November 22, 2021

From Ben - The Deep End

Winter has finally made its way to Timmins.

And boy oh boy is it chilly. 

It hasn't sunk below -5° Celsius but because of the humidity in the air, when a gentle wind sets in, the chill comes and never leaves. It's so bizarre! Give me a -30° dry winter over a -10° humid one. 

On the first snowfall me and Elder Hartman awoke to the sound of Gisele (our old French Grandma) shoveling snow in the front. We sprung out of bed, shocked that she was shoveling snow that we should have been, ran outside, gracefully borrowed her shovel straight from her hands, and started heave hoeing the snow off the sidewalk in front of our units. 

We felt pretty good about ourselves after completing our initial task, so we decided to shovel the sidewalk of the entire Westmount unit complex. It took about an hour to complete the job. And while our backs were bent our spirits felt alive.

Come to find out somebody was hired to blow the snow off the sidewalk with a high powered machine the whole time. What can you do? :)

On Wednesday, we had the craziest lesson with a less active couple.  We walked in and I had some preconceived notions about this Brother and Sister that weren't the most stellar. (They didn't want to come because they were lazy, maybe they weren't coming because they didn't like the people, maybe they were just slacking on doing their Gospel basics and it led to a weakening of their faith) Either way, my initial thoughts were a bit judgmental, negative, and completely inaccurate. 

It was one of the craziest lessons we've ever had. The Sister had one of the deepest gospel understandings I've ever come across. She would write maybe a 20-50 page report on every one of her Gospel questions and had a library of them. She's a convert, and when she was exploring the Church she had 5 primary questions about the Book of Mormon. I unfortunately only remember four of them

- Could Joseph Smith have seen God? (Not did he, but was it a doctrinally accurate possibility) 

- Was there actually a remnant of Joseph (of Egypt) preserved and carried across the ocean? 

- Could there have been more scripture written and brought forth beyond that of the Bible? 

- Why did God command Nephi to kill Laban? 

However, for her, the answer to each question had to come from the Bible and the Bible alone (she came from a devout Baptist background) So that's what she prayed for. And she found an answer for each and every one of them. She was the embodiment of an "Ask and ye shall receive" mindset. She would ask, search, study, and think with laser intense focus until she received an answer. It was really quite amazing to behold. 

 "The glory of God is intelligence, or, in other words, light and truth"

I legit forget how absolutely exciting and flippin' cool the Gospel of Jesus Christ is sometimes. It's really an unfortunate thing to forget. 

The Brother, though less erudite and well read, had a testimony strengthened and refined by a walk through the fires of hell (metaphorically speaking) He has a brutal life story. In his words he said (to my best recollection) 

"There is no pain too unbearable and no torture too terrible that would ever get me to deny Jesus the Christ. 

And I've been through pain unbearable" 

It was intense, not gonna lie. Me and Elder Hartman just kinda sat there amazed. (Remember how I judged them before? Oof)

Definitely a long way to go on my own spiritual progress, holy moly. 

On the flip side of the spectrum, we had another lesson with a member of the ward where he mentioned.

"At 25, I've seen all that church can offer. I've been through EFY, and I've gone through seminary, I've seen it all!" 

I honestly wasn't quite sure how to tell him about the red flags in his mindset. So, because I despise any sort of conflict, real or imagined. I didn't try. (Sigh) We all have our own challenges, I guess 

God even says that if "we come unto Him he will show unto us our weakness" If we come unto Him, HE will show US our weakness. Trying to be like Jesus necessarily involves us seeing our weakness. Back to the self worth idea. As long as we turn to Christ when we see our weaknesses instead of just beating ourselves up we'll be fine, and our "weak things will be made strong"

But wow. Sunday was a wild adventure. 

We found a fellowshipper for Wendy, who is getting baptized on Saturday, which was an absolute miracle. She sat beside her during the Sacrament service which brought real joy to our hearts. But goodness, the second hour of Church, Sunday School, was the most stressful second hour I've ever experienced in my entire life. Wendy sat somewhere in the front of the room (a partitioned section of the carpeted gym) and me and Elder Hartman got put in the back (we had to take care of a couple things after Sacrament Meeting, so we couldn't sit beside her) 

It was quite the lesson, wow. We hit topics such as Plural Marriage, Race and Church History, Second Coming Theories, Progression within Celestial Glory, and the nature of relationships between the Glories. It was almost as if they were consciously trying to hit all the crazy controversial topics 

I prayed no less than five prayers that lesson. Me and Elder Hartman sat helpless in the back. Wendy was just chilling in the front. We just kept looking at each other in utter disbelief at how the lesson was going. 

Wendy, in her simple yet genuine faith, took the whole thing in stride thank goodness. 

Me and Elder Hartman had to take a 30 minute nap after we got back to recover.

(During our lunch, no stress)

Keep praying for her. She is wonderful. 

Anyways. 

Love you guys. 

Thanks again for humoring the long emails. 

Keep on keeping on! 

 

1-2) Me trying to make amends with a guy that doesn't like the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and it backfiring. 

3) We caught Gisele in her PJ's so she proceeded to destroy us in sequence (She accidentally swore at Elder Hartman that game. It got intense) :)

4) This morning's snowfall

5) One of our friends asked us to shovel their driveway. So we did. 

6) Got to help build a mini Christmas tree with some members.

From Dad - Winter arrives

Dear Ben,

 

Our time holding off winter are over. Starting early this week, old man winter reared his head and started blustering. Now as I look out the window I see a blanket of white. Of course it is the busiest driving time for Mom and the girls. They have braved the slippery roads 4x a day back and forth to Leduc. I’m grateful for your Mom’s tireless sacrifice on behalf of her family.

This week we enjoyed seeing Grandma and Grandpa Smith as they brought Natasha up to Edmonton to go to the Wellspring treatment center. Unfortunately, though not surprisingly, Natasha was not able to go through with it. It was extremely exhausting for my Mom and Dad, not to mention disappointing. Our hearts ache for this situation which is seemingly a no win situation. It is situations like these that require us to exercise both faith and long suffering. Despite the seemingly impossible situation, I’m grateful for the hope of the atonement both in this life and the next. Natasha is in dire straits. Pray for your cousin.

 

I was released from the Stake Sunday School presidency this week. I was grateful to be able last week to visit the Whitecourt branch as part of that calling and speak in church. It was a small congregation but faithful. Interestingly, one of the missionaries in the branch, Elder Padron, was transferred to our ward this week. Mom booked them for supper last night and when he walked in he cheerfully greeted me with “Good to see you again!”. At first I didn’t get it as I didn’t recognize him without a mask on!. We got two new missionaries in so they are a threesome again. They brought a wonderful spirit into our home. They are both very personable and we had an amazing discussion about the atonement. We each shared how we personally felt about the atonement. As I pondered on my own feelings, I reflected on President Nelson’s encouragement to think of the atonement in a present tense and see that it is the Savoir who has the power to save. The atonement was the price he paid to be able to offer me grace in an active and current way. He is the way, the truth and the light. I’m grateful for the burdens I’ve been able to and continue to be able to place in his hands as I strive to repent and change for the better each day.

 

We enjoyed having Damon, Sam and Josh over for supper today. We’re grateful our kids want to come home and spend time with us. We’re looking forward to having Stephanie come out for the girl’s play. It is getting down to crunch time. In our weekly planning the girls plan is simple. Practice the musical till 8 pm every night. It should be an interesting few weeks as we push to the end. Praying for patience and perseverance!

The little kittens are getting more mobile and we are enjoying them while keeping a careful eye on Coco who perks up hungrily every time they come into the house.

Are you all covered for winter wear? Has snow come your way yet?

 

Your Christmas package is on the way. Hoping you get it in good time.

 

Have a great week!

 

Love,

 

Dad.