June 23, 2019

From Mom - Ups + Downs = Life

Dear SammySam,

I'm going to start your letter by saying the things I usually save until the end. ...

We love you. We're so proud of you. You're a hard worker and someone who doesn't ever stay discouraged for long. You set a good example for all of us with your enthusiasm and positivity. We think and talk about you every day. 

We had a recent blast-from-the-past with Nataraj coming for dinner this week. Do you remember when he came to live with us? You were 7 or 8 at the time. He reminded us that you were the last one in the family to warm up to him. You weren't sure about this stranger who came to live with us. I forgot how cautious you were when you were young because you are so accepting and bold now. Some things we grow out of, I guess. 

We had a nice visit. Nataraj gave the kids Indian money, taught them a bit of Kannada (his native tongue), played an Indian childhood game and told stories of his last visit. He remembered everything and it was really fun to have him here. 

Dad is away this week on a business trip. I just checked his locator and it says he's in Minneapolis, on a layover, with the final destination in New York State.  Also, this is the week we are getting ready for all the Bruces to come for a family reunion, so we're going to miss Dad more than ever. They'll arrive on Friday and we'll have family here for nine days. Wish us luck!

All these things are really really good. We live a fantastic life and I love it. We have good people that surround us, we live in a safe and beautiful part of the world. We always have food to eat and every comfort. Life is so good. All our problems are happy problems. 

I'm especially grateful because yesterday I attended the funeral of Saren Westrop. Remember we visited their family in China? Nine days ago, Saren was hiking in the mountains with some family members when a rock bounded down the mountain and knocked him down a steep rocky embankment and he didn't survive the fall. It is a crazy, weird and tragic accident.  As I listened to the speakers and watched my dear friend deep in her grief, my mind turned to deep questions and spiritual matters. In the end, our energy should be expended on the things that matter most: our relationship with heaven, our valued earthly relationships, our integrity and character, doing things that build us and those around us and to find joy in service and beauty. Because ... we just never know when our life will be finished. 

Two things were said at his funeral that resounded in my heart and mind. 

1) "We are transformed by things we cannot change."

And,

2) "Powerful people make strength from difficult situations."

So, my mind will be in a contemplative state for a little while, I think. 

I'm grateful for Mia and Abby, who are pretty good at enjoying their moments. They remind me to appreciate the now. Today a hail storm swept through and a few seconds later they were running around the front yard, screaming. Haha. And on Friday when the weather was chilly and windy, Mia said, "this is perfect kite-flying weather!" and we went out and flew kites. So fun.

Have a great week, Sam. 

And I will end with a question usually reserved for the beginning. A serious question and I want you to answer it in full.

How are you?

Love forever,  

Mom

From Sam - Called to Serve

Hello everyone!

Last week in my letter I talked about Repentance and the Mass Baptism. 

First, since Friday two weeks ago I have focused on daily repentance. So many times this week I have "heard" the spirit. It is crazy at how much I have heard it. It's like I was missing out on such great blessing and the key to these blessings was repentance. At first I didn't know exactly what I should repent of, so I did what President Nelson instructed and asked God what do I need to repent of? As each day passed on I saw small things I needed to repent of. As I focused on these things and repented and sought daily to do better that's when I started to recognise the spirit in almost everything. 

Second, the mass district baptism was a great success. There are three branches in the district and in Luanshya there was 10 people baptised, in Ndola there were 5 people and in Masala there were two. Those two were from me and my companion. Reuben and Linda. Both are doing great and yesterday I had the privilege given to me by my branch president to give Reuben the priesthood. It was amazing. Lots of the pictures I have are from the baptism. 

Lots of my study and thoughts have been a lot about Gods wisdom. I would say to myself at times: "In my limited wisdom and knowledge I think "this" should happen. But then God in his infinite wisdom and knowledge will probably say "That" needs to happen" If the wisdom of the world says go left but God says go right, we should should go right.

God is the master of all things and I find it so profound at the fact that Gods whole purpose is to bring about our eternal life and eternal happiness. The master of the whole universe asks us to pray to him and call him Father.

This week I almost condemned myself to outer darkness. As I was walking to an appointment I felt I needed to go down a certain road. I pushed the thought away and continued walking. I felt again that I needed to turn around and go back down that road. I had already gone down that road and knocked every gate so I continued. But I thought to myself: "If this is the Holy Ghost I an now denying the Holy Ghost. That means I'm going to outer darkness!" I told my companion that I'm going to hell because I just denied the Holy Ghost and told him about how I felt we needed to go down that road. When I told him that he said he also felt that same feeling. When we realised that we were both told to go down the road we immediately stopped and turned around to go down that road. As walking down the road we met a couple people but I never found out why I needed to go down that road. What I do know is that that feeling was the Holy Ghost, not my own thoughts of feelings.   

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-The Hatuleke children that I interviewed for baptism(Elder Spilker is in the back)

-Dinner one of these days

-What happens when you give Sister Mahe my camera when I am doing interviews for their candidates

-The baptism pictures

June 17, 2019

From Dad - Father's Day

Hi Sam,

It's Father's Day today and it's been fantastic. I feel loved and I'm so grateful for you and your brothers and sisters. Stephanie and Tyler called to wish me Happy Father's day and give us the latest updates. You all make my life complete and I can't imagine my life without you! 

Mom and the kids made me an amazing meal and afterwards the kids started looking at Mom's Instagram photos and laughing their heads off. Good moment(s).

It's been a busy week and I think the weeks will only get busier. I was grateful to get lots of work done on the garage this week and it is fun to watch the small simple steps we take on our acreage translate our dream into reality. 

We've had some good hot days and some rainy ones, resulting in some beautiful greenery all around us. Our garden is growing well and Mom is loving tending it.

Friday I took Mom on a date to get some Costco supplies for the reunion. We were able to get a playground for the yard for all the little ones and a 3 ft high pool. We'll take a pic when we get them up for you to see. After we went to Original Joe's and had supper. We were a little paranoid about the playground stuff in the back of the truck so we parked close so we could keep an eye on it. 

Ben is done all his grade 12 classed now and is enjoying some time off to prepare for his final exams this week and next. Then he's done, graduated! Hard to believe.

Josh continues to work long days and sock it away for school. We're all listening to a Brandon Sanderson book series (Storm-light Chronicles) together and its fun to discuss it. He puts some good principles in his stories.

Last night we went to the Leduc School of Music seniors concert where Abby and Ben played. They did great. 

Here a video selection of some of their music: Click here...

Come Follow Me this week was the events leading up to the crucifixion including the atonement in the garden, where the Savior bled from every pore for you and I and all of our family. I hope you know how grateful I am for the atonement. It literally saves me on a daily basis. Josh and I were talking about how, practically speaking, we can incorporate the enabling power of the atonement in our lives. It is often an abstract concept for us as we read about it we believe that it happened, but struggle to know how to use it. One thought we had was how important it was just remembering that he did this for us. Remembering regularly (moment by moment even) causes us to act differently. This month's New Era is awesome. One of the articles is about the things we can choose once and not have to revisit every time we encounter them. One he mentions is the choice to repent every time we sin. That small choice invokes the power of the atonement in our lives. Hope you have success this week in teaching people about the atonement.

God bless you Sam for the wonderful work you are doing. Stay positive and remember we are all praying for you daily.

Dad.

From Sam - The gospel of Repentance and Peace

Hello everyone,

This week went by very fast. This week has been spent in preparation for the 22nd of June. The mission is having a mass mission/district baptism. June 22nd is the appointed day for the whole mission to baptise those who we are preparing for baptism. This next week is going to be a big rush and lots of work for this event.  I have 3 people preparing for this day. Their names are Reuben, Linda and Musonda. (The name Musonda means "Wisdom from God") There is also one more person who has potential but we'll see. These three people are miracles from God. Reuben is a referral from Dyness, Both Linda and Musonda are from the efforts of my companion, Elder Kane, during exchanges. Linda used to be a Jehovah's Witness, Musonda used to be SDA(Seventh Day Adventist) and Reuben was a Pentecostal member who went to SDA then found us. I'm so excited for these people and for their baptism. It's a joy I can't describe. There are so many times when writing in my journal that I have a loss for words for my spiritual experiences and feel much like Moroni, I am not mighty in writing as I am in speaking. But I am remaining faithful to writing in my journal just in case someone wants to know about my mission. 

I try to focus on the detail of my day and end up writing 2-3 pages on A4 paper. 

This past week was President Kupu's last zone conference. I will really miss him when he goes. My new mission president is President Brent Whiting. The zone conference was focused of President Nelsons talk "We Can Do Better and Be Better" I have never thought about repentance the same. Repentance has been an hourly thought for me since then. For this small time since Friday to  today I am feeling the difference of daily repentance. I don't know how to describe the difference. The only thing I can say is I feel for worthy and able, if God blesses me I know that I am worthy of it. I just know that it's a feeling that I want all the time. I don't want to be dirtied from the effects of sin. 

Repentance is an essential part of Gods plan, it is the plan. I have learned that everything God does is for our happiness. Commandments are arrows that point to happiness and salvation. Repentance is our pathway to happiness. Repentance is positive and should never be avoided our delayed. 

One funny experience that happened this week. We were walking Linda to a members house so we can teach her. My companion asked her when we met with her " I hope the sun isn't too hot for you." Then Elder Bendixsen said the best comment ever. He said: "What? Are you doing to offer to turn it down or something?. 

That was a highlight of my week because it actually made me laugh.

This is my week,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Maize drink

-I found a knife in the water jug

-Green Apple Drink

-No power, cold season study session

-Giant bags of roasted ground nuts

-Dinner at Dyness'

-I found a Canadian dime on the ground

-Zone conference birthday pics

-Elder Bendixsen

-Pictures with President and Sister Kupu

-President Kupu trying to pick up a missionary going home

-Pictures with Reuben as well as a picture with a giant Elder Bendixsen

-Hungry Lion ice-cream shot(Left to Right:Elder Rakado, Elder Odukoya, Me, Elder Spilker)(I wanted a picture and Elder Odukoya said that "Nothing in Africa is free" then Elder Spilker took the photo anyway)

-Dinner last night(Sweet potato's and brownies)

Video;

Birthday

Choir Song