Dear Sam,
We have had a good week here at home. With a new year comes new goals and aspirations. We had a good family planning last Sunday and tonight we'll see how we did. Abby and Mia were pretty good about following their learning plan.
We had a bit of an adventure this week as Josh has been out looking for work. First of all, Josh got 2 offers to work at Classic Landscapes doing snow removal and Dennis Prince mentioned he was looking for workers at Airdar. Both offered Josh work, and he started at AIRDAR this week. As part of getting set up to work at Classic again, Josh had to go into the tree farm office to fill out application forms and such. Unfortunately as he was coming up to the driveway there, he hit some icy spots and started to spin. He ended up doing a 360 and skidding his back end over the rocks beside the driveway! Bent the tie rods and supporting structures on the tire and popped it good. Fortunately, Bro. Rodriquez was there at work and was able to drive him home. For me the hardest part of car accidents is the inconvenience of getting it all cleaned up. I stewed over how to get the car to the mechanics and after calls to Buchak and Uhaul, we made a plan to take the truck and dolly it back. The day we were planning to do it, the truck wouldn't start! Between that and learning from Josh that the tire was popped and pushed up against the side of the wheel well, I decided to bite the bullet and get it towed. $300 later it was at the mechanics and we just got word Friday that the damage was $600. Sigh. After all was said and done, it's just money and I'm not sure why I stressed over it as much as I did.
Life can throw curve balls at you in an instant. This week Ben had to pile all his Social Studies semester long project into 1 week. He decided to do his book report on "The Prince", an old classic by Machiavelli. In it there is this quote that talks of how fortune is fickle but claims that with preparation, we can take the edge off its consequences:
I hold that it could be true that fortune is the arbiter of half of actions, but that she still leaves the other half, or close to it, to be governed by us. And she resembles one of those violent rivers which, when they become enraged, flood the plains, tear down trees and buildings, lift up the earth from one side and deposit it on the other... But this does not mean that men, when times are quiet, cannot take precautions with floodgates and embankments, so that, when the rivers swell up again, either they would move along through a canal, or their rush would not be so unchecked and harmful. The same happens with fortune, who displays her force where there is no prepared resource to resist her.
I think this is partially why the Lord and his prophets encourage self-reliance, food storage, getting out of debt etc. When we are prepared, we fear less because we are able to bring to bear our preparations to mitigate the challenges. Simple example for us was having some short term savings that we could use for the accident coverage. Lowers the stress :) !
This week Mom took the girls to the new Alberta museum up town. It used to be over by our old apartments near 124 st in Edmonton and I believe Mom took you and Steph and Josh there sometimes, though you likely won't remember.
Last night we made home made pizza. It worked out well and we got to use one of the Chinese Christmas gifts Josh got. Can you spot it :)
I'm still getting used to 2 hour church. The shortened Primary lesson is making me rethink how I prepare. with about 25 minutes, we really only have time for about 2 main key points especially if we want them to do an activity like coloring. I wanted the kids in my class (Valiant 9) to get used to reading scriptures so we took turns reading 4 vs each, but ended up having some good discussions until I realized that only 3 out of the 6 kids in my class had read and I only had 10 minutes left. I still had 4 points I wanted to cover, so had do do some quick adjustments and abridging. It'll take a little time to get used to I think!
Had a couple of questionos about your mission that you may have answered already:
- What is the most exotic African animal you've seen so far,
- Are there any game reserves nearby where the classic African animals are?
- I imagine missionaries don't get to go to them?
- In your last email you talked about messing up in front of others helps with pride... can you elaborate? Any funny stories around that comment?
- Are you used to driving on the left side of the road now? Might have to re-train when you get home :)
Love you Sam. Have a great week!
Dad.
From Sam - Small and Simple Things
Hello Everyone!!!
This week flew by and now I'm sitting here wondering what I should write because it feels like yesterday that I was doing the same thing.
Two mini miracles happened this week. I have been struggling to find serious people and since the last zone conference I have been pumped up to do missionary work. Last Sunday a new family moved into the branch and now stay in my area. The wife is a return missionary and the husband is not a member and they have a pair of twins. The husband wants to be baptized and i'm seeing them tomorrow. God is pretty much handing me a baptism. (I just hope I don't get transferred) The second miracle was while I was finding I decided to know on gates that I have already knocked on. One of these gates someone let us in and allowed us to teach. Instead of teaching a lesson we first got to know her and 5 minutes in she opened up because of a question I asked and she talked for the next 20 minutes about her concerns. While I was listening there were times when I wanted to speak but I felt that I just needed to listen. By the end of the lesson she thanked us for coming and said that people don't usually listen to her(She was a middle child so I could relate to her really well) This morning we saw her again and taught the Plan of Salvation(She read the whole pamphlet the day before) and she said that it answered lots of her questions and wants to learn more about the Book of Mormon and everything else.
These were the spiritual highlights this week.
The biggest temporal highlight this week happened while I was driving home at the end of the day with all 4 of us missionaries. It was dark and everyone was driving so slowly. When I passed them all and just before I turned into the road that leads to our compound I saw a dog on the road just a little too late. Before I could react I ran over it. To the other missionaries it looked like I didn't even care because I didn't even flinch. I was going about 60 kilometers an hour when I hit it and it all happened so fast. Of course I feel sorry for the dog but we all know that all dogs go to heaven. We found out later that it was a hyena, so if I didn't hit it I would never have known.
Missionary work is amazing. There are times when I feel like 12 more months is too long for me to handle but I also know how fast it will go because this past year just happened and I don't know where it went. It's taken me a year to finally start to figure out what I am doing. The first year was the figuring out year and this year is the figured out year. I pray I will use it to the fullest.
I love you all, Kia Kaha Kite Longomi(Stay strong in the Gospel),
-Elder Smith
Pictures:
-The shortest missionary(Elder Akpan) and the tallest missionary(Elder Madsen) in the mission
-Dinner with my Malawian family
-Elder Funaki ready to kill me(Don't make a Tongan angry)
-Me trying out a Rasta Man hat
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