Week 13: A Man Named Moll, Fall Is Falling, Y El Don De Linguas

Hello all you beautiful people. Special shout-out to all my elders who just had their first weeks in the field, all your emails are lit. (I say that like I'm a veteran when in reality I've been out here 5 weeks) It's just such a shame you all didn't receive such an amazing mission call as Edmonton Canada, because this place is awesome. Everyone is so nice (except for the people who aren't) and the latinos we find always want to talk to us. It's probably because they're so lonely, most of them are incredibly poor and know absolutely no one. They also don't speak a word of English, so everyone wants to learn. That's one of our main finding strategies, teaching English class. 

That's the way we found our new friends, the Peña family! They are from Columbia, and the first lesson was an English class with a gospel message, and the second was a gospel class with an English message at the end haha. We talked about baptism in the second lesson and they got a little freaked out, but they said they want to learn more. They came to church too and made lots of friends (Lago Lindo branch so awesome) and we're going to get some of their friends (members) to the next lesson!

Diana is also progressing just swell! Baptismal date is very soon (next Saturday) and we're gonna meet with her every day this week. Once again, I'm so thankful for everyone who's been praying for her, it's been so cool to see her change since we first met her 5 weeks ago. She's so much happier and talkative, prayers work and the light of Christ is real!

On Friday me and Elder Girabaldi did not have dinner, so we decided to go on a food tour of Edmonton! Not really, we looked up "best donair" in Google maps and went to the closest one. I don't know if I've explained donair in here, but it's basically like mystery Arabic meat in a pita with cheese and veggies. Delicious. There are so many Muslims here, so that's who they're selling too. Also missionaries haha.

So we go in this store and we start talking with the owner, a man named Moll (no relation to Elder Moll, sorry). His life story is crazy. He's from Afghanistan where he was super rich, but he left in 2008 with only a fraction of his money. He came to Canada and started his donair shop and that's what he's been doing ever since. We invited him to church, but he didn't live in our area so we didn't know if we went. But we're gonna go back and check up on him next time we need a donair.

This week was a major language breakthrough. I no longer need my companion to translate every sentence (it's more like every other lol). But seriously I'm understanding and communicating with only minimal difficulty. It's actually so freaky because I know just I could never speak this well. But Elder Curtis? When he has the gift of tongues? Todas cosas son posible. Don't get me wrong, it's still hard, but if I've learned one thing out here, it's that with God and faith, we can move mountains.

One aspect of missionary life that has been a little difficult has been music. You don't really think about it, but when you see a missionary testifying about the restored gospel, odds are he won't be able to teach with as much power if he's listening to blink 182 in his free time. So, if you want to learn what music the obedient missionary listens to, go to the sacred music app. And listen to the youth albums. I know every word to every song haha. But seriously the songs are heavily slept on, go give 'em a listen.

Spiritual thought/motivational thought

Mornings are hard. On the mission and in life. But I've learned something that kinda goes hand in hand with when I talked about obedience- if you win the morning (win= get up exactly on time, make your bed, start personal study exactly on time, Etc.) you win the day. That simple. The rest of your day you'll be able to find, teach, and testify with power because you have been obedient. It's all in the little things: when you obey you have the most power.

OK that's all for now thank you all for being so awesome! Remember don't hesitate to email, I love hearing from you guys!

Élder Cúrtis

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FALL

Catholic Church

Moll y compa y yo