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.