June 12 Email

Dear wonderful people!

In my normal fashion, I'm going to leave you guys with a very (un)detailed description of my week. Enjoy! 

Tuesday - We'll, today was a lot of fun. We went shopping in the morning at Lidl. Then we went to Freeport. I got a new suit! It cost 26��. Then we went to the Sagripanti's as a district for lunch. We were supposed to have a barbecue, but it was raining so hard that we just had a normal lunch instead. It was fun as always. Brother Sagripanti made fun of everyone, as always. He's so funny. Then we went to the chapel to do our emailing. Luckily it stopped raining while we were emailing. After emailing, we went to the English-Fry's for dinner. After dinner we played Uno. Then we burned Elder Meier's shirt for his one year mark. Then we went back inside to play pick up sticks. It's a lot of fun. Then we went home and went to bed.

Wednesday - Well, today was good. We had companionship studies in the morning. Then we went finding. Then we stopped by people. After that, we ate lunch. Then we went to sue Jackson for a lesson. We taught about faith and repentance. Then we went back to Braintree to go finding. We met a lady named Naomi. She has a few kids. They seem cool. She really likes the idea of repentance, so we'll teach that when we meet her next. We invited her to the barbecue on Saturday. Then we went and stopped by some people. We met DJ Manfredi and hopefully we'll be able to meet him on Friday. Then we went back for dinner. After dinner, we drove to Berny's so he could drive us to correlation at the chapel. It was a really good correlation. Then we went back and Elder Meier did call ins.

Thursday - Today was fun. I was sick when I woke up, so I slept in a bit. After that, I got ready and did some studies, but I started to feel sick again, so we got halfway through companionship studies, and I went and took a nap. I woke up at 1:30. We then ate lunch and went finding. After finding, we waited at the flat for the guy to come and fix the doorframe of our flat. He never came, so we called him and he said that he forgot. So, we did our gaps and then went to our dinner appointment with the pans. They're so fun. We ate coronation chicken, then played a bit of air hockey. After that, we jumped on their trampoline. Then we shared a message about prayer, then we went to the chapel to open up for Bowles club. So we played some Bowles, then we got a call from a member asking if avoiding marriage was a sin. So we got home late because she talked to us for so long. Then we did our daily evaluation, and got ready for bed.

Friday - Today was a lot of fun. We did our weekly planning in the morning. Then we made lunch. We made rice, but we used too much water, so we had to use Elder Meier's shirt as a sieve. That was fun. Then we went to the library to contact investigators. We were supposed to see Abi as well, but she had to cancel. Then we went to Witham to find. Nearly everyone was horrible to us, but that's pretty normal in Witham. So after an hour of abuse, we stopped by some less actives. We briefly met the Smith family. They seem super cool. They asked if we could come back on a different day, so hopefully that will go somewhere. Then we went to the chapel to grab some tables and chairs for Yann. He's doing this lunch thing tomorrow, so he needed them. Then we went to have dinner with the asiolis. I love them. They made a bunch of food. It was awesome. We had corn, jacket potatoes, LOTS of chicken. Yum! Then we ate some dessert and we shared a message about prayer. Then we went home and Elder Meier did call ins.

Saturday - Today was sick! We went finding first thing in the morning. Then we did companionship study. After that, we went to Witham. There is a less active member who's birthday was today, so we bought her a birthday card. Then we stopped by a family and shared a message about prayer. Then we went to the WARD BARBECUE!!! It was super awesome! There was an insane amount of food and people. Probably more than half of the people there were nonmembers. We played sports and ate loads of food. It was amazing. Then we went home and died from the sheer amount of food.

Sunday - Today was awesome. I gave a talk in sacrament meeting. It was about preparing to enter the temple. Then we had the rest of our classes. Those were all really good. Then we went home and ate lunch. After lunch, we went finding. Before finding, the sisters in colchester called us and gave us a challenge to find two new investigators while finding. So we went out and, to cut a long story short, we found two new investigators. Then we saw the pews and gave them the sacrament. Then we met with Leona. We talked about the power of faith. Then we saw sister hall and her son. We shared the same message with them. Then we went home and ate pancakes for dinner. 

Well, There you go! Hope you enjoyed! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

June 6 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This last week is a bit hazy in my memory, but luckily, I keep a journal just for you guys! Lucky!

So, here's my week!

Tuesday - Today was fun! We did our companionship studies in the morning. After our studies, we went to visit a less active member named DJ, but he wasn't home. While we were walking back, we met a really nice girl named Natasha. She was kind of interested in meeting with us. Hopefully we will be able to meet with her again soon. Then we went to the store to pick up a couple of things we forgot yesterday, like cleaning supplies. Then we ate lunch. After lunch we went finding. We met another girl named destiny. She was really nice as well, but she is really busy, so we didn't get a specific return appointment, so we'll have to try again later. After that we went to Witham to do a bit more finding before we helped out Derek with his garden. We turned over the soil and planted some ginger, onions, and tomatoes. We also cleaned up a little bit more. Then we went inside and had dinner with them. After dinner we played our usual Uno, then shared a message about teaching gospel truths. Then we went home and called Bobbie to read with her.

Wednesday - Today was pretty busy, which is good when you're a missionary. We had our normal morning routine and companionship study, then we went out to visit a few less active people. We stopped by one lady who was just super awkward. We knocked on her door, and when she answered, she just stared at us like a deer in head lights. We tried talking to her a bit, but she would only give inaudible, one word responses. Later on, we went to have lunch. We made fried rice burritos. They were delicious. We wrapped up the extra burritos into aluminum foil and saved them for dinner. Then we went to Witham to see Sue Jackson. She's doing well. Our lesson was really good. We brought brother Gough, who's a great teacher. We shared bout the plan of salvation. Then we went to the chapel to sync our area books. While we were there, we got two referrals from the Stevenage sisters. Thank you, sisters! After setting up return appointments, we went to Braintree to eat dinner. After dinner, we went to Karen Hall's house to mow her lawn. While we were mowing, the lawnmower stopped working, so we had to borrow the neighbor's. After that, we had a spiritual thought with them. We spoke about keeping the Sabbath day holy. By the end of the lesson we were talking about deep doctrine. It was good. 

Thursday - Today was really good. We had companionship study in the morning, then we went finding. While finding, we met this interesting girl named Bryony. She wanted to learn a bit more about life after death. We will be seeing her next Tuesday. After finding we had lunch and contacted some investigators on the phone. Then we traveled to Witham to do some more finding. After finding for a few hours, we went to the Gough's house for dinner. They are a lovely couple in the ward. Very missionary minded. We shared a message with them about sharing the blessings of keeping the Sabbath day holy. They have a friend that they want to share with, so hopefully it will go well. Then we went to the chapel for Bowles club. That's always fun. Then we went home.

Friday - Today we had district meeting in the morning. It was a good district meeting. Afterwards, we all went to Pizza Hut for lunch. It was alright. Then we began our exchange with the zone leaders. We went to the flat to drop off our stuff and do companionship studies. Then we went finding. It was super fun. After an hour or so of that, we went to the library to contact some of the people that we're working with. Then we needed to go back from town to the flat to pick up the car. When we got out of the library, we realized that it was pouring rain outside. And I left my umbrella in the car. So, after getting completely soaked while talking to some people in the rain, we made it back to the flat and drove the sisters to the university campus, then we drove all the way to tendering, which is a completely different area. We went and had a pizza party with the branch president and some less actives and nonmembers at his house. It was really nice. After dinner, we shared a message about the restoration with everyone. Then we had to go home. I went to bed while everyone else did call ins. 

Saturday - Today was awesome. We started off the day by playing some football with the colchester Ward and all of the missionaries. Then we drove home from the exchange. Then we had companionship studies, cleaned the car, went and went finding. We talked to this Muslim guy who went on and on about how we need to pray to Allah. It was a complete waste of time. Then we went to see Philip. He's doing well. After Philip, we went home to do our weekly planning. Then we had pancakes for dinner. I ate way too many. They were too delicious. 

Sunday - Today was a lot of fun. We had church in the morning. It was fast Sunday, so we had our testimony meeting. The last testimony was given by a man from the Chelmsford ward named George. He's about 90 years old, and he might be the happiest man in the world. He's also not all there. As he walked up to the pulpit, he was talking to everyone and telling them to smile, because it's free! Then he got up to the pulpit and said, "Smile, it's free!" He also said a bunch of other really positive stuff and repeated himself a bunch. It was awesome. Then we had the rest of our meetings. Those were fun as well. Then we went home and I ate lunch, then we went to our appointment with our investigator, but he wasn't home, so we went finding. We talked to lots of people, but no one was willing to meet with us again. We talked to this really nice lady named Joyce, but she didn't want to meet with us. So we went home. While we were going home, we talked to this lady because she had a really cute dog. It turns out that she lives in our flat complex, and she wants to meet with us again. Yay! Then we visited a  lady named Leona. She's doing well. We shared the prince of peace video. Then we gave her the sacrament. After that, we gave the sacrament to the Pews. They are a lovely couple in there 90s. Then we went to visit another lady in the ward. She wasn't able to meet with us, so we went home and I made biscuits for dinner. Yum.

Monday - Well, today was long. We had our zone conference. We had to be in Ipswich, which, by the way, is over an hour away, by 8:00 am. When we got there, Elder Meier went into a district leader council meeting, and I hung out with the missionaries there. Then I picked up some other missionaries from the train station. The meeting was really good. Really spiritual as well. Then we had pizza for lunch. Then we had a few more trainings by other missionaries and president Stevens. Mostly about how to use the Book of Mormon and centering our message on Jesus Christ. Then some of the soon to be departing missionaries gave their departing testimonies. Then we went back home and did a bit of finding before we went back for dinner.

Well, there you have it! I hope you all enjoy!

 I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

May 29 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This week was quite enjoyable. All the details are below!

Tuesday - Today was fun. We had district meeting in the morning. It was a lot of fun. One of the sisters gave a training on teaching the atonement of Jesus Christ. It was an awesome training. After district meeting, we went to KFC for lunch. Yes, we're high rollers, I know. Then we took a quick look of Colchester Castle before going back to Witham. When we got back, we went finding for a while, then we changed into service clothes and went to the English Frys to help them out with there garden. They have a little vegetable patch in the back, so we were weeding and overturning the soil and such. Then we ate dinner with them. It was a lot of fun as always. We shared a really spiritual essay about the atonement of Jesus Christ and sharing it with others. It was great.

Wednesday - Today was fun. We went to Kwik fit in the morning to get an appointment to get the oil changed. Then we went finding. Then we had lunch. Then we went finding again. Some guy asked Elder Meier if he was gay. It was funny. Then we stopped by former investigators, potential investigators, less actives, and such until our dinner appointment with the Pans. We had delicious lasagna. Then we ate s'mores and cake. It was really nice. Then I jumped on their trampoline to burn some calories. We played a game with their kids on the trampoline, where there were four footballs and we all had to dodge them while jumping around. Then we shared a message about the atonement and asked them to share their love of the atonement with someone this week. They all accepted. They're awesome. I love them.

Thursday - Today was fun. We dropped our car off at kwik fit in the morning. We told them that we needed it back by 2:30 in order to drive to an appointment, and they said that it wouldn't be finished until about 5:00, so we left it with them, and called some members to ask if they could drive us to our appointment this afternoon at that time. Then we went back to the flat to do our normal planning and studies. Then we did companionship studies and called people to confirm and schedule appointments. Then we had lunch. Then we walked to the member's house so they could drive us to the appointment. It was a good lesson. We watched the old restoration movie. She really liked it. She said that she wants to start coming back to church, so that's always good. Then we walked to the chapel, so I could write my thank you letter for the scholarship I received. Then the English frys picked us up and dropped us off at the flat. Then we picked up our car and drove to our dinner appointment with the powles. They're so awesome. I love them. We made these healthy wraps. They were really tasty. Then we shared a message about prayer and how to make it more sacred. Then we went home and got ready for bed.

Friday - Today was fun. We had our weekly planning in the morning. That took a while. Then we had lunch. After lunch, we went finding in town. We didn't find anybody, but it was a nice day. After finding we stopped by some less active members and other people. After all of that, we had companionship study. Then we had an appointment with a guy named Andy. He has no interest in finding out if the church is true. He's just is fascinated with Joseph smith and how the church and the Book of Mormon came to be. So after a long discussion about how he doesn't trust his feelings, we left, spiritually drained. So we went back to the flat and made rollercoaster pancakes. Yum.

Saturday - Today was awesome. We had an open day today, so pretty much, we had finding planned all day long. As a missionary, seeing that in your planner can be quite discouraging. So we did all of our regular stuff in the morning. Planned, studied, companion studied, etc. Then we stopped by a less active lady named Laura Jane. She's awesome. She gave us some American candy. We talked a bit, then we went finding. After about 1 second of finding, brother Pan called, inviting us over to a barbecue in an hour. So we found like dragons, found a new investigator, then went to  the barbecue. It was super fun. They got the most delicious meat ever, cooked it up and we ate and ate and ate. They invited their nonmember friends as well. So we talked with them for The whole time. They were super fun. So we ate, jumped on the trampoline, made jokes, and had a lot of fun. After the barbecue, we went home for companionship studies.

Sunday - Today we had church in the morning. Halfway through church, we went with a member to give her mom a blessing. It was pretty awkward, because her mom likes to make things complicated. So she started talking about her entire backstory when we asked what her full name was. After the blessing, we made it back just in time for priesthood.  We discussed the talks given by President Monson at conference. It was really good. Then we had lunch with the Nelsons. Since Elder Meier grew up in Austria, and Sister Nelson is Austrian, she made some traditional Austrian food. She made Schnitzel, Tomaten salat, and kartoffel salat. It was really good. They were speaking in German a lot. We shared the message from priesthood with them. After that, we picked up dinner from a member to eat later. Then we went finding in the town. We didn't find anyone, but it was fun. We were finding in the park when it started raining. Then we went to see a less active lady. She was happy to see us. Then we went home and ate dinner. It was super delicious. The food was Argentinian, from one of my favorite families. Yum. 

Well, there you go! That was my week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

May 22 Email

Dear wonderful people!

This week was pretty fun. All the details are inside. Enjoy!

Tuesday - Well, today was pretty fun. We had interviews in the afternoon, so we spent the morning making our training for district meeting. Then we drove over to Ipswich and had our interviews. It was a lot of fun. It's always nice to get together with the Zone. While we were all together, the Zone Leaders and the sister training leaders gave trainings. The most important training, for me, was about planning. Honestly, planning is one of the most important skills that one can learn. Hopefully I'll be able to have that mastered before the end of my mission. Then we had the actual interviews. Those were awesome. I love meeting with president and sister Stevens. They have so much love in them. They are like temporary parents for all of us missionaries. It's great to get to see them. After interviews, we drove home and had dinner with the Goughs. I love the Goughs. They always help us out, and they're just so nice! We had this chicken curry stuff on pasta. It was really nice. Then, we went home for a bit of companionship study. Then we got ready for bed. 

Wednesday - Well, today was an experience. So most of the day was finding and stopping by members, less actives, former investigators, and potential investigators. We met lots of people, but nothing really came of it. Then, after a long day of that normal stuff, we stopped by sister hall and her son, Richard. So last time we were there, Richard gave us the challenge to try this mega spicy pepper extract. So, since we came back, we decided we would do it. I took a whole teaspoon. At first it was just the normal pepper challenge. Then my stomach started to hurt really bad, so I went into the bathroom and just really suffered. Then after about twenty minutes of that, I composed myself and went back into the room. We had a lovely message, talked about Richard and his trip to a theme park, and went left. On the way home, round two of pain started, so I pulled over and basically cried for five minutes. Then we drove the rest of the way home. We made a super milky milkshake to help suppress the effects of it. Later on, round three started, and I threw up half of the milkshake as well as half of the chili oil. So now, I'm on the bathroom floor, stomach churning and heaving, as well as having the chili oil back in my throat. So after a few minutes, that calmed down. I went in to bed and laid down for a while. Then I woke up, maybe 45 minutes later and, you guessed it, Round four! My stomach felt like someone had grabbed my intestines and twisted them into a knot. So I threw up the rest of the shake, lunch, last week's dinner, and an unnaturally large amount of water. After all of that, I laid down on the bathroom floor and just cried (not really, but pretty much). It was a great experience. Now, here I am, white as a ghost, writing this journal entry, not sure if it will start up again. Hopefully it's all over. We'll see what happens. Moral of the story, don't ever eat more than a couple drops of that chili sauce, EVER. Good night! :)

Thursday - Well, I didn't have any more projectile vomit or crazy intestinal twists, so I would say the challenge was a success. We started off the morning with doing some contacting of investigators. Then we had lunch. We made ribs. Yum. Then we went finding in town. We found two cool people named Abi and David. They're pretty cool. We'll be seeing them on Tuesday. Then we talked to a few other people, but nothing else really came from it, except we helped this lady to become more Christian, so I guess that that is good. Then we stopped by Tabitha and Simon. They're members in the ward. They usually have some form of service for us to help them with, but none today. We did get to play with their awesome dog, storm. He's so cute! Then we went to have dinner with Bobbie, but she wasn't home, so we made our own dinner. Then we went up to Witham to go to Bowles club. Right after getting there and helping to set up, Bobbie called wondering where we were. So, instead of Bowles club, we went back to Braintree and taught a really good lesson about the importance of prayer. I felt the spirit, so it must have been a good lesson.

(This sign is across the street from Tabi and Si's house.)

Friday - Well, today was a fairly normal day. We bought a couple of food items that we had run out of, then we did our weekly planning. That took the whole morning. After that, we had lunch, did some calls, then headed out to find. We didn't find any new investigators, but we did meet a few cool people. Hopefully they'll get back to us so we can start to teach them. You know, I was just thinking, people don't really want to be taught, they just want to teach. I wish people in the world were a bit more humble. Sorry for the tangent. After finding, we did our companionship study. It seems like every companionship study we've had so far has been for a specific investigator that we've been working with a lot. So that's what we did during our studies. We studied for her. Then we went out finding a bit more, because our appointment with an investigator fell through. Then we picked up a few pairs of trousers that Elder Meier left on Monday. Then we went home to drop them off. Then we immediately went out to visit a part member family. The parents weren't home, so we went into the garden and talked with the children about weapons and what not, because they have a bunch of swords and airsoft guns and such. Their son Bradley is really cool. He's someone we've been trying to work with a lot, because he's awesome and I want him to get baptised. That would make my day. Then we went home for dinner. I made rollercoaster pancakes. They were delicious. 

Saturday - Today was a good day. We did a bit of stuff in the morning. Bought some laundry detergent. Then we had lunch and called a bunch of people. Then we went to Witham. We started off with finding. We isn't find anybody, but hey ho. It was good anyways. Then we did some online proselyting. Added some members on Facebook. Contacted a few people as well. Then we did some stop bys. We stopped by quite a few different people, but nothing really came from it. While we were out we stopped by a woman in the ward. Her name is Valerie. Her husband isn't a member, so we wanted to meet him, but he wasn't home. She did give us 10�� for dinner. We were very grateful for that. So, After a few hours of stop bys, we went back to Braintree for an appointment with a lady named mrs Everett. I think she was home, but she wouldn't answer the door. Oh well, Her loss. Then we went and stopped by a less active man named Fredrick walls. He was pretty nice, but I don't feel that he wanted to talk about church or anything like that. It was a very brief visit. So we decided to go find again. We didn't find anyone again, but we got a few suggestions on where to eat dinner. In the end, though, we decided to buy the stuff to make hamburgers. So we made hamburgers, and we also bought ice cream and a drink, so our dinner was awesome. We each got three giant hamburgers, ice cream, and a 3 liter of soda to share for 11��! Way better than any restaurant. Then we had companionship study. We watched the Elder Holland and President Eyring face to face. It was really good. Then I went to bed. After about an hour, I was woken to some fighting outside. So I looked out the window after the matter, and I guess one of the people in the complex was mad at this guy for trying to get his motorbike to work. He was hammering it pretty loudly, so I guess he got annoyed. So, yeah. Today was great. P.S. Today was my 21 month mark.

Sunday - Today was good. We had ward council first thing in the morning. That was good. We basically spent the entire time talking about the less active member's we stopped by in the past few weeks. Then we had church. We helped pass the sacrament, as always. The reason that is is because we don't have any young men in the ward. Then we had an interesting lesson in Sunday school about temples. Then in Elder's quorum, we had a really awesome lesson about the talk, "walk with me", by president eyring in the April 2017 conference. It was actually a really good lesson. Probably one of the best ones I've had on my mission. I would encourage you to read and study it again. Then after church, we had lunch. Then we went finding for a while. After that, we had a lesson with a less active lady named Leona. We brought the bishop with us as well. She's really nice. We read from Enos. We focused on prayer and how enos received forgiveness of his sins. It was really good. After that, we had our correlation meeting with the bishop and Melissa, one of the ward missionaries. We got a few suggestions on people to meet with and visit. Then we went home and had dinner. 

Well, that was my week! All in all, not too bad. I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton 

May 15 Email

Dear wonderful people!

So, this week was pretty eventful. I hope you've got a few minutes to spare, because this will be a long one. 

Well, here we go!

Tuesday - Well, today was Elder Radford's last day in Witham. We started off our day by going to Freeport to look at the next clearance. I bought a pair of drown trousers for 8 pounds. Not too shabby. Then we went in to town to have an appointment with an investigator, but they never showed up, so we did our emailing, since we were already at the library. Then we went to Wetherspoons with Bobbie for lunch so Bobbie could say goodbye to Elder Radford. Then we went to the chapel to do some music sharing and such, then we went back to Braintree to say goodbye to the Sagripantis. Then we had a dinner appointment with the Cespedes family. It was a lot of fun. After dinner we went to the chapel so we could say goodbye to whichever members were at the chapel for mutual. Then we went home and Elder Radford started packing. It didn't take home too long. Then we went to bed. 

Wednesday - Today was transfers. We went to London to drop off Elder Radford. Then I met Elder Meier and we started off for Witham. On the way to Liverpool street from Euston, Elder Meier got on a tube that was packed, so I was left behind and had to take the next train. So I got off where we were supposed to get off at and waited. And waited. He wasn't showing up, so I looked around a bit and I could not find him. So I assumed he kept going without me. Then I got to Liverpool Street and he wasn't there. This was very awkward. So I waited a bit there when a few more missionaries showed up at the station. I explained to them what had happened and I had to wait for a while until something happened. So here I was, in the middle of London, alone with no companion, and he did not have a phone, so I couldn't call him. So after a few more minutes, one of the Zone Leaders called me asking if Elder Meier had the Romford missionaries phone. Luckily for us, he had accidentally kept the Romford missionaries' phone. So I called him and he picked up. He was only one station away. So he came to Liverpool Street and we met back up. But, since he had taken the Romford missionaries phone we had to to bring the phone all the way back to where the Zone Leaders were. So they told us they were at Finchley Road, so we went. The station was nearly 10 stops away on the tube. When we were one stop away, the Zone Leaders called and said, "Sorry guys, we lied to you. We're actually at tower hill." For those of you who don't know, that station is about 11 stops in the other direction. (Also, it's right next to Liverpool street, where we started.) so we got back on the tube in the other direction. After a while of train riding, we got to Tower Hill, gave them back their phone, and went back to Liverpool Street. Then we waited for our train back to Braintree. Then we got home, dropped off Elder Meier's suitcases, had lunch, and went to a member's home (the Goughs) and gave Brother Gough a blessing. Then after that, we went to Sue Jackson's house to teach her the missionary lessons again. We taught her the restoration. She really enjoyed it. Then we went shopping for the week. After shopping, we went to Witham to the chapel to send off an email to the office. Then we had dinner with the bishop. They made awesome lasagna and some other Italian stuff. It was delicious. Then we talked with them about missionary work in the ward as well as our London fiasco this morning. It was fun. Then we went home for call ins. 

Thursday - Today was fun. We got to meet the new district at district meeting. We left for Colchester at 9:30, since usually it's a pretty long drive, but there was no traffic, so we were 25 minutes early. So we just chilled out in front of the chapel and jammed to some music. (Mission appropriate, of course.) then we had an awesome district meeting. It went by really quick. Then we all went to Taco Bell for lunch. We all ate the food by the Zone Leaders' flat. Then we went back to Witham. We went finding in the town. While finding, we met this awesome lady from wales. She's super awesome and we're meeting her on Tuesday. Then we did some companion study for Bobbie, then we went to her house and had dinner. She made some awesome spaghetti. Then we talked a bit about agency and how to use it correctly. Then we went to Bowles club. It was a lot of fun. 

Friday - Today was great. We did our weekly planning in the morning. That took a long time. Then we had lunch. I made tortellini with these German style meatballs. It was great. Then we went finding in Witham. We went finding for a while, but we didn't find anyone. But after all of that, we got a call from a former investigator and he wanted to meet with us again, so he was our new investigator for the day, which was awesome. Then we went to the English frys to introduce him to them. It was a lot of fun. Elder Meier shared a nice message with them, then they showed us their massive garden, which is super nice. They have a massive eucalyptus tree. I really want to climb it. After that, we went to berny's house for dinner. They made us fish and chips, my favorite English meal. Then we shared a message about how our attitude determines our blessings. It was really nice. Then we committed them to share the talk, sharing the restored gospel by elder oaks, with the ward members. Then we went home and made our transfer vision. Then I called Bobbie and shared the message I shared with berny and his family with Bobbie. After that, Elder Meier did call ins with the district. After call ins, we called president and asked if we could go to the temple with the ward tomorrow. To our surprise, he said yes! So we get to go to the temple tomorrow. Yay!

(Weekly planning)

Saturday - Well, today we got to go to the temple. It was an amazing experience. You never really know what you've got until you spend two years away from something you love. In this case it's the temple. We had a tour of the the grounds and learned a bit about the history of the area. Then we went into the visitors center and watched one of the new meet the Mormons clips. It was really good. Then we went into the temple for an endowment session. I got the opportunity to be a proxy for Derek English fry's great great grandfather, George William Barnes. It was a sweet experience. Then, I got to be the proxy for him when he was sealed to his parents. That was also a wonderful experience. After that, we did some initiatories for some of bishop and Sister A ancestors. Then, by that time, we had to go. It was great. I can't wait to go to the temple again. Then we went home to Witham on the coach. On the coach ride home, I started to get a splitting headache. I guess I over exerted my spirit. :) When we got home, I couldn't think straight so I took a nap. Then I woke up at 9:30 pm and we did our gaps. Then I went back to bed.

Sunday - Today was our fast Sunday, since we had stake conference last week. It was also Elder Meier's first Sunday in the Witham ward. Elder Meier bore an awesome testimony. Also, Elder Chronister, who served in Witham about 2 and a half years ago came to visit us today. He bore a really good testimony, too. Then we went to Sunday school. It was really good. We were taught about tithing. Then we taught the lesson in elders quorum. It was on eternal marriage. I'm not sure why they chose the 2 twenty year old missionaries to teach a quorum full of married men about eternal marriage, but it was a good lesson nonetheless. After that, there was a ward munch and Mingle. It was really fun. After that, we had to set up for a child of record baptism that was going on in the evening. So we filled the font and got some videos ready for when the ones involved in the ordinance were getting changed. Then we did some companionship study. Then we gave the sacrament to an elderly couple in the ward. Then we went back to the chapel so I could Skype my family. It was super fun. It was really nice to get to see them all again. That was my last mission Skype call, so I guess the count down is really starting. 

Well, that was my week! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton

May 9 Email

Dear wonderful people!

Well, it's that time of the transfer. I'm going to be staying here in Witham, but Elder Radford is moving away. It's pretty sad, since we got along so well, but that's the nature of missionary work. 

So, I know that you've all been waiting for the exciting news of "what was Elder Warburton's week like?" Well, here you go!

Tuesday - Today was pretty fun. The district came down and did a blitz with us. As a whole, we found a total of 5 new investigators! That's awesome! Then we all went to Wetherspoons for lunch.  It was a lot of food for pretty cheap. Definitely recommend it. Then we went to a members house to drop off some dishes that they had lent us a few days earlier. They invited us over for dinner later, because Elder Radford mentioned that the dinner appointment that we had scheduled for that day had cancelled. So we went and did a little bit of shopping that needed to be done and after dropping it off at the flat, we went to their house for dinner. I was still a bit full from the lunch we had at Wetherspoons, so I didn't eat too much, but it was delicious. Then we went into town to go sort out getting some diabetes supplies. That took a while. Then we sent off an email to the mission office about the medicine and went back to the flat for the day.

Wednesday - So we had an appointment with one of the investigators that we found yesterday in the morning. He never showed up, so we went back to the flat to eat lunch. After lunch, we spent most of the afternoon searching for AUFs. We didn't get much out of it, as none of the people we stopped by were in. After that, we went to a dinner appointment with the Gough's. They brought along a less active lady from the ward. She was really nice. We had a good lesson with all of them about the general conference talk about integrity. Then we went to the chapel to update the info we had gotten from the AUFs that we had stopped by. Then we went home.

Thursday - Well, today was pretty chill. Mostly just regular finding and such. We had a lunch in there somewhere. In the evening, we had a dinner appointment with our friend Bobbie. She's doing well. We taught a little bit about agency and the fall of Adam and Eve. Then we had to rush off the get to the chapel to unlock for the bowls club. They introduced us to the game and we got to play a few rounds. We weren't too bad. At least for a couple of rookies. Then we had to do a little bit of computer work, cleared up a little after them, and went home. I remembered that I had a training to prepare, so I spent most of the night time I had on prepping for that.

Friday - Well, today we had district meeting. That was really fun. I gave a training on the importance of planning. Pretty simple. Then we had a zone wide Skype call to counsel together as to what our Baptismal goal for the month of May should be. Then we had a "funeral" for Sister Mura, because she's going home next week. It was pretty funny. We got up and gave her bad advice on dating, interviewed her as a district to see if she was ready to date, then took the ceremonial sad funeral pictures that you have to take at all funerals. Then we finished up district meeting. Then Sister Mura spent about an hour trying to get some pictures off of her iPad in order to finish clearing it off. Then we took them home and we went home and had our lunch. I made some Singapore noodles. They were delicious. Then we did some more AUFs and went to the English-Frys for dinner. It was a lot of fun as usual. We shared a message about enduring to the end. Then we went to visit a less active lady in order to confirm if she would be going to stake conference this weekend. She's going, so no problem there. Then we went to Tesco to buy some quick snacks before call ins.

Saturday - We had a few appointments scheduled in the morning, but they all cancelled. So we did some stuff, went to the chapel to do a bit of computer work, then we had to go to a choir rehearsal before stake conference. It was pretty good. We sang three songs, two before the meeting, and one during the meeting. After we finished singing, we had to speed back from Ipswich, to get to Braintree in order to have a dinner appointment with a less active/part member family. It was really fun. We talked about prayer, and committed everyone to pray every day. They said that they would do it, so that will be good for them. Then we went home and had a Zone call to see who would be coming to church in the Zone.

Sunday - Today was stake conference, so we drove to Colchester and watched the session. It was really good. Lots of inspirational talks. Then we went back to Braintree after conference to give the sacrament to an elderly couple in the ward. They're both in their nineties, so they can't get out to church very easily, so we just give them the sacrament in their homes. Then we had a lunch appointment with the Forconesis. They made this awesome beef stuff and some vegetables. It was awesome! Then immediately afterwards, we had a dinner appointment with the Powles. They have four crazy kids. It was awesome. Then we jumped on their trampoline afterwards to work off the calories of back to back meals. Then we shared a message about missionary work, and left to go to our ward mission Leader's home for correlation. We were trying to implement Elder Radford's ward mission plan into the home teaching message. Then we went to the chapel to send off a Baptismal program template to a member in the ward.

Monday - Today was pretty fun. The first thing we did was go to a less active member's home to bless her home and give her a blessing. After that, we drove to Colchester in order to go on a blitz with the Zone Leaders. Before our blitz, we went to the Zone Leaders flat to have lunch. After lunch, we were going to go on a blitz, but the sisters convinced us to go to an ice cream place instead, so we all got ice cream, then we had to go because we had an appointment in 30 minutes, so we never got to go blitz. Then we had an appointment with an investigator named Philip. He's lovely. We told him that Elder Radford was going to be leaving, and he got really sad, because he loves Elder Radford. So we talked a bit, then left. After the appointment, we had a dinner appointment with some members of the ward. They made some enchiladas, which were mild at best, but it was apparently too spicy for them. I thought that they tasted great, but they weren't spicy at all. Then we played Uno with them. I won five games in a row! That never happens. It was super fun. Then we went to the chapel to check to see where everyone was getting transferred to. After that, we had the official zone call to tell everyone where they were going. 

Well, there you go! I hope you enjoy! I love you all!

Love,

Elder Warburton