Dear family and friends,
Winter surely came with a vengeance this past week! We are so grateful we have a warm home and
hot water! With the humid air here, it
is very cold. The days are getting shorter. It starts to get dark here around 4:00 in the
afternoon. Street lights are not readily
available in areas other than main traffic routes, so it really seems very
dark!
It was a great week!
We feel the need and desire to spend time with individuals. We have set up an appointment each week with
one of our favorites!! Kalil Studer, a
young man from Brazil. He has a gift for
languages and speaks French, Portuguese, Spanish and English. He is young in the church, so he comes over
every Tuesday night for dinner and scriptures. We met with our 91 year old friend, Leslie Ryan, and a lovely young investigator Shira for lunch with the missionaries.
We were invited for dinner this week from our friends, Jim and Nita
Haskins. We have taught them the game of
Skip-bo and they love it! We also met
their friend, Jo. We talked to her about
coming to see her to tell her about what we do as missionaries. Next blog, I’ll tell you about that great
experience!
Harry, one of our new members brought us over some death
certificates of his ancestors. We volunteered
to take him to the cemetery where his grandfather was buried. It was close to Cambridge, in a place called
Ramsey. We looked over the whole place,
but couldn’t find his grandfather or grandmother. We called the person on the church marquee
and talked to the wife of the person in charge of the cemetery registry. She invited us to come to her home and wait
for her husband. Unfortunately, we had
to leave, but we had a delightful conversation with Patty McPherson. We asked her if she would like us to tell her
about the gospel and she quickly sent us on our way! But I talked to her husband on the phone
later and he found the person we were looking for and also talked to another
cemetery registrar person from another cemetery to find the grandmother. He mailed us the information. He was so kind and we are anxious to go back
so we can find the burial places. Harry
was so excited!
We invited the Budd’s over for dinner and were lucky to have
David, their son, join us as well. I’ve
been having a great email exchange with our new friend, the Catholic Friar,
Brother Clements. I’ve shared the
restoration discussion and the Plan of Salvation discussion with him. He in turn has shared some of his beliefs. We continue to communicate, and we have felt
as though we have met a great friend in him!
On Saturday, we trained to London to meet up with Clark and
Joyce Baron for a p-day! We went to the
National Portrait Gallery, which was amazing.
Brad and I browsed through a section featuring the works of
Picasso. His earlier paintings are
amazing, but then he started getting weird!
I can’t say that we’re fans! But
it was great to think we were seeing original art that I have only seen in
textbooks. After the gallery, we saw “The
Phantom of the Opera”. We have seen this
once, but I was amazed that I didn’t remember a lot of the story. It was fabulous. The costumes, the staging, and the music were
brilliant! We enjoyed dinner after at a
Thai restaurant. It was a marvelous day! We love Clark and Joyce and it is so fun to
be serving with them in England!
I was asked to speak in Sacrament Meeting on sacrifice. Then we traveled to Ipswich to do some YSA
leader training for a couple in our stake.
We had ward council first thing in the morning, so it was a long day of
meetings. We finished off our day with a
visit to a young married couple in our ward.
We have been asked to be their home/visiting teachers. As we started our visit, they told us that
they were going to have their names removed from the records of the church and
be confirmed in the Community of Christ Church.
It was a very sobering conversation.
My heart just hurt for them. All
we could do is bear pure testimony of the gospel. There was a definite dark feeling in their home,
and I really fear for them. We asked
them if they would still allow us to come and to be their friends. They were very anxious for us to come visit
them. Brad offered a beautiful
prayer. I didn’t sleep very well as I
was so worried about them. But we
communicated with them on Monday morning, and asked them not to rush into
anything. They will still join the other
church, but I felt that they have their agency, and what they need from us is
just to shower them with love and friendship.
I’m beginning to think that the purpose of our being here is
to share our love with those who are struggling, or who have lost their
way. We offer and invite we testify and
pray. So many don’t want the gospel, but they are hungry for a friend. We have found many fabulous friends!
We are finding that each day is full to the brim with
service opportunities. We love it! There is still much to do. We fill so much a part of Cambridge, and are
very anxious to finish strong these next few months.
We want to wish a very Happy Birthday to Dad Jackman and
MaryAnn on November 19th!!!
We love you both very much and give thanks for the impact for good you
have been in our lives!
Thank you, Grandpa and Grandma Glauser for spending time
with our kids! They loved being with you
and learning from you. We loved the
pictures!
Have a great week!!!
We love you all so very much! The
work we are involved with is God’s work!
We are definitely the weak and simple ones called to the work, but we
love it!!!
Love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Elder and Sister Jackman
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