3 months already????

Date: Wed, 28 May 2008 09:37

We had quite the week. It was full of miracles, that’s for sure. Last Wednesday our district got together and bowled a couple games then went to an amazing restaurant called Nando's. It's a Portuguese bbq place that's really popular in England. It was kind of expensive, but well worth it.




This one's for you, Dad!



Elder Di Iulio was in Portsmouth with me on exchange that night and we knocked into an amazing family. They're from Zambia. Ethel(the mom) is a single parent of two, Koshita(co-shta) he's 10, and Muzhinga(moo-shinga) she's 8. All three of them are really nice. We saw them a few times last week. E. Di Iulio and I taught Ethel about the Restoration Wednesday night and she enjoyed it. She even prayed in Bemba for us. It was amazing. We saw her the next day and gave her a Book of Mormon and agreed to put up some blinds for her and also build a new wall in her home because she wants to foster a child. That's what we'll be doing today. Elder McConkie and I, with the help of the Isle of Wight Elders (Di Iulio & Zundel) are putting up the wall today. I'll take some before and after pictures of our handiwork.
Friday was an amazing day. We got a call in the morning from the office giving us two referrals of University students in the same building. We thought they were pranks because the first one I called said he changed his mind and the second one didn't answer. Later in the day we stopped by the chapel to use the bathroom and I decided to call the guy who didn't answer. I talked to him for a bit. His name is Martin and it turns out he has friends in the Church and was very interested. We had planned to find that evening so I offered to bring him a B.O.M. and teach him that evening. We went down there and taught him in the library. It was a very good teach, despite the surroundings. He was very excited to read the B.O.M.
Saturday E. McConkie and I went with Bro. Taylor to look at Ethel's home to see exactly how we were going to construct the wall. He's a builder so his help was great. We showed Ethel and Muzhinga the DVD on the Restoration afterwards and they both really liked it. We haven't been able to teach Koshita, but hopefully later this week. We picked up a new investigator named Steve. He was really nice, is married, has two kids, and we'll be seeing him again on Saturday. After Steve we saw Martin again. We went to the library, but it was packed so we went to his student housing and watched the Rest. DVD. He enjoyed it and agreed to come to church.
Sunday was a busy, busy day. We met and walked with Martin to church. Anya also came to church and enjoyed it. Our Sunday School lesson went really well, even though we didn't have much time to prepare. After church Steve Taylor invited E. McConkie, Martin, and me over for lunch and to teach Martin some more. After eating we taught Martin the Plan of Salvation and he enjoyed it. We committed him to be baptized on the 7th of June and he accepted it. In the evening E. McConkie and I went to see E-man and Alison. We had dinner with them, talked a bit about testimonies, and offered a two week challenge to Alison. The challenge is to live all the commandments and to study them for 2 weeks and we promised her that if she did so diligently and sincerely she would receive a testimony. It was a lot of fun to put together. We made a two week calendar of what she was to do and gave her pictures of temples and such to put up in her flat. We even gave her some MoTab CD's.
Tuesday we taught Anya the Plan of Salvation at the church. She really enjoyed it. Afterwards she gave us both some small gifts, little hand-made bracelets and some postcards of where she lived in China. They're things we'll keep forever. She too is committed to be baptized.
That's pretty much my week, to me, one of the best of my mission so far. Daily I am feeling a lot of joy from what we as missionaries do. I love you all and I look forward to hearing from you next week.
fyi-it's moves week next week. My P-day will be Thursday regardless. There's a good chance E. McConkie and I will be split up so we'll see how things go.
(A hint to everyone!!)

Elder Kyle Warner

Ole... Ole, Ole, Ole. Ole....Ole(football chant)

Date: Wed, 21 May 2008 10:25

Wow, what an eventful week. Time just flies(I'm pretty sure I say that a lot. Wednesday was really fun. We got to see a lot of old and new warships and even take a tour of the harbor on a boat.


We saw the Mary Rose, which is coming up on 500 years old in 2011. It's not all pieced together. It capsized back in its day and has since been recovered out of the bottom of the harbor. They keep it in a massive room that's temperature and moisture controlled. It's quite dark in there, but I'll attach the best photo I have.
They are constantly spraying a wax-like preservative on it too. I had quite an eerie feeling in there looking at it.


