March 20, 2023
From Ben - Divine Calculations
She'd been having a tough morning.
She had some questions on her mind for her Father in Heaven, and hadn't found answers.
She skipped out on her morning college classes and thought to just hop on a bus, intending to sit by the window with her ear-buds in, to think, listen and silently pray.
The bus rolled along its designated route, passengers leaving and entering at regular intervals.
As the bus quickly rolled on, in a way similar to the thoughts of her mind, two short fellows entered the front folding door, scanning their Presto passes and making their way in.
Both having on some beat up dress shoes, a Sunday looking fit, glasses and some satchels strapped over their chests.
"These guys look familiar" she thought...
Elder Wack and I had a day emptier then my wallet most times, and had a four hour block of nothing smack dab in the middle of our schedule.
"You want to go explore downtown, riding busses and talking to every man and their dog?" I offered as an idea.
Elder Wack, in his German accent "Yeeaah, let's do it"
We meandered our way from our household, and made our way to the nearest bus stop, knocking a door or two here, and stopping a person or two there.
The bus came along in its consistent sort of way, and we entered the carriage on wheels.
"No way! It's the Elders!" She thought.
The one with kinda but kinda not blonde hair came in and started up a conversation with a man in the middle of the bus, they, chatting about welding, science and the Gospel.
The other, sitting nearer the front.
She listened for a little bit, but then felt she needed to talk to them. The one was engaged in the middle, but the other's conversation had stopped, so she got up and went to talk with him.
I'd scanned the the passengers, trying to decide who I'd stand by to start up a conversation, and had selected a fellow vibing near the middle of the bus.
Elder Wack selected a position near an older lady in the front.
We struck up an amiable conversation and I got to learn a couple more details about welding, which is what he was taking in school.
He asked what I did, so I shared some of the missionary adventure and message with him.
While this conversation was happening, this girl just a little ways up the bus kept glancing mine and Elder Wack's way.
It was that sort of game where you catch them looking your way, then they look away, and it happens three or four times.
I was engaged in the middle of a conversation with my welding friend, when the girl got up, sat down by Elder Wack, and started talking him.
In the back of my head I was thinking "that never happens"
But got to see Elder Wack handle it.
From the small snippets I heard from them talking, all I discovered was that she was a member.
Our stop came, so I fist bumped my friend, who appreciated the conversation but wasn't interested in learning more, and Elder Wack finished his conversation with the girl, then we hopped off the bus, embarking downtown.
"Who was that?" I asked Elder Wack
"A member" he replied.
"That's cool" I said. And the day moved on.
The climax of this tale isn't too dramatic.
On Sunday, we saw this girl again, and in the midst of the small conversation we had (she is YSA and we are family ward, so we only talked for a quick minute) she explained that that day, she "had been having an interesting spiritual morning" and that seeing us on the bus was in some way an answer to her prayer.
Is was a tender gift for both her and us.
We do have a Father in Heaven who cares, and knows our hearts.
The Lord has blessed me to live with some 'characters of light'
Elder Britt and Elder Ochoa are the two other Elders Elder Wack and I share our little home with.
God has done some divine calculations so as to allow us all to be in this same place.
I am learning lessons that I really need to learn from this combination of people.
I'm learning deeper what it means to have faith, to be humble, and even just higher and holier ways of missionary work.
My natural man brain really wants to believe that, at 22 months of missionary work, there really isn't too much to learn.
Though I've always understood in my head that learning is a neverending process, I'm not so sure that my heart and soul knew that
God has prepared for me opportunities to be humble again and again, which, though I've missed some, I'm trying to accept the rest and those coming.
Amen, and amen
Love you each
- Elder Smith
[We've got pictures involving Noah re-enactments, selfie shots through the day, some goals, and a beautiful tree of life quilt]
Dear Elder Smith,
My phone has an option for an alarm that is quite lovely. It starts out with some gentle back and forth piano thirds and slowly builds, adding in a high note range then adds some poignant Triangle notes at which point I know I need to get out of my comfortable bed. It’s set for 6:15 a.m. and although I’m often awake before then, the bed holds me captive for its warmth and I don’t want to get up. When this alarm goes off, it’s my last warning that if I don’t get up, then the morning will be frantic. This morning, like any other, I was still relishing the coziness when my alarm went off. Immediately the thought came … you didn’t write Ben! I suppose my morning will be frantic after all but you are my first priority.
We were missing you last night when a Would You Rather card popped up with the question “would you rather have music play when you walk? Or control the mood lighting wherever you are?” Which sparked a conversation about exactly, WHAT music would play when you walked? Cue “Staying Alive” by the Beegees. Immediately Josh, Sam and Abby started demonstrating the variety of walks inspired by the song, at which point we have to ask ourselves, “would the music cue to the type of walk we were walking” or “would the style of our walk depend on the music that started?” Deep questions but I know you would be right along with them, Walking to the music. I couldn’t stop laughing and even took a video to send to the few people I Snapchat with (Tonia Rice, Garrett and my children, haha). Sadly, I haven’t got into the habit of saving my Snapchat videos, which I’m always scolded about by Abby.
Besides, it’s hard to hear the music when you’re stressed out of your mind. On Wednesday night, I realized we were scheduled to feed the missionaries the next day. Our lives have been such that I’ve needed to cancel (which means I drop off food instead of them coming into our home) for the past three visits and I just couldn’t bring myself to cancel on them yet again. Dad was overseas and the girls were helping at the highschool with Grade 9 orientation. Should the missionaries drive out and have dinner with me by myself? We currently have a lovely set of Sister missionaries who the girls are in love with, so I felt like it defeated the purpose … besides the fact that I would be working all day and only had time for take out anyway. What to do? I finally settled on meeting everyone at Audrey’s Kitchen in our 30-min time window, pre-ordering the food (dill pickle soup and a giant platter of appetizers). The girls brought Megan and we had a great supper together. Sis. Packer couldn’t get over the restaurant bringing us hot soup and warm buns the minute we sat down . She thought Canada had a different standard of service than the States, haha. I immediately disabused her of the notion, explaining I pre-ordered. And what followed was an inspiring conversation about how inclusive Jesus Christ is and because he set the example, we can be too. (It turns out we can have a spirit-filled, inspiring conversation with country music playing in the background, haha) and we all left feeling better and happier and more hopeful. Coco, on the other hand, had to be rescued by Kera Bonnell, since the poor dog has been in her crate all week since no one has been home. Poor Coco. I’m grateful for a homeschooling neighbour who loves animals.
So Dad is home again after a week away. We were super busy and didn’t miss him too much except no one was home to clean up after us, we didn’t have anyone to fill the slow leaky tire in the car, no food was ready when we came home at the end of the day and poor Coco was stuck in her crate all week. We suddenly started truly appreciating the kind, patient, long-suffering, service-oriented husband/father we have! He does so much for us all the time but it’s like background music, so influential but not really appreciated or even noticed sometimes. Needless to say, he’s been getting a lot of love from us since Saturday night, haha. I told him it’s good for him to go away sometimes so we can truly appreciate him.
Have a wonderful day, my boy. Sending all my love to you. Walk the walk, talk the talk and imagine the music you’re walking to. Life is pretty amazing when you think about it.
Love forever,
Mom
Us without Dad
Josh’s walk
Coco’s walk
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