Hi Josh,
It's been a pretty good week here at the Smith acreage (we need to name this place I think :) ). We were able to make significant progress on the garage Saturday, we poisoned and replaced a rabbit, Ben finished classes for the year (only one more exam to go), and Sam got a 5 day job with John Ripley.
This week we are heading down to Sparwood to camp with Dave and Jen's family, attend a play by Dennie Burton on Friday, drive back through the night and arrive Saturday morning to run a foam fest race in Leduc for Canada day. I think I'm getting too old for this frantic of a plan, but it's gonna be a great memory once I recover :|
We were excited to get picture and a brief text about your visit to the temple with the Garriby's. That is the pinnacle experience to see someone you've taught go through the temple.
I've been really thinking a lot about the ways I can become what the Lord needs me to become. Amazingly enough, whenever I think like this, the answers always tend to be the same.... go figure. And the answer is (drum roll please) - get up early and study the scriptures, exercise and pray. Every time. And interestingly enough, it works... until I start slacking on it again and have to go ask again for what I already know :). One other thing that came strongly to me this time, though, showing me that the Lord works line upon line, is the power and importance of service. Both giving and receiving. We have been super blessed by members of our ward helping us with our garage. I was quite worried about who could come help with the trusses a) because it isn't safe to do it by myself and b) I've not really done it before. Up until 2 days before, no one had responded to my facebook post (which isn't terribly surprising, people rarely do as I'm not an active poster). I prayed for help and then realized I needed to do something instead of waiting for it to fall from heaven. So I started texting my HTers, friends and neighbors and Saturday morning we had a crew. And one of them (Mike de Vries) had done trusses before and was even willing to be the middle guy perched up in the trusses. It was a huge blessing to have friends come and help. So this week we also went and helped the de Vries fix up their rental house in Leduc (their old house) as their renters had trashed the place. It felt great to serve and be served.
Hope you have a great week. Continue to tell us the stories of your mission. Are you writing faithfully in your journal? You'll never regret keeping good track of this amazing time of your life!
Let us know when you get your license in the mail. It should be there very soon.
Love Dad.
From Josh - My Goodness!:
This week has been a crazy but good week. I am really getting more and more confident in this area, and I somewhat feel as if the Lord is helping me, so much in my life I have gone back and forth in being confident and not, and I know that confidence comes from God, because those times when i did not feel confident at all was when I wasn't living worthy of the Spirit, but now as I am constantly living worthy and as I read and pray and make sure that I am looking to God for my support I am growing more and more confident in Him, I know that if we are always looking to God for our support he will guide us and help us to accomplish his will, as we are faithful He will not leave us alone.
I have been reading through the New Testament again after having finished the Book of Mormon, I have loved reading through the life of Christ, there have been a lot of people lately who have tried to convince us of our evil ways, I have been considering a lot lately the way people view the word of God, and how they shut out the thought that God could speak today. We met this one person who was super nice, but after he learned we were Mormons he tried to tell us how wrong we were, I tried to keep it a friendly exchange, though it was kind of hard when we were trying to tell him that there were Prophets and more scripture on the earth, and he was trying to tell us the opposite, we both were being confrontational while trying to be kind and eventually I had to just accept the fact that we were going to disagree so we shook hands and left on a good note.
Earlier this week we had a great lesson with one of our investigators, after every lesson me and my companion usually review and check how we can improve and that was one of the few lessons that was completely by the spirit and we could not even think of how we could do better, it was literally the perfect lesson.
The person we taught has two kids and so we were able to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, they had many good questions like why we celebrated the sabbath on sunday, we were able to share how it is a day we set apart for special reverence to the Savior and how we can keep our thoughts on him. All in all I love being a missionary.
We had interviews with President Henrie the other day and I asked him what I could do my last 6 months that would help me to make the greatest difference and he said something that I have been thinking about a lot. "Embrace the awkward" to not be afraid of walking across the street and talking to people, boldly stating our beliefs even when someone does not seem to be the most friendly. and I have been really trying more and more to step out of my shell, I have never been the best at just talking to random people but the more I do it the more I will gain confidence in it and the more the Lord can trust me.
The coolest experience this week was when I had that chance to got to the Temple with the Garibay's, I love them so much and it was so cool to see how much light that had entered into their lives, I have so much memories in their home, and I cherish every moment I get to spend with them because they bring so much joy into everyone's life around them, there were so many people who came to attend with the Garibay's and it is amazing to see that they have not only made changes in their life but in mine and in so many others.
I love you all so much and if you have any questions then feel free to ask i will always do my best to answer them, I loved the pictures from home and love seeing your faces and hearing of your adventures, I am doing my best over here as a missionary of the Lord and I am grateful for a supportive family that I can look to, look for those missionary opportunities in your lives because they are there and the more you share the more God will put people in your path.
Love,
Josh.
One from Elder Long doing a program to prepare you for life back home, and another from my camera of me at the temple with the Garibay's
From Mom:
Hey, Josh!
I randomly received a text last night from Jill Aubrey, who told us all about The Garibay Family going to the temple. That's so fantastic! Did the mission give you special permission to attend? We were pretty happy around the supper table last night talking about it. I can only imagine how gratifying it is to have a hand in someone else's progression. 😊
Questions:
Did you receive your driver's license yet?
Let us know when you do...
Also, Sis. Adamkewicz keeps bugging me about whether or not you received a package from them? It would have been awhile ago now.
Info:
Sam will submit his papers after July 13 and then the wait begins.
Ben will write his last school exam tomorrow and then we will head to the mountains for two days.
We also signed up for a Foam Fest in Leduc. It's running 5 km with a bunch of obstacles in foam and mud. Me, Dad, Ben, Sam and Uncle Mark. Wish us luck. Lol! The hard part is that we run at 8:30 a.m. and the boys will get in at 3 a.m. the night previous because they are watching a play in Cardston. So, hardly any sleep, then racing. Should be interesting. Pray that Dad doesn't get injured.
The garage continues to go up ... this week it was the trusses.
We have workers landscaping the yard. When we got a really hard rain, the best mud puddle formed and the girls couldn't resist.
Auntie is still around and waiting for a job call back and in the meantime she's been really helpful around the house. This morning we went and dug up a bunch of raspberry plants from The Francis' and transplanted them in our garden. Second try. Do you remember our first try of transplanting raspberries? Those didn't make it. The field took them over. This time, I'll try to keep on top of them.
We also made our annual trip to Fort Edmonton Park. It's tradition after all.
So, it's been a great week overall, except for one thing ... I have been in a foul mood for three days. Couldn't shake it until I realized I haven't had personal prayer or scripture study for three days (just too busy, which means I'm TOO busy), so this morning I made it a priority to spend some time studying and it made ALL the difference.
I love how inviting the Spirit makes everything in life beautiful. Perspective, patience, long suffering and so much more. And now I'm back to my regular sunny disposition. Lol!
Love you forever,
Mom
I randomly received a text last night from Jill Aubrey, who told us all about The Garibay Family going to the temple. That's so fantastic! Did the mission give you special permission to attend? We were pretty happy around the supper table last night talking about it. I can only imagine how gratifying it is to have a hand in someone else's progression. 😊
Questions:
Did you receive your driver's license yet?
Let us know when you do...
Also, Sis. Adamkewicz keeps bugging me about whether or not you received a package from them? It would have been awhile ago now.
Info:
Sam will submit his papers after July 13 and then the wait begins.
Ben will write his last school exam tomorrow and then we will head to the mountains for two days.
We also signed up for a Foam Fest in Leduc. It's running 5 km with a bunch of obstacles in foam and mud. Me, Dad, Ben, Sam and Uncle Mark. Wish us luck. Lol! The hard part is that we run at 8:30 a.m. and the boys will get in at 3 a.m. the night previous because they are watching a play in Cardston. So, hardly any sleep, then racing. Should be interesting. Pray that Dad doesn't get injured.
The garage continues to go up ... this week it was the trusses.
We have workers landscaping the yard. When we got a really hard rain, the best mud puddle formed and the girls couldn't resist.
Auntie is still around and waiting for a job call back and in the meantime she's been really helpful around the house. This morning we went and dug up a bunch of raspberry plants from The Francis' and transplanted them in our garden. Second try. Do you remember our first try of transplanting raspberries? Those didn't make it. The field took them over. This time, I'll try to keep on top of them.
We also made our annual trip to Fort Edmonton Park. It's tradition after all.
So, it's been a great week overall, except for one thing ... I have been in a foul mood for three days. Couldn't shake it until I realized I haven't had personal prayer or scripture study for three days (just too busy, which means I'm TOO busy), so this morning I made it a priority to spend some time studying and it made ALL the difference.
I love how inviting the Spirit makes everything in life beautiful. Perspective, patience, long suffering and so much more. And now I'm back to my regular sunny disposition. Lol!
Love you forever,
Mom
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