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