Dear Sam,
Today is Remembrance Day and we are reminding ourselves of the high cost of freedom. Are we using our freedom and our time in the best way we can? I’ve been thinking about this lately. Personally, I think the secret to this question is knowing how to hear the voice of the Spirit and having the courage to follow it.
In fact, creating Grandma and Grandpa Smith’s 50th Wedding Anniversary Party was a direct spiritual prompting for me and Liz and I’m so glad we did. It really hit home this weekend of the power and strength of our grandparents abs ask they have done for us. Family is so important. So so important.
Pictures ...
It is apparently all about Bowie because that is all the pictures I have. Haha. But that makes sense ... because she is symbolic of the rising generation. And we all love her dearly.
And we love you. We’re so proud of you. Tomorrow is a new day. Eat. Sleep. Pray. Work. Be grateful. Repeat.
Love,
Mom
From Sam - Patience vs. Passiveness
Hello everyone,
I'm going to share with you about my preparation day experience.
I went to immigration in the morning for missionaries to stay legal in Zambia and for missionaries who are going to Malawi to be cleared to leave Zambia. I wasn't the one to wait in line while the other missionaries were inside the immigration building picking up their permits. I was waiting outside and there were two sisters also waiting outside to get their permits as well. I decided to talk to them. Not talk to them for the purpose of giving them a Book of Mormon but to talk to them for the purpose to know who they are. That's the challenge President Whiting gave to all the missionaries, to talk to people to get to know them. So that's what I did. As I did so two amazing things happened. 1). When I listened sincerely to them and wanted to get to know them, I began to really care about them and desired them to be happy. 2). As I spent time getting to know them there came a point where they wanted to know what I did and was doing. I found that by listening to them sincerely they eventually sincerely wanted to listen to me. They both wanted a Book of Mormon and with that I wrote 4 or 5 of my favorite scriptures in both of them. The two girls I contacted were Jenny and Annetta. Jenny is from Botswana and Annetta is from Malawi. She is actually from Lilongwe and I was able to connect with her.
That was all the contacting I did this day.
The rest of the day I spent at the airport. First to drop missionaries going to Malawi off to catch their flight, then to pick up the five others that came from Malawi. 4 of them came through clean. the fifth, Elder Iboi, was Nigerian, and I don't know what's up with Africa but they all don't like Nigerians. We forgot to get Elder Iboi an entrance visa so Immigration wasn't happy with him coming to Zambia. I got to the airport at 1:50pm and I was trying to get him through the immigration for two days so that we can renew his Temporary Permit. I spent 4 hours trying to talk to people and waiting on immigration officers to make a decision. I did a lot of waiting. But, instead of being passive about it(Not doing anything) I decided to be patient. I learned that sometimes patience isn't just being able to wait for something, it's more like making the best out of the situation that you are in while waiting for God's timing in helping the situation become better.
I decided to make friends while I waited. I talked to one of the immigration officers named Mwiia, I got to know someone from Britain named Craud who was also held up with his own problems, the same with a guy from Israel held up. I don't know what else I could have done, but I did make some friends in the process.
I believe that patience is making due with what you have, doing your best in your situation all while waiting on God's time, understanding that all things are given to us for our experience.
I love you all,
-Elder Smith
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