October 27, 2019

From Mom - No Sound

Dear Sam,

This is us waiting anxiously to see if you can get the sound going. ...

Which you did ...  

It’s so good to see you every week although it strangely makes us miss you even more! 

We had a good week this week! It’s that time of the year where the air and the trees are silently waiting for it to snow, which it finally did tonight. We asked Josh and Ben to stay overnight because the roads are suddenly so bad. 

Mia finally had her orthodontist appointment and we learned all about the virtues of Invisiline, which is an alternative to braces. Apparently, you can eat anything you want as long as you brush your teeth after every time. Mia thinks this is a good idea, so I think she will start her Ortho treatment in January. They’re kind of like the teeth brace that Dad wears at night but you have to wear them al the time.  I think you should think about this as well when you get home.  

The girls are also in full swing in their voice lessons, which means they’re singing non-stop at home. I’m not sure how I feel about that although their voices are already making a huge improvement. So pretty. 

Josh and Ben are telling you all about their school and routine. Whenever I ask if anything spectacular happened, they always say “just regular school life.” Classes every day, cooking for yourself, etc, etc. I’m proud of them for how good they’re doing in their own apartment and I’m glad they have each other. 

Abby was excited to win her first prize at the Halloween Dance. Apparently she was “dancing her heart out.”  I’m sad I didn’t get a good picture of her Mime costume. But Halloween is this week, so I’ll be sure to send you pics. Mia is dressing up as a s’more. Haha. 

We are loving technology as it allows us to see Bowie in almost a daily basis. I’m excited to see her and Steph this week for real. I’m looking forward to kissing her cheeks and squeezing her chubby little body. 

We love you lots, Sam. I hate to say it but we’re counting down the days. 53 left. Make them count. 

Love,

Mom

From Sam - The Problem of Power

Good Morning everyone,

This week went by so fast. I try not to think about when I'm going home but family keeps reminding me that I have 53 days left.  There is so much I want to do, so much I need to do and it feels like I don't have any time to do it. One issue that I'm facing right now is that I'm on a different schedule now for the power sharing. It used to be that I had power in the morning no power in the day and then power again in the evening and through the night. So, it felt like I had power all the time. Now there's power in the morning and then power throughout the day and no power in the night. It wouldn't be that bad but i'm in the middle of the hot season. Yesterday it clocked at 41 degrees Celsius. It's hot. When there's no power in the night that means that the fan can't blow its air. Meaning I'm sitting with the blanket only covering my feet to protect against mosquitoes.  I have discovered that the power of prayer works in helping me sleep as it does in helping me stay awake. Anytime I think about how sucky my situation is the counsel God gave to Joseph Smith always pops into my head: All things will be for thy experience. Something that has struck me is a talk titled: "Come what may and love it" by Joseph B. Wirthlin. It might sound familiar to some people. It's a very powerful talk that changed my perspective on a couple of things.

This past week 3 people got baptized. Emily Pearce, Paulina Pearce and Jemimah Siliya. It was a great time and a great day. On the Friday we spent time filling the baptismal font by hauling buckets again. This time we got it all the way full. When we showed up to the church on Saturday we found the font half empty. We were worried that there was a leak in the font but we found out later that the gardener used the water in the font to do gardening. We were kind of annoyed at that but we moved forward anyway. We filled it a little bit more and had a great baptism.

In Zone conference this week a big focus was on a few things. One was being Christ-Centered. The other was the Book of Mormon. President Whiting has put a huge emphasis on two big things since he got here to Zambia. Those two things have been working with members and using the Book of Mormon as the harvesting tool in the work of salvation. Since the zone conference on Tuesday I have had a few cool moments when I was contacting people on the street using the Book of Mormon. I have been able to give the Book of Mormon out to some very self-reliant people. One was going to school to be a doctor, Another has family is South Africa that he's preparing for them to come to Zambia. It seems that God puts me in the right place to meet those kind of people and when I'm looking for people who will read the Book of Mormon and will really understand it, God provides those people. It's always so cool to me to see how I'm assisting God in this work instead of God assisting me in this work.

Time is flying and this work is going to move forward even when I go home.

Love you all,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Bean breakfast

-Studying in hot season

-Making brownies

-Elder Tshimbundu

-Joshua holding my bag

-Lunch with Joseph Kampeliya

-Baptism Pictures

'

October 20, 2019

From Sam - The Difference Between a House and a Home

I am forever grateful for the Spirit and for the love of God. This week I experienced both in abundance. I'll start with the stories of the week. 

Saturday: There were two people this week that were prepared for baptism. Rodrick and Coe. These two friends were ones that I found, taught, fellowshipped and, on Saturday, baptized. My companion and I went to the church at 11hrs to see if the baptismal font was ready and full of water for the baptism that would happen at 15hrs. To our dismay and our not so wise preparation, the font was completely empty. We talked to the guard and he said that there was no power so the regular tap that was used to fill the font was not working. We talked to the gardener and he said the same thing. What was working was the taps that were farther away. If I've learned anything from my mission or from my current companion is not to give up. We set up two and eventually three places where we could fill buckets with water and we filled the font by bucket load after bucket load. It took us between 70-100 bucket loads to get it full enough to have a baptism. It took us about 4 hours but it was worth it. I'll attach pictures for everyone to see. The baptism was great. We also always have a member activity every Saturday and this week we(The missionaries) were in charge of the activity. After the baptism we commenced in having the activity. Being missionaries we put the gospel and spirituality into the activity. We had 12 members and we split them into 4 teams of 3 people and played my classic seminary games. We played two games, 1) A literal scripture chase, where you have the Book of Mormon on one chair and a piece of paper and a pen on the other chair with 15 feet in between them. Each team was given a scripture and then they would have to write it down word for word on the piece of paper and if they forgot any words they had to run back to the Book of Mormon to get the words. There were 3 scriptures that we used and we had lots of fun. The second game we played was a Book of Mormon quiz, Everyone stayed in their teams and they were given points for the first game and for each question answered correctly. Then they combined the points from both games and we saw who won.

It was lots of fun.

That night as well as Sunday night we spent our evening with two members families. This being my last area I've really made the effort to be involved with the members of Matero Ward. We visited with Brother Andrew Chola and his brother Gabriel Chola(Who is going on a mission to South Africa, Durban this Thursday) and we talked in depth about President Nelsons question “How would my life be different if my knowledge gained from the Book of Mormon were suddenly taken away?” It was a great conversation. I have really thought about it and I sincerely believe that If I didn't have the Book of Mormon in my life I wouldn't be christian. If I didn't grow up with the Book of Mormon in my life I think I would either be in prison or running away from the police. I Love the Book of Mormon, more now that I've thought about this question.

We visited with the Chola brothers on Saturday night and then on Sunday night we visited with the Phiri family on Sunday night. The ones that we mostly visit with are the three sisters and friend: Esther, Juliet, Olipa and Tika. This Sunday they had questions about the kingdoms of glory and that led to teaching about the temple. It was great. I consider this ward, especially these two families that we visited, my family. Their home feels like home. Not just a house we visit. They are the ones that make missing home not so bad and it will making going home a bittersweet departure. I love this people. I'm going to miss them when I go. I'm trying not to count but I have 58 days left. 

I'll see everyone in 2 months.

Love,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Pizza night with the Chainama Elders

-Opening a package that was sent to a missionary that was already home(Elder Ellsworth is very happy)

-My companion and I filling the font

-Our lunch that was delivered to us by Fatima

-Rodrick being baptized by Joseph Kampelia

-Coe being baptized by Gabriel Chola

-Group pictures

MLC Picture

-My bad foot tan

-My generation(Elder Smith-me- trained Elder Kane who then in turn trained Elder Smith)

-My group (Elder Rich, Elder Ellsworth and Me) at MLC

-Waiting for other Elders

From Dad - Busy Week

Dear Sam. 

It’s been a busy week. Last weekend we were in Cardston at the Bectell’s for Damon’s home coming. It was fun to talk to you while we were there. 

On Monday we scooted over to Sparwood for another thanksgiving dinner. The girls, Ben and I left for home, leaving Mom there for some family and friend time ( she went hiking with Siobhan and spend some time with the Bruce’s. )

The girls and I had fun this week. As usual I took the opportunity to be a math tyrant and that worked well some days and not so much on others. The girls were pretty good natured. 

Tuesday we went out for Boston Pizza and the next day the girls returned the favor by making me lunch.  

Abby continues to work out with me in the mornings so that keeps me honest. 

This weekend the girls planned a fun Halloween youth party and we had about 14 kids over. Josh and Ben were kind enough to come at their sisters request and help run a scary game of ‘murder in the dark”  Emma came over early to get ready for the party. 

While they were here, I took the chance to give them a service opportunity by helping me put up the last two main panels of drywall on the ceiling. The first one is right over the garage stairs and we had a precarious set up of ladder and scaffolding. After the first screws went in we realized we were in trouble. The board got turned slightly wrong and so one corner had a 2” gap and the opposite corner wouldnt fit. Meanwhile we were struggling to hold up a 12’ sheet of drywall and figure out what to do. Josh got up fully on the very top of the scaffold (12’ above the ground) and did the atlas shrugged position holding the sheet on his shoulders while I rearranged the ladder and tugged at the drywall till it mostly fit and finally got the screws in. At one point we were sure we’d have to somehow drop the drywall and get out of the way to avoid injury. In the end we persisted and got it up for which I was extremely grateful!

Mom came home Saturday in time to prepare supper for the youth party. We were all very glad to see her. She makes our home complete. 

 This week as I studied Come Follow Me, I clicked on a talk in the lesson by Robert C Gay called “what shall a man give in exchange for his soul”. It really struck me about the value and power of being strictly obedient or completely pure, and true to our covenants. I’ve learned that the standards for temple building are very exacting and very strict. Tyler may have seen some of this with his company designing some of the temples. 

In his talk he talks about reviewing our lives for areas that need repair and fix up. I also just today attended Ben and Lindys choir concert. The choir leader is very nice but he is very meticulous and insists on strict adherence to detail. He was concerned about the chair spacing an the aesthetics if the spacing of the choir. Small details that lend the overall excellence of the performance. For example check out the stunning outfit Ben had to wear:

Once I upload them, I’ll send some links to the pieces Ben sang. 

Have a great week Sam.

We’ll be  praying for your investigators committed to baptism this week. 

Love, Dad

October 13, 2019

From Sam - So much to Do and Not Enough Time to Do it

Hello everyone,

I want to start with a big shout out to Dyness Lungu, marking 6 months in the church this past week.

This past week was crazy. I thought transfer week was crazy but this week there was a MLC(Missionary Leadership Counsel) and there was so much to worry about and so much to do. I didn't get as much time in my area as I wanted to. Something I learned at the MLC was the power of the Book of Mormon. President Whiting showed us a pictures of a Combine Harvester. We talked about how many acres of land the Combine can harvest in a day. It was about 80 to 100 acres. He then compared the difference with that and using a sickle. You can still get work done but it's not as effective. With the Sickle you can work so hard and get some work done. With the Harvester you are sitting down and not working as hard as you would if you were using a sickle but you are getting so much more work done. Instead of 5 to 10 acres with a big team, you are getting 80 to 100 acres with just yourself. So much more effective. That's working smarter. If you are working smart you get more work done without working so hard. But he finished with this: "There is no point in buying a million dollar machine in you can't afford to put 20 dollars of fuel in it. If you can't afford the fuel then your machine will just be taking space." The harvesting tool in the Lords work is the Book of Mormon. But there is no point in having the Book of Mormon(The harvester_ if you are not reading it(The fuel) I have seen the power of the Book of Mormon in my own life and in the life of so many others. The Book of Mormon is the reason why a returning member(Tebbeh White) is going on a mission. It's the reason why Sister Tembo started coming back to church. It's the reason I pushed past my home sickness at the start of my mission. It's the reason that so many people are enjoying happiness. The Book of Mormon is so powerful, but it has to be used.

Saturday was a fun experience. We were supposed to watch conference but it seemed that the Saturday sessions were not downloaded. There was also  no power. So the generator was running so that we could download those sessions. Some time into it the generator stopped running. We checked on it and there seemed to be nothing wrong. There was fuel, there was oil and we got it started up again. While waiting in the chapel during my study of the scriptures I heard my bishop start shouting for the first counselor. I let them figure things out , but the next thing I heard was the fire extinguisher blowing. When I heard that I knew that the generator caught fire. A little bit later Brother Kabea(The first counselor) came up to us and said "Sorry Elders, no conference today." That was a little bit of a bummer. We helped pick up a generator for Sunday so that everyone can watch. 

My favorite talk from conference was from Henry B. Eyring. His talk was about Holiness. That one stood out to me so much. Something I learned that was reaffirmed in that talk was "You can't accidentally become like Jesus Christ." You have to work for it. You have to choose to resist temptation, choose to repent and become more like Christ. 

I try not to count but It's impossible for me not to. I have 9 weeks left in Zambia. Time is going so fast and there's still so much to do. I'm glad that I'm not the one that has to move this work forward because if I was then it would stop very soon. But I know that missionary work is the work of God. He has been so patient with me and I always stand amazed at how much he loves me. I learned at conference that joy never comes from oneself. Jesus' joy comes from us, our joy comes from Jesus Christ and serving others. God's joy comes from Jesus Christ. God is glorified by Christ, Jesus Christ is glorified by us and we are glorified by him. It's a weird that that makes sense. "A true disciple of Jesus Christ lives the second great commandment" Love thy neighbor as thyself.

