Sam's Mission To Zambia Blog: March 11, 2018

From Dad - Spring's around the corner in Canada

Greetings Elder Sam,

We are starting to see glimmerings of spring here in the North and it is none too soon. Mom even made me buy flowers to brighten the winter blues (when I say “make” of course I mean invited me while batting those beautiful blue eyes and eyelashes at me 😊 ). Just today Mia finally got her snow dream of having “snow man snow”. Frank the snowman was born (or maybe resurrected… I seem to remember the last snowman being named “Frank” too) and the sun is shining. We even have an extra hour at night with the change in daylight savings time happening this week-end. Do they have daylight savings time in Africa? I suspect not!

Yesterday was another interesting vehicle day for us. There is no end to our vehicle adventures as they all now are in the 300 000 km range.

Josh took a feminist on a date (Bro. Patrick’s grand-daughter) in the white car on purpose so she would have to open the door for him (remember that the drive side door doesn’t open from the inside!). We’ll see if it made a good impression or not on him if she lets him take her out again!
Ben took the garbage to the dump on Saturday and was kind enough to run Josh a hot lunch at the Days where he is working on their barn. Trouble is as always that he left the truck running, didn’t hit the unlock button and ended up locking the keys in the car again! Luckily there was more tools on the construction site and Josh made short work of it. I talked to Peter Rector at church and he told me he never leaves a vehicle running without rolling down the window a couple of inches just in case. Might need to start doing that.

Mom and I went to the temple on Saturday and noticed just inside of Edmonton that the whole front dash board including the brake lights and signal lights had stopped working! We carefully made it to the temple then straight to Canadian Tire after. We replaced the fuse, but on the way home it went out again! I did some internet research and found some hints that is probably a short, so I taped up our trailer wire as it had bare wires and replaced the fuse again. So far so good, but could be interesting.
You know it might be time to start saving for a new vehicle when your wife suggests renting a vehicle for the long trip to Utah for Steph’s graduation. I say, where’s the fun in that 😊

This week was Ward Conference and it was a good one!

Bishop Lambert gave a great talk about staying the course even when life is hard and you don’t feel good enough and trusting the grace of the Savior. As long as we don’t stop trying and continue to repent, we are not sinners.

"I do not believe that any... (one) lives up to his ideals, but if we are striving, if we are working, if we are trying, to the best of our ability, to improve day by day, then we are in the line of our duty. If we are seeking to remedy our own defects, if we are so living that we can ask God for light, for knowledge, for intelligence, and above all, for His Spirit, that we may overcome our weaknesses, then, I can tell you, we are in the straight and narrow path that leads to life eternal. Then we need have no fear .... no man is perfect, but one who strives earnestly to conquer weaknesses and grow into perfection does not sin. That is to say, he is not a sinner. A sinner is one who indulges in sin habitually because he takes pleasure in it." (Pres. Heber J. Grant - Gospel Standards, pp 184-185)

All the youth joined in singing a special number “Peace in Christ”. You would have loved it! Ben and Ben and Ben sang a harmony part that tied it off all nicely.

President Johnson also shared a great analogy from a YM ice climbing trip. Their ropes were in the middle of the waterfall, so when he tried climbing the edge, he eventually was drawn to the middle of the falls. Compared the ropes to our family ties and how if the family stays in the middle of the gospel and anchored to the Savior (like the anchor was tied to the biggest tree possible) , then our children will be drawn to the family ties and the Savior even if they try the edges of things. I’m grateful for our family ties, Sam. I love that you are sharing that gospel center with the people of Zambia.

In Priesthood/RS hour, the Stake led us in a meeting about counselling by having us sit at tables and counsel together about improving FHE and Personal Prayers. FHE has been an important part of our family culture and part of the may drops in the bucket that have added up over the years to bring our family close together and anchored in the Gospel. This week in FHE, Mom presented the topic, “How do we become friends with Heavenly Father, following up on the previous FHE about the importance of having and being a good friend. We had a great conversation about the power of prayer and we read again the wonderful description of prayer in the Bible Dictionary:

“Prayer is the act by which the will of the Father and the will of the child are brought into correspondence with each other. The object of prayer is not to change the will of God but to secure for ourselves and for others blessings that God is already willing to grant but that are made conditional on our asking for them. Blessings require some work or effort on our part before we can obtain them. Prayer is a form of work and is an appointed means for obtaining the highest of all blessings.”

I’m thankful for the blessings of FHE and personal prayer in my life. I’m trying to pray so that I seek the will of the Father more than I seek my own will. It’s tough to do in this natural man fallen world, but worth the effort.

In other news, We went to cheap night skiing at Rabbit Hill and had fun watching Abby and Mia re-learning how to ski. Josh spent the night at the bunny hill, re-learning how to bruise his but and break his wrists on a snowboard.

Josh has been dating a lot and Ben got partially tricked into being a grad date. He basically got set up to go have ice cream at lunch, but everyone ditched except the girl that wanted to ask him! Of course, being the gentleman he is, he couldn’t say no. Maybe he’ll send you more juicy details! He is also looking forward to going to Whistler again and even took up the clarinet to be able to play in the band to do it. He is saving his money and trying to sell tickets to make it happen.

Abby is excitedly practicing for the music festival every day. She’s sounding great learning 7 songs!

Amelia is almost done gym and she has loved it. She does a puzzle about one a week. I also got an earful from Abby on a trip into the Stake Center for a youth committee meeting that she is part of, about all the crushes going on in the youth in the ward. Good times.

This morning as I waited to go to church, I found your “Just One Prayer Away” song and sat down and played and sang it. 2 things happened. 1. My voice cracked and I wondered again how you guys managed to pull off such high notes, and 2. I had a rush of memory and got all choked up both by the message of the song and remembering you and Ben singing it!

Be well, my son. We pray for you daily and are grateful for your willing service. You and your future family will be abundantly blessed because of your choice to serve and endure to the end.

Another pic of Mia helping with Shopping:

Love,

Dad.

From Ben - The Bizarre Week

Sam this week was bizarre.

1) I got played into becoming a grad date

2) I locked the keys in the truck and backed into the garage in the same hour.

3) I got to be apart of Ben de Vries priest ordination

4) And finally, I agreed to play the piano for a one act (and hour long play done in one act) and they handed me 52 pages of music to learn by next month....

Story: Last week Megan, (the girl that comes to me for relationship advice) asked me to go get ice cream with her and two other friends. I knew them all from musical theatre so I thought it would be cool (Free marble slab, and I am in) We planned to do it on Friday, so when the time came around, I went to the rendezvous point, the first girl claimed she had too much homework to come, and Megan was nowhere to be seen. So I was left with the final girl Abigail Issler, I couldn't say I was not going to go because of her, and so away we went. When we got to the Slab, she asked me to be her grad "escort"... I had to say yes because 1) she is kinda cute, and 2) I couldn't be disrespectful. Moral of the story... Women are dangerous, but sometimes it is to our benefit :)

Everything else is pretty self explanatory . Love you a ton Sam, I still need to get the courage to ask a girl on a date, but I feel that I will get there soon.

Be safe and follow the promptings of the spirit.

-Ben

From Sam to Dad

Thanks for all the details in life at home. I love hearing it all. Also, If it's possible to send videos from home, I would love that.

From Sam - Another Week Flies By :

It always befuddles me how fast the week goes when I don't think about when Monday is. When I just focus my efforts on the day, time flies. The mission is great, one experience we're told in the white hand book to not proselyte near places of worship. Then as I was walking in my area I noticed that there's a church on every corner and commented to my companion that we can't do missionary work because there's to many places of worship. You can't go 10 minutes without finding a church somewhere. I'm learning my area a lot better now, well...half of it. The other half both me and my companion are learning. There's no better way to learn where you are then to get lost for a while. It's better to learn when you have the information and maps to guide you, but if you need to get lost to find out where you are, then that's better. Just don't stay lost.

Yesterday was Stake Conference and an area seventy from the Congo came and spake. I think in my last email I talked about how I want to come closer to God and to know him better. During the Conference My question/concern was answered. You can know God better and come closer to him by learning and studying about our savior Jesus Christ. Because when you learn about the Son, you also learn about the Father. It's really awesome. The other question I've been contemplating is how can one increase(exercise) faith. Through an email from Josh, Stake Conference and the bible dictionary, I learned that faith is a principle of action, "Faith without works is dead". You also have to be patient with yourself and with Gods timetable. Faith in Jesus Christ is trusting that God knows better and working through your trials.

During my stay in Zambia, I found an easy way to make cake for 30 kwacha(3 dollars) and everyone loves it so much. while I(the one who makes it all the time) don't really enjoy eating it everyday, though I have some in my flat everyday for the other missionaries.

Through a conversation with a Missionary that went to Madagascar, I thought I was talking to someone else then realized that I was talking to this missionary. I said this when I found out: I'm just as clueless in writing as I am in speaking. I always have to remember that I'm still new on mission and that I still have a lot to learn. Pride is something that sneaks into your life without you knowing it. I recently had to let myself be humbled. Pride is truly the great stumbling block for mankind. The Bishop gave an example of when his kid did something he didn't want him to do, he hit him on the hand to let him know to not do that thing again. His kid went crying to his Mother, but when his Mother was nowhere in sight he turned around and sought comfort from his father, who just hit him on the hand. He gave that example and talked anout how we need to forgive and humble ourselves and turn to God.

Anyway, I love hearing about how everyone's lives are going. I have two weeks left in training, then I'll be a regular missionary. Unless I get called as a trainer, District leader, Zone leader or an assistant. We'll see what the future brings. God Answers prayers in his own time. But he will answer them. I know that's true.

I love you all,

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-The movies: two of them are me playing with a dog of an investigator, The other two are rain scenarios