Intermission and Poetry

[The title is a cool/terrible dad joke about being halfway through the mission.]

5 August 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Not gonna lie. . . this week was kinda *gulp* boring. Maybe a little ungrateful of me to say, but there just didn’t seem to be a lot happening for most of the week. Here are some small highlights though:

Sam has had a hard time keeping some commitments as well as he’d like. He has a hard time saying no to his landlord and friends when they’re together and passing around a bottle of beer. Any advice? We changed his baptismal date back a week, but I think we oughta make sure he’s really committed first.
Remember the family that came to church last time? Maybe you do? We taught them a lesson on Tuesday, and when I say we taught them a lesson it was more like they told us all about Joseph Smith’s first vision and the Book of Mormon, and also all about baptism and how they want to become more familiar with the church before being baptized. They showed up with their daughter to Mandarin church this time *oooh, aaaah* and texted us afterward saying they will come next week as well! Super cool!

JOHN GOT BAPTIZED!!!! Y’all don’t really know John and that’s because I never taught him, but basically John is this 16 year old kid who’s been showing up to church for about two years but hasn’t been baptized because his parents haven’t let him. Elder McAffee somehow knew him really well throughout his whole mission, and this July he and Elder Pace both went to visit John every week and help out with random stuff. His Mom then miraculously gave the okay for a baptism for August 4th, and so Elder McAffee got to baptize John on his last Sunday in Calgary!

So now that I’ve written all that, the week looks a lot less boring. Weird.

As of this Tuesday or Wednesday, I’ll have been a missionary for a year. Also weird. The great poet Bon Jovi truly said it it best when he uttered the timeless words, "Wooaaaaaahhh we're halfway there!"

This week I tried to be more open and honest with God in my prayers, and it was actually really good! I received a lot of interesting insights and a lot more emotional help from God. This week I’d invite you all to be really open and honest with God in your prayers; tell Him how you feel, how the day is going. I promise that God will be able to help you better the more you communicate with him. (Then you too can say, as the great poet said, "Oooaaaaaaooooooooohhhhhhh! Livin' on a Prayer!")

Stay cool everyone! Love you all! 爱你们！

-熊长老


照片：https://photos.app.goo.gl/yBaTy1Mc3BcoogrG6

good food

John's Baptism