12 January 2014

Joy comes from putting others needs ahead of ourselves.  Sorrow comes from selfishness. -Henry B Eyring

Six Destructive D's--

Doubt, Discouragement and Dispair, Distraction, lack of Diligence, Disobedience, and Disbelief. 

-Quintin L Cook

The great essentials of life are: something to do, something to love and something to live for.

EVENTS

January 2014

1 Cara Smith Webber

2 Bryce and Carol anniversary 1980 Ogden Temple  TO Smith sealed us!

3 Gabi Smith (Trenton and Lyndi's) 2006

4 Lindsey Smith

5 Barry Webber

9 Stan Griswold 

15 Carson Mordecai-Smith 2005 (Erik and Angela's)

15 Keyton Campbell 2007 (Kelli and Allen's)

17 Alysia Smith  2001

19 Mikela Ouimette 1999

20 Clark and Patti Timmins married 2000

Missionary updates  (NOTE cousins of mine...if you have a child on a mission, I would love to include an update on their mission if you send me their letters....)

Easton in Canada-- He wrote, This is talking about Alma and his conversion:

6 For I went about with the sons of Mosiah, seeking to ^adestroy the church of God; but behold, God sent his holy angel to stop us by the way.

As I read I pondered on how lucky Alma was to have an angel sent to tell him the way. He was stopped by a literal messenger from God that told him what to do. I thought to myself, "Wouldn't that have been nice? To have someone sent from God come in and say, 'Elder Smith. You're being an idiot. Knock it off or you're going to be really sorry.' I would have loved to have someone just tell me the way." And as I thought I realized that God did send "his holy angel" to stop me by the way. In fact he sent several. He sent Mom. He sent Dad. He sent my siblings, my friends, Church leaders, teachers. The list is pretty long for all the "holy angels" that he sent to help me on my way and always the ones I needed, the ones that I would listen to. I became very grateful for the wonderful people in my life and the blessing that God has given me. My invitation to you is to take some time to think about your "holy angels" and the great people that God has put into your life and then thank them for their influence. Then set yourself a goal for this new year to be a holy angel for someone. Go out of your way to help others, strengthen others, and change another's life. Make this your goal and I can promise you that you will make a difference in some one's life. Seriously do it. Nothing feels better than being an instrument in the Lord's hands.

Kieren in Brazil- I bought a hat! It is one of those super cute beach sun-hat things. Sister Castro authorized us to use hats because the sun here is super harsh. We use a mountain of sunblock but I´m still getting darker. I have never been so tan in my life. My companion (who is from São Paulo) is lighter than me. But that is because she is of Italian descent. Anyway, this letter is probably sounding a bit scatterbrained. The power was out this morning in the neighborhood so we are emailing in the afternoon, to which I am not accustomed. 

Anyway. We are teaching this amazing family! We found them while tracting. The mom is named Adriana and the dad is Adriano. They are married!!!!!! (Which is kind of a big deal. Here the biggest problem with investigators is that they are not married. So many people only need to get married to get baptized, but anyway.) And they have 7 kids!!! They are all so cute and funny and they think I am hilarious which is always a good sign. I did a fist pump the first time we met with them and they thought it was the funniest thing and now everytime they see us coming all of them always fist pump. It is super cute.  (csb--I am still hoping for a picture to arrive....)

Cameron in California--I would send you some of our warm air if I could because it is

quite warm here, in the 70's during the day. It did get to 38 this morning,

so that was a bit cold to run in, but it was hot short sleeve weather on the

way here to the library.

This week was good.  We had a mini missionary with us,  that means that he is

a priest in a city a bit to the north in this mission who came out on

splits with the missionaries, for 6 days or so.

We also had a good lesson where we sat around a fire and talked with a guy

for an hour or so. Things have been also going well with some of our

investigators and things are looking good for this new year.

OTHER FAMILY UPDATES

As usual, Cara had some cute updates.  Here are a few.

I bore my testimony at church on Sunday.  I thought the least distracting thing to do with Hyrum would be to just hand him off to Barry on the stand.  Otherwise he would scream and have to be taken out.  So while I was talking, Barry turned the camera on on his iPad and reversed it so Hyrum could see himself.  Perfect way to keep him occupied. 

We did it!  We all stayed up until midnight!  Phew!  Hyrum went to bed normal time (of course) 

and Hallie was at a party, but the rest of us stayed home and played games all night.  It was fun!

Janae wrote about some of her experiences when she went to Europe this last year.  Here is an entry from when she went to Holland. All my international experiences have been in Latin countries (Portugal, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile) where the people tend to be short and dark. I always stood out like a sore thumb. People stared at everything I did. In Holland I felt short. And invisible. Everybody looked exactly. like. me. As we disembarked, the stewardesses were saying their goodbye to everyone in English, “Thank you for flying with us,” “Welcome to Amsterdam,” etc. And when I came up they switched to Dutch. BECAUSE I LOOK DUTCH. My mind was seriously blown.

Katie...   (My cousin) Kelli and her family recently moved to Las Vegas, so we had them over for dinner this past week.  Las Vegas is huge, so they actually live almost an hour away, but it was really nice of them to drive all the way here.  We enjoyed catching up since we haven't really seen each other in years.    The kids played some games too, and it was a fun night.

Emmeline had her first week of Sunbeams (3-year-old class in primary) last Sunday!  She was so excited, and I thought she looked so cute in the dress and purse my mom made her.  (The purse holds her little mini scriptures.)  During primary, Emmeline just kinda sat there.  (I peeked in a few times to see her.)  But during classtime, her teachers said she was quite the chatterbox.  I'm glad her shyness wore off pretty quick and that she feels comfortable.  She really likes her teachers.  It's also cute because now that Emmeline is out of nursery, she thinks she has grown up.  Like, she tells me things like, "Now I'm in Sunbeams so I'm this tall! Before I was in nursery and I was so little."  Or, "I can cut this because I'm big in primary." or "I know how to do this because I'm big now. I'm not in nursery anymore."

Boston reminded the Smiths...

Just a reminder that the Smith family reunion is this year!!!  Write it on your calendars and make travel arrangements.  

The dates are July 24, 25, and 26.  We will plan to be at Karen's house from 3PM - 9PM and then everyone will head to wherever they will be sleeping.  

 And Monta added, I will he hosting/leading a short, easy backpacking trip before the reunion for those who are interested. 2 nights, 3 days. July 22, 23 and 24th. Arriving home in time to shower and be at Karens by 3:00 pm.

Thanks everyone for the updates.  Keep them coming!

Work hard, study hard, pray hard.

Carol