April 8, 2019

From Sam - It's not over until it's over...

Hello Everyone,

This week has been good. I've had a few rough moments but I know that the opposition will make a good story. One person that we are teaching, Dyness, is going to baptised this week. This is the week that we'll be watching general conference so Dyness will be getting baptised the same week we are watching general conference. 

I've been reading about the sons of Mosiah recently and how, after 14 years of missionary service, they met up with Alma, who was doing a his own kind of mission. When they met up together Ammon's joy was so great that he passed out. The scripture says, "Behold, this is joy which none receiveth save it be the truly penitent and humble seekers of happiness." The only way to receive happiness is to live righteously because God lives after the manner of happiness. This is also why Alma teaches that "Wickedness never was happiness" The Gospel is simple, but it's not easy. If it was easy it wouldn't be worth it.

Something that Grandma Smith sent to the whole family that I really enjoyed:

Somebody said that it couldn't be done. But he with a chuckle replied that "maybe it couldn't", but he would be one who wouldn't say so till he'd tried. So he buckled right in with a trace of a grin on his face. If he worried he hid it. He started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done and he did it. 

Somebody scoffed: " Oh, you'll never do that, at least no one has ever done it." But he took off his coat and he took off his hat, and the first thing we know, he'd begun it. With a lift of his chin and a bit of a grin, without any doubting or quiddit, he started to sing as he tackled the thing that couldn't be done.... and he did it."

I read this and it made me think about all the farming I have in my genes and know that my mission is going to take work. It's not over until it's over.  Keep on keeping on. "Be of good courage and do it"

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Lemon cake

-My food pantry

-Sister Tuiaki and Sister Kivalu's birthday food after district council(Sister kivalu is on the left and Sister Tuiaki is on the right)

-I got to use the weed wacker(Reminds me of working at Classic Landscapes)

-First vision

-Nshima with veggies and fish(The fish wasn't that bad, just too many bones)

-My shoes before I go into my area and after I get back

-Beautiful and peaceful evening

-Cool bridge in my area that makes me feel like I'm on a special adventure.

-The river on the was to a far place in my area (Twapia)

-My study desk

-My companion made a cake like thing that was more like bread, so I had it with Jam and Peanut Butter

From Dad - Back Breaker

Hi Sam,

This has been a good week for the most part. The one blip on the radar for me was throwing out my back on Friday when Josh and I tried to move a workout machine from the Rectors to the the truck to bring home. As we were bringing it down the outside stairs, I tried to lift the weight end myself and used more of my back than my legs. As I stood up, I felt something give in my right lower back and now I'm on the recovery. Grateful for Josh's strength and help. Now we just have to figure out how to get it out of the truck!

Sister Leslie Graham came for a visit this week to travel with Mom to their woman's retreat in Waterton. It was good to see her and get updates on their family. Jack Graham I think was your age. He's trying to decide if he wants to serve a mission right now.She and Mom left Sunday morning to travel down and pick up some women coming into the Calgary Airport and then on to Lethbridge and then Waterton till Thursday. Should be really fun for them.

Saturday and Sunday were mostly conference with other commitments sprinkled in. Ben went with the de Vries to West Edmonton Mall on Friday to the water park, then stayed most of Saturday till we came in for Abby's musical theater in the afternoon. I think you'll really enjoy the conference talks. I'm excited to review and read/watch them again. Lots of encouragement to do missionary work. One talk struck me that compared spiritual gifts to building muscle. You can read all you want about muscles, but that won't build them until you act and exercise. It is the same with spiritual gifts (e.g. faith). Until we exercise and try them, they can't grow.

Amelia insisted we keep the Conference squares bingo alive this year, resulting in me eating too much candy. Darn those Reeses peanut butter cups are good!

I'm grateful for the blessing of receiving direction from prophets in these latter days. The world is pretty messed up and there are so many conflicting voices calling for our attention. Having a good coach and being able to know the rules and limits of the game makes the difference in our lives as we strive to find peace and happiness. 

