Two Times Devoured

[Title refers to this clip from "Horton Hears a Who."]

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Is school already out? Or almost out? Get this, the schools in Canada don't start summer break until the end of June! 💀 Crazy!

This week our district launched our reorganized online English class, and boy it's been a lot of work. We're doing about 1½ hours every day of some sort of class-related work, whether it's teaching the class, holding 1-on-1 lessons, contacting students, or grading homework we give them (gross). Even with all of this it's looking to be very successful — as a district we had 7 friends come to church, and most of them came as a result of our recent class revisions.

Tuesday was a bit crazy. Our Mission President came to DCM and gave us all interviews afterward. One of the Elders persuaded the Mission President and his wife to take us out to dinner that evening. It was great . . . except for the part where we also had a scheduled member dinner as well as a 1-on-1 lesson. Miraculously, we managed to make all of them by chowing down food at untold speeds as well as receiving many a “check your speed” warning from the car. It was a great 1-time experience (hopefully 🙏).

A cool miracle happened on Wednesday! We showed up to the in-person English class on Wednesday and Elder Scoresby and I had 4 people in our room. Our English lesson went well, and then right as we were about to end our friend Lundy asked a question in Mandarin along the lines of, “If Christians have such high expectations, how do you meet up to that when you make mistakes?” That got us talking about repentance and about the need for a Christ. At about that time everyone in the room was begging to learn more, and before we knew it we were teaching the whole Restoration to four different people! Elder Scoresby said he had never spoken such good Chinese as in that hour! This also led to a good lesson with our friend Liu!

Saturday brought us a wonderful opportunity to go hiking with some friends and members in BANFF!!!! It was good. I got to share a little bit of gospel, I learned all about Tibetan burial rituals for monks, and we got a bunch of good pictures. We also found a great Indian buffet for really cheap right after the hike! It was awesome . . . except for the part where we also had a scheduled member dinner right after that. (Not a 1-time experience I guess, it just keeps happening!!)

I've been thinking a lot this week about a synonym of faith: confidence. This week I learned that the more confident we are, the better our relationship with others is. If we are not “assertive,” so to speak, we may tend to become far more passive or aggressive—little confidence may lead us to compare ourselves and put others down, or we may tend to put ourselves down. When we have complete faith in ourselves, our worth and our abilities, we also gain great faith in others. The best way we develop faith in ourselves is by growing putting faith in Jesus Christ and taking actions to become like him. My invitation this week is a little vague, but I invite you all to find a small opportunity to build or share your faith, and notice what happens as consequence. I know that as we have confidence in God, our confidence and love in ourselves and in others increases.

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老

Photos

Dinner with the Mission President

An extremely entertaining moment in the car

Hiking + Banff photos in no particular order

Chapter 41, In Which Elder Baer Spends an Obscene Amount of Time at the Church Building and Experiences Some Changes Within the Work

20 May 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Everyone surviving alright? I hope so! Prayers to you if you're going through it right now! Hopefully the weather is at least treating you alright.

Big Highlight of the week:
Our friend Jem GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! It was an extremely chaotic baptism if you can believe it, and the new bishop of the ward mentioned a lot of ways we could improve our missionary-member coordination, but overall it was successful. It was also a little because of Highlight of the week #2 which is…

Transfers Happened! Unfortunately, Elder Tang is leaving the trio :( But I am staying in the South of Calgary with Elder Scoresby! It’s also a 5 week transfer, so we’re about to go crazy with the work!

Highlight #3 (If you can call it a highlight): We’ve been doing h*cka English class slides to prep for a transition into a more “serious” English class. We’ve been at the church basically all the time just prepping stuff. It’s also exciting, because I get to do more phone calls—something I do not thoroughly enjoy but is kinda necessary for my development as a human being. Growth is a good thing, painful but good.

Fun fact, I had an out-of-body inception moment this morning. I took a nap and dreamed that I walked to the living room, and fell asleep, and started almost dreaming about some rock band going on. Once I woke up from my living room nap, I meandered back into bed so I could wake up from my bedroom nap. . . weird. Story by Elder Baer, you're welcome.

There’s been a little debate among our district about the idea of revelation—how much of the missionary standards are inspired, how much of the prophet’s words are inspired, etc. Last week I decided that rather than argue my opinion with others, I can find a witness for myself through some prayer and some faith. . . and over the course of the week I forgot to do that (oops). But I’m re-committing myself to do that this week! I’d invite all of you to follow the guidance of James 1:5 with me and “ask of God” about some wisdom you might be lacking. I know for a fact that God always answers prayers, and that those who diligently seek will always find, according to God's timing.

