"Disastah!"

[Is the title possibly a reference to Gordon Ramsay?]

2 September 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Kinda weird week, but also really cool week -- here’s what happened:

Zone Conference happened. I thought a lot about how much I’m prioritizing God in my life and “Letting God Prevail.” Immediately after Zone Conference we had a big party for the church's in-person English classes.

I went on an exchange with one of my Zone Leaders this week! Elder Taylor is super cool! We had a good time in the YSA ward where 7 lessons didn’t go through, and the one lesson that did happen was with a guy that said he didn't want to meet anymore. New high score! We were working pretty hard throughout the day though, so it was a good day.

Louie learned how to whistle! Louie is the severely debilitated kid that we go over to play music for. His mom said he was always so jealous of people who could whistle, but yesterday he finally figured out how to blow through a plastic whistle. He was SO excited!

We just received a referral named Alice this week from some other Elders. She texted us asking what to do with a guy who is renting her basement and keeps damaging the property, to which we said. . . “*confused head scratching noises* how about prayer?” And then a few days later she called us and said, “I think prayer is the best thing to do, I need God's help.” It was shocking to see faith like that come out of nowhere! We'll be praying with her this week for sure.

We had a wild and somewhat discouraging day on Saturday when my Comp was sick for a lot of the day, and then we had a disastrous miscommunication with the English class, which resulted in 4 people at our church who thought there was a party and 6 people attending class online. The people at the church were pretty angry at us, and it was extremely Awkward to say the least….oops I guess! You live and you learn. ¯\_(ツ)__/¯

There's a talk called something like “Unconquerable” that Hank Smith gave, that my district was looking at a lot this week, that talked about how determination and spiritual resilience can help us get through challenges in life. One of the examples he gave was of Ernest Shackleton, and man is he just the coolest (literally). He was in charge of a disastrous voyage into the Antarctic and made some incredible feats to get all 28 of his crewmen back home safely after their boat sunk and they were stuck on an island for several winter months. I highly recommend you look into this story; it's incredible! It makes me think a lot about how I can be more resilient and courageous in my life, and I hope it helps you find more in your life as well.

That’s all I got for this week! Take care everyone!! 爱你们
熊长老


照片：

Saturday's greatest success: a made bed

Sunday Pasta

Louie learning to whistle