When a father gives to his son, both laugh; when a son gives to his father, both cry.-William Shakespeare
Nothing I've ever done has given me more joys and rewards than being a father to my children.-Bill Cosby
Our heavenly Father understands our disappointment, suffering, pain, fear, and doubt. He is always there to encourage our hearts and help us understand that He's sufficient for all of our needs. When I accepted this as an absolute truth in my life, I found that my worrying stopped.-Charles Stanley
Being a father has been, without a doubt, my greatest source of achievement, pride and inspiration. Fatherhood has taught me about unconditional love, reinforced the importance of giving back and taught me how to be a better person.-Naveen Jain
Important events
16 Carol Smith Baker
16 Skjelse Smith Rapoch
16 Stuart and Shar anniversary
17 Matthew Bailey
17 Cortney Smith
17 would have been WMT and MBT's anniversary
19 Dan Smith
24 Marston Smith (Trent and Lyndi's)
25 Dave Blake
28 Greg Hyatt
Missionary updates
Easton is home now, but as I have done in the past, here is his last letter. Very powerful. I am having difficulty finding words to adequately express the feelings of my heart. I guess that is what happens when we reach some of life's greatest crossroads. I had feelings similar to these two years ago as I prepared to leave 19 years of life and family and friends to serve as a missionary here in Toronto. I didn't know what to expect or what I was getting myself into. How could I have known how great this time would be? I didn't know the struggles I would face. I didn't know the heartbreak I would feel. I didn't know how far the "end of my rope" really was. I didn't know it could be this hard. I didn't know I could be this happy. I didn't know how quickly I could make a friend. I didn't know the joy of seeing the gospel change the lives of those around me. I didn't know I could learn this much.
So here I am two years later and it isn't hard for me to see the change in myself. I'm still a goof-ball. I still laugh too much. I still think things are way funnier than everyone else seems to. I am still very much the same person I was when I left, but I am a refined, purified, changed version. "Easton 2.0." I love God more. I know that He is real. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior and Redeemer of the world. I know that He died for my sins and that He rose triumphant from the grave. I know that Joseph Smith was and is a prophet. I know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God and the most correct of any book on earth. I know that it changes lives because it changed mine. All of these things I know now with more surety and clarity than I thought was possible. I know them because of what I have experienced here. It is this knowledge that has changed me the most. It has changed the way I see the world, myself, and those around me. It has changed the way I think and the way I feel. I am different now because of my mission. I am internally and eternally motivated to follow my Savior's example. I will be forever grateful for my time in Ontario. I love my mission. I love being a missionary.
Work hard, study hard, pray hard. Make your time count.
Carmen-I love this work and I love this gospel. Can't emphasize that enough. Amazing things can happen when we choose to follow God's way and plan. Cool scripture-Mosiah 6:7: I love how he asks people to do something...but then he goes and does it with them. This is so very important. How can we ask someone to do something when we are ourselves are not willing to do it. I've noticed that especially out here. I want to make sure that if I ask someone to pray about our message, or read the Book of Mormon, that I myself am doing it. Live this gospel and be that example to others.
Cameron- has been out a year now....I am still loving it here and I am still learning a lot. I am going to try to send better letters in the coming months because apparently that will help me to love people more and to be more consistent or something like that. I am learning so much about the scriptures as well. I am working on being more empathetic, and not trying to fix everyone, because sometime you just can't.
Kieren--Saturday morning this week we were street contacting and talked to this guy named Carlos. We asked if we could share a message another day with him and he was like, why not right now? So he offered to buy us coffee and we said no thanks so he got his cup and we went to a nearby park. So apparently his family is super rich but live a couple states away and he doesn´t have much contact with them. He used to suffer with anxiety and in order to overcome his fears of the dangers of the city, he decided to go live among the homeless and beggars. So he did. And now he is friends with the homeless community and no longer afraid. Now he lives a normal life with a job and stuff. One thing he said struck me. He said living among them, he discovered that these people--the homeless, the thieves, etc--have fears just like us. And then he said that if he just saw us in passing a while back he would have thought we were stuck up and uppity but he can see that we aren´t now that he got to know us. I think innately we all know deep down that we are all human, subject to fears and insecurities, but sometimes we just judge people before truly getting to know them.
1 Samuel 16:7 tells us the criteria that God uses to judge us. I think we would do well to try and look more into people´s hearts and assume the best. When we try our best, God will help us see others as He sees them and fill us with His love.
Family news and updates
BIG NEWS #1- from Dan and Val- Gavin received his mission call to the Mexico Hermosillo Mission reporting Oct. 15th to the Provo MTC. He is super excited. He will speak Spanish.
BIG NEWS #2- McKay and Stephanie have announced that they are expecting baby #3 in 2015!
Other news...
Cara- Barry had a dental conference in Boston that I was able to join him on. Super fun!
I think it's safe to say that this was the highlight of the trip for Barry.
We also got a special tour of the park that took us up to the Green Monster and also into
the press box.We also got to sit in the "red chair" where the longest home run of Fenway
Park history knocked out a man who fell asleep in the warm sun. Haha!
Boston temple==We had to walk up a bit of a hill to get to the temple, but it was beautiful.
And extra special because this is one of the temples my dad had a big part in building.
It was very beautiful, inside and out.
She also posted narratives and pictures of many many sites in Boston. Check out her blog.
School is out and summer is here!
We've been enjoying sidewalk chalk and mowing. Okay, maybe not "enjoying" mowing.
But we'll live with it. By the way, I haven't mowed the lawn since I was a teenager. But since baseball has taken over our lives, I was stuck with it one afternoon. What a workout!
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Jenna-I just finished up my internship at Covenant House Alaska. I have spent the last 3 months, 400 hours working with the administration and development team at CHA to raise money for the youth that stay at the homeless shelter and the transitional living homes. I was able to help plan and carry out two main events while I was there and it was a great success, raising over 60K in one event. I absolutely loved my experience there, and am so grateful for all the people that made it possible. I am also excited to finally start making money again though-- it's been almost a year since I've had a job (since I had an unpaid internship in the fall as well). I start working 2 jobs on the 16th of June in Utah, and start summer classes on the 23rd. I am 6 months away from graduating from BYU! It's about time :) Can't wait to finally move on, and be a college graduate. Thanks to everyone in the fam/extended fam who has made it possible :)
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Katie- cute story Today Emmeline was working on a picture. She brought me a scrap piece of paper and asked me to write fun on it, so I did. Then she copied the letters to write fun on her picture. Then she walked over to me, pointed to the word fun, and said, "Ok, Mom, if you ever feel bad, you have to add fun to your life." Seriously? Where does she get this stuff? A few minutes later, she came back and repeated her wisdom again: "I just want to tell you, if you ever feel bad, add fun to your life, and then you'll be happy."
T- ball
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Natalie--cute things Addie has said recently--
- The other day in the car we were listening to the Frozen soundtrack and Let it Go was playing. At one part of the song, Addie looks at Truman and says "ok, this is my favorite part that I like!"
- Truman was being sort of whiny the other day and Addie went up, stroked his hair, and said "little dear, don't cry!" (No, I don't call Truman little dear. I think she got it from Cinderella or something.)
- During sacrament meeting in church, Addie was coloring in a little notebook. Suddenly, she perked up and repeated to me what she had just heard someone say in a talk: "promised land!" She often does this with words or phrases she recognizes from things we have talked about. A little later, someone was listing different books in the Book of Mormon saying "Nephi, Alma, Mormon, Moroni..." and Addie turned to me and said "she's talking about the scriptures!"
- Addie's 2nd cousin Jack was over on Sunday for dinner. I overheard a conversation where Addie was talking about her dress and then she said "I'll spin for you." Then she got up and spun around. Jack went: "woah." And then Addie responded: "Yeah, it's beautiful."
Addie and Jack (camping trip)
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The big news in my (Carol's) family is that today, Bryce was released as bishop after 6 1/2 years. I have been a bit teary all day. I hardly remember a time that he didn't spend 30-35 hours a week doing church work. It will be nice but weird to have him home. Our stake president has asked that he join me in my church service mission, so I will no longer be the only Pathway Church Service Missionary working without a spouse. He is also pitching himself to work in the nursery!
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Not a whole lot of you sent news the last 2 weeks, so that's all folks! Work hard, study hard, pray hard.
Carol
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