I was blessed to get a good bonus this year, so now we're on the hunt to find all the rest of the materials we need to finish the garage. Too bad you aren't here to help, especially with the high up work! Grateful I have two strong boys to help still with us. Won't be long before we're just down to Mom and I and the girls. I'll enjoy every moment till then. One of the true ways to happiness is to find joy in the moment and the stage of life your at. Don't wish to be older or younger, just soak in all the moments of this stage of your lives.

God bless and keep you this week, Sam.Love you lots.

Dad.

From Stephanie

Tyler and I had a crazy week with his Mom, her husband and Tyler's two step Brothers visiting. We climbed a bunch at Prophesy Wall and snow Canyon, and went on an overnight backpacking trip!

April 1, 2019

From Sam - Outward or Inward

Hello Everyone,

This weeks has been great. There have been some struggle in the area because my companion has had some things happen at his home that has required special attention. But besides that it has been a great week. This past Thursday we had our zone conference. It was one of my shortest zone conferences but it left me with lots of things to think about. One of the cool videos that was shown was a video narrated by Henry B. Eyring. He used the effects of a pebble thrown into a pond. Though the point of impact is very small the ripple effect of that small pebble continues until the ripple reaches the end of the pond. Our actions, no matter how small, have lasting ripple effects. Do you want your choices to ripple for good or ripple for bad. We can choose what kind of pebble we want to throw, we can choose where to throw it, but we know how far the ripples will go. We need to continually choose the good so that the ripple effects in our lives and in the lives of others will be good. It might be your attitude about things, how you focus your attention on someone or it might be choosing good when no one is watching.

It was a very powerful video. The music in the background pumped me up. I love getting pumped up by an apostle.

I had a really cool revelation this morning. I was reading in Mosiah 27 about Alma the Younger. In verse 9 at the end it says "Giving a chance for the enemy of God to exercise his power over them" I read that and thought "How does Satin exercise his power over the children of men?" Satin can't do anything on his own, he either perverts the things of God or gets mankind to do something. He inspires pride, deceit, hate, lust, envy, strife and contention. His power comes from others. Gods power comes from himself because he is perfect and righteous. As I was thinking about this thing I thought that everything God does goes outward, where everything Satin does is inward. Faith, hope, charity, selflessness, patience, kindness and pretty much every Christ like attribute leads outward, focusing on others. That was the life of Jesus Christ, focusing on others. Everything Satin does focuses on the inward and self. pride, hate, lust, fear, selfishness, anger, and everything that is sensual and devilish focuses inward. Even in the pre-mortal council Satin wanted all the glory. God's work and glory is to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man. Satin's work is to bring to pass the eternal damnation of man. And he does that by making us focus on ourselves instead of others. Everyone want to be ministered to, but no one wants to minister. Choose to be outward, not for the attention of the world, that makes it inward, and the ripple effect will be for good.

One thing I noticed is General conference is next week, but I'll be viewing it in two weeks. In two weeks, April 13th, my friend Dyness is going to be getting baptised. With conference there it will not make it possible for her to be confirmed. But she is really excited to be baptised so this will be a minor set back. She has progressed so fast. She has come to church for these past two weeks and we have taught her almost everything, She is soon going to be a member before her baptism. She truly is elect.

I love you all,

-Elder Smith

P.S.

The internet is bad so there are no pictures this week, sorry.

Pictures:

-A mini mantis on my hand

-Wild Cats!!!

-In front of a Samson statue

From Dad - Spring Break

Hi Sam,

This has been a fun week. Kurri, Benson, Elli were here till Wednesday. I think you got to talk with them on Monday. Tuesday was the court day for Abby and Elli to go and testify about the unfortunate experience at WEM last year. I drove them all into the courthouse early Tuesday morning and went into work. Both of them were brave and did very well stating the facts as they remembered them. Mom and Kurri got to watch from a gallery and though they did get a few hard questions from the defense, they did well. Elli was a bit emotional about it all but Abby was pretty stoic and pragmatic about it. We learned the next day from the crown prosecutor that in the end they established that the incident truly happened, however, the defense made the argument that the accused was not a good swimmer and had accidentally grabbed onto Elli's bathing suit as he was struggling in the waves. Because it cast reasonable doubt on the accusation, the charge was dropped. In the end that is probably right. I can imagine how if I accidentally did something that got misconstrued, I would want similar consideration. All in all, we're glad its over but I'm grateful for hard experiences for my family to help us grow and learn. I think that happened for Abby. On the way home we stopped at Original Joe's to celebrate:

Cody stayed with us all week, first to be with his Mom, but then when they left, Uncle Tad was in Red Deer, so rather than staying alone at the cabin, he joined us. We enjoy having him and consider him a part of the family.

Given that it was spring break this week and we have Ben home with us and Josh back from college, we decided that we should do a family activity. After some brainstorming and good discussion about it, Mom and I decided to take the family to a Hotel in Fort Saskatchewan overnight on Friday and Saturday. So after book club on Friday, we drove into the city and spent the afternoon at the "Rec Room". It is an entertainment place where we were able to enjoy a fun game of bowling, eat some snacks, then played in their arcade of high tech video games to earn tickets to buy stuff in their gift store. It is the same concept as "Chucky Cheese", just advanced. The girls had the most fun, I think, with us old geezers getting tuckered out pretty quick. 

Abby and Mia playing...

From there, we went to South Gate mall for some shopping and food court supper. By this point, I was battling major shoppers buzz and we fled to the hotel in Fort Saskatchewan. It was a nice big room, fortunately, with 7 of us crammed in together. The kids went to the pool with Mom while I relaxed and watched Final Four Basketball on TV. The next morning we enjoyed a hotel breakfast included in the price. It was a pretty good breakfast compared to some I had. From the Hotel we headed to Millennium place in Sherwood park. Not sure if you've ever been there that you can remember (we took you kids there for one of my company parties years ago, when you were little). It is a really nice facility and the family price was good. Josh, Ben and I went to the weight room to establish our maximum bench press ability and work out. Ben came in at 115 lb, I maxed out at 165 lb and Josh pushed through 185 lb. He's getting strong!!

Then we went for a swim in the wave pool and Ben and I played some BBall after in the gym. Good times.

We talked with Steph and Tyler tonight. They are contemplating buying a new house this next couple of weeks, so keep them in your prayers. We also had a good chat with G&G Smith. They are doing well.

Finally, we started our fast with a feast at Montana's. Good times were had by all.

(Josh and Abby are practicing their impression of Mia's look when she found out that Montana's wasn't fast food and that she would have to wait for her food a little longer than normal)

Today we ended our fast with a new concept called the "charcuterie board", a board full of yummy finger foods.

Love you Sam. I just finished reading a self-help book called "The Monk who sold his Ferrari" It was kind of cheesy but has some good things to ponder. One that I found interesting was the 10 morning rituals for Radiant Living. I'll leave that here for you to ponder:

1. The Ritual of Early Awakening. Six hours of sleep and seeing the sunrise. Of course, you have to figure out how much you need yourself, but this is what they suggest.
2. The Ritual of Solitude. Always make a few minutes to practice silence after waking up.
3. The Ritual of Physicality. Move, get up, do some exercise. Whatever gets the blood flowing.
4. The Ritual of Live Nourishment. A vegetarian diet based on fresh food is what the sages follow.
5. The Ritual of Abundant Knowledge. Keep your mind stimulated with a bit of reading or studying.
6. The Ritual of Personal Reflection. Did you do your best today? What could you have done better?
7. The Ritual of Music. Listen to music often to never get stuck in a bad mood.
8. The Ritual of Spoken Word. Write down a short mantra you can repeat to yourself throughout the day.
9. The Ritual of Congruent Character. Always follow your principles. Write them down, be aware of them and stick to them.
10. The Ritual of Simplicity. Ruthlessly live your priorities and remove everything else that’s unnecessary.

Have a great week!

Love Dad.

From Stephanie:

Pictures from climbing at Prophesy Wall this weekend :)

And a bump update :)