December 14th—December 19th: Nadolig Llawen

  This week has been pretty good. Nothing too exciting has happened. We had a branch party on Friday, which was interesting. It's a really strange thing—lots of people there on Friday but on Sunday there was no change from normal attendance. Today we are at a family party for a member of the branch and her children and grandchildren. They asked us to help and so I'm just trying to email while Santa (a very skinny Irish Santa, no less) passes out gifts. So, that is my excuse for a very scanty email. 

  This week we saw a lady named Emma who we have been teaching (not sure if I've mentioned her before).  She is lovely. She is super nice and has a really strong desire to know if there is a God. She has been taught all of the lessons previously by other missionaries, but because she doesn't have any kind of religious background, she didn't fully understand the lessons, so we are going though them again to really make sure she understands. She has fun questions—all very sincere but she is sometimes very far ahead of the current point that it makes it a bit hard.  She is friends with a couple of the members from a group that they all attend. It's funny because when she asks these questions the member goes on to answer but it ends up leaving her more confused because she doesn't understand that background of the answer and it is hard for him to be simple. It's funny. She came to church on Sunday and had a really good experience we think (and hope). We are seeing her again this week. 

We have seen Josh around a few times this week but we've not had any lessons with him. He came to the Christmas party and seemed to have an ok time. We have had a couple of good chats with Christina this week as well.

  Something that I've come to appreciate more and more these last few months is how my experiences on my mission have expanded my testimony so much.  It has really helped me to understand the Atonement especially. I love Jesus Christ and I am glad that I get to tell people not only about His birth at this time of year as we celebrate it, but all year round. I get to tell people of the joy that Christ brings into my own life. From the little baby in a manger to a Saviour in the garden, from a humble carpenter to the risen Lord. I am grateful for the experiences that I have had to be able to understand who the baby in the manger truly was.

Love you all and hope that you have a Merry Christmas

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

December 13th: A Visit to Conway Castle

December 5th—December 12th: Staying in Colwyn Bay for Christmas and A Successful Week with Appointments

  It's been a fun week. First FAQ—I am staying in Colwyn Bay for Christmas with Elder Cossa. FAQ 2—Josh is doing well. We are hoping to to able to teach him with his family some day but his dad doesn't much want to. We will see how that goes. Right now we are just working with him to help him recognise answers to prayers. He has been to church twice now and has started to really pray about the Book of Mormon. He is almost though First Nephi and is marking. He's really doing well. The struggle is just helping him receive answers. He's a good kid and seems to enjoy church so we aren't overly concerned. It's just a matter of time. 

  This week we met a nice fellow named Sean. It was great because we set an appointment and we got to have two back-to-back appointments in the chapel. We felt so effective hahaha. Sean has struggles with alcohol and wants to change. It's cost him his family and he wants them back. He doesn't know what makes him drink, he just does. He wants to understand if God is there and able to help him. Good man. The other appointment was with our friend named Andrew. He is nice enough. He is kind of evangelical in the way he acts towards God and us. 

  Over the weekend, I was having some chest pain and was really tired but the mission nurse said that is just a virus that has chosen to settle there instead of my nose or digestive tract etc. It's made me super tired though but the work moves forward. 

Basically I'm super excited to be staying. Today we went and saw Conway castle, which was neat.

Love ya all hope you have a great week!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

December 5th: Hiking in Snowden

November 28th—December 4th: Quick Update—Josh: Our New Investigator

Right so this week in a nutshell.

Exchanges with Elder Allen from Hawaii, we came out together. Back with Elder Cossa and we met all the bashing people again. I've never had bashing spiritualists before now, but they exist let me tell you. We are officially able to teach our friend Josh (had to get permission from parents) and he came to youth and to church and had a good time. He stayed the whole 3 hour block and testimony meeting didn't scare him away. Hallelujah. 

Um, I think that is my week in a nutshell. It was pretty much a straightforward week. Nothing too overly exciting happened besides Josh. So yeah. Hope you all have a great week.

Love

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires 

My Strength is from Heaven

PS—Transfers are a week Tuesday. I hope that I get to stay. 

November 21st—November 27th: Thanksgiving in Wales

    Well, it has been a good week this week. Just a few highlights to bring up then I will talk more about the branch (by popular request). So first of the week I got to go on exchange with Elder Cowdry from Adelaide Australia. He has been out for about 6 months now and is a great missionary. He is in Porthmadog, which I think is about the farthest out that you can get in the mission besides the Isle of Man. While I was with him, we met a few good people. One of them was actually a born again christian who was sincere enough to actually take a Book of Mormon and say that he would ask God. That is a very rare occurrence. Normal born agains are very hostile and will only bash you and try to destroy your testimony. This man, Simpson, was really sincere in his desire to do what God would want him to do. The only problem that made me cry on the inside a bit was that when we were leaving he said that we had had an interesting chat and that he would need to bring some of this up with the elders at his church.  Inside I was just screaming "Ask God!!!! Don't ask man!!!!!!!!!!!" But what can you do. We will try and go back and see him later this week. 

    Back with Elder Cossa we had a Thanksgiving dinner with a family that have an American daughter-in-law. That was really fun. The Carders take very very good care of us while we are here. The daughter from Texas even made pumpkin pie and sweet potato with marshmallows on top. That was so good! She put orange oil in them so they were orangy as well. Boy they were tasty. 

     We were able to start teaching the friend of a less active girl which is really good. It gives her a reason to be an example and it makes it easier for her to want to be an example. This young man started out by telling us that he is an atheist but is interested in different religions. We told him that the Book of Mormon is really interesting and then told him what it is about and what is in it—about the plan of salvation and the love that God has for each of us. At the end, he just really quietly asks, "Where can I get one of those books?" Made my night.  He then came and watched Meet the Mormons later in the week and had a good experience.  He asked really good questions about the Book of Mormon as well. He has a very sincere desire to know and understands that it's not going to just happen, he has to work for it. To be fair, I would put him as being farther along than I was at 14 and I was raised with the gospel. 

     The other really major miracle of the week that I would like to tell you about is these two girls that referred themselves on mormon.org from a pass along card that I had actually given them. I've never had that happen in my whole mission—someone refer themselves. We went around and they wanted a Book of Mormon. We gave them each one, taught them the restoration and set a return appointment for two weeks. That is going to be great.

     Other things that I havent told you (at least I think), is that we are going paperless. Our paper planners are no more. We now do everything on the iPad. Not sure that I like it to be fair.  It takes alot longer to do everything but at the same time it makes it easier to keep up on recording things. If you dont record what happens in the lesson, it doesnt record the lesson as happening so you dont get credit for anything unless you do everything. Keeps us accountable I guess. 

     Right so the branch has about 30-40 out on a Sunday. Mostly older. The primary is like 5 kids. The youth is quite small as well but they are good. The young men are recent convert brothers, the young women are good, but there is only one very active one and one that we are working with. The branch feeds us pretty much every day, sometimes twice a day. It's not good for me, I'm going to get fat haha. We are still working to get people to come to church but we need to liven up our teaching pool first, a lot of them are pretty dead investigators. They are changing over slow and steady. I think that by the end of the transfer we should have people at church. I just am praying that I get to stay for Christmas here.

     Thats about me for the week. Sorry for the kind of rambly email. My mind has been all over the place today. 

     Everyone needs to look at mormon.org for the Christmas video and then share it with their friends.

Love you all!

Elder Tarbet

Caelitus Mihi Vires

My Strength is from Heaven

November 21st: Crazy Weather Today!

The tide was about mid and it was crashing over the sea wall. Crazy!