Hello! Coming from week 6, end of transfers.

We had a good week with the confirmation of Martha. We had a huge count at church from all her family. I think we almost reached 25 people. Hey, that’s big for here ok! It’s been awesome seeing her family support her in this. There has been a lot of emotion between them all, it’s been really awesome as a missionary to watch that. Other than that we had 2 other investigators at church. One, who is 11 years old, works the same job I had at 17. Hod Tending, (to summarize: its the dirty work for a brick mason) the only difference is he makes in a week what I made in an hour. His money goes to helping out his mom, who is very ill because her 18 year old son is in the cartel and she can’t sleep at night. It’s really sad to see the lifestyle of some of these people but how grateful it makes you for what you have. The other is a lady we found contacting this week. I’ll say she’s mid 50´s to be safe. She opened up to us with a lot of sad events in her life when we met her. Her sister passed away last month and she recently walked in on her husband cheating on her. She’s been deeply investigating the gospel. She showed up for church before we did, which is awesome. She has a baptism date for next week but she wants to make sure she is ready which is extremely legit. Other than that the photo is last p day. Our district got together, poured some flour on the dirt and called it a field and played futbol. love it.

Mexico Fact: its easy to point out occupied houses while contacting because the houses with out people don’t have bars welded to the windows.
Fact: our door has no security, we open the door with a shoe lace. When we leave the house we yell inside saying nos vemos, (see-ya) so people think there are people inside.

Love you all! have a good day! - Elder Warner

Dad,
We're at ends of transfers. Don’t know where it went. The language kicked in when you had fasted. It’s still a struggle but I learn more each day. I had an investigator ask me to pray in English and I struggled to remember English words so I take that as a good sign. The apartment is nice for the houses here. Sometimes I miss my Idaho mission a lot because we basically had it all, or at least more than what is supplied here. But when I look at the large view of it I don’t learn anything from living in a 2-story apartment with carpet. Some things are still a struggle to make a part of my everyday living but I’m learning things I won’t learn anywhere else. I have been very humbled. Nothing like the temple. I think we are going next week. The Salt Lake temple is something different, you won’t find that unique special feeling in that temple in most of the others. I hope your week went well, let me know if there is anything I can do, any one I can keep in my prayers. Let me know how Gale is. Love you, Elder Warner

Baptism!!!

Hey! How are you? I had one of the coolest experiences this past week that I'll try to briefly describe. We found a mother named Martha who was a Testigo de Jeova 2 weeks ago from a referral. She has a mother, sister and daughter who are all converts to our church. She just never cracked. We set up appointments with her daughter present, and basically the first few visits were answering her questions. We then began to teach parts of the restoration. By this point she had a firmer belief in what we had told her than what she had known. She began to open up to us. On Saturday night, we went to teach the Plan of Salvation. In the lessons, my companion and her did a lot of back and forth bible answering and I did a lot of pretending like I knew what's going on. This is the part of the story that touched me most. Her daughter asked me why I don’t talk much in the lessons. I told her I don't understand a lot of her questions. She replied with, "Let the Spirit talk through you." When we went back Saturday night, I didn't talk much in the lesson. She looked at me and pointed up. I didn’t feel like it was the time to say anything so I continued to sit quietly. Later, there was a moment where I had a very strong impression to bear testimony. So I jumped on it. I ended up mentioning eternal families in my testimony. There is no holding my emotion in when it comes to that subject. But the Spirit was very strong. After, my companion felt the impression to invite her to baptism for Sunday, the next day. She replied with, she wasn't ready. We ended with a prayer and asked her to offer it. In her prayer we asked her to ask if she is supposed to be baptized tomorrow. She got through the prayer and broke down at the end. There was a silence as she wept and we continued to invite her again. She accepted with tears in her eyes. Afterwards, the most powerful part was watching her daughter break down while hugging her. A statement came in my mind saying, "This is missionary work." The baptism was awesome; she had her family there. We went back to visit that night while all her family was still there. As they left, they expressed gratitude to us and Martha. Her sister hugged her and Martha just wept. It was such an amazing experience for me watching that family completely transform in a matter of days. I know it's all because of this Gospel. I know as missionaries we only have words to share, but it's the Spirit that does the converting. I'm so grateful for this opportunity to be where I am. This experience has changed both her and my life. This is only a summary of my emotion. I wish i could express the power of this experience but this is the best I can do. I hope all is well with you, I love you all. - Elder Warner

Dear Mother, hey love for the side note for money, how much have i spent and how much is left, can you make a note and divide up of how much to spend each month. also the stamps you send only work for sending to Mexico. i sent them back in a letter you should get in about 15 days. i am plenty sufficient on liahonas. if your doing a package can you get some black licorice and circus peanuts in there. that will be sufficient on food i left my face wash in Idaho. the red and white bottle i don't know what its called its larger mitch only uses it for her back ask her. photos of family!!! and ask mitch to burn all michael ethington music and other church music. i love you i hope you are having an awesome week! i have time for one Mexico fact, they take holidays very serious. yes, its the first day of spring, so the city shuts down and buys out the nearest tacate (mexican beer) warehouse. the library and cyber were closed today, so we had to travel a distance to find a member with a computer. i have an awesome story that will have to wait, best week of my mission. i hope all is well i love you - elder warner

Elder Warner, Martha, & Elder Zegarra

Cleaning out the baptismal font

Bryan getting ready to perform the baptism

The elders with Martha and her family

Week 6 in Mexico

¡Buenos Tardes! ¿Como estan? How was your week? We had an up and down week. I'll give the dirt first, then shine it up. We found a guy in his 30´s named Carlos that we taught a few times and he later committed to baptism. We went to pick him up for church and he wasn't there. So we went to another investigators house. His name is Mario, 8 years old. We picked him up and headed to church. We dropped him off at home after and taught his aunt who was there. We left with both having a baptism date for yesterday. We went to teach him more later in the week and his mom shut us down. She didn't want him baptized. We dropped him, and went to see what was up with Carlos and he wasn't interested anymore. Also our bikes broke down, so we're all foot, which literally translates in to I have blisters inside blisters. For the good news, we were able to go to the temple! As always it was an awesome experience. What we do for that is trade for P-day. So Monday is just another regular day, but Wednesday we wake up at 4:00 a.m. and head to the temple as a zone. After the temple we all went to the city of Monterrey, at a historic site of metal making. It was pretty legit. That about sums up the week. I'm going to start giving little facts about Monterrey every week.
Fact: Here, if you have some form of car, you're legit. If you have a car that starts within the first 10 tries, you're high class.
Answers to your Questions: We receive our letters and packages every 6 weeks when there is an exchange. Yes, we are in more of a poor area. We only get to watch the Priesthood session of conference. An average day is wake up 6:30, work out till 7, get ready, study at 8 until 9, comp study from 9 til 10, language study 10 til 11. Then go to work. Usually contacting in the area of lunch until lunch. Afterward, we go to appointments if we have them, if not we contact. So far we have contacted 2 sectors. Each sector has near 1,000 houses. About 1/6 are unoccupied houses. We leave for home on foot at 8:15. Return home by 9.
I love you all, have a good week! Elder Warner

Elder Warner and his companion, Elder Zegarra, at the Monterrey Temple

Visiting the historic site of metal making

Typical Bryan...

Street of houses where Bryan lives

Bathroom before cleaning after they moved in…

… and after a lot of hard work and cleaning!

THEN: Anyone that knows Bryan knows that he is an avid bike rider and bike fanatic. Who else would take photo shots of his bike at the same location that they take wedding pictures? (below). His white Ford Mustang was history after he purchased this white rimmed, leather-seated, powder-blue beauty. He rode it everywhere before his mission - even to work across town to Thatcher Chemical and to SLCC (with a little help from TRAX). It is locked up in his bedroom so if any of us get a whim to ride it while he is gone, it's impossible! We can't help but smile at his current mode of transportation below. Loving it! 

All is well and no complaints from Elder Warner.

NOW: Bryan’s current mode of transportation. In his words: “Here she is. Comes with worn out break pads and tires that deflate every six hours. Beautiful!”