December 18, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Oh my goodness!! How are you all doing? My week was pretty great as a missionary!!! And there are less than 10 days til Christmas!!! I am so excited for that! Well I am excited to tell you all about our week!! So Monday was p-day. We had a little bit of a shortened p-day because we had a special day later in the week...but we still had fun! Since our p-day was a little bit shortened, we were able to bake treats for the LA's that we are going to take them to. Then we had a great evening! We had supper with the Walter's family. They are just so great!! And their kids are adorable! Then we had an activity with the Ward Missionaries in Richmond ward. We all met at Bro. Kneeland's house and assembled plates of goodies to take to all the recent converts in the ward and also some nonmembers. It was so fun! We delivered the treats with the Walters family and it was so cute to see their little kids go up to the door and sing a little carol! It was lots of fun! Tuesday we did a bunch of service at Jennie's...we changed all the light bulbs, cleaned the same storage room we clean every time, then we had a little adventure with the Christmas tree...she wanted a blanket under the tree...so Sister Rice and I were doing a good job, and then the tree fell over!!! Thankfully only 1 ornament broke! It was a miracle...but it is ok now. After that lovely adventure, we got to continue with the DVD organizing....it is a bigger job than I thought it was going to be...I will be so happy when it is all done! Then we did a few sotp-bys before we had supper with the Litchfields. They are just so sweet. Then we went to ESL and it was so much fun because we finally got to do some speaking activities with the students!! It was lots and lots of fun!! Wednesday we had ZTM's. It was a lot better than I was expecting it to be. I don't really love one of our ZL's at the moment because he isn't very obedient...but it was ok. Then we all went out to lunch. While we were at our meeting, everything we had set up for the day canceled...so when we were done we made some phone calls to set some different things up. So we were able to go see Carmen. We helped her organize a bunch of her stuff in storage and we got rid of a bunch of stuff! That evening our dinner canceled, but they gave us money to go out and then we just did some stop-bys. Thursday was the day I have been waiting for FOREVER!!! We went to the Calgary Alberta Temple!!! It was AMAZING!!! I haven't been to the temple for almost a year and it was absolutely a wonderful day! I had an incredible spirit come over me in the Celestial Room. I am so grateful for the temple! It brings so many blessings to our lives! It was so great going to the temple because all of the open house memories came flooding back! It was probably one of the best experiences I have had on my mission!! When we were done with our session, we went to lunch with some of the Sisters....the sisters from the ward. We went to the temple as a RS activity with the ward and it was so much fun!! When we got back to our area, we did some stop-bys and then we had supper with the Loewer Jr's. And then we did some more stop-bys. Friday was our weekly planning day since we were at the temple on Thursday. After we got that all done, we had a lesson with Sandra. It was a breakthrough lesson!! She didn't have a breakdown!! We kept it really simple! We talked about how God loves us and how we show our love to God!! It was a great lesson!! We also found out that she agreed to have VT's come visit her and she also agreed to be a VT!! That will be so good for her! Then we had supper with the Schnell's and it was great! We heard lots of stories about their journey into the church and it was a great evening! Then we had a lesson with Christy. She decided to learn about Honesty and Integrity. It always amazes me the things she wants to learn about!! Well Saturday was a great day...mostly because we got some great news!! We found out that Sister Hayes gets to spend 2 days with us since her companion is going home on Tuesday and transfers aren't until Wed...so we get to have a big party!! Elder and Sister Wansgard came and brought us an extra mattress so she won't have to sleep on the floor. Then we were able to go to the library for 1 hour to explore the mormon.org/christmas website! If you haven't seen it, look at it!! It is pretty great!! The church has so many wonderful resources for us to use! We were given permission to explore it and then make some lesson plans around the things that we learned. It was lots of fun. Then we worked on our LA treats again and started to deliver them. But then we had supper with Sister Thomas and Laura. It was great!! I feel so at home there and I just love them!! Sunday was just a great day at church and then we had correlation with the ward missionaries. We then had supper with the Gough family. They told us about some of the adventures they have had as they have served humanitarian missions as a family. They are really nice. Then we met with the Ford's. We played a fun Book of Mormon game with them and they had lots of fun! They really like the fun lessons. Monday wasn't p-day...because of transfers this week. So we had our DDM's. It was kind of a gongshow...but you should expect that by now. Then we went to BW's for lunch. It is the Elders new favorite restaurant. We have been there multiple times and they have what they call the 'Blazin Challenge'. This challenge is where you eat 10 of their spiciest wings in 5 min. If you do, you get a t-shirt and your picture on the tv...Well lots of the Elders have done it and they try to talk me into doing it every week...well somehow I gave in and actually did it! I am proud to report that I beat the Elders!! It was awful though and I wouldn't reccommend it to anyone!! I ate all the wings in 4 min! While we were waiting for our bill, our waitress came back to the table and said that someone was taking care of our bill for the day. It was a member that was also at the restaurant!! People are so nice! When we were done, we had a lesson with Sister Jiang and she is just as sweet as always. Then we visited someone Sister Rice knows from Lethbridge who is up visiting her family that is in our ward. And finally we had supper with the Stanford's. It was a very eventful week. I am not getting transferred, so my dream of 'dying' with Sister Rice is coming true!! This is the beginning of my last transfer!! I hope you all have a great week!! Have a very Merry Christmas!! My next p-day is next wed!! But I will talk to you all on Christmas!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant