Mhoro

Wednesday, June 25, 2008 4:09 AM
Makadii(how are you)? (subject-hello, both in Shona). I had an amazing week. It went by really quick, as they usually do now. We didn't really have many teaches since last week, but the ones we did have were amazing. We had a couple DA's as well. One with the Penningtons and one with the Herridges. There's quite a bit to say this week so I'll just give you the highlights.
On Sunday Jamie and Deon came to Sacrament meeting and they enjoyed it. They're a really cool couple and we'll be seeing them on Friday. After Church we went with Wayne Herridge to see a man from Zimbabwe named Dennis. We met him a couple weeks ago, but finally got to see him. We also taught his two children, Takura, he's 13 and Thindi-she's 7. Both were very bright. We taught them about the Restoration and they enjoyed it. Dennis said he'd felt peace when he talked to us before and felt it again when we walked into the home. It was a very spiritual visit. We also had some really good laughs. They had a very close relationship together as a family. Unfortunately, the kids are very much involved in tennis tournaments and training that we can't see them again until the 13th of July. We made dinner that night with E-man and Alison. We made some Jalaf rice which was pretty tasty.
You can try to look up some recipes (there are hundreds) online, however, it requires palm oil and I think you can only get it in certain countries.

Me getting the onions and garlic ready for the Jalaf Rice at E-man's.


E. Lovell and I worked together Monday and part of Tuesday. We had a good time and got some quality finding in.

I picked up E. Dutson from the harbor and we took his stuff back to the flat before going knocking.


(This is where we started to see miracles). We went and knocked one road and had quite a bit of success as far as call-backs go. We then went to a street we've been trying to finish knocking over the past couple days. We knocked about 5 or 6 doors and a younger African girl opened the door. I started to talk to her and E. Dutson interrupted and asked where she was from. She said Zimbabwe. He asked what language she spoke and she said Shona. He told her (and me. I didn't know about this at the time) that as he was leaving our flat he felt impressed to grab a B.O.M. off of our desk and bring it with us tonight, not knowing who we'd meet. That B.O.M. was in Shona. She couldn't believe it (neither could I). She asked what the book was and we gladly told her. We asked if we could teach her and her parents about the book. Her mom was out for about another half hour so we told her we'd be back. We went back and taught them about the Restoration and why we were carrying the B.O.M. in Shona. They read part of it and were quite pleased with the visit. I've never felt the spirit in so strong in my life. They were astonished that we gave them the book for free too. After the teach I realized how this event had started two weeks ago, possibly before I got to Portsmouth. Let's go back a ways so I can explain.
When I first got to P-mouth I looked through all the Books of Mormon in our flat to see all the different languages. Shona was among them, but I didnt' think anything of it at the time. A couple weeks ago I spoke with a man from Zimbabwe on the High Street. I showed him the B.O.M. and he liked it. I also found out that he spoke Shona. I remembered seeing that book in our flat and told him we could get him one soon. So I got his number and the next morning I pulled the B.O.M. in Shona out and called him. The number turned out to be a fake number. I was a little upset, but left the book on the desk being a little disappointed. I forgot about that experience until last night. For time's sake I won't go into the many other details and reasons why I know that God was working "behind the scenes" to guide us to that family even to the very hour last night, but I know without any doubt that we were meant to get the Book of Mormon in Shona to that family (Betty, Sandra, and Samuel) at the time we did. I can't really describe the Spiritual feeling before, during, and after the teach (especially not in e-mail), but I do know now more than ever that this work is God's work and he is directing it, sometimes in ways we don't even realize until we see the greatest Miracle. I hope that experience and explanation wasn't too confusing, but I wanted to share it. I feel so blessed to be able to witness these kinds of miracles.
I suppose that's it for this week. It was an amazing one at that. I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Kyle Warner

Time just keeps on passing by

Wednesday, June 18, 2008 3:55 AM
I think the time is starting to pick up. I think the longest part of my mission is starting to come to an end. I can't believe we're at week two in my next moves already. Time flies when you're working hard. We've had quite a busy week of appointments. On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Poole. It took pretty much all day. It was about 8:15 when we arrived back in Portsmouth. E. Dutson and I rode with the Wheelers from Southampton station to Poole and we took the scenic route through what's called New Forrest. We went through a couple villages called Burley and Lyndhurst. They were amazing. Small streets, flower baskets hanging on the outside walls of the pubs, we even went into an authentic sweets shop. It was like travelling back in time 50 years. They had jars full of so many different kinds of sweets. Every wall was lined with them. The roads we went on were so small too. They were about the size of a biking path back in Utah. They were lined with pastures for wild horses and cattle. It was amazing. I didn't take any pictures. It was too much to take in; you'd just have to be there. Look it up online. It's worth it.
On Friday we picked up an Albanian investigator named Arben. He's really nice and quite interested in the Book of Mormon. Saturday we had an amazing testimony builder of prayer. We'd prayed a couple nights previous to know which street to knock. E. Dutson and I looked at different maps and were impressed to knock the same street. When we got there we prayed that the people we were about to meet would be prepared and that we'd be able to get in and teach. Well we were about 3/4 done with the street until finally we met a family from Ghana who gladly let us in and we taught them. They have 7 kids total, but we taught the mother and 5 of the children. It was a really spiritual teach. Unfortunately the next day the mother said she didn't want anything to do with us anymore for some reason (probably spoke to her pastor, it happens a lot) and refused to even read the Book of Mormon. It's sad when people do that, but they have their agency. Sunday after church we taught a young couple named Jamie and Deon. Jamie is in the Royal Navy and is from St. Helena Island off the coast of South Africa. Deon is a Portsmouth native and a stay-at-home mom. They'll be coming to church on Sunday. Yesterday we were blessed even more. We taught a lady named Sandra (different one than before) and she'll be coming to church as well. We also taught a woman named Julie at the church with Margret. It went really well and she is now preparing to be baptized on the 14th of July. She'd met the church in Hong Kong whilst travelling so she knew loads about the Church. We had an appointment with a guy from Ethiopia afterwards who turned out to be a preacher at a small, local church. It was a great meeting, however, without any contention. We just taught him about the Book of Mormon, gave him a copy, and now he's committed to read and pray about it.
We've been so blessed with so many people to teach. There were a few other new people that we were able to teach as well, but for time's sake I'll wait to see if anything develops. My testimony of the power of prayer has grown so much. Obviously we don't get ALL the answers we want, but we do get some, if they're righteous ones :-). Well that's my week. I should be sending a DVD and tape home this weekend or maybe early next week. I hope you all have a good week. Thanks for all the support. I've got a Plethora of e-mails to read so I'll talk to you all next week.

Elder Kyle Warner

Summer....

Wednesday, June 11, 2008 7:00 AM
Wow it's been really nice in Portsmouth the past few days. We've had quite a bit of sun and humidity(which I'm not used to yet). I've got nice tan lines from my shirt, watch, and CTR ring :-)
I hope everyone had a good week. Mine went by pretty fast and odly enough I didn't do that much. E. Dutson and I have been working really hard. He's a few inches shorter than I am and walks about 3x as fast.

My comp's name is Brad Dutson from Hyde Park, UT(in logan somewhere?) and he's been out for 6 months.
It's great. We've only had a couple of teaches since thursday and the rest of the time was spent finding and at church. We've done almost 23 hours of finding since thursday, it's crazy. The blessings of new investigators should be coming by the end of the week. Some bad news- Anya's baptism is on hold for a while because of some complications so we don't really have a date anymore, but she is still very committed and is doing really well. We actually just finished teaching here a couple hours ago. She made us lunch and gave me a small massager that looks like a frog. It'll come quite in handy. On Sunday we taught her about Tithing, Fasting, and how to donate tithes and offerings. Sis's Browne and Herridge were there and both shared very powerful and emotional testimonies. It was great! That's pretty much all we've done since I e-mailed last week. I've attached a couple photos of E. Dutson and me about an hour ago so I hope you enjoy.

I hope you all have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.

Elder Kyle Warner

Staying in Portsmouth

Thursday, June 5, 2008 7:31 AM

Hello everyone!
You guessed it. I'm still in Portsmouth, but E. McConkie is gone to Brighton to be a District Leader. He left this morning and E. Dutson, from Logan came in. E. Di Iulio left the Isle of Wight so Dutson is the new DL. E. Lovell from my group got sent to the Isle so now in my district there are three of the original four that came to my mission, it's crazy.
This past week went by quick. We saw our Anya a couple times and all is well for her baptism date on the 14th of June, as long as we have permission from her husband. She's amazing. To be able to see the change that has occurred in her since E. Mortenson and I taught her how to pray is such a blessing. She reads and prays often now and feels bad when she misses church. I love it. We didn't get to build the wall for Ethel on Wednesday; however, we did finish it as you can see from the pictures.
Before.....







...and After.









We're pretty proud of our handy work. Ethel made us an authentic African meal when we were finishing up the wall. It was really good. We had beef sausage, plantain (BIG, wild bananas), potatoes, and African doughnuts (doughnut holes).

She's one of the nicest people I've met out here so far-very grateful and hospitable. McConkie and I had a good final day together. We taught Anya in the morning and had a sad goodbye then went to the Toby Carvery with Margret. We then taught an investigator named Kevin and saw a member, Vic, and his dad (recent convert) Roy. We visited them for a while then headed to see Ethel. We chatted for a bit then headed to meet Sister Parkes to go to dinner. She fed us nicely and we went to see E-man and Alison. They offered to feed us, but between the Carvery and the Parkes, there wasn't any more room in my stomach. We discussed the two-week challenge with them and McConkie and I got to play a little Wii (shhhhh...). We stayed up quite late packing and I even fell asleep in the middle of it. This next moves should be great. E. Dutson is a great guy and I think we'll have a lot of fun together. I hope you're all great and I'll talk to you next week!

Elder Kyle Warner