Week 11 - The Peanut Factory

Aloha to my favorite people! :)

    Just a few odds and ends before I get to the meat of this week: 

    I got to work in the Peanut Butter factory of the church this week. I worked so hard I rubbed my right hand raw; it was AWESOME!! 

    Remember how there is only one set of missionaries to an area? Well this week one other Hermana in another area and I swapped places for a day. It was so hard and so fun! I also got to take this picture of Downtown Houston!

    I got a question from a kind and beautiful soul this week about what a day in the mission is like. I wake up exactly at 6:30, and then my companions and I go running for thirty minutes. Then we shower and get ready for the day. Then I read the scriptures for an hour, study with my companion for the next hour, then study Spanish for an hour, and because I am in training we then do training stuff for an hour. Then we eat lunch and hit the road. We then go teach people all the day long. In Spanish. If we don't have people to teach we go and look for them in a variety of ways. This is called contacting. We go home at 9:00 pm, plan for thirty minutes, and then we get ready for bed and are in bed at 10:30. 

When I first got to the MTC (CCM) I had a really hard time with waking up exactly at 6:30 because I was so tired. The one day, I was reading about the end of the life of Jesus Christ when he was suffering for our sins in the Garden of Gethsemane and his apostles were sleeping (This is all in Matthew 26) and he kept asking them, in the Madison McCurdy translation, can't you just stay awake for an hour? Here the Son of God is carrying the sins of the world. He is more than exhausted and yet he is still being exactly obedient. This hit me in my heart. I am as a representative of Jesus Christ. This is his year and a half, not mine. He is not asking Peter to stay awake, he is asking me. All he asks is for "me" to stay awake for a single hour. 

    After that I have not had a single problem staying awake or getting up. 

    God is not only asking me to stay awake, he has also asked for this year and a half of my life. The more I experience it the more I am glad that I gave it to him. When I chose to give him the reins he has began changing me and helping me grow. How I am excited for the next 15 1/2 months too! 

    I love you guys!! Try to stay awake that extra hour this week and I know you will get so many blessings. That is the great thing about the gospel. The more you give the more God gives in return. That is the beauty of my message. :)

-Hermana Madison McCurdy

The Peanut Factory

Shakes

Beautiful Houston

Feeling French

Week 10 Possums apparently swim

Hello my favorite people!

    This week I have learned a couple important things: 

1. Family History is slightly more complex in Spanish but I LOVE IT. This week I Had a dream about all the records I can index in Spanish when I get home because I was so excited. Perhaps God called me to speak Spanish so I can help out the Mexican Indexing effort later. (Indexing is a form of digitizing records for family history that I do when I am stressed out and is a habit that only I and a lot of elderly people seem to have.) then it made me laugh because only I would think of that and how nerdy it is that I am looking forward to it! 

2. My ability to understand Spanish gets better and better every single day. I am so excited! It helps if I say it along in my head when they talk so I can hold onto the words, and some Central American accents are really hard to understand, but how cool is that!! (Super cool!) 

3. It does not matter what language you speak but as long as you can speak frozen all little girls will love you. I made a family laugh so hard yesterday as I was rocking out with a little girl to the Demi Lovato version of "Let it go." I never thought that knowing all the lyrics to every Disney song would come in handy, but it was a blessing in disguise after all. 

My little friend named Daniel who we have been teaching was baptized this week! He is very small and we had to pin up his pants but it was a beautiful service. I love that kid! (There is a picture included) 

Does anyone have any questions about what I do as a missionary or what a normal day is like? Or any ideas about how I can make these letters better? I am open to anything! 

My area that I serve in inside the Texas Houston Mission is called Houston 6, and geographically it contains the George Bush Airport. Only my companionship serves in this area. One of the cool things that we get to do is go to Hispanic Zumba every Monday to work out on P-Day because we have a lot of investigators that work there and so we get to teach them and we work out. (I can assure you it has not improved my ability to dance one bit!) It is really fun, and we have made a lot of friends and found many people to teach from there! Missionaries are supposed to exercise from 6:30-7:00 every morning on days that are not P-Day. In the MTC I would do things like volleyball, but here in Texas Hermana Sumsion in in charge of the exercise, and she loves to run. 

    At first the running was very hard as many of you can probably imagine, (No one laugh please. Especially you Angel.) I could only make it to the bottom of the street and back once without having to stop. My strides are also comparatively short to my companions who are 4 inches shorter than me, which I think makes it harder on myself. After one week of me being here my dear Companions thought it was going to be a great idea to run all the way to the church from our apartment. Maybe it was a good idea for them, but I nearly died. How I wished I could be a runner like them! Well for the next two weeks we ran and ran and one day I could run all the way down to the end of the street and back twice, and then later three times! Every time I made it a bit farther I celebrated a little victory. Once when I was running this nice lady even stopped and told me that I inspired her to work out more because she drives past me everyday to work. (Though I'm not sure if that means my work ethic inspires her to run or if she sees the look of pain on my face and knows she should be running if I can too, but I took it regardless.) 

    Then this Wednesday my companions decided it would be another great day to run to the church. When I heard this immediately fear filled my stomach and it was difficult to even walk out of the door into the humid Texas morning air. As we started down our street I saw at the end of it looming at me where we would turn onto another street, and then in my minds eye the next street and the next street and the next street and the five other next streets. I wanted to sit down on the ground and not run a single step. But mission rules say that we have to be within sight and sound at all times which meant I was literally going to have to run too. 

    And so we started running. I got a cramp in my side like I usually do, but kept going. It took a miracle to get to the end of the street but we turned the corner. The thought occurred to me in my head that perhaps if I went in the front I could stretch out my strides a little bit and my death would be a little less grueling than usual. So I pushed in front of my companions and led the way by about 5-10 feet as we ran down street after street. Each time death seemed a little closer and I would promise myself I could make it to that mailbox, or this stop sign. And somehow I kept running. 

    The moment I saw the church I wanted to yell Hallelujah at the sky, but considering that I was already having breathing difficulties I didn't. We entered the parking lot and I gave it an extra little burst and not only made it to the parking lot but ran up and touched the wall of the building. Then I turned around to wait for my companions. To my extreme surprise (and theirs too, actually) when I turned around I saw my companions panting, entering on the very edge of the parking lot. I had out ran my companions! As I stared in wonder, I realized that the ache in my side was gone and that I could have gone on running. 

    I think there might be a runner deep deep deep down inside of me. (Next to the volleyball player.)

    My friends, do not think that I have turned into a runner. I do not tell you this story to convince you that I am actually good at running, but because it was a miracle. It is my belief that God sends us here to earth not to see miracles or perform them for others, but to become them. All we have to do is keep running. Paul says in the Bible, "Let us run with patience the race that is before us." We are all running races in our lives, every moment of every day. Not all races are easy and some of us struggle a bit more than others. But when we put one foot in front of the other God teaches us how to run. The moral of the story is if Hermana McCurdy can run to the church, you too can do impossible things! 

    When you want to run a better race, no matter what kind of race or the ending destination, I promise that the running gets easier and we get faster when we pray and read the scriptures and especially when we read the Book of Mormon. I know that this gospel I am sharing is true. I know Jesus Christ lives. 

    I love you all and have a super duper week. Let me know if there is anything I can do for y'all. 

    -Hermana McCurdy

Ps. I saw a live possum. They swim apparently. Who knew? 

Ps. This is Paty and her family and the Arreola family (look for all the Mexican jerseys) and I'm sorry that Elder Pogroszewski looks really weird in it. 

Pppsss. The other picture is of my CCM district right before we all left.

Week 9 - Teaching English

Hey guys! Houston is beautiful and y'all are too! :)

I don't have much time, sorry! This will have to be quick! 

This week I attended English church for the first time in two months, and can I tell you, it was weird. The chorister was getting really into it, I was trying hard not to laugh!  I am not sure if I like it or not any more! I have also learned that people here actually do wear cowboy boots to church. Some of the men wear them under their dress pants. This makes me laugh and I am excited to wear cowboy boots to church one day too :)

I am not sure if I have forgotten to mention this in previous letters, but here in the Texas Houston Mission the Spanish Speaking missionaries get to teach English Classes. We teach them every Tuesday and Thursday night from 7:30-9:00. At first I was really nervous about this, as I have only been speaking Spanish for a grand total of two months, and my own ability to speak English has been decreasing since then, but really it has turned out to be great fun. All the people are really impressed when they asked me if I started learning Spanish when I was a child and when I tell them that I really only started two months ago. Their eyes get really wide and they are always really surprised. It is in these moments when I realize how blessed I am to be able to qualify for the gift of tongues. Sometimes I think back to two months ago when all I knew was 'Hola' y 'Adios' and about 5 other words, and I marvel at how good God really is. We had a Spanish lesson in an English member's home this week and the poor family had no idea what we were saying or what was going on as we were teaching their friend the gospel of Jesus Christ to this lovely lady named Elizabeth in her native language even though they had studied Spanish in school. But I could understood just fine, and I also helped teach. A door in my mind has been opened that I don't ever want to close and I am excited to see the other doors that this will open up in the future.

Because we teach English classes, we were required to go to an English Class Teachers' Training outside the Mission this week. It was really weird and cool to venture outside of our mission boundaries and go to the Houston South Mission to meet a bunch of other missionaries. It was so fun! For one activity my group was charged with a list of 25 items that we had to narrow down to four things that we would need to survive on an island and for some reason we really came down to only two: a swiss army knife, and a parachute. Although parachutes are awesome, I know that really the only thing we need to survive is the gospel of Jesus Christ. When we follow it we more than survive, we flourish. We do more than learn how to survive on an island, but our perspective becomes so much wider. How grateful I am to have this knowledge! I know that I would not be myself, or be able to happy in this world if I did not have this priceless gift of the gospel: that my family can be together forever, and that God loves us! Often I wish I had a giant megaphone so I could tell everyone in the world how marvelous it is, but that is besides the point. If God wanted to share his gospel with a giant megaphone, he would. But instead he has called this shortish (though in Spanish speaking company, really tall) 19 year old girl from Shelton, Connecticut and 80,000 other people like her to do it. What I have learned is that we should not be looking for a giant megaphone, but for small and simple means. It changed my life, and it could change yours too. You too can get off that island! Just ask how!  

Have a better week than I am going to have!! I love you guys! :) 

-Hna Madison McCurdy

ps. This is Daniel and my companions. He is getting baptized this weekend! 

ppss. This corn was SO GOOD. 

pppsss. Hope that all made sense. Gotta go

Week 8 - The Fire in the Darkness!

Hey everyone! How are all of you? What is the weather like wherever you are? 

This week has been a little crazy! I have been adjusting to the mission life in the field and meeting new people and learning more Spanish! (I have also been trying to eat the right amount of food, but that is harder done than said when there are all these wonderful torillas, if you know what I mean.)

We had my first zone conference this week. To prepare we all had to write five minute talks about this oddly difficult topic, but no one told me about it because I don't have my iPad yet until the night before, so I couldn't write my talk until we were driving to the Zone Conference. In the conference only two missionaries out of the whole zone were randomly chosen to speak, and it was the companion that had a certain topic inside the companionship. And I HAD TO GIVE THE TALK. But I promise that God blesses us! He turned my scribbly bullet points into a really good talk about defending the sanctity of the family as I was saying it. And now everyone in my zone knows who I am now, so that's good too. :)

We had my dear friend named Paty get baptized this weekend! It was a beautiful service that my companions and I sang at 😕 Afterwards we had a fireside with President Mortensen (the mission president) that ended up being in the dark because the power in the church went out. That meant that the AC didn't work, but it was so neat when he held up his iPad and said that the scriptures are one of the greatest sources of light in this world, and his iPad with his scriptures on it was this huge bright light in the darkness. I know that this is true! When I am need an answer to a question or need peace the scriptures illuminate the way. The word of God is powerful and I promise that it changes lives. My favorite scripture (one of them right now) is Alma 29:9 in the Book of Mormon if anyone wants to look it up (you can find it on google too). 

I have been thinking a lot about happiness this week. I have learned that happiness is not a function of our circumstances, but it is a choice that we need to make every day. I am happy. I am happy not because it is hot out, or because I have two awesome companions, or because I am excited to see all of you one day again. I am happy because I know through the opportunity to make covenants with God in this gospel I share every day I can be changed, whole, and complete. I know that my weaknesses and my flaws can be made up, that every hard thing, every challenge I face, every despair I will feel can be swallowed up in the joy that comes from the Savior. I know that He lives just like you and I do. I know that one day I will see His face. I know that He is making a diamond of the coal which is me, and that although it is difficult every step of the journey and every moment in the heat of the refiner's fire is worth it. 

I love you all to the sun and back, (all 93 million miles of it) and I know that our God does too. 

-Hermana McCurdy

 And the bonus picture from I don't know who….

Thank you Random people!!

Week 7 - Hello Texas!!

Hola mi familia! 

    Hello from the United States! I have so much I could say that I hardly know what to say! My final week at the CCM was so fun! Lots of pictures, a bit of spoiling (and curdling too if you know what I mean), and it was also a little sad. I had to say goodbye to all of my friends and my district as we were all going our seperate ways. Sunday night after the MTC video we ended our run with a slideshow of pictures of the departing missionaries, and then the Elder in my district who is learning how to conduct finished his training by conducting the closing hymn in front of 500 missionaries. I'm not exactly sure how to describe that experience, but it was magnificent. WE had a testimony meeting with all the departing missionaries and my district elected me to go up and bear my testimony and represent them. I was so honored and it was a really cool experience. Then it was time for goodbyes, which I won't really go into because y'all know how bad I am at last words. The next three days were a kind of torture as this Hermama McCurdy watched her new little family leave one by one until I was the only one left. Then with the other Elders going to my mission we got in a big van and didn't look back. 

    On the plane I flew over the Gulf Coast which was so pretty! I will totally miss Mexico and many things about it. I sat next to this lady who has a novelic romance with a marine in Africa. She was so nice! Also there was a french speaking family on the plane that I talked to in French which was so cool! Who knew that I would use my french in Mexico!? After making friends with two adorable little girls named Michelle and Camille in customs, we found ourselves with the 27 other missionaries (5 sSpanish speaking) who came from the Provo MTC. The next morning we met up with our trainers. A trainer is a missionary who is more experienced and who knows how to do things, helps and teaches you, and in my case acts as my Spanish teacher! I got super lucky in the trainer department as I have not just one, but two! Hermana Jorgensen is my "mom". She has been on her mission for 7 months and is super nice! My "Tia" (or Aunt) is Hermana Sumison, who has been on her mission for 13 months. She is super funny, plays softball, and her Spanish is great. Then they sent me out into the world to go teach about what makes me happiest in the world: the Gospel, and these are my observations:

1. Hispanic people usually don't know where Connecticut is and I have to tell them that I'm from New York City. 

2. I love Spanish food. 

3. One day I plan on mastering tortilla making. 

4. I apparently have a "beautiful accent"

This week has also been interesting for other reasons. I ate a booger flavored jelly bean on a dare. It was honestly awful but what worries me most is if this is the first step in becoming like Elder Martin. My experience has also increased! This saturday we had a baptism for two beautiful kids named Brandon and Kimberly. They asked me to say the closing prayer at their baptism and I was really nervous but it went good I think. But the Spanish is really coming a long super well! I love to learn it! And I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn it! Sometimes I step back and remember that I am on a grand adventure learning Spanish and helping people change their lives in Texas and I can't keep from smiling from how lucky I am. We were teaching this little old lady about the priesthood this week and I was pondering in my heart about how I wished that the Savior was there because he knew how to teach her perfectly! And then I remembered a scripture from Matthew 18, which says, "From where two or three are gathered together in my name, there I am in the midst of them." I know that the Savior has called me to serve the people of Texas! I know that it is him that I represent. I know that he is with me in his lessons and that he is using me as his instrument in bringing about the miracles in the lives of his children. My joy is full and I think my favorite part of the gospel is that the Lord keeps giving me a bigger cup. 

I love all of you and hope that you are having a wonder full week! My address is 16350 Ella Blvd, Apt 816, Houston, TX 77090, and I would love to get mail if that's not too much trouble. 

All my love, 

-Hermana McCurdy

These are my pictures from this week. I made friends with a cute little snake that was sitting on my chair, my food, the family with two kids that got baptized, and me and my dear companions. I love you guys!

-Hermana McCurdy

Week 6 - In transit

Sorry I didn't call you. We had a small amount of time and I would have had to purchase a calling card in Mexico and then the phone was in Spanish, and then they moved our gate at the last minute all the way across the airport, and although I had all of those excuses I do know what it is like to sit there and wait and hope all day and fantasize a little bit and for it not to happen, so I am sorry for that mumz. But it also would have been to difficult for me to hang up and I knew that it was just the best decision.

My first indication she made it to the US safely was a text and pictures from another Elder's mother:

She said her son just returned from (this mission) and they were back with him to visit.  This was taken at the baptism of Kimberly and Brandon.  She said they all seem happy and are doing wonderful!  I told her she was the first news I had that Madison had made it back into the US.  To which she replied, "I'm glad your mind is at ease now that you know she made it safely!  She was asked to bear her testimony and did such a great job!  She also said the closing prayer at the baptism and participated in singing "Families Can Be Together Forever" in Spanish wither her companions.  It was such a great baptismal service!"  She was an answer to my unuttered plea to know Madison was safe.

Week 5 - Almost back to the states

Hi guys! How are all of you! I hope that you are doing well and you are healthy and are getting excited for school to come back around! 

I got a package this week! It WAS AWESOME. Mail is seriously a blessing! My district has developed a soap opera and it is a little more funny than it should be! We have been playing volleyball a lot lately (no sprained fingers, don't worry) but I have gotten a tan! This week I coached a volleyball team, which was actually super fun haha. I've spent so much time watching it, it was funny when I understood I could help coach people! I also jump served for the first time this week! I was so happy I almost fell over into the sand. Most of all I was surprised at how natural it felt. Perhaps deep deep deep deep down in my genetics there are actually volleyball genes. Oh! And Hermana Fuller and I beat out Elder Orgill in a game of ninja this week! It took our entire district five weeks to do it, but finally Hermana Fuller and I triumphed! In nuestra casa my bed is right next to the window, and I can see the mountains that surround the city. My window has a perfect view of one mountain with a radio tower that blinks at night on the top of it, and if I squint my eyes and use my imagination it looks like the Eiffel tower and for a moment I'm in France and not Mexico. Then I remember that I am glad to be here and the thought that the Eiffel Tower could be in Mexico makes me chuckle. 

Speaking of countries, I will be returning to the Estados Unidos on Wednesday and will be going to Houston! I am excited to get out into the field and meet people and practice my Spanish! 

I am so grateful for the opportunity to learn and to grow here in Mexico. I am excited that the Lord has called me to walk in his shoes for the next 17 months. Yo se que JesuCristo es mi Salvador y Redentor. Estoy agradecido por mi mission y sabo que Padre Celestial llamo me servir por El. El camino es su camino. Yo se que el Evangelio de JesuCristo es como puedemos estar feliz, y que la Iglesia de JesuCristo de los Santos de Los Ultimos Dias es verdad. 

Sorry for the broken Spanish, but I felt that it was important to say. I love you guys and hope that you have an excellent week! I hope all is going well. Peace out my friends! 

-Hermana Madison McCurdy

Real enchiladas