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-My Study plan for the rest of my mission

-MLC Pictures

-Youth activity pictures

'

-Youth Activity

October 6, 2019

From Dad - General Conference

Hey Sam,

I know you won't get to see the conference till next week, but suffice it to say, it didn't disappoint..

From big changes to YM presidencies to great reminders about centering our life on Christ and avoiding deception, distraction and discouragement, we were spiritually fed.

We've actually been having some pretty good weather this week, somewhat making  up for our crazy wet summer. Calgary and south, including Glenwood and Cardston got a major snow storm, however, of over 2.5 feet on the level. Still have snow lingering. It was a good contrast for Elder Bectell to come home to! Damon flew in on Tuesday, Oct 1. Sounds like he's doing well.

We loved having Josh, Ben and Lindy stay over this week-end for General Conference. Filled up the house nicely again.

Yesterday, Mom and I attended Matthew Arnold's wedding. He married a nice girl from Edmonton and held the ceremony on the Arnold's acreage. Mom met one of her YW from 15 years ago. That was her treasure she was looking for as we ended up waiting a few hours for the reception to start and that was a bit challenging. :)

We did the usual and stocked up on candy for Conference Squares bingo and hung out in the living rooms all 2 days. We did get out for a Sunday afternoon walk in the back field as it was so nice.

Here's the video version and Steph's response. Too funny :)

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1157MAZVb4S2KUuQes5XcPx6ffEAg4ANi

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1H0s0bgllNVOKJY_PbctVyYGYYdCRJDWf

It was Tyler's birthday this week. We sent him this video:

https://drive.google.com/open?id=1hwzIdtNLhriZFLu6ukfrfqTW90BkLG44

Bowie continues to grow and Steph even had her laughing a bit this week!

https://drive.google.com/open?id=19m61JnZXhzPMHM1GjrNui20NykxTXhSM

Have a great week Sam. Hopefully we'll talk to you tomorrow.

Love,

Dad.

From Sam - I melted my favorite cup

Hello Everyone,

This week was crazy for me. Missionary transfers are a whole different worry for me now. Before the thoughts that went through my head were "I wonder if I'm staying in my area or if I'm leaving?" I know that I'm not getting transferred until I go home so I don't think those thoughts now. Now I'm thinking "I wonder where everyone else is going" As soon as the decision is made by President Whiting I'm running up and down growing white hairs knowing what to do but not having enough time to do it. My Monday last week to Saturday two days ago I was stressing out about all the stuff I needed to do. Actually, Saturday wasn't very stressful and I woke up with no worry and I didn't know what to do with my time. I was sitting there thinking about how much I don't have to worry about and thinking about what I could do. It was a weird feeling.

Saturday was a day of miracles. I spent a total of 15 or 16 hours in my area this week. In the afternoon me and Elder Jones planned on contacting people near the church and offer to take people on chapel tours. After lunch we were on our way to where we were planning to go and contacted three guys on the way. They stayed in my area so to not waste their time we decided to walk with them to their home. We talked a lot on the way and two of them stay together, Peter and Aloysius. Peter is a nurse and in his pass time does rapping. He loves truth and was really interested in the Book of Mormon. Aloysius is currently going to school to be a knee surgeon. They are super solid guys and Peter even came to church. The real miracle was he knew a member that attends Matero ward. He is a relative to this member and he felt so much more comfortable to be there than before. It was amazing. We just street contacted him and God put everything in place.

The other miracle happened on Saturday. There is someone that was baptized in June but was never confirmed. I have never met him and have tried to call him with little success. When we arrived at the member activity there was a new face. We introduced ourselves to him and we found out that he was that very same person we have been trying to contact. His name is Gift and he is back and ready to be a member. 

Now, the reason of the email title. 

One of my favorite meals to have is hash-browns. I peel and chop up potato's and fry them in hot oil and then after draining the oil I add some eggs to make a healthy and delicious breakfast. On Tuesday, during the time I was frying the eggs and after I drained the hot oil. The cup I drained the oil started spouting hit oil from the middle of the cup. I soon realized my mistake. The hot oil was melting the plastic cup I put it in. I only realized my not wise decision after I messed up. I grabbed the cup to move it into the sink so the oil wouldn't go everywhere only to realize that when I moved it the top came with my hand but the bottom was firm in being where it was. I had a big mess to clean up. The two pictures I took with week are of the melted cup. In a forever memory of my hilarious mistake that still makes me laugh today. 

Life is like that sometimes. We realize the consequences of our choices after you made the mistake. Repentance is the way where we can feel peace from those mistakes and even sometimes look back and have a laugh at how not wise you were. Then you look to the future and make better decisions.

Make this week the best week of your year.

-Elder Smith