The Hero Gothenburg Deserves

 [The title references Elder Hulldin's hometown, Gothenburg, Sweden.  Apparently everyone mistakes it for Batman's "Gotham".]

November 13, 2023

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Happy Veteran’s Day on Saturday! I hope y’all had a good weekend remembering those who’ve served to protect Free Country USA! In Canada, we celebrate Remembrance Day which seems to me like the more solemn and sad version, but everyone wears poppies as reference to Flanders Fields which is kinda cool.

This week was, in fact, another week. Crazy how that happens! This week definitely felt a lot more bland and uneventful, even though that wasn’t necessarily so.

This is usually the paragraph where I would say something about how our friends are doing. . . but our friends haven’t responded to any of our texts and calls and we didn’t see any of them at church on Sunday ;(  That’s not entirely true:  Stone came to church for 5 mins at the beginning of 2nd hour, and we also met another lady who lives nearby and came with him. We were back to our regular two Friday lessons this week, and they honestly went pretty well. Jun says he thinks it’s time to decide which church he wants to join. We’ve encouraged him to sincerely pray about it and keep reading the Book of Mormon with Brother W. We’re praying for him a lot! We read the intro of the Book of Mormon with our other friend Winson, so hopefully he understood that more and will open up a little more to the Book of Mormon. I easily forget how good the introduction is—definitely worth a re-read.

I had my first Zone Conference on Tuesday! It was a grand ol’ time. We had a cool section with a half hour of silence in the chapel as they played slides with scriptures about repentance (‘cause it’s never a bad idea to repent, I guess). They also had a slide show with recent baptisms, but no sound was working—so naturally I was called up to play piano during it like the good ol’ antique silent films. We ended with a  l o n g testimony meeting from departing missionaries, and It was cool to see how much people had matured in 2 years. In all the conversation commotion afterwards, I heard a missionary saying he wants to tell everyone in his last zone conference how the mission was so long and how much he hated it . . . which words were said right in front of the Mission President’s wife (oops!). I also went to Ikea for the first time after Zone Conference and tried some Swedish Meatballs (Courtesy of Elder Hulldin, Ukrainian speaking Elder from Sweden). Ikea's a pretty magical place . . . and it's also impossible to escape :P

The Ukrainian Elders Called us up on Thursday asking if we would help set up for a donations gig at the church. We set that up, and then sat around and talked for an hour, and then went for an expensive burger and shake at Peter’s (pretty famous in Calgary). My Trainer found a high-end batman mask at a shop around the corner, which was then followed, of course, by lots of tomfoolery driving all four of us around town and staring down other drivers (their worst nightmare). Not our most productive day, but good to get some wiggles out.

That’s right everyone. It’s time for some Philosophies of Men

Two more things I’ve been thinking about this week from Zone Conference.

1. Repentance has a lot to do with offering. The law of Moses had a day of repentance which consisted of making offerings, or sacrifices, symbolic of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Christ is literally “offered himself as a sacrifice for sin” (2 Ne. 2:6-7) and he did that so we could repent. When we repent we offer up a “broken heart and a contrite spirit” (3 Ne. 9:20). We offer to do our best to change our thoughts and our feelings. Sometimes we may feel like we can’t change, or that we’re stuck; but Jesus is always offering to help us and make us whole. Lots of intertwined thoughts there. For more info see the Bible Dictionary entry on “Sacrifices”

2. Many people’s departing testimonies included phrases like, “I can hardly believe I’m here already” or “two years went by fast.” I got thinking a lot about relativity, and how that is often dependent on our attitude and our focus. Do you want days and weeks to go painfully slow? If so, then focus more about yourself and less about others; focus more on what’s difficult and frustrating; neglect the simple things like prayer and scripture study. Do you want days and weeks to go by fast? Focus on others and their needs; focus on blessings God has given you; consistently remember the simple things like prayer, scripture study, and small ways to serve others. As often quoted, our prophet says “the joy we feel has little to do with the circumstances of our lives and everything to do with the focus of our lives.” I’m glad I can practice focusing my life on Christ, as well as helping others do the same.

That’s about all this week, besides the usual hanging up flyers in sketchy parking lots and tryna perfect my poached eggs for breakfast (not simultaneously, of course).

Hope things are going well with all of you. It’s always good to hear from you!

愛你們！

-熊長老

Fotos:

Bat-McAfee

 

My weekend makeshift salad

 

Good ol' view of Calgary

Elder REX???   

[Link: ten years ago, Evan's sister Noelle created cartoons as a way of involving 8-year-old Evan in his brother Brennan's mission experience.  The cartoons are posted in reverse chronological order on Brennan's blog; you can scroll to the bottom and click "Newer Posts" to see even more of Elder Evan and Elder Rex.]

Swedish Meatballs and DAIM CAKE (so good!)

Peter's