Week 26 - "When people ask me if I know how to swim, I say to them, 'Duh that's how I got here!'"

Quote props to Hno Barrera this week, speaking on his journey to America.  Now if only I can remember what happened the rest of this week…..

MIRIAM GOT BAPTIZED.  For those of you who don't remember or if I never told you about what happened there, we were teaching Miriam and about 5 days before her baptism she called it off for less than happy reasons.  But two months later she got baptized!  God has a plan for all of us!  Families are forever!

We had a Christmas Conference this week with all the missionaries in the entire mission.  We watched "The Nativity Movie" and it completely redefined the way that I think about Mary and Joseph.  What a blessed eye opening experience!  My favorite part of it was when after Joseph and Mary had been traveling to Bethlehem Joseph was napping because he was so tired.  Mary washed his feet for him because it was the only thing that she could do.  I liked this part a lot because I was thinking about how maybe Jesus got the idea of washing his disciples' feet from watching the example of his mother.  And the rest of the conference was good too.  :)  Hna Lowry and I took a special picture with our driving mascots.  Picture below.

We had a lesson with one of our investigators who is getting baptized and he explained to us his favorite part in the Book of Mormon (1 Nephi chapters 8-12).  He said, "My whole life I have been on the path of God, but I was wandering in the mists of darkness.  Now I have found the iron rod."  My favorite part was when he then continued to say, " and one day I WILL partake of the fruit!"  He gets it!!!! I invite all of you to read it too. :)

This week we also had Christmas in 87 degree Houston weather, and I got to talk to my family!  On my birthday, I classic to character, had a bowl of spaghetti Os with a candle, which I then blew out.  (That was for you Kam!)  I also got a plate of cake shoved in my face.  But it was really good cake, so there was no downside really.

Also, I wanted to share with you guys the coolest things that happened on Christmas Eve!  We had been planning things all day to do, when Hna Provost knew that we needed to go visit the Ochoa family.  The Ochoa's live 50 miles away and we only had 200 miles for the rest of the month, but somehow we knew we needed to go out there.  So we went, and the drive was beautiful, and when we pulled up the mom answered the door with tears in her eyes and told us that she had just then been praying that we would come.  God really does answer prayers.  Then we were leaving and I lost the phone in the car.  We looked through the whole car, 5 times!  Finally we asked Hna Ochoa to call the phone and we found it in a pocket that my companion had watched me look through multiple times.  As we were finally on our way again, my companion optimistically said, "Well, maybe we would have gotten into a car accident and God was really protecting us."  That was when we drove past this really cool old looking church.  We pulled over, got out, took a quick picture, and just as we were leaving a really nice lady named Pamela pulled over and asked us if we needed help taking a picture.  She then proceeded to tell us about how her great-grandma had started the church in 1875 and about the history (I was really into it haha).  We then shared a little bit of our message and as we parted ways she told us that she was going to share it with all her children and her family.  As we drove away we realized that if we hadn't been there at that exact moment we never would have met her.

One of my mother's favorite scriptures is found in Proverbs 3:5-6 which says, "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct thy paths."  I know that this is true with all of my heart.  When we let the Lord direct us, he will always guide us to the places that we need to be and exactly when we need to be there.  Not only then do our paths become perfected, but then we are truly following HIS paths, and I know that we can find no greater happiness, joy, and peace of mind.  Follow His paths, and they will always lead us back home to His presence.  And like my mother also always says, "There is no place like home."

Always,
Hna Madison McCurdy

These first three come from Sister Barrera.  Madison and her companion share the same birthday!  What are the chances of that????

This picture comes from Diana.  Thank you sweet ladies!!  She is now part of Diana's family.

Her Spagheti O's (for Kamrynn)

Hermana Lowry and Madison with their driving mascots :)

ps. This picture is yo y la familia Hernandez.  I love them a lot.  Pray for them too please. :)

Week 25 - "Happy Titanic Day, Hermana McCurdy"

My new companion's name is Hermana Rebecca Provost, and she is from West Haven, Utah!  She plays the piano very well (which means I am off the hook for the Christmas season).  She and I have the same birthday even though she is two years older than me but you can bet that we are going to have a party :) pictures to follow next week….. She started her mission here in Conroe a long time ago, and at the end of this transfer, or approximately 36 days from now she will be finishing her mission.  She is the bomb.  And I also got her addicted to family history this week and I don't feel even a millimeter bad about it. Haha!

Another great thing about Hermana Provost is that she can hold a tune really well, so our caroling/finding people to teach has totally been stepped up this week as we throw in some alto parts and some improvised material in there.  God has definitely blessed me more than just our singing this week.

We set a baptism date with that guy from Connecticut (his name is Milton) for January 9th!  We doubled our member presents, and almost all of our numbers.  Miracles!  We worked and worked and we think the best part is that we found areas where we can work even harder.  The work is growing! :)

We had the ward family Christmas Party.  It was a lot of fun.  That is where we took the picture with Oscar Gonzalez, the 1st Counselor in the Bishopric, disguised as Santa.

We got lost on a really sketchy narrow dark road out in the country with purple trees on either side of us and I think that is really how Hermana Provost and I bonded.  It was an adventure about how we got out of there to say the least.