Stay cool Everyone! Love you all!
爱你们！

–熊长老



照片

English class slides

A sign of God's Covenant

Snow

Mega Catan

Member meal

Jem's Baptism

"I'm not dead yet"

[Title references this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.]

May 13, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

You'll never guess what happened this week. . .

My companions and I got Covid! :P So naturally, this week was not our most productive week, but it might have been our least productive. It was alright though. It left me a Lotttt of time to study the scriptures and to play the violin!

I made a crazy discovery while reading the Book of Mormon! There's a big chiasmus in 2 Nephi 4 verses 17-35 inclusive! For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term, this article has some great explanations and examples of what I'd call a poetic mirror sandwich. Here's the pattern I found:

A) “nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted”

B) “why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow…

C) “and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?”

D) “Why am I angry because of mine enemy?”

E) “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin…

-

E) “Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul”

D) “Do not anger again because of mine enemies…

C) “Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions”

B) “Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord…yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”

A) “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever”

What a powerful way to write! Nephi builds up a series of questions and problems he faces that all lead up to this turning point: “Rejoice,” and these questions are now put in a higher perspective.

Now there's a lot I missed in here, so if any of you are looking for a puzzle or a challenge, I'd invite you to to read 2 Nephi 4 and see if you can find more matching parts of this chiasmus. You can also turn to your favorite passage of scripture and look for patterns like this as well.

For those of you who haven't been blessed with as much time to study, I'd invite you help someone out this week! After a week of bumming around I'm finally starting to see more than before how service is the best way to find purpose and happiness. (Thanks to my mom and my grandparents for helping me learn that producing is a higher joy than consuming - always). So go do something cool for a friend, a family member, or a stranger!

Hope you all have a fantastic week and find a lot of joy! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老



Photos:

Chiasmus

Me being sick

Cool Sunset

Less cool attempt at seeing Aurora Borealis

[Note: A newer phone camera would probably have done the trick, but you can still see hints of the magenta and green coloring from the solar storm in the edges of the lens flare.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Stranger In a Foreign Land

May 6, 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

We’re finally starting to see some tulip buds in Calgary which is cool! And it’s been raining a lot more than usual! Has your spring been pretty good?

Not a lot happened this week. . . that is until Saturday, when we had an opportunity to hear from the one and only:

ELDER PATRICK KEARON!!!!!

I can’t tell you how excited I was after hearing that he was coming to speak to the mission! We all met up in the wilderness of Magrath and got to shake his hand before an absolutely fire meeting. There were some other great speakers there as well, such as Elder Kearon’s wife, Elder Bennett of the Area Seventy, and Sister Kristin Yee of the General Relief Society Presidency.

Here’s just a few takeaways front the meeting listed below.

Some cool thoughts from Sister Yee:

• When the Lord moves/answers quickly, it’s with a purpose
• When the Lord moves/answers slowly, there is a purpose for the pause
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the one; it is for each individual. Each and every individual will receive the opportunity to hear of Him and to know Him.
• God wants you to be happy now!

Some cool thoughts from Sister Kearon:

• What would happen if Abinadi didn’t have the same integrity? Where would the second half of the Book of Mormon be?
• What would happen if Moroni didn’t have the integrity to “not deny the Christ”? Sometimes we must be as Moroni, as pictured on top of each temple, and do what he does best - stand alone.

(Sister Kearon referred to the week of the Savior’s Atonement as the Passion, a title of many musical settings for the event. It made me think a lot about how Christ feels about each one of us, how the redemption of mankind is literally His Passion.)

Some cool things from Elder Kearon:

(If there’s one thing I learned about Elder Kearon, he’s a very righteous, intelligent goofball. I was surprised by his quick wit, his plethora of movie references, and a very accurate impression of Elder Dallin H. Oaks.)

• We, as missionaries, have been set apart to proclaim “Glad Tidings of Great Joy.” We must become the message and be cheerful.
• We thrive on opposition, hunt for stretching opportunities

There’s a small summary for you. Besides that, we mostly had a few lessons with some curious friends, where we taught them about prayer. We'll be trying to meet with them more this week.

Roda attended the temple to perform baptisms for the dead on Friday! We’re excited for the coming years when Ernest gets a temple recommend!

I’d invite you all to think a little bit about integrity and think about something small you can do to show your integrity this week. As promised, when we live with integrity, we gain greater self-respect and inner peace.

Stay cool Everyone!

爱你们！

–熊长老

Evan Baer


Photos:

Calgary

Temple Trip

Fancy Member meal

Fields to Magrath

Missionaries in Magrath

 Sand raiders

Subs with the District

An AI depiction of me brought to you by the Mandarin District