Midsommar

June 21, 2023

Midsommar

3 zones with President and Sister Chase and Elder and Sister Jaggi

We hope everyone is enjoying the beginning of summer. We are doing great. We seem always to have something to do. We love the opportunity to serve here in our little ward. We have had many great experiences and are making great friends. We have received many great blessings of health and protection. We see the hand of the Lord in much of what we do.

Several weeks ago, we had the opportunity to have a visiting general authority come to our mission, Elder Jeremy Jaggi and his wife. We had zoom meetings on Wednesday and Thursday mornings and then attended in person on Friday morning followed by a zone conference. We were fed spiritually. One thing that stood out was the deep symbolism in the ordinances of baptism and the sacrament. Even though the gospel is simple enough for a child to understand, one can spend a lifetime understanding the deeper meaning and how God’s plan is designed for us to receive exaltation. We were also taught about the importance of the Book of Mormon in converting our friends to the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. We love the opportunity to learn and grow spiritually on our mission.

Yesterday we had the opportunity to attend the marriage and sealing of two friends in the Nauvoo temple. Why we were there is a miracle in two parts.

Part 1 – In February of 2022, we participated in a mission-wide zoom meeting. A recent convert, Gwyn, bore her sweet testimony in front of the whole mission. She joined the church in Joliet, which is part of our zone and we knew the sisters that had taught her. A little while later, we took some of the missionaries in our zone to Chick-fil-a in Joliet and we ran into Gwyn who was working at Chick-fil-a filling orders. We became friends with Gwyn since Deanne likes to go to Chick-fil-a as often as possible after district meetings in Joliet. Gwyn and Deanne also became Facebook friends. Gwyn let us know that she was going to be married in the Nauvoo temple and invited us to the reception. A while later Gwyn posted the name of her fiancé, Stuart Deacon Jr.

Part 2 – When Deanne was growing up, her grandma lived in the little town of South Shields, England. Back then, the church would send bishops, branch presidents and stake presidents to the semi-annual conferences in Salt Lake City. Deanne’s grandmother arranged for her branch president, David Deacon, to stay with her daughter (Deanne’s mum) while attending conference. This continued for many years as David Deacon became a bishop and then a stake president. Sometimes he brought family with him and the families became good friends. One time he brought his wife and two sons. We rented a large van and took a trip to the red-rock country of southern Utah. We stayed at the Deacon home a few times while visiting England. One of their sons, Stuart Deacon came to our house with his wife and sister while he was undergoing testing for leukemia at the Huntsman Institute. Stuart subsequently died, and left a young family.

It was his son who was engaged to Gwyn. When we all realized the connection we were invited to their sealing in the Nauvoo temple. Stuart Jr. who lives in Houston, came to Joliet for Gwyn’s birthday and we met at Chick-fil-A. We had a lovely visit for nearly two hours. With our Mission President’s permission we were able to go to Nauvoo for the sealing on Saturday. We also went to the reception that evening. The bishop talked and there was a ring ceremony. There were talks and toasts with lemonade and then Stuart and Gwyn each bore testimony of the gospel and eternal marriage. Each guest was offered a wrapped Copy of the Book of Mormon with Gwyn and Stuart’s testimony inside. It was such a spiritual experience.

We wish all of you well. We will be here for another three months. The time is going fast. We will have very mixed emotions about returning home.

Love,

Elder and Sister Curtis