Week 17 - Hurricane Patricia

Familia:

    Hey guys! How are you all? I hope that you are doing well and that

you are not cold and wet and windy like Houston is right now. Did

anything exciting happen this week? How is school and stuff going?

    First off, Hurricane Patricia was just really wet and really fun.

The only bad part was that Hna Jorgensen and I looked and smelled like

wet dogs.

    We went to the zoo :) it was fun!

    I wanted to share an experience that I had a couple weeks ago with

you guys. I remember that I was having a very bad day. I was feeling

pretty devastated and down on myself and as we were driving to an

appointment I remember brooding over things in my head. My companion

ended up taking a wrong turn and I figured that she would turn right

eventually to get on the right road, but then she didn't. I was even

more confused when the busy road narrowed and became a two lane dirt

road in the middle of Houston, and we were lost. We came to a weird

clearing with some other parked cars, and looking up at the sky I

realized we were right next to the runway at the airport.

    You can imagine my delight as we sat and watched the airplanes for

a couple minutes. Hna Jorgensen started asking me questions about why

all the planes start turning immediately after they got up into the

air. After I was done explaining about air traffic, I was watching a

small United flight climb into the sky and heard a voice say clearly

in my mind, "I am the pilot here, and I know where I want you to go."

    I am so glad that our Heavenly Father follows his own flight plans

and not our own. Our destinations for ourselves fall so much shorter

than His. He sees us not only as we are but as we can be. I know that

no matter the hard things that come in our way he places them there

specifically to help us become that person. I know that we can all

meet God's high expectations, and I also know that one day God will

take each of us lovingly by the shoulders and turn us around, and that

then we will finally be able to see that our greatest trials in life

were also our greatest blessings. The hardest thing I have ever had to

do in my life is also the greatest thing that ever happened to me. I

am glad that God does not ask us if we want our trials but instead

lovingly listens to our complaining and rejoices with us when we

realize their worth. I know He loves us.

    I know that God lives. I know that He celebrates with us and

always sees our potential. I am grateful that we can ALWAYS CHANGE.

    How well God knows me, especially if He will lovingly rebuke me

through airplane metaphors haha.

    Love you guys :)

-Hna Madison McCurdy

Ps. This is us and the senator for Texas.

Ppss. Hermana Jorgensen and an elephant.

Week 16 - What happens in the font stays in the font

The week before a baptism is a unique type of monster- both because
there is a lot to do that most people don't know you have to do, and
also that week is always really hard for the person getting baptized
too. So long story short- Alfredo, the husband of Paty our recent
convert, was baptized this weekend. And it was a really weird week.
    We arrived at the church early to fill up the font only to
discover that it was covered in mold and mildew because people had
never drained the font from the last baptism. We tried using the mop
but nothing seemed to work! Finally the Hermanas in the Ward who were
early performed a miracle. I will never forget watching them there in
the Font in their dresses without their shoes on,
scrubbing and scrubbing away at the mildew on the walls of the empty
font ten minutes before the baptism was supposed to start.
    Alfredo did get baptized, and it was AWESOME. When he came out of
the water he had the biggest smile on his face. He was a new person!
He was smiling and laughing, and was glowing too! The blessings that
come from obeying the commandments of God are hard to describe in
words, but I have seen them with my own eyes and felt them in my heart
and in my life. I am grateful for the opportunities I have to help
other people experience them too.
    I know that this gospel is true, and that Joseph Smith did see our
Heavenly Father and His Son Jesus Christ. I know that the Book of
Mormon is true, and that through priesthood ordinances we can become
new men and women and live with our Father in Heaven, and our families
forever too.
    Until next week :)
-Hna Madison McCurdy

