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

Short one

Monday, March 30, 2009 7:20 AM
Well it’s been a bit of a slow weekend... Not much has happened since Thursday. We've been trying hard to get new people to teach. We've picked up a few, but they haven't been too interested since. We had a good experience on Saturday. We met a young guy from Zimbabwe who's a student here. We shared with him a little bit about the Restoration and the 1st Vision. He felt the Spirit and accepted the invitation to come to church. He came, enjoyed it, and we taught him after church. We'll be seeing him again on Wednesday and he should be coming to Conference this weekend. Unfortunately he'll be going back to Zimbabwe next Tuesday for two weeks, but he should have an amazing experience to leave with and ponder over for two weeks. I'm really excited for General Conference this week. It's my second to last one in the field (a bit scary). We're quite blessed to be able to go to the Oxford chapel and watch it. Well I'll attach a couple more pictures and see how many e-mails I can respond to. Love Ya!!!
Elder Kyle Warner

-The Trio at the Visitor's Center at the Temple.
E. White, Wojtkowski, me, Lindsay, and Keeble on the top of Magdalen Tower.
Me with the key to get in and out of the door to the tower-it was a really heavy door.

Unfinished business?

Thursday, March 26, 2009 5:37 AM
Allrighty. A lot has happened since the 16th.

I'll be quick because I've got a few e-mails to read. If I don't respond to all of you, thanks so much for your support.
First off, last P-day was really cool. Elders Lindsay and Wojtkowski came up from Newbury and we toured Christ Church College and went up a really big tower at another college. I'll attach a couple pictures.

The Lord wants me to be in Oxford for at least another 5 weeks (hence the subject)! It's pretty exciting. I love Oxford so I'm alright with that. Sadly, Elder White has been moved to Brighton and left this morning bright and early. It's going to be a weird adjustment at first since I spent half of my mission life living with him, but change is constant in missionary work. So it’s just Elder Keeble and myself now. We're excited to stay together. I've also been called to be the District Leader again so I'm going to be quite busy this moves. Side note-notice that I said 5 more weeks. This moves is a short one, we get one every year.
Clemencia and Chris' Baptism and Confirmation went really well.

I did the baptisms and Elder Keeble confirmed them. They gave the three of us Setswana names. Mine is Lefika (salvation), E. White's is Ceabelo (gift), and E. Keeble's is Kaleboga (thank you). They also had a great experience at the Visitor's Center and Temple. We got to go down with them. I loved it. We watched the Joseph Smith film and it gave me such a deeper realization of how true Joseph's calling to be a prophet is/was. Clemencia didn't want to leave. The feeling on Temple grounds is amazing. I've got lots of pictures to attach of our day on Saturday. I'm so grateful for these experiences I've been given.
Sadly, we've kind of lost contact with Brenda over this past weekend. We're not sure why, but now her baptism is cancelled. Our teaching pool is pretty much gone. We've worked hard and have found a few people so we should be picking up a few new ones in the next few days.
That's pretty much the highlight of our week or so. I love this work. I know it's the work of the Lord. I know that Joseph Smith is and was a prophet of God. I know that the Book of Mormon is truly another testament of Jesus Christ. I know that our Heavenly Father loves us and is very mindful of our needs. I love you guys. Thanks for your prayers and support. Talk to you Monday!
Elder Kyle Warner

Quick one

Monday, March 16, 2009 7:02 AM
Well we've got a busy day planned today and I've got a few e-mails to read so I'll be brief. Unfortunately our week was quite slow as far as finding new people to teach. Clemencia and Chris are really excited for their baptism on Saturday. We'll be taking them to the Visitor's Center at the Temple before it so that should be really neat and spiritual for them. Chris is so cool. I'm not sure if I've told you already, but we gave him the Book of Mormon Stories book and he loves it. He remembers the stories almost perfectly and he is always asking if there are primary activities during the week.
Brenda and Yamu (South African couple) are doing quite well too. Their understanding of the Gospel is really good. We've been quite blessed with some great people to work with. Yamu hasn't accepted a baptismal date yet, but we'll see if he'll be baptized with his wife on the 28th. They too are going to the Visitor's Center on Saturday. We're really excited for them.
On Thursday we had our Zone Meeting in Reading (as usual) and it was really good. We discussed a talk by Ezra Taft Benson from decades ago that was about pride. I never realized how many different ways we can be prideful in our lives. It was a good way to evaluate myself and the progress I want to make.
That's really the highlights of my week. I was a bit ill most of the week, but am pretty much over it now. I'm going to attach some pictures then start writing back, if possible. Love you all. The weather here is really nice now. Hope it's getting close to spring for ya. Take care.
Elder Warner
The pictures are good this week! One is of us three after Zone Meeting in our comp. ties.

The other two are still frames from a video I did last p-day. We were walking down the high street and a guy was doing a magic act so we stopped since we had time. He asked for a volunteer so we encouraged E. Keelbe to do it and he did.


The guy had E. Keeble wrap him up in a chain, put the red cloth over him then the guy escaped. It was pretty cool and funny to hear this guy call E. Keeble Elder like it was his first name. He sounded like a member.

Fast week

Monday, March 9, 2009 6:17 AM
Well this week past quick too. Becky's baptism was really good. I've attached a picture.
It was an interesting week on top of the baptism.
Monday we picked up a couple new people. One is from New Zealand and is really trying to figure out truth. He came to Church and enjoyed it. Tuesday was interesting. I went to Newbury on exchange with E. Wojtkowski. We taught their friend Betty who is going to be baptized on the 15th. She's got a solid testimony and is more than ready for baptism. The weather was awful, ha-ha. It was really windy and we got completely drenched, but it was ok. We didn't get discouraged at all. In fact, we were singing "There is Sunshine in My Soul Today."
While I was gone Brenda and Yamo were taught by E. White and a member and Brenda accepted a date for baptism on the 28th. That's pretty exciting. I got back into Oxford in the afternoon on Wednesday. We've taught Clemencia and Chris a few times this week. They've accepted everything well and have started to gain testimonies of their own. When we taught them the Word of Wisdom Chris was so happy he didn't have to drink tea (Clemencia used to have him each cold morning) that he stomped on the boxes of tea then binned them. It was pretty funny. He's really smart for a 10 year old.
We've taught a few other people here and there that are new, but I'll keep you posted on whether they progress quickly. Saturday morning we did what's called Ox-clean and cleaned up the car park across the street from our chapel then had a BBQ. It was good fun. We saw Clemencia and Chris before they came to the baptism and they've now bumped their date to the 21st of March. It's going to be a fast few weeks preparing them and Brenda (hopefully soon, Yamo) for baptism.
Becky was confirmed and given the Gift of the Holy Ghost on Sunday. It was the first time I've confirmed some one so it was extra special for me. We had some interesting experiences in the afternoon that ultimately deepened my testimony of the reality our Heavenly Father and the fact that this is HIS work. I'm so grateful to be a small part in it. I know that it's the true work of Christ and this is His church. I love you guys. Take care.
Elder Warner
The three of us after our service project on Saturday

The Elders in the Zone last P-day after playing football. Top row: Coombs, Lindsay, Wojtkowski, Fowler, White, member from Farnbrough, Evans. Bottom row: yours truly, Barker, Roberts, Keeble, and Martins.