November 25, 2018

From Dad - Adventures

Dear Sam,

It's been a different week for our family as this week we sent Abby and Mia off to St. George to spend time with Stephanie and Tyler. The night before they flew out, Mom and I were looking at the Swoop web site (Swoop is the new cheapo airline we got their tickets with), and read that unaccompanied minors were not allowed. We panicked a bit that we'd have to cancel the trip until we'd had a chance to call a few other airlines and realized that 12 and up tickets are labeled and considered as "Adult" tickets. So we went ahead and took them to the airport.

When Mom approached the desk, the hostess was concerned and didn't know whether they could allow them to go alone at 12 and 13 years of age, but after making a few calls and Mom reminding them that the ticket was considered an adult ticket, they let them through. When they got to customs, the officer had the girls step into a small holding room while he came and talked to Mom about it. By this time, Mom was starting to wonder if we were crazy to do this as it didn't appear that it happened very often. In the end, they let them through and they made it to Las Vegas. Steph was there to meet them and they called her as soon as they got off and were able to find each other. For all the trouble, we love it when we see our kids do hard things!

From all reports, they are having a blast rock climbing, shopping, watching weird Japanese movies and constantly asking me to send them videos of the new kitty to them.

New Kitty Video Link

So it's been Mom, I and Ben hanging out. Of course, Ben is super busy with musical theater so we only see him in the evenings. Mom has been busy doing what she does best, minister to others. Also, she is regularly adding to her science fiction novel she is writing. It is exciting to see her starting to fulfill her dream of being a writer. I've been working both for GE and for AIRDAR. This week being American Thanksgiving, lots of people are off work, so its been quiet and I've been able to get lots of work done. 

Mom went down to Mark and Shannon's Thursday to Saturday to babysit their kids while they did some Christmas shopping, so was just me and Ben for a couple of days.

Yesterday was a particularly productive Saturday for me. I woke up early and was able to study the Book of Mormon reading in Jacob 5 and seeing lots of Gathering of Israel prophecies and counsel in that passage. I was anticipating taking Ben in for a Saturday shift building sets for his play so I planned to go to the AIRDAR office to work on some issues. Before leaving I was able to do some preliminary work and was able to solve a particularly challenging problem I'd been working on. 

At 9:30 Ben and I had a great breakfast. Mom and I have been doing a cleanse where we only eat vegetables and fruits, but with her gone I took a 24 hour break and had some eggs and toast and a great blender drink. I also made some chocolate chip cookies and ate some of the yummy dough. We packaged up 3 plates of cookies for our ministering families and headed into Leduc for 11. 

I dropped Ben off and went into the AIRDAR office for 3 hours and made some great headway. After picking Ben up, and going for our traditional Basha Donair...

we went to deliver cookies to Raymonds (not home), Franks (they were home and we had a great visit with Brian and Chance), then went out to the Boyds. Brother Boyd's been really busy, so they had told us no to a visit this month, but we took a chance and knocked on their door. Amazingly they were both there and we sat down for a 45 minute visit. Felt good to reconnect with them.

That was a bit of a ramble, but I really felt the Lord's hand in helping me to make productive use of the day. Mom came home last night and she told us some stories of babysitting Mark and Shannon's cute kids. 

I got to teach Seminary on Friday and we talked about D&C 45. That is a powerful section. I especially love verses from 10-15 where the Lord repeats over and over the invitation to come and reason with him. Verse 10 says 

"Wherefore come ye unto it (meaning the gospel covenants) and with him that cometh, I will reason as with men in days of old, and I will show unto you my strong reasoning. 

Then in 15 he says 

"Wherefore hearken and I will reason with you ..."

That captured my imagination and reminded me that the Lord is "reasonable" or in other words, wants us to understand and is willing to condescend to our level and show us in ways that we can understand, the joy of the gospel. It is real, God is real and good and he has and continues to bless our family wonderfully. 

BTW, in case you haven't heard, Jacob Nesom just got engaged to Katie Orr and Seth just came home off his mission and reported in Sacrament meeting today. Looks like he and Bailey are already dating again, surprise, surprise :). Eric DeVries gets home 2 weeks. There's your weekly gossip catch up :)

We chatted with Steph, Tyler and the girls tonight, and they all seem pretty happy. Josh spent American Thanksgiving at a friends in Idaho and is on his way home tonight. 

God bless you this week as you continue on the covenant path, Sam.

Love you always,

Dad.

From Sam - The Reality of the Atonement

Hello Everybody,

This week has been amazing, some ups and some downs. That's what happens in the life of a missionary. I have had great moments with investigators, recent converts, members and missionaries. I've been enjoying fresh fruit literally from the tree. For the jealousy of everyone at home I have been able to have both fresh peach's and fresh mango's, and who knows what else i'll have this week. I'm having a blast. 

One fun experience was while I was on exchanges in my area we got totally rained on. Because I was in my area I didn't have the truck, so we were walking everywhere. After a lesson we walked out and all we had to do was finding. Nothing was planned for the next three hours. I had a choice to make, I wanted to follow up with someone we were teaching, but she stayed on the other side of the area. So I decided we could go and find/talk to people on the way. I could either go right, which was the longer way but we would probably find more people to talk to, or I could go left, which was faster but it had less finding opportunities. I was thinking about going right but by the spirit I went left. As we started going I made the comment to Elder Madsen about how it looks like we are walking into the storm that was right in front of us. As we got halfway there it started to spite a little, but I know Malawian storms. two minutes later we were passing the way to a recent converts house, and it started to rain a little harder. So I said "Lets go this way" and we made the turn. 30 seconds from that decision it started to rain hard and I yelled "RUN!!!" and we booked it to the house. We got a little wet when we got into the house. As we got near the house I yelled "Odi odi odi" and jumped into the house. The person that was home was very startled at our sudden appearance and said "Lowani" (Which means enter) We were lucky to get indoors Because it was raining cats and dogs for about an hour. The other Elders got soaked to the bone. We had to end our day early because of how wet they were.

The biggest highlight of my week was the most powerful spiritual experience I've had in my life.

We were teaching three of our recent converts about the Atonement(By the way, my understanding about the Atonement has increased so much while I've been on my mission) and we shared Alma 7:11-13 to help them understand that Jesus literally knows how you feel all the time because he felt it too, I then shared with them D&C 45:3-5 which says: 

 Listen to him who is the advocate with the Father, who is pleading your cause before him—

Saying: Father, behold the sufferings and death of him who did no sin, in whom thou wast well pleased; behold the blood of thy Son which was shed, the blood of him whom thou gavest that thyself might be glorified; Wherefore, Father, spare these my brethren that believe on my name, that they may come unto me and have everlasting life.   

As I read this scriptures the Spirit testified to me about the love Jesus have for little ol' me. I felt the spirit so strongly that I can't deny that it wasn't the spirit. And I can safely say that this has been my biggest spiritual that I've had in my entire life. It was a testimony to me that this church is true and that it is Jesus Christ leading it today. Not only that but that He is aware of me and my life and all of it's difficulties. And that he's willing to be there for me. One thing I learned this week is that God allows us to suffer. But God does not want us to suffer for no reason. Sometimes our agency makes our sufferings unnecessary. But life isn't supposed to be easy. God want's to help us in our trials, but he won't take the trial away

I love you all, stay awesome,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Playing with little Hilda

-Waiting the rain out and playing with the kids while we wait

-A group of kids watching us as we plan in the truck(They wouldn't go away so we when somewhere else to plan)

-Me and my companion 

-Me holding fresh picked mango's

-A mango tree(try to spot all the mango's)

-Our recent converts getting the mango's for us

-And a fresh mini peach

Videos:

November 19, 2019

From Sam - The Start of Mango Season

Hello Everyone,

This week has come and gone. Every week goes by faster and faster.

Mango season is starting and the mango's are delicious. I wish I could take all the fresh fruit with me when I go home, but sadly you can't take fruit on the airplane and nothing grows in Canada. So I'll enjoy every minute of it.

This week has been a week of God blessing us. Almost everything we did for finding, teaching, church attendance and baptisms were not because of us. Sure, we were the ones doing the work but we all know who is really steering the ship. We were able to baptize David this week. He is someone who has been prepared by the Lord in everything. We barely taught him anything but because of his own reading he already knows almost everything. It was a great baptism.

This week I also started back on my quest to read the Bible from Genesis to Revelations. I was stuck in the middle of Deuteronomy and with the power of the spirit, from Friday to today I am now starting the book of Joshua. Don't disregard the bible. I know it's hard to read but it is still the word of God. The Bible and the Book of Mormon are like our legs. If we just have the Bible, we're playing the Soccer with only one leg, the same if we only use the Book of Mormon, you are still playing with one leg. But when you read both and understand both, you play the game with two legs. 

This week is mostly a report that I'm still alive and loving it.

I love you all,

Elder Smith  

Pictures:

-Baptism Pictures

-Quick view of the area

-Lunch with Elder Hansen during exchanges

-Avengers!!!

-My companion having a missionary swimming session

-Irish potatoes

 

-First try of my first fresh mangoes

-King Willie and his body guard Funaki

-King Willie knighting the new squire, Smith

Video:

From Dad

We're excited for David. I'm sure Mom's totally jealous about the mangos. Here favorite fruit.

This week has been a good one. Grandma and Grandpa Bruce came up on the week-end overnight to go to the Farmer's market with Abby and Mia. Abby sold some wood crafts and Mia played her Ukelele again. Both got some spending money for St. George this week. 

The girls are about to go off on an adventure to fly to Las Vegas to spend a week with Steph and Tyler. We had a bit of a scare and are still praying everything goes well with getting them on the plane as unaccompanied minors. Some mixed messaging on the website had us worried they wouldn't be able to go, but we'll see how it goes today.

This week was YW in Excellence and Abby sang a solo as well as receiving her Faith ribbon.

I was blessed to be able to teach SS this week. Interestingly enough, I taught from Jeremiah. Jeremiah didn't have an easy road and was a great example of faith amidst persecution. My favorite vs. in the reading was Jeremiah 31:30

33 But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the Lord, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 

As we write the Lord's law and commands on our hearts,  it becomes so much easier to be obedient and our whole motivation changes from duty and command to love and commitment. We live in an amazing time in the history of the world. The girls often walk around the house singing the Skyler sisters song about the revolution from "Hamilton", and the part that strikes me is the vs. that says. "Look around, Look around, at how lucky we are to be alive right now". I feel that way too. As Oliver Cowdry put it, "These are days never to be forgotten...". 

Have a great week, Sam. Stay "All in".

Love  you lots.

Dad.

November 11, 2018

From Dad - Hello from Canada

Dear Sam,

Hope you’re having a fantastic week. Pretty calm week for us with a few highlights to share. Life is good at home, and we’re so grateful your serving the Lord. Here’s a chronological  breakdown of the week 😊

Monday:

With Mom in St. George with Steph and Tyler, we were trying to keep up our family traditions, especially scripture reading (which we’ve  had to resurrect again since some inspiring words from Regional Conference) and Family Home Evening. We started reading the new Come Follow Me manual for next year and had a good discussion about the importance of reading the scriptures daily. It reminded me a bit about a book I’m listening to called “The Happiness Effect”. In one section he tells about a psychological experiment there they brought a bunch of people into a lab and had them play long hours of the video game Tetris for a number of days in a row and got their reactions and affects. In the end, they started seeing Tetris shapes everywhere and it almost drove them crazy. It completely rearranged and affected the world they saw around them. The results showed that what we choose to put into our brains matters and makes a difference to how we see the world. I think this is true with reading the Book of Mormon and scriptures, on the positive side of things. Then we watched Sherlock Holmes for the activity and Ben called Josh for the recipe to flour fudge and we enjoyed that together.

Mom really enjoyed her time with Stephanie and Tyler and Shannon. They went to Zion’s National park Sunday afternoon and enjoyed the beautiful sites there.

Tuesday:

• Tuesday Jen and Steph and Shannon went to walk around the St. George Temple grounds. That evening, I drove to Calgary to pick them up from the Airport in Calgary and dropped Auntie Shannon off at her parents in Crossfield. Sounds like her kids were sick most of the time she was gone. Hope they’re feeling better now.

Wednesday:

Wednesday was a recovery day for Mom as we’d gotten in so late (2:30 am in the morning). That evening, the kids went to youth night (Ben and the priests went tobogganing even though there was only a couple of inches of snow. Ben says it was lots of fun though.

Thursday:

Mom and Abby have been diligently doing wood crafts for Abby’s Farmer’s Market Table this month and Amelia is practicing to Busk at the same market in Leduc. Wish them luck! Sounds like Grandma and Grandpa Bruce may come up as well to support with some home made dolls clothes to sell at Abby’s table.

This week, the cat decided it wanted to move her kitty from the laundry room to Mia’s bed. At first it was cure, but then fairly inconvenient. After multiple attempts to convince the Hawk otherwise, she finally relented and camped out in the sock box. The kitty has opened her eyes now and is getting active enough that we have to figure out the right place for her again. Good for the kids, though, even if Dad is grumpy about it sometimes.

