Monday, May 23, 2016
May 16th–May 22nd: Some Ups and Downs
Never a dull moment is it? This week has been pretty busy despite it all.
Monday—Went and taught Henry and had the most frustrating lesson ever. I think I have a small insight about how it was teaching the Jews who were looking so far beyond the mark they couldn't even see Christ. Henry has come up with a breath theory about how there is no good or bad. There is only God's plan. What is bad to man may be for his own benefit and so it's good to God. Satan and Jesus Christ are both opposites and equals and so they are both neither good nor bad because it's all part of God's plan. He explained the doctrine of the Plan of Salvation perfectly before he came out with this idea of his. He is looking for some kind of point to argue about. He knows the Plan of Salvation is true, but he likes to philosophize things and look too deeply for reason. It's like starring at the Mona Lisa through a microscope. It just doesn't work.
Tuesday—We helped the Smiths paint their fence as I wasn't really feeling up to walking much. It was good though because they don't ever accept help but they let us help them—breaking down social doors is the best feeling. Then in the evening I made s'mores to take around to people.
Wednesday—We delivered the s'mores to thank people for their help with Maggi's almost baptism. We then went and saw Gabriel and Ana. That was a pretty good lesson, we followed up a bit on some things we had talked about before but when we invited them to church Gabriel was all for it but Ana seemed to be the brakes. That concerns us because we can't figure out why. She won't tell us anything, they both just nod their heads. They understand and can't teach us back it's just that they have a concern somewhere that they won't voice.
Thursday—Mission historical tour. That was a lot of walking and I was not ready for it. It's also a lot of hills and uneven ground so I thought I was going to die again. But it was really fun. I think the best part was this old chapel in Downham. Last year we sang silent night with Elder Jolley and some others. This year we did it again and me and Elder Singsam made the connection that we had both sung. Super funny cuz there was only like 6 of us that sang both times and neither of us had realized it before. President was in a very singing mood so every place we went we would stop and sing a song. That was nice cuz it gave me time to catch up haha. We did get to sing in the middle of a Church of England church which was epic, we sang "We Thank Thee O God For a Prophet." That was right before their service as well. Then we gave out Mormon.org cards to everyone in the building. So funny. President was so happy after he went and introduced himself and us to a bunch of Jehovah's witnesses. He's a funny man.
Friday—I was feeling super down in the morning but my companion got me going and we ended up having a good day. We basically got fed breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The downside was that one of my favourite families who had been coming back from being less active had been blanking us for a while. We got ahold of them and they told us that they weren't active in the church and it would be better if we didn't come around anymore. That really stunk. So not happy, but what can you do. I did finally get my service clothes back from them though which is nice haha
Saturday—We helped two people move and then we went and visited the Gerrards and Ethan cut all of our hair. He did a pretty decent job considering the tools he had. I had a fantastic chat with his mother while she taught me how she makes her Mac and Cheese (Dad, you have competition now, it's not baked but it's super nice). She is just a mother to everyone and it was nice, she has definitely warmed to us. I think that making sure that she is never left with any dirty dishes helps.
Sunday—Really, really good church meeting. The Elder's Quorum was about being sensitive to the needs around you. The gospel teaches a straight line and we need to stick to that, but no matter what, we need to extend love to everyone, especially the people who might be on the wrong side of that line. So good.
Love you all lots!
Elder Tarbet
Sent from the iPad
May 9th–May 15th: Ankle Injury!
This week has been good and pretty busy. It's never dull on a mission.
Monday—Nothing too exciting happened. Normal Pday stuff, we went to Liverpool for the zone activity which was really lame, so we kinda wondered off and did our own thing. That evening we went to Sister Monsterratt who fed us fantastic Spanish food and then we had a birthday party for everyone. I've never had so much cake as I have the last 3 weeks.
Tuesday—President Ulrich came to District meeting. Probably the highlight. It was fun to kind of have as close of a one-on-one training as we will ever get. There are only 4 of us in the district so it was very personal. We don't get the opportunity to have personal interaction with the Ulrich's very often so it's a great thing when we do.
