My new companion is absolutely lovely!! Wait.....I'll reword
that and steal a bit of her lingo: she is an absolute treasure! I am training
Sister McDonnell! She is from England (What?!?! I've still had no American
companions yet?! Shocking!). It's been fun for us, because she grew near
Birmingham (in Woster.......YES! As in Wostershire sauce!!!!!! MIND BLOW!),
therefore she was only a stones throw from Telford and knows loads about it.
She is very humble and so willing to learn! We are having loads of fun together
and get along great! I am so happy to be training again! It is going a million
times smoother this time! It makes such a difference that I'm not a baby
missionary this time around (blind leading the blind), and I knew exactly
what to expect this time! Big thanks go to Sister Riley for being my guinea
pig!! Thanks to her, there is a better chance that I won't scar/corrupt my
trainee for life this time ;)
What's a village?!:
We have 2 missionaries being trained here. The new elder is
from Vegas. He is very American! He reminds me so much of myself when I
first started the mission! At complete awe at everything here! Just gazing 24/7
at all the English looking streets and buildings, and just loving the
funny/different English words and phrases. I have been quite white-washed-- I
turn more English by the second in terms of the way I speak-- so Sis. McD and I
have had so many laughs listening to this elder ask hilarious questions in his
thick American accent. Fav question?: "What's a village?!" (*insert
thick American accent here). Our definition for him: "A collection of
homes and a pub!". I love England!!!
We have a winner! I have found the perfect companion for
a Mitchell girl:
So anyone who knows my family (the Mitchells) well, knows
that Mitchell women can talk your ear off at a million miles a hour
(literally....we talk realllllly fast. Sometimes people don't understand
us. It makes for a whole lot of awkward at times!). Well, I now have a solution
for the problem! My new companion is deaf! ......no...seriously!
Sister McD is partially deaf in both ears, and it makes for
the most hilarious moments!!!! She can read lips, but I have to repeat myself
90% of the time so she can read me properly (I just talk too fast!!) My family
thought my accent had changed during our Christmas skyping?! Well I
think I am going to knock their socks off at mother's day after I spend 3
months with Sister McD! She obviously grew up reading an English
accent, therefore it's easier for her to understand me when I
speak in an English-ish accent. So that's
what I sometimes do to make it easier. Luckily I was already in
a solid accent limbo when she arrived, so changing up my words hasn't been
super hard!
She says I have the strangest accent ever! She could
instantly tell I was not American. Before she had a chance to find out
where I'm from, she thought that I was either a foreign
missionary from some kind of Eastern European country, or else that I was from
a different part of England. I guess that is what you get when you stick a
Canadian in England for 7.5 months! Safe to say, I'm going to be experiencing
some more accent changing in the next 3 months! This should be interesting!
On a side note, it was interesting when we both realized how
amazing it is that we are together. I have had to make changes/adjustments to
behaviours/lifestyle for my dad who has blindness. So making slight adjustments
in behaviour to help with our communication was no big deal for me! Kind of
neat how that worked out!
I Am Now In Sister Riley AND Sister McD's Ear:
I think I told you about Sis. R's locket earrings. If not, 2
second recap! Sis. Riley bought some earrings and discovered on the mission
that they are also super-mini lockets! So us (being the ridiculous people we
are) took a realllllllllly tiny picture of me, and stuck it in her earring
locket. The bad joke behind it is that she could always have her trainer in her
ear that way!
Well we have done the same thing....in a different way! Bus
contacting is always hard for new missionaries, but we realized that we can use
Sis. McD's lip-reading in the most brilliant way to help her with it. We got on
her first bus and suddenly realized that I could sit in a different seat and
whisper to her what to say to start a conversation with the person beside her.
So I was whispering away and she was immediately repeating it to the person
next to her! Worked like a charm! So in a kind of different way, I can always
be in Sis McD's ear too (as long as she is within sight of me!).
The Boy Who Lived:
So I never paid too much attention before, but when Sis. McD
arrived to our house, she noticed something mind-blowing! We have a Harry
Potter cupboard! It's exactly like Harry's cupboard under the stairs!!! Sis McD
is a HUGE HP fan, so it was hilarious to see her excitement! I came downstairs
this morning and saw a sign on the cupboard: "The boy who lived!". I
officially love Sis McD even more!! It made my day!!!! We plan to one day take
pictures of us in the cupboard, with lighting bolt scars drawn on our
foreheads!! Good times in jolly old England!!
I'm getting Russian Lessons!!!!!!:
I started working on a bit of Russian with Sis. Shchur
during my training. After she left, I continued to study for the transfer after
she left, but once the Aussies started coming in, I lost my language study
time. I have missed it so much so I was so excited when I found out that one of
our recent converts has a couple of Russian speaking friends. I officially
start my Russian lessons with them this week! I am over the moon!!! Win
win! Missionary opportunity for me, plus I get to do something that I love and
have missed!!!
Anyways, that's all I got this week! Mostly travelling and
training this week so not tons of proselyting craziness to share!! After all
the laughs and lip-reading/accent fails that we have had this week, I'm
sure I will have loads of hilarious stories to share next week! I love you
all!!! Keep being brilliant! Keep loving your missionaries! They love you!!
Hope that time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!
XxX Sister Martin
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