It Makes Everything Worth It

Hellloooo family :) I'm loving life here!! Every week seems shorter and shorter. I can't believe I'm already writing again (I used to hate when missionaries said that but it's legit). My week was greatttt and full of lessons. I'll give ya some highlights:

Monday we had P-day and the elders forced me to eat an Indian kebab and be "kebabtized." It was awful. Don't try it. I wish I could tell you what was in it but I have no idea. Other than lamb.

Tuesday we had a district meeting with President at the mission home. What an inspired man. Wowowow. I didn't want the meeting to end. Afterwards we were taking district photos behind the church and like an hour later we were looking through the photos and saw that President was photobombing in the window in all of them hahaha.

On Wednesday we met Kelvin who was supposedly on a baptism date but turns out wasn't. :( It's okay though we can change that. He is about 65. He stopped taking lessons from the missionaries once he learned about tithing and stopped going to church but he'd only been twice. Sister Price and I couldn't find any members that were available to teach with us because it was in the middle of the day, so we thought we would just teach him outside... We aren't supposed to teach men without another female present unless we are out in the open. We showed up at his door and then it started pouring rain haha. He wanted us to just come back another time but I was determined to teach him because I was having a hard day and needed something to happen. So we suggested we sat on the ground in his entryway with the door open. So we did that. The lesson lasted for an hour and a half and I've never felt the spirit so strong in my entire life. (I always say that, but it was really powerful.) When we testified about the commandments and the promised blessings you could tell he understood and knew it was true. I think the hardest thing here is that people know it is true - they just aren't willing to make the commitment. The church does require a lot of us!!!! To me that gives it even more of a reason to be true. When much is given much is required, and God wouldn't give us something easy to believe in. He requires faith and lots of hard work in everything - including religion!!!! Anyways, the lesson was great. He had a stroke a few years ago and believes he was saved for some reason and he thinks that this might be it. Still searching though. Baby steps. We will get there. :)

Nothing could stop my high of happiness after the lesson. It was pouring rain and I forgot a coat (typical) and cars kept driving through puddles and drenching us and we had an hour walk ahead but I honestly did not care one bit haha. It's SO true that Satan beats down at you hard before a miracle is about to happen. I see it every single day. He asked us to come back on Saturday so we went back and got to actually be inside this time because we brought Sister Mawle with us. It was another good lesson about revelation. He gets off topic really easy and forgets what we are talking about.... But the spirit was there that's all that matters. And he came to church. :) He was nervous that people would judge him because he hadn't been for a long time. We told him the members would be more than welcoming, and they were! He only stayed 2 hours, but we were still happy. And he wants to come to General Conference with us next week.

We taught Oliver and Manee on Friday. Oliver is great. I love lessons with him. He always dresses up and gives us drinks and a treat before the lesson. And he always leads the lesson out and calls on someone to pray and reminds us of his baptism. I love it so much. He wants to make sure his baptism is 100% perfect. Manee is kind of progressing.... And her religion is Nepan. She's just struggling with commandments. She works at town centre so we try to visit often and just make her feel loved.

The members here are so dedicated. I love eating with them and getting to know them. Each of them have such special stories of finding the church. Member present lessons are the best. We are building such strong relationships with them!!! This week we ate with an older couple called the Dentons. They feed us every week because they think feeding the missionaries is their contribution to missionary work - SO TRUE!!! FEED MISSIONARIES!!! Gaining lots of lbs though unfortunately. We were leaving after dinner and I forgot to hug sister Denton and she goes "Mmhmmmm Sister McEwan! You're forgetting something!!" I thought I left my scriptures or something, but no. We have good laughs with all the members and so many memories already.

The elders in our district spoil us because we are the only sisters in a district of 8 elders. This week they bought us 16£ of lotion, a ukelele, and on Saturday they bought us bikes at some bike sale and are repairing them for us!?!!!!? What the heck!!! Today they're coming to visit us in Cannock. They're so nice and would do anything for me and Sister Price. We feel way too loved.

Saturday we helped Sister Mawle paint her house and then we had curry it was delishhhh and I'm obsessed with her kids I just love being at their house. I feel like I'm in Utah when I'm with them.

SUNDAYYY woohoooo. It was brill as they say here. I love playing the hymns. I wish I learned the organ before but right when I get home I'm taking lessons. :) Fast Sunday is 10x harder as a missionary btw because you have to walk everywhere hahaha it's okay though I feasted after. After church we went to the hospital to visit Ingrid. We went earlier in the week and she requested that we bring her some pears because she loves them. So we did that and were able to chat for a little while. Her and her family are recent converts. I'm glad we went when we did because it was visiting hours and pouring rain and her family doesn't have a car so they weren't able to visit.

