October 25th- November 1st

Happy Hop To Naa,

That is the Manx Halloween. It is a Celtic holiday and it is pretty funny they have their own twist on Halloween. For instance, instead of carving pumpkins the tradition is to carve a turnip!

I hope you liked your Manx goodies. No there were no pictures in it...sorry. I am still waiting for you to send me a memory card. If you would like I can just buy another one.

I cannot believe you saw AJ. What a small world, if you could email his address for me that would be great.

What a week it has been! Due to the recent baptisms, as well as work conflicts, our teaching pool has dramatically thinned out. You could say that it went on the HCG diet and is now emaciated.  However, the good news is that means lots and lots of finding. I love finding because you get to meet all sorts of people and come away having some great laughs and some wonderful new people to teach.

Favourite quote of the week, “Can’t chat lad I’m just walking home from prison.” I should really start writing all the quotes down; it would make for quite a funny book. This man literally had just got out of jail. The lord was truly giving him an opportunity to make a 180* turn ha!

We have found some great new people though. We were able to teach a man whose name is Elliot and sadly his wife recently died from cancer. He is a Baptist and even through tragedy he has been able to keep strong faith in God. The lesson went really well. It will be great when we get to teach him the plan of salvation.  

Also, I wrote about Paula last week and we were able to teach her again at her mother’s house. She is doing really well. Unfortunately, she is going through a divorce so we are not able to meet with her as much as we would like but when we teach her it is great.

When I said work conflicts I meant Brian and Jillian have been slammed at work and not able to meet with us. It is hard because they both know the gospel is true but can’t seem to catch a break with their schedule. I think that it is one of Satan’s greatest tools.

Halloween was a great night. The Sayle family cooked us dinner. You would not believe it but I ate salmon! I think my pallet may be maturing because it was delicious. Keith had caught it fresh out the river the other day and Jeanine prepared it. It is amazing to see the change that the gospel has made on their family. It truly has caused there to be so much more peace and happiness in the home. They are wonderful people and I am excited for their future. The rest of the night we stayed in our flat and got caught up on lots of things.

Today we went out with Sister Radcliffe who took us to the Laxy Wheel. It is this ginormous water wheel that was built in the 1700. It was lots of fun. We then went to this old man’s little factory where he makes all these different clocks and music boxes, etc. It was really great you of loved it.  

Well glad to hear everything is going well. Hope you have great week and I will write soon.

Love,

Richard

PS: Sad news- This is most likely my last week here on the Island and you won’t hear from me until the middle of next week. Pray that I stay another transfer the island is amazing!