July 24, 2022
From Ben - Quiet Happiness
A prayer of mine totally got answered.
Last week, after somewhat stuck in the Duldrums and chained down by convenience, comfort and complacency, I finally asked in prayer what to do. (It's unfortunate how long it takes to finally rely on the Lord. Such is repentance)
I talked with Sam and Josh and had such a powerful council with them. (Brotherhood. So awesome)
Josh mentioned a story from the book The Travellers Gift, and talked about the room of unrealized potential. How the real tragedy isn't the man who loses, but the man who almost wins.
We talked about how to tackle supporting others in their faith.
From that conversation my thought was
"Wow, it was so cool and so exciting to have a plan and vision for the future. Especially a plan to serve and help others"
Then not long after that, my friend Sister Hutchins asked about goal setting.
Asking, "how does one set meaningful and important goals?"
As this was a subject I myself haven't yet locked in, I was pondering on it.
Then. The exchange with the Zone Leader, Elder Kirby.
Now, a bit about this Elder.
He, by his own admission, doesn't smile very often and maintains a pretty deadpan expression; but his humor is SO DRY, and SO FUNNY.
Holy moly.
We started working and he was like "Elder Smith, how are you?"
I was like "Well, sometimes I kinda feel like I'm not really going anywhere"
He was like "How's your goal setting going"
I was like "Kinda lame actually"
And he was like "Well let's tackle that then"
And went on to describe how would talk through his goals with the Lord, listen for confirmations and ideas about how to achieve such goals, then do so. All with the intention of serving others.
Golly it was powerful.
And that was the answer to my prayer.
Three steps. A conversation, a question, and and an example.
So now I'm trying to develop the habit and skill of goal setting and achieving.
On Wednesday we had interviews with President Stacey.
I'm telling you, every mission President has eyes that just burn straight through to the front of your backbone.
One of his first questions was
"Elder Smith, what should I know about you? If you were the Mission President, talking to yourself, what would you need yourself to know"
I was like
"Well shoot, President, can you give me 30 seconds to ponder on that?"
He said
"I'll give you 4"
So I told him I loved helping other missionaries, but that I didn't always have pure motivations, that sometimes I loved the "praise of the world" more than God's, and that it took me a couple days to complete my full pride cycle.
What a tricky question!
I poured my whole heart out to him, not sure if I was answering what I needed to answer.
Which was exactly the purpose of the question.
President Stacey, that sly dog.
We talked about leadership, conversion, and how to better establish a real, genuine relationship with the Savior.
Turns out you can fit an hour conversation into 15 minutes.
Crazy how that happens.
When I got the chance to talk with Sister Stacey, in a remarkable way, the instant I started chatting with her, I felt loved, and I felt the spirit.
It was bizarre how fast she was able to bring both into our conversation.
It is such an honor and privilege to work with such champions.
On Saturday, our friend Henri got baptized.
Calling him in the morning to respond to the text he sent at 12:00am which made it sound like he was going to cancel, but really wasnt't, getting to the Church two hours early to fill the font, set up some chairs, pull in the piano and the pulpit, re-print the 20 bulletins the second time because we made a mistake the first time, and calling around and realizing Henri totally needed a ride to his own baptism, it was an adventure of a morning.
But God prevailed.
He got baptized, and confirmed the next morning.
There is still much work to be done, but Henri's life is on course for the eternities.
I'm still learning to "feel" deeper things.
I know God speaks to us according to our understanding, but throughout the process of the baptism, I never had any unbelievable rushes of joy or jubilation, which I guess I somewhat expected, but might have been looking beyond the mark.
It was just a quiet happiness.
But maybe I'm overthinking it a bit
It was still an incredible moment and the spirit was strong.
In that classic, but never old line, after his baptism Henri simply said he felt clean.
That same Saturday night, we got invited to a gender reveal.
The family was from Nigeria and invited a bunch of their Nigerian friends.
It was so fun. Their culture is so legendary, so quick to laugh and love.
Elder Blum had to race one of the other moms in tying a pillow (representing a baby) to his back with a big scarf, and we both got go compete in a awesome game of musical chairs with the other fathers of the party.
"The family is ordained of God" is a line that clicked a little deeper during this event.
They showed such love and excitement for eachother, and love was nearly tangible in the air.
