October 6th, 2025

Ladies Man??

Week 3 in the field! Now this one will 100% not be as crazy long I swear! It was an interesting week cause we almost got our missionary allowance a week late.

So on P-day/Monday we had a District/Zone P-day. All 10 of us went to this town of Metan, where the Hermanas are. Us Elders were tasked to get meat for an asada, which we searched like 5 carnicerías for chorizo to make churi-pan (chorizo sandwich basically) and couldn’t find any so we just got some steaks. My comp and I ran into this old lady 4 times where each time she was like thrilled that she got to see us “gringos hermosos”. We played this game, idk what it is called, but it’s basically tennis but with walls. Like the court has solid walls around it you’re allowed to hit as part of the game. It was really fun, and then afterwards we had an asado where we grilled and cut up some steaks and made sandwiches with them. Then we continued to play some games and then we left and went to this place called Rosario de la Frontera for splits/divisions. The way we got there was sketch cause there is this thing here kinda like a taxi or Uber but it’s just random ahh people that pick you up. My comp, another Elder, and I got into this random guy’s truck and made it safely though🙏🙏. Once we got to this town, we got ready and went and visited some people. I figured out I was getting paired with an Elder Colque. He’s from Bolivia and speaks almost no English, but I’m goated so we actually talked a most of the time. He’s 24 years old and has, if I remember correctly, 9 siblings. He’s also kinda awkward but he’s chill. We got back and I was gonna call my family finally but about 15 minutes into the call, my comp ran out of data (only 1 phone in a companionship has a chip) so it was a pretty abrupt ending.

Tuesday
After we woke up and got ready, Elder Colque and I were tasked to go to this neighborhood like 3 miles away on the outskirts of this town. We went and taught some people and came back for lunch where we got some empanadas from a family and then we made tacos which were fire. Then we headed all the way back to the neighborhood for some more lessons but we ended up talking to this Apostate member for 2 hours. The conversation was really random. It went from talking about the dogs there, to him telling us how to cook this one fish, to him telling us about his supposedly really pretty niece that is addicted to basically everything on the list, to him going on about how our investigators shouldn’t be taking the sacrament. I asked the other Elders about him and supposedly he doesn’t sustain the general authorities so idk. We taught a few more people, talked to the Branch President’s family for a bit, and then were tasked to get pizzas. We went to the store where Colque only grabbed the pre-pizza bread. I told him that we should probably get some other stuff to make actual pizzas and he said it’s fine, the other Elders will get that. They in fact didn’t and like I suggested, wanted us to get frozen pizzas, so we just ate bread that night.

Wednesday
We woke up the next day, got some BOMB milkshakes from this place for breakfast, taught some people, but this time with Colque’s comp, Elder White, got actual pizzas for lunch, and then headed home. We got back to Joaquin V Gonzalez with a little bit of time to go visit people, where we found this guy, Mauricio. He’s just got this little family and seemed really interested in the church. We went back home, and crashed for the night.

Highlights of the rest of the week:
A cracked lady told this other lady “El es mio” (He is mine) and pointed at me while my comp and I were walking by.

Got catcalled by some random lady on a moped, which idk if I mentioned that but that’s what 85% of people drive.

Taught Mauricio and his family, which so far they have read all of the little booklets we’ve given them, been into the lessons, and even watched a bit of a general conference! The mom is a “strong” Catholic so we’ll see with her, and we have to get them married.

We also talked to their nephew, Manuel, who told us he’s been reading the Bible every night recently because we wants to grow closer to God. We taught him (he’s 19) and his little brother, Bruno (he’s 8) and they were locked in during the lesson and want us to come back.

I swear it’s impossible to find people. We”ll get a reference and they’ll put like the closest crossroads they live on so we have to ask like an entire street if they know someone and they NEVER know the person we are looking for.

A reference who we’ve tried to contact texted us at 4am that he hopes we die, that God isn’t real, and that He doesn’t help at all.

Apple flavored soda is really big here and idk why it isn’t in the states, because it’s the best thing ever, they even have apple flavored Powerade which I wanna try.

Mennonites (basically Amish people) exist here too and they are white as well. Like the white that seems like they would’ve done quite nefarious things during the 1940’s. We were getting on a bus and one of the women was coming out and I turned to my comp and I’m like “holy crap another nun, lets go” and I think she heard me. I want to ask if they speak English, knowing full well there is like a 2% chance they do. We have to go back to Metan today for Interviews w the Mission President and supposedly they have a donut store that’s really good.

Thought:
I loved Conference! I didn’t understand a ton because we watched 4/5 sessions in Spanish at the church building, but one talk I understood a lot and downloaded the session as soon as I could yesterday so I could listen to it in Spanish was Kevin G. Brown’s talk. He is the Area 70 from Jamaica who talked on testimonies. I loved how he talked about the story of Parley P. Pratt and John Taylor. If you haven’t heard the story, I’ll summarize it. Parley P. Pratt was disgruntled with Joseph Smith at this time, and when John Taylor came to town to preach, told John that there is no way he could be doing that under the direction of Joseph Smith. John Taylor replied saying that he now had the same witness and testimony of the Prophet Joseph Smith that Parley did and rejoiced in just 6 months prior. He then said that “if the work was true 6 months ago, it is true today.” It saddens me to know that many former missionaries fall away, go inactive, or become against the church, even after having guided others receive spiritual witnesses and receiving spiritual witnesses of their own for 2 years. Kevin G. Brown puts it plainly, “Choose to believe”. We have to make the choice everyday to spiritually keep, strengthen, and grow our testimony. My mom has said the phrase many times, “if you don’t use it, you’ll lose it”. The saying goes with testimonies as well. Just as the scriptures say, we must treat our faith, as well as our testimony, as a seed. Brown quoted President Nelson when he said “I plead with you now—to take charge of your own testimony of Jesus Christ and His gospel. Work for it. Nurture it so that it will grow. Feed it the truth.” We all can always work on our testimonies. I hope to always keep, work, and share mine throughout my life.

I hope you all had a great General Conference experience! I hope you all are doing great wherever you are! I love and miss you all and please send me emails!

– Élder Curtis