part 2

Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:10:38

Ok then, got more time. So about the snow thing, the only time I've seen snow down here is during a teach. It's happened twice now. It had been snowing, blizzard style, but we'd go outside after a teach and it would stop. Someone truly loves McConkie and me. None of it has stuck, but I think I saw somewhere that up north they got some. It has been pretty cold here, however. This past Easter was odd. It didn't really feel like Easter to me. I didn't get to watch the little ones try to find eggs, I definitely didn't get a basket and I didn't get a nice Easter dinner, but it's worth it. I'm glad to hear that you had a good Easter everyone. I'm sorry about Kendall and Emilee being sick. They just can't catch a break. It's ok. Do what you can and be faithful that God will take care of his little ones. It's been a funny experience today. McConkie and I have been getting e-mails about our families talking to each other and making connections. It's a small world. I sent the video to Elyse because I was afraid I would get chastised for it by you Mom, sorry. :-). I did, however, let you know about my p-day so I suppose that's something. I really liked that quote Mom. I miss you. Cooking my own meals is no fun... we live with a member named Margret. I'm not sure if I've already mentioned her or not. She lives on the main level and we're up above. She is really nice and a great cook. She's fed us lunch and a dinner before and it's amazing food. I even ate all my veggies like a good boy(broccoli, cauliflower, string beans, yum). Having her around is like having a sweet little grandmother again. I'll be making prints today to send home in a package. I'm still waiting for yours mom. If it's at the mission home I'll get it Thursday at zone conf. Karli- I'm so happy for you. You're so close to making the family complete. Who'd a thought that a little piece of paper with some signatures and a bar code would mean so much? Although I think you could have left the crying part out because now I'm teary eyed and getting looks from the lady next to me, I love it. I'm so proud of you guys. Kami- Wow, I'm sorry about the ring, but isn't Braiden cute? I wish I could have been there to see the talks. I hope someone recorded it to send to me!??!?!?!? I'm sure I'm getting a tape player today. So if you missed it this time....I forgive you, but I wanna HEAR these things. It's so wonderful to hear about letters. It's a competition to get post between McConkie and I. I think I'll be sending a package home full of sweets and such sometime next week. Dad- I knew I got my skill at procrastinating from you, ha ha. PMG and True to the Faith are such wonderful resources. The best thing to do is to do your part then rely on the spirit to teach. I love it when I can feel it work through me. I love you all, thank you so much for your support. You're all in my prayers daily. Until next week,

Elder Warner

1st Official Week

Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 11:39:10

Dear wonderful family and friends-
The field is great! I've been humbled quite a bit. Bill's baptism on Saturday was really....interesting. We waited 45 min. for a bishopric member to show. We couldn't believe that Bill didn't leave, but all is well, he stayed and we had a good service. He got confirmed on Sunday, which was really neat to be a part of.


Also we had an investigator who came to church with us, Julian. He's a black guy from Reading(redding) and is at Portsmouth Uni. He's so golden. He wants to be "born again" and is really receptive. We even have a baptismal date set on the 5th. I know it's conference weekend. We're doing it between sessions. IT'S CRAZY. We're so blessed here. People like Julian are great. They help us keep going after you meet so many harsh people street contacting. It's weird that so many people can be so bitter and so close minded. To some people we're invisible. One guy accused what McConkie and I do as a non-charitable thing. I hate misunderstandings with people out here. It's hard to love some of these people, but I'm a work in progress. Teaching can be scary, but I'm getting better. I know the doctrine, just not so much how to teach it, if that makes sense. Well I just tried to get more time. It's not going to happen. I'll try to make it back in later today, but if not, I love you all. Sorry I couldn't get through all e-mails. You all have my address so start ringing in the letters :-). Till next time(hopefully today).

Elder Warner

Greetings from Portsmouth

Date: Thu, 20 Mar 2008 16:04:53




Sister & President Swinton
with Elder Warner
at the London Temple


OK the picture- top row: McConkie, Wood, King, and Tuttle.
Bottom row: ME!!!!, Lovell, Martin, and Shunke.
Tuttle and Shunke are in my district in Chichester,
Wood and Lovell are in London, and King and Martin are in Plymouth.

So ya, my first area-my training area-is Portsmouth. I’m in the city and it’s a little crazy. I’ve only got 10 min so I’ll be quick. Happy Birthday Cory! The ride down was crappy. We got up at 4:30 yesterday and left at six. It took a little over 4 hours to drive to the London temple going an average of 90-95 mph. The taxi driver was nuts and his car was tiny. My legs still hurt from the ride. I got to do a session yesterday with President and Sister Swinton. This morning we all found out our trainers. Mine is E. McConkie. He’s from SLC and yes he's related to Bruce R. McConkie. He’s his grandson. He’s really cool and nice. Our flat is with a member named Margaret and she's really nice. The living conditions are really low key compared to what I’m used to, and I’m told that it's one of the nicer flats in the mission so it should be fun.

My address is:
#70 ORIEL RD
NORTHEND
P02 9EQ
PORTSMOUTH
ENGLAND

I hope to hear from some of you soon. Mom tell Lance and them to write me by post, e-mail is just too hard with only a half hour right now. We’ve got my first appointment tonight at 8 and a baptism scheduled on Saturday. The guy has a size 56 waist, which should be pretty interesting. I love you all and hope to hear from you soon. I’ve also been told to have packages be sent there too.

-Elder Warner

Pictures from Preston

Elder Warner & Elder Peteru preaching!
The house where Pres. Hinckley received his famous
'Get to work!' letter.


Elders in their new English jerseys.


The Preston Temple at night.

My Last Email from the MTC

My First Picture from Preston. What I see looking out my window every morning.

Wow, quite the e-mail turnout. mostly from friends, which is nice to hear from em. I guess most of the family was a little busy with the Moab trip so I forgive those who didn't write for this week... This week was slow at first, but picked up nicely. We've been doing milestones about every other day. I don't know if I told you what they were or not, but they measure how you're doing as far as teaching goes. E. Peteru and I keep blowing them away. The teachers are very impressed with how we teach. It's nice to hear that because I thought I'd be a little inadequate out here, but it just goes to show how much the spirit helps in this work. It truly does, I'm nothing without it. The feeling of teaching by the spirit is such a testimony and faith builder. Preach My Gospel is the best piece of doctrine for missionary work. Dad and Kurt- use it in your talks on Easter, I know they'll help-try using True to the Faith. Good luck on those. On P-day we went down to Chorley again and Peteru, Morgan, Patterson, and I got England jerseys with our names and a # on it. It only cost £28, which is $58 and still cheaper than at home. We wear em on sports days playing football. I'll try to attach some pictures in a minute. So we got to go tracting on Thursday, which is why the week up to that point was slow. We've been looking forward to going out for a while now. They took us to a town called Southport. Peteru and I were determined to get into a house and teach. We had two hours to do so and didn't get in a single one. We were quite humbled. It was rainy, windy, and cold for the first while which didn't help our attitude. Almost all people said they were Anglican (Church of England) and that they had their beliefs and we had ours, then shut their doors. So I suppose I'm officially a missionary having gotten quite a few doors in the face, but it's OK, it felt great. we talked to a few people for a while. A nice old lady, a gent who I got to quote the first vision from JSH, which by the way was one of the most spiritual experiences I've ever felt, and a lady who I managed to place my first BOM with. We taught the restoration to a fella on the street who earlier rejected us at his door because we interrupted his dinner(lunch). He was a little more interested the second time. We met a Spiritualist too, which was the first time I'd even heard of one before. It was kinda funny. we told him who we were and asked him his beliefs. He said he was a Spiritualist and knew it was the right religion, but didn't pray about it(so how would he really know :-) and that this life on earth was hell. They would go to the other side after death and if they were good people they could stay and if they were bad they had to come back to earth to try again. (This is where we were trying not to laugh). He then said that he and his wife could communicate with the other side and that he was a healer. Peteru, as nice of a guy he is, asked him what he called that power. The man defensively said, "Mine!" We left the conversation at that and left. After tracting, the days went back to normal. just class, sports, eat, class, eat, sleep and get up the next day and start again. I'm glad to hear that everyone had fun in Moab. It's been nice to be away from the snow here and we've seen the sun on most days. The weather, however, changes faster than Utah. You can get almost all seasons of weather in a day here. I hope your knee gets better, Kristal and Harrison too. Karli-you're killing me with those stories of Kathryn, I well up every time. Kayti and Travis-nice job on your races, you too, Dad for getting that goal. I've learned a lot about goal setting here so that's great! Mom-no package, unless it saves my life, is worth paying $178 for. I'm going to London Wednesday morning so hopefully I'll get it then. I'm borrowing Patterson's cord for now, I'll look later. Dad-it sounds like you're still your workaholic self ha ha. Keep up the good work in running and like I said PMG helps with gospel subjects, it isn't just for missionaries. Goodbye all, I will try to send more pictures from my yahoo mail.
Love ya, Elder Warner

'ello from England

'ello from the island across the pond...
I don't have a whole lot of time left and I still have e-mails to read. Forgive me if I spell horribly. The week has seemed to go by somewhat quick, but I do feel like I've been away for a long time and it also feels like the days are pretty much just one long one. Not a whole lot has changed with me seeing as I have basically the same routine every day, with a few minor changes. This week was a great start to my work. We had three really good speakers come, two were unexpected. we heard from two men from the area presidency- Presidents Johnson and Kerr, and the Preston Temple pres., President Jones. They all gave inspiring messages. Last night is when Pres. Kerr came. He's from Scotland and was full of confidence in the missionaries here. I've never felt the spirit so strong in my life. It was as if he was speaking directly to me. I talked to one of my roomates after and he said he was bored. It's funny how the spirit works that way, but it was what I needed. There is no way I could possible deny that this gospel is the gospel of Jesus Christ restored on the earth. Speaking of restoration, E. Mark Peteru, my companion from Sydney, Australia(mom) and I had a "milestone" which tested our improvement. We taught the restoration and did great. It's such a confidence booster having the spirit with you when you teach.
I'm glad to hear that everything went well with John's wedding. My temple experience was great. The temple is no more than a 5 min. walk from our rooms and it's massive. The celestial room is amazing and I hope some of you get the opportunity to come here some time. I'm blessed enough to get to go twice more.
It looks like I left home just in time. Everyone is getting sick and the old guys in our area are getting older. Pres. Aardema will be in my prayers, the little ones as well. Dad you better not be getting any crazy sicknesses while I'm gone. Kayti- thanks for the lingo. I've learned a bit about the language and even started naturally using some with a couple words accented here and there. I haven't heard of guff before, but to answer your question; yes we have farted around each other. We're like brothers, E. Patterson, E. Morgan, E. Peteru and myself. (fyi. it's Pe-teh-rue). We haven't gotten to sleep on time yet because of all the stories and jokes and conversations. It's been a lot of fun.
Dont worry, I'll get Kendall's name in on Tuesday, it'll be ok. The same with Em. Kami- I'm sorry I didn't send anything for Brookie's b-day. I'm limited to supplies and the time frame for letters and such is still kind of a mystery for me. It's good to know she had a good b-day and fun time skiing ;-). I've been thinking about her and how she never likes to be held by me, just Elyse.:-) Karli- I'm so glad to hear about you and Kathryn. She's such a wonderful little girl. I get choked up every time I read your e-mails. I'm proud to hear that you've been so faithful during this time in your life. We'll only grow from our trials. Just know that the Lord is always with us and loves us. Mom- I'm still figuring out things here. I dont have a cord to hook my camera up to the computer to so I'll try to find a place to make a cd with. I dunno about that package. Elyse sent me one full of goodies. I've barely put a dent in it. She sent it the day I left and I got it on Tuesday or Wednesday, I can't really remember, but just make sure you have time to get it to me. I'd really like to get some letters from people every once in a while. That way I'll have more time to e-mail back. Dont worry about me not sharing everything with you. I've been persistant in keeping my journal. Life is so good and I can't believe how blessed I am. Kurt and Alyssa I keep praying for you and your little Emilee. You two will be alright. I'm sorry I don't have more time to write more. I skimmed those e-mails in my box as fast as I could and still only have a couple minutes left, they cut our time down. I dunno if you're forewarding these e-mails to my friends or not mom, but if you could to Lance and those guys. Tell em I'm trying to find time to write whenever I can, but it's not working out so well. I've gotten posts from Chad and both Mitches so I've written them back. Tomorrow I have about six hours of rest and study time so I'll do my best. I love you all, thank you so much for all your love and support. You're all in my prayers,
Until next week.
-Elder Kyle Warner

My First Email from England

Date: Sat, 01 Mar 2008 19:31:54
Hey all!
I got to England safe and it's been great. The flight from Atlanta was uncomfortable and long. I only slept for about an hour, cumulative. I sat next to a nice English gent named Dennis who owned a pub in Yorkshire. He'd never heard of missionaries or the Church before so it was cool to talk to him. No refferal(2 r's or 2 f's, I dunno), however, he was really nice and addressed me as "handsome". They were really nice about settling us. The ride from the airport was real short and I saw the Bolton FC stadium, I just missed the Manchester United one, and more football fields that I've seen in years. It was cloudy, of course, the whole first day, but the temperature was nice. The country is covered in green hills and you can see for miles, definately no inversion here. The air feels so fresh here, plus I can't imagine too many people drive with gas being almost $7 a gallon. Fyi they sell their "petrol" in liters. I wrote a lot in my journal already the past couple days, I'm hoping to start that habbit. They settled us in nice. The teachers took our luggage upstairs to our rooms for us while we had an orientation, doctor's meeting,
interview with the president, and lunch. We spent the rest of the time resting till another orientation at 7, which we had a quick dinner before and then more resting the remainder of the night. Getting up at 6:30 was a piece of cake. The showers are wierd, so are the toilets and urinals (fun stuff, I know). E. Patterson is in my room and his comp is from just two hours up the rode. My comp didn't get in until about 8 last night from Australia. His name is E. Peteru and I can barely understand him, and he looks Samoan. I feel dumb. His accent isn't the kind you'd think it would be, and no, he doesn't know Richie. :-) We had about 7 hours of class stuff today, including study, and it honestly wasn't that bad. The food here in the MTC isn't real English, but still not bad. Today I ate a ton of peppers in some kind of a wrap so you all should be very proud. There are only two elders from England here. They're hilarious though and it's crazy how different our cultures are. The MTC has a nice pitch to play on so I'm wishing I had my turfs, but with the rain we've been having I doubt we'll be on it. The temple is beautiful, we won't be in it until P-day on Tuesday, but it's amazing from the outside, and it's massive. There are a total of 20 of us here: 15 elders and 5 sisters. Like I said, 2 elders from Britain, 1 from Germany, 1 from Sweden, and my Aussie comp. The rest are all from the US. The Brits' accents are already rubbin off on me on some words, it kind of bugs. My comp makes me laugh, he really takes the closeness to heart. Sorry for the story, but it's funny; our bathroom is just down the hall, not far, and I went to go take a load off and he came and stood outside my door and chatted with me while I took care of business, a little uncomfortable really. They're a little strict with the e-mails here. I can't use another one besides this one, at least in the MTC. I'm not so sure about the field, I guess it depends on the pres. I hear Swinton is strict, but nice so we'll see. I can only e-mail family and am supposedly not to e-mail anyone besides them so mom if you'd be so kind to make sure my friends and Elyse get this. I put a letter in the box for her today, but it won't get mailed till monday and it takes about a week to get home. So don't send anything in the mail to me 8 or so days before I leave. I'm takin off on the 18th or 19th, I don't remember which for sure. Thanks
Thanks for the letters waiting in my luggage,(Mom & Elyse) they helped. I felt the spirit while reading both, they gave me new confidence, which is good because I need it, seeing as I'll be tracting next week for the first time. And thanks to those who wrote me this week. Speaking of the spirit, it is almost constant here, I love it. This place is so wonderful. If I could give any advice to those of you who are leaving soon it would be to KNOW PMG(preach my gospel).
Tell Kathryn thanks for the e-mail, Karli, it was really cute and I could practically hear her voice saying that stuff, she's a goof. An elk??? Thanks for the short e-mail Kami. I think it's about 2 a.m. there so no worries on sleepin. Last night was my first real night's rest in weeks. I'm glad you decided not to wait on going to the temple Karli, it's not worth the wait.;-)
Anywho they're making us take off so I've gotta conclude. I love you all and you're in my prayers. Thanks for all the support and encouragement.

-Elder Warner

Farewell Elder Warner

Well I couldn't tell you what happened to the last four months, but the farewell has come and gone and now he is off. He has been in England for about 25 hours now.

Here are a couple of pictures from the Farewell. Sad to say, but they are probably the only ones blog worthy. (Sorry Mom)




after the setting apart...




And the real farewell...


Checking in and paying the overweight charges. Opps, really 14lbs over??


The neices and nephews...

...and Emilee in the hospital.

Mom's last hug...


and Dad getting in his last word...


security check...