Also remember that lady who went back to Germany and ate seven pieces of Cake?  Well, this week we got to know her daughter, and her life is CRAZY.  She was a war baby in Germany and had to move to the US on the Boat the USS Rosa when she was ten.  She got to sail past the Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island.  She was interpreter for the US military.  She was part of the black panthers and she once ran the panama canal, with the "Atlantic Ocean on one side, and the Pacific Ocean on the other."  Hermana George has become one of my favorite people.  After church she was confiding to me about her life, and she told me about how for 24 years she had lost the song in her heart, and how somehow she has found it again.  I know that God gives us so many different gifts, and that through him is the only way that we can be happy.  I hope that each of you will find the song in your heart, and that you will never stop it from playing.
Merrily,
Hermana Madison McCurdy

p.s. Merry Christmas!!! :)

ppss. My old district at the temple.

Hna McCurdy and Hna Provost at the ward Christmas Party!

(Photo compliments of the Barerra Family- Keep them coming!)

Doesn't the glow of the Santa hat make her look like an angel? :)

Week 24 - I love to see the temple!

We got to go the temple this week as a district, and I bought a Mormon Tabernacle Choir/David Archuletta Christmas CD.  We have realized that there comes a time in every missionaries' life when he or she, becomes grateful that someone found David Archuletta.   Maybe it is because we can't listen to anything else, but we are living off of "Silent Night" by David Archuletta and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir.  We also had temple tours with Paulina, and then goth to go on Friday night to do baptisms with Francelia for her family.  They have put a little nativity scene outside the temple, it was really pretty.

We have also been Caroling like crazy.  We have developed a tactic of caroling every time we knock on someone's door and know they are home but won't answer the door…. and then they open the door.  We got to carol in an Old Person home this week as a District and it was very special.  One old man came as we were leaving and didn't get to hear us sing, so we asked him for his favorite song and then we sang all three verses of Silent Night and I resisted singing the David Archuletta version on the last verse with all that I had haha.  Our elderly friends sang along and it made my whole day, even though they put me in charge of the singing.

We also had a Stake Christmas Party this week, and we found out that President Nelson from the Twelve Apostles is coming to dedicate our new stake center next month.  Our ward primary sang the Little Drummer Boy (in Spanish) and it was the best song of the entire night haha.  All the missionaries in the Stake were the closing act.  Then on the way home they shut down the freeway and it was torture.

Also, the Hernandez Family is not getting a divorce!  We're 100% sure that it was because they read the Book of Mormon together.  They might not be so sure, but we are.

I love going to the temple.  It was so special every single time that we went this week.  I know that the temple changes lives and hearts.  Paulina is so excited to go in one day, and I was privileged to watch Francelia enter and help her family become a little bit more eternal.  How lucky we are to have the House of God on the earth today.  I wish that I could be with all of you one day in the temple. :)

Have a merry week before Christmas, and please let me know if there is anything that I can do for any of you.  Please pray for the people in Conroe, that they will be ready to receive the miracles of God in this Christmas Season.

All my love,
Hermana Madison McCurdy

ps.  These are pictures of the temple, us with Francelia at the temple and I don't remember.

Week 23 - "I think world war 2 just started!" Danny Walker

Salutations my family and my friends!  This week was crazy!
If anyone is wanting to send me a Christmas Card, etc. please send them to "1900 Westview Blvd #526 Conroe, TX  77304".

We had zone conference this week with training on how to work with a ward council and it was very interesting.  I kind of had my mind blown about the organization of the church.  The Lord is very smart in how He organizes things.  They didn't make me talk this time, but they did randomly call on me to talk about Family History….I still don't know if I think that was planned or the Spirit, but someone was really on top of stuff.

The Hernandez Family is moving! To Cleveland!  This is a small tragedy because Cleveland is right on the other side of our border and in the Houston East Mission.  We had little tears in our eyes as they explained to us that it would be the last time we could teach them.  But then they turned into tears of joy when we realized it was actually right on our side of the border, and still in our area! (So we can still teach them.)  We happy danced and sang Christmas songs and it went from being completely heart-wrenching to a small miracle.

This week we had dinner with a woman who is in our Spanish Ward to learn Spanish.  Spanish is her third language because she is actually a German Immigrant!  Getting to know her sweet 81 year old mother was probably the best part of the whole evening.  She has a German accent and a secret chocolate stash in the freezer and lives off of apple sauce (that's a German thing).  She was telling us about how they immigrated to the United States during the Cold War and she didn't see her family for 7 years.  She then said that when she went back, she and her sisters met up in a cafe and she bought seven slices of cake, and that she ate all of them right then.  Maybe this sounds silly, but my new little friend sacrificed her German cake (American's can't make cake apparently. Or meat. Or anything.) so that her family could have a better life.

I learned a lot from her example.  Sometimes I miss the "cake" that is so much better at home, or at BYU.  But I left the cake to come help my family, and the little ones that I have come to love every day, have a better life.  And the best part of it is that Heavenly Father is not only helping me understand the value of quality cake, but also He is teaching me how to make my own.  The future is truly very bright.  "There is no darkness so dense, so menacing, or so difficult that it cannot be overcome by light."  I know for myself that this is true.  I love all of you and I hope that y'all have a great week!
Always,
Hermana Madison McCurdy

ps This is a sneak peak at our District's Christmas Picture

ppss. This is our investigator's daughter named Mia.

And these two lovely pictures were sent to my cell phone by a lovely woman who is really good to my daughter.  Thank you!!

pppsss. Someone please celebrate Pearl Harbor day for me.  Go America!