Sam's Mission To Zambia Blog: April 1, 2019

From Sam - Outward or Inward

Hello Everyone,

This weeks has been great. There have been some struggle in the area because my companion has had some things happen at his home that has required special attention. But besides that it has been a great week. This past Thursday we had our zone conference. It was one of my shortest zone conferences but it left me with lots of things to think about. One of the cool videos that was shown was a video narrated by Henry B. Eyring. He used the effects of a pebble thrown into a pond. Though the point of impact is very small the ripple effect of that small pebble continues until the ripple reaches the end of the pond. Our actions, no matter how small, have lasting ripple effects. Do you want your choices to ripple for good or ripple for bad. We can choose what kind of pebble we want to throw, we can choose where to throw it, but we know how far the ripples will go. We need to continually choose the good so that the ripple effects in our lives and in the lives of others will be good. It might be your attitude about things, how you focus your attention on someone or it might be choosing good when no one is watching.

It was a very powerful video. The music in the background pumped me up. I love getting pumped up by an apostle.

I had a really cool revelation this morning. I was reading in Mosiah 27 about Alma the Younger. In verse 9 at the end it says "Giving a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over them" I read that and thought "How does Satin exercise his power over the children of men?" Satin can't do anything on his own, he either perverts the things of God or gets mankind to do something. He inspires pride, deceit, hate, lust, envy, strife and contention. His power comes from others. Gods power comes from himself because he is perfect and righteous. As I was thinking about this thing I thought that everything God does goes outward, where everything Satin does is inward. Faith, hope, charity, selflessness, patience, kindness and pretty much every Christ like attribute leads outward, focusing on others. That was the life of Jesus Christ, focusing on others. Everything Satin does focuses on the inward and self. pride, hate, lust, fear, selfishness, anger, and everything that is sensual and devilish focuses inward. Even in the pre-mortal council Satin wanted all the glory. God's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Satin's work is to bring to pass the eternal damnation of man. And he does that by making us focus on ourselves instead of others. Everyone want to be ministered to, but no one wants to minister. Choose to be outward, not for the attention of the world, that makes it inward, and the ripple effect will be for good.

One thing I noticed is General conference is next week, but I'll be viewing it in two weeks. In two weeks, April 13th, my friend Dyness is going to be getting baptised. With conference there it will not make it possible for her to be confirmed. But she is really excited to be baptised so this will be a minor set back. She has progressed so fast. She has come to church for these past two weeks and we have taught her almost everything, She is soon going to be a member before her baptism. She truly is elect.

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

P.S.

The internet is bad so there are no pictures this week, sorry.

Pictures:

-A mini mantis on my hand

-Wild Cats!!!

-In front of a Samson statue

From Dad - Spring Break

Hi Sam,

This has been a fun week. Kurri, Benson, Elli were here till Wednesday. I think you got to talk with them on Monday. Tuesday was the court day for Abby and Elli to go and testify about the unfortunate experience at WEM last year. I drove them all into the courthouse early Tuesday morning and went into work. Both of them were brave and did very well stating the facts as they remembered them. Mom and Kurri got to watch from a gallery and though they did get a few hard questions from the defense, they did well. Elli was a bit emotional about it all but Abby was pretty stoic and pragmatic about it. We learned the next day from the crown prosecutor that in the end they established that the incident truly happened, however, the defense made the argument that the accused was not a good swimmer and had accidentally grabbed onto Elli's bathing suit as he was struggling in the waves. Because it cast reasonable doubt on the accusation, the charge was dropped. In the end that is probably right. I can imagine how if I accidentally did something that got misconstrued, I would want similar consideration. All in all, we're glad its over but I'm grateful for hard experiences for my family to help us grow and learn. I think that happened for Abby. On the way home we stopped at Original Joe's to celebrate:

Cody stayed with us all week, first to be with his Mom, but then when they left, Uncle Tad was in Red Deer, so rather than staying alone at the cabin, he joined us. We enjoy having him and consider him a part of the family.

Given that it was spring break this week and we have Ben home with us and Josh back from college, we decided that we should do a family activity. After some brainstorming and good discussion about it, Mom and I decided to take the family to a Hotel in Fort Saskatchewan overnight on Friday and Saturday. So after book club on Friday, we drove into the city and spent the afternoon at the "Rec Room". It is an entertainment place where we were able to enjoy a fun game of bowling, eat some snacks, then played in their arcade of high tech video games to earn tickets to buy stuff in their gift store. It is the same concept as "Chucky Cheese", just advanced. The girls had the most fun, I think, with us old geezers getting tuckered out pretty quick.

Abby and Mia playing...

From there, we went to South Gate mall for some shopping and food court supper. By this point, I was battling major shoppers buzz and we fled to the hotel in Fort Saskatchewan. It was a nice big room, fortunately, with 7 of us crammed in together. The kids went to the pool with Mom while I relaxed and watched Final Four Basketball on TV. The next morning we enjoyed a hotel breakfast included in the price. It was a pretty good breakfast compared to some I had. From the Hotel we headed to Millennium place in Sherwood park. Not sure if you've ever been there that you can remember (we took you kids there for one of my company parties years ago, when you were little). It is a really nice facility and the family price was good. Josh, Ben and I went to the weight room to establish our maximum bench press ability and work out. Ben came in at 115 lb, I maxed out at 165 lb and Josh pushed through 185 lb. He's getting strong!!

Then we went for a swim in the wave pool and Ben and I played some BBall after in the gym. Good times.

We talked with Steph and Tyler tonight. They are contemplating buying a new house this next couple of weeks, so keep them in your prayers. We also had a good chat with G&G Smith. They are doing well.

Finally, we started our fast with a feast at Montana's. Good times were had by all.

(Josh and Abby are practicing their impression of Mia's look when she found out that Montana's wasn't fast food and that she would have to wait for her food a little longer than normal)

Today we ended our fast with a new concept called the "charcuterie board", a board full of yummy finger foods.

Love you Sam. I just finished reading a self-help book called "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" It was kind of cheesy but has some good things to ponder. One that I found interesting was the 10 morning rituals for Radiant Living. I'll leave that here for you to ponder:

The Ritual of Early Awakening. Six hours of sleep and seeing the sunrise. Of course, you have to figure out how much you need yourself, but this is what they suggest.
The Ritual of Solitude. Always make a few minutes to practice silence after waking up.
The Ritual of Physicality. Move, get up, do some exercise. Whatever gets the blood flowing.
The Ritual of Live Nourishment. A vegetarian diet based on fresh food is what the sages follow.
The Ritual of Abundant Knowledge. Keep your mind stimulated with a bit of reading or studying.
The Ritual of Personal Reflection. Did you do your best today? What could you have done better?
The Ritual of Music. Listen to music often to never get stuck in a bad mood.
The Ritual of Spoken Word. Write down a short mantra you can repeat to yourself throughout the day.
The Ritual of Congruent Character. Always follow your principles. Write them down, be aware of them and stick to them.
The Ritual of Simplicity. Ruthlessly live your priorities and remove everything else that’s unnecessary.