Dear family and
friends,
Happy December!!! The
most glorious time of the year! May your
month be filled with magical moments of service and feeling the Spirit of the
Lord in your lives. As we put up our
Christmas tree, I pulled out the family ornaments Nate and Becca sent last
year. They grace our tree and it looks
magnificent! The four littlest warriors
are still pictured in ultrasound form!
We can’t believe how all our precious grandchildren have changed, and we
can’t believe how fast this past year has flown by!
Each week it seems we do very similar things, so I know this
must get really monotonous to read. I’ll
just highlight a few experiences that were really special for us this
week!
As you know, every six weeks we
have transfers, so at our waffle breakfast this week we said good-by to our
dear district leader Elder Moulton from Provo!
He was a fine missionary and luckily he won’t live too far away from us
in Utah.
We were invited by our dear neighbors, the Steens, to attend
their Christmas concerts, one for Elizabeth who plays in a community orchestra
in Hitchin. It was fun to drive through
this lovely little village knowing that Dad and Mom served there. Then we were invited to join the Steen
grandparents to hear Alicia and Isobel sing.
No matter what the country, these school carnivals and concerts are all
the same-a lot of noise and excited children!
We attended our dear friend, Vivienne Cook’s father’s
funeral. Yes, we have had a lot of
funerals in this neck of the woods. This
was a particularly tender funeral for me.
In all that was said about this dear man, despite his busy church
callings, and working to provide for his family, (they never did say what his
profession was!), he was first and foremost a fabulous father. He had a really rough childhood and so was
determined to make his own home one with loads and loads of love. And apparently, it was just that. All those who spoke and those we talked to
knew this dear man as a wonderful father who made everyone feel loved and
important. I think it was tender to
me because he reminded me of my own
father and father-in-law.
Well, we’ve started our missionary flat inspections again
and as always it is such a pleasure to meet new missionaries and revisit those
we already know. I’ll not get over how
precious these young elders and sisters have become to us. We are all involved in the same work and it
bonds us in a way that we will be eternally connected!
We had a group of Senior office and family history missionaries
call us up and ask us for a tour of Cambridge.
What a fun group! The Felsteds,
the Rees’s, the De Johns, and the Barlows.
Bailey Scott, one of our YSA’s took us on a tour of her college, Gaius,
then we saw King’s chapel, City Centre, the backs, and enjoyed lunch at the
Eagle Pub, a famous pub in Cambridge where the British airmen from WWII signed
their names on the ceiling, and also, where the discovery of DNA was first
announced to the scientific world! (The
atmosphere was awesome, but the food wasn’t very good!!!) They wanted the 2 mile walking tour, and not
the 10 mile walking tour. It’s a good
thing because after lunch, they were cold and tired so we sent them on their
way. But what a great missionary memory
for us. People who visit Cambridge want
to come and see the university, but don’t realize that the University consists
of 31 separate colleges.
One of our highlights for the week was an email we received
from Brother Clements, our Catholic friar
friend from Zimbabwe! When he
couldn’t come for Thanksgiving Dinner, he said he needed about 2 weeks notice
to schedule a visit. So I gave him two
weeks notice, and he is coming in 2 weeks for breakfast. He said that now his classes are over for the
Christmas break, he has more time for reading!
I sent him an email and told him I had a great book for him to
read! We’re anxious for a 2 hour
discussion on the 21st!
Another highlight happened on Sunday, 4 Dec. We scheduled several weeks ago to attend
church in Southend on Sea with Terry and Yvonne Ebbs, the dear friends Brad met
on his first mission. He spent his first
Christmas with them 43 years ago. They
are the ones who have been inactive for over 30 years. We met them at the chapel and were so excited
to see them! They had come to Cambridge
Ward a few months ago and even went back to the Southend ward on their own a
few weeks back. Members of the ward are
so excited to have them back. As it was
fast Sunday, Brad felt he needed to share his testimony and bore a powerful
witness of the Church, the Savior, Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. He told the members he had served for 6
months in Southend 43 years ago, and expressed his love for the Ebbs. Immediately after the meeting, a lovely lady
came up to us and introduced herself. Her name is Wendy McDonald. She remembered Brad. She is Catholic and lives close to the
church. She said 43 years ago, she and
her 2 year old son were in a really bad way.
The missionaries showed up at her house and offered their services. She asked them to please cut her grass that
was about 3 feet deep. As she watched Brad,
and his companion and others help her, she felt such love for this church who exemplified
Christian service. That very morning, (Dec.
4) she awoke early and said she felt strongly that she needed to attend church
in the Mormon building. She was there
and when Brad spoke, she said, “I knew it was you, the same missionary who
helped me 43 years ago. I need to go
talk to the young missionaries!” Now
whether she is an investigator, or just showed up that day, we don’t know. Maybe nothing will ever happen, but the thing
that touched us so, was that a simple service by humble missionaries 43 years
prior in her life made an impression for good on this sweet woman. She had to leave to go to work, so we couldn’t
find out any more details. Brad did not
remember this woman or the service. We
met another wonderful man, the high councilman.
He was from Zimbabwe. We were instantly
friends!! His first name was Clemens,
and I couldn’t understand his last name.
But he said he would meet us again at the Harare, Zimbabwe Temple
dedication!! Hey, now that sounds fun,
huh, Justin and Amber!!! We left the
church with such gratitude for the Lord’s hand in our lives. It was a glorious day!
We love missionary work!!
We love you all! Have a wonderful
week!
With all our love,
Dad and Mom
Papa and Grandma
Elder and Sister Jackman
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