October 3, 2022
From Ben - Glimmers of Light
It was a bit of a shock to me, but not in the sense I was expecting.
"I'm sorry to say, but I don't want to meet anymore. I'm going to live my 20's the way I should like" explained our friend on the phone.
"I don't want to talk with you guys"
And not 15 minutes later, through another phone call
"I have to be completely honest with you, I am never going to join a church that demands I give them money. It's never going to work"
Two of our friends, with full respect to their choices, choosing to take an alternative path.
The phrase often employed by us missonaries is "dropped"
A real issue presented itself from this though.
It was in how I responded.
I was bummed and a little sad that we no longer were meeting with two of our friends. People we'd worked with, taught and supported.
But that was about the extent of what I felt.
It did not extend to the degree that would have paired up with what a genuine love and care for these people should have produced.
I came to the realization, at least in this specific case, that I had not cared about these people to the degree I should have been caring.
I'd gotten comfortable in my stewardship and forgotten that deep, abiding concern comes with its own price.
The price of concious effort, of sacrifice, of humility.
It definitely got me thinking deeper, needed thoughts.
Up until that point, I'd only been cashing in enough currency to have purchased a shallow concern.
One that didn't hold the gravity required to soften hearts, and impress upon their souls needed truths.
"A form of Godliness" but the "power thereof" denied.
Of course the bright side of such a realization comes through repentance. (phew)
Glimmer of Light #1
I have decided and am still seeking to decide to care more about those around me. To pay a couple more dollars of effort, time and humility to achieve a love, like Christ's, that holds more value.
MLC on Tuesday was spiritually charged.
It usually takes me the first half of the meeting to wrestle to submission a couple of invasive and corrosive thoughts of comparison and pride with the spiritual giants of the Canada Toronto Mission, the other Zone Leaders and STL's.
However, when they are sufficiently wrestled, through prayer and genuine effort, the meeting becomes so much more enlightening and encouraging, and it becomes a blast to be surrounded by these spiritual giants.
President Stacey declared, with power like unto Abinidi amongst the Priests of Noah, that revelation was available to each leader, and that the time to claim it was now.
Our choice was to be like unto Alma, and not the Priests of Noah, and let the declarations and doctrines actually change our perspectives, and not let it ricochet against titanium tables of the flesh.
We brainstormed in what ways the mission could find and bless more children of God.
To find the silently suffering. The families in need of healing. The lonely in need of companionship. To jaded in needed of smoothing. The hopeless in need of hope.
Glimmer of Light #2
I have decided, alongside Elder Surdu and our STL's, Sister McMahon and Barton, to empower the missionaries of the Sudbury Zone to seek with greater effort to find families to bring to the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
On Friday, Elder Surdu and I had a great learning experience through three lessons we had in the day.
In the first, we taught Antti, a recent Finnish convert.
This man is so sweet, and has one of the greatest of smiles.
But his basement is so cozy and comfortable his voice, so old and gentle.
Before Elder Surdu and I knew it, we were fighting a battle with the unforgiving foe of Sleepiness.
Antti is really old, so luckily our fight with the Z's went unnoticed.
But Elder Surdu was trying the one eye closed one eye open strategy (bold play in my opinion)
I was on the edge of my seat, being overtly engaged and animated with Antti.
In one moment, where I just about lost the round, I called for an emergency tactic, a bathroom trip.
I splashed my face and did half of Mom's salutation to the sun stretches, then entered the ring again.
After the lesson, we took a 5 minute snooze in the car then drove away.
The lesson of course wasn't very good, which was unfortunate, be we were resolved to make the next one better.
The second lesson tragically wasn't better
All the right things were said, but the Spirit was absent.
"Wooden" was the best description we could tack onto the lesson.
Of the third, things changed.
Why? Because of Elder Surdu.
We resolved that we hadn't borne enough testimony, or promised needed and specific blessings.
