Fast Week

Monday, April 20, 2009 3:59 AM
Wow this week really blew by. It was very busy, which is good. I've got a lot to do on the computer for district meeting tomorrow so I'll try to be short and attach a picture or two. I'll just touch on the highlights.
Tuesday I was in Reading on exchange with E. Roberts (S. Africa) and it was really good. We taught a family that they're teaching and preparing for baptism. The mother is amazing. Since she was taught the Word of Wisdom just over a week ago she hasn't touched a single cigarette. She's getting her whole family there. It's amazing.
In the morning on Wednesday I got back into Oxford to teach a couple times. We taught a Kenyan woman who is now on the back burner because of her commitment. We taught an Indian woman who is Hindu (for now :-). We've taught her a few times this week and she was handling it well. We then headed to Newbury so I could interview one of the people the Elders there have been teaching. I stayed overnight and exchanged with E. Wojtkowski.
Thursday morning we headed to Zone Meeting in Reading which was really good. We learned a lot about how to be better organized and more consistent in our work. I was very ready to finally make it to my bed in Oxford that night.
The Chinese woman is doing well. She's doing a lot of studying/work so it's hard to see her during the week. She came to church on Sunday and enjoyed it. We didn't get to do much finding this past week, but we've got a busy 1st half of this week. It might be my last full week in Oxford (hope not), but we'll see. So moves is next Thursday I'll be writing again then. Maybe from a new area....:-(.
The pictures are from last P-day at a member's mum's house. We dug up the garden then planted potatoes in it. It was good fun. E. Keeble, Adrian, and Tory.
Tory and myself making a line of potatoes. A card in the ZL's flat that I thought was funny. Driving to a member's for lunch yesterday.
I love England in the spring. It's beautiful. I'll try to take pictures of the drive to Reading tomorrow. Love ya!
=Elder Kyle Warner

Spiritual Week

Monday, April 13, 2009 4:40 AM
Alrighty! I've only got a little bit of time to write before reading the e-mails and (hopefully) responding too. Our P-day is going to be cut short a few hours for some yard work. Our week wasn't too bad. I had a lot of extra-spiritual experiences and answered prayers. To be honest we didn't teach very much, but I still feel all right about our week.
We started teaching an older English guy on Monday, taught him again on Wednesday to commit him for baptism, and he came to Church. He's a great guy, but unfortunately we dropped his baptismal date for now. He's still putting things together in his mind.
On Tuesday I was in Newbury for an exchange with E. Byrd. It was pretty good. I like Newbury. It's a nice little town and the high street is pretty cool. In the evening we were taken out to dinner by a couple members that were there from Utah on work. They were great guys and it was fun to see some fellow Utahans. Thursday evening we had a cool fireside-like presentation about the Atonement. There were four different speaking parts to it; The Garden, Golgotha, Paradise, and the Resurrection. It really strengthened my testimony of the Atonement and of the love that our Heavenly Father has for us.
Friday was cool. As we were knocking in the evening we were prompted to go to a street we hadn't planned. We weren't sure if it was a prompting because we thought we should stay with what we originally planned, but after prayer we decided to go to it. The last door we knocked on we got in and taught a great Chinese lady. She is really humble, but really intelligent too. We'll see what happens in the coming week with her.
Saturday I had an answered prayer of a renewed testimony of the Book of Mormon. We were teaching a woman and at the end of the teach she asked what the Book had done for me. I don't know why I was surprised at the question, but it really got me thinking. I shared with her how I've grown in my understanding of the love of God and Christ, the power of the Atonement, and so forth. The spirit hit me so hard. I could probably say I gained a real testimony of the Book of Mormon as I bore it. It was amazing!
Easter was great. The ward did a nice Easter program with music and speakers. Our ward is really musically inclined. We had lunch with the Mcluckie family and if I counted correctly there were about 15 of us in their home (English homes are a bit tighter than American ones). It was fun and the finding was amazing. The spirit has been with us a lot more lately. I think it might be because we've changed our prayers. We have prayed more for the people than for us two.
I love this work and everything about it. My testimony grows daily. I better get reading. Here's a picture or maybe two.....One is of me with E. Byrd on exchange E. Keeble, myself, and the now E. Davies who took off last week to the MTC.

Love ya!
Elder Warner

Conferenced out?

Monday, April 6, 2009 4:35 AM
Alrighty well there's not much to report on this week unfortunately...But man, was General Conference amazing or what?!? I loved it. I could listen to the Apostles for ages. It took up our Saturday evening and all of our day yesterday, but I learned so much and had a few questions answered. Saturday evening we watched the Sat. am session live. I loved it. My favorite talk from that session was Elder D. Todd Christofferson's talk on covenants. We watched the recorded Priesthood session yesterday morning, the recorded Saturday pm session at 1, then the Sun. am at 5. I love Conference. I was looking forward to Elder Holland's talk and I was almost in tears from it. He's such a powerful speaker. I hear from missionaries who got to watch the last session late last night that it was a great finish so I'll be looking forward to seeing it another time. The best part about all of this is that Gwinyai came to all the sessions except for the last one. He really enjoyed it. Unfortunately he's going back to Zimbabwe for a couple weeks, but it gave him a lot to take in while he's gone. So this week we're going to be "pounding the pavement" to find new people.
We had our Zone Conference on Thursday, which was great too. We basically read through a few scriptures and did some of what we call, "unpacking". Some amazing insights were given and I grew a lot, spiritually. Well that's pretty much my week. This week might be similar, but without the Conferences so we should have a lot of new people this week. Pray for us. We need it.
I have learned so deeply out here that Jesus is the Christ and that he loves us all soooooo much, as well as our Heavenly Father. Elder Holland's talk really inspired me to serve better and harder. I don't ever want to abandon him in the fight against sin. I owe them so much to have you and dad as parents, to have this Gospel in my life, and to be able to share it with others. I really do love the hymn, "I Stand All Amazed."
I've been hit a lot lately with a realization of how blessed I am. I've done a lot of reflecting over the Conference weekend and mass feelings of gratitude have come over me. I'm so grateful to be a part in this Gospel. I absolutely love it when E. Holland teaches and testifies about the Atonement. That man has a love for our Savior and Heavenly Father that I am striving to acquire myself. Missionary service has helped me with that. We are so blessed to have this Gospel and great Church. I love everything about it.
Love ya! Talk to you soon and Happy (early) Easter! Tip: focus on the real purpose of Easter; it makes it much more special.
Elder Kyle Warner