England, London Mission: September 2016

Wednesday, September 21, 2016

Dear family and friends,

Happy Day! This is my favorite season of the year! I love the smell in the air, the brisk cool atmosphere, and the smell of new pencils!!! In Cambridge, the cool air smells so much like the mountains at home! It's that smell of fall, of hunting, and being in the woods! I love it!!!

We had a great week. The news of the week is: I passed my driver's test! This was a true miracle for me. I was soooo nervous about taking it again. I didn't pass the first time and that made me much more anxious to go through the process again. Brad was so patient! We practiced roundabouts until I dreamed about them! The night before the exam, I didn't sleep well at all, but during one of those periods of restless wakefulness, the thought came clearly to me that I needed to practice a reverse maneuver into a side street. So the next day, we got to King's Lynn early and I practiced one of those maneuvers. Before we left home early that day, Brad gave me a beautiful blessing, that I would be calm and that my mind would be clear as I was driving. John was my test person. He was a large man who filled the whole front seat. He was a very nice man who put me to ease immediately! I was very calm and much to my surprise, (but not really), the one maneuver he asked to do was a reverse move into a side road and then pull back into the main street. Upon completion of the maneuver, I continued through the remainder of the exam with tears in my eyes, as I knew the Lord cares about even the smallest things in our lives. That is the only maneuver he asked me to do! Even all those difficult roundabouts I practiced, were not even required in this particular route. I was overcome with gratitude and great relief! When he told me I had passed, I told him he had made my day! I also asked him if anyone ever had a heart attack during one of these exams! I can't describe the anxiety I felt about taking this test, and also the relief at having it over! But also, I can't describe the gratitude for divine help! It was truly a miracle to me! So now I have a British driver's license, I don't feel the desire to drive over here again!!!!

We had a great FHE and another game night with the YSA's on Thursday. We are hearing from YSA's almost every day who will be coming to Cambridge and we are so excited! We are trying to meet with Anglia Ruskin University as well as Cambridge University to see if there is anyway we can advertise through their student centers for our LDS Institute!

We had some great visits this week with wonderful friends, and set up further appointments to meet and teach. We also attended a Zone Conference with President and Sister Stevens. They talked of the importance of the Book of Mormon. As a mission we are reading the Book of Mormon to be able to finish it by Christmas! As always, we were so inspired. We love this couple. They have such an ability to love! During some of the trainings, I observed President standing at the back of the cultural hall just watching and observing the missionaries. We don't envy their calling, and realize how much time and emotional and spiritual energy is extended toward the work of the Lord, and how willing and cheerfully they serve. They are a great source of strength to us!

We got to spend Saturday afternoon with wonderful friends, a sweet young family who are struggling with the church. They are a lovely couple with a beautiful one year old boy. We went to Wimpole Hall, a National trust estate which is a working farm. It kind of reminds me of Thanksgiving Point. We had such a delightful afternoon walking the beautiful grounds and watching the animals, and watching Max throw rocks, climb up stairs, and explore the area! We feel such a kinship to this little family. They don't want to be a project, they want to have genuine friends. How we love them!

We are heading tomorrow to pick up a cute family from the airport, and then heading to Oxford for Brad to speak at a Utah State Huntsman School of Business class. We will be in Oxford for two days! Then our kids come!!!! Yeah!!! We will pick up Kent and Heather on Saturday and then meet up with Dave and Julie Sunday evening in London. I will write my next blog after next week. We are so excited! We have scheduled a tea with our cute next door neighbors so the Browns and the Bishops can meet our adopted family.

Happy Birthday to Brian on Thursday, September 22! What a fine son! We are so blessed to have him be apart of our family! He is so fun, hard working, and a man of integrity! We love him! Also, Happy Birthday to Bailey Mae Bishop on Friday, September 23! We love our Bailey. She is an incredible young lady. We are so excited for her that she has decided to be baptized by her dad! She will be baptized on Saturday, September 23, and then she will be confirmed as well by her dad! Then her parents will jump on a plane and fly to London!!! Thank you to Grandma Bishop and Nate and Becca for taking care of our babies while their parents spend a week with us in the UK!

We love you all! Have a fantastic week! My thought for the week is one of my favorite quotes by President Ezra Taft Benson. " When obedience ceases to be an irritant and becomes our quest, in that moment God will endow us with power!" May we all find ourselves endowed with that sacred power!
With all our love,
Dad and Mom
Papa and Grandma
Elder and Sister Jackman

Wednesday, September 14, 2016

addendum

This is our little English friend, Margaret! She loves Ben and Jerry's ice cream!

love my family

Dear family and friends,

Good afternoon! I hope ya’ll had a great week! It seems as though I just wrote on the blog yesterday! My how the time flies by! We had a great week and hope you know how much we love the work that we are doing here!

Monday night we had a great FHE, but had to cut it short as Brad had to take one of our YSA’s to the emergency room for kidney stones. They were there until almost midnight, then his parents came and stayed with him until 3 the next morning. He was told to come back that afternoon for a scan. He ended up waiting in the hospital for 9 hours waiting for the scan. Then they sent him home saying he was passing a kidney stone and he would just need to wait it out. He was told to come back in 3 weeks. I’m not a fan of socialized medicine!!!! He is doing much better, but doesn’t yet know if the stone passed.

We had our 6-week transfer waffle breakfast this week as we are losing 2 of the elders in our district. Elder Coon was replaced by Elder Dunning from Fresno, California, and Elder Dalley was replaced by Elder Moulton from Provo. The next day, we had a great district meeting and were able to get to know these new elders. They will be great!

We got to visit with some elderly members of our ward one afternoon. What a great opportunity. Leslie Ryan is an elderly man who just moved here into a care center. He is a long time member and served as a Bishop. He and Brad clicked right away. He was so excited to have a visit with another priesthood member. He shared some very sacred experiences he had during his service. We both came away very uplifted! Then we took some Haagan Daz ice cream to a sweet little Margaret who has not come to church for a while because she had cateract surgery. As we visited with her, she downed the whole container of ice cream. I thought she was going to lick the container! I think the ice cream was a hit!!! I’ll include a picture of her!

We taught our dear friend, Alex Allen, our friend from Tesco (a local grocery store). We’ve known him since we got here. The sister missionaries taught him the Restoration lesson with us about 5 months ago. He has been working 3 jobs, and going to law school. I would say he is about 50 years old. He is a very kind man and a very spiritual man. After hearing the Joseph Smith story, he was very moved and said he had never had such a feeling of peace as he had then. But then he got really busy and said when Sept. came, he would have time to be taught again. Only this time he asked if we could teach him. This week we taught him the Plan of Salvation. He said he wished he could have something warn him when bad things would tempt him. Brad told him about the Holy Ghost. I think he was very touched and wants to come back and hear more about Him! It seems as though his work is really getting in the way! He had some issues come up at work that are keeping him distracted. So we pray hard and hope the Spirit will touch his heart to make time for the gospel!

We got to spend time on Friday with Clark and Joyce Baron!!!! They came to Cambridge and we got to take them around the city. It is such a charming place, and the weather was so nice. We had a delightful time. Joyce is such an artist, I think she enjoyed the quaint little artsy shops. We saw King’s Chapel, some of Fitzwilliam Museum, and had a fun lunch. Then Brad and I had an appointment with the Haskins, so we had to leave and they went punting! I am inspired by their enthusiasm, and their love of everything and everyone. They will be perfect as a YSA couple!!!

We planned a fun dinner for our dear friends, Lucy and Clinton on Saturday night. We would love to see them get back together! We grilled some steaks and had the fixin’s to go with them, then played Skip-bo with them. It was really fun! We’ll see where it goes!!

I was able to teach Relief Society on Sunday on Preserving and Protecting the family by President Hunter. I was so inspired by his words. I am grateful for parents and parent-in-laws who were truly inspired parents, who loved, sacrificed, cared for, taught, and ministered to the needs of each of their children! He counseled parents to hold regular family home evenings, have family councils, pray night and morning with their children, and study the scriptures together. As we do these things we will be better protected against the influences of the adversary! And boy, don’t we need that!!!! I’m inspired by the parents of our grandchildren! Keep up the good work. Keep trying even when the days seem long, and the nights sleepless! “The greatest training that can be given to a child is that which comes from the example of parents!” We love you all!!!

Happy Birthday this week to Heaz on September 16^th! We love you so much and it is fun to see you so in love with your two boys! You are a wonderful mother and a darling and caring wife! Thanks for always inspiring me with everything that you do! You are one in a million!

We love you all!

Love,

Dad and Mom

Papa and Grandma

Elder and Sister Jackman

Thursday, September 8, 2016

Loving the People in Cambridge

Dear family and friends,

Cheers!!!! I hope your week has been a happy one! We had a great week! Missionary work is really a lot of fun for us! I know much of what I write about may sound really boring and mundane, but you must know that we love these people so much that we see every day, that the time we spend with them is very precious and dear to us! So just bear with me as I write down some things we did that made our week so wonderful!

Monday, the 29 of August was a bank holiday in the UK! So the city was like a ghost town. Our dear friends the Haskins wanted us to come for lunch because they had cabin fever so badly.(Jim was still recovering from partial knee replacement surgery). So we took over some pizza, root beer, and tossed salad and had a party! Then later as we were doing some shopping for FHE in city centre, we ran into the missionaries and treated them to a milkshake. (It is the mission P-day) We always love to do anything with the missionaries! We had a great FHE. We didn’t have a lot attend, but the three that were there had a great discussion! The ones there were some of the more reserved ones, so this gave them an opportunity to talk. I was amazed at how much they had to say, and how profound their comments were.

One of our dear YSA’s has started to attend when he can. Rob is a hard working young man. School wasn’t a real high point in his life, but he is an outstanding chef, and is now working at a construction company. He has great integrity, and works hard. He has been trying to give up smoking. He is very nice looking, and clean cut, but with his many tattoos, one wouldn’t guess that he is a member of the church. He also loves football! (soccer), and is involved with a couple of leagues. He is a very good offensive player. We told him we would love to come to some of his games if we can get there. He is very good to let us know when they are. Well we went to one a couple of weeks ago, and we took a few YSA’s and went to see another one this week. They have played 5 games and the three games they lost were the ones that we didn’t attend. So, he told us that the manager has asked him to make sure we will come. They love our bombastic American cheering section! The whole team keeps asking Rob to make sure we come. We love this young man! He loves my desserts! At one FHE, with his permission, we asked the group to pray for Rob in his desire to quick smoking. I have been so impressed with the love and compassion shown by our group. We feel no judgement on the part of any of these young people. It is really inspiring to me!

Because there is a break in institute until the end of September, we are hosting activities on Thursday nights. This week Brad and I took a couple of days and went into London to celebrate our 40^th Wedding Anniversary. We were able to see Les Miserables! (Nate we thought of you!) It was absolutely incredible. In fact, we saw it on the anniversary of Jeanette’s death. That was particularly tender for us as our last outing with Jeanette was to see Les Mis in Cedar City. She loved the play!

The next day we went to the Shard, the tallest building in the western UK, a building made of glass with the undergirding of concrete and steel. It was magnificent. We also went to Windsor Castle. This is the oldest castle still in use by royalty in Europe. A lot of the past English royalty were buried here, like Henry VIII. It was really fun to see some glorious sites really close to us.

We got back and were able to have a wonderful evening with Tony and Christine Halls, a dear friend who owns a men’s clothing store in Cambridge. Several weeks ago, he had a flat tire on his car and Brad was able to help him fix it. They became instant friends because they both like nice clothes and Tony has 18 cars. We were anxious to meet his wife, (and Brad wanted to see his cars! I wanted to see where he stored them all!) Tony was so kind to invite us to their home for dinner. Christine was quite nervous as she had never fed Mormons before. We hit it off! As the guys looked at the cars, I admired her beautiful garden, her lovely home and heard all about her family. We were able to tell them about what we do as missionaries. We hope to spend more time with them.

We also had the chance to help clean up a sweet sister’s garden with the young missionaries, teach a new member lesson to Lucy, meet with some YSA’s for dinner, have a struggling YSA over for lunch, and meet with a young family who is struggling with their testimonies and activity in the church.

The Lord has been very good to us and we feel so blessed to be serving in the England London Mission. We feel that our family has been blessed while we have been gone. Our grandchildren are getting cuter by the day! It is fun to see the pictures, and the videos, and see them growing up. We are so proud of Heather Brown for completing her first marathon race!!! Wow! We are so impressed. We were able to see her finish on facetime!

We love you all! The Gospel is true! We love it and we love you with all our hearts!

Love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Elder and Sister Jackman