Sister McEwan in England: The Greater the Miracle, the Greater the Opposition

IT'S BEEN SO LONG since I last wrote it feels like. I miss my family!!!!

Sooo last Saturday we were still in our trio. We went to Walsall and did some shopping at Primark and printed photos for our T books. Primark is the best thing that's ever happened they have the best clothes for so cheap it's like Target but way better and cheaper and bigger Amelia would love it. After that we took the train straight to Rugeley and Sister McCall had us for dinner. I looooove sister McCall. After every meal she always has so much food that she lets us take home. We also asked her to drop us off at Morrison's after because we had to buy food for all the sisters staying at our flat the next night. She gave us 20 pounds so we wouldn't have to pay for it with our own money!!! She is so sweet!!!!!! She also lent us a ton of sleeping bags and blankets. The Garner's picked us up from Morrison's so we could do a less active stop by that we've had planned for weeks but he wasn't even home..... so we went to see Dean instead with them. It ended up being perfect and exactly what was supposed to happen. Dean has had a rough few weeks. He has really felt the impact of Satan in his life because of his decision to be baptized. I always feel so sick coming out of his house because the smell is so strong of weed. We showed him a video about addiction called "You will be Freed" which was so good and he loved it. He always has that desire and want until we leave. We have to constantly remind him of how he felt when we showed up at his door the first time. The Word of Wisdom is so important. It makes or breaks baptisms over here. When we are addicted to harmful substances, we are within the grasp of Satan. It is much harder to follow God and to have his spiritual influence and promptings.

The next day we only had an hour of church because of the gas leak and heating issue in our chapel. It was super laaaame. It was Steven's last Sunday to come to church before baptism, but he didn't show. I was playing the piano and every time someone came into the chapel I would look up to see if it was Steven but it never was and then I'd lose my place haha. We tried calling and texting him several times but there was never an answer. We were so sad. We tried knocking some potentials after church. It's so hard because people invite you to come back but 80% of the time the next time you knock their door they open the curtains, see that it's you, and don't answer. We picked up the sisters at train station that were staying with us that night. Sister Ackley, and Sister Larsen from Swindon, and Sister Beazer and Sister McAravey from Peterborough. It was such a fun night!!!! The next day was Elder Cook!!!!! Wohooo!!!!! It was about a 2.5 hour travel to Solihull by train. It was so crazy having 200 missionaries with the same mission call in one room. Seeing all my MTC group was so fun. Elder Cook is just wow. So is his wife!!!! President spoke to us first. He told us there are 11 million people within our mission boundaries. He told us we need to be doing more more more! Specifically more finding, ABF - "Always Be Finding." He always tells us our goal is to teach repentance then baptize converts. He told us to talk to everybody, and add one more potential every day. Elder Cook served his mission in Bristol! So the Southern Wales part of my mission as well as the Cheltenham zone was in his mission. He shared with us a lot of incredible stories. Then for like 20 minutes he talked about how missionaries are most often assigned to mission presidents rather than missions - crazy!!!! My love for President Leppard grew so much during the talk. He then went on to give us an "apostolic blessing" the spirit in the room was so thick. He taught us to NEVER underestimate the power of the atonement. He told us that he knows the face of the Saviour, and that he knows his voice. That made Him so much more real to me. It really testified to me that He is the one who leads and directs his church through prophets and apostles. He has felt so much closer to me this week. At the very end of the talk Elder Cook told us that the mission will not only bless our lives, but that it will bless every living thing that we love. :) (Coco and Bean) kidding. My family and friends too. ;)

