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