Interesting week.

Monday, January 26, 2009 6:21 AM
This week was a little tough in some areas and really great in others. We had 5 people at Church yesterday, which is really high actually. I still feel we can do better though. We'll see what we can do this week. It was a bit of a long week. We didn't teach anyone until Thursday.
On Wednesday we had our Zone Meeting in Reading. I have been to the Reading chapel more this month than the Oxford chapel. But Zone Meeting was really good. The Zone Leader presentation was on praying with faith and forgetting ourselves. It can be a tough thing to do sometimes this time of year when it can be cold, but it is when I'm the happiest. We tried to commit the Zimbabwean family for baptism on Thursday, but the father said he had to think about it, which is fair enough. He was trying to understand where authority comes from so we'll see if anything more develops there. We're working hard on a few more people so we should have some people with baptismal dates by the end of the week. We knocked into a guy from Castelo Branco, Portugal (I think E. Chad Smith served there for a while) who was actually pretty good. We'll hopefully be seeing him tomorrow.
We taught that Kenyan couple on Friday and Saturday. We did a two-part lesson on the Plan of Salvation. The guy, Michael, really loved the doctrine of the Pre-Existence and the truth about Adam and Eve. I love seeing people's faces light up when the Spirit witnesses the truth and they just smile and say something like, "This makes sense and feels like its true." We usually say something like, "Well, truth does make sense." I love teaching the Plan of Salvation. My testimony deepens of it each time I teach it.
Last night we got in and taught a lady who originally let us in because she thought we were the police, haha, a lot of people think we are. She was excited when she realized we were from the church when we asked if we could pray with her. She vented about some problems in her life for a bit then we started to teach about the Atonement. She said she loved Jesus and pointed to a small statue on her dresser. There were a few small pictures of Jesus next to it. One was a pass-a-long card we use. I was shocked. It was great. Sometimes you feel like they go nowhere, but obviously they can and do. We'll try to see her this week again.
Sorry, not too much to report. We only picked up two new people this past week, but this week should be really good. We're going to be working harder than before. I know the gospel is true. It's such a blessing to be able to bring it to our brothers and sisters. Love ya! Talk to you next week.
-Elder Kyle Warner

p.s. the picture is of E. White and me at Donnington castle. It's actually not much of a castle any more. You can see the remains behind us and it's blocked up so we couldn't go inside...
Some more great pics!!...

The castle

Sister Eyre and me...Always striving for greater heights!

My great comp!!!...Elder White
A couple of bubbley missionaries!
The ward in Oxford

Good news and bad news

Monday, January 19, 2009 6:42 AM
Well this will be a quick session. Like I said last week I'm in Newbury for the day. I finished my driving test about 2 hours ago which brings me to my good news. I PASSED!!!! I almost had a perfect drive. I'll be getting my UK license in the post next week sometime.
Unfortunately I've left my planner and camera in the car, so no pictures and I'm going to struggle to remember what happened this week. Isn't that sad? I've got a bad memory. It wasn't a bad week. We ended quite well. We taught a few new people. We had to let a few people go for a while because they weren't quite ready to accept the gospel (Ecuadorian family included). That got me down for a couple days, but everything is alright now.
On Saturday I was in Reading all day with Elder Gasparato from Italy. We had a pretty good day. It felt weird to do an exchange over to Sunday morning, but it was Stake Conference yesterday so it was fine. This is where my bad news comes in. I killed-ish my camera while on exchange. I'm not exactly sure how it happened, but when I pulled it out Saturday night in the Zl's flat the screen looked really bad. The glass isn't broken, but the inside had a bunch of weird black lines. It still takes pictures, but it's about as good as a point and shoot camera because I can't review my pictures. But hey! I passed my test!
We had a couple investigators come down to Conference with some members which was really good. The Swintons were there and it was good, as always, to see them. We had an alright day yesterday after Conference. We had a couple appointments. Today the Sisters are here as well. We'll be heading off to see, I think, Donnington Castle in a bit so that'll be cool. I'll probably buy a new camera first....:-) we'll see. Anywho, I've got a few e-mails to read and time is short. I love ya! Hope the weather isn't too snowy. It's not too bad here, just wet. Talk to you next week.

-Elder Kyle Warner

Interesting week

Monday, January 12, 2009 6:08 AM
Well, it was definitely an interesting week. We had a lot of ups and downs. On Tuesday there was a Mission Leadership Meeting in Staines that lasted all day. It was cool to see all the district and zone leaders in the mission. It humbled me a bit. It was a very spiritual meeting. We talked mostly about what we can do better to lead in the Savior's way. I saw all of my previous companions too, so that was fun. Elder White went to Farnborough all day then we drove from there to Oxford.
Wednesday things got a little complicated. Washington's mum doesn't speak any English so they wanted to go to their old Spanish speaking church in London. Fortunately we have a Spanish branch 5 minutes from that church. Unfortunately they didn't go (we don't know why). Thursday we visited with Eveline and had a great spiritual boost for all of us, really. We just read out of the Book of Mormon then bore our testimonies. She's doing well.
Friday was our Zone Conference. I attached a picture of a small reunion.
Elders Warner, Schunke and Martin
Elders Martin and Schunke are living together in Staines now so it was cool to see them again. Saturday we picked up a Brazilian guy who speaks little English. We're going to try to bring by one of our Brazilian members on Sat. to help him out. We had a nice dinner with David and Plastida in the evening for Elder White's b-day.
Elder White, Elder Warner, David, Plastida
After Church yesterday we had a nice lunch with the Walker family, but had to jet off to a teach right after. We picked up a Zimbabwean family (I love those people). They're a bit apprehensive about it, but I'm confident that if they pray sincerely they'll get their answer. This week will be nice. We don't have any big meetings, Uni is back in session, and the holidays are over so we should get a lot done this week. Next P-day is my driving test at 11:11(lucky?? we'll see) So I should be able to, hopefully, report some good news on that when I'm done. I'll probably e-mail from Newbury again in the afternoon. We might go check out a castle whilst there too. I'll be sending off another tape. I'm definitely sending a lot more than I'm receiving.....Anywho, Love ya. I hope you're not too cold. The temp here has warmed back up to about 8 C, but it’s rainy. I'm not sure if I prefer it or dryer cold...
-Elder Warner

Happy New Year!

Monday, January 5, 2009 6:30 AM
My e-mail is going to be short this week. I've got quite a bit to read. Sorry if I don’t' have time to write everyone back, but thank you for the e-mails.
We've been teaching a small family from Ecuador this past week. They've got two kids, 8 and 5. They came to church yesterday and they're preparing to be baptized on the 31st of January. We've been blessed this past week to find a lot of people to teach.
On New Year's Eve we had our District Meeting in Reading at 7. We didn't start working on New Year's Day until about 2. Things went quite well. No one really complained about us knocking on that day.
I think this week is going to go by quick. Tomorrow I've got a leadership meeting in Staines in the morning and Friday is our Zone Conference for this moves. This will be my 8th moves and I'll fall just short of my year mark at the end of it. Pretty scary.... Anywho, I've got to get reading, but I love you all. I hope you all have a great week as we're starting the New Year. Take care!
--Elder Kyle Warner
----just a small picture of the river and Magdalen bridge
---and a picture for Mum White of her Elder!!!!