Being a Teacher

For one of my classes this week I needed to create a blog and make a post about my teaching philosophy. I figured I could just use the blog I already have...maybe that will give me more motivation to post more often. For as long as I can remember, I have wanted to be a teacher. I pretended to be a teacher and made my younger brothers be my students. I think I have always wanted to be a teacher because I want to make a difference in someone's life. I have had many great teachers throughout my education and they have definitely helped me progress and succeed! I can't wait to graduate and be a teacher. I will be fulfilling many goals I have set for myself. I can't wait to make a difference. There are so many resources out there to help teachers become better.
The 3 educational blogs I found are:
http://classblogmeister.com/blog.php?blogger_id=65078
http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/
http://www.freetech4teachers.com/

Easter...and Guns...

So Easter is a great holiday and it was great to be home with the family. We sure did celebrate! I finally met my new baby cousin Hailey who was born while I was on my mission! She is adorable! It is also nice to have another girl in the family! We had a fun family BBQ and of course no Easter is complete without an egg hunt...it sure was a hard one...we couldn't find two of the eggs...it will be a summer surprise! Then it was out to the middle of nowhere to roast hot dogs, shoot guns, and ride the 4 wheeler. It sure is fun to be with the family! I am so grateful for the atonement if Jesus Christ! I know He lives! He loves us and wants us to return to live with him! I hope you all had a great holiday as well!

Final Letter Home

Hey Family and Friends!! Wow where to begin....I never ever thought this day would come, but now it is here!! This last week has been a roller coaster of emotions!! But it has been pretty great! I will give you a quick run down! So Tuesday was p-day and it was a BLAST!! We went to the Canada Sports Hall of Fame museum! It was 100% interactive and we got to learn lots about sports and do lots of fun things. We could have spent lots more time there...but p-day came to an end too quickly. Then we had supper at the Higham's house. They fixed us a Valentine's dinner since I wouldn't be there for Valentines. Aren't they sweet. Well we basically had to eat and leave because we had to go to the Welcome Fireside for all the new missionaries so that Sister Rice could meet the new sister she is training. Her name is Sister Beasley. She is from Idaho Falls. She is really nice, but a little different. It is difficult being on a three-leg, but poor Sister Beasley has not had a normal first week as a missionary. Fun connections about 2 of the sisters that came out though...Sister Wixom: Sadie met her at Wet Seal and Sister Long: Her dad was my grade 6 teacher!! Crazy eh?? It is such a small world! Well then Wednesday was another great day. We went to transfers!! So I got to see most of my favorite sisters to say goodbye to them!! Then we took Sister Beasley home to let her unpack and took her shopping and to the library so she could email her family. Then we went back to study...the great thing about training a new missionary...2 hours of comp study!!! Well then we went to my Farewell Fireside. It was great and I actually held my emotions together better than I thought I would...Sister Rice was crying more than I was. It was great though...we watched a slide show of pictures from all the departing missionaries and then we all had to do a musical number...that we found out about when we got there...and then we all bore our testimonies. After that we got to mingle and talk to all the people that we had invited. It was so great to see most of my favorite people here in Canada!! A lot of the goodbyes have been difficult...but I like to think that they are more like see you laters! Thursday we had weekly planning then went to see Sister Hobbs and cleaned her house. And then we had supper with the Mooney's. After that we all went to the Richmond Ward RS activity. It was all about creating a positive change. Fitting I know... Friday we had to finish our weekly planing and then we met with Sandra. We had a great time with her!! She is so special to me and has made so much progress in the last month or so!! I just love her. We talked with her about priesthood/patriarchal blessings. She already has her patriarchal blessing which is great and then she said she would really like a priesthood blessing. So we set that up for her. That night we had supper with the Sorenson's. Their son just got home from his mission in Dec and is already engaged to a girl he met there...crazy!! Saturday was an amazing day!! So we got to go to the TEMPLE!!! President Nicholas has a new tradition that he takes the departing missionaries to the temple on their last Saturday. It was so great because the Calgary temple has been such a big part of my mission. It was great to spend a little bit more time there before I leave. The Calgary Temple will always be my temple!! I just love the temple so much and can't wait to be able to attend the temple more regularly. When we got back we went to see Carmen and she is doing great like usual. Then that night we had supper with Sister Thomas and Laura. The Elders were also there and also Sister Hyde. It was a blast. We played a fun game where we all had to say 3 things that nobody knew about us. It was pretty difficult! For the lesson we played Stay on the Path and talked about the commandments. Laura had so much fun!!  And then finally we went to see Sister Ford. She is amazing!! She is going through so much, yet has such a great attitude about life! Sunday was the day that things really started to become real that I am leaving because I had to say lots of goodbyes at church. But it was such a good day at church. After church Sandra received a priesthood blessing and it was incredible!! It addressed all the concerns that she had and it really helped her. I think it really increased her testimony! Well that night, we had supper with the Mathewsons. He is actually from Ogden and went to Weber High!! They are a pretty great family...he was recently called into the bishopric. That night we had a lesson with the Ford's. We let them play with cornstarch and water....it was a fun object lesson, and they loved relating it to the gospel. So as I have been reflecting on my mission lately I have been overcome with love from our Heavenly Father. I am so grateful that I was chosen to be part of this great Work!! I am honored to where Christ's name everyday and to represent Him!! I have met the most amazing people here in Canada and I am sad to leave all of them behind. I have loved watching the Atonement become part of peoples lives. I have been able to watch people as they apply the Atonement to their lives that they become happy and excited about what lies ahead. It is such an incredible feeling to be able to watch someone become converted. I also had the once in a lifetime opportunity to play such a huge role in the Calgary Temple Open House! That was really one of the best parts of my mission! I have been blessed with great companions that have all helped me be a better missionary! I was able to serve in great areas where I truly came to know and love the people! This experience really has been the best thing I have ever had! I will never regret the choice I made to be a missionary. Thank you to all of you! You are the ones that helped me!! Thanks Mom and Dad!! It is because of all the things you taught me and have done for me that I am even here. Thanks to all my siblings and your letters! Thanks to my grandparents and all your love and support. Thanks to all my wonderful aunts and uncles and cousins!! Your letters and email meant the world to me! Thanks to all the teachers I have ever had...it was in all those classes that my gospel knowledge started to grow! Thank you to all my friends!! Jenessa and Jenny...your letters literally saved me! I love you guys!! Thank you to anyone who reads my emails...it makes it all worth it!! I know that the church is true!! I know that we are all children of our Heavenly Father. He loves us so much!! I know Joseph Smith is a prophet of God. Through him the Church of Jesus Christ was restored! I know these things because I have read the Book of Mormon and prayed to know that it is true. The Book of Mormon is true!! I know that Thomas S. Monson is the prophet today. He leads and guides this Church. I know the priesthood is the power of God. I know that families are meant to be together forever! I love my family and I am so grateful for them. I know the Atonement is real. It is how we can be forgiven of our sins and one day return to live with our Father in Heaven. I love this gospel! I am so grateful I have been a representative of Jesus Christ for the last 18 months!!! Thank you for all your love and support!! I will see you soon! I love you!!

Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant

February 4, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!! How are you all?? Well things are going pretty great up here in Canada...we didn't have that exciting of a week, but we did stay busy! So here goes...I will tell you all about it!! Well Monday was p-day was just normal...like usual, after we did everything we needed to do, we went to see the Sisters in the office and then went to the church...while we were there, we watched the Elders play basketball. But when Laura got there, we played some games with her! It was fun. Then we had supper with the Gough's. It sure was yummy...like most food here in Canada!! Tuesday was FREEZING COLD!!!! -35C! It was so cold. But we were still missionaries. So we had DDM's and then lunch. When we got back to our area, we had to make a bunch of copies of some ESL material for Sonia. Then the Stanfords brought us dinner....you will never guess what they brought us!!! COSTA VIDA!!!! It finally made it to Canada...and it was so yummy! I don't know how I have lived without that food for this long! It was just like I remember! Then we were headed to ESL, when we got a phone call that it was canceled because it was 'too cold' outside....we live in CANADA...nothing is too cold here. But since we didn't have ESL, we were able to go meet with Sonia and talk with her in English. She is doing so great!! She is so funny and she told us all about how her and Enrique, her husband, met! It was a pretty great story. Wednesday we started our day at Sister Ford's house! She needed some help moving some heavy boxes...so we were able to offer our services. Then after lunch, we went to see Carmen. Today we took someone with us. She is from 4th ward...Sister Nystevold...her sister-in-law was in a tragic accident and has a severe brain injury. One of her friends had given her a copy of Carmen's book to read and she was loving it. She wanted to purchase 15 copies for her family!! So we took her to meet Carmen. It was great! And it was incredible to hear about both Carmen's story and Sister Nystevold's sister-in-law as well. Carmen was ecstatic that she wanted to buy her books! This is exactly what she wants her book to do!! She was just so happy. Well that night our dinner canceled, so we had a fun cold night of stop-bys. Thursday was weekly planning! I am not going to lie...I can't wait to not do that anymore!! That night we had supper with the Larsen's. Their grandson is Elder Merrill who is now serving in Grandma's mission!! Then we had a lesson with the Fords. They are doing great! That night we were just enjoying ourselves when the phone rang. It was the Assistants...we were expecting a training call for Sister Rice. But they didn't say anything about it...they were just asking us about details for our next p-day because we have something fun planned...well as soon as they hung up, Elder Ferrell called and asked if Sister Rice had gotten a training call...we explained what had just happened and then he said, "Oh wait, I have someone on the other line that has something they need to tell you..." It was the Assistants and they told her that she was going to be training! She is going to be a great trainer!! Friday we got to go to the East because we had to get our oil changed. That was fun to drive around over there again. Then we had a lesson with Sandra. She is so great!! I love her so much. So she is definitely progressing. For our lesson we watched the Restoration movie, and we were a little nervous because of the last time we tried to teach the Restoration and she was very defensive, but she really enjoyed it and had a lot of comments! She told us how she feels so welcome at church and that she thinks she is headed in the right direction!! Then that night we had supper with Sister Sells. She is great and showed us all of the sewing projects she is working on! She is very talented! Saturday was a fun day because we went to the Trainer's Training. That was really fun because we got to see all of the other Sisters that are training. I really thought that Sister Brower would be training...but she isn't. Next transfer. It was a great training and then President Nicholas gave all the Sisters permission to go out to lunch at Peter's. It is a famous Calgary Drive In. It was really good and it was fun to have that experience...especially with all of the Sisters. Well then we went to see the Ivany's one last time before I leave. Sister Ivany is so great and her kids are so cute! They are just so loving! That night our dinner canceled, but the Stanfords called and asked if we could come over. It was great, and we had so much fun with them. That night we had a lesson with Christy. We talked about Agency and Accountability in the FSOY. Sunday was just a normal fast Sunday...except for the fact that I realized it was my last opportunity to bear my testimony. I am so grateful for this opportunity I have had to serve here in Canad!! Well after Sacrament we went to Gospel Principles. Brother Walters was going to teach...since we still have no WML, but he forgot, so we quickly threw something together as we went. Sandra came to church again and this week she wanted to go to Gospel Doctrine. It was great! I have really missed that class. That night we had supper with the Salleh family and then we had a lesson with the Fords. Monday was a crazy day!! We had a zone meeting where we had to go over some zone/mission business. It was less than exciting and then we went to lunch. On our way home we stopped by the office to give them some cookies and some paperwork to Elder Wansgard. Every time we go to the office Sister Rice asks if she has any mail...she often doesn't, but for some reason I do...I am going home soon...so this happened again and I am still getting mail!! It is crazy...I expected that to stop over a month ago. But thanks to Grandma I still am getting letters!! It is just kind of funny. Every time Sister Wansgard gives me a letter, I tell her it is going to be the last one. Well then we went to Sister Sells and vaccumed her house and then we had supper with the Istvanffy's. They are great. Well then I had to start packing...because we are getting a new missionary, I have to give up my bed, dresser, closet, and desk...that means I get to live out of suitcases for the next week! yay me! Well I hope you all had a wonderful week! Have another great week this week!! I sure do love and miss you all!!

 

Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant

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

January 21, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!!! Well this week wasn't too exciting for us...I hope you all had a great week though!! But just like always I will tell you about all of our adventures!! So we begin with Monday...remember how that is p-day and it is supposed to be fun...well we were at the church waiting for all the Elders to get there...we fell asleep in our car for like an hour...and then we finally called some elders...they "forgot" to inform us that nobody was coming...well that was a waste. So we hung out with Laura and played games with her! At least she helped us have fun! Then we met with Kris! It was a great lesson! We taught her about obedience, following the prophet, and the word of wisdom! She has so much faith! So she had done a little bit of research about some of the commandments so the word of wisdom wasn't foreign to her...but she does have some things she will have to give up. But her attitude is that if she knows what we are teaching her is true, and she does, that this is part of the deal! It was a great lesson. We didn't set a firm date for baptism with her, because we don't know when her husband will be worthy to do it...it is probably looking like March or April though...I am just so grateful I have got to be part of her conversion process!! Well after our lesson with them, we had to clean our car for car inspections...that sure was fun in the dark...and in the snow. Tuesday morning we went to the dentist, because Sister Rice thought she had a thousand cavities...but she didn't have a single one. But then we had to hurry and get to DDM's. After that we had car inspections...it was actually a great day to do it because we had a Chinook this week! It was great...actually above zero!! After we went to lunch, we did our studies and went to dinner with the Stanfords. We had to have dinner early because we actually had to teach ESL...so we had to get ready for that and make copies of things. I was terrified to actually be the ESL teacher...but it was so much fun!! We only had 3 students there, but it was a blast. We compared our home countries to Canada. It was fun! Wednesday was not an exciting day...we did a bunch of stop-bys and then went to see Bill...he was drunk out of his mind and was hitting on both of us. We didn't think that was appropriate so we have decided that until he is ready to change, we will let the members of the ward continue to help him...but it just wasn't appropriate for Sisters...It is really sad to see someone like that. Then we went to see Carmen. She had another project for us to do. She asked us to find some scriptures in the Book of Mormon about the Saviours birth...there are lots of them, and she wanted some specific ones...but we found all of them and typed them up for her. She is just so cute! That night we had supper with the Loewer's...our WML in 4th ward. Thursday was weekly planning day and it was also the day that the world started to hate me! When we were on our way to our dinner appt with Sister McGill, I stepped in a giant freezing cold, muddy puddle...but we were already running late and didn't have time to go home...so I was wet and cold the rest of the night. But we had a good evening with Sister McGill. She had a nonmember friend at dinner so that was fun. We taught them the Doctrine of Christ. Then we went to Enrichment night for 4th ward. There we learned all about freezer meals...I learned lots. They had a freezer meal for everyone to sample and then they sent all the left overs with us! These ward love us and take such good care of us! Sister Rice and I have built incredible member trust and we totally have seen lots of success with working with members!! Friday we had a lesson with Sister Jiang and she even gave us a referral...it is one of her Chinese friends that doesn't speak English...but she seems pretty interested. That night we had supper with Sister Baker. She took us out to eat at a restaurant. It was great. It was like a treat...but we also felt like we were in the world and it was a little bit terrifying! That night we also had a lesson with Christy. She is about the same and we taught Dress and Appearance from the FSOY pamphlet. Saturday was a pretty busy day. We tried to find some referrals in the morning. And then we had lunch with Michele and Liam. They just moved here from South Africa and he is a recent convert of just over a year. Just a few weeks ago they went through the temple and were sealed! It was great to spend some time with them. They have some pretty great stories!! Then we had a lesson with Sandra. We taught her about the Sacrament and how it blesses our lives. We went home and had dinner and then had a lesson with Sister Kamenka....this is another time the world hated me...my seatbelt attacked me and I huge headache for the rest of the night...I know there are other evidences that the world hates me from this week...I have just chosen to block them from my memory....but nothing could go right for me...anyways back to Sister Kamenka. We had a lesson with her about the Book of Mormon...and it brought out a few concerns...so we started addressing them and left her with some reading to do for next time! She is great and I just love meeting with her...she is also very intimidating to teach because she studied theology. Sunday was a great day at church! We still have no WML in Richmond ward...so we got to teach gospel principles again...but it was a great lesson and had lots of participation. As for 4th ward...our investigators were supposed to come, but didn't...but Sandra did!!! She came and stayed all 3 hours!! It was great! She is totally progressing! And she took a huge step by coming to church! Then we had supper with the Williams! They are great! They had a stake meeting they had to go to so it was pretty fast. Then we took some things to Sister Mooney before we ran to the Fords to have a lesson with them! Well I hope you all have such a great week!! I challenge you all to pray for missionary experiences and then act on the opportunities you are given!! Have a great week this week!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant Here is a picture of me with the Famous Welcome to Calgary sign...I guess it is about time now that I have almost been here 18 months!

January 14, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!! Well it sounds like you all had a great week!! I bet it is great to have Tanner home! Well we had a pretty good week and I will tell you all about it! So monday was p-day...it was just like normal. But we were combined with the West zone...that meant we got to talk to and see other sisters! But it wasn't all that exciting. We played dodgeball...but I got nailed in the head 2 times...not my idea of fun...not to mention I had a nice headache for the rest of the day. But we had fun just talking with the sisters and catching up with some of the other missionaries there. When we left, we went to our dinner appt. We ate with the Bracko's. I had never met them so it was fun to get to know more people. Tuesday we had ZTM's. Elder Ferrell is a brand new zone leader and had to do the entire training himself...he has had like 3 different companions already this transfer because they all keep getting special transferred...and he is our only ZL right now...his companion is a JC. But it was a great training. Elder Ferrell is a natural leader and is doing a great job. When we were done, we went to lunch and then we stopped by the office and were able to help the sisters there for just a minute. They are so crazy busy in the office with all the new missionaries we are getting! It is an exciting time in our mission! Then we had to stop by a book binding place because Sister Rice's brand new scriptures are falling apart. The man there told her how she could fix them herself...so she saved a bunch of money...and they are just like new. Then we had supper with the Tilleman's. They live in the middle of nowhere and we had a great evening with them. Then we went to ESL...it was so great to be back and see all of our students! They brought some weird food from wherever they are from and of course I had to try it...it was not good....it made me so grateful I came to Canada where they eat normal food! Wednesday was not too exciting of a day. We just did a bunch of stop-bys...but nobody was home so it was kind of a long day. But then we had a lesson with Carmen. She is so cute. She asked us to help her do something I have never done ever in my life....but I guess there is a first for everything. So remember how she wrote a book...well she wants to find some way to get more publicity. So she asked us to help her write a letter to Marie Osmond...apparently she has a new talk show....asking her if she would read her book and talk about it on her show. It was quite the experience...I have never written to a celebrity before. But hey, Carmen wrote to Larry King and he responded...so why not Marie? Then we went to supper with the Goodman's. They have some cute little baby puppies we got to play with and we had fun with them. When we walked out of their house, it was a complete blizzard!!!! So not fun to be a missionary in. We literally couldn't see in front of us and the roads were awful!! By the time we really got anywhere, it was time for us to go home. On Thursday I was actually so grateful it was weekly planning. It snowed all night and all day and we have at least a foot of snow! So needless to say we were grateful to have a reason to be indoors!! Then we had a lesson with Sandra. She is still progressing and tells us more stories of experiences she has had with the Holy Ghost throughout the week. It is pretty incredible. She is so amazing and told us that she just doesn't know what to do. She expressed that she wanted to come to church on Sunday...unfortunately something came up, but she said she would come next week! After that lesson, we had a quick correlation with Bro. Loewer. He wants our help to create a new ward mission plan. Hopefully we will be some help to him. Then we went to the Kearl's for supper. They are such a funny family and we had a evening full of laughs. We were also able to correlate with Sister Kearl about some of the changes that took place in the ward with the boundary changes. She is such a great RS pres! Then we had a lesson with the Ford's. We did a fun object lesson with them about the importance of keeping the commandments and what happens when we stop obeying. They like the fun lessons! That day, they had bought a legit popcorn popper...like the ones at the movies...but smaller....and they asked us to help them assemble it. We did as much as we could before we had to go home. I never thought it would take so much work... Friday we finished up our weekly planning...it took extra long because we had to update all of our maps and lists of everything. But it is all good. Then we met with Sister Jiang. We talked with her about Joseph Smith and the Restoration and the need for it. It was a great lesson. Then we went back to the Ford's house to finish building the popcorn popper...2 hours later we had it done. It would have been so much easier if all the hole were big enough for the screws that came with it. I have to say...I have become pretty handy on my mission. Then we had supper with the Sugden's. They are such a nice family and their kids are so cute! And finally we saw Christy. We taught her about service and how if you expect service, you need to be willing to serve others as well. Hopefully some of the things we teach her are sinking in. Saturday we were able to help Emerald again!! It was great to see her again! But we kind of started back at square one. She has so much stuff and it seems like nothing ever gets put away except for when we are there. I think she feels the spirit when we are there and she would really benefit from the gospel in her life! But it was great to be able to serve her! Then we went to a little party for Dillon. He used to be a ward missionary, but he leaves for his mission in a week to Fiji!!! So his mom put together a big going away party and we were invited. It was great because he had some nonmember friends and family there. He is going to be a great missionary. Then we had supper with Sister Ford...the boys wanted us to test out the new popcorn popper, but they were having too much fun over at their cousins house. But it gave us the opportunity to really talk to Sister Ford and help her feel of Heavenly Father's love for her! We had a great lesson with her. Sunday was church!! It was great and all the changes were in effect. It was a great fast Sunday and the spirit was incredible! Then we had supper with the Morgan's!! That family is so great! So we had a delicious meal full of some of our favorite foods! So since Sister Rice and I both love Mexican food...and you can't get it in Canada...she made some delicious Mexican dishes and then for dessert, she made my favorite cheesecake!! It was so yummy! Mom, I can't believe you didn't think there were Oreo's in Canada...it made me laugh a little bit! Anyways we had a great time with them and they invited us to play a game of spoons with them. It was pretty intense and so much fun!! Then we were back at the Ford's...this time to really test out the popcorn popper. It totally works and we watched the John Tanner story with them. It was a great, but really cold week here in Canada! I hope you all had a great week as well! I am so grateful for the Atonement and for the privilege I have to watch people as they apply it into their lives! It is incredible how much people can change! I love being a missionary!! Have such a great week!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant

January7, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!! Well it seems like just yesterday that I emailed y'all! But we have had a pretty good week! I can't believe that Tanner is on an airplane home right now!! That is just crazy!! It seems like just yesterday that he left! I can't wait to get one of his great hugs when I get home!! Well now I will tell you all about my week! So we begin with Wednesday...well we had our interviews with President Nicholas. It was great! As soon as I sat down he said "So Sister Marchant you only have 6 more weeks here in Canada...how do you feel about that?" It definitely made things seem a lot more real that my time as a missionary is coming to a close...Then he asked me 2 questions as part of my interview...1- What is a strength I have gained since I have been a missionary? and 2- What am I going to do to stay focused on the work? It was a great interview. Then he told me about all the changes that are coming to the mission!! We are going to have 60 sisters in our mission, and some of them will be spanish speaking!! The work is booming!! I am so excited for the change in the way missionary work is done!! The world is definitely prepared for the gospel...and they need it. Well then we emailed and then went to a lesson with Tammy. She is doing great. We had a lesson about being patient and enduring through our trials. That night we had supper with the Mooney's and they invited us to play a game with them....Monopoly deal. It was so much fun! Thursday started off to be a great day, but then 1/2 way through comp study I got so sick. Sister Rice and Sister Nicholas sent me to bed to rest. When I woke up from my nap, most of the day was gone...I really hate being sick. But we had to take that box of stuff to the Williams so their son could take it home to you! I am grateful I don't have to pack all of that stuff home!! I am grateful that members from Canada go to Utah often! We also went to Sister Sells because she asked us to come help her clean her house. We just vacuumed and dusted. We then had supper with Sister Holloran and the Guidi's. It was a bit difficult to understand everyone because all three of them have a different accent. It was definitely an adventure. Then we had a lesson with the Ford's. It was Thursday so we did a 'fun' lesson. We did a fun object lesson that showed how we can become desensitized to sin and the things of the world. They really liked it. Friday we did our weekly planning and then had to go drop some things off at the mission office...that means we also got our mail!! I loved reading the family Christmas card! I read it to the sisters in the office and they thought it was cute! Sister Rice was also honored that she made it onto the family Christmas card!! Then we had a bunch of lessons. We met with Sister Jiang...she is about the same as last week. Then Sandra. She is doing better. This week was a big step for her and she expressed a desire to come to church! We are really excited...she is making progress!! That night we had supper with Sister Thomas and Laura!! I love them so much! After we ate, we shared our message. We based it off of Mosiah 24 and it was totally inspired because just the day before we had arranged for Sister Thomas to get a blessing from the Elders and the things we shared correlated perfectly with the blessing she was given!! I love how Heavenly Father micromanages those things!! Then we had a lesson with Christy from the For the Strength of Youth about Entertainment and Media. Saturday....the illness came. As soon as we were done with our studies, I was SO sick! I lost all my strength and lets just say I spent a lot of time in the washroom! It was not fun! Whatever is going around finally caught up to me...and being sick as a missionary is not fun! You feel so useless!! But Sister Nicholas told us we needed to stay in. Well I didn't want to sleep, so we settled for watching all of our church movies...it was a very very boring day! We did go to our dinner appt with the Loewer's and that was great food! She made homemade Cafe Rio! They are both really missionary minded so it was great! Then we went to the adult session of stake conference. I am sure it was great, but I couldn't concentrate...but when it was all over, I asked the Elders to give me a blessing! I am really grateful for the priesthood power! The blessing I was given by Elder Ferrell was very inspired! Sunday I was feeling a little bit better and we went to stake conference. We had lots of changes!! All of the ward boundaries changed and a lot of the Stake auxillaries did as well. A new counselor in the stake presidency was called as well...actually it was Brother Williams...Blake's dad. I think the changes are going to be great! We lost 2 neighborhoods in Richmond ward and they will be missed, and then a chunk of 4th ward was moved into Richmond ward. It will be exciting! We also got new bishoprics in both wards and I am really excited! When we got home, we did our studies and updated all of our area maps because our area was very affected by the change. Then we had a lesson with the Ford's that night!It was all about recognizing the promptings of the spirit! It went pretty well! Well I am sad I won't be there to greet Tanner!! Give him a great big hug for me!! I hope it gets warmer there! We have had a chinook for the last few days, but the cold is on its way back here in Canada!! I hope you all have a great week!! I love and miss you tons!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

January 2, 2013

Hey Family and Friends!!! Well this week has been pretty exciting...I think. Well I guess we will find out as I tell you all about it! So we will start with Thurs...because of all the weird p-days and library closures, our weeks are all off...but anyways that was the last day that I emailed and then we had our weekly planning. That was pretty uneventful though because we don't really have any investigators to plan for because they are all out of town...but hopefully that is going to change with the beginning of the New Year! As part of our planning, we went to the church to make a bunch of copies of ward lists and maps so we could get our planners ready and functional for the new transfer. That evening we had supper with the Terner's. They are nice, but were getting over a cold/flu...that is not fun. I think most people in Canada are sick right now. Then we went to see Sister Ford. It was just her because the boys were visiting their dad for a few days during the holiday. She is pretty great and it was fun to be able to talk to her! Friday felt like a super long day...but it shouldn't have because we were really busy. So first we started off by having a lesson with Sister Jiang. She is so cute. We had a lesson about the importance of setting goals and she had a lot of great insights. After that lesson, we had a lesson with Sandra. She is still progressing, but this week she was having a hard time. Mostly because it is the first Christmas she hasn't spent with her family and she is uneasy about what the New Year holds. We are still trying to just keep our lessons pretty basic so it's not like we are trying to force our beliefs on her. We think it is better to establish some common ground. So we had a lesson about the Articles of Faith...what they are, why we have them, and why they are important. It went pretty well. Then we had supper with Sister Shideler. She usually gives us money to go out, but this time we had dinner at her house and it was pretty great. She is a super nice lady! Then we had a lesson with Christy. We were able to help her set up a few things she got for Christmas and then we had a lesson. This time we decided to pick the topic of the lesson. We chose Friends out of the For the Strength of Youth. It ended up being a great lesson. Saturday was another longish day...but we had lots of open time so we were able to deliver all the rest of our less active treats....even to the people that live out in the middle of nowhere. It is kind of nice to do it on a Saturday during the holidays because lots of people were home!! Anyways then we went to see Carmen. She is still doing great. This time she had a project for us! She gave us her Bible with all her favorite scriptures marked with sticky notes. She wanted us to type the reference and the scripture of all of them. That way she can have them all in one place. It was pretty fun. Carmen was extra giggly today too. Then we had one last dinner with the Mandarin Elders...it was actually pretty fun having them eat with us in the month of December. They have kind of become like our brothers...they just follow us around places. It has been a good month. Anyways we ate with Sister Sells. She is a single lady and super nice. She also made some really yummy food. When we were done with dinner, our District Leader called us and told us he had mail for us...so we met them and got some mail. Getting mail is always a good part of our day! Sunday was a GREAT day!! Well to start things off, we had lots of hours of church...and that is always good! We found out that next week we are having stake conference and that they are going to change all of the ward boundaries. It will be pretty exciting. Well after church, we had supper with Sister Larsen. She also invited her son and his family over...not going to lie it helped make things not awkward. We had to basically eat and run because we had to go to the EAST STAKE!!!! Why you ask? Well Amanda got baptized!!! And she asked me to speak on Baptism!!! Amanda is the girl who couldn't get baptized because her parents wouldn't let her... Anyways we were given permission to go! It was an incredible baptism and the spirit there was incredible. I was so honored that she asked me to speak! Not only was it great to be there to witness her baptism and be part of that, but it was so great to see a lot of the people I love from Chestermere!! As we were driving there, it felt like I was going home. It was a great evening! Monday was another great day! We started out with DDM's and for the first time in a long time, they were actually really good and I learned a lot of things. Well instead of going to lunch with the Elders, we decided to go to another baptism...with permission of course. Whose?? Aurora Clark!! Do you remember them from Queensland/Parkland?? Well it was also great! It was exactly 1 year from the day her dad, Ryan was baptized! It was great to be there, and to see all those people that I love!! On our way back to our area, we were stopped at the mission office because we needed windshield wiper fluid....they always have everything...so they filled us up! Then we went to our New Years Eve party...it was at the Palmers. It was lots of fun...even though we had to leave before it even started...it didn't start until 7, but we had to be in at 6. But we still had fun and were able to eat some yummy food. We were still able to get together with the other Elders at the church. We had fun because we got a new game...phase 10. So we had fun playing that and just laughing. When Sister Rice and I got home, we kept playing phase 10 for a little bit and then we celebrated the New Year at 10:30 and went to bed...it was probably one of the most boring New Years I have had ever...but it is great to be a missionary...so I guess that is ok. Tuesday was p-day and it was one of the best p-days in a long time. We had lots of time to just do whatever we wanted since the library was closed...and basically everything else too. But the mall was open...so we went shopping...well mostly looking. It was fun, but it just reminded me how much I am not going to fit into the real world...it is going to be extremely wierd. Anyways it was just lots of fun...probably because we were laughing for most of the day. Then we went to the church and played games with the Elders...and wrote some letters too. When p-day was all over, we had supper with Sister Rhodes. She is single, but her parents are living with her for right now...they are waiting for their visa to India...they are going on a mission there. The funny thing is that I know them from Chestermere. So it was a great evening. Then we went to see Sister Thomas and just talked with her for a little bit! I love her and I am so grateful she is my friend. I am glad she trusts us and thinks of us as friends...and not just missionaries!! Guess what I finished my goal of reading the entire Bible by the end of the year!! It was great and I learned so much! I am so grateful for the scriptures and the things they teach us!! We can learn new things every time we read from their pages!! Well I hope you all had a great week!! And you are all having a happy New Year!! I still can't believe it is already 2013!! Well I sure do love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

December 27

Hey Family and Friends!!! Merry Christmas!! Did you all have a great day?? I sure did!! It was such a great Christmas!! Well we also had a very eventful week leading up to Christmas so I will tell you all about it!! Well we will start on Tuesday before Christmas...it was our p-day because it was transfers! After we did our personal study, we went to the mission office to pick up Sister Hayes. She was our companion for a day!! Sister Stockwell went home so she was companionless...it was lots of fun to have her with us. Both Sister Rice and I have served with her so it was a blast! We just did all of our normal p-day stuff and we had fun. It was also nice to have another sister at p-day! When p-day was all over, we had supper with the Reil family and that was an event. They have 5 kids and then there were 5 missionaries...because the mandarin elders have been eating with us all month...so there were a lot of us! Then we went to ESL. It was lots of fun. There were lots of Christmas treats and we played some fun games to help the students learn some Christmas carols! It was a great day. Wednesday was transfers and we got to go because we had Sister Hayes with us. Her companion is now Sister Sagers, but she was coming up from Lethbridge so she didn't get here until about 4...so we had Sister Hayes for extra long. So when we got back to our area, we studied and then had a lesson with Tammy. Then it was time to take Sister Hayes back to transfers. Then we had supper with the Higham's. They are so great! Then we had a really fun night! The Stanford's invited us to go to the Cannery with them. I have lived in Utah all of my life and have never been to a Cannery. It was so fun!! We canned lots of things and then we cleaned everything up! It was also fun because the service missionaries that were working there, are the Hornberger's. They are Ryan's...the stantion man from the temple....parents. He is still doing great! Completely active and still dating the girl he was at the temple with! It is so great to hear good news like that! Thursday was our weekly planning day, and it was fun. Since our investigators are out of town, we didn't have much to plan for. But then we had to take a trip to the mission office because Sister Hayes left some important things at our apartment so we mission mailed them to her. Then we had supper with the Young's. They are a really nice older couple and they also invited the Mark family over for supper too. Then we went to the Nativity with Sister Thomas and her daughter Laura!! It was lots of fun! We picked the perfect night to go because it was the last semi warm day...and there was nobody there so we were basically able to walk right into it and didn't have to stand in line. It was great! We had lots of fun with them. After that night we were in -30C weather and it has been freezing cold!! Friday we needed to gather a few things so we could make some presents for the people we spent Christmas Eve and Christmas with. After we had lunch, we helped Sister Hobbs for a little bit. She is doing well and we cleaned her house all up so it would be good and clean for Christmas. Then we had a lesson with Sandra. She is doing better and better every week. She is definitely making progress!! That is the best part! To watch people progress! Then we had supper with the Fleck's. Their kids were cute and really excited for Christmas! When we were done there, we went to the Ford's to help them put up some Christmas decorations for the holiday season. We were also grateful that we survived the end of the world! Saturday we had breakfast with the Ivany's and then we went to Jennie's to do some last minute Christmas preparations for her! Then we met the Elders at the church so we could give them their Christmas presents. My favorite was Elder Ferrell's face when he kept pulling out the chain of his mission!!! It was priceless! Then we had the Richmond ward Christmas party! We were on crowd control with Santa....he even let us sit on his lap! Sunday was a great Christmas church service with all the great music. Then after church, we had supper with the Hyde's. They let us come over at the last minute because our original dinner appt canceled at church. So that was really nice of them. When we were done there, we went to the Ford's and had a quick little lesson with them. Then it was finally Christmas Eve!!! We had a great day! First we had our DDM and then went to lunch with the Elders...we also brought Laura along with us! It was lots of fun. Then our Christmas celebrations started! We went to the Ford's and we played a bunch of games with them. It was lots of fun. Then a little bit later, we went to their big family gathering. There was lots of yummy food. Then we had to be in by 6:00 so our entire zone got together and just played games. We really only have UNO...but that got old after awhile, so we figured out how to play Scum with UNO cards. That was lots more fun. Then it was time for us to turn into pumpkins...so when we got home, we cleaned up our apt so it would be clean for Christmas and then we watched 'Mr. Kruger's Christmas' and went to bed. We decided to sleep on our couches out by our Chrismas tree. Then comes CHRISTMAS!!!! It was such a great day!! We woke up at our usual time and opened all our presents. It was lots of fun. Then we got ready to go for the day. We started our Christmas morning with the Gossling family. They have the missionaries over every year and their children aren't allowed to come out of their rooms until the missionaries get there. It was fun to watch them all open their presents. When they got to come down we all opened our stockings....because Santa found us there too!! Then we had a delicious southern Christmas breakfast. It sure was yummy. Then we all sang some Christmas carols together. Then it was the time I had been waiting for!!! We got to SKYPE!! It was so much better than I even imagined it would be! It was so great to see everyone and talk to you all!! It was just AMAZING and the best Christmas present ever! Then we had lunch with the Istvanffy family. We spent a few hours there and while we were there, we played the deluxe edition of Settlers of Catan. It was pretty cool because everything on the board and all the pieces were all 3-D...not to brag or anything, but I won. Then we ran to the Ford's so we could skype again for a few minutes with the rest of the family. Then we had supper with Sister Tagudar. We had a Filipino dinner. It was interesting...but pretty good. Then on our way home, we stopped by to see Sister Holloran. She is a single lady and asked us to stop by. She is so sweet and it was good to spend a little time with her. Needless to say Christmas was such a great, but exhausting day!!! Then Wednesday we had p-day. It was another tender mercy that it was on Boxing Day...as close as I can get to Black Friday...but it just isn't the same since we can't leave our apt until 10...but we were brave and went to Chinook Mall. It is one of the busiest malls in Canada...it took us over 30 min just to find a parking spot. We didn't buy anyhing because things are still cheaper in the states...and I don't want to pack it all home. Then we just went to the church and played games. We figured out how to play Nertz with UNO cards too...it was a little bit confusing, but it worked. It is amazing what you can do with a deck of UNO cards. Then we had supper with the Salleh family. When we were done there, we decided to deliver some of the LA treats for the ward. IT WAS FREEZING COLD!!! But we somehow made it through the end of the night! I hope you all had a great Christmas!! It is such a wonderful time of the year to celebrate the birth of our Saviour!! I am so grateful for all He has done for me! I hope you all have a great week!! I love and miss you all!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant 1- The Nativity 2- The Elders and the Christmas presents 3- Christmas Eve 4- Christmas at the Gosslings 1- Our Christmas stockings 2- Our fun crowns from our Christmas crackers 3- Fun at the Cannery 4- More fun at the Cannery...don't we look attractive...

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

December 10, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Wow! What a week! It was a pretty good one. Are you ready to hear all about it? Get ready because here come all the details of my life in the Great White North this week! Monday was pday! Great day...but we had no car! Luckily the night before when we were talking about how we were going to do everything we needed to do, a sister that just returned from her mission to Vegas texted us and asked us if she could help us out by taking us to all the places we needed to go! It is crazy how the Lord works! So Anne picked us up from our apartment and dropped us off at the library so we could email you wonderful people. When we were done, she came and picked us up and took us shopping and then she dropped us off at the church where the Elders were. When we got there, we found out our zone won the car inspection awards again so we got another pizza party! That came in really handy! We basically chilled at the church all day since we were basically stranded there with all of our groceries...We got a hold of the family we were having supper with and explained the situation and Sister Balls offered to come and pick us up! She is so nice! So we went back to their house and had supper and then they took us to the ward Christmas Party with them. It was a ward Family Home Evening. There was a bunch of Christmas Carols and then a little message from the bishop and treats! It was great! Guess who even came!! Sandra! It was great to see her there! She said she really enjoyed the evening! We also found out that she knows Sister Balls from about 30 years ago! It was a great connection that was made!When the party was over, the Balls dropped us off at our apartment. The whole not having a car thing made Sister Rice and I want to learn how to ride a public bus...I can't say that I have ever ridden one in my entire life, and it could have solved a lot of our problems, but we have no idea how to use public transportation! Well Tuesday we were waiting all morning for a call from Elder Lawlor telling us our car was finished! The call finally came at about 11:30!! Sister Morgan had offered to take us to get it when it was done, so we called her and she came and picked us up and took us to get our car from the autobody shop!! It was such a miracle! I have never been so grateful for a car in my entire life! We are very lucky to live in this time where we have these modern conveniences!! By the time we got our car, we went to meet the Elders for lunch...since it was our District Meeting day. After lunch, we had our District Meeting. It waw wierd to have it in the afternoon. But when it was all over, we had to take some paperwork from our car to the office and drop a few other things off. While we were there, we got some mail!! I got the letters you wrote to me! They made my day! I also got my 'trunky papers'....it made my departure date real now that I have all my flight itineraries and all the other paperwork they gave to me! It was crazy!! Have I mentioned that the Elders call me everyday to tell me how many days I have left...it is REALLY annoying! Whenever they tell me I always say "Well guess what Elders, if I really wanted to, I could go on a date on Valentines." They don't like that! Well then we headed to dinner with the Loewer Sr. family and after that, we went to ESL! We had a big crowd there which was great! Wednesday we started out by doing service at Jennie's. We also brought some Elders with us because she wanted us to put some lights on all her trees and such. So we did that and then she had one of those blow up Santa things...guess where she wanted it...on the roof!! It was pretty hilarious watching the Elders put it up there. But at least Santa made it. When we were done there, we grabbed some lunch and then had a lesson with Tammy. Her mom was there so we got to meet her and she was really nice, but apparantly she isn't supportive of Tammy joining the church at all! Then we went to see Carmen. She is still doing good! She has a friend that wrote a book and it is too long so she asked us to talk to her and tell her the things wee did to cut pages out of Carmen's book. Hopefully it will help her. Then we had supper with Sister McGill. She is a sweet little singe sister and she invited another family over for supper as well. It was a great evening. There was lots of laughing involved! When we were done and on our way home for the night, we got a text from Jennie telling us the lights we put up were 2 different colors....of course we drove by to see what she was talking about!! It was hilarious! Basically everything we had done needed to be changed! But I think we have learned that is usually the case when we do things at Jennie's house. Thursday was weekly planning! Sister Rice and I finally finished one in one day! That is a miracle! As soon as we were done, we went to help Sister Hobbs. We had a great visit with her and then we cleaned the bathrooms and vaccummed and mopped the floors. Things were looking pretty sparkly by the time we were done! Then we had supper with the Kearls. She is the RS pres and her husband is LA, but her kids are great! We had a great evening with them and while we were waiting for the dessert to cook, we started playing a game of Monopoly with them! It was lots of fun. Then we had a lesson with the Fords. Daniel was out of town at a swim meet with his dad, so it was just Sister Ford and Lorenzo! I just love that family! Friday was a super long day...but it was so busy so I don't know why it seemed that way! First thing that morning we went to visit Bill. He was not in a good place. He is really bitter towards the church right now and all he did was tell us about all the things he thought were negative about the church. We don't really know how to help him. We do know that he needs to stop drinking!! Then we had a lesson with Sister Jiang. She is just a cute little chinese lady as always! She always makes you smile! Then we went to visit Sandra! The lesson started off really great. We were teaching the Restoration, but somewhere along the way her mood shifted...and she had another breakdown...I don't know what we did. Neither does Sister Rice. We were talking about it afterwards and decided that maybe it is because she is feeling the Spirit and knows she needs to change, but she doesn't want to. Anyways then we went to a really neat service opportunity...it was out of our zone, but we are the closest sisters so we got to go. It is at a Women's Shelter. The lady we are helping is Emerald. She is so sweet and really needs the gospel! She as an adorable 6 yr old son as well. We are helping her because her apartment is a disaster and she has so much stuff. So basically we are organizing things and dejunking her tiny little apartment. It is a great service!! And we hope that it is also a good missionary opportunity! She is great and the gospel would totally help her! Later that evening we had a lesson with Christy. We decided to keep reading the For the Strength of Youth pamphlet with her. We decided to let her choose the topic...she picked Sexual purity...you can imagine how fun that lesson was... Saturday we started our day back at the women's shelter helping Emerald. She is so sweet. We had some good conversation with her about religion. She basically described the Apostasy and the Great and Abominable church to us! She is just great! Then we met the Elders at Jennie's so we could get the lights all fixed...we basically started from square one! Well then we had to run to our dinner appt. We ate with Sister Thomas. She also invited the Assistants over because Elder Trone goes home next week....and they are the missionaries that have been helping her daughter. It was a great time with all of those people! We shared lots of laughs! Well then we had a lesson with Sister Kamenka. She had a question about the parable of the prodical son...guess what I had studied that morning...exactly that. So we had a great discussion about that! The more I meet with her the more I just love her! Sunday was such an exciting day!! We were up bright and early for ward council and then we had church for most of the day. But when church was over, we had a lesson with the Sackley/Schaffer family!! It went so well!! We taught them Lesson 3 which is the Gospel of Jesus Christ! They loved it! And then when we invited Kris to be baptized she said that is was something that she wanted to do and she didn't see why it wasn't the right thing to do. She told us she had been thinking about it. So we suggested that we pick a day for her to work towards...we extended Jan 26...and that date is significant in their family in some way...so that was kind of neat. Then she told us she wanted Ken, her husband, to baptize her. Well he isn't worthy at this exact moment, but he asked us how he can get in touch with the bishop so he can start making the necessary changes in his life! The power of the Atonement is real!! I am so grateful for it! It is incredible to watch the change in people as they accept the Savior and His atonement into their lives!! When we left we were on such a spiritual high...and yes maybe Sister Rice and I did a little victory dance in the driveway on the way to the car!! Then we went to supper with the Summers-gill family. They were super nice. After that we went to the Stake Choir festival and it was so great to hear all the beautiful Christmas music. It really put me more into the Christmas spirit! And then we had a quick lesson with the Fords! Well that was my very eventful week! But this week is looking even busier!! I hope you all have a fabulous week! Remember that I love and miss you all!! Only 15 more days til Christmas!!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant!!

December 3, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Oh my goodness! I don't even know where to begin with all the things that happened this week. It sure was an eventful one! Are you ready to hear all about it? Because it was kind of a gongshow, but it was great!! Well Monday was p-day. It wasn't too eventful. And nothing too exciting happened. We of course went to the office to visit the Sisters there! They made me so happy because now Grandma Wayment is doing exactly what they are doing!! It was fun. Then we just went to the church and hung out with the Elders. Ya our p-day was kind of lame. We watched them play basketball for awhile and wrote a few letters before we played UNO. Sister Rice was so excited to play...she lost 2 times, so she had to go to the wall. But lets be honest the Elders are too afraid to hit a sister with a soccer ball, so it wasn't that bad. Then we had supper with the Gough family. They are nice and we had a great evening with them. Tuesday began with our DDM that was a complete and total gongshow. The Elders were crazy and they were totally on one all day long. Well after we tried to learn something from the meeting, we all went to lunch and then we all headed to Jennie's house. She needed us to install some door stopper things on some doors and do a bunch of other random things. We cleaned up her basement and got everything put away. She was very grateful for all the help, so she gave the Elders a bunch of food, she gave us some really nice blakets and some lotion and shampoo and conditioner. She is great! She is so kind and her family just doesn't appreciate her. But I am grateful we get to help her. Well when we got home from Jennie's house, we went home and assembled LA treats so we could deliver them for the month of November since the month is basically over. Well then we had supper with the Stanford family. And then headed to ESL. It wasn't that eventful of a day...the good stuff is still coming. Wednesday was the offical beginning of winter in Canada I think. It was freezing cold and we got a bunch of snow! Of course it was the day we spent a lot of time outside! First thing Jennie asked us to come and fix something the Elders did wrong and do a few other quick things, but then we had the majority of our day to deliver the LA treats we had put together. We got so many of them done. And then we had a quick visit with Carmen. She is so cute! She had some questions about the Book of Mormon! It was adorable because she asks us to type up the answers and then print it off and put it in a sheet protector. She is just adorable. When we were out delivering treats again that afternoon, Jennie called us and asked us to come help her build a new desk for her son. We got it done and did a few other things for her before all her family got home. Then we had supper with the Highams!! It was great as always! I love the people here in this area! Then we delivered more LA treats! It was great and we got a lot done! Thursday was a great day, but it was also the beginning of the eventful weekend! Well do you remember how our car got keyed while we were at the temple? Well guess what, they picked the coldest, snowiest week to fix it!! So first thing in the morning we had to take our car to the shop. Then the sisters that are serving in Queensland/Parkland came and picked us up and took us back to our area for Mission Tour! It was great! Elder David Evans of the Seventy was there with his sweet wife. The first thing he wanted to do when he got there was shake all of our hands! It was such a great training/meeting! I learned so much and the spirit that was there was just incredible! Well the other great thing was that all the missionaries in Calgary were there...so that meant lots of Sisters...and also Bro and Sister Palmer were there!! It was such a great day! Then when it was all over, the Sisters took us to our dinner appt with the Remillards. It was great and we were all set to walk home, but she found out we didn't have a car and didn't want us to. We didn't want to ask her for a ride because she has 5 little kids under 9 yrs old and her husband was with the youth on their temple trip...but she was so nice and gave us a ride home and then we just studied. On Friday we prayed SO hard that our car would be fixed, but it wasn't. Luckily it was weekly planning all day and then we started calling people to give us a ride to places. The thing about our area is that it is so huge and it just isn't feasible to walk to lots of places. Well I thought we should call Sister Thomas...even though she was supposed to be at work...well she wasn't and she was able to take us to our lesson with Christy. We gave her a For the Strength of Youth pamphlet and then talked about the standards of the church. Then Sister Thomas picked us up and took us to our dinner appt with the Loewers...the ones that just moved in! They were great and their kids were adorable all night long! Then she took us to the RS activity. We were a little bit late and we were worried because we were supposed to sing, but we got there during the song right before ours. It turned out great! I have never been so grateful for a car until Saturday. I didn't know how we were going to survive! But we did. It was freezing cold and we had a lot going on...well kinda. We had to cancel one appt because we couldn't find a ride...luckily it also didn't work out for them and they were going to have to cancel anyways. Well we were supposed to go to a baptism later that day and Sister Rice was supposed to play the piano. Sister Walters...it was her sons baptism...called and confirmed some songs and they weren't the same ones, so we needed some time to practice...what option did we have...we walked to our church! It is about 2.5 km away and it took us about 30 min. We were all bundled up and our hair was frozen, but we made it. When we got there, the Johnson family was there cleaning the church and they offered to take us to the 17th Ave chapel...that is where the baptism was going to be. So we went there and Sister Rice was able to practice and we had some extra study time. Then we had the baptism of Brady Walters. It was great and Sister Rice did a great job at playing the piano. Then Sister Nicholson drove us home to our apartment. And we were home just in time for Sister Penner to come pick us up for supper. We had a quick supper with her and then we helped her wrap a bunch of Christmas presents and do a few other things because she is leaving for France next week and will be gone for 1 month. It was great and then she took us home. I hate asking people to give us rides to places...it makes us feel like we are so inconvenient!! Sunday was another busy day. We got a ride to church from the Fleck's and then we had a great day there. We taught gospel principles in Richmond ward and it went really great. Then when church was over, Sister Morgan came and picked us up and took us to her home for supper. She is great and we got to help them set up their Christmas tree. Then she took us to the Stake Center for the Christmas Devotional. It was a great devotional!! I love listening to the prophet! We got a ride from the Archibalds to the Ford's house and after we had a lesson with the, Sister Ford took us home. I really hope we get our car back soon!! It is crazy how much we rely on those things!! Well that was our eventful week! I am so happy it is December! The countdown for Christmas is on!!! Well I hope you all have a great week!! I love you and miss you all so much!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant Here are some pictures... 1- where our car should be parked, but its not...hence the sad face 2- our successful walk to the church...notice the white frozen hair!

