Dear family and friends,

The week has flown by so quickly, and Scott and Sherri and the girls are coming for a week, so I will send a quick update on my blog!  We are soooo excited for the Miles family to come.  We just wish that baby G could have fit inside their suitcase!!!

We had some sweet and tender experiences this week!  Last Wednesday we took a sweet friend, a member of our ward to lunch to celebrate her 75^th birthday.  She chose this little diner type establishment and we enjoyed the meal and time together.  When Brad went to pay, for some reason the card didn’t go through, so he ran it again and it showed that the card had been charged so he figured everything was ok.  He told the owner that he would watch and make sure the purchase went through, or we would be back to pay in cash.  The cashier noticed his missionary tag and commented that the owner/manager was a member of our church.  He is from Turkey and when Brad invited him to come to church, he said, “no, I’m too busy!”  Well, Friday morning, Brad checked the credit card and saw that the lunch purchase did not go through, so we went back to make things right, and yes, we took a Book of Mormon with us.  Ollie recognized us, we showed him our bill and Brad gave him the correct cash.  I think he was quite surprised that we would come back in.  We handed him the Book of Mormon and a card with the address of the church and our contact information on it and again invited him to come back to church.  He said he was too busy, but was so grateful that we would return, that he offered to give us a cup of coffee!!! (I’m not so sure he was a Mormon!)  But the name of his restaurant was BLD’S!  Who knows?  Maybe something will touch his heart!!!

A cute couple we have gotten to know, Jim and Nita Haskins have become sweet friends!  When we visited them, they told us that Jim had gone to A and E (emergency room) with chest pains.  We felt bad that Nita didn’t call us as we would have come and given Jim a blessing.  I guess we should have been close enough to the spirit to have known, right?  Tests were taken and Jim was fine, but Nita has had some health issues and her doctor told her she needs to quit drinking tea and coffee.  She is the one who told us that she would never join the church until the Word of Wisdom is rescinded!!!  So when she said she wasn’t to drink tea and coffee, we both said together, “Yeah, now you can join the church!!!”  They will be heading to Utah and are going to visit Thanksgiving Point, so if any of you happen to visit Thanksgiving Point and hear a cute English accent, stop them and say hello!!!  They will be there the week of May 30!

We had a great treat this week as Teresa Liu and her friend Ann came all the way to Cambridge to see us!!!!  I love Teresa like a daughter!  She and Ann had come to tour London and were so sweet to take an afternoon to spend with us!  We picked them up at that train station and then showed them around Cambridge.  It is so beautiful here right now and luckily the weather cleared so we had a lovely day.  It was so fun just to enjoy them enjoying King’s College, the streets of Cambridge, and the beauty of the college backs!!!  We enjoyed a great lunch of salad and pizza at a really good restaurant.  Thank you Teresa for coming!  How we adore you and I just want you to know how precious you are!!!

Again, we have some dear friends, John and Vivian Cook who are in Utah for the next 2 weeks.  If any of you get a phone call from an English bloke, just know it is a very wonderful friend!!!!

Great week!  Lots of fun with YSA’s, barbecue, FHE and temple trip!  Our life here is sweet and very rewarding!!!

We love you all!  Thanks for making our life so wonderful!

Love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

our zone leaders and district!! from L to R back row Elder Toa, Elder Coon, Elder Walker, Elder Jensen (ZL) Sister J, Elder J, Sister Vizaco, Sister Becker front, Elder Dalley, Elder Withers (ZL)

Brad in cemetery behind gravestone for Joseph Smith and his wife Lucy Smith  (I wonder if they are related!!)

Kings College  backyard

Ann, Vicki and Teresa at King's College

Ann, Vicki, and Teresa at Cam River

Wisteria delight

A Beautiful Week

Dear family and friends,

Happy May week!  The wisteria and lilacs are in full bloom and are cascading everywhere.  It is breathtaking and the air smells unbelieveably glorious.  May is definitely the time to visit Cambridge!  We are so looking forward to Scott and Sherri, Chloe, Carlee and Jaylee coming to visit next week!

We had a great week, albeit sad!  It was transfer week.  That is always hard on us.  Sister Bader and Elder Champion went home and Elder Hiltunen was transferred.  We've started a tradition to have a waffle breakfast for the departing missionaries the day they leave.  It is really fun to gather for the last time, swap addresses, hug them and express our love.  We got three new missionaries; Elder Daley from Lehi, Elder Coon from West Valley City, and Sister Becker (a greenie) from Hanover, Germany.  We got to meet them the next day at district meeting, which is always a great thing, especially watching the deer in the headlights look we get from the new ones!  Our purpose is to hopefully put them at ease and let them feel of our love and support.

We had a glorious day on Wednesday.  We usually meet with the Tilbrooks on Wednesday night and this was no exception.  We have taught Andrew all the discussions and have decided to review gospel principles with him.  Brad felt strongly that we challenge him to baptism.  They will be moving to Scotland within the month and we didn't want them to leave without their knowing of our desire for him to be baptized.  The spirit was strong in the home as we talked about faith.  I think he was quite taken aback when Brad issued the challenge.  He was quiet for a while and then said, I am just not ready.  I know what is required for membership in the church and I am an all the way kind of person.  I don't want to join until I know for sure and can honestly commit myself to live the gospel.  The thing that was touching was that his wife Gail offered the closing prayer and prayed that Andrew would be baptized.  The spirit in the room was palatable!  We left feeling so grateful for the blessing of being on a mission.  We feel that maybe this is why we came to this mission--to meet and grow to love Andrew and Gail.  We really believe that he will be baptized some day!  We will be eternal friends!!!  They are so excited to meet Scott and Sherri and the girls, so we are planning for the girls to have a first class missionary experience and share a FHE lesson with them!

One of our missionaries we have grown to love (Sister Collette Nebeker), returned to visit us with her mother and twin sister.  They came right before institute and it was like old home week.  Both she and her sister are engaged within two days of each other and they will be married at the end of the summer.  It’s amazing to me how we have made eternal bonds of friendship in such a short amount of time.  That is one of the miracles of serving a mission!

Friday we were able to meet at the mission home with President and Sister Stevens and all the YSA missionaries in our mission.  It was a forum of sharing ideas, successes and love for the work.  Each couple has a slightly different assignment.  One is a couple serving in a YSA ward in London.  The others are serving over an entire stake of YSA and we are serving in a ward YSA program.  Two of the couples will be phasing out a full-time missionary YSA assignment, meaning that the stake will call a local couple to serve.  The Area Presidency is feeling very strongly that eventually the whole YSA program will be organized and run through the individual stakes.  As we talked with the couples leaving soon, they shed tears thinking about leaving their missions.  They are very tired, but also are dreading to leave the young people they have grown to love and cherish.  I can understand their emotion very well!

Sunday, Brad was able to confirm Alex Towey, a young single adult that will be now joining our ranks!  He will be a blessing to the ward.  He is strong and committed.  Then one of our YSA’s , Kalil Studer (from Brazil) had conferred upon him the Aaronic Priesthood and was ordained to the office of priest.  He asked Brad to ordain him, which was a real honor for Brad.  Generally, one doesn’t give his priesthood line of authority to someone unless they are receiving the Melchizedek Priesthood, but Brad felt impressed to give his line of authority to Kalil.  In this way, he could explain to Kalil that he was ordained by the power of Jesus Christ.  Kalil was so touched and said that he was going to frame and hang this priesthood line of authority next to his certificate of  receiving the Aaronic Priesthood and being ordained to the office of priest.  It is so humbling to us to see the childlike faith and joy that these young people possess.  Then Brad was able to give priesthood blessings of healing to three more young single adults.  They have become like our family and Brad was so humbled and honored to be asked to use his priesthood in these sacred ways.

We attended a Sunday night stake YSA committee meeting with some of our committee members, Jordan Clarke, and Sam Ablett.  Like I said, we are the only senior missionaries in our stake and we serve in one ward.  The other wards were anxious to ask us how our program is organized and wanted to know what we have found successful.  We likewise were anxious to learn how the other wards were working and hear of their successes.  It was a great meeting, however, like many in the missionfield, we had to travel about an hour and a half each way to attend the meeting.  It sure makes me appreciate having to go about 4 blocks to the church and even then, we drive!!!!

I want to thank you all for your kindness and thoughtfulness for my birthday!  I felt so loved that day and want you to know how much I love and appreciate all of you.  You are such a strength to us!  May you have a wonderful week and know that you have someone in the UK who is praying for you every day!!!

We love you all!  Missions are the best!

Love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

 

Young Single Adults--Hooray!!!

Dear family and friends,

Cheers our dear loved ones!!!  We think of you every day and remember you in our prayers!  It was so fun to skype to all of our children and see you all!!  We are blown away with how much our little ones are changing.  They are getting bigger and their vocabularies are increasing!  We just ache to hold and hug them!  But we love how you wonderful parents are so dedicated to teaching your children and appreciate how much you love them!

We also were able to talk to our mothers on the phone to wish them a Happy Mother’s day.  That is always a joy for us!  We are praying that Jackmans are able to sell their home quickly as they have found a beautiful smaller place to live in the South Ogden area. 

We had a great week with the Young Single Adults.  Monday night is always FHE!  I think that is my favorite night of the week!  A young adult is asked by the YSA committee to share a thought, either a scripture or talk from general conference, and then open it up for discussion.  The discussions we have had are absolutely inspiring.  The youth feel safe in this group and open up in real honest feelings, concerns, or questions they have and we have had some incredible meetings.  We are so proud of these young adults as they are so inclusive and make each member feel valued.  As I look around the group, all are so different, some members, some return missionaries, some non-members, some struggling members, from different parts of the world, some going to school at Cambridge (which tells you they are very smart), and others going to Anglica Ruskin (another Cambridge University—they are very smart as well), some professional jobs, and some are labor intensive jobs.  They are from many parts of the world and yet they all are so non-judgmental and accepting of everyone who comes.  We know them quite well and are aware of their challenges, successes, joys and concerns.  Sitting in FHE a few weeks ago, I had the thought that if the Savior would come to earth, He would come to our group and embrace every one of them!   We then have treats, and play games.  They are hilarious, and everyone loves them!!!  We invite the full-time missionaries to join us and they add so much to the group as well!

 This last week, instead of a lesson, we listened to a rebroadcast of the YSA talk by Elder Richard J. Maynes about the Prophet Joseph Smith, the First Vision, the different accounts and the sacred truths revealed from the vision.  It was magnificent!  We had a non-member, Alex Towey attend who was so touched by the spirit that he was determined to find out for himself that Joseph Smith was indeed a prophet and really did see what he said he saw.  His answer came in a very sacred way for him, and he knew for himself!  He has been taking the missionary discussions, and received a testimony of the Church, and this added measure of testimony of Joseph Smith was an incredible blessing for him.  He was baptized this past Sunday, on May 8.  We love baptisms!!!!  Sister Bader and Sister Vizaco taught Alex.  When Alex told his girlfriend that he was joining the church, she gave him an ultimatum, either your church or me.  He told her that he had had too many witnesses that were undeniable of the church, the Book of Mormon, Joseph Smith, Jesus Christ and the plan of salvation, so he had to join the church.  This young man is amazing.  But Marissa (his girlfriend) attended the baptism, despite the fact that she didn’t seem very pleased about it. Amazingly enough, the Sisters are now teaching her.  Alex was baptized by Sam Dearden, one of our YSA’s and Alex has asked Brad to confirm him this coming Sunday!  He has been one of the highlights of our mission!

We had Stake Conference this past week.  Brad was asked to speak in the Saturday night adult meeting on ministering to the one as well as to put a plug in for senior missions!  I was so touched by Brad’s words and testimony.  He gave an example of ministering to the one by our YSA committee in activating a young man by reaching out to him.  Also, he told about Brian’s experience with a wonderful Bishop who loved him and reached out to him in a way that we will forever be grateful.

The whole weekend was a spiritual feast.  President Simon Fagg is our Stake President. ( It took a while for me to get used to the name!!!!)  He is one of the most incredible men I have ever met.  Every talk was so inspired and we came away motivated and super-charged to improve our efforts to build the kingdom here.  Also, President and Sister Stevens spoke, and they are always amazing!

I will close with a quote from President Fagg, one of my favorites from 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 obedience become our quest is my humble prayer and deepest desire!

We love you all!

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

 

 The lilacs have burst open in glorious splendor!!!  Brad always looks great!

Sister Bader, Sam Dearden (he baptized Alex), Ales Towey, Sister Vizaco

our garden!  Brad fixed the fence, Brad mows the lawn twice a week with our hand pushed mower (it takes him 5 minutes to mow it)  We trimmed the bushes, planted some flower pots.  The lilac tree is my favorite!!  Reminds me of Grandma Taylor!

Great Reason to Rejoice!

Dear family and friends,

We have great reason to rejoice!!!  Brad passed his British driving test!!!!  I’ve never seen him so nervous.  We went to King’s Lynn, a village about 45 minutes from us.  We were told that it was a good place to take the practical test, so we thought it would be a sleepy little village.  Ha!!!!  The examiner goes in the car with you and tells you where to drive and then keeps a tab on all the mistakes you make.  If you make over 15 minor faults, you fail.  A minor mistake is forgetting to look in the rear view mirror before you signal, brake, or turn.  While he was taking the test, I was talking to two driving instructors asking them all kinds of questions.  They told me that if 10 people walked in to take the test from America, 9 of them would fail!  They told me I would be very smart to hire an instructor for 2 or 3 hours before taking the test.  The irony of the situation is that they were with students who were taking the test.  Well, Brad passed with 3 minor errors which is excellent!  Neither of their students passed!  Needless to say they couldn’t get out of the building fast enough!  I think they were very embarrassed!  But me, I’m not sure I will even try.  Brad says I will. Needless to say, I’ve been driving everywhere since he passed!

We had a great week!  We had dinner with many dear friends this week, Mike and Sandra Budd, Jim and Nita Haskins, and John and Vivian Cook!  I’m going to have to come home to relearn how to cook!  All of these friends are very good cooks.  Their food is superb and the company is so fun! We also try to keep tabs on our YSA’s whom we don’t see a lot of for one reason or another.  We love them all so much, and we feel such a closeness to them all!

We got to do a training for district meeting on using the Book of Mormon in our missionary work.  We learn so much from our dear young missionaries, our time with them is so inspirational!

I had a great morning with Sister Bader and Sister Vizaco as we helped clean a kitchen for a young sister in our ward who is moving!  We really had a blast and got to laughing so hard as we boxed up and cleaned her kitchen.  Amazingly enough, she didn’t have an oven, so I didn’t have to clean the oven.  (that is usually my favorite job!!!!!not)  I am constantly amazed how much I feel the spirit when I serve someone, and feel an increase of love for the people I serve and serve with.  We then had another service project with the YSA’s and the missionaries as we helped clean up the cemetery with the Anglican church folks!  They were so excited to see 10 of us show up ready to help.  They love these young people and are so impressed that young adults would show up early on a Saturday morning to work hard.  We uncovered gravestones that have been hidden under ivy and bushes for decades.  And I’m always so impressed how the young people love to do it.  One of our missionaries made the comment that this is the coolest service project he has ever done!!  This is one of our missionaries that is having a tough time, so this was particularly rewarding to hear him say that!

We are still teaching and staying close to Lucy and Gail and Andrew Tilbrook.  As their lives have become so busy, scheduling time with them gets to be a real challenge.  Gail and Andrew are hoping to move to Scotland and get into the hotel business.  We don’t like to think of them moving, but their home sold in one weekend, and it looks like they will leave if the offer is accepted on the hotel they want to buy.  I always thought it would be so fun to run a Bed and Breakfast, but after talking with them about this new adventure, I’m not sure I would want to do it anymore!

We’ve got a full week ahead of us!  We are excited!  Our thoughts are always with you.  We love you and miss you.  Keep sending the pictures!  The videos are the best!  Then we get to hear how their little voices are changing, and their vocabulary is growing!

News we have heard is that Jacob Robertson (John and Barbara Robertson's son) passed away on April 23 from brain cancer.  We watched this young man grow up and it has really affected me.  He is an outstanding young man, age 37, a loving husband and doting father of 4.

Have a great week!  Please tell your precious little ones often how much you love them.  Hug and kiss them a lot and pray with them!  You are the most glorious blessings in our lives!  (Happy Birthday today, Nate!!!!  We love you!  Happy Birthday Asher on Thursday!  We love you!!!)

With all our love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

Elder Walker at Cemetery

This head stone was covered by ivy and has probably been covered since 1950's

some of our cemetery workers: Sam Ablett, Sister Vizaco, Sister Bader, Eric and our church of England friends

walking home from the cemetery

Elder Hiltunen (Finland) Mike Gardiner, Sister Vizaco (Brazil), Elder Walker (Provo),

Sister Jackman, Elder Jackman, Sam Ablett Jordan Clarke, Sister Bader (Bern Switzerland--she knows how to make zupfe bread!!!), Cheryl Li (Australia)

Brad, uncovering another headstone

Elder Toa ( demonstrating his talent to make a raw egg stand up)

Driving home from the London Temple on April 26

It's a Small World

Dear family and friends,

This will be a brief blog post this week!  We are doing well!  Not much new to report other than we are once again in the middle of flat inspections.  Those are always fun as we get to interact with all of our zone missionaries.  What is so great about it, is that many of them know people we know and/or are related in some way.  For example, Elder McComber is from Orem and went to Clark Baron’s school.  When I told him that the Barons will be coming here on a mission, he was elated despite the fact that he is leaving in June and they won’t get here until August.  We met Elder Lindsay, a fine missionary who is the son of Bruce Lindsay from KSL fame and related to Gordan Lindsay who once lived in our stake!  Another sweet sister missionary, Sister Phillips from Clearfield served in Leighton Buzzard (that is the actual name of a beautiful little village).  She knew Hazel Price well!  (My parents taught Hazel the gospel when they were here on their mission!)  The church certainly shrinks the size of the earth!!!

We had a great opportunity to meet with President and Sister Stevens at our zone conference!.  They are heading to Germany for a semi-annual meeting with European mission presidents.  While there, they will meet with Wayne and Luanna Watson who are the mission presidents in Finland!  President Watson was our stake president in Orem and we LOVE them!  It was fun to send our love and greetings with the Stevens.

During one of our flat inspections, the missionaries had two bikes they weren’t using and asked if we could get rid of them.  After checking the other missionaries, no one wanted or needed them, so we brought them home and took them to a bike repairman, a friend of ours and he fixed them up both for 80 pounds.  We went on our first bike ride and it was a blast!!!  We are bound and determined to be expert bike riders in Cambridge!!!  They have knobby tires and the seats are a little too short, but we love them!!!

We’ve had some great visits this week with dear friends and we made some new ones.  On Saturday, a cold and rainy day, we felt the need to visit a young single adult we haven’t been able to make contact with.  We said a prayer before we went up to her door.  Laura opened the door and obviously had been crying.  We introduced ourselves and she asked us if we could come back another time because she had just received some very sad news.  Then she paused and asked us how we knew to come to her house that day?  She seemed very pleased and surprised that we would come right then.  It is amazing to us how the Lord knows things we don’t know!  We have since texted her and found out that a dear friend had just passed away and Laura felt that her friend had sent us!  But we know who sent us!!  We’re anxious to meet up with her next week.

Have a great week!  We love you all!  Oh, and JaLee, I met a young mom who knows you and loves you.  Her name is Qwenivere Wulstenhulme. (I slaughtered the spelling!) She used to teach in the ancient scripture department at BYU!  She and her husband Clarke are thinking about moving to Cambridge for work with their 4 children.  What a lovely family!

This is the work of the Lord!  We reverence, love and honor Him!  We love you all!  Happy Birthday this week, Doug Glauser on the 21^st, Nate on April 25^th, and Asher Brown on April 28^th!  We love all the outstanding men in our lives!!!

Love,

Dad and mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

Happy driving!!!!

Dear family and friends,

Happy April!  I think Spring has finally arrived in England, at least for this week.  The leaves are starting to pop out and the cows in Kings college field are back!!!  They are quite a picture event!

We had a great week!  It was one of those when all the people we wanted to see or meet with were still out of town for Easter holiday, (these people take a lot of long holidays!!!!) or just weren’t available.  However, we did start up Institute again this week which is always a great thing!  We are trying to find some of our lost souls in our YSA group.  So to find them, we do a lot of searching on facebook.  It’s amazing what you can find.  One of our young single adults works as a bartender at a local pub, so since we’ve never been able to find her at home,  we found out the name of her pub!  So here we are two missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, entering a pub and walking up to the bar to ask if Ashleigh worked there!  I think the bartender thought we were from the FBI or Mafia or who knows where.  Needless to say, she wasn’t working that night and he was very hesitant to give us any information!  We are just going to have to go back hoping to catch her there!

We had another baby boy born into our ward which is always a wonderful thing!  Sweet little Elijah Huck Lucas!  As always it is such a treat to go visit these new parents and cuddle their little bundles of joy.  It fills a need I have to hold a new baby!!!

We spent some down time this week studying for our theory and perception driving tests.  I was nervous, but Brad was really nervous!  So Monday morning, we went to the testing center.  Our American driver’s licenses are good for 12 months while we are here, and then we are required to get a British license.  We can also leave the country and get a stamp on our passport and we would qualify for another 12 months.  But as missionaries, we can’t leave our mission, so we’ll take the test!  You are not allowed to take anything in the testing center, like a purse, keys, phone, paper, etc.  They required that we take off our missionary tags.  They push up your sleeves to make sure you don’t have any answers written on your arms I guess.  I had to lift up my hair to make sure I had nothing hidden there!  Wow!  There must be a lot of people that cheat!  Well, to let you know, we both passed!!!!!  We were both relieved.  Brad beat my score, but we were just excited to have passed.  Now we have to schedule the driving part of the exam.  That is the part I am nervous about, because they might make me parallel park!  I can’t do that in America, so I’ve got some practicing to do!!!

Saturday we spent the day with our friends the Hutbers at Wimpole Hall, a National Trust farm estate property.  They opened their gardens and it was lambing season.  It reminded me a lot of Thanksgiving Point.  They had corralled all the expectant ewes in a protective area while they awaited their “time”.  I was hoping we would see a lamb being born, but we didn’t.  We saw baby lambs though, baby pigs, chicks, goats, and large Clydesdale like horses.  Just the smell and feel of a working farm was so invigorating to me!  I think I must have been a farmer in a previous life because I feel at home at one!!!!  We enjoyed being with Carl and Goshia and their children Alex and Angelina.

On Sunday we were able to talk to Julie’s primary class about baptism on skype!  We loved that!  We believe in it!!  My thought for you all this week is from Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “Keep loving. Keep trying.  Keep trusting.  Keep believing.  Keep growing.  Heaven is cheering you on today, tomorrow, and forever!”

Have a glorious week!  Please know how much we love you and can feel of your love and prayers!  This is the work of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!  What a grand blessing to be involved in it!

With all our love,

Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma

our new friends in our back garden, Fred and Ethel

daffodils at Wimpole Hall--they are everywhere and stunningly beautiful

this little lady spins the wool, washes it and knits it into hats and mittens.  She buys about 73 wool fleeces each year.  We figure she makes about $2.50  an hour, but she drove off in a Mercedes, so she must have a side job!!!!!  She is one of a few women who still actually spins their own wool in the UK

Dear family and friends,

The weeks seem to go by so quickly, I can’t believe it’s time to send a blog again!  March has flown by!

We had some wonderful experiences last week which add to the excitement of a mission.  Monday, we attended a craft fair at a local Anglican Church at the invitation of Ank, the pastor or vicar of the church.  We need to find out their proper titles.  While there, we were introduced to her “boss”.  Her name is Pip and she is the Rector of 4 or 5 different Anglican churches in the area.  She has 26,000 members in her flock!  We think she is kind of like a Stake President.  She was a lovely woman.  We asked her if they are involved in any community service opportunities that we could help them with.  She was very excited!  She said they have Methodists and other religious groups that join them, but have never had “the Mormons” involved with them.  We will meet with her when she gets back from her Sabbatical in Rome in May.  She was very anxious to meet with us.  We are looking forward to the opportunity.

Last week was transfer week, always a very hard week for us, because we knew we would be losing some missionaries.  We have had 3 sisters here and 4 elders here, so we knew we would be losing 3 missionaries.  Sister Lawler, Elder Wood, Elder Tomas, and Elder Auras were being moved.  So we invited them all on Tuesday morning for waffles.  It was a delightful send off.  We have gotten very close to these wonderful missionaries, but we know they will be magnificent wherever they go next!  On Wednesday we welcomed Elder Walker from Provo and Elder Champion from Australia and Elder Toa from an island off the east coast of Australia.  We are very impressed with these elders.  Because of driver’s license red tape, Elder Champion and Elder Toa who are serving in Bury St. Edmunds, can’t drive for a few days.  So after district meeting we drove them to their new flat and went shopping with them to help get them settled.  (Only missionaries will carry  bed sheets, cold cereal, whole milk and toilet paper down the center of town without embarrassment.  You have to pay for the bags to carry your groceries in here, so we carried the stuff without bags)  We heard their conversion stories which were inspiring.  Elder Champion is the only member of the church in his family and is 27, a fine young man.  Elder Toa lives on a very remote island with no electricity.  Everything they eat, they grow or raise.  He is a very humble Elder.  He really had a culture shock when his first area on the mission was in London!  There are 200 people of his island.  We were so impressed with him and his courage!

We had a great outing this week!  Because it is Easter break here, many of our YSA’s are on holiday.  So we decided to go see a play in London!  Yeah!!!  We took a train into London and rode the tube into the theatre district where we saw Guys and Dolls.  It was fabulous.  We stopped for soup and a sandwich and then took the train home!  It was so fun, we decided we want to do it again soon!!!!  So, you who are coming really ought to take in a play. 

Wasn’t General Conference magnificent?  Every conference seems the best I’ve ever heard!  This was no exception.  We attended the General Women’s meeting on Saturday at the church followed by a lunch by the priesthood, and the Saturday morning session at 5.  Sunday, Brad attended the Priesthood session at the church.  That afternoon we had Saturday afternoon session and Sunday morning session at our home for the missionaries and the Young Single Adults who were here.  We had dinner in between and had a good group attend. (If you feed them, they will come!!!!) It reminded us of the young people we always had come over with Brian for conference!!!

transfer day: left to right Elder Wood from Mississippi, Sister Lawler from Arizona, Jackmans, Elder Auras from Germany, Elder Tomas from Spain

 

people punting on the Cam River in Cambridge

 

 Monday night for FHE we saw the Sunday afternoon session.  Now that was an incredible session!  Elder Kieron is our Area Seventy and our stake has been involved with helping out the Syrian refugees in France.  It was great to hear from him and see how President Uchtdorf was so touched!  We had written down questions or concerns we had before conference and the answers that came were just what I expected!  Be worthy, be committed, make the harder right choice, be worthy of the guidance of the spirit, and keep going!  I was so inspired!  Three comments that sunk deep into my heart were from Elder Snow, “ Our genuine concern should be the success of others.”, and from Elder Renlund, “the more we distance ourselves from God, the more entitled we feel.”, and from President Uchtdorf, “as we increase in faith we must increase in faithfulness.  Obedience is the lifeblood of faith.” 
I testify that Jesus Christ is the head of this Church.   This is His Church.   His plan of happiness is perfect! I know we have living prophets, seers, and revelators on the earth today.  They say the words that the Savior would say if He were speaking.  I can imagine that President Packer, Elder Perry and Elder Scott were attentive attendees from heaven!!!! The music was angelic and so inspiring!  One of our friends, Richard Woolley just joined the Mormon Tabernacle Choir a few months ago.  It was so fun to see him from England on television!!!  I am so excited and honored that we can be serving the Lord on a mission!  We feel the presence of angels around us!  Thank you for your prayers!  We feel them!  We love you all!
Love,
Dad and Mom
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki

PS.  Carlee,  thank you for your sweet note!!!  It is on our fireplace mantle!  It is a cherished token of a very special granddaughter whom we love!