Warners on a Mission

July 5, 2014

We watched the fireworks last night (on the western side of the Mississippi River), while sitting on the Nauvoo Temple grounds! The firework displays in the small mid-west towns aren't as spectacular as most, but they put on quite a show based upon available funds. The firework show for Nauvoo is actually tonight (July 5). Don't ask why, I can't get a straight answer. They are combining funds and efforts with the Montrose, Iowa folks and together they chose to do the fireworks show on the 5th.

Nauvoo is becoming very busy! The annual EFY group is currently here and many Stakes send their youth for Youth Conferences. There are two YC Groups here now and tour buses are starting to arrive in large numbers. The Pageant season is also upon Nauvoo! This year, there will be two different pageants presented; The Nauvoo Pageant and the British Pageant. The British Pageant was first performed in Preston, England last summer. This year, they have brought it to Nauvoo to dovetail into the Nauvoo Pageant. It promises to be a wonderful pageant season that will attract nearly 200,000 people. Pageants, Youth Conferences and the Especially For Youth (EFY) Groups will bring nearly 250,000 visitors to Nauvoo during the summer months. Our Sacrament Meeting, last Sunday, had nearly 1300 members attend!! The weather is quickly becoming hot and humid! Forecasted this week is temperatures in the low 90's with humidity in the same range. This combination makes for an very uncomfortable day:)

We remain very busy with missionary work. We have a baptism coming up on July 12th, a Southern Baptist who came to Nauvoo with her husband, to pastor the Baptist church. She is a wonderful person and will be marvelous Saint.

Sister Warner and Wendy. She'll be baptized on July 12th!!

We also have two baptisms that will take place on July 26th. These two great people are also Baptists and they have been searching for the truth for quite some time. It was pleasure to teach these good people and we learned a lot from the various discussions. One thing that we came to realize; they know the Bible backwards a forward. Most of them use the King James version and that made it somewhat easier. However, for the most part we were out of their league with regard to biblical knowledge. We were able to experience an outpouring of the spirit and the Lord's hand was in each every lesson that we shared. Many tender mercies were realized and miracles, true miracles, took place time and time again. We are so grateful for the Lord and the sweet spirit of truth. We want to point out that these good people were member referrals and they were taught in member's homes. The members became true Finders, Fellow shippers and Testifiers (FFT's). You can read about FFT's in Preach My Gospel and when one applies the principles therein, they become fabulous member missionaries.

We love this work! We have felt our testimonies strengthened over and over again as we have listened to the spirit and reacted to the sweet promptings that we have received. The Lord is kind and merciful and God loves each of His children.

Stand Strong and Be Bold!!

We love you,

Elder and Sister Warner