"Is everybody gone? My cheeks are killing me."

[Link to reference in title.] 

October 9, 2023

你好家人和朋友！

How is everyone? Surviving? I hope so!

Big shout out to all of you nerds who were part of Utah All-State Choir! I still cherish my experience at All-State spending time with a ton of freaking cool people from my school and being part of such a great performance in the Tabernacle. The choir I'm part of now has some different members and the performance venue has some different songs, but I really think the overall message and feeling is remarkably similar.

Quick mini soapbox: Have you ever noticed how the pitch rises at the end of a live piece of music? I thought a lot this week about how similar that is to how smoke rises from the menorah or the tabernacle altars, or how our prayers rise to meet the ears of God. I'm always amazed with the connections between music, psalms, and prayers.

Y'all, we've been having WAAAAY too much fun lately. On Thursday we discovered beach volleyball in the field by Provo temple that the missionaries have access to, and it feels like we've been doing nonstop volleyball since then. We've been playing with a new Chinese district every day, so it's been fun to get to know the Mandarin and Cantonese districts even better. We've also been having too much fun harvesting snacks and other random garbage that the Elders on our floor leave behind. A pair of "drunk" goggles (the kind that mirrors everything upside down and also halves your peripheral) is a particular favorite among our district and friends.

Speaking of being left behind, I was actually talking about ME! Not really, but sort of. We've had a district of Elders going to Samoa on our floor for the last 6 weeks or so, and they just left this week. They really made the residence hall a great place and were really inspiring. I'm gonna miss our friends from Australia, New Zealand, and Green River (and Ridgeline's very own Elder Christiansen)! Safe Travels!

Speaking of traveling, you know when you're about to beat the boss on level 9 and conquer the game, but then the power goes out and none of your progress has been saved? Well that was Elder Logan's experience with the travel office as a bunch of his travel prerequisites were invalid and he had to pay a whopping $500 to get a physical at the Health Department near campus and resubmit a lot of other info including an ecclesiastical endorsement. This included a lot of talking to a lot of different front desks who kept saying "Thanks Mario, but the Princess is in another castle." Amidst all of this he's been temporarily reassigned to Richmond, Virginia, so New Zealand won't come for another transfer. He's such a winner though for his patience and unbreakable cheerful attitude. Our prayers are with him as he ventures into the unknown. We especially pray for his family back in Hawaii at this time.

The Strictly-Chinese Challenge has been slowly taking damage, but the effort is still there! . . . most of the time. If anything, my mouth has started to feel weird from constantly making Chinese mouth shapes.

Our Tuesday Devotional featured Sister Emily Belle Freedman who just spoke in conference. Quite impressive to give speeches back-to-back like that. She had a really cool insight on the word endurance - the prefix "en" often refers to something "within,"  and the root word "dura" refers to something firm, solid, & steadfast. So when we say we "Endure to the End," We're saying we stay firm, solid, & steadfast within for the rest of our time here on earth (and maybe even after?) She also, like many other devotional speakers, brought up how inspiring a worn out pair of missionary shoes can be and what that represents. Even more evidence that "the worth of soles is great in the sight of God"

Unfortunately, MTC Pasta has continued to disappoint. I don't think the staff knows that penne is in fact not the same thing as macaroni shells *cue Italian dope slap*

I finally found a nice violin!! Elder Hart and I were doing some music in a room we stumbled upon that happened to have a mural from the Washington D.C. Temple? Really strange find. Elder Hart also notified me on Tuesday that he had an audition spot reserved that he didn't know whether it was cancelled or not. We showed up on Thursday with a piece we pulled together the day before, and then they said we were playing for a Sunday Evening Devotional.

 

 

We had a really cool experience in a role-play teaching one of our teachers about the law of chastity. It's a really difficult topic to teach, not to mention teaching in Mandarin, but our efforts paid off and all of us as well as our teacher "investigator" could feel a very strong spirit among us.

