Curtis, Alex

Midway through the transfer. It's been a long and busy week. Biggest people news: -Thiago is the nephew of a less-active member who recently came to Spain from Brazil. His first language is actually Portuguese, which is similar to Spanish but is still a whole different language. His Spanish is coming along but occasionally it's easier for him to understand me than Elder Rasolo because I'm closer to his level. We're working on getting him a copy of the Book of Mormon in Portuguese. He also came to our weekly football game and is getting to know a lot of our friends and members. He's awesome and we're looking forward to teaching him! -Adelina is still a machine when it comes to sharing her thoughts about Jesus with everyone she sees, but she's also opened up a bit more to being taught. Elder Rasolo taught her a lesson on baptism on an exchange with Elder Hunt. (More on that later) We're about ready to invite her to be baptized but the hard part is gauging ...

I know for a fact that some of you are WW2 history people so first let's clarify- no, Talavera was not suddenly bombed from the sky by Nazis. Different kind of Blitz. Stay tuned. With that out of the way, welcome back! This was a big week. We've been working hard on retaining recent converts and encouraging less-active members. There are many people who just need to feel more welcomed and supported, and we've been trying to make opportunities for that to happen. We offer free English lessons, we invite people to branch activities, and we make lots of video calls and visits to get to know people better and share the blessings we've felt through the gospel. (See spiritual thought) Strange highlight of this week was our exchange with our district leader, Elder Baird, and his companion Elder Williams. Exchanges act both as a way for the leadership to check up on missionaries but also as a way for missionaries to get to know each other a bit more.  These Elders live and serv...

I think I'm getting the hang of this! It's been a busy week. I'm getting to know the Talavera Branch really well. We had a great Noche de Hogar this week and everyone had a great time! Talavera doesn't have many members, so the members of this branch are really tight. We've been teaching a lot of new people from very different backgrounds. It's interesting to hear people's idea of God before they accept the gospel.  My Spanish is getting better, I can understand a bit more, and I'm learing new words. I love this language and the people who speak it. Some highlights: - Played football (soccer to you Americans, but it's part of my job to be a snob about this now) with a bunch of members of the branch and some friends with varying levels of interest in the church. This work is about bringing people together and helping them, and football is the cultural cornerstone of this country, so it's a great way to meet people! -Jesús is from Cuba and is one o...

It's been a wild week. Previously on Weekly Dose of Elder Curtis, (WDEC?) I left the MTC and traveled to Spain in a small group of missionaries (see photos) We all made it here and met our mission leaders, the Hamiltons.  We spent time at the mission offices (which actually used to be an MTC) doing paperwork and training stuff. We stayed the night at the Hamiltons' and had our first Spanish food in Spain! They're awesome leaders, but in a few weeks the Spain Madrid Mission will split and I'll be in the North part under different leadership. It's pretty sad, but I'm sure the new leaders will be good too. After some more orientation we finally got our area assignments and companions! I'm assigned to Talavera de la Reina with Elder Rasolo. He's been an awesome trainer so far, and this will actually be his final transfer before he goes home to Belgium. In mission slang (yeah, I know mission slang now) we say that I'm the one to "kill" him. He...