November 26, 2012

Hey Family and Friends!! Oh man what a week!! I hope you all had a fabulous week!! Did you all have a great Thanksgiving? Well I can't wait to tell you all about our week...it wasn't very exciting, but it was still great!! Sister Rice and I are still amazed everyday that we are companions and we love it! She came to the field just one transfer after me! So we are basically in the same stage of our missions! So Monday was our p-day and we had so much fun. Guess what we did! We went to Bragg Creek again! It was really beautiful, but it was really windy and cold...Sister Rice and I were definitely not prepared to be in the wilderness...but we had lots of fun! We went with all the Elders and the Schnells. They are in our ward and they took us all up there. They showed us a little hike that went to some waterfalls and then they brought all the things needed to have a fire and roast some hotdogs! It was so much fun. When we were done there/tired of being cold, we all went back to the church and played missionary style UNO. It was pretty intense. Then we went to the Fleck's home and had supper. Their cute kids kept us entertained all night long. It was such a great p-day! Well Tuesday was a pretty boring day. We started off at Jennie's house. She is so stressed out because her husband, son, and new daughter-in-law are all coming from India this week. So we did lots of service there this week! So on Tues, we moved a bunch of furniture around...well the Elders did most of the heavy lifting and we set up some new tvs for her. When we were done there, Sister Rice was so sick. So we went home and she slept so that she could feel better. Well while she slept, I got caught up on a whole bunch of things. It was kind of great. When she woke up, she was feeling a little bit better, so we went and did some missionary work. We contacted some referrals and then we had supper with the Sugden family. They just moved here from Vancouver and they are super nice. Their cute little kids are a bit rambunctious, but it was fun. And on our way home, we stopped by ESL. We are starting to lose some of our students to work, so we need to find more people to come! Wednesday was a day just like Tuesday. We went to Jennies and did some service. This time we put together a dresser from IKEA. It only took us like 3 hours...but we finally did it!! Sister Rice was still sick that day, so we went home so she could get better. I again studied and did a bunch of stuff around our apartment. I got caught up on lots of things! Like I said, I hope you had a great Thanksgiving! I had a pretty good day! So first we did our weekly planning...that was kind of a gongshow. During our lunch, we set up our cute, humble, crooked Christmas tree. It is about 4 ft so we put it on a table to make it a little bit taller. So then we went to Jennies again and we were put in charge of setting up all her Christmas decorations. It was lot of fun...but one thing I learned...I stink at putting the lights on the tree!! I just can't do it and make it look good. Therefore I am all about pre-lit trees! Putting up all her Christmas decorations really made me get into the Christmas spirit! When we were done helping Jennie, we had a correlation with Bro Loewer. He is a great WML and is so on top of things! And then we had supper with the Merrill's. They fixed us an American Thanksgiving dinner!! It was so nice of them. They have a soon Reed, who is going to the same mission as Grandma! He was supposed to leave in Oct, but he has to wait for his visa...Canadians have a really hard time getting visas for the States. But I told him to look for Grandma!! Friday I was thinking about you all day! I was thinking about how much I LOVE black Friday!! I am so sad I missed it, but I will totes be there next year!! Well anyways we started our day once again at Jennie's house and we finished decorating her gigantic house with Christmas decorations! Then we had a lesson with Sandra. She is LA, but doesn't think she is a member. We were talking about the church and she had a little bit of a breakdown...it was kind of a breakthrough though. She wants to try to come back to church and try it again, but she doesn't want to leave 'her' church. So we will keep working with her! We also met with Sister Jiang that afternoon. She is doing great! She is so sweet and just wants to learn as much as she can! Then we had supper with the Ingoldsby's. They are an older couple, but they are super nice and they made us yummy mexican food! Sister Rice and I have had so much Mexican food since we have been together! It has been great!! Then we met with Christy that evening! Sister Thomas came with us. She really helped us out. She is so stellar because she realizes that Christy needs more contact than just the missionaries! She has really taken Christy under her wing and I am so grateful for her! Well Saturday was a really busy day as well. We began our day teaching the Sackley/Schaffer family. They are doing great! We moved our lesson, because Sunday was the Gray Cup...which is basically the Canadian Super Bowl. Anyways we taught them the Plan of Salvation and they loved it!! Kris especially is really excited to learn what she needs to do to make it to the Celestial Kingdom! We are just having a hard time helping them understand the importance of the Sabbath Day and coming to church. But they are still just so prepared! Well then we went to Jennie's....again. So remember a few weeks ago when the Elders moved that massive dresser down the spiral staircase....well today they had to move it back up the stairs, because the son that is moving down to that room got home and said he didn't like it there. I feel so bad for Jennie!! I just really want her to be happy! She tries so hard to please everyone around her, but they don't appreciate it. The Elders gave her a blessing and it was really neat! She wants to join the church, but her family would never allow it. Hopefully someday their hearts will be softened! Then we went to see Carmen!! Guess what! She has 500 copies of her book!! She signed one and gave it to me! I am so honored that I was able to help her with it! She is just so incredible and so positive all the time! She is a great example! Well then we had supper with the Istvanffy family. They invited a LA/PM family over for dinner as well, so we had a little FHE with them. It was great. The family doesn't live in our area, but the wife is the member and she is coming back into the church. It was a great experience! And then last but not least we visited with Sister Kamenka. She has had such an incredible life. She told us lots of stories. She also told us about her conversion to the church and so we talked about the importance of being converted to the doctrine of christ. She is doing well and she even came to church on Sunday!! Well Sunday was a great day as usual. We started our day off early at ward council. But it was great because the wards are so great and ready to help us in any way that they can! So then we had church. It was a great service in both wards. In Richmond ward it was the primary program and it was so cute. The little kids were just adorable to watch. After church, we had correlation with Bro Kneeland and the ward missionaries! Things went well there. Then we had supper with the Archibalds. So they had invited a potential investigator and her son over for supper as well, but they got sick and weren't able to come. They are so sweet though. They came to church a few weeks ago and seem really interested! We are excited to start teaching them soon! And then when we were done there, we went to see the Ford's. We had a great lesson with them on receiving answers to prayers. We had a fun little object lesson. Well that was my great week as a missionary! I hope you all had a great week! Take some time this week to start thinking about what gifts you can give the Savior this Christmas!! I am so grateful for our Savior and for all He has done for me! I am excited for the Christmas season and the celebration of His birth. The church has a great website dedicated to Him this season! Check it out!! mormon.org/Christmas! Well I sure do love and miss you all! Have a great week!! Love, Sister Kaitlyn Marchant!! Here are a few pictures! Bragg Creek, putting together the dresser, and our fun little Christmas tree!