Monday, July 1, 2013

June 24, 2013

Hello!
 First off, I hope you all watched the Work of Salvation broadcast yesterday. If you didn't, it's on LDS.org already and you NEED to watch it. Drew, that goes for you too, yes I know its two hours, but its amazing and it'll help you prepare for your own mission. We don't yet have everything they said they will phase in, but this mission is one of the first to get new technology (such as TIWI D: ) so we'll probably get them here pretty soon. We're all pretty excited.
I'm so glad that they told us tracting is ineffective, we've been trying to tell our Ward Council here that, but they are almost all converts who were found by tracting. So they didn't believe us, now they do.
 Mom, can you send me Chris' letters? I've been re-reading the mission rules and I don't think I'm supposed to be checking the blog even though it is just his letters. I asked him a few weeks ago to send them to me, but he hasn't yet. Also I know you said JJ wants to hear from us, but I don't know his email, could you send it to me? Also, it sounded like something was up with him.  Are things ok?
 I'm sorry to hear about Uncle Marvin. I'm sure that Aunt Dee will understand and know you're there in spirit though.  I'm so glad to know that Families are Forever though, it does help so much when we recognize that. That was fast though.  I hope he did not suffer too much.  Is Tina doing ok?
 Dad, I'm sorry I can't say I remember much of the layout myself of that Scout Camp. Do you know why there's so many changes though? It seems a little strange to change it so suddenly.
 I'm still riding a bike (and no, it never stops hurting) but not so much the bus. If I'm still here next Monday I don't think I'll buy a bus pass for next month, we don't use them enough. We might still buy bus tickets though. Biking is getting easier, but we have horrible bikes so that's probably why its still hard. Elder Dewey and I are getting good at fixing bikes though.
 We're also finally seeing progress for Khosi. We got some of the YSA to invite his sister to sports night, and they went above and beyond. She wants to come to church as well now. Its awesome how we started to focus on working through members and then the broadcast came the next Sunday. Must be inspired ;)
 We've also been trying to find ways to use family history. We haven't heard back yet, but someone is re-making an old card that missionaries used to give members so they could invite people to do family history and learn why we do it.
Love,
Elder B. Warner

June 21, 2013 - Notice from Mission Office

Hello AMAZING Canada Toronto Missionaries + AMAZING Parents of our Canada Toronto Missionaries – President Scott asked me to notify you of our upcoming holiday, Canada Day, falling on our normal P-Day – Monday, July 1st.  This is also a transfer week (19 arriving and 10 departing) for us which requires moving P-Day/e-mailing from Monday, July 1st to Wednesday, July 3rd   Our missionaries use public places – libraries, etc to email and they are closed on holidays! We love and appreciate your missionary and want to keep you informed about changes in our mission routine.  Thank you for your continued support and love! Sister CaldwellMission Secretary

June 15, 2013

Hello!
I got the presents. It was outside our door when we came back for zone conference. Thanks for everything, especially the sketchbook and the pictures.
I don't think I've emailed JJ, I don't know what his email is, but if he sends me one, or you give me his email address I'll send some. Anyone else who wants emails should send me theirs as well.  I don't hear from many other than you two and Drew.  I would love to get letters or emails from others.
It was a fun week. We had zone conference on Tuesday and were in London on Monday so we couldn't work in our area until Wednesday. Then we blitzed our area with the Zone Leaders and went on exchanges the next day. We were able to teach a lot of really great lessons. The only problem is nobody is finding any new investigators. We've started applying the 'teach when you find' principle, but that weeds out the unprepared fast and nobody has accepted a return appointment yet.
Zone Conference was awesome though. We talked about how to work with the Ward Council more and also a lot about how the church is organized. President Scott said he's not sure why he felt we needed to learn about that, and I don't quite know either, but I'm sure I'll be able to use it later on. It was also fun to see so many other missionaries and to hear their stories.
Dad, what was the best way you found new investigators? Our members here always tell us they don't know anyone and the people we're finding won't accept any return appointments or come to church. I don't know what we're doing wrong.
Love,
Elder B. Warner

June 9, 2013

Hello Everyone!
 Dad, thanks for the advice! We'll see what we can do, we think we know the specific concern of this LA now. We just don't know how to adress it. We we're able to go over the Baptismal Interview Questions with her son Khosi though. So he could be part of the June Harvest! Windsor North reaps two!
 I can't remember if I've mentioned the Harvest before. Every year in June President Scott sets a goal for how many baptisms we can get that month, this year its 60 as a mission. We're hoping to hit 14 as a zone, 1 for each area. We think he does it in June because that's his birthday. And the best Missionary Present is a Baptism (or a tie).
 We love the ward here, and we think we've finally earned their trust. Bishop Konopaski asked us to participate in ward council more and to assign people to work with us if we needed to. We also have found two Part-Member Families that moved in and never changed their records. One of them wants us to come over for dinner on Wednesday! Things are looking up!
 Sorry I'm sending this so late, but we've got Zone Conference in Kitchener tomorrow so we had to come to London today and the computers weren't working. London reminds me so much of home, there's about 5 wards and 1 Branch here and 6 companinonships. Our District has 2 Branches, 1 Ward and 4 companionships each in a different city, so its a little different here.
 Because we ride the buses in our area and we're in London today, I haven't been able to pick up the package yet, I'm hoping to get home from Zone Conference early enough tomorrow to get it, but Kitchener is pretty far away. I'm sending a snail-mail letter later this week though, so I'll tell you if I've got it when I send that.
Love,
Elder B. Warner

Note:  The snail mail was not really a letter so I did not post it.  It was a drawing of Nephi that I will try to figure out how to scan and post later.

June 3, 2013

Hello Everyone!
 Dad, Borg? You said getting your implant (ICD / Pacemaker) makes you the Borg? Why can't we just be normal cyborgs? Aren't the Borg evil, or am I lacking in Star Trek knowledge? We are teaching about 6 people, although only 2 very often. One of the people we were teaching doesn't want to meet with us because Elder Smith and I didn't tell him our first names when we met a few weeks ago... I'm really unsure how to solve his concern, but we'll be on exchanges tomorrow and Elders Dewey and Badillo are going to stop by, so maybe we'll start teaching him again. Do you how to motivate Less-Actives? We have one Sister whose son isn't baptized because she doesn't wake up in time for church. The son has been taught all the lessons about 4 times in two years, but they never quite make it to church.
 I spoke too soon when I said it was warmer. Do you remember the saying "If you don't like the weather, wait five minutes." Its true here, it will pour for about five minutes, then be so bright you can't see, and then the humidity makes it so hot. But we've learned to keep an umbrella with us all the time so we don't get soaked. Our bikes are slowly getting better, we've heard that after a month you can't feel it anymore so we've got about a week and a half left until that point.
 I'm glad they figured it out with UPS, I got a call earlier this week asking for someone who could authorize a package for customs, maybe that's why you got an e-mail. I'll tell you if I hear anything else though.
The most interesting thing happened this week. We found a part-member family that the ward didn't know about! We were also able to take a few more members teaching with us than normal, including a less active member. It's so exciting to see more and more of the LAs come back to the ward. Now we just hope President Sandor's talk was able to motivate more people.
Dad, did you work with ward missionaries much on your mission? How did you use them? We're trying to find ways to help them, but we don't have a whole lot right now.
Love,
Benjamin Warner