Fun times in Stafford and yes Erika has had a shower

We have a district activity today (we are going to a town called Ironbridge....it is called this because the 1st Ironbridge ever built in the world is located there!), so we only have an hour to email. Unfortuntely this means that I will have to print all the emails I received and read them later (meaning, I won't be responding to emails this week).

This week was PACKED with miracles.

Miracle#1

I went on exchange to Stafford this week! I am officially convinced that Sister M (my companion) and I were best friends in the pre-existance. I have not laughed that hard, or talked that much, in a long time (since I was with my best friends- Adria and Jenna- back home!). I love Stafford! It is beautiful! If I could compare Telford and Stafford in English terms, I would say that Stafford is a little more posh than Telford (I still adore Telford though! They have a solid hold on my heart!!). On Wed we had specialized zone training in a town called Crewe. I got to have my 1st interview with our President since entering the field, and I have to say that I love President Preston!! We spent half the interview just laughing our heads off! He is so wise, and has so much incredible advice to give me. I could have stayed with him and soaked up his experience and knowledge forever!!!! After our training, Sister. M (for the sake of typing, from here on she will be called Sister M) and I got on the train, and off to Stafford we went. We literally stopped at our flat, threw my suitcase on the bed, and then RAN (literally) to our tea appointment with the Mansfield family (KRISTEN DELL you need to read this!). They are amazing!!!! Their son served a mission in Winnipeg (MATTIE FAMILY, sound familiar???) and we talked a ton about Canada. Their family is so funny, and so sweet!!! We then left right after to attend branch council right until 9pm and then we were home. Sis M and I both LOVE to talk, and we are literally like the same person!! We stayed up half the night just gabbing away about the mission, home, life etc.

The next day was PACKED! It started with our regular 4 hours of studying in the morning and then we were off to a lunch appointment with the Dean family. They are an older couple, with a couple of children in the Stafford area (and a couple who are not). We then went off to our appointment with our investigator- John. This was the most sacred experience I have had thus far on my mission. Sis M and Sis Hansen met John the previous week when knocking doors. He wanted to talk more and booked a follow-up appointment. He has struggled with drug addiction for 30 years, and enters rehab (for 5 months) today. When the sisters met him, he had been 3 weeks clean and realized that he needed a change in his life. He was unhappy. He wanted to know how other people were happy. He believes in science, and felt that science disproved religion, but through his trials his heart has been softened and he is open to trying something new. We taught him the restoration. The room was exploding with the spirit. All of our questions and comments were truly inspired. He was so into the discussion. He kept saying how everything made so much sense. He really desired to know more. To start a journey on the right path to finding happiness. Him and I talked back and forth about happiness for a long time. I promised him that there is such eternal happiness in store for him. I expressed how happy I have been from the gospel. I can't really put this discussion into words. I won't try. It was very sacred. The spirit was strong. He kept saying to me, "you look so happy. That must mean something". He said this again as we left and thanked me. He eagerly took a Book of Mormon, and requested pamphlets to study as well. He will not have any internet, etc. in rehab, so he said he would like to study the BOM extensively while there. He promised to read and pray about it. I pray that he will find happiness. I know that the gospel is where this happiness comes.

After John, we ran off to an appointment with a man that KRISTEN DELL converted- Stuart. I didn't realize it, but I had met him the night before at branch council. I just didn't know who he was, until Sis M said on the way home: "Stuart was a man that was converted by sister missionaries. He was their post man". I completely freaked out when she said this, as I realized that Kristen had told me all about him. I was so emotional as I got to teach him his temple preparation lesson for his endowment, which he is getting in a couple of weeks. I kept thinking what a blessing it was that I am preparing this man for the temple. This same man that Kristen taught and prepared for baptism. It was beautiful to see a continuation of the Lord's great missionary work in this way. He is the nicest man ever! Incredible testimony! He also gave us a HUGE grocery bag full of goodies for the 4th of July. Sis M and I laughed so hard: I can now say from experience that a Ukrainian and a Canadian celebrating 4th of July together is quite funny and entertaining.

We then ran off to a tea appointment with the Notts. The wife is a member and the husband is not. We acutally had an incredible gospel discussion on the restoration. He participated. One of the best parts of the day was after when we met Claire and her family. Another convert of the one and only KRISTEN DELL! Claire is an angel! So funny! So sarcastic (so obviously, we got along amazingly). We had the best gospel discussion about the restoration, which then turned into a deep discussion about how the BOM has changed our lives. We shared favourite scriptures, that we found during tough times in our lives. Claire is amazing!! It inspires me to see converts doing so well in the gospel!

The amazing part of all our appointments is that Sis M said that every single appointment we had that day were all changed very last min (they were all supposed to be on different days- when I would not have been there). By chance, I got to meet so many of the people that Kristen worked with. They all loved her so dearly, and were so thrilled to meet someone that Sister Dell knew from home. What a miracle and blessing that was!

The best part of the whole exchange was being with Sis. M. I don't know if I've laughed so hard ever in my life. I don't have time to share all my experiences. I wish I could. I just love her so much. Her and I are the same person. She has the EXACT same struggles as me. She's 6 months into her mission, so her and I were able to have a longggggg discussion on our struggles. She shared how she has been working on hers, and gave me some incredible advice. I've never connected with someone like that before. She understands exactly how I think. I thank Heavenly Father for sending me her! It was so helpful to be able to work through my issues, and just talk. I felt like I had received a free therapy session. My time in Stafford was so blessed. I pray that her and I will get to serve together again.

Miracle #2: REMEK! Oh Remek. He has attended church 2x now and is finished 2nd Nephi (in less then 2 weeks). We see him 2-3 times a week. He is so sweet. Everytime we come, he gets so excited, and has an entire spread of Polish treats for us (like PLATES of candy and drinks! So funny! I love him!) I don't have time to write about him, so I just copied what I wrote about him to President Preston this week.