It was a well spent P-day.
(Missionaries will preach to any captive audience!!)

On Thursday we had an appointment with an investigator who dropped us for a few weeks at the church. Fyi-appointments at the church rarely go through. As we were leaving the flat in the morning I prayed that Anya would make it and about 3 seconds after I said Amen she called to say she was at the church and was waiting for us! She was 10 minutes early so we ran(for about 80 yards, then speed walked) to the church. It was an amazing teach about the restoration. She loved it.
Saturday was a big day for Portsmouth. Their football team was in the FA cup final. We worked all week to fill the day with appointments, but the time during the game was left open, unfortunately. We went out when the game was on and the town was empty, like ghost town empty. No cars and only a few people here and there. We went to see a recent convert who, coincidentally ;-) loves Pompey (Portsmouth FC's nickname) so he was watching the game. After the first half we taught him then left to see bill. They won the game and the town went nuts, and still is today. People all over town were chanting, singing, driving around honking, getting drunk if they weren't already- it was amazing. Obviously not safe for us, but still amazing to see the atmosphere.
Monday we went to the High street for a bit and met a guy named Mike. He has been recovering from over 30 years of all sorts of addictions and has been free from them for 2 years now. He was so cool and friendly. He got us some bottled water and we sat down to talk for about an hour. His life experiences were incredible; especially what he was able to come back from. Hopefully we'll be able to teach him soon.
Yesterday we were out contacting in the morning before seeing Anya again at the church and we saw Sandra. We asked her if we could teach her for a bit at the church since she lives nearby. We ended up going over the plan of salvation again, but a little more detailed. She remembered so much of it and almost taught us, it was amazing! She said she loved learning about it all, which is convenient because we love teaching it. Anya is from China so we got her a Chinese Book of Mormon and she loved it. We watched the Restoration DVD in Chinese too. Although we had no idea what they were saying, the spirit was still the same. She said she felt something different while watching it too. The work is Amazing! I love it. I've never experienced something so rewarding.
Today we're having a district P-day and going bowling again. E. Tuttle from Chichester is going home at the end of this move. I believe it's on the 5th of June? I can't believe my 3 month mark is in just 7 days. I swear I was just bragging about my 2 month mark. I'm writing down a lot and talking a lot in my tapes so hopefully with everything being saved I'll be able to remember all of these great experiences and the little funny things in between. Anywho, I love you all. Thank you for all your support in e-mails, letters, prayers, etc. even though I'm not the best at replying. The church is true. This is God's work and it is the most worth while thing anyone my age can do. Till next week....

Elder Kyle Warner

Heat Wave

Date: Wed, 14 May 2008 10:44

Well hello again. It's been a while :-)
It's been an interesting week. As you can see from my subject it's been really hot lately. I'm not used to the heat yet, maybe in a week or so, but by then I'm sure we'll have some more rain.
The week was quite eventful. Obviously we had a baptism. Luke and Dean were baptized on Saturday, confirmed on Sunday, and next Sunday Luke will be ordained a deacon. It was so cool to be apart of it all. The baptism went really well and all E. McConkie and I had to do was take care of the font and offer the prayers. There were a lot of people from the ward there too so it made it a little more special for them. I attached a picture of us at the baptism.

Dean is next to me, he's 11 and Luke is next to him, he's 12.
The other picture is for you mom.

I tried to send it last week, but the computer that I was using had broken USB ports.
On Monday we had a DA with the Wield family. The meal was really healthy and tasty. I ate cucumbers, tomatoes, and a few other veggies you wouldn't think of me eating. It's crazy how my pickiness in food went out the window when I got here. You guys won't even recognize me when I get home. :-) Last night we taught the investigator from Trinidad at the Parkes'. The house was chaotic and loud as usual and I loved every minute of it. We get fed so well when we go there. Ben, he's the youngest @ 5 yrs old, is hilarious. He blessed the food at dinner and his prayer went something like this. "Dear Heavenly Father, please help Jared(his brother who he was fighting with before the prayer) and I to stop fighting, please help me to not be mad at him. We're thankful for the food and the missionaries,(at this point E. McConkie snickered along with Jared) and please help people not to laugh during prayers, in Jesus' name, Amen." He was serious the whole time, everyone was laughing afterwards. After dinner we taught Hayden about the Restoration and it was quite spiritual, one of the best firsts we've had so far.
Today we're going to go tour the warships down in the Harbor so E-mail will be short today. Sorry. I really enjoyed talking to you all on Sunday. I love and miss you all. Till next week.
-Elder Kyle Warner

