Pomegranates, family history, and Halloween buckets

Thank you! I got your box the other day (We sent a Halloween box with her snow boots, Count Chocula cereal, Reeses cups candy, printed décor, etc) - tell Katie thank you thank you thank you for the little figurine! I bonded with a new investigator over it. Pomegranate is shelled and I'll be grabbing a can or two of pears next week (pomegranate seeds, Jell-O, and pears make up a recipe she will miss for the holidays – we sent the pomegranate and Jell-O).

All is well here. Haven't yet taken a picture with my companion yet, and today she wouldn't let me because 'today is a no hair wash day' and she's dressed 'gross'. It's a p-day (preparation day – a day to do laundry, shopping, etc) . Of course we're a little lazier. Though her lazy day and mine are a tad different (I wonder what that means….).

She's been helping me re-evaluate a few things I do, like how I take care of my hair. My scalp's been dry for years, and between that and stress, well, I think this is the first time in a long time that I haven't felt an overwhelming need to scratch when I'm stressed out. So I need to pay attention to how I wash my hair and what I do it with.

We had our first fight the other day. A little tussle, misunderstanding and attitude check, but we recovered relatively quickly once we changed locations and purposes. (It’s tough to live / work with a complete stranger, 24 / 7, for weeks at a time, and NOT have a few misunderstandings….sounds like they’re both making it work!)

We've been looking more into family history stuff since I've been out. I don't know how much you guys have looked at it, but there's a couple of dad's lines that go clear back to Adam and Eve. Haven't looked though mom's (Moms family history has been extensively worked, but not back that far!). Lots of inter-marrying, though. There are some pretty cool names and ranks: Archdruid of Taliesin Gowrie, Grandmaster Boaz Anfortas Order of the Grail, Emperor Constantine, a couple of Grail Kings... Very high fantasy stuff. Makes me laugh. (royal blood in the veins of my children!)

Attached are some photos of different things. My gloves and hat (made by mom), the pumpkin pictures put up on one of our walls (sent as Halloween décor), tiny Saber (figurine that Katie bought for her), and some really cool decals they sell at the dollar tree.

ALSO OH. THEY HAVE THESE BUCKETS AT MCDONALDS FOR THE NEW MOVIE "The Book of Life". I wannnnnnttttt themmmmmm. (The animator in her was squealing about the movie before she left – we’ll acquire the movie for her…shhhh!) Could you get them for me for my Babylon Box? (The Babylon Box is where we collect new bits of “all the worldly goods she left behind”… new movies, games, art supplies, etc) I want them and the stickers they come with, but perhaps carrying around plastic buckets my whole mission isn't a good idea. (Her dad procured one – that was a sacrifice for him to eat there…. The store that mom visited was out of the buckets – THANKS DAD!).

We had our ward (church congregation) Halloween party, and definitely made me a little homesick. It was good though - two investigators and a couple of less-actives came with us. Hopefully that'll be a growing trend.

The work is going well- we're meeting a lot of new potential investigators and inviting many to baptism. The work goes quick sometimes, and other times it crawls... We have 3 new investigators, and 2 additional ones that dropped us this week. So our numbers are fluxing a lot. We've been doing a LOT of knocking, and it's getting progressively easier. It's a lot less traumatic than it initially was. We meet some pretty wildly crazy people.

Hope all is well!       Love, Christine



My favorite picture - the fabulous owl gloves and hat knitted by Mom



Dollar store decal display....she bought a few things - she'll photograph them later in her apartment.

Sabor - a cosplay costume she made - the figurine was purchased and sent by Katie - her younger sister

Halloween décor sent with her most recent care package

New companion, working, and Halloween

My companion is great. Her name is sis. Randall, and she's born in Idaho. Her family's in Utah now, but she's not that stereotypical LDS girl from one of the LDS heartlands. She's 24, and spent 5 years working a salon, figured out she needed to go on a mission similarly to me, and has a wide variety of life experiences. She's great and I'm already learning a lot from her. I'll be sure to send a picture next week- I forgot to take one.
I'm excited about the mormon movie- Its going to be coming to the local theater in the next few weeks, so we can try to direct more people from the area to watch it- the next closest place is like 2 hours away. Not really worth it to most people here.

I miss the Haunt and Halloween in general, but a member has promised us a pizza and a pumpkin full of candy(each!), so I guess our sweet tooth side will be appeased, even if I don't get to dress up. I miss costuming terribly.

The work goes on here- we have two new investigators, and we're starting to get the members to come out with us on lessons. We have a LOT of potentials now, and we've spent 6+ hours in the last 3 or 4 days knocking doors. Sis. Randall is really good at it. It's beginning to rub off on me too; I'm more comfortable with knocking. I don't love it, but I don't hate it so much either.

I'm not sure what to tell you guys! Are there specific things you want to hear about? It's a lot of the same old same old here. Trying to make appointments, trying to get people to keep them, teaching sometimes, meeting a lot of people who aren't interested in hearing more because they're 'comfortable' with their religion, etc.

Christine

 

Mom and Dad went to Knotts Berry Farm Halloween Haunt recently....we brought Christine with us...and here are the photos of her having fun with us! The staff and other revelers thought me odd for carrying her face around with us, but loved the idea of taking photos for her.... she will get a copy of the photos....hoping she wont be home sick because of them.

Knotts in lights.... does she look like she's having fun?

Christine, her parents, and a ghoul

Funnel cakes are so delicious, aren't they, Christine?

Knotts Berry Farm scary car

Knotts Berry Farm scary car again

Scary car grille

Kurts and friends at the Knotts Haunt - can you see Christine in the middle there?

 

Boots, transfers, and Owls!

I did get the gloves! They're great! The fingers are a smidge narrow, but I think they'll stretch out after some wear.  I love them to pieces. It's not been quite cold enough for me to wear gloves right now- we're inside frequently enough. (I tried to make them to her hands which are larger than mine, and longer...almost!)

I actually ended up buying a second pair of boots out here. They were on sale for 15$ in Huffman's, which is a local farm equipment store. They're cuter than my snow boots (and warm- they're fleece lined and some sort of suede pseudo leather outside), so I have kind of an in between for my brown boots and my snow boots. Snow boots for days when the snow is all over the place, I guess.

 I miss our kitties. We meet with many people who have cats, but they're not ours.

Ants haven't been a problem here... Its more along the lines of spiders. But I guess our hedgeballs are mostly working, because we've only seen one in the house, and it's getting pretty darn cold.

This week is transfer week, and I'm parting with my companion, Sis. Boone. I won't know who my new companion is until Thursday (10/16) when we meet in Iowa City, but I am rather heartbroken because Sis. Boone is going home to Idaho, and so there's been a ton of chatter about that and it's hard for me to avoid thinking about home myself. The next two days are largely last appointments with people so she can say goodbye. We are of course getting work done, but still.

Things are okay here though. Sis. Boone went to her departing temple trip on Tuesday, so I spent the day with the companionship in Hamilton. Got a little perspective on personal thinking while on a mission.

One of our investigators, Brandi, is doing great. She's committed to paying tithing before her baptism, because she needs all the help she can get from heaven, and that is a way to do it.

We also have a new investigator, Deleana! She’s had a hard life, but her faith in God is strong, and she has two great inquisitive sons. It'll hopefully be a good experience for all and we can help that whole family come unto Christ.

We've done a lot of door knocking this week, and I still feel like a door to door salesman. But I'm doing it, and I'm talking more, so progress is progress. I'll get there when I get there. Few people start out good and effective at door knocking, and we haven't done much of it before this last week, so I have a few more miles of doors to go before I'm even remotely proficient at it.

We saw “Meet the Mormons” (www.MeetTheMormons.com ) on Tuesday, and we all for the most part loved it. There aren't any places that are under a 45 minute drive from us that are showing it thought, so we won't have much opportunity to use it for proselyting before it (hopefully) comes out on DVD. We do need to be careful with it though, because it’s not specifically meant for proselyting.

Included are some pictures of our district, some owls Sis. Moses made us, and pictures of my planner art. We have these planner books that we tend to decorate because otherwise they're boring. Sis. Boone decorated my first one, as all good trainers do, and I decorated the other two. The green one is just a river and serene sky, and the second one is decorated with the smiling Jesus pictures a recent convert gave me.

All is well. Safely Rest. God is nigh.

Sis. Christine Kurt

New boots from the farmers supply store... $15...such a deal!

cardboard Sister Owls

Christine and her Sister Owl

District

Elder Owl

Conference Weekend October 2014

We made her Gumbo recipe and made the mistake of using authentic Andouille sausage as suggested by the original recipe....TOO HOT!!  She had it made with Polish sausage....we'll try that version next time.    Indeed, it is much, much less spicy when you switch the sausage and take out half the Cayenne. Crockpot recipes are great. We wish we could do them in the apartment. No crockpot. Sad day.

It's getting cold again here, but I've been keeping mostly warm. It was suggested to me that we go check out a local farming store for cold weather gear, so maybe we'll actually go this week, unlike we had planned, but never did.
 

I went to the temple this week, and it was good- I'm still in wonder of how small and colorful it is inside. I haven't had much chance to wander- my companion keeps telling me no- so I've yet to see the baptistery or the sealing rooms, but I imagine they're as beautiful as the rest.  (Nauvoo, Illinois Temple) I miss Los Angeles temple (Los Angeles Temple)  quite a bit.

Conference (General Conference, twice yearly, is a broadcast of the General church leadership from Salt Lake City) was a mostly good experience. I'm never totally happy I guess. Saturday was great in that I was just engrossed in it and got a few of the questions I took with me answered. Just generally uplifting.

My favorite was probably Jorg Klebingat's talk on how to take care of ourselves and to overcome doubt. It was Saturday second session. Allan F. Packer's talk about spiritual passports and the two different talks about the sacrament (James J. Hamula and Cheryl A. Esplin) were also very thought provoking. (Click here to access ALL of the conference talks from the whole weekend!)

The Mormon videos are pretty great. I really recommend Mormon messages (which you can watch on lds.org or mormonchannel.org), especially videos like 'patterns of light' by Elder Bednar. Really good stuff.

Learning to focus on the good and cling to it, because there are plenty of things to be unhappy about. Really trying to figure out how this accessing the Atonement thing works for me, and being converted to the work and embracing the work and what have you. Much work to do, much to evaluate, much to learn.

I love you, I miss you

Christine 

We love and miss her, too.  Mom made some wool gloves (with her favorite - OWLS) and sent them a few days ago....she hasn't received them yet.  A hat is almost done, and a scarf will be next. Hoping they will keep her at least a little warm........although even these owls may not keep her warm enough.

Owl gloves