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

MIRACLES EVERYWHERE!!!

I believe in miracles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! No....really!!

After weeks and weeks and weeks of being super patient (anyone who knows me knows that Sister Martin and patient do not fit in the same sentence) we have hit a huge wave of miracles!!! MIRACLES EVERYWHERE (oh how I've missed my Nutri-grain commercial spoofs!!! Annnndd we are back!!!).

Miracles:

1. I Love Sushi!

I got to eat sushi this week! This is the 1st time I've eaten sushi since I've left home. I have been a sushi deprived human! I feel confident to officially say that there is a direct correlation between sushi intake and happiness! I should write a book about it! May blessings be poured upon the head of the YSA sister who was kind enough to pump this overexcited missionary full of sushi loving!

2. I Love Indian food (more fondly referred to as Brown food by my Indian friends back home!):

I got to eat Indian food this week! This is also the 1st time that I've eaten Indian since I've left home! Such a sad life!!!! How have I lived for the past 8 months?!!!!!! I think this proves that the way to a missionaries heart is through his/her stomach! After everything I've seen, I can testify that the church is fuelled by food! I think the spirit follows afterwards (everyone's gotta eat right?!).

.....but seriously, there is a real, legitimate miracle linked to this! We got the strangest prompting that I've ever gotten in my entire mission (and I've certainly gotten some crazy ones!). We got dropped by a family this week. They were content in their current faith (fair enough....happens all the time) but were super nice and invited us to come around anytime to share scriptures and chat. The husband manages a local Indian restaurant. Thurs night, we both felt prompted to go there (I wondered if my love for Indian food was fuelling this prompting and not the spirit, but turned out Sis. M had the same prompting so we went for it). We came in and the place was almost empty. This gave the husband tons of time to chat with us as we ate. We talked more about our beliefs, our role as missionaries etc. Then in the middle of the meal, the cook suddenly came out from the back kitchen to talk to us. He said that the manager (the husband) had told him to talk to us. The cook told of how he has been looking for a place to worship and for comfort: his wife recently found out she has lymphoma (the same cancer my dad has beaten twice). I was shocked. I was able to talk a lot with him about how my family dealt with it, and how the gospel played a massive role in our ability to endure the difficulties of that time of our lives. He immediately expressed the desire to come to church and be taught. He came to church yesterday but could only stay for some of sacrament meeting. He was sad to leave and wants to stay for all of the meetings next week. He said the manager (the one who dropped us) said he is going to come along next week as well. The Lord works in the most incredible ways! The man we have met is so humble, and so accepting of the gospel.

3. Surprise referral!!!

What?!?! Referrals?!?! I have spent 8 months desperately seeking out referrals and finally they have come with a fire!!!! We have 2 recent converts who have been fighting different struggles, but have been working hard to make good choices in the midst of hard temptations. They literally cheered and jumped up and down with excitement when we asked if we could reteach them the missionary lessons. It's those moments that make all the hard days so worth it! It touches my heart to see people so grateful to be taught by us, and to see them so hungry to grow and learn in the gospel and to change their lives. We asked them after the 1st lesson if they knew anyone we could teach. One of them quietly mumbled that she was thinking of one girl, but then her and the other friend both said they thought she'd not be a good person to teach (too far gone to change her ways now). I was very persistent with them and reminded them that they were the same way before missionaries met them. I invited them to pray about this person and reconsider their initial thoughts. We showed up to teach these girls last night again. As they opened the door, they were grinning and said they had a surprise for us! Turned out they had prayed about it and felt good about the answer, because sitting on the couch was their friend. And it turns out I've met this girl before....I would have never guessed her to be one who would be interested from my experience with her in the past. You truly never know who is ready!

It was one of the most spiritual lessons of my whole mission. All 3 of these girls were so into the lesson. You could tell they felt loved by their Saviour. The testimonies of these recent converts-- who are fighting hard battles-- was so motivating. Very simple, but powerful testimonies of how loved they feel. This girl accepted the invitation to be baptised! It was so amazing to see how the spirit works in peoples' hearts. The friends literally cheered as their friend agreed to work towards baptism. I am so overwhelmed at the love of the Lord for his missionaries and his children!!! We really have no idea who the Lord has prepared! It has been proven to me that it often is the one's you least expect that end up developing the most incredible faith!!

5. Textbook Hastening The Work of Salvation!!

We were planning on doing a mormon messages movie night with this same group of people tonight! Yesterday after church, they came running up to us all excited about this idea they came up with. Instead of holding the movie night at the chapel, they chose to move it to the home of one of the recent converts, so her 2 nonmember family members (whom she's been hoping to get us to work with soon) and another less active recent convert can join us! This is hastening the work of salvation at it's best! I'm so grateful for the efforts of the recent converts in this small branch!! They are making all the difference!!

4. What?! More referrals?!?!?!

As I was typing this email we literally just got a phone call! We were very direct with one of our families this week and invited them quite boldly to invite all their friends to an international food night that we plan on doing soon at the chapel. I guess this sparked their thoughts because the mother just called us and said her friend is interested in doing scripture studies with us!! I'm so overwhelmed by the miracles that are hitting Carlisle. The harvest is beginning here, and the love of Christ is ready to break all barriers and reach those waiting for relief and love!!!

5. Just call me your local English teacher.....again!

I'm so grateful for the experiences I had with Remek!! And I'm so grateful that Sis. Shchur was bold enough to volunteer me (as a spanking, brand new, terrified missionary) to teach him English! He is such a wonderful man, and I learned so much as we taught him English for all those months in Telford! I've been able to use these experiences to help with the work here! I've met 3 Polish people this week! I've been able to us my broken Polish and the Polish BOM that I carry with me everyday to invite them to take English lessons with us. We met a lovely man on the street who we will be starting lessons with this week!!!! The knowledge we acquire is truly so precious! There is a reason that we are commanded to try and learn as much as we can! It is our knowledge that stays with us, even after we die! And I truly learning out here that you never know when you'll be given opportunities to us the skills you acquire for good in this life!!!!!

6. The seeds have been planting! The harvest has begun!

I'm so thankful for all of the work that the previous EMM missionaries have done here! We have finally organized all of our old potential investigator forms and started working through them on the weekend. We booked 5 appointments in less than an hour!! We really do not know what impact our efforts make for the future! We have literally hundreds of untouched names to work on, so this is only the beginning of something incredibly great!!! Keep praying for your missionaries! Prayers and faith are what make the difference because that is what leads to the motivation to act!

Ok! Miracle rant over.

Favourite lines of the week:

Sis McD has been doing a great job at cutting out the slang. Some new missionaries were accidentally saying some slang words at a meeting. I jokingly yelled out to her: "Ahhh! Cover your ears.......oh...wait!". I'm too sarcastic for my own good! It just slips out! I'm so grateful that she has an incredible sense of humour and is able to laugh at herself!

Accent Reversals!:

We've been having so much fun laughing at each other's accents! We mimic each other so much it's crazy!! We came up with a clever idea! Fact: Sister Missionaries are SUPER cheesy and most of us set up our voicemail so one sister reads the 1st half of the greeting and the other reads the other half (companionship unity cheesiness!). We have decided to do that as well, except we will be doing an accent reversal for it! It is hilarious! We are going to see how well our colleagues know us and see if they can pick up on it!!

Gypsy Blooper:

We were walking to church when suddenly we saw a horse and buggy flying up the street ahead of us! Sis. McD was going on about how there was a good chance that it was gypsies (travellers)-- they are known for travelling around by horse.

I suddenly blurt out-- look, it's Susie (NAME CHANGED), she's rushing to get to church. Annnnnnd my sarcasm wins again! I had Sis. McD nearly in tears! The elders met a super interesting Gypsy (since they are newer to England..... bless their hearts they couldn't tell that she was a Gypsy) and were all excited as they invited her to church. We have been laughing and making jokes about this all week! We kept joking after that, that we would be proven wrong and when we turned the corner to get to the chapel that we'd find a horse tied up in the car park!!

Anyways! Time always flies too quickly!!! Email time is up! Life is great! The work and trials are constant! But I wouldn't have it any other way!! There is nothing better than missionary work!!!!!!

Love you all!!

Hope the time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!
XxX Sister Martin

Building in Workington that Erika goes to for District Meetings

 - it was a mansion that is now used as a church building.

Area just outside the church building in Workington

A week of accent fails!!!

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

I'm expecting again!! Baby #2 here we come!

Transfers have arrived and oh boy have they arrived in style this time!!! So Sister Burridge and both of our elders are leaving......leaving me alone as the most experienced missionary in Carlisle (after only 6 weeks!!). AND.........................Sister Riley is going to be a big sister because I'm training again!!!! I was a bit shocked to be training again so soon (only had a 6 week break from training), but training last time was the most wonderful experience so I'm excited to get to do it again!! She is the only sister entering out mission this transfer, so it will be interesting to see how it will be this time around (won't have other sister trainers around me this time to compare notes and ideas with). Maybe I'll finally get my first American companion in the field??!?!!! Time will tell!

The scary part is that I'm going to be the oldest missionary in the area. An elder from Sister Riley and Burridge's group is going to be training a missionary in Carlisle (we'll have 2 new missionaries out here). I'm starting to feel a bit old in the mission. I trained the trainers group and the trainer's trainees group. That probably sounded like gibberish......i.e. time is going wayyyyyyyyyyy too fast out here!!!

Besides that I hate to report that this has been a boring week. No weird stories or crazy loaves and fishes type miracles! Our week mostly consisted of holidays (we didn't work much over New Years), eating wayyyy to much food (I feel like I'm working on food baby number 12 after all the holiday dinners...cheaper by the dozen anyone?!), packing, more packing and me being on an exchange in Preston for a couple of days!

Funny Vancouverite Joke:

A brother in our branch served in Vancouver on his mission and told me that there was a scripture in the BOM about Vancouver. I love studying the history and geography of the BOM, so I found this surprising as this made absolutely no sense to me (I couldn't recall any reference that would lead me to believe that west coast N. America was an area in the BOM....certainly South American and southern parts of N. America....but not our neck of the woods).

Alma 17:26......"as he was with the Lamanitish servants going forth with their flocks to the place of water, which was called the water of Sebus....."   

It took me a minute but then it clicked. Sebus......Sea Bus!!! Har har har (knee slap!!).

Preston is a blessed place:
I was blessed to go on exchange to Preston last week! I love being there! There is a special feeling there as I remember how much history was made in this great city! This is the place where the first baptisms happened in England in the River Ribble. This is the place where thousands were converted, and a major area where the church began to establish itself in its infancy! I had a wonderful time serving there! I got to serve with a fellow Canadian (from southern Alberta of course!!!) and we had fun talking about cultural similarities and differences and sharing our Christmas Canadian chocolate! (Caramilk and Eat More= heaven!!!)

Highlight of my exchange was visiting the home of a family from Spain, Bolivia and a handful of other Spanish speaking countries (they moved a lot). They are active members of the Preston ward and the sisters read the BOM with them to help them work on their English!! They were convinced that I had to be spanish as soon as I walked in the door! As soon as they saw my name-badge, they got so excited! "You have a Spanish name! Who in your family is Spanish?!?!". They then asked my first name and got even more excited "Your first name is so Spanish too!!!!! You must be spanish!! You don't look white enough to not be Spanish!!!". Hilarious! I had to disappoint them and tell them I'm about as white as you can get (a healthy blend of Scotland and England all the way back to forever!).

I also received the most wonderful compliment of the week. The father was telling us about his mission and talking about sister missionaries. Back then, obviously there weren't many sisters, and the ones who did serve were often strange in some way or another. He was telling us about this Tongan sister who was so big that she broke all the beds in the flats and made the elders look like babies. Him and his wife then told me that I am so skinny and a wonderful height in comparison to the Tongan's they've met. I almost cried! After 700 Christmas dinners, that was the nicest thing anyone has ever said to me ;)        ......life lesson I'm glad I've learned-- Can't change it so embrace and love it! I love being the tall girl! :)

Hope everyone's' New Year is full of miracles and wonderfully failed weight-loss goals ;) But seriously! I pray that the love of Christ can touch the lives of all this year!! And for real, I hope this year is full of motivating, successful goals that involve helping your local missionaries ;) ;) ****HINT HINT***

But SERIOUSLY!! Happy New Year!!!! I love you all so much!!!!!!

