Monday, January 25, 2010

"Dying" testimony!

Mon, Jan 25, 2010 at 4:25 AM
Well this week just blew by. We were quite busy with a lot of things. We had two exchanges and we had our Zone Conference at the Temple. We did our first exchange with the Poole elders and it went well. We're blessed to have quality missionaries throughout the zone. I went to Yeovil on Thursday for the day to work with E. Ard. We had a great time. We met some really neat people and I learned a few significant things from E. Ard. We even got a Chinese buffet for Lunch :-). It was definitely too much, but that's how Americans do buffets. Side note: Most of the buffets in England say Eat as much as you'd like, not All you can eat.
Our Zone Conference was amazing. I love going to feel the peace in the Temple. Things were a little difficult having to give my so called "dying" testimony, but you'll be pleased to know that I didn't cry. ha-ha. Our theme was on Rededicating ourselves to the work and to the Lord. I think a lot of the missionaries felt a desire to improve and to give more of themselves. I know I did.
As far as our friends that we're teaching and preparing for baptism: Things are much better than last week. We can definitely see that Satan has really stepped it up on his end. I can feel it. It's difficult to describe it, but all of the people in the Zone who are preparing for baptism have been hit with opposition this past week and all in different ways. It's sad to see, but I know that "with God nothing shall be impossible."
That’s pretty much my week. Sorry that it's not too detailed. We've got a lot to do today. This coming week is going to be our most normal week, no meetings. It's a good thing too because there's a lot of attention that needs to be paid to our area.
I'm really grateful for the time I get now as a missionary. I've never been so busy and happy at the same time. I know that God lives and loves his children, despite what the world may claim from what it sees. Love ya'll! have a great week. Speak to you soon.
Elder Warner
At the temple with E. White!

Monday, January 18, 2010

Milagros!

Mon, Jan 18, 2010 at 8:18 AM
Well this week's been quite busy so naturally it flew by. We did a lot of teaching and had my last ZLC on Friday at the Shamo's home. It was a great one and I'm grateful for the experiences I've had there the past two moves.
Because I want to do some reading and possibly ;-) some writing back I'll be brief with a miracle tied into my subject:
Tuesday night we went to knock a road that I thought a lot of Spanish speaking people would live on so E. Lee could use his language gift. Well on the way there I got us lost so I turned into a drive to look at the map and turn us around. As I was reading the map E. Lee got a prompting to go check the doors at the building of flats in front of us. Only one was opened (both were supposed to be locked) and another prompting to knock the building came. So we headed up to the 6th floor and started. The first door had a pretty elderly woman behind, yelling that she had the flu and couldn't open up. We decided that the whole building would be the elderly and we probably shouldn't knock them. We hopped back in the lift pushed the ground floor and another prompting came to keep going so we hit the 3rd floor out of sheer hope. The first door we knocked a woman answered saying she couldn't speak English. We asked where she was from and she said, "Brazil." We found out she also spoke Spanish and after a couple minutes we were inside talking to her and her daughter. We went back a couple of times and had some really amazing spiritual experiences with the husband/father and two of them are preparing for baptism! Hopefully we'll be able to share more and help get the whole family involved this week.
They were a big answer to our prayers for E. Lee to teach in Spanish. Two of them came to church and despite the language barrier they enjoyed it. I'm grateful that miracles haven't stopped. The work of God continues to move forward as his Spirit prepares and leads his children together. Thanks for all your prayers. They really do help.
This week should be another busy one. We've got our delayed Temple Conference on Friday that I'm really looking forward to. Keep safe and I'll speak to you soon! Love ya!
Elder Warner
p.s. finally I got to play some footi after we had a DLC at our flat. I loved it, but realized how out of shape I am.

Monday, January 11, 2010

A couple of pics

Mon, Jan 11, 2010 at 6:23 AM

Well it's been an interesting week or so. Fortunately there's not much snow at all here in Bournemouth. Church wasn't cancelled and our friend Levi's baptism went great. E.Lee, Levi, E. Warner
He seems pretty happy and excited to be in the YM. He's going to love it. Not too much has happened besides that since I e-mailed last. We're still working with a few good people and developing a vision of what we want to happen this moves. It's going to take a lot of hard work and perfection, but we'll be blessed for it. This is a great area.
This week would normally be our ZLC and ZC, but who knows what will happen with the weather. I'll go ahead and attach a couple pictures. Enjoy and talk to you soon!
Elder Warner
E. Hansen and E. Warner
An awesome tree E. Orme and E. Warner found.

Thursday, January 7, 2010

Craziest week and half ever

Thu, Jan 7, 2010 at 4:05 AM

Heya! Sorry if I don't write much today. I'm a bit slow with freezing hands. It's a cold one today. I'm not sure where to start. Things have been crazy. I'll start with last week.
Wednesday E. Orme was ill so we didn't work. I just cleaned the flat and studied a bit. We did a bit of work New Year's Eve, but he was ill again that night and we didn't do much New Year's Day either. Things are great in the work. We've got a baptism this weekend and will have at least two more on the 30th. We've had some cool miracles lately. Lots of people have been approaching us. A guy today even, from Montreal. He's in the Christchurch area though.
We were supposed to have a Temple Conference/Moves day yesterday, but it snowed quite a few inches near London and only a bit here in Bournemouth. We're sheltered by the Isle of Wight so we only get the cold, rain, and ice...fun stuff :-). Our temple conference was cancelled and moves has been hectic. We sent four missionaries to Reading and other places in our Zone's cars yesterday afternoon and they'll finish getting back today. I ended up staying in Christchurch last night with E. Hansen. They're putting sisters in there now. It was interesting haha. We were expecting our new comps to get in last night, but the weather was too bad so we stayed just the two of us in someone else’s flat. We didn't have anything, toothbrush, showering stuff, other clothes....So we just walked around in the evening and got some Dominoes. It was good fun and now I'm back in Bournemouth.
Oh ya... moves... A lot has changed in the Zone. E. Orme was moved to Taunton and I'm now with E. Lee from Arizona. I'm excited to work with him. Things are going to be great. Jersey stayed the same, but we've now opened up Guernsey so missionaries will be flying out this morning. Salisbury-E. Coon and E. Barker; Christchurch-S. Woodward and S. Pilz; Poole- E. Hansen and E. Robinson; Yeovil-E. Ard and E. Rodriguez; Weymouth stayed the same. There's much to be done and many people who want to be baptized.
Things are going to be really busy the next couple weeks. Sorry for my lack of correspondence (and spelling ;-). I know there are some birthdays past and birthdays coming up that I haven't really said anything about. HAPPY B-DAY EVERYONE!!! :-). (That includes Elyse on the 13th).
I would love to send pictures because I've taken quite a few, but I haven't been back to the flat yet so on Monday you'll get a few. I can't think of much else to share. I hope you're not getting too much snow. I kind of want the weather to stay milder here, but you never know!
Love ya'll. Have a great week!
Elder Warner

Monday, December 28, 2009

A great Christmas

Mon, Dec 28, 2009 at 4:31 AM
Well not much has happened since I spoke to you on the phone. I hope it wasn't too rushed for everyone. Our Christmas party was great. We had seven of us there. The games were fun and food was great. We were well taken care of for Christmas dinner.
We did a lot travelling during the week with an exchange in Yeovil and delivering presents (packages) to missionaries for Christmas so not too much happened in Bournemouth. The New Year week should be great. We're looking forward to having a normalish week now and to have some great miracles happen.
Unfortunately this computer isn’t' recognizing my card reader so I don't think I'll be able to get you any pictures this week, sorry. Well I hope everyone had a great Christmas and will have a great New Year too.
Love ya,
Elder Warner

Tuesday, December 22, 2009

Christmas week already?

Mon, Dec 21, 2009 at 8:18 AM
Wow, it's here, Christmas week already? Things have been pretty busy this week so time has really flown. E. Orme and I decided to do a Zone fast for the people in our areas. We had one companionship per day fasting this past week and it will finish tomorrow. Many miracles have happened. Because of time I'll only get to share a few.
Monday we had our first official teach with our friend from Iran. He was very receptive, one of the nicest people I've ever met. He accepted to be baptized on Jan. 30th. He's really busy with work as a taxi driver, but will be a bit more open in January.
Tuesday was something else. The Zone met up in Poole for their district meetings so we could be interviewed by Pres. Shamo after. Things went quite a bit late, but it was very spiritual. We had a great discussion while interviews were happening and all of us felt the fire of the Spirit and miracles shed forth. An area in the Zone that hadn't any success in teaching new people all moves picked up 7 new people just last week. Things are starting to move. Working with our Polish friends has been difficult because of busy schedules and language barriers so patience is needed.
We've seen some amazing miracles with some of the other people we're teaching. Heavenly Father is really preparing people with hearts soft enough to feel the Spirit. We met a man who works a petrol station who had a pass-along card taped on the wall a couple weeks ago. He came to church yesterday and loved it. He's a great guy from Sri Lanka. We had our special Christmas program and E. Orme and I sang in the choir. The primary put on a Nativity play after which went well and gave a good laugh.
We were also blessed with a good amount of service opportunities-mostly painting and moving, but its service and we were glad to help. That's pretty much my week. This week should be great. I'm going to Yeovil tomorrow for an exchange so I'm excited for that. I love this work, especially at this time. I love ya!
Speak to you soon,
Elder Warner

Monday, December 14, 2009

Brrr....

Mon, Dec 14, 2009 at 3:24 AM
It's definitely cold here. It seems like it's definitely winter at home as well. Thankfully, for missionaries, we don't have snow here. This week's e-mail will be short because my time is and I didn’t get to read all my e-mails last week. So I'll share a few highlights with you.
It's been difficult with our Polish family, but things are great now that we have the help of a Polish member. If Brady could send his testimony and anything he might feel helpful in Polish that would be great too! Tuesday night we went to Southampton airport (like driving to SLC from Ogden) to pick up E. White and E. Martins. They stayed the night with us and we had our Zone Conference on Wednesday. It was amazing. We got to watch some outtakes from the Joseph Smith film. They really boosted my testimony of the Prophet. We also had our Christmas presentation. It worked out well. Not to be prideful or anything, but the Poole Zone's music was the best. I'll record E. Marchione and E. Trevisan singing Oh Holy Night on my tape. They were the best.
Thursday morning we dropped E. White and E. Martins off at the airport to send em off to Jersey. We also had a cool experience before a DA. We only had about 20 minutes to knock on a road so we prayed fervently that we would teach someone new. The first door we knocked was a man who's been a Christian for about 11 years now. We got in and taught for a few minutes and are hopefully going to see him again tonight. We've seen a lot of other miracles this week, but I don't have time to share them so you'll have to wait for the tapes to come :-).
I worked with E. Hansen in Bournemouth on Sat. We had a good exchange and met some really nice people. Sunday was great. We had a Christmas Concert in the evening and had a few investigators go that enjoyed it. We also popped by a woman who was taught almost two years ago by E. Eng and an E. Boome. She's coming to our Christmas party and we're going to do some service/teaching on Wednesday.
It's been a great week and I think things will only get better with Christmas literally just around the corner. There are a good number of people in the Zone preparing for baptism now and we're looking to increase that. I love it. I hope everyone feels this great Spirit of Christmas. Enjoy it and do some random acts of kindness. It's fun. Love ya. Talk to you soon!
Elder Warner
The pics are obvious. E. White and myself by our Christmas tree in Bournemouth flat.
Also E. Martins, White, Orme, and me