How to Be a Mormon

Wow, what a week.

So Monday we did nothing.

Tuesday I don't even remember what happened except for there was an emergency transfer SO Elder Carr got sent to Rwibina in Wales to fix something and Elder Pace (pronounced pache) from Italy came in. It was a sad day we miss Elder Carr already.

Wednesday we spent the whole of the day in Birmingham. Sister Nelson had a doctors appointment at 9 in Birmy and then we had the worldwide mission broadcast at 5 in Harborne so we just found potentials for the Harborne missionaries. We literally walked through Birmingham for 5 hours finding people. We met and taught the coolest people ever. So sad to pass them on to the other missionaries but they're in good hands.

The Missionary Worldwide Broadcast was sweet! There is a change in our key indicators now as well as schedule. There's a lot more flexibility now. And only 4 key indicators (numbers). It's CRAZY. But so amazing I love it. Just more free time in the morning you get to pick and choose what time you do what and comp study is only 30 minutes as well as lunch and you can do comp and language study at whatever time of the day you want. Also get to go to bed at 9:30 now and plan in the mornings!!!! Woop woop. My habits have changed hardcore I am excited to be a good, organised student when I return to uni.

Thursday we had district meeting. I had a prompting to stop by a super random potential so we went. Right when we got to her door she got out of her car and told us to come in so we went in and taught the restoration. She's like the most normal darling human being I've ever met in my life. We gave her a Book of Mormon and she said she can't wait to read and "hear the whispering of the spirit" to see if it's true. :) Amazing. So prepared. Afterwards we taught Mandy. LOVE HER. She just eats up every single lesson. She is so involved and asks so many questions and always brings people to the lessons so we can teach them too. There's one girl called Aleisha who is always there when we teach. She is 18. Both of them told us they wanted to be baptised so we are working toward it with them! It will take a while because of some Word of Wisdom struggles, but there's nothing that the Lord can't help us overcome. :) After we had dinner with Nathan and Vicky they're
the the Elder's investigators. They're so cool and working toward baptism as well! Vicky is a little more desirous than Nathan but she's amazing and we get along so well.

Friday we had Ailsa's baptism interview!!!!! She's getting baptised on Saturday!!!!!!!!!! Ailsa is definitely this transfers miracle. Still can't believe everything that has happened. She's amazing. The Kidderminster branch loves her and her sweet daughter to bits. We have a primary now!!!! :) She's also so excited to go to the temple next month to do baptisms. :)

So I guess that multiple refugee families heard we were teaching English and were super interested????? So now we have a huge class we are teaching!!!!!! It's going to be so awesome.

We met the coolest guy this week named Adam. Haven't been able to get ahold of him but... he basically stopped us and told us he wanted to learn "How to be a Mormon" it was hilarious because we literally gave him so many lessons all at once because he just wanted to learn, learn, learn. After about 30 minutes of talking, a young polish couple came up to us asking where the nearest pub was. Adam looked at us and said "I'm so sorry but in our church we don't drink so we have no idea." Hahaha he kept calling it "Our church," so amazing. Then he was like, "Okay I'm going to call you guys on Saturday night and make sure you're at church on Sunday!!!!" And we were like "Uhhhh,... isn't that our job?" Haha.

Sunday was amazeeee we had some less actives we've been working with come to church and Ailsa was addressing everyone as "Brother" and "Sister" which made us so happy. We taught Mandy and Aleisha at night with Sarah and there were 2 of their friends there. They all wanted Book of Mormons and we had a big discussion about the restoration. When we recited the first vision the spirit was SO STRONG. One of the women said "Wow, I just went cold." Teaching the resto is my favourite thing ever. Aleisha and the other girl Demi are coming to institute with us on Wednesday :) Wooooooohooo! :)

LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY. This week I had a dream I was back home and the whole time during it I was like "Ugh, I want to just be back on my mission." It really opened my eyes. I need to make the most of every second I have out here because it really isn't long at all!!! Already 1/3 of the way done.

I love you guys so so so so so so so much.

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxx

We hate E.T's (Emergency Transfers), bye Elder Carr

Signed Rose's cast hahahaha

 Teaching Ailsa

Sad book found in Birmingham

 Me and Sister Ackley eating mission burrito (Mexican food here is
so gross btw).

Train back from Worldwide Conference

Ailsa passed!

Happy Missionary

Happy

First YW Meeting in Kiddie!!!

Suffer the Children to Come to Me

Hiya you alright mate (I'm so sick of this phrase) I love England. Just wanted to give a quick shoutout to my favourite Kiddie Gal Sarah Hall. I just love you sooooooo much (say this in my super American accent). She makes fun of me on the daily. Love you though xx

K so wow another great week!!! Monday we had an exchange in Birmingham so I stayed there with sister infanger. We were challenged to ask someone to walk their dog and we had literally 5 minutes until we had to go in so we were just shouting out the window to this random dude if we could walk his dog and then he was like sure and then we talked to him more and he was interested in the church haha who knew.

We taught a lot of formers this week. We have had so much success here with formers!! And they've all been street contacted it's crazy.

Highlights of the week..... Ailsa, obviously. :) She is doing so well and studying her BOM, praying daily, coming to church and activities. She is so ready and prepared. She participates in church it's just incredible. GOD HAS A PLAN FOR HIS PEOPLE. She is getting really excited for her baptism on the 4th. Solid. Golden. I love her.

We had another incredible lesson with Mandy. It honestly was the best night of my mission so far. It was the 2nd time we've seen her. The first time she was a disaster and wasn't leaving her house staying in bed all day. She's had a really hard life. She cried and cried to us that whole night. But the 2nd time she told us the best thing she's ever done is opening up the door to us and letting us in. The day after she took a 360 degree turn or her life. She literally LOOKED different. She said that she's been thinking about the refiners fire video we showed her all week and even tattooed a rose on her leg like from the video (oops hahah). She went back to work this week and has been praying every day!!! I can not explain how happy I was.

Friday we had district meeting and interviews with president at Harborne. On the bus on the way there we met a woman named Bal. she is a major alcoholic and needs some serious help. We showed her because of him I've never seen someone cry so hard in my life. She was SOBBING and just chugging alcohol it was crazy. But she wants to change but she's out of our area so we had to pass her to the zone leaders.

Next Wednesday there is a world wide mission conference I guess they're changing the schedule and everything so we have more agency with what we want to do with our time so that should be interesting. We've been doing so much traveling to Birmingham it's crazy. Saturday we taught English again to Ahmad and Rasha we are teaching them how to read children's books to their little girls. :)

On Saturday night we last minute went over to see the sweetest member. Her children went to church in Cannock and I love them so much so I already loved her so much ANYWAYS we have become sooooo close with her. She hasn't been to church in several years but her parents are in the branch. ANYWAYS we went over and she is like the cutest retro/vintage clothing collector and gave us so many dresses!!!!!! We had a huge dress up party it was so fun haha we had such a laugh I will send pictures.:) but we had such a good gospel discussion with her and her mom after and the spirit was so strong. We invited her to come to church and she told us she'd come to support me play my musical item so she came it was so cool. :)

Sunday was incredible. Words can't describe. Our tiny little branch looked almost like a tiny little ward;) but seriously. We had so many people there. First of all, there is no Primary in Kidderminster. We had to have an emergency primary / nursery set up because THERE WERE 6 KIDS THAT WERE THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!! Even the Betts came the less active family we've been working with and they haven't been in years it was INCREDIBLE!!!! Ailsa is amazing and is learning so much and her sweet little girl Sheena got to be in the primary. Wow it was the best.

Funny experience on Wednesday we went into Debenhams to pick up some face wash cuz I was breaking out bad lol and I really wanted to buy some Clinique but #expensive so I was like meh not worth it. But then the lady saw our badges and asked us what we did and we told her and she was like wow... I respect you so much... and then she gave us SO MUCH FREE CLINIQUE like just got us each bags and was throwing so much product into them then just gave it to us. It was the best.

Something that was hard for me this week was seeing my education on hold. Every time I walk past a primary (elementary) school I get sad and wish I was there teaching. I was studying the life of Thomas S. Monson. He has one story where he put a stake conference on hold in Louisiana just to give a little girl a blessing miles away. "Suffer the children to come to me." It taught me that I can still help and teach children even if it's not in an elementary school. Seeing the primary in Kidderminster branch brought me so much joy. I hope and pray we can find and teach some more families soon.

Another thing I learned a lot this week is that the worth of souls is great in the sight of God. God has such a plain and specific plan for each of his children, and helping them to realise that is the best feeling. "And if it so be that you should labor all your days in crying repentance unto this people, and bring, save it be one soul unto me, how great shall be your joy with him in the kingdom of my Father!" 

I love being a missionary. It is the most rewarding thing.

Sister McEwan xx

Exchange in Harborne with Sister Infanger

Teaching English

Double decker bus in Birmingham

Cooking with Ailsa

Comp Unity

Dress-ups Part 1

Dress-ups Part 2

Dress-ups Part 3

Do We Realize What We Have?

This week was soooo crazy!!!!! I don't even know where to start!!!!! I cannot believe the miracles we are seeing here in Kidderminster. 

On Tuesday we met with our friend Bradley we street contacted last week. We met him at the library and taught him the restoration. Turns out he's been to church before and occasionally stays with a less active in our branch! But anyways he loves the Church and committed to baptism for February 4th. :) Also progressing!!!! He's reading the Book of Mormon, praying AND HE WENT TO CHURCH!!!!! Woooo!!!! 

Wednesday was zone meeting in Harborne. It went really over and we had an appointment with a less active that night so we had no time to find which we were pretty sad about. When we were waiting for the bus from Stourport to Kiddie we stopped a woman who was so interested and basically begged us to come around and teach her daughter. It was so cool! 

Thursday morning I woke up and had this weird feeling we would teach someone with red hair. It was the strangest thing that has ever happened. So the whole day we street contacted people with red hair but no one was interested. Anyways. In the evening we had dinner with a part member family which was so fun. Oh my gosh I love them so much. They told us that they had been saying family prayers like we asked them to and the wife, who isn't a member, said that she could really notice a difference in their family. Even though the kids are young, it is exactly what they needed she said. Afterwards we had like 2 hours but no plans so we were just going to find, but there was a potential who is actually Bradley's moms friend (complicated) ANYWAYS. her name is Mandy. We stopped by and she let us in and she was crying and crying to us about her life and what was happening. We showed her the refiners fire and comforted her as much as we could. And guess what.... Her hair was red:) the next day she called us and said she couldn't stop talking about us and was so excited to attend Bradley's baptism. 

Friday!!!!! We met with Ailsa. So we street contacted Ailsa last week and turns out she's been taught by missionaries before too!!!!! The elders lost a ton of teaching records and sisters are new to kiddie. But it's incredible how mindful god is of his people and how he will do anything to help them come back. Anyways. Ailsa is the most prepared woman I've ever taught!!!! She has a daughter name Sheena. She actually lives right by Bradley as well. It's so cool because my first night in Kidderminster I felt prompted to tract that street. Although they weren't found tracting, we still found them! Another sign of gods love for his people. ANYWAYS. Ailsa is preparing to be baptized as well on the 4th of February:) she came to a ward activity this week and came to church as well!!!! It was so amazing. 

We knocked into a muslim family from Syria who didn't speak any English as they had only been in England for a month. They were so sweet and let us in and we literally communicated through google translate for the hour. We told them we would teach them English and they were so grateful!!!!! So on Saturday they met us at the chapel and we had an English class. They taught us Arabic while we taught them English. ;) It was such a cool experience. We are going to teach them every Saturday:) 

Friday before we saw Ailsa we had dinner with another less active family the Mccalls!!!!! They are the children who came to church with their Nan in Cannock. I. Love. Them. So. Much. Their mom and I connected instantly and she wants us to come over again!!! They were the miracle family we ran into on the side of the road. We committed them to pray as a family:) I LOVE THEM! 😍

Saturday night another miracle happened. So we had gotten 3 potentials but needed 1 more to reach the standards of excellence. So I was praying that we would find someone but it was already 9:00 so we had to go in. 30 minutes later we got a call from a guy named Craig who we had given a Mormon.org card to a few days prior saying "I realized that I need to find the lord so I called your number." HOW CRAZY!!!!! That doesn't happen!!!!!!!! It was really cool we are gonna see him this week. :) 

Sunday we saw another part member family. The woman, Divinia, said that we always come exactly when she needs us. She started to cry and said last time we came she immediately went upstairs and pulled out her Book of Mormon. Hearing things like that makes me never want to leave. 

As a missionary your testimony is tried and tested daily. But it also is multiplied tenfold. President Gordon B. Hinckley declared the impact of the Restoration in history: “My brethren and sisters, do you realize what we have? Do you recognize our place in the great drama of human history? This is the focal point of all that has gone before. This is the season of restitution. These are the days of restoration. This is the time when men from over the earth come to the mountain of the Lord’s house to seek and learn of His ways and to walk in His paths. This is the summation of all of the centuries of time since the birth of Christ to this present and wonderful day.”

Do we realize what we have???? Do we take for granted everything that we know?? May we never grow old of discovering and rediscovering the precious truths of the gospel. :)

Missions are great!!!! Go on one!!!!:) I'm so happy I am. 

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxxxx

Birmingham Bull

P-day at the Birmingham Bull

Noah 

Dinner with the Betts

IT SNOWED

Ailsa at chapel tour :)

Ahmad and Rasha ليعثه ياه نسج نسخ 

 Teaching English :) 

Cuddles with Sarah and Susan ❤️️❤️️❤️️

Miracles in Kidderminster

So yes I have been transferred to carpet world. Literally the carpet capital of the world. Kiddie carpeted the White House and Buckingham palace. But I love it here. It is sooo much bigger than Cannock!!! Haha. Not the branch though. There is no primary or youth program in this branch because they don't have any at all. So sad. Working on it though. We met the coolest people this week and hard so many miracles some I couldn't even believe actually happened!!!!

So first of all on Monday night I got a call from a member in the Cannock ward who's kids live in Kidderminster. He told me "I totally understand what it's like to transfer everything to a new area" and because I was only going from Lichfield to Birmingham I was gonna have to take everything by train. So he offered to bring it all for me and just drop it off at a members house that morning - MIRACLE!!!!!! The McCall family is such a blessing. The McCall children are my absolute favourite we would eat with them at their Nan's and I love them soooooo much. Their mom is less active and lives in Kiddie so they always go to church in Cannock with their dad. ANYWAYS Sis Nels and I decided we would go visit the mom our first night together and see if we could get in and teach a lesson. We said a prayer and knocked but they weren't in.... so we went to visit a former investigator next door. He let us in and was absolutely bible bashing us for an hour and would not let us leave. He was like "I would beg you to reevaluate your lives and go home you are sinning and going to go to hell for this" he was super nice. After the lesson we walked down the street and THE MCCALL FAMILY WERE GETTING OUT OF THE CAR!!!! All the children ran up to me and gave me a huge hug and we got to make an appointment with the mom to come over:):):):):):):):):) it was SUCH A MIRACLE because everyone had been telling us hours before that getting her to talk to the missionaries was impossible. I couldn't believe it i was so happy. And then her mom is in the kiddie branch and when we told her about it she was so excited.

Thursday was the best day. the zone leaders texted us and challenged us to get 5 potentials, teach 5 street lessons, get a new investigator and invite 5 people to church. We creamed them and now they have to make us lunch. We met the coolest people this day. There was one woman we met in town centre who was actually a former!!! She wanted us to come over and teach her and her daughter. There was another guy who stopped us and was like "I respect you guys so much keep up the good work." He was super cool we are going to meet him next week!!! That night we met with a less active family called the Betts and they are SO CUTE!!!!!!! He is a return missionary but it's part member because she hasn't been baptized. Then they have 2 darling children. The lesson went well and we committed them to praying together as a family! They also came to the branch activity on Saturday!!!! And we are eating with them next week!!!! Miracles.

Friday we met another less active part member family. Her name is Divinia and she is from Canada. It is strange to hear American accents. They all sound soooooo hick to me now. Anyways we were talking to her and asking if she would ever want her husband to take the missionary lessons and she said well of course but I want it to be up to him. Then perfect timing in walked her husband!!!! So we talked to him for a good while about it and he said he'd think about it. It was so cool because yesterday Divinia texted a member saying that that day she was feeling super low and sad and that she knows the Holy Spirit lead us to her home.

On Saturday we had an American pancake breakfast at the chapel. So Sister Nelson and I decided to make some fliers for it! The day of the breakfast a random man strolled in and said he had been really thinking about investigating the church and then got a flier and knew he had to. So the elders and branch president taught him right then and there for like an hour and he had a chapel tour and he wants to learn more!!!!! Such a miracle!!!

Sunday there were like 12 people in sacrament meeting total. The branch has no youth or primary programs because there aren't any! But every person is so wonderful and I can't wait to get to know them all more. The branch president is incredible and knows president Preston from the MTC so we instantly clicked! He is such an amazing guy.

This week was crazy!! I've never been told so many times on my mission that I am worthless and need to go home hahaha like it was probably 5 times a day. But it only made us stronger!!!! Hahaha I love Sister Nelson SO MUCH!!!!! She is the sweetest most positive person I have ever met in my entire life which is exactly what I need!!!!

We just came from Birmingham for p day as it is in my zone now. It was so much fun. On our way back we talked to a woman on the train and she was explaining how she is strong enough to get through life alone and doesn't need God. I thought that my mission would be a lot harder in the rejection sense. I thought that I would feel more alone I guess. This week it really hit me within every difficult time how God is with us, because I could NOT do this on my own. President George Q. Cannon said: “No matter how serious the trial, how deep the distress, how great the affliction, God will never desert us. He never has, and He never will. He cannot do it. It is not His character to do so." I have never been so thankful for this knowledge and it breaks my heart every time I come across someone who doesn't believe it.

It was a great week!! I love you all!!! Ta bit!!!

Sister McEwan xxx

Saying goodbye to the Tchiapis

Transfers

Carpet World

Sad

New District

Bette's tender little boy who loves holding my hand

Pancake Breakfast

Bette's Daughter

Foggy Mornings

This is the Lord's Work

Hey FAM!!!!!! I am at long last leaving my greenie area haha. I am headed to a place called Kidderminster. It's not too far from where I am now it's near to Birmingham. I'm excited!! My new comp is Sister Nelson. It is a branch rather than a ward. It will be an adventure.

This week was different! I never thought I'd say this but I'm super grateful the holidays are over so missionary work can go back to normal haha. All the weeks seem to clash together. We were mostly in Coventry this week on exchange and then we had a mission conference which was super awesome! President Paul Johnson of the Seventy and his wife came to speak to us it was such a great meeting and exactly what our mission needed. Before President Johnson spoke the AP's did a training on "Powerful Approaches." After the training they asked 3 pairs of missionaries to come up and try to powerfully approach President Johnson and Sis Johnson and I were one of them...... I can officially say I have stopped and introduced the gospel to a general authority. ;)

I went on exchange with Sister Romo in Coventry we experienced so many miracles!!! She taught me a ton about faith. I need to be better about that. This is the Lord's work and I need to let him do it.

I love you guys!!!! Have a great week!!!!

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxx

Random fridge we saw on the street

Exchanges in Coventry

Georgie

Christmas Skype and giving advice to Amelia who is beginning her own papers soon.

Sisters

Dear Sister Maule with Madeline

Tchiapi Family

Sister Johnson and Sister McEwan