January 25th Email

Dear my wonderful friends,

Not a lot happened this week, but we did have our first district meeting of the transfer. The zone leaders were there. Elder Moulton and Elder Vianna Da Silva gave a training on companionship unity:

So there you have it. This is how we stay so united with our companions. Just kidding. There was a training on how to have a fantastic step in and some other things.

On Sunday we had a missionary themed sacrament meeting. Elder Cornélio and I gave talks on how the members can help with missionary work. There was another speaker who gave a talk on the same thing. I feel like it is going to help the missionary work in the ward.

That's about it. The only other funny thing I can think of that happened this week was when elder Cornélio and I went to go teach a Portuguese family that doesn't speak any English a lesson. Their 2 year old daughter got up on to the couch and made me blow my nose on a tissue that she was holding right in the middle of the lesson. She also cleaned my eyes with the same tissue. It was really funny, and kinda gross. 

For my spiritual thought, I'm going to share a scripture:

And the Lord said unto them also: Go forth among the [insert people here], thy brethren, and establish my word; yet ye shall be patient in long-suffering and afflictions, that ye may show forth good examples unto them in me, and I will make an instrument of thee in my hands unto the salvation of many souls. (Alma 17:11)

Preach the gospel! That's all.

Love, 

Elder Warburton 

P.S. Hey mom, could you send me a recipe for biscuits, I mean real biscuits, not these weird cracker things that they have here. Thanks!

Happy Birthday, Dad!!  Here's a picture of the sunset to help you celebrate:

18 of January Email

My dear, beloved brethren (and... Sistr-en?),

This week has been brilliant! We met a man named Ricardo. He's Portuguese. He was a potential investigator in the area book. We called him, he asked if we could meet with him again later that day, and Elder Cornélio taught him a lesson and we put him on date for baptism. He will (hopefully) get baptized on the 13 of February.

That was the miracle for this week. The rest of the week was regular missionary work; dinner appointments, finding, all that good stuff. I really like the ward. On Sunday we taught the lesson in primary. It was on "the words of Christ will tell you all things you should do."  It was really fun. 

Also, one of the sister missionaries in the trio went home. We were going to have a p-day party for her, but we didn't.  So, yeah. She's now home again, back in South Africa.

This week's spiritual thought comes from the book of 1 Nephi:

50 And I said unto them: If God had commanded me to do all things I could do them. If he should command me that I should say unto this water, be thou earth, it should be earth; and if I should say it, it would be done.

51 And now, if the Lord has such great power, and has wrought so many miracles among the children of men, how is it that he cannot instruct me, that I should build a ship? (1 Nephi 17)
I like to replace the "build a ship" part with whatever task is given me. So do it. Recite it with every hard thing and remember what the Lord can do.

Love,

Elder Warburton

More news:

I always ask Jared lots of thought provoking questions like:

Have you seen the sea yet (since he's in Gorleston-on-Sea)?  All of the Gorleston missionaries went to the sea this morning to watch the sun rise.  (See pictures below)

Does the sea remind you of that Jane Austen movie?  I'm lucky enough to have never seen the Jane Austen movie that you're talking about, so I happily say no, it didn't remind me of the Jane Austen movie.

Has anyone offered you tea yet?  Oh my goodness, I have been offered tea by more people that I have Magic cards.  I'm not exaggerating (well, maybe a little bit) but we have been offered tea by so many people!

How was your week?  This week was fun.

So...there you go....his answers to the VERY IMPORTANT questions.

12 January Email

Dear wonderful people,

This week has been marvelous! I'm in Gorleston and I love it here. People are nicer, they're more chilled out, the ward is just as great as Hayes, I love my district, I love my companion, and a lot more stuff, but I don't want to run on too much. Elder Cornélio, my companion, gave me a super awesome hair cut. I'll put a picture in the bottom.

We had a zone training meeting in Norwich (Nor-itch), and then two days later we went back for interviews. Norwich is like a slightly less busy London with less foreigners. It's fun. The zone training meeting was really good. We had trainings by the sisters in our area. They gave it on how to open an area. I learned that we need to work with the members more. That applies to all of you non-missionaries out there. You better support the missionaries.

That's about it. 

My spiritual thought will be 

19 As many as I love, I rebuke and chasten: be zealous therefore, and repent. (Revelation 3)

If the Lord tell you to change, it's because He loves you. So do it.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton

P.S. I went to a charity shop and got a 70£ jacket for 14.99£! #poppintags

New haircut. 

Big Ben.

These are two missionaries in Wembley.

New jacket.

Elder Cornelio.

Aren't we just beautiful?!

5 January Email

Dear wonderful people,

This week I will recount everything that has happened from Christmas-ish.

Christmas Eve was really fun. We met with a guy named Deepak and he wants to get baptized, so that was nice. He's going through cancer treatment right now, but when he's done he'll get baptized. Then afterwards we went to a members house for Christmas Eve dinner. We had Dominos pizza. Classic.

On Christmas Day, well, you know what happened (we got to talk to him for a couple of hours on Skype). Then in the evening, we went to a members home and had a nice English/American Christmas dinner. Then Elder Koehler skulked off to Skype his family, so I got some quality time with the Sohn family. The Sohns have two little girls, Neva, who is 2 years old and the other is about 4 and a half months old. She was born about a week before I came to Hayes ward. (I can only remember Neva's name because she is constantly getting into things that she shouldn't, so Brother Sohn was saying her name a lot.)  I helped brother Sohn put together Neva's new doll house, then it was about 9:30 pm, so he took Elder Koehler and I home.

On New Year's Eve, we did a lot of work. We were finding, when out of nowhere it started to rain sideways. I didn't have my jacket, so I got soaked and my shirt became see through. We just gave up and went back to the flat because it was nearing 7:00 and that's when we needed to be home. So then we played games and ate curry until we had to got to bed.

This past Monday, we had moves calls, and I'm getting sent to a place called Gorleston, which I think is right next to the ocean. Score!  It's on the edge of the mission.  It looks like I'll always be "living on the edge"... Sorry, that was bad. My companion is going to be Elder Cornellio. I've heard he's from Brazil, so this next transfer is going
to be fun.

Well, that's all. I'm going to miss Hayes, but I'm super excited to serve in Gorleston! Just a quick note, I called this with Elder Sowah.

Spiritual thought:

14 Blessed are they that do his commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life, and may enter in through the gates into the city (Revelations 22).

If you follow the Lord's commandments, you have the right to enter Zion.

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton

P.S. I'm going to central London today to see all of the sights.  I'll send pictures later.

Good to see he's supporting the family business. ;)