my hair is white.

yep it's white. let me just tell you how this great p-day has gone. temple day yay! but well, 

woke up at 4 to the most annoying alarm ever, its the worst feeling when you wake up and look at the clock and it says 4 am and its not a joke. like you really have to get up. well our zone and another zone all rented a jeepney and took it to the temple. we got the first session. we got there at 6 am. it was great! i love love love the temple. then after, me my comp, our district leader and another elder went to the mall cause i wanted to get my hair done..ya know cause i am in the philippine's and still worry about my roots. 

well. just. wait.

they died my hair orange. then i cried and complained (philippino's dont usually complain, but don't worry i am the crazy americana that complained) then they bleached my hair and its white. so i called the president's wife cause i knew she would understand and called to her and said i am having a mental breakdown! haha i think that woman thinks i am crazy, but now after we email we are ALL going to a really nice salon to die it brown, sorry parker i will look ugly for the next 14 months. don't worry the two elders stayed with us the whole time and made me feel a lot better. and they are going with me haha i would have died if elder lim wasnt there! he's my brother in the mission. i am wearing theeeee ugliest headband right now and i tell everyone i see "dont worry my hair isnt staying like this" no one can understand me. but i just want them to know-ya know? oh my gosh i am going crazy haha

anyway, now to things that actually matter.

this week was CRAZZYYYYY. Woke up tuesday morning with a text from our ZL saying "good bye zone i am getting emergency transfered" two of our elders got transfered in the middle of the transfer so that was sad. then, president texted us and said "hello sisters, sister delamare will be working with you today" so scary. i told her "remember i am still a trainee okay and i don't speak tagalog" it was great she was wonderful to be with. it made me miss my mama. i miss you mama!! 

thennnnn, wednesday we had the "traveling sisters" come on splits with us and that was scary. they are like the ap's of the sisters. but it was really good and i learned a lot!! i cried to the one i worked with because i just feel really down like i will never be as good as anyone else. oh well. 

sorry my emails are like never spiritual i promise i actually work hard i just like to tell you all the funny things that happen. like my hair is white. 

the work is going so great. i love it. i love all the people. seriously, i love these people!!

but, we work with so many less active's and sometimes i feel like i am babysitting. if we dont visit them they dont come to church, and then they get mad that we dont visit them because they looovveee us. i don't blame them.

but oh well, i really really want to stay in cogeo for like 6 months like really bad. i told the a.p. to not transfer me. i told him to tell God not to transfer me. is that sac religious?? haha oh well! i love cogeo.

my companion told me that one of our zone leaders told her I get skinnier every time he sees me YES! thank you. i love him!! haha except all i eat is bread, so if i am 1,000 lbs when i get home thats why. okay..what else? 

i can't think of anything. oh family can't wait to talk to you guys!!! its going to be great. i can't believe friday morning i get to see you guys! ahh. so exciting. love you all so much.

talk to later!!

xo

Sister Curtis

Stressed Out.

Hello family! 

so our area "cogeo" has gone from 4 sisters down to 2. Our area is MASSIVE! Okay. so stressed out. Between the four of us sisters we were bringing in 50 less actives to church every week, and our ward here isn't progressing. Callings aren't happening, people aren't getting the priesthood, there is no temple and etc. SO our president decided to take 2 sisters out until things start happening. He texted my bishop and told him to get things in order, which is great. But everyday we are in a new neighborhood meeting new people. We have Less actives, investigators, referrals, members and all them to look after. its a big job for just 2 sisters. needless to say, i don't sleep at night and there isn't enough time in the day. We are trying to get people to the temple and if there is no temple prep there is no reason for 4 sisters, theres no point. hope that all makes sense. 

My week was hard. Adjusting to a new companion. I went from having THE best companion, to my new one but she is great and I know I will learn a lot of things from her. I got to go to transfer day which was way fun! I got to meet a lot of missionaries and hear from our president which is always really great. He told me to start making things happen in the Cogeo area. I feel stressed out. I AM STILL A TRAINEE! Remember? Ha Ha we have a lot to do this transfer. But I love this work. I spoke in sacrament meeting yesterday about "blessings of service" it hit me hard that I love serving. I didn't before, but now I do. I love missionary work.

I got a letter from Parker on transfer day. BEST thing ever. He told me his heart pounds so hard thinking about the day he has to take his name tag off, because he loves that little name tag. It's crazy because that's how I have felt ALL WEEK! I love love love my name tag. I hold onto it while I bear testimony and I get excited putting it on each day. It's a privilege wearing it. People look at me first (cause I am a white girl in the philippines ya know?) and then they look straight at my name tag, and see my name and Jesus Christ's name. I love it. 

