February 12, 2018

From Sam - Last Week of the First Transfer

I can't believe how fast these first 6 weeks have been, and i've been told it only gets faster.

I've had an amazing week. I had my first baptism yesterday, Joshua. It was really cool. 

It rained from Tuesday to Saturday night. I wasn't able to do lots of tracting because no one would be out in the rain. It was a really cool experience. It's also supposed to rain all this week. Sister Kupu always tells us to have the attitude of Every Day Is A Beautiful Day. I've been doing my best to have that attitude. I always say to the other missionaries who ask how my day was, I say "On a scale of 1 to 10, I'm a 25". Everyone is suprised when I say that. It's fun.

I'm still locked out of my area for the time being. It takes 10 minutes to walk from the front gate of my complex to the back gate. When we are tracting, we have to decide if we want to walk down a road we've already walked down 100 times before. But God has given us some suprises when we decide to stay out as long as we can.

I'm loving my mission and i'm loving the gospel more and more as I teach it and learn it.

Elder Smith

Pictures:

1. The cake I make for all to enjoy

2. A house in my area has this on the wall

3. A big snail we found after all the rain

4-6. The 4 foot deep Gutter

7. Chopstick night

8+. Joshua's baptism pictures.

From Dad - Crazy Week:

Hi Sam.

Hope you can still get this. It’s been a crazy week as we’ve had mom and Mia sick for 3-4 days. We’re not very used to that and so a few things have slowed down. 

Here are some highlights. 

Josh got a job through Peter Rector working for pinnacle construction. (Same guys who did our driveway). Mostly he is working on the Days chicken barn. 

Ben started a new semester and had 2 days off for teacher convention. Ben enjoyed getting to know the new YMs presidency on Wednesday with Bro. Mark McKee as president, Jared Townsend as 1st counselor and Kris Stagland as 2nd. They told the boys stories from their life. This week is a Temple trip and the first time Ben will be able to do baptisms for the dead with the new policy change! Excited for him. 

Tyler has been emailing us about coming up this summer and working more on the tree house, so expect to see some progress there. 

Abby had the chance to talk to the 11 year olds about her first Temple experience. 

Mom is doing a great job on her calling

Amelia of course is excited for and preparing for valentines  day and was sad yesterday when she was too sick to go deliver them at Church. 

Mom and I want to a high priests dinner this week and the first speaker talked about balancing technology to achieve the greatest good. Enjoyed it until Mom felt too sick to stay around. How we can get her better this week.  

Hope you are well. We pray for you daily. I’m in the war chapters I. The B of M and one of my insights this round is how creative the Nephites had to be to overcome their enemies and that we need to be just as creative in sharing the gospel to reach everyone possible. 

Questions:

1. How big is the complex you are confined to?

2 is the cholera outbreak still on?

3. Where do you email from?

Love, Dad. 

Ps did that baptism happen this weekend as you’d hoped?

Answer from Sam:

It's great to hear from you. I can't wait to see improvements on the treehouse.

It takes 10 minutes to walk from the front gate to the back gate. When we are tracting, we have to decide if we want to walk down a road we've already walked down 100 times before.

The Cholera outbreak has gone down a lot. It's not a major issue anymore. I just hope I can go back to my area soon.

I email from an internet cafe a 10 minute walk from my flat. The rules for emailing are: take the time you need. I'm paying around 3 cents a minute, but that adds up after a while.

I love you lots

Elder Smith

Conversation Between Josh and Sam via Email

Josh:

Man, normal life is hard! Working at it though, any general thoughts on how to enjoy life?

I found... well actually this construction job landed in my lap and I took it, along with a dog sitting job, combined made it one hectic week of high stress and days of not looking forward to the next one... I have had to take a deep breath on more occasions then one.

What is one occasion that stands out this week? Do you feel adjusted to it all? Any stress on your end?

Happy moments of the week, got Russell F and his girlfriend to a 007 themed dance.

Institute...infallible= incapable of making mistakes or doing wrong

Fun date.

I love you Sam, stay dedicated, stay obedient, stay joyful. Look to God when the worst times come, treat your trials as a trust test from God and fall back into his arms.

-Josh-

Sam:

I've found that keeping busy and not distracted helps you enjoy life.

I had a baptism yesterday, Joshua, He's the first one that I found and taught and baptized. I helped him from square one. It was really cool. He's going to school for computer engineering, Because of that and the fact that I'm 9 days older than him helped me connect to him.

I'm feeling completely adjusted to Zambia, everything but the heat. I'm still getting used to that.

I don't feel too stressed. Just knowing that I can do better and wishing I was already better.

It's hard to believe that Ben can date. You have to tell me when and if you get a girlfriend, I got to know these things.

I love you,

Elder Smith

Josh:

Haha for sure, I am hoping to date a lot of girls so I can see who I am most happy with. 

Sam:

I have to tell you this dream my investigator had. He explained it in detail and I super hyped.

He was running away from something in the woods when that thing was suddenly in front of him. He said It was a giant monster. Before he could do anything my companion, Elder Blanchard, put his hand on his shoulder and said "Get behind me" 

My companion pulled his scriptures out and he started floating in the air and his scriptures started floating in his hands and the pages were flipping like crazy like it was magic. Then suddenly, I appeared behind the monster and put my hand forward and said "This is the land of the rising sun of our Heavenly Father. 

Your desecration shall not be aloud here be." (At this moment I start summoning a sword with engravings on it from the air) "I will lay thee waste with the holy scriptures. Expell thy vast foulment. I cleanse thee!" Then he woke up.

I got so excited as he was telling me this. My imagination was running wild.