Wake up sleepy head!!!! The gospel for dummies!

So I hate to report that it has been a bit of a boring week with not too much to report! What can I say? It happens sometimes! We are working hard though and loving the potential that sits in this area!! Guarantee that next week there will be many jokes and laughs to share!! I'll give you the only 2 lol's of the week before I blast you with my spiritual tidbits for the week!

Scouser Tongue Twister:

So I made up my own tongue twister this week and would like to dedicate this to the beautiful city of Liverpool!!! Hands down, Liverpool is one of my favourite places to do missionary work-- Beautiful city, some of the friendliest people you'll meet in the UK, lovely beaches and good chippies on every corner! If you are not familiar with the scouse accent then go and youtube it and this will soon make sense:

Tongue twister of the week:

"I work at the chicken shack"

Go on the internet, educate yourself on the pronunciation of the letter K in scouse land, and then proceed to laugh, attempt the tongue twister, laugh again, and then crave some fried chicken!

Mormon Justification for Being a Fat Kid:

So a lady in our ward just got into my good books this week! Sis. M and I have been on a healthy eating phase-- she doesn't want to go home with the "tea appointment 10" (my version of the freshman 15!)....fair enough, I don't either so I happily joined in. We were talking with this sister (a RM) about it and she said to us

"Ahhh don't worry about it! You're just being good Molly Mormons! You're building up your emergency food storage!"

Amen! Hallelujah! Praise the Lord! There is a way to justify the 15 lbs of weight that I've gained in yogurts, cheap bakeries, and English chocolates and custards!!

Let's Get SPIRITUAL!:

Ok! Since I am so lame this week I will at least share a scripture that I found amusing this week.

Go read Song of Solomon......the end!

JUST KIDDING! (don't actually do that! Songs of Solomon is so dodgy!)

So lately I have been loving the Old Testament (yes! It is possible to actually understand and learn fun things in the OT! Just buy a solid dictionary and then go to town on the bible! It's so interesting!)

I decided to read a childhood favourite this week: Jonah!

I realized that I haven't read that book in ages (or possible even ever! We get TOLD the story so often that I think we are guilty of forgetting to actually READ them every once in awhile!). I loved one verse in particular:

So Jonah has run off to hide from the Lord! 

PAUSE

Friendly Tip: don't ever try that! This is really dumb! For real! Homeboy! ......ok, youtube quoting over (just quoted from youtube bedroom intruder alert video for anyone is who super confused and has no idea what just happened!). 

AND WE'RE BACK

So Jonah is on the boat (hiding from God.....seriously?!) and everyone on the ship are about to die in a massive storm that the Lord has caused to happen. Whilst this is happening, Jonah is fast asleep on the ship! I love this next part! 

Jonah 1:6  So the shipmaster came to him [Jonah], and said unto him, What meanest thou, O sleeper? arise, call upon thy God, if so be that God will think upon us, that we perish not.

What meanest thou, O sleeper?

It is actually so funny when you think about it! Basically what he has said:

"Hey there sleepy head! WAKE UP! What are you doing!? We are about to DIE and you are just chilling out and taking a nap?! Seriously?! Please explain to me why on earth are you doing something so dumb, while we are looking death in the face! Get on your knees and pray or help get us out of this mess!"

We laugh at this, but how often do we do this in life! I would suggest that we sometimes do this on a daily basis! Open your eyes! WAKE UP SLEEPY HEADS! (as the shipmaster would say). How often do we try and run from the Lord?! How often do we stick our fingers in our ears, going "LALALALALALA", trying to convince ourselves that ignorance will be an acceptable excuse for all the should haves of our lives! 

It's not.

The Lord invites us to come and know him everyday! We have opportunities to do good everyday! Sometimes we have to create those opportunities, but that is no excuse to not do them! The best things require some sacrifice and effort! End of story! So stop sleeping and waiting for things to sort themselves out! Stop hiding from your sacred and eternal responsibilities to do good, to be like Christ, to deepen your faith and conversion!

You don't have to come and confess, [HE] gonna finnnnnd you! So run and go tell dat homeboy, home home homeboy!! 

So what have we learned?!

1. You can easily liken the story of Jonah and the whale to the bedroom intruder alert video on youtube! Great for some good laughs! But seriously: Don't be dumb! Don't sleep through the restoration!! (as President Uchtdorf said in his marvelous talk this last general conference https://www.lds.org/general-conference/2014/04/are-you-sleeping-through-the-restoration?lang=eng) WAKE UP SLEEPY HEAD AND GO DO SOMETHING GOOD WITH YOUR LIFE! You will feel good! I Promise!!

2. When the Lord asks, don't hide from responsibility! He asks us because it will be an opportunity for us to grow individually, AND he will be able to bless us with so many things because of it!! The sacrifices will be worth it!

Who doesn't want blessings?! Who doesn't want to become a better person?! I DO! 

So go make something good happen! Don't wait to get swallowed by a big, smelly whale! We can learn in 2 ways: either by doing the right thing the 1st time and enjoying the blessings, or by being chastised and learning by the 'tough love' method! Don't choose be ignorant! It will only cause a big giant headache and make you have regrets when you one day look back at all the "what ifs", and "could-of's" and "would-of's".

Do something great this week! I dare you! That is what this life is for! 

I love you all!
Hope the time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!

Sister Martin xoxoxo