A small world full of miracles

The latest news from Katelyn is that she is "doing more of the same".  You might not think that "doing more of the same" is big news, but in Katelyn's case, it is.  What I mean by doing more of the same is that every week Katelyn writes home and tells us all about the miracles that have been happening to her and her companion.  Katelyn's emails from the last few weeks have been "more of the same".  In other words, more miracles!  Without going into too much detail, this is what I mean.

Recently, Katelyn and her companion went to go visit with and older couple in their Ward but there was one problem.  They had forgotten to bring their appointment book and they weren't exactly sure what the apartment number was.  Katelyn thought that she knew what the correct number was so they knocked on the door of that apartment.  Then just before the person who lived there answered the door, Katelyn commented to her companion, "wouldn't it be funny if we got the wrong apartment".  Guess what?  A person who Katelyn had never seen before answered the door.  It was the wrong apartment.  Then the next thing that Katelyn knows, her companion starts talking with the apartment owner and it turned out to be a former investigator that they had lost track of.  Then suddenly the apartment door across the hall opens and it is the older couple that Katelyn and her companion had originally come to see.  So how is that for a miracle.  Katelyn and her companion were able to reconnect with a former investigator and set up a new appointment who just happened to live across the hall from members of their Ward.  It sounds to me like a miracle.  What do you think?

But the miracles don't stop there.  Katelyn and her companion were out street contacting one day.  Before they got out of their car to start tracting, Katelyn's companion said a prayer and asked Heavenly Father direct them to someone who would really be interested and be the one to ask them questions instead of the missionaries asking all of the questions.  Within about 10 minutes after leaving their car, they were walking through a neighborhood and stopped to look at an interesting sprinkler in the yard of a house.  Just then someone walked around from the back yard and Katelyn commented to the person that she liked the sprinkler.  Most of the time the person would have just said thanks and everybody would have moved on.  But this time the person walked over and started asking Katelyn and her companion who they were and what they were doing. So of course they started to explain to the home owner who they were and what they were doing there.  They shared some scriptures from the Book of Mormon and immediately the home owner was interested.  In fact they were so interested that they invited the Sister Missionaries back so that the missionaries could talk to some of the home owners family and friends.  Katelyn commented to us that usually it is hard to find someone that would even talk to them let alone start asking them questions and invite them back to teach them more.  Another miracle?  I'm thinking so.

 If you think that the miracles stopped there, you would be wrong.  Not too long after that Katelyn and her companion were going to talk to some other people that they had recently met.  When they got there, there was a little girl that they didn't know, sitting on the front porch.  The Sisters asked the little girl if her mother was home.  When the mother (who they also didn't know) walked out, it turned out that she was visiting family from a different city and was actually a member of the church.  As they all started to talk, some of the other family member came out and sat on the porch with them as the woman who was visiting started bearing her testimony to her other family members.  Katelyn and her companion spent about 45 minutes sitting on the porch talking, teaching and listening.  Then just before they were about to ask if they could come back another time to teach them more, the lady who was visiting beat them to the punch and set up an appointment for them to come back.  There you go.  More of the same, miracles upon miracles.

Transfer time again in Katelyn's mission and the big news is that Katelyn will be staying in River Valley.  But, she will be getting a new companion.  I commented to Katelyn in an email that she seems to be going through companions like crazy.  It seems that every transfer lately, Katelyn is either moving to an area with a new companion or a new companion is moving to her area.  Well, this time it is the latter.  Katelyn is coming up on her six month mark as a Sister Training Leader.  She has told us that sisters in her mission usually only serve as an STL for six months.  This probably means that Katelyn will be getting at least one more new companion before she is done with her mission.

In Katelyn's most recent email she talked about a family in their Ward named the Lows'.  Katelyn said that they are an incredible family that has been through a lot in the past year.  To start out with, about a year or so ago Sister Low found out that she was pregnant with triplets.  That was the good news.  Then shortly after the triplets were born, they found out that each of the babies had a rare form of cancer in one of each of their eyes.  This meant that they would need to go to Toronto for treatment that ranged from a specialized laser surgery to localized chemo-therapy.  That was obviously the bad news.  But rather than try to tell the whole story here, you can find out more about them in a news story that appeared in the Deseret News, Faith carries LDS couple as each of their identical triplets battles rare eye cancer | Deseret News  or on their blog at http://www.lows-lowdown.blogspot.com/ .  Now for the reason why I mention this besides the obvious.  An interesting little tie-in here is that recently Katelyn and her companion were visiting with the Lows' in their home.  Sister Low's parents were also there visiting and helping with the triplets.  As they all got talking, it turned out that Sister Low's sister is married to Katelyn's Mom's cousin.  How is that for a small world.  

Here are a few pictures that Katelyn sent home recently.

Building a new sidewalk and doing a little service.

Here is the finished product. 

Doing a little more service as parking attendants during Heritage Days. 

Enjoying a little treat at the mall.

Dressing up with the Young Women at one of their activities.

Katelyn and her companion are "out-standing" in their field. 

Ok, Katelyn may not be out standing in a field in this picture but she is definitely "leaps and bounds" above the rest. 

Miracles, service and a new area

Changes again and this one was a little unexpected.  Transfers came and Katelyn will now be serving in the big city.  She is actually going to be almost in downtown Edmonton.  The new area that she will be serving in is called River Valley and by the looks of it on Google Maps, it is called River Valley for a reason.  Obviously, the reason is that there is a big river running right through the valley.  As I looked a little closer to the map, the real name of the area should be "Golf Course Valley" because of the fact that there seems to be a golf course at every bend of the river.  Within about a ten mile stretch of the river, I was able to count six golf courses.  The funny story about the golf courses is that when I pointed this out to Katelyn, she told me later that she had the Elders believing that she was a pro golfer so this new area would be perfect for her.  Then she broke the news to them that she had barely gone mini-golfing a couple of times in her life and that was the closest that she had ever been to a golf course.

Katelyn is still a Sister Training Leader and still going on a lot of exchanges with some of the other sister missionaries in the zone.  Just recently Katelyn had a chance to go back to Spruce Grove which was her previous area and go on exchanges with her previous companion.  Katelyn said that it was really a great experience and also one of the more interesting dinner appointments that she has ever had.  The menu consisted of things like cabbage and cole slaw mixed with eggs along with some old pickled beets.  But bless their hearts, the most important thing is that they were doing their best to serve the missionaries.  The next day Katelyn and her companion were able to meet with some the people that the sisters have been teaching in the area and had some really great lessons.   

Service is always at the center of missionary work.  Whether it is teaching the Gospel or helping someone move.  This time the service that they were doing was the latter.  Apparently the Elders in the area had promised to help some people load their truck during their move.  Unfortunately, it was pouring rain at the time.  But the work goes on despite the rain.  Of course it could have been worse.  They could have been helping someone move in a blinding snow storm in -40 degree temperatures in the middle of January.  Anyway, as it turned out, the people that were moving lived right next door to the Ward mission leader and the Ward mission leader didn't even know that his neighbors were moving.  Anyway, everything was good and the people that were moving were really grateful for the help.

So during the month of July, we in the U.S. celebrate the 4th of July.  But in Canada they celebrate Canada Day.  So continuing on in the spirit of service, Katelyn and her companion volunteered to help with all of the Canada Day celebrations.  Katelyn said that they were on their feet for 13 hours straight with no breaks.  Their first assignment was during the fair where there were a lot of food and clothing vendors all set up in a large parking lot.  With all of the vendors taking up the space in the parking lot, obviously where wasn't and room for the public to park.  So people who were attending the fair had to be bussed in or walk.  But occasionally one of the vendors would need to make a run to get more supplies or food to sell.  This is where Katelyn and her companion come in.  They would have to escort the vendor that needed to make a supply run, down a long drag and then escort them back all on foot.  That meant that during the day they probably walked about 10 miles or more.  Then after spending 4 hours escorting cars in and out of the fair, they were reassigned to bike storage detail.  This meant that they would take someone's bike, give them a claim ticket and then have to store the bike for the person until they returned.  Then after several hours of bike detail, they were assigned to parking lot detail again.  Only this time it was the VIP parking lot.  They could only let the cars in if they were on the VIP list.  Finally after a long day of volunteering, Katelyn still had to go back to their appartment and pack up all of her stuff for the move to her new area in River Valley.  Katelyn said that it was obviously a very exhausting day be a good day none-the-less.