I got a little mixed up in my travel plans earlier, but I'm LEAVING THE MTC ON THURSDAY! 4:00 AM BABY! As much as I diss on the meals, I am gonna miss it here. The missionaries, teachers, and leaders really make the MTC amazing. I've made so many good memories, from day one when Elder Groscost's belt buckle spontaneously dived into the toilet, to the infamous panoramas of other Elders. I've got good company leaving with me this week, Elder Gilbert and Elder Hopkins leave the same day as I do! (What is the MTC ever going to do without them?)

 

I'll see you all on the other side of the border. Love you all! God Bless!

--Elder Baer

Photos:

-oh how the Ramen has fallen

 

 

Children's songbook #244

 

 

-pics with other mandarin districts

 

 

 

One last photo of Timpanogos

Mahjong Mayhem

October 2, 2023

 Y ‘ A L L ! ! !

Have you taken a look outside these days!  The Earth is absolutely STUNNING right now!

Also, General Conference though? What an incredible weekend! I hope y’all got even more of a kick out of this Conference than I did! They’ve posted the videos online now if you missed any of it – always worth a re-watch.

There were a lot of interesting topics that kept coming up this time around. A few I noticed include stronger family love, tithing, covenants (Anyone else think this came up a ton? I thought it was mentioned quite a lot, but I also might be the only one at the MTC who thinks so), happiness and eternal perspective. I also heard a lot of NNNICE one-liners this conference like such as (and I may be paraphrasing a little):

“Where there’s a design, there’s a designer” - Alan T. Phillips

“When nothing is expected and everything is appreciated, life becomes magical” - Gary B. Sabin

“When I choose not to be humble, I choose to be humiliated” - Joni L. Koch

“Earth has no sorrow that Heaven cannot heal” - Quentin L. Cook

And of course, the classic message from the Prophet himself, “Think Celestial” - Russel M. Nelson

I’m looking forward to reading back over these talks over the next few months and I invite all of you to do the same.

Anywho, this week was in fact another week!

Guys. I cannot tell you how much I miss jazz right now. All morning I’ve been looking out at the crimson red leaves among intermittent rain, and it reminds me of all of my favorite jazz standards recorded by Django Reinhardt, Oscar Peterson, Count Basie, & Gus Viseur (who honestly plays some of the best autumn tunes I know). It’s alright though, I’m “jazzed” to be here, so it evens out.

Elder Sheffield’s mini mahjong set is a smashing hit. Our teacher Sister Hutchingson taught us how to play one time, and now the district pulls it out during any free time. The Cantonese Elders have even been coming in every now and then to play a few games.

Yet another good line from this week: When referring to our friend on floor three, a 280 pound New Zealand rugby-champ, Elder Groscost noted something about how "the Devil checks under his bed for Elder Tooley."

Follow up on the MTC “Cleanse” from last week: Our guy Chris, one of the staff members here, told us during our service assignment (taking down chairs in the gym on Sunday nights) that the MTC had a different spirit about it last Monday that he hadn’t felt in about 3 years. He said the MTC really didn't need all the missionaries to clean it since the staff does that exact job every day, but he said that as we're involved in service we bring the Lord's spirit into our life in a way like no other. Especially as we clean, we make it easier for the spirit to dwell with us. That's really stuck with me in the last couple hours.

Just a week and a half left until I go take my journey into "The Great White North!" I can already start to hear the call of Canadia beckoning me to come. (It sounds oddly like Bob and Doug McKenzie.)

Have a blessed week everyone!

Love you all!

–Elder Baer

Photos:

 

Yet another Timp pic

 

 

Mahjong and more Mahjong

 

 

the district doing their thing (classic Elder Baer face included)

 

 

 

the MTC scoring 0-3 on the food

 

 

temple trip with the comp

 

"More of a Frat House than College"

 [Subject Line brought to you by at least two MTC teachers]

September 25, 2023

你們星期一快樂！Happy Monday Everyone!! Hope the weather is as good where you are as it is here.

Also, Happy Yom Kippur, or Day of Atonement! I can't tell if that started last night or if it starts this evening, but I was reading about it a little in the Bible Dictionary under "Fasts." There's a lot of scripture in Leviticus that I don't quite understand a lot, but I think the symbolism of the sacrificed and freed lambs or "scapegoats" are really interesting, especially seeing how they line up with this autumn season and how much these symbols say about Christ and his atoning sacrifice for all of us. Definitely take a look at it if you have a minute.