Hope the time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!
<3 Sister Martin

Some pictures of Carlisle...

Carlisle Cathedral

Carlisle Castle

House on the Scotland Border - proudly claims to be the 1st house in Scotland

....also proudly claims to be the last house in Scotland (depending on if you are going in or out of Scotland)

....lots of people like to get married here

Proof that Scotland is literally on her doorstep

River near Scotland border that is flooded

Gotta love this sign!

Post Christmas and feeling as fat as Father Christmas!

Baby email this week. Our preparation day is shortened today, so we have make like a banana (pronounced the Aussie way....in honour of Sister Riley!) and split!!!

Fun facts from this week:

1. If you put gummy bears in a bottle of Shloer filled with water and leave them a couple of days, they blow up to ridiculous sizes! We found this hilarious. Evidence that when you take away a 21 year old's tv, Internet, and any other form of worldly entertainment, the dumbest things turn into good ol' fashioned fun!  

2. When you have an Australian companion read "Eh!" on the shirt of the Canadian teddy bear you receive for Christmas, she will pronounce it "Ugh" instead of "Eh!". Fact: This is hilarious for a born and bred Canadian girl to witness!

- Sub-fact: I love my companion anyways!

3. I ate enough food this week to feed half of Africa!

- 5+ Christmas dinners over the course of 3 days! I never want to eat again (the ultimate weight loss plan!!).

- The most intense dinner we had? In one meal: Turkey, duck, fried chicken, pork, and ALL the fixings! With cheesecake (yummmmmmmmm) for dessert! Confession: I am slightly disgusted wtih myself for admitting that this was my Christmas! But it was a once in a lifetime experience!! I love England!

4. Huge miracles are happening in Carlisle!!!!

We were heading off to go and search out a less actives home (a specific assignment from the church to confirm if they had the correct address for the person). As we were street contacting on the way to the house it was proven that there are still people out here who are prepared to hear the message of the gospel. The first person we talked to commented on how he had met a missionary from another denomination in the past. This missionary told him that you can find the answer to any question you have if you study the Bible carefully enough. This didn't make sense to him, as he has found that the Bible has been changed too much (doctrinally and chronologically) for it to make sense to him all of the time. When we taught him about the Book of Mormon it made complete sense to him. He was eager to have us come teach him and his family as soon as possible. Literally after we left him, a woman stopped us on the street and asked us for the time. She saw our Books of Mormon and badges and asked what we are doing here. We were all in tears on the street as we taught her a bit about the plan of salvation and the experiences we have had with it in our lives. She said that she has a lot of problems and asked if we can try and help her; we testified that the atonement of Jesus Christ can help us through anything. It was so humbling as we offered a prayer at the end and she kept asking us to pray for so many people she knows in her life who are struggling. We take prayer for granted way too often!

The miracle continues though!! We spent so long teaching these 2 that we didn't have time to get to the actual house. So the next night we went to find it. The address turned out to be wrong (the person did not live there) but an Indian lady did. With no hesitation she invited us straight in. She immediately told us how she has such a strong love for Christ. She suddenly was in tears as she exclaimed that we were a direct answer to her prayers. Her mother-in-law back in India has multiple organ failure and is being admitted into hospital today. The whole family has been praying that someone would be sent to come comfort them. Her husband had to work that day, so she had to stay home and watch her young daughter instead of going to church. She said she had wanted to go so badly as she needed comfort during this trial and had prayed that morning for God to send someone for her. I was in tears as I realized that meeting the other two the day before was divine intervention from Heavenly Father. We were not meant to meet her until the next day (after she had prayed for us to come)! We taught her the plan of salvation and invited her to baptism and she accepted. Her brother and his family also live across the street and they are all struggling through this trial right now, so we hope to be able to share some comfort with all of them. This is a total of 3 families (and 1 potential family) from only knocking on this one door!

I literally wrote last week how I know with all my heart that the call for missionary work is now!!!! This is proof!!!! My faith will not waiver in this regard!! I have been fasting and praying so hard this transfer and have done the hardest work I have my whole mission. The work is about to explode in Carlisle! The harvest is beginning and I'm the most blessed person ever to be a part of it! Hard work and loads of faith can truly move mountains!!

Thanks for all the love I received over the holidays!!! I am a blessed person!!!

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

Sister Martin!! 

We had a wonderful Skype call on Boxing Day

Baby mama drama, orphanages, and Noah's ark.

Christmas as a missionary is officially the most incredible experience anyone can ever have! This has been one of the hardest and funnest weeks of my life!

Likening my weight unto a yo-yo:

So Carlisle is a beautiful place, because it is a massive area (one of the villages in our area is apparently 35 miles away) and it has the worst bus system known to man (buses are almost non-existent out here). In missionary terms, this equals weight loss! So I've finally started slimming down again, just in time for Santa to slam the sweets on the sisters. Carlisle branch is full of the loveliest people ever! We have been spoiled sick!!! We received the largest Christmas hamper I've ever seen in my life!!!! Filled with food, toiletries and sweets; not including all the individual gifts and cards we've received! So my official prediction is that plan cut-down the pounds in Carlisle will be sabotaged quickly! Thank-goodness I have the comfort of knowing that no matter what, Jesus Christ, and my mother will still always love me ;)

Speaking of Weight:

We went to the mission home on Wednesday for our Christmas training. Amazing! We are blessed with the best couple on planet earth to lead this mission! President and Sister Preston pulled out all the stops for us, and as far as I'm concerned I think they should pretty much be translated and carried up to heaven (Enoch style) for everything they did for us this Christmas!!

This bag was handmade and embroidered by Sister Preston and her sister. They made over 240 of these for each of the missionaries serving!  

Our district received all our Christmas packages that day as well. Because we were going on exchanges with our sister training leaders and they were giving us a lift back to Carlisle, we offered to take all the elders packages home so they wouldn't have to carry them on the trains. As we departed, the car seemed quite sluggish and we were confused why it couldn't go over 20mph. I guessed maybe there was something wrong with the car; Sister B and I both wondered if it was simply in the wrong setting. Our sister training leaders were convinced that the weight of all the packages must be too much for the car. Sis. B and I were making faces at each other as they said this, because it was a new car with automatic transmission so that made no sense to us. There are human beings heavier than the packages that we were carrying. So in cliche, Molly Mormon sister missionary style, the car was pulled over and we offered a prayer, asking for a blessing to be on the engine (we were all snickering through the prayer....couldn't quite believe that we had just prayed for an engine). Trip resumed. 3 seconds later, it was declared that the car was too heavy, and we had to return to the mission home and make the elders carry their packages. We pulled in the drive to the look of confused elders, as the sisters yelled to them that the load was too heavy. Right as they said that, the driver discovered that (as Sis. B and I had guessed) the car was in drive+ (equivalent to putting it in gear 2 for hills back home). The windows were rolled up fast, and embarrassed, we zipped away before the elders could realize our dumb mistake.

Baby mama drama:

Strange things happen when you are stuck coordinating and organizing records with elders for hours on end! I have been pushing forward a new way of doing the work in Carlisle. I cleaned out our house when I first moved in, and found piles of old records of people that missionaries met, but missionaries never followed up on. As far as I was concerned, I had pretty much found our next 20 baptisms!!! Hundreds of names, never touched!!!!! So it has taken crazy coordination to sort it all out. As we were looking at some of the records, with no surprise there were some hilarious/bizarre stories & descriptions of people missionaries have met over the years. One story reminded one of our elders about a story he heard. Apparently once upon a time (I doubt it's true but funny nonetheless) there were 3 people dated for baptism, who didn't get baptized because they were all caught (literally) by elders have a messed-up, threesome triangle affair. As this story was being told, I was doing map work and discovered the most hilarious thing ever. There is a place called Knockup-worth Farm in Carlisle. In our immaturity, we found the timing of this discovery (in the middle of the story) hilarious. We started trying to guess what kind of place this would be; what do they grow/raise there?! My guess was that it is actually an orphanage! Instead of raising animals, they raise children!!!

So decided that we should offer to be their new advertising managers. "Knockup-worth Farm......We raise them babies for you! Yee Haw!!!"

Taylor Swift: A new missionary finding tool!:

So we have permission from leaders to listen to Christmas songs sung by people like Michael Buble etc. as long as they're appropriate Christmas hymns (e.g. Silent Night, Away in a Manger). Sis. B has a song by Taylor Swift that sings about the need for Jesus to be the center of Christmas. The main line says "Here's to the birthday boy who saved our lives". My exchange companion blew my mind as we were talking to a man on the street. Companion: "I heard someone once describe the real meaning of Christmas, by saying Here's to the birthday boy who saved our lives...etc. etc.". I found this hilarious! It took everything for me not to laugh! As we were driving to Carlisle the night before, we were all listening to it full blast in the car! Never in my life would I think someone could manage to insert a Taylor Swift quote into a street contacting situation! 1st time for everything!

It is Noah's ark out here:

After living in Carlisle for almost a month, I have decided that I should be a weather woman and that I should be allowed to redefine meteorologist terms using the following English scale I've created:

Brilliant = sun

Alright= cloudy with sun/bits of rain

Poorly= rain

England= lots of rain with flashes of cold wind....i.e. just another English day

Mary Poppins= hello wind-storms!

Noah's Ark= Floods mixed with Mary Poppins and pigeons getting pulverized by the wind

4 seasons= all of the above, occurring in the space of 1 hour!

Call Mark Madryga and tell him he's out of the job! This Vancouverite has changed the face of weather forever!

That awkward moment when you sit on an elder's lap:

So generally English people are much more reserved and quiet than we are! EXCEPT (as I discovered on Sat) at Christmas parties! Our little branch Christmas party was the best church party I have ever been too!! Instead of stressing about having a gigantic spread, they just told everyone to bring stuff (no bishopric members stressing over cooking a giant turkey, and no RS president stressing about making sure there is stuffing, mashed potatoes and anything else you can think of). There were mostly finger foods and way more desert than food, but it was fine. No one was bothered and everyone was having a blast! Let's be honest, during Christmas most people want to mainly eat artery clogging deserts anyways! We just put real food on our plates to be polite! The decorations were also amazing! Tinsel, paper chains, trees, mistletoe, Christmas table clothes everywhere. It was like Christmas got sick all over the cultural hall! Christmas music booming in the background. These people know how to party!

What made it great though was that they actually play GAMES at their Christmas parties. Pass the parcel, musical chairs, musical statues etc. (if it wasn't obvious yet, I'm hinting that people back home should read this and use it for next year's Christmas party! No point in beating around the bush).

Pass the parcel here is the best ever! Each round that someone takes a layer of wrapping off the present, the person has to do something (99% of the time it's super silly) that has been predetermined and is written on a list. Most rounds included the person having to put on a silly wig. Some people had to sing a song. Some had to ride a toy pony and gallop around the circle of people etc. etc. etc. So much fun!

Musical chairs! If you want to see an awkward sandwich, just watch a sister accidentally sitting on an elders lap as they both dive for the same chair. Yup. That was me. We both flew off the chair so fast that it was like two magnets repelling each other. Then I realized that he had dived off the chair, and proceeded to sit back on the chair before he could! That's a strategy I would have never thought I could use before to win! All in all, so much fun! Highlight of the night though was seeing a skinny, ginger Santa Clause with a Scottish accent (our branch president) hand out the presents! Definitely a once-in-a-lifetime for me!

After playing Pass the Parcel

Time for a spiritual tidbit for the day (*drool...the word tidbit just reminded me of Timbits and I suddenly just had my 1st Tim Horton's craving since I've left Canada):

I have been having amazing studies the last month! I wish I had time to just write for hours about all the mind-blowing things I'm learning from the scriptures! I'll highlight one thing though that really stood out to me!

