August 6, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Sorry I totally forgot to tell you it was some weird holiday in Canada yesterday! They just make up holidays so they can have time off work....oh well I still love it here!! So here goes in telling you all about my week!! Well Monday was p-day...It wasn't very exciting as usual....but really it wasn't. With our new mission president we can play card games once again...so the Elders play Magic....it is basically Pokemon for adults. It is ridiculous. Elders are just immature 19 year old boys...But on a happy note, Rachel had her baby!! He is adorable! Then that evening we had a lesson with Byron and Corrina. They are so great! And it was a lesson taught totally by the Spirit! It was amazing! We were able to help them think seriously about getting married...and we have a tenative date for Aug 18...yes that is like next week....pray that things will work out! Tuesday we had our DDM's. It was just another opportunity for the Elders in this district/zone to show their immaturity to me. Then Amanda asked us to come to her house and help her. She fosters puppies and she just got 6 cute puppies...they are pretty cute, but it still didn't make me like animals...I definitely like babies a lot more!! But Amanda is great! Even though she can't get baptized yet, she is being a missionary. She has a friend that she wants us to meet with! She is the best example of being a member missionary! That evening we had supper with the Acido family. And then after that Shanita told us to stop-by to see some pictures of the baby! He is adorable...his name is James and I just want to hold him so bad! Wednesday was a day of service!! Those are great days! So we started off at the Trim's. They are renovating their motor home, so we helped Sister Trim get it all cleaned out. She made us lunch and it was great. Then we were able to go to the Clarks. Sister Clark broke her wrist, and can't do very much around the house....so we were able to go and clean up her house and do all that stuff for her. Then her husband showed us his 'workshop'. He makes knives and leather goods and sells them. He has some pretty neat stuff. He also has lots of really neat guns! It was pretty fun to see all his antique guns and stuff...but it made me want to shoot some guns! Sister Stockwell has never shot a gun...so I told her she needs to come to our house and we will give her a lesson. Then that evening we had supper with the Maunds. And after that we had another amazing lesson taught totally by the spirit with the Oduneye's. We taught them about the Word of Wisdom and answered some questions they had about that. It was also great news because they want to start meeting with us regularly again! Thursday we did our weekly planning....I sure am glad that I won't have to do that for my whole life! Then we had a lesson with Cristina and her family. We watched "Finding Faith in Christ" with them. It is always nice to be reminded of all the miracles Christ performed and seeing the love He has for us! That evening we had supper with the Simmons family...who is great! Their son just returned from his mission so it was fun to compare our mission to his...Then we had a lesson with Kenzie and her family. I just love them. We talked about the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy. They also told us about some of the good events of the Olympics!! Go USA...and Canada! Of Friday morning, Sister Rees called us up and asked us to come over and help her with some things and then she would treat us to lunch. So we had a nice morning of doing service and then she took us out to lunch. The members here are so great! They do so much for us, the missionaries! After that we just did stop-bys and stuff...we were supposed to have a lesson with Josephina and her husband, but they have once again fallen off the face of the earth. But Rachel called and told us that she was home from the hospital and we could come see the baby in real life...he was even cuter!! I want to hold him so badly!! I can't wait to hold a baby again! Saturday was a very uneventful day...it was full of tracting and stop-bys for most of the day...then that evening we had supper with Sister Smith...She is the lady that lets us wear cool hats when we eat supper with her. But that is all we did that day. Then Suday was a GREAT day!! So first of all it was church! So guess who was at church?? Well the Oduneyey's came! And Rachel decided to have the baby blessed so her and Bro. Williams were there! Bro. Williams even got to stand in the circle for the blessing!! It was such a good day at church!! But guess what it gets better! So we were sitting in Sunday School and a member comes and gets us and says "There are 3 people that just walked into the church that are looking for a new church, that live in Abbeydale." We were really happy...they were going to go to the other ward's Sacrament meeting. So we decided to stay with them in that ward and then we were going to meet with them afterward. So we were having a lesson about the Restoration with these people...1 boy and 2 girls...right in the middle of the lesson the girls got up and just left...so we finished teaching the boy and he was really interested and said he wants to come back. It was really exciting at the time, but then we found out they are all YSA age, so the Elders are the ones that will be doing the teaching....but oh well we all play for the same team eh? Then that evening Bro. Williams invited us over for supper. Monday was p-day and it was really boring...since the Elders don't do anything except play that stupid Magic game. So we just went and picked up our mail and left! I got the package you sent!! Thanks! I loved the hot tamales...they don't have those in Canada. But we didn't do much...just went back to our apartment and wrote letters and chilled. Maybe if I get transferred somewhere else, we will have exciting p-days and actually do something... Well I am glad you had a good time at Girls Camp!! I love the memories I have from camp...and I am glad you didn't get eaten by bears! Way to go Sager on getting your Arrow of Light and winning the home run derby!! You are a stud!! Have so much fun on your trip this week!! I am sad I have to miss it...I sure do love and miss you all!! I hope you have a great week!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant Here are some pictures! 1- me and Sister Stockwell with our fun hats 2- The adorable baby!!

