Across the (Very Rainy) Pond

Good morning from across the (very rainy) pond!!!! This week was brill. It all started with my cute greenie Sister Ohanyan from ARMENIA!!!!! The homeland of my sweet Lidia nalbandyan. When we were assigned companionships Sister Ohanyan looked to the sky and yelled "I know that my Redeemer lives!" Hahahahahaha she is adorable and we are already best friends. We will be together until May. It's going to be a great 2 transfers in Kidderminster!!!!

It's been so fun reliving the beginning of my mission all over again haha. Every miracle that happens Sister Ohanyan freaks out about - it's made me realise that I have gotten way too comfortable to the tender mercies of the Lord! I need to pick it up!! Sister Ohanyan is a convert of only 2 years. Her testimony is SO POWERFUL. She is like half my size and a total powerhouse. I love it.

Oh and no emergency calls were needed this week because no weirdos were trying to break into the flat!!!! Blessings. Thanks for the prayers.

This week Ailsa came teaching with us. That woman is such a miracle. Her testimony is so strong and she will do ANYTHING to know more. She hasn't missed a single week of church since we found her. Even if her child is puking she still comes - that is a true convert right there. Before the lesson we told her what it was going to be about so she studied it hardcore and basically taught the whole thing and invited the guy to be baptised #legend. He said he'd pray about it.:) the man is kind of a nut job bless him. He said he's died several times and believes in all this Indian stuff. But ya we all need an opportunity to accept the gospel u know:)

We taught English - the usual. The family of 3 sons we are teaching keep feeding us the nastiest chopped up rose pudding? Like straight up rose the flower mixed in milk or something with a bit of coconut sprinkled on the top GAG I choked it down and then they're like "Here is another bowl!" pray for me.

I was missing America quite a lot so in Sainsbury's there is a section for American food and I bought us some proper Mac and cheese. It was like 2 pound but worth it. We had it for dinner and sister ohanyan was like "this is the best food I've ever eaten in England" HAHAHAHAHAHAH goes to show how rubbish the food is, it isn't even English.

On Thursday after district meeting Sister Ohanyan and I went into the loo and did some roleplays on knocking doors. So we would knock the door to the toilet and practice door approaches hahahaha it was really worthwhile and she killed it at her first knocks. I'm so proud of her. One family let us in. Their names are Dave and Jess and the daughter is called Lottie. Lottie is the most religious 7 year old you'll ever meet in your entire life. We gave her a Book of Mormon 4 days ago and she's already to Alma. Her mom said it's all she talks about. Then they all came to church on Sunday!!!!!!!! And totally participated in Gospel Principles and loved it. Dave just needs to quit smoking and they need to get married.... but ya they want to learn more and loved how reverent the meeting was.:)

Mandy is struggling. She is very low all the time and needs some prayers. It's difficult because she isn't progressing as much as we would like but we still need to go over to uplift her. You can feel a difference in her spirits when we don't go over as often. Aleisha is hard to get in touch with at the moment. She always texts us "I miss you guys so much and want to be happy" and then we call or text and she doesn't respond. Demi really wants to know more and knows it's true just works on Sundays....

It's crazy how adjusted I am to being a missionary. Sister Ohanyan says I walk way too fast haha it's funny because I remember my trainer being the same but now it's just normal. She's also completely shattered / exhausted by the end of the day. I always feel bad but I remember feeling the same. It's been hard having to slow down and explain everything in very basic English. Im learning patience. But the love I have for her is so strong!!! And I want to do anything to help her have a good experience and be comfortable.:)

My favourite thing I read this week was a talk given by Henry B. Eyring called eternal families (my mission has made me so excited I get to be with mine forever btw).

" As we are faithful in our service to help Heavenly Father’s children

to go home to Him, we will qualify for the greeting we all so much

want to hear when we finish our earthly ministry. These are the words:

"Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful

over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou

into the joy of thy Lord.” 

Matthew 25:21"

I love you all.

Sister McEwan xxxx

First day together completed!

Elder Pace made this glorious meal for our district

District Meeting

Practice knocking doors in the bathroom

Complete fail of me making crepes with an LA family.

Chasing Sheep

HEY GUYS!!!!!!!!! This week has been so much fun with Sister Nkomo. I dont want her to leave! But we are picking up our girls tomorrow and shes going back to wales. :( Weird week called the police 3 times so i'll just ya explain that.

Monday evening.. after FHE an elderly woman in the branch tripped destroyed her wrist and knees so needed an ambulance. She would not get in the ambulance without reassurance that we would go to her house and make sure her cats were inside (note: it was already 10:00 at night) so we had to go to her house and for literally 45 mins and try to get her stupid cats inside and said so many prayers but they were just hiding. Such a trial.

Tuesday was transfers. Sis Nkomo came with me back to Kiddie. At like 11:15 we were sat by our beds praying when all of a sudden someone was trying to open our door (it was locked) but ya we looked at each other in sheer panic and the first thing Sister Nkomo did was grab my lint roller to protect herself hahahah what the heck. We arent allowed to use our phones after 10:30 pm so we were like "Are we even allowed to call our ZLs?" hahahahah but we did and they were panicing and the person was banging on our door (Scary) then there was like a green light outside our door (Scary) anyways they left and we filed a police report and tried to get some sleep.

Wednesday it happened again... didn't sleep.

Thursday it happened again so we called the police and they said we were priority and would come right away. No one ever came so by 3 am we just crashed turns out our back door is broken and theyve been trying to open several peoples doors. We are safe don't worry its just annoying at this point but the landlord has come and fixed the door.

Friday we had a 6 hour zone conference and we could barely keep our eyes open then we had a valentines party with the branch it was so cute and really fun. 

Sunday we had stake conference. We got a lift with Sarah and then our RC Ailsa and sheena her daughter. On the way there Sheena threw up all over Sister Nkomo hahahaha bless her. But Ailsa insisted we still went. She is so amazing. For p-day we saw some pretty country side areas in Kidderminster with our fav SARAH. it was so fun:) We have the most amazing people we are teaching here in Kidderminster. Love B ham. We are going to have such a great week. 

This week I read "Where Justice Love and Mercy Meet" by Jeffrey R. Holland. Highly recommend!!!!! 

"Today we celebrate the gift of victory over every fall we have ever experienced, every sorrow we have ever known, every discouragement we have ever had, every fear we have ever faced--to say nothing of our resurrection from death and forgiveness for our sins. That victory is available to us because of events that transpired on a weekend precisely like this nearly two millennia ago in Jerusalem." 

We had a testimony meeting at zone conference. There is nothing more powerful than full-time missionaries testifying about the Saviour!!! It was very special and something I will never forget. 

CHEERS BABS

Sister McEwan x

Chasing Sheep (So England)

Having too much fun together!

Bye Sister Nelson 

Valentine's Party

Poor Dorothy

Hadbury Manor (POSH)

We Have the Answers!

Dodge night!!!!! Sister Nelson is moving to Swindon and I'm training in Kidderminster :) exciting things are ahead!!!! Lots happened this week we had many incredible lessons but don't have a lot of time because we spent the whole day at the Sea Life Centre in Birmingham and we are gonna go play sports in Harborne. Already hate emailing lol.

Tuesday:
Zone meetingggggg. New schedule into play. It's the weirdest thing I feel like I'm being disobedient when we don't plan at night cuz now we do it in the morning.

Wednesday:
We had the coolest online self referral named Phillip. Legend. He said he's read the Book of Mormon twice and he knows that it's true. He's 68 and said he feels "spiritually starving" and feels that this is the place he needs to be to help that! WELL PHILLIP U ARE RIGHT!!!!!! (Okay so I typed this bit last night and he actually just texted us saying he thinks Joseph Smith is the author of the BOM and doesn't want to peruse. Awk) We also met this cool lady named Suma (don't get too excited tho) we met her on the train, gave her a BOM, she loved it and was like wow this is part of Gods plan this is not a coincidence at all and was emotional. Literally two minutes later after we got off the train we received a text from her saying "You need to find God and he will help you find the real Jesus. Your religion is a cult." We were like oh fetch Suma (and now Phillip).

Thursday:
Traveled to the mission home early in the am for my trainers meeting... it was a long day. But learned a lot... the greenies come in late this transfer so this week I will be with sister Nkomo from Africa for a week!

Saturday we taught English to our 2 families from Syria. We have become so close with Ahmed and Rasha. They are so much fun. The new one is a family of 3 sons and the parents. THEY KNOW LITERALLY KNOW ENGLISH. We had to teach them the alphabet it was crazy. They didn't even know how to respond to how are you. We can only communicate by singing the ABCs it's actually really funny and we had so much fun with them. They asked (through google translate) if we could come every day next week I was like uhhhh probably not hahaha. Bless them.

