November 9, 2015

Greetings, my fellow Americans. (And non Americans.)

This week was lovely. Elder Sowah baptized Dan Brown and I confirmed him.

Look how happy he is!

I can't remember much else that happened this week, but I'll tell you about a miracle that happened. Elder Sowah and I needed to find one more person to put on date, so Elder Sowah told me to say the first name that came to my head on the count of three. When we counted down we both said James. So now we need to find someone named James.

I guess I'll write a spiritual thought.

34 Teach them to never be weary of good works, but to be meek and lowly in heart; for such shall find rest to their souls. (Alma 37)

Never get tired of doing good. 

Love,

 

Elder Warburton 

November 3, 2015

Dear wonderful people,

This week has been amazing. We had dinner appointments nearly everyday during the week!  I feel like I didn't even need to buy groceries this week.

On Monday, we had dinner with Brother Eze and his family. We brought Dan Brown with us. Brother Eze only has missionaries over on Mondays because when he was a missionary, one of the things he missed was family home evening. So he invites us over so we can have a family home evening with his family. We started off with a spiritual thought, then we played some games, told some, jokes and asked some priddles, and ended with dinner. We had this really good spicy pasta with an omelette.

On Tuesday, we went to the Velasquez's house for dinner. We had curry meatballs with this really good rice with peas cooked in them.  It was cooked so that you couldn't even taste them....or Heavenly Father is following through with the promise He gave in D&C section 84:71: "And if any man shall administer poison unto them it shall not hurt them" either one. Then for dessert, we had "brown velvet" cake with yogurt and pears. It was really tasty. Afterwards, we talked about preservatives, cats, honey, jam, and snakes. Elder Sowah is terrified of snakes. He says that snakes are of the devil.

On Wednesday, we were accepted into the mission choir. I'm singing tenor. I was the only one there singing tenor, and there was this really hard part and I had to sight read it. It was fun. We were supposed to have dinner with a member, but they forgot. So we instead fasted and went to the church for Dan Brown's baptismal interview. He will be getting baptized next week Saturday.

Not much happened on Thursday, but we did have sports night and a lesson with an investigator named Aladdin. Aladdin won't get baptized yet because his family is Muslim, and they will socially cast him out if he joins another church. He wants to get baptized and still practice Islam. I hope he can gain the courage and a testimony to join
the church.

On Friday, we had a lunch appointment with a wonderful lady named Sister Wilcox. She brought us to a place called The Harvesters. The Harvesters is kind of like Chilis, but it has a salad/bread bar. I had some proper fish and chips. It was alright. We also gave one of the sister missionaries a blessing.

On Saturday, we had stake conference. We had the entire quorum of the twelve there. Not really. We had a recording of the pre-general conference training and they used bits and pieces to teach us. It was all about keeping the Sabbath day holy.

On Sunday, we went to a pre-conference meeting for less active members, recent converts, and investigators. It was really spiritual hearing about all of these different conversion stories. After that meeting, we had the main session of stake conference. There was a part where all of the missionaries from the Watford stake boar their
testimonies about member missionary work. I'm just going to forward that idea to you all. Help the missionaries out with missionary work.  It really helps.

On Monday, we spent the whole day doing a service project for a sister in the ward. Her house was a total disaster and the bishop and some other members in the ward threw out most of the house and ripped up and replaced the floors in the entire house. We cleaned the back garden and painted the main living room. It was a lot of work. Afterwards, the bishop took us out to eat at this Turkish restaurant. We got a giant plate covered in meat and rice and shared it between the four of us. It was really good.

Well, that was my week. I guess now I'll end with a spiritual thought:

17 And behold, I tell you these things that ye may learn wisdom; that ye may learn that when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God. (Mosiah 2)

After the service project yesterday, I can definitely say that Heavenly Father was happy that we were doing this project. Even though I was doing hard work all day, I didn't get tired at all until I jumped into bed. I know that God will bless you if you do service for others, even if that service is simply just saying hello to someone.

Well, that's all that I have to say.

I love you all and I hope that this email didn't bore you too much.

Love,

Elder Warburton

Pictures:

Halloween here isn't anything like it is back home. I saw maybe three kids wearing costumes and I didn't see a single kid trick or treating. It was kind of lame. But we did see these cool people on the train.  They were really nice. Elder Sowah asked if he could get a picture with them and they said, "Of course!" That was the best part of the Halloween aspect of Saturday....and yes, Elder Sowah and I dressed up as missionaries for Halloween.

October 26, 2015

Dear wonderful people!

I have about 15 minutes to write this email, so sorry if it is really short.

This week has been amazing! I lost my badge on Tuesday and prayed about it. The following Thursday Elder Sowah and I went to the library to print off directions to the church for an investigator and the librarian walked up and asked if the badge belonged to anybody in our congregation. Then he looked at my second badge and said, "oh! This must belong to you." Heavenly Father does answer prayers. 

That's about all the time I have, so I'll end with a spiritual thought.

14 And I will also ease the burdens which are put upon your shoulders, that even you cannot feel them upon your backs, even while you are in bondage; and this will I do that ye may stand as witnesses for me hereafter, and that ye may know of a surety that I, the Lord God, do visit my people in their afflictions. (Mosiah 24)

Whenever you have problems, ask the Lord for help and He promises you that He will help you.

I love you all!

Love, 

Elder Warburton 

October 19 Email

Dear wonderful people,

This week has been Wonderful!

I can't really remember too many specifics, but I know that we have had many miracles. We've been focusing more on working with members this week. We tried getting members to all of our appointments. Usually they come with us and the appointment cancels. We had a member to one of our appointments this week and it was great. I would definitely recommend bringing members to appointments. For those of you at home, all I can say is that you should go talk to the missionaries and offer to go with them to appointments. You will be the answer to their prayers.

Not too much happened this week, so I'll end with a spiritual thought. 

 6 I glory in plainness; I glory in truth; I glory in my Jesus, for he hath redeemed my soul from hell. (2 Nephi 33)

The truth is simple. When you teach, teach simply. That is why the lord taught in parables. We are pricked by simple truths.

Go do missionary work! 

Love,

Elder Warburton

October 13 Email

Dear beautiful people,

This week has been a wonderful one. My birthday was this week, so that was pretty exciting. I'm 19 now. (I feel so old) The bishop invited all of the missionaries in our ward over for dinner. They baked me an awesome cake. I'll put a picture of it at the bottom of this email. The sisters also baked me some brownies. I haven't eaten them yet, but I'm sure that they will taste great.

We had a consecrated hour of finding on Thursday as a zone. We had some awesome miracles. The first person we met is named Carmen. She has had some bad luck in the past few years. She also has a daughter with severe mental disabilities. She came to the door and started shaking our hands a bunch. She was one of the nicest people I've met. We talked with Carmen a little while about the restoration and the plan of salvation. We got a return appointment! The next person we met was named Samia. She said that she was interested and we gave her a Book of Mormon. We got a return appointment with her as well! This happened with a few other people as well, but they had difficult names that I couldn't remember. 

This is the first week of the transfer, so we found out where everyone is going. Our ward is staying the same except sister Bader is being replaced. So, we're getting a few new missionaries. That's exciting. 

Not much else happened, so I'll end with a spiritual thought. The mission is going to read the entire Book of Mormon by Christmas, so as I was read through it again, I came upon this scripture:

16 For the time soon cometh that the fulness of the wrath of God shall be poured out upon all the children of men; for he will not suffer that the wicked shall destroy the righteous.

17 Wherefore, he will preserve the righteous by his power, even if it so be that the fulness of his wrath must come, and the righteous be preserved, even unto the destruction of their enemies by fire. Wherefore, the righteous need not fear; for thus saith the prophet, they shall be saved, even if it so be as by fire. (1 Nephi 22)

Isn't that something?

Heavenly Father won't allow you to be destroyed so, in the words of Elder Sowah, don't worry about it. The Lord will protect you, "even unto the destruction of [your] enemies by fire." 

So don't worry, the Lord will provide.

Love,

Elder Warburton

P.S. Here's that cake.

P.P.S. Here's a picture of a cool car I saw.

(I'm also including what he wrote to me because I thought the stories were fun).

Dear Mom,

My birthday was fantastic! You were the third person to wish me a happy birthday. ;) I received dad's email first, then elder Sowah sang to me when I woke up, then I received your email, then president and sister Stevens sang to me through a voice mail. That was awesome. Also, the sisters gave me brownies at church. 

The cake tasted really good. They cut me a huge piece to take home, but I gave it to a homeless man that was sitting in front of the train station. I told him that it was a birthday cake, and he told me that it wasn't his birthday, but that he would enjoy it. Is was pretty funny. He was very thankful for it. 

We haven't had any baptisms yet, but we have a few who are getting there. The one girl, Lois, is really excited to come to church and so is this other man, Dan Brown. They are the two people we have scheduled to get baptized first. I'm really excited for them! 

This week has been wonderful, but, as I am to lazy to write a bunch, I'll refer you to my general email for details. But one thing I forgot to write was that this one man parked his car in the middle of the street and told us that we needed to stop preaching about Morgans. That was pretty hilarious. 

So, that was my week! It was pretty great.

Love,

Elder Warburton 

Happy Birthday, Elder Warburton!!

Today, Gary prayed that there would be someone in England that would help Jared to feel special on his birthday.  After church, I had a friend request on Facebook from someone in England so I accepted it and she sent me these pictures.  A cute Brazilian lady who now lives in England was the answer to Gary's prayer.  Look at that cake!!!  Oh....and bonus....I have a new friend. :)

Elder Warburton's birthday party:  "Hi...I hope you like the pictures.  We tried to make him happy yesterday!  I know this is his first area and I know that the first area is not always easy because they start to learn to be out of our homes and to be missionaries."

October 5th Letter

Dear beautiful people,

This week has been wonderful. Where do I begin? 

We have 4 people with a baptismal date which is amazing. We have Leteef, Fabio, Dan Brown, and now Lois! You've already heard about all of them, so I'll just leave this part how it is. 

We took Lois and Dan Brown to general conference. They both loved it, but I think Lois enjoyed it more. She has been attending the Church of England by herself for a while now which shows her desire to learn the truth of the gospel. She really liked Bradley D. Foster's talk on parenting. I hope she gets baptized. Dan Brown has committed to give up smoking and drinking, which is awesome. He's starting today so I'll need you to all pray for him. 

We were going to a member's house for conference and we were going to take Fabio with us. Fabio cancelled on us for general conference, so we had to go empty handed. On the way to, we missed our bus stop and had to go back. On the way back, we met a member who was headed to the Hyde park chapel for conference. It was going to start in fifteen minutes and Hyde park was about an hour and a half away, so we invited him to come with us. He accepted and we had a wonderful time at the member's home watching conference. That was a miracle. There was this super drunk lady on the bus back.

For the Saturday afternoon session, we went to a member's home and ate Ghanaian food. We had jollof rice, banku, chicken legs, and a lot of other stuff and I put shito on everything. Jollof rice is this really good, king of spicy rice. Banku is this huge dough ball that you eat with your hands and dip in this spicy sauce stuff. Shito is basically Ghanaian chili paste. It was really good. I really enjoyed elder Holland's talk. By the way, I feel the need to say thanks to mom for everything she's done for me. Thanks mom!

I guess I'll end with a spiritual thought. I've been reading in alma for the past couple of days and I love the great example of the anti-Nephi-Lehis.

19 And thus we see that, when these Lamanites were brought to believe and to know the truth, they were firm, and would suffer even unto death rather than commit sin; and thus we see that they buried their weapons of peace, or they buried the weapons of war, for peace. (Alma 24)

We probably won't be brought to this ultimatum, but would you all suffer death rather than to sin? I'm sure that I would, but I know that this is the level of conversion that we all need to have in order to make it back into the presence of God. I know that we can make it to this point. 

I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton

P.S. Happy late birthday Emily.

P.P.S. Thanks for the birthday letter Kinsey!

Note from Mom:  Kinsey wanted to send Jared a letter that would embarrass him so here's what she sent: