Aug 4, 2012
To begin this
week’s news, I want to report that for the month of July the Mission had the
largest number of baptisms ever recorded since the mission was created in 1979.
I’ve already sent you pictures from some that we attended. Last Saturday we were involved with the
baptism of a new member in our own branch.
She has been attending ever since we were assigned to the branch and we
have helped teach during the Sunday Gospel Principals class. She has gained a strong knowledge of the
teachings and truthfulness of the gospel and it has been a pleasure to see her
progress. We were able to pick her up the morning of her baptism and be there
for her that day. There was a nice
Branch turnout. After her baptism Regina
bore a sweet and heartfelt testimony.
Now we need to follow through by mentoring her reading in the Book of
Mormon and encouraging others to continue fellowshipping her. Was a nice day.
This is the kind
of news that we most enjoy sharing and remembering from our mission. In the first two years that President
Holzapfel has been here, the baptism numbers have been higher for the mission
than years past. As he began his third year as Pres. in July it looks like that
growth will continue. There is an urgency throughout the church to reach out to
those who have been and are being prepared to receive God’s word. The
missionaries were told by Elder Gonzales that no matter how many times they
have gone to an area, there are still those being prepared to accept God’s
message. The work is there.
This has been a
busy time of travel for us and the mission as the individual Zone Training
meetings were held for Aug. It seems
that we had just attended them for July.
This time they weren’t all held on the same day so we were able to go to
three of the five. We learned while in Huntsville that the two stakes that make
up that Zone have been asked to separate and each stake will become a Zone as
is requested by Salt Lake. As of next week the mission will have six Zones to
cover. I have to admit, with all the changes that are being requested by
Mission Headquarters, things do finally seem to be running more smoothly and
the work gets done faster and more efficiently.
I guess all the beta testing and having our computers bringing
frustrations to our lives, is now paying off. I know the person that will
replace me will have it much easier and even Paul’s responsibilities are a
little less hectic, although, there are STILL issues with tiwis and then just
human error (accidents, lost reports, etc) that will probably always be there
to some degree.
Anyway, we
attended the Birmingham Zone on Wed, then Huntsville on Thursday and Elder
Curtis went to Tupelo on Friday. I had a
dentist appointment for a rootcanel so was unable to go that day. As always, it was great to be with the young
Elders and Sisters. We have some
fantastic Leaders and they are the ones that did the training based on what
they had been instructed by the President.
Besides traveling
to the different areas for the training meetings we took one day to deliver a
new car to our Sisters serving in Tuscaloosa (over an hour from the office) and
then took their car South East to
Tuskegee (past Montgomery) so that we could retire the car from there. All of
this was necessary because there had been a wreck and one of our 50 cars was in
the repair shop. I won’t even go into
the headaches that caused Elder C. The mission is only allowed 50 cars so this
left six missionaries with just one car in an area where a car was badly
needed. It took some juggling, but for
now everyone is getting by the best they can with a little help from Elder
C. On the day we made this exchange we
ended up being on the road for nearly eight hours…..whew! There had been a bad
accident on the freeway and we took all back roads. We saw some beautiful country and went places
we’ve never been, but after a long day, the slow driving was not what you would
call pleasant. Oh well, looking back we
remember the good…like meeting Elders Withers and LaCour in Tuskegee. They were
just WALKING up to their place when we arrived. It was well over a hundred that
day and they were out there working hard. We call Elder Withers the “hundred
door a day man”. He never stops and
Elder LaCour is right there at his side. They were both dripping with sweat and
we thought we would melt just standing there talking to them. We didn’t spend
much time as they had to head out (walking) to another appointment. Good, good Elders.
I’ll close by
writing about more mission “Hellos and Goodbyes”. We had a luncheon at the mission home as a
welcome party for Elder and Sister Specht, who arrived in July and are serving
in MS, and a farewell party for Elder and Sister Halley who have completed
their 18 month mission. We will miss the
Halleys. Besides their great missionary
efforts, Sister Halley was in charge of planning our Couples’ outings and she
did a super job giving us opportunities we probably would have missed if not
for her. We were pleased to meet Elder and Sister Specht. They are lively and outgoing and will be a
nice addition to the mission.
We will miss him
along with so many others. Already we
are preparing for the next group to come in and the next ones to leave. That’s mission life and we love it!
“For ye shall go out with joy, and be led
forth with peace; the mountains and the hills shall break forth before you into
singing, and all the trees of the field shall clap their hands.” Isaiah 55:12
This seemed like a good scripture to end with. It is so beautiful here in Alabama and as we
take in the beauty of the countryside and even more so, the people, we feel to clap
our hands with joy for the blessing of serving here and the work we see being
done.
Blessings and Love to each of you,
Elder and Sister Curtis
Mom/Dad
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