September 3, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!!! Oh my goodness!! I love being a missionary!! And I absolutely LOVE Sister Batty!! We have had so much fun in the last few days!! I can't wait to tell you all about it!! Ok...well last p-day...my email might have seemed rushed....because it was!! We went to the Calgary Zoo!!! It was so much fun!! I haven't been to a zoo forever! We went with the other sisters in our Zone and also 2 companionships of Elders...so there were 9 of us total. We had so much fun looking at all the animals. They had adorable baby tigers and some neat penguins. It sure was fun. Then that evening we had supper with the Rodelas family. They are from the Philippines and are converts. They joined the church when they moved to Canada. So it was fun to hear their conversion story. That evening we had a lesson with Christy as well. She is doing well. At this point, her cat was still missing, but it came back. She gained a testimony of prayer that week. Tuesday we had our DDM's. It was actually not a gongshow...I guess that is what happens when the AP's are in your district. On our way home we stopped and had a lesson with a LA, Bill. He is a recovering Alcoholic that wants to make it back to church. We had a good lesson about the love of God. After that we did a little bit of study to pepare for some lessons, and then we headed to our dinner appt. with Tammy. She is a RC and has 2 cute little kids. We taught her about temples and what goes on in them. Everyone here is so excited for the Calgary Temple Open house and we finally got invitations to give to people. All the companionships in the city got 400 invites...our goal is to give all of them out by the time we get moved into the temple and start our training...that is only like 2 ish weeks away!! Anyways then that night we went to ESL class. We get to go everyweek and help out and give the students speaking opportunities. It is really fun. It was also Sister Ford's birthday that day, so we made her a candy bar poster and took it to her! She is so great! Wednesday was a bit of a gongshow. We spent a lot of time driving trying to find the doctor we were supposed to go to. Sister Batty needed to get her blood drawn and so we were trying to find the place we were supposed to go...which was on the entire opposite side of the city...and then when we got there it was a 1 1/2 hr wait. It was fun! It sure was quite the adventure. On our way home we did have a lesson with Sister Jiang about the prophet and the purpose of prophets. And then we helped Carmen with her book. She has an incredible story!!! Here are some pictures from the Zoo!!

Thursday was our weekly planning day and then after we were done, we just did a bunch of stop-bys....we need to find more investigators. That evening we had supper with the Gossling family. They are such a missionary minded family!! We challenged them to make a family mission plan....and they told us at church that they did!! Then that evening we had a lesson with Lorenzo and Daniel about service. They are so ready for baptism!! Friday was my 1 year mark of entering the MTC!!! That was a big day! Can you believe it has already been that long? It is so crazy!! Well first we helped Carmen more with her book. We are so almost finished and hopefully we will be done by the time we are working at the temple. Then we had to celebrate because it was also Sister Batty's 1 year mark of getting her mission call...so we got fun cupcakes at a gourmet cupcake store called Crave. They were delicious! Then we got to do some more service for Sister Hobbs. She is having lots of health challenges and just can't do very much. But she is great. She has a son serving a mission in Jamacia. And she decided that if he is serving a mission, so is she. So she prays about who she should give a Book of Mormon to! She is a great missionary!! So we got to vaccum and mop her floors. It was actually really fun. Then we had supper with Sister Carter. She is also a single mom who is a convert and her son is adorable. And last but not least, we had a lesson with Sister Baptiste. She might get a new house this week so she can get her kids back which is so exciting!! Saturday was a great day!! It was also a really busy day! First we had breakfast with a LA family, the Ivany's. They are great. And then we headed to Bragg Creek. It is BEAUTIFUL!! It is kind of out in the middle of nowhere so we were kind of in the mountains and it was nice...I never thought I would actually say that I miss the mountains and camping...but I kind of do. We first had a lesson with Bro. Brisson, a LA member that is also trying to come back to church. Then we had a lesson with a new family that just moved in, the Walters. They have 6 adorable little kids. Bro Walters is an institute teacher and when we called and set up the appt with him the night before he asked us something that no other member has ever asked me..."What can we do to prepare for your visit?" We were shocked and didn't know what to say so we just told them to be there. So it was lots of fun visiting with them. Then we had supper with the Nicholson's. Bro. Nicholson is basically a dry mormon....and just needs to be baptized. But they have a beautiful home in the middle of nowhere. And there is lots of wildlife. They even have a salt lick for the moose that come to visit them. Then Sunday was great!! It was fast Sunday and I swear all the testimonies were about missionary work! It was great! That evening we had supper with the Hyde family and they have a son that might get his mission call this week. So they asked us lots of questions...it brought back good memories. That evening we had a lesson with Lorenzo and Daniel as well. We taught about the parable of the talents and it was great at the end of the lesson when they said, "Oh I think I get it!" We also set a tentative baptismal date for Sept 27! Monday was p-day...as well as a holiday...so we just did what we do best...went shopping...but we didn't really find anything worth buying. But we had fun. Then we had supper at the Copithorne's. He is our bishop in one of the wards. It was great. And we also had a lesson with Christy. We had so much fun!! I am going to try to send some pictures, but the computer is being really dumb...Just know that I love you all!! Have such a great week!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant