"This will be the death of the Hobbits!"

[Title refers to this scene in The Fellowship of the Ring.]

25 November 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Yup . . . we got slapped in the face by winter. It dropped about 10 inches of snow on Saturday, and as we were on our way to dinner on Sunday, we saw the temperatures were -18 Celsius which is about -3 Fahrenheit. Needless to say, there was a lot of shoveling and a lot of time in the car.

This week did bring a few funny moments:

• We had a lovely dinner with a family of unusual names including Porsha, Rope, and Chevy.

• During a visit on the reserve, two kids came running in front of our car as we parked, and by the time they reached the house, one of them had a severe wardrobe malfunction when their pants suddenly dropped to the ground.

• Had a funny conversation with Elder Kim about Ammon & Spiritual Gaslighting (See Alma 18:21-23)

There were actually a lot of interesting conversations this week! The Zone Leaders came to Cardston and did a sort of exchange with us on Friday, and discussion topics included the eternal destiny of Mars, the malicious plotting of McDonald’s, and more silliness. However, Elder Kim still wins this week for the most thoughtful ideas! Here’s the gist:

An egg hardens under the same pressure that makes a potato soften. People are similar under pressure: it can weaken us or strengthen us. The mission has increasingly appeared to me like a giant pressure cooker—there is so much pressure physically, socially, emotionally, and spiritually. This kind of pressure can bring out character in someone that is extremely difficult to see in normal circumstances. I’ve seen missionaries who were really nice, neat, good kids at home, but when the pressure mounted they started disregarding all sorts of guidelines that would have helped them be happier. I’ve seen missionaries who wasted lots of time and opportunities making dumb decisions in the past, but when the pressure mounted they stepped up and became great examples and people influence. It’s important to realize how we will react to pressure.

If you feel under a lot of pressure, I’d suggest you think about receiving a priesthood blessing! One of the great gifts of the restored gospel is the authority of God through the priesthood that blesses all men and women on the earth! And if you have received a Patriarchal blessing, I’d encourage you to look at that! Elder Kim said he has started to study his blessing every fast Sunday, and I think I’m going to join him in that! Those are just two things you can think about this week. I promise as you frequently study your patriarchal blessing, you’ll make better decisions in your life, and as you seek blessings in time of need, you will feel more of God’s enabling power and strength.

Stay warm everyone! Don’t let the snow come in as early as we did! Love you all!

Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：

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

goofy deer

goofy swarm of birds

goofy footpri– …what the!?

video and pic of an epic horse we met on the way to a visit

Believe it or not there is a car a few yards ahead of us in this snowstorm

Other exchange photos

Bangers for Bangerter

18 November 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

This week was Epic! And by that, I mean mostly Thursday was epic, but all the other days were good too!

Highlight of the week was when Elder Bangerter came to the mission! He’s the one that gave an awesome talk in April 2024 General Conference about foreordination. He came to zone conference for this mission and told us all that it would be a day of great revelation, which it was! . . . I just haven’t deciphered some of it yet, haha. He had some fascinating stories about his mission and how rainy it was, and about a motorcycle gang member who made a full 180 after being baptized, and about his ASU religious studies professor who roasted a girl for disrespecting the name of Joseph Smith. It was a really fascinating experience!

Elder Kim and I performed a musical number of “O My Father.”  And there was a looong period of silence before Elder Bangerter finally stood up to the pulpit and said one of the sweetest things ever! “Elders, thank you for making this chapel a temple.”

He also gave some clarification on “working from centers of strength” and how important that is in the church and in the lives of missionaries. . . which basically means we might have to reevaluate our group of people we’re teaching *gulp* but we will get it figured out! [Editor's note: this was counsel to focus "finding" efforts in geographical areas where friends can easily come to church and have member support, not the furthest limits of the area.]

We had some funny times in Glenwood this week. We stopped by a lady who has left the church twice but asked some awesome questions! (I've been waiting so long for good questions!) We also learned that one of the guys we had planned to stop by has declared himself a prophet, so that's exciting. We also got chewed out by a member for being disappointing missionaries after a friend we were meeting with told us they don't want to learn more about the church. There is some truth to that, and also there is some truth that other people's decisions are not always a result of poor performance.

We got to help out with a Christmas festival on Friday (scary, I know) and it was good. There was a parade and some fireworks! They looked super cool through the fog!

Elder Bangerter was really good at immersing everyone in the scriptures—finding the setting, discussing the characters, the sights, the smells, the sounds, etc. It really made for some more personal impressions! So for you reading this email, I'd invite you to try that practice this week. Open the Book of Mormon or the Bible to a chapter and really think about where you are, who the characters are that are involved, how things feel, look, sound, and smell. I promise, you will gain new insights for your life as you study the scriptures in new ways.

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!
Elder Baer 熊长老

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

Christmas festival

Fireworks

Cool Stuff in the Cardston museum

Children's church song. The rhythm reminds me so much of Golliwogg's Cake Walk and other early 20th century “rags.”

Must the Devil Have All the Good Tunes?

[Title references a quote from Martin Luther, but also this piano concerto by John Adams.]

Well maybe, but they're only good for a few minutes. More on that later.