Tuesday we went to the mission home to drop off sister grant so she could pick up her trainee. She is the sweetest girl from Armenia!!!! I immediately felt so connected to her because of Lidia. I asked her if she knew Ethan Bradshaw (Mom, the boy you accidentally called Zenos) because he is serving his mission there and she gasped and pulled out a picture of him from her bag oh my gosh he was serving in her ward!!!!!! It was so much fun talking to her and having that connection. What a small world!!!!! Also, my dear friend Elder O'hare from the MTC serving in London, his twin brother came out and his trainer is Elder Kinnunen from my last district!!!!!!! Oh my gosh it was so fun meeting him and we get to serve in the same zone!!! We met a girl named Sophie on the train ride back and taught her the resto. There was a woman listening to us teach it and after she was like, "Excuse me what ward are you in?" We told her Cannock and turns out she's a less active member! We got to talk with her for a little while. She's not interested in meeting with us, but such a cool experience. Everything happens for a reason. That night I had a slight panic attack because I realized that on Friday we had scheduled an appointment to meet the woman named Jackie in town centre that we found on the way to church last week, but we found out we had a follow up trainers meeting that day too at the same time. We didn't have any of her contact info we were just planning to meet her there at 10:00!!! But we didn't want to abandon her so we had noooo idea what to do!!! I told my DL that my goal for the week was to let God do more of the work and to have more faith in his omnipotence. So I told Sister Price that we were going to go to town centre at 10 the next day (Wednesday) and I knew God would make a way that she was going to be there so we could reschedule (I sounded crazy) but she agreed.

The next morning I woke up, I studied, and I fasted that Jackie would miraculously be in town centre. By 10 we were out the door. We were exactly obedient and headed for town centre!! After 20 minutes of searching we felt pretty defeated and slightly out of our minds. We sat down and Sister Price said a prayer. She felt that we needed to go back to St Luke's (the church in our town centre) I was like sure....we can try. So we walked over and walked around the church. We were just about to leave when we heard someone in the distance shout "Hello girls!" We turned around and there was Jackie..... I could not believe it. She said, "Are we still meeting here on Friday?" And we said "No, that's why we came to find you!!!" We obviously didn't realize that made us sound slightly mad hahaha. But we rescheduled with her and get to see her tomorrow.:) After that experience I literally had to sit down and process everything that happened. WHAT THE HECK. Why haven't I been able to have that faith my whole life???? Gods hand is in the work and in our lives so much more than we realize!!!! This miracle changed my life and my missionary work this whole week. That day I talked to literally every single person I saw. No one wanted to hear what we had to say. Sister Price and I found that the greater the miracle the greater the opposition. There were so many times in the rest of the day we wanted to give up and felt so defeated. We had to constantly remind ourselves of the pure and perfect miracle we had just experienced hours before, and that was enough to get us through. We taught a lot of good lessons to less actives and investigators. It's so funny because sometimes people will only talk to us because we are American. Just like us Americans love British accents, British people fawn over American accents. It's so strange. They're like "your accent is beautiful" hahahahahaha so weird.

Thursday we had to go the mission home for interviews with president. I am so blessed to have him!!!!! He is so knowledgable and close to the spirit. I got my packages too, finally!!!!!! Best day ever. Little bits and pieces from home made me so happy. I basically gave all the senior couples in the mission home heart attacks though because they forgot to pay the fee for my packages which is why they took so long....... it's ok though they made it. :) Elder Devoz made us some Colombian food for lunch it was sooo yummy. We ate dinner with the Mawles I love them so much. We get to spend Christmas Day with them. :)

Friday we had to go to the mission home AGAIN. so sick of traveling literally all week it was the worst. Went for a follow-up trainers meeting but got to see my MTC friends and Sister Smyrnova love and miss her so much. President spoke to us. Wow he is amazing. Taught us mostly about faith and how it's scriptural opposite is certainty. Which I though was cool. Faith is not having perfect knowledge. Every day people tell us, "Well, I would believe in God if I could see him." But unfortunately... it doesn't work like that. He then showed us a scale of faith starting with "some faith" going to "perfect faith" and perfect faith in Jesus Christ is our ultimate goal. Not mighty faith, or full of faith, but perfect faith that Jesus is the Christ and that he is the way back to a loving Heavenly Father. At night we taught Oliver. He is amazing and will be baptized before Christmas (pray he chooses a date soon). The Garner's came with us. They were sent from heaven above. Bro. Garner is our Ward Mission Leader he is the most dedicated person I've ever met. Wow. Missionaries found them tracting which gives me hope. Dean and Steven are still very much in the air. They both want it so badly but have a lot of road blocks in the way. We are still meeting with them frequently.

Saturday was great the STL's came and we did some work overs! I was with Sister Swap from Sandy. She's going home next month! Crazy. We mostly met with less actives and tracted. Sister Price and Belnap contacted streets that Brother Garner had prayed over and felt that we should knock. It went super well!!! When they left Sister Price and I went to this cute little vintage shop and talked to the store owner. He wanted us to come back and teach him more. Then I had a feeling we should stop by this random potential so we did. Her name is Victoria. We taught her the resto and gave her a BOM and she wants to meet with us again! She's 16 from Latvia. She is so open and willing to learn more and wants to be happy!!! We also were trying to knock a potentials door but accidentally knocked the wrong one but got a new investigator from Poland from it! All things happen for a reason.

Sunday was greaaat. I started the morning by studying the teachings of Wilford woodruff manual. I had no idea he was the prophet who ended polygamy. Also didn't know he helped to convert 2,000 people in England on his mission... I've got some serious work to do. Also, for FHE Mcewans, you should read the very first story in that manual about Robert Mason. IT'S SO COOL!!!!! Please read it's my favorite story about Wilford Woodruff. I love my morning studies!!!! Didn't know why people used the term "spiritually fed" until the mission. I can't remember if I said this in my last letter home.... but USE THE INSTITUTE BOOK OF MORMON STUDY MANUAL!!!!!! Oh my gosh it is so amazing and I get so much out of my scripture reading every day it's insane. Church was amazing. I love the Cannock ward. I want to serve here forever hahaha it's going to be so hard to leave. But luckily I'll be in Cannock for a while;). The members are so good to us and prayed for us by name in sacrament meeting which meant so much. While walking to church we were teaching a woman from Nigeria who was on her way to the train station but she was walking like .2 miles per hour so we had to emergency call a member to come pick us up. Sister Price and I taught gospel principals it went well. I love teaching about the sabbath day. I love how in Exodus 20 when the commandments are given, there are several verses explaining the importance of keeping the sabbath day holy where all the other commandments are just given and not even explained! Haha. Really shows the importance of it. I wish I was better at that back home. After church we had a ton of meetings. Then we had dinner and went to find a potential we met on the street. It took us ages to find her house then finally when we got there it didn't even exist and her number didn't either. We were so sad because she was perfect and had a daughter and was so interested in learning more... happens a ton though. We decided to knock around it and the next door we knocked there was a man named nick who lived there and immediately we knew he was the reason we couldn't find that ladies house.... wow. Miracles!!! He would have been baptized right then and there if he could haha. He kept hugging us and kissing our heads though it was super awkward because Sister Price and I were just standing there like uhhhhhh we can't hug you hahahaha. We taught him on his porch he brought out chairs for us. It's freezing now here in England. SO COLD. And it gets dark at literally 6 pm. And it's supposed to start getting dark at like 4 which is no good for missionary work. Especially in dodgy areas. We taught Nick the commandments (don't ask, just felt it) they warned us in the MTC that sometimes we'd teach the law of chastity and word of wisdom very first. I should have believed them. It went great though and he committed to keeping both of them. He wouldn't stop calling us on our walk home to make sure we made it home safely haha. Good guy. He's 27 has a really long orange beard he's in a band and has a tattoo of Jesus on his arm. He asked me to marry him multiple times but I politely declined. He said he's never been more happy in his life than when we showed at his door and asked if we could teach him.

Today we are in Lichfield playing tennis with the elders and some members because it's Elder Devoz's birthday. Woo woooooo he's my mission step dad because Elder Wall is in Birmingham zone now and I'm still being trained. I get to play the piano for the primary program next week I love being able to play the piano here because everyone in Utah plays so I have had so much opportunity to get better at playing with people singing!!!! I have learned almost every hymn!!! yesterday I chose the hymns for sacrament and I chose "Let Zion in Her Beauty Rise" and "'Tis Sweet to Sing the Matchless Love" and no one knew them hahahahahaha. It's so weird they sing songs we don't sing and we sing songs they don't. Also brother Denton came up to me after and told me I'd be a better drummer than a piano player because I pound hahahahah. Oops. :)

I love you guys!!!!! Thank you for your support and your prayers. I love it here, it will be the best 18 months for my life. Being a missionary is unlike anything else.

P.S. Look up the "Liken unto the Scriptures" videos. They're so cheesy but awesome hahahaha you guys will laugh. Please watch them. Please. They're like 45 minute musicals. They're so random.

Cheers cheers,

Sister McEwan xx