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

Cast About Your Eyes

Cardiff week 2!

Monday night we went to a lesson and we were 15 minutes late so they told us off made us feel really awkward but that’s life. So we went into city centre to do some finding and all these drunk guys kept coming up to us so we thought that was probs not the best idea. 

Tuesday morning we had a lesson with a 18 year old girl from Portugal. It was a good resto lesson she’s really sweet. Her friend in Portugal referred her to the missionaries so we will see how it goes. After we visited the most interesting less active woman. Bless her life. We taught a great lesson about the atonement and how it will always be available to her if she wants it. After the lesson we asked her what she was going to do the rest of the day and she said “hmm I’ll probably play x box and get high” we were like wow that obviously lesson went well

Then we went knocking for 3 hours. We had lunch really early around 11 and our dinner appointment wasn’t until 7 so I was STARVING. While we were walking to the specific area we wanted to tract I started praying that I would have the energy to keep going and not give up. Right after I finished my prayer we stopped a man walking past us. We introduced ourselves, he already knew who we were and was investigating the church last January! He was even already in our phone. His name was ‘baby’ haha no joke because he has 8 older sisters (ya max 3 isn’t that bad). But anyways he was like wow you guys are working so hard he reached into his pocket and gave me a banana hahahahahaha TENDER MERCIES prayers were answered Hahahaha too good it was the best normally wouldn’t take random fruit from random strangers but hey it came from god I know it ;) he was a really cool guy though we are meeting him this week. 

Walking around finding all day with sister Siri Ek is so funny she is hilarious. This week she told me her brothers name is ping pong BLESS HIM and her first name means flour. When she told me this I was like ‘wow so beautiful you are named after flower’ she was like ‘no, the stuff you cook with’ Hahahaha. Also so innocent whenever we get out of a lesson she will always ask me what certain words mean the investigator said which 9 times out of 10 are swear words. 

Had our DA and the family was shocked because we were 5 minutes early I guess the missionary rep in Cardiff is 30 minutes late. We didn’t tell them about our incident the night before Hahahaha but they were so happy and have already scheduled to feed us again next week because of it so hopefully we won’t be late or that will be awkward but I’ve gotten better at being on time to things on my mission hopefully that will last. Probs won’t tho ;) 

Well that was all on Tuesday and already too long!

Other random things we ate some nasty Chinese food with lamb in it that got us sick. We cleaned at least 3 houses haha. Next week we get to sell poppies! So excited. Round 2. There was a huge uni party on Wednesday outside our flat... so noisy!!! So many drunk people! I am so thankful for the standards we have haha. Ummmm... I don’t know what else. I just love it here really. 

One day this week I studied alma 33. I loved it!! It talks about the bible story of when all the people had to do was look at the serpent to be healed, but some didn’t because of their stubbornness. We might mock their hard heartedness or say ‘well that is so easy! Why didn’t they just look at it!!!’ When in reality, we are doing the same thing. ‘O my brethren if you could be healed by merely casting about your eyes that he might be healed would ye not behold quickly?’

Don’t we want to be healed? Don’t we want to be happy? “THEN CAST ABOUT YOUR EYES AND BELIEVE IN THE SON OF GOD” he is the ONLY way to be healed, so let us have the faith to just simply look to him. 

My promise of pursuing these things coincides with the final verse of this marvellous chapter. “And then may God grant unto you that your burdens may be light, through the joy of his son.”

There is so much joy! Especially in his son. 

Happy Halloween!! I’ll eat all the good chocolate for you guys over here in Britain ;):)

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xx 

Pictures

1) sister Siri says I have hair that looks like cotton candy 

2) Bridgend And Cardiff district photo 

3) Thai gangster pic 

4) trying to touch her tongue to her nose “it’s so close” she kept saying Hahahahahahahaha 

5) TRUE THAT

6) Merry go round in Cardiff :) 

7) big fluffy dog we found in Cardiff hehe 

8) cute returned missionary from Carlsbad @camri!!!!!

My life 24/7 :)

Baptism! Funeral! Cardiff!

Hi guys :):)

I’m in wales! The train ride was so beautiful. The first thing we saw entering wales was a huge castle haha I’ll send a picture. I am really happy here!!! Looove serving in the city. We live in the city centre of Cardiff it’s amazing!!! (Flat isn’t though........ we live in the middle of 3 pubs in uni housing and we are in an old elders flat which is absolutely disgusting) but that’s okay I still love it. :) I’m so tired by 10:30 all the people partying outside our window doesn’t bother me ha

But ya Cardiff City centre is unreal. So excited to be here! Although it hasn’t stopped raining. All they said about wales is true haha. I will not be using a blow dryer ever again it isn’t worth doing my hair SO WET. SO COLD. Already wearing my winter coat. 

Sister Siri-ek is sooooooo adorable! Hahaha seriously the sweetest and too funny! She makes me laugh so hard. Bless her English hahaha. This week our ‘words to work on’ were spaghetti and struggling. not quite perfected but we are getting there haha. We also both have realised we say ‘bless’ way too much. We literally bless everything haha we counted how many times we said it on the way to the chapel yesterday and it was over 20 in a 30 minute journey bless us ;)

Miracle on Wednesday we wanted to meet up with a girl getting baptised Saturday but she didn’t have time and neither did we. But god still provided a way!!! We were on the same bus as she was in the evening it was such a blessing so we still got to talk about the baptism! 

So at 10:00 Thursday night we got a call from our bishop saying ‘I heard you play the piano, could you play for a funeral tomorrow at 9 am?’ Haha. It was for a nonmember who wanted her funeral at our church. It was one of the strangest funerals I’ve been to but good memories. The members here are so happy I play the piano haha during every meeting on Sunday I was pulled out of my lesson to play haha so fun. I love playing the hymns in sacrament meeting haven’t done that since Cannock cause they’ve always had a pianist so I’m lovin it :) 

Saturday we had a baptism for Georgia! She was the zone leaders investigator but they passed her over to us because they moved to Caerphilly. It was definitely one of the best baptisms I’ve been to. She is 16 it was really special because all the youth bore their testimonies and then they asked me to do a musical item so i did come thou fount. All her family came to support her as well though they are not members it was such a good afternoon. 

First night in Cardiff we went out knocking and we knocked a street where I think every one of them were from the valley, could not understand A WORD they were saying wow the accent is impossible. And no I don’t have to learn welsh Hahahaha but all the street signs and store signs and busses are in Welsh and English. It’s cool I’ll send some pictures next week. 

I already know that this is the place I’m supposed to be!!! I already have such a great connection with the members and I’m just so happy I get to finish  in a place like this (fingers crossed they don’t move me again) missing Worcester though of course. 

We went to a youth fireside this week and someone said that we shouldn’t be ‘tape measure mormons’ we shouldn’t measure the straight and narrow path to see how far along the edges we can walk. We should always walk in the centre. :) I love this. 

Well there’s so much to say but I am bored of writing this haha love you guys and please pray for my cute little sister Amelia for her first week on the mission. ❤️

Cheers,

Sister McEwan x 

Photos 

1) castle from the train (bad picture sorry) 

2) Cardiff 

3) welsh on the bus 

4) Pancakes 

5) Georgias baptism! 

6) saying goodbye to some favourite Worcester members :) 

7) Iesu Grist! How do you say this I have no idea. 

8) sister Siri-ek calls me Maybelline because it sounds like Madeline haha bless her. 

9) sweet Georgia and her family :) 

Bye England Helloooo WALES!

Helllloooo earthlings! (Ew)

Anyways I am moving! To a different country! :) Excited to see what’s in store for me in Cardiff, Wales!!!! It is the capital of wales and right on the coast so I’m really looking forward to no longer being landlocked ;);) it will be 
lovely! I am follow up training a girl named sister Siri-ek from Thailand!! Thailand, Albania, Ukraine, Armenia, Canada, Guyana, you can’t get much more foreign than sis McEwans comps! Shout out to de cap though you’re not that foreign. Ohanyan I love you so much. Sinumem kez shat gyankes.

OH MY GOODNESS DE CAP AND OHANYAN ARE COMPANIONS I CAN NOT BELIEVE THIS!!! NEVER BEEN SO HAPPY. wish we could be in a trio wouldn’t that be fun. My two besties in Peterborough. 

ANYWAYS 

I’m sad to be leaving Worcester so soon. Last night was really hard saying goodbye to members and friends I have become so close to. One of the 90 year olds wanted to throw me a going away party tonight haha I love her bless her. A few are planning a kidnapping so I can stay in Worcester till the end ;) one old man said ‘oh it’s such a shame you are leaving, but do you think you could leave your eyelashes here?’ HAHAHAHA. hoping this’ll be my last area though done with these goodbyes!!

I want to send lots of love and kisses to my beautiful sister Amelia off to uruguay!!!! We will both be traveling to different countries on Tuesday if that makes you feel any better?:) knowing you’re in this with me makes it so much better. I know you’re so excited and I couldn’t be more proud of you. Wish I could have seen you speak yesterday. I love you Mia!!

Yesterday we had a European broadcast with elder Ballard which was UNREAL I wish everyone could have seen it (I think you can though on lds.org maybe? Totally worth a watch)

One bit I loved is he said that we must pray to be excited to be a member of the one and only true church. I love this. There are so many things in this gospel to be excited about. He told us not to be ashamed to be a member and to tell your friends!! He said ‘what will you say to them? I do not know’ (loved that) ‘but let the spirit work in you’ it is different for every person. There is no one way solution to bring people unto Christ. And I’m sure if anyone knows that it’s god himself ;) The important thing is to follow the spirit. Because he knows exactly how that person is going to recognise the truth in our precious message. 

Amelia. If there is any advice I could give you for your mission.... Grandma Butler sent a quote from Sister Larsen who spoke at your farewell. I couldn’t have said this any better. 

“When we do our duty, we do things well, When we do it with love, we do it beautifully.”

Do all things with love, and your mission will be nothing but a success. (Your mission in life, your mission in church, your mission in anything) I can promise you that. 

I love you all. 

Cheers,

Sister McEwan xxxx

Photos!

1) leaves in Malvern 

2) yay! Autumn. 

3) church I liked in Malvern 

4) this dog ran into our house we captured it though and fed it bacon don’t worry 

5) great scripture in almaaaaaa

6) district meeting pictures! Opheikens going home ;(

7) welsh badge. How do you pronounce it? No clue. 

This is written about Madeline from a couple who has dearly loved and given great service to her in England. It was sent to my parents as they have developed a friendship both being Madeline's "grandparents."

As you probably know by now that Madeline will be moving to Cardiff on Tuesday. We have so much enjoyed her serving in Worcester and will miss her lovely spirit very much. We are so glad we had her over for dinner last Thursday (she thought that she may be leaving) so we just had to make sure we had her at our home just in case she was going to be transferred. 

Thank you for the three photos of her when she was a baby and little girl they did make us smile but in a nice way. She has given us a few more of when she was a little girl. She was a lovely little girl. 

We were looking forward so much to meeting her from the day you were at Gadfield Elm and told us she would be coming to the Birmingham England Mission, so when she finally came it was as if we knew her already and the past three months we have got to know her a lot more and grown to love her very much. She is a special missionary with a special spirit, that makes her stand out as a lovable person. We will keep in touch with her through emails and told her we can’t fix her bike or have her over for dinner anymore, but will encourage her and share our testimony and love for her through emails for the last four months of her mission.  

She told our Grand daughter Jessica at church yesterday that she was her sister as they have the same grand parents which made us very happy to be her English grand parents. 

We love this picture of her she gave us of her with her sisters 

We will keep In touch with you with any news we have and will see her again before she goes home as we have to give her something for you to bring home with her

Love 

Bernard & Val