11 November 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

It has been such an interesting week. Elder Kim came down with a bad flu all week. This ruined our plans to get out of the house, but it gave me a lot of time to think and learn, and here are some things that I learned:

ADDICTIONS ARE OF THE DEVIL

As Elder Kim lay in bed taking intermittent naps, I had a lot of time on my hands. Some of that time was spent on Facebook, reaching out to people about the Book of Mormon, and some of it was spent studying. Too much of it was spent in front of a 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle I found in the apartment. I would finish some of my online proselyting time, and then spend a few minutes . . . and I would find after several ignored nudgings that several HOURS had passed! It’s so interesting that something as “harmless” as a jigsaw can lead to a missionary’s destruction! . . . alright maybe I’m being too dramatic, but that’s really what it felt like! I’m really hoping I never fall into a dark rabbit hole like that again that wastes my time, and even worse, wastes God’s time.

As a partial result, I reflected a lot on the past months of the mission, and I kind of wallowed in the mire of discouragement. In falling under the trap of comparison, I 100% felt like I’d failed my mission—I haven’t been finding enough people or teaching enough people, and surely I would fall under some sort of condemnation for being a wicked, slothful, unprofitable servant. Here’s another way I’ve been looking at it:  missionary work is like playing the piano, and I am a performer assigned to bring beautiful music from the Greatest Composer to the world audience. But there's one problem:  I'm just not good at the piano. I hit SO. MANY. WRONG. NOTES. I feel like I study music by Mozart, but what I play sounds like Messiaen. And it’s made me question, “How can God tolerate such a poor pianist sharing His music?”

This is where I started to understand a principle of faith, or the “hope for things which are not seen, which are true.” The truth of the mission is that God does his miraculous work through poor servants. He makes glorious music through broken instruments and amateur musicians. This is the truth, and even though I may not have the eyes to see it, I can put my small seed of hope and trust in the truth that I am not capable of hindering the Almighty from gathering Israel.

I found some more comfort in studying fore-ordination this week. Alma 13 teaches that all who assist in the Lord’s work have been “called and prepared from the foundation of the world.” The Prophets are foreordained to their calling—even prophets like Jonah who willingly rebelled against God. But God worked through Jonah to the salvation of Nineveh from destruction. This story has always been encouraging for me, because surely if God is so merciful to Jonah, who “never really got it,” he will be merciful to all His “broken instruments” and “poor pianists,” who just can’t get the music right.

A story by Elder Baer, you’re welcome. That’s a lot of “me” for one email, so thanks for Baer-ing with me :P

Two things for you to do this week!

    Get rid of whatever addiction you have! Whether it’s the app you spend too much time on looking at everyone else's fictitious lives, or the bottles of soda pop, or the video games, or the 1000-piece jigsaw puzzle—whatever it is that’s wasting your time and preventing smart choices, GET RID OF IT! And don’t go back! I promise you that immediate gratification will never bring long-term happiness, and as you throw out whatever addiction of varying degree that might be teasing you, you will have a better week and experience happiness.

    Keep being awesome! Go forward in faith knowing that even when you feel like a broken, out-of-tune instrument, God can share beautiful music through you. Jesus Christ is the ultimate Luthier, and his delight is in instrument repair!

Stay cool everyone! And Happy Remembrance Day!

Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：

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

THE FOG!!! :O

Funny things we have found on our driveway. Blessings from heaven!

"Hi Tired, I'm Elder Kim"

This is an all-too typical response from my companion. Classic.

31 October 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

How was Halloween! Or Day of the Dead? Or All Saints Day? Or All Souls Day? Our Halloween was among the most boring days of the mission. Elder Kim and I struggled to figure out what to do all day. We knocked on a couple doors and found no one at home, and we also felt like knocking on doors wasn’t the right thing to be doing that day. We eventually found a service project for the cemetery, so we tried that for a bit. We ended the night at home with the lights out as directed by our mission pres., but we did have a bowl of “treats” for any passers by.

It’s funny how effort and results correlate differently in different scenarios. Last week felt a lot like God magnified our efforts a ton! This week felt like he allowed us to struggle a bit. We made extensive plans to bring our friends from the reserve to Stake Conference—setting up rides, calling friends, coordinating routes, double checking with friends, meeting up with the members, triple checking with friends—and still no one made it. Cowabummer! Stake conference was good though. The stake choir was really trying! The visiting authority had a cool backstory with the Community of Christ! He was a big fan of singing hymns loud and fast, to which I said “AMEN, BROTHER!!”

We had a big volleyball activity on Saturday for the youth that was fun . . . not much more to that.

I've been thinking a lot recently about this painting by James C. Christensen, titled "Gerome Spent His Free Time Daydreaming of Being Reincarnated as a Snake."

The artist said he painted this on a goofy left over piece of canvas, but said, “the more I look at Gerome, the more he speaks to me. I think it’s true that the things we devote our time and energy to are what shape us.”

There have been quite a few times recently where I’ve felt a bit like Gerome (often before 9:00 in the morning). I’ve let discouragement or plain laziness get the best of me and get in the way of some happiness that I could have had. After all, Happiness is not something that we enjoy unless we make things Happen in our lives. Being proactive brings joy! Doctrine and Covenants 88:124 has always been a favorite verse of mine, since it blatantly addresses the procrastination and avoiding responsibility. This week I challenge all of you not to procrastinate! Make a plan or a routine for your days and follow through with it, and when you feel like putting something off, remember the words of the Lord and “cease to be idle.” You truly will find more satisfaction and Happiness as you work to be proactive.

Have a great week everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！


Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：

 

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

District Halloween Doppelgangers

-What the Duce?!

Halloween Snacks by Elder Kim!

 

for trick-or-treaters

nutha landscape

Volleyball youth activity

What is this!? Does anyone know??   

[Answer: it's a disc harrower, used to return crop residue to the soil and to prepare fields for planting. Look's scary, doesn't it?!]