July
3, 2012
Change, change,
change. It seems the world is full of changes lately and that includes the
Alabama Mission and our mission assignments, or at least the way we carry them
out. We have a General Authority visiting in Aug. The week after we arrived last Aug. we
attended a multi-zone conference with Elder Clarke as the visiting
Authority. It was wonderful. For that, all we had to do was show up and be
spiritually fed. This time there are all
kinds of preparations being made for the occasion and working in the office, we
are right in the middle of it. Pres. Holzapfel wants the
office, records, houses and cars to be in perfect compliance for the
inspections. It’s not that this is such a hard thing to ask, it’s just that
there are so many changes coming out of Salt Lake so as we were feeling
somewhat comfortable performing or assignments, things are on the move
again. Our mission has been in a beta
testing program for IMOS the last month or so and it seems that weekly if not
daily we are finding that there are changes in this area as well as other areas
. Poor Elder and Sister May, who just
arrived six weeks ago, were met with the assignment to bring the mission
housing up to the “new” standards. This involves closing some apartments and
opening others. It also involves removing any sofas, lounge chairs, anything on
the walls as well as other items such as fishing pools, yes, there were fishing
pools, weight sets and so forth. Each
apartment is supposed to have one working desk or table per companionship and a
dining table plus a chair for each missionary. Of course they have beds and
storage for personal items, but no more missionaries sitting around getting too
comfy in their apt instead of out doing the work. Actually, there have been few
if any complaints from the missionaries. As for the Mays, they have been all
over the mission in the short time they’ve been here. I think they have loaded
and unloaded more furniture than most people do in a lifetime and it’s only
just begun. And we thought we worked hard. Thankfully, the same rules don’t
apply to sr missionaries. We have a very comfortable and even ‘pretty’ home
away from home. Much nicer than we would have expected as missionaries.
Some of the
changes with housing involve me in the way we identify and keep track of them
on IMOS and our mission rosters. We have
met a couple of times now with Pres H deciding how best to comply with the way
Salt Lake has it set up and yet having it workable for Alabama where you can
find twenty or more different towns making up just one ward and covering large
areas.. To identify a house by simply
calling it “Logan” just doesn’t work here.
We have a phone conference set up next week with Salt Lake to address
these issues. I don’t want to sound like I’m against all this. We’ll work
through it and in the end it will all be good.
We have seen some helpful changes already.
Besides the beta testing with IMOS, our
mission has been asked to pilot a Book of Mormon Mentoring program. Members and missionaries are asked to READ
the Book of Mormon with investigators or new converts. Some read daily and
others a few times a week, but the success stories have been inspiring. Many
new members never read all of the Book of Mormon. This helps them to follow through, better
understand it (ask questions) and to build a relationship with a ward member.
An experience that was shared by one of our favorite missionaries, Elder Ruff,
told of a lady whose husband is a member.
She has met with numerous missionaries over a thirteen year period. She
took part in this program which resulted in her consenting to baptism. When
asked why after all those years, she said that it was from reading the Book of
Mormon and gaining a testimony of it for the first time. The Book of Mormon,
when properly presented and applied, is a powerful tool toward conversion. The
mentoring program is working.
We
have been doing some traveling around the mission ourselves…..some for business
(mixed with pleasure) and some for pure pleasure. Two weeks ago when we went to Boaz to pick up
another car we drove about twenty minutes further to Guntersville. We have
missionaries there and had heard about the beautiful lake that the town is
built around. It was a ‘big’ lake. Another one of Alabama’s sweet
surprises. We’d always thought of
Guntersville as being in the middle of nowhere. Were we wrong!
Our trip last
Friday and Saturday was purely for pleasure.
Did you know that Helen Keller was born in Tuscumbia, AL? Her childhood home and the setting for the
film “The Miracle Worker” is now open to the public. The home and gardens are a
tribute to this lady of courage. Each
June a live performance of The Miracle Worker is presented in an outdoor
theater on the grounds. Several of the missionary couples attended. The play was very well done and it was
touching to watch it right there on the grounds where these events took
place. There is also a school for the
blind nearby and some of the minor actors in the performance were from
there. Helen Keller was truly a
remarkable woman who dedicated her life to improving conditions for the
blind/deafblind around the world. It was
an inspiring experience for me.
Helen Keller: “I
am convinced that despite the barriers any of us face, we can achieve much more
if we look to the abilities in each one of us rather than dwell on our
perceived “disabilities.” If you let
yourself embrace life as Helen did and absorb all that it has to give, in the
end, we will all come through to the other side and the personal rewards will
be spectacular.
Blessings and love to each of you, Elder and Sister Curtis Mom/Dad
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