After the exact phrase of "I know Joseph Smith was a Prophet" left Elder Surdu's lips, the room's atmosphere literally changed.
Our friend was from Zambia, where every man and their dog claims to be a true prophet (Sam, I remember you saying something along the lines of finally seeing true apostasy while serving)
Sharing my witness alongside Elder Surdu's was refreshing and needed. The lesson was amazing.
Glimmer of Light #3
I have discovered again, in a deeper sense, that genuine testimony invites the Spirit (your story keeps resonating in my head, Josh - about the man on the doorstep)
Then finally, general conference.
:)
Prophets, seers, and revelators.
Christ's Apostles.
Given to bless us.
And they sure did.
In the final session, I decided to try to (as I've written it in my notebook) "radically personalize" the things these men said.
It really changed it around.
Anyways, you got your own revelation from Conference.
It was a supercharging event.
Love you each
- Elder Smith
Now each of us live in constant fear of getting a little foam nerf pellet shot at ourselves.
3) Preparation day, the security footage calling our attention
4) Road trip adventures. I think this one was towards MLC on Tuesday.
5) Osmows Shwarma Poutine. So unhealthy, so delicious.
6) The knights of the castle, just prepping to head to conference together at the Church.
7) MLC filming with some of the heroes from the past, Elder Blum and McNabb
8) We now sleep in our living room This was step one of that process.
9) A Zone call with the champions of the North. The Sudbury Zone.
10) A fresh cut from Elder Surdu, who has cut only one set of hair prior to this.
From Dad - General Conference Week-end
What a wonderful conference week-end with powerful testimonies of the Savior and true principles to live by and ponder for the next 6 months.
One of the most interesting stories I was struck by was the story of the brother donating his bone marrow for his brother's transplant. The fascinating idea that by transplanting the stem cells from another person can not only start producing healthy blood in the recipient but that the blood produced would be identical to the blood of his brother, the donor to the point that if he committed a crime and left blood behind, they could convict the brother! Some powerful analogies to be drawn thinking about how the Savior's blood can save us and re-make us into a new being and we can literally receive his image in us when we choose to let him heal us.
Another highlight for me was to see the diversity in speakers, especially Sister Browning as a woman of color speaking such a powerful analogy of her glasses compared to the clarity the gospel brings. I'm grateful for the belief we have expressed in the 9th article of faith "we believe all that God has revealed, all that he does now reveal and we believe that he will yet reveal, many great and important things pertaining to the kingdom of God."
We had a great Sunday with Josh, Madison and Sam coming out in the morning then inviting 6 other friends over for supper and to watch the northern lights. So fun to have our land and home be a place of gathering.
We learned on our walk that Naomi, to the right of Sam, asked Sam to preference dance in 2 weeks. Lucky guy, she seems really nice!
Speaking of a place for people to come to, on Friday, Mom went and picked up Bobby for her annual getaway at our place, She is a lot of fun and we enjoyed having her. Mom and her prepped some grapes we got from Al and Rita Wagners for jam. We had a funny incident you may have seen on the Smith family chat where we thought that Grandma had given us a juicer but it just didn't seem to be working. When I finally called my Mom, she was puzzled and said, isn't that a butter churn? Sure enough it is a butter churn, except now the wooden paddles are completely dyed purple! We had a good laugh about that.
I uploaded Mom's tribute video to google drive. Try this link and let me know if you can access it. It was really fun to share it with her on her Birthday.
Other than that it was a pretty typical week with choir, work and the girls singing Mama Mia songs at the top of their lungs :) Amelia is slowly building up the driving skills and courage to take her test. We went driving to Leduc in "Derek" (the SUV) and she's getting better and better. Friday was Truth and Reconciliation day so the girls had the day off of work and were able to go with friends all afternoon and evening to run a corn maze, hot tub and watch the Mama Mia movie. I'm grateful they have found good friends at school.
Love you forever.
Dad
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