Wednesday—Maggi had her first interview with the zone leaders, they got a bit squirmy at something that she had said so they decided that President needed to talk to her. We weren't worried but it was kinda a pain. We went and saw the Gerrards that night and we have started to build a really good relationship with Sister Gerrard, which is good, we just need her to build that with ward members.
Thursday—We went to Chorley so I could meet with Sister Beech. That was a proper pain in the butt. We were up at five to get a lift with a member at 6, we got there at 6:30 and didn't have my appointment till 2 that afternoon, so we got our weekly planning done in the stake centre there in the temple complex.
Friday—President came and interviewed Maggi, which was fantastic. He had a great chat with her and we taught all of the people in the lobby with Sister Ulrich. There are some funny people there. It was good fun. Then that afternoon we played investigator sports with Gabriel. Elder Singsam's ankle has been acting up so he didn't play. So it was me and Gabriel against the other two elders. Everyone else bailed on us. We were to the last little bit of the game before we had to go when my foot caught in an uneven patch and down I went. A nice loud pop was heard and my ankle hurt. A lot. Gabriel, he had been a pro-footballer, grabbed my foot and started twisting and pulling on it, I think it was to see if it was broken. That was interesting. On a scale of 1-10 pain it was at least 18. That evening my foot swelled up to about softball size. Luckily we were able to get some crutches pretty quick from a member cuz I couldn't walk at all.
Saturday—Not too much happened cuz I wasn't super mobile, some members from Elder Korth's last area (we were on exchanges) came and took us out to a pretty nice place called Pizza Express. They are really posh and treated us well. Then that evening we went and gave a less active a blessing. It's Hetti's best friend that actually got her into the church. We walked about 1/3 of the normal walking we do and I was exhausted, the crutches I got were awful and so much work to use.
Sunday—We had church and Maggi was able to get there so that was good. Bishop had a go at my foot which was probably a 25 on the pain scale. The swelling is down to about tennis ball size and I can bare weight on it somewhat. I still need the crutches for longer distances because it hurts to walk.
This morning. My swelling is more down but I've started to get some lovely bruising.
It's never a dull moment on mission life, but it could be worse (or so I've been told). I'm on the mend but bishop thinks I've ruptured a tendon. He said it's the "ruptured L(CP maybe I don't remember) so it might take a bit to get fully strong again. No running for me for a bit.
Love you all and hope that you have a great week.
Elder Tarbet
Sent from the iPad
May 12th: A Message from Rebecca Moylan
Hello Mr. Tarbet,
Your son Elder Tarbet served in my ward for a while. He is amazing! I stopped coming to church when I was a teenager and he is one of the missionaries who helped me come back and develop a testimony.
He came to Crosby today on splits and done some service for my family, it was great to see him and he is well (his cold has cleared up since conference). I was able to fellowship him and Elder Dimartino when he was in Crosby so have seen him teach lots of people sometimes under extremely difficult circumstances, but he has never complained or lost his temper, not even once and one of the young women he was teaching (Tanisha) will be getting baptized soon.
He is a great missionary and has taught most of the children in my street, after they left 6 of them knocked on my door!
I hope you are all well, Elder Tarbet talked so highly of you all when he was in Crosby. I have a few pictures if you would like me to send them.
May 2nd–May 8th: A Baptismal Date for Maggi
It's been quite a busy week, lots has been done and lots to be done.
Monday—Pday, went to the temple and made snow cones. We also had a good talk with Carolyn and will hopefully be able to take her to the next fireside in Manchester next month.
Tuesday—We went and saw Maggi. She was complaining that her stereo wasn't working since it had gotten moved. Turns out that nothing was plugged in or connected. Oh the joy hahaha. That evening we went and had dinner with the Gerrards—I think I've mentioned Ethan before. His family is mostly less active but he's pushed through and is working on his mission papers. He's way solid and a great friend of mine.
Wednesday—Service at the temperance (with my new old gloves) and me and Elder Pape ended up outside and we worked on moving a pile of dirt and rubbish around the corner to a dumpster. That place is a total mess and all our work doesn't seem to change that.
Thursday—After weekly planning we went by Oscar who we hadn't seen in a while and we had a lovely discussion about the Second Coming and who the 12 tribes of Israel are. Talk about building from the beginning hahaha. We then had coordination meeting with our very much doctrinally sound but less active ward mission leader. I can't figure him out, he never comes to church but he's got everything else down so solid. Best part of the day was we went and taught Maggi about baptism. We now have her dated for the 21st of May. Talk about a major turnaround, we never thought she was going to progress but now. Wow.
Friday—We helped some more at the temperance. We were clearing a room that will become a dance studio. It was just kinda a dump room with couches and a few tables and chairs. The couches were not too old and shabby looking so we took them to the charity shop across the street but it took a lot of convincing. After that we went on exchanges and I was with Elder Pape. It was a really good exchange. We went though the baptismal questions with Maggi and she passed with flying sarcasm. She is so funny. It's going to be interesting with the zone leaders.
Saturday—We had a street display in Ormskirk which I told you a bit about. We then went and taught Henry and it was a very frustrating lesson. We just went in circles. We are missing something with him but we can't figure out what.
Sunday—Church, skyped you all, went and saw Maggi. Pretty low key day but it was good.
So that's been about my week. Hope that you are doing well and love you all!
Elder Tarbet
Sent from the little screen that lives in my pocket
April 25th–May 1st: The Last Little While
I don't even know where I'm at with letting you all know what's going on. If I remember right last week I forgot to email the day to day stuff but at this point the days have all muddled. So just as kinda a basic update.
Gabriel and Ana: They have come to Church the last two weeks. Their kids are so busy though. It's really stressful because we want them to have a good experience. The hard part was that the kids wouldn't go to primary. They wanted to stay with us. Agh so stressful. They are progressing really well. The miracle of the week was that Gabriel didn't go to jail for some old shenanigans about a year ago. So that's good that he will get to stay home with his family.
Henry: He came to church on Sunday, which was really good! He still isn't really progressing like we would like and isn't keeping commitments like we would like but he did come to church for the first time in a while so that's good.
Maggi: She was also at church. We had a great turnout!! She is really good and she never ceases to amaze me though. She will be this super sarcastic Scott which will then just turn into a sweet little grandma when you ask her the right question. It's funny.
Shaun: So we have met him this week a couple of times. He wasn't able to come to church but he is planning to go to the temple with the youth on Wednesday. Ethan, one of our friends, has offered to play tour guide. And a girl that's in our ward that Shaun knows that's quasi-active is willing to go as well. It will be really good for him to have friends in the church.
Um I'm not sure what else to say there!! My birthday, since you all asked about it, I got my packages. I loved them so much! The journal was the greatest! Most random contents ever sent in a birthday package, antibiotics, shirts and work gloves. Love it! The Zone meeting that day was really good! We got a lift there and back which was nice as well. A member has an electric car which is really fun. It's so quiet! It only has a 90 mile range so that would never work for me. After the meeting we went to Paula's house and her partner Collin had made us turkey with veg and potatoes. It was way nice. We had a cake for dessert. She then brought out two cakes, one for each of us to take home. On Sunday night we had 5 cakes in our flat. Too much!
But yeah, that's been my weeks for the bit gone by, love you all and thanks for the birthday wishes.
Elder Tarbet
Sent from my iPad
Monday, May 2, 2016
April 18th—April 24th: A week of Service
Good morning Baltimore!...wait I mean... Southport!
This has been a pretty solid week, I've been fed steak, I've listened to one of the seventies, I met a young man at the bus stop who started the conversation and then actually text us to confirm the appointment. I've pulled out stumps and painted a house. Pretty good week in a nutshell. Just realized I hadn't written a good email. I'll send two next week but here is the short version.
Love you all!
Some pictures of our service project
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