Still Winter
It’s now the last day of January and it is still winter here in Illinois. The weather has been very variable with subzero cold, blizzards, wind, and even a warmer day today. However, the weather has not been too much of a factor in our work. We were a little late for zone conference last week because of a blizzard along I-80. What should have been an hour and a half trip took over two hours, but we did make it there safely and we weren’t quite the last to arrive. Another snow storm is forecast to hit the middle of this week, but we are only supposed to be on the edge of the storm.
We continue to enjoy our work here in the Ottawa Ward. We are making good connections with a lot of the members. We are spending time visiting, calling and texting them. Covid-19 is still running very strong here. Many of our member friends have been sick, so we have not been able to meet with them in person. We have been shoveling snow for a number of members who are unable to shovel. The Bishop asked us to spend time with the active members helping them with family history. There are two very qualified temple and family history consultants in the ward, so we will need to figure out how best to share this work.
We have been asked to help out a bit with missionary housing. We have been assigned to inspect the missionary housing in our zone every transfer (about six weeks). We inspected the housing for our district this last week and have appointments to inspect the other zone this week. We have also helped the office missionary in charge of housing move everything out of one apartment and then set up a new apartment. The new apartment was in Rensselaer Indiana, about two hours away. Ottawa is the southwest edge of the mission and Rensselaer is on the southeast edge. That was the first time we have been in Indiana.
We enjoy spending time with the young missionaries, either in district meetings, zone meetings or zone conferences. We are very impressed with their dedication and hard work. Most companionships are shuffled each transfer, so we are getting to know a lot of missionaries. When we have been doing apartment inspections we take the young missionaries to lunch. We had a little miracle this last week. The missionaries picked the Route 66 Diner in downtown Joliet for lunch. After lunch, the waitress asked the young Elders how long they had been out on their missions. The Elders answered and then asked her if she had met with the missionaries before. She said that she was a member, but she hasn’t been to church for about eight years because she lives way out in the country by Ottawa. We quickly told her that we were in Ottawa and that there is a ward there. We gave her the church address and time. We will probably go back to this diner to meet her again.
There are more senior missionaries coming into the mission. We were able to meet all of them this last Sunday at the mission home. Several of them have been out a little longer than us, but most of them just arrived. It was nice to get to know them. Each set of missionaries seems to have different experiences than the others. We are the only set in a ward without young missionaries also in the ward. We are also the most remote of the senior missionaries.
We miss everyone, but we do feel that we are doing the right thing by going on a mission at this time. We’re very sorry that a lot of you are going through challenges in your lives. We continue to pray for you by name. Our prayers are getting longer as we are also praying for those we are working with by name.
Love,
Elder and Sister Curtis
Missing you in freezing Salt Lake City!
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