Mother's Day

Date: Wed, 07 May 2008 11:18

Hey everyone!
Yet another week has gone by. I think the time here is starting to pick up a bit, which is both good and bad. I had a few things happen this week that were pretty great. We had Zone Conference on Thursday in Poole. It was kind of a long trip, but still really good. We talked a lot about how we can try to get a bigger effort from members to help the work. President Swinton even did "show and tell". He told us a story about a couple that he taught back when he was in England on his Mission. The guy is black and at the time he was being taught the blacks weren't allowed to have the priesthood. This guy's faith was too strong to worry about that. President told us about a prayer that the guy gave after they discussed the priesthood with him and he said something to the effect of "I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to join your church and if I receive nothing else(meaning the priesthood). I am just happy to be able to be baptized a member." Shortly after President lost contact with him and just over a year ago the guy was able to find President and they met up for the first time in over 30 years. The guy had been very strong in the church, eventually received the priesthood, and had served in various callings. President even invited him to come speak at our Zone Conf. It was so spiritual to see the two of them crying out of joy together. It was a joy that I'm looking forward to have in 30 or so years.
After the Zone Conf., I exchanged with the ZL's in Southampton and worked with E. Cusick from Orem. We were able to teach a couple people. One of them was a lady I taught on my last exchange in Southampton so it was cool to see and teach her again. The ZL's have recently moved to a 4-man flat with the other 2 elders in Southampton so in the morning the 4 of us ran to a nearby cage and played football. It was a lot of fun. It felt good to play a little bit again. We got to see Emmanuel and Fallon again this week. Every time we go over there we have a good time. Emmanuel showed us a video clip of his sister's wedding in Ghana and on it we got to see a lot of his home. Ghana looks like a really cool place. On Sunday we had such a miracle happen. McConkie and I got to the Church about 5 min before it started and there was a new guy sitting with our Ward Mission Leader. We were quickly introduced to him and sat with him during the meeting. He was so cool. His name is Hayden and he's from Trinidad. He's engaged to a member who is currently in the Philippines and he's in the navy here in Portsmouth. They're getting married in June. He's going to pick her up from the Philippines then go to Trinidad to get married, but before he does he wants to get baptized first! He looked up our ward building online and everything. He even paid tithing!! How blessed are we?
We had a DA this past week with the Jones family. Sis Jones is American, from CA, and Bro Jones is English. They made us authentic fajitas. Wow, they were tasty. We had another one with E-man and Alison. McConkie and I made them Chinese curry which was pretty good as well. They're fun to visit and we're teaching Alison. Dean and Luke are coming along well for their baptism on Saturday. They've got it all planned out too. All McConkie and I have to do is say the opening and closing prayers, fill the font, and witness the baptism.
So Mother's day is Sunday. Yea! Because of the time difference here we've got to call in the evening here. I know everyone has church at different times, but I'll be calling around 7:30 my time so 12:30 your time. I hope you all can make it. If not, there's always Christmas in 6 months...:-) I'm looking forward to it. It'll be nice to talk to you all again. That's pretty much my week. I hope all is well and I'll talk to ya Sunday!

-Elder Kyle Warner

chiesht???

Date: Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:18

Hello everyone! Man, that last week went by really quick. I'm sorry about that e-mail. I'm still a little upset about it. I'll be much more careful this week with what I click. f.y.i- my subject is how I think you spell hello in Polish. There are loads of Polish people here.
Not too much happened last week. On Sunday we had to meet an investigator, Louise, for church beforehand and walk with her and her two kids. They live about 25 min. from us and then back another 15 or so to the church. It started raining about 10 min. away from the flat and I forgot to grab my umbrella on the way out so my suit was drenched for Sacrament Meeting. I had to let my jacket hang up in the cultural hall all throughout church. On Monday we got to see Julian again!! We finally made contact with him and kind of reset a baptismal date for the 10th. We also have two others for the 17th so hopefully things will go as planned. On Monday we found out that a couple that we've been teaching is engaged! It was so cool to hear the news. They're going to get married in Ghana over the summer. Yesterday was so rainy. We were walking in it all day and rarely would anyone stop, that is if we found someone on the streets. We got quite wet and so did our bags and things inside of them. My camera got wet and almost ruined too. The lens couldn't focus at all. I was quite worried. I'd say we had our first real rain day in a while and it wasn't too fun. When it rains here the wind blows too so practically everything, but your face gets wet if you have an umbrella.
We had a really nice DA with a guy in our ward named Luke, and his girlfriend, Nicole. That's pretty much our week, not too eventful, but still alright. I hope you're all doing well. I'm going to try responding to everyone's e-mails individually this week so we'll see how it goes.
We're a little worried about the post. Some kind of tax hike has happened on the postage and everything costs a little more now. We think the Royal Mail may be holding some of our stuff because there isn't enough postage on them, but we'll try to get to the bottom of it.
Take care for now. I love you all!
Elder Warner

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Date: Thu, 24 Apr 2008 11:08

Right then..... So I just spent the last hour and 15 minutes typing my E-mail and accidentally clicked the wrong button and deleted my e-mail. I'm a little upset. I'm still here in Portsmouth with McConkie though.
Well let's see.... On Friday the 18th I got to do my first blessing. It was amazing. I've never felt the spirit like that before. It was literally speaking for me. It just kind of took over and the words just flowed, I loved it. All of our investigators are great! So many good couples. We had a DA with the Parks family the other day. They have six children, most of them little. It was so loud there but it reminded me of home. Yesterday as we were walking to a DA we saw a little 13 yr old boy get hit by a car. We were about 30 yards away from it. We saw him get hit from behind, flip back, hit his head on the windshield, do a flip in the air, and land on the street screaming. It was one of the saddest, craziest, somethingest things I've ever seen. It took us a few to realize what just happened then we ran over to him. The windshield had a massive spider web-like crack in it from his head. There were a few people comforting him as McConkie called the ambulance. They got there quickly and helped him on the street. His left leg was practically blown open and he had a softball sized bump on his head. We were a little shaken up after. I still can't believe it happened. As far as we know he's ok now, but wow how crazy.
So I responded to everyone's e-mails, but have no time left.


Here's a picture of me in the snow.




Thank you for the package. I listened to the tape and started a new one. Good luck with everything on Saturday. I love you all. Thank you so much for your love, support, and prayers. You're in mine. Till next week.
-Elder Warner