I have to start by expressing how thrilled and inspired I have been by our progressing investigator- Remek. We continue to work hard to teach him English, but what is even more amazing then his improving language skills is his development in his relationship with Jesus Christ. I was almost in tears on Sunday, when in our gospel principles class he described (in very broken English) the changes he has experienced since he has met us. It went something along the lines of this:

"Before, Remek was not happy. Remek had no job. Then Sister Martin and Sister Shchur met Remek. Taught Remek English. Then Remek got job. Sisters Martin and Shchur taught Remek about God. And they taught Remek about Jesus Christ. They taught Remek that sin is bad. Remek now go to church. Remek prays to God. Remek read Book of Mormon. Remek now happy. Remek now have job. Sisters Martin and Shchur make Remek very happy. God listened to Remek. Now Remek understand God and Jesus Christ make him happy." ...I'm already an emotional person to start with; it's safe to say that, that nearly did me in! Remek is our miracle! How we found him was a miracle. How he has managed to learn about the gospel with virtually no English skills (simply pure faith and humility) has been a miracle. I have honestly learned more from him, than he has from me. It warms my heart, and does nothing but increase my faith in the way our father in heaven directs his work.

Miracle #3 INVESTIGATORS. We have found more investigators this week.

#1 Gena: We met Gena our 1st couple days in Telford. He is Latvian. We finally found him again (after we thought we had lost him) and were able to give him his Latvian BOM. We had a long discussion about blessings and God. He didn't believe that HF is our father. He kept asking/joking around that God doesn't bless him. He said he prays to win the lottery to make his 2 little children happy, and God doesn't answer that prayer. We joked around a lot, and it was hard to get him to be serious, until I finally bore a testimony to him. I promised him that there were blessings far greater than a million dollars in store for us. That God loves us more than we can comprehend. Once again, I can't put words to describe what I say in these moments, and won't try. Things just changed. He suddenly got really serious, teary-eyed. He told us to come back and teach him more. I look forward to his progress. Him and I connected really well. He LOVES Canadians, and badly wants to move there soon!! He and I had fun joking around.

#2 Adolf. We were tracting and found him at a door. I don't remember what country he's from, but it's somewhere in Africa. He believes in Christ, but hasn't been going to church because he has felt that there is a better direction he needs to be taking. He was very interested in the BOM and wants us to come back to talk more about it.

#3 Silvester. Sis Hansen and Shchur met him street contacting. I'll tell you more next week.

#4 Holly. She is a 17 yr old mom, who the elders met and taught the restoration to when tracting. She wanted to learn more, and the elders passed her on to us, thinking that we'll be able to connect with her better. Sisters Hansen and Shchur had a lesson with her. We have another one coming soon.

#5 We have a TON of potential investigators who show so much promise. Pray for us! Things are looking hopeful.

Other intersting facts.

Sister Shchur and I continue to work on my Russian! I now know about 8-10 phrases (most are snarky, sarcastic and silly....just the way I like it). It was HILARIOUS to use them on Sister M. We just laughed our heads off! I still love Sis. S to bits! Her and I become closer friends everyday, and spend all our time just laughing. I taught her what a punch buggy is, and now after a week, she is better at finding them than me! Not good for me, since she was a professional boxer for 5 yrs! (Gulp!).

We had a wonderful RS bbq wayyyy out in the countryside. The property was massive and gorgeous, and the roads were so narrow, the car could barely get through....good ol' England!!  We had a beautiful view of the Wrekin (their 'mountain'....I teased them that, that 'mountain' was nothing but a speed hump! (aka a speed bump). I love the dry humour here! I can be snarky, and sarcastic, and it's normal!! :)

I got to teach RS yesterday! Anyone who knows me well knows that I was in heaven doing this!! I love teaching RS. I obviously taught about missionary work. It was great and I think the sisters are more inspired to start helping us move this work along. Anyways! Time is up!! I promise I'll get some pictures up next week!!! I wish I had more time to write. I didn't get to share any of my funny/random experiences this week. Next week! The miracles were so much greater than what I got to write about.

 I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY! I'm the most tired I've ever been, but I'm the happiest I've ever been! I can't describe how fulfilling it is to help people come unto Christ, and to dedicate every second to serving others. I never want to come home!

Love you all,

Sister Martin!

OOPS! Miracle #1,254 (at least it feels like it was that many this week):

OUR SHOWER RANDOMLY STARTED WORKING AGAIN!! After almost a month of no showers, this was the greatest blessing of all!!!!

But.......the lights in only 1/2 of our flat all stopped working at once! So we have no light in our kitchen or the 2 bedrooms. Yay! Being a missionary is the greatest! :) Gotta appreciate the humour in things I guess!! :) 

Yes it is true...Sister Martin hasn't showered in 3 weeks!!

Ok! Time for rapid fire emailing! I could go into a career as a typist after this mission (tender mercy of the Lord.......maybe that's a bit of a stretch!)

Yesterday was the BEST DAY EVER! We had an investigator come to church. We had just given up on him coming (there was about 3 mins until sacrament meeting started), and then suddenly he came in and sat down beside us literally 3 seconds before the Bishop stood up to start the meeting! I almost screamed I was so happy! His name is Remek- the Polish man that Sister Shchur volunteered me to teach him English. Turns out, teaching him English has been my favourite parts of the week! It's absolutely a riot! We love comparing Russian words, to Polish words, to English words. Example: pen in Russion and Polish are super long. So Remek says: adfjasdklfj Sister Shchur says: akjfbnrehaw and I went: pen. We were dying laughing at how unintelligent I sound in comparison to them :) Remek is incredible. He dove right into his Polish BOM and is reading quickly. He LOVED church and is so excited to come next week! Even though he barely understood the words, our choir happened to be singing 2 songs that day and he kept saying "beautiful, beautiful!". I'm one of the few women in a tiny choir. If anyone knows me well, they know that anything that involves me singing is not beautiful! Proof that the Spirit is strong enough to overcome anything! ;)

Kalid: Well, we lost Kalid! We were scheduled to teach him the second discussion and he was a no show. A little bit shocking, considering how excited he was during the 1st discussion. We stopped by a couple of days ago, talked to him and rebooked another appointment. No show for the second appointment. We left him a note to call us, and will just pray that whatever is going on will be resolved and he will one day contact missionaries again. It happens. It certainly won't be the last time it'll happen, so I'm just staying positive and plan to push myself 30,000x harder so that we can find those who are ready for the gospel.

We had a temple zone conference this week. It was wonderful. Our President did a mini demonstration with us that had a significant impact on me. He started listing off the names of zones within our mission and asked those who had served (or are serving) in those zones to stand as they were named. He then at the end asked "if anyone has ever served in the comfort zone, please stand up". Obviously no one did! It was a wonderful reminder that it's perfectly ok that I don't feel like I know what I'm doing 90% of the time. All that matters is that I'm working hard, being obedient, and that I strive every second to follow my Saviour and have the spirit with me!

So we met our first anti-mormon this week. Unfortunately for him, he messed with the wrong missionary! He was going on about how Joseph Smith was a criminal, fraud etc. blah blah blah and how we are crazy for worshipping him. BIG MISTAKE! He got a big ol can of testimony from me right then and there! My relationship with Jesus Christ is the one thing that anchors my entire testimony. It's the most important thing to me in my life, and that's the one thing that I can’t stand for people messing with. I bore my testimony of my Saviour, and how I do not worship Joseph Smith, but that I believe in Jesus as my Saviour. To be entirely honest, it was pretty intense. I never felt a fire like that in my before (I can't lie- I was pretty firm with him). Shocking moment: it actually shut him up completely! We ended up having a really nice conversation about Jesus Christ and his ministry, and shared our love and belief for him. This man will certainly never convert to the church (though...you never know), but I was grateful that the spirit was able to guide me through that moment!

Awkward moment of the week: We were visiting a less active lady this week and she asked us if missionaries ever fell in love on their missions and got married. Laughing, I politely explained that it does happen sometimes, but that as missionaries we do not focus on that (i.e. we don't come out to find a husband/wife). She then said: "I just ask because you seem like a really lovely girl. It would do one of our boys here good to have a girl like you". She then proceeded to tell me all about her son and show me pictures of him and express how she wants nothing more than for him to find a nice church girl and get married. She kept asking me if I thought he looked like a nice boy and asked me if I would go and meet him. Awkward!!! I was quite red in the face to say the least.

I have to write about Saturday night before I continue! This will be one of those epic return missionary stories that I'll tell so often that people will be sick of me! So our ward was asked to participate in a community Christian music festival at some community center. The idea was that different churches would come and sing hymns together. Nice idea! So we all arrive at this address we've been given, and we are in the sketchiest place I've ever seen. Like seriously! Graffiti everywhere, very rough looking characters hanging around, staring at us like we're crazy, barred up convenience stores and knocked over rubbish bins.  And no one from this festival is anywhere to be found (the community center where it's supposed to be held is all locked up). Finally the man in charge shows up 20 mins after the whole thing was supposed to start. Sister Cleary (one of my favourite members here! She's an AMAZING cook and just as crazy as my family! She would fit right in with us!) said to him jokingly, "the only way you can make this up to me is by giving me chocolate. Chocolate fixes everything". Well, this man is from Africa and his English was pretty good, but not good enough to understand sarcasm apparently, because suddenly he turned up with a shopping bag with about 15 chocolate bars in it! He took her literally and went and bought us chocolate!!

So we get into the center and there's a bunch of chairs set up with tambourines, and a whole whack of instruments at the front. The "festival" starts and it's just us, and one black lady and her 3 children at the front. The pastor begins, as someone pounds away at the drums in the background. And he starts SCREAMING a sermon into the microphone at a million miles an hour (he could honestly have a career as an auctioneer). I mean like SCREAMING. He does this for about 30 mins (we were supposed to have sung almost 45 mins earlier). We have no idea what to do. People streamed in throughout that time. They were dancing around. People would randomly get up and sing as loud as they could into the mic in very off-key voices. The pastor was screaming gibberish (speaking in tongues). Members of the congregation were convulsing and screaming out Hallelujah! Amen! Praise the Lord!!! Over and over and over and over. And we were just sitting there like deer in headlights. Sister Cleary leaned over to me and said "on the bright side, we've got chocolate" and proceeded to dish out the chocolate bars. So we sat there, confused, uncomfortable, nibbling on our chocolate. My poor companion was so confused. She kept asking me: "Sister Martin, is he speaking English". It was so hard to explain to her what was going on with a straight face. My row of members decided to make the most of the whole thing and we shook our tambourines together and I used all my willpower not to burst out laughing. My companion looked stunned the whole time. It was the funniest thing I've ever experienced. The best part was when we finally got to go up and sing. The congregation looked like they were being put to death. They were so bored by us. No hallelujahs. No shrieking out AMEN! No off-key screaming into the mic. We then made a very quick exit after that, saying that we had to go. Us and the elders went to the Cleary's home after and ate the cake she had prepared for us after and laughed our heads off about the whole thing. I do have to note though, the members of that church were super nice and welcoming! I love them for that!

So I go on exchanges for 3 days this week to Stafford (if I remember correctly KRISTEN DELL should be excited about this). I know the sister I will be companions with very well already. Her name is Sister Mauirmikova (don't even bother trying to pronounce it. I've been practicing her name all the time for the last 2 weeks in preparation for exchanges and I finally can say it properly). She's from the Ukraine, but also speaks perfect Russian because her mom is from Russia. She has got a HUGE personality. Very loud. Very outspoken. She and l love joking around and teasing each other ALL the time. So Sister Shchur and I decided it would be epic for me to learn some snarky, sarcastic Russian phrases to say to her during exchanges- just to mess around with her and get a good, dramatic reaction from her! So Sister Shchur has taught me the following:

Be silent

Yes my queen

Hurry up

English please

You are what you eat

No

And a couple others!

Sister Shchur and I have been dying laughing as we imagine the reaction I will get when I use these on Sister M. It will be incredible!! My favourite phrases are be silent and yes my queen. During the Christian music festival, I leaned over to Sis. Shchur at one point and whispered as I pointed to the pastor "Be silent" (in Russian obviously). She almost peed her pants laughing! That same night, our district leader would not stop talking on the phone (it was already almost 10:00 and we were supposed to be all finished with things by 9:30)...he's just really enthusiastic! As she hung up the phone, she muttered "Be silent". I almost peed my pants. These Russian lessons have been so hilarious! We just laugh all day now.

On that note, my week with Sister Shchur has been wonderful. I finally found a sense of humour deep down in her. She's just so shy that it took awhile. I had so many return missionaries tell me that if you struggle with a companion, that you should find every opportunity possible to serve them. I did just that and the results were insane! We have bonded so much this week it has been wonderful. We literally laugh all day together, as we make stupid jokes (in English and in Russian)! I'm grateful for this lesson learned. It's still not easy (we are still two very different people), but it's great that we have become wonderful friends despite the trials of the day to day life. 

So random note, but exciting announcement (many may know already) but this year missionaries will official be viral! Yup, we're getting the internet. Somewhat scary, but if used righteously, this could have an incredible impact on the work!

Oh! Another random note. I have the most EPIC foot tan ever! White toes and dark, dark brown feet. It looks so ugly it's hilarious. The members love teasing me about my feet when I go to take off my shoes during tea appointments!

So this is probably a "too much information" kind of moment, but our shower has been broken since we have arrived to Telford. Yup. We haven't had a shower in 3 weeks! We have been having to bathe by filling a mixing bowl with water, standing in the empty tub and dumping it repeatedly over our heads. Our landlord has not been responding to us. Totally lame. We are so frustrated; so what do you do when you're frustrated. You laugh of course! So I started making up imaginary phone messages that we really wanted to leave with her (not very nice ones). Then it turned into poems that we could leave on her voicemail. Here are the ones I came up with:

#1

I smell like rubbish,

Yes I do!

Now fix my shower,

So I don't smell like poo!

#2

I hate to smoulder

My investigators with odor

So please fix my shower

So my scent does not overpower

#3

Things that would be brilliant:

Not having to bathe in deodorant

If cleanliness is next to Godliness, then this should be a sin.

Please fix my shower, so I can stop smelling like the bin!

#4

Roses are red

Violets are blue

Please fix my shower!!!!

I smell like shoe!

Ohhhh dear....what a sad life us missionaries live, that poems about showers have become our entertainment ;) :)

Oh! You should all be proud of me! I have officially stopped saying me first name! I now am Sister Martin 100% of the time- no slipping up. Even in my head I am thinking in the name Sister Martin now! I think this officially means that I really am a missionary!

Anyways I shall wrap up this email! To sum up! WE HAVE BEEN BUSY! Not many investigators (grand total of one....I love Remek!) but we are just running around like crazy all day. Whitewashing two wards is difficult (I don't know if I mentioned last week that we got assigned to cover another ward last week). But so rewarding! I go to bed happy everyday! I love being a missionary! I love England with all my heart!! 

Love Sister Martin

As Winnie the Pooh would say, everyday here is a "blustery" day!

Ok! I decided to email 1st and read emails later this time, so I don't run out of time to bore you with the details of my mission ;)

Wow! I've almost been here a month! Unbelievable!!! After a month here is my description of England:

- As Winnie the Pooh would say, everyday here is a "blustery" day! You pretty much experience almost all 4 seasons every hour here. Rain-wind-rain-sun-wind-wind-lots of wind and rain- sun- freezing cold- so hot you almost die- wind-wind- rain. It keeps you on your toes!

- The people here definitely are tough when it comes to religion. I kept being told that this would be a difficult mission, and those people were right. BUT, fortunately for these people, I am stubborn, and like to talk, so THEY WILL LOVE ME!! Haha

-They have the best yogurt ever (there's this yogurt called corner yogurt. It's seriously the bomb!! I'm never going back!) and the best chocolate ever!

- I LOVE IT! I love England. I love the ward members here sooooo much! I love the accents (note the plural; there is no such thing as an "English Accent". There about 2 billion English Accents). I love the people. They are polite, and kind, and caring, and I LOVE their sense of humour! When I think of England, I just think of the word LOVE!

It has been a very difficult week. My patience has been tried so much! I don't know if I mentioned it, but we are white-washing this area (meaning that there haven't been missionaries here for a longgg time- 5 yrs in our case!). We arrived to an empty area book, and have been literally building from the ground up. Every second of our day is filled with either appointments with members or finding on the streets and at homes. BUT I have been so happy it almost hurts! I can't explain how fulfilling it is to work until you have nothing left, and then having to rely 100% on the Lord to get through the day. Your faith grows so much, and you just that everything you are doing is so important. It is truly such a blessing to be here and to be doing this work!

Monday:

What a week! So last p-day, the funniest, strangest thing happened. Sis. Shchur and I were sitting in our flat at 5pm, eating fish and chips to finish off p-day, when suddenly we got a text from the sister we taught last week (the real housewives of Orange County sister). She texted saying that her boxing club was having a medal ceremony for some of their high level athletes who won some major competitions over the weekend. The former professional boxer/well respected coach who was supposed to present the medals was stuck in London (delayed flight) and couldn't make it, so they invited Sis. S to present the medals. Let me tell you, that was the funniest call I think anyone's ever had to make to President Preston. He and I were laughing our heads off, while poor Sister Shchur was just embarassed out of her mind. The President loved it and told us to go and have fun! So off we went. Sis. Shchur got interviewed by the newspaper and got her picture in the paper with it. She was treated like a celebrity there. One coach even asked for her autograph! They gave us some doughnuts to thank us for coming (CHA CHING! Free food for a missionary is like the biggest blessing ever!!!). Fun fact though: being a sister missionary in a gym full of shirtless, sweaty, teenage/young adult males is AWKWARD! I was very happy to leave at the end, because while my companion was away from me for the ceremony I kept having random guys try to talk to me.

The Car! So we finally got the car back (we drove a courtesy car to our area my first day, which they took back the next day. Our actual car- the one the elders crashed- was in the shop FOREVER). The lame part: we only had the car for 5 days! President told us that a senior couple would eventually need the car, so we were not to get too comfortable having one. He originally thought that wouldn't be for another month and half, but plans changed. So we had 5 glorious days with Hermana (figured it was a good, exotic name for a sister missionary car). I am good at driving here now thank goodness. After about a day and a half of driving, and driving tips from the members here, I now can drive comfortably on English roads. I must admit though, I still hate how narrow the roads are here! I nearly wet myself every time I have to pass a car!

We met with Sister “C” on Tuesday. She has been having a really tough time and hasn't been to church in ages. She opened right up to us, and pretty much told us her entire life story (all her issues, her conversion story) without even being asked to. She's struggled with self-esteem issues really badly (I would almost call it self-hate) and has gone in and out of activity due to being offended by people at various times. Just like our meeting last week, I don't know where my words came from. I was able to share some scriptures with her about enduring to the end. More importantly, I was able to share a testimony of the importance of the atonement. That because of it our weaknesses can become strong. That we are hurting ourselves by not going to church. And a whole bunch of other things that no email could ever describe properly. We were all in tears. She tearfully acknowledged that it was time for her to come back to church. And she did! It was such an incredibly sacred experience. I love how the Lord spirit works! It's absolutely mind-blowing!!

I was able to give another BOM (Book of Mormon) away this last week. I know 2 BOM's in a week doesn't sound like a whole lot, but in this area- trust me- it is! Slowly making progress.

TENDER MERCY OF THE LORD THIS WEEK!!

Since we've been whitewashing, we've had no one to teach. We desperately search every day, but have had no luck yet. Last Sunday, the bishopric gave us a list of names of members who had moved into the ward, but had never been seen or heard from. It was our job to find them and work with them to eventually get them to church. After tracting for 5 hours straight (with no luck), we decided to check on one address before we had to go home (we had already gone there 3 times). A man answered the door, but it was not the member (we don't know what happened to him). This man's name was Kalid. We started talking to him, and he was so prepared for the gospel it wasn't even funny! He has studied so many different religions. He has a strong belief in Jesus Christ. He prays every day and tries to repent daily as well. He used to be into alcohol and drugs, and used Jesus Christ's atonement to free himself from that life. He loved everything we were sharing and booked a return appointment that night. Last night (Sunday) we had our first discussion with him. It went well. He has already been reading the BOM we gave him and really enjoyed it. The idea of having the proper priesthood made sense to him, and the concept of the apostasy and the restoration also made sense. We started talking about baptism for him. He has barely started reading the BOM so he wants to learn more from us and from studying the BOM, but he understood that he needs to be baptized down the road once he has a testimony from reading of the BOM. He kept saying that before he met us that he was trying to change his life and didn't know how. We came at exactly the right time in his life and he recognized that HF had sent us to help him make that change. We meet with him again on Wednesday. I hope that it will go well and I pray that his testimony will begin to grow. What a blessing Kalid was to me! It gave me the motivation to keep on working hard. You never know when you'll run into those who are ready for the gospel.

We just found out this morning that we will be covering two areas now. The other ward (Wrekin ward) does not have sisters and they really badly need to us work with them, because they have a large number of single sisters. So we will be even more busy now! I'm excited! I will be exhausted BUT this will mean 2x the referrals, 2x the opportunities to bless the members, 2x the blessings, and 2x the amount of personal learning/growth I will experience!

We got to be in the annual Wellington village parade on Saturday! It all happened within the course of a few mins. We (the Telford elders and ourselves) were originally supposed to just come to the Wellington carnival and run a table for the church (where people could learn more, talk to us, get BOM's, pamphlets etc.). They needed people to help in the parade last minute, so we tossed on some helping hands shirts, and got to be in the parade. So fun! Unfortunately I have no pictures though, because we thought we were just coming to run a booth. The carnival was fun. It was pouring rain and windy (of course). What a fun day!

A highlight/lowlight (all at once) of the week was our trip to Bolten. Sis. Shchur had a family she taught getting baptized out there Saturday night. Bolten is just over a 2 hr drive from us and out of our area, so I really got to test my driving skills out!! The baptism was beautiful! 6 people got baptized. They were all Iranian, so the entire service was in Farsi. The sacrifices these people made to be baptized is phenomenal! If anyone these people knew back in Iran found out about their baptisms, them or their family in Iran would be killed, imprisoned, or seriously injured. We couldn't take any pictures, because of this! Despite this, they all wanted to still be baptized! Their faith is so inspiring. There were so many missionaries at the baptism, and it was so nice to see the result of those Elders and Sisters' labours! This baptism inspired me to work harder. To have more faith! The drive to Bolten was fine, but the drive back was a different story. 1st off, we almost got killed by a lorry (semi-truck)...no joke. Like almost died.... I was driving in the left lane on a motorway (in England, the left lane is the slow lane on the highway), going the speed limit, minding my own business. Suddenly a massive lorry starts changing lanes...into us! I almost swerved off the road. The crazy part. He starts honking his horns, tailgating me, and flickering his high beams at ME! He almost hit us, and killed us, and he was road-raging at us! It was terrifying! Then on the way home, the major motorway that we needed to get back to Telford was closed. So we had to take a detour that added an extra 1h20mins to our trip. So we didn't get home until super late! It was so frustrating and scary, as the detour took us through the back country roads. It was super rainy,super dark, and the roads were extremely narrow and windy; I was very uncomfortable driving them. The fun part though. We got special permission to sleep in until 8:30am because we got in so late. Sleeping in on the mission is unheard of! It was heaven sleeping in!! :)

A very english dish that I tried and actually was shocked that I liked. Mushy peas with chips (french fries). We had fish and chips at a family's home, and they gave me peas to have with my chips. I was so weirded out by this, but I smiled and took a bite. Never thought that combo would work. So there's your fun fact of the day!

A strange tender mercy I received this week. I was having a tough afternoon, and we were out finding in town center as usual. Suddenly an old man called out to us and asked if we could take a minute and sit with him; he said he gets lonely and no one talks to him. His name was Steven. He's 74 yrs old and lives in a home, but gets to spend the day out it town 2x a week. He said he has no family. There's no way to put it but he is crazy. Something isn't quite right with him (I think he may have some kind of mental disorder, or maybe just old age). He babbled on for 25 mins about how he went to a Catholic boarding school and the nuns were mean and used to rap his knuckles with bamboo rods. He sang an old Catholic hymn for us. He asked about our missionary work (he kept thinking we were nuns....he didn't like nuns because of his boarding school days haha). He did this all in a super loud (almost yelling) voice, including the singing. It was so awkward. So why is this a tender mercy. It just warmed my heart. Steven was so thrilled that someone would talk with him. He asked if we would see him again (we're going to try!). He was happy that someone cared about him. I got a little taste of what Heavenly Father must feel for all of his children. It brought me joy to make Steven's day a bit better.

I'm super nervous today. We met a polish man named Remek, and my companion volunteered me on the spot to teach him English. I have no clue how to teach English. I'm kind of freaking out. I may have to do this more, because we often meet  Polish people (there are a lot of them here in England) who don't know much English. Pray for me! I'll need it!

Love you!!!!!!!

Erika!!! 

Erika has already managed to give the "finger" or should we say fingers!!

Some experiences from the MTC I didn't get to share with you because I didn't have a full P-day last week:

Fun fact I discovered. Korea and career sound the same when you say it in an English accent! So when our district teacher was trying to tell us a story about how the career counselors came to his high school and told him he should be a children's entertainer (a clown) when he grew up, it made for a very confusing/hilarious story!

Bro Rojas and Bro. Llyones 

(my district teachers and basically my fav people on planet earth!!)

Another fun fact! My last name sounds so much lovelier in an English accent!! I'm never going back to the Canadian version of my name!

I discovered that I say the word basically.....a lot. During one of my mock lessons, my investigator (my district teacher) commented that I say basically a lot. I had said it 5x in one sentence. From that point on, my teacher made it a point to insert the word basically into every single sentence he spoke when I was around (I'm 100% serious.....not exaggerating). He ended up getting my entire zone in on the fun, so my whole zone would constantly come up to me and say "basically" sentences left, right, and center! Since this teacher and I dedicated 99.9% of our time together teasing each other and throwing sarcastic remarks back and forth, this really wasn't anything out of the ordinary!

Sad fact. I was one of the only missionaries in my zone, who had, had fish and chips before! So sad! I guess I take for granted the beautiful fish-filled ocean that we live so close to at home! From that experience I have concluded that people from Utah are deprived! How can you have never had fish and chips?!!! Such a pity!

Amazing epiphany I had at the MTC:

I know what you're thinking.....this is going to be a super inspiring, spiritual discovery that Sister Martin had. Nope! I discovered that one of our room-mates, Sis. Tebao (the girl from that crazy awesome island in the Pacific Islands that I can't spell!) is RAPUNZEL!! As part of her culture, she has never cut her hair. So her hair literally touches the floor! I knew this already, because the 1st day we met she took her hair out before bed and our jaws dropped to the ground, BUT it wasn't until a week later that I made the Rapunzel connection. I took an amazing pic with her, where she's on the top bunk bed, with her hair draping to the floor, and I'm on the ground, posing like I'm the prince calling for her to let down her hair. Will send that pic home asap!

That's BASICALLY a high-light reel of my last week at the MTC! I loved it there! There was not a second that I did not enjoy!! I made some wonderful friends there, who I'm excited to continue my friendship with after our missions are finished! I'm especially feel blessed that I was given such an amazing companion! Sister Cochran is the bomb! I think her and I spent more time laughing than learning about the gospel! What a blessing she was to me!

 I'm officially in the mission field!! Crazy!! So basic info to start. I'm in the county of Telford. Specifically staying in the village of Wellington. It's beautiful here! So different from Canada! The homes are so.....charming...there's really no word for it! I love England so much!!!! My companion is Sis. Shchurr. She's from Eastern Russia (very close to China and Korea). She's very quiet and conservative and of course English is her 2^nd language that she just learned a few months ago, so I'm very much craving girl-talk (or any talk for that matter!!). BUT she is very kind and I'm grateful for that. She was a boxer in Russia, and apparently was really good (competed at the national level). She is a bit older, 27. Her story is kind of cool. She was converted 5 years ago. Some missionaries found her mom at a bus stop, invited her to English classes at the church. Her mom brought Sis. Shchur and her sister along, and all 3 were baptized a month later. Sis. Shchur has 4 brothers and a sister! Big family!

Anyways! My car adventure. So right after I got assigned my location, the AP handed me car keys and told me that I would be driving to our area (which is 3 hours away). My companion doesn't drive. He handed me a SATNAV (english word for GPS), wished me luck, and left. I proceeded to pee my pants (because I was so terrified), say a prayer, and then enter the tiny little car (everyone drives small cars here)......on the wrong side of the car. I got into the passenger seat. Good start!