What a week it was family and friends.
Love you each
God loves each of your more, and that's alright.
- Elder Smith
1) A picture at the gender reveal party eating Nigerian food while staring straight into the sun.
2) "Axe throwing" for a YSA activity (the axes are plastic). I totally caught one straight out of the air which was epic, but then tried again and it bonked my finger real good.
3) Elder Blum seconds before getting eliminated from musical chairs.
4) Post baptism conversations with a champion of a five year old. Elder Blum, mastering the art of communicating with children by adopting the bunny ears.
5) Julien Sachedina, a hilarious 16 year old from the ward. He's a legend with a wild, refiners fire backstory.
6) Youth night chess wars.
7) Visiting members during a brutal rainstorm. (The work goes on!)
8) Henri's baptism
9) District Council simulation of a bus stop. I played a guy reading a book about horses, and Sister Stevens was the missionary.
Dear Elder Smith,
My mom used to say that “no news is good news” and I think the idea is when you don’t hear from someone it means everything is busy and going well in their lives; then when you DO hear from them, it’s a crisis and an emergency. So no news is good news, right? I’m just not sure the adage still applies in our Information Age. Or maybe it does? You can help me decide …
Think about Abby and Mia in Sweden. We’ve had hardly ANY correspondence in spite of how easy it is to send messages with no expense. It only takes a minute, right? They’ve hardly posted on social media, I’ve had two snaps with zero info but I do know they were in Tallinn, Estonia on Sunday because of an Insta that Mia put up. Does this mean they’re having such a good time that they don’t think about home? I suppose if there was a crisis, we’d hear about it immediately so in this case, the adage works.
Or what about LYR? There are so many things in my brain right now that I’ve seriously dropped the ball in getting information out to people. With less than three weeks to go I finally bit the bullet and got the info out in a mass email that I had to fat finger every single address (60ish) because our internet is down. In this case, no news was absolutely NO news, which people are frustrated about and problematic for those who needed to be reminded about the readings. So no-go for that adage in this situation.
Or what about all the things we haven’t told you because, a) we missed your call last week (still mad about it); and b) there are too many things? I keep saying that my brain can only hold so much and as new info goes in, old info pops out. This is a problem, because at the rate new info is going in, I’m losing valuable old info. (Like people’s names, passwords, promises and where my phone is.) Maybe in this case, the news needs to be written down to be remembered when it’s time to tell it?
So here’s an attempt to tell you some news…
1) We FINALLY bought a new car. One stress less (two cars, less conflict) and one added (we now have a car payment).
2) Dad and I helped my work office move to a new location. They haven’t fired me yet, so I think all is well. I’m off for August while Rufus is here so I hope it’s a good time.
3) Strawberry season is upon us and they are luscious! Sadly, the mosquitoes are also luscious and abundant (and feral).
4) Bowie is officially the cutest child on the planet. Highlight of the day was making peppermint tea and having a tea party to help her sore tummy feel better. All was well until she started puking tonight. Poor thing!
In this picture we had to rebuild a sand castle because another little kid kicked her old one down. Poor Bowie! (There was wailing.)
5) I tried a session with an acupuncturist! She’s aligning my chi. For the record, acu needles do not hurt going in and when she turns the lights down and leaves you for 20 minutes, time somehow takes on a new dimension; as in it disappears! She walked out then she walked right back in and I have no idea where 20 minutes went! It was some crazy meditative state I’ve never experienced before. Trippy and fun! I like trying new things. I’m crossing my fingers that the treatment will rapid heal my Achilles’ tendon so I can run that marathon in September.
6) The treehouse is progressing! Dad and Tyler are putting up siding. It looks so good! Here is a work-in-progress pic.
That Tyvek wall behind Tyler is now a dark orangey-red colour. It looks AMAZING.
So this news is neither good nor bad … but a little mix of both. Maybe the adage should say, “Any news is good news” or “we’ll take what we can get,” or something like that because let’s face it … we love getting information from people we love, no matter what it is.
Here’s an extra pic …
And my favorite quote of the week …
And we WILL NOT miss your call this time or I will FREAK. OUT. So talk to you soon, my boy. I can’t wait to tell you ALL the news because life is truly amazing and full of joy regardless of how heavy it feels sometimes.
Love forever,
Mom
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