Engine 2 Is No Longer on Fire

 [Title references this clip from Madagascar 2.]

24 March 2025

 大家好！Hello Friends!

The wind is blowing 22mph right now in Lethbridge. Is it windy where you are?

It was a week of pros and cons, so you know what that means! We’re going to run back the pros and cons list!

Pros

• Our friend named Furaha is ON DATE FOR BAPTISM for April 5!!! We need to change the date because that’s literally General Conference, too.
• Our friend Guyo from Kenya has come to church again, and he came to a baptism with us in another area! He said he likes the people here a lot! We’re working to help him open up to some new ideas about Christianity and scripture and prophets and everything else that he hasn’t heard before.
• I found a computer to type this email instead of letting my thumbs become sore from texting it on a phone.

Cons

• Last week we knocked on the doors of two houses where the people there were interested in learning more about the Book of Mormon. This week we had a hard time contacting them by phone, so we visited in person and found out they aren’t interested anymore and their family members are definitely not interested  :( 
• I was über sick at the beginning of the week. (I should have known when I was starting to feel cranky on Sunday), and then Elder Ferrin got kinda sick. And then Elder Holland got incredi-sick. It was, in fact, not fun. But I suppose nobody can get away with two years of a dry, vomitless mission.

As promised, Here are some good moments from when Elder Gary E. Stevenson made a guest cameo appearance in Calgary. Some of these are from Elder Stevenson and some are from the friends who traveled with Him (Elders Cook, Bennett, and Egbo).

• “You have been assigned of heaven to be in this Mission. I know that the Lord wants you to be where you are right now”
• Elder Stevenson *proceeds to teach the restoration of the gospel in 5 minutes very simply* “The spirit never tires of hearing it. Why? Because it is the plain and precious truths…to introduce the gospel.”
• “You can be successful in the world without developing the attributes of the world”
• “We can feel the healing power of Christ, and the Holy Ghost will confirm it. . .there are many things we need healing from”
• The infinite Atonement is often thought of as infinite in length, not often recognized as infinite in breadth. 2 Nephi 2 teaches of Christ, our purpose, and His role. [Side note, did you read it this week? Just asking for a friend :D]
• Write this in bold highlighted letters somewhere, LIFELONG DISCIPLESHIP! That’s what we’re all looking for.
• “It is not an invitation to be baptized, It is not an invitation to join the church, it is an invitation to come unto Christ, develop faith in Him, be changed by Him, be healed by Him, be cleansed by Him, to receive His atonement more fully in His life.
• “Because of His atonement, mortality works!”
• “If you sincerely extend invitations and promised blessings, I promise God will back you up.”

This actually came from our mission president, whose remarks seemed even more on point in this meeting. “We’ve heard before that we were foreordained to be here…now what?”

Yeah so that’s most of the notes I had down. Maybe one of these will help you prepare for Easter which is in 29 DAYS!!!

Stay Warm Everyone! Love you all!

Elder Baer 熊长老 照片：

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

    District at Makisu (more cake was eaten then sushi)

    A picture I forgot from the mission meeting last week. The Ridgeline Elders Reunite!

    Cool notes from Elder Gong

"Sacre Booooooo!"

I'm sure that's what all you Frenchies out there will be thinking about this email.

[Title may reference this Gravity Falls clip.]

17 March 2025 

大家好！Hello Friends!

Imma be honest, I've been pretty cooked today due to a fabulous experience throwing up and dry heaving all of yesterday evening & last night. So I don't feel like writing a ton this week. Here's the highlights tho:

I had the noodle dream this week! ...almost. I dreamt that I had to conduct the Mandarin Ward's Fast Sunday meeting, and I remember speaking a lot of real Mandarin in the dream! Crazy.

Sundays have been wild. See above for exhibit A. Exhibit B happened the week before when Sunday included the following:

• meeting a bunch of new members
• giving an impromptu 15 min talk about the Book of Mormon at the Assisted Living Center
• trying to call everyone in the ward to help a non-member youth get a ride to the Stake Youth Activity
• stopping by a family in-person to see if we were supposed to have dinner with them in an hour, because they had no phone number
• being asked to play piano for the Spanish ward baptism taking place 90 minutes later
• going to said dinner
• attending said baptism
• getting called by confused youth who got the wrong address to give a ride to the non-member
• going to the the Stake Youth Activity to apologize to the confused youth
• getting an anxious call asking why I wasn't on the mission Zoom call giving the presentation on D&C 19 that I did not prepare.
• my phone dying in the middle of said Zoom call

And all of this made me ask the old philosophical question: "Who's driving this flying umbrella?"

We saw Elder Gary E. Stevenson and others at a REAL mission meeting on Friday. . . . I really wish I had more to say here; it was a good experience, but I can't quite say what was marvelous about it. Maybe it was the fact that they gave profound and helpful answers covering many topics in response to more specific and less helpful questions.

Read 2 Nephi 2! It's super good. I found a cool parallel in verse 11 where misery is the opposite paired with both "holiness" and "happiness." Does that mean they have the same meaning? Or the same result? Is the secret that by becoming holier, we naturally become happier? Read!!

Thanks everyone! See you next time.

Stay Warm Everyone! Love you all!

Elder Baer 熊长老


照片：

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

Random experiences while knocking on doors

 

Super good Chinese food with a 87 year old Gangster of a member

Marlinspike Hall?!? [Captain Haddock's country house and family estate in "The Adventures of Tintin," based on the  Château de Cheverny]

 

 

 

 

"I like trains . . ."

 10 March 2025

大家好！Hello Friends!

This week did indeed feel like getting hit by a freightliner. I started to say, “Wow, I think this is getting better,” and then life said, “...I can fix that!” 

So, I now have moved out of the Mandarin [ward in Calgary] to Lethbridge, Alberta, which is just an hour away from Cardston. It is an old train hub, so that adds to the fun. I don't know how long I'll be here, and I just hope that I get to go back to the Mandarin ward before I leave Southern Alberta f o r e v e r. . . There are a lot of people from Africa in Lethbridge, for some reason, so I may have to learn Swahili and Kinyarwanda during language study as well!

 

Elder Ferrin is my new companion. He is so Cool! He is very energetic, and he knows how to do a lot of cool random things. (He made a blow-dart last week out of a curtain rod.)

We met some sweet kids this week, who came to church! One kid has a dad who is a member, but his cousin Bentley is not a member, and he was excited to hear about what church was. We were actually at the dad's apartment for dinner on Thursday, and it was surprisingly wholesome for the amount of Monster trucks that were all over the room and playing on the Xbox.

Met a guy named Stephan from Brit-land, who said he works with the richest guys in the world. He's a well-read Bible enthusiast, who didn't even bash us over the head with scriptures or anything. I wish I had a picture with him.

A youth leader said some stuff that was really profound, and here's my best to quote it:
“Adam and Eve knew what the forbidden fruit was and still chose to eat it. They chose to leave the Garden for a life that was difficult. Some people out there are angry about that choice, but they don't understand that we were never meant to stay in the Garden. We were built for this.”

This is a common pattern I notice in all inspiring stories. Bilbo leaves the Hobbit hole for the Blue Mountain. My companion leaves his bed every morning for the doors he knocks. Jesus left his friends for Gethsemane. We always leave Eden and pass through Calvary in order to get to Zion. Go do something good but uncomfortable this week! You will find great reward for yourself if you do this.

Stay Warm Everyone! Love you all!
Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：
 

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

Elder Ferrin & I

THE Lethbridge

Porcupine in a tree! Can you spot it?

Gift from the dad mentioned earlier

"Get [into] my church!"

 [Title may reference this clip from Robin Hood.]

 大家好！Hello Friends!

Our church meeting yesterday was miraculous! Here's a few background details for reference

Yunxin agreed to hear a short message after some individual English Practice we've been doing with another member (blessings for Les 🙌). We were trying to answer a question about Prophets and authority by mentioning how Jesus needed authority to heal the sick and raise the dead….and her expression changed instantly. Her usual “company manners” smile was replaced by a jaw-drop look of shock and bewilderment, “He Did that!?” We were delighted to see her later at church sitting next to our English translator Kato.

Cyrus has started meeting with us more frequently as of last week. When we shared about Keeping the Sabbath day holy by coming to church, he explained “I would love to take my wife to church, but she often has to take her car to her work on Sunday.” We promised to get him a ride, and we were surprised to see that Brother Britten managed to help him get to church!

Sean is a member who moved from Fort McMurray (Way up in the tundra). He's actually from Cambodia but he speaks mandarin well and English fluently. He said he's had some trouble with his employer not paying Him, So we planned to help him meet Kato who had a similar experience last year. Instead Kato was occupied (see above) and Sean sat next to Brother Britten. Immediately after the meeting Brother Britten says “So I’m the Stake Employment specialist and so what I do…” and he helped out Sean the rest of the day

Miracles truly happen even in this “Telestial world” we are in right now that sometimes seems extremely far from the Glory of God. Yet based on our Prophets recent messages, we don't world in which we live. By going to the Lord's House and preparing for His coming, we can learn to live a Celestial life like the Lord himself Lived. Through our covenant relationships with God we can learn how to turn our world from Telestial to Celestial, no matter what our circumstances may be. (As we learn from Brigham H. Roberts description of Liberty Jail as a “prison-temple,” even the most miserable experiences of our lives can exalt us when we choose to “Think Celestial”) Think of something you can do this week to help your world become more Celestial, and as you put in the effort to do so you will see more glorious light come into your life!

Stay Warm Everyone! Love you all!
Elder Baer 熊长老

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

Hot pot with a member

Sticky rice dumplings w pork

Calgary at night

“A thief in the night”