November 13, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Oh my goodness!! We had such a great week!! We did so much service and taught 18 lessons...it was great!! It was a great week to end with Sister Batty. She is getting transferred, which means I am going to get a new companion, but I don't know who it is...because President Nicholas does things a little bit different, and we will find out tomorrow at the transfer station. But I think my new companion might be Sister Rice...who is amazing...I will let you know next week!! So lets start with p-day...we did everything that we needed to do, and then we went to meet up with the Elders...well they didn't have anything exciting planned so Sister Batty and I suggested that we go to Bragg Creek. It was a beautiful day and it was a perfect day to go! It was 12C and it was just great! So we drove around until we found a trail to hike on...we picked the first one we saw...it was just a baby hike...more like an educational loop. It didn't take us long at all, but the Elders kept us entertained. We saw some deer in the trees and the Elders went chasing after them so they could get some pictures of them. It was kind of hilarious! When we got back to our cars after only like 45 min, we decided to go find another adventure...we found the river. It was great and we had fun down by the river. It was beautiful and we had fun with all the Elders! Just before we had to head back to Calgary, we stopped at the ice cream store and got the Elders some ice cream. They had fun. When we got back we went straight to the Loewer Sr's to have supper. They are sweet. They are putting their mission papers in soon! They will be great missionaries! It was a great relaxing p-day for our very eventful week! Tuesday we had ZTM's. President Nicholas came which helped it not be a complete gongshow. Sister Batty and I were asked to demonstrate the role play portion of the meeting probably because most of our recent role plays have been complete gongshows because we were so not used to teaching. But this one was AMAZING!! It was all totally by the spirit and it was great! See we are becoming real missionaries again. When we were done we went to lunch with the Elders and then we went back to the church so Sister Batty could get a blessing. She was sick again and so when we went home to study she laid down and I got lots of study time! Then we had supper with the Stanford family. They have a daughter and a son in the same mission...their son is their daughters district leader...but a few weeks ago the french news program came and followed them around for a few days and they did a segment on the news about them...she wanted us to see it. We didn't really understand any of it because it was in French, but it was great. It showed them watching conference and working at the temple open house and going to the cannery as well. We were also able to talk to their piano teacher a little about the church and what missionaries do. It was pretty exciting. Then we went to ESL...there were only 2 students there, but it was still fun. Wednesday was our giggle day. I swear we laughed all day! First after our studies, we went to help Jennie. We did lots of random things. When we were all done, we went to their downtown office to exchange some furniture. We drove with her and were able to get everything done for her. When we were leaving our house after lunch to go to our next appt, we realized we didn't have our cell phone. We figured it had to be in Jennie's car because that was the last place where Sister Batty had used it. We decided we would go see if it was there after our appt. So first we went to see Sister Jiang. She is so sweet! We read a story from 'Our Search for Happiness' with her. She really liked it. When we were done, we went on the search for our phone, but Jennie wasn't home!! So we had to go to our next appt. with Carmen. She was even extra giggly! And she really couldn't focus, but we were able to talk about the Living Christ. Then we went to Jennie's again to see if she was home! She was! We told her the situation and asked if we could look in her car, but we didn't find the phone....we decided that maybe it fell out when we were at the office, so her son said "Mom, they do so much for you so I will run to the office and see if the phone is there." Well we were ok with that, but Jennie said she had the thought to look in the car one more time, and she found in on the floor in the back. It was incredible! She totally acted on a prompting from the Holy Ghost! And it totally saved our lives! She really needs to be baptized! Then we had supper with the Turners. They have cute little kids and we had a good time with them. Then we had a lesson with a referral we received from the temple open house. Her name is Sandra and she claims to be United, but we found out that she is really in fact a inactive member of the church. She doesn't really consider herself to be a member anymore. She has never married and has a dog to keep her company. She is really sweet and wants to keep meeting with us. Hopefully we will be able to help her feel the Holy Ghost again! On our way home, we got a call from Jill Gossling who got her mission call and she invited us to come over and watch her open it! She is going to the Tallahassee FL Mission and reports on Dec 19!! She is going to be an amazing missionary!! Thursday was our favorite day...weekly planning...but we got a phone call right in the middle of it...it was Sister Tagudar and she asked us to come over for lunch. She is Philippino and is so sweet, but she fed us SOOOO much food. She first filled our plates and then when we were done filled them again. I couldn't move when we were finally done and then she sent some of it home with us. She is so sweet, but Sister Batty and I endurance ate for 2 entire hours. It was a little bit ridiculous! Then we went to Sister Higham's because she helped us fix some of the Elders pants where the seams had ripped out. She is so sweet and was so willing to help. By the time we were done there, it was time for us to go to the Schnell's for supper. They also invited the Spanish Elders to come and we had a great time with them. They are great missionaries and just helped bring 2 spanish people come into the church. Then we went home to finish our planning. We were so stuffed and we could hardly move. And to top everything off, it literally snowed ALL DAY LONG!! We got at least a foot of snow. Friday was a very exciting day! Well we were supposed to go help Jennie again today, but when we pulled up to her house, an ambulance was pulling out. We waited a few minutes and knocked on the door anyways to see if anyone was still home. No luck there. Well we saw some snow shovels and because of all the snow, we decided it would be a good idea to shovel their massive driveway. You have to remember that I don't ever remember shoveling snow in my life...I was blessed with lots of brothers that always did that...so it was definitely an adventure for me. Well 2 hours later we were finished. Their driveway was huge...but we sure did feel good after we were done. We got lots of funny looks from people driving by because of course, we were in our skirts and I am still being stubborn and I haven't gotten my boots out of my suitcase...i don't want to until I absolutely have to...so I was just wearing normal shoes. It was lots of fun. When we got home for lunch, we were already sore. Then it was time to go do service at Sister Hobbs home. We got there and their driveway hadn't been shoveled either, so what did we do...shoveled the driveway. Thankfully their driveway is much smaller, but we were so tired and our arms were like jello. We could barely lift the shovel. When we were about halfway done, one of us asked "What part of us made us think this was a good idea?" the answer..."The Christlike part!" When we were done we were very grateful and when Brother Hobbs got home he was very grateful. When we were done with the snow shoveling, we went on to clean the inside of the house so we vacuumed and cleaned the bathrooms. Doing service always makes you feel good! I challenge you to find a way to serve this week!! Then we had supper with the Rodelas family which meant yummy Philippino food again. And then last but not least, we met with Christy. She is doing well and we taught her about the Articles of Faith. Well Saturday was an exciting day as well. First we had breakfast with the Ivany family and played Stay on the Path with them. When we were done there, we went to visit another referral. She is a LA member that is not on our area, but she has requested female missionaries and President gave us permission to go. She is really sweet. She lives in a care center because she has a brain injury resulting from some brain tumors she had. She is really concerned that she is not on the right path. We will meet with her for a few months probably. Then we went and met with Sister Ford and helped her out a little bit. And last but not least, we had supper with the Guidi's. They are from France/Italy and they are so nice. Sunday was Remembrance Day and it was a great day! First thing we went to ward council and were able to get all informed and then we just had church. In 4th ward we were asked to go into primary and help teach in sharing time. Our topic was service so we talked about some of the service we provide and how service can help us be missionaries. After church was all over, we had a lesson with the Sackley/Schaffer family! It went so great! Well they hadn't kept the commitment to read the Book of Mormon, so we decided to change our lesson and just read with them. We started at the beginning and had a great lesson. The spirit was so strong and it was great. Just as we were getting ready to invite Kris to be baptized, kids came home and there was chaos. So the spirit was not as strong, but she said she would if she came to know what we are teaching her was true. It was great! When we were done there, we were able to go back out to Bragg Creek for supper with the Nicholson's! It was really yummy and we saw lots of wildlife. Then we had our usual appt with the Fords. They are doing well. We talked about some of the things they have been learning from the scriptures. Monday was a great day as well! So we had DDM's which is a little bit unusual, but they were good. After lunch the Elders came with us to Jennies house to help us move some heavy furniture. She wanted a dresser thing moved downstairs. It was solid wood and it was a couple hundred pounds probably...she wanted it moved from the main floor down a spiral staircase to the basement. It was hilarious to watch all