(Subject line brought to you by my favorite district member)
August 28, 2023
你好吗！What's Good! How we doin'?
How are the August "Dog Days" treating you? I hear everyone's gettin'
back into school these days. . .
. . . my condolences.
Y'all.
This week kinda just . . . happened. There's still noteworthy stuff to
tell, but at the same time some of the days just seemed like copy and paste.
A General
Authority, Elder Peter M. Johnson, came for a Devo this Tuesday! Unlike a
lot of other lecture style devotionals, Elder Johnson was very
interactive. He had a couple people on stage who he just asked a bunch
of questions about overcoming the world and what that looks like. He
talked about faith and confidence - and then the spirit gave me a cool
lil' nudge so WARNING: brief sermon incoming! *inhales deeply*
So
to have faith is like having confidence in God and in yourself, but
what does confidence mean? See the word "confide" in confidence? To have
confidence might mean to confide in something, or confide your trust in
something, right? To confide in something might mean to "be one" with
something, as we do during the sacrament when we take His name on us. So
when we "Let God Prevail" we align our view with His, our views are
one, we confide in the Lord, we place our confidence in the Lord, and in
essence we have faith in the Lord.
. . . Kind of a circular thought in retrospect, but I thought it was cool in the moment.
Our
district helped welcome the new guys to the MTC on Wednesday. Kinda
fun, kind of really weird to be on the other side of the situation just
waiting for someone to wipe away some tears before they start the journey of
meetings and more meetings. I carried luggage for a guy who said he had a
call to Spain, and then had to recover from cancer real quick before he
got re-assigned to Arkansas. BRUV!! The man's dedication is insane.
Language
immersion started on Thursday, and that's when all the days really
started to be the same. We got two awesome teachers: Sister Spangler who
is a fantastic pantomime and has a slight speech impediment, and Sister
Hutchinson who is really funny and uses a bunch of trendy words and
gestures even though she allegedly dislikes Gen-Z and the slang. . . .
We
taught our same "investigator" friend from two weeks ago. My companion Facebook-stalked her and found out she is a church member. Makes sense
now considering lesson #2 seemed like it was set to easy mode.
Y'all.
Chinese Family is wildly complicated. Imagine not having the simple
terms like brother & sister, aunt & uncle, grandma & grandpa;
but imagine that each of your aunts and uncles has a specific different title depending on whether they're older or younger than your parents,
or whether they're on your mom or your dad's side, or whether they
married into your family, etc, etc. It'll really make your ancestors
dizzy.
SUNDAYS BRO!
They're so rad!! Everyone here complains about Sunday being the busiest
day of the week, but I haven't seen that yet. We have sacrament meeting
and an evening devotional, and then a big study session in between. It
seems a lot more chill than showing up to early morning Stake meetings
and then church and then mission prep and then a different mission prep
and then a fireside. (Loved the grind this last January. #blessed) As it
turns out I can listen to music during our "Go and Do" 2 hour study
time. New favorite part of the week for sure. Passio Secundum Johannem by
Arvo Pärt was an absolute study banger! A bit on the repetitive side,
but the intro though. Heck*n' good stuff. But even more rad was the
stuff I was studying. Get buckled everyone, brief sermon #2 incoming.
*big inhale*
Okay, so the
Sacrament, right? We partake of the Sacrament before we "Feast on the
words of Christ" with some prepared or sometimes impromptu messages from
the pulpit. The sacrament itself goes back to the Last Supper, Christ's
Passover meal with the Apostles. Ever thought about the symbolic
significance of a meal? I had a huge lightbulb moment realizing that
meals are a universal symbol of unity. Families gather almost every
night for dinner, and we invite friends to join us on holidays and
celebrations as well. As we sit at the table we sit in unity, often all
eating the same dish as well. Before we eat we often say a blessing,
showing unity to God. We hold feasts at weddings when two families
become united as a man and woman make vows to each other and to God to
unite with God's power in one family. We hold a banquet at funerals when
all attending unite to commemorate and celebrate the life of one who
has passed on, or one who now unites with the heavenly hosts. Even the
very act of eating unites the power of nutrients in food with the organs
and cells in the body. Christ shared several examples about the
significance of meals: the parable of the Wedding of the King's Son, all
of the parables involving vineyards, the feeding of the five thousand, the meal with men on the road to Emmaus, and of course, the Last Supper.
It is only fitting that when we take the Lord's name upon us we gather
as neighbors and friends in unity for a [sacramental] "meal" so to speak.
The point is, It's no wonder that we unify ourselves
with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost by partaking of bread and
water placed on a table. It's no wonder other faiths refer to this
sacrament as "communion." Just a little something for you to chew on
this week ;)
Best of luck to y'all this week. Let me know how things are going! Love y'all
--Elder Baer
(Photos
include district elders in good study, A temple trip from last week
with our good Cantonese district, and a sub-par performance instrument
from the hands of the Lord)
Morning nap study
Elders Hart & Groscost
More napping studying
Elders Biggs & Groscost
MTC Sleeps
MTC Sleeps
Foreground: Elders Biggs, Groscost, Baer
Mid background: Elders Hart, Logan
Far background: sleepers and non-sleepers
Provo Temple with the Cantonese district (from Home MTC)
Provo Temple
Elders Hart, Groscost, Baer, Biggs, Sheffield, Logan
"a sub-par performance instrument
from the hands of the Lord"