Yesterday and the day before our door bell rang about 4 different times and it was always little kids begging for money. Its not allowed we give out money but we can give out food. I get SO mad when little kids come up to us-not because they ask for food but because they have to. Where are their moms and dads? I have never begged for food and these little children of God shouldn't have to either! I hate it. I cringe every time our door bell rings :( 

Not a lot happened this week, because of transfers. Our zone is so great that only one person got transfered. We got a new district leader. He's awesome. Our zone is really strong so I think they wanted to keep it strong! I have a really fun mission. Every transfer we have temple day, zone interviews, zone conferences and temple tour! I feel really blessed I am in pqcm! Its definately hard. Count your blessings you are in America, but i love it.

Missionary work is so great, i just love being a missionary. i love teaching. we went like 3 days without teaching because we had p-day temple day and other stuff and i missed it so much! i love being in a tiny little shack sharing the gospel with bugs crawling on me. haha i love it.

congrats kallie on graduating!!! So proud of you. everyone take care!!

xoxo

Sister curtis 

i made it 6 weeks! success!

I am proud of myself yay! 

this week was the worst week of my life. my mom left me! my trainer died. all those horrible mission phrases haha but my trainer goes home tomorrow and we said good bye last night. horrible!! its kind of depressing having someone go home in your house. transfer calls were this morning in our district meeting and just my district leader is transfering. our zone is really strong so i think they want to keep us together. we go to transfer meeting tomorrow when they announce everything i am excited. new comp and new start. i lead the area so i am nervous but i had a "practice round" monday and i spoke more tagalog than i ever have and it really helped so it will be great!

so last email parker asked me the craziest thing i ate and i said a cocnut milk from a coconut which is dumb cuz everyone has done that. so i told my zone and they laughed. so yesterday we all went to 7-11 and got yummy bread and drinks and bbq this lady was selling on the street. i got pork cause it looked the safest. then my DL said oh sister curtis try this is soo yummy its just chicken. so i did. it looked like a snake, well it was chicken intestines. YES. success. i ate something cool. they didnt tell me til AFTER!! it wasn't bad, just kind of weird. but i will eat cool things now, i just dont want to know what it is til after. so there you go parker!! 

i did my own laundry for the first time. we usually have a lady do it but i want to save money. its only like $4 american money but P200 here. it was tough work. and takes forever!! you use your hands to scrub and my hands were like bleeding. its weird you can live life without a washer and dryer. 

also, one day we woke up and our water was a light brown. yep you could see dirt coming out. well i was so sticky and sweaty that i didn't even care and i showered in it. i tried so hard not to get water in my mouth. haha i showered in brown water..i love my life. hahah its so interesting.

on our kitchen table ants are everywhere, but do i care? nope. i know i am weird. i think i have eaten a million ants not knowing it being here. 

one night after working all day i went into my room and laid on my bed, yeah there was a bird sitting on the cupboard of my closet. at first i laughed, and then i realized it was real and moving and alive and then i SCREAMED! and my comp came running and locked me out of the room and she shoo-ed it away with a broom. SO scary. there was poop everywhere. i did not do my own laundry that day haha 

this next transfer is going to be really fun i am getting excited! i will be excited not to be a trainee anymore. usually everyone is with their trainer for 2 transfers but mine went home so its going to be hard. i have to work really hard. i love love love missionary work. its amazing, and i want to be involved in missionary work forever. i love helping people and then seeing everyone come to church and feel the spirit. its so great. i have to speak in church on sunday on the blessings of service and i will do it in english.

i love you all and miss you!! spread the word, you can do more than you think you can!

talk to you on monday!

xo

Sister Shelby Curtis 

I Am So Happy!

Oh my gosh I am so happy. I got a million emails from all the best
people and it makes me so happy! Today is wednesday, it's our p-day
cause it is our temple day. We woke up at 5 am and left at 6 am for
the temple. we took a taxi with our district. yes 6 of us in a 5
seater, but its ok cause its the philippines and there are no traffic
rules. The temple is so beautiful but so tiny, so we got there at 7
for our 8 session and had to wait until 9 to go. so we went across the
street at the "Temple Hotel" and ate a buffet breakfast. so...rice.
yummy. not.

the temple was soo good. SO tiny. only fits like 20 in a session
together. and all these cute little philippino's trying to speak
english i loved it. it was so good to be in there as a zone i just
love my zone. i met a lot of missionaries and saw a ton i knew from
the mtc! so thats fun. being around other missionaries strengthens me.
its like "oh ya i can do this cause they all are doing it".

this past week was soooo good! i still love my companion and so sad
she is leaving next week! ahh. she cries cause she is so sad :( she
told me i have helped her with her self confidence..sweet huh? glad
she learned one thing from me cause i have learned EVERYTHING from
her.

