Haggis, hats, hilarious highlights, and how to get a six-pack!

Have to start by saying HAPPY AUSTRALIA DAY!!!! I couldn't not give that shout-out to all my Aussies in the world. After almost 5 months of living with Aussies, I still feel very obliged to celebrate my heart out! Let's be real, my Aussies are the reason I get to eat my body weight in Tim Tams still (yay for generous companions)! That right there is reason to celebrate!

2nd Shout-out! My baby sister leaves on her mission this week!!! Give her some letter loving this week!!! I almost died of boredom after 2 weeks in the MTC. She has to do like quadruple the time that I did, and do it in Albanian, so I can only imagine how much longer it'll be for her! It wouldn't hurt for her to get some solid motivation and love from the outside world!!!

Anyways...on that note, the weekly highlight reel begins now!

Likening English People Unto Grumpy Cat:

Sister McD is seeing her country in a whole different light now that she is walking these mean streets with this Canadian! She realized this week that 90% of the people here walk around with a permanent grumpy cat frown plastered on their faces. I showed her my favourite activity to do when I'm having a down day and need some laughs.....I smile as big as possible, and with a big booming voice wish people on the street a wonderful day (with major emphasis on my N. American accents). Their faces scrunch up in this strange mix between ultra grumpy cat and a desperate attempt to not smile! The smallest moments in life truly are the best!

Haggis All Around!:
We had tea at our branch president's home last night. They are very Scottish. We had haggis! Luckily I've had it before, and there is a healthy dose of Scottish blood in me if you go back a couple generations so I was happy to have it! It was great! Cultural highlight of the night was our branch president! He gave the Selkirk Grace before we dug in, which is like a traditional Scottish prayer they say before eating (youtube it!). It was nice to have a bit of different culture and it was heaps of fun!

Cowboys in England!
So I had the most epic find the other day! It's a foreigners dream! I will describe it simply:

England Flag + cowboy hat= mind blowing

England Flag + jester hat= Canadian in England's dream!

Best part! I got them for only £0.25 each!!!!!!! (like 60 cents each!!)! Pictures are included :) We also got some cheap union jack flags, so the Union Jack now proudly sits upon the main wall of our living room! Commonwealth companionships are the best!

Dumbest Quotes of the Week:

1. Us trying to decide on what cereal to buy for the week. Pondering deeply and looking intently at each box:

S. McD: "Those Rice Snaps look good."

Me: "Look at the logos on the box, they are like little gangster versions of snap, crackle and pop. I bet their catchphrase could be "Ohhhh Snap!!!"."

Sis. McD: **palm to face!

2. Me stuffing up my words as always:

Sis. McD: Do you think we should bother buying dinner for tonight, so should we just have a snack and eat at the member's house later?

Me: "Nah! Might as well save the money. Lets just have a really good smack when we get home!"

3. American elders in England:

Elder: "I don't like English food. But surprisingly I really liked that mushroom thing that we had the other day!"

Us: "What are you talking about?!"

Elder: "That mushroom thing!!! Everybody has it with all their roast dinners!"
Elder's companion: "Ohhh! He means Yorkshire puddings!!"

Us: "How is a Yorkshire pudding anything like mushrooms!"

Elder: "Obviously they're shaped just like mushrooms!!"

4. Sis. McD: "If vegetable oil is made of vegetables, what is baby oil made of?!"

What six-year olds google in their spare time:

We were teaching a family (with the cutest kids on planet earth). Their little boy was sitting on the floor next to the couch we were sitting on, quietly playing on his dad's ipad. Sis. McD leans over, about to ask him what he is playing, when suddenly she bursts out in uncontrollable laughter. She just manages to squeak out: "He was on google and he was looking up how to get a six-pack!!". Possible one of the most random moments of my whole mission!!!

Phone Chats is Relief Society:

So it is common knowledge to any born and bred mormon, that every congregation has at least one crazy person (bless their hearts). You just come to accept it and be grateful that they provide you with umpteen opportunities to develop patience and Christ-like love, acceptance and service! Well Carlisle's sister took the cake yesterday in Relief Society.

Beautiful lesson (because it was missionary work!!!!). Great spirit being felt there. A sister is in the middle of telling a lovely story about a missionary experience she had lately with her non-member husband, when suddenly we are all surprised to hear this sister's voice from the corner. She is on her mobile phone in the lesson. And has it on speaker phone.

**The following conversation occurred in almost a shouting voice!**

Sister: "Hello???!!!??! Helllloo?! Hello what do you want"
Man on other end: "Hi how are you?

Sister: "Go away!!! I'm in church right now!"

Man: "Oh. Huh? But you called me!"
Sister: "Shut up and be quiet. I'm in church. Leave me alone right now"

Man: "Why did you call me then?!"
Sister: "Go away! I'll talk to you later" ...then she hung up

Never a dull moment in the mission life!! Funny part was that Sis McD couldn't hear very well and wasn't sure what was going on. After church as we were talking about it, I got to knock her socks off when I revealed that the lady was having a phone conversation in the middle of class. Sis. McD thought that she had just maybe turned Siri on or something!

And finally some miracles:

Email time is short this week (spent too much time type out all the silly stuff). But will share a quick miracle this week!

It has been a freezing, pouring rain kind of week, so our finding efforts haven't yielded the best results. On Saturday afternoon, after a couple of hours of freezing our behinds off, we were about to turn around and go home for tea. I decided to try and stop one more man before we left. I gave him a church invite card, and he said he was too busy. Slightly sick of having people say they're too busy to take 1 second to grab a card out of my hand, I awkwardly kept holding the card out and said (a little tired and frustrated) "It's just a card, it won't take your time". He grabbed it and walked off. We proceeded down the street and knocked a couple of doors of potential investigators along the way home. We noticed this man walked up and down the street 3 times (weird...but we ignored it). Suddenly he came up to me and asked "Sorry to bother you. But what is it that you do?". We explained who we were and what we do. He then shocked us and said he'd really like to talk to us and asked if we could come to his house in 2 hours. We came back and had an amazing lesson with him. He really wants to change his life and find some hope and motivation from religion. He's now a new investigator. It was a huge miracle after a hard week! Miracles always come at the right time!

Anyways! Another week gone! Time flies too fast!! Proverbs 29:18-- keep chasing your dreams and visions for your life! Keep choosing the right and enjoy all the blessings that come with it!! Life is way too good to waste! I love you all!! Keep loving your local missionaries! Send my sister some love!!!

Hope the time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!

XxX Sister Martin!

Some views in Carlisle