April 24 Email

Dear wonderful people! 

As you've probably waited for, here is my weekly summary! Hope you enjoy! :)

Tuesday - Well, today we had our exchange with the Zone Leaders. I started off with Elder Jackson. We had a lesson with a less active named Brian. He's a very humble man with a problem with alcohol. He does pray and read sometimes, but he hasn't been to church in a while. We encouraged him to come church. He said that he would like to go to church again, so hopefully he will come this Sunday. Then we got a call from another less active named Jason, I think. He is very open minded, almost too open minded. He takes bits and pieces from all sorts of different religions and tries to apply them to his life. He really is a great guy, but he needs to start going to church and learning true gospel principles. After that, we went and switched off with the other elders. I went with the other Zone leader, Elder Hinatsu. We taught a Chinese girl named Rebecca about the word of wisdom again. The only problem she has is that she likes to have the occasional drink. We committed her to stop drinking alcohol, so hopefully that will work out before her baptism. Then we drove all the way to Clacton. On the way, we saw this pub/hotel with a hilarious name. I'll put a picture in the bottom. While in Clacton, we met with an investigator named Martin. He's also very humble and loves the church, but he has minor autism, and forgets things very quickly. He's pretty slow to learn, but he does his best to live the commandments. Hopefully he'll be able to get baptized soon. Then we went home and went to bed. 

Wednesday - Well, today we finished our exchange with the Zone Leaders and had district meeting. It was a quick district meeting, which is always great. Then we all went to Taco Bell for lunch. It was delicious. We then went to Chelmsford so Elder Radford could take his theory test. While he took his theory test, I wandered around the mall and looked at the shops. We met up in front of a restaurant after he finished his test. Sadly, he failed. He did well on the hazard perception bit of the test, but missed too many of the multiple choice questions. Then we got back to our area at around 5:00 p.m. Elder Radford was feeling a bit sick throughout the exchange yesterday, and he was still feeling sick, so he took a short nap. Then we went to the chapel to book his next theory test. Then we went home and ate dinner.

Thursday - Today we had a service project in the morning. We were helping out a lady in the ward. We mowed her lawn. It took about three hours because the grass was about a foot long and wet, the mower she has is a tiny electric one that connects to a wall socket, and her son was "helping" us. He's super cool and was distracting us the entire time with conversations about guns, politics, and other pointless junk. It was fun. Then he showed us his weapons and air soft collection. He has a few swords, knives, and a pair of nunchucks. He also has some really cool air soft guns. After that, we went to tesco to buy some food. Then we did some finding. Then we ate lunch. I made mashed potatoes out of 4 month expired potatoes in the fridge. They were pretty good. Then we went and stopped by a bunch less actives. After that, we went to a lesson/dinner appointment with our investigator named Bobbie. She fed us some take away Indian food. It was delicious. Then we had a lesson about the pre-existence. She had lots of good questions. Hopefully we were able to adequately answer them.

Friday - Well, in the morning we went out finding. We met a cool guy named Mark. He's into bikes and such. He doesn't have much of a religion for himself, but he does strongly believe in God. After finding for a few hours, we went back to the flat for lunch. After lunch we went to the chapel in order to do our weekly planning. That took a few hours. Then we did some online proselyting since we were already at the chapel. Then we did some stop-bys for a while, then we came home for dinner. Nothing too exciting for today. 

Saturday - Well, today we had another service project. There's a sister in the ward who wanted us to help out with her garden. We didn't know that that entailed moving nearly a ton of rubbish around like a game of Tetris. So we cleaned up, rearranged, and chucked out a heap of junk. It took us nearly five hours. So, that was most of our day. We finished at around 4:30. Afterwards, we took showers, ate a late lunch and did some finding for the rest of the day. 

Sunday- Well, today was church, the best day of the week. We had ward council in the morning. Then we had church. We had a member missionary themed sacrament meeting. Elder radford and I both gave talks. They were pretty good. Then a member of the ward shared his thoughts about missionary work among members. The rest of the classes were really good. Then we mingled with the members for a while, trying to pump them up for missionary work. Then we went to the Forconesi family's house for lunch. They made some awesome pasta with chicken. It was great. Then we got some referrals from them because of this message we shared with them about sharing the restored gospel, a talk by Elder oaks from October 2016 conference. Then we stopped by the pew family and gave them the sacrament. Then we stopped by another family and got a lunch appointment for Wednesday. They're great! Then we had correlation meeting with our ward mission leaders. After that, we went and stopped by a few less actives with the ward mission leader. Then we went home for dinner. 

So, that was my week! I hope you enjoyed it! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

April 17 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This week was a lot of fun. Because it was the week leading up to Easter, almost all of our finding had to do with sharing the Easter video from Mormon.org. It is a wonderful video and I would encourage all of you who haven't watched it to watch it. And even though Easter is over, I would encourage you to share it with a friend. Well, now on to my week.

Tuesday - Today was alright. The Zone Leaders came over for a blitz in the morning. I was with Elder Jackson. We found three new investigators in total. Yay! Then we ate lunch. Then our appointment with terry cancelled, so we went to the chapel and did some online proselyting and Elder Radford did some theory test practice until our dinner appointment with the English-Frys. After dinner, we had an awesome lesson with Bobbie. She's great.

Wednesday - We had a bunch of appointments with our investigators, but literally all of them cancelled, so we went finding for a while. Eventually we found a lady named Teresa Donovan. She's Irish and super cool. We're seeing her tomorrow. She agreed to come to church on Sunday as well. Hopefully she'll come. Then we went to the chapel to message some of our friends on Facebook. Then we went to our dinner appointment with the Powells. They're a pretty cool family. I jumped on their trampoline for a while. It was super fun. Then we shared a message about sharing the restored gospel. They agreed to look for missionary opportunities. Then we went back to the flat for call ins.

Thursday - Today we did our weekly planning. That took a long time. Then we stopped by the place that Teresa told us she lived at and found out that she was a gypsy, because the lady living there was a former investigator who knows her. She said that we shouldn't get mixed up with her. Oh well. Then we ate a late lunch and went to chapel to do some online proselyting. Then we stopped by a media referral. She's super good. Her name is Pamela. If it wasn't for the fact that she works on Sundays, she could be baptized this transfer, but she works on Sundays. Sad. After our lesson with her, we went to Morrisons to get some donuts. Before we got donuts, we strategically placed some Easter pass along cards throughout the store. Then we went home and had dinner.

Friday - Well, we had to go to Zone conference today. It was loooooooooooooong. It was alright though. Nothing too special. Lots of trainings and speeches. After zone conference we went to a dinner appointment with the bishop and his family. They made an entire good Friday feast. I only got a picture of the starter. It was delicious. After dinner we went home and I went to bed.

Saturday - Well, today I got sick from something yesterday, so the morning and early afternoon was spent taking naps. After a few hours of that, I finally gathered up enough strength to do some work. We went and stopped by some AUFs. Only one of them was home. He was 91 years old, but he looked only 70ish. After that we went to this one AUF who wasn't home, who lives next to a bay connected to the ocean, so we went and saw it. It was beautiful. It also smelt like the ocean, which was refreshing. Then we went to our ward mission Leader's home and ate some KFC. It was nice. Then we practiced a song that we're singing for stake conference, then we went home and went to bed.

Sunday - Today was Easter, so we had church. It was really good. The members brought two nonmembers along. They're new investigators. There was a good turnout. Then after church we had lunch with the Goughs. They made a roast dinner. It was nice. Elder Radford's dad sent a present for him to the Goughs. He sent him a pocket watch. It's pretty sick. Then we saw the Pews. They're doing well. Then we went to the chapel so Elder Radford could do some theory test practice for his driving theory test on Wednesday. Hopefully he will pass.

Well, that's my week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

P.S. Happy birthday Kinsey! Also, happy late birthday Chris! Love you both! 🎉🎉🎉🎁🎈🎈🎁

April 10 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This week has been pretty great. I'm now in a place called Witham. It's quiet, but it's great. The people here are nice and they're pretty open to our message as well. The ward is pretty awesome, too. They feed us a lot. :)

So, I guess I'll put my week's summary in here. 

Wednesday- Well, today was awesome. We started by taking the other elders and Elder Lindsay to the train station with elder Salisbury's luggage. Then we went back to the flat and picked up all of the rest of our luggage and went back to the train station. Then we all rode into London for transfers. I got to meet lots of new missionaries. I am so old now, it's crazy. I left Elder Bourne and picked up my "rad" new companion. His name is Elder Radford. He's awesome. Definitely one of my favorite companions by far. So, we went home and he showed me around the area after unpacking. We went to Witham town and toured the place a bit. While there we stopped this girl named Megan. She's boss. We are going to see her later in the week. Then we went to dinner with the bishop. They have a stone pizza oven. They made some super sick homemade pizza. It was sooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo good. I literally ate three and a half pizzas. Like, full sized pizzas. Man. Then we ate a Nutella birthday cake to celebrate her son's birthday. It was fun. Then we talked about how to help the bishop help the missionary work in the ward.

Thursday - Today we had district meeting in the morning. It was sick. Short, sweet, and to the point. We are going to find one new person per companionship every day of the transfer. We've done it so far. But that's spoiling. :) After district meeting we went to Taco Bell. It was yummy. Then we came home and had companionship study. We watched the first hour of the last session of conference. Elder E. costa had an awesome talk. Then we went finding. We met this awesome lady name terry. We're seeing her on Tuesday. Then we picked up a duvet cover and sheets from tesco. Then we had dinner. We ate the pizza that the bishops wife made for us. It was delicious. 

Friday - Today we went to colchester and blitzed with the STLs and the Zone Leaders. We found four new people as a district on that blitz. Sick. Then we came back and found for a few hours. It was awesome. While in town, the English frys saw us and bought us lunch. We continued finding for a bit and met this guy named Brad. He's pretty cool. Then we had dinner with the English frys. Bless them. They're great. After dinner we played uno with them. They are so sweet. Then we shared a message about the Easter initiative. It was fun. Then we went home and got a new investigator over the phone. Nice!

Saturday - We'll, today we did our weekly planning. That took a while. Then we went and visited our ward mission leader so I could meet him. Then he had us help him with a service project for his friend named mister tims. He's this old guy that's basically blind. He's really funny. We raked up the extra grass left over from mowing earlier in the week. Then we went to the chapel and did our progress record and some online proselyting. Then we went and had dinner. 

Sunday - Today was awesome. It was my first day of church in Witham. We helped out with the sacrament then I gave my testimony, because it was my first week in Witham. Then we went to Sunday school. After Sunday school we helped out bishop with his lesson for the young women. We taught about the need for a restoration. It was really good. Then after church we changed into our regular proselyting clothes and had lunch. I was feeling a bit sick throughout the day, so I took an hour to rest. After that we had an appointment with a former investigator. She was really open to our message. After our lesson she made us dinner, which is always a welcome blessing. Then we went with our ward mission leader to visit some less active members. One of the families that we visited had a trampoline, so I couldn't help but jump on it for a few minutes. Then, when we finished, he decided that we should stop by one of his friends and try to share the gospel with her. She was really open, so we taught her and we'll be seeing her next week on Tuesday. 

Well, that's all for this week. I hope you all have an awesome week. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

April 4 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This week was pretty crazy, so I'm just going to give you my journal entries from this week.

28/3/17

Today was interesting. We started off by going to the Bletchley elders flat to shower. While we are there, we were told what time we would pick up the Milton Keynes elders and take them to London. It's always been my dream to drive in London. So we picked them up and started our journey to London. It was nice and easy, until we actually got into London. It was super fun. Small roads, lots of traffic, aggressive driving, it was an awesome experience. While in one roundabout to get to Hyde Park, I almost accidentally left the round about at the wrong exit, so I very quickly pulled back into the roundabout and nearly crashed into a concrete barrier. Then, while in the same roundabout, I took the exit that the GPS told me to take, which led to a dead end which could not be exited, so I drove over the island into the roundabout entrance. Then we safely got to the chapel and dropped off elder Chang. Then we headed back. And thing. Lots of traffic, aggressive drivers, small roads, almost crashed at a roundabout again. It was awesome. I'm not sure if the other elders trust my driving anymore. Oh well, they would've done the same if they were driving. Then we picked up elder Lindsay's stuff and went back to the flat to make lunch. I made Italian noodles. It's nice. Then we went finding. I was with Elder Nakaima and Elder Bourne. We stopped this Vietnamese kid. He was feisty, as Elder Nakaima would say. But he was very humble as well, and he understood the Scriptures pretty well, too. Then we had our lesson with Jawad. He's super good. Definitely a truth seeker. I can't wait until he gets baptized. Then we dropped off the Bletchley elders and went home.

29/3/17

Today was the best worst day ever! We went to the chapel to do basketball for exercise. That was fun. Then we went back and had showers with our brand new water heater that we got. It was nice and warm. Then we had our planning and studies. After studies, we taught a guy in Milton Keynes named Mike. He's from China and I love him. He's very humble and open minded. We resolved his concern about the word of wisdom by sharing the story of Abraham almost sacrificing his son. It was really good. Then at had lunch. After lunch we went into town and did a lot of finding. We met some really fun people. We met this Bulgarian girl who designs formula one cars for red bull. She was super awesome. I think hey name is Svini or something like that. We also met this guy named mark. He's super cool. We gave him a book of Mormon and we will probably see him on Friday. While finding, Elder Lindsay's recent convert texted us saying that Satan was attacking her and she was going to call an ambulance. She called the ambulance and when we stopped by, the paramedic told us to come back later. So we drove all the way back to Bletchley, then she texted us and still wanted to meet. So we drove back to Milton Keynes and had this silly lesson with her about her marrying jesus and how she is perfect and such. She's not perfect. Then we picked up our dinner from a member. She made some really good food for us. Then we saw a less active lady and her husband. Her husband talks a lot. He's really nice, though. We talked a lot about cars and such. Then we saw the bakers, a family in the ward who doesn't come to church a lot because they are always unwell. We had a fun time with them and they offered to have us over for dinner this upcoming Monday. Then we ate the dinner that Sister Kinuyo made for us. It was delicious. 

30/3/17

Today was the best day ever! We had our studies in the morning, then we met with valentina, a Romanian potential that elder Chang and elder Lindsay merry on Monday. We talked about the importance of living prophets. He's super cool. After that, we ate lunch at greggs. I got a cheese and steak sub with ginger beer. It was really nice. Then we had a lesson with a potential we met yesterday named Jerry. He's also super awesome. We taught him the restoration and the importance of praying to know the truthfulness of the book of Mormon. He's from Zimbabwe. Then we went out finding in Bletchley town. While out finding, we met a guy named munya. He's also from Zimbabwe. He's great. We briefly went over the restoration with him. Then we picked up brother epple to come teach jawad with us. He was super helpful. He really brought home the point that we need to rely on faith, rather than complicated doctrine and confusing questions. It was great. Then we had a dinner appointment with some people from Milton Keynes ward, the Irelands. They are lovely. They made chilli! Every dinner appointment is chilli! But it was nice. Then we had, like, a million dessert items. It was great. After that, Elder Bourne needed to release his bowel flood gates, then we went finding for twenty minutes. We met a girl named Ieva. She's super great. She was super open to meeting with us tomorrow. So we'll be seeing her tomorrow at 3:00 pm. She's awesome. We found four new investigators today! Whaaaaaaaahhh!

31/3/17

Today was fun. We had our zone training meeting today. We had to be there by 8:00 in the morning, so we needed to be up really early. When we got there, we needed to pick up the sisters from the station, so we picked them up and got some McDonald's for breakfast. The meeting was awesome. They talked about lots of spiritual things. They talked about the grace of Jesus Christ and used the talk from brad Wilcox. It was really nice. We also got to see the Easter initiative video. It was awesome. Then we took pictures and went home. After we went home we saw Mike, the awesome investigator who lives in Eaglestone. He's great. Then we went finding while elder Lindsay and John saw a less active. Then we went to sports night. It was awesome. I won the first game. :)

1/4/17

Well, today was awesome. We did weekly planning while elder Lindsay and John had a lesson in the city. Then we cleaned up the relief society room in the chapel because we left it all messy yesterday after sports night. Then we had lunch. Then we went finding in Bletchley town. We talked to lots of cool people. We met a lady named Valerie. She was being taught by the missionaries a long time ago. She wants to come to church tomorrow. Then we went to have our lesson with mercy. She wasn't able to make it. Them we had an awesome dinner with the bishop and watched conference while doing so. It was great. I love their family. They're hilarious. Then we went to the chapel and did our progress record. 

2/4/17

Double awesome! We continued general conference today. We got to watch three sessions today. We still haven't seen the Sunday afternoon session, because it starts when we're supposed to be home for the night. We'll probably watch it tomorrow or something. So, we watched the Priesthood session in the morning, then the Saturday afternoon session, then the Sunday morning session. After all of the conferences, I gave a blessing to a lady from the ward. After that, we had a lesson with this lady that stopped us in Bletchley town. She wants to be baptized! She's so golden! We taught get the word of wisdom, and she told us, "Well, how about I stop drinking tea today, how's that sound?" We nearly fell over! She wants to learn. But she lives in Milton Keynes boundaries, so we won't be teaching her starting next week. But that's alright, same team. Then we picked up the sisters and brought them home so they wouldn't be late getting home.

3/4/17

Well, today was interesting. We had lots of lessons and finding planned for the day. While we were out finding in the morning, we got our transfer call from President Stevens. We found out that our area is being closed as well as the Milton Keynes 2 area, which means that we have to clean both flats, and we're all going to have to take our luggage into London. So, after that, we stopped finding and started cleaning the flat. Then we had to pick up the only other elder that's staying in the area and brought him to all of the appointments we had in order to pass them over to him. So we met with basically all of our investigators and handed them over to the other elders. Then, in the evening, we went to a dinner appointment with the Bakers. They're great. Then we went home and started packing.

P.S. I'm going to a place called Witham.  

Well, that's all for this week. I love you!

Love,

Elder Warburton