September 24, 2018

From Mom - No Time to Procrastinate

Dear Sam,

So you know that snow we were telling you about last week? .... IT’S STILL HERE! This means that the moment the weather is even halfway warm, we need to get out and dig up the beets, clean the garage, wash the windows, take down the trampoline, put away the lawn chairs and in effect ... get ready for winter. This means a long long long cold season ahead of us. We checked the weather both in Lilongwe and in St, George and we might be a little jealous. 

So? What are your first impressions of Malawi? How is it different than Zambia?  What is your apartment like?

We’re really dying to hear about it. 

Okay, news from home besides snow is that it’s the September birthday week for Ben, Mia and me. Mia had the traditional 12 year old birthday party. ...









Ben joined in on the fun, too. Haha. Then we took Ben out separately for his birthday for some new clothes (he was down to 2 pairs of pants), and he is now the proud owner of a pair of suspenders. 17 is going to be a good year for him. 

I was lucky enough that Dad took me to Banff for my birthday. We hiked, ate good food and enjoyed the beautiful mountains and the colours that go with it. 









So pretty. Of course, I fully recognize what a luxurious life we lead. It’s a life of abundance for which I am profoundly grateful. 

And grateful, especially for you, Sam. We’re proud of you and your willingness to serve. In Primary today we memorized “when ye are in the service of your fellow beings ye are only in the service of your God.” And the kids did pretty good! I had one experience this week about that. I felt that I should go visit Annie Kruyer on Tuesday morning. I had a million other things to do but I dropped them and went visiting instead. I found out I couldn’t get to their driveway because the road in front of their house was all torn up and I discovered they’d been housebound for 10 days and going crazy. I had to park in the field out back and cross country hike to their back yard.  It was a good visit and I’m so grateful I followed the thought to go see her. We were both strengthened. 

Now we’re facing a week without Dad. He’s in Albany, New York for his work. I’m trying hard to finish the mud room so we have a place to hang our coats. 

Can’t wait to hear from you! Love you!!

Mom

From Sam - Malawi (the Warm Heart of Africa)

Hey all,

I made it to Malawi and I'm loving every minute of it. Though I've only been here for about 50 hours. That's going to change soon to be a year and I'm going to wonder what happened with the time.

My major highlights of the week are getting an awesome Companion. His name is Elder Williams and he's super fun and very funny. I'm excited to serve with him. I had a mission leader training(MLC) and I learned so much about leadership in general and as a missionary. The best part was the training, but the food was a close second. 

I learned how to do the Rubiks cube in a day being taught be a super talented missionary. And I'm living beside Elder Ellsworth, who was with me in the MTC, and it's pretty awesome.

My favorite thing about Malawi is everything. But I really like the language. As a greeting you can just say "Bobo", and they respond "Bo" and everything is said and done.I'm definitely taking this back home and i'm going to say it all the time. The people are great and we're teaching some pretty awesome people.

This morning the assistants were here with us and we played 3v3 soccer for like 2 hours and I was dying 10 minutes in. It's been a while since I worked like that physically. But I loved it. The biggest thing I'm adjusting to is the currency. In Zambia we would get 1000kwacha for our MSF and in Malawi we get 70,000-75,000kwacha in MSF. I'm still learning.

I'm in a different place but the work is still the same.

The church is true and there's no shame in that.

Dad, what's my line of Authority? Can you send it to me?

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-The Lilongwe Missionary leaders(ZL's and STL's)

-Heading to the airport with my new companion

-Rubiks mixed

-Rubiks solved(My fastest is 3 minutes and 3 seconds)

-On the flight

-My trainer(Left) Current companion(Middle) my favorite companion as of yet(Right)

-Study in front of the pool

Video:

-Monday morning

From Dad - Line of Authority

Samuel Smith - Ordained an Elder Fall 2017

Chad Smith- ordained a high priest on Dec 12, 2004

Byron Craig Smith – Ordained a High Priest – March 4, 1979

Fred Spackman – Ordained a High Priest – March 22, 1953

LeGrand Richards – Ordained an Apostle – April 10, 1952

David O. Mckay – Ordained an Apostle – April 9, 1906

Joseph F. Smith – Ordained an Apostle – July 1, 1866

Brigham Young – Ordained an Apostle – February 14, 1835

3 Witnesses – D&C 18:37; History of the Church Volume 2 pp 187-188

​Times & Seasons, vol. 6, p. 868

Joseph Smith & Oliver Cowdery – 1829 – Melchizedek Priesthood

Peter, James, John

Jesus Christ – John 15:16

September 17, 2018

From Sam - The Power of Prayer and the Book of Mormon:

Hello everyone!!! Sorry for last week. Internet was down over half of Lusaka so it was a mad rush to find a place to email, which meant when we found a place I only had 15 minutes with crappy internet. So this is supposed to make up for it.

One of the major miracles that happened to me this past two weeks was one morning I woke up with no motivation whatsoever. I was running on 0% energy and I am getting transferred in less than a week. So I found it hard to put lots of work and effort into things. As I went through my morning I was thinking of how the Savior told the Apostles that he will send the Comforter. And I was needing some comfort, So I did lots of study of the Holy Ghost and comfort in general and prayed really hard for comfort and strength and energy. I didn't get any immediate energy or strength or comfort. But as we went through our morning and went out the door an idea popped into my head to hold the Book of Mormon in my hand instead of inside my bag. As I did that the hymn "Let us all press on" popped into my head as well. With the phrase "In the fight for right, let us wield a sword, The mighty sword of Truth" and I thought "The Book of Mormon is true, so I'm literally wielding a missionary/spiritual sword" And that got me pretty pumped up. Through out the whole day I held the Book of Mormon and hymns were inside my head and I was so pumped up and I had lots of energy, all of which I didn't know I had and had a great day. We didn't teach much lessons or contact a lot of people but It was so great. The real miracle was my testimony of the Book of Mormon, prayer and scripture study increased by so much.

The miracle of last week was a people baptism. Those are the pictures of me baptizing Izukanji. Most of my mission I have been able to baptize some people. But almost all of my past baptisms felt like number baptisms. This one on the other hand felt like a people baptism. I have found D&C 18 true saying that my joy will be full by bringing one soul to the truth. And this baptism has brought me so much joy.

Before I forget to tell you. I'm getting transferred to Malawi, Lilongwe on Saturday. After nine months, two areas, one district and zone. I am finally privileged to go to Malawi. I love my mission. There are so many blessings that I can see now, and I know there are so many blessings that will be in the future. Remember, "The two things you can control in life are your Attitude and your Effort"

I love you all, Stay awesome and be yourself,

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Blue banana bread

-Me and Elder Mabala with his new suit

-Pre-baked blue banana bread

-Me and Elder Odukoya with matching ties

-Izukanji's baptism pics

-Me, Elder Rich and Elder Mabala

-Cinnamon bun recipe

-Purple trees that I know Mom would love

-updating area book, while eating while talking and stretching

-Cinnamon bun success

-unplanned service project

-After stake conference pictures(I have some with Elder Harmon, Elder Rich, Some recent converts and some members)

-And finally, Elder Odukoya's birthday cake made my members

Video:

Singing happy birthday 

MVI_0249.MOV

September 10, 2018

From Sam - No Internet

Hey everyone. 

I will fill you in next week because There is no internet and for the time I have I only have 15 minutes.

I love you all

Elder Smith

September 3, 2018

From Sam - the Power of the Spirit

Hey everyone!

This week was really amazing, I had two really cool experiences this week,

1- One day we were doing our regular contacting with not much success. But I don't know when it happened but we started changes our tactics with what we say or how we do it. We started to get into people houses more and start teaching more people. One thing was we promised to make our message only 5 minutes. It was honestly really hard to condense our message into 5 minutes. You want to include all the important stuff but still complete the message you are sharing. It was a struggle and I found that I had to really rely on the spirit to share just the right stuff and say the right things. But, because of that we started to find more people, and I really started to get pumped up for missionary work and I was feeling the spirit more and more. Though It's a constant effort to know when the spirit is speaking and when it's with me.

2- Yesterday after church we went to go see a friend to a recent convert, the big thing is he's someone who questions if God is really there and he really wants to change his life. Which is really rare for Zambia(Being a christian nation) But because he wants to change he is so ready for the gospel. And he's someone I have to work harder to prepare to teach and someone I have to rely on the spirit to teach. During our first lesson I couldn't do the regular lesson like we usually do. So I had to really think and rely on the spirit. I was racking my brain to try to find a scripture about repentance that wasn't condemning. I was at a loss. As we continued our lesson I stopped trying to figure out what to do and I started to just listen. As I was listening Alma 36 popped into my head. At first I thought that there could be better scriptures, then I thought about what Alma 36 contains. I opened it up and I got him to read verse 3, Then I described what the chapter was about and then shared the verses that talk about how Alma was in the depths of despair, Then how because of Christ, he was able to find that peace and joy because of repentance. While I shared it, It didn't seem to have a major effect but after the lesson my companion commented that I was a perfect scripture.

I am so thankful for the spirit.

This week was truly amazing. Words from a return missionary: "Let mission teach you who and what you want to be as a missionary and a person"

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Nshima lunch

-We found someone with a cotton-candy machine.

-A member getting ready for his mission(He's wearing my extra name-tag)

Video:

-Frozen Rice