Touching base!

Monday, May 4, 2009 4:52 AM
Ok, so this is a bit weird. I'm e-mailing from an Apple store in Exeter. It's a bank holiday so all the libraries are closed. We're having a district p-day today with bowling and Nando's-Yum! So this will be short, which is fine anyway because nothing much happened in 3 days. We're starting from scratch here in Newton Abbot. We've got a less active member who wants to come back so we're helping her overcome smoking. She just so happens to have an 11 yr old son who isn't a member who will hopefully be preparing for baptism soon.
This place is so beautiful. Lot's of hills and the view from a place called Teignmouth is amazing. I don't think I should spend much time on this computer since there are real customers waiting. Pictures will have to come next week. Love ya! TALK to you soon :-)
Elder Warner

Where do I begin?

Friday, May 1, 2009 7:18 AM
Well now I'm sure you've been worried that I didn't e-mail yesterday like I said I would, but all is well. The reason why I didn't is because of how long it took me to get to my new area from the temple. I'm now in Newton Abbot in Devon. It's down on the coast a bit east of Plymouth. So much has happened since I last e-mailed on April 20th. My time is short and I've got a lot of reading to do. Thanks for the e-mails everyone.
On the 21st we committed Gwinyai to be baptized on May 2nd and he accepted. He is amazing. He has been taught everything, interviewed, and is getting baptized tomorrow in Oxford. So we spent a lot of time preparing him for it. We even went to some baptisms in Reading and he really enjoyed it.
E. Keeble, Gwinyai, and me.

I did a good amount of interviews the past two weeks as well. I interviewed the two people who we saw get baptized in Reading and as well a small family this past Tuesday. It was great. I really like doing baptismal interviews. I won't be doing any this moves because I got released (thankfully). My new district has 8 missionaries: Sisters in Paignton, Elders in Exeter and in Bideford. I don't think I know anybody so it'll be nice to meet some new missionaries.
We had so many amazing miracles happen my last two weeks in Oxford, but I don't have time to share them. Sorry. Between my handwritten journal and my tapes you'll hear them soon enough :-). Funny story: When I interviewed one of the people in Reading I needed a Chinese speaker to translate because she wasn't very good at expressing herself in English so I asked him how to commit someone for baptism in Chinese. I took that and we tried to commit our Chinese friend, Rong Qin(wrong chin) and she laughed at me. I commanded her to be baptized, not asked. She told me the polite way then said yes. It was pretty cool. Unfortunately on Monday she got called to go to Holland for work during the week so right now we don't know what is going to happen with her just yet.






Me saying goodbye to Oxford.






Yesterday morning, E. Keeble and I drove to Bracknell and I picked up another Elder who is going home today and left E. Keeble there. We drove to the Temple and met up with my new companion and E. Keeble's new. I found out that E. Karges is training in Portsmouth!! I'm a grandpa now, weird.
Four generations: E. McConkie, E. Warner, E. Karges, E. Carlson

I took a lot of pictures so we'll see what I can attach. I'm with E. McGlachlan now from Bountiful. He's been out around 7.5 months. He's a good guy and the area is amazing so this should be a good moves. We drove back with the Paignton Sisters because one of them is training. It was a good trip out here, but it took a while and our car is a bit dodgy, but we're alive and well. We drove past Stonehenge and snapped a couple pictures. It was pretty darn cool.E. McGlachlan and me at Stonehenge.
Newton Abbot kind of reminds me of St George. We have a bit of beach in our area, but live about 15-20 min. drive away. Our flat is way nice. That should be good for now. I'll e-mail again on Monday. This Library will be closed so I'm not sure where from. The only internet cafe in the city is broken right now so we'll see. Love ya!
Elder Warner

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