"There Is Now a Level Zero"

 [Title references this line from Kung Fu Panda.]

 

January 8, 2024

 

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Canada really made a comeback this week with the cold. About an hour ago it was -19°C/-5°F and it’s only gonna go downhill this week. The tropical December weather was nice while it lasted, but now the Great White North seems to have changed its attitude saying, “No more Mr. Nice Guy, eh?”

We got a new missionary this week!!! Elder Bigler came on Thursday, a week earlier than transfers. He’s joining our companionship for this week until we hear about what’s actually happening to him, but that meant we got to go to lunch with the APs and the Mission President when he came in! Elder Bigler is really cool; he’s very nice and very quiet. We’ve been throwing him into a bunch of missionary situations, so he's getting a trial by fire right now -- pretty epic.  I’m excited to see the “dragon warrior” he develops into with us over the next several months.

This week consisted of a lot of handing out English class fliers and a little more door-knocking than usual. We started putting some fliers on people’s dashboards by grocery stores or restaurants where we think the Euro-Canadians wouldn’t go as much. We went knocking on doors for an hour on Friday because we didn’t have anything better to do at that time. It didn’t go so well until we had looped back around to where our car was parked and we knocked on a door. . . and we had a REAL CONVERSATION with a guy!! He stepped outside for a minute and made a somewhat cynical joke, and then we just talked for about 5 minutes about work, neighborhoods, weather, all of that stuff. He said he had met with missionaries before and had friends who were Latter-day Saints. I tried to ask him more about his experience but couldn’t actually get the full question out, and he seemed a little hesitant to talk about it. I was glad I could talk to him though! If he has good friends like he said, then he’ll be in good hands when he really wants to find more truth.

Yesterday we had a very cool, Spirit-led lesson with an old man who signed up for English class and agreed to meet with him again. During the prior English Evaluation, he said he did a road trip in the States and was really impressed by the temples in Utah and Montana. He was curious about what made the Church different from others. On Sunday we made a big plan to teach the Restoration and we prepped some scriptures, but when the time came we found that we needed to talk more about temples and God’s plan. He seemed very interested and eager in learning about eternal families, and we set up a chapel tour with him. We look forward to sharing more with him (and maybe some friends that he brings as well!) That’s now one of my new favorite ways to approach lessons—prepare well beforehand, then improvise in the moment.

Concerning some of our friends:

• Roda is perhaps more active than a lot of our members, and she asks really good questions. She said she wanted to read the entire Book of Mormon before receiving baptism, but lately she said she’s not so sure if she should wait anymore. One of her best friends has been telling her bad stuff about the church, but she seems pretty well grounded, so hopefully there will be some more understanding there.

   

• John (or Johnson?) hasn’t met with us for a bit since hearing about the Restoration, but he’s very responsive to our texts, which is nice. He starts a new job today requiring some heavy machinery, which he’s a little nervous about, so we’ve been trying to send some encouragement his way.

I learned some cool things this week include the following:

1. A “French Vanilla” is in fact a type of coffee, not a hot chocolate (huge bummer).
2. There are few things that make me feel more racist than doing a role play with a companion, exemplifying a Chinese person trying to learn English.
3.  I've had a hard time appreciating a lot of songs on the Church music app. However in exploring a little bit, I found an occasional gem, such as a cover of "I Stand All Amazed" on an album called Praise! Such a banger. It also had another fairly decent track of "I Need Thee." The USU choirs singing "As Shepherds Watched" is always a favorite, too.

 I had a little moment this week when reading something about the gospel and lasting happiness, and I thought, “wait a minute. . . What does lasting happiness actually look like on Earth?  There are so many ups and downs every week, how do you make happiness something that lasts?” While stewing over that this week, I found a Gospel Topics entry on the subject that had some interesting concepts, like how “even the opportunity to experience adversity” can be considered a blessing for our lasting happiness. My paradigm is shifting somewhat from viewing happiness as an object we can’t quite acquire for long enough, to a cycle of good and bad moments that build us up to be better people. The scriptures are full of verses explaining how miserable moments have potential to bring great joy: “And ye now therefore have sorrow: but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you” (John 16:22); “because of my transgression my eyes are opened, and in this life I shall have joy” (Moses 5:10)' “For it must needs be, that there is an opposition in all things. If not so… righteousness could not be brought to pass” (2 Nephi 2:11).… Soooo if you’re having a rough minute, there’s good news! Good moments are ahead, and Jesus’ grace will help you when you open up to him. That’s my mini testimony for the day, enjoy the cycle.

Stay warm everyone! Have a grand ol’ week.

爱你们！

-熊长老

Epic personal study of Lehi's dream

 

Dumplings we made with a member on New Year's Day