Hello, all of our friends and loved ones! It has been a wonderful week. Halloween here is not a big deal. A few children will go trick or treating but a lot of people believe that Halloween is a pagan celebration, so they don't participate! But the early morning fog is a sight to behold! We did carve pumpkins at FHE and had a blast. There were several young adults who had never carved a pumpkin, so it was fun to see them so intent on doing so!
We had some repairs to do on our car this week and some repairs on the plumbing and washing machined done, so we had to work around our scheduled repairs.
One of the highlights of our week was to meet the parents of one of our young single adults. His name is Lewis Mancer. He is a convert of 2 years and has just left for the Provo MTC preparing for the Belgium/Netherlands mission. He is the only member in his family, and he wanted his parents to meet us. They are incredible. They are a very loving family and live in a lovely home in the country. It's a thatched roof home and the front of it looks like what I would consider a hobbit house, with the low ceilings, wooden beams, and plastered walls. The floors are tilted and squeaky, but it was the coziest home you could imagine. It was built around the 1850's. Several years ago, the owner added on a very modern kitchen, laundry, dining room/sun room, and two bedrooms, another bath and a TV room. But the thing that was so wonderful about it was the feeling we had in the home. Lewis's parents were lovely, well educated, and so genuinely kind. (I felt they would make a great Bishop and RS president!!!!) We are planning to take opportunities to meet up with them again. We just felt like long time friends after the evening was over! Sorry, I didn't get any pictures of this wonderful family, or their fabulous home!
We had our first real play day since we have been here on our mission. Some dear friends from our ward in Orem were traveling in London and going on to Italy. We met Richard and Jan and Sherilyn Wooley at Buckingham Palace to watch the changing of the guards. Jan brought me some cinnamon bears from home!!!! Thank you so much!! We visited and then walked to Winston Churchill's war room museum. It was incredible. We were only able to spend an hour or so in the museum and then had to catch a train back to Cambridge, but the time with these dear friends was so sweet! How we love them! Chloe, we did see trainstop 93/4 and a Harry Potter store with real magic wands!
We aren't supposed to use candles, so the kids used the lights on their cell phones! Who would have thought?
Our institute this week was held in Ipswich, a village about and hour and a half away. We met with two other area YSA groups. We had a wonderful lesson and then the activity was food and a mafia game. The YSA's loved it! Yes, that's all we do is play!!!!
We did have some wonderful visits this week with less actives. So many we visit don't really have a knowledge of what the gospel is all about. So we try to leave a message, especially of Joseph Smith and the restoration and our testimonies. It is really a tender experience for us. We were trying to find a sweet sister and ended up finding her sister instead. She is a member, but she said the church isn't for her. Brad asked if we could teach her so she could rethink her attitude about the church. We bore our testimonies to her. It was a very sweet visit. So we are going to try to get hold of her sister and together we hope to visit them both this week. We also were able to teach some discussions with the Elders to a lovely family here. We are praying for the Nyasembi family that their mother's heart will be softened to the message of the gospel. We were able to have a visit with the RS president here, a wonderful single woman from America. She teaches school at the American airforce base here. I felt such a desire to hear her story. She's had a really hard life, but is so optimistic. Where it would be so easy to be bitter, she instead has made lemonade out of lemons. She reminded me so much of my sister Janet! And speaking of Janet, I could use some counsel from you on what to say to some of these women that are in some really awful situations and are so depressed with their lives. Our hearts go out to them and we pray that they can feel our love,
We love you all! We appreciate the time we can Skype with you and drool over our sweet grandbabies! Have a wonderful week. Please know that you are all in our prayers every day. We cherish our dear family and friends, and the gospel of Jesus Christ. "It is the path that leads to happiness in this life and eternal life in the world to come!"
Love,
Elder and Sister Jackman
mom and dad,
grandma and Papa
This picture of Kinney talking to Papa and Grandma is priceless to us!!!!!!
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