We taught our friend Caleb again this week! This one was really rough, we couldn't understand what he was saying most of the time, and then we didn't deliver a super coherent lesson about prayer. It made for a good conversation to practice Mandarin though!

Elder Nash and his wife were our guest speakers this Tuesday. His wife started talking about increasing missionary effort. Elder Nash started talking about our identity (see Pres. Nelson's May 2022 Devotional) and then about the missionary identity and then about inviting and then about opposition and then about choices and then about the law system and the gospel. (It's incredible how much knowledge you can share by going 30 mins over.)

. . . Alright, I'll be honest, I didn't have the greatest attitude going into this one. Something about the way the speakers started off just made me tired all over. I also felt a little bit at times like I was listening to a sermon I'd heard ten times over. Once I started focusing in and out of what he was saying, I started learning a lot more. It ended up being a real good talk though, some things that hit me a little harder were:

-- Opposition isn't always just good vs. evil. There's opposites in a lot of good as well. The opposites of fire and water are both essential for baptism. The opposites of Night and Day are both good (as is the Cole Porter favorite of the same name). Opposition isn't always "bad."

-- Justice often has a bad connotation, but I have to remember that if there's no justice, there's no good consequences for good choices. I am so grateful that there is an eternal law of Justice along with Mercy.

- The missionaries aren't here to force conversion, rather the missionary's job is to enable someone to use their agency even more. After hearing from the missionaries, there is more opportunity to choose for yourself what to follow. After all, that's why we're all here, because we value the right to choose.

. . . aaaaand that's the end of MY sermon that y'all have heard ten times over (amen).

One of the windows broke on our floor! I thought at first someone had thrown something at it, but the custodial staff refuted that, saying there was a bird right below the window. I have a hard time imagining a bird shattering the whole pane of glass, but I suppose those government spies have their ways.

 

 

We've become the buzzards of our residence hall from the way we collect things from other districts who leave. The spoils have been astounding though! Often we get a couple packaged foods, but the highlight from this week is the Tech-Deck skatepark that someone handed over to us. Didn't make for the best study session that day, but it did make for the best kick-flips.

 

 

Yet another favorite quote from the so-called "Frat House" this week: "Shadow boxing tonight on floor 2, boys! You gotta bring coleslaw if you want in."

Yesterday I got the wonderful opportunity of playing piano accompaniment in sacrament meeting. . . after being asked 40 minutes earlier if I could do so. I suppose sight reading could be considered a form of personal revelation "line upon line."

This morning we did a big MTC Cleanse to prep for CONFERENCE ! ! ! ! It was kind of strange wearing casual P-day clothes in buildings where that usually wouldn't fly. As is often the way with group service, the first half was a lot of us helping out with one specific thing (cleaning the bathroom stall doors in this case) while the second half consisted of us standing around not knowing how to help since everything was being done already. 

Celestial Cleaning Kickoff

 We got to deep clean some other things too, specifically Elder Boyle's batch of clothes when he started the washer this morning with my companion's laundry net & half-full bag of tide pods in as well. Whatever sins were on those shirts definitely aren't there anymore.

 

That's all I got so far. I hope all of you have a great week and a Fantastic Conference Weekend!! I'm really looking forward to watching that with you here from the MTC!

Love you all!

-Elder Baer

 

More photos:

 

Brother Birch in thoughtful contemplation

Sister Hutchison with Elders Hart, Baer, Sheffield, Logan, and Elder Biggs

 

 

Cafeteria food.  'Nuff said.

 

 

 Autumn in Provo and snow on Timpanogos

 

Time In a Bottle (a Chocolate Milk Bottle)

[A reference from the title.]

September 18, 2024

Hǎo dì !

Have the trees changed color in Cache Valley? They're just starting to change on the tops of the mountains here.

It turns out all the days are now just copy and paste here. And yet there are still a couple cool things that happen like such as:

While at the MTC, my companion and I have made a new friend named Caleb! He's mucho fluent in mandarin has some ties to Hong Kong and told us about a "thundering typhoon" that's happened recently there. Never a fun thing. We had an appointment with him earlier last week and then saw him at lunch on Wednