still figuring out things. So no computer right now. Soon! No word yet on his actual release time, hopefully in the next few weeks. I am amazed at how well he's doing and am grateful he's had this opportunity. We love you all and will try to get things under control!
Cindy

buffet time

2010-06-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

wow thats crazy that you guys are actually in safford now, thats hard to imagine, i still remember the day we left haha and now you guys are back again. so down here my week was really good im really enjoying my new area and slowly getting to know it and all the members, so today we had our meeting at 8:30 am to have the afternoon free because we are hitting up a buffet!! haha its supposed to be a good one like golden corral style with steak and mashed potatoes... im hopeing its true i havent eaten a steak in a long time, the meat here is all sliced really thin they dont eat it thick cut, ever. so we are super excited for that. hmm other than that friday we had a baptism and it was really good and went as planned. so yeah life is going great down here, its getting pretty exciting with all the soccer going on everyone watches it, and if they dont have tv they just go to the street vendors stands with like 20 other people and they watch it on a tiny tv haha so people are always yelling fouls and a lot of cus words haha and the world cup is about to start so its getting even more crazy when the national team plays haha they think they are gonna win the world cup hahaha but its fun, soccer is awsome i love it. so me and my comp are doing good and we are getting along really good, i just make fun of him for being soo green sometimes haha and the fact that i go home soon and that he is gonna be here for 3 christmases hahaha he just laughs but he also gives me crap so its mutual, oh so we have a member who brings us cereal every sunday to eat during the week so that got me in the habit of eating breakfast, so if you have the chance to make some granola, my comp and i would appreciate it a lot haha, but the mail here has been taking a long time to get here so im going to get you the address of our house where we live and you can just send it directly to me here. sound good, so yeah thats pretty much it, nothing too exciting, oh we found 2 cool families yesterday haha but they have a lot of problems and questions and the husband was super drunk when we were teaching and he just kept looking at me all wierd and when we left he hugged me and said he liked how i talk haha because i lost my patience and was being really blunt with him and it looks like it helped a little, they invited us to eat on saturday and they want to hear more so it will be interesting. well i fasted yesterday for grandma and hopefully all goes well tomorrow, ill keep her in my prayers.
well i better finish up, i love you guys
love,
Elder Curtis

Elder Aguilar, new comp

2010-05-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

wow the temple dedication sounds awsome! im glad you guys got to go to the first session, and thats crazy that the prophet stoped to talk to amy and them that would have been awsome to be there. so the move is getting really close i cant believe it haha going home to a new place, but im excited for you guys it should be fun. so yeah this week has been kinda crazy, im in my new area and its still pretty close to where i was before about 30 min in public transportation. its called espartaco and our church is one of the biggest in size in all of mexico so its pretty cool, the members here are awsome so far and they give us soo much to eat im pretty sure im going to gain weight haha on sunday they gave us 2 boxes of cereal and 16 apples and a bunch of flour tortillas haha so they treat us pretty good but not as good as the states. lately ive been getting a lot more crap from the people for being from arizona, how is it back there. so my new comp is elder aguilar and he was born in idaho and when he was 4 yrs old his family moved back to tijuana mexico so he speaks some good english but im helping him speak better, so im his trainer, hes only got 5 months in the mission but hes doing good and we are learning from eachother which is good. so yeah our house is also pretty awsome it looks like ive got some pretty good luck with getting good houses. so yeah my new area is awsome the members are awsome and we have a baptism on friday so its going good and time feels like its going faster which is not good, 11 weeks haha well thats pretty much the news for this week.
i love you guys and hope all goes weel with the move.
love
Elder Curtis

transferred

2010-05-17T15:51:00.001-07:00

hello family well this week has been good haha it started with a haircut finally it was getting long so now its buzzed back down, and we put 3 people with baptism dates that are gonna get baptized this saturday. we had a new family in the church with us on sunday so everythng was going really good but then changes came around, and im getting transfered, my new area isnt too far from here maybe 20min and im going to a place called churubusco but im not exactly sure where at. so yeah but change is good i like meeting new people but ill probably finish my mission there so thats cool. but i dont want to leave my house here haha im gonna miss all the space and my big closet but thats life hahaha so kim gets home in 6 weeks wow thats crazy how fast that went by, i left before her and she gets home before me hmmm not cool. so yeah not a whole lot of stuff to write about this week and not too much time because i gotta go say goodbye to all the families here so im sorry for such a short letter but ill make it up to you next week, oh and yeah i do catch a lot of crap from the members from being from arizona but they are just messin around.
well i love you guys and miss you i hope all is going good and the move and all, good luck with it all. wish i could be there to help.
Elder Curtis

Mother's Day Call

2010-05-10T14:10:00.000-07:00

well hello again haha so it was really cool talking to everyone yesterday. i cant believe that the next time i talk to you guys i will be back home, only 3 months i cant believe how fast its all gone by. well im happy to hear you guys made it back home with no problems. so yesterday when we got home my comp was saying how much he misses his family and stuff and talking to them made him miss them more because they were just talking about when he gets home and the party and all that stuff but he only has 6 months left so not to much longer, but when i talk to you guys on the phone it doesnt make me homesick or anything it actually helps me realize that this doesnt last forever and i need to focus because talking to kevin, jay, and dustin all say it goes by fast so im more focused on the things i need to be doing down here and i know when the time comes for me to leave everything will work out how it is supposed to. so dont worry about me im doing great and loving every minute of it. so yeah well i dont have a whole lot to write about having talked to you just yesterday, but i love you and happy mothers day. give the kids a hug and tell them i love them.

Elder Curtis
p.s.
the package if you want to just not worry about it haha i probably wont even be in this area by the time it gets here and then ill be close to going home so dont worry about it and we will make jerky when i get home. plus i eat way to much junk food down here as it is to get more from home. thank you though.

Carnitas! and a Cock Fight?

2010-05-04T09:14:00.000-07:00

hey family so this week has been a pretty eventfull week down here in mexico for me and Elder Ramirez well on wednesday we went on divisions with our district leaders and well it was the end of the month and it just happens to be that it was the fair of the town so the catholic people throw a big party for the birthday of the town so they have all kinds of fireworks going off 24/7 but not the ones that blow up with colors just the ones that blow up really loud haha so that was kinda annoying but imagine the fair in safford but instead of at the fairgrounds they shut down all the streets in the middle of town and put all the rides and stands in the streets so all the streets were crammed with people trying to get their cars through and carnies setting up all their stuff so it was pretty cool but at the end of the day on the way home we decided to buy some bread but not just any ol bread its called "pan de feria" haha or "fair bread" real origional but its really good its got nuts raisins and all kinds of other stuff but its really tasty so that was a good end to the day. so then on saturday we had 2 baptisms but neither of them could do it at the same time so we had 2 different baptisms one at 10 am and the other at 2 pm and then to top of the day we were invited to eat at 3 different parties for the fair, plus our scheduled meal haha and of course we cant say no so we had 4 big meals on saturday haha it was great, and for big parties the favorite meal is called "carnitas" also my personal favorite but carnitas are like deep fried ribs and different parts of the pig, but they are the best tacos ever!! so then on sunday church was good we had the confirmations and then another family invited us to eat with them so after church and our first meal we went to meal number 2 and we knock on the door and the sister opens the door and inside its like a courtyard patio thing with like 5 separate houses and in the middle their is a big ring of people and the brother of the house is running a Cock Fighting tournamant haha it was awsome i aways wanted to see a cock fight and finnaly after 21 months i got to see one well a lot actually, and we ate more carnitas it was a great day. oh and the cock fights got a little crazy when you combine a macho activity, beer and bets and it usually ends in a brawl haha and thats what happened a big fight broke out but it was all good it got rid of the problem causers. so yeah and then today we had the meeting and then played some ultimate frisbee haha a new favorite here in the mission haha well i better get going gotta go eat some waffles haha i love you guys and have a great day!!
ELDER CURTIS

power outage

2010-04-27T20:56:00.000-07:00

well hello family so yeah on monday when we came to the internet cafe we were here for 10 min and all the sudden there was a big explosion and all kinds of colors and smoke and sparks and i thought there was an accident outside but it was just that the transformer right outside the internet like blew up... it was kinda crazy so then we go walking down the street to find a new internet and as we were walking it happened again right next to us and this time some of the lines actually fell on the ground and al the people were running and screaming and stuff so it was kinda crazy so thats why but during the day a family invited us to her sons birthday party so we thought free food and cake... OF COURSE! so we helped decorate and we ate our fare share of tacos and cake and then we got to play with like 20 kids like 10 yrs old haha they rented a huge bounce house thing and me and my comp would grab the kids by their wrists and ankles and throw them onto it haha it was pretty fun but after a while we got tired to then we did jump rope with all of them haha fun stuff. So today in the morning we woke up to get ready for our zone conference and my shoulders are pretty sore from all the kids yesterday haha. The conference today was really good i enjoyed it a lot, we talked about "where we come from" about our lineage from Noah and his 3 sons Jafet, Sem, and Cam and the blessings and curses and why we were born wherever we were born so it was really interesting.
So the move sounds like its coming along pretty good getting all the loose ends taken care of, thats good people are interested in it hopefully it sells fast, how much are you asking? so im still here in the city, a place called San Pedro Martir, Tlalpan, its in the southern part of the valley up in the foothills but its still big city, our 2 wards are doing pretty good and in the city, well parts of the city we eat pretty good, but out in the small town is when you get the wierd stuff but it fun to try new stuff, tacos of cow head, cow tongue and eyes haha. so what im going to miss the most... hmmm just everything about being a missionary, all of the experiences we have on a daily basis its a combination of highs and lows and its something special to be a part of, having friends wherever we go because people recognize the name-tag and start talking to us and where they are from and stuff like. something im looking forward to would be freedom haha its a little restrictive in the mission haha seeing the family, going to school haha ive forgoten everything. and one of the most looked forward to is driving hahaha i miss it soo much. haha jk but ya so thats whats going on down here, i hope all is still going good for you guys.
i love you guys.
Elder Curtis

Ward night!

2010-04-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

April 19, 2010
hello family, so another week has come and gone and we are on the downhill side of this month so thats good, and that means its about May and that means its almost mothers day, the day i get to talk to you guys. haha i cant wait to talk to lia and sam, they are getting soo big and have changed a lot in the past 20 months. so other than that me and my companion are doing great, we are getting along really good and we are working hard. we are having success and the month of may is looking to be a good month with probably 6 baptisms this month which is really cool i hope all goes well with the people with baptism dates. we have 2 families that are ready to be baptized so im excited, i love baptizing whole families its one of the coolest things to be a part of. so yesterday we had ward conference in one of our wards and it was really good we had a new family there with us and one of our old investigators just showed up which was really cool, and the talks were pretty good i hope the members payed attention haha.
so dad got released... well it had to happen sooner or later, who got put in? and you guys are gonna start moving stuff down there, where are you gonna put it at?? well ALL my stuff, and i do mean ALL should be there haha ill have to go through it all this time i guess, organize and throw stuff away. well that is just about all i can think of thats going on for us down here, i hope you guys are doing good and arent to busy getting everything figured out for the move. well tell the kids i love them and give them hugs, i love you guys.
love,
Elder Curtis
***Bobby Udall got put in to replace Sean. He’ll do awesome!
well this week has been awsome, me and my comp are doing awsome and yes i am teaching him to speak english haha its really funny because i totally know what he feels like not understanding anything like when i first got to mexico but hes doing good. but we are tearing it up here with baptizms coming up pretty soon and the members love us here and are always feeding us and giving us food which is kinda rare here but its cool, we started a good program thing here called "ward night" haha where we pretty much just go play soccer at night on fridays and after we buy some sodas and me and my comp share a message and yeah the members invite their non member or inactive friends to come play and we usually end up teaching the whole group of like 25 people the lessons but its good even for the members to hear the lessons because its like a reminder of what we should be doing as members so its awesome i love it here in these wards i hope i stay here for the rest of my mission but who knows its up to my president, so yeah im doing great down here and loving it more and more every day.
haha just a random chunk of information for you guys haha sorry its kinda out of context but its better than nothing haha and yes im looking forward to talking to you guys, so your going to safford?? (for the Mother’s Day call) its up to you guys if you want to stay home its all good ill be home soon enough to talk to everyone else
Elder Curtis

Elder Ramirez

2010-04-12T20:32:00.000-07:00

hey family so first things first haha your questions here we get the liahona in english sometimes spanish, no i dont need the talks on cd thanks though. my new comp is mexican his name is elder Ramirez and he is from chihuahua, chihuahua and is pretty cool and we get along really good, its wierd not speaking english because ive had american comps for the last 10 months haha almost a year, and my comp speaks no english so thats kinda good to help me with my spanish. my comp has 3 months less than me so hes not exactly new we both are getting ready to finish the mission pretty soon, when he saw our house he thought i was playin a joke on him haha he wouldnt go inside causde he didnt think it was our house till he saw all my stuff haha he was pretty excited about it. so this past week we have been working really good together and showing him around the area, his old area was way out in the middle of nowhere so hes excited about being back in the big city. so yeah we are doing great here, a few weeks ago we had to speak in church which is still no fun, no way im speaking in 2 wards when i get back haha its a one time deal! so dad got the job in pima thats awsome haha the commute might be longer than it used to be going all the way to pima haha but that would be way cool to buy the house next to the welkers old house. but either way you guys will find the best thing to do and it will all work out like it should. haha its funny that the kids are already complaining about the heat and its only april haha but theyll get used to it. so yeah and in another month we get to talk on the phone for the last time till i get home haha so yeah i hope all is going good for you guys back home and i hope the family is doing better. well i better get going but i love you guys. give lia and sam hugs for me.
love
Elder Curtis

new comp Elder Ramirez

2010-04-05T16:30:00.000-07:00

Well hello family. So this week was another good week for us down here and to make it better was the general conference, and wow it was a good one and like you said a lot of it was focused on parents and mothers but I really enjoyed it. We were only able to watch the 2 sessions on Sunday but I'll read the rest in the Liahona next month because I heard they were all good like always. So other big news this week is tomorrow we have changes and my companion is leaving but he is only going to the area right next to us haha we are still in the same zone and same district so we will still be seeing eachother on a regular basis. So the elder coming here with me is Elder Ramirez he is my first Mexican companion in almost a year haha just americans haha so hopefully this will really help my Spanish so I'm happy about that. So ya that's the news that's going on down here with us.
So wow Pima huh... Haha that's cool I'm excited that you guys are starting to get all the loose ends figured out to get things going and get moved down there. I'm super excited for you guys to be down there with the family. I might have to stick around down there with you guys for a while haha.
So it sounds like your Easter weekend was exciting especially for Sam with all that sugar haha I didn't even know it was Easter till they mentioned it in the conference. So ya that's about it for this week just the same ol stuff, work work work. But I'm loving it.
well I love you guys and I hope all is going great for you guys back home give the kids hugs for me and tell em I love them and miss them soo much.
I love you,

Elder Curtis

20 months down!

2010-03-30T07:48:00.000-07:00

well hello family how is everything going for you guys this week? well for me this week has been great, we are teaching some awsome people still and they are really excited about the church so hopefully things keep going good and they can progress even more. so today was p-day and these days are always fun we had the meeting in the morning and then played some soccer and a few rounds of boxing and 2 bloody noses today so all in all it was a good day then we changed and went down to the Aztec Stadium for some good food and now we are just relaxing getting ready to wash clothes and clean house haha my favorite... NOT. so ive almost got 20 months in the mission which is crazy to think about and all my buddies from the mission are finishing their missions and going back to the real world its crazy but i think i am going to miss the mission like crazy this time that i have here is going soo fast and i know i am going to miss it, but next tuesday are the changes so we will see if i get to stay in this area or if im leaving either way i will be happy so its a win-win situation for me. so yeah other than that everything is going better than ever! i hope you guys are doing good, hows the house going?? how are lia and sam doing? lia still loving school? alright well i better get going, i love you guys soo much i dont know what i would do without you.
love,
Elder Curtis

Pics!

2010-03-23T15:03:00.001-07:00

lots of work!

2010-03-23T15:01:00.000-07:00

Hey so how's everything going back home? Well down here everything is going great! We have a lot of work going in here and it's keeping us real busy which is good. We have some people that are preparing for baptisms and progressing really good. Last Monday we took a trip up to the zocolo and downtown and did some shopping so it was a good Monday an today we played some soccer and just relaxin cleaning house and washin clothes not as exciting as last Monday but good to relax. So Ray is home now haha that's cool but he's going up to Utah that sucks everyone is up there but it's cool. So changes are coming up and I'll probably get changed but it's all good I like getting to know new areas and new people. So on Sunday we took 3 new people to church it was cool one of them was this Jehovahs witness guy that preaches in parks and in the street haha and we invited him and he was really nice and accepted so he came and said he liked it but I doubt he will come back but it was interesting. Well not much else is going on. Hopefully you guys can figure something our down there haha it's coming up quick. Well that's about it I hope all is going great.
I love you guys
Adios

Elder Curtis

he got the house!

2010-03-15T17:15:00.001-07:00

Well the news for this week is WE GOT THE HOUSE!! haha we are super stoked about that and we are planning a BBQ with the other elders at the house. Some good stuff in the plans haha and our new wards are still awsome anything we need they help us get they are amazing well one ward is awsome the other is just good. But the work here is great we are finding and teaching soo many new families not just single people, so instead of 1 we have families of 3-6ish so it's great and it's really what we as missionaries look for is whole families to save so I am loving it. The worst thing so far is we don't have money to buy gas so we will be showering cold for another few weeks, cold showers since early February haha and we shower at night so the sun can heat the water up as much as possible during the day hahaha trust me it makes a difference at least in my mind it does haha. Well the family sounds about the same 3 steps forwards 2 steps backwards just keep pluggin along little by little it will hopefully get better. The house sounds good and all the holes in my room haha ya not fun but it sounds like it's coming along good I'm excited for you guys. What are you gonna do with all the animals when you move? Alright well not much else to talk about. My comp elder decker and I are doing good just living the dream on the mission. I love it!
Well I love you guys and miss you
Mom happy 41st birthday this week hahaha
love,

Elder Curtis

2 Baptisms this week!

2010-03-09T08:41:00.000-08:00

Hey so this week has been awsome!!! We have been doing great we taught some amazing people and we had 2 baptisms on sunday and we might have found the best house EVER! the house is from a member and she just uses it to store some of their junk since they live right down the road so this house just got remodeled and is almost new it has a front and back yard haha very rare in Mexico and inside it's 4 bedrooms and a big bathroom it's got a sweet firepit and grill area on the patio it's awsome now we are just waiting for our president to authorize it so we can move in I really hope we get it haha. So the 2 baptisms were a young girl of 8 and a older man like 55 and this man has like 30 years knowing te church (wife is member) and like 10 years going to church every Sunday but never wanted to get baptized he said it was never the right time. So we didn't really do anything we just talked with him a couple times and on Sunday he came to church like normal and as we were getting the font ready for the little girl he comented to the bishop that "today was the day"! It was awsome all the members were super excited to see this man after 10 years get baptized the stake president came and most of the ward stayed for the baptism it was really neat. Other than that we are teaching some really good families that are progressing really good so ya this new area is going great I'm loving it. So yeah that's the stuff going on down here so the pictures look good I could only open some right now but I'll look at the rest later. I got the package on Friday and we opened it and between me and my comp and montalvo and his comp we ate a bag of M&Ms and a box of good and plentys it was really good haha thanks for everything the shoes work perfect. Well that's all I got for ya today I miss you and love you so much!
Adios

Elder Curtis

21st birthday

2010-03-01T17:57:00.000-08:00

Hey fam so yeah this week is still kinda a wierd one still looking for a new house in the new area but we went to our new wards yesterday to meet the members and stuff so it was cool they all seem really good and are really excited to have missionaries back in their wards and both of the ward mission leaders seem good so I'm really excited. Well bein our first day in our new area we had a lot of meeting with the bishops and stuff and not knowing anyone we didn't do anything for my birthday it was just another day. I still haven't gotten the package so who knows how much longer.
So are the Cricks living in our ward now? I think I remember you saying that where are they living at? Haha Justin is back that is soo wierd and Ray gets back in 2 weeks that's cool but yeah most of the missionaries are having trouble with emails because the myldsmail is getting changed so I think I hav a new address for the church site but I haven't really checked on it lately.

so the house sounds like it's coming along good I'm excited to see it. And hopefully grandmas operation goes good, I'm kinda worried but I'll keep her in my prayers.
Well that's about it. Not much else I can think about but I love you guys!
Adios

Elder Curtis

staying with Decker, but getting pulled from area!

2010-02-22T14:57:00.000-08:00

Hey well today we got the changes and me and Decker are staying together another change so that's good so 4 1/2 months with him which is not very common but both my American comps have been with me for that time so I guess I'm just lucky. So the other good news is we are leaving our area to open a new ward, well 2 wards. The pres finnaly took us out of this ward and no one else is going to come here so this place won't have any elders. So our new area is not to far away and we will be in our same zone and district so that's cool and we have heard some good stuff about these new wards. But this week is gonna be interesting changing wards and looking for a new house and getting to know everyone especially the sisters who feed us!! Haha so yeah this week we have been making all our food that we have in our house like deckers mom sent him a thanksgiving package with all kinds of food so this week we had mashed potato pearls with gravy it was soo good and last night we made a cranberry raspberry jello with pecans it's really good. So we still have brownies and stuffing and candied yams so we might make the rest some day. So today we played some soccer and wrestled around it was fun just relaxin and tomorrow looking for a house and new area stuff. Well not much else is going on just 4 more changes till I'm back north of the border so that's coming up soon. So the house sounds like it's comming along good wish I was there to help. Well that's all I can think of right now. Talk to ya later. I love you guys!!
Adios

Elder Curtis

boxing with Josh?

2010-02-15T16:49:00.000-08:00

Hey! Yeah so the rain stopped and the heat came, that's mexico cold hot cold hot its not too fun but everything is back to normal this week. So in our ward we are starting to have some issues and its getting pretty bad. Our bishop hasn't been to church in almost 6 weeks and our stake president has been there with us some sundays but the members are not doing good and starting problems in between the 2 big families that make up our ward. So it hasn't been to much fun but we are trying to do what we can and keep a smile on. We have been hearing rumors about our area getting closed and taking the missionaries out of it for a while which would be a good idea, so hopefully the pres. can figure something out that works... but its all good whatever he decides will work. So yeah he called us to go to his office last week and we were kinda nervous about why and then he asked to speak to me alone... haha I was super scared but he just said that the mission department finnally got back to him about my asking to go back for the police academy and i explained that it had been cancelled and he said that it all got figured out but we had a good chat and i told him i had come to the conclusion that i want to stay till August and finish so he asked if i was sure and i said yes so i'll be here only 6 more months...Crazy! its going fast. So today everyone wanted to play football and box so we met at the church and my comp agreed to box me! haha i was a little nervous but he kinda wanted too, so i agreed and my first punch landed on his jaw... which snapped him to the reality that he is really boxing a 6´8´´ 320 man haha he stopped for a second then kept going haha i felt bad. So i wasnt swinging hard but i has so much of a reach advantage i was hitting him alot, we boxed for like a minute and a half and it ended him him almost being knocked out twice a bloody nose and a massive headache hahaha I kinda felt bad but we enjoyed it! Most of the elders boxed and there was minimal blood so then we decided to play football so they kicked off to our team and i started lead blocking for the guy with the ball and my comp runs toward me to hit me so I ¨blocked¨ him haha which ended in him flying backward and hitting another elder who somehow really hurt his knee... i felt really bad for him hopefully its nothing serious. so yeah then we climbed ontop of the church and took some pictures and then to the mall so now im here and ya i kinda feel like a bully but it was fun. so i have been thinking a lot lately which is not exactly my best talent but i've really been thinking about trying to play football for a college in arizona ASU, UofA, UNLV, or up in montana with the griz. ive been thinking about it a lot but i dont know what do you guys think, tuition with books at asu and u of a is like 6,500 how much can grants give? just wondering. well thats about it just thoughts about after the mission but ya other than that all is going good and im lovin it,
i love you guys
adios
Elder Curtis

More Pictures!

2010-02-08T13:07:00.001-08:00

Josh at baptism with his old trainer, Elder Peredo (has the white badge and is on his left). Josh and Elder Decker at Arturo Estrella's baptism in Tlalpan. I love how Josh looks like a giant in these! lol

More Pictures!

2010-02-08T12:35:00.001-08:00

There is one of Josh in front of the fountain at the National Palace. 2 Pics of his District - the light haired missionary is Elder Decker his companion, the other American is Elder Montovlo( his friend from the MTC and his district leader). The very fancy dining room is in a member's home that fed them Christmas dinner...nice huh?

New Pictures!

2010-02-08T12:22:00.000-08:00

These are some pictures of Josh on the roof after all the rain. A picture of thier "house"? And one of him in the National Palace in the Zocalo (that's Lia's favorite)

flooded!

2010-02-08T12:21:00.000-08:00

well today i dont have much time so im just gonna send some pictures and a small letter, we have to tech our district meeting today so we have to plan a lesson on how to find people to teach so im sorry but hopefully the pictures will make up for it haha and the scariest thing to happen to me is pretty much nothing ha nothing has happened to me that i can remember just drunks yelling at us in the street but thats just mexico, the rains were crazy it rained for 3 days straight and was super windy it almost blew our roof off because its just sheet metal and our windows aren't sealed so water came in everywhere and there is a window right above my bed so i pretty much got rained on all night the next morning my whole bed was soaked and our house was flooded! and we were without power and water for almost 4 days then the power and water came back saturday morning so we showered and washed clothes and that afternoon it went out again till sunday afternoon it was no fun now our house smells like mildew and is super dirty so we also get to clean today, so thats about it ill send the pics and ya
i love you guys soo much!

elder curtis

not a lot of success still :(

2010-02-03T06:57:00.000-08:00

**From Cindy - So sorry this didn't get updated! Just got a new calling and it's been crazy getting it all figured out! We happened to catch him at the right time on the computer so we were able to "chat" back and forth a little. It was so fun!
Thanks so much for all the prayers on his behalf! We love our family and appreciate all the support he has!

Dear Family,
Wow 8 years happy anniversary! That's cool so ya it's going good down here another cold front hit the other day and has been raining off and on so it's cold and wet. Our family home evening project is starting out kinda rocky people canceling and plain forgeting so that's not fun of the 2 we've had one canceled the other forgot so we shall see hopefully it picks up but who knows I'm starting to think me and my comp are gonna be taken out of this area and no more elders are gonna come because the work is soo slow here but who knows feb. 20 we have changes and we will find out then. So other than that me and my comp are doing good and we are starting to write in our journals as a goal so right now at least 1 time a week and hopefully get better. So yeah but today we are just cleaning around the house and doing laundry out p days aren't that fun anymore with this new pres we can't to anything.
um so the package maybe some M and Ms I like those but whatever you get I will enjoy just not gum or hard candy I still have a bunch and no hygene products I have plenty of that stuff to last me the next 6 months haha.
And baptisms of those kids is up to the mission president to set those guidelines some after a week others after 3 or 4 like us but who knows. Well not much else to talk about haha sorry write me back if I forgot to answer something alright talk to ya later. I love you

Elder Curtis
Don't even think about messing with my stuff!!!! And i'm in mosiah 12 haha
Yeah elder allred he's my buddy he got a glass bottle busted over the back of his head and they got beat up but yeah
Elder Curtis

Oh and what's this that I hear someone from your mission got jumped? That true? Just curious...did you hear about the missionaries from Romania that died? I guess there was a gas leak in their apartment and they died in their sleep. My heart goes out to their parents.
So on a positive note....what's your favorite experience so far? Favorite scripture? Still Hel. 5:12? Favorite person that you have meet and will want to see again....anyone? Just wondering? Sorry your pday sucks. So no sight seeing? What town are you in again I have it as Tlalpan? I love you. Sam said if you don't answer that means yes!
mom

we aren't allowed to have our gas tanks inside because of accidents like that one the leaders Check to make sure they are outside
And I'm in tlalpan it's part of the city in the southern tip we are right by the center of tlalpan in the neighborhood called tlacoligia if you can find it on google earth.
And to visit or see again there are a few families that I will probably keep in contact with some are members I have reactivated and a few converts so yeah
Elder Curtis

What the heck? Are you speed reading all of a sudden? Maybe I'm understanding more than you are...
oh and your brother is crying because you won't let him trash your snow board....I tried to tell him that you still wanted it...he said you were WAY too big for it now. He said okay I won't put wheels on it he just wants to learn to snowboard now... he was watching snowboarding x games or something like that and is sure he can figure it out. he's a goof.
love you
mom

Haha I read it almost twice a day and through most of church haha
Buy Sam a cheap skateboard from ALCO or something.
Elder Curtis

That's not the point he wants your stuff...what can I say the picklehead comment ticked him off, he's bound and determined to do something to you. He's a nut. and desperatly thinks when you get home he's going to kick your trash. ha ha.
So Elder Allred, what happened? Just walking down the street? Crazy.
I'm glad you are staying awake during church. I guess I just suck. So are you at a cafe or something just scanning the web?
love you
mom

Yeah him and his comp were just walking around doing work and he had a leather jacket on cause it was cold and they beat them up. And yeah we are at a cafe
Elder Curtis

how long are you going to be there?
sorry my blog isn't current. haven't been able to get the new camera yet...soon I hope. Do you have your camera there? Uhmmm maybe a little anniversary photo gift for the mom???? I'm not above begging! love you
be good, if I don't get with you later! tell Decker him too! I messaged his Dad and said hi! ha ha
mom

And no camera with me haha
Elder Curtis

Hey hey another request for the package!!! The biggest bag of Swedish
fish you can find and the biggest bag of good n plenties and M&Ms if
you want haha thanks I love you!
Elder Curtis

speaking in church

2010-02-03T06:25:00.000-08:00

Dear family.
Yeah we are feeling better but it was not fun oh I forgot to tell you that we also got to speak in church a few weeks ago and sure enough I still hate speaking haha I spoke on charity haha our president doesn't let us speak on anything having to do with mission work it's good though some elders would ask for references and tell the members how bad they are at helping with the work haha so the bishop asked us to speak on mission work and we explained we couldn't so he gave us other topics but it's even less fun when me and my comp have the full 40 min! Not fun. So other than that the lawyer guy and his friends don't live in our area so we had to hand them over to other elders it a bummer. But this Sunday we are starting a new program with the ward because if we don't start having more success here with the members and investigators the mission president will take us both out of here and there won't be elders so we are trying a new project. We are
going to members houses like 3 different ones a week to help them with family home evenings and eventually have the families invite people to come to listen to their lesson and we will be there to help and show how to teach investigators so it should be good it was the idea of the bishopric so hopefully the members will actually participate and do something hahaha but we shall see.
So snow eh wow that's awsome I wish it snowed here I miss it a lot. It snowed in my comps house like 1 inch and his family was all excited and he was showing me pictures and stuff and then I told him how much it snowed at home. I can't believe sunrise closed from too much snow that's crazy. Haha so yeah other than that everything is going good. I hope all is great back home well gotta get to washing clothes FUN! not. I love you guys.

p.s. Haha what do you think about Vegas. Working where Ray and those guys worked? Good money... Haha you could ask Steve or collene if Daniel is hiring in a few months....? Please? Haha or get his email for me.
What is up with Lia's teeth hahaha and no I'm doing great I don't know why you think I've been down. The work in this area is super slow and not much success but that's all I'm doing great

Oh and I did check at walmart and it costs money to put them on the website so I haven't checked any further haha but I'll take some more pictures

Elder Curtis

twisted ankles/ stomach flu

2010-01-20T13:03:00.000-08:00

Hey fam so it's almost the end of January that's crazy to think about. Today we went and played soccer with the elders and it was good I'm just a little slower now I twisted my ankle last week playing soccer and it's still sore. I think I've twisted my ankles like 7 times during the mission haha and early Friday morning my comp left our room in a hurry and I soon found out why, as the sound and smell of vomiting filled our small "house" haha and that continued all morning till about 5 haha I just felt bad for him. So I went and found a store open at that time to get him a coke with lime Mexican medicine for stomach aches so Saturday afternoon we went to the zocalo to eat china buffet ( members gave us money for lunch ) so that was good but halfway through my stomach started hurting and as we got home I new there was something trying to kill me from the inside out! And that feeling lasted untill Sunday night it was not fun but I didn't vomit so that was
good haha and other than that it was the usual missionary stuff we found a lawyer guy and he invited us to his office to teach him about the book of Mormon and he invited his 3 friends so that was cool teaching them they look good but I think they live outside of our area so we shall see how that goes but yeah it was a good week for us.
My journal haha yeah I kinda stopped writing but I want to start back doing it but it's hard to do it I don't know why it just is haha maybe I'll do it once a week or something. I'll figure something out. Well I miss you guys and I hope your having a great time down there. Have you heard anything about the ranch? I'm really excited about it. I really hope it works out I think it would be a great thing for our whole family to do and I would love to help out. Maybe ride a horse again haha well I love you.
Adios

Elder Curtis

Cold in Mexico!

2010-01-12T06:16:00.000-08:00

Hey so this week has been good but the weather is terrible. It's been really cold and overcast the whole week and our house is freezing! And it's been raining for the past 3 days but it should let up till Wednesday ad then another cold front is due to hit. So the winters in Mexico are not what I thought they were. COLD. but it's my last one so I'm not to bummed. So tomorrow is the changes but I'm with my comp another 6 weeks i can't believe how fast this last 6 weeks flew by. So yeah everything here is going great we might go to wal-mart today so I will check on that picture part. So how's Ray doing have you talked to his parents? Is Tell gone yet? Well I'm excited for you guys to go down to safford to live there I think it will be fun. I'm still trying to decide about school or what to do when I get back, but there is still some time. I'm still kinda thinkin about coming back a month early just to have some time to figure everything out before it's too late for school and stuff. What do you think about that like July 13 just a thought. So grandma is going in for surgury? When? Where? I hope she's getting better. Well other than that not much is going on here just work work work keeping us busy. My birthday package. Hmmm maybe those shoes. Candy haha no hard candy I still have a lot from last year a big bag of jolly ranchers from Shonna so M&Ms are good nuts anything. Pictures anything you want. Well that's all I can think of now if I think of anything else I'll send another one later. Thanks so much for everything I love you guys!
Adios

Elder Curtis

Hey so quick note I would like some GOOD AND PLENTYS in my package like a good amount of them haha if you can I've been wanting those petty bad lately haha so yeah I'll think about the whole coming home timeline. But other than that all is good I can't remember what else I was going to tell you.... Hmmmm who knows. Well that's all I love you

Elder Curtis

exciting day....not!

2010-01-05T06:18:00.000-08:00

Hey sorry it took me soo long to write today was kinda long and boring just cleaning and washing clothes still not the suit haha but soon hopefully. So this letter will br short cause it's late but I might write some more tomorrow to finish up so this week was good we worked pretty hard and our work payed off we had a new person at church yesterday so that was cool his name is Juan David and he's 18 so hopefully he will stick with it and get baptized. Umm my comp said that D'anne is his aunt so that's cool. And Paige is engaged haha yeah I was talking to her a few Months back and she said she was planning the engagement for December haha but that's cool her fiancé sounds like a good guy. It just wierd to think about people getting married haha Anyways so Lia has eye problems already haha I hope she won't need glasses that would be a bummer. So she is still loving school huh and how's she gonna like being told she had to be home-schooled?? Might want to ease her into that one it should be interesting. *(side note from Cindy - the homeschooling issue is part of a much larger dilema. Lots of possibilities for our adventure in Safford. Before we can leave acquiring jobs and selling the house need to happen...soon!!! )
So new thoughts .... I've been thinking a lot about what to do after the mission if I want to go to school or just work It would be better to at least have an assoc. In something rather than nothing but I just can't decide something to do with criminal justice but not limited to that field only ya know. So if you guys could give me some feedback haha your thoughts would be nice. Other than that it's going great and the new year looks good already! I can't wait to see what it has in store lots of good stuff. Well I better get going tell the kids I love them and I love you guys.
Adios

Elder Curtis

Christmas Day

2009-12-29T09:37:00.000-08:00

Hey well that sounds like you guys has a good christmas I can't believe you guys tricked them soo bad with the wii so how is it do they like it. So other than that how was Christmas did you have eggs Benedict and I can't believe the kids slept till 8 that's crazy. So other than that my week was good on Christmas day we got invited for dinner with a family that is really cool the sister invited us to her sisters how's where her whole family was at to eat so she gave us the direction and as we got off the metro the area looked pretty fancy and there was a huge park we had to cross so we found the building and went to go inside and 3 guys asked us what we were doing there so we told them who invited us and they agreed an showed us to the elevator so we passed through the lobby which is nicer than our house and got onto the elevator and pushed number 6 so on our ride up I asked what number it was and he said no number just floor. So I was like oh great we will have to knock forever to find her then I said what if it's like the movies and this elevator is her actuall front door an it opens up into her house... So as we finally arrived the door opened an it was her house it was crazy! So we walked in and her family greeted us an blah blah blah we sat down to eat and my comp noticed there were candied yams! I was in shock it's been forever since I had those an never in Mexico so we started eating and there were soo many people there and a lot knew English a lot of them live in Miami so we talked for awhile and yeah turns out their dad ownes a big international company that sells woman underwear and is very welthy so we were talking to his 2 kids who are close to our age and it was was pretty cool to talk to people about stuff in English so it was pretty good Christmas nice and easy not the usual crazyness so that was good. So today we went to wall mart and to the mall to walk around and check stuff out an then had our district meeting and yeah everything is all good and nothing has changed since When we talked haha so this letter is not too exciting. Well that's it really I better get going gotta study for tomorrow
I love you guys!
Adios

Elder Curtis

selected according to size!!! lol

2009-12-15T10:11:00.000-08:00

Alright family. So this week was a great week my new area is slowly getting better even if the work is slow. We had a baptism 2 Sundays ago and his confirmation this past Sunday and then this past thursday i got a random call from our district leaders asking if I could baptize someone in a different zone on Saturday so we checked our plans and agreed turns out the woman who was getting baptized was really nervous and didn't trust the 2 tiny mexicans to baptize her so she said she didn't want to be baptized so they were talking to her and showed her a picture of me and asked if she would trust me to do it, ( because of my size haha ) so she agreed I showed up there on Saturday and as soon as she saw me she got the biggest smile on her face and just said thank you soo much ( she was nervous because of her size and she didn't trust the other elders to do it ) so we did the baptism and her mom got batized right before her so it was a neat experience and she was soo happy. So other than that last Saturday the 12th was the day of the virgin Guadalupe and the day fireworks were going off all over the city so we got on top of our roof 5 stories up and just sat up there at night watching all the fireworks go off over the whole city it was awsome. We had our ward dinner for Christmas and about 45 people showed up which was most of the active ward ( very small ward 50-60 people) and that was good and then on Sunday a family invited us for dinner so we went with them and the dad in the family is an amazing cook he cooked the carnitas last week and hamburgers my first week here and this time it was steak like fillet I don't know but it was really thin cut and grilled with longaniza like chorizo but in tubes like sausage very tasty!!! And after dinner his kids wanted to play monopoly so we agreed and play spong bob monopoly haha and 2.5 hours later I came out the winner!!! Haha it was awsome I love that game. So yeah that was the excitement for this week Monday we went to the mall and just walked around saw the Santa clause there haha Mexican version haha so that was fun and ya another good week. Oh before I forget I think we are going to call on the 24 if that is ok at whatever time you want because the 25 we are super busy and the 24 we are eating at a house where we can use the phone so I will get the number for you and that should be good to go. Just let me know on the time morning afternoon whenever but that's it I love you guys and I'll get a letter for Lia and Sam this week and in the mail next week when we have the meeting. Well that's it
I love you

Elder Curtis

2009-12-07T18:16:00.000-08:00

Well first things first... Transfers... Haha my new comp is an American and his name is elder decker from California you might know some of his family his mom is from verdon new Mexico and his aunt ladon lives in safford and is the band or choir teacher at one of the schools his parents both met at EAC and elder decker is planning on going to eac when he gets back next fall with me. Our new area is pretty cool we are in a place called Tlalpan in the center a little south of the estadio azteca our area some very wealthy parts and some not so parts but the rich part is all gated off and we can hardly get in so that's not fun because it's like half our area and it's on a golf course but the area we can work in has a lot of hills haha so I get a good work out. On Sunday we had a baptism of a 12 kid who's family was all inactive but are now slowly getting back in the habit si that's good the family is awsome. So me and my comp get along really good he's pretty funny. In my new zone it's pretty cool my new district leader is elder montalvo yeah my comp in the MTC from Mesa so that's awsome. So the new ward is really good I like it but it's mostly older people very few young people the active number is about 50 so hopefully we can improve on that. So in my new area we have the best invention EVER we have a taco buffet!! It's amazing last time we went there on Friday I ate 30 tacos and a bowl of soup!! It was awsome and the best part is it only cost 50 pesos so like not even 4 dollars and we just got back from playing soccer and basketball and now we are going with a bunch of missionaries so it should be interesting but I'm not gonna eat 30 I about threw up last time it brought back memories of the Vegas fatty trip at the buffet hahaha so yeah but we have to go eat but I'll write some more later when we get done but I love you thanks for everything!
Love

Elder Curtis

Alright so we just got back from eating and some shopping I was looking for some soccer shoes at the Nike store cause they had a deal going on some really cheap shoes but we got there and the biggest they have is a 12 so I was out of luck again my pumas are going to blow out soon but hopefully I can figure something out other than that I ate 25 tacos and a tortilla soup soo good. And yeah that was the excitement for today now it's off to do laundry and read!! I'm gonna finish the book of Mormon before conference so in the last 2 days I've read 1st nephi and wow I have never read soo much hahaha and it's only like 52 pages hahaha I don't like reading at all never have. But you should try reading the book with me haha when was the last time you guys read the whole thing?? Well just something to think about.

Love

Elder Curtis

Transferred again!

2009-11-30T19:56:00.000-08:00

Wow officially December I can't wait for Christmas haha well today we went to play soccer as usual an they told us I have changes!!! So this is gonna be a super short letter because I have to pack and a lot of other stuff to do in a short amount of time so I'm going to a place called Tlalpan it's right next to one of my other areas by the Estadio Azteca so I'm excited to be back in the city I can't wait. It was getting too cold out here in the towns it's gets to like high 30 low 40 at night and in the day 65-70 it's nice during the day but at night it's COLD! I can't stand it but the city is a little bit warmer buy we shall see how it goes. My new comp is American so that should be good I was hoping for a Mexican to better my Spanish but that's life alright well I better get going lots to do in a little amount of time. I love you guys soo much and hope you guys had a great thanksgiving! Next time I'll be there!! Haha that's cool well thanks for everything
Adios

Elder Curtis

speaking out on a combie!

2009-11-23T15:58:00.000-08:00

Wow that's so wierd to think that Ross and Trevor are already home that's crazy and next is Landon then Ray and Justin in February and march I think. Time goes so quick but I'm excited to see the changes in everyone. So this week was really good it started on Wednesday when we went to our district meeting and when we got there we saw the assistants to the president there it was a little wierd to see but I was excited because they are awesome elders and always teach us amazing things. So after the meeting they walk up to us and ask us if it's alright if they can come and work with us in our area today.... I was shocked to hear that but said of course I couldn't wait to see what I could learn working beside one of the best elders in the mission so we left and got to work and we started in the combie ( the transportation it's like a van full of people) we were just talking normal when all the sudden he started speaking loudly to the whole van full of people explaining how we are missionaries and what we are here to do to help the people come closer to Jesus Christ and stuff so at first I didn't know how to react and how the people would react but the people were interested and wanted to hear more so we took their info adress and that stuff and ya it was cool to see the people be surprised but then open up and accept and even though not everyone accepted it was a cool experience and when we got off he asked me if I had ever done that before and I said no so he said today is the day... Haha I was nervous but the next time we got on a combie he nudged my arm and said your turn haha it took me a little bit to convince myself but I did it! And it was so hard haha all those people looking at a huge guy talking to them and asking if we can go to their homes and teach their families but it was good and we got some really good families to teach so this week is gonna be a good one. So the rest of the day was awsome teaching everyone and learning from someone who knows soo much so yeah it was a good day and after they came and checked our house to make sure our living conditions are good or if we need anything beds desks chairs stuff like that so it was a good day my comp is gonna get a new bed so he's excited haha other than that it was a pretty normal week just workin and workin but this week on Wednesday we have a conference with Elder De Hoyos of the seventy it's gonna be good I can't wait for that and then this next Tuesday we have changes and I'm thinking I'm gonna get changed but we will know Sunday night but it would be cool to spend Christmas here with the people I've known for some time but we shall see but yeah this coming week should be a good one for us but I better get going I hope you guys are doing good and hope you have a great thanksgiving with everyone I almost forgot it was so close haha no one knows what it is here but anyways I miss you guys and hope you are doing good. I love you all!
Adios y cuidese

Elder Curtis

teaching the gospel

2009-11-17T06:13:00.000-08:00

Well this week has been pretty good we are teaching some really amazing people the trick is to keep them going and not get lazy and stop going and that's the hard part but some people are ready and some people need some time but I love it seeing people really get excited about the church it really keeps me going here I'm gonna miss that part especially seeing the people and families that we have taught and baptized and the gratitude they have is amazing. But other than that we got a new ward mission leader and he is awesome and has some really good ideas for the ward to get them involved in the mission work. One of the activities we have planned is we are going as the ward to knock doors in a town to share a Christmas message and get references for us I'm really excited for that to see the whole ward get excited about spreading the gospel so I'll let you know how that goes. Other than that we have 2 baptisms set up for the 28th of this month hopefully it all goes well with them and they follow through. As far as me and my companion go haha we are getting along great he is awesome and hilarious we are always laughing which is good it helps the day seem shorter haha so this past weekend we had our stake conference and we the missionaries as our zone got to sing a special number it was good I liked it and also there was a guy that just got returned from his mission for health problems and he was in Rays mission and turns out they were companions so we spent a while telling stories his name is Elder Blanco. So I gotta write Ray and let him know. But yeah that's crazy that Ross is already home and Trevor is almost home that's awesome you'll have to tell them I said hi haha well I better get going gotta get a little work out in before we leave haha thanks for everything and I miss you guys and I love you!

Elder Curtis

Pictures!

2009-11-16T09:54:00.001-08:00

more pics!

2009-11-16T09:52:00.001-08:00

New Pictures!

2009-11-16T09:50:00.001-08:00

Comps bday celebration?

2009-11-09T18:29:00.000-08:00

Wow this week went by fast but it was good in our conference with the president he extended a challenge to look for families to teach not just individuals so this week we have been doing that and it has worked really well we have about 3 or 4 really good families in teaching right now and it is cool to see them all progress as a family unit hopefully they will all keep on track in preparation for their baptisms but other than that I am doing good my comps birthday went well all things considered. We got to the house sat down and we ate, the sister made us Pozole!! Yum and when we got done we realized we didn't have a cake..... So the search begun one of the other elders got my comp and were on their way to the store to get a cake and the guy at the house gave them the keys to his car to go in and as they were pulling out I decided to go with them so we get in the car and this thing is a real piece of work or lack of it sucked haha the transmission was horrible and the clutch was going out so we head out and we make it prob 7 blocks and the car just dies... So we coast to a stop haha it was funny the thing was floored and was going about as fast as I jog... Slow. So it dies and wouldn't start so we waited a minute and it starts so we were back on track it got to the cake store and we realized the cakes were WAY too expensive for how much we cared about my comp haha so we decided not to buy one so we get to the car and it won't start and soo they tell me to push it up around the corner so I did and then it starts and we make it about a block and dies again and I had to push us out of the other cars way on a one way street so this pattern continues for about an hour... So I am super tired by this point so we decided to let the car and me rest for a little bit and then it finnaly started and limped back to the highway so we get to the highway and it dies again so we started (we) pushing until this van drove by and honked and kept going and then 5 min later came back and offerred a tow!!! Oh yeah it was awsome they know the elders from that town and own the gym they all go to so they helped us out and turned out he is like a pastor at a church there but he is way cool and respects us so we finally get back to the house and walk in and the guy just starts laughing at us all tired and sweaty and says I knew that was going to happen!!! Haha I didn't find it soo funny and asked well why did you offer your keys?? Haha so that was our little trip on Monday and other than that we hung out with the lions and tigers and stuff again and saw the lion and the tigres mating... That was wierd to see 2 different animals doin the dirty but it was funny so yeah that was the happenings of the week.
So what tree did they cut down in Phoenix or the one in springerville? And yeah in the robbery we didn't break it up but we weren't exactly kicking him in the mouth either haha so yeah good stuff going on down here I love it I am deffinatly gonna miss it but I'm gonna make the most of what time I have left. Well tell eveyone I love them and have a great week
I love you
Adios y cuidense,

Elder Curtis

Elder Perez from Chiapas

2009-11-04T05:45:00.000-08:00

Josh got a hold of me and let me know that one of his friends from his mission died. They just had a multi zone conference where the Mission President explained what happened. Elder Perez had been sick and the doctors there told him it was a kidney infection. He ended up going home and later died from appedicitis. So very sad. A member of the seventy will be going to Mexico to talk with the missionaries there. My prayers go out to Elder Perez' family and friends and those in the mission field that knew him and loved him that they may find comfort and peace.

Day of the Dead

2009-11-02T10:59:00.001-08:00

Hey so this week has been eventfull so first of it's the day of the dead celebration and it's pretty cool but the people have like one big mixed idea about it haha the holiday is 2 days the first two days of Nov and people put out their huge offerings to their dead family members. The first they celebrate the innocent saints or AKA the little kids. And the second day is for everyone else and each house has a big offering full of food candy tequilla and lots of stuff in particular the favorite meals of the dead people so that's cool to see. And another cool thing is they make a special bread here only on these days called "pan de muerto" or "dead bread" it's really good and most eat it with coffee or chocolate milk soo good!!! So other than that all the kids dress up and they call it Halloween and they go around asking for candy so they have like 2 parts to the day of the dead the traditional and the new stuff but it's fun.
Other news yesterday we were at church and we just finished and we were outside talking with 2 guys that are 20 yrs old one we just baptized a few weeks ago and all the sunden Alejandro gets a phone call and he freaks out and throws his books on the ground and runs out on the street and starts yelling "where are you! Where are you!" and then tells us his sister is getting robbed in the ATM up the street so we go running up the street when we see a group of people running toward us so as they get closer we see they are chasing a guy and the guy they are chasing has a pistol!! So we get him kinda cornered between us and a wall and one of the guys who was chasing him(they were mechanics) threw a concrete covered brick at him and hit him right in the head! So he falls down and everyone jumps on him and kicks the gun away and then the mechanics start to beat him bad stomping on him everywhere (I'm surprised they didn't break any bones) but he did loose some teeth. So by this time our bishop and a bunch of the men in our ward showed up and then a cop showed up an asked what was going on and found out he robbed a 13 year old girl at gunpoint the cop kicked him! It was crazy the gun turned out to be fake so the cop handcuffs him and the robber sits up against the wall COVERED in blood(the brick busted a good hole in his head) and Alejandro looked through his pockets and found the money and card of his mom and one of the councelors to the bishop took video of it for evidence so the cops can't steal the money but it was crazy. So other than that happening it was a pretty normal week. We are going to celebrate my comps birthday today now that we have our money for the month and it should be fun! Haha my comp turned 26 haha but tell Sam I said happy birthday and a few spankins for sure. So yeah we were actually riding in the cage with the jaguar and the owner guy but no we didn't get any pics because the jag didn't like riding around I the cage through the city with all the lights and noise so we decided it be better not to improve the chances of is getting eaten because of a camera flash so that's a bummer but I'll send more animal pics soon well I better wrap this up haha hope you liked my story

Elder Curtis

New Comp Elder Castillo

2009-10-26T18:18:00.000-07:00

Well this week has been great on Tuesday we had changes and I got my new comp elder Castillo he's from Trujillo Peru and has 19 months in the mission he's cool super funny so we get along great so this week has been going good a lot of stuff half out area was shut down because people were picketting in the streets and blocked the 2 roads that lead to the other half of our area so we couldn't go there the whole week but it's open now. So the other day the guy that owns the lions and stuff asked if we could help him do a show with the animals at a party for a kid so we agreed and so we helped him get the snakes, I held a boa it was crazy so then we put the lion in the truck and then the jaguar but there was no room for us in the truck so we had to ride in back with the animals but the tiger and jag don't get along so we had to ride with the jaguar!! It was cool my comp got a little scared when it started getting rough with us he thought it was gonna eat us but it just nibbled so at the show the owner tied the jag up to a fence and it was waiting for her turn to go out when a firework went off and she got spooked and got loose and took off but she went towards the backyard and not towards the people thankfully! But other than that the show was good. So other than that the week was good
So the family is gonna sell the ranch that's a bummer I wish they would keep it but oh well it will be easier on you guys but now what's the plan for you guys now. Well I better get going I miss you guys and love you guys!

Elder Curtis

St. Lucas day

2009-10-19T12:24:00.000-07:00

well this week went by pretty quick we barely got changes this morning so tomorrow morning my comp elder perez is leaving and going back to the city so thats cool and im getting another and staying in my area so im happy my new comp is Elder Castillo hes from Peru so its gonna be cool i know him from one of my other areas so i cant wait im finnaly gonna get the good matress and the good desk so im pumped hahaha so thats the big news for today so the other news is last night we got invited by a family to go eat dinner with them to celebrate the "party of the town" (each town has a saint, and each saint has a day and yesterday was the day of st. lucas) so there was a huge party LOTS of food there was tacos of Carnitas its fried pork but the best tacos EVER and chicken en mole which is also super good so it was a great party! then we played some backyard soccer and then went to the center of the town and there was a fair so we were walking around with the family and they were playing games and i won a sweet prize! its a homer simpson piggy bank haha and i wont it by breaking 2 beer bottles with 3 rocks hahah totally my game. and then we played a lot of other stuff and won some sweet stuff and then we walked by a mechanical bull and the family was begging me to get on it so after trying to get away they got me on it haha it was funny i lasted the full 8 and then some and ripped my pants haha it was great and then we got my comp on it for his first time ever it was a good time, then it was the fireworks and they were way cool we were right next to them like 20 ft from them and they were exploding right above us. great time! so other than that we are gonna go with the owners of the tigers and lions to take them swimming! this week we are taking them to a pool and they are gonna swim around for a while and take some cool pics so im super excited for that. but other than that the zone baptism was alright haha our zone leaders planned the whole thing to try to look good for the president but they planned it pretty bad and hardly anybody showed up and there were only like 10 baptisms but it was good it just didnt look good on the zone leaders trying to show off haha but its all good they will learn sooner or later, but other than that we had 4 new people come to church with us and 1 old investigator so it was a really good week and tomorrow a new companion so we will see how that goes, but thats the news for the week well i better get going thanks for everything haha i might have to start training for that police acadamy.... hmmm we`ll see, im excited for it, so this morning i weighed myself and im pushing 325-ish so im hoping to come back in the 2`s so im excited to see whats gonna happen in these next 8 months lots to look forward to. good stuff. well i better get going i love you guys soo much and hopefully you guys figure out this whole safford thing and everyone is supportive of it. well i hope you guys are doing good and we beat safford this weekend! love ya
Love
Elder Curtis

busy pday

2009-10-13T07:20:00.000-07:00

well this week has been good we put another person with a baptism date so we are going to have 3 baptisms in the the few weeks so thats great. so other than that i didnt know grandma had a tumor thats not good i hope shes doing good and getting better, where is she living at? well other than that this week we had plans to go climb a big hill in our area that over looks all of the valley but it was all smoggy so that was a bummer, we were gonna hike it at 6 30 to see the sun come up over the volcanoes but it was real cloudy so that changed the plans to soccer and basketball just the usual so yeah this saturday we are having a baptism service as a zone and our president is gonna come talk and the stake pres as well so it should be good and then on the 20th so next tuesday we have changes soo maybe one of us will leave but it will prob be my comp but its all good i like this area pretty good so im happy i might get another new missionary so thats always good at staying motivated in the work haha. so other than that hows the family going, what day is sams birthday? well other than that im doing good getting along good with my comp and loving the mission its gonna be wierd and hard to leave this place after soo long and go back to the real world again but i am loving my time here! well i better get going lots to do today i love you all
adios y love
Elder Curtis

More pics from the waterfalls!

2009-10-05T14:28:00.001-07:00

More pics from the waterfalls!

2009-10-05T14:25:00.000-07:00

More pics from the waterfalls!

2009-10-05T14:22:00.001-07:00

conference

2009-10-05T13:56:00.000-07:00

Hey family, so this monday is a relax day we are still trying to recover from the waterfalls haha but i loved it so today we are just hanging out with fullmer. so conference was really good, i really liked priesthood session and elder hollands talk a lot! but we watched it at the stake center with everyone else. It was 10 hours, translated into a very monotone Spanish. so homecoming was this week thats cool, thats a bummer that they just played window rock and it wasnt too exciting but thats how it is sometimes haha! so this week we found a family that we are hoping to baptize in 3 weeks of 5 people thats pretty exciting the dad is inactive but wants to come back into the church with his family so i was pretty happy that they found us in the street one day. so the work here is doing good but i havn't heard anything on samoa, but ill look on the internet right now but other than that me and my comp are getting along pretty good and having success but other than that not much has happened haha this week we had a zone conference and our president gave us a quiz on preach my gospel he said we should have it memorized by the end of our mission so im excited to study it more, another thing in my interview i asked him about school and going back a change early and he said to check the dates and stuff and to tell him at the changes on the 20th because he needs to talk to the mission dept. to clear it. but im pretty sure thats what i want to do and a bonus would be the 4th of july and the 24th and to figure out school, but thats what im thinking. so what do you think about that. but other than that thats all i can think of right now haha im sorry my letters are so lame. alright well ill talk to you later
i love you guys and miss you, give hugs to lia and sam
love ya
Elder Curtis
hey im not sure what the waterfalls are called but they are right bext to a town called san rafael so maybe you can find em. As far as the clothes thing right now im good with clothes but a cool tie i wouldnt mind, but not a boring one, its gotta look good haha. and dont worry im not gonna be dumb about the most important decision of this life! haha you gotta trust me at least a little bit, anyways i gotta gobut ill think of anything i want for the package and right you again so you know thanks. Hey what day did nana die? I got a letter from her dated the 19th and a check. It meant a lot to me. love ya

Waterfalls in Mexico

2009-09-28T20:32:00.000-07:00

Wow this week was amazing. We baptized a guy our age his name is Lesly and he's the one with the lions an tigers and his mom came to watch and she said she's interested in what the church is about so hopefully in a few weeks we can baptize her. (he answered Lia's questions about what the animals all felt like) So the lions and tigers and jaguar all felt really soft, the lion was the most rough and the jaguar was really smooth but really really strong!! He was trying to pull me closer to eat me! But it was really cool! But today was even better. We went up to the waterfalls it was really long to get up there a 40 min bus ride then a 20 Mon hike up through the town to the trailhead and pay 6 pesos and the trek started!! Exactly 5 hours later and 15 miles we were back at the bottom and super tired but it was amazing we went with elder Fullmer and his comp and it was so much fun I took almost 200 pictures so I'll try and send some later on but it was soo intense it was not even a real trail most of It we were in a river
bed so we got wet and muddy but it was great. So yeah those were the happenings of this week it was sweet well I will try and write more and send more pictures!!! Well I love you
Elder Curtis

Jose Gonzalez

2009-09-28T20:28:00.000-07:00

Back a few weeks ago Josh mentioned that he baptised a man in a wheelchair. He finally sent pictures of that man. His name is Jose Gonzalez.

More pictures from the wildlife preserve!

2009-09-28T20:25:00.001-07:00

Very short video with a jaguar!

2009-09-27T15:39:00.000-07:00

New Pictures!

2009-09-27T15:20:00.000-07:00

We were so excited to come home and find he had found time to send us some pictures! We love getting baptism pictures! Earlier he had the opportunity to go to an investigators wildlife preserve and the pet the animals! Love it!

"Welcome to the Jungle!"

2009-09-22T09:01:00.000-07:00

Wow! today was awsome we finally went and took pictures with the lions tigers and jaguar it was awsome! i got to touch all of them through the fence and i took a ton of pictures it was soo cool, the jaguar was trying to eat us he was a little onery but was awsome!! i grabbed the paw of the jaguar and we got some great pictures and some sweet video!! it was awsome then they had some other stuff like a lynx and a racoon it was kinda funny and some geese and some little bunnies running around. so that was the excitement of the day today and we took 2 other elders, elder fullmer and his comp it was a lot of fun! During the week we also had some good success and we have a baptism set up for this saturday so it should be great i cant wait but i have to go but ill write more in a little bit i miss you and love you!!
Elder Curtis

Unfortunately he never wrote back :( We are so grateful that he's doing so well! I love that he usually sounds so postive, even when I'm sure there have been struggles. I can't wait to see pics and video!
-Cindy

Rainy season/ plans

2009-09-14T16:47:00.000-07:00

Hey fam so this week has been really good. On Sunday we had 4 investigators come with us for their first time and they liked it so that is awsome looks like we have some baptisms compng up this month probably like 4 so that is pretty sweet. Other than that I can't believe papa and patty are home that is crazy. How are they? Are they different or pretty much the same. So yeah if you could get the life story of nana for me that would be great. That's awsome so many people showed up to her service. So this week me and elder perez are doing good I'm pretty happy about being with him another change we do have it pretty good together being both Americans it's fun although I do get along with the mexicans they are sometimes difficult so it's good. So on a differnt note the weather here is pretty wet every morning it looks so be a bright and sunny day but every afternoon and night it rains and rains so we get wet a lot but it's better than 110 in phoenix! Haha.

So lia is not enjoying the first grade very much haha and she can swim thats impressive, so hows sam doing with being at home all day?? is he excited for next year to go to school? soo what happened to dads truck?? did he drop a tree on it?? haha thats a bummer and now its competely dead... doesnt run anymore?? wow thats not good. so chelsey and richard had to move out, did they get that house finished in time to move into or what, or are they buying a house out buy bernie's?? so have you guys thought of where abouts you are wanting to live down there?? out by dustin and amy would be cool and quiet, out by the kemptons as well, or in thatcher i like it over there, haha just wondering if you guys had any options you were looking at?? hows the real estate market going is it expensive? i had always thought of buying a house when i got back, by the college and rent it to students so they could help make the payments haha random ideas i have, but still an option for me, i have thought about where i want to go to school, more options in mesa but family in safford, steve johnson is not teaching anymore so thats a big downfall to EA and i have been thinking about going back and playing football at mesa... so who knows, what are your thoughts on all of that?
so ther than that im doing really good, i have just over 13 months in the mission and its going by soo fast its crazy but i love it, i got a letter from trevor the other day it sounds like he is doing good, he comes home soon right?? so next time you see chess or shane puch them for me and tell them quit being bums and do something and go on a mission!! haha well i better get going sorry its short today i try to tell you guys everything but my mind goes blank and starts wondering when i start writing haha but you get most of it haha. well i love you guys soo much tell lia and sam i love them and to be good or else....
thanks for all your support your the best!!
adios
Elder Curtis

lions and tigers oh my!

2009-09-08T07:14:00.000-07:00

hey hows it going? so papa and patty are getting ready to come home thats crazy, i remember when they got their call it feels like not too long ago... so how was the funeral... before i forget i was wondering if i could get a copy of her life story so i could read it. how many people were there??
so down here its been good this week it was the last week of the change so we were thinkin one of us was going to leave and most likely my comp soo he was packing up some stuff and saying goodbye to people all week and last night at 11pm we called the zone leaders to get the changes and they started off by saying..."your not gonna believe it... but your both staying." so we are going to be together another 6 weeks which is cool so 4 1/2 months at least with elder perez, in other news we are teaching a guy who is 20 years old whos family has like a wildlife preserve or something but they have 2 lions male and female, 2 tigers male, female and 2 jaguares male female its crazy and he said next time we go to teach him we are going to get them out and take pictures with them!!! im soo excited ive never been that close to those animals before, we were right next to them one fence between us and them and i almost touched the tiger but thought better not to hahaha, but the guy we are teaching asked us what he had to do and when he could get baptised so i was pretty excited about that he is awsome and wants to serve a mission so that made my week, other than that we played soccer today and someone had the great idea to play americans vs the mexicans... in my experience this never ends good and soo far my experience proves correct, today we about had like 5 fights on the field it got pretty intense with the mexicans winning the first game 7 to 2 but the americans never give up we won game number 2, 7 to 4 but there were good amounts of blood and fat lips but its all good and we cooled down with some intense rounds of ping pong so all in all today was one of the better P-days haha so the biggest mexican holiday is coming up on the 15th of september its like the 4th of july for this country and involves a lot of beer, weapons and fireworks... its gonna be awsome!!!
so yeah im hoping to head home a change early to get school taken care of and get on that, but i just have to clear it by pres. but im not thinking it will be a problem, but i just dont want to get back right before school starts and then have to leave 3 days after i get home, so thats my thinkin behind this plan. so other than that this week has been good and hoping to have another good one well other than that i love you guys and hope you have a good week and i miss you!
adios y cuidense mucho,
Elder Curtis

early release?

2009-09-01T08:29:00.000-07:00

hi, so s is going to the north, lucky kid. so this week has been good we put 4 people with baptism dates and had 3 families come to church with us so thats always a good day. so today on our p day we had to go work in the morning so that kinda ruined the day because we went to meet this guy to teach and he never showed so we wasted a lot of time and money on our one day a week to enjoy normality, and a lot of other stuff happened that pretty much ruined our day, so other than that we did eat some panda express china food GOOD and my comp got panda AND burger king haha he eats soo much and like 2 cones, haha so other than that... im still trying to get the package together to send home so be patient haha
so hows the family doing? im not sure what's going on but my advice from what im hearing is just mind your own business and let the others do what they want and hopefully they will see that its not the way it should be done but i wouldnt suggest trying to make people change, i know i dont work like that, when people try to make me change i usually rebel and do anything but change so maybe thats how the family is just try to lead the way and set the example and hopefully the others will follow and realize for themselves that something has to change, so thats my little Dr. Phil moment hahaha
so h is getting big eh... we'll see about that when r gets back in march and can beat up on him haha oh so serious question time.... what do you think about me coming home 6 weeks early to go to school...?? ill get back on August 11th and school would start a week later, or i can talk to my president and see about going a change early (6 weeks) so i can find housing and do all the paperwork before school starts ive been really thinking about it for a while now and im kinda in favor of doing it, coming back early. but i still have to clear it with my boss aka the president, so thats what im thinking but i just want to hear your thoughts on the matter, well i better get going sorry this letter is kinda lame, ill get a good one to you next week. i love ya and have a great week, give lia and sam hugs and tell em i love em! i miss you guys haha 11 months( maybe only 10, coming home early hahah) i love you
adios y cuidense,
Elder Curtis

Lockdown

2009-08-24T20:30:00.000-07:00

This week Josh's Great Grandmother passed away. I worried about letting him know, just because things seem a little stressed for him right now. Grandma Ellsworth was 90 and had lived a long and wonderful life. I know she's proud of him and loved hearing all about his mission. Josh is blessed to have such wonderful examples in our family. - Cindy

well thats a big bummer about grandma, im really gonna miss her. you should take pictures (lots) at the funeral and stuff, well that was just a quick letter because we are coming back later tonight to get back on because our president has locked everyone in their areas, no one can leave for anything and no one has permission to go anywhere! so lots of free time today but ill write you some more later, other than that my week has been alright just normal a little hard with the new pres. but thats life. other than that its going good normal stuff haha well i will write more later
i love you
Elder Curtis

hey im not gonna be able to write you back again im sorry but this week has been good dont worry about me ill be fine, i hope you guys are doing good and have a great week, i miss you guys soo much and love you lots
adios
Elder Curtis

sight seeing p day

2009-08-19T07:13:00.000-07:00

I waited all day for my letter...Mondays are pretty emotional! I know he's busy and has things to do and there may come a time when I don't get a letter. We have been so blessed that Josh sends us great letters each week. I just need to know that he's safe and ok. Finally I got a short letter!
- Cindy

hey today we went sight seeing in downtown today so we just got back after being in traffic for a few hours soo im going to be writing you guys tomorrow with my actual letter, im really sorry to put you guys off but its really late. well i love you guys soo much
adios,
elder curtis

So on Tuesday we got this letter!

hey! how are you guys, so yesterday was crazy busy we went to the city and went shopping for some little stuff and just to hang out and get out off the small towns haha so we went to buy some ties for the other 3 elders i was with and then to some "tiangies" those are like a market where you can find ANYTHING so we bought some cool stuff and im trying to get a package ready to send home so if there is anything that you guys want you should tell me, i found some cool leather scripture cases but they are about $80 i dont know why soo expensive but im still looking, i almost got some crocodile skin cases!!! i still might!! haha there is everything here. so then we went to the central plaza and took some pictures and some some street performances like break dancers and stuff and then we found this china food buffet for 50 pesos so like almost 4 dollars haha and it was pretty good haha we ate a lot and then we walked through the cathedral again and then we went and visited a family that me and Elder Fullmer know from our old areas so then we started the long ride home so as we were waiting for the bus to pick us up we were waiting on the sidewalk of a major avenue in the middle of the city and the cars were flying by and one tried to cut across all the lanes and there was an accident and they about hit a big group of people waiting on the other side of the street so its pretty crazy, thats my 3rd big accident ive seen since being here haha this city is a little crazy sometimes. so yeah other than that, on saturday we had a mission conference with Elder D. Todd Christofferson and Elder Gonzalez (presidency of the 70) and our area president, so an apostol and 2 seventies it was way cool we got to shake all of their hands and take a picture with them, and elder Johnson and his wife said they know our family, they saw my name tag and asked if i was from arizona.. and where i lived and they know round valley too! so its a pretty small world but the conf. was good we got to ask a lot of questions to them about doctrine and that was the best part. so im starting to get nervous again about this new president , hes starting to send a lot of elders home, so im trying to all i can to not get sent home but who knows, so in my package is going to be all my "world" things like DVDs and CDs, and i hope you like the good old "Seinfeld" and "Friends" because i bought ALL of the seasons of both of them haha a lot cheaper than the states. and some movies that i have gathered over the past year. so just so you know what will be in the package and if you want something special tell me now because i gotta get it in the mail in like 2 weeks hopefully, what might the kids like?? well thats the happenings soo far but i better get going but i love you guys soo much and tell lia and sam i love them and hope they enjoy soccer, well i love you guys and have a good week, bye
adios,
Elder Curtis

New bikes

2009-08-11T00:27:00.000-07:00

Josh at the baptism of Maria. And lookout, he got a "new" bike! Let's hope for the best!

the "Dew"

2009-08-11T00:20:00.000-07:00

Elder Smedley was kind enough to share valuable Mtn. Dew with his compadres! Josh said it doesn't exist down there and he was soooo stoked to be able to have one! We'll have to return the favor!

Things that grow in Mexico

2009-08-10T23:57:00.000-07:00

The green cornfields in Mexico! Along with some random "weeds" outside a members home. (notice the sweet hair) And a lot where they make brick for houses. I was so excited to see how green it can be this time of year there.

Hair cut

2009-08-10T23:47:00.000-07:00

These are a few pictures of Josh's new "haircut"/scalping! Like he said at least he's tall and it isn't quite as noticeable...lol

wheelchair baptism

2009-08-10T18:47:00.000-07:00

hey hows it going? so this week has been good we had a baptism of a man who is in a wheelchair so he chose me to baptise him, so i had to carry him down into the font, then kneel down and baptise him like that but it took 3 times to get his legs to stay down, it was kinda hard to hold him up for soo long and then carry him out but we got it done and it was awesome! He is such an awesome guy i cant wait to see what he will do in the church. but im going to send some pictures right now so today will be a short letter but with lots of pictures hopefully!!! haha but i love you
adios
Elder Curtis

hair cut...scalping?

2009-08-03T15:00:00.000-07:00

well hello family, so this week has been... interesting to say the least, first off the other 2 elders got taken out of our ward so now we have the WHOLE area and its big, so that's not too fun, we got 2 new zone leaders and they dont get along with too many people haha, we put some good families with baptisms dates so far we have 8 baptisms for august we'll see how many actually get baptized.
so Friday morning i noticed that my hair was getting a little shaggy so i borrowed my comps clippers and shaved my head down to a #4 so then i asked him to shave up the back of my neck so he grabbed the clippers and as I'm checking out my amazing self given hair cut in the mirror he gives me back the clippers while he went to get the other mirror so i could see the back to tell him where i want the line but... in the 3 seconds that he had the clippers he took the number 4 guard off before giving me back the clippers.. so as I'm in amazement of my sweet skills i noticed a long spot right between my left ear and the top of my head so without skipping a beat, OR looking at the clippers i took a good 2-2.5 inch CHUNK OF HAIR OUT!!! we're talking straight clipper NO guard i pretty much scalped myself, and i just sat there in shock as i hear the footsteps of my comp running upstairs warning me that it didn't have the guard, and as he came into the bathroom he turned and ran for his life while laughing until he made it to the front yard and couldn't catch his breath to run anymore and collapsed in laughter... while i am still in shock staring at this huge bald spot in my hair!! so i did what i could i put the #1 guard on and shaved it down as close as a could, so its still there but you cant see it as bad and me being way taller than everyone here it helps but my hair grows fast enough that in like a week it will be a number 2 so until then I'm walkin around looking like a Goober with a chunk taken out of my hair hahaha so that's the funny story of the week.
so then one day we went and visited a recent convert and she asked us for a blessing so we went back into this tiny closet (we were in her store) and my comp gave her one and it was really good and then her cousin who was visiting her came and asked us for a blessing so she asked me to give it, so she sat down and i asked her name and i had never even seen her before, but during the blessing i started talking about her marriage and a bunch of other stuff having to do with her marriage and these tough times she is going through and through prayer her faith in heavenly father everything will work out how heavenly father wants, so after the blessing she stood up and i was kinda nervous to see how she would react to talking about her marriage and never meeting her before but she just said thanks and walked out so it was kinda weird, so after that we left and we were kinda talking about it and my comp kinda asked me about how i felt about the blessing and i just told him i said what i felt and that's all and he just kinda laughed (kinda funny in the moment) so the next day we were working knocking doors in between appointments and as we came around a corner and my comp almost ran into that same lady i gave the blessing to, and she was really surprised to see us she started to tear up and said that our blessing was amazing it was exactly what she needed, and then she kinda introduced herself and told us she is a member but innactive for about a year and how she was going through very hard times with her husband and how she and her baby are living with her cousin (owner of store) because she finnaly got the courage to leave her husband who was abusive mentally and physically and was trying to decide wheather to move to another city about 2 hours away or try it again with her husband and she said this decision had been weighing her down really bad for the past week trying to decide, so she told us after we left that night she prayed for the first time in a long time and she really feels like she got an answer to leave with her mom so she said she will be leaving on wednesday but she wanted to talk to us again before she left so tomorrow on tuesday we have an appointment with her, but that was one of the best days of my mission to see that we really helped someone come back to the church because she promised us she was going to go back to church and i really hope she does, so i cant wait for tomorrow to talk to her again, well that was the amazing story of the week haha hopefully there are many more to come.
well its great to hear that the kids are doing good, does sam start kinder Garden this year? hows lia feel about 1st grade? im really excited about soccer for them haha it should be fun and funny to watch. and the rodeo sounds like a great time wish i could be there. well i better get going, im gonna try to send some pictures of my hair today but who knows but ill try, so i hope everything is going good, and mom i hope your feeling better, take it easy. OH OH there is a lady that i just talked to yesterday in my ward that said she just go back from the oakland temple and asked if i knew the Curtis couple serving there and i was so excited Yeah thay are my grandparents!!! she said Patty took a picture of her for her, its Hermana BuenDia from Mexico, Chalco. so that was really neat, and we ate soo much and soo good yesterday this family gave us a huge plate of fruit, Watermelon, Mango, and "Tuna"(or prickly pear from cactus) its a fruit down here and its good! so we ate 2 plates of fruit then a salad with pomegranites and a mango dressing, THEN 2 huge plates of lasagna and spagghette?sp and then! a steak with bean dip on the side and not just one but 2 servings of steak!!!! with fresh Horchata to drink!!! we were in heaven, and then to top it off we watched the Work and the Glory in ENGLISH!!! this family is amazing they are newly-weds of 6 months and he served in Rays mission. so this week was pretty much the best week EVER!!!!! alright now i better go, i love you guys soo much i hope you have a great week!
love,
Elder Curtis

got bit by a dog!!!!

2009-07-27T15:20:00.001-07:00

well hows your week been mine has been pretty crazy, we had 2 baptisms scheduled but one backed out again at the last minute so thats a bummer but its just not his time i guess, so the other baptism that we had was an older woman who's nephew is the 2nd counselor to the bishop and has been trying to get her to get baptized but finnally we started teaching her and she started accepting everything and she stopped smoking and she was paying her tithing within a week of our lessons it was awsome to be a part of it i love it seeing the change happen in peoples lives it is amazing. so other than that we had changes today and me and my comp are staying together but the other 2 missionaries in our ward both got taken out so thats a bummer cause now our area is HUGE but we get to use bikes again so hopefully it will burn off all of the tacos hahaha. so me and my comp are taking some funny pictures cause both of our families are wanting more pictures so we trade cameras and take a bunch of random pictures haha so thats good. hmmm other than that its been raining hard core here with like rivers in the streets so thats not too much fun to work in. so the other day we were knocking doors and we were switching off every other door so we came to one house and it was my comps turn but he didnt want to knock it cause there was a big dog sitting right by the door so we went to the next house but as we were waiting i decided to go knock on the door with the dog, so as i walk up the dog looked friendly but as soon as my finger got 2centimeters from the door bell the dang dog jumped up and bit me right on the knee! i was shocked i didnt know what to do so i finally got loose and gave the dog a little kick and turned around to find my comp laughing... not only laughing ON THE GROUND ROLLING!!! hahaha and it was pretty funny it was a classic "i told ya so" moment so that was an exciting day, but other than that i cant really think of much other stories right now but ill tell you some more next week, well i gotta go i love you guys soo much, give sam and lia hugs.
i love you,
adios,
Elder Curtis

Just missing the boy (almost 1 year now!)

2009-07-20T17:27:00.000-07:00

answer to prayers

2009-07-20T17:26:00.001-07:00

well hows it going family... im doing great so we have our new president and we had our conference with him, but before i tell you about that i want to tell you an experience.... so you know how i was kinda nervous for the new president well that last week i decided to really pray about it to help me feel better about this new changeso last monday night i said my prayers and i was just laying there and my mind was just wondering around when i just got this feeling, a really good feeling and i felt and knew that this new pres. was going to be great and that i was going to be just fine so going into the conference i was so happy and couldnt wait to meet him, i figure having pres. doxey for a year and learning all i did from him in that time and now i have a new opportunity to learn from another man chosen to teach us and guide me on my mission so it totally changed my opinion and now im looking at this as an amazing opportunity to learn soo much more and thats what i went into the conference thinking.... and WOW i learned soo much and my interview was great, Pres. Chavez is an amazing man and i have so much to learn from him... so thats the new info on that part.
so other than that i totally miss the reunions, i wish i couldve been there, i loved that reunion spot up at Goosberry hill, i still remember my first reunion there haha so how is the family doing? and what is this store that kally and mark are doing?? so im doing good me and my comp are getting along pretty good so that helps and other than that its the same ol stuff Work Work Work! so other than that not much, well i better get going, i hope you guys have a great week and i love you guys soo much!
i love you,
adios
Elder Curtis

Post pone Baptism :(

2009-07-17T09:33:00.000-07:00

soo how was the reunion??? i sure do miss those they were one of my favorite things to do but it seemes ive missed the last 2! so other than that this week has been crazy and this one coming up is going to be even more crazy!! so this past saturday we had a baptism set up for 1:30 so we got to the chaple a few hours early to fill up the baptism font but the water was going super slow and then all the suden just stopped!! so we didnt know what to do we had about an hour and a half till the baptism and we couldnt get ahold of our bishop so we were looking all over for something to turn on the water pump when about 45 min to the baptism our bishop shows up and unlocks the janitors closet to turn the pump and the boiler on so we hurried and goteverything taken care of and ready but we were a little late so the bishop took us to pick the kid up and when we got there he said he wasnt ready to get baptised so we and our bishop talked to the family and it turns out the family doesnt think he is ready so we had to post-pone his baptism so that was a big bummer but we have another baptism this sunday that looks good to go so im excited! but this wednesday is when we have our conference so im kinda excited to meet our new President finaly so other than that things are going great and im almost to my year mark so thats awsome. i still havent got your package but hopefully this wednesday at the conference but who knows but i hope so.
well i better get going gotta go get ther laundry done and clean house and maybe some more soccer later on
i love you guys soo much i think about you guys all the time!
i love you
Elder Curtis

slow week

2009-07-17T09:32:00.000-07:00

well hello, so this week was kinda a slower week for us not to much success but we have some really promissing families. but our new president is here but i havent met him yet but everyone who has is saying he is the law on the rule book and is enforcing the part in the hair, and has sent a kid home already so hopefully all goes well, our zone conference is the 15 so ill meet him then.
other than that like i said things were kinda slow this week and we didnt get the kinda numbers we were hopeing for but we are still one of the top companionships in the zone and our zone is leading the mission in baptisms so thats cool.
so it sounds like its going alright i sure did miss the rodeo and all the excitement. well thats a bummer about the mtc and families but it was kinda getting out of hand with huge groups of people going in but we made it haha
well i hope i answered all your questions this time haha im sorry it gets busy here but ill get better at it
i love you guys soo much and hope you have a good time at the reunion im gonna miss it
love you
Elder Curtis

2 baptisms

2009-06-29T20:49:00.001-07:00

hey well this week has been really crazy with the conference and baptisms and my comp has been super sick so hes been spending a lot of time in his bed but im pretty sure he is feeling better today after soccer, so we had 2 baptisms this week Leandro 16yrs and ilse 14yrs, soo thats really cool and other than that our president comes here this wednesday so 2 more days, other than that me and my comp are doing good getting back on track ofter this last week, so hows grandma doing up there? well not a whole lot of time to write today lots of stuff to do we have to plan and give 2 family home evenings tonight. well i hope that the family is starting to come together more. well im sorry its really short this week but ill try to get more next week.
i hope everyone is feeling better and doing good, tell everyone i love them and give grandma a hug and lia and sam
i love you guys
Elder Curtis

2009-06-22T16:51:00.000-07:00

In his last area there was a member who would refill fire estinguishers so of course Josh wanted to see what that was like, as you can see he had fun. Wish he'd sent the one where they did it all down the street!
In the group picture, Josh is sitting next to one of his really good friends Elder Smedley as well as both of their comps, Reyes (Josh's) and Martinez (Smedley's).

Elder Perez, new comp

2009-06-22T16:49:00.000-07:00

June 22, 2009
hey hows it going? well this week has been very Interesting to say the least. so my comp is Elder Perez, hes from Colorado Springs Colorado and he has a few months less than me so here we are in mexico teaching people the gospel. his spanish is.... well its getting better haha he just isnt very comfortable with speaking it. but in my new area we have 3 towns Clapala, Cuatzingo, and Los Alamos where we live its cool we live in like apartment type things its aton of houses but they are all the same and right next to eachother so its really easy to work cause if we are knocking doors its really easy haha but we have been having a ton of success we have people with baptism dates up untill the 12 of july so now just have to wait and see who really sticks it out and gets baptised its usually 1 in 4 so a 25% success from the people who go to church to getting baptised so 4 people in the church 1 gets baptized, this week we had 7 people go with us to church and we had to pay for all of them it sucked but its good to see them come with us so its worth it. so me and smedley are still in the same district so thats cool. but im pretty sure our new President comes this thursday because we have a mission conference so its like pres Doxeys farewell and pres Chavez is going to talk and interview all of us so that should be interesting other than that its the same ol work just in a new place, im probably 30 min from my first area here so thats cool im planning on visiting them soon. so today we played soccer, volleyball, and basketball for another 5 hours so now im super tired and just want to go to bed!
so what happened with dustin were thay repeling or what i didnt understand what happened? but yeah well i hope you guys have a good time with grandma up there for a few weeks that should be fun. well i better get going im super tired and hungry so ill talk to you guys later!
give sam and lia hugs and i love you guys soo much!!!
love you
adios
Elder Curtis

transferred Chalco area

2009-06-15T17:22:00.000-07:00

hey hows it going. its good to hear how well sam and lia are doing, i sure do miss them. so yesterday we had the transfers phone call to see who was leaving but my comp had a ton of stuff packed but when the phone call never came we thouhjt we were going to be together another change. so in the morning he wanted to call our district leader to find out for sure cause he really wants to leave haha and sure enough the DL said i had changes ME! i just got here 3 months ago to my 3rd area and now off to my 4th area in 8 months! i move way to much but it keeps it interesting, so last night me and E Smedley were talking about if we both got changed to the same district again how funny and how slim the chances are of that happening but it turns out we are neighbors again! and in the same district. im going back out to Chalco where i started but im in a different area its called Vincente Guerrero its kinda the suburbs of chalco but really poor and dirty a big change from where we are now but i like it out therea lot more relaxed and the members are way cool and humble, so me and smedley are leaving tommorrow and our comps are both americans and we are the senior comps so hopefully my comp knows some spanish at least i dont want to teach him everything because i barely know it! so thats the news about changes, so today we played our last soccer game as a zone and in our last game Smedley came to shoot and i went to block and some how some way my ankle got messed up! i can barely walk on it and it hurts so hopefully it gets to feeling better soon or its goonna be a long few weeks walking on it every day. but other than that i still have to go and pack all my stuff and then say goodbye to all the members so its gonna be a LONG P-Day well othr than that its about it on my side down here i hope you guys have a great week and keep up the good work, tell the hollidays that im proud of them and give lia and sam hugs and i love you guys soo much.
adios
Elder Curtis

feeling better

2009-06-11T10:19:00.000-07:00

well time is officially going by fast i cant believe its june already. so this week has been good nothing too exciting has happened so far. today me and elder smedley and our comps went to a mall again to hang out and i was looking for a new Ipod (his old ipod broke this week, and he is dreaming of a new one to put all of his music and pictures on) and found out the electronics are way more expensive here!¡ I looked up one on the internet here but its like almost a hundred dollars more than what I can get in the states! it was crazy but im thinking about it, one even has a translater built in!! i could better my spanish whith it and bring more souls to the Gospel haha.
anyways the sickness is gone and im feeling a lot better. work has been good this week we found some good families to teach which i love, teaching whole families is the coolest thing ever. so this sunday we have changes or transfers however you want to call it so we find out if one of us is leaving or both are staying. so other than that nothing has really happened just the same old stuff different day, so im here with elder smedley and he said his mom told him you wrote her and sent a picture of me and she just said "wow hes big!" haha thats the impression i make on people haha im definately planning on hanging with smedley after the mission hes super cool and hes 24 so i might hook him up with C---- see if she wants a pen pall hahaha
well i better get finishing up i have no idea what to write about my mind is totally blank so i might write later but i love you guys soo much dont have too much fun without me haha
i love you
Elder Curtis

sick

2009-06-02T08:10:00.001-07:00

well hello family and friends haha well this week has been one of those weeks... so thursday night i went to bed feeling fine and woke up at 5am with the worst feeling in my stomach i coulndt do anything to get it to go away i just sat on our couch and then went into the bathroom and started throwing up and it stayed like that till 7am it was the worst feeling ever but the pain didnt go away, today in the morning was the first morning i woke up with no pain but a member hooked me up with some medicine so that helped but yeah so been sick this weekend.

on other news our baptism that we have for this saturday well they dropped a bomb on us they said his wife is still married to her husband so they have been separated for 5 years and they have a son together but she takes care of him so we have to divorce her and then marry them so her new husband can get baptized haha so hopefully we can get it done quick and we have another guy that we are probably going to baptize within these next 2 weeks so im excited his wife and 2 young kids go to church every week but have about 10 months in the church so he will complete the family im super excited and hope they get sealed in a year so i can go with them!

in other news from the dirty city of the south i have not gotten any packages from anyone, but a question can you find me a fitted sheet bottom for my bed its super annoying it always falls off! so if you could find that it would be great, so today for p day we got together with some elders that are right next to us and went to one of the 2 malls in our area but this mall was super fancy i felt like i was back in the states again haha so i chilled with elder Smedley from utah hes pretty much the coolest haha we ate some Subway and walked around the mall then came back and played some 2 on 2 soccer and now e mailing home and might go for some tacos after i cant wait haha well i better get going i hope everything is going good on your end keep me posted about your plans dont worry everything will work out as long as you trust in the lord and prayand follow with FAITH so simple yet the most important part in this life, well i love you guys i better get going love ya.
Adios
Elder Curtis
the sheet is i think a twin and if you cant find that color just a dark brown. haha tell lia and sam i miss them soo much and give them hugs and cook me a marshmellow! well have a fun night and tell rick congrats! wish i coulda been there i love you guys

Earthquake!!!!

2009-05-26T20:36:00.001-07:00

We got this from Josh on Friday but were out of town and didn’t even realize there was an earthquake in Mexico City! 5.9, was a pretty good sized one. 2 earthquakes in 2 months! Little scary! -Cindy
sooo guess what?!?!?!? i just felt an actual Earthquake!! it was crazy! we were walking and all the sudden it felt like i had just got off a merry-go-round and was dizzy and couldnt walk straight and then as we looked around everything was moving it was crazy!!! it happened like3 different times but they were close together it was awsome!!! hahaha so thats the big news for right now haha
hey! hows everyone doing? so you guys got to go down to safford thats always fun. Some of my best childhood experiences are with family growing up in safford i loved it! thats soo cool that jay and dustin are expanding soo much thats exciting i might have to get me a job down there when i get back talkin with all their mexicans haha so this week we have a lot of good families we are teaching and we put a baptism date with one for the 7th of june so im excited for that. on other news we played soccer again today it was loads of fun we played for about 5 hours and super tired now but other than that we have a kid from the ward leaving on his mission on wednesday and one coming back on that same wednesday so it will be cool to see one come back and it was funny to see the one getting ready to leave a little nervous of what to come and excited all in one it brought back some good memories to think ive got 10 months here only 14 months left its crazy to think about but yeah the earthquake was crazy!! it was soo sweet i want to be in a bigger one but not to big this one was a 5.9 so not bad, well i better get going its getting late and we have a family home evening to give i hope you guys are keeping up with the FHEs they are soo important! well i love you guys sooo much give sam and lia hugs i love you!
adios
Elder Curtis

Rain

2009-05-19T07:36:00.000-07:00

hey hey well this week has been pretty good it started raining this week and it will be the rainy season till about september off and on so its pretty good to get something besides the heat but i like the rain it is something different, but it goes from bright and sunny to thunder and rainy in like 30 min its crazy so we have to be prepared for everything haha a taxi hit a puddle the other day and soaked us so that was no fun but people are still dragging this influenza crap out its getting old but whatever so this week in the church we had an awsome sunday with 4 new investigators and 3 old investigators which is a pretty good week for missionaries. we are looking to put some baptism dates this week. so today we went and played soccer for another 6 hours!! and even played a little basketball and the americans totally dominated the mexicans it was funny! so you guys got lia and sam on the same soccer team thats cool tell them to practice up for when i get back haha well other than that this week has been pretty normal nothing super exciting we have zone conference tomorrow at 8 with the President so im looking to learn a lot with him. well that it, i hope you guys have a great week! i love you guys give lia and sam hugs
love you
adios
Elder Curtis

2009-05-12T01:53:00.000-07:00

hey so we found out about changes and both of us are staying in our area but we are getting a new zone and district leader so that should be interesting, (both of them were supposed to go home, but the swine flu restrictions held them up and prevented any missionaries from getting sent in) today we played soccer for a few hours with almost our whole zone and a few guys from the various wards so other than that it was a good day but nothing else too exciting.
but yeah with the prayer its soo hard for me in english i really dont remember the words the spanish comes to my head faster its kinda wierd but i love the language, well not a whole lot to say i kinda said it all yesterday but i hope you guys have a good week and tell everyone i said hi and i love you,
adios
Elder Curtis

Mother's Day Call

2009-05-12T01:33:00.001-07:00

Okay we may have abused this privilage a little! We were able to talk to our missionary for a few hours. There was confusion with the times and the number so I actually talked to him for a bit on Friday. He had been at a members home actually making brownies! (thank you Crosby's for the cookbook, he's using it!) We called back Sat. night and my Mom and a lot of the family were able to visit with him. It was so cute to see the cousins lined up in the hall waiting for their turn. I had typed up some questions they could ask him if they wanted, that way it might ease up on the awkwardness. He said some were pretty persistent in getting answers. They laughed because he told them the worst thing he ate were the cactus and not the grasshoppers or cow brains they knew he had eaten. It was neat to see my brother in laws speak to him in Spanish and hear how well he's doing with the language. On Sunday he said we could call and finish up because we had problems with our calling card. We had family prayer via speakerphone and Dad asked him to say it....I was impressed he hadn't forgotten the word "fetch!" he asked if he could do it in Spanish because he forgot how to pray in English. Lia offered to teach him when he got home. ha ha. It was so sweet to hear our sweet missionary pray in Spanish, it just flowed out of him. I may not have understood much of what he said but it had to be one of the sweetest prayers I've ever heard. What a man he is becoming. Tha's what most everyone said that they were amazed how grown up he sounded. He's doing well! Still frustrated with the government for the panic over the swine flu...to know that they got on TV and reported false statements, was hard for him. He just is amazed how differnent things are down there. The violence and the drugs are everywhere. The members are good to him, one is even offering to "fix" his thyroid issues with acupuncture! If you know Josh you know he is freaked out by needles and won't let the guy near him. He said his clothes and shoes are holding up, and it a master with the needle. He manages to rip his pants frequently enough to stay in practice. Which is hilarious because he didn't want to take the sewing kit, saying he'd never use it! It sounds like he gets along great with this companion, which is a blessing. It was tough to tell him goodbye again. But I told him I was grateful for the wonderful letters and pictures he sends that really do help to know what he's up to and make us less homesick for him. It's hard to get out of him what he needs, he doesn't want to be a burden or cost us extra money, but he said he loves getting pictures! Anyway, he's doing great! It was one of the best Mother's Days I've ever had!
Thanks everyone! We love you!
Cindy

influenza

2009-05-04T19:53:00.000-07:00

hey, well im really glad lia likes her purse haha i thought it was cool, so wow she sounds like shes doing awsome and im soo happy you guys got her doing T-Ball i was getting worried she was going to become a girly girl but hopefully she sticks with sports! haha sam never fails to make me laugh haha hes soo funny im surprised he actually got milk out of that ol cow haha.
so the influenza is seeming to get better the government here is horrible and the news just seems to make thing worse the people have been freaking out about this virus here but in my oppinion when more people die from this virus than the drug wars and be-headings then we might have something to worry about but the people here are scared about every little thing its getting to be a little much, but yeah me and my comp had been working like normal last week up till about thursday when my comp got the flu and felt horrible but he was convinced he didnt have the virus but we kinda slowed down a lot for the weekend but hes almost all better now so thats good, so mothers day we still havent heard anything about it so ill get on this week and write you a quick letter on the detailes but we get out of church at 12noon here but probably wont get back to the house till about 4ish but still not sure ill talk to my comp this week and figure out the detailes, we have a phone in our house so it should work out good that way.
so tyson is going to Tenn. haha well good for him haha ive been talking to Ray these past few weeks haha hes still goofy as ever but it has been good to hear from him he sounds like hes doing great we are both getting new Presidents about the same time and im really nervous, he is supposed to be super strict and all the elders are worried about getting sent home and i have to say its kinda a scary possibility for alost everyone in our mission! but i hope not, he gets here in the beggining of july. who knows are pres now is super relaxed about EVERYTHING which isnt the best for a bunch of young guys but hopefully it will work out alright.
well i better get going i miss you guys and love you guys sooo much and gratefull for all you guys do for me!
Adios,
Elder Curtis
p.s. care package... jerky hahaha an option, and throw that cd from my old comp and ill get it back to him, thanks. have a great week!

Package!

2009-04-28T11:12:00.000-07:00

As you can tell I've got more pictures!!! Josh has been working on getting us a package for months now, but could never afford it or find the time to get it mailed. Before he got transferred out of his last area the sisters there told him they knew someone going to Phx to be with their family so he sent my package there. He sent me an address, name and phone number and a sentence to tell them in Spanish (since they spoke no English) and laughed and said "good luck!" Well Blanche and her family tried to call, but they said they didn't know anything about a package. I could care less about the stuff, I knew he sent me a photo cd! So a month goes by and we find ourselves again in Phx for my sisters sealing. We tried the number again (lucky I have brother in laws who are fluent) 3 phone calls later and 1 1/2 hours in the car and we got our package!!!! I'll post pictures of the purse later and the shirt he sent the kids! I got not one photo cd but 4!!! He already apologized for the first two, lost of scenery few pics of him. At least he's learning I don't care how cool the background is as long as he's in the foreground! I'm sure he'll enjoy them though. So for now we are blessed! He's doing well! Little freaked out, but really doing great! Thanks so much for all your prayers and concerns for him! If you have any questions feel free to call!
Love you all!
Cindy

MTC

2009-04-28T11:11:00.000-07:00

Pyramids, and Misc pics

2009-04-27T12:52:00.001-07:00

More about Swine flu

2009-04-27T11:59:00.000-07:00

so yeah this week has been straight up crazy!!! this influenza is getting a little scary, as of yesterday 1,100 people (not sure on the numbers there are lots of rumors )have died here and everyone is freaking out but our president told us to keep working with Faith so we have been working but no one wants to talk to us because they are afraid of getting sick so its a little difficult but we are doing our best to stay healthy, been giving lots of blessings so hopefully we will be safe, but yeah we didnt have church yesterday and pretty sure not this week either so yeah its serious, but im really not that worried about it we have our mission doctor and stuff so yeah
so im glad that the temple was good im soo happy for Kim and Adam i wish i could have been there. so you guys finally got that package haha yeah i thought lia might like that purse and the shirt is the only one i have it just doesnt fit me so i sent it home and yeah the money haha those arent worth anything they are 1/10 of a peso they are less than a penny and good for nothing here haha.
so about the mothers day call im not sure anything about it haha its the 10th of may right? haha but if you guys want to go down to safford to call thats cool i wouldnt mind talking to everyone but if you cant thats cool too president hasnt said anything about it yet so ill let you know. I'm having the time of my life and love it, let everyone know how much i love them give lia and sam hugs and i love you guys soo much, keep us in your prayers this is a pretty tough time down here right now, thanks! well i better get going i love you
Adios,
Elder Curtis

MEN

2009-04-27T11:55:00.000-07:00

(I just love how he starts a letter making fun of my questions, but at least he's trying to answer)
ha ha I forget to explain things. a sistern is a huge box underground that holds water because in mexico the government turns off the water like 2 days a week so people get these so they never run out.
but as for T... wow im not even sure what to say im soo happy for him and deciding to go home and take care of it and get his life back on track what a hard trial. but he will be stronger, being on a mission is amazing it is the hardest thing ive ever done but with the sacrifice comes blessings and that is the best part, in these 2 years soo many things happen in our life soo many changes take place and even though we left "boys" we return as "MEN" there is nowhere else i would rather be right now i couldnt imagine my life without serving a mission i love it.
Soo yeah thats the news for now but ill let you know if anything happens we cant work so we have a lot of free time haha well i love you guys and take care, see if you can find anything out on that package i sent with that lady for you guys in the valley and tell cami i said "HELLO FROM MEXICO!!!" well i better get going
Adios,
Elder Curtis

Swine Flu

2009-04-26T16:56:00.000-07:00

Hey family,
I'm sure most of you have heard about the swine flu that is hitting Mexico City right now. I've gotten a few emails from Josh that I'll attach. He's doing good and from everything that I've seen, as long as they take precautions with their hygiene he should be fine. Please keep him, as well as those he serves with in your prayers.
Thanks we love you!
Cindy

This was Fri 4/25
Mom,
alright so first things first, in Mexico City right now there is a really bad virus spreading its Influenza they say but there are lots of people sick and some are dying but so far no one we know has gotten sick but we just found out today so who knows but im doing fine we are all wearing these cool doctor masks that cover our nose and mouth so its a little wierd but yeah just so you know so if you see the news on tv dont freak out haha ill keep you posted about everything here.
This was Sat 4/26
this is the letter our president sent out to all of us and told us to send it home to our families to know what to do if they get sick and to know that we are doing all we can to stay healthy my comp and i have given eachother blessings and doing our best to stay healthy our services have been canceled for sunday and our president called today and said we are not to leave our houses untill we hear otherwise from him directly, so take care and i love you guys!
Elder Curtis

From: Mission Mexico Sur Presidente de Mission
Date: Saturday, April 25, 2009, 1:13 PM
Because of the announcement yesterday that Mexico and the world are facing an outbreak of a new strain of influenza, many people have become worried about the risks and are not sure what to do to prevent illness. The memorandum below has the purpose of informing you and establishing the precautions for you to take in the Mexico City South Mission. Please send this email to your families so that they will know what is going on. This sort of challenge has happened before. This will not stop the Lord’s work. We are not minimizing the risk, but we ask you to go forward with faith. TAKE THE PRECAUTIONS RECOMMENDED, BUT DO NOT FEAR. The Lord will bless you. We love and pray for you always.
Atentamente,
President Doxey

WHAT IS THE ISSUE?

Officials are concerned because about 1,000 people in the last month have had a new type of flu. Some 20 confirmed deaths are due to this flu, and an additional 48 deaths are attributed to this flu. This new flu is a type of swine flu, that is, a flu that usually affects pigs. In this case, it appears to be able to spread directly from human to human. Every year, there are new types of flu, and many hundreds or thousands die. Most of those who die of the usual types of flu are people who are already sickly, including the very old and the very young. This new strain of swine flu is a greater concern, because most of those have died were young and healthy before getting the flu.

The type of swine flu that is dangerous causes the lungs to fill with liquid, as happens with pneumonia. This flu is very aggressive and strikes the lungs hard within 24 hours. So if you have been sick for more than a day without getting pneumonia-like symptoms, it is very unlikely that you have swine flu. If your breathing becomes difficult, and there is pain or heaviness at the level of your lungs (which is very different from a stuffy nose or a sore throat and a cough), call Dr. Brunt right away at 044 55 5217-1664.

WHAT PRECAUTIONS SHOULD WE TAKE?
Let me emphasize that we should not go to extremes. There is much misunderstanding and paranoia that are not helping with this situation. The following simple precautions will prevent the spread of influenza. Follow them sensibly and consider them as the health rules of this mission:

1. WASH YOUR HANDS FREQUENTLY WITH SOAP AND WATER, especially before eating or touching your face, mouth, nose, or eyes. When you wash your hands, it is important to apply soap, scrub, and rinse hands two or three times and then wipe them with a clean towel. Do not think that simply wetting your hands or using hand sanitizer is sufficient. Hand sanitizer can help a little if no soap and water are available, but contamination can stay on your hands if you do not wash thoroughly. Always use a clean tissue to clean your nose or eyes.

2. AVOID HANDSHAKES AND HUGS. SISTERS SHOULD AVOID SAYING HELLO TO OTHER SISTERS WITH A KISS. This is difficult in the warm Mexican culture, but try to avoid it during this epidemic, excusing yourself with kindness. In any case, wash your hands after shaking someone else’s hand.

3. DO NO SHARE FOOD, GLASSES, OR UTENSILS.

4. AVOID DIRECT TOUCHING OF A SICK PERSON. After giving a sick person a blessing, wash your hands. You might postpone visits to sick investigators until after they are better.

5. STAY HOME IF YOU YOURSELF ARE SICK. Get better. Don’t spread your illness to others. Once your symptoms are gone, you can go back out.

DO WE HAVE MEETINGS? SHOULD WE CONTACT? WHAT ABOUT VISITS?

At this point, the area presidency recommends that the Church in Mexico hold Sunday meetings as usual. Sick people and people who are prone to illness should stay home. They also should avoid handshakes and kisses and wash their hands regularly. Some stake presidents have decided to cancel Sunday meetings. As missionaries, we will support the stake presidents in this decision. It is fine if they wish to proceed with baptismal services with a limited attendance, but we should not insist but support their final say in the matter. Sunday is a regular missionary work day even if there are no meetings. Try to use the day to do good and make a difference. Visits and contacting are perfectly appropriate, but observe the precautions above. We understand if some people are very worried. Let’s do the best we can with good judgment and following the Spirit. We will see that the Lord knows how to do His work even if we have to change our normal activities for a season.

If you feel sick. Have your companion give you a blessing. Call me. Watch to see if your breathing is getting difficult in the aggressive way that might indicate swine flu or pneumonia. Do not go to the hospital, because there is a greater chance you will get something serious at a hospital than elsewhere. Do not go to the doctor, unless I instruct you to do so, because the doctor’s office is more contaminated than other places. If you need a doctor, I will instruct you to contact Dr. Brunt first at 044 55 5217-1664. Influenza is a viral disease. Antibiotics have no impact on it. Most cases of flu are not serious, and you get over it on your own in a few days. In fact, many cases of illness with flu-like symptoms are not really even the flu. Treat the symptoms. Drink fluids. Eat fruits or vegetables to maintain levels of vitamins A and C. Rest in bed.

It is especially important to lower your fever if you have one. A simple way to tell if you have a fever, if you don’t have a thermometer, is to take your pulse. If your heartbeat while resting is approaching 100 or more, it can mean that you have a fever. Other symptoms of fever are chills and high body temperature but no sweating. You can tell a fever has broken when you start to sweat a lot and when your pulse goes down to normal. Usually, a fever will break two or three times or more before it goes away completely. Keep treating your fever until it is gone.

Call me in two or three days if symptoms persist or get worse.
President Doxey

family sealings!

2009-04-20T23:01:00.001-07:00

wow well it sounds like you guys had a good time at the Grand Canyon im happy that you guys got to go see Chris, Nekr and family im sure the kids had a good time together and wow you guys even stayed in a tent thats impressive haha. So how was Safford? hows the family doing down there? hows the work going for Jay and Dustin? and Grandma is doing better thats great to hear! im soo excited for Adam to go through the temple that is soo awsome i wish i could be there soo bad but im here helping people do that very same thing for the people here and loving it, and the family is getting sealed that is soo awsome to hear. just this last friday we had 2 recent convert families get sealed in the temple it was awsome one was our Ward Mission Leader and his family and the other was his daughter and her family it was soo awsome our mission leader reminds me of dad, he got baptized like 8 months ago and this has been his first calling and he is awsome.
so this week has been good a little crazy trying to get everything ready for the 2 families that got sealed on thursday night we were setting up tables and chairs in the church and didnt finish till 1:30am then friday night after the party we were cleaning up and me and my comp were outside picking up trash with 3 of the youth in the ward when 6 drunks staggered by and started talking about our church and their very "different" opinions to say the least but we did our best not to listen to them but that seemed to just make them more angry untill they started throwing their beer bottles at us and saying all kinds of language trying to get our attention and one almost hit me in the back when we were walking away. me and my comp were almost ready to go teach them a lesson or two but that wouldnt have made the situation any better. so when we finnally got done it was 2:30am so one of the members was taking us home along with some other youth when we dropped off one of the kids we started talking with his family and another drunk came walking by and looked up and me and said " WOW! your freaking huge! how tall are you??" haha so me and my comp started talking to him and he kept offering us alcohol so we decided to teach him about the word of wisdom and gave him a pamphlet and invited him to church and he seemed interested because he said he really wanted to change, but we talked to him for probably 45 min and then he almost got in a fight with another drunk that came by begging for money haha it was hilarious but he asked if he could get a picture with me so ill send you the picture i got with him this week haha it was a funny night but we didnt go to bet till almost 4 am but the parties are over and now everything is getting back to normal but yeah so my week was a little crazy but fun. well i better get going we are going to do service for a family helping them prepare fire extinguishers haha its cool so yeah i hope you guys have a good week and have fun this weekend down in the valle del sol see if you guys can get that package i sent if its there yet haha alright well give lia and sam hugs tell them i love them, i love you guys!
adios,
Elder Curtis

Cleaning the sistern

2009-04-16T12:49:00.001-07:00

Zone in Iztapalapa

2009-04-16T12:11:00.000-07:00

Just love how "normal" sized I am!

2009-04-16T12:02:00.000-07:00

Hanging out with Jared!

2009-04-16T11:54:00.000-07:00

Elder Reyes (current comp) at the Baptizm of Roberto

2009-04-16T11:49:00.000-07:00