Mother’s Day

 

Sister Curtis by the Cloud Gate (the Bean) in Millennium Park in downtown Chicago

Today is the Saturday before Mothers’ Day and it is the first day in weeks without either rain or cold wind.  Everyone was out and about today taking advantage of great spring weather.  However, the forecast is for temperatures up to 90 degrees this next week, so I guess we will jump right to summer.

 

We have been quite busy this past month.  We continue visiting members, teaching referrals, attending missionary meetings and serving where ever we can.  We are still putting a lot of miles on our car.  Last week we traveled into Joliet, Naperville or Chicago for eight days straight.  Unfortunately, gas prices are up to about $4.29 per gallon, so its getting more and more expensive.  We have been asked to inspect the apartments in our zone every transfer (six weeks).  We have eight apartments to inspect and most of them are spread out so we can only complete one or two each day without eating into the missionaries’ prime teaching time.  We completed all of these inspections for this transfer last week.  During the next cycle of inspections, we have also been asked to inspect the vehicles as well as the apartments. 

 

One of the sisters in our ward had a daughter die this last month.  The ward helped put on a memorial service for this sister in our building.  We helped out with the service and also helped prepare a dinner for the family and ward members after the service.  This was a great opportunity to talk about hope and the love of God with people not of our faith.

 

We continue to enjoy meeting with our mission president and his wife as well as the other missionaries.  We love the dedication and example of the young missionaries.  This past zone conference was directed towards making our mission focused on Jesus Christ.  President and Sister Shumway gave very inspiring talks about the Savior. We are blessed to have spiritual experiences every day as we pray, study, teach, visit and worship.

 

We had a great experience in the temple this week.  The senior couples were invited to attend a session with all of the missionaries going home this transfer.  One of the Sisters in our district is going home, so we picked up her and her companion in Romeoville and then dropped her companion off with another set of Sister missionaries in Aurora.  We then went to the temple and had a very nice session.  After the session, the temple president met with all the missionaries in the sealing room.  After the temple, we had a luncheon at a stake center about five miles away from the temple.  We and the other senior missionaries prepared the lunch and then cleaned up.  After the lunch we had to go back to Aurora to pick up one Sister then back to Romeoville to drop off the Sisters and then finally back to Utica.  We left home that morning at 8:15 am, but with the long distances and heavy traffic, we didn’t get back home until 9:15 pm.  With light traffic it takes about two hours to get from Utica to the temple, but with additional stops and heavy traffic, it took a lot longer this time.

 

We love all of you.  Thanks for your continuing prayers and support.

Love, Elder and Sister Curtis

Garter snake on the canal towpath

One of many turtles in or by the canal

                                         We went to the Nutella Café in downtown Chicago

With Carolyn during the Architecture Tour on the Chicago River

View from the top of the John Hancock building

Goslings at the parking lot for the locks

Sister Curtis can’t resist holding a kitten

Art in downtown Chicago

Sunday in the Park at the Art Institute of Chicago

The main road through Utica

The old Westclox factory in La Salle

The Westclox museum in La Salle