He Knows Me Better

HEY 

Well transfer DoDgE. Sis Siri-ek is moving to Swindon. The last 7 transfers I’ve had 7 companions. WOW. But that’s okay because I am getting SISTER FAHL from Germany!!!! One of my dream companions!!! We have been writing letters for the last year or so saying ‘oh I hope I get to serve with you someday!’ And here we are! So pumped. HERES TO MY LAST 12 WEEKS I hope she will finish me off haha. 

I’ve got loads of pictures this week so I think I’d rather just use those than type everything out this week haha. I’m just really thankful I’m staying in Cardiff. I love it here. Although I’m really gonna miss sister Siri! I’m going to be so lost haha. She is so hilarious. I’m gonna miss all the Asian food. (Kind of)  Literally never had so much noodles in my LIFE. Man.... parting is so bittersweet! (Not sweet at all actually) I’ll probs cry. 

Some highlights though, on thanksgiving some members made us thanksgiving dinner!!!!! Yay! It was really happy and a great evening together. 

Ive still been really sick and haven’t slept much. We live in university housing and our street is like the hub for every weekend and Uni night (wednesdays) people are partying until 4 or 5 and it is SOOOOOO LOUD. plus I could barely breathe with my sore throat so that didn’t help. But the members have taken care of me. A Chinese recent convert gave me loads of Chinese remedies and wants to give me more tonight hahaha bless him I am in good hands!

I love playing the piano here on Sundays. I feel so appreciated every Sunday I get so many people come up to me and thank me for ‘my emotion’ haha. This one grandma came up to me after with tears in her eyes and she said ‘how did you manage to move me in such an upbeat hymn like there is sunshine in my soul?’ Haha I love it. Lilly got to look at the temple grounds in London this weekend! We are excited to meet with her this week. :) 

I had a very spiritual experience this week. The kind of experience that trying to express  in an email just will not portray its beauty. But I can say that I know that God is aware of us individually. And it breaks his heart when he doesn’t hear from us. I know he loves me! Something that means a lot. There’s an EFY song that keeps running through my mind (mission life) and it says over and over ‘he knows me better’ he truly does know me better than I know myself.... and he keeps proving this to me over and over! ;) 

Today for P day we went to Caerphilly castle. SO BEAUTIFUL. So wales. I will send another email with all the pictures. Here are a few from the week though: 

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxx

A favourite member ❤️ she served on temple square with Grandma and Grandpa McEwan!  

“Everyone do the Sister McEwan smile!” Haha 

Companion from Nottingham! Love Sis Bacchus.

Cardiff And Bridgend District 

Someone was too excited and spilled his thanksgiving meal on the floor haha

Oh Wales

Cardiff Cardiff Cardiff!!!! Man this week the field was white! (Probs the first time I’ve ever said that about the Uk.)

Soooooo I’m just gonna share some stories that happened! 

So Thursday to Saturday I was DEAD SICK. Haha Thursday just was not my day. So we went to a members house who live literally right on the bay but also in the middle of nowhere. You have to walk through a forest to get to their house. Like the bus stop doesn’t even have a side walk you just get off in the forest. So as I got off the bus i stepped in a lovely bush of poison ivy. :):):) anyways it was ya super miserable and painful but I survived! Then I did ironing for this member standing up for 4 hours and I started getting really light headed / weak and could barely walk home after (throbbing leg that was stung plus illness) the next morning we had exchanges 

Exchanges were good because I got to be in a car all day though haha so I was just dead in the passenger seat while we went from lesson to lesson. We did one referral stop by which was cool. So the sisters had been stopping by this guy 7 or 8 times but he was never in. This time we knocked, and his neighbour came outside and answered his door because the knock was so loud he thought it was his door haha. Anyways we got talking and turns out the referral door number was wrong and it was THAT GUY we were meant to stop by so that was neat.  

That evening we went tracting in Pontypridd. We knocked a whole street and no one was interested until the last door (how it usually goes right?) we introduced the Book of Mormon to her and then somehow got started talking about her dog and she was like ‘uhh no tell me more about this book’ haha it was cool. 

After that we went to the flat to do dinner and comp study but I just passed out on the bed I was so sick. The next day I was even worse haha so we stayed in till about 1 to do some district finding in the pouring rain... not a good idea for a sick person! After we went to visit a member preparing to go to the temple. I could barely open my eyes or speak properly I was so ill hahahahaha she sent me off with some medicine and was like go home hahah. I slept so well that night. I was stressed because I had to play the piano for the primary presentation the following day. Last year, when I did the primary presentation in Cannock I was so sick I could barely open my eyes and see the notes on the piano it was a disaster haha. But! I woke up feeling 100 times better and successfully played for the program:):). My 4th primary presentation I’ve had to play at on my mission haha I’ll never get that opportunity in utah! 

CHURCH WAS THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK 

I forgot to say last week we taught youth which was amazing I loved teaching it so much. And one of the quiet less active youth was there and was participating and everything and we told his parents and they were shocked haha it was great and he came this week too!!:):) 

So monroe, our Chinese investigator from last week, brought her roommate this week to church! Which was great :) but THEN we had this girl called Lilly show up to church because she met a Mormon guy a week previous at some class in Scotland for her PhD and she couldn’t believe how dedicated he was and she wanted to see what it was all about. MEMBER MISSIONARY WORK! EXAMPLES ARE EVERYTHING! ALWAYS SHARE THE GOSPEL WHEN NECESSARY USE WORDS! anyways she is the most normal human I have ever met and so intelligent (PhD) and she loved church. After church I sat in the chapel with her and she was just crying to me telling me that the last 10 days have made her rethink her entire life but she was so scared because she was going to have to change her whole lifestyle. But she wants to try. She said it’s just so weird because she can already feel like a ‘hole has been filled’ she said she didn’t even have a cup of tea this morning. Seriously the sweetest girl ever... and we connected so well I just know I’m supposed to be in Cardiff to try to help her!!! She was asking the best questions all during church. AND she is from London... the temple is literally in her backyard she said. Like she can look out her window and it’s right there!!!!! The lord has prepared her it is so obvious. I pray and pray she will stay on this path!!!! She’s never been religious before she said so it’s all very new for her. 

Alrighty something I learned this week is how time truly isn’t measure by God, only by man. Gods timing is perfect. Though that’s really hard to understand sometimes... and accept.... but we have to remind ourselves of it. 

Loveee u guyssss 

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxxx

Pics

1) americandy miss candy!

2) welsh bible..... try readin that! 

3) me n swasey n a welsh dragon 

4) comp luv

5) new style

6) random bear

‘I was born with God inside of me'

Hola mi familia (this is for Amelia) (can you translate) (hopefully after a month in Mexico;)) need to start by saying just how proud I am of mi Hermana McEwan and how amazing she is. Couldn’t be more proud :’)

Monday pday the usual

Tuesday 

Kind of a long day. Once a week we go to penarth and clean for a member who just had a baby. Then she feeds us. It’s nice being able to talk to her though and we’ve become really close with that family. Afterwards we had an investigator not show up to an appointment... so we tried doing some fining and cleaned our flat for inspections the following day. 

Wednesday

Painted a room for some members. Killed a few spiders. Not my fav thing ever but that’s okay. Had a DA, went findinnngggg. Passed our flat inspection woot! 

Thursday

District meeting. Then went to visit sweet rosemary bless her life. Did some finding. Bless sister Siri she sprained her ankle luckily we had a random crutch in our flat (thx elders) she looked like an old woman hobbling around In the rain all day Hahahaha bless her. 

Friday

I don’t even remember what happened.... we sold poppies at Morrison’s. In the evening we were eating dinner at someone’s house we hadn’t met before. We took the bus and didn’t

 really know where to get off so we just clicked the button at a random time... turns out the stop was right where we hit stop and the bus driver just threw the steering wheel to the side and started yelling at us to the entire bus ‘you’ve gotta give me more time than that to stop!,!,!’ It was so awkward haha oh well. The members gave us a friend referral and we stopped by but they were def not interested. 

Saturday

Poppy Day!! Sold poppies all day. Met so many people. There was a huge rugby game for wales vs Australia and city centre was absolute madness.... never seen so many drunk people in my life I felt so out of place ha but we were safe. After a long day of selling poppies it started DOWNPOURING literally looked like I just got out the shower it was chucking it down. And it was only 7 so we still had time to work..... we decided we would stop 10 people then go to dinner. We stopped one man we was not interested, but was so thankful that people our age were going out and sharing our message. He had cancer in his throat so he could barely speak, but he told us ‘don’t worry girls, I was born with god inside of me’. I think that this is true for everyone we meet. We just have to help remind some people that he is there. 

After stopping 10 we went to eat at McDonald’s we went to eat upstairs and of all the McDonald’s I’ve ever been to this one was rather clean Hahahaha and I couldn’t help but notice how clean it was! (So random) we were exhausted and wet and just sat and ate in silence. there was this sweet little Asian worker scrubbing down the chairs and tables. I was prompted to tell her what a great job she was doing but I thought ‘that is so random.... maybe if she was cleaning somewhere super posh but not McDonald’s....’ haha! And I really didn’t want to talk to anyone I just wanted to enjoy my food..... But I did it anyways. Turns out she was from Thailand and my cute companion got to speak to her in her native langauage! It was so special for both of us especially after such a long day. She is interested and wants to meet up soon:) 

Sunday

Such a good day! In the morning we went to Cardiff city centre to attend a remembrance ceremony for Remembrance Sunday. That was really cool though it was freezing cold and in the pouring rain.... after we met a new Chinese investigator, monroe, at the bus stop and went to church:) it was incredible! She loved the service and got emotional during the hymns. I downloaded the gospel library app for her on her phone and she was so happy when I told her all the hymns were on it! Such a sweetheart. At the end of church she came up to us and said ‘I want to join this church’ so special we are really excited to meet her this week with some Chinese recent converts so we can help the language barrier a bit :):) 

Well that’s all for this week. Just watched the elders sprint 100 meters and miss our bus HAHA it was funny. And speaking of 100 that’s how many days I have left!!!!! 🍻🍾🎉😎 woooooo!

Loves

cheers,

Sister McEwan xxxx

Pictures

1) old lady Siri 

2) funeral for elder Hoffman who goes home in a couple days 

3) district meeting 

4) this talk haha so funny. Also this pic is definitely from the UK I can tell by the co-op milk and orange Sainsbury’s bag lol I need to go home 

5) Cardiff zone selling poppies 

6) selling at Morrison’s 

7) soaked! Outside rugby stadium. 

8) random buffalo at museum 

9) caerdydd

10) cool organ in museum 

11) Remembrance Day

Sunshine in the Soul

As a missionary, especially a sister missionary, you become best friends with the scripture ‘mourn with those who mourn, and comfort those who stand in need of comfort.’ Upon many occasions this week we visited people who needed lots of comfort. After many wiped tears and lots of hugs, I have a deeper love and appreciation for the master healer. Not only physically healing us, but emotionally. And being able to help these people has helped me gain a greater love for them. Truly seeing them as he does. 

Tuesday we had a zone conference. We got trained for online proselyting So yes now I’m back on Facebook! But it’s only for missionary purposes so as much as I want to respond to all your messages unfortunately I can’t. But thanks for all your kind words. :)

We had to be in early for Halloween. So nothing exciting there. No kids knocked our door either. Sad. 

We sold poppies all day on Wednesday in Cardiff city centre! We are excited to keep doing it throughout the next couple weeks. I remember doing this last year bringing back lots of memories from Cannock! I miss it! 

We received a referral from missionary headquarters for a woman named “Sarah” who has a son who she wants to be baptised. It was late at night and dark while we were walking to her home. SLC headquarters called us and said that she was on chat and was waiting for our arrival. Seemed a bit weird. The senior missionary on the phone wanted to stay on to make sure we were safe. It was on bonfire night a uk holiday with loads of fireworks and one huge one went off and the guy on the phone was panicking hahaha bless him thought it was a gun shot. Anyways we got to the door and were too scared to knock and on the chat she said she would send her son down and that she could see us. No one came. So we knocked and it was some random guy who had no idea who we were. So we left. 10 minutes later we got another referral from the same person who just used a different name and a different address. Then 10 minutes later another fake one. And then after that another. So annoying. It was kinda sad because missionaries from the states would call who were super excited to tell us about this person who wants to get baptised and we had to break their hearts to tell them it was fake. 

Lisa got her temple recommend which was great! She is excited about that and we are very proud of her. 

The most spiritual moment this week happened on Saturday. It was a dark and rainy day. We were visiting an old lady called Rosemary. She’s in her 90’s and lives alone so sister missionary visits are the highlight of her week. She was feeling really down so we shared something spiritual with her and sang ‘There is sunshine in my soul today’ it was so happy. I said a closing prayer afterwards and during the prayer light from the sun filled the room. “where two or three are gathered together in my name, there will I be in the midst of them” we could feel his presence. 

The lord is in every part of this work. It is His anyways. :) I’m thankful for him and his help through all the ‘songs I cannot sing’ he is my light! 

Love you guys. 

Cheers,

Sister McEwan x 

Pictures:

1) zone conf 

2) selling poppies in Cardiff 

3) chilling 

4) comps ❤️

5) with Georgia! Love her. 

6) the kids didn’t want to sit with mom this week Hahahaha bless the bishopric 

7) p day lunch