So on the first Sunday after arriving in her new area, Katelyn and her new companion were in Ward Council meeting when the Bishop turned to the new Elder in the area and Katelyn and told them that he would like them to stand up and introduce themselves in Sacrament meeting.  Oh but there was one catch.  Elder Nelson of the quorum of the twelve Apostles will be attending their meeting, so no added pressure, right?  Actually, Katelyn said that it was great.  Both Elder Nelson and his wife spoke during the meeting and Katelyn was able to visit with them for a few minutes after the meeting.  This was one of the most memorable experiences that Katelyn has had on her mission.  It was quite the "Welcome" to the River Valley Ward.

Over the last few weeks Katelyn told us that things have been really up and down in her new area.  Unfortunately, they have had several Sisters who have had to return home due to medical problems.  Katelyn told us a story about one of the sisters and what happened at the airport when she was about to fly home.  Apparently, she was really struggling with having to fly home by herself.  So the mission president and his wife said a little prayer along with this sister and asked that all would be well.  Just as they finished their prayer, they heard someone behind them say, "Hey missionaries".  It turned out that it was a family that was returning home to Utah from an international trip and they just happen to be on the same plane as the sister missionary that was returning home.  The mission president's wife then asked the mother of this family if they would accompany this sister through security and stay with her on her way home.  They agreed and were happy to help.  In their prayer they had asked that all would be well, and all was well.  Definitely a miracle.

Katelyn loves being a missionary!

Celebrating Canada Day

 

Tracting in the park

Make follow up calls before zone conference

A random sculpture of silver balls off the side of the road in River Valley

Missions of a different kind

I want to start out this post by talking about someone else other than Katelyn for a minute.  But you will see how it all ties back to Katelyn and her mission in the end.  Katelyn had a friend named Michalla who she grew up with in our Ward.  Michalla (Michalla's Miracles Blog) was diagnosed with leukemia not long after she graduated from high school.  She went through chemotherapy and every other treatment that comes with cancer and was declared cancer free a little over a year ago.  She spent the next year preparing for a mission, submitting her mission papers and then finally receiving a mission call.  Unfortunately, two days before she was supposed to give her farewell talk in sacrament meeting, she had a final checkup and the cancer was back.  So instead of entering the MTC that week, she went back to the hospital for more treatments.  After six months of treatments and a lot of prayers and blessings, things didn't turn out quite as everyone had hoped and prayed for.  Michalla passed away on June 15, 2014.  Her funeral service was both beautiful and spiritual.  Katelyn's Mom was able to contribute to the services by playing prelude music and accompanying on the organ during the congregational hymns.  Katelyn's older brother along with one of his former mission companions, was able to play a piano and violin duet (If You Could Hie To Kolob/Come Thou Fount Medley) of Michalla and her mother's favorite hymns that Katelyn's brother just happened to have composed while serving as a missionary himself. 

We kept Katelyn informed of Michalla's condition during the last few weeks before Michalla passed away.  One of the common themes from the time that Michalla entered the hospital the second time and up until her passing was that Michalla simply has a different mission to fulfill.  This past week Katelyn sent home an email which contained the following insight into Michalla's current mission:

"Something else I wanted to tell you that has been really neat. Over the past 2 weeks I have talked to SOOO many people that have either had to fight cancer or have a relative who is in the midst of fighting against cancer. It has given me the opportunity to bear testimony about the plan of salvation and the Atonement and of course about Michalla's experience which has really softened peoples hearts. At the beginning of the conversation they really don't want much to do with us but after sharing these different experiences and doctrine they are open to the gospel. It has been so neat! So Michalla has been helping with missionary work all the way up in the Canada Edmonton Mission! It has been so amazing! Literally I have never talked with so many people who have had to deal with cancer than I have in the past two weeks. It has been really neat to tell them about Michalla and help them to understand that we each have a plan and there is a purpose for all we go through."

That was just one of the many miracles and experiences that Katelyn has shared with us from her mission.  Katelyn tells us all of the time how they seem to always be put in the right place at the right time to meet someone who is interested in learning about the Gospel.  Katelyn told us about a church tour that they gave to some members of a different faith. Afterwards one of the people who took the tour came up to them and expressed interest in knowing more.  Then just a few days later while Katelyn and her companion were doing volunteer work at a local thrift store, they ran into another person who had also been on the tour and who was a friend of the first person that they had met from the tour.  Now it appears that Katelyn and her companion will be teaching both of them at the same time.  Then just recently, Katelyn and her companion have been teaching another investigator who they have seen several times before.  During their latest visit, the woman asked the missionaries a simple question, "How are you able to do that?".  What she was referring to is how are the missionaries able to come to her house and share a message with her which is exactly what she needed to hear at that time.  Katelyn explained to her that it wasn't them.  It was the Lord.  The Lord knows what she needs and uses servants like two sister missionaries to communicate what needs to be said at that moment. 

Speaking of volunteer work, part of missionary service is to spend a certain amount of time volunteering in the community at places like a thrift store.  In a recent email message Katelyn told us about some volunteer work that she and her companion did.  This time it wasn't at a hospital or a thrift store.  Their volunteer work consisted of helping to organize and judge soccer skills for the little league soccer teams in their area.  Of course Katelyn being a dancer, has no clue about soccer and neither did her companion.  But they were put in charge of the kicking skills competition and given a radar gun to help them determine how fast the kids could kick a soccer ball.  One by one the kids would line up and kick the ball.  Katelyn and her companion would use the radar gun to see how fast the ball went.  Katelyn said that they were given only a brief set of instructions on what to do and then left alone to judge the completion.  I am assuming that everything turned out OK.  Katelyn said that it was a bit hectic but that it was super fun.

Katelyn attended a zone conference with her mission president recently.  Katelyn and her companion did some training on how to present the first chapter of the Book of Mormon to investigators.  Then the mission president talked about how the Edmonton mission was unique in that the Edmonton area is a melting pot of different cultures and people from all over the world.  Being that, the missionaries are able to teach and convert people in their mission who will then return back to their own countries and help spread the gospel further.  He talked about how just a few people from Russia who were converted, returned to Russia and were the foundation for the many branches that exist their today.  The whole point was that the missionaries in the Edmonton mission are actually able to teach the world from right within their own mission boundaries.  Kind of a neat way of looking at how the Gospel is being spread throughout the world.

A rare treat.  Panda Express!

Another rare... well something.  Haggis.  Apparent their district leader likes to cook and thought that Haggis would be a good idea.

 

The Sister Training Leaders in the Edmonton Canada mission.

 

Calling home for Mother's day and other assorted miracles

The most exciting news from Katelyn over the past few weeks was when she called us on Mother's day.  Actually, she was able to Skype so that we could see her and she could see us.  It was great!! The whole family was here, except for Katelyn obviously, and we well all able to talk to her.  We set the laptop up so that she could see all of us sitting around the family room.  We talked about the weather, we talked about all of the news from home and we talked about the people that she is currently teaching and her new responsibilities as a Sister Training Leader.  It was great to hear from her and she really looks good.  Having missionaries out in the mission field makes Mother's Day and Christmas the best holidays of the year. 

After having just talked with Katelyn on Mother's Day over Skype, we didn't think that we would hear from her again for at least another week.  But just two days later we got another email from her.  I asked her why she was emailing that day since we had just talked over Skype a couple of days before.  She told me that in the last couple of days she and her companion had some great spiritual experiences and they just needed to write home and tell us about them.  I can't really get into the details here of what Katelyn told us but basically while they were tracting the previous day, many different things came together all at once which allowed them to come in contact with some wonderful people who are very interested in learning more about the Gospel.  In fact these people have already had a lot of contact with other members of the Church in the area and love and respect many of them.  Katelyn described this whole experience of meeting these people as probably the best missionary experience that she has had so far.  She was just so excited to write home and tell us about it.

Things just keep moving forward for Katelyn in Spruce Grove.  In one of her most recent emails she told us that when she first arrived in Spruce Grove just a few weeks ago. They really didn't have anybody to teach.  Now just a few weeks later, they have nine new investigators and a ton of teaching opportunities.  As Katelyn put it:

"So we have found all these people to start teaching just in the past couple weeks! It has been so amazing. Seriously so many miracles are happening everywhere in the mission. Missionary work is blowing up! The work really is hastening! I love it here! I love serving in Spruce Grove! We have been so blessed! And so many people are so prepared for the gospel."

 It is amazing just how fast time is flying by.  Many of Katelyn's friends who have gone on missions are now coming home.  Some of her other friends are getting married and Katelyn is coming up on her one year mark on her mission.  It was only just a few weeks ago that she was transferred to Spruce Grove and now it is time for transfers again.  Katelyn told us this week that they received the transfer calls and she will be staying in Spruce Grove but her current companion will be moving to another area.  Katelyn referred to her new companion as her Grandma.  That sounds a little strange for missionaries and no her new companion isn't a single older sister.  What she meant by "Grandma" is that her new companion was the trainer of Katelyn's trainer.  So Katelyn's first companion, who was her trainer is referred to as Katelyn's mother.  And her trainer's trainer would be Katelyn's Grandma.  Got it?  Ok, it still sounds a little silly but hey, they are missionaries and that's the mission tradition.  So I guess Katelyn's Grandma (new companion) only has a couple of months left before she returns home.  This will probably be the first time that Katelyn actually sends a companion home.  The crazy thing is that by the time that happens, Katelyn will only have a few months left before she returns home as well.  Crazy how time flies.

In Katelyn's latest email she again told us about all of the miracles that are happening in Spruce Grove.  Katelyn and her new companion have met a few new investigators and their teaching pool just keep increasing.  They have also spent some of their time doing service for some of the people in their area.  This last week they helped to gut a trailer that will be remodeled and fixed up for one of the members in the area.  Katelyn said that she and some of the other missionaries had a lot of fun tearing out walls and ripping everything up.  I guess service is service even if it does involve a bit of demolition.

A month full of miracles

There have been some big changes for Katelyn in the last month.  For starters, Katelyn has been assigned to a new area.  She is now in a city called Spruce Grove which is just west of Edmonton.  On top of that, Katelyn has been called as a new Sister Training Leader.  This is actually the second time that Katelyn has served as a Sister Training Leader.  If you recall, Katelyn was called as an STL during her short time in the Provo MTC.  If you are not familiar with what a Sister Training Leader is, it is basically the equivalent of a Zone Leader except that a Sister Training Leader has a responsibility for the Sisters in the Zone.  So this is a pretty big responsibility for Katelyn and her companion.  Her new Zone in Spruce Grove extends northwest of Edmonton up to a town called Grande Prairie which is about a 5 hour drive.  This means that at least once a month, Katelyn and her companion will be driving to Grande Prairie to meet with the Sister Missionaries there, go on exchanges and do some training.  She will also be responsible for participating with the Zone training each month as well.  Even though this is a great opportunity to serve as an STL in the mission, Katelyn will really miss all of the people that she has come to know and love in the Panoka area.  She spent basically half of her mission in this area, serving in Red Deer, Panoka and Lancomb.  It will be hard for her to leave.

In the past few weeks, Katelyn has written us about some of the most spiritual experiences that she has had on her mission.  I will try to retell the stories here and hopefully my version of her stories will come close to the impact that we could feel through her emails.  The first story starts out with Katelyn and her companion going to Edmonton for a training meeting.  While they were in Edmonton, they got permission to attend a temple session.  Since they still had a little while before their scheduled session time, they decided to go to the mall to take care of some errands that they need to do.  On their way to the temple after leaving the mall, they both noticed that somewhere along the way they had misplaced their cell phone.  They searched the car thinking that maybe it dropped out on the floor but the phone wasn't there.  Then they started to retrace their steps through the mall hoping that they would run across the phone, but no luck.  It was now getting very close to their temple session time and they knew that they had to hurry.  Finally they got the idea to check with guest services at the mall and sure enough, somebody had turned in the phone and they were able to get it back.  They raced back to the temple but unfortunately they missed their session by about 10 minutes.  So rather than actually going through a temple session, they decided to do some initiatory work.  This is where the exciting part happens.  As Katelyn was going through the initiatory session for each of the names that she had been assigned, she noticed one name on the page who was from Ecuador.  If you have read this blog for very long, you know that Katelyn has a very close tie to Ecuador after having spent several months working in the orphanages in Cuenca.  Upon reading the name, Katelyn started crying and got an over whelming feeling that the sister for whom she was about to do the work, was right there with her.  At that moment Katelyn knew why it took them so long to find their cell phone and why they ended up missing the temple session.  Katelyn knew that she needed to be doing the initiatory work for that Ecuadorian sister at that moment.

