Birthday, Baptisms, Bicicleta

Monday. We tried hiking Imbabura, a big Volcano, but we were forced to go with sisters, so we only made it about half way, but we still got some pretty good views. That night we taught some lessons- nothing special.

Tuesday: In the morning we had Consejo de Districto, and just reviewed our people with a date for this last Saturday… we planned the whole baptism service. After lunch and studies, We gave some lessons and ate this weird fruit that someone gave us. After you break open this hard shell, you have to suck out this weird snot stuff. It took me a while to dig in because it was just so foreign to me, but it was actually pretty good! That night I started feeling really cold and kinda weak.

Wednesday (my birthday!¡!¡!¡!¡!¡!): My day started off at 1:30 in the morning… I didn’t sleep not one bit because I was shivering so much the whole night. Then at 1:30 am I went to the bathroom and threw up more than I have ever thrown up in my life. I checked my temperature also and I was at 102.7 degrees. I didn’t sleep at all… When my comp got up, we didn’t really know what to do because we were supposed to do interchanges. We ended up doing it anyway, and Elder Paulson, from Otavalo, stayed inside with me the whole day. Sometime in the morning, we got with the mission doctors, and they prescribed me some medicine to go get. It took everything I had to walk all the way to a pharmacy. After we got back I flopped back in my bed and didn’t get up til 7:30pm. I threw up so many times and had bad bad diarrhea(dk how to spell that)also sorry for the graphics haha. anyway At 7:30 we had to get up to go to Otavalo because we had to stay the night there. I was starting to feel a little better and ate some crackers before bed. Btw all I wanted was for it to rain and the rain season to start and it did! It rained like crazy that night! so one good thing happened haha…

Thursday. we got up and went back to San Pablo. We had a lesson in the morning with this new awesome family… They offered us some soup and food. I felt so sick eating it but you can’t turn down stuff so I just had to suck it up.. the lesson went really well though. Then we had to do all our studies. We ended up doing some contacting then had one more lesson that night that also went really well.

Friday: In the morning we had to go to Espejo to do an interview with Maria, who is from the hermanas in our district. She just barely got all the lessons, but she was all ready for baptisms the next day. After that we had to wait for a bus to get back, then did all our planning and studies and lunch. I was finally starting to feel a little better so we decided to go to Otavalo to have my birthday lunch. We went to this really good chicken place and got so full.  After lunch we headed up to Rasa and Jose. (they are the one’s who were supposed to get baptized the last week, but they had forgotten because they are super old) Anyway they weren’t home so we did some contacting. Later It started raining like crazy crazy and it was awesome! I love the rain here! Anyway we had our english class underneath this metal roof and couldn’t hear a single thing haha. That was alright though because only two people came. For whatever reason the people here like are terrified of the rain or getting wet because they all stay inside. After class we had a lesson with Marco, he was gonna get baptized the next day… we filled out some paperwork, and figured out the white jumpsuit we had for him was way to small haha. So he was gonna have to use my comp’s clothes. My comp is 6’4” so that was gonna be really funny. Marco felt awesome for the baptism. We had one more lesson that night, then got to fall asleep to the rain.

Saturday: Saturday was really busy, but I’m only gonna talk about the baptisms because I frankly don’t care to share the other stuff. We went to fill up the font in the morning, as there was gonna be 6 baptisms that afternoon. After that we went up to Rosa and Jose to tell them to stay in their hour so they wouldn’t forget this time… Later we went back and they weren’t there!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ugh those old people stress me out! We ran down like a mile and a half and caught them right before they got on a bus, but we drug them to the church haha! Miracles happen! Anyway we got to the church a little early with them and set up everything. After a bit, all 5 people who were gonna get baptized showed up along with literally probably 60 other people! It was awesome! I changed into all white, along with the others, and we took pictures. Then we started the program. When I saw Elder Paulson baptize Jose, the spirit got so strong, along with my nerves haha. Four baptisms went by, then I was up to bat. Marco and I got in the font. He grabbed my left arm, I recited the prayer, and dunked my first investigator. I have never felt such power. After the baptisms, all five went up to share their testimonies. I almost couldn’t keep the tears in when Marco talked about us (haha the Hermanitos). I love Marco and his wife. The love he has for her is so great. He is now on the path to the temple, to eternal life with his wife and son Matias. Saturday was the best day of my mission. I’m counting Saturday as my birthday and not Wednesday haha!

Sunday: Church was kinda awesome! We saw everyone get confirmed. Then Hermana Lovell (btw her uncle is President Lovell in our Stake presidency which is crazy) finished her mission, and she came to the baptisms and church with her parents. It was weird to talk to people in english again! In Priesthood, the Elder’s Quorum President completely chopped everyone for not doing their ministering. He literally pointed at every person and asked if the went ministering or if they even knew who their ministering companion was. It was hilarious and very entertaining.

That was my week. When I say there was ups and downs, I mean there were ups and downs haha. I think on Thursday we had to come to the computers to fill out some stuff. I had 28 new emails from all of you wishing me a happy birthday… I don’t think I can express how much that means to me to have you all supporting me. I probably won’t be able to write back everyone, so I’ll do it in here. Thank you all so much for all of the support you have all given me. More than anything your examples to me speak to me very strongly. So many of you have been in my shoes devoting two years of your life to this great work. You know last night, we were in a noche doe hogar with a really awesome family. They were talking about the power of the Book of Mormon to strengthen families. My companion share his testimony of it and shared how his dad is a convert, and elder Ahrens is the first missionary to serve in his whole family. He shared what a difference that has made for his dad, and even more his family. After him I went and shared that my family is kinda the result of the devotion to the gospel. I told them how I was number 27/28 to serve in my family. I shared how close my family is. There is a plenitude of blessings prepared for these families here in Ecuador, and in your own small family. The Book of Mormon is the keystone for a reason, and is one of the many great things that sets our church apart of the crowd. I remember praying for Spencer and Ryan and Chris and Jackson and Josie and so many others everyday. To know that there are so many who do that for me speaks to me. Its my time. And one day it’ll be time for a lot of my cousins. I wanna talk to them a little bit. Serve a mission! Every moment is worth it no matter the degree of our success. Every hard thing makes us stronger, but all is possible through our dedicated service to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. Thank you all for all you do for me.

Elder Curtis