my first solo flight!!!

Dear family and friends,
Each week brings a new wonder of adventures, challenges, testimony opportunities, and happiness!

 This week, I want you to know that I took my first solo flight--I drove home from a Relief Society activity all by myself!  Wow!  That was awesome!  I told the sisters in the ward that I was doing it and they said, they would leave 10 minutes earlier so to be sure to be out of my way.  I felt so confident;  I went to get into the car, opened the door and sat down and realized I had gotten in on the passenger side.  Well, that wasn't a good sign, but I got home without a hitch.  I felt like I could do anything from now on.  I felt so proud of myself.  Brad, on the other hand, was a nervous wreck at home!!!

Just a recap of some of our adventures this week;
* we are working with a new convert and feel that she would benefit greatly from doing family history.  We took her to the ward family history library to work with one of the experts who was so nice, but the poor little gal was so overwhelmed.  So we will try it again and explain to the family history person to start at the VERY beginning for our dear friend!
* we visited with a young couple in our ward who met each other at YSA, fell in love and got married, a true success story!  They gave us some great suggestions on how to run a successful YSA program--lots of food!  Jonathan and Aimee Smith are dear friends and we had a fabulous evening together visiting.
*our dear friend, Barry Palmer passed peacefully away on Wednesday, the 27th of January.  This has been expected, but we are so sad just the same.  He and his wife Yolande have become dear friends.  She is a rock and has been a true inspiration to us all.
*we were able to visit with a single mom who is just going through a divorce.  We read from the Book of Mormon together and shared testimony that the Lord is in charge.  As we turn to Him, we can find peace and happiness even in very trying times of our lives.  Brad was able to give her 7 year old son a blessing of health.  I think she was very touched to see the priesthood in action from a worthy priesthood holder.
*we visited another sweet widow friend, Joan Inwood.  She was telling us how much the gospel has enriched her life.  Many years ago after joining the church, she and her husband listened to the prophet tell them to get our of debt, so they worked really hard to buy their own home and pay off their mortgage.  Because they listened to the prophet, she is now in a very secure financial situation as a widow.  She was young when they married and they had 5 children, so she said she wasn't as educated as she had wanted to be, but because of RS lessons early on, (especially Cultural Refinement lessons) she was inspired to expose her children to many cultural things, and encouraged them to be educated.  She was a good mother and attributed her strengths to the church and the gospel of Jesus Christ!
*went to help teach a young lady with the young elders.  The young lady didn't show up, so we needed to do some finding.  I approached a young lady at the bus stop and asked her about the church.  We had a sweet conversation.  I bore my testimony of the Book of Mormon and gave her a copy!  It made my day!  Wow, I love missionary work!!
*we had a combined Stake Institute class at our home this week.  We had 35 people there.  We were pretty crowded, but it was an incredible evening.  We got to know some new YSAs, had some fun food and played a really fun game (Family Feud--they call it Family Fortune in the UK)
*got to go on a RS bus trip to the London Temple--fabulous--We were able to hear from the temple president, President Kenneth Johnson, and attend an endowment session as the witness couple.  It was a very tender day for us.
*Sunday night we were invited to Skype with our home ward combined Priesthood/RS 5th Sunday lesson in Orem, Utah.  We got to share a little bit about what we are doing on a mission, answer a few questions, and share our testimonies of Senior missions and the Gospel of Jesus Christ.  It was so fun to see our friends from across the ocean.  I hope they know how much we love them and how much we love what we are doing!
We just gave a brief summary of some of our week!  We love you all and pray for you every day.  Happy Birthday to Heather (Fergie) this week on Feb. 4th!  We sure do love you!
Stay strong! Remember prayer, and scripture study and service every day!!
Love,
Dad and Mom,
Grandpa and Grandma
Brad and Vicki