October 30, 2023
你們萬聖節快樂！
Happy Hallowe’en Everyone!
Anyone
got any fun plans? You don’t have to go trick-or-treat in the snow do
you? Lucky. We got a bunch of snow at the beginning of the week. (It
made for some good sledding last P-day 
)
)We’re just starting to see the fruits of our labors this week! We’ve got a lot more requests to join English class this week!
We
had two introductory lessons this week with Mark and Jing. Both of them
seemed interested in coming to church. Jing was especially interested
in learning about prayer.
We
had an English evaluation last night with a guy from Guangdong who had
really good English already. At the end we tried to transition to
talking about the gospel as usual by saying “You may be wondering why we
teach a free English class…” And the guy straight up was like “Yeah,
you’re missionaries right? Yeah, I’m curious about you guys and your
church.” . . .He seems pretty with it, and hopefully this week’s lesson
with him goes well.
A
new friend in our area came to church yesterday with his son, which was
really impressive since we haven’t even met with him or taught him
anything yet!
We made a
bold move by teaching our friend Jun about the Word of Wisdom, and much
to our surprise he was very willing to start living by that standard! He
often made comments along the lines of “If God says we shouldn’t drink
this, then I won’t drink it anymore.” We’re really proud of him and
where his life is going!
Our
other friend Winson has a little different story -- we read some
scriptures about faith with him and he kept telling us he doesn’t think
it’s possible to prove the scriptures are true. It’s a little
frustrating right after reading a scripture that basically says, “This is
how to test the truth,” and then seeing how he’s not that interested in
trying. We’re praying for him, and we hope he’ll take a look at the
scriptures (at least the ones we text to him).
I
went on my FIRST EXCHANGE on Tuesday/Wednesday with Elder Labrum! I
learned a lot from this exchange, like how you actually sleep at another
Elder’s place, and how I was supposed to bring some of my food with me
as well (oops). It’s alright though since Elder Labrum’s companion
kindly let me make some toast with his Nutella without me even having to
ask him! (What a pal!) Elder Labrum also taught me a lot about routine,
comp study, and ways to do mission work. He’s a hard worker and pretty
energetic, so it made for a really fun exchange!
Thursday
brought me a little tender mercy as we were making phone calls to
random people. My companion has been doing most of the phone calls since
he’s got some experience with it. But on Thursday I did my first one,
and I called a college student who said she was studying marketing and
was interested in learning more with us! WOOT! . . . She proceeded to
cancel our zoom meeting on Sunday ‘cause she was at a friend’s house,
but that’s still a Big W in my book.
Saturday
was HIKE DAY! The branch goes on a hike once every month, so this month
we did an 8k hike to a frozen waterfall which was really cool! The hike
there was SO quiet–you sometimes forget what true silence is until
you’re in the mountains in winter.
We also had a fun time waiting in the
car for the family who’s carpooling us to come back (8 km is hard with
smaller kids). We also had a baptism right afterward which I may or may
not have been late to. . . and may or may not have still been in my
boots and hoodie :)) I made it just in time to play the opening hymn
though, so I’m sure it’s fine.
Other silly things from this week:
- Wendy’s in Canada ain’t got the $5 Biggie Bag, but they do got Poutine! It’s surprisingly not that bad!
- We attempted to teach English to some immigrants from Rwanda. . . Only one person spoke English, and the rest hardly understood anything since they’d only been here for about 4 days. It was a fun challenge!
- Our neighbor upstairs brought us some cheesecake as a thanks for shoveling the sidewalks! (What a saint!) It does a dirty one on your stomach but it’s so worth it.
SPIRITUAL THOUGHT for the day:
Soooo,
maybe you’ve guessed from some previous emails that I’m growing to like
holidays a lot–especially obscure holidays. These next 3-4 days are
STACKED with celebrations from all around the globe—Hallowe’en (aka
Samhain), All Saint’s Day, All Soul’s Day, Day of the Dead, etc. But
whether they’re Christian holy days or pagan rituals, they all have one
thing in common. ALL of these festivals come from a multi-cultural
belief that the veil between the living and the dead is thinner at this
time of year, that the saints and family ancestors who have passed are
closer to us. My invitation to you this week as you prepare to celebrate
is to learn just a little more about the history of one of these
holidays if you can, and then think about what you can do to gain a
closer relationship with your family–those in the spirit world or those
in this world.
Happy Holidays Everyone! 愛你們！
–熊長老
Photos: 
Exchange at Timmy's
with Elder Labrum
The Dark Knight Returns
A baunch of pics from the hike
Blood Moon Rises *Checks for re-spawned Monsters*
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