Hi Sam,
Hope you had another great week! Life is an amazing journey. Full of concern and joy mixed.
This week we loved having Stephanie fly and spend some time with us. It is very evident now that you will be having a niece in the near future. Stephanie is a beautiful mother to be. The girls can barely contain themselves!
Before I forget, here is the link to the video I promised you last week of Ben doing his musical theater performance. He gets to do it all over again at provincials. Ben also performed his piano festival pieces this week and did very well. Well enough to also get to perform them again next month at provincials also! We're humbly proud of him :)
Abby is intensely preparing for her musical theater debut in Wizard of Oz. Its been a great challenge for her and is exercising her memorizing skills!
Mia is joyfully dancing and singing through life. Especially with a new karaoke speaker we got from Costco. She is taking a Chemistry course online and is pretty diligent in her math studies.I think she told you about the pending resuming of her Ukulele career at a farmers market next month. She's pretty excited about that.
Josh is back full time at Classic and I mean full time now. With the days getting longer he's looking at 12 hours a day, 6 days a week. Great for the bank account, a bit more challenging on the social scene.
Your Mom is coming off an amazing retreat with her tribe of mothers and is recovering her sleep. She is an amazing woman, completely committed to improving both her self and the lives of others. I love and cherish that she is "all in" to living the gospel, magnifying her calling, serving others and to raising our family in righteousness. She is an example to me.
We love living out here, even thought it is a bit inconvenient for Josh and Ben to drive so far for work and school. It is the time of beautiful sunsets and spring projects.
We spent Th, Fri, Saturday this week at the Bruce's celebrating Easter. You have an amazing heritage of faith and service on that side of the family. I love your Grandpa Bruce's no nonsense approach to life and his example of selfless service. This little home made fix in their bathroom is so typical of his practical approach to life:
While we were there, the kids started going through some of Grandma's old picture albums. Check out these classic pics:
Your Mom has a mischievous side to her from early on :)
We had lots of fun visiting and eating and hunting Easter eggs.
Mom and girls planned Stephanie's baby shower at Grandma's and Grandma and Grandpa Smith and Auntie Liz, Rachel and Lindy came over for it. Lots of baby clothes!
On our way back we spent a fun time searching for and finding a geo cache at Frank's slide.
Yesterday I had the privilege of teaching Adult SS for the Easter lesson. I really enjoyed pondering the Savior's atonement and especially how it covers not only Sin and Death, but also weaknesses and trials as well.
I came to understand more fully that the atonement is much more than just helping us erase our sins. President Dieter F. Uchtdorf taucht: “If salvation means only erasing our mistakes and sins, then salvation—as wonderful as it is—does not fulfill the Father’s aspirations for us. His aim is much higher: He wants His sons and daughters to become like Him”
it is also designed to enable our growth to where we will become like him and the Father. This is where trials and weaknesses come in.
So have fun working on your trials and weaknesses with the Savior's help this week!
Love you lots!
Dad.
From Sam - Happy Easter
Hello everyone and happy Easter,
I am in His watchful care"
As I am writing this I am listening to the Tabernacle Choirs performance of "He Is Risen". Here in Zambia and also in Malawi almost everyone has a belief in Christ and that he lives. I am so grateful for the knowledge of the Plan of Salvation. Not only do we have the knowledge about Christ and the resurrection but we also have the knowledge of the spirit world, the millennium, Judgement and the kingdoms of glory. I was teaching the Plan of Salvation yesterday and I thought about how lucky I am to live with and in the truth. We also had a lesson where the one we taught didn't want anything to do with the Book of Mormon and anything else we had to teach. My companion wanted to bible bash with him. We were running late for an appointment and I didn't want anything to do with bible bashing, (I've learned from past experiences) so I cut the lesson short and we went on our way. My companion was asking why I didn't let him bash and I told him that I don't want to bash and while he is with me that I will avoid those situations at all times. But as we walked away I thought about how much of a blessing the truth is in my life. And that the person we tried to teach doesn't know what he is missing and what he just turned away. I'm so grateful for the truth.
When I left on my mission I left with a strong testimony of Joseph Smith and the Book of Mormon. As I have gone through my mission and because of one of my companions, my testimony shifted focus to Jesus Christ and the Atonement. I always had a testimony of Jesus Christ but because of my mission he is the centre of my testimony. I love Jesus Christ and I can't wait to meet him. One of my favourite primary hymns is "If the Saviour stood Beside Me" because most of the song talks about "If" but the last verse says
"He is always near me, though I do not see Him there,
And because He loves me dearly,I am in His watchful care"
He is always aware of us, he knows our circumstances, trials and sufferings because he went through them as well.
Something that has always come to my mind because of my mission is what are we doing to show our love for Christ. Everyone says "Jesus loves me", there are even songs about it. But I always think "What are you doing to show that you love Jesus Christ"
The gospel of Jesus Christ is simple, but not easy. It takes some effort. Nothing worth while comes easy. Easy come easy go. God and Jesus Christ don't demand or expect perfection, but they do demand and expect improvement. On our own we will never make it to heaven, that's why God sent Jesus Christ, His beloved son, to fill the gap. My favourite scripture is found in D&C 45:3-5. All we can do is not enough, But it is by grace that we are saved after all we can do. My personal favourite example for me is Gymnastics. Mom and Dad have payed lots of money for me to do gymnastics while I grew up. I did a total of 4 1/2 years of it and the monthly pay was a lot of money. Mom and Dad didn't expect me to pay the money back, they expected me to work hard. There were days where it sucked and I didn't like it. But if it were not for gymnastics I would never have become the person I am today. A big shout out to Mom and Dad for making me do gymnastics. Just like in this life, there are days in which life will suck and we'll hate it. But if we endure through the hardships we will become people that we would never have become if it weren't for the days that sucked.
I'm on my down hill in terms of time on my mission but I want to make sure that I'm still climbing up hill in terms of my progression. Wish me luck,
-Elder Smith
Pictures:
-Sick in the Hospital
-Waiting for our appointment at Hungry Lion
-My doodles at Hungry Lion
-Our stove caught on fire(There is a fun story behind this)
-Sky photo
-Area at Dusk photo
-The power was out so I had to make Banana maize porridge for dinner.
-My mission family history
-A fun doodle that for me represents the shield of faith and the sword of the spirit(I want my faith to be as big as this shield)
Video's
At Hungry Lion
Kid Games
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