December 14th—December 19th: Nadolig Llawen

  This week has been pretty good. Nothing too exciting has happened. We had a branch party on Friday, which was interesting. It's a really strange thing—lots of people there on Friday but on Sunday there was no change from normal attendance. Today we are at a family party for a member of the branch and her children and grandchildren. They asked us to help and so I'm just trying to email while Santa (a very skinny Irish Santa, no less) passes out gifts. So, that is my excuse for a very scanty email. 

  This week we saw a lady named Emma who we have been teaching (not sure if I've mentioned her before).  She is lovely. She is super nice and has a really strong desire to know if there is a God. She has been taught all of the lessons previously by other missionaries, but because she doesn't have any kind of religious background, she didn't fully understand the lessons, so we are going though them again to really make sure she understands. She has fun questions—all very sincere but she is sometimes very far ahead of the current point that it makes it a bit hard.  She is friends with a couple of the members from a group that they all attend. It's funny because when she asks these questions the member goes on to answer but it ends up leaving her more confused because she doesn't understand that background of the answer and it is hard for him to be simple. It's funny. She came to church on Sunday and had a really good experience we think (and hope). We are seeing her again this week. 

We have seen Josh around a few times this week but we've not had any lessons with him. He came to the Christmas party and seemed to have an ok time. We have had a couple of good chats with Christina this week as well.

  Something that I've come to appreciate more and more these last few months is how my experiences on my mission have expanded my testimony so much.  It has really helped me to understand the Atonement especially. I love Jesus Christ and I am glad that I get to tell people not only about His birth at this time of year as we celebrate it, but all year round. I get to tell people of the joy that Christ brings into my own life. From the little baby in a manger to a Saviour in the garden, from a humble carpenter to the risen Lord. I am grateful for the experiences that I have had to be able to understand who the baby in the manger truly was.

Love you all and hope that you have a Merry Christmas

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

December 13th: A Visit to Conway Castle

December 5th—December 12th: Staying in Colwyn Bay for Christmas and A Successful Week with Appointments

  It's been a fun week. First FAQ—I am staying in Colwyn Bay for Christmas with Elder Cossa. FAQ 2—Josh is doing well. We are hoping to to able to teach him with his family some day but his dad doesn't much want to. We will see how that goes. Right now we are just working with him to help him recognise answers to prayers. He has been to church twice now and has started to really pray about the Book of Mormon. He is almost though First Nephi and is marking. He's really doing well. The struggle is just helping him receive answers. He's a good kid and seems to enjoy church so we aren't overly concerned. It's just a matter of time. 

  This week we met a nice fellow named Sean. It was great because we set an appointment and we got to have two back-to-back appointments in the chapel. We felt so effective hahaha. Sean has struggles with alcohol and wants to change. It's cost him his family and he wants them back. He doesn't know what makes him drink, he just does. He wants to understand if God is there and able to help him. Good man. The other appointment was with our friend named Andrew. He is nice enough. He is kind of evangelical in the way he acts towards God and us. 

  Over the weekend, I was having some chest pain and was really tired but the mission nurse said that is just a virus that has chosen to settle there instead of my nose or digestive tract etc. It's made me super tired though but the work moves forward. 

Basically I'm super excited to be staying. Today we went and saw Conway castle, which was neat.

Love ya all hope you have a great week!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

December 5th: Hiking in Snowden

November 28th—December 4th: Quick Update—Josh: Our New Investigator

Right so this week in a nutshell.

Exchanges with Elder Allen from Hawaii, we came out together. Back with Elder Cossa and we met all the bashing people again. I've never had bashing spiritualists before now, but they exist let me tell you. We are officially able to teach our friend Josh (had to get permission from parents) and he came to youth and to church and had a good time. He stayed the whole 3 hour block and testimony meeting didn't scare him away. Hallelujah. 

Um, I think that is my week in a nutshell. It was pretty much a straightforward week. Nothing too overly exciting happened besides Josh. So yeah. Hope you all have a great week.

Love

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

PS—Transfers are a week Tuesday. I hope that I get to stay. 

November 21st—November 27th: Thanksgiving in Wales

    Well, it has been a good week this week. Just a few highlights to bring up then I will talk more about the branch (by popular request). So first of the week I got to go on exchange with Elder Cowdry from Adelaide Australia. He has been out for about 6 months now and is a great missionary. He is in Porthmadog, which I think is about the farthest out that you can get in the mission besides the Isle of Man. While I was with him, we met a few good people. One of them was actually a born again christian who was sincere enough to actually take a Book of Mormon and say that he would ask God. That is a very rare occurrence. Normal born agains are very hostile and will only bash you and try to destroy your testimony. This man, Simpson, was really sincere in his desire to do what God would want him to do. The only problem that made me cry on the inside a bit was that when we were leaving he said that we had had an interesting chat and that he would need to bring some of this up with the elders at his church.  Inside I was just screaming "Ask God!!!! Don't ask man!!!!!!!!!!!" But what can you do. We will try and go back and see him later this week. 

    Back with Elder Cossa we had a Thanksgiving dinner with a family that have an American daughter-in-law. That was really fun. The Carders take very very good care of us while we are here. The daughter from Texas even made pumpkin pie and sweet potato with marshmallows on top. That was so good! She put orange oil in them so they were orangy as well. Boy they were tasty. 

     We were able to start teaching the friend of a less active girl which is really good. It gives her a reason to be an example and it makes it easier for her to want to be an example. This young man started out by telling us that he is an atheist but is interested in different religions. We told him that the Book of Mormon is really interesting and then told him what it is about and what is in it—about the plan of salvation and the love that God has for each of us. At the end, he just really quietly asks, "Where can I get one of those books?" Made my night.  He then came and watched Meet the Mormons later in the week and had a good experience.  He asked really good questions about the Book of Mormon as well. He has a very sincere desire to know and understands that it's not going to just happen, he has to work for it. To be fair, I would put him as being farther along than I was at 14 and I was raised with the gospel. 

     The other really major miracle of the week that I would like to tell you about is these two girls that referred themselves on mormon.org from a pass along card that I had actually given them. I've never had that happen in my whole mission—someone refer themselves. We went around and they wanted a Book of Mormon. We gave them each one, taught them the restoration and set a return appointment for two weeks. That is going to be great.

     Other things that I havent told you (at least I think), is that we are going paperless. Our paper planners are no more. We now do everything on the iPad. Not sure that I like it to be fair.  It takes alot longer to do everything but at the same time it makes it easier to keep up on recording things. If you dont record what happens in the lesson, it doesnt record the lesson as happening so you dont get credit for anything unless you do everything. Keeps us accountable I guess. 

     Right so the branch has about 30-40 out on a Sunday. Mostly older. The primary is like 5 kids. The youth is quite small as well but they are good. The young men are recent convert brothers, the young women are good, but there is only one very active one and one that we are working with. The branch feeds us pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day. It's not good for me, I'm going to get fat haha. We are still working to get people to come to church but we need to liven up our teaching pool first, a lot of them are pretty dead investigators. They are changing over slow and steady. I think that by the end of the transfer we should have people at church. I just am praying that I get to stay for Christmas here.

     Thats about me for the week. Sorry for the kind of rambly email. My mind has been all over the place today. 

     Everyone needs to look at mormon.org for the Christmas video and then share it with their friends.

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires

My Strength is from Heaven

November 21st: Crazy Weather Today!

The tide was about mid and it was crashing over the sea wall. Crazy!

November 14th—November 20th: From Hospital to Radio Station, From Rhyl to Anglesey, and From Now and Onward

It's been a weird week. I think that I might have to do more of a play by play than usual haha.

Right so Tuesday we had zone meeting in Rhyl. They have an actual chapel and it is the geographic centre of the zone and so that's where our meetings are the most convenient. After the zone meeting, I went with Elder Cepeda from Dublin, Ireland. He is super funny. It's his second transfer and he is a firecracker. He is a very natural missionary (I think that he is from a similar country helps) but he loves to learn. First thing he told me was that he wants to learn so I should give him pointers. Not sure I was good at that but I was impressed at how humble he is. While I was with him we found one really solid investigator Ian, and one really dodgy one Michale. We had a lot of fun but we were also able to have good success. I think that he needed that exchange, he struggles a bit with his companion.

Wednesday was chaos. We went from Colwyn Bay to Rhyl, to exchange back, then from Rhyl to Anglesey, then from Anglesey back to Colwyn Bay. Elder Cossa had to do a baptismal interview for the sisters out there. It was a pain to do all of that traveling and it took the whole day.
Thursday not too much happened, a pretty normal day. Finally, I was so glad to get back to normal work.

Friday, I woke up and my knee was massively swollen. I was kinda flipping out. I couldn't bend it properly because it was so big. It didn't hurt specifically, but I was really concerned. I called Sister Hillem and she had me go to the hospital to figure out what was up. When we got there they were really quick this time (20 minutes vs 6 hours last time) and the doctor told me that there wasn't much to be done. He told me not to walk, ice, ibuprofen, and elevation. I then called Sister Hillem and told her what they said. She agreed and so I went home, iced and elevated it over lunch and then went on like normal the rest of the day. The walking less was a total failure.

Saturday, my knee had gone down a lot and so that was good. We talked on the radio on Saturday though and that was terrifying. The host was one of our investigators and she was brilliant and had good questions for us. We basically bore testimony over live radio and taught some basics like how is God there when all these bad things are happening. We also talked about the love that Heavenly Father has for each of us regardless of what we do, he loves us and wants us to have the happiness that only the gospel can provide. It was a good experience and I'm glad we did it but I was so nervous going in. Elder Cossa was too but he has just this calmness that is always around him and it's hard to tell if he is nervous or frustrated at any point. It's a very good thing for a leader to have. An air of confidence that brings a sense of peace around him.

Sunday was another day of chaos. We got a call Saturday night telling us that we are teaching young men's. Right. We then get to church that morning and get told that one of the speakers cancels and so we will be on for 5 minutes each talking about self reliance. Right. I then get convinced by my companion to play the piano for priesthood. That was a fail. Even with the top hand. It's a lot harder when people are singing. Luckily the young men weren't there because we used all of our lesson material in our talks. The Lord works in mysterious ways.

From all of the chaos that I have had this week I've learned that we just need to know why we are here in the uk and roll with what comes with a big grin. Life is more fun with a smile.

Love
Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires
My Strength is from Heaven

November 9th—November 13th: The Importance of Reading the Book of Mormon

This week has been great. I love wales! It's so beautiful. This week we have done a pretty good amount of finding with marginal success. We met a few people that were interested. One of them, Jamie had us come back and she actually invited us to talk on her radio show that day. We declined but maybe next time, we aren't sure if we would be allowed to do that anyways, but we taught her the restoration and left her with a Book of Mormon. She isn't sure that religion is for her but she sees the value of others. If she will read the Book of Mormon and pray about it, with sincerity, then she will see why it's of value to her. We have met a few other people whilst we have been tracking and whatnot but that's the only followup appointment that has actually taken place up till now.

Saturday was an interesting day though, we start off in the morning and the first 4-5 houses we knocked on were born-again christians. Oh boy. Some were pleasant, others less so, but then from those onwards we had nothing but atheists the rest of the day. We even had some bashing atheists. I'll tell you about one whom I found very amusing and extremely sad. So, we start off telling her about how our message can help her and bring her peace and happiness, well she immediately starts going on about how religion is just all people making up things to make them feel better about death and it's all a scam. She then starts talking about "if there is a god then" things like war, dying people, etc etc the list goes on. The problem with all of this is we didn't get any chance to speak because she wouldn't stop and would talk over you if you got a chance. This is where it got interesting. She started talking about why would she worship a god that kills people, (notice how god now exists) she told a strange version of a story in the Old Testament about how Moses was commanded by God to kill loads of the Israelites for idolatry and how that didn't make sense with "thou shall not kill." She then told us this wonderful and fantastic story about how Satan was actually the good one. Satan never killed anyone, Satan never caused anyone any harm. All he wanted to do was to save us from a god who wasn't doing a very good job, he just wanted to be in charge for a day and if God was loving and caring then he should have let him. What! That was the strangest argument I have ever heard. She basically was the spokesman of Satan. She was telling us that religion is all just people wanting money and that we should be having fun because that was all that mattered. She was telling us that Satan was good and God was bad, that Jesus Christ was pitiful and didn't do a very good job. So basically on Saturday we met an antichrist who with her denial of everything is worshipping Satan. I felt really sorry for this lady because she was obviously not happy and I don't believe ever will be because she has rejected God for some reason. She has rejected happiness for "fun," very sad. (Also, I hope that this story makes sense).

We met a few other people but really what I have learned this week is that people really should read the Book of Mormon before they can say it isn't true. Before they say that we are bad or wrong, learn from both sides. If you want to read the anti stuff go ahead, but read the Book of Mormon, pray about it, and know for yourself what God would have you follow.

Elder Cossa is from Harare, Zimbabwe and he has been out for just a transfer less than me. He is super great and a hard working elder. It's good to be with him. He works hard but is also a lot of fun and very obedient but not a nazi. He has a great balance and so he is good to be around. He is 25 and has been a member for 3 years. He was the first in his family to be baptised.

Anyways sorry for the long drawn out letter of random rants. It was a good week full of crazy people. Wales is fun.

Love
Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires
My Strength is from Heaven

October 31st—November 8th: Transfers—I'm in Wales!

It's transfers. I'm going to Colwyn Bay. I will be with Elder Cosa from Africa. Not sure how much time I will have to email properly but will try. Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

And later....

Well, here is the closest thing you will get to an email today. We are in Colwyn Bay (look on a map).  It's in Wales almost about as far as you can go. The rest of the district is the farthest you can go. Me and Elder Cosa are covering this bit of the world and supporting a branch here. Apparently the branch is quite good and loves missionaries so that should be enjoyable. They have a very tiny building that is just a converted shop front I think. It's going to be fun! It's warmer here than Mac but more wet I think because we are on the coast. I know that we have a few castles in our area and more history so I am looking forward to exploring a bit. Elder Cosa is from Zimbabwe and has been out for just a transfer less than me. He's super nice and very humble. I think that this will be a very good transfer. 

Five Things I Have Learned on my Mission

5 things that I have learned on my mission:

Patience: Both with your self and with others.  Life will not always go the way you want it to and people won't always act the way you would want to be treated. 

Hard work: I thought that I knew a little about this before my mission, but this has been a place that I have learned the true meaning of hard work

Humility: When you are with someone 24/7 you learn really quick that you don't come first and that you don't get to be right—to be happy is better than being right.

Love: I have found through my mission that I have come to love people and to really understand them more.  Instead of seeing their flaws, I try to see their virtues. It's not a natural thing to do and it takes a lot of the first 3 things, but it is a thing that changes the way that I meet people.

The Atonement: This is the big one.  Before my mission I only thought of the Atonement as something for sins. Since I have been on my mission, I have learned it is so much more, sins are only a small part of the Atonement's healing. Through the atonement we have the strength to become the people that we want to become—to change the things that we want to change within ourselves and to be moulded into the people that Heavenly Father wants us to be. This life is very challenging but through the grace and power of the Atonement we can have joy in our sorrows and peace in our afflictions. 

October 24th—October 30th: Meeting Robert, Celebrating Halloween, and Missionary Life

  Well this week has been pretty good. The first half was pretty uneventful but it picked up the second half. We had a really good lesson with a man named Jan (Yahn) from Germany. We have seen him a couple of times but this was our first proper lesson. We talked about a lot of different things. He had so many questions, most of the time we just spent answering his questions, but we were able to explain to him some of our very basic beliefs that made sense to him. He is very interested in religion but doesn't really believe. His wife is very catholic from Mexico and so she doesn't want to meet us, but he is very friendly and very keen to listen.

  We found this very, very nice man named Robert who lives around the corner from us. He had seen missionaries walking around for quite a while but had never really spoken to us. We got talking and actually spoke for about an hour. We talked about him for a bit and then we taught basically the whole restoration lesson on the spot. He took a Book of Mormon but was leaving on holiday for a week the next day so we have to wait to teach him. He is super funny and we think that he could have a bit of a coloured past. He told us that he was a criminal but was past that. He kinda reminded me of the book "Mafia to Mormon." I think that he has a good chance to be baptized. He was asking, "Well what would I have to do if I join your church?" We taught him the Word of Wisdom—he thought it was great since he had always thought that tea and coffee were awful. He was good with tithing and everything. The only two things that could be a problem is that he was a bit apprehensive of marrying his partner of 24 years, weird huh? And that it could be too good to be true. We will see when he gets back I guess. 

  We had the trunk or treat on Saturday and that was loads of fun. It reminded me of home a bit with all of the things that we used to do for Halloween. It was fun for the kids and I enjoyed getting to go and talk to people's friends that had come. 

  Then on Sunday, Elder David had a really good interview with president...for 2 hours. Then he talked to me for a few moments. I will be honest that I got really bored for 2 hours. I also had to make noise the whole time while they talked because the door was not sound proof. So I read most of the book of Ether out loud hahaa. Mission life.

  So that's about been my week! Hope that you are all well and that you have a good week coming! It is transfers next Tuesday so make your predictions. 

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Pictures from the Week—Serving with Elder David

October 17th—October 23rd: Finding Success in the Small Things

  This week we had a lot of nothing. We have been doing a fair amount of finding and haven't had much success from it. 

  But the success was when a member was asking us how would be the best way to share the gospel with a coworker who has just seen the "Book of Mormon" musical. That was a big success in my heart. This member has also come out of his shell more at church and was very active in the lessons. He also gave us some very good feedback when we taught him. We have another appointment with him. It's incredible because he is strong, but has been struggling a bit and this week seems to have been very different in him. Maybe I'm looking for it but I think that the lesson definitely helped. 

  The other successes of the week were 2 part member families. One invited us over for dinner and we had a bit of a lesson, but right now they don't really want to be taught—they just like to have us come on occasion and feed us and that's about it. We aren't sure how to spark the desire they need. The other part member family is a recent RM whose sister and mother are not members. We taught the sister last night and Jake was an excellent missionary and he just bore the most spiritual testimony about the Book of Mormon. She accepted a copy and said that she would read it. We didn't get a return appointment but we can hopefully see them this week. 

  Anish has been quite elusive. We have been by twice and texted him a couple of times and we finally got a meeting set for Friday with him. I think that he is just a genuinely busy man.

  It's been an interesting week, I had a migraine for a few days that has kinda just died back to a headache but I guess that's all part of the fun!

Hope that you have had a good week!

Love ya! 

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Pictures from the Week

Meeting with President Nelson, President Hallstrom,
Bishop Causse and President Johnson

Dinner with Henrik and some other Missionaries

Elder Tarbet, Elder Ahlstrom (previous companion),
and Elder Fernandez (Logan's first trainer)

October 10th—October 16th: A Busy Week—Appointments with Tony, Meeting with Church Leaders, and seeing Henrik again!

 This week has been pretty good.  Not too much happened until Friday really. On Friday, we had Tony come with us to three appointments—he is the best! We took him to teach Anish with us who is the Indian man that we met last week. He was super great and even though we weren't that good at teaching him, the spirit was very strong and he asked some really good questions. The problem is that he set the next return appointment for the 10 of November. Dang. We made him a study calendar later and talked him into meeting us for a few moments on a weekend so that we can help him learn more, success! Also on Friday we had dinner with Jackie who spoilt us so bad. She made us basically a Thanksgiving dinner. So much food and drinks and desserts. So nice! From there, we took Tony to meet another Tony who is less active with some medical issues. We had a good chat with him then we went up to Stockport to travel to Chorley in the morning.

  The meeting with President Nelson, President Hallstrom, Bishop Causse and President Johnson was so amazing (only meeting where President Ulrich hasn't spoken, he just conducted haha)! The Spirit was so wonderful and their wives are equally as inspired as they are. One thing that they talked a lot about was repentance, joy, and service. I think my favourite thing was from President Nelson. He talked about how as President of the 12, his job was to call the others to repent.  How do you call 12 of the greatest men on the Earth to repent? He explained what repentance really means. He broke it down into the Greek basis and explained that it is a change of mind, knowledge, spirit, and even breath. When you learn more you repent, when you become more like the Saviour you repent. It was really great. Reading the Book of Mormon with that in mind makes it very applicable to each of us no matter the situation.

  Also on Saturday, Henrik Ahlström came to the conference to see old missionaries and I was so glad to get to see him. He went to dinner with us and it was great to get to talk to him. He taught me a very great deal when I was with him. He helped me though a rough patch a mile wide so it was really good to see him.

  Today was crazy, we went to Stockport to go on a hike with the rest of the district. And I got a call this morning from President to make sure that I went so that I could talk to a missionary that would be joining us so that I could hopefully help them. They were really struggling and so President decided that since I had been in the same situation, I should try and talk to them a bit so he arranged for us to go on the hike with them. That is why today was so crazy and you are getting your emails so late and so short. Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

October 3rd—October 9th: A Miracle at a Time Keeps Us Going

  Miracle of the week—we found a family on Friday! We had gone to a member and asked for a street to go and knock and they gave us their street. So we start at the top where they directed and the third door we knock on a young lady from India answers the door and tells us her husband is Catholic and invites us in. We then teach her and her husband (who had met missionaries in the past) and we set up a return appointment for Wednesday, I really hope this pans out. All of our other investigators have pretty much died out. 

  I spent most of the week on exchanges in Stockport. First I was with Elder Tuipuloto who whitewashed into my area with his trainee. That was really good.   He has only been out for four months and so training is a big thing. This is also his first family ward so he is learning how to do that right along with his trainee. They knocked their first door together. Funny. But I was able to just talk to him and just basically help him see what a great missionary he is and different things that he can apply to the family ward. He is so great. Leaps and bounds ahead of where I was at that point. He has a full scholarship to play BYU football. Good man.

  The second exchange right after that was with Elder Sanches who is the new zone leader. He is so kind and loving. He is just great, he helped me to see what I was doing right and it was just good to talk to him.

  Then I went back in a trio for the day with Elder Tuipuloto and Elder Strickland his companion, while the others went to mission leadership conference. We went contacting a few referrals and ended up tracking in Muslim central. Super super kind, nice people. We also found ourselves in an Evangelical Church of England church so that Elder Strickland could use their bathroom. So funny, we were saved in the nick of time by a phone call because they were getting ready to bash us. Well some were, others were just super nice.  It's funny the differences. 

  Yeah that's been about my week, we have worked a lot and had not a whole lot happen in our area besides the one miracle but a miracle at a time keeps us going. 

Love you all and hope that you have a great week.

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

September 26th—October 2nd: Finding Warren and General Conference

  This week has been been good. We found a couple of investigators this week which is really good because we haven't had any for ages. One was a proper miracle, his name is Warren. There is a less active lady that we have been meaning to go by for ages, but first we had the wrong street then for silly reasons we just didn't go by. Then we finally go and we catch her son Warren in. Warren doesn't live there.  He has some addiction problems that have caused issues with his family, so it's strange for him to be there. Then he let us in. He doesn't ever let missionaries in or want anything to do with us. Then he totally opened up to us, he told us a lot of things that you don't normally tell strangers. He then asked for a Book of Mormon, and said that he doesn't necessarily believe in God but he had said a basic "Help me if you're there" kind of prayer and then we show up. So that was really neat. The ultimate downer is that he has chosen to skip all of the appointments that we have made with him and to not answer the phone.  I hate it when people get a good dose of the spirit and then do that. It bugs me. 

  General conference was amazing! I absolutely loved it. My favourite talk was definitely the one from J. Devn Cornish, his was on Saturday morning. It was spot on with one of my big questions that I had prepared. So good. The basic thing that I got out of it was that we are acceptable before the Lord. He loves us and is looking for the good in us and not the bad. He isn't fault finding; he is seeking out the good within each of us. 

  So that in a nutshell has been my week. It was pretty up and down, none of the investigators we found stuck though for the appointments. So that was the down. We found people—that was the up and general conference was the way up. 

  It's crazy how few people go to general conference, even the priesthood session. I am sure it's the same in Utah if not worse but it feels strange to me. Idk, what are your thoughts on general conference?

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Pictures from Macclesfield

Elder David with Some Bread

Elder David and Elder Tarbet: Selfie Style

Round Two

Elder David and Elder Tarbet with their friend Jackie Walker

Elder Tarbet back in Stockport at Andy's baptism

Elder Tarbet and Elder David

September 19th—September 25th: Getting the Work Going in Mac

So this week has been pretty uneventful, a few interesting bits happened though. 

Early in the week we cleaned out the old Stockport flat that I was in so that the mission could close it down, I'm so happy about that, that flat is horrid. Between that at district meeting it took the entire day. The rest of the week was just finding and appointments, a lot of time on the bike hahaha my bum is not as sore as it used to be for sure. One interesting thing that happened on Friday was we were sitting on a bench in the park taking a moment when a random man came over and started filming us and talking to us. We taught a full lesson on camera to him, it was super strange. He was a Korihor-type personality, every man to himself and we don't need God. Funny enough I had actually been studying Korihor and his arguments against God and Christ the first part of the week. It's always nice when you have a super random study that comes in helpful. 

The end of the week was a lot more interesting. On Friday night, we got a call from Elder Rongo saying that the part member family that we had been working with in Stockport—the husband—was getting baptised Saturday morning. He was dated at 9 Friday night and baptised 3 on Saturday. Talk about quick. They also had 2 other convert baptisms and a child of record baptism that day so we got to see them all. It really brightened up the weekend. Then Sunday was the primary program, it was so impressive those kids were so good! They had 33 kids participating. The older ones actually helped the younger with the talks and they also have quite a few of the older kids sing solos. So impressive! 

Yesterday we found the first new investigator that we have in Mac since I've been here. It was a road that a member told us to go to and the 3rd door was a lovely lady who had lost her husband and daughter recently. We basically just bore testimony of the plan of salvation. It was really good, we have an appointment on Friday with her so I just hope that she felt the spirit that was there. 

That's about all for the week. Sorry for the lame-ish email, there wasn't a whole lot to share this week.

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

PS: I am staying in Macclesfield with Elder David. Also, we just found out the general authorities that will be coming on Oct 15:

President Russell M Nelson, of the Quorum of the Twelve

Elder Donald L Hallstrom, of the Presidency of the Seventy

Bishop Gerald Causse, Presiding Bishopric

and Elder Paul V Johnson of the Europe Area Presidency

It's going to be great!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Message from Jackie

Hi, Mr. Tarbet (or may I call you Greg), 

Your son Elder Tarbet is serving here in Macclesfield at the moment, you must be very proud of him . He and his companion left my home about an half an hour ago to go back to their flat, as you probably know they are not allowed to come in as I am a single sister (old enough to be their grandmother) so we sit outside. Elder Tarbet has been trying to show me how to use my tablet to underline scriptures and so on.  The poor lad has a big task to undertake ha ha.  He doesn't know what he's let himself in for. He said you wouldn't mind me getting in touch.  He's only been here a week and I can tell what a great missionary he is.  You can really feel the spirit when he's here, thank you for accepting my friend request.

Jackie

September 12th—September 18th: Moving to Macclesfield

Hello!

So this last week has been pretty insane. On Tuesday, it was zone meeting and guess who shows up unannounced? President and  Sister Ulrich. I was able to have a really good conversation with both of them, it helped so much. The outcome of the interview with me, Elder David and Elder Rongo was that Elder Rongo will stay in Stockport with the zone leaders, and I am now in Macclesfield with Elder David.  The area is much more rural and more middle class. It is actually a semi similar feeling to Southport. We have bikes here as well and it is killing me. My legs are destroyed. We are right on the edge of the Peak District so it's quite hilly here which doesn't help my poor out-of-shape body. The area is so beautiful though. It so green and it also is very historic as well. 

I love Macclesfield. This feels like the place I was meant to serve this transfer. I've been thinking a lot about the chaos that this last transfer has been and how I've now changed areas and companions midway. It feels right though. I was truly meant to serve with Elder Rongo. He taught me a lot and I hope that I was able to help him in some way. I also think that Elder David was meant to be with Elder Peck, he isn't too sure, but he was meant to learn from him, to be forced to grow. Now I am here with Elder David. I don't feel too strongly one way or the other about serving with him but I do like him for sure, but this area is where I am meant to be at this time. Pretty much as soon as I got here I just felt at home. I never felt that in Stockport. I felt super anxious and uncomfortable the whole time I was there. I almost had a panic attack the first Sunday. Here I was nervous (I always am when speaking) but I just felt like I had come home. I love it here. I hope that I get to stay.

The missionary work in this area has been quite slow to say the least, the last convert baptism was 3+ years ago. The ward has just barely gotten a ward mission leader for the first time in about 9 months so that's improvement. It's a super solid ward and is so friendly but just needs a push to do some missionary work. My understanding is that it is changing though, the members are seeing that they should and want to do missionary work. There is starting to be a bit of a buzz so we will see how that goes. I am still learning the area, we don't have much of a teaching pool but that will hopefully change, we have a few referrals and the members have a few that they are working with as well so we will have to see.

So that's about all for this week, I can hopefully tell you more about the people that we are working with and all of the detail next week. I just hope that I stay.  Two weeks is not long enough in this area.

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

September 5th—September 11th: Learning About the Atonement

Hey all!

My week has been interesting for sure! I am now in a trio with Elder Rongo and Elder David. It has been a great week for building patience. Working with three of us is a challenge but we are definitely growing. Elder Rongo is doing a bit better as well. 

Yesterday was a super good day. We got to help a man change his tire when it blew out and he told us he is now our best friend!! I'm sure he was so grateful for our help.

Thursday was a super good day as well. Elder Liemer from the 70 came and spoke to the mission. He had some really good things to talk about. The one that I think meant the most to me was about how we need to use the Atonement. He told a story of a little old lady who was out collecting stick for her fire. She went out early in the morning with a basket on her back to pick up sticks of wood a few miles from her house. Throughout the morning the basket got heavier and heavier. When she was walking home and really struggling to carry the basket a kind farmer with a horse and wagon came by and offered her a lift into town. Gladly she accepted and got on the back of the wagon. As they were going into town, the farmer noticed that the old lady, while in the back of the wagon, still had her basket on her back. He asked, "Why don't you put down your basket and rest for a spell, we still have a while before we get to the town." Her reply was that it was still early in the day and she didn't want to make the poor horse work too hard. He compared that to us in the sense that we all have a tendency to do double work with the Atonement. We repent and then we force ourselves to still be miserable. We have repented, the Atonement has been applied, but we stubbornly hold onto the weight of our sins. It really illustrated the point very well for me. 

So that's been about my week. Hope that yours has been good!

Love

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Elder Tarbet with A Senior Sister Missionary at the New Member Missionary Fireside in Manchester

August 22nd–September 4th: Adjusting to the New Area

Hello!

So this week has been interesting. The reason that I didn't write very well last week is because we drove to Chorley with a recent convert, walked around the temple grounds and came back. Then we went to the chapel and I somehow broke a window by slapping it to get the sisters' attention (all of the bishopric have been trying to reassure me that the glass was already weakened because the door had been broken and spamming in the wind).  I call President to ask him what I should do about the broken window (it only broke one of the two panels so the window was still secure).  He then asks me about everything with Elder Rongo and so between everything, my timing to email was shot and I just was not feeling it. 

We had exchanges on Tuesday which was an experience. It was with a relatively new missionary named Elder Peck.  He is from Bountiful and owns the huge house above the Mueller Park Canyon chapel.  He's a nice enough kid and we had a good exchange, we got some work done and I got to explore a new area. There is a beautiful town called Marple off on the edge of our area. It is in the foothills of the Pennines and it is so nice. We walked along a canal track talking to the people that were walking it as well. 

President came on Thursday and we had a 3 hour talk with him.  It was really good. We talked about the area and the dynamics of the mission regarding keeping the rules.  It seems like the obedient missionaries are a little confused on some of the rules, and the ones the rules are meant for don’t obey them anyway. He gave me some suggestions on helping a missionary who is ready to go home. I can't control him and I'm not going to force him. I can encourage and I can try to lead out. That's all I can do. 

So the area is really beautiful on the outskirts and really populated in the center. The ward is quite big now that everyone is home from holiday. There were a little more than 120 people at sacrament yesterday. The building is actually the same design as Southport just here the builders messed up and so the roof is 15 feet higher. The bishop is really good (he got home mid-week) and Elder Rongo has a really good friendship with him. He seems to be a good bishop and the ward seems to like him. He is quite young as well. The ward mission leader is good but always gone, he travels a lot and so we don't seem to see him much.

The zone leaders are in our area, they actually both came out with me one is Elder Rotajać from Bosnia and the other is Elder Searcy from Spanish fork. The zone is called Manchester Zone. There are 3 companionships here—the sisters, the zone leaders, and us. The district leader is south of us in Macclesfield. He is also from my group—Elder David from Germany.

So yeah that's been my week of interesting randomness. This coming week we have a general authority coming—Elder Liemer from Germany. We will see how the conference is on Thursday. I will tell you about it next week.

Hope that you all have had a good week. 

Love ya!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

August 15th–August 21st: By Popular Request, A Run Down of the New Area

Here is the basics of what is going on:

I am serving with Elder Rongo from New Zealand, here are a few words from Elder Rongo:

"Kia ora, how are doing? I'm glad I'm serving with Elder Tarbet this transfer as it is my last.. So all should be well. Hopefully."

So that's Elder Rongo. He is super relaxed and fun, so it should be good. He likes to laugh and have fun while we work and he knows the scriptures super well. 

Stockport is definitely a city, more than anywhere I've ever lived. It's quite a busy joint to live around.  I am still totally and utterly lost!!! It's going to take me a long time to learn this area. The ward is quite big and it is going to take some getting used to, I miss Southport!  So serving with Elder Rongo is in one word EXCITING.

This week has been one ongoing craziness. Day one, we leave the keys in the flat. Day two we get jumped by a Catholic Priest while we wait for Elder Forsyth in the car park of B&Q (Home Depot) that was so funny. He was so determined to tell us that we were wrong that he contradicted his own doctrine. He told us about how after Christ there was no revelation. When we asked about John the Revelator and the Book of Revelation. He tells us that it is not prophecy. That set the tone for the week. It was just one craziness after the other. Yeah, honestly I'm not so sure what to write anymore but yeah, that's what is going on in Stockport. 

Investigator wise we have a part member family that Elder Rongo has gotten close to and we think that Andy will get baptized soon. We also just met a really good Italian man named Attilio. Should be a fun place.

I miss Southport though, after being in a place for 9 months you come to truly love it. I'm going to miss the people a lot. Especially the people that we worked with so much. 

Love

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

August 21st: Note from Sister Maclean

Dear Sister Tarbet,

Today your son bore his testimony and we welcomed him to Stockport Ward, Manchester England Stake. I am the ward historian and so photograph all the missionaries who serve here.  Please find attached a picture of Elder Tarbet with his companion, Elder Rongo.  We take care of our missionaries here so be assured he will be fed!

Best wishes

Sis. Sandy Maclean

Last Days in Southport with Elder Morgan

   

A Note from the Fullwoods

Dear Tarbet family,

Your son is leaving us! Both of our missionaries are leaving on Tuesday for pastures new. We have really enjoyed watching Elder Tarbet grow and mature over the last 9 months and getting to know him. His testimony has really grown and we have been blessed by some amazing spiritual thoughts and uplifting messages. Baptising Maggie has been a blessing to our whole ward. Thank you so much for lending him to us and we hope he enjoys much more success during the rest of his mission.

Lots of love,

The Fullwood family

August 8th–August 15th: End of An Era

As you have heard I am leaving Southport. I will be going to Stockport. I will be with an Elder from New Zealand. Elder Rongo. 

Will email more if I can. 

Love you all

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Elder Morgan and I (and some yummy looking cake)

Dinner with the Members in Southport

"We just 'tagged' you this evening. We have just come from another lovely dinner with Carolyn Anne Rodwell.  We think it could be Elder Tarbet's 'last supper' :( "

(It wasn't quite Logan's "last supper" as he ended up staying in Southport to train Elder Morgan)

Elders Singsam, Tarbet, Pape, and Korth with Carolyn Rodwell and Francesca Hindlay

August 1st–August 7th: A Week of Ups and Downs

This week has had a lot of ups and downs. The week started really well when we had dinner at a less active members home on Monday and the lesson that we had with them was so solid! It was just a great, great day!!! We met a new investigator and had an appointment set for the next day.

Then Tuesday happened and 3 of our appointments just fell through completely, our new investigator followed through and had actually read the introduction we had given him and the restoration pamphlet. So great! The only problem is he had done some additional research about Mormons and had found some anti stuff. So he was all up in arms about how Mother in Heaven is blasphemy. He actually got up and walked out about 10 minutes in. Never ever had someone do that before. We then got threatened by a man washing his car that if we didn't leave the road we were walking down (trying to find our next appointment) that he would call the police and set his dog on us. The day was redeemed by a really good lesson with our neighbor downstairs.

The next day was first 5 weeks training for Elder Morgan in Manchester which took basically the entire day. We got home a little before 8:00 pm and had left at about 7 that morning. It was a good meeting though.

We went on splits this week! First time in my mission that we had done that. I went with Collin and Elder Morgan went with Brother Quinn, for about 2 hours and it was really good. I think that it was a good way to get members involved.   We will have to do it again soon. Unfortunately we didn't plan very well so it probably won't happen this week. With the dynamics of the ward and the Ward Mission Leader, if we don't talk to the members about doing something like this it doesn't happen. Anyways that evening when we were walking home from the exchanges we walked a different way from normal home and we met these two young men. Who upon seeing us ask, "are you Mormons?" We said “yes” and then had a chat about their friend who is going on a mission soon and they want to understand why and what it is that he's going to be doing. They were actually quite upset that their friend hadn't told them anything. We didn't have much time so we set an appointment for the next day. One of the friends showed up (Phil) and we had a really good talk with him.  He had a lot of questions and we were able to explain the Restoration and basics of the Plan of Salvation. He wanted to really understand what was going on with his friend.

Saturday was kinda a down day, all of our plans fell through, then our backup plans fell through. It was kinda rough.

Sunday was really good, we were able to take our friend Shaun, who we have been trying to meet with for a little while, to the Fireside in Manchester. He seemed to have a good experience and we got a lady who is actively less active to take us there so she had a good experience too. 

Well that's been my week. Ups and downs on the roller coaster of life. 

Love ya

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven 

Sent from my iPad