Jan 2010 Isle of Man

Dear Family and Friends, 29 Jan 2010



Being a child of the Living God is absolutely amazing! We are miracles everyone! In all of God’s creations, more numerous than the particles of the earth, we, His children are the best, we are awesome. We ......Chris is ready to baptize his brother Luke 20 Jan 2010. Chris was baptized 2 months ago in Scotland.....
are at once, fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, sons, and daughters. We are family and God is our loving Heavenly Father.


We continue to be overjoyed for the sacred experiences we are having here on the Isle of Man and with the precious territory of loving people to the core through the power and blessing of our Savior. There comes in the Bargain (God’s Promise), the shared burden of heartache and pain of those we are privileged to know and love. As we know, the physical afflictions are much easier to share and bear than the spiritual wounds of the soul of which the Savior personally experienced “the pains of all men”.


Recently a sister who had embraced the Gospel with all her heart, someone with whom we had shared some very tender and sacred moments, at a time of despair and discouragement over failed cancer therapy, turned completely away from the Church requesting no contact with anyone in the Church. We and all who have come to love her are heartbroken—we can learn much about .....After baptism of Luke .......
the Savior’s love for us from such experiences. This is part of what we covenant with the Lord—that we bear one another’s burdens and mourn with those that mourn.



Last Wednesday was a fantastic day not unlike most days. In the morning, Elder Allen passed his Isle of Man driver’s practical test and so qualifies for a UK driver’s license which is required after one year in the UK. Sister Allen will take her test the 3rd of March. The reason for the separation is: If we both failed the test, neither one of us would be able to drive for a month.
On the north end of the island we met with a dear young man in the Jurby prison. He is a member and we love sharing scriptures and Gospel truths with him. He will be in prison 4 or 5 years on drug charges—he is a bright, tender hearted lad who loves the Gospel. His story is tragic like many. His father is awash in alcohol almost .....Christmas morning on the Douglas water front.....constantly and his mother rejected him when he was a young boy. His desperate quest to be loved and accepted has brought to him at the age of 21 much pain and suffering from repeatedly broken promises.



From Jurby we traveled south to Onchan for a meeting with a couple baptized in August. He recently was ordained an elder. They are preparing for the Temple endowment. We share with them about the temple and family history. Reading and pondering the scriptures together truly nourishes our souls and prepares us to make sacred covenants in the Holy Temples.



From Onchan, in the middle of the island, we traveled to the south end of the Island to meet with a young mother, her 14 year old daughter, and her non-member partner whose father is Muslim. The mother has not come to Church since a very bitter divorce

.....Andrew Clague and son Matthew, a child of record.....

because someone in the ward sided with her former husband in the custody battle-- And now, my sons, remember, remember that it is upon the arock of our Redeemer, who is Christ, the Son of God, that ye must build your foundation; that when the devil shall send forth his mighty winds, yea, his shafts in the whirlwind, yea, when all his hail and his mighty cstorm shall beat upon you, it shall have no power over you to drag you down to the gulf of misery and endless wo, because of the rock upon which ye are built, which is a sure foundation, a foundation whereon if men build they cannot fall (Helaman 5:12).

We are teaching them the Gospel with the hope and prayer that she and her daughter will return to Church and that her partner will come to know the Church is true and be baptized, that they will get married—that repentance and forgiveness will win the day. After sharing with them the plan of salvation, he said “it seems almost too good to be true” and, after a pause, that he would read the Book of Mormon and pray about it.

Such miracles have happened many times before over the world and can happen here. This is every missionary’s bright hope. In Ether 12:3-4 we read: “Wherefore, whoso believeth in God might with surety hope for a better world, yea, even a place at the right hand of God, which hope cometh of faith, maketh an anchor to the

.....looking east toward the Irish sea from our apartment .....

souls of men, which would make them sure and steadfast, always abounding in good works, being lead to glorify God.”

Again we traveled to the extreme north end of the island for a meeting with a dear lady, whose friend we met on the ferry. We have met with them four times before, they have come to church. We have enjoyed meals together, shared the Gospel and have shed tears together. She wants to get married, he will commit and then gets scared and runs. She knows the Church is true and wants to get baptized and has agreed to do so in

five weeks. Karen first became acquainted with the Church through a friend in England. Our meeting with Jonathan, her friend, on the ferry was not by chance. Our meeting with Karen was tender as we shared some Book of Mormon scriptures and testimony of the Restored Gospel with her. We returned to our apartment by 11:00 PM tired but fulfilled for the wonderful day we had had on the Isle of Man.

Our hearts are tender for the families of those dear friends at home who have recently suffered the loss of a close family member. We remember with much love and fondness our associations over the years and rejoice in the Promise given each of us that the feelings and sharing will continue in the not too distant future and in a far, far better place.


Thanks again for your love, prayers, and friendship. We love all things beautiful and you are all at the top of the list. Wherever we are and no matter our circumstance or our present endeavor, this

.....This scene is constantly changing.....

is our joy and blessing: “Therefore, hold up your alight that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the blight which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed. And ye see that I have commanded that anone of you should go away, but rather have commanded that ye should come unto me, that ye might bfeel and see; even so shall ye do unto the world; and whosoever breaketh this commandment suffereth himself to be led into temptation.” 3 Nephi 18:24-25.

Love always, Dad, Mom, Grandpa, Grandma, Sister Allen, Elder Allen.