July 1, 2019

From Dad - Family Reunion

Dear Sam,

I've been going through your last few emails and posting them to the blog. it was a good chance to reconnect with your latest activities. Just today, Bro. Sharpe asked me how your doing and unless your masking it really well, I told him that you seem to be doing fantastic, taking into account the normal ups and downs of missionary life. So excited for the new baptisms and hope for your continued success finding and helping people come to Christ.

This last week I was travelling for work and had a chance to connect with my co-workers in other sites. Always miss the family when I go, though. One of my counterparts from India came too and so I really enjoyed getting to know him as we drove and ate together multiple times. We were able to talk about life and family and beliefs a few times. 

I was able to go on a tour in Boston on the Charles river re-enacting the Boston Tea party. We got to throw some big tea bags into the water in memory of that historical trigger for the American Revolutionary war.

The Bruce reunion started Friday and we're having it here at our place! Lots of fun putting together a playground and visiting around the fire.

Uncle Todd entertained by setting off fireworks for Canada Day and the kids generally ran all over the place. Calvin and Campbell showed up and the teens enjoyed games and visiting. 

Bro. Patrick and sister Till talked in church about dealing with the hard times of life, topped off by a 5th Sunday discussion on suicide. A sobering topic yet important to address. So important to understand the power of the atonement both to help those struggling and to help us act as he did. The power of connection with others and having people about us we can trust with our deepest concerns is not easy but vital. 

A few more reunion pictures. 

We've made good progress on the garage. Ben did a bunch of work while I was away. 

Mia continues to busk when she can trying to earn money for our California trip. 

Happy Canada day from afar!

Love you Sam. 

From Sam - Not Always What I Want, Always What I Need

Hello everyone!

This week was a week that I will remember. I have been able to get my area and my district in tip top shape. Then, just when I had everything planned out for everything to work well I got a call from my mission president telling me that I'm getting transferred back to Lusaka. I had 4+ baptisms set and I'm sad that I am going to miss them. But I am going to where God needs me to be.  I have an amazing companion. His name is Elder Okolo from Nigeria. He's very smart and we are working in amazing unity and I've only been here for 4 days. We are working together as zone leaders and there is a lot of work to be done.

My new ward is called Matero ward. Yesterday's church service was an amazing service. Being the new missionary in the ward I went to bear my testimony. I was praying so hard the I was going to be guided by the spirit and that the members could hear/feel from my testimony that I am here to work hard and that I love the gospel. I went and gave my testimony. I didn't give a storymony, dreamony, encouragemony or counselmony. I did my best to testify of the truths I know to be true. I gave them my testimony. After the sacrament meeting I had so many people come up to me and thank me for my testimony. In this way my prayer was answered. Other notes I took from one of the speakers were: "If our faith doesn't change the way you live then your faith is vain", "When God says "Not yet" it doesn't mean he's saying "Never".", " You cannot please God without offending Satan." and "Agency is the power to become". I'm very excited to be in my new area and to see what kind of blessing I can be

Before coming to my area I felt like I was going to be trasferred. I was thinking that if I go to "This" area I can get a lot of work done and be very effective. But I didn't get what I wanted. God said "I need you over here" and that's what I needed. One nice thing is I'm back to the place where they speak Nyanja which is close to Chewa. I can now use all the knowledge and words I got from Malawi to the fullest.

Next to the internet cafe there is a shop owned by Muslims, They actually own the internet cafe as well. The one running the shop is a girl named Fatima. She knows missionaries very well and just before coming here, while waiting for power to come on, I spent time in the shop and got to know her and her brothers and father.  She's lots of fun, she didn't believe that I was 20 years old at first, she guessed 15 or 16. I had to show her my license to convince her of my age. She is from Samaria and she loves Canada. She showed me that Canada day and Samaria day are on the same day July 1st. Happy Canada/Samaria Day!!! That family is lots of fun.I will send pictures next week of my companion and Fatima. 

This is my mission so far. As many as believe that this is easy, your wrong, this is one of the hardest things I have done in my life. But I am seeing that every minute is worth it. God is making me someone I could never make of myself.

I love you all

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Football after emailing

-Spur Monday

-Last night in the Copperbelt so we got pizza

-Night lesson with my recent convert Reuben

-Haircuts

-Farewell pictures with Reuben

-Farewell pictures with Elder Kane

-Pictures of the farewell to the Kupu's (I met lots of missionaries who I knew before)

-Scare Cam

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