October 17, 2022
From Ben - An Unexpected Party
Headaches are lame.
Logically, my body knows that it has physical strength and stamina, but realistically, when the mind has become a trampoline for some really heavy thoughts, who have no regard for the weight limits or number of thoughts allowed on the trampoline, every task becomes far greater then it needs to be.
On Saturday the aches introduced themselves, and like the dwarves in Bilbo's hobbit hole at the start of his adventure, they made themselves welcome without my permission; and like Bilbo, I really couldn't do anything about it.
Then came the cousins and brothers by name of chills, weakness, then a very tall wizard by with the title of headache.
On Saturday night, there was quite the party in the hobbit hole of my mind, and finally, at 3:00am after I was humble enough to take a Tylenol, did those excitable dwarves settle down and sing some musical misty mountain melodies allowing rest to come.
On this same Saturday, our friend Geramie (pronounced Jeremy) was baptized.
There were hurdles of every kind that I never expected to have faced in helping him work towards his sacred covanent.
There will still be some Balrogs to beat on his road forward, but by the same way he has beat his foes up to this point, will he conquer them moving forward.
I was blessed to be the one to confirm him on Sunday, and felt again, the gentle Spirit confirm in my heart that the blessings pronounced were appropriate and approved of.
I love this Gospel. It is good. It is true. It is real.
I love Geramie too. Few blessings match being on the front row of seeing someone you have long-suffered for and with, begin to taste of those precious fruits of joy.
On Thursday, we got the chance to take our journey towards Barrie for Zone Conference.
On the drive down, I got to sit alongside Elder Coppell, a new Elder from France.
I first supposed this Elder to be shy and quite, so I started asking him about his family and home life, and before I knew it, he had, for two and a half hours, recounted family history down two generations, given me the various skills and personalities of his siblings and parents, and described various works of literature that he had read and enjoyed.
It was a real pleasure!
On the way down, we stopped at a gas station and had an awesome interaction with the gas attendant.
It went something like:
"How goes work?"
"Not bad, how about you?"
"Well, actually, we are missionaries! We teach about Jesus Christ. Are you religious yourself?"
"Yah, I'm Catholic"
"Perfect! Our message is just for you then! Can we share 30 seconds of it with you?"
"Ok...Why not?"
We shared our portion and got him a copy of the Book of Mormon.
It's such an intriguing ebb and flow.
Some days, boundless confidence and desire to talk with others and share gospel truths is present.
Other days, motivation takes a great amount of energy to muster and summon.
The flow is almost always sourced from a concious effort to organize thoughts, have sincere conversations with my Father in Heaven, and enjoy his instruction on truth in the scriptures.
The ebb is usually always caused by a casual approach to missionary work, or not taking appropriate time to ground myself on the Redeemer.
Zone Conference had its usual spiritually recharging electricity.
President delivered an incredible instruction on the principle of growing from "grace to grace" and compared D&C 93 and various chapters in the gospel of John.
When that man speaks. He summons power.
I still sometimes fall into the trap in believing that eloquence, or well formed logic provide the source for which one is convinced or persuaded to live Gospel truths.
While of course neither are bad, the core will forever remain our sincere testimony of Jesus Christ, and conversion learned of by the real Spirit of God, spoken directly to our souls.
Which comes as a result of genuine time spent with God.
Love you each!
- Elder Smith
1) We forgot to unplug the font after the baptism, so Elder Surdu is sacrificing himself using prongs from the kitchen to take it out.
2) All ten Elders of the Sudbury Zone in a single elevator.
Not sure the regulations were obeyed
3) Game of 'kill-ball' at a sports night
4) Post baptism picture. Geremie is in-between Elder Surdu and I
5) When rest is required, rest is taken.
This is on the drive back from Zone Conference.
6) Yep, you guessed it. Osmow's Shwarma Poutine.
Again, I burned my innards. Again, it was so worth it.
