Sam's Mission To Zambia Blog: October 22, 2018

Hangout Chat with Sam:

Dad: Hey Sam. How are you this week?
Sam: Great. I finally got to watch conference.
Dad: Oh wow. What did you think?
Sam: I loved it.
Dad: I remember conference as a missionary seemed so much more powerful for some reason.
Dad: Did you watch it at the chapel?
Sam: Yeah.
Dad: Wonderful to be led by living prophets!
Dad: Favorite talk?
Sam: Elder Holland and One of the seventy.\
Dad: I'm grateful we livein the latter days. Someone said to me try yesterday " we're ex-mormons now :). Now we're members of the Church of Jesus Christ of latter day Saints.
Do you have the concept in your mission of daily contacts? Where you keep in touch daily with investigators and new members?
Sam: We do, but I can do better with that.
Dad: It's something we did daily or try to do daily in my mission. Not easy to do but fits in with ministering. Ben and I have decided to do better with our ministering

From Mom - Onward and Upward:

Dear SammySam,

It’s been a great week! The sun is setting earlier and coming up later. This is a beautiful sunrise on my way to pick up Abby from seminary at 8 a.m. I had to stop at the top of the hill and take this shot, breathe in the crisp fall air and just feel grateful to be alive. We live in such a stunning world.

Our family is pretty excited about the new direction the church is taking with the 2 hour meeting and the Come Follow Me focus. We realized we’ve been neglecting our family scripture study and are trying to pick up the habit again. This means we have to all get up at 6:30. Most of us are fine with it except Mia, who likes her sleep and doesn’t think it’s quite fair she has to get up with the rest of us. Usually she’ll go back for a second sleep while Ben and Abby are at seminary and Dad and I are starting our day (for me this means personal study and Dad is already on Conference calls).

This attempted scripture study degenerated into Ben getting beat up, which was hilarious. Haha. He’s getting busy with taking the lead role (Nathan Detroit) in Guys and Dolls and we won’t be seeing much of Ben now until Christmas.

Steph, Shannon and I have been training for our half marathon on November 3. Sometimes Steph’ll FaceTime me when she needs a little break while running. I snuck this shot because she looked so cute telling me something funny (that I can’t remember now). It feels good to try something new that is challenging, and to do it with Steph! If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be doing it and I’m grateful. I’ll let you know how it goes. Wish us luck!!

Dad and I have been working on the mud room over the last couple weeks and it’s nice now that it is functional. We were always losing our jackets because we had nowhere to hang them. This picture shows we’re about 90% done. We just need to stain the bench, put up some moulding, maybe add some more hooks, and add a door to the utility closet and we’ll be happy because it will look so good!

I had a fun experience tonight ... I was sitting on the couch reconfiguring the settings on my phone so it’s less of a distraction device and more of a productivity tool when I got a text from Josh asking if it was a good time to call and not 5 seconds later, Stephanie called. Haha. Great minds call their mother at the same time. So Josh suggested we figure out how to do a three way call. I’ll have to try that next time. As it was, I talked to Josh for an hour then Steph for another hour after that. It was time well spent. I sure love my children and feel a little lost if I don’t speak with them in awhile. I’m pretty grateful I get to do Hangouts with you on your mission. It doesn’t make the missing quite so bad.

There is a new couple in our ward, who spoke today in church. Brother and Sister Jensen. And I haven’t actually met them in person ... I only heard their talks. They’re in their 50’s and she’s a soft-spoken self-proclaimed introvert who has a black belt in Martial Arts. Her talk was about “getting off your butt.” Haha. We can study, plain, watch tutorials, prepare, think and ponder but until we get moving, nothing will happen. It was a great talk and I needed that truth re-emphasized in my life right now. It’s getting busy with Abby started a small business, marathon training, doing my calling, homeschooling, etc, etc. Life is good when we’re busy doing what’s most important.

•Did you have anything unexpected happen to you this week?

(My answer is the inactive lady I minister to invited me to her house! She doesn’t want any contact with the church and I’ve been leaving treats on her doorstep for a year and a half. Suddenly she invited me over and we had an awesome visit. Life is unexpected sometimes.)

•What is your most important spiritual epiphany from your personal study this week?

(I’ve been marking every reference to Jesus Christ in the Book is Mormon and pondering on the whole God’s-Relationship-With-Humans Theme and marked 1114 references by the end of 2nd Nephi. It struck me forcibly that the book really IS “another testament of Jesus Christ” and that a person could get nearer to God studying that book than by any other means. Boom!)

•Who is your favourite person right now?

(Mine is Dad ... He bought me a dozen roses last week and I love them. I love looking at them, I love smelling them and I love that it’s a reminder that he loves me. Steph is a close second because she bought golden kiwis for me to eat when I go visit her. Obviously if you want to be my favourite person, you need to buy me stuff. Haha. Luckily, my favourite person usually rotates between family members and maybe a close friend or two but it made me realize I have lots of people to love and be loved by.)

•Is there anything this week that made you feel really, really happy and accomplished?

(Mine was dejunking the garage. Seeing everything cleaned out and organized and swept just feels so good. I have a bit more to do but the majority is done.)

•How are you sleeping?

(My cough is finally gone so I’ve been enjoying beautiful, uninterrupted sleep for three days now. It really improves my outlook on life.)

Anyway, I sure love you, my boy. Keep your chin up and continue on the covenant path. It’s the best source of confidence, direction, peace and joy.

Love you forever,

Mom

P.S. Do you have any suggestions on how to teach the rising generation about the significance of the sacrament? This is my talk topic in Stake Conference and I’m open to ideas.

Reply from Sam:

Answers to your questions:

1. My companion really had to use the bathroom but decided to hold it. Just when he really needed to go we had someone pull up in their car and ask who we were. We talked to him and gave him a pamphlet. He read it and texted us a super long text with questions. We are hopefully seeing him this week, that would never have happened if he used the bathroom. Miracles from holding his pee.

2. How much God is willing to help us in our weaknesses as well as show us our weaknesses and let us fall when we are prideful.

3.My favorite person right now is my companion and my brothers. Especially Josh, who chats with me every week.

4. I got to watch general conference, finally, and I got some questions answered.

5. I'm getting enough sleep. I'm even getting up at 5:30am sometimes.

I love you all and I hope my answers satisfied you.

Elder Smith

Letter from Sam:

Something a previous companion used to say to me was "Mission feels like home, but home feels like heaven. Always there but so far away" Mission really does feel like home. I'm learning the local language bit by bit, which is really fun. I can talk to people really well now and I have good friends both here and in Zambia. The difference between here and home is all I have to worry about is sharing the truth of the gospel. I focus on bettering myself and trying to become more Christlike, I study for the benefit of others and have the spirit with be overtime. I feel like because I'm a missionary I have a super spirit boost that only missionaries get for two years.

My week was freaking awesome. I finally got to watch General Conference and now I am on my spiritual high. My favorite talk was Elder Hollands. The quote I liked from him was "Today is the day to sacrifice your pride." These past few weeks I have seen pride creep into my life. it's crazy how fast it happens. If we are not careful we will be like the pharisees. That's the power of reading the scriptures and a daily evaluation of oneself in how prideful did I act today and how can I be more humble. One cool thing happened when I started doing this. My prayers got more personal. Lots of the time when we pray we pray as if we are talking to ourselves and don't really pay attention to what we say or if God is listening. I do my best to act as if I am kneeling at God's throne making a report of the day and asking for things I stand in need of. It has really changed the way I feel when I pray and I feel like God is listening to me as I speak.

This past week we were able to have a baptism for Prisca. Prisca is someone who was taught before by the missionaries before me and wasn't very serious in the coming to church, But she wanted to be baptized. As we were teaching her she had a change of heart because of both, her finding out someone else was getting baptized(A crazy girl jealousy thing) and the relief society fellowshipping her when she came to church. That last one was the the power of members. The major thing that made the baptism a huge success was the members.

I'm loving my companion and the transfer is almost over and if we are together then it will be a blessing, if we are separated then it is God's plan.

The church is true. This I know. I'm excited for the future because it will happen. "Do not dely, do it today"

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Beauty shot