Friday:

For Date night, Mom and I went out to a movie for the first time in a long time. We saw Disney’s Nutcracker movie, which wasn’t anything like the ballet, but a good clean movie nonetheless.

Saturday:

This morning we woke up thinking we had a completely free day until we looked at our calendar’s and realized it was our turn to clean the church. So to make it funner, we decided to invite friends and cousins to come help and then go swimming after at the Rec center. Turned out well as Mom was also able to do some shopping while we swam for some new running shoes as she wore her old ones out training for and running the ½ marathon. She got a couple of really good deals and is set to train again.

Today, Sunday, we enjoyed a great supper breaking our fast. Today is remembrance day in Canada and we wore our poppy’s, observed a minute of silence at the end of sacrament meeting and sang O Canada. It is always a good time to ponder on and remember the blessings of living in a free country. We also got to practice the primary presentation with Mom at the helm. She’s a natural leader and probably wont be to happy with me posting this photo, but I was trying to capture her in that leadership mode. 😊

Here’s my class trying not to be bored and only partially succeeding.

This week Mom and I started on a cleanse of only eating fruits and vegetables for 28 days. It’s made us get creative and the kids aren’t sure they are too happy with it. This was the remains of today’s meal after fasting. Fantastic veggie soup with the taint of spinach making it a healthy green.  I’m enjoying it and anticipate losing a few pounds along the way and feeling more energetic. We’ll let you know how it goes.

Sure love you Sam. Have a great week!

Dad.

From Sam - A Banana is Actually an Orange

Everyone! I have discovered a truth that the world has been hiding from everyone for years. A Banana is actually an Orange. Just because the world believes something doesn't make it a truth. I've prayed about it and I have received an answer. The Banana is really called an Orange. Don't let anyone fool you. Don't be skeptical because it goes against what you have believed your whole lives. The truth has been revealed.

 This week has been great. It has gone by so fast and through it all I have seen answers to prayers, miracles happen and hearts change.

And I feel like most of it has been because of my companion.

One day, just before we went out to teach he said to me: Remind me, thrice. Then we went for our day. Throughout the day I forgot to remind him: Thrice. But he didn't forget. It was an okay day, at the end we went to find someone who doesn't have a phone and we forgot how to get to his house. we searched and got lost and it got dark and we gave up and started heading back when we ran into someone who my companion(Elder Williams) knows. The good news is he wanted to be baptized and pretty much knows everything he needs to know. It was someone who God guided to us. It was pretty cool and that night my companion told me that he asked me to remind him: Thrice. because he kind of made a promise to God that if he does his best and prays three times throughout the day that God would send someone prepared for the missionaries. And it happened. That's my story about answered prayers this week.

I've also seen the lame walk. When we were teaching Jackson, before he was baptized, his uncle was crippled because of a stroke he had months earlier. And we always said hello to him before we taught Jackson. Over the three months we have been teaching Jackson his uncle was soon able to sit up, then to move around all the way to being able to walk again as if he never had a stroke. He wasn't able to receive much medical attention before we started teaching Jackson. I firmly believe that that family has been blessed with that kind of healing because they let the missionaries into their home and excepted them. It is literally a miracle.

Serving a mission is amazing, it has blessed my life so much. If you are thinking about not serving a mission, pray about it. If God needs you to be a missionary, then there are people that only you can serve. If you have already decided to serve a mission, then good for you. It will be a blessing in your life. If God needs you to stay home then that's your calling. Stay blessed everyone. Jesus Christ is my favorite person ever.

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Beautiful Red Tree

-Rainbow in the sky

-Cooking crew(Left:Elder Williams Right:Elder Funaki)

-My very comfortable uncomfortable sleeping spot

-Me and my companion being Benched and Squatted by Elder Funaki, the Tongan

-The kids watching the Azungu's(See video)

Video: The African Zoo

From Sam - Follow up Email

Hello everyone,

Just to make sure no one thinks I'm going apostate the Banana is an Orange was a really funny conversation/argument I had at lunch. But it applies to learning truths. I have met so many people who have rejected the truth because they are afraid to leave what they know.  When you find or hear a truth, do all you can to find if it is actually true and if it is true, do all you can to learn all about it.

Sorry if it didn't make sense.

-Elder Smith