Dear friends and family,
Happy Halloween!!!!!
We hope you all have a safe and fun filled holiday!! Thanks for all the pictures. We loved them all and we keep looking at them
and smiling at our darling babies (Chloe
and Carlee, I still consider you my babies!!) and their parents!!!
We had a fabulous week!
It began with a great FHE. We
invited an older couple in our ward (they are a little older than we are, so to
us, they are still young!!!) to share
their conversion story. I wish I could
send you the whole story, but I will share it in a very brief form. They were young marrieds and had one 8 year
old daughter. They felt they wanted to
take a trip to the USA, not a two week trip, but a two year trip. They sold their home in England, flew to LA
and bought a caravan. ( motor home) Their
plan was to see the whole United States.
The first night there, they stayed in a crummy hotel and while enjoying
the swimming pool, they met a family from Burley, Idaho. Their daughter became instant friends to the
children who invited her to come to their hotel room. Not knowing them, the Stokes went to the room
to meet the parents, and became instant friends. The family invited them to come to their home
in Idaho and stay while they were on their trip. “And oh, by the way, we are Mormons!” They had no idea what that meant! But during their travels, they felt the
spirit of the country, seeing US historic sites. They both felt that the Lord had a hand in
the setting up of the constitution. They
felt the desire for some kind of religion, so they bought a Bible and read from
it every day. By the time they made
their way back to Idaho, they felt they wanted to go to Burley, and ask some
questions of this Mormon family. Well,
to make a long story short, they stayed in Burley for 3 weeks and got
baptized. The Stokes are the salt of the
earth. My testimony is constantly
strengthened to know that the Lord puts people in our way that we can help, or
who can help us. All were so inspired by
their testimonies and depth of commitment to the gospel! It also shows me that if a person is prepared to receive the gospel, the Lord provides the people to introduce the gospel to them in very simple but inspired ways.
We were on our daily walk and came across a group of
Catholic monks. They were wearing their white
robes. We came close to one of them who
was walking ahead and we fell in step with him and had a most delightful visit. His name is Brother Clemens and he comes from Zimbabwe. He is 26 years old and is studying to become
a monk. We told him about Justin serving
in Zimbabwe. He was very
interested. We asked about his plans,
his family, and how is was doing. He asked
us what we are doing here. We were able
to quote a part of our missionary purpose about inviting others to come unto Christ through faith in Jesus
Christ, and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the holy Ghost, and enduring
to the end. When we had to part ways, we
shook his hand. He said to us,” you are
so friendly, I would like to talk to you again sometime.” He told us where he lived and we said we
would stop by. We felt very strongly we
needed to see him again, so two days later we walked to the Blackfriar
monastery and rang the doorbell. A Friar
answered the door and we asked to visit with Clemens. He kept looking at our name tags, but invited
us in and escorted us to a small study room.
When Clemens came in, he was so surprised. He said, “I didn’t think you would come.” We had a lovely visit. Brad explained our doctrine of the Godhead
and then I asked him if there was anything we could do for him. He said, I would like to meet with you again
and learn more about Mormonism. We
exchanged emails and we are prayerfully going to send him some information as
he is limited on getting away from the monastery. There is something really special about this
young man. Our mission is one that is
using a lot of social media to spread and teach the gospel, so this will be a
great opportunity to share some wonderful truths with him. We pray for him that his heart will be
touched by the things that we send him.
It was a very tender experience for us!
One of our dear friends passed away last week and we were
able to help out with the funeral services in our ward chapel. As always, I was inspired by this beautiful
lady, Sheila Newman. She was a
righteous, and unassuming woman who had so many friends, just by being
friendly. She walked her dog every day
and had so many dog-walking friends, that a lot of them came to the
funeral. These friends brought their
dogs and lined up outside of the church in honor of Sheila. She really touched a lot of lives, just by
her friendliness and genuine kindness to everyone. To me, the Celestial Kingdom will be filled
with Saints like Sheila Newman!
This blog is such a blessing for me as it gives me the
chance to review and ponder upon the week and clearly see the Lord’s hand in
this work of salvation. As we meet with
families, and couples, and people we feel impressed to visit, something always
seems to happen that is directly related to those special people we meet
with. It’s hard to explain, but as
minute as these things seem, I feel the Lord’s hand in what we are doing. My heart is truly softened and full of love
for the Lord.
We were able to spend a fun p-day walking around Cambridge
with our dear friends, Ron and Michelle Gale, who are serving as a mission
office couple in our mission. We
connected from the first, and they will be going home to Oregon in a couple of
weeks. As always, we are so sad to see
dear friends go, but we have made plans to get together! They told us of a state park in Oregon that
has miles of bike trails, so we are excited to explore the area with them in
the future!
It has been a truly inspiring week! After serving all day and cleaning up from
the funeral, we came home just hammered, so we thought we would just sit down
and watch,” A Man For All Seasons”. We
got through a part of it, when we got a phone call from a dear YSA who needed
us to take her to the doctor. By the
time we waited in the doctor’s office, and went to the pharmacy, it was well
past 10:00, but what a blessing it was for us.
The Lord compensates and strengthens our backs to do what we need to
do! It is truly a miracle.
We love you all!
Love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Elder and Sister Jackman
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