January 17, 2022

From: Ben - The Old Man in a Shoe

Oh gosh.

I barely remember what happened this week.

It straight up disappeared! 

On Monday, I was still in Timmins. 

Tuesday, driving away from my sweet Memére.

Morning of Wednesday was transfer day. Got to meet my new companion, Elder Durant.

Afternoon of Wednesday, officially in Weston. 

My world completely different from the one I came from. 

For one, there are actually other missionaries near us. 

Shocking!

It's actually bizarre. 

Every time I see a missionary I nearly do a double take. 

(Something's familiar about these strangers like me)

Then, there's district leadership. 

It. Is. Wild.

As soon as I found out who was in my district, my mind started BLAZING with things we could do, goals we could accomplish, and friendships we could build.

However, it blazed a bit too much, (you ever watch a toddler start running, and in an instant you know they are going to fast for their bodies to keep up and they slowly, just tip forward and crash?) and I woke up like six times that night thinking about the immediate future. 

It's still only just begun, and I'm excited to learn the ability of genuine delegation, and deciding which stress is positive, and which isn't.

Tracting is kind of an old trend right now. 

With Covid and the cold it's discouraged as a mode of finding. 

However! We had a pretty cool experience with it!

We were walking back from the library and saw this somewhat old house. 

We walked past the sidewalk and I felt the classic suggestion and nudge. 

I was like 

"Hold up, Elder. Let's knock this door"

We gave it the good old knock (with rhythm of course, but not the jack in the box rhythm, we like being unconventional) 

And this older gentleman wearing a single shoe opened the door.

He wasn't immediately interested, but after explaining that he wasn't quite sure about the Book of Mormon, I offered to explain it in a bit better detail to him. 

He thought about it for half a second, then said 

"Sure! Why not!"

We gave a solid explanation of the Restoration and Elder Durant gave a powerful account of the first vision using Joseph Smith's words (that always invites the Spirit)  

He accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he'd be down to meet this upcoming week. 

Heck yah. 

(Let the Holy Spirit guide, yo) 

Street Contacting is an absolute adventure as well. 

We only did it for the first week when in Timmins but then it got way too cold. 

So I haven't done it in about three months.

The first day we tried it, I counted eight opportunities that I could have talked to somebody, but shied away from (my ability to justify and rationalize the easier road is unexpectedly refined. Kind of scary actually) 

But, the next day I decided to be more bold and prayed for some heavenly courage. 

I only shied away from half the opportunities presented, and helped a lost lady get her bearings.

The third day... you're not going believe it, but we got two phone numbers 

Celebrate the small things, eh?

It's pretty cool to see ourselves progress. 

Small incremental goals that build on eachother daily is a reliable way to go. 

(It's not like I've had this told to me a thousand times , thanks Dad for Atomic Habits) 

One of the biggest things I'm coming to learn on my mission is that the way one comes to understand the Gospel is unique from every other way one comes to know something. 

It's like if I studied juggling, knew every single method, every single ball type, every single trick, knew the ball physics, velocities, and vertices, knew the history and the best jugglers out there, studied film, read books, the whole thing. 

But when given three balls and asked to juggle, it's clumsy, full of failure, embarrassing sometimes, and frustrating almost always. 

The Gospel is so similar in my mind. 

One can (I'm quoting Stephen Covey here)

"Learn without being obedient, intellectualize without repenting, think without praying, and accept science without Christ - all of which will fail utterly in bringing saving knowledge" 

We've got to "do His will to know of His doctrine"

And it's hard. 

I get stuck in the theology of the Gospel so often that I forget the reality of it. 

(Don't me wrong, we need to know the theology, but If it never translates into the actions and processes described within itself, it's pointless.) 

As far as I'm concerned, the Gospel is of such a nature that there is no point in our understanding of it that we can say "I'm good. I've got enough" 

Because it's just not a puzzle to be solved, nor a list of facts we can confidently cite.

It's a divine truth that we strive to live. 

And, though it's always easier said then done.

It's always life changing when said and done. 

And it's always done with easy access to the lifting grace of our Savior and Redeemer.

Weston is wild, but it's also wonderful. 

Love you all! 

Have a great week! 

-Elder Smith. 

1) It snowed this much in a single night. Crazy stuff

2) A Toilet Paper factory. It made me laugh when I saw it

3) Us trecking to go buy some groceries (we failed, the busses were stopped

4) Chilling at a bus stop and soon realizing it was pointless

5) A cool stairwell at the Church building

6) What the day looked like before the snow storm.

7) A spooky fish that deserved a picture by

. 

