July 11th–July 17th: A Reading Challenge for Oscar and a New Program for the Members

Holy cow!! This week flew by!

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges and then on Thursday we had the Multi-zone Conference in Chorley. That totally ate our week so we have been pretty busy.

So starting at the beginning before I start jumping everywhere. Monday we had FHE with the Browns and Oscar and then after we went back to Oscar's home to answer some questions for him. We walked out with him having fully committed to reading the Book of Mormon for the first time (he got baptized in September). Then we talked to him throughout the week and he has committed to read a chapter a night! He set that himself—we are just helping him. He said that he is really feeling the difference. It's taken 8 months of me trying but Elder Morgan finally got it to click for him. Elder Morgan is very spiritually in tune.

On Tuesday and Wednesday we had exchanges with Elder Liss and Filihia. Elder Liss came to Southport with me and we had a very hard and unproductive couple of days, it was orange day which is the day of drunk Protestants. The last little while things have really slowed down for finding in Southport. They were slow before but now they are at a standstill. I understand that we still try because we will be blessed with miracles later but I feel bad for Elder Morgan. It has actually gotten so bad that all of the alcoholics won't even talk to us. When that happens you know it's bad!! A lot of people will be very kind and polite but as soon as you start talking about anything even close to religion or even anything of substance they are no longer able to talk. It's quite annoying. I am even getting this from members sometimes, very just not interested. 

A new program that Elder Morgan and I  rolled out from the stuff that we talked about on Thursday is a member missionary work campaign. We are going to several members' homes to share a message with them and ask them to pray for our success and for theirs. It's been effective so far. We had a member immediately drive us to meet his friend. That was the best thing ever! He came in introduced us and just bore his testimony about how it would help this friend of his. So good!

The other interesting thing that happened this week is that President Gardner from the Mission Presidency came and spoke to Southport Ward. 

In other news, Henry didn't read, Shaun has gone missing and Maggy is in the hospital with a mysterious infection.

I had a really good conversation with President Ulrich and Multi-zone Conference. It was great.  He is like a Father to me. It was just a very informal sit down chat moment with him about Southport, about Elder Morgan, about anything and everything I wanted to talk about. It was so nice. He is a great man!

I have now been in Southport over 8 months and I am thinking that it's about time for me to move on….. haha. 

Love y'all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

Sent from my iPad

Elder Morgan and Elder Tarbet

Maggie's Baptism

July 4th–July 10th: Elder Morgan and Maggie's Baptism

This week has been good. Elder Morgan and myself have gotten on pretty well and he is settling into the area and the mission very well. He is already a much better missionary than myself. We get on very well and haven't had any issues. Elder Morgan is a very good teacher who is a true conduit of the spirit, he is just a spot on good missionary. I hope that I am able to be a good example to him and that we will be able to continue to work well together.

We had Maggie’s baptism this weekend which was so good! Everything came together very well.  The proof of that was yesterday when she pulled me to the side and said "Thank you.  Everything went so smoothly I couldn't believe it." This despite the fact that she was petrified of the water. We had three people in the pool with her just to make sure that she felt secure. She was very grateful that we were able to help her be baptized.  I definitely think that she was one of those friends that I was meant to find.

We had a really good lesson with a long time investigator who has never really gone anywhere.  We sat and talked about faith with him for about an hour—something has really changed about him and it's really showing. I think that the Lord has been trying him about that he might have the desire to change and become better. Funny enough I am actually sitting right here next to him at the library. So funny!!!!  I think that I have spoken about him before—his name is Nanavati.

Henry is another matter. He is going to kill me!! I just feel like we are going in the right direction with him when he comes up with an old monkey wrench that I thought that we had resolved to throw back into the works. It really comes down to, at this point, the fact that he just won’t read the Book of Mormon. He finds it hard to understand, but I know that if he would try that it would be ok. We have committed him to 5 minutes a day including a prayer on each end. Just read one column of the Book of Mormon.

I am happy to be staying in Southport for the 6th transfer. The ward is in a bit of an uproar about a new rule (could be a reinforcement of the rule but it's new to me) about tea being from 5-6. The problem that we face is the fact that most people don't get home from work until half five or even sometimes six. So we will lose most of our tea appointments and our ability to help members with their missionary obligations. Elder Morgan and I found a good way which was to go through very simply a pmg lesson and then invite the members to learn a way that they can teach it simply.  We will then follow up the next time we see them. The only problem is we won't see them anymore. The husbands are gone all day. They have finally gotten back to liking missionaries after most of the bridges were burned by past missionaries, now we are working to get them to actually do stuff. This area is difficult because people are really comfortable where they are, the people don't feel like they need to change, they have their car, house, family, toys etc. I guess we just get to keep working until we find the people that are prepared.

Love you all and hope that you are doing well!

Love
Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires

My Strength is from Heaven

A Few More Pictures

Elder Tarbet with the group of Elders in Southport





















Elder Tarbet with the Sisters at a New Member Missionary Fireside

A Message from the Fullwood Family

Hey guys, just thought I would send you Sunday's picture of your son. It's all change here and he is the only one of the 4 missionaries left in our ward. We have just met Elder Morgan from Mesa, Az (his new companion) and he seems like a really good guy. We hope your son enjoys his new challenge of training this new missionary. Elder Tarbet is still hard working and a wonderful example to our ward members. We are looking forward to Maggie's baptism on Saturday, and I know he is too. I am sure all of your prayers on her behalf are helping. I hope you are well and coping without your son, just know that he is a great asset to the mission and we are glad he is here for a little while longer.

Scott and Debbie Fullwood and family

Me with Mark Hatton

July 4th: Elder Morgan

Hi,

I'm with Elder Morgan from Mesa, AZ and will be excited to tell you more next week. I will have him write a little shpeal about himself for your benefit. Love you all, take care, and have a good week!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

June 27th–July 3rd: A Busy Week and the End of Transfers

This week has flown!!!

We have been seeing Maggie quite a bit getting her ready for her baptism that we were hoping would take place on Saturday but we have unfortunately found that it won't happen until next Saturday the 9th at 2 o'clock. The good thing is that we have it organized!! She is ready; there won't be any flippancy now. We are set!!!!! 

It has been the last week of the transfer so we have been trying to get people to progress as much as possible so that we can move onto next transfer. So, we have had a really productive week.  Lots of good things happening with helping people that haven't been moving at all to start taking baby steps forward.

A man that we hadn't been able to make any progress with for ages named Nanavati, we were able to just talk through the basics of God and Jesus Christ. That was a miracle in and of itself. We also left him with a bit to read from the Book of Mormon and he was actually willing to read. We will see how things go this week when we go see him.

With Hetty we got talking about families and about why bad things happen. We left her with The Family: A Proclamation, and 2nd Nephi. Once again, we will be able to follow up this week.

We had a great lesson with Shaun about faith and how important it is and how we can build it. We were hoping to have him at church yesterday but he didn't come, hopefully we didn't scare him off because he is just a young kid.

The most important person that we are working with right now is a family. They were actually baptized a few years ago in another ward but the other ward treated them horribly.  For a time they were actually told not to come to church, like serious stuff is wrong with that ward. And so the girl has really struggled. The oldest lives in London so we haven't really ever seen her but the youngest is struggling the most because she took the brunt of all the bullying in the other ward. The mom is so solid in the church but the daughter (Lilly) is struggling really bad and that's making it really hard for the mom (Abi). We got Lilly to agree to come to the fireside in Manchester which was big but she ended up sitting in the car the whole time and wouldn't come in. It's a shame really. It's because she is so scared of what happened before happening again. It's PTSD in a very real sense. So sad.

That's been about my week, Elder Filihia and I had a great exchange on Tuesday and Wednesday. It was very much needed and we got a lot of things done. Elder Pape and Harris will both be going home and I will be getting a brand new missionary. I'm going to be staying in Southport and training a new Elder. Flipping heck I'm so nervous. I'm scared that I'm going to end up with another me. I'll meet him this afternoon

Love you all—hope that you have a good week!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

June 20th–June 26th: Exchanges with Elder Pape

Dear Family,

Monday. Pday, we went to Liverpool and had a decent sports day there. It was fun and people actually participated. On the way home I started to feel really ill. The bus ride was an hour and fifteen and I thought that my insides were going to explode the whole time. When we got home I did end up quite sick (I'll spare you the details) but I think it was the antibiotic that the doctor had put me on, good thing for me it was the last day of it anyways.

We didn't have district meeting as president has decided that they are a waste of time and so we will only have them on occasion. We did however still go on exchanges with the district leader. That was pretty good.  I went with Elder Pape and it was good to get to talk to him.  I have grown to really quite like him. He is excited to go home but he still works hard. Two people that we saw really stood out—first, a white Muslim lady who was so, so nice. We talked to her for a while and there are so many similarities between what we believe, and she just wanted to genuinely have peace. We weren't able to set a time to go back but she said that we are always welcome to try by again. We also saw Teresa—I'm sure I've talked about Teresa in the past.  We taught her ages ago and were able to get in contact with her again and go see how she was and what not.  Nothing has changed with her.  She still refuses to accept any rules that she doesn't make up herself and she doesn't want any kind of organization.  It's impossible to teach her because she doesn't want to be taught. After the lesson we were walking away with Collin who had come with us and he was saying how it's just like going around in circles with her.  Then Elder Pape and Collin started joking around and Collin declared the night a "Poonado" and it made the night a much better feeling after a good laugh with him.

We went by Collin (different one) that we have been teaching but haven't seen for a bit. We had a really good lesson about the basics of the Book of Mormon, he's not all there but he is super nice. We got to see Henry after he came back from China which was fantastic! I've missed him. We had a good reading session and "get to know you" time with Elder Harris. He always asks really hard questions though.   When we were reading in 3 Nephi he would stop and ask a question like every line. So many things I had never thought of before. 

On Sunday we had Hetty, Gill, Henry and Maggy all at church. It was great!

So that's been my week, leaders breathing down my neck about numbers but whatever.

Love y'all

Elder Tarbet

The Elders of Southport

June 13th–June 19th: Another Day in the Life of a Missionary

This week has been pretty straight forward, nothing all that exciting to report to be honest, just another day in the mission field, all of our new investigators fell through, we really are just trying to find new people to teach as well as working on some stuff for the ward council, namely lost sheep. So far that has been a bust as well. So we push on and keep working.

So I did go to the doctors this week. The doctor was very good and had gone back and reviewed the notes from the other time I went to him.  He was following up with me about that and trying to figure out if it's all related, which we both think it is, and how. He agrees with me about wanting to get to the base of the problem. So he examined my nose, and chest and whatnot, he was impressed with my cough—he hadn't ever heard something quite like it. The long and short of it is that he thinks it's allergies, something here in England is different from back home, possibly even just the humidity. So he has given me a steroid and an antibiotic both for any inflammation and to try and get it under control. He has then given me a high dose antihistamine to hopefully keep it under control. He then gave me an inhaler to stop the coughing. He told me that if seven days from when I start if it's not better then he will just send me to a specialist because he's got no clue. My chest seems to be clear and my sinuses don't seem to have an infection, with all these things that seem to be on you would think that I'm not sick haha.

Love ya all!

Elder Tarbet with President and Sister Ulrich

Elder Singsam, Elder Tarbet, Henry, and Avril

Elder Singsam, Elder Tarbet and Henry.  Henry is from China but is living in Southport, teaching Chinese in school.  He has been very interested in the Church, but Jesus Christ is a new concept for him and he has struggled with it.  He has gone on exchanges with the missionaries to get a better idea of what they do.  

Elder Singsam, Elder Tarbet and Avril.  Avril is the lady that makes them cakes. She was baptized about 3-4 years ago but has brain damage so she struggles to recall information.  She got in a fight with a car 25 years ago and lost. We go over and see her every week alternating with the other leaders and she makes us cakes every time we go.  She loves to bake but because of her brain damage she can't taste or smell so she makes them for us.

June 6th–June 12th: Elder Dallin H. Oaks

These last few pdays have been nuts and I've not got to really write much to anyone. Thank you so much for your prayers and the emails I've gotten, they are great and I love each of you. So as far as me, I'm not sure where to start so I will just give a general update and hopefully next week get back to writing proper emails.

Maggy is progressing pretty well, we are just waiting for her baptism to be set up. She will have to be baptized in the spinal clinic swimming pool because she can't walk and they have hoists. Most of the week has just been trying to find new people to teach. We've not had a great deal of success but we have made some contact with some less actives which is good.

The highlight of the week is that on Saturday morning we got to hear from Elder Dallin H. Oaks from the Quorum of the Twelve. That was pretty great. He talked about the worldwide goal for missionaries this year, "Teach Repentance, Baptize Converts."  He broke down each of the four words. He talked about how everything that we share with people is inviting them to change and repent. Repentance is the pathway back to God. Converts are "infants" in the gospel, "we baptize infants.....and we don't just sprinkle them" (best quote ever).  The people that we teach are still young and spiritually immature, but they have that desire. He then talked about Ammon and Aaron. Two of the most talked about missionaries in the Book of Mormon. Aaron was beaten, spit upon and cast into prison with no food or water.  Ammon had massive success and was able to bring thousands to a knowledge of their God. Who was the better missionary? They were both good but both were dependent upon the agency of others. They did what they have been called to do. They taught the gospel with love and boldness.  After that, the choice is the people who listen or don't listen. We can only do what we have been called to do. Elder Oaks also talked about how he wants us as missionaries to teach repentance and if all that does is make someone a better Catholic then we have done our job. We have freed those souls from the pains of Hell (Telestial Kingdom) and brought them to the Terrestrial Kingdom. That doesn't mean that we lay back and don't boldly invite to baptism, but if we can bring people to a knowledge of God then we have made a huge difference. It will also make the case of religious freedom easier to argue, Atheists couldn't care less about religious freedom, which is a huge thing to the Church. While Elder Oaks was here he actually met with the House of Lords to discuss religious freedom.

The other highlight was that both Gill and Hetty were at church yesterday, that made me really happy.

Anyways that's about what my week has been like. Hope that you all have a good week and will talk to you soon.

Love ya

Elder Tarbet

May 31st–June 5th: Busy Week!

Hi

Sorry, another shot pday. We have been asked to work through our pday today.  So yeah sorry.

Hopefully I will get to talk to you next week.