October 8, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Ok before I get started I have to give you a disclaimer...I am completely exhausted...so if this email is all over the place and makes absolutely no sense, I am sorry. Give me 2 more weeks and hopefully I will be back to my normal self! We have had such a busy schedule since we spend 8 hours a day at the temple...and it is sometimes hard to find time to sleep!! But we do the best we can! So here goes.... To be completely honest, I don't have any super great stories from the temple...I have talked to lots of people and basically everyone has an amazing experience there, but nothing really stands out to me. I will tell you about some of my favorite comment cards (usually they are from/about children) : One little boy said "I felt like I was standing right next to Jesus." and another one of my favorites was that a little girl about 3 1/2 went through and as she was leaving the baptistry she started saying Oh, Oh, Oh...almost in disgust....so her dad asked her if something was wrong or if her hair was in her eyes. She said no my eyes are filled with tears. Those were some of the cards that really touched my heart! That is one of our favorite things about being at the temple, we LOVE reading all the comments. Most of them are positive and is is so great to see that everyone is having such a great experience!! The temple truly is the House of the Lord. We have been told by Elder Melchin...the area Seventy...that if we want the prophet to come to Canada to dedicate the temple, it will be because of the faith and the prayers of the members because of his health and his busy schedule. So we are definitely praying for that. We have also been told that if the temple is going to be finished on time, it is going to be a "Kansas City" miracle like Pres Monson described in his talk on Sunday! But it is the Lords house and He is in control! I have faith that everything will work out! I was able to see lots of great people at the Temple Open House this week!! The Platt's came and it was fun to see them! Thanks again to them for taking that bag of stuff home for me! That will save me lots when I have to fly home! Don't worry Mom, she also gave me a HUGE hug from you!! That day I was also visited by Ryandel and I was able to go on a tour of the temple with her! It was great and then she even brought me some delicious treats only found in the States!! I have also seen lots and lots of people from all the different areas where I have served and it is so fun to rub shoulders with them again! One of the highlights of the week was definitely General Conference!! Wasn't it so amazing!! How did you all react to the big missionary age change? If any of you were at a stake center full of missionaries...like I was...you would have seen how shocked we all were! But actually our mission is one of the ones that has a few 18 yr old Elders from England. One of them was actually there with us! I think it is a great change! To me it is proof to how strong and prepared the youth of the church are at this time! They will do great things! So now what are Braydon's plans? and Colton? and Ben? Being a missionary is the best and it has definitely changed my life!! I am so grateful I made the decision to serve our Father in Heaven! Anyways between Conference on Saturday we went to lunch with our Zone. We had transfers last week and our zone was completely changed and they made a new one! They dissolved the Spanish and Mandarin zones and put those Elders in English speaking zones. So our new ZL is a Spanish Elder. But I am excited! Then on Sunday we watched Conference again and in between sessions, Sister Batty and I made lunch for all the Elders....we made most of it ahead of time so it only had to be warmed up. It was fun and we were able to have another zone lunch! On Sunday night, we had a Thanksgiving dinner with the Ford's. It was fun and Sister Ford went all out for us. Do you want to know a secret....we had a different dinner appt that night, but it canceled at the last minute...so Sister Batty and I were both praying that we would be able to find someone else to feed us! Sister Ford was an answer to our prayers. We called to see if we could come by that evening and she asked if we had a dinner appt. We explained what happened and she invited us over! So we had fun. Then on Monday we really celebrated Thanksgiving...in the wrong month and on the wrong day...with the Hoganson family. They also have a missionary...he is serving in the St. George mission....and so they were excited to have us over. After our dinner with them we had our interviews with President Nicholas. He is an inspired man called of God! I love him and his wife! They are just so loving!! After that all of the Sisters were going out to eat for Thanksgiving...we went, but didn't eat because we were so full from our earlier dinner, but it was still fun to be with all the Sisters! Sometimes we take all the comment cards into the office when we aren't on the next shift...because we live the closest. The Sisters that are working in the office are so behind so we offered our help to them for a few hours and we were able to help them type up the comment cards and do the referrals and other odds and ends. It is lots of fun. I mean we get 100's of comment cards a day and they have to type every single one in a Word Document and when it is all done, Pres Monson and Elder Walker will sit down and read all of them together. That is a lot of work! But it is something fun for us to do! Well to be honest I don't really know what else has happened...all the days kind of run together. I don't know when my p-day will be next week...so just watch for an email! I know that this church is true! I am so grateful to be a servant of our Heavenly Father! I hope you all have a great week!! Thanks for all your love and support! I love and miss ya'll bunches!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant!