Nate and his companion, Elder Roberts

Happy birthday to my Grandpa Jackson! One of the greatest men I have ever known. He has been a beacon of light in my life and has taught me countless lessons about hard work and how to be a good man. I love him so much and he'll be someone that I continue to look up to forever. I always try to be like Grandpa Jackson. Happy Birthday Gramps!

Cierra! I'm so happy she went to Homecoming with Jacob Griffin. She's so awesome. I actually had a dream just last night that I was home and that Cierra and I were hanging out watching movies! So awesome!
Congratulations to Teija Rosenberg as well! She'll be a great missionary. I'm glad that the people from 5th ward still miss me ;) I love them all so much! I miss coming to church every Sunday and being around the people that I have been raised with.
So this week, we taught one of the most amazing messages of my life. Also! I need to fill you in. We didn't actually baptize Guy. He had some complications (he needs to work out a few things before he can be baptized) and so we had to push his date back a month.... So that was disappointing.... HOWEVER! :) We are teaching Hillary and Tob McLachlan. Let me fill you in on who they are. They are originally from New Zealand. If I remember right, she is from the North Island and he is from the South. Get this. She was at a doTerra convention in Salt Lake. After the conference, she went back to the hotel, but really had nowhere else to go the rest of the day. The man who drove her back to the hotel asked her what she was going to do, and she responded pretty much nothing. So he invited her to come to Temple Square with him and his wife. She accepted. They showed her everything that there was to offer. She even got the tour of the Tabernacle. How cool is that! Anyway, one thing led to another, and she got in contact with the Church up here through some pretty miraculous means. It was amazing. And now we are teaching her family. Her husband is amazing, her children are just awesome to be around, and they have really become amazing friends to us personally. They are on date to be baptized. I'm so glad I get to know them.

Anyway, not much time today! This week is transfer week so we're trying our best to get everything organized and ready to go! It's a 5 week transfer, so the next one will be a 7 week one!

I love you all so much!

Elder Warenski

This week was amazing. We have a baptism scheduled for Friday. Guy DeLage from Montreal will be baptized! He has had the most amazing transformation. Literally, the man was apparently a part of a biker gang that was more hard-core than Hell's Angels. But now he is just a teddy bear. The man is incredible. He quit smoking, drinking, and a whole lot of other things to be a part of the church to be closer to Jesus Christ. He kept on telling us how much the church is working and how much it really is true. He is so faithful and it is a privilege to see him go through with this. I'm so grateful to know him.
Another amazing development is a man named Alex Rzepa. He is Jewish, and he has been investigating the church for around two weeks now. I'm SO happy to say that he is on date for baptism. He is one of the most amazing investigators I have ever met. He is SO in tune with the spirit, he just doesn't necessarily realize it quite yet. The Lord is really reaching out to him. One of the miracles that happened this week was this:
Alex came to church on Sunday. When he got there, he told Elder Roberts and I that his wife wasn't too thrilled about it. We asked him if it was still alright for him to be there, and he assured us that he was fine. We walked into the chapel and sat down on one of the pews. And guess who walked in??? (No, it wasn't his wife.) It was a member of our ward named Bjorn Larsen! And guess what?!?! He knew Alex!!! And guess what!!!!! He is Alex's family's DOCTOR!!!! AND GUESS WHAT?!?!?! Alex's wife really likes him! What are the chances of that! Bjorn said he looked at him and he had a million thoughts go through his head telling him why it couldn't be Alex, number one being "HE'S JEWISH!?!?!". Haha. But the Lord really set up a miracle right there. Alex was going to talk to Bjorn about going out and having a drink with him, and so we're super hopeful that his wife's heart will be softened. It is amazing. We are seeing so many things just light up. I've never been such a successful, busy, and happy missionary before. We have 5 people on date for baptism in our area!!!! 5!!!! I've only ever had 1 or 2! The mission average is like.... 1.3 or something like that per area! The Lord is really blessing us. It's all because of Him.
Exchanges were great! I've never been over into British Columbia before, but it was absolutely BEAUTIFUL. The Kootenays are super beautiful. It was a completely different place out there. Super mountainous and lush. After living in the prairie for this long, it was really weird, hahaha.

Anyway, I love you so much! I hope everything is going well,

-Elder Warenski

Name tag pics are very popular.

Nate didn't provide the name of this Elder.

Random pic. But interesting sign on the right.

Calgary skyline at night.

Another missionary, unnamed.

Heavenly Father is really blessing us a ton. In EVERY aspect because HOLY COW. We had SO MUCH SUCCESS this week Mom. But I'll get to that soon ;D

SO! The news for this week. Heavenly Father has been INCREDIBLY generous. He's given us so many people to teach and some really exciting things have happened!

Just to put this into perspective, over the course of my entire mission, I have only ever had one investigator on date at any given time. This week, we put 3 on date in 2 days!!!!! BOOM!!!!!! And we already had one on date, so that's 4 people on date! I'm so pumped I can't even contain it.... And what makes it even better is that we have a couple more that are super close to being on date. AND A MIRACLE HAPPENED YESTERDAY! Some members met this woman from New Zealand. A few days ago she went down to Utah for a DoTerra convention. She met a man who helped her get back to her hotel and then he graciously invited her to spend the rest of the day with he and his wife on temple square. So she took the tour of temple square and spent the day talking about the gospel. So when she got back up here, she brought her WHOLE STINKIN' FAMILY to church yesterday!!!! We taught her a lesson and then committed her to take the lessons! Mom, Heavenly Father just passed a family to us! I've never been more excited... Mom, the work is really accelerating up here and it is making everyone so excited. The mission is changing and it's really making a push to break some records. President Miles is doing an awesome job and I love him.

Other than that, the mission is rolling along! I am emailing you from Medicine Hat today. In a few hours I'll be over in Magrath, and then the next to Cardston, and then finally to Cranbrook in British Columbia! So it's going to be a full week of travel.

I love you all!

-Nate

Conference was FANTASTIC here in the mission. We're glad the Quorum of the Twelve is back up to it's full strength/capacity and I can't wait to see how Elders Rasband, Stevenson, and Renlund make us all proud! What a bunch of fantastic guys! I definitely loved Elder Holland's talk as well... Holy cow, it hit me hard. It made me think of the times right before my mission that you helped me through. All of the help that you gave me and all of the love that you displayed. Honestly, Elder Holland is right. I don't know of a more accessible, potent, and ever-present way that anyone can feel the love of the Savior than through a mother's love. I actually was really touched by the talk for Mikaila's sake as well. Mikaila and I email back and forth and in some of the emails she has been explaining the joys, struggles, challenges, and goodness of being a mother. When Elder Holland said that he was going to speak about mothers, I wrote at the top of the page in my conference notebook "This talk is for Mikaila." I'm grateful for all of the Mothers in my life. Especially the 3 I grew up with ;D
Yeah, I was pretty much waiting for President Nelson to dive out and catch President Monson, but I guess he didn't need to. Honestly, I'm with Elder Bednar. I don't see the physical weaknesses of the prophet as a faith destroyer. I see them as faith builders. It's amazing to see the Lord preserving these brethren so that they can impart every ounce of wisdom to us that they possibly can before they cross the veil. I love it. I love the gospel. I think that Elder Bednar was pretty key in explaining that even though the senior leaders of the church are "just a bunch of old white men" (as said by many), they are the leaders and guides for our spirituality.
I did indeed have an amazing birthday! It honestly was pretty uneventful, but conference has always been my greatest birthday gift:) And I did get the packages! I wore the shirt and the tie that grandma gave me to conference. I loved the card Grandma! I told my companion "Hey! Do you wanna listen to some un-legit music?!" And then I burst open the card and started jammin' out to the guitar solo from "We Will Rock You", haha. It was more or less funny to him, ;D And I love the little flip-book that I got from you! I am using it for my "Ponderize-ing" scriptures;) This week I'm starting with Alma 26:22! I think it will help me move the work forward. Thanks for the birthday cash, too:)
Cierra going to homecoming?!?! Geez.... this is all just too much.... She's not supposed to be going! I mean she's only like what..... 12? ;) I love you, Cierra!

Alright, now for my update:

So things are going well this week! We've had a lot of opportunity to be around President Miles over the past couple weeks, and I can honestly say that it has been incredibly inspiring. He is an amazing man that is teaching me so much. Learning from him has been an amazing experience.
We have been extremely busy and this assignment can be pretty tedious sometimes. For instance, for the next two weeks I will hardly see Elder Roberts at all because we will be on exchanges for the full two weeks. On Sunday we drive to Medicine Hat and do exchanges there, and then we'll work our way across the south. After that week is over, it's going to be board week, and then transfer week after that. It's going to be INSANE. A whirlwind. Time is passing so fast I can't even hardly comprehend it.... I can't believe conference is already over.... It's nuts. Anyway, that's what we've been up too.

Now, my "spiritual update" comes in two parts this week. With the first part, I'll share a story that shows how the Lord can put us in EXACTLY the right place at EXACTLY the right time.

So this week we went on exchanges down in the south with the Lethbridge East Zone Leaders. Elder Fairbanks - the elder I was exchanging with - told me about how we had an appointment in Magrath that day. I was of course thrilled because that was my first area and I miss it so much! So we drove down there the next morning. We taught the lesson that we came to teach - which went really well, by the way - and the appointment was over faster than we thought. So we were driving through Magrath, and I all of a sudden got the impression to visit the Spackman's, who we lived with when I served there. We were already running a bit late and it was out of our way, but I felt so strongly that we needed to stop by. So we did.
I walked up the steps to the house and knocked on the door. Their front door has a window in it, and so I saw Sister Spackman turn the corner to come answer the door. She saw me, and she immediately burst into tears. Elder Fairbanks and I entered the house and she gave me a big hug. Brother Spackman was lying on the sofa because he just had his knee replaced. Then the hard part came. Sister Spackman described to me how her daughter had taken her life back in May. She had taken it really hard, and though she was recovering she still was having trouble. Elder Fairbanks and I spoke with her about the Plan of Salvation and how comforting it was to have a Father with a Plan. Before we left we asked if we could leave a blessing on their home. We prayed as we left that they would have the spirit and comfort of the Savior. As we were saying our farewell's, Sister Spackman said to me that she knew everything was going to be okay. She said that if God sent us to them, he would take care of her. She said it was as if two Angels came to the door.

Jesus Christ prompts us to heal people on our way. He will ask us to heal the sickness of the souls of others, and even in some instances their physical sickness. We need to be sure that we are ready to accept the call, follow the prompting, and as President Monson says, go to the rescue.

"If you have eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart to feel, you can reach out and RESCUE others." - President Monson

I have a testimony of that, and that it is through Christ that we receive Eyes to See, Ears to Hear, and Hearts to Feel.

The other part comes from a talk that I was reading from Elder Holland entitled "Come Unto Me". I highly recommend reading the whole talk, but here is a portion of it:

"“For the mountains shall depart and the hills be removed,” he said, “but my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee]". I love that. The hills and the mountains may disappear. The seas and oceans may dry up completely. The least likely things in the world may happen, but “my kindness shall not depart from thee, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed [from thee].” After all, he has, he reminds us,“graven thee upon the palms of my hands” (1 Ne.21:16). Considering the incomprehensible cost of the Crucifixion, Christ is not going to turn his back on us now."

I want everyone who reads these words to know that they are not abandoned by Jesus Christ. He is the Captain of their Souls and will help everyone no matter what. Like Elder Holland says, the least likely things in the entire world could happen, but still his kindness will not depart from us. If you struggle with your testimony, that's fine! Everyone does. The only way that we'll ever grow our testimony is through struggle, heart-break, trial, and pain. He will help us.

I bear testimony of the Savior of the world. My witness of Him is strong and it burns within me. I love Him with everything that I am, and I didn't just wake up one day with that testimony. I worked for it. If we look for Him, we will find Him. Whether that be for the first time, or the second, or the third.

I love you all!
-Elder Warenski

Yes Mom, I am indeed still alive. There are quite a few missionaries that are freaking out about all of the blood moon stuff. Honestly, I find it pretty strange as well. It really doesn't matter in the end, because the Lord is going to take care of us no matter what. I think the Church did well to warn people about just jumping on board with every Tom, Dick and Harry that claim they know a prophecy. It is pretty irritating on the mission because a bunch of missionaries think that they are pretty expert in their knowledge of that stuff. Obnoxious! Anyway.

My first full week was a whirlwind. Because I was re-assigned on a transfer week, I had to do a bunch of stuff for transfers and didn't even have a clue what I was doing most of the time. Luckily I got some pretty good training, so things went decently well. I'm also reaping the benefits of never getting nervous in front of a crowd. That really helps. Thank Robinne! Taking the departing missionaries to the airport was really cool. As I was driving them there, one of them asked me how it made me feel to do something like that. I told them that it just made me more ticked that 13 months of my mission were already gone!!! I am going to love coming home and seeing all of you, but holy cow. I am going to miss this mission. I'm glad that you also mentioned the arriving missionaries. Mom, picking up those missionaries from the airport was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The new missionaries arrive with such a zeal and optimism that re-kindled my own. It was awesome. I'm really loving the experiences that I am having. It is definitely hard. Holy cow.... There were a couple nights there where I went to bed feeling like I was drowning. But everything always gets better! That's a miracle of the Atonement! God makes us stronger to conquer the challenges ahead of us. I will definitely not be spending the remainder of my mission as an assistant. I had an interview with President and he says that he wants to keep leadership cycling through fairly often. So no:) I'll be back to proselyting eventually! And yes, I'd definitely rather go back to proselyting in the end. I enjoy serving the mission, but I also love having a little part of the vineyard to tend;)
Congrats to Seth Manesee on being such a stud! He's going to tear it up on his mission, I just know it!


Thank you so much for the birthday box! I'm going to love it. President and Sister Miles actually had me over to the mission home last night for a birthday dinner! Sister Miles made ribs, funeral potatoes, and some awesome garlic rolls! It was so good. It was really touching because I didn't even tell Sister Miles about my birthday. She even made me a pie, haha. I can't wait for General Conference either. I can't wait to just soak it in. The motto of my mission has been "just make it to Conference." I always leave Conference feeling refreshed and ready to work again! Especially since we get 3 new apostles!!! We were talking about it, and I've got it all lined up with a sports metaphor. President Monson is Head Coach. President Eyring and President Uchtdorf are Offensive and Defensive coaches. The quorum of the Twelve are your first stringers. President Nelson is the new Starting Quarterback. The Seventies are the college teams that they will draft out of;D And then the Presiding Bishopric and the other Auxiliaries are Special Teams;) Ask Grandpa what he thinks about that, hahaha.

ANYWAY!

So here is what I've learned this week. This morning we were in the car listening to the talk "Beware of Pride" by President Benson. It was read over the pulpit by President Hinckley when the address was given. We play talks in the truck when we're driving - which is a lot. As we were listening to it, one of the lines that really hit me hard was this:

"'What will men think of me?' weighs heavier than 'What will God think of me?'"

As you know, I've been trying to refine my leadership skills to be able to communicate love and genuine interest in people. But I've also had a rough time trying to discover how to deal with contentious situations. Honestly, I think that line right there is the key to thinking quickly in tough situations. We need to ask ourselves what God will think of us and our actions, and be less concerned about what others think or say. I'm so grateful that Heavenly Father was able to teach me that, and I am looking for ways to have the Savior help me to apply it. He is seriously helping me every day. I've never felt closer to him than I have on my mission.

Well, this week we begin the chaos. This transfer is a 5 week transfer, so we have to get all of our exchanges with the Zone Leaders done pronto. We'll be driving down to Lethbridge tonight, and then we'll drive back up to Calgary again on Wednesday night. Then on October 11th we'll be heading to the South for the week to do an exchange a day in the south zones. We'll be going all the way from Medicine Hat to B.C. and then back up to Calgary through Banff. It's going to be super busy.

I'm loving life, loving my mission, and Loving the Lord. He is everything to me!

Love you so much!!!

-Elder Warenski