Hi Sam,
Do they celebrate St. Patrick's day over there? Ours was a little lower key this year than in years past. Mia wanted to make a trap again, but it didn't work out. So no crazy Leprechaun's running around last night (unfortunately?). Josh did remind me this morning to change my tie to a green tie and the boys wore green socks. and ties. Pot luck today was things green as well.
We had a pretty good week! The weather has been really mild, for which we are grateful. Winter starts getting a little depressing around this time of year. Mom has been on a quest to update the main floor of the house because her friend Sioban Westerop was planning to come over tomorrow and Auntie Kurri and Ellie are coming this week. After that, Leslie Graham is coming for a few days as well. So yesterday we did a deep clean of the house and kicked the cats out into the garage. They are enjoying exploring the rafters.
The girls went skiing potentially for the last time this season with the weather getting warmer and went for about 6 hours so there were some sore bodies when they got home. Speaking of sore bodies, the boys and I have been consistently getting up at 5:30 every week day for the last 3 weeks to exercise together. Josh is our work out leader and puts us through 2-3 different exercises for 3 sets each, alternating each day the different muscle groups. Though we complain a bit about being tired in the morning, I have actually noticed a real increase in energy during the day from doing this. Our minds, bodies and spirit are definitely connected and improving one area affects and enhances the other areas!
Josh worked for Airdar most of the week and is grateful for the extra dough to be able to take a trip down to Rexburg this week to reconnect with old friends there.
Ben is looking forward to spring break next week and we are trying to decide what kind of family outing we can do while he's off. He's got an intense class schedule but was able to take some time to take in a school play (The Adams family) in Stony Plain with some friends from school. He met a girl who was in the play who knew him from dances so he's looking forward to Friday night to find and dance with her. Ben's super excited for the dance as it's been 8 week since the last one he and Abby got to attend. The simple joys of teen-age life.
I enjoyed being able to teach adult Sunday School today. Although I really enjoy teaching primary, teaching adults is a different experience and challenges me in different ways. I really enjoyed Come Follow Me this week and chose to have 2 topics in my lesson. One was the power of the priesthood and the blessing of having apostles on the earth today just like in the time of Christ. Not sure if you've been able to see it, but the Rome temple was just dedicated and for the first time outside of North America, all the 12 apostles were gathered. It is wonderful to me to live in a time of living revelation an to have the privilege of hearing these special witnesses of Christ to all the world. There messages are inspiring and relevant to our day.
The second topic was the sabbath day. I really enjoyed a video by Jeffrey R Holland about the sabbath and especially his symbol of the star of David where the top triangle represents the few things we should avoid doing on Sunday, but the bottom of the inverse triangle pointing up teaches us that there is a never ending set of things that we can do on the Sabbath day that are good (see Matthew 7:12). It is good to do well on the Sabbath.
In that spirit, we decided to do a Sabbath day activity to video a special spotlight for you. Hope you enjoy it and that it helps you feel our love and encouragement for you. You are doing a great and important work. And the Lord has a work for you to do in Africa. So proud of you for seeing the good and choosing to be positive and learn from every experience.
(Let me know if you have any trouble getting it. It is in our shared google drive in the "FromHome" folder.)
God bless you my special son. Have a great week.
Dad
From Sam - The Music of the Gospel
A missionary that I was with in Malawi said once "The missionaries make the noise and the spirit turns it into music" That's why it is importance to always have his spirit to be with us. And the spirit cannot dwell in unholy temples. We need to have Clean Hands and a Pure Heart.
I had this really cool string of revelation about pondering and as I pondered about pondering I came up with something really cool that I will have to paraphrase because I can't remember it all and the book I wrote it in is back at my flat. But when we ponder we open ourselves to the spirit. When we study, we ponder. That's what it means to feast on the words of Christ. If we are not pondering we are only hearing and reading, but when we ponder we listen and study. We cannot learn in pride. Pride is something that seaps into ones life slowly; It doesn't come very dramatically all at once. We must get rid of pride so that we can receive the spirit and be able to learn the gospel truths God wants us to know. And we can only know them by revelation and revelation comes as we ponder.
What's funny is I received revelation about pondering as I pondered.
This week has been great. Lots happened and one of the things that happened was I got moved to a new flat. I used to be staying in a flat of 4 missionaries but now I am just with my companion. The flat I am in is also in my area, so that is a nice change. The best part is it is 5 minutes away from the part of my area that we are having the most success. One such person that I am teaching was found by the spirit. Her name is Dyness and as we went down a road that we have knocked every gate twice, we went to the last gate to check on someone. That person wasn't home, but we then realized that there is another gate that neither me of my companion have ever seen, it was like it appeared out of nowhere. We knocked on the gate and we heard music coming from the house. We knocked again, then a third time. We were ready to leave thinking that they cannot hear us because of the music when we heard foot steps. We got ready for the encounter, then the gate opened, we introduced ourselves and got to know her name. (This next part was 100% the spirit) I then asked if she liked music, she said yes, then I said "We are missionaries and we share the music of the gospel and we are wondering if you would like to hear our song?" She let us in and we are now teaching her. She is progressing really fast and I am really excited for her to get baptized. We haven't given her a baptismal commitment yet but we are planning to do so this Wednesday.
Missionary work is hard but it is very rewarding.
I love you all.
-Elder Smith
Pictures:
-Banana Milk-It
-District pictures
-People fixing a water spout
-Me eating a very big and very sweet pastry
-I found a great Shwarma place. My companion enjoying Shwarma
-Pictures of my new flat
-Helping a young investigator with his English homework
-My Swahili Book of Mormon
Videos:
No comments:
Post a Comment