May

A slightly longer, but less detailed, post than usual to get all caught up:

- Elder and Sister Warnick noticed that they often pass a nesting swan on their drives.  Also came across a fun fox bench.

- Had dinner with the bishop of the Paignton Ward and his wife.  They are converts of about 5 years.

- Taught Institute in Plymouth, with 23 in attendance.  The lesson was on the Utah war, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, and the revelation on the priesthood.  They recommended this article.

- Spoke in Paignton Ward's Sacrament meeting, on the theme of "rescue".  Discussed examples from the rescues of the Willie and Martin handcart companies and compared to our modern-day responsibilities to rescue others.  Also shared the experience of Elder Warnick's great grandfather, William Woodward:

"He joined the church as a 14 year old boy after hearing the missionaries speak.  He said that their words were 'electrifying'.  He was immediately convinced that what they were saying was true.  When his stepfather discovered that he had been baptized he was put out of the house.  He lived with the missionaries for a time before emigrating to Utah [from England].  Heber C. Kimball took him into his home, treating him as one of his own family.  William went on a mission back to England, and upon his return was one of the captains in the Willie Handcart company.  He recorded in his journal that when he saw the rescuers coming he thought they were angels.  He did not think they were real men coming to save him.  All of us [in our family] owe our very lives and existence to those 'angels' who reached out to save the Willie Handcart Company."

- They continue to teach a missionary preparation class in Newton Abbott. Some members come quite a long distance by train in order to attend.  One young man just received his mission call to New Delhi.

- Pablo, returning to the church after more than 20 years of inactivity, was able to baptize his wife Jennifer.  Pablo expressed that the few minutes waiting for her to enter the font were really like having waited for her for 21 years. (Pictured below with Elder Kjaer, from Denmark, and Elder Lorenzana, from the Phillipines.)

- Drove to Poole for a 3 zone conference.  Heard an amusing experience related by Elder Herberton of the area presidency, in his rich Scottish accent: When he was a bishop, a young woman from Zaire was converted when a member shared a Book of Mormon with her on a bus.  She wanted to be baptized, but felt she needed her older sister's approval.  When she called her sister to tell her, the sister was so upset that she flew to the UK from Zaire to talk her out of it.  They met with Elder Herbertson (then bishop).  After listening to the upset sister for a while, he said, "This is a real mess."  He suggested they talk it over with the missionaries and then come back to see him and sort it out.  After 3 days, the sister returned and said she also wanted to be baptized, but was fearful of what her husband would say.  He was one of Zaire's government ministers, and was sensitive of his family's reputation.  Bishop Herbertson handed her a phone right there to call her husband.  He was so upset that he also flew to the UK.  The sister brought her husband in to see the bishop, who carried on in agreement with the husband about this being totally unacceptable.  "This is a real mess.  All I can suggest is that you meet with the missionaries about it, then come back to see me and we'll see if we can get it sorted out."  3 days later the husband returned a visibly different person, and also asked to be baptized.  When they returned to Zaire, he offered to resign his government position, but the country's president told him that was unnecessary.  They also discovered that there was a church building only a few blocks from their home.

-Spoke in sacrament meeting again, this time about the restoration of the keys of the priesthood.

- Traveled with other senior missionaries to historic and geographic sites in Devon and Cornwall. Elder and Sister Lock, from Bristol, acted as tour guides.  They visited Plymouth Hoe, where a battle with the Spanish Armada took place in 1588; St. Michael's Mount, an island monastery later fortified as a defense against supposed Catholic invaders after Henry VIII abolished Catholicism (the hill took several hours to climb); visited Penzance and St. Ives, but did not see any pirates or kits, cats, sacks, and wives; Port Isaac, setting of the Doc Martin BBC show, where they walked the beach and found lots of sea glass; Padstow, home to lots of restaurants and chef Rick Stein's cooking school; Tintagel, supposed site of King Arthur's castle, and also the oldest post office in England, a 14th century thatched-roof building; Lanhydrock, where they toured a Victorian home and garden, complete with furnishings; Dartmoor National Park, where they saw lots of wild ponies with their foals, sheep, and a few more of the Belted Galloway "oreo" cows.

- Had dinner with the Paignton ward bishop and wife again, the Schofields.  They had an interesting elderflower drink, and heard about their conversion story.

- Attended the first Institute class of the summer in Newton Abbot- this term is on the Pearl of Great Price.

We're all caught up to the present now!  Check in for more next week!

April

A slightly longer, but less detailed, post than usual to start getting caught up:

-For General Conference in April Elder and Sister Warnick watched on a time delay, to accomodate time zone differences as well as comply with television license requirements.

-They received a list of all the young single adults in their stake, and realized only 50 of the 400 listed are active.  They have a lot of work to do, but are confident in the Savior's love for each of these young people.  At the direction of the stake council, they came up with an activation plan for all YSA in the stake, which the stake presidency will distribute to each ward to implement.

-They finally got to sample real Cornish Pasties!

- They attended a zone training in Plymouth.  President Grubler shared his impression that a second "great harvest", similar to when Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball spread the gospel in the 1830s and 40s, is awaiting the saints in their area.

- They attended stake conference.  Stake President Martin compared the first Passover, when the Israelites who placed lambs' blood on their door posts were spared, to the need for each of us to fully apply the Atonement and covenants and ordinances of the gospel in our lives in order to pass through life safely.

- They took some time to tour ancient Roman ruins in Bath, ate at a restaurant founded in 1482 (Sally Lunn's), and listened to a choral concert at Wells Cathedral in Bath.  They were impressed with the efforts of early churches to preserve the roots of Christianity in England, to prepare the way for the restoration of the full gospel.  They also visited a cheese factory in Cheddar, and sampled some local cheddar cheese known for its unique flavor due to being aged in a cave.







- Took 16 YSA to the London Temple (a two-day undertaking, with travel time), and commemorated what would have been Elder Warnick's father's 100th birthday.  Saw some unusual "oreo" cows on the way home.

- Noted that instead of dandelions, tiny daisies grow in lawns as weeds there!

PASSING THE 2 MONTH MARK

At the beginning of April Elder and Sister Warnick passed their 2 month anniversary of being in England.

"We have marveled at and been grateful for the fact that we can do things so much more easily now than we could at the beginning.  It is a real testimony to us that anyone can grow and improve.  Things that may seem hard for us now, if we have a little faith and patience, will become easier if we just don't give up trying."

They went to Pablo and Jennifer Alvarez's flat in Paignton for dinner.  Pablo cooked one of his grandmother's pasta recipes; he has Italian and Spanish ancestry, his grandmother having left Italy for Peru during World War II.  They discussed the differences between terms used by British and American English speakers- for example, his wife asked him to put something in the "wardrobe", which he knew as a "closet", and he wasn't sure what she meant.  Apparently he learned English (one of the 5 languages he speaks) from American passengers on the cruise ship where he worked.  Elder and Sister Warnick gave their condolences on hearing that many of the passengers Pablo had learned English from were Texans!

Later they went to a Cornwall district meeting in St. Austell, which is the area where the book "Rebecca" took place- lots of quaint homes and ocean views.

They inspected the flat of the sisters in Cornwall, and were able to help them change the battery in their smoke alarm, as it started chirping during the inspection.

"We met with the stake presidency in Plymouth and shared our vision and plan to reach out to all young single adults in the Plymouth Stake.  It was well received and the stake presidency want the plan presented to the stake council next week.  We feel blessed and guided in this effort.  

While we were there we attended Institute, where Brother Lewis taught about the revelations that were received during the Nauvoo period, primarily focusing on the King Follett discourse and that we are all literally sons and daughters of Heavenly Father, with the potential to become like Him.  It is elevating and inspiring doctrine.

We had Bishop and Sister Vousden over for dinner to return their invitation to us... It was good to hear how Sister Vousden joined the church as a young woman of 20.  She walked into the Hyde Park chapel and said she wanted to know what they believed.  After reading the Book of Mormon and applying the Moroni 10 promise by prayer, in the coldest room she could find so that she wouldn't mistake a radiator's warmth for the Spirit, she did indeed feel such convincing warmth in her chest that she knew it was true and has never looked back."

They taught the first missionary preparation class to 3 young men.  One came by train from Plymouth, and walked in a downpour without an umbrella to get to the class.

"He is very committed to serving a mission and has all his paperwork done.  He is a convert himself of less than a year, having gone out for a crab sandwich and finding the missionaries and the gospel instead."

They attended the London Temple.  They stayed at the temple's accommodation center and also went to a musical presentation at the temple's visitor center.  

"The next day we attended the temple with senior missionary couples.  Elder and Sister Andersodn from the area office in Germany were there to give support to those working with the YSA."

March

A condensed version of Elder and Sister Warnick's last few emails:

They had their neighbors, Steve and Anna, over for a visit.  They served Hummingbird cake, which has bananas and pineapple in it, even though the pineapple was a bit hard to find.  Steve gave them some duck eggs, and invited them over the next week for a real English shepherd's pie, made with lamb.

Duck egg, left, compared to a chicken's egg

"Sunday we drove to Exeter for church and met with some young adults who don't attend Institute or FHE.  Our visits there with individuals were important, but made us late for a special extra sacrament meeting in Braunton 1.5 hours drive away.  We arrived about 30 minutes late and thought we could slip in the back.  There were about 30 present, including 3 investigators.  They ushered us onto the front row and announced our arrival to the whole congregation.  So much for our effort to be subtle.

We were richly rewarded for our effort to support them as the talks were so good.  Nigel, a counselor in the branch presidency, spoke of his long journey back from inactivity in the church and how blessed he and his family had been in his decision to return, even though his wife and children are not members.  Andrew Smith, the branch president, spoke on how we may forget what we hear, but not how we feel.  Even things from the pre earth life are still part of our feelings.  We reflected on the way home on all we had learned that day, (and also took a picture of a thatched roof!)."

"We had a married couple come to dinner.  We met them in the Paignton Ward; Pablo was very glad to have Dad speak Spanish with him.  He is a member, and she is taking discussions.  They met as employees on a cruise ship, he in the kitchen and she as a dancer.  She is very receptive and told us she intends to be baptized.  We showed them the church Easter video "Hallelujah."  Jennifer told us how pleased she was to learn that Adam and Eve partaking of the forbidden fruit in the Garden of Eden was not a huge mistake.  It was wonderful to feel such a connection with them as we conversed.  It turns out her maiden name is Alden, and her father always told her she was related to John Alden of Mayflower fame.  She was excited to know that John Alden is our ancestor too.  She felt, as we do, that our connection with her is not by chance."


They went to Plymouth for a YSA meeting.  After a lesson about staying strong in adversity, they played lazer tag, both inside and outside in the dark.

"Saturday we went to a baptism in Paignton.  A lot of family members were there.  This was Elder Kroch's last baptism before he returns to Cambodia.  We can envision a great work ahead of him there establishing the church more fully in his homeland."

"Monday we drove the sisters from Newton Abbot to Plymouth for a district preparation day.  While he missionaries played indoor football we went down to the Plymouth Mayflower memorial and visited the site where our ancestors, John Alden and Priscilla Mullins, left England almost 400 years ago.  We tried to imagine what it was like for them to walk down stone steps and get on the Mayflower.  We don't know why the Lord sent us to the Plymouth Stake, but we are grateful to be in the land of our ancestors and walk in some of the very places they did."

Dealing with Doubt

"Tuesday we drove to Bideford and visited Elders Alambra and Green.  They are both from Australia and are really good elders.  We inspected their flat, which really means we had them evaluate their flat, and took them to lunch.  We even went tracting with the elders for a while.  On our way home we went with Brother Peter Smith, a member of the branch presidency, to visit Mike and Mary.  They have been members for more than 40 years, have held prominent positions in the church, but are now inactive.  He expressed a sweet testimony of knowing when he was branch president he was able to receive revelation enabling him to do many things he knew did not come from himself.  She, however, is bitter and does not believe anymore.  She resisted Dad's testimony of the Book of Mormon.  We left them with a blessing and went home feeling discouraged.  It was hard to see her complete rejection.  We later write them a letter and included a wonderful letter written by President Hugh B. Brown, written to a friend of his who was experiencing doubts.  President Brown described his own journey through the valleys of doubt in his own life.  It is worth reading.

We attended disctrict meeting, which is always good.  Elder Deaton taught about humility, and that true humility involves confidence, not in ourselves, but rather in the Savior and His power to strengthen us.  District meeting lifted our spirits after the experiences of the previous day.

There never seems to be an end of the details of living in a foreign country.  Did you know that you have to have a license to watch television or record TV from another device in the UK?  Thankfully, that is not a fee we will have to pay.  Next time, be grateful when you just turn on your TV, even it you do have to listen to political announcements.

On Thursday we had a meeting with President Fullwood of the stake presidency.  He is completely deaf, but can lip read and speak so well that you would never know it except for the fact that he has to be looking at you.  He is the stake leader in charge of seminary and institute, and challenged us to develop a plan to reach all of the YSA in our stake.  Dad was set apart for the High Council that night by President Martin, the stake president.  He gave Dad such a marvelous blessing, where he promised blessings upon our family.  We attended institute class afterwards, taught by Brother Lewis, who used to be a police officer in London and is a former mission president in the Philipines.  He expressed what a contrast it is between the youth of the church and the youth he dealt with as a police officer.  He travels 2 hours to get to us every Thursday.  He lead a masterful discussion on being a true "millennial" and preparing for the second coming of the Savior.

Friday we got take-away from two Kurds who run a small shish-ka-bob shop.  They have been in England for about 10 years, after having fled Iraq for their lives, and talked about friends who ended up in Nashville.

On Sunday night we had Jordan and the sisters over for one of his new member discussions.  The bishop had talked to him about receiving the Aaronic Priesthood that day, and he was full of questions and enthusiasm.  We also had him over for dinner Monday evening and got to know him better.  He is 21 and has lost both parents already, and is a triplet.  We got him started a little on his family history, but there is a family in the ward that will see him through that in more detail.  He is planning to attend the temple next month with the YSA."

Blueberry Crumble Bars Recipe

Blueberry Oatmeal Crumble Bars

Crust and Crumble Topping
1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, melted
1 cup all-purpose flour
3/4 cup old-fashioned whole rolled oats (not quick or instant)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 cup light brown sugar, packed
pinch salt, optional, to taste

Blueberry Layer
12 oz. (2 cups) blueberries, fresh or frozen (don't thaw)
1/3 cup granulated sugar
2 Tablespoons lemon juice
2 teaspoons cornstarch

Preheat oven to 350F.  Line an 8-inch square pan with aluminum foil and spray with cooking spray.  Set aside.

Crust layer:  In a large microwave-safe bowl melt the butter.  Add the flour, oats, sugars, optional salt, and stir to combine.  Mixture will be dry and sandy with some larger crumble pieces.  Set 1 heaping cup of the mixture aside to be sprinkled on top later.

Transfer remaining mixture to prepared pan, and using a spatula or your fingers, hard-pack the mixture to create and even, smooth, flat crust.  Set aside.

Blueberry layer:  In a large mixing bowl, add all ingredients and toss to combine.  Evenly distribute blueberry mixture over crust.  Evenly sprinkle reserved topping mixture.  Before sprinkling, I squeeze the mixture in my palm to encourge bigger crumble pieces to form.  

Bake for about 55 minutes, or until the edges are set and the center has just set.  Crumble topping should appear set and very pale golden.  If using fresh, not frozen, berries, baking time may need to be reduced.

Place pan on a wire rack and allow bars to cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing and serving.  If you try to slice the bars before they are cool they will fall apart.  Bars will keep airtight at room temperature for up to 1 week, in the fridge for 10 days, or in the freezer up to 6 months.

Hay Tor, Cleaning, and YSA Meetings

"We didn't see any hounds at the moors last week except on leashes, but we did see some wild ponies that roam free much like mustangs in the west.  The moors are granite covered with a thin layer of soil, and granite outcroppings in places called Tors.  Teenagers join in the Ten Tor Challenge which requires them to hike to ten of the designated granite hills over two days, taking with them everything they will need for the overnight experience.  The weather doesn't always cooperate, and it can be quite rigorous and a point of pride to accomplish.  They even have support from the army, including helicopters if needed."

ELDER AND SISTER WARNICK IN FRONT OF HAY TOR

"We turned into vacuum repairmen.  We found that the belt was broken so we ordered new ones, which came quickly.  It was very satisfying to put it on and actually have the thing work.  It must have been broken quite a while, as a satisfying bunch of stuff was picked up.  They call it 'hoovering' here to use a vaccuum cleaner.  And, by the way, the cooktop of a stove is called a 'hob'.

For Dad's birthday we went with the sisters to an appointment out on a horse farm, and took them to lunch.  We had bangers and mash with mushy peas and fish and chips- classic English fare.

Wednesday was a district meeting, for which we made blueberry crumble bars.  The district leader and his companion made banana bread.  The blueberry bars were a hit, so we will send along the recipe.

On Thursday we prepared food for the YSA.  Mark Lewis, the Institute teacher, taught them about following the prophet and discerning truth from error.  The stake president, President Martin, then taught them about the area and stake plan and challenged the YSA to set 5 personal goals in achieving the plan.  It was an inspiring meeting centered around: Bring a friend, Be spiritually and temporally self-reliant, and Find an ancestor.  He shared a quote from President Monson that goes like this: 'When performance is measured, performance improves.  When performance is measured and reported, the rate of improvement accelerates.'  So the YSA leaders, the Brockways, and we, have been asked to follow up individually with the young singles on their goals.  It will be an excellent way to learn how we can be helpful to them, and will challenge us to set our own goals in a meaningful way.  Afterward the YSA played a game where 2 people sat back to back and were asked a question like, 'Which of you could beat the other in arm wrestling?'  Two brothers got 21 of 21 questions where they agreed on the answer.  No one else came close- not even us or the stake president and his wife.

We went to the bishop's house in Friday for dinner and met his daughter who is less active.  They were pleased that she would join us.  We were told later that she had said earlier that day that Americans are all weird, except the Kardashians.  She has some growing up to do.

On Saturday we attended a dramatic performance by the youth and YSA in the Newton Abbot ward, supported by a number of adults, titled Free to Choose.  Our favorite scene was a sequence of people discussing the fillings in their sandwiches, with one fellow day after day lamenting that he always had a cheese sandwich.  He was finally asked who makes his sandwiches for him.  He replied, 'I do.'  The bishop played that role so well it brought the house down with laughter.

Sunday we drove to the Paignton Ward which meets in a converted young children's school.  We could see the ocean from the window where we attended Gospel Principles class.  There was a young couple there, just married the day before, who had met while they were both working on a cruise ship, he in the kitchen and she as a dancer.  Pablo is from Peru, so enjoyed speaking with Dad in Spanish.  Jennifer is from England and doesn't speak any Spanish so they decided they would make their home in England.  He is already a member, and they have been attending for a few weeks, but she says she really doesn't understand most of what is being discussed.  They will now start having the missionaries come and teach where she can get her questions answered on a more personal basis and learn in an orderly manner basic gospel principles.

Monday the sisters wanted to come make cookies at our flat for their P Day.  We have also created a handout for the YSA, and some other things that needed our attention.  The other day Dad did such a wonderful job of cleaning the shower that we may have baths from now on so we don't muss it up again!  There was a lot of mold collected in the hard to reach places.  It is a small shower that reminds one of being in a slippery slide tube."