Sister Curtis goes to Birmingham.

Last week Sister Curtis left the MTC in Preston, England for her mission field of Birmingham. We got this email from her Mission President's wife letting us know she was safe and sound, along with some pictures...It was pretty sweet.

Hello! 

We just wanted to send you the pictures of your missionary. They all arrived safely today and look like an excellent group.  They will make such an impact in the lives of the people they meet. 

 

Thank you for your support and sacrifice! 

Sister Rasmussen

 

 

Homes along the river in England

 Group of Missionaries at the airport on their way to the mission field.

Sister Curtis and Sister Dodds getting ready to go running at the MTC.

Missionaries in the Brimingham, England Mission

Sister Curtis with President and Sister Rasmussen

New missionaries to the Birmingham, England Mission

We are so happy to hear that Sister Curtis is safe and sound and can't wait for her to tell us new stories of her adventures as a missionary.

Sister Curtis only wrote my Mom this week so I can't post the whole email but I will post excerpts from it. She is doing great! So far she loves the MTC, is learning so much and knows that she is right where she is supposed to be. What more can we ask for?

"How is Dad doing? How is Koda? I miss him. I miss all of you but I feel like I have been blessed in the fact that I don't think of you all much because I am so busy. Mom, it was the best choice to come out here on a mission, I honestly was worried that i was making the wrong choice but since I have been out here, I know that this is the the right choice. The feeling of getting to live with the spirit and the priesthood 24/7 is amazing, I am always so peaceful and happy, I am lucky in the fact that I'm a morning person and so getting up is easy, and enjoyable."

 Sister Curtis has been working so hard that in her email she tells us that she went without eating dinner for the first few nights from over sleeping on her naps. It is a good thing she has had all that time to prepare for getting up so early.

There are other rules she tells us about in the MTC where she is now, even with few numbers of missionaries (only about 48 in the whole MTC) the Sisters are not allowed to sit with the Elders at mealtime, Sister Curtis talks about how she misses the free time to talk to her Elder friends. From the sound of it the other rules are pretty chill, they allowed the missionaries to go to the ASDA (England's version of Wal-Mart) to run errands and since Sister Curtis and her companion Sister Dodds love to run in the morning they have been allowing them to run out past the MTC grounds, she told us a funny story about that.

"This place is just wonderful, I feel like I'm in a old English movie, the stone streets and houses built right next to each other, sigh... So funny story...... So when Sister Dodds and I went running on Saturday, they gave us a map that you use to go running outside the MTC boundaries, so we took it, both of us being fairly decent at running. Well in looking at the map to much and not paying attention to the road, I took us down the wrong road and instead of running on a trail by a river we were running on a really busy street.... We look at each other and decided to turn around, but on our way off the road, we got stopped by a Bobby! A police officer! He was nice and he looked confused and was like "girls, is your car broken?" And we were like no, we just think we went the wrong way.. And he was like, yeah, you're not suppose to run on the motorway. We had unknowingly ran on to the motorway! It their highway here, but ten times busier.. It was quite funny, we are still getting people asking about what happen... we are quite famous here.. haha."

 I love this story, it sounds just like something Sister Curtis would do :D

She ends her email for the week with this last little note:

"I love you all and am praying for you daily. Be safe.

Quote of the week for my district: How can you do what you do, when you know what you know.  

Love, Sister J.Curtis"

 

Welcome to England!

            Well she made it! My Mom got an email from Sister Curtis letting us know that she had made it safe and sound to the Preston MTC. Her roommate is a Sister Dodds who was a student at BYU-ID and whose hometown is Twin Falls, Idaho. So far it sounds like everything is going great for Sister Curtis over in England.

Don't worry as we get more emails from Sister Curtis we will keep you updated!

Start of the next 18 months!

Today we took Sister Curtis to the airport in Salt Lake City to head out to the MTC in England to start her mission. Saying goodbye to a missionary is a strange but wonderful experience, it is full of mixed emotions and nerves but that is soon replaced by the sheer excitement of the moment and anticipation for the new stage in the missionary's life.

       On the way up to the airport we asked Sister Curtis about her carry on bags only to discover that she hadn't remembered the different regulations when it comes to what she could take on the plane, this being her first flight it was not something she had thought of, quickly in the car we sorted through her bags and moved things around to make sure it was all in order. When we got to the airport we found the right airline and started the check in process, there were a few Elder's checking in at the same time, it didn't take long to find out that they were heading to the same MTC and on the same flight. While we said goodbye many more Sisters and Elders joined the group all leaving at the same time, this was so comforting to us as her family to know that she was not going to be flying alone and that she would have people to travel with and support her.

     There were tears all around as we said our goodbyes and took some last minute photos, Sister Curtis was anxious to get across the security and the line was growing so we let her go, wanting to make sure she got through security without any issues the family went up to the top of the escalators and watched as she funneled through the line toward the scanners. Sister Curtis made it through with only one slight issue, we had left a hair product in her bag so it had to be sorted through and thrown away...oops. It was a relief though to see her finally pick up her things and move toward her gate.

Right now she is on her way to the MTC and we expect to hear from her soon, we are ready for the next 18 months :D