Elder Evan Baer: Canada Calgary Mission: "I love Democracy"

[Title references this Star Wars line.]

Or diplomacy, rather, since I've been making a call or two for the district to settle disagreements and cancel overbooked meals . . . yesterday was fun like that.

December 18, 2023

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Sorry it's been a minute since I've been able to write. Our P-day was changed to Wednesday this last week due to an exciting temple trip! Get some snacks ready for this one though.

Two weeks ago we took a little escapade downtown with the new guy in the district, Elder Scoresby (an absolute stud). We went to Calgary tower to see if we could hike up to the top. Unfortunately they said the stairs aren't open until March so hopefully we'll be march-ing up to the top then. The rest of the week was filled with good efforts met by great opposition. On Wednesday we were having good success contacting people at the University, but that was put to a halt when a security guard told us to leave. (We'll find a better way to explain what we're doing next time.)

December 7th brought us a lovely little gift. I failed to notice that our toilet was clogged and that my flush was unsuccessful, so after a half hour of daily planning we found that our “chamber pot” had been slowly overflowing and flooding the bathroom floor (yucko). The good news is our toilet is now unclogged, our floor is now dry, and only some of our towels have bleach stains after emptying half the jug on the restroom. Gotta love the mission experiences!

Now that you're all done dry heaving, you can hear about the rest of the week . . . mostly uneventful, but we did find a promising neighborhood that has some tracting potential—at least, a little more than most. The gas station signs at this place are in English and Chinese which I haven't seen besides downtown and hole-in-the-wall buffets.

Last Sunday the 10th we went caroling and handed out Christmas pass-along cards. It was a really good idea and a great opportunity to use my newly acquired fiddle to do some missionary work! It also would have been a little more enjoyable if we had sung more songs about Jesus. We'll definitely need to do a new-and-improved run next year.

This last week I started off with a haircut from a lady who lives on the very edge of town and only speaks Chinese. A fun attempt at speaking the language for sure. Later in the week we continued talking to folks on the outskirts of the University. We've run into a familiar pattern of someone giving us their number to hear more and then proceed to not respond to any calls or texts. We are getting numbers though, which is a lot more than we did my first 7 weeks in the mission!

Wednesday was the long awaited day! We got to attend the Calgary temple with a lot of other missionaries as well as our mission president! The Calgary temple is really beautiful! I learned a lot and gained a lot of comfort. If something's not going well in your life, make some time to visit or walk around the temple. You all know this more than I do, but I can promise you'll feel greater peace and comfort.

My temple-trip high was immediately abased by a district McDonald's run. I did get to try a popular fake order, the “McGangBang” which still had the signature grease per dollar ratio, but it was admittedly the best thing I've had at a MickeyDee’s.

We had a branch Christmas party on Saturday that was really fun! We enjoyed a massive potluck and a staged nativity show from the Primary. We saw our friend Winson there, whom we've only ever seen over Zoom! We're glad that he came, because he's seemed less believing and more cynical in our lessons lately.

In addition to that we have a friend or two that we haven't seen ever since we taught them the Restoration which is a huge dagger. On the other hand, some elders passed off a friend to us, who is one of the most faithful and curious people I've met. Another friend has come to church twice as well as the Christmas party! A big surprise considering how he said he wouldn't be able to make it either Sunday.

And now… some good ol’ thoughts from Elder Baer:

One day in personal study, I prayed about what I should study and what came to mind was a silly inside joke from a good friend about getting “a job”. . . sooo I tried out reading a little from the Book of Job the past two weeks. It’s been hard to understand at first why I should read a book of ancient confusing poetry that mostly says “I wish I was never born,” but I've actually found SO many enlightening things from additional source material I wouldn't have found otherwise. Last year's Come, Follow Me guide has a wonderful introduction to Old Testament poetry that was a HUGE eye opener about parallelism (two different statements with the same meaning, i.e. “His eyes shall see his destruction, and he shall drink of the wrath of the Almighty”). It's now a little easier to understand Job, Isaiah and other Prophets. I've also made a few connections with Job and with other prophets like Joseph Smith, who uses the same type of Old Testament parallel structure as Job while in Liberty Jail when he writes “O God, where art thou? And where is the pavilion that covereth thy hiding place?” The best moment so far came in the middle of many chapters of lamenting when Job still declares, “Oh that my words were now written! oh that they were printed in a book…For I know that my redeemer liveth, and that he shall stand at the latter day upon the earth…yet in my flesh shall I see God.”

We'll soon see it in this book and hopefully as well in our daily lives: our circumstances may be painful, but if we put faith in Jesus Christ he will deliver us. Always.

Hope your Christmas season is splendid! Stay warm!

爱你们！

-熊长老

Photos