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.”
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