BEST story ever. you will love this.
so one hot day we were walking of course and we pass this random
basketball game that has a million people surrounding the court and an
announcer. so i told my comp "i want to speak in that microphone" haha
as a joke k, so she goes over to them and tells them and they say "ok
ok one second" they STOP the basketball game and announce "we will be
taking an early half time break" and they hand me it and i go
"heyyyyyyy my name is sister curtis from america" and everyone cheers
so loud hahah and i am just laughing then i say something like "good
luck to the teams" something like that but everyone is just like
cheering and i was like going crazy and then i gave it back to them
and they resumed the game! hahahahhahahahahaha
and now whenever we pass the court they say "hey sister curtis i was
there when you spoke to us" isn't that awesome?? ya i am pretty cool.
hopefully that's not being disobedient.

on monday we had our district meeting and its our whole zone that
meets together and we have a workshop and stuff well president
delamare and sister delamare surprised us and sat in. so scary..but i
just love them. after we all go eat together so we went to "macdo"
haha macdonald's and they joined us! so fun. it was good to be with
them! he told me i will have a good next companion. YAY!

here in the philippines there is no walmart. barely any grocery stores
so we go to markets. my first experience in a market. i almost cried.
there are cut up animals everywhere and fish and nasty smells.
ewwwwwww. my comp kept saying "anak dont look dont look" ha

in relief society last sunday they brought "treats" i was so excited.
haha it was a bag of popcorn half eaten that they passed around for
everyone to take a  hand ful (remember how philippino's dont use
toilet paper)  and it was gone by the time it got to us. but they love
missionaries so we got more food. the bishop loves us we  are VERY
lucky to have such a great area with people who support missionary
work. in our meeting with the bishop we all talked about our
boyfriends and showed pics of them (yes i carry a picture of parker
around with me-dont worry i still work hard) and he looked at parker
and said "wooooooow" we all laughed SO hard. i love it.

last night in our last appoinment a less active lady who we just love
bore her testimony to us. we had just finished the lesson and she just
cried and said how she realized today the plan of life and why we are
here me and my comp just bawled. it was so sweet! i love that lady and
so grateful the Lord could help her realize that.
we had a baptism saturday sister cherry fe cute huh? she is 19. prime
investigator. does every commitment, loves us, burning testimony and
it was the best day every when she got baptized. we have one today at
4, francis he is 13 and the cutest. like i want to kidnap him and take
him home. i am so excited! this area is so "fruitful"

things are going great here. i will email next wednesday again!! love you all
mahal kita
sister c

The Worth of Souls is Great in the Sight of God

hello po,

this week was soooooo good. we had p-day on monday and we had a district p-day so we went to the church and watched the restoration which i have seen maybe 1,000 times as a missionary but i cried and loved it. our district is the best. then TUESDAY we had zone conference. oh. my. gosh. we got up at 5 am (which was actually way easy cause its soo cool so you are excited to get up) and took a jeepney 20 minutes away to meet all the elders in our zone. then we were waiting for a jeepney to take us to the mission home which is about an hour ride and these members see a bunch of missionaries (there are 12 of us so we aren't easy to miss) and asked us if we wanted a free ride there. k there car is smaller than my mazda BUT we fit. my whole butt was asleep and legs and everyone was squished but it was sooo fun. members here are THE BEST! philippino's are the best. so then we get to the beautiful mission home and for our conference. it was really great, but so intimidating! ahh. i saw elder haws it was so good to see him, he goes home this thursday. i told him to say hi to utah for me. but my stomach was in knots the whole 8 hours we were there...i just feel so new and inadequate with all these great missionaries. but i learned sooo much. it was great! 

then we worked wednesday, thursday, and friday. saturday we went to antipolo to watch general conference. ok so you may laugh when i say this, but it was the first time in my life i was actually excited to watch gen conf. haha and guess what mom? I LISTENED TO EVERY WORD.  I am maturing! haha and i took notes. i wrote down 5 questions and they were all answered. i absolutely loved general conference. people here have to wait a week to watch it and have to travel 30 minutes away, plus its expensive. so count your blessings you get to watch it in your homes with your pjs on! i missed that a ton. plus i was hungry the whole time. our family eats the whole 6 hours of conference! but after sundays session my zone all brought food and we ate together. \

as i was siting there listening i was just overcome with happiness. i have so many blessings being here. an amazing area which everyone wants to be in, an amazing companion, great housemates that are so cute, great great zone and district. i need to count my blessings more. 

the blessing of the tongue (mom) still hasnt come. the ap's told me today if i eat ballute (the nasty egg thing) my tongue will be loosed. YAAAA RIGHT. guess i will never speak tagalog cause i am NOT eating that crap. oh i got mail today! YAY!! still no package. but one from my main man parker haha and two from other missionaries in the philippines (one sister from the mtc, and an philippino wanting to know how i am adjusting) we can send pouch mail for free here. 

so guess what? i went into a REAL house last week. we had a dinner appointment, i get SO scared for dinner appointments cause i am scared about the food. luckily everyone feeds us chicken rice and fish which i ate fish and i actually liked it..see i am growing up!! haha but it was so good to be in a real house. haha the food was soooooo good. 

we live with cockroaches. they are my best friends..not. i cant remember if i have told you this. but we live with them and ants. they aren't in my room just in our kitchen..ya know where our food is! we put everything in the fridge so bugs dont get them. even our toothbrushes. haha oh my gosh. only in the philippines right?

tell dad i am VERY uncomfortable. dad-be proud of me. i can't remember your lame saying about being uncomfortable but just know i am uncomfortable ALL THE TIME. I am really starting to love the philippine's. i loveee my area. i want to stay in cogeo for my whole mission. i dont want to go to the city where people have money and are rude. people love missionarie's here and welcome us so much. i love this church and have realized, "it just makes sense" everything about the church is just right. i love love love it. i am truely getting my own conversion.

i love you people!

xo

Sister Curtis/"barbie"/"white girl"/"americana"/"joe"<---everyone calls me joe "hey joe" i have no idea why.

Sister Curtis's First Pictures from Quezon City, The Philippines

 These are the homes she and her companion go in to teach investigators.

 An investigator wanted her to sign her Book of Mormon. 

 This is Shelby's Apartment. I'm sorry I didn't flip it before I posted it. Still learning!

 This is Babylyn Saulan on her baptism day. Little girls have ALWAYS loved Shelby!

 Young Women from her area. Oh, and one smart young man in the back!

Shelby said to tell Parker that she promises she'll be prettier when they're married. I think she is glowing with beauty inside and out! 

 "Crocs can REALLY ruin an outfit"   Sister Shelby Curtis

 The view outside Shelby's window.

 What she sees and walks through every day.

 Normal houses in her area.

Not endure but enjoy to the end

happy birthday abby!! i just love you. hope you had a great day!!

this week was really good and fast. wait no, i lied it was the second slowest week of my life. haha the days are soooo long. maybe cause all i do is sweat and hike. but i love these people let me tell you!!

yesterday was sunday and it was fast sunday, fasting on a mission is the hardest thing ever what the! but anyway, i really wanted to bear my testimony even though thats all i do every minute, so my cute comp and housemates bore theirs in tagalog and i got up and told everyone i was going to speak in english. well i just bawled. i looked at all these cute wonderful people and really realized how much i had a love for them. i think i was so emotionally because i can truely say i love the people of the philippines. i told them "thank you for making me feel so welcome when i feel so far away from home". then i bore a testimony but it's sweet when you are a missionary you have so much love for people and especially when you serve them you learn to love everyone. besides their lack of hygiene or no teeth or no houses. haha

so this month is going to be awesome. we have zone conference tomorrow where we have to travel an hour by jeepney please google jeepneys, and our zone leaders are making me and my comp role play something in front of EVERYONE HELLOOOOO i have been here for like 20 minutes. i am not a missionary yet, and the pres, aps, and other missionaries will be there. please pray for me. oh well. then saturday and sunday we have general conference all day which will be so fun!! then april 18 is our temple day and then transfers are on 26 so it will be way fun!

SOOOO nervous for my new companion. 

I ATE AT MCDONALD'S!!! just barely. so yummy. the zone leaders bought me an ice cream since it was my first time!! haha so funny. i really LOVE my zone. 

p.s. mcdonald's delivers...best invention ever!! if that isnt the biggest fat kid move to have mcdonalds delivered to your house i dont know what is!! hahah so awesome. 

happy birthday to parker's dad..i love that man and i hope to meet him one day! :)

and congrats erica and ty!! so excited for your wedding!!!

so sometimes i think to myself "i am in asia" then i find myself in the WEIRDEST places. like "i am sitting in a cementary in the philippines" things i thought i would never say in my life. so awesome! haha 

we had a baptism yesterday it was great, very casual here. i love it. his name is romeo and he is 12! awesome. his mom always cries to us because she is so happy we are there helping her. those are the times when i love being a missionary.

easter is like the end of the month i guess here fyi. ha 

well thats all i can think of! i love you family. thank you for all the support!!

mahal kita

xo

sister barbie