Sunday, October 18, 2015
October 18th: Missing This Smile!
September 21st—October 11th: A Hard Couple of Weeks
We haven’t updated Logan’s blog for a few weeks. He has been a bit down and has been struggling so his letters have been short. Here are some excerpts of his emails for the last few weeks:
Alma to the Zoramites:
These last few weeks have been the hardest of my life. I have been run through the meat grinder if you will. I have been torn up and spit out. I think I am still in it to be honest. I have felt abandoned and spit upon but you have all gotten me though. In your own ways and in your own prayers on my behalf and in each of your emails. I now understand how Alma felt when he went to preach to the Zoramites. They were the most stiffnecked and wicked people in all the land. Well, that describes how I have felt lately. We have run into a lot of unhappy, mean spirited people.
You have all been amazing examples to me throughout my life—examples of love and of courage and of friendship. I love all of you more than I can put into words. I am so grateful to have each of you in my life and know that if I was missing one of you I would be missing a very key piece to getting me through this rough patch. Thank you so much.
Book of Mormon Class:
We teach a Book of Mormon class every other week. We got tired of just reading through the chapters going from one person to another, so Elder Dimartino decided to actually use the white board and teach a lesson about the war chapters, since we both love them. The class is suppose to be for investigators, but it is mostly the older people that come. We have had Maggie, who we have been teaching there lately.
Elder Dimartino
He has 4 brothers and his family are members, but not active. He was baptized when he was younger but that’s about it. He wasn’t really active till about 19 or 20. He has been out for 6 months, and has spent the whole time in Crosby. He is 22. His English is constantly improving. He is a lot of fun and I have really enjoyed being with him.
General Conference
General Conference on the other side of the pond was fun. We spent Saturday evening in Liverpool and watched Saturday morning. We went in early on Sunday morning and watched all the other sessions but Sunday evening. I will have to read those talks when they get published.
Members in Crosby
The branch is quite small, but the members have been very good to us. We have been spending quite a bit of time with several of the less active families. We have spent some time with a less active family the Collards, which has been a highlight. They made us cake and cookies and they were properly nice cookies. They were so good. I think that Mom might have some competition on her cookies!! We had two sisters from our ward talk to us at conference and basically planned out for us how we are going to get everyone baptized.
We have also worked with two members Nicole and Becky. They have been amazing and have been what has kept me sane because they are just so positive. They gave me a journal with all kinds of positive quotes written inside the cover. They had given Elder Dimartino a goody box a few weeks ago when he was “getting transferred” (he got transferred to me, changing apartments, but staying in Crosby).
Here is a text I received from a lady we have been working with. It made my day:
"Be not afraid of moving slowly, be only afraid of standing still. Chinese proverb. Sometimes it may seem like you are getting nowhere fast, but don't be discouraged, your actions have more effect than you realise. The message you left cheered me up. It was in line with what Nicole and I had been studying. It sparked a discussion about faith between my nanny, dad and I that lasted well over an hour. Some disagreements occurred but were settled by reading from the bible dictionary. After reading, my nanny (a very strong stuck-in-her-ways Catholic) said "I'm glad that you are a Mormon, it may not be the true religion but at least it teaches good principles and everything that they've said about faith is true." After leaving Nanny's, me and my dad continued talking about faith. We re-read what it said in the bible dictionary and read the scriptures listed there. I told my dad about the scripture you guys had recommended and we read it together. (I have never read scriptures with my dad before in my life!). We started talking about our own faith and what we had confidence in. (Or in a very conversational way we bore our testimonies). All this came from one slip of paper. Don't underestimate yourselves, you have more impact than you know."
Weather
For the most part it has been the warmest I have had in England.
Elder Tarbet
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