January 29, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!Oh goodness what a week!! It was a pretty good one though...can't complain. It was a week full of laughter! I love Sister Rice she makes my life so fun and hilarious!! So are you ready to hear all about our week?! Well we will start with Monday...it was P-DAY!!! We had a combined p-day with the East zone!! That meant we got to be with Sister Hayes and Sister Sagers! It was fun. It was also very convenient because I was given calling privliges to call people and invite them to my farewell fireside in a few weeks....so instead of using some of my phone calls...since I only get 20...I used their phone to call some people I love in Chestermere!! It was great! Laura also came to our p-day activities so we played some card games. Then we went to the Ivany's house for supper. It was great and her kids were just as hyper as ever!Tuesday we had DDM's....the actual teaching part was really good, but there wasn't a whole lot of that...I wish DL's took DMs seriously. Well then we went out to lunch and on our way home, we stopped by the mission office to give the missionaries there some cookies we had made for our meeting. As we were walking out, the AP's were walking in and one of them asked us if we wanted to watch the slideshow for the farewell fireside...I came to the conclusion that I am going to be an absolute mess that day! Well by the time we got through all the traffic back to our area, we did a few stop-bys and then went to supper at the Higham's! It was great as usual and very tasty! They are incredible!! One day when I have more time, I will tell you their story! Then we went to ESL...so since we had so many students and they are all at different levels of learning English, we are going to start having 2 classes...We are teaching the beginners. So we took a few of them and worked on building their vocabulary. It was really fun and I realized how hard it really is to learn English.Wednesday we went to Jennie's. It has been almost a month since we had been there, so it was great to be able to serve her. She wanted our help moving a giant hot tub....so we enlisted the help of the Elders...and we were able to do it. Then we went to see Carmen. We helped her with her family history and helped her prepare some names to take to the temple. It was great! I love family history!! I really have caught the family history bug!! That night we had dinner with the Morgan's. So everyday Sister Rice asks me, "I wonder what we are having for dinner? I hope its enchiladas..." I think I have maybe had enchiladas once on my entire mission, so it is funny that she says that everyday. But we were telling Sister Morgan about that when she made us Mexican food last time, so tonight she made enchiladas! It was really funny! On our way home that night, we needed to grab something from the church library...and we only have one set of church keys, on my car keys...well we had been there earlier because we had to make a couple copies and my keys weren't in my bag...so I thought we had locked them in the library...it was when we got home that Sister Rice pulled out both sets of keys from her coat pocket. It was pretty hilarious and we laughed about it for a long time. Thursday was a busy day for us! We started our weekly planning and then we went to the Morgan's house to have lunch. She made us lunch and we helped her do a few things...so a few weeks ago when we had dinner with us, we did a lesson about families and I drew pictures of both our family and Sister Rice's family and we use that as part of our lesson. So she had a friend that has some missionaries out and they are having a hard time right now, so she wanted to do something for them...so she enlisted me to draw them a picture of their family. It turned out pretty cute if I do say so myself! And while I was doing that Sister Rice was helping her make invitations for the clothing exchange the stake is having in March. Then we went to see Sister Hobbs. She told us of all the missionary experiences she is having and then we cleaned her house. After that we went to dinner with the Schlicters. But it was only Sister Schlicter. It was great and we had a great evening with her. And finally we had a lesson with the Ford's about the priesthood and how it is the authority from God. We focused on this because Lorenzo is receiving the priesthood on Sunday!! Friday was another busy day. We started off at Jennie's again. We took down all of her Christmas decorations...it took a lot less time to take everything down that it did to put everything up! We were there for a long time though. Then we had a lesson with Sandra. She was a little bit down today, but she really opened up in our lesson. We talked about the Liahona and how the scriptures are our liahona today. So she commited to read the scriptures more and also commited herself to pray more frequently. It was great. Then we had a lesson with Christy. We decided to review all of the standard in the FSOY we have taught so far. She really surprised me by how much she knew and remembered!! That night we had dinner with Sister Ford and while we were there, we also helped her assemble some kitchen stools. I am becoming so handy! Saturday we finished our weekly planning and then for a few hours, we went to see Sonia...she was just baptized, but she doesnt' speak english....so we went to talk with her. She is doing well, but she just needs lots and lots of practice! So that was really fun. We taught her how to pray in English. It was another reminder to us how hard it is to learn English. Well then we had supper with Sister Thomas and Laura!! That was so great! They are some of my favorite people! We will always be friends! We watched the movie "The Labour of Love" with them. It was made in the 80's and it is funny. But it had a line in it that really stood out to me....the missionary says "It's not easy, but it sure helps to have a perfect message." And isn't that the truth!! Anyways then we had a lesson with Sister Kamenka. She is so funny....but so intimidating!! So we had a very intense lesson! We were talking about the Book of Mormon and she had lots of hard questions...but miraculously through the Spirit, we were able to answer all of them. The lesson was nothing we had expected or planned for, but it was great! And it was completely by the spirit!! It was great! Sunday was a great day! We began our day dark and early at Ward Council and then started our day of church. It was a great day there! We also taught gospel principles because we still have no WML. And Sandra came to chruch again!! She stayed all three hours again and this week she didn't even go to 'her' church...the United church. It was great! That night we had supper with the Loewer's in 4th ward and that was great. Finally we had a stellar lesson with the Fords!! We invited Bishop Higham to come because we did a follow up lesson on the priesthood and the responsibilities of the priesthood...so it was great to have him there!! We all had a great time and I learned a lot about the priesthood!! It was great!!So that was all about our great week!! Being a missionary is great!! You should all try it!! Pray for missionary experiences!! It is awesome to be an intrument in the Lord's hands!!

Well I hope you all have a fabulous week!! I love and miss you all! 

Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant