October 1, 2012

Hey Everyone!! I know you probably aren't expecting to hear from me today, but our p-day got changed back to Monday for this week....It will probably be on Tues next week because next Mon is Thanksgiving. Well I have had a crazy week, but I don't even know where to start. This e-mail won't be like most of them because we spend at least 8 hours a day at the temple so all the days run together and I don't really remember what happens on which day. But the Calgary Temple is BEAUTIFUL!! It still isn't quite all the way done, but it is still gorgeous! And we are having a lot of neat experiences! So I will tell you about all the neat things that happened this week. I do remember that on Monday we had a training will Elder Walker. He is the maid guy over the temple department of the church. He was here for the majority of the week to help with the VIP and Special Guest tours. So the training was with all of the tour guides for the temple. Basically he told everyone what they should talk about and such. It was fun. He used a funny analogy. He told us to think of ourselves as ducks...be very calm and serene on the outside but really underneath you are paddling like crazy. I thought is was a silly comment he used. Then on Tuesday we had another special training with Elder Walker. This one was specifically for the Sister Missionaries. I just have to say it is great seeing all of the Sisters everyday. He just told us how important our role in the open house is and gave us a little bit of advice. As he was ending his training, he invoked the blessing of heaven upon us to help us as we go through this busy time. That was the day that the Special Guest and VIP tours began. These tours ran from Tuesday to Friday. We had lots of political leaders, ecclesiastic leaders, CEO's, and other important people come through in those days. It was lots of fun. As Sister Missionaries, we start the movie that everyone watches before they go through the temple and then we are in the refreshment area for them to ask questions and just see how they enjoyed their tour. Now I will tell you about some of the neat experiences I have had. So the first night the mayor of Calgary came. He is muslim and we were told that he needed to be out of the temple in 1 hour because he had other appts to get to. Well 3 hours later he was still there. He LOVED the temple! We were told that he went to work the next day and told his entire staff that they have to go to the Mormon temple. They all said ok, and then he emphasized it again and said you HAVE to go...you will feel something different there. So the next day we had his personal secretary and her entire family come through. That first day we also had three 13 yr old boys that were skateboarding down the road come in the church and ask what was going on. They went on one of the last tours of the night, and we were in the temple at the same time they were. When we were in the temple, we saw and heard one of the boys on the phone with his mom telling her he was in the new Mormon temple. I am curious to know what the end of that conversation was like. Over the next few days I talked to lots and lots of people. There was one United Church minister and some members of her congregation that told me they loved the temple and they were going to announce it at their church and put the information in their program so that more of their members could come and see. There were 3 Catholic nuns that came and loved their experience as well. When they walked into the temple they said: 'He's here.' It is amazing to see the spirit touch the hearts of those that come to see this incredible building. There was also another family that had just moved here from North Carolina. They told me they had just gotten their voting paper work and were going to vote for Romney because they had come to the temple. We have had multiple people ask tour guides how they can join this church and it is just incredible!! I am so grateful that I have been here in Canada to be a part of this Temple Open House! Saturday was the first day open to the public and it was crazy busy!! We had 5,017 people come through. We are expecting over 100,000 people to come over the next few weeks!! The one thing the temple is doing to us is making us exhausted! We are sometimes there until 11...and we have a 30 min drive...and then we have to be back there at 7. We did the back to back shift thing 2 times this week. Luckily we don't have to do it this week. But President Nicholas has given us permission to adjust our sleep schedule when we have time to do so. So we try to sneek in a nap whenever we can. Thursday we were at the temple in the morning and then we had the baptism of Lorenzo and Daniel that night! So it was an exciting day. We had to fill the font at the chapel and had to stay there while it filled for 3 hours...well we were exhausted so we decided to take a nap there. Did you know that the padded chairs in the church are actually really comfortable. They make a great bed. Just turn two of them together and put 5 in a row and you are set. We slept for about 40 min and then Sister Brower and her comp Sister Sagers...the one that was here before me...came and brought us dinner before the baptism. It was great! The baptism was AMAZING and perfect! Their dad said the opening prayer and was able to stand in the circle of the confirmations. It was really neat. Sister Brower and Sagers did a musical number and it was just perfect. It really was just the perfect baptism. On Saturday I was able to go to the Relief Society Broadcast! Wasn't it amazing? Our stake did a little social of ice cream and cookies afterwards. It was really good. I was exhausted because we were on the morning temple shift that day and the night shift the day before so I was going on very little sleep...I used to be able to do that before I was a missionary...but now I feel like I need 8 hours of sleep to even be functioning. So I can't wait to reread the talks in the Ensign. On Sunday we had church and then all of the Sisters were invited to dinner at the Palmer's house. Brother Palmer is the man incharge of all of us at the temple. He and his wife have a gorgeous, gigantic house and they had all of the sister missionaries and President and Sister Nicholas, and Kim...the PR lady from SLC...to come for dinner. It was yummy and we had so much fun together! We taught like zero lessons this week, but hopefully things will be better this week and we will have time to do that! Well I love being a missionary!! I love the temple and the blessings that come from the temples!! Attend the temple as often as you can! It is such a wonderful blessing for us! Enjoy General Conference this weekend! I am sure it will be amazing! It is starting to freak me out that I will be home for the Conference after this! Congrats dad on you ginormous deer. Sister Batty is a little jealous. And way to go Sager and B-rad at the baseball and softball! Keep up the good work!! I love and miss you all have a great week!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant Here are a few pictures from the last week! 1- Me and Sister Batty having our nap at the church before the baptism...doesn't it look comfy? 2- The Classic Baptism picture 3- Me with the temple....more good pictures to come hopefully!