Dear Elder Sam Smith,
Greetings from the Great White North! And it is truly white this week as we've had a foot of snow fall down in a beautiful, inconvenient blanket.
I say inconvenient based on my experience yesterday (Saturday).
Woke up relatively early for a Saturday and the first thing I encountered was the cat, cheerfully tearing at the corner of the carpet by the entrance I had just repaired. Well I lost it! I ranted and raved and threatened banishment for the cat and made the girls cry. It would be an omen of the morning to come!
Resignedly, I woke up Ben and Cody to get ready to go help with an 11 year old scout activity at the Stake Center. Originally we had thought that Ben would drive there, but with all the snow, our driveway and roadway is in no condition to drive a little car on (Josh tried 7x to get up the road in the silver car to go to Leduc and failed on Friday night). So we were relieved that Bro. Patrick was going in as well in his 4x4 as he is the 11 year old scout leader.
Once we got the boys ready, Josh and I started troubleshooting how we could get him into Leduc. He agreed with the Prete's to watch their dogs this week while they are away but needs to be there to let them out and feed them etc. So we decided to get the truck going and make a track up the driveway and hill for the car. Unfortunately the truck battery is not working well and so we had to boost it. After making a few runs up and down the road, I realized there was no way that our little cars would make it. So we decided that I would drive in and drop off Josh with the truck. Of course I left the truck running and of course I only unlocked the drive side door to get out and so when Josh and I went to go, we'd locked the running truck keys inside. Luckily I hit the unlock button with the coat hanger the first time and we were off.
We hit Canadian tire and grabbed a new battery and then I dropped Josh off at the Pretes. He'll probably stay there this whole week.On my way home, I reasoned that I could stop off at No Frills to get some groceries and hazard turning off the truck because I could self-boost it with my new battery. Sure enough, the truck died after turning it off, but I wasn't worried.
After grabbing some groceries, I lifted the hood, boosted the truck off the new battery and cheerfully put the battery back in the back seat, and was about to jump in when I remembered I needed to close the hood. So I shut the driver side door.... and yes, you guessed it, the locks had triggered when I started the truck and I knew, as soon as I closed the doors that I'd done it again. No more pointing fingers and laughing at Ben for locking the keys in the truck, I had just done it for the second time in a morning.
Luckily, or so I thought, I had left the hanger in the back of the truck. So I grabbed a cart, and tried to repeat my one shot performance from that morning. No Luck!! after 1/2 hour of frustration, with my arms aching and hardly able to move and help from a friendly neighbor Kevin, from 86 Corinthia drive, we still couldn't get it open. So, knowing that our budget was over already, I made the touch choice to call a locksmith, hoping my phone hadn't died in the cold. $60 later I was on the road, already mentally worn out for a Saturday.
I'm happy to say things got better from there. I burned off some energy and gained some perspective by manually shoveling our long drive way and enjoyed seeing the girls pitch in and then enjoy the deep snow. Life can be challenging, but it is also so rewarding. Your Mom was very patient with me and gave me extra hugs that day.
Earlier in the week, we finished off the headboard for our room.That was very rewarding and very fun to do together with Josh and Ben and with Mom. Our room is almost fully finished now and Mom loves it.
Friday night, Amelia and I took the perilous journey into gymnastics, Mom drove 6 ladies to Beaumont to a bridal shower for Sis Milner (she's getting remarried!) and Josh tried unsuccessfully to get up the drive way on a terrible snow stormy night. I spent 3 hours reading and watching Mia do here tricks. She's getting really good!
After reading your letter last week, and hearing how mornings are hard because you feel a little homesick, I realized it is really the first time you've been away from home on your own. So it's pretty natural to feel some homesickness. It's a great opportunity to turn the Lord for strength and learn how to forget yourself and lose your self in the service. I'm so proud of you Sam. Your decision to serve a mission strengthens our family in unseen ways and will be a blessing to you for the rest of your life. The gospel is true and the Lord is faithful in fulfilling his promises.
88 And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up.
Keep loving the people even when they don't show up to appointments. Remember my experience with Hugues and Jardine Jules. We had just about given up on him because he never kept his appointments, but once the spirit touched him, he fell in love with the gospel and now, almost 30 years later, he and his family are faithful and 70+ people have joined the church.
Love you lots, Sam!
Love Dad.
From Sam - Amazing Week
My week has been amazing! One of my investigators, Joshua, is getting baptised this Sunday. He's a really cool guy, he really loves what we're teaching him. Now, we just need to teach his family, heh heh;]
At the moment, Joshua is the only investigator that is really progressing. There are a few others that we're teaching that are showing real potential. We'll see how they do.
Right now the hardest thing about the culture is the accents. Face to face isn't that bad, but over the phone is terrible. There's only a select few that I can understand good enough. Also, when ever I see another white person, I can't help but stare for a few seconds. It's a little weird to see white people besides the missionaries. A few of favorite things are the rain storms, the food and the lessons we have with investigators. Almost every lesson is around 50 minutes, It's awesome. With 50 minutes you can cover lots of material. Especially if the person i'm teaching is for real.
The African dialect i'm trying to learn is Nienja, It's really fun, most everybody speaks english, but you can get people to like you faster by speaking their language. I've met some really cool people. One person we contacted grew up in California and new Obama when he was a kid. It's amazing.
The rain storms here come like a flash, and can last from 5 minutes to 5 hours. Just today at lunch a rain storm hit, good thing we were inside because it started out as rain, then it started coming down hard. There's a reason there are 4 foot gutters, otherwise the street would be flooded so bad.
I love you all, keep President Monson's counsel to read the Book of Mormon daily. My mission has a standard of reading 7 pages a day. If I do that, I'll be done in 3 months, 4 times a year and 8 times while i'm on my mission. I challenge you all to at least read some of the Book of Mormon daily, preferably 7 pages a day to keep up with me, but I'm not that picky.
The church is true strive always to gain or keep that testimony as I do my best to do the same.
Elder Smith
Also, I try my best to email by 4pm my time so that I can email you 7am your time.
Here are some pictures.
-This dog likes to follow us while we proselyte, which is not the best becuase most people are afraid of dogs.
-This is the product of my bake work. Happiness in a ball.
-This is my homemade DNA Script name tag(That I don't wear)
-The next two are my clothes washing station.
-The videos are my and my companion in a light rain storm that quickly changed into a heavy rain storm.
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