This Ranch Is Burnin' Me Up!

[Title references a family inside joke about our tolerance for spicy food.  See also:  "This avocado is spicy!"]

19 May 2025

大家好！Hello friends!

I don't have much for you this week. Here are some clickbait titles you can imagine a video for:

• Met with an inactive Vietnamese lady and her more active next-door neighbor. Very inspired lesson.
• Went on a bunch of exchanges this week. On one of them we had a dinner with a “rich young ruler” who told us how to disprove the Quran. He also said he would read the Book of Mormon tho, so that is cool!
• Knocked on the door of a man who is financially hanging on for dear life. He had great faith in God, and we gave him a Book of Mormon, and he seemed interested. We might stop by again sometime.
• Fog was amazing in Calgary! There were also some amazing rainstorms And Rainbows
• A family from Sri Lanka fed us some incredible Butter Chicken. It was spicy for my companion. I was shocked that I didn't think it was.
• Gave a talk on Sunday about missionary work. Hopefully the ward will help more with missionary work. I also happened to meet with the two people who were asked to speak before I was and canceled.

I had a cool epiphany with the word Probation as used in the scriptures. The definition I found for this said that this is a type of sentence where an individual is given supervision by an officer of law. The goal of probation is to help the individual rehabilitate and reintegrate into society. If he meets with his officer frequently and follows the law, he will have done just that. I think this is a cool parallel for mortality—we are under the supervision of a loving Probation officer who's grand hope is to heal us and help us rehabilitate & reintegrate into His society. We can do so by following His laws and meeting with Him frequently.

Consider this week how frequently you meet with the Lord and how meaningful your interactions with Him are. As you deepen your relationship with Him, you will over time rehabilitate from any ailments and weaknesses you have.

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!

Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：

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

Double rainbows & cool landscapes

Late picture from zone conference

 

 

 

 

Chapter 91, in which Elder Baer attends a long meeting and a shorter ceremony

[Title references chapter titles from Winnie the Pooh.]

12 May 2025

大家好！Hello friends!

Today it is raining!!! It's been a long time since we've experienced a good rain, so I am thoroughly enjoying it.

Not a ton of highlights this week. Still looking for people who will keep a commitment. There was a funny moment when we called a Muslim family, and the dad and son were arguing on the other end of the phone about whether or not they believed in Jesus. 10/10 phone call.

Zone conference was this week. . . honestly not incredibly eventful, besides seeing two Mandarin Elders go home. I'm starting to think I won't be in English as long as I imagined.

We got to go to the temple with a recent convert that my companion taught! She was baptized about two weeks ago by Elder Neff. We also saw another recent convert in our ward, who just happened to be there!

Here’s a bold invitation for everyone this week: invite someone you know to a church activity! Certainly there are those who would come to church if the offer were given them. Think about it, pray about it, and God will help you out. Even if the reply is “no thanks,” that's just fine!

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!

Elder Baer 熊长老

照片：

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

New District Album Cover

The Temple!

Elder Tang

Automotive Roll Out

[We're not sure what the title refers to, specifically, but here's a related gif.]

5 May 2025

大家好！Hello friends!

We’re almost out of Winter! That’s actually beyond true; we had a few very hot days up here, so I don’t know what happened to spring.

We had a surprise phone lesson with someone named Kelly. She was really intrigued by the idea of a prophet on the earth today. She described herself as a “seeker of truth,” to which I thought, “Boy, do we have a show for you!” We’re hoping to talk with her sometime on Wednesday this week. This is good because our friend Challeah said she doesn't want us to contact her during the week :/

We also met the most nonchalant guy named Dante who came to a church tour with us. He’s getting passed off to the young single adult ward ASAP.

We witnessed an event of biblical proportions during an exchange. Let’s just say it involved two Rolls Royce, a [Dodge Charger] Hellcat and a [Mercedes Benz] G-Wagon all unloading some incredibly wealthy Sikhs (silver silk robes and the whole shebang), some of whom were yelling something like, “Quick! the bus is leaving!” as they all boarded a double-decker party bus.

I also met my third cousin twice removed.

I read a cool insight about prayer this week from Elder Bednar. After reading a passage of scripture referring to the spiritual creation of all things before they were temporally made, he explains, “We learn from these verses that the spiritual creation preceded the temporal creation. In a similar way, meaningful morning prayer is an important element in the spiritual creation of each day—and precedes the temporal creation or the actual execution of the day. Just as the temporal creation was linked to and a continuation of the spiritual creation, so meaningful morning and evening prayers are linked to and are a continuation of each other."

If you haven't said a prayer in a little while, take some time this week to start your day off with a prayer! If you say prayers often, think of one way you can link your prayers together! Prayer truly can consecrate all the things you do in a day, and as you maintain communication with your Father in Heaven you will perform higher in all you do each day!

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

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

Cousin Thomas

Not Cousin Elder Jang

Sikh rides

cinematic Nose Hill pictures

smoking spigot (proof that anything can be an album cover)

prime navigation

That was totally Wicked!

[Title references this scene from The Incredibles.]

 大家好！Hello friends!

It's been an incredible week!

No friends came to church this week. Nor did we have any lessons with members. Nor did we really find any new friends. That does not diminish the truth that “God is so good,” as many are wont to say on “successful” weeks. My companion, Elder Neff, reminded me of another profound fact, that the most important things in life aren't quantifiable. The influence of character isn't something that can be measured.

So in that spirit, here are some cool people we met this week:

• Sharzi is a Persian lady I met on an exchange who asked for scriptures in Farsi. We found a Book of Mormon in Persian to give to her and bookmarked 3 Nephi 11. She texted us the most profound response ever after reading it! 
• Jordan said he and his brother would be interested in coming to church! It's absolutely bonkers to me that somebody would say that after waking up from a nap, two strangers with acne, talking about strange stuff. Incredible.
• My companion got to baptize someone he taught last transfer!!! She had a very big grin on her face all day.
• A kid on a bike looked at us and exclaimed, “That's my house! What are you guys up to?” His mom answered the door, and when we asked if she wanted to learn about Jesus she said, “Ari wants to learn about Jesus, right Ari?” “Yeah!” said the kid on the bike. A few minutes later he was shushing his friend and waiting patiently for an astounded Elder Baer to give him a Book of Mormon.
• Bumped into Oscar at a big park. He was an inactive member who used to be part of the Mandarin ward! Huge miracle.

There's an epic talk called “Choose You This Day” by Dale G. Renlund that you should definitely give a read! Think about some choice that you've been making that you would like to change.

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

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

prarie dog? Gopher?

quick and powerful as a two-edged gearbox

*Insert caption here*