Our day was planned like this: church, ward coordination, meet up with our potential Steven, go to the bishops for dinner, then visit Ingrid. The bishop cancelled on us so we decided we would talk Steven and then see Ingrid. BUT Steven was running late so we went and saw Ingrid first (sorry if this is confusing, there is a reason behind it) it all worked out EXACTLY how it was supposed to. We were able to visit Ingrid when her family couldn't, and we met Steven outside the hospital at a bus stop and talked for almost 3 hours!!!!!!!! And it was on quiet peaceful ground which wouldn't have happened because we were supposed to meet in the town centre. It was the most perfect day.

But Steven ahhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!! We met him street contacting last week (turns out finding actually works!!!) He is 20. Atheist. His whole family is. He's never believed in God but when we saw him on the street last week we challenged him to pray. He told us he did the next morning, before work, and he went outside and saw that it was sunny (super rare here) and he said he knew that it was a good sign. He said that he was so shocked when we stopped him on the street. He said he isn't really good at talking to people and that people don't care to talk to him ever so he was shocked when 2 random Americans cared to talk to him and get to know him. He said it made his day!!! He said he doesn't go out much. He said If people approach him he usually runs off but had a feeling to stay and talk with us. We've been talking over the phone through the week, and meeting with him was amazing. We taught him literally every lesson out of PMG in one setting because he was asking so many good questions and wanted to know so much. Oh my word he is a sweetheart and so ready and prepared to receive the gospel and he is totally open even though he has never had religion in his life. I had completely forgotten that I hadn't eaten all day because we were so into talking to him. He wants to meet again on Tuesday!!!! If the only thing that comes from finding Steven is just to be a friend to him, and letting him know that he is loved, that's all I care about!!! But we have a good feeling. You could tell he was feeling the spirit. And he admitted that he was. He said "I just feel so happy." Words can't describe how happy I was to hear that. It makes everything worth it.

Dyed a shirt purple today. #tbt  I swear I did my own wash at home idk what is going on. Also MASSIVE 18th Happy Birthday to my not so little sister Amelia on the 28th!!!!!!!! I love you so much you have no idea. I'd give anything to be there!!! Everyone give her a hug for meeee ❤️❤️❤️ so proud of you Mia.

That's about it from me this week. I'm making lots of friends, walkin many miles, learning more than I've ever learned in my life, eating loads of potatoes, English sweets and lamb, just working hard to contribute in the building of the Kingdom here in the United Kingdom. :)

Tarah tarah! Cheers and so much love back home. Miss you guys like crazy but happy beyond words. 18 months is nothin.

Sister McEwan xx

Our Cannock Chapel (Rumour has it they built this church in a way that it could easily be turned into a temple.)

Youth night. My teams ultimate fail of a spaghetti tower. It's fine.

Painting

Amelie's picture she drew of us (notice how she spelt McEwan)

Panic in Cannock

Drawn by Sister Price

Nothing is wrong but panic rhymes with Cannock so we use this phrase daily when things go wrong. Two weeks down here and we are finally getting the hang of things!!! I love it sooooo much. I'm beyond happy.

Monday:
P-day was pretty stressful because the internet at the church wasn't working and after two weeks of no contact with the fam I was a little on edge. But!! We figured it out and got plenty of time to talk at the library!!!! Afterwards we ate dinner at bishops. It is so funny because he has 4 daughters and 2 of them are named Amelia and Isabelle. It made me so happy!!!! But also made me miss my sisters and Max:). Afterwards we visited two less actives. Kelly and Marcia. They were both sweethearts. Marcia let us in for a while and we talked with her and prayed with her. Next week we are going to stop by with treats for both of them and really just show them how much we love them.

Tuesday:
Tons of street contacting today. We have to build up a good investigator pool but it's so difficult when no one will listen to you or when people are just creeps. Seriously so many creepers here. Today there was a guy who was like 50 we were talking to. He was smoking and blowing it right into our faces (I smelt like smoke the rest of the day) we were teaching him and it was going great and then out of nowhere he said (I kid you not) "I have looked right into the eyes of the Devil." and we were like uhh ok and he kept saying "I looked right into his eyes." He kept saying it over and over it got super weird and we were like okay bye and then he said "Are you married? Do you want to be married to a British man because I can work it out." and he kept calling me Beverly??? And then we just ran away and prayed to never see him again it was terrible. The Utah bubble is real. Zero success after talking to literally every person we saw, but it's all about planting seeds. We got a ton of phone numbers and potentials but they won't answer our calls. It was burning hot all day then it just started down-pouring. The weather here is ridiculous I've never seen clouds move so fast in my life!!!!  You honestly can experience four seasons in one day. We went to youth night which was fun. The youth in the ward are great!!

Wednesday:
We met Manne!! She was the previous set of sister's hairdresser. She works in the town centre and takes lessons in her shop. We stopped by and had a good discussion with her for about an hour!! The only things holding her back from baptism are the word of wisdom and the law of chastity. She is from Thailand and believes in something called Nepal? I'm not sure sometimes it was difficult to understand. But she is soooooo amazing and she has read the Book of Mormon and is just trying to figure out which religion is true. But she does believe in God and has had many experiences with him. She has a ton of faith. Just struggling with commandments she doesn't see a problem with having a drink here and there or living with her boyfriend. We also met a GOLDEN INVESTIGATOR while street contacting in the town centre!!!! His name is Lamin he's from somewhere in Africa but grew up in the UK. We talked to him for like 45 mins on the side of the road. We taught him the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson and almost all the restoration. He was so fun to talk to and would ask us tons of questions and when we answered them he'd always say "Oh I know that's true!" We were beaming with joy until he told us he lives in WOLVERHAMPTON!!!! Noooooooooooo! it's out of our area so we have to pass him onto the Wolve elders. :( We were so sad. But we've been contacting him throughout the whole week and he said his best friend lives in Cannock and he's here all the time so he would love it if we could come over and teach the both of them. So we can do that!! But still handing it over to the others. </3. It was hilarious though because about an hour later we saw him on a bus back to Wolverhampton and we were walking back to the flat and he stood up and started waving like crazy at us. Good guy.

Thursday:
Zone meeting. It was in Lichfield and took up OUR ENTIRE DAY :(. It's fine though. I got to see Elder Roberts and Elder Ey my fellow greenies from the MTC cause they're in my zone. I have never been so happy to see familiar faces in my entire life. It was sooooo sad though because I walked into the church and Elder Ey was just standing there with casts on both arms!!!!! He said he got hit by a car and wrecked twice on his bike and had to go to the ER. He's like my little brother hahaha I felt so sad for him!!!!! He had a good attitude about it though and was smiling and joking around as usual. Also heard good news that there's a follow up trainers meeting next month so I get to see all of the MTC group!!!!! I'm so excited to get the band back together ;). We took the train to Lichfield to get there. The walk through Lichfield to the chapel was GORGEOUS!!!!!! I will send pictures. It was super foggy and beautiful. There is a stunning cathedral our district stopped at on the way back. I've never seen anything like it. Dad I wish you could've seen it I know you would have died. One day. Then we began the long journey back to Cannock. Luckily we had our district so we made it fun. We were an hour late to our DA though because it was such a long uphill walk from the train station and my backpack was 400 lbs and it was b-b-b-b-blazing as Max would say. It was with a family from Cameroon, Africa. Ingrid is a single mom with seven kids. Her spirit and love for Jesus Christ was so powerful. I was so quiet the whole night because I was just so sad and wanted to help them and give them something. :( The journey back was long but it was the best nights sleep I've had since being out here and the hardest it's ever been to wake up. I was so drained.

Friday:
Same old same old. Talked to people. A lot of people will talk to us for a few minutes but they're convinced there is no God. Every day I get told a thousand times "So much bad happens in the world, if there was a God why would he allow it?" We try to describe agency and the reason for challenges and heartbreaks. People are just verrryyyy closed minded about religion. Also got the saddest news that Ingrid, the lady we had dinner with the night before, had a stroke :(. She is doing okay but will be in the hospital for a while and her brother is staying with all of her kids. At night we had a member present lesson with the Garners (the people who love the colour red) and our investigator Oliver!!!! What a sweetie!!!!!! He's 80 and was stopped by the missionaries 3 years ago. He has read the Book of Mormon and is soooo ready to be baptized. He has never been married but has a girlfriend. He hasn't missed a week of church until last week and he felt soo bad about it. His testimony is amazing. He's supposed to be getting baptized October 22 (I don't know why it's so far away because he's beyond ready) but he just pushed it back to November because he will be out of town :,(. I tried to convince him to move it earlier, but he wants to make sure everything goes perfectly and really has time to prepare. I'll still be here though so I'm glad I won't miss it. We taught him about what happens at the baptism and answered some of his questions. We will teach him every week before and after his baptism. Love love love him.

Saturday:
My first day door knocking. Sister Price has been so awesome with my desire to street contact. I just love talking to as many people as possible and when you're knocking doors maybe 2 people out of 10 even answer and when they do they're irritated that you made them get up to answer the door. So ya, it was terrible. In my opinion there are far better ways to find people (referrals, GQing, the bus, the store, ANYWHERE) BUT ITS FINE I will still do it. It requires a lot of faith and a lot of patience. Which I obviously need to work on. But it got to a point where I had to stop because it was way too negative and it was tearing down my confidence. People are so mean!!!! On the street they just say "Sorry I have to catch a train!" or something like that but at the door they won't even open all the way and just shut it and treat you like you're not even a human!!!! It made me so mad. So I had to step away for a little and do some serious praying. We're going to try again next week. I'm not giving up on it, just praying for a lot of strength to not have a breakdown the next time someone tells me
they hate uninvited guests and to get off their property like I'm an animal. :)

TO MAKE THINGS LESS DEPRESSING

LAMIN AGREED TO MEET WITH THE WOLVE ELDERS ON SUNDAY and we get to see him and his friend next Friday!!!!!!!!!! Yayayayayayayaayayyaya so exciting. The elders teaching him are our zone leaders and they're awesome so I have no doubt he'll have a great experience!!! It makes GQing in the streets all day worth it. Love him. Saturday was a hard day for Sister Price so we got together with our district and Elder Wall and Elder Gosturani gave her a blessing. Priesthood blessings are always the most spiritual experiences. Especially here on the mission when they're from your best friends. We are doing district GQing in the Cannock Town Centre next Thursday so we're excited for that. We have way too much fun together as a district!!! Our nightly call-ins are hilarious and we just end up laughing the whole time.

Sunday:
Woooooohooooo I love Sunday. Playing the hymns is fun but I get so nervous so bishop gave me the songs the week before so I can practice them whenever we are at the chapel. I also played Come Thou Fount and it went really well!!! The chapel was a little less empty because the Wolverhampton building is being redone so they all came to our ward. One guy from the stake came up to me after and asked if I would play in Stake Conference in November hahaha. Today I felt a lot more comfortable because we finally know the ward. It makes everything so much better!!! We're getting closer with the youth. We want to build these relationships so we can get as many referrals as possible!!! We've only been here 2 weeks and we are already seeing so many repeats of people we've talked to in the town and on the train. I've seen the guy who was rolling a joint when we were talking to him from last week at least 3 more times and every time I see him he's rolling. England needs to be slapped in the face with the word of wisdom pamphlet.

LAMIN GOT A BOOK OF MORMON today from the ZL's and can't wait to meet with us this week!!!!!! I can't believe we found him on the street just a few days ago. It's insane. I'm so excited for him.

Sister Price was sick after church and felt like she was going to pass out... We called Sister Leppard and she told her to just lay down and rest for the rest of the day... I wanted to go back out but it's
all good in the hood. Just means we will work twice as hard next Sunday. ;) We are spending our P-day in Walsall with the elders here and we've been exploring all day.

Next week is busy busy busy!!!! We are meeting with five investigators and hopefully find some more!!! We have dinner with the Maules tomorrow (love them). And have DAs every day after Wednesday. We will be doing lots more finding and door knocking (pray for my sanity). I love it here!!!! The pictures and videos I get from home make me so happy! I miss Bean and Coco and all the rest of you guys too. ;)

Cheers love!!!! To home from Great Britain.

Sister McEwan xx

The first door I ever knocked. :) They yelled at me. :)

Lamin doesn't realize we've got missionary work we've gotta do!

The day after knocking all the doors on this street of beautiful/grumpy children of God.

THE BIGGEST CUTEST DOG I'VE EVER SEEN. His name was Herby.

So hit. My back hurt so I had to wear my backpack like this. Ate 2 whole packs of digestive biscuits.
They're so delish don't let the name fool you I'll bring them home.

Lichfield Zone

Chillin on the train to Lichfield City

My Greenies!!!!!!!!!!!! Elder Roberts and Elder Ey! Poor Elder Ey!

London Fog in Cannock

A Dear Companion, Sister Price

September 12, 2016

Dearest Sister McEwan's Mother Deary,

Sister Price

I would just like to inform you on how happy and blessed I am to have your daughter as my companion. When I found out I would be a trainer I fasted for us both, and individually because I remember once I came from the MTC into the mission life, everything was very very different. I wanted to make sure that the transition for her wouldn't be too overwhelming, but ultimately, more than anything I was just so gosh dang excited to meet my "baby". You can ask all the people in my last area, even Elder (Daines) Wallace (who I've served around for 9 months and discovered he graduated with my dearest companion), I kept telling them all the time just how excited I was! Then when transfer day came, I was so anxious to finally meet her. I was the first trainer's name called and afterwards they had me stand followed by your daughter's name and as she stood and we saw each other, I just knew that Heavenly Father had blessed me with an incredible companion and an incredible best friend. I didn't even have to look long to just know that I had been blessed and I thanked Him so much for sending me a little piece of heaven my way.

Your daughter is incredible, she was born to be a missionary. She is a determined soul and knew in her preexistence what she was meant to do when she came to earth. I have had my fair share of companions, but I have never felt so equal and so in tune, as much as I am with your dearest Sister McEwan. If I could I would shout off mountain tops how much I love her and how proud I am of her decision to come on a mission. She is going to do incredible things here in the U.K. and people are going to love her, heck! I love her and it's only our first week together! And boy, I can't wait for hopefully the next few months together! I wish I could stay with her forever! But thankfully you guys don't live too far from me back home! ;) I just happen to live in West Valley City and can I assure you how often I'm going to visit when we both are home!

Thank you so much for being the exact support Sister McEwan needed to come on a mission. I can't thank you enough, she is such a blessing in my life and I know that she is going to be a blessing in so many other lives! I love you, I love your family, and I love your daughter and her laugh, her jokes, her mad piano hands, her groovy dance moves, her baby voice when she talks about her pups and I love serving with her every single day!!!

I hope all is well and that you and your family are having a superb and brill day! Cheers love, and don't fret, I will make sure to take care of your adorable British L'ill Miss! :)

With Love,

Sister (Ashley) Price :D


September 19, 2016

Dearest Mum,

   You are such an incredible mother, Sister McEwan is so blessed to have you in her life! I can assure you that my mother felt those exact emotions, fears and worries. Considering I have an ongoing list of allergies, health issues, and whatnot, my mum feared greatly, she still does which is just part of the worries you gain as a mum. But the people and the members, even the investigators and ultimately our Father in Heaven provides miracles. I can't even count all the times that I've eaten food that I'm allergic to and still was blessed to function properly the rest of the day, or to be able to walk an ongoing amount of hours daily accompanied by genetic knee problems. It just goes to prove that Heavenly Father loves us so much, and especially when we are doing His work, He will provide. I also remember very very well what it was like in my first stages of the mission, I've been out roughly 10 months and it feels just like yesterday. There were some rough patches but I was given the strength I needed to get through it. And I can attest that having a missionary out really blesses families. It's just my mom and I back home and when I get emails from her telling me the weekly miracles, it just humbles my heart and makes me so happy to know that we all are being watched after in the Lord's work. Your daughter is surely safe and I will do whatever I can in my power to keep her safe and to keep her smiling. I've experience many crazy things the past 10 months, and even with your incredible daughter we have already seen so much, but I will do whatever I can to help her in whatever she may go through. She is an incredible leader, a diligent warrior, and a passionate and devoted missionary. When we work, she leads and it astounds me at how ready she was to come out here. I was not even close to as ready when I first came out. But she is a special and purely devoted daughter of God who wants the best for His children. You can see it in her eyes, every time we talk with people in the streets, every time she shares her testimony, she has a strong heart and a great and devoted love for her Savior and her Father in Heaven.  She is going places, and I know that your family will truly be blessed ten-fold for her hard and diligent efforts to serve.

I know that it may seem hard to not have her there, I know it was very difficult for my mom, but the time will fly and her personality and talents and vibrant spirit will bless the people here, and when she comes home, she will be different, but still the same wonderful Madeline you know and love so dearly. You will see her spirit amplified and you will see how God has been blessing her for the time that she has been away. I can promise that not all the blessings will be seen all at once, but they will come. I know that she has been a blessing in my life, I thank Heavenly Father for having a companion that I get along with so well and feel the spirit with so abundantly. It really makes a difference. I honestly can't wait for the time I get to spend with her, I value every second! I did have a brother once when I was young and a miscarried sister, but both passed leaving just me. In that time I always dreamed to know what it was like to have my siblings with me again and especially to know what it's like to have a sister. And your daughter has answered that prayer of mine. She really is a sister to me and I try as much as I can to show that I love her and how much I value having her in my life. It's an honor for me because I get to treat her like the sister I never had. I will always strive to be an incredible friend for her, through the good and bad, I will always be there. And especially even after my mission, I will write her and continually support her and even after both our missions, I will always be there for her and your family. I love her and your family so much and thank you all for devoting this small period of time to let her serve. It will be an incredible experience for you all and I can't wait to hear all about it :)

I hope that you have been having an amazing day and love you and your family oh-so-very much! Take care and as I always tell my folk back home, may the force be with you, always :)

With love,
Sister Price :)

This does my heart good to see that she gets to rest every now and then

My favorite companionship

Price Street

Drawn by Sister Price

Good Afternoon from Cannock, England!!!

Disclaimer: This keyboard is in British-English so it corrects anything I write. I haven't already turned English on ya (ie: favourite, saviour, colour, offence, tyre, aluminium).

Good afternoon from Cannock, England!!!!!!!!!!!!! Wow wow wow. My world has been turned upside down. No offence family but it may have been harder to leave the MTC than it was to leave home. I bawled like a baby. Birmingham Mission left a day earlier than everyone too so it was hard not having a P-day to pack and say goodbye. Most my friends are going to London and London South so it was super hard knowing I wouldn't see them again. But it's good I can write them because they're out of my area. They are my family. It all feels like a dream. Luckily Elder Ey is still in my zone so that's a blessing to know someone and I'll see him next week at Zone Conference. But it was truthfully the best 3 weeks of my life. Thinking about it makes me sad so BYE MTC. :'( I can't think about it or I'll cry legit. My heart hurts just writing this. :( Except I do have to share that we went on a Church History tour to some BEAUTIFUL PLACE. I forgot the name of it though but everyone said it looked like Downtown Abbey. I'll try to figure it out. I wish I had a picture. We also saw President Hinckley's mission housing in Preston which was so cool. Look it up. I'd send you guys pictures but all my photos on my camera up until this point were deleted the night before I left the MTC :):):):) Yay!!!!!!!! I was so sad. Seriously devastated. Me and Elder O'Hare and Sister Smyrnova made some awesome vlogs at the River Ribble so that's devastating and I lost all of Izzy's videos and pictures of the dogs :(. Trying to be positive about it though. I got some great pictures the night before I left but I have an iPad now so I'm gonna try to figure out how to send them. But you may not see them for 17 months - that's right!!!! It's been been a month!! (On Thursday) The fastest most INCREDIBLE month of my life. Go on a mission.

So... CANNOCK wow it is beautiful here! It's directly above Birmingham and borders the Manchester mission. I'll probably be here for a lot of my mission because it's my Greenie area. For at least 6 months I bet. There is so much that needs to be done here it's insane. THE FIELD IS SOOOO WHITE AND SO READY TO HARVEST. My trainer is Sister Price from West Valley and she is awesome! I don't really have problems getting along with people haha so it's good. She loves cats and Star Wars. She has knee problems so I won't be biking the next few transfers. I think I'll be here with her for 12 to 18 weeks but you never know. I love her so much. She takes such good care of me!!!! Such a sweetie.  I have an iPad so I can draft this letter throughout the whole week, that's why it's so long!

It took 3 hours to get to the mission home. President Leppard (Mum you were right, it is pronounced Lepppppaaaard (all British and weird). He is the sweetest man. So wise. We checked in and got our assignments. It was so sad seeing my district babies all gone and I don't even know where they are but I hope they're okay. Sister Smyrnova is in Nottingham it's so weird not being with her she was like my security blanket. The STL's (Sister Training Leaders) dropped us off at the flat and I wanted to get to work but my comp wanted to get to know each other which was fine too. No new sisters went to Wales this transfer. I have a feeling I'll stay in Cannock for a while but I love it here because we are very close to the city centre which is great for street contacting and we're about 10 mins from the train which will come in handy and 10 minutes from the Tesco which I had to buy makeup from because I left it all at the MTC haha typical. But if u want to know what Tesco is, it's Walmart but not nearly as nice, so ya it's disgusting. This makeup should not even be called makeup it is nasty but President Preston emailed me and said he would send it over with the next group. I've already found at least 10 spiders in my flat. I hate spiders. There are also spiders covering the baptismal font. That won't stop us from baptisms though cause we showed up to this area with 2 scheduled for October!!!! Oliver and Kelvyn! :)

Wednesday:
It is madness here. We are the only missionaries in Cannock (pronounced "can-nick") and Rugeley. Our first dinner appointment was in Rugeley on Tuesday with the sweetest woman on the planet named Sister McCall. She is a sweet grandma who made us cottage pie and some chocolate cheesecake. It was very yummy. Look up cottage pie it's so typical English. We ate it all the time in the MTC. I've consumed so many potatoes in the last month it's slightly ridiculous, I hate them. Every time I have chicken and potatoes I laugh because I hated it at home. It was so yummy tho, I think it was because I was starving and we had been walking all day. We took the train to her house and it felt like Harry Potter.  We ate with her and her oldest son who is like 30 and it was a blast talking to them. The houses here are so small and old and then the cars are all BMW's it's hilarious and so pretty. We did some street contacting before and found our chapel which is soooo posh as the English would say. It's weird though because they don't have pues it's just set up chairs and there is 2 stories and the chapel is downstairs. Sister McCall said there are only about 50 people who show (on a good day) and there is only one ward that attends. And sooooooo many less actives. So we have A LOT OF WORK TO DO.

Also we are "Pink Washing." Which means we are both brand new to the area and the people before us were elders. Our flat is nice but I have yet to buy sheets so I have been using sweaters for blankets and pillow cases. They don't believe in dryers here so we have to hang dry our clothing but nothing dries because it's so humid. Love it though. Street contacting was cool we only had 1 guy named will who was interested and we're going to ring him tomorrow. We had many drug encounters one guy was literally casually rolling a joint when we were talking to him. Our flat smells like weed. While we were waiting for the train there was a boy, I kid you not, Maxwell's age or younger who was smoking pot. So much swearing and people yelling at us out their car windows. We have so much to do here wow. We are the only missionaries here too, which is madness. I HAVE SO MUCH TO SAY!!!!!! My cute little investigator David from Manchester emailed me saying he's super interested and has been reading some chapters in Mosiah I told him about and he said praying makes him so happy!! He's in Manchester though so I will have to give him to the Chorley missionaries :( but I will still email him :) such a cutie, I'm so proud.