Great Thanks

Date: Wed, 16 Apr 2008 11:12

Man, what a good week! We had a couple exchanges that went well. Elder Mortenson came over from the Isle of Wight and we taught a guy named Karim from France. He is a chef at a local restaurant so hopefully he'll make us some food when we teach him again. He was so receptive and wanted to know about Christ. He found the right people to help. On Thursday we had Zone Meeting and it was really good. Sister Swinton talked a lot about President Monson because she and President Swinton are close acquaintances. He's such an amazing man! No wonder he is the prophet. You can really see how different he is now that he's prophet too. On Saturday the assistants came down to do exchanges with McConkie and me. We did a bunch of finding and it was a lot fun. We found a really cool couple named Emmanuel and Fallon. They have a 15 month old daughter and a 7 week old son. They came to church with us on Sunday and it was amazing. Because of the time difference we got to watch the last session of conference after the sacrament. I couldn't believe how good it was. They really enjoyed it. Elder Bednar and Elder Holland had such good talks. Especially Elder Bednar's when he talked about how the missionaries are full-time teachers and the members are full-time finders. If every member would work on that, the missionaries would be full of appointments, but unfortunately people are really busy. Yesterday was crazy. We had 5 appointments set up for the 1st lesson. We were so sure we were going to get all of them as new investigators. Every one of them flogged (weren't home, cancelled, etc.) us. It was so disappointing. We all need our patience and faith tried every once in a while. For us, yesterday was the day and we definitely got a little discouraged. But God knows and loves us and as we were walking through the high street (outdoor shopping mall) some guy yelled to us and asked if we had a DA. It turned out he was a returned missionary who was in Portsmouth for the day. He went to an ATM, took out some money, and gave it to us for dinner. I didn't really know what to do. It completely caught us off guard, but our moods changed almost instantly and we realized that God was mindful of us enough to help that RM see us when he did and offer us dinner. Our spirits were lifted and we became more positive throughout the rest of the day.
Thank you all for the letters I've gotten over the past couple weeks and thank you for the prints. It's crazy how much the nieces and nephews are changing every day. Kaiden has changed so much. I love hearing the little stories about them. Kami-tell Brooklyn thanks for praying for me, I need it. Every prayer helps. Braiden & Kathryn-thanks for your letters. I love and miss you too. How's the rest of the little one's? I'm sure Emilee and Kendall are walking all over the place now, yah?
So I’ve been asked for some details about the ward. Our building is pretty much like any other-ish. It just so happens to be the Stake Center so it's quite large. Our ward members are really nice. There are about 60-80 every week that come. McConkie and I are looking to increase that number though.
We have, I think, 155 missionaries in my mission. Things are going to change quite quickly though. Next Thursday is moves (transfers) and we'll find out if we're getting transferred then, on Wednesday morning. If you don't get an e-mail from me on Wednesday it's probably because either McConkie or I have been moved. I don't really want to move yet, but it's not really up to us. Our area is the Portsmouth area. McConkie and I are the only ones in our area. Our district consists of us, 2 Chichester elders, and 2 elders from the Isle of Wight. We have 2 districts in our zone. The other district has 4 elders in Southampton (that includes the zone leaders), 2 in Hamble river, and 2 in Winchester.
The food here is fine, I suppose. Yes, it is quite bland, but it isn't horrible and you get used to it. The DA's are all nice and I really can't complain. My pickiness with food went out the window from the MTC on so no worries there. I eat everything. We only get what's called "Sunday Dinner" on Sundays of course, and that comes from Margret's daughter who lives next door. It usually has some tasty meat, veggies, and of course gravy, which I love. We get or make what's called Yorkshire Pudding. They're little cup pastry-like things that are made pretty much from batter like what you'd use from pancakes and you put gravy in them. Other than that we just eat what's quick and easy. Mostly baked beans on toast, pasta, or grilled cheese. Every Tuesday night we get Kebabs and if we have time we'll make a bit nicer of a meal. One night last week we made Japanese Curry and it was really good. I'll attach pics of all of them. I forgot to mention that I've had 2 battered and deep fried mars bars (Milky Ways). We call them heart attacks because lets face it, not too healthy. It was just a celebration for a good teach is all. They're quite tasty because the chocolate and caramel is melted and warm and the batter is what holds it together. No pics of them, sorry.
Dad- I'm so proud of you for being diligent in your running. I wish I was. I bet you could beat me in a race now. I'd run in the mornings, but it's really hard. Ask Kurt, being a missionary is tough work and sleep is very valuable. Thank you for doing my taxes, I owe you a nice gift from Portsmouth, I should be sending you and Mom something sooner or later.
Mom- It sounds like you've still got your hands full. :-) I bet you and Dad are looking forward to your well deserved getaway. Thank you for your letter. I'm glad you finally got the package. I was a little worried that they lost it somewhere. Our area is huge. You should Google Earth my address and see my flat :-). It takes us about an hour to walk to the beach. And we ride a bus every so often northward. How's the Hoskins family? I haven't heard much from them.
That's all for now, attached are some fun pictures of my food and a project I've been working on. I love you all. Thank you so much for your continual support and prayers.

-Elder Warner

P.S. I can't get this darn computer to work; I'll have to make a CD of pictures again or something. Sorry.