October 22, 2015

Labas Everyone!!

To start out I will share a really cool experience that happened last week! I learned to trust in the Lord! Before teaching, my companion and I knelt down to pray to have the spirit with us and to be able to say what we wanted to say. The lesson went well and like I said in my last email, my companion is super good at reading and speaking fast, so it's nice to have him in there. My goal in the lesson was to sit there and try to teach without looking at my notes. Especially for my testimony. I did okay. I looked down a few times. Then it was time for my testimony. And I didn't want to look down for it. I was thinking to myself... "No Elder Curtis, testimony is the most important part, don't botch this, read it." Then I just had this feeling to trust in the Lord. So I continued to give probably the most broken testimony that I have every shared in my life. I would say one to two words and then stop to think about how to say it. In my pauses it was like a wave in the ocean, it was like I felt the spirit rush through me and out into the open to our investigator. I proceeded to complete my testimony and then my companion bore his. We then gave her a Book of Mormon to read and she said she would! After we left the room my companion turned to me and said, "that was a really powerful testimony, I didn't even want to say anything after." It was at "that moment" that I realized that it doesn't matter how many words you say, or how big the words are. English or Lithuanian! The "spirit" is the real teacher and if you just testify with all your heart, through that the spirit bears testimony of what you are trying to say! I'm not saying it's bad to use big words or have long testimonies. Trust me it helps if you know words. I'm just counseling to remember who the real teacher is and that we are only tools in this work! This is the Lord's work!

One of the coolest things I realized while reading the PMG (Preach My Gospel) this week is about the Book of Mormon! You have the Bible, which is a testament of Christ and then you have the Book of Mormon which is a testament of Christ! That's TWO witnessess of Jesus Christ! Now hold on before you say... Well, duh, Elder Curtis. What does having two witnesses do for us? Well, look at the mission field!! We are serving out here in two's!! We testify in two, walk in two, do everything in two! And one of the biggest reasons why we do is because you can back each other up! And that's what the Book of Mormon and Bible do! They are companions to each other! Two written witnesses. It just makes sense!! 

So numbers in Lithuanian are really hard. There are just weird rules... like if it's a multiple of 10 or is in the teens or is 51 for some reason it changes endings. So what did my comp and I do? Elder Kendall and I made a song to the soundtrack of Star Wars and Harry Potter to help us remember (Yes the MTC does weird things to you, but they are awesome things) and now we have zero problem with numbers!!! Our teacher was actually really impressed!!! I might have mentioned in last week's email that I want a Russian accent...but having Elder Bradshaw here is awesome because I've actually been working on my British accent and its coming a long really well!!

Highlight of the week! Though there were many! Chad Lewis came to speak at the devotional and I went back stage after to talk to him cause I kind of know him and people in my zone really wanted to meet him and guess what!!! Taysom Hill was there and so I shook his hand, got a picture with him, and just talked with him!! That picture will come next week because I'm waiting for it to be emailed to me! But it waaassss sooooo cooollll!!! Also, after that the president of the MTC wanted to take a picture with our zone for some reason, idk why, but that was cool as well! But Taysom Hill!!! haha!! 

Some quotes I learned before I have to go. One, "The Lord called you, don't be afraid." -President Gilbert (district president) Idk why that hit me but it is cool to think about as I go into another part of the world soon and to "not be afraid"! Second, "Enjoy to the End" -our mission president Glazier! Sometimes we focus so much on enduring that we don't focus on the good that is happening! So enjoy to the end!!! I'll make sure to let Sam know that for those of you who get his emails;) Hope everyone is doing well!! 

Miss you all and Love you!

Elder Curtis