Elder Evan Baer: Canada Calgary Mission: Punctual as Usual (Not)

新年快乐

We have P-day on New Year's Day apparently, and it's been a phat minute since I've given you any sort of sneak peak into Calgary. So here's some highlights from the last few weeks:

Concert!!!
On the 21st we had the most epic opportunity for all of the missionaries in Calgary to go to see Jenny Oaks Baker perform! They had a great singer from Ireland named Alex Sharpe perform as well! It turned out to be a really uplifting experience and some great messages about Christ's ministry. Man…I've really missed being in a concert hall.

Christmas
Christmas was surprisingly busy. Elder Bigler and I went street contacting on Christmas Eve, and I learned that the Christmas holidays are perhaps, somehow, the most difficult days to share the gospel. Everyone is WAY too busy celebrating Christ’s birth to hear about his enabling power. I think this kind of irony is common, though. I mean, even the Jews were celebrating the feast of Christ’s Atonement on the very evening He was crucified.
Anywho. We had some cool meals with families in our ward that took up most of Christmas day, and then we had a district finding activity on Boxing Day ... finding the best deal at the mall! I got a good scarf out of it.

Friends:
The friends we’ve started teaching are SO AWESOME! Lemme tell you about them!

Shawn - I met Shawn on an exchange with Elder Pace, and he didn’t want to talk until I asked the classic “你会讲中文吗,” [Do you speak Chinese?] and then we’ve had a lesson and a chapel tour, and he’s got a ton of copies of the Book of Mormon that he’s studying! Super epic.

Quinn was referred also by Elder Pace, but he’s been going to Christian churches for 20 years, and he said he had a good experience in the Mandarin Ward (also a miracle), and said he’s thinking about being baptized somewhere.

Cancan - This girl has got to be one of my favorite people I’ve ever taught on the mission. She’s going to school for her master’s in science right now. We found Cancan near the mall, and she was really enthralled by whatever Elder Bigler and I were saying. So she took a Book of Mormon on the spot, set up a church tour, and came to church. She asks the most profound, deep questions and isn’t afraid to challenge an idea we teach for a few moments, but so far things have been going well.

Church was so awesome this Sunday! We strayed from the 5th-Sunday lesson about seminary and got all of the new friends in the district together in a classroom to teach about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ! It was a super good discussion.

I heard this great idea for New Years that I want to pass on! Goals can be exhausting and frustrating at times, but consider writing down 10 things you already do well and think about how you can do a little better at each of those! This can be much less daunting than finding new goals entirely.

That’s it for this week!
Stay warm everyone! Love you all!
Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：(photos Might be mixed up a little)
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yBaTy1Mc3BcoogrG6

Jenny Oaks Baker Concert!