Sister Riley is wonderful!!! We get along
soooooooooooooooooo well (emphasis on the ooooooooooooooooo). We have very
similar senses of humour (sarcasm with a slight occasional hint of sick and
twisted) and both have a ridiculous sweet tooth and a love for all food
(especially spicy curries!). Safe to say, we have committed to running everyday
so that we will not gain 20billion pounds during our time together (every day I
like to declare as we wake up to our alarm: "WILL YOU follow the
example of healthier, better-looking people than us, and go running in the
pouring rain/wind with me. I promise that as you do, we will not get too fat
and ugly that no one will want to marry us when we get
home"......................any return missionary will recognize/appreciate
that this is textbook commitment pattern right here!!). We laugh too much! At
everything! Weird fact: more than once now, we have had people ask if we are
BOTH Americans-- I get them asking me, but seriously, I don't get how they
think her accent is American!
Sister Martin and Sister Riley
Highlight of her week so far I think was me shocking her
when I talked on the phone to get train times. You call a number and it's an
automated computer system, where you talk into the phone and the computer gets
train info for you.....the catch is that the computer does NOT like N. American
accents....so I switch my accent when I call in for our trains. I forgot to
tell S. Riley this, and she almost died when suddenly I was babbling away in an
accent. She had no idea why I was doing it until halfway through the phone
call! I do have to brag a little bit, I am getting pretty good at tricking the
computer!! My impersonation of an English accent improves each day
I'm officially a local! The local taximan (Nas) knows me by
name and always pulls over to chat with me. A local neighbouring family spends
24/7 out in their front garden and always stops me to chat. I have gotten on
good terms with some of the bus drivers here and some of them don't even charge
me fare anymore (my favourite thing is to try and get the bus driver to
have a conversation with me on the bus....my goal is to one day convert a
bus driver!). The librarians all know me, and 2 of our local
crazy/strange people (Steven- the old man who sings Catholic hymns every
time he sees us because he thinks we're nuns, and Percy- the Jamaican who is
fascinated by ants) know me too well. Life in Telford is good (knock on
wood----- there is no such thing as comfort zone out here, so I'm bracing
myself for some challenges to come up haha).
Sister Riley and I are in such unity! Teaching with her is
sooooo easy!! She is extremely talented at teaching (we both find teaching very
easy, and teach in very similar styles)! We have had the most touching
appointments together so far. The spirit is strong and we and our investigators
are feeling it!!!!!
Sad news: We had to bump Remek’s baptism forward again.
Hoping to have his baptism in 2 Saturdays from now! Ohhhh Remek! He got a
blessing though and sent us a text saying how much it is helping him. I have no
doubt he'll get baptised......I'm sure it'll happen while I'm still here (it's
just a matter of when). AND WE GOT OUR FIRST REFERRAL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We NEVER get referrals here! Remek gave us a solid referral! He's been talking
to a friend from work about us, and the book of mormon etc. and the friend
wants us to come teach him!!!!!! BAZINGA!!!! What a blessing!!!!! After
endlessly asking everything living thing that breathes for a referral, we
finally got one!!!
Estella's baptism is still looking good!! :) If all goes
well, that will happen on the 21st.
Tanwaa, Bernice, and Femi!!!! They want to be baptised
badly! THEY FINALLY CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! And seemed to love it! We are hoping to
set baptismal dates for Tanwaa and Femi this week!!!! We're praying we can have
them baptized by the end of the month!!! Our zone's goal for baptisms this
month is 3! Our ZL's are telling me that Sister Riley and I are looking like
the only hope for getting this goal completed. It feels so nice to start seeing
the fruits of our labours!!!
I got invited by our zone leaders to attend our District
Leaders Council Meeting on Saturday! It was so nice! And super strange that
I've been here long enough that I can actually have LOTS of opinions on things!
It was great to be able to discuss a ton of different things and really mind-blowing
that I actually seem to know what's going on now! Craziness! I still really
can't believe that I'm training!
Luke: he dumped us (sad face!!!). It's common for
investigators to drop missionaries.....but I must say that this was the most
harsh/sadly hilarious dumping I've witnessed yet. We got home from church
yesterday to the craziest voicemail on our phone. Went along the lines of:
"I will not be seeing you tomorrow. I don't want to stop giving in to my
temptations- I don't think we're meant to. You're nice people and all, and the
Book of Mormon is a great book, but I can't be bothered to see you again
because this is all so crazy. By the way this is Luke." --- that is
the watered down version of it. It was so crazy, S. Riley and I actually looked
at each other and then laughed our heads off. It's really not funny, but
sometimes things are so sad that you just have to learn to laugh at them! Good
times! I hope one day Luke will change his mind. All we can do is hope and
pray!
A joy of being a missionary: missionaries with such
thick accents that you cannot understand them. We CANNOT understand our
new district leader. He is from Italy, and his accent is ridiculously thick! S.
Riley and I have to team up to do call-in reporting to him every night. It's a
giant guessing game every 3rd word. FUN!! It makes for good entertainment!
Bless his heart! (or as my English friends would so "oh
bless!").
Miracle this week: the 1st Sat of every transfer is what we
call 4 hour finding (literally it means we do finding activities for 4 hours of
the day!). IT'S MY FAV!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
4 hour train miracles:
- SISTER RILEY IS DOING AMAZING! She had her 1st train convo!
And HAD A LESSON ON THE TRAIN!! She talked to a man a bit about the BOM and
Joseph Smith!! She was too scared to ask to give him a BOM but that's
ok!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! The fact that on her 1st week she talked to someone
on the train was AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
- I literally burned through about 30 mormon.org cards in 2 days! Talked to soooooooo
many people on the street!!!
- Meeting Peter on the train! So I was on the phone dealing
with appointment stuff as I went on the train. I was carrying 20billion pounds
of stuff and was struggling and a man helped me! I sat next to him and we had
the best conversation During our 1 hr train ride together!!! He is
hilarious!! And a classic Englishman (was on the train because he follows his
football team to EVERY game....literally....his life consists of him following
the team everywhere!). Super outgoing and loved my sense of humour (sarcasm for
the win!) He asked me a billion questions about the church and about missionary
work! I was able to teach him the entire 1st Preach My Gospel Lesson and give
him a BOM for him and his mom, and about 4 pamphlets for him and a friend!
- Met an amazing woman on the 2nd train ride. From Sri Lanka
originally. Just became a doctor here in the UK. She really wants to move to
Canada but was unsure about it. I was able to tell her all about it and she was
excited. Got to talking about faith and she really wants to have more faith!
Was very excited to hear my beliefs and check out mormon.org.
Random fact: I've gotten SO awkward out here! I didn't realize
it until I was paired with Sis. Riley, and I realized she was so embarrassed as
I talked to everyone who crossed our paths (on the street, the store, the bus,
train....you name it and I'm approaching them and talking to them). I have come
up with a theory on missionary work: doing missionary work does not get less
awkward....you just get more awkward, and therefore stop noticing how awkward
talking to strangers is!! I tease S. Riley that I can't wait to watch her
become as awkward as me over the coming weeks (ONE OF US, ONE OF US!!!).
Hahaha!!!! I really do love this work!!!!!
Anyways, email is booting me off soon.
Hope time goes fast for you and slow for me!! <3
Always with you!!
Sister Martin
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