To sum up, the driving did not go so well. I had never even seen an English roadway yet (because up to that point we had only travelled by charter bus). We got sooooo lost! I had no idea what the speed limit was! There aren't stop signs here, so I had no clue what to do. It was a nightmare. With time I'm hoping I'll master the left-side of the road deal! Til then, please pray for me to get through this transfer alive!!!!!

Our flat is super nice. It used to be a senior couples flat!!!!! It's huge! Which is rare for a missionary to have!!! Very spoiled :)

My 1st dinner appointment was nuts: It was with the Hoar (Jr.) family (they have the best last name ever...and they know it!). So we were at Bro/Sis Hoar senior's home and were supposed to get picked up (our car was in the repair shop at that time). A car pulls up and they ask us if we were Jehovah's witnesses. It was Bro. Hoar. He is a jokester! So we get in the car, and it's Bro. Hoar and 2 non-member friends! We proceed to pull through the KFC drive-through to pick up our dinner! Awesome! Weird fact: people here LOVE KFC (or at least they do in the village of Hadley!). During dinner Sis. Hoar asked me how long I've been on my mission. As I lifted up 2 fingers, I responded "only 2 weeks". With that, they all started roaring with laughter and starting waving 2 fingers at me going "How many weeks Sister Martin??!" Yes. I had just given them the English version of the middle finger! I was sooooooooo embarassed! I almost died!! But they have a great sense of humour and thought it was the funniest thing ever. They kept saying to me that night, "I bet you didn't think you would have met 2 Hoars in one night (*as they waved the English middle finger at me)".

Right before we were about to share our spiritual thought, Bro. Hoar stopped us, and informed us that Leigh- one of the "non-members" at the dinner, was actually an RM (served in Birmingham). They had been messing with us all night! The Hoars are officially my favourite family! Leigh is already a great friend and is planning on going on a lot of splits with us!

Every Friday night here, the Telford ward has a sports night. We attended our 1st one last Friday and had a blast! The ward members here are soooo excited to have sister missionaries and are basically lining up to book us for tea (dinner) appointments! Sports night was great and we had a blast playing volleyball and table tennis.

On Saturday, all the missionaries in our zone (Newcastle zone) got to go to Stafford to help out with country-wide youth activity. They had tons of inflatable obstacle courses, those sumo suit things, etc. There were 400 youth there! It was crazy! It was really nice to see some of the missionaries from the MTC and hear all their crazy stories from their 1st couple of days.

 I placed my 1st Book of Mormon on my 3rd day! We were walking down high street (almost every town in England has a high street.....it's basically the place in town where all the shops are located. Seriously looks like Diagon Alley in the Harry Potter movies! So cool!) and I approached a lady named F... I was able to talk to her for 40 mins. She gave us her life story. Very tough life. Her dad recently committed suicide. I was able to share my testimony of the BOM and she easily agreed to read it. We read a bit from the BOM and then talked about the plan of salvation. We're hoping to be able to meet with her soon to set up an actual, formalized lesson. I basically conducted this entire conversation on my own, because F… has an incredibly thick accent (I think she's from somewhere around Liverpool), so my comp. had no idea what she was saying the entire time!

Experience with a woman who has been a lifelong member with quite a few children, but went recently inactive: She called us the 1st day we got here, and wanted to set an appointment up asap! She came to pick us up and she looked nothing like I expected her to. She could have been a mom on the real housewives of orange county! Bleach blonde hair, fake tan, wearing a skimpy dress and 6 inch stiletto heels, picking us up in a BMW convertible! I must admit, I was a little surprised! Long story short, she talked to us for almost 3 hours. Pretty much gave us her life story! She basically realizes that she's not happy and needs the church back in her life. We had an incredibly spiritual experience as we shared a message of the restoration, (to remind her of the basic doctrines that she once believed). The spirit was so strong. I was saying things I never thought I could. I was really bold. It shocked me. I basically promised her that if she would come back to the Saviour, that she would be blessed. I referred to that quote from one of the last general conferences....don't remember who said it...basically the quote that said "If you have marriage problems, talk to the missionaries. If you have financial problems...talk to the missionaries. etc.". It was a powerful moment as I told her that if she will listen to us and work with us, that we can fix the unhappiness in her life. I can't describe the spirit in the room at that time, or the words that were coming out of my mouth. It was mind-blowing. Anyways, we will be working with her a lot and hopefully repairing the damage that has occurred in her family.

Other random missionary things: I love street-contacting! I find it super fun to talk to random people on the streets and hear their stories! We've met tons of weird, crazy people, but they're all great! I also am really good at door-to-door tracting. Only thing I'm not great at is bus contacting. I hate going to people on the bus/train and trying to talk to them. But I'm working on it and get better day by day. Anyways, my computer is about to time out. I'll write more next week. Please pray for me....like seriously, why aren't you on your knees praying right now??! HAHA I need prayers!!!

Love you!!!!

Sister Martin (aka Sista Maaatin)

...and Erika is driving on the wrong side of the road!!

I only have a couple of mins to email. We're emailing from  a members home and have  to run off to an appointment soon.  By next  week we should have a library card and will then have a couple hours to email.  So my new area is Telford. Our flat is in a lovely little town called Wellington. It was a senior couples flat   previously, so it's wayyyyy nicer than the typical missionary flat!  My companion is named Sister Shchur.  She's from Russia. She's super nice!  She's been out here for a year. I'll be able to tell you more next email.

Quick story to make you laugh!  So after I received my assignment and companion,  I found out that we had to drive to our flat (that's 3 hrs away)....and that Sis. Shchur does not drive. GULP!!  The elders basically handed me the keys and said good luck, and sent  me on our  way (no driving  lessons). I  have never even seen the roads properly before (because up til then we only travelled by bus). We went out for a practice drive, got super lost.....it  was kinda terrible haha. The roads are sooo different here. There's no stop signs; there's some almost unwritten rules of the road here that you just  have to know. It  made for some great  memories!! I was so scared...but  in a sad way was hilarious! With time I'll  get better at driving  here!