From Dad - Fall is Here
Dear Ben,
The days are getting shorter and the nights crisper. We're still enjoying nice daytime temperatures, but fall is definitely here! I actually really love this time of year. On Saturday I buttoned up all the outside stuff for winter including moving all the lawn chairs from around the fire and the outdoor stove into the tree house, treated and covered the machinery for winter, took down the pickleball net and brought in the ladders. It's been a good summer stretch with lots accomplished and memories made.
Thanks for the meaningful albeit short conversation on Tuesday. You caught us in a ministering visit to Don and Kristine Goulding. Turns out she is Miranda Thorsen's sister. She was so friendly and as we came in to sit down she brought out delicious cake and ice water. Don was a little more conservative but has a great sense of humor. I'm looking forward to getting to know them. As usual, even though I've been trying to get in to see them for months, part of me found it hard to get out the door and secretly hoped they would cancel. As is ALWAYS the case, however, once we got into the conversation and were able to discuss meaningful things including the gospel, and I felt the spirit, my whole evening changed and I felt the joy of doing the work of the Lord. It is so true that only after the trial of our faith do we see the greatest blessings. I was grateful Mom came with me.
Thursday night I had the privilege of meeting with the girls teachers at the high school. Unfortunately Mom had to fill in at the last minute at work, so I wandered around the high school searching for classrooms and teachers. Recognize any of these names?
Their teachers had lots good to say about your sisters and I'm proud of all their efforts to improve and make a difference in their school.
I also happened to catch a glimpse of your graduating class picture: Check out that hair!
Mr. S and Mr. N asked about you and asked me to pass along a hearty hello and we miss you message. Don't ever doubt that you make an impact in the world Ben. You do, as do all of us in our own unique ways.
We enjoyed a "Pulled Pork in the Park" ward picnic in Devon put on the Elder's quorum. We really enjoyed getting back together in a church activity outside the building and the opportunity to just socialize and have fun together. We got a rousing game of ultimate frisbee going and Mia was a star player for her team.
Today was a long Sunday for us. I spent the morning preparing my talk on the topic of "Let God Prevail", then I had the opportunity to pass the sacrament, sing in the choir, where I totally missed my melody line (normally not a big deal unless there are only two of you and the other, Bro. Francis, had the counter melody!), then gave my talk. For the first time in forever I wrote out the whole talk and pretty much delivered it as I wrote it. Typically I write an outline and I speak from it. After trying this, I think I'll go back to the outline, but it did allow me to preserve the talk in case you're interested in reading it.
After church, we went straight to the Stake Center to enjoy listening to President and Sister Nelson along with Elder and Sister Renland. It was a spiritual feast. Here were some of the key points from what President Nelson taught us to help us transition from just being members of the church to true disciples of Christ:
- Strive to Increase ability to hear personal revelation and avoid anything that will detract from the spirit in your life in what you watch, listen to or do. God wants to help us with everything, so ask.
- Be a better disciple of Christ. Discern and be careful how and where to seek truth.
- Most of the information bombarding us daily is either not useful or false. Learn to filter what you read and consume by comparing it to divine truths taught in the gospel.
- Understanding divine law will enable us to access blessing predicated on those laws
- Refuse to let opposition to truth weaken your testimony.
- We are sent here at this time because the Lord believes we can handle any opposition to our beliefs and that in fact we can be strengthened by it if we choose.
- Serve in the temple - The drastically increased access to temples is the most important modern enhancement he has experienced in his 98 years.
- It will protect you from the worlds falsehood and opposition
- We are each vital in the work of the Lord
- Pray about the simple things I can do to gather Israel
- Expect Joy
- True joy comes living in harmony with covenants.
- Joy never comes from breaking covenants.
- Be loyal to the Royal within you.
We stayed around after for choir practice as our ward choir is singing in Stake Conference next week. Hopefully I'll get a chance to redeem myself! Sister Weeks of course fed us and we enjoyed fellowshipping with the other ward members in the choir (deVries, Francis, Bonnells, Tills, Sis Purnell etc).
God bless you Ben. You are doing a great work.
Love you lots,
Dad.
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