From Dad - The power of opposition

Dear Ben,

As typically happens in January, we have been feeling a bit of a pinch financially as we “recover” from Christmas and deal with a paycheck that is $400 less than what we’re used to. Add to that  a few unexpected expenses like an outrageous electrical bill from our heating the garage during our -30 cold snap (those cats are living in luxury!)  and we’ve had a taste of “opposition in all things” this week. 

If we let it, these oppositions can easily start to bring us down the depths of misery and endless woe, or, we can recognize the familiar pattern taught in the scriptures and mentioned in moms last email regarding the fall and redemption. 

On Friday, Mom and I decided that enough was enough. We would go on a date and hash it all out on Montana’s paper table cloths!  

As we listed all our upcoming expenses it was easy to see that while there were some choices we could make, most of the list was made up of must haves and that we’d have to trust in our previous experience that all would work out as we chose to exercise faith, pay our tithing and trust the Lord and each other. 

One of the expenses that came back to haunt was your nasty red light ticket photo radar. Turns out we missed the court date!!  When I emailed the court about it I found out that because of COVID, the court dates had been canceled but of course the ticket had not. The instructions, too late, were to email before the end of the day on the court date to request a retrial. 

So with righteous indignation I fired off my rant against the system and learned that I could apply to set the conviction aside and ask for a retrial. So I did. By the next day after our date I learned that they accepted my application and postponed the trial date to November!  Already we are starting to see the tender mercies roll in. BTW, we are considering postponing it each time until you come home and send you to deal with it....

Just kidding :)

As we studied and listened to the come follow me lesson this Sunday I was struck by Adam and Eves experience in the garden and again the essential role of opposition. I’m so grateful for modern revelation that teaches us that both Adam and especially Eve made the choice to partake of the fruit willingly and never regretted it, recognizing that it was all part of a great plan to allow us to grow and progress and obtain true happiness. 

10 And in that day Adam blessed God and was filled, and began to prophesy concerning all the families of the earth, saying: Blessed be the name of God, for because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy, and again in the flesh I shall see God.

11 And Eve, his wife, heard all these things and was glad, saying: Were it not for our transgression we never should have had seed, and never should have known good and evil, and the joy of our redemption, and the eternal life which God giveth unto all the obedient.

This is light and truth that has been lost to the World and I find it so powerful to know that it’s all for a purpose. Despite all Satan does to deceive us and the world, he doesn’t know the mind of God and cannot comprehend the redeeming power of the atonement for all our mistakes to be turned into blessings. 

As we look forward to this coming year it is full of possibilities and opportunities. One of them is the possibility for the girls to go to Sweden for three weeks to spend with Rob and Maria and then for their son Rufus to come and spend 3 weeks with us! On top of that we get to go to Vancouver for the Bruce reunion this year and the girls have their first FSY conference. 

Mia is getting excited for her first full semester at LCHS starting Feb 1st. One more week of classes for Abby and no finals because of Covid. 

Mom started her university class this week.  She is loving (mostly) the opposition and growth that is coming from it. 

Mom's been helping me with the basement reno’s and we got lots done and cleaned up just in time for the girls cast party.

On Friday for my daily exercise, I shoveled a path out to the fire pit and tree house so that they could have a fire for the party. Saturday,  about 8 kids from the play came  out and had a fun time playing games and visiting. We had a great discussion on Sunday initiated by Mia, about the balance and proving the contraries of standing for your beliefs and standards and being accepting of people and friends who are good but have different standards and sometimes tell dirty jokes and swear.  I love our tradition of being able to talk about hard things as a family.  

Josh and Sam came out Saturday night to change the oil in their car. After some adventures getting the car up on the ramps, we discovered again just how strange Josh's car is! His oil filter is accessed from the top of the engine and requires removing a large cover that wouldn’t budge for us. We even raided Bro. Patrick’s shop for a socket but couldn’t find one. Who has a 32mm socket! Not us and not any of our neighbors. Another opportunity for opposition and eventually redemption. I’m grateful that our home can be a place of refuge, help and fun. That’s why we built it!

I've been asked to prepare a 5th Sunday lesson about the temple. I'm looking forward to it. As I've been studying the temple, of course Come Follow Me has been awesome since it is currently covering the creation, fall of Adam etc and that is the teachings we learn in the temple. One thing I read that really struck me was this:

I love that on a daily basis we can be redeemed from all the falls we have. So the trick is to turn to the Savior and be redeemed every day. Then we won't be like the citizens of Elantris and have to carry every hurt forever. 

Sure love you Ben. I'm sure you have and will continue to have your fair share of opposition and trial but remember it is all for a reason and you and all of us can if we choose to exclaim like Adam and Eve, "Blessed be the name of God for my transgression" and opposition so that we can have joy.

Dad.

PS This is Abby right now documenting our current blizzard:

and Mia determined to take advantage of it: