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

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