Happy New Year

Dear family and friends,

Happy 2017!!!  What a great number and what a great year!  2016 was such an incredible blessing in our lives, one I will be forever grateful for.  Now that January is here, it has become very real that we are actually going home!  We sat down yesterday to plan out our month to make sure we could schedule time for all the people we have come to know and love these past months.  Our month is very full!  We are really excited for that.

This past week has been a week of downtime pretty much for us.  All of our YSA’s are gone.  We visited so many of our friends last week.  The city of Cambridge is like a ghost town.  We have enjoyed our walks each day because there is very little traffic and it is very quiet and foggy and beautiful!

We did enjoy Boxing Day with our friends, the Haskins.  After Jim and Nita’s delicious meal, we watched the Carols From Kings (performed at King’s College Chapel) on TV.  This concert is well known throughout the country and is televised because it is so hard to get seats in the venue.  The first song the choir sang was Angels We Have Heard On High, the hymn arranged by Mack Wilberg.  Wow!  Were we proud!  Monday night we even splurged and went to see the new Star Wars Movie.  There were about 10 people in the theatre!!

We took the opportunity to go into London on Thursday to take a tour of Kensington Palace.  The day was cold, but beautiful and the palace was lovely.  I bought a couple of books to help me understand the history of the monarchs in this country.  After the tour, we took the tube to Harrods.  Brad is looking for a Wedgewood plate.  This store is beyond belief.  I think everyone in England was there when we got there.  It was a mass of bodies moving in this gazillion square foot store.  We finally found the dish floor.  No Wedgewood plates, but they did have a Wedgewood tea set for £5000.00.  Well, no thanks!  For fun I looked at a glass urn, about 2 ½ feet tall with gold trim.  The price tag was £89,000.00.  The table next to it was also glass and gold trim with a price tag of £189,000.00.  What kind of people would buy this kind of stuff?  We did walk through the children’s clothing section and I couldn’t see any price tags on the clothing.  I figured that people who buy kids clothes in Harrods are so wealthy, they don’t care what the price is.  We were anxious to get out of the store because it was so crowded.  We were both blown away by this place!  No, we didn't buy anything.  We just felt pretty posh, just to breathe the expensive air in this amazing place!

We were excited that we were able to connect on Friday with Hazel Price and her son David. (She was taught the gospel by my parents and is a dear friend.)  We had a lovely meal and visit.  We talked to David about the church and offered him a Book of Mormon, but he didn’t want one.  We also tried to see Pat Knight, but she wasn’t home.

We were able to clean the Methodist Church for the homeless project, which is always fun to work with our Anglican friends.  I was invited to attend the Nutcracker Ballet in Cambridge with Gosia Hutber, her mum and daughter, and we spent New Year’s Eve with the Hutbers, our dear friends.  We were also invited to dinner by some other dear friends in the ward, the Scammels and Lucy Wedderburn.  Like I said, we had quite a  holiday this week!  We have started organizing closets and cupboards to get the place ready for the Westenskows.  I wish we could paint it, but then it would lose some of its British charm!

We love you all!  Our time is short, so we hope we can get everything done we have planned!!!  Just to let you know, we will be leaving Cambridge on January 30.  We are spending a few days in the Lake District, and then heading to Scotland to see our dear friends, the Tilbrooks and stay in their hotel.  We will fly into Houston, Texas on February 10, and then arrive in SLC on Feb. 13.  We will be speaking in our ward in Orem on Sunday, 19 February at 1:00 p.m.  We would love to see you there!!!

The church is true!  We have had an incredible experience sharing our testimonies in a way I could never comprehend.  This has been a journey of incredible growth, joy, and increased love for our Heavenly Father and His Son, our Savior, Jesus Christ, as well as our family and friends.

With all our love,

Dad and Mom

Papa and Grandma

Elder and Sister Jackman