Hello From Newbury....

Tuesday, December 30, 2008 6:32 AM
Good news... Elder White and I are staying together another moves in Oxford. He's my second companion (besides McConkie) that I've stayed with for more than one moves so that's cool. A lot of things have changed in the mission. In Reading, one of the companionships got moved out so the Reading sisters are now in my district. It'll be fun being DL for them. It's Sister Eyre and Higbee. In Newbury, E. Wiklof moved out and we now have E. Lindsay, which is why we are here today-so E. Wetherill would have some priesthood holders to be with.
So not too much happened on the buildup for Christmas. We picked up 3 people on Christmas Eve, but two have dropped off the charts because they're from an island called Estimor or something and only speak Portuguese. Christmas was nice and it was really good to talk to you all. Friday we had a great day too. We had some lunch with the McLuckie family and knocked the rest of the day. We knocked into a couple Kenyans. They've been really hard to see since, but it was a very spiritual knock in. We've been very blessed this month to get in and teach so much.
Sunday wasn't too bad. Slow, cold finding... We picked up a woman from Ecuador yesterday and as well, we have a couple from Rwanda who wants to get married and baptized. In the evening we had an amazing experience. We were knocking and weren't getting received very well. No one likes to keep the door open long in this cold (-1-3 degrees C). However, we met a woman who knew the name Mormons from the Osmonds (very popular with the older generation in England) so she let us in for a moment. She told us why she doesn’t' like some other religious groups because of their views. One was of what happens to our spirit after death and before the resurrection. She said that no one really knows. The spirit prompted me to have her read Alma 40:11-12. She read it a few times and was immediately captivated by the Book of Mormon. We shared Joseph Smith's experience, Moroni's promise, and bore our witnesses. She loved it and offered to buy the book from me. I kindly told her I wouldn't let her buy it, but that it was all hers for free. She was ecstatic and is going to read and pray before we see her tonight to share more. It was unbelievable. It just came out of nowhere too. We'll see how it goes.
Today we've been in Newbury all day. After we're done e-mailing we'll head back to Oxford. We've got dinner with some members and we're seeing the Ecuadorian woman and the English woman tonight afterwards. It should be pretty good. Anywho, I'm going to run. I've got little time. I love you all and talk to you later.
-Elder Kyle Warner
p.s. Attached are pictures of me Christmas Eve and morning

Interesting week...

Monday, December 22, 2008 5:38 AM
Well the weeks just keep shaving by especially in anticipation for Christmas. I think that the excitement building up to it is more fun than the actual day...maybe :-). Monday went by quick and not too much got done because traffic out of Reading was bad.
Tuesday, after District Meeting I went to Newbury on exchange to do a baptismal interview for one of their investigators, but didn't end up doing it until Wednesday morning. She should be getting baptized this Saturday.
Thursday was interesting. Besides finding, which is a bit slow now, we taught Pete (the man we met last Saturday). He had a lot of questions about missionary work in general, nothing weird. I suppose we missionaries are a bit odd compared to most people :-). Friday felt like London. The only appointment that went through was for dinner, ha-ha. We did, however, sing at a doorstep in knocking. They were two young women and they asked if we were going to sing. We yelled through the door that we weren't planning on it, but if they wanted us to we would. They said, "Go on then." So Elder White and I started singing Hark the Herald Angels Sing. It wasn't too bad and we had a good laugh, despite the fact that they were both visiting their parents and didn't live there.
Saturday wasn't too different. We taught a former investigator of early this year. We'll see if his desires to learn more have changed. We had a nice meeting with three Muslim guys. They used some of the Bible, but to be frank it wasn't the best use of our time since they didn't give us time to teach...
Sunday was a great Christmas program. The ward choir was really good. We had a pretty good teach with Nimi (knocked into her a couple Fridays ago), but she'll be going to India for a month and a half. Sorry, we didn't have the most eventful week. I think things are going to slow down over the next couple weeks. We'll do our best to not let that happen, but we'll see. Thursday is coming fast. I'm excited to talk to you then. I love you all and I'll talk to you then!
Elder Kyle Warner

What pigeon?

Monday, December 15, 2008 4:36 AM
Well it's getting a lot closer to Christmas!! It's been an alright week. Really busy too. I was on exchange in Newbury on Tuesday and part of Wednesday with Elder Wetherill. It was pretty good. We knocked the whole time, but didn't get in, sadly. Wednesday I had a fun experience...On the way home from the train station in Oxford, Elder White and I were walking along and I felt something hit my head-like a raindrop. I looked up to see where it came from, but there wasn't any edge of a building that could have dripped on me. I looked at the grocery bag I was carrying in my hand and there was bird poop on it. Guess what was on my head too! Even on my left shoulder. Later I found more on my backpack and shirt collar. That was at least 3 different splats on me all at once! I had to change my shirt, wash my hair and such before we went out to work. I suppose there's a first for everything, even getting bombed by pigeons.... Our luck changed however. In the evening Elder White and I got in knocking and taught a man. He's not a new investigator, but he was really open. We'll try to contact him again in the future.
Thursday night we taught a guy named Nathan. He knew his Bible really well. So instead of a "teach" it was more a discussion of verses (not bashy though). We left him a Book of Mormon and told him to read and pray.
Friday we were blessed to get in knocking again. We taught an Indian woman. She was really nice and we'll be seeing her again on Thursday. We taught a Zimbabwean family in the evening who was such a great family-very Christ-centered. They're extremely busy so they can't really come to church, sadly.
Saturday was amazing as well. We taught a man named Karl. He's doing alright. He's a great guy who is really interested in the Book of Mormon. In the evening we knocked in again to a man named Pete. He's quite wealthy, but admitted that his wealth wasn't bringing him the satisfaction and happiness that he wanted in life. We explained to him that wealth isn't a bad thing, but true and lasting happiness comes from the Gospel. We taught him how to pray then went to our Ward Christmas Party. They had a Jerusalem theme that was pretty neat. Lots of good food and a really good presentation of the nativity with the primary children. My time is short because we have to go to Reading (Redding) for a small meeting at the Zone Leaders flat, but I love you and I'll talk to you a week from Thursday!!
Take Care,
Elder Kyle Warner

Amazing Weekend

Monday, December 8, 2008 5:36 AM
Well this e-mail is going to be short because of time. We're going to a gym every Monday with an investigator and we have an orientation in an hour.
We spent the week preparing Eveline for her baptism and all went well. She's now one of the newest members of the Church! Attached is a picture before her baptism.
(Finally got to wet those baptism clothes!!)
You've got me, Eveline, E. White, One of her twins and the other twin's left arm on the far right side :-). It was a wonderful evening and the Confirmation was great too. She was the 3rd one to bear her testimony at testimony meeting too! I'm so grateful to have been a part in her journey of getting closer to Heavenly Father and joining the Church.
On Tuesday I was on Exchange with the ZL's. I worked with E. Di Iulio (it's his last moves) in Oxford and we had a few miracles. I'll share one. We were finishing the night and had only 45 minutes to knock. We prayed for new people to teach and started knocking. We got a lot of rude rejections until about 10 doors in. We shared with a woman the 1st vision and the Restoration on the step then went in to share more. It turned out that she recently lost a nephew and was still struggling with it. We shared with her what she needed and set up a new appointment. Sadly, we haven't been able to see her again since because of other family problems, but the point is we got our prayers answered.
Our Zone Meeting was in Reading on Thursday which went really well. A lot of things were covered. After lunch and a little bit of instruction we got to watch last year's Motab Christmas. It was really good. I'm getting really excited for Christmas time. P.S. Thanks for the package mom and everyone else who helped. It's been fun adding to the tree each day.
Many other miracles are happening this month. I'd love to share, but I'm pressed on time. Just know that I know that our Heavenly Father lives. He hears and answers all righteous prayers. The work I'm involved in is one of the most important works on Earth. I am so grateful to be a small role in it. I love ya and I'll TALK to you soon (17 days).

Elder Kyle Warner

Quick one

Monday, December 1, 2008 5:35 AM
Well this will be a bit quick. I'll just touch on some of the highlights. I've got a lot to do today. Eveline is doing alright. She knows and is living the commandments. Her interview is tomorrow and then the baptism at 5 on Saturday. It's really exciting. We set up some good appointments through the week, but many fell through, sadly. I guess that's just how it goes sometimes. Wednesday, we taught a guy from White's companionship. He was really nice, even made us lunch too. Thursday didn't feel like Thanksgiving. I didn't play any American Football in the morning and I definitely didn't have a turkey feast, but a spiritual feast instead :-). It was our Zone Conference in Reading. We covered so many things and the spirit was strong the whole time. I loved it. We barely made it back in time for dinner with an American couple at 8. However, on Friday we did get Thanksgiving dinner. After teaching Eveline the last of the commandments we did some finding then got flogged so we decided to go to an American Thanksgiving dinner at the chapel. There were about 20 or so people there and they all made really great food. We brought a cherry pie....We made contact with and taught Anas on Saturday. He's doing alright. He's read through a lot of the Arabic Book of Mormon that we've given him. He should be coming to church next week. Sunday was fun. After a lunch with some members we went and picked up a couple brothers from a hotel. They're from SLC and were just in Oxford for the weekend. Merl and John Keller are their names. They came to church and told us that they wanted to spend their last night in Oxford on splits with us. So we took them out knocking with us for a few hours. They were fun to work with and Elder White and John got in too. It was good fun.
Today we'll be seeing Eveline to teach her a couple small things and get things rolling on the Baptism Program. That's pretty much my week. Here are a couple pictures of last P-day. We just walked around a few shops and places while it was still light.

Dear Santa, Just a hint for Christmas 2010!

Another soccer jersey to add to the collection.

Christmas is coming soon. I love this time of year. It's going to be a good month. Love you all. Take care.

Elder Kyle Warner