the Elders move this thing. When we were done, the Elders were brave and asked if we could watch the Restoration in their sweet theater. She agreed and watched it with us. The spirit was amazing! She is having so many great experiences with the Spirit! I have no doubt that one day she will join the church! Then we met with Tammy and talked about prophets. We watched Pres Monson's opening address of conference when he changed the missionary age and announced the temples. Then we had supper with the Barbeau family. They are great and asked us how they could be better missionaries. So we devoted our lesson to giving them some ideas. Our last appt of the evening canceled so we were able to have some time to update all of our records! Which is really good because now Sister Batty is getting transferred. Then when we were getting ready for bed, we got a text from Kris asking us some questions she had about the Book of Mormon. When we were done answering her questions, she told us about an amazing experience she had with prayer. She is totally feeling the spirit and is very prepared for the gospel!! Well I think that is everything! I hope you all had a great week!! Good luck to Grandma! You are going to be a great missionary! Well I love and miss you all! Go be missionaries!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant

November 5, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! How are ya'll doing this week? Things up here in the great white north are pretty good...cold, but good. I love Canada and I love being a missionary!! Well we had a pretty uneventful but fun week at the same time, but I will tell you all about it!! So Monday was p-day and it was great...and very needed. It was our first real p-day in like 5 weeks!! It was great! So first we e-mailed and then we went to the church because we had a pizza party. We got a pizza party because our zone did the best at car inspections. Technically Sister Batty and I were not part of it because we were at the temple and didn't have inspections...but lets be honest, if we were part of it we would have just added a 100% to their total. So we had a fun little party with the zone!! Then since we were already at the church, we just decided to stay for a few hours and then we went and did everything we needed to. The one thing that stopped us from doing anything was that all the chairs were still set up in the gym for the temple dedication....there were a lot of chairs. So we took them all down. Sister Batty and I did half of them faster than 6 Elders did the other half...proof that Sisters are the best! Then we just watched the Elders play basketball. It is pretty funny to watch sometimes. When p-day was all over, we had supper with the Istvanffy family. They are so sweet and are great missionaries! On Tuesday we had our DDM's a little bit early because some of the Elders had an appt they had to go to. So after our meeting was over, we went home and studied and then when they were done, we all met up and went to lunch. It was a good time. After our lunch, we had to take our car to get an estimate on how much it would be to fix it...did I tell you about the vandalism to our car during the temple. First we got soy sauced...that didn't do anything, then 2 days later someone scratched/keyed our car....we have 2 scratches from the fender to the back passenger door. It is going to cost over $1,600 to fix it....Then we had supper with Sister Shields. She is so sweet. Then we had to run because we had to get to ESL! It was so fun! We had a Halloween Party!! With costumes...Sister Batty and I wore our costumes...she was a bumble bee and I was a Ladybug. We were pretty cute! It was just a good time. We carved pumpkins, went trick-or-treating and just had fun. For a lot of the people that come to class it is their first Halloween! Wednesday was the real Halloween!! We had a great day! So first we went and did service at Jennie's house. She asked us to bring some strong men with us so they could lift some heavy things. We brought the Mandarin Elders and Dillon...who is preparing to leave on his mission to Fiji in a few weeks. They did lots of work...and we basically just watched. Jennie was getting rid of a massive TV and so she gave it to Dillon. He was excited. Then we went to see Carmen. We wore our costumes for her. She thought we were cute! She has a hard copy of her book!! It turned out so great!! I can't wait to read it again! Then we had supper with the Goodman family. They are so sweet. So since it was Halloween we had to be in by 6:00 and this year we were given permission to get together as a zone. Well the Elders didn't know what to do so they put Sister Batty and I incharge of planning our party!! We had so much fun!! We also invited the Sr. Couples that work in the mission office...since technically they work in our zone! The most important part of the evening was that costumes were mandatory!! Sister Batty and I dressed up the same, but we had a mexican, captain America, a nerd, and lots of other fun things. Mostly we played games and ate some food. We made all the Elders...Sr. Elders included have a doughnut on a stick eating contest! It was hilarious! Whoever won got a free doughnut. If you lost you still got a free doughnut. Then we played some card games. We played Golf and Uno-missionary style. Misisonary Uno is where you play until there is only 1 loser...that person then has to go stand against the wall...facing the wall and everyone else gets to kick a soccer ball at them. It was pretty hilarious...if one of the Sisters lost, the elders would be to afraid to hit us. When our night was over, we went out to our cars and someone had toilet papered them and put pumpkins on them and left a note that said "From people who stay out past 6:00 and wear masks." It was pretty funny. The YSA elders think it was someone from their ward. It was a great night and it was exactly what we needed!! Then it was Thursday and we did our weekly planning. Thankfully it didn't take us as long as last week. When we were done we had a lesson with Christy. She is still kind of struggling to do the basics...read the scriptures, pray often, etc. So we had another lesson on the importance and power of prayer. When we were done with that lesson, we got a call from someone moving into our ward and they asked us for our help. That doesn't happen often...we are really good at helping people move, but never move in. So we were excited. They are such a great family. We were able to help them for a few hours and then we had to run to our dinner appt. We ate with the Nadeau family. They are really nice and they have a massive, gorgeous house. It was beautiful. Then we had a lesson with the Ford's. We talked about and discussed the Articles of Faith. They were excited to learn about them. We talked about how it is important to memorize them and then you will be able to use them to tell people about what we believe! They really liked it. Friday started out to be a very long day...but it ended up being so great. When we finished our studies, we went back to help that family move in. They are the Loewer family...they are related to the other Loewer's in the other ward...and they are so nice. They are both RM's and they have 2 cute little kids. Her sister is also living with them as a nanny and she just returned from her mission in Las Vegas 3 weeks ago. So they are so nice. We were only going to be there for a few hours, but then ALL of our appts canceled and so we were able to stay for most of the day and help out. We put together her kitchen, some linen closets and the kids rooms. The best part was unpacking their little girls room...we may have put together a crib and unpaked lots of cute little clothes! It was so fun. It was good for her as well because she is a flight attendant and had to leave for Mexico the next day. We got a lot done and then we left to go to our dinner appt and it was so great!! We had dinner with SISTER PALMER!! most of her family was out of town, but her youngest daughter was there. We had so much fun with her! It was a great time reminiscing on old times at the temple! It was just what we needed. She is great and we are so lucky to be able to still see her often! Saturday was a really boring day. We didn't have much going on, but we were finally able to get all of our records updated....that hasn't been done since before the temple open house! Then we just did some stop-bys and contacted some referrals. We set up a few appts for this week and then one didn't have time at the moment because her mom is really sick...but she said to contact her again after Jan 6. She accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said she would read it over the holidays. She told us she is looking to convert so that will be exciting when she gets back from her trip. Maybe I will still be here...Then we had supper with the Feyt's. They are an older couple and they were really nice. Then we had a lesson with Sister Ford. She was alone because they boys were with their dad. Sunday was a great day! First it was church...and fast sunday...and then it was also Daylight Savings! That means a whole extra hour of sleep!! It was AMAZING! It was just what I needed! For the first time in a long time I actually wasn't completely exhausted. After church, we had a lesson with Bill and that was interesting. He was a little bit drunk and it was awkward...he said a few inappropriate things to Sister Batty and I. I was happy to get away. Then we had supper with the Gossling family. They are so amazing! Their daughter is 19 and she didn't really know what to do...she had been accepted to lots of University's, but she just felt like she needed to stay...then President Monson made the missionary announcement and she put her mission papers in! She should get her call this week. But we had a great evening with them and expecially her because we talked all about being a missionary and the things we wished we would have known! It was great! Then we quickly had a lesson with the Ford's, but Daniel was very tired so he was in bed before we got there. We had a great week! I hope you did as well!! I LOVE being a misisonary here in Canada and I am so grateful for the things I have learned. I love studying the scriptures everyday! We can learn so much as we dilligently study them! Sage you are such a stud! Keep up the great work! Don't forget to vote this week! Most of the Canadian's want Mitt to win...not that I really have any idea what is going on...Have such a great week!! Good luck Grandma!! You are going to be such a great missionary!! I am so excited for you!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant