Bonfire Night

Monday,November 9, 2009 03:09 pm
Well, this is going to have to be a quick one. Sorry, I think I do this most weeks... We didn't mean to spend so much time cleaning the flat this morning, but there's a bunch of little things that need to be done, plus our boiler wasn't working properly so we didn't have hot showers for a while. How sad I know... It was taken care of this morning too. This week was....interesting. I wrote to Pres. Shamo about it being an emotional rollercoaster. We had a lot of miracles towards the end of the week. Our hopes were raised for great people to be baptized in the future, but because of Anti-Mormon literature and angry family members influenced by the adversary we've had those hopes dashed. It's a bit disappointing, but all we can do is move forward. I interviewed two people last week for baptism. Two Chinese people, but one didn't get baptized because of family probs. It's been great. I love this work. The whole week we had fireworks going off at night in celebration of Bonfire Night. Years and years ago a man named Guy Fox tried to burn down Parliament so now they celebrate it with loads of fireworks and bonfires. Good fun. It was crazy to see such big fireworks from people's back yards. It lasted about 5 nights. It was so much better here than it was in Oxford last year. We could stand out on our deck and watch loads of massive ones, like the ones at Weber State, just across the river. I got loads of cool pictures and a couple video clips.


It's getting chilly fast. I hate English winters ha-ha. We've got a few good things on the rise for this week. I've got a mission leader meeting on Friday at the temple so I'm hoping to do a session. I really miss the temple. On Monday I got a Halloween package from a special someone ;-), but didn't get to have it till I could swing by the post office Tuesday. Thanks Elyse. Well not much else to report on. The Church is still as true as ever and this work continues to amaze me.
Love ya'll!!
Elder Warner

Better week!!

Monday, November 2, 2009 5:25 AM
Well I've got to be quick. I've already spent a bit of time replying to people. Thanks everyone for the e-mails.
This week was a bit more eventful. Monday was great. We were knocking our back up plan for a flog and an older lady opened the door just enough to see who it was (it's dark now at 4:30ish so people are cautious...). E. Bynoe held up the Book of Mormon and she opened the door saying she was Sister Townsend. She invited us in and sat us down. After a few minutes of discussing and getting to know each other we realized how big of a miracle it was to meet her then. She was baptized a few decades ago, but stopped coming out because of family complications. They were resolved a few months ago and she was ready to come back. She shared her conversion story with us and it was amazing. She has such a solid testimony. Long story short, she's back! She loved church on Sunday and she's not leaving again.
Tuesday I was in the Southampton area with E. Martin. We gave a few Uni students tours of the Chapel and did quite a bit of teaching. My headache problem lasted till about Friday, but whilst we were doing tours it was gone. It was a miracle because we didn't have time to get some meds so I had to deal with it, but I received help from the best doctor of all, God!
We gave a guy, contacted by the Salisbury Elders, a Chapel tour and he enjoyed it. We taught him again on Friday, but because of some personal things he's discontinued investigating the Church.
Halloween was ok. We did some planning after 6pm because we were asked not to proselyte. Across the river a lot of fireworks went off all night so that was pretty cool. If that's what they did for Halloween I'm excited to see what Bonfire Night is going to be like.
Sunday was great! We had a list of people to stop by and in the process picked up 3 new people. One is a family, but they're a bit unsure so we'll see what happens. The other is so ready for the Atonement in her life, but she has a lot to overcome. We really felt led by the Spirit yesterday, not just in action, but in word as well.
This week should be good as well. Because we're not doing Zone Meetings anymore we've just got interviews on Thursday in Portsmouth. That's the scheduled highlight for now, but I'm hoping to have more miracles to share next week.
I haven't left my testimony with ya in a while, I think. Well I love this Church and Gospel. Think of the blessings it's brought you. Isn't it AMAZING? I know the Spirit works on the hearts of men and God is preparing people to be brought into his Gospel. I know the Book of Mormon is really another testament of the divinity of Christ. It's Amazing too! I love ya'll. Have a good week.
Elder Warner
p.s. The Winchester Cathedral last week was sweet. It's enormous.
The pic is of my district in front of it.

An extra hour of sleep!!

Monday, October 26, 2009 5:59 AM
Well, my brain hasn't really caught up with me that I'm in another area. It still doesn't seem real to me. It's kind of like I'm on a long exchange? It wasn't a terrible week. We struggled to get people's commitments to be solid. We met a lot of people and set up some appointments, but they didn't go through >:I. We taught another new person, but she didn't keep her return appointment. Maybe her family put her off? So we're back at square one....This isn't unfamiliar to me, however, because it happened a lot in Newton Abbot. The last I heard, two of the investigators I was teaching are preparing for baptism. I'm so excited for the work E. Byrd and E. Wheat are doing down there. I can't wait for things to start moving here. I know they will.
We had our Zone Conference on Thursday. It was pretty much all about the doctrine of baptism. I think it really hit all of us how important what we are doing is. I definitely woke up. Not that I wasn't taking my calling seriously before, but it's taken on a new meaning. It's created an even greater spirit of urgency to teach and baptize. We've become more bold with people. It's absolutely essential that they are baptized and if we don't do it, no one else will (or can for that matter).
My first Sunday in the ward was great. We aren't the strongest in numbers here, but the testimonies of the members are amazing. I felt such a power from them. The recent converts here are great so I'm looking forward for more coming in.
We set our clocks back Saturday night and man did I need that extra hour of sleep. The calling is wearing me down, but I feel sustained by the Spirit. Work was a bit slow yesterday, mostly my fault. I had a headache that got progressively worse throughout the day. It's mostly gone now. I think we're heading up to Winchester this afternoon to check out the Cathedral up there. Apparently Winchester used to be the capital of England before London. It's a small city though. Speaking of Winchester, the Sisters are doing well there. They've got someone preparing for baptism and the Elders in Southampton Ward are doing great too. It's now our turn to get em in the font! :-). This week should be a busy one. We're going to do a lot of Less-Active's work. Well, I'll wrap up and do a bit of writing back.
The view from our balcony.
The River Itchen is amazing in the morning.
A small eggnog carton I got at ASDA (Wal-Mart).
I never knew they had eggnog in this country. It was imported from Jamaica.
Love ya!
Elder Warner

Amazing weekend

Monday, October 19, 2009 6:29 AM
Where do I begin?? I was overwhelmed with feelings of gratitude to Heavenly Father yesterday. I found out Friday morning that this weekend was the Portsmouth Stake Conference. The stake centre is there so I knew I was going back to my old training grounds and first chapel. I was excited until I went to bed last night. I recognized a lot of the members and it took some of them a few to remember. I was excited to see Matt, Dean and Luke. When we drove into town so many memories flooded back. I don’t' know how to describe the feeling of having those memories come back. Unfortunately we didn't see any of them there. I think Dean and Luke were, but Matt wasn't. It was an amazing meeting and the Spirit was strong. They all talked about covenants, mostly the Baptismal Covenant. The feeling I got was that there was an effort to make it like General Conference and the feeling was nearly the same. The Shamos spoke and both talks were great. It's always fun to see them. I found out that Matt has been struggling with life's storms and hadn't been to Church for a couple weeks. I had a strong prompting to stop by him and have a visit. I asked Pres. Shamo and the ZL's and they Ok’d it. E. Church and I went to see him. He was sitting down by the beach with his son. It was a good surprise to see him. I never thought I would be back until long after my mission. We had a good chat and took a pic. Matt, his son Jordan, and me in Portsmouth

He'll be coming up to the Hamble River ward for a few weeks till he can get back on his feet. I also found out that E-man and Alison (we taught Alison when I was there) have moved into the Hamble River ward boundaries and after their wedding on the 31st they'll be coming there. Already I'm excited for this moves. It was a great reunion this weekend with some good friends.

Outside the Portsmouth flat

In the kitchen by a map I put together for the flat.

The work is good. We knocked in on Friday with a woman, but Saturday she decided to change her mind. She didn't want to change Churches so we're back at square one. All is well and we're pumped to get things rolling here.
I'm so grateful to be here in this area. So many personal miracles have happened already. I know that Heavenly Father knows all of us personally. That's been proven to me time and time again to me. He more than answered my prayers to get in touch with Matt again and that's only one of the many answers. This week should be good. I'm sure we'll have a Zone Conference in Reading, but they haven't told us for sure yet. The weather is cooling down kind of quick. Time is melting away. I don't like either of those facts :-). Anywho, life is great. I love this work.
Love ya!
Elder Warner
p.s. I don't think I told you about my district. In the other part of Southampton the ZL's, E. Martin and Barnwell, and E.'s Forbes and Juarez and in Winchester two Sisters have whitewashed in. It's Sister Midgley (this is going to be 7.5 months in the same District, if not more) and Sister Meredith.
E. Bynoe and me in our flat this morning

Back to the Future?

Thursday, October 15, 2009 5:44 AM
I'm not sure if my subject makes sense, but I'll see if I can explain it. Unfortunately I've been moved on to another area. I left Newton Abbot this morning and am now in Southampton, however, I'm going to be in the Hamble River Ward in a town called Bitterne. It's a suburb of Southampton. I'm in the area next to Portsmouth. Here's my new address:
15 Swan Quay
Vespasian Road
Bitterne Mannor
Southampton, Hampshire
SO18 1DU
I'm pretty excited for it. I've been called to be a District Leader again so that'll keep me pretty busy and my stress levels high ;-). I'm serving with Elder Paul-Evans Bynoe from Barbados. I was going to take a picture of us and attach it, but unfortunately I forgot so you'll have to wait till next week. It should be a good moves. We're in need of some investigators at the moment so your prayers would be appreciated.
So things ended alright in Newton Abbot. I think I'm really going to miss that town. It really grew on me and a lot of the Ward members became good friends, but Heavenly Father wants me here so here I am. Things were looking good for the baptism this weekend, but when we went by last night to teach her and found she'd gone to the Hospital for Liver problems. I don't have any updates on her situation right now so your prayers for Rebecca would be great. We taught her about the Temple and baptisms for the dead the other morning and she was really excited for it. I love teaching people who just soak up the gospel. I haven't met many people who have been as prepared to receive the Gospel as she has.
Our other investigators were doing pretty well. Elder Byrd has taken over with Elder Wheat from Derby, England. They'll do well there. I want to be able to read all my e-mails and respond a bit too because I don't know what time I'll be into my area. I'll tell you more about it all on Monday. I love you all so much. I know the Spirit is real. I have felt him work through me and am very grateful for that opportunity. Take care and have a great weekend. Love ya!
Elder Warner

All Meetinged out...

Monday, October 5, 2009 5:00 AM
Well, yet another week has slipped by. Having meetings kinda does that to ya, I think. We had our Zone Meeting in Plymouth on Friday. It was really good. It was mostly about becoming the missionary who we're supposed and have the potential to be. I've heard rumor that we won't be doing Zone Meetings anymore starting next moves, but we'll see. Either way doesn't bother me. I'd only have 3 left anyways (weird...). Also, of course, we had General Conference, which I loved. I was looking forward to it for a couple weeks now. It was amazing. I don't know if it's just me or if anyone else noticed, but the main theme I picked up on was how much Heavenly Father loves us, his children. I definitely feel it and felt it as the Apostles and other Church leaders spoke. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the Sunday Afternoon session. I think it'll be shown in Church sometime in the next couple of weeks....???
So we've been doing a lot more teaching this week. Every night I'm more than ready to hit my pillow so I guess one physical upside is that I'm sleeping better :-). We're still working with 3 people on preparations for baptism. One person’s date has been moved a week later so he can take a bit more time to learn at his own pace. Plus he's been ill over the weekend so we can't see him till he's a bit better. We've seen a few great miracles with those whom we're teaching. They are all progressing well. We're now teaching some family members too and hopefully will be doing so with others in the near future.
We've been having some very spiritual teaches. I haven't felt this led by the Spirit in a while. It's great fun, but still quite tiring. Although I'm exhausted each day I feel plenty sustained by the Spirit so keep going.
We spent Saturday evening and all of Sunday in Exeter at General Conference. It was great. I'm not sure I have a favorite talk so far, but I really like both of Pres. Uchtdorf's that I heard also E. Tad Callister. My time is low, but all is well. Its moves week next week so you won't hear from me till Thursday. Love you all! Thanks for the box mum.
Elder Warner

Fast week

Monday, September 28, 2009 6:14 AM
Wow, this past week blew by. I'll be short and sweet because I've got a lot to read and some stuff I want to do with my iPod. Thanks for all your e-mails.
Tuesday I went to Exeter for an exchange with E. Bien. It was pretty fun. Their high street is enormous compared to ours so there are loads people to talk to there. We didn't teach anyone, but met some really good people.
Wednesday morning we swapped back and went to work in Newton Abbot. We committed two of our other investigators for baptism and they kind of accepted. They want to be baptized and are taking it seriously, but the date is a bit shaky. They've got a lot to overcome before they can be baptized. We had the Elders in Cornwall come stay with us Wednesday night. So we had 6 Elders, Me, Byrd, White, Lemmon, Asay, and Wetherill.
We got up at 5 AM to go pick up the sisters from Paignton then headed to Reading for Mission Conference. We had President Teixeira of the Area Presidency come speak to us for a few hours. It was amazing. He gave us a lot of suggestions on how to better help people prepare for baptism and to find more people to teach. I stayed the night in Exeter again and did an exchange with E. Gardner from Gloucester. We had a pretty good day on Friday. We spent a lot of time on the high street and had a lot of good conversations. In the evening we had a nice DA then taught a woman from South Africa. She was really interested and wanted to know more about the Restoration.
Saturday morning we swapped back and E. Byrd and I got to work. We taught twice on Sat and things are going well. This week was overall a bit better than the last. We had 6 people at church and hopefully we'll have at least the same this weekend at General Conference. I'm really excited for it. Unfortunately it's my last one in the field, but it's all good.
I really appreciate your prayers and support. Things are really moving again here and more people are learning about the Gospel. I love it. I know it’s true. I'll talk to you next week. Moves is half over?
Love ya!
Elder Kyle Warner