We went teaching with Ailsa (already doing member missionary work!!!!!!) she's amazing. Oh my gosh wow. She loves being at church and is so on top of studies. It was an interesting lesson because the guy was like "I want to know why I'm here and where I'm going" so we were like "Cool, we have the answers!!!" Then we asked if he'd pray to know if the Plan of Salvation was true and he was all "nah" .....uh ok.

Literally don't remember anything from this week. Oh well haha. It's been good taught lots of people.

Happy late birthday Momma:) love you xx

Sister McEwan x

Sea Life Centre

Birmingham Zone

Birmingham Sisters

KFC (God Bless America)

Dorothy's Birthday

The Very Best of My Life!

This weekend was by far the very best of my life!

We will start with the best:) AILSA WAS BAPTISED!!!!!! Seriously the miracle of this transfer considering we met her literally less than a month ago. She is amazing. Words can't even describe the day but I will try.

So first of all it's a Kidderminster tradition to do a free American pancake breakfast every first week of the month. So we advertised the FLIP out of it. The cultural Hall was the most full it has ever been there were kids running around everywhere it was the amazing. There were more investigators and less actives than members it was wow!!!!. Ailsa was ready and dressed for her baptism literally 1 hour before she was sooo excited it was amazing. There were loads of missionaries and the whole branch was there to watch. Sis nels and I spoke before and then she was BAPTISED!!!!! Spirit bomb she was so emotional it was tender. A true convert baptism. The whole branch has been on a high the last 2 days. Church yesterday was unreal the spirit just carried over. NEVER FELT SO MUCH LOVE FROM THE SAVIOUR.

Other happenings!!! We found 2 families to teach this week one from Poland! Super amazing. Think they might have given us tea but hope it wasnt lol. (Language barriers) We had a fourth floor last door experience except 11th floor 41st door HA! So literally NO ONE was answering their door in the entire building so we would knock 2 doors then just stand there and hope only 1 would open. Our last 2 doors both of them did HAHAHA SO AWKWARD but one of them was the coolest guy ever named Harley who we taught the resto to and he loooved it. Anyways. The next day our investigator Mandy had asked us if the elders could give her a blessing so we went over but the elders needed a third male and literally no one could come so we were like let's just call Harley cuz he lives in the building next door and then he came and sat through a blessing and then came to pancakes he is a LEGEND and such a sweet man. Mandy loved the blessing and said it immediately lifted a burden off her shoulders :)

Weird experience we knocked into a woman from Pakistan who just immediately no questions asked let us into her home and in the middle of teaching her resto some Arabian nights alarm went off and she wentstraight to her rug and did like a 10 minute prayer it was crazy. Still teaching English love the family we are working with. They are doing so well.

We took Aleisha to institute on Wednesday and she loooved it. Her and Mandy are both on baptism dates. Mandy is trying to stop a cigarette addiction so her date is further away but Aleisha is progressing so much faster than we thought!!!! She even went to the extent of getting work off for Sunday's and Wednesday so she can go to church and institute.. amazing. Every time we go to Mandy's to teach her she always brings more friends it's great and all of them came to pancakes. SO AWESOME.

Tuesday we got to go to Olivers funeral in Cannock. It felt like I was going home! It was amazing to see the members. The funeral was very special. They asked all the missionaries to stand up and come to the front and we all put our hands on his casket (this was in a Methodist church btw) then the preacher said a prayer it was really sweet.

There's a less active we are working with named divinia who is PREPARING TO GO TO THE TEMPLE STARTING YESTERDAY!!!!!!!! Both her and Ailsa bore their testimonies in sacrament it was the most touching thing ever. Ailsa was confirmed Sunday. She is loved by so many in the Kidderminster branch:) There's just so many good things I can't put into words.!

And HEY I got a call last night and I'm training a new missionary:) transfers are next week so that will be super exciting:) AND SCARY!!!!  Keep me in your prayers xxxx

Love you lots xxx

Sister McEwan x 

Ailsa's Baptism

Oliver's Funeral with Sis McCall

P day in Birmingham today

Sweet Ailsa

All the missionaries at the baptism:) love them so much

11th floor 41st door / top of kiddie