October 18th: Missing This Smile!

Nothing better than receiving a picture of our favorite Elders from our new friends in England!

September 21st—October 11th: A Hard Couple of Weeks

We haven’t updated Logan’s blog for a few weeks.  He has been a bit down and has been struggling so his letters have been short.  Here are some excerpts of his emails for the last few weeks:

Alma to the Zoramites:

These last few weeks have been the hardest of my life. I have been run through the meat grinder if you will. I have been torn up and spit out. I think I am still in it to be honest. I have felt abandoned and spit upon but you have all gotten me though. In your own ways and in your own prayers on my behalf and in each of your emails. I now understand how Alma felt when he went to preach to the Zoramites.  They were the most stiffnecked and wicked people in all the land.  Well, that describes how I have felt lately.  We have run into a lot of unhappy, mean spirited people. 

You have all been amazing examples to me throughout my life—examples of love and of courage and of friendship. I love all of you more than I can put into words. I am so grateful to have each of you in my life and know that if I was missing one of you I would be missing a very key piece to getting me through this rough patch. Thank you so much.

Book of Mormon Class:

We teach a Book of Mormon class every other week.  We got tired of just reading through the chapters going from one person to another, so Elder Dimartino decided to actually use the white board and teach a lesson about the war chapters, since we both love them.  The class is suppose to be for investigators, but it is mostly the older people that come.  We have had Maggie, who we have been teaching there lately.

Elder Dimartino

He has 4 brothers and his family are members, but not active.  He was baptized when he was younger but that’s about it.  He wasn’t really active till about 19 or 20.  He has been out for 6 months, and has spent the whole time in Crosby.  He is 22.  His English is constantly improving.  He is a lot of fun and I have really enjoyed being with him.

General Conference

General Conference on the other side of the pond was fun.  We spent Saturday evening in Liverpool and watched Saturday morning.  We went in early on Sunday morning and watched all the other sessions but Sunday evening.  I will have to read those talks when they get published.

Members in Crosby

The branch is quite small, but the members have been very good to us.  We have been spending quite a bit of time with several of the less active families.  We have spent some time with a less active family the Collards, which has been a highlight.  They made us cake and cookies and they were properly nice cookies.  They were so good.  I think that Mom might have some competition on her cookies!!  We had two sisters from our ward talk to us at conference and basically planned out for us how we are going to get everyone baptized.

We have also worked with two members Nicole and Becky.  They have been amazing and have been what has kept me sane because they are just so positive.  They gave me a journal with all kinds of positive quotes written inside the cover.  They had given Elder Dimartino a goody box a few weeks ago when he was “getting transferred” (he got transferred to me, changing apartments, but staying in Crosby).  

Here is a text I received from a lady we have been working with.  It made my day:

"Be not afraid of moving slowly, be only afraid of standing still. Chinese proverb. Sometimes it may seem like you are getting nowhere fast, but don't be discouraged, your actions have more effect than you realise.  The message you left cheered me up. It was in line with what Nicole and I had been studying. It sparked a discussion about faith between my nanny, dad and I that lasted well over an hour. Some disagreements occurred but were settled by reading from the bible dictionary.  After reading, my nanny (a very strong stuck-in-her-ways Catholic) said "I'm glad that you are a Mormon, it may not be the true religion but at least it teaches good principles and everything that they've said about faith is true." After leaving Nanny's, me and my dad continued talking about faith.  We re-read what it said in the bible dictionary and read the scriptures listed there. I told my dad about the scripture you guys had recommended and we read it together. (I have never read scriptures with my dad before in my life!). We started talking about our own faith and what we had confidence in. (Or in a very conversational way we bore our testimonies). All this came from one slip of paper. Don't underestimate yourselves, you have more impact than you know."

Weather

For the most part it has been the warmest I have had in England. 

Elder Tarbet

September 28th: A Spoof of the District Videos

September 28th: Elder Dimartino and His Wonderful Fashion

September 14th—September 20th: My new companion—Elder Dimartino

I truly love hearing about your weeks no matter how boring you think they are, I love being like, oh they went to Walmart sounds like fun, haha. Sorry I don't have my camera with me so I can't send you any pictures.

This week has been good, it is crazy the change from Elder Faupula to Elder Dimartino. Elder Dimartino is from Sicily and has been in Crosby for his whole mission and is very happy, but very direct in following the rules which will be good for me because that hasn't always been the case with some previous companions. Again, he is just a very happy person.  What I have learned is that some missionaries are going through a mission but aren't letting their mission go through them, if that makes sense.
Anyways, so this week we did some service on Tuesday and that was about it, Elder Faupula packed that evening. Wednesday we went to transfers and then me and Elder Dimartino did some street contacting and then that was about it. On Thursday, we cleaned the flat and (re)organized it. I was so glad because it really needed to be cleaned and organized. Friday we played football with some investigators and had a great lesson with a kid named Connor who is very religious in his own way and loves the bible. Very good kid and we hope to teach him more. Saturday we had a street display in St. Helens which was ok—nothing great and nothing terrible. Sunday we met with some members and had dinner with them and also with the other elders.

Anyways I am about out of time to write for now but I hope that this will get you by for this next week.

Elder Tarbet

September 7th–September 13th: The End of Another Transfer

This week hasn’t been anything to put in the record books or long term memory.  On Monday, after doing our regular p-day activities, we went into Liverpool.  That is a city that is really neat.  The old mixed with the new is very unique.  Because Liverpool was a major target for the Blitz, many parts of it were leveled but they did a very nice job rebuilding it—at least the city center, the rest of it is poor like the rest of the country.  On Tuesday, we had District Meeting.  It was very good.  Elder Hulterstrom is very inspired and very knowledgeable.  It started off with a discussion about working with the ward because St. Helens is struggling.  I offered the idea that Dad had used in his first area in Alaska.  After that discussion, we had our proper training on charity, using President Uchtdorf’s Mormon message.  I love how the spirit teaches.  In the past, that video has been about kindness to others but this time the message to me was about forgiveness.  If I am to be forgiven of my sins at the last day then I must forgive others.  Not only others though, I need to forgive myself.  I know in my head I have to do that, but my heart is a little slower.  After that we did a street display. Both of the street displays we did this week were the worst I have ever had.  People were mean and grumpy.  I got yelled at a lot.  If they didn’t yell, they simply ignored us.  That night we went to dinner at the Bishop’s house.  It was very nice, pork roast, baked potatoes and onion rings.  On our way back we were walking along minding our own business and a car comes screaming by and they yelled something and threw a card candy (looked like jaw breakers) at us.  It really stung when it hit. 

Our service this week included doing some gardening for an older couple in the ward, and some yard work for another member.  I trimmed the hedges and Elder Faupula mowed the lawn.  We tried to go and do more service at Anna's but she was extremely drunk so that didn’t work out so well.  We also conducted Book of Mormon class at the Church.   

It is transfers this next week.  Elder Faupula is going to New Castle Zone to be a District Leader.  Elder Dimartino, who is one of the other Elders serving in Crosby is coming to my flat and will be my companion.  Elder Halterstrom, the District Leader will be getting a new companion. 

That’s about it for this week.

Elder Tarbet

August 31st–September 6th: The Temple and a Fireside

The two highlights of the week was definitely going to the temple on Wednesday and the missionary member fireside on Sunday.  I just loved the feeling of the temple and I learned so much!  It is the same each time but also different.  When I went to the temple, the question I had in my mind to find an answer to was how to be a better missionary.  The answer I got was two parts: (1) find joy in the work (2) don’t seek after the honors of men, you are here for the Lord and the Lord alone, and don’t forget that.  Until that time, I didn’t realize that I was getting into the mission culture of baptisms and numbers and “Oh, I taught so many people how many did you teach?” or “I gave out more Books of Mormon than you did.” The fireside was fantastic.  Recent converts bore their testimony and told their story.  Then at the end, President Ulrich bore his testimony about the restoration.  It was so powerful.  He went through the first vision and all that.  It was brilliant.  I love listening to him teach and bare testimony because it is so powerful.  He knows!!!!!

To update you on the people we have been teaching:  Damien dropped us and his mother is determined not to act on the things she has felt but the spirit keeps her coming back so we shall see.  She has definitely felt the spirit.  She went to the missionary member fireside with us, so she definitely felt the spirit there.   Eleta is getting the answer she needs for the Book of Mormon but she doesn’t recognize it.  She says that she gets it sometimes when she reads but other times no.  We actually met her husband this week who seemed nice. We have a new investigator (well friend might be a better word for now) Adam.  We meet with him at the Church.  We played chair football.  It was super fun.  So what you do is everyone has a chair and the goal is to protect your chair while getting other people out by touching their chair with the ball.  It is a lot like revenge dodgeball.  The last game we used as an object lesson.  We didn’t use any of the rules, and it just got all messed up.  It was to teach him the value of the “rules” that God gives us to live by.  It was really good and he is starting to open up a bit. 

We did a little more service for Anna, and we had some street displays.  We met some good people, and hope that something comes of them.  It was a crazy busy week. 

You asked about the food.  I think it is pretty normal.  I think a little bland but not too terribly different from back home.  I have had sausage rolls (that Kade and Phil talked about), and it was fine.  Not really anything to write home about, hahaha.  The ward is super small so we don’t get fed much.  Usually once to twice a week. 

The reason I am here is for Heavenly Father.  To be 100% honest, I would rather be home and in school and with my friends, but there is nothing that would make me leave because I know I have been called of God to be here and that is where he wants me.  He is the man with the master plan so that is why I’m here.  I know this is what I need to do that that this is where I need to be.  I’m not here for me, and I’m not here for anyone else, I am here because this is where Heavenly Father wants me.

Elder Tarbet