Week 15 - Piano Miracles

So I'm not sure if anything interesting happened this week..... My
bad if this one ends up boring. Haha sorry if all of these emails are
boring. This is sad I really don't have anything to say.
  I went on exchanges this week with a missionary who is even newer
than me, which means that her Spanish is even worse. It was really
neat to see how much my Spanish has grown since I left Mexico. Even
though sometimes I had a little bit of hard time understanding some of
the Spanish that day, it was a wonderful day. It was really neat, this
one lady was venting to me in Spanish and crying and I could not
understand almost anything she was saying. I was praying really hard
that God would help me understand, and he did :) It was different from
any answer that I've ever had before. When I tried to understand the
Spanish it was difficult to follow but I caught some stuff, and when I
focused even harder on her face my heart could understand perfectly
what she was saying. It was a very neat experience.
  I had this thing called "8 Week" *cue the epic terror music* in
which I had to teach in front of our mission president, in Spanish,
but it went really well. I learned SO MUCH that day my brain was tired
by 1:00 pm. And they fed us lunch that day and I ate two feet of
subway sandwich.
  This week I also played a lot of piano. And I mean a LOT of piano.
One day we were teaching a lesson to this lady who has been
investigating for like 8 years and we were doing it using the piano.
And I was the only one who somewhat plays the piano. Trying to play it
before we started it was really bad. By really bad, I mean really bad.
Then when it was time to start I played all four songs without messing
up once. God gave me a miracle. But playing the piano this week really
made me think. I remember two years ago struggling to plunk out a
note. So with hard work God turned me into a pianist. I hope one day
(sooner than later haha if you know what I mean) God will do the same
thing with my Spanish. Truly, when we put in our effort our God makes
amazing symphonies out of us, his not finely tuned instruments.
  We had temple tours again last week, which was neat because this
week we have been working on changing how we teach the plan of
salvation (or God's plan for us about where we come from, why we're
here and here we're going) to make it more effective. As I have been
studying it I have been thinking about the temple is really God's plan
for us. It's not baptism, it's not church attendance, instead all of
those things are smaller goals that help us get to the temple. I know
the temple is the house of God, and that only there can our families
be together forever. I am grateful for that large, beautiful, white
building, and that my family CAN and WILL be together forever. I know
that our families are really what the plan of God is really about.
  I love you guys a whole lot and I hope that all of you are doing
excellent :) thank you all for being part of my family :)
-Hna Madison McCurdy

Ps. These are me and my friends and a statue of the Savior.

Week 14 - Hermana McDonald's

Hello friends and Family!

  I wish I had really cool stories to tell you guys, but all the best stories you wait to tell until you get home, right? That is how we come to these odds and ends:

  I made cookies "For the First Time in Forever," this week. They were so yummy. My companion was this odd mix of really pleased and also slightly peeved, because she wanted to eat all the cookies. I have picked up some new nicknames around here, including but not limited to: "Maria" (by a 9-year old girl who loves the Sound of Music), "Leche Mala" (which means bad milk. Someone thought my name was McCurdled, which then turned into curdled, which proceeded to evolve into Leche Mala) (the bad milk in the CCM has followed me to Texas), "Turd" (said person used to call me curd), and "Herman McDonalds" (which happened because a lot of Hispanics have a difficult time pronouncing my majestic Scottish last name and then realize it looks like McDonalds. The moral of the story is that about 2/3 of the primary calls me Hermana McDonalds now).

    We have a really cool investigator who loves the Book of Mormon.  Before we taught him his second lesson he was already in 2nd Nephi, and when we taught him the Restoration he was so golden he had James 1:5 memorized. Wowza.

    I had an exchange this week, which is where you switch companions with someone else for a day, and I got to spend time with the "Lebron James of the Texas Houston Mission." She was a lot less intimidating and less tall than I thought she would be haha. Her named is Hermana Tate and she is from SoCal. I learned so much from her in one day.  Honestly if one day I could even make it into the Missionary NBA I would be happy.

  While a lot of missionaries in the world have bicycles, my companion and I have a car. See that little black box in the corner? His name is TiWi and TiWi does a lot of good things. For example when you hit a curb he says, "Aggressive driving." Or when you go 11 miles over the speed limit or higher, he says, "Watch your speed."  Sometimes he even randomly tells us to make sure that our seatbelt is on. So why do we have a TiWi? For obvious reasons, even if it annoys us and the people of the Houston area. But the TiWi does a lot of good. I was thinking that we have a TiWi in our lives too, and that is the gift of the Holy Ghost. Sometimes he says: "Don't watch this movie," or "Don't go to that website." We have the Holy Ghost for the same reason that we have TiWi, to keep us safe and prevent accidents. Sometimes it's annoying that you can't do whatever you want to do. Sometimes it makes other people angry. But whenever we follow the guidance of the Holy Ghost we will always feel the love of God in return telling us he is happy that we did the right thing. I wouldn't trade that feeling for the world.

  And sometimes it makes me wish that the TiWi said thank you when you did what it asked you to do.

  Have a marvelous week everyone. I love y'all :) Keep me updated

please what is going on with you guys please!

  All my love,

  Hna Madison McCurdy

Me and TiWi

This is a serious picture of my Zone