June 9, 2019

From Sam - The Power of Music in the Gospel:

Hello everyone,

This week was great. In church yesterday I had the opportunity to sing with my companions and the branch mission leader. We sung "We thank thee o God for a Prophet". I sang the melody, Elder Kane sang the tenor, Elder Bendixsen and the branch mission leader, Brother Samson, sang the bass. It was powerful, I had the performance jitters for the first verse and I was finding it hard to sing because of that. By the time we were halfway through the second verse I found my footing and received answer to prayers and finished the song powerfully. In the Branch i'm serving in has a lot of members, though when sacrament meeting starts only 15 or so are present. But by the time sacrament meeting finishes there are about 60 members there. I hope if you are late to church there is a legit reason for it. Like Elder Holland said in his talk last conference "If the ox is in the mire every week you need to either sell the ox or fill the mire" 

Bishop Kapema, from Lusaka, made some announcements concerning seminary. Something he said stood out to me and resonated within me. He said"The Why you are here now is more important than the What you are doing today." Dad would always talk about the 5 Whys. You can't ask why more than 5 times without going back to where you started or you can't ask anymore. Something you should ask yourself about the sacrament. 

Talking about the normal activities that go on through my week. On Monday I do shopping. The place where I go shopping is called Shoprite or Pick'n'Pay. Both are located in town which is a 5 kwacha bus ride away. We catch a bus from our flat and it takes about 10 minutes to get to town. We do our shopping then catch a bus back from the station. The bus back to our flat is 7 kwacha 50 ngwee. The nice thing about this bus is it takes us right to our gate. I have tuned my ears to the word "Azungu" I can hear that word a mile away and I know they are talking about me or my companion. My eyes are tuned to see people staring at me. I spot it from everyone. I catch people staring at me by staring right back. I especially do it with kids and it gets to the point where the kids feel awkward about it and avoid my gaze. I don't think it help the fact that when I stare at kids I do it in the same way they stare at me. My ear is also tuned to the beep of my phone. My companion is not yet tuned to its sound. I always have to remind him about the fact that the phone beeped while it is still in his pocket.

I had a funny revelation that I should have had a long time ago. I was reading about dispensations and I found out that it's called a dispensation because a prophet dispenses the gospel. I had a laugh about the fact it's so obvious but I never got it until this week.

One challenge I faced recently is how I'm training a new missionary, we are on week 9 right now. I am also in a trio with Elder Bendixsen, who wasn't trained very well and is only 6 months on mission. They are also both only 18 years old. I feel like I'm training two people at the same time. I am getting burnt out. It's a small challenge. I learned how useful a 5-10 minute nap at the end of the day can be. Never underestimate the power of a power nap.  Other challenges I'm facing is because of how young my companions are on mission I am consistently reminded about home. I still have 6 1/2 months left and the last thing I want to think about is home.

My goal right now is to start my journal entries without saying "Today" and instead have a phrase that talks about the highlight of my day.

I love you all,

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Hard school name

-Book of Mormon Study

-Waiting for lunch

-Middle of the Day treat because I was very hungry

-Some groundnuts from an investigator family

-My planner(Each mark represents a transfer in my mission)

-My companion taking pictures without me knowing. (Elder Bendixsen is on the left)

From Mom - Sanity Check

Dear Sam, 

Everyone in our family is really kind, so I don't think anyone has told you how tired and cranky I've been lately. Like, really cranky. As a result, this past week, I've said no to as many things as I could and tried to stay home. It turns out all I needed to do was catch up on some cleaning, do all the laundry and get in a nap or three. We were so busy I was behind on everything. I feel MUCH better now. There is certainly something to be said about identifying what is most important and using your energy for only those things. This was my discovery (again):

1) Our environment matters. When the house was tidy and we were eating nutritious food, everything was better.

2) Family time at the end of the day is so important. When we were too busy to talk or share what was going on in our lives, we started to feel disconnected, but when we could sit around the table and have a laugh or two, or have meaningful family prayer together, it made all the difference. 

3) Early to bed and early to rise is the best bet. We were getting to bed so late and having a hard time getting up in the morning, everything else seemed to suffer.

4) If there seems to be no time for personal prayer and scripture study, then you are TOO BUSY! I really suffered when my personal study and connection with heaven slipped away.

Here were the most important events of the week:

1) Ben's Year End Concert (second to last one). We were at Hawrelak Park as usual. It was a chilly night but such great entertainment! The girls were dancing on the hill. The choir pitched in and bought Ben a tambourine as a going away grad present, I guess. Dad will post the videos. 

2) Taking time to enjoy spring and green, growing things. The dug-out has thousands of tadpoles and a little family of ducks. I saw a little fluffy baby swimming by itself.

3) Working on the garage. It's now mostly insulated, thanks to the help of Josh and Ben. 

4) The girls went to Devon Days with Emma Driessen and saw the fireworks and went to the fair. Me, Dad, Ben and Josh stayed home and watched a movie called Hacksaw Ridge. It's a WWII movie about a man who refused to touch a gun. He went to war to save lives instead of take lives. It was certainly a thinker. I can't remember any time where it was just us four and it was really nice. (I don't have a picture.)

5) Seminary grad. Ben is officially done Seminary and Abby achieved her goal of 100% attendance. (I wonder where she got that idea from ).

And an extra picture of Stephanie, who has a month to go but no more room for growing a baby. 

Her body is miraculously making room to create a new life. 

Also, Ben's seminary grad photo at the temple:

And life is going on as usual. We ordered your sandals and we'll wait for them to arrive before we send your package. We'll let you know when we send it. 

And the last thing I was going to say is that we love you and pray for you everyday. We're really proud of the choices you've made and the example you set for your family. Keep going. Keep striving. The Lord is on your side. 

Love forever,

Mom

From Stephanie - Week 36: officially in month 9

This week starts the 9th month of being pregnant! The baby is the size of a bunch of kale or buzz lightyear from toy story apparently. :) She weighs about 6lbs and is about 18-19 inches long. Her growth is slowing down a bit, so that she doesn't get too big to come out! The bones on her skull aren't attached, so they are flexible and able to squeeze through the birth canal in about 4 weeks. Crazy, right? 

I took a breast feeding class this week, and learned that the baby's stomach is the size of a marble the first day she is born, and by the third day after she's born it's about the size of an egg. I think it is so interesting to learn! It's amazing what women's bodies can do. Not only can my body grown a tiny human, I can feed the baby with my body too! I learned that when the baby drinks breast milk, her saliva tells my body what kind of nutrients and antibodies she needs, and creates the perfect milk just for her. How cool is that? 

My body is feeling big and sore lately, and when she moves it doesn't always feel very good. She kept me up most of the night with all her movements the other day, and because she kept punching my bladder and making me have to get up to use the washroom. Even some of my maternity shirts are getting tight, even though I keep thinking there's no way I can get any bigger. Haha. 

I hope she waits until Mom gets here to come, but I also hope she doesn't wait too long! In 6 weeks or so you guys will be here and can meet her! 

Love you,

Steph

June 3, 2019

From Sam - It's All About Choice

Hello Everyone,

I have been doing a lot of everything this week. I've been doing good hard study, I've been doing a lot of stressing about my district, I've been put in a trio(Tripanionship) and am now splitting two area's making me work extra hard to get normal results in my own area and lots of other things. But despite all the effort, stress and hard work I find strength everyday and every morning. 

The missionary i'm in a tripanionship with is Elder Bendixsen. He shared with me a really cool idea. It's in the pictures I will send. Before we reach Eternal life we need to pass through the veil. Everyone is heading to the veil, we just need to choose what path to follow. The strait and narrow path or the broad and easy way. (The stairway to heaven or the highway to hell) The devil wants us to think about how wide and "free" the broad and easy way is and that it is the right way. But what we don't see is right after the veil it is only the strait and narrow path the continues to eternal life, the broad and easy way hits and dead end(Damnation). When God gives us a commandment it's not restricting us it is keeping us on the path that continues to eternal life. When we have faith in Jesus Christ we believe that by staying on the strait and narrow path we will receive eternal life. Repentance is getting back on the path when we fall off or stray from it. On this path everyone will have to pass through a gate, There is no way around, over or under it, the only way is to go through it. On this gate there are two locks. One of baptism by water and the other is baptism by the spirit or receiving the Holy Ghost. Only a person who holds the keys(Priesthood) can unlock this gate for you. After the gate is unlocked you need to continue for the rest of your life walking the covenant path so that you can receive the gift of eternal life. "Commandments are only arrows that lead to eternal life"

I love you all,

Elder Smith

Pictures:

-Pizza

-Me helping out with applying stain(This is how you turn a white man black)

-Pictures in my book

-Fun kids in my area were following us and were helping us knock on gates

-Walking with members to find less actives(Left to right: Pres.Nkhoma, Elder Kane, Samson, Patrick and Elder Bendixsen

-My Redemption meal after my fast

-Dusty sandles

-Monday Pancake breakfast

-Bus ride to town for shopping.

-Accidental picture of Elder Bendixsen

Video

Pancakes

Pancake confession 

From Dad - Summer week

Dear Sam,

What a great time to be alive, eh? Our days are long and full of activities. Sometime too many and we get a bit cranky with all the busyness. But its first world problems for sure.

This week Ben did his provincial performances. He did good. Stiff competition. I got to go and watch the musical theater performances and they were amazing!  Attaching a link to Ben's Wazir performance there. 3rd time he's performed it. The adjudicator was very experienced to the point that i couldn't understand half of what he was talking about. He had some good tips though.

Ben's Wazir Provincial Video

We've finally got almost all the material for our garage so this week I'll be putting up all the trim and whatever is needed to start the siding. Excited for that!

Josh is working crazy hours. He pulled up around 9 pm last night while we were at the fire. We were all enjoying hot dogs, chips etc, when Mia looked up and asked... "Isn't it fast Sunday tomorrow?". We all gasped and realized that we'd forgotten to prepare for Fast Sunday and that in order to have a 24 hour fast, we'd have to wait till 8 the next night. Oh well, we thought, let's see how we do. We've had a good couple of months so far fasting with intention and purpose, so we did the best we could. Some lasted almost till 8 when we finally had our big supper, but it was a good Sunday regardless. On the way to church, I was driving the kids and got caught up in my thoughts resulting in completely missing the Devon turn off off of Glen Park road and didn't realize it until I'd turned onto Highway 2 and Ben asked me if we planned to go to Devon! D'o!! So we kept going and intercepted the DeVries coming late to church out of Leduc. Got there during the opening hymn,so wasn't too bad in the end. 

Josh got to teach SS last minute again. Good thing he knows how to rely on the spirit!

Ben is winding down his grade 12 year and exams are looming. He was accepted to the U of A and has to decide between there and Grand Mcewan. His year end Hawerlak park performance with the choir and others is on thursday. I ended up volunteering to drive Cal Carlson's trailer to transport the equipment there as the previous person who did it can't this year.

Abby and Mia are watching a new series on YouTube about modern dancing and they are dancing all the time now. Crazy moves but they're getting good! This week they are looking forward to going to Devon Days on Saturday with Emma.

Stephanie sends almost daily updates I think to the girls about how big the baby is and how its moving. We are planning to drive down to visit her and Tyler and the baby on the 17th, and then keep going to Disney Land and Josh's mission tour afterwards. Should be fun if we can pull it off.

I talked to brother Fitzner today and he mentioned how much he loves to get your emails. Your doing good work here even from Africa. 

Sure love you Sam!

Have a great week.

Dad.

Attachments area

May 27, 2019

From Sam - Rise Up, You have Infinite Potential

Hello Everyone!

This week was amazing. Miracles both big and small have been experienced. Mostly the small ones, but it is the many small miracles that make the big miracles possible. I have seen the hand of God everyday this week. Some of you know that as a missionary I'm a district leader, which is just a little more responsibility, I am also a trainer. I am responsible for the training of this new missionary. That adds more responsibility to my plate. Because of training we have decided to wake up at 5:30 in the morning to have extra time to do everything. And some nights I have to do lots of district leading stuff making me go to bed after 10 pm. The miracle is I go to bed so tired thinking I can't go another day. I then wake up and have energy like I had 10 hours of sleep and I go through the day with energy. I have not been doing missionary work by my power. If I was trying to do it according to the strength I have as a human being I would have given up a year ago.

I know in a very real sense that God is aware of me.

On Saturday one of the elders who was waiting for his visa to Mozambique got it was was sent at 6:30 in the morning. Now, because of that, Elder Bendixsen is in a threesome with me and Elder Kane while we wait for his new companion who we don't know yet. For lunch we went for Shawarma and as soon as I walked in I heard them playing "Sucker for Pain" From Suicide Squad. Starting at that moment, though I enjoyed the song while it lasted, I started to really miss home. The whole day was hard for me and while I was writing in my journal Elder Kane from the kitchen"Elder Smith, is everything okay?" I said yes, then he said "Because I feel inspired to tell you that everything will be okay". He only did what he was inspired to do but It was exactly what I needed. Even though it came from Elder Kane I knew it was God speaking to me.

God sees in us who we can become and doesn't really look at what we are at the moment. Just like a Metal Smith, he looks not at what is but looks at what can be. It is then up to us to allow him to bend and shape us. "And if men come unto me I will show unto them their weakness. I give unto men weakness that they may be humble; and my grace is sufficient for all men that humble themselves before me; for if they humble themselves before me, and have faith in me, then will I make weak things become strong unto them." I know this to be a truth. 

We are precious in the sight of God. He allows us to go through trials so that when we come out of the furnace we will be pure, even as Christ is pure. My favourite doctor Seuss quote: Today you are you! That is truer than true! There is no one alive who is you-er than you!. 

Stay awesome everyone.

-Elder Smith

Pictures:

-On Exchanges

-Zone leaders staying at our flat to drive Elder Nkhoma to the airport at 6am(Me on the right, Elder Spilker in the middle and Elder Odukoya in the back)

Bee swarm

From Mom - Winning at Life

Dear Sam,

My friend, Jamelyn, is a Life Coach. It sounds like a funny job description but people go to her who need someone to help them with strategies in overcoming challenges in their lives. She was telling me about one strategy she uses called 100 WINS. The idea is that every time you want to do a self-defeating behaviour (fill in the blank with just about anything like overeating, laziness, letting yourself get distracted with devices, etc, etc) but you catch yourself and instead fill it in with a choice that gives better results; a choice that builds you instead of deflates you, then you give yourself a WIN. It's the idea of building neural pathways of mastery and empowerment. So I'm trying it just as an experiment. Right now I'm at win #18 and I'm finding it's usually over the really small things in life. Here are some examples: Win #7; had a spiritual prompting to mail a birthday card to a friend, so I did it just then and mailed it that day. Win #10; was heading to bed and just wanted to sleep but instead pulled out my journal and wrote for 15 minutes. Win #18; the family invited me to play Sorry with them but I was involved In writing and didn't want to stop. I looked up and saw Josh, Mia and Dad and realized they are more important to me than writing, so I put my notebook down and went and played and had a great time. (Dad got two of his pieces safe at home right away and the rest of us ganged up on him the rest of the time. So funny. Josh broke out into a sweat because it was so close in the end. I'm still laughing at his theatrics.) I'm finding that the experiment of 100 WINS is a great way for me to figure out Good, Better, Best and to live life more fully and joyfully. 

You heard the rest of the week with Ben's graduation, Grandma and Grandpa Bruce coming for a visit, the weather, etc, so I'll just send your some pictures that I have. 

We went for a hike/walk/picnic in Thorsby with a Hayley Pedersen and two of her children, who is a woman I minister to. She doesn't want any contact with the church currently but we are becoming really good friends and I'm grateful for the programs of the church that enable us to create positive and fulfilling relationships.

Dad and Ben planting carrots. Dad brought in more soil to build up our garden, so it will get better and better every year.

We were burning a bunch of the dead undergrowth and old wood. It's always nice to sit around the fire and chat about life. Plus, our forest is looking more and more cleaned up and domesticated (at least around the fire pit).

This is Ben and his grad date, Caitlyn, posing on stage. I took the shot of the big screen. He was a true gentleman and was so kind and conscientious of her. 

And now we are beginning another busy week. June is filled with concerts and the scramble to get everything done before summer truly begins. I'm glad we live a slower pace out in the country. 

We love you, Sam! Enjoy the last month with your mission president and I'm so glad you love him and learned so much from him. Remember we pray for you every day.

Love forever,

Mom