July 30, 2012

Hey family and friends!! I hope you all had a super great week!! I sure did...well kinda...it wasn't extremely eventful, but I will tell you all about it anyways! So on p-day we didn't do anything. I mean nothing. We didn't even go to the church to hang out with the Elders. We thought it was pointless because they don't do anything anyways...so we decided to take a nice long nap at our apartment instead. It was so refreshing! I miss taking nice naps. That evening we decided to go stop in on Byron. Guess what...they were actually home!! So we were able to visit with them and share a message with them. We don't really know why they haven't been to church or anything in forever...but they were willing to meet with us again...so maybe we will be able to get something going. Tuesday we had DDM's and they were a gongshow as usual. We even had the Assistants show up to our meeting, but they came with great news for us!! They taught someone last week that lives in our area...so we will get to teach them...and they have a baptism date for Aug 25. So we can't wait to teach them as well! Then instead of going to lunch with the Elders, we had lunch/ a correlation meeting with Brother Root and our ward missionaries...all 2 of them...but it was good and we were able to talk about lots of things. The rest of our afternoon wasn't very eventful or even exciting until we were finally able to get in touch with Josephina!! She is back from the Philippines and better news her husband is on leave from work because he is having eye surgery. So that means we get to teach him too = new investigator!! Miracles are starting to happen!! Wednesday wasn't very exciting...except for the fact that we had quite a few appts. So we visited with Sister Sonnenberg. Then we helped out Sister Rees for a few hours...our afternoon was spent doing stop-bys and tracting...then that evening we had supper with the Hernandez family. They are great and just returned from a trip to Mexico so they had lots of fun stories to tell us! Then that evening we had a lesson with a semi LA sister in the ward that we are trying to help so she doesn't go inactive. Thursday we had our weekly planning as usual and then that afternoon we had a lesson with Cristina and her family. We talked about pioneers...it was fitting because it was a few days after pioneer day...even though they do nothing to celebrate that holiday here...but it was a great lesson. That evening we had supper with the Piersons. They are both on committees for the upcoming temple, so they told us a lot about its progress and lots of other fun details about all that is going into the open house!! I can't wait! It is only 8 weeks away! Then that evening we went to see if Kenzie and Addison were home from Cardston! And they were! So we were able to have a lesson with them! We watched Pres. Monson's movie "On The Lords Errand". That is a great movie! He is an incredible man! It is no wonder that he is the prophet!! On Thursday evening there was a huge hail storm down in Cardston. It was baseball sized hail that was falling and did so much damage. Cars, houses, trailers...everything was destroyed. Even the temple has some minor damages. Friday we had a Specialized training and it was great! That afternoon we did some tracting and then Sister Trim asked us to help her organize the upcoming food drive they have every year and help her know who to ask from the ward to help out...since we know everyone she asked us to help. She also fed us dinner that evening. Saturday we spent some time at the Trim's helping in their yard again. We also did some stop-bys and we were able to set up a few appts which was nice. Sunday was church and it was a great day! There was a missionary "homecoming" and so the bishop asked us to speak with him. Things went really well!! I have given so many talks on my mission now that it doesn't terrify me which is good. And I am not gonna lie, my talk was good! Then that evening we had supper with the Lonsdale family. They are doing well and are always looking for ways to build the Lord's kingdom! They are grea! I hope you all have a great week!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant