Senior Missionary Newsletter- Conference Report

Below is a link to a newsletter the London South Mission prepared to summarize the conference mentioned in previous posts.  Pictures of Elder and Sister Warnick and LaMar and Debby are included.

Note on the cover page- the mission has its own coat of arms!


https://docs.google.com/document/d/1SfTOaCQpfqrlvwcs9cqW-WaysDZZTQPal92VjHVadV4/edit?usp=sharing

24 October 2017

We just finished a YSA convention in the Stake.  Some things went better than expected and some with hitches to be overcome but it all worked out with many hands involved.  Most people are delightfully willing to do their part.  The food was great and conventions, like armies, travel somewhat on their stomachs.  The man who did the Saturday evening BBQ was a professional chef who is now mostly confined to a wheelchair and not able to work.  He was thrilled to be asked to help and said that he can either be home and be in pain or go do something and get a distraction from the pain.  He is always cheerful and is an inspiration. 

The service project was photographing headstones to post on Billion Graves.  England is full of wonderful cemeteries that need documenting but so many of the headstones aren’t easy or are impossible to read.  

We have started to use up any food we have in our cupboards as the time is approaching to leave.  There isn’t a missionary couple designated to take over from us but we imagine the mission president will move someone here as it is the farthest from his home other than Guernsey Island.  The occasional “emergency” comes up that he has needed us to handle.

Our next assignment that is separate from the usuals is talking to a mutual group about American Thanksgivings.  We found a 6 minute video that explains both the history and customs and will use that for a portion of it.  Elder Warnick has learned how to do downloading and editing from different video sources that has been helpful in all the teaching we have had to do.  Something visual is always good to get the attention.  They plan to have samples of what might be in a Thanksgiving dinner.  We bet they don’t have pumpkin pie, as canned pumpkin is hard to come by, but they gladly use turkey instead of goose here now as they admit goose is very fatty.  They do love the goose fat though for roasting potatoes.  There is no comparable holiday to Thanksgiving in the UK.

16 September 2017

The biggest news is the arrival of (Elder Warnick's brother) LaMar and Debby to our mission.  They looked wonderful and it was great to see them again, the first time being at a 4 zone conference in Poole which is a 2 and 1/2 hour drive for us.  Since the couple that they are replacing have not gone home yet they were able to spend a couple of days with us visiting many of the sites that we have visited with some of you....Dartmoor, the ponies, the clapper bridges. Lanhydrock, Coleton Fishacre and Okehampton.  They were able to continue on with us to go to the senior missionary conference in Exeter.  After an evening of instruction, as a group we visited Exeter Cathedral, Buckfast Abbey, Cockington Village and Dartmouth where we took a river boat ride then had lunch before all returning home.  Now most of the senior couples know how far we have to travel when the conferences are in their area as we are 4 hours away from the usual meeting places.  LaMar and Debby are an hour plus from us so we hope to see them again before we return.

We have helped the local missionaries teach Mason who has now been baptized.  Another former investigator who wasn't baptized because of opposition from his son told us in a visit that he was not going to let that happen again as he knew the church to be true.  Within a few days his son had gotten to him again and he refused to open the door when we stopped to visit.  He has since apologized.  We are sorry that he does not have the strength of his convictions.  This is a sharp contrast to our own ancestors who not only faced disapproval but complete rejection and yet they persisted.  We are forever blessed and grateful for their courage and faith.

The YSA convention is beginning to take shape but was preceded by our anxiety over the lack of action from responsible parties.  Lately they have really stepped up.  We do want them to feel successful and to have an enriching weekend.

Last Thursday we had our YSA version of dinner and a movie by listening together to Elder Bednar's devotional for single adults and pizza.  We only had four attend as many are still doing summer holiday before school starts again. We enjoyed the time with them on a more intimate basis.  There is nothing quite like a gathering of young single adults to brighten our day with the exception of being with our own family.

18 August 2017

A number of things have happened of late.  The Bideford Branch has moved to Holsworthy with some revised boundaries.  We were able to attend their first meeting held in the Bradford Community Center.  There is a lot of enthusiasm among the members, and while it is not exactly a new branch it feels that way to many of the members with hopes for the future.  The Stake president challenged them to become a Ward within a year.  The first meeting fell on fast Sunday and there was a wonderful feeling.  We were invited to lunch afterward at the home of the RS president and her family.  They have a delightful daughter who is one of "ours" in YSA.  She is a recently returned missionary who served in the US.  We actually have 3 recently returned missionaries and they infuse a wonderful spirit into every YSA meeting.  They bring with them experience  in studying and sharing the gospel and testimony of the Savior.

The month of August seems to be when everyone goes on holiday and except for regular Sunday meetings most everything else gets cancelled.  We did have a YSA activity at Teignmouth Beach.  Only two YSA showed up, the Stake leader and one other member that we almost never see.  While one might consider that to be an unsuccessful activity, we thought it was extremely successful.  It really is about "the one".  Institute classes will resume on the 31st.

We went to Buckfast Abbey and Cockington Village on separate days in anticipation of the senior conference on 1 Sept in order to be more knowledgeable.  The Abbey is still operating as such and has been rebuilt in early 1900 so it is not really that old.  Cockington  Village is the place to go for thatched roofs and quaintness although all the interiors have been turned into shops for tourists.  We did have a nice lunch at the Rose Cottage complete with piano music from a nearby gazebo.  It was a rare beautiful weather day with just the right temp and sunshine with no rain.  We should be more prepared now to give directions if called upon to do so.

Elder Warnick at Buckfast Abbey

Cockington Village

Cockington Village

Yesterday, after attending district meeting in Exeter, we went to the funeral for the father of one of our YSA in Kingskerswell.  This young man is the only member of the church in his family.  The windows were absolutely beautiful in the church.  There are so many old stone churches in this country that speak to the desires of previous generations to come closer to God.

We understand from the office that LaMar and Debby have arrived today.  We will not see them probably until next week at a multi zone conference in Poole and then again at the senior missionary conference in Exeter.  We remember how exhausted and disoriented we felt when we arrived almost 19 month ago.  We are glad we are not just starting out again and can recognize we have learned a great deal just from experience.  Even so, we realize we will "never assimilate" as we still stand out as not being local.

5 August 2017

We thought we would give you an update of some of the things happening recently with us.  Probably the largest focus has been our work with the missionaries.  We have seen a number of baptisms, notably Kaleb, an impressive young single adult who joined the church on July 22nd.  He recorded his conversion experience for the mission.  We will forward it on to you if we can. He attended Institute for the first time on Thursday and is a wonderful addition, interacting very freely with everyone.  It is wonderful to see young single adults rally around each other.

We also experienced on Thursday what we consider to be something amazing.  The YSA have taught the Institute lessons the last 4 weeks.   One of our YSA, who in the past has attended Institute but didn't participate much, volunteered to teach that lesson.  He did a tremendous job with Pres. Uchtdorf's conference address Perfect Love Casteth Out Fear.  We do not think he would ever have done that 18 months ago when we first met him.

After a discussion with the stake presidency, our distance problems for the YSA in Cornwall are going to be solved by creating a satellite class that will meet together with their own instructor and activities three weeks out of the month and joining us in Plymouth once a month.  We hope this will serve them best and provide a nucleus for growth.  Institute slows down in August, as most people go on holiday, with the next meeting not until Aug. 31st.

We are looking forward to LaMar and Debby Hatch joining us as senior missionaries in the England London South Mission in mid August.  They will be assigned to the Bristol zone and will overlap with the Ramptons there for about a month.  We look forward to seeing them at our next senior missionary conference the first part of Sept.  Our replacement for the Plymouth Zone has not been identified yet.  If you know anyone that would like to come to southern England tell them to submit their application as soon as possible.  "The harvest is indeed great and the laborers are few".

We are in the planning phase now for our YSA convention which will take place in October.  It will be very small compared to some conventions like Festinord in Sweden where one of our young people just went.  The Pettits helped with it and were so impressed with the 800 plus attendees and all of the well planned activities.  Festinord has been going on for many years and is a great place to meet other European young people.

We continue to be invited to speak in sacrament meetings and Stake conference and are grateful for the opportunity we have to bear testimony that Jesus Christ is the Son of God and that through Joseph Smith the Saviour restored His church to the earth once more.  We are grateful for the testimony and direction of apostles and prophets that provide us safety in these times.

7 July 2017

Since our last update we have had a lot going on, and even an adventure or two.  The month of June was largely dedicated to getting a suitable broadcast process for the three wards in Cornwall.  That may hardly seem like something that ought to occupy most of a month's time, but for us it was very consuming.  We first had to determine what technology to use both in hardware and software to accomplish this.  We did call upon the best local resources we could find.  They were helpful, but what we were trying to do was not exactly anything that had been tried before and given the busy schedules of others we had a difficult time getting together with them.  We finally did our first broadcast on June 1 only to have the computer itself fail.  Eventually we were able to work out the bugs, but each week something new cropped up.  It was like whack a mole!  After a month's worth of broadcasting we assessed the reaction of the YSA involved and concluded that even with our system working it still would not provide the desired spiritual experience that a face-to-face Institute class provides.  After discussions with the stake presidency it was decided to abandon broadcasting altogether and call the right instructor to teach them in person.  They will still try to get together with the rest of the YSA in Plymouth once a month even though that involves an hour and a half drive for some.

Another thing we have done is photographed and documented a request from someone through Billiongraves.  It was windy and rainy, but we felt good about adding to someone's knowledge of their ancestors.  In the cemetery office we learned that a common process here is to bury very deep allowing for others on top.  In this case he was 5 down and had never had a headstone. The plot was paid for for only 3 years.

On our 44th anniversary we drove to the Cridford Inn in Trusham for a nice lunch.  It is one of the oldest inns in England with a verified date of 1081 but advertised as dating back as old as 825. It is hard for us to comprehend structures that old, as in the USA it would have to be those of Native Americans.

The year 1081 in small stones, under glass in the floor of the Cridford Inn.

During the month we attended Rupert's baptism.  He is YSA age and has been very happy to find the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  One of the things we have enjoyed is seeing people join with both feet and grow to where they are in turn able to baptize a friend.

We felt privileged to be here when Elder Christofferson visited a gathering of the entire mission.  It is a rare occurrence to get everyone in the same building.  Elder Christofferson is Elder Warnick's second cousin, and it was good to renew association with him.  He and his wife shook every missionary's hand with a personal greeting then spoke to the group as well as having a time for questions to be answered.  Elder Christofferson finished with an apostolic blessing upon the missionaries and it was a wonderful, uplifting experience.

We have continued in having frequent speaking assignments all over the Stake, sometimes by Stake assignment and sometimes by request of the wards.  Some units are quite small, so like to have others come visit.  When you think about it, there is never an end to what could be said of the importance of the gospel in our lives, and we always benefit greatly from these speaking assignments.

We have a new Area Seventy, Roy Tunnicliffe, who came to the Paignton Ward to comfort a family who were grieving the loss of a husband and father.  The daughter is one of our YSA, and courageously spoke at her father's funeral.
Elder Tunnicliffe and his wife also spoke that evening at seminary and Institute graduation, and we have learned he will be coming to speak at our YSA convention in October, for which we are grateful.

On the Fourth of July we were asked to speak to the YM/YW in Newton Abbot about why Americans celebrate on that day and we included the reasons why all church members should also celebrate as it marks a foundational piece of the Restoration.

We just had another 4 zone conference in Poole.  The young missionaries from our zone, which is the farthest away, go the day before for interviews with the mission president and sleep on the floor as needed.  One flat had 10 in it.  We are glad we are not expected to sleep on the floor.  It is one advantage of being senior missionaries.  The conference was wonderful with shared instruction from the recent mission president's training provided by the apostles.  The main focus seemed to be about simplifying the teaching and getting to the essentials quickly.  We thought this was great counsel and something all of us could benefit from.  This was quoted from Pres. Benson:  "...the Book of Mormon is the keystone of testimony. Just as the arch crumbles if the keystone is removed, so does all the Church stand or fall with the truthfulness of the Book of Mormon. The enemies of the Church understand this clearly. This is why they go to such great lengths to try to disprove the Book of Mormon, for if it can be discredited, the Prophet Joseph Smith goes with it. So does our claim to priesthood keys, and revelation, and the restored Church. But in like manner, if the Book of Mormon be true—and millions have now testified that they have the witness of the Spirit that it is indeed true—then one must accept the claims of the Restoration and all that accompanies it."

Also emphasized was knowing who we are.  Without knowing we are children of Heavenly Parents who love us, the rest doesn't make sense, the whole purpose of mortality is called into question.

After the conference we brought missionaries home, 2 cars with 10 missionaries in our group, meeting in Newton Abbot to drop 2 and pick up another to take to Paignton.  That same night we went to the end of Institute and enjoyed being with the YSA there.  We went home tired but filled.

1 June 2017- Elder Kearon Visits

"We thought we would update you on some of our recent activities, in addition to what we have been sending you about family history and temple work.

Last week we received a call from the mission home informing us we would be getting a new car.  It surprised us a little, since the once we have only had 24,000 miles on it  (22,000 of which we put on it over the last 16 months.)  The mission home explained that the Bideford Elders' car was being retired, and we were to give them our car and drive theirs into the mission home for exchange.  We got the new car because President Gubler didn't like the idea of the young elders driving the new car with the narrow, winding roads through fields and farms.  It wouldn't look new very long.  We held our breaths as we drove the old one the 5 hours to the mission home, hoping it wouldn't break down on the way, but arrived without incident, for which we are grateful.  Elder Cannon, a former senior missionary who provided us with our first driving lesson in England, was fond of saying, 'Well, we cheated death again' upon his completion of any trip on the roads.  We know how he felt.

While we were in London we attended a senior missionary conference.  It was held in a congested area near the center of London.  We rode from the temple to the Peckham chapel with the visitor's center missionaries, and were glad we weren't driving.  The traffic was pretty awful, but made up for by the conference being so good.  We had Mexican food for dinner, but it is still not the same as Mexican food back home.  That is something we will look forward to on our return.  

During the conference we heard from the missionary couples who will be returning home in the next few months.  Some of them are missionaries who came out at the time we did.  It was a little strange to see them giving their farewell testimonies.  It has been a great blessing to get to know some of these couples.  Many of them have sacrificed greatly to come here and serve.  We look up to them with admiration and appreciation for all they have done.

President Gubler extended to all of us some marvelous blessings and promises when he spoke.  We hope we can live to be worthy of those blessings.

We stayed overnight at the accommodation center and spent the next morning in the temple doing work for our Stevens ancestors.  We have previously sent a description of that experience, and of our visit to the Enmore Parish in Somerset where they lived.

We returned home on Saturday night enjoying the new car smell, but afraid to spill crumbs on a brand new interior that is black and will show everything.  It also has a built in satnav, which we won't be using since Heather and Dustin educated us on the benefits of the Google maps app on our iPhone.  It is perfect for our needs.

On our return home we enjoyed stopping in Exeter for a farewell party for one of our YSA who is going to Germany on her mission.  The party included tastes of many different German foods.

On Sunday we went to hear her farewell talk, and also heard President Martin, our Stake president.  He is a man we admire very much, and always benefit from is counsel.  While there, we met a young lady who rarely can come to church because of her health.  She tries to faithfully study the gospel on her own at home.  There are many ways to 'endure to the end' that don't involve getting old.

Monday, of course, was Memorial Day.  We really appreciate Stand and Linda and Gloria's family putting flowers on Bethany's grave.  Bethany would be almost 22 now.  We look forward to that glorious day when we will see her again and get to know her.

Here they do not celebrate Memorial Day, but do have a Remembrance Day in November.  WWI is much more of a cultural memory here, much more so than WWII, or anything else since.  WWI cost England much of that generation of young men, and even their way of life.  In America, we hardly ever think of WWI, and seldom WWII.  Except for those who fought, the US was largely shielded from the effects of those wars by comparison, and those who fought rarely would speak of it.  It must have brought painful memories.  We should ever honor and never forget their sacrifice.

We returned yesterday from a multi-zone conference in Poole.  Elder Kearon, the Area president and newly called to the presidency of the Seventy, was there and spoke.  He was really outstanding in the way he taught the missionaries how to be natural and authentic when they contact those who are not yet members, and to meet them where they are, rather than where we are.  The missionaries prepared and sang a special rendition of a favorite hymn of his, Let Us All Press On.  He was visibly moved by the gesture.  We have gained such admiration for these young missionaries, and realize we have been here long enough to know a lot of them.  We also remember many who have gone home with fondness.  It was an inspiring conference.  

Summer Institute begins in a couple of hours.  We have worked hard to prepare and coordinate the ability to broadcast to Cornwall, which hasn't been done before.  Some of these young adults live two and a half hours away, and it's too much to expect them to travel for Institute class.  We hope it is successful."