Anyways, that's all for now. I  promise you'll get some amazing emails next week. 

With love from the blustery, windy Wellington.

Erika

P.S.  I'm whitewashing!!! GULP!! Should be fun!! 

A note from Erika's Mom:

Telford is about  1 hour and 45 minutes  south of Manchester and is actually about 35 minutes to Birmingham (which isn't part of Erika's Mission) and Wellington is about 10 minutes west from Telford.  I am sure the first drive did take them 3 hours since they had no idea where they were going and Erika had to learn to drive on the opposite side of the road.  It is exciting though because she was hoping to get a least one area where she could drive In England and it has happened already for her.

Whitewashing:  To bring two new missionaries in an area where neither of them know anyone.  Most times when a transfer occurs one missionary from the area stays and just gets a new companion. This should make for some fun driving adventures for Erika over the next couple of weeks as she learns to find things!

Sister Martin & Sister Shchur

President and Sister Preston with Sister Martin

No P-Day for Erika this week...so a very short letter

Hi!!

Sooooooo bad news!! We don't get a P-day this week. We leave the MTC bright and early Wed morning (6:15am), therefore, no P-day for us this week. I only have about 5 mins on the computer.

I still absolutely LOVE the MTC! My experience here has been incredible! Almost all the missionaries I've met here have had some kind of emotional crisis (home-sickness, questioning if they want to be a missionary etc.). I feel so blessed that I've had none of that! I've just loved every single second here, and just crave for more! I've love all the lessons we teach everyday! All the lessons are absolutely nuts because they purposely give us the most night-mare cases to deal with, but I think it's so much fun! It gives me the chance to find the humour in life!

I have so many amazing spiritual experiences to share! And even more HILARIOUS experiences to share! I'll have to be the fastest typer ever next week to squeeze in 2 weeks worth of amazing experiences!

Love you all so much! Always praying for you!

Love Erika 

Week 1 complete...luggage finally arrived and Sister Martin is in HEAVEN!!

Wednesday, June 5, 2013

Holy jetlag!!! What a week!!

Now that I survived the horrendous 25 hour trip here (1 delayed flight, 1 changed flight, and 2 missed connections later), and got my lost luggage (spent my 1st 3 days here without any luggage), things have been smooth sailing since!

I LOVE THE MTC! I'm learning more than I EVER thought possible! I just crave for classes to be longer; they're so fun and I have so much more to learn! The food is awesome! The MTC/temple grounds are gorgeous! The spirit is so incredibly strong here!! My teacher's are the funniest people alive! I was born to live in England! The sense of humour here is exactly like mine (enough sarcasm to kill a person!). Basically my days consist of my teachers and I taking sarcastic digs at each other at a million miles a minute! My district teachers and I have been having fun doing accent swaps during class...I speak English, and they speak N. American for the class!

My companion is Sister Cochran. She's from Brigham City, Utah (big shocker!!! haha). She's super awesome and we get along amazingly!! We do mock lessons a few times a day, and we often have disagreements on how to approach certain investigators at times; mainly because of the different experiences we've had with her growing up around members, and me not so much. Luckily we both communicate super well so we always manage to talk it out and find middle ground. Her and I are the biggest goofs ever and spend most of our long days just laughing our heads off.

Our roommates are Sister Hansen and Sister Tebao. Sis. H is from St. George Utah, and Sis. Tebao is from Kurabis (no clue how to spell it! It's an island in the Pacific Islands....way cool!). They're both super nice! It's been interesting living with Sis. Tebao. Huge cultural differences! Her English is amazing! She is the funniest girl ever and I love her to bits!

I seriously do love the MTC. It's beautiful! We're exhausted ALL of the time, but it's a great feeling! It took me a couple of days to get over the jetlag but I'm doing ok now. My teachers are Brother Lloynes and Brother Rajas. They're both recently returned missionaries (served in Greece and London South) and incredible teachers! Funniest people I've probably ever met too! My district is the Ammon district. There's 5 sets of companions in it. (2 sisters, and 3 Elders). All of our district comes from Utah or Alberta, except for Sis. Tabeo and myself! Our elders are quiet, but are the sweetest boys ever! Actually our entire district is really quiet, except me! I'm the chatty, sarcastic one in the class ha ha!

There are 18 sisters here and approx 25 elders at the MTC right now. It's so nice having such a small group of sisters, because we all know each other so well! We're all becoming great friends, and have a blast chatting away as we all get ready for the day together in the toilet (not washroom!! haha). A highlight of the week was going for a jog down a little running path by the MTC; it takes you down a channel, which has the cutest little houses bordering both sides of the channel. It looks like it comes out of a picture book!!! So charming!

Our lessons are interesting. They actually have video cameras in the rooms where we teach, so we get to watch our lessons after we've taught them. Excellent way to analyze areas we need to work on! Our mission pres. is President Edwards. He's served as an area seventy in the Phillipeans, and as a mission president in Zimbabwe! He's so incredible, along with his wife!!

Things are definitely a bit different in England! I'm still not used to the cars on the wrong side of the road! I'm still getting used to the lingo (toilet, rubbish etc.); with time I'll adjust. A ton of the sisters swear that I'm already picking up a bit of an accent....but then again, they're American, so maybe it's just that they're mixing up my Canadian accent with my supposed English accent. Guess we'll see if I end up with a weird, hyrbrid accent at the end of the 18 months.

I can't think of anything else to type......such limited time, my brain is freezing trying to think what else. Email me with any questions if I missed anything super obvious!

Til next P-day!

Sister Martin :)

Her District:

Her room-mates - Sister Martin, Sister Cochran, Sister Tebao and Sister Hansen

Preston MTC

Sister Martin

Sister Martin - England Missionary Training Centre

Sister Martin and Sister Cochran

Here they are again...

View from her MTC bedroom window

View from the MTC cafeteria

She's a Missionary!!