Hello! we had a better week. We found some more people, kind of. So last week in our district meeting, our district leader put a goal that on every lesson we teach to someone, invite them to baptism. So we did this all week and called the week with 3 dates for May 8th. One of them is an mid age lady who attends some kind of church near her house. We taught her 3 lessons and she was progressing pretty well, but her biggest challenge is getting permission from her pastor and congregation to attend another church. So in other words she called Sunday morning right before we were going to pick her up and said she had "family problems". Maybe she did, maybe she didn't, who knows. The other is a cousin of inactive members we found from a reference. We only taught him one lesson but had his date. He didn't show for church due to something with his girlfriend. The other is way legit. his name is Miguel Angel. He has 16 years, laid back. He was a reference from past missionaries to give him another shot. We taught him all the lessons and got him to church with us. He has a baptism date for next week. Other than that all is good, still adjusting to this whole everything to be honest but we're almost there. This is the only pic I have for this week so forgive me. A glimpse of my area.


Mexico fact: a lot of people put their dogs on their roof for some reason, so when your contacting and think its raining, its just dog drool.


Thank you for everything. I hope you all have a good week!  
Love, Elder Warner

Week 4, Transfer 2

Hey! We had a fun week this week. On Saturday the stake had an activity in where all the little kids in the stake paired up with our zone. So there were 2 little kids with paper name tags that said "future missionary" paired up with each companionship.  For the activity we had 2 houses we were assigned to visit so we trekked off into the streets with these little niños to go visit these houses.  The first house wasn't there so we headed for the second.  The second, as well, wasn't home so we contacted her neighbor with these kids.  We were given a program with the hymn "I am a child of God" (in Spanish) to sing.  One of the kids had this short story about Joseph Smith memorized, it was awesome.  He shared that and we all sang a little hymn.  It was an awesome activity, really cool to see these little "future missionaries" drag their feet from house to house with us.  That's about the main event. Lots of contacting in the Mexico sun- earlier this week God shed his mercy with something I forgot existed... RAIN!!   If you ever have seen the movie Holes, it was reenacted, missionary style.  Working in the sun, and noticing that little cloud that we prayed to somehow head its way over to cover the sun.  Eventually it started raining... hard.  Shortly after, these golf ball sized pieces of ice started falling (still have a headache from one that hit me) so we ran into one of the unoccupied houses until it slowed down.  It was legit. We had Easter yesterday.  They celebrate it a little different here. In a way that kinda makes you sick to be honest.  They have these gnarly large apostacy groups in each sector. In the sector we were contacting at the time, had a group circled around 3 crosses posted in the ground.  That's all I'll say.  Also, we were in the middle of a lesson when I heard a loud chanted gooooooooal on the radio.  It was the Monterrey vs. Salt Lake City soccor game! I heard they tied and play again on Wednesday.  That's it for this week!  I hope everyone is well and had a good holiday!
Send my love - Elder Warner 
    
Dad, hey I had a good week, I'm still in the searching phase so not much has happened just a lot of contacting but like you said thats part of the work.  Thank you for sending all those things, I appreciate it. The good thing about Mexico is the only bike riders are the guys who have 30 pounds of fruit in the handmade baskets attached to the bike. But we were in the city for district meeting and I saw these 2 roadies with slick specialized bikes. Beautiful. It was one of those times where you have to slap your head back into focus on the mission.  haha. I'm glad you had fun with mom's birthday over the weekend. How is everything else?

Clouds of relief from the heat!

Golfball size hail

RAIN AT LAST!!  Loving it!

                     

Missionary Activity with Primary children from the Stake

Out tracting with Elder Zegarra and Primary children 

assigned to their companionship

Elder Warner loved this missionary activity with these kids

Hello! how are you! This week was just one of those weeks, not much happened but it was still an awesome week. Yesterday was supposed to be the baptism of Olga, she came with us to church and General Conference, and had her interview on Saturday, but she just never showed up to church so we went to her house and she wasn't there.  So hopefully we will have the baptism this week.  Other than that we confirmed Denis and Nikol. One of my favorite parts of the conversion process. The other day we went to visit Martha and her Book of Mormon was about as marked up as mine. She is doing awesome, she has been trying hard to get work off on Sundays and managed to get all of May off for Sundays. She was way excited. That sums up this week. The photo is my comp and I helping make a dessert that Mexicans love.  It's really weird.  It's hard bread, some kind of syrup, sprinkles, coconut, m&ms, raisins and peanuts. Try it out!
Mexico Fact: Halls (cough drops) are candy here. in the city you see a lot of people weaving in and out of cars at stop lights trying to sell Halls before the light turns green.

Love you all ! Have a good day! Elder Warner

Dearest Mother,
Thank you for everything my sweet heart.  You are more than I could ever ask for.  I hope you have an awesome week my love. And most of all an awesome birthday.  Of course I will be thinking about you. I wish there was more I could do or give you on this special day but you will have to live with a lame email.  Just know how much you mean to me and how extremly greatful and blessed I am to have you as my mother. You're so amazing, truely. 
I wish you a happy birthday from many miles away, your always in my heart and prayers. I love you sweetheart. - love Bryan :)

Thoughts of gratitude and humility

We received this hard-copy letter from Bryan this past week in Mexico and were deeply touched and humbled by his words. Please read the following:

Familia de Warner,

How are you all!? As always, I'll share a journal entry, but lately I have been thinking about a story very close to my heart that I feel impressed to share with you.

02/21/11: "There are too many things we possess that are highly taken for granted. Laundry takes alot longer when you are basically doing it by hand. I'm enduring the biggest blessing of my life. Being here on my mission in Mexico poverty level: living how they live. Food circumstances: eating what they eat. Communication: speaking what they speak. Life Style: adjusting to how they do things. Emotion: loving how they love." From being here in Mexico and seeing the poverty and lifestyle of barely making it by day to day, my thoughts relate to Michael. How when he passed on, he was found with 30 and some cents in his pocket. This story can describe exactly who Michael was. A few days after my 10th birthday, Michael showed up at the New Haven house. With excitement and glow on his face, he asked me what I wanted for my birthday. We hopped in his car and headed toward a video game store in Cottonwood mall. When we got there, just as any little kid would be, I was blown away by the amount of video games. I, being a little kid was filled with tremendous joy. Michael was about twice as happy as I was. Not because of the video games, but simply because he saw how happy I was. I picked out the one I wanted. It was a game called Gex. We got to the register and I watched him pay with every last dime he had. At a time you wouldn't think so, I watched his smile grow from giving everything he had to get that video game for me. He had a very special talent, in where his thoughts were never focused on himself. The things that made him happy were simply seeing the smiles on other people's faces. I know he still is, exactly who he was. Everytime he sees us smile, his face lights up exactly how it did in that video store.

I relate this story alot to the people in my mission. How there are a few of them who give so much of what they have, simply to feed us lunch. I find these little simple things to have the most life-long lasting effect. My gratitude for this opportunity is beyond measure. I am so grateful for the life I have and especially for this time in my life that I can devote to the Lord. The things you learn on a mission are things that I can promise you, you won't learn anywhere else.

I love you all.

Elder Warner

P.S. You will find that video game on the top shelf of my dresser.

BAPTISM AND TEMPLE!

BAPTISM AND TEMPLE! the 2 chavos that I was talking about last week had their baptism. Dennis, is 18 years old lives with his mom and little sister, and his girlfriend Nicole, is 14, (on the right). We found Nicole's mom in a contact a little over a month ago, she is the one whose husband was shot by the cartel about 6 months ago. She investigated in the lessons for a while but wasn't progressing and lost interest so we had to drop her but continued to teach her daughter and her boyfriend. We have had an awesome week especially today with the temple. We had interviews with the Mission Pres. yesterday, were very blessed to have him and his wife. They are awesome! Yes, I forgot to explain the photos last week. The one with the 2 guys in "con cristo" shirts are people we ran into while contacting, they sell doughnuts for 50 cents around the neighborhood and say that God will bless you if you buy their doughnuts. The other is just a fire which is one of my Mexico facts: there are huge fires at least every other day. That one was just really close to the house so I took a photo. Another fact: a lot of companies throw English words on their products because it makes it sound more high quality. The photos in this email were taken just a few hours ago. We were in the city after the temple, The other is of the priesthood holders in our ward after the baptism. We had an awesome week and look forward to another. I hope all is well, love you all. Elder Warner

Elder Warner with Priesthood holders from his ward before the baptism

Elder Warner and Elder Zegarra before the baptism of Dennis and Nicole

Week one of new transfer–Baptism!

Hey! We had quite the eventful week transfers, BAPTISM, and General Conference. For transfers I'm in the same area with my comp. I prayed for that so all is good. Our baptism, it is the 11 year old I was talking about last week named Hektor. We had 2 other investigators which LUCKILY had a car that we picked up Hektor, his mom and sister in and headed to the stake center in the city for General Conference. We had his baptism following conference and our other investigators were able to watch. One of them has a baptism date for this Sunday. General Conference was awesome, you ask for the good and bad so I'll share the down side. It was hard seeing the Conference Center on a T.V. in a little Mexico Chapel, because the last one I was sitting in view of our Prophet. Who would have known something church related could make you trunky?? Other than that, the talks were awesome! I'll share some of the quotes I picked out. The first is by President Uchdorf, he said "the Lord answers our prayers by being the answer to another persons prayer". I like it because it's true. It's not materialism that brings joy in our lives, it's the happiness that people we love bring into our lives. The Lord knows the capability of each person and how they can affect someone's life. Another is "develop the difference between needs and wants". I apply that strictly to my mission cause there are a lot of things that are desired which aren't present here. But in the big view all you need, is, the "needs". I'll share more in other emails. Today we were scheduled to go to the temple but was postponed till next week. I hope all is well, have a good week!

Until then, Elder Warner