So I have been reading Mosiah/Alma for the past 2 months. The beauty of these books is that they are packed with missionary experiences, so reading them out here is a billion times better!

Alma 26: 5-6 So we often hear missionary work being compared to a harvest. We've all heard those scriptures a million times where words like sheaves, wheat, harvest, thrust in your sickle etc. etc. are used. I was curious to see how many scriptures there are of this nature. I went to the index and looked up all the key words in this scriptures.

Prepare to have your mind blown! Scriptures about missionary work (being compared to a harvest) are only found once or twice in the Book of Mormon, and they are only (generally) found in Alma and Mosiah. The next mention of such scriptures are once again very little, and when they are mentioned again in the BOM it is in 3 Nephi, where Jesus is talking/prophesying about the future (our times).

I have loved to compare this part of the BOM to our times. In this part of the BOM, Christ's birth is right around the corner. It is here that there is a call for the work to move forward. The missions of Alma, Amulek, Aaron, Ammon, Omner and Himni are the most inspiring records I have ever read. They bring me to tears. These men baptized THOUSANDS!!! 6 people! Went to go preach to the most hard-hearted, hostile, wicked people of that time and after enduring every trial possible, they baptized THOUSANDS and watched these people become indescribably happy and righteous.

Here is where I was shocked and inspired. In the index, where there is only 2-3 harvest scriptures in the BOM, there are 10-15+ in Doctrine and Covenents (the scriptures and revelations of OUR day). If thousands were baptized at a time where the call for missionary work wasn't that great, how many has the Lord prepared at this time?! How much greater is the call for missionary work today?! How many more TENS OF THOUSANDS has the Lord prepared!!!!! As I read through the account of Alma and the sons of the Mosiah, there was reference to the Lord preparing the hearts of the people to receive the word. His spirit was travelling throughout the land. It is all a matter of FAITH! Do we believe that now is the time?! Do we believe that God is who he says he is; a God who can use us- his imperfect children- to be instruments in his hands...to move mountains if needed! Do we believe that branches can become wards? and wards can be divided to form new ones? If we aren't doing missionary work and are not ACTING, then we do not. If we truly believe in the power and divinity of our father in heaven, then we know that anything is possible, and that NOW is truly the time for His work to happen! The men in the scriptures never gave excuses. They put their trust in the Lord- even though I'm sure they were terrified and had no clue how it could happen- and courageously did as He commanded them.

Alma 26:6-- the Lord is calling for the work to happen NOW because later is too late! Think about the BOM in late Helamen/3rd Nephi. The people were so hard-hearted! You see the missionary work go to a halt (in comparison to Alma's time). Satan had too much of a hold on the hearts of those people. The Lord needed his missionaries to do all they could before it was too late. The Lord is making that same call again! He wants as many of his children as possible to return to Him. He NEEDS us to do our part to make this happen! The Saviour's coming is right around the corner! We must share the love of Jesus Christ. We must firmly witness that he is real, and stop being ashamed of it. Christ was never ashamed of us. He never gave up on us, even though this came with the ultimate price. He loves us. How much do we love him? How much will we sacrifice to help his gospel move forward! Now is the time. There will be no later. I truly believe this with all my heart!

Anyways, rant over. If you couldn't tell, I'm only slightly passionate about missionary work ;) Most exciting Christmas of my life! Even more exciting is the fact that I am going to watch Brave on Christmas, when I'm only a few mins from the Scotland border (how amazing is that?!). I'm so grateful to be a missionary and to be doing the Lord's work during this time of the year!!! I couldn't think of a better way to spend this time of my life! I pray that everyone has a blessed Christmas season and that many wonderful family memories are made at this time! May the Lord bless everyone with his love, as we celebrate his birth and his incredible life!!

Heaps - a good Aussie term "heaps of fun"

Is it popcorn popping...or mushrooms

Hope the time goes quickly for you and slowly for me!
<3 Sister Martin