These next stories came from Katelyn's most recent email home.  This email just started out with one word: MIRACLES!.  Katelyn and her companion had made the 5 hour drive to Grande Prairie to go on exchanges with the Sister missionaries in that area.  The sisters from Grande Praire had another meeting that they needed to attend so that gave Katelyn and her companion a little bit of time to go tracting.  The way that Katelyn usually goes about tracting is that she first starts out driving until she feels like they should turn or stop and this time was no different.  After driving around for a few minutes, Katelyn finally felt impressed to pull the car over and start knocking on doors.  Since Grande Prairie isn't their normal area, they both decided to try a few different kinds of door approaches.  The first house that they went to, nobody answered.  But the second house was a different story.  Katelyn said that a nice lady answered the door and immediately called them, SISTERS.  This took them by surprise and they thought that maybe they had tracted into a member's house without knowing.  They asked the lady if she was a member of the church and she responded, no.  But she knew some people who were members of the church who had sent some of their kids on missions.  So she knew about the Elder missionaries but was surprised to see sister missionaries.  The lady invited Katelyn and her companion in and ended up listening to the whole first lesson.  What are the odds that these Sister Missionaries would park right in front of this lady's house who was willing and ready to listen to a gospel lesson, if they weren't actually being lead by the spirit?

The next story happened the very next day while Katelyn was on an exchange with one of the other Sister missionaries from the area.  It was getting kind of late in the evening and they figured that they had about 10 minutes before they needed to get back to the apartment.  So again Katelyn suggested that they just do a little bit of tracting for the last 10 minutes.  They parked the car near their apartment and then started walking down the road.  They passed the first house and knocked on the door of the second house on the street.  A man answered the door and told the Sisters that he really wasn't interested.  So the Sisters wished him a good evening and decided to knock on one more door.  This time a lady answered the door and immediately invited the Sisters in.  They talked for a while about Jesus Christ and the missionaries shared the first lesson with this lady.  They even showed a video to her using her own laptop.  The lady loved the video and they all talked a little bit more about the plan of salvation.  As they turned to leave, the lady invited them back to talk some more.  Katelyn said that it was just an amazing experience.  When they got back to the apartment, they shared their experience with the other sister missionaries.  As it turned out, the other sisters had also gone tracting down the same street.  Except they tracted the first house and then decided to go somewhere else while Katelyn and her companion tracted the second and third house not knowing that the other sisters had been on the same road.  Again, what are the odds?

Needless to say, a lot of great things have been happening with Katelyn.  She is loving her new calling, she is loving the work and she is loving the people.  What more could a missionary ask for?

Just a few pictures to enjoy!

Happy 21st Birthday

 

Just enjoying a little birthday cake

 

 

Hamming it up with the Sista's

 

Katelyn and her companion outside of the Edmonton temple

How great is missionary life...

   Oh, life as a missionary.  Let me start this entry out by talking about the little annoyances that missionaries have to put up with once in a while.  One of those little annoyances is ants.  That's right, I'm talking about the little creepy crawling things that usually don't hurt you but when you see them crawling around, they are just annoying. 
    Katelyn wrote us a few weeks ago and told us about the ants in her apartment.  The weather is still cold in Canada but warm enough for the ants to start moving again.  Of course just like every other living thing, they want to get warm too.  So the warmest place around is inside the missionary's apartment.  Katelyn and her companion have been keeping their apartment really clean, but the ants don't seem to care.  A few weeks ago Katelyn and her companion got home from an all day training meeting and interviews in Red Deer only to find ants all over their apartment.  The ants were crawling all over the floor, on their desk and who knows where else.  Katelyn has been spraying ant killer around the apartment to see if that will take care of the problem.  But there seems to be more ants than killer.  So these sister missionaries have just had to get inventive.  Everybody has been telling them how to get rid of the ants but nothing seems to work.  Therefore, turn it into a game.  Whenever you enter the apartment, go on an ant hunt.  Ants are pretty easy to hunt.  The only problem is that there are too many of them.  The good news is that spring is coming, the weather is warming up and soon the ants will like it better outside rather than inside.
    Now that we have started with a funny story, why not continue.  Katelyn told us that not long ago after a missionary meeting that they had, they went out to their car to find a sticky note on the rear-view mirror.  The sticky not said, "Gal. 1:8, Read it".  This scripture says something about being cursed if you preach any other gospel.  Since the sisters didn't know who left the note, they got a little worried that somebody might be stalking them.  Then it dawned on them that it was probably the Elders just playing a joke.  When they confronted the Elders, of course they denied doing anything.  A little later on, the Ward mission leader found out and was just about to report it to the housing coordinator for the mission.  Well, this scared the Elders a bit, because obviously they did it, so they fess'ed up and came clean.  I think that you would have probably had to be there in order to get why this story is so funny, but Katelyn assured us that it was and everybody had a good laugh over it. 
    Sticking with the funny story stuff, this one is sure to make you laugh.  Here is Katelyn just cheesing it up for the camera.

Yes, those are cheetos in her mouth.  I'm not sure what possessed her to make lips out of cheetos but she said that it took her quite a while to find the exact size of cheetos to fit just right in her mouth.
     Have you ever seen a video or wondered what happens when you take a cup of hot water and throw it into the air in -40 degree weather.  If you haven't ever seen this, well here is your chance.  Or you could just Google it, there are plenty of other videos on the Internet.  But we kind of like this one because it features someone that we love.

    Katelyn wrote us a week or so ago and told us that the primary had asked her and her companion to play two different parts in a little skit for the primary children.  So one of them dressed up as a Nephite and the other one dressed up as Mary Magdalene.  During the skit they had to play their parts as someone was narrating the story.  Katelyn played the part of May Magdalene seeing the resurrected Savior.  Basically, their customs where made out of some table clothes that they wrapped around themselves.  But nevertheless, Katelyn said that it was really a spiritual experience playing these parts for the primary children.

    Even though these Sisters are having a great time serving the Lord in any way that they can, not everything always goes their way.  Katelyn told us in her latest letter that she had kind of a tough week.  She told us about some of the struggles that they have been having with the people that they have been teaching.  She also told us about some of the struggles that some of the members of their Ward have been having due to health issues and other things.  A mission is a growing experience.  Sometimes the experiences are great and sometime they are not so great.  Either way these experiences make you a better person.  Katelyn has and is finding this out on her mission.  Her older brothers found this out while they were serving as missionaries not long ago and hopefully her younger brother will also come to find out just how much a mission can serve him while he is serving others.

Serving the Lord at 40 below

First of all, we need to start out this blog entry with the fact that Katelyn is now famous.  Well, maybe she is famous if you are visitor to the Canadian version of LDS.org.  But hey, famous is famous right?  Take a look at this article that was recently posted on the Canadian LDS.org site.  It is an article that is all about the increased number of missionaries in the Canadian missions.  Just click on this link to read this article.  It is called "Responding to the call for more missionaries".  This article not only talks about Katelyn's mission but several other Canadian missions and missionaries.  So out of  all of the missions and missionaries now serving in Canada, Katelyn was one of the few chosen to share her story about why she decided to serve a mission.

Over the past few weeks, a new opportunity has come about for Katelyn and her companion.  Just a few weeks ago, Katelyn and her companion were trying to find different ways in which they could serve the community of Ponoka.  Their main idea was to call around to different community centers and other similar places to see if they could volunteer in any way possible.  They quickly discovered that volunteering to work and serve, although counter intuitive, was just about as hard as simply finding a job.  The problem that they ran into was that many of the places wanted volunteers but they required a background check and a commitment that the volunteer would be around for a certain period of time.  As missionaries who are constantly changing areas every six weeks, by the time they completed a background check and started their volunteer work, it would be time to move to a new area.  But after a lot of calling and talking with people, they were able to find a great opportunity.   They will be volunteering at the local hospital every Tuesday morning, helping to organize and lead a multi-denominational church service.  So far they have only be doing this for just the past couple of weeks.  Katelyn hasn't really told us a lot about what they have done yet, but she said in her latest email that they had a really great discussion with one of the Pastors of a church there in Ponoka.  She really feels that this opportunity will yield a lot more great experiences and I'm sure that as those experiences come, we will hear more about them.

There seems to be a lot of opportunities in Ponoka for service.  Everything from visiting people in the hospitals to working as a volunteer to shoveling snow and helping others move to new locations.  Recently Katelyn told us a story about how she had over heard a lady talking with someone at the library and saying that she needed help moving out of her house.  In the conversation she said that she would even be willing to pay someone a hundred dollars if they would help her.  At that point Katelyn jumped into the conversation and told the lady that she would be able to find a truck and a group of people to help her move and the lady wouldn't even need to pay them.  They were willing to do the work for free.  A few days later, Katelyn was able to coordinate with Branch President and the Elders quorum to help the lady move out of her house into a nearby apartment.  After the work was done and everything was moved, Katelyn told us just how grateful the lady was for all of the help and how much she wanted to stay in touch with the missionaries.  Who knows if this contact will go any farther than that, but at least Katelyn, her companion and the other volunteers were able to leave a good impression on this lady of who they are and what they stand for.

Katelyn and her companion spend quite a lot of their time visiting less active members of the church in their area.  As Katelyn has explained to us on several different occasions,  some of their visits are great and very inspiring and others are just strange.  But for the most part, Katelyn is very happy with every opportunity to serve, no matter how big or small the task.  She has told us that since her area is so small, trying to find new people to teach is challenging.  Over the past several months they have been able to find new investigators and done their best to teach them the Gospel, but it has been difficult to actually get some of these people to come to church.  Katelyn knows that they feel the spirit when the missionaries are in their homes and teaching them the lessons.  She knows this because the people have told them so and are usually very excited to have the missionaries return.  But when it comes to taking the next step, that is when the feelings start to weaken and things don't quite come together.  One thing is for sure however, Katelyn is learning a lot, serving a lot and very happy with what she is doing.

Spring, or anything close to it, has definitely not yet arrived in Canada.  In Utah the temperatures have been hovering in the 40 and 50 degree range which is a bit warm for this time of year.  But in Ponoka Canada and every where else in that area, it is still the dead of winter.  Katelyn has told us several times that they wake up to -40 degree temperatures almost every morning.  In her email last week she said that they had been helping several people move in -38 to -45 degree weather.  The snow just doesn't seem to quit either.  Katelyn said that they just got a few more inches of snow the night before.  Having to spend even one winter in Canada really makes you appreciate the fact that even our coldest winter days are nothing like Ponoka.  If nothing else, be grateful for that.

Finally, Katelyn related to us a really neat story about a lady that she had met in Red Deer.  This lady had been through some very trying times and just before Katelyn was transferred from Red Deer to Ponoka, the Elders had given this lady a blessing.  Katelyn said that the experience that evening was very powerful and she had thought about this lady many times and had wondered how she was doing.  This last week Katelyn had the opportunity to see and visit with this lady on a chance meeting while waiting at the church building for the Zone Leaders to arrive.  This gave Katelyn the opportunity to learn a little bit about how this lady was doing and also to tell this lady just how meaningful she had been in Katelyn's life.  A little later as Katelyn and her companion were driving home, they were listening to some church music when the hymn "Be Still My Soul" started playing.  There is a line in the song that says, "He'll guide the future as he has the past".  This line hit Katelyn really hard as she thought about this lady and all that she had been through in the past and what she will be doing in the future.  Katelyn said this line in the hymn was the perfect thing to hear and it was very meaningful to her in that moment.

To finish off this entry, here are just a few pictures that Katelyn sent home over the last few weeks. 

Trying a little too hard to take advantage of the grocery store coupons, these two sisters went a little overboard on the Rice Krispy treats.

This one is a bit of an inside family joke.  Katelyn is referring to this place as the recommended Bed and Breakfast when we tour her mission in a year or so.

Receiving her Valentine's Day package from home.

Fun in the Canadian snow with the whole district.