It's Really Happening

This is the last email here...


Final photos will be uploaded here later:


Me siento trunquilo. If you know, you know.


I'll only be here in Santander for two more days and on Friday I fly back to the US. 


And it's been an awesome last week! Tuesday we ran one last exchange in Bilbao with Elders Anderson and Dayley. Elder Anderson and I taught a new friend of theirs about the Spirit and invited her to church, then spent a while trying to track down some less actives and check their addresses.


Wednesday was my last DC (and my funeral, see pics) and last English class. We've got some good students, it was actually a pretty deep goodbye for such a casual activity. Elder Low wrapped it up with an awesome testimony of the Book of Mormon and a standing invitation to learn more. It's important to remind everyone that if they want to, we can do so much more than just help them sound American.


On Thursday the ZLs were in the area to do exchanges with our quadmates, which was lit. We had a bunch of lessons cancel but went around checking addresses and talking to people instead.  We met a group of guys hanging out on a bench who kind of felt like a multinational dads' smoking club. We started getting to know them and talking about what we're doing here, and they started to leave one by one the more we talked. They'd all had rough lives and mixed experiences with God and religion, but the last two who stayed talking to us were willing to learn more. Endure to the end.


2 minutes later we bumped into a guy we've known for a while, I'll call him José. I found him calling old numbers, he came to church one Sunday, and we  teaching him once but couldn't really get anywhere. Since then we've bumped into him at least three times on the street. He always tells us that he feels lost, that he wants to get out of something but he can't and he doesn't want to, wants God to get him out but thinks He can't. I've tried to understand what's happening, tell him that God does love him, offer him help connecting with God, show him that he has a Savior who knows what he's feeling. Nothing seems to help. We parted ways probably for the last time this week, but I shared with him Alma 7: 11-  "he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people". He claimed that God never answers his prayers, and I suggested that God sent us. We represent Him, and I told him God loves him. We couldn't help him more than that, so we moved on. One of the saddest moments of my mission, not gonna lie.


We had some cool lessons, ending them all with church invites. 
-We taught Guadalupe about faith using Alma 32 in a park full of trees, which was an experience. 
-We normally meet with Maria on the street, but instead this week she brought us to the upstairs of her friends' bar and gave us burgers. 
-Our boy Bryo got us chocolate and churros Saturday night while we talked about ways to nurture a testimony.


For one reason or another these people didn't come to church on my last Sunday but they know they should. Hopefully they will! On Saturday we learned that my replacement up here is my boy Elder Monteiro, so he and Elder Allen are going to run it up and help these people take steps in the gospel.


We threw a tacos and dance party on Saturday, danced our hearts out, and started some cool conversations.


On Sunday I spoke to the ward one last time, Elder Allen and I taught Kevin (the member's boyfriend from a few weeks ago) about the Spirit, and we had a barbecue with some members. And I'm winning down my last P-day on the mission right now. It still doesn't feel real.


It'd be classic to round off this last email with an awesome spiritual thought, or a perfect summary of my mission, or an eloquent gospel treatise, but this really doesn't feel like it's happening yet.


I can tell you all that God lives and loves you all. He wants to speak to you even when you have a hard time understanding. We have a Savior who paid the price so we could return to live with Him. And I know that He restored His Church through a living prophet, and speaks to that church today. This mission has taught me so much about God, His love, His plan, His gospel, and His children. That includes me. I don't know what else is in store for the rest of my life, or yours, but I know that with Him it's all more glorious than we could imagine. I promise this to you in the name of Jesus Christ.


Amen.


Elder Curtis
















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