Dear Elder Smith,
I woke up this morning and read your email. I laughed at you getting "smitten" on the cheek. I wonder if you thought about "turning the other cheek" in that moment? Haha.
We said goodbye to Stephanie early Saturday morning. We sure loved having her stay with us for nine days and packed so much in! We went to Sparwood for Easter and a baby shower, then came home for another baby shower, celebrated Josh's birthday and were busy every day. We loved her contributions to the family especially helping Abby with her talk when stress was high (Abby's talk was good and she did amazing, btw) and giving Ben suggestions with school assignments. The only problem with being busy is that time flies by and April has flown by for me, which is okay.
Mia learned that babies can hear while growing on the inside so in this picture she was reading to the baby. Cute, right?
At the baby shower ...
Baby deviled eggs. Haha.
One of our projects while Steph was here was to recreate "school photo magnets" for Grandma Bruce's fridge. We hung Ben's blue blanket over the wall by the stairs and this is the result. ...
These are the finished pictures. The ones on the right will go to Grandma Bruce and ones on the left will go to Grandma Smith as a Mother's Day gift.
We're excited to welcome a new baby and are trying very hard not to be sad that they live far away. I've never been so grateful for airplanes than I am now. 
In other news, our Ward boundaries were changed yesterday at Stake Conference. Basically they took five wards and made them into six. So the Devon Ward boundaries shrunk a little and as a result, don't have the Arnolds or the Watsons in our Ward anymore. Luckily the "new" Woodbend Ward will meet in our building so we will still see our friends. Change is good though. There is a realization that the Gospel of Jesus Christ is the point and purpose of our church. The people can help or hinder our testimonies but they are not the purpose.
I overheard Ben tell you of his rewards at the Gala concert yesterday. He received multiple scholarships around $1200 (he forgot to tell you about his big one that the radio station gave him). It's a good start for his savings.
He performed Was I Wazir from the musical Kismet. He's also going to Provincials for both musical theater and piano. Poor guy. Haha.
Mia is keeping us all busy with her new obsession with geocaching. Her and Dad found a cool one hidden in a man-made wire bird nest.
So life is busy and life is good. We love you and know you are busy in the work of the Lord, which means time is going to fly for you. Sprint to the end, Sam! We keep you in our prayers daily.
Love forever,
Mom
From Sam - The Missionary Flat
Hello everyone,
This week was a lot different from my other weeks. My companion is sick and Wednesday to Friday he had to stay in the flat to prepare for an IVU scan so we can know exactly what is wrong with him. I learned a hard truth by experience: There is nothing to do in a missionary flat except to study. I studied about 10-20 pages in the Bible, Book of Mormon and The Doctrine and Covenants each day, as well as Preach my Gospel and I finished the Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith that I started last year. As a missionary there is nothing sweeter than missionary work.
One fun experience that happened to me these past few weeks:
There was a time where there was some kids asking for a pass along card and I said "no" because I had already gave them two already. So the older one said they will fight me for it. So I said to her "smite me on one cheek and I will turn the other one as well, just like Jesus taught." She was about 12 years old and when I gave her my cheek to "smite" she came over and gave me a kiss. I was pretty shocked and concluded that that is one way to "smite" a man on a cheek. I'm trying to remember if I had to repent of that. I think that God understands.
I've been thinking recently(I had a lot of time to think this week) that there is nothing more precious to me than the truth. I was thinking about the talk from President Nelson before he was the prophet. The talk is titled "The Book of Mormon: What would your life be without it?" I want you to think about what the Book of Mormon means to you. If you were offered diamonds or rubies or thousands of dollars on condition that you give up the Book of Mormon for the rest of your life, what would you choose? I was pondering this thing and I took the Book of Mormon and held it in my hand. I really thought about what the Book of Mormon means to me in my life. I also had fantasies about how I would feel a gust of wind and I would find myself in a different world that had magic and dragons and all that kind of stuff. But all I would have with me is what I was wearing and what I had in my bag and my hands. That would be my quad, my planner, notebook, whitehand book, pens and pencils, water and the Book of Mormon. I imagined how I would put my missionary name tag on my scriptures but that I would become a black smith and all that I would keep from this world is my scriptures and the Book of Mormon and that no matter what, those things would be of more worth to me than all the treasures the world could offer. I then imagined how someone would find out that I had the Book of Mormon and offer to buy it from me. I would utterly refuse because of what it means to me. Then this person would tell me that he is also a member of the church and that he was taken into this world years ago and that he didn't have the Book of Mormon and was lost because of that. And when he saw me have it filled him with hope.
It was a fun thought.
I love you all
One of these days I'm going to write one of my emails in L/R syndrome.
-Elder Smith
Pictures:
-Hungly Rion
-Nature pictures
-Internet cafe
-My companion blew a bubble so big that it blew up onto his glasses.
-My updated Stick man wearing the armor of God
No comments:
Post a Comment