I got your package mommy!!!!!!! I was so happy and the clothes are so cute!!!!! I love the socks!! I've already worn it all haha. Thank you so much. The candy was gone immediately. I have been buying so much candy here. They have so many good gummy candies like gumdrops and Haribo which is my favourite. There's also these things called Quashies. I LOVE THEM! Google them they're so good. And the Cadbury and Galaxy Chocolate is to die for. We go to Asda before we tract and buy candy in the morning hehe.  The first couple days from the MTC have been so hard because we were fed so well and so frequently and now I'm just starving all day every day! Also don't know how to use pounds. But I love it and love the cereal here. It's a lot more foreign then I thought it would be. All the brands and stores are completely diff.

Everyone here says "You alright??" or "You okay???" as their greeting instead of "How are you?" and every time they do I'm so taken back like "Yes, chill, I am fine." And they think you're weird if you say "How are you?" so that's been a trial. So many phrases I don't understand yet and everything is worded so differently. Like instead of what is her name they say, "What is she called?" hahaha or they say reckon like "I reckon that she's in the loo." and it haunts me. I've been reading the Book of Mormon too much. Every time I see a store that says "We laminate here" I think it says lamanite #helaman5 #darkclouds. Wow I love it here so much. Also I turned into an optimist when I was set apart I feel like. Nothing bothers me. Really does feel like I'm learning a foreign language though. Sometimes when a member is driving us back to our flat I just think "I am in a foreign country with some random people living with a girl I've never met with no contact with my family." It's crazy. But I loveeeee it.

Please tell the Schulties I LOVE ELDER WALKER!!!!!!!!! (Their cousin)!! We did exchanges last week so I spent an entire day in his district. He is such a hard worker and seriously the nicest kid ever. Such a stud and an incredible district leader. He was for sure one of my faves at the MTC. My comp was Sister Lannan for the day and it was so fun I love her. She's from Australia and would leave chocolate on my pillow every night. Such a sweetheart. It was fun being in that district for the day but I did miss my children in my district. They said it was too quiet without me hahaha. But I learned a ton and it was such a blessing getting to teach with sister Lannan because she can speak English. I prayed every day I would have an English speaking trainer because A TON of people in this mission don't speak English. I'm her first American companion and she's been here for 9 months! Miss my Ukrainian though. Bless her soul.

Thursday:
What a day. We had to take a train to the mission home for a district meeting. We left at 8:30 and got there at 11:30 because we got lost so many times and had to take a connecting train and had no idea what we were doing. And funny story hahahahaha we were getting on a train from Birmingham new street to Sutton Coldfield and Sister Price got on the train and I didn't. The doors shut and I went into sheer panic mode and just stood there in shock because she had the phone and it was my second day hahahaha! But then some kind man helped me out and opened the door somehow #foreignerprobs. Finally, we got there.

Our district is super fun and crazy. Elder Wall from Mapleton is the DL then we have Elder Decker from the Netherlands and Elder Louis from Madagascar and Elder Gosturani from Albania. They're super fun. It was cool being back at the mission home so fast. And I got letters!!! SISTER WARD: your letter made me soooo happy and I taped it onto my wall. Thank you sooooo much!!!!!! We got to talk to President and Sister Leppard for a little while and I met their dog hah. I told them you loved them for having a dog mom haha. After we traveled back with the elders and went to a dinner appointment with the Dentons who live by the chapel. I love them they are the sweetest older couple. It was shocking though going into their house because they are major hoarders so there was stuff EVERYWHERE! I have never seen anything like it in my entire life. They were amazing, we had such a good conversation on the gospel and they're both converts from missionaries in Plymouth. The whole time I couldn't stop smiling. We are eating with them again next week. We have DA's every night. Sister Denton was proud of me for it being my second day in the field. We have dinner appointments every day this week it's amazinnnnng I look forward to them every day. Members take such good care of the missionaries. Especially because they haven't had sisters for a while.

Friday:
We made lots of appointments and had a dinner apt again. Their names are the Garners and they're an older couple. They live in Rugeley so we had to take the train. They LOVE RED. Their entire house was red and they were both wearing red I kid you not the entire house was red everything was red it's like that one TLC episode where the woman loves pink. It was amazing. (They also wore red to church.)

The members here are so amazing. Also lunch means breakfast here and dinner means lunch and tea time is dinner (but u don't drink tea) and pudding means dessert.  Also the Garner's accents today were so crazy I could not understand what they were saying sometimes I just have to smile and
laugh hahaha. I have no idea what's going on hahahaha. :)

Saturday:
Today was a finding day. No success. Except one. We went to B&M for our daily dose of candy haha and I kept having this feeling I needed to approach one of the employees. I kinda shook it off and kept walking through the store but we kept passing him so I told my comp. we made the plan to go over and ask him what his favourite candy was because we were new to England and needed help because we didn't know what was good or not. He was super quiet. Finally after chatting for a while we got into gospel. He doesn't believe in God so we gave him the prayer challenge. He was totally into it and said he would do it. He asked us if he could pray for the day to go by faster haha and we told him to try. I told him I'd do that at Jones Paint and Glass all the time ;);). He said we could come back to the store on Sunday to check up on him. Saturday night we ate with the Denton-Irwins. They have 3 lovely kids and they were hilarious!!! Such great members here. That night we talked to more people but no one was interested. It's so defeating especially when someone has a hard life and need the plan of salvation and you're like COME ON I CAN HELP YOU!!!!!! But it's all about planting seeds and representing Christ. We had great convos with great people who Heavenly Father loves and adores. I finally bought sheets, too.

Sunday:
CHURCH finally we got to meet the members of the Cannock ward!!!!! Oh how lovely. The congregation was tiny but so full of the spirit. They were playing music from a CD when people were walking in which was so strange so I asked if I could play some prelude music before church and now I'm the ward pianist..... So I've got lots of hymns I need to learn. Also got to speak for a few minutes with absolutely no notice. Hahahaha it's a good thing I had 3 talks written from the MTC. Every Sunday President Preston gave us a topic and we all had to write a talk then right before sacrament he would announce 6 lucky speakers. I never was chosen but it ended up being a blessing having stuff to say for when I did randomly get called up. It was crazy because everyone in the ward has like 3 callings each because there aren't enough people. So the same lady who taught Sunday school taught Relief Society hahahhahahhaa. Utah is so blessed it's insane. Everyone was so welcoming to us.

It's been really difficult pink washing but we are getting the hang of Cannock even though we get lost 80,000 times a day and almost hit by a car 9,000,000 times a day. People legit drive through puddles to try to get us wet hahahhahahhaa it's like the movies. I don't even care though. It's good memories. Nothing irritates me here it's so weird. I'm always so happy. After church we ate dinner at the Mawles. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!!!! Seriously so good! We had kebabs. They are amazing. Sister Mawel is so kind and like a mom to us here. Her kids are darling and so well behaved.

I could have stayed there all day we felt so at home!!!! But we had to leave and go find Luke at B&M before his shift at work was over. We got there and he went home early his coworker said. I was sooooo sad. But we are going to find him Tuesday because we know he works then. After 2 weeks of no contact this has been a blessed p-day. :) Tonight we eat with the bishop's family and are visiting some less-actives.

This week has taught me about the extra protection Heavenly Father gives his missionaries. This really is the Lord's work. We have to have faith that it will work out exactly how he wants it to. I've learned a lot about patience and a lot about love. The amount of growth I've had the last month is something I wouldn't trade for the world. My mission has already been the most sacred experience of my entire life and I can't wait to see what the next 17 months hold. There's so much more I could say.

I love Cannock, I love my comp, I love the people, I love my ward, I love my family, I love the missionaries, I love the gospel, I love the work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Cheers to England!!!!!!!

xx Sister McEwan

Me and Amber the Dog, President in the back

Amelia Patricia McEwan

District separation anxiety, taking different trains

Favorite Sister Shwarz from Germany on our church history day. I had so
many good pics and it was stunning. #rip

Welcome to England Birmingham Mission

Shaking hands with President Leppard

Hugging Sister Leppard

President and Sister Leppard with Sister McEwan

All new incoming missionaries

The Corner Stone: An EBM Tradition - Each missionary stands on the cornerstone and introduces him or herself to the mission

Awaiting new companions

Letter from President & Sister Preston, England MTC

Dear Family,

Your daughter will be departing the England Missionary Training Centre on Tuesday morning, 6th Sept. We want you to know how much we have enjoyed having her with us.

Sister McEwan is a fine young woman and we are grateful for the opportunity we have had to work with her on a daily basis.  She is well-prepared for her mission and she continues each day to grow spiritually.  She is developing good teaching skills and is excited about the work.  She is ready for full time service in the Birmingham Mission.

We love this young woman and are grateful to you for all you have done to prepare her for this wonderful time in her life.  Your love and continued support are important to her success.   Letters are always greatly anticipated and appreciated.  Please address all future mail to:

England Birmingham Mission
187 Penns Lane
West Midlands
Sutton Coldfield
England  B76 1JU
United Kingdom

May you and your family be blessed as she continues to serve our Heavenly Father.

Sincerely,

President & Sister Preston
England Missionary Training Centre

PLEASE NOTE - Your daughter will probably not have another opportunity to e-mail home whilst still in the MTC. You may not hear from her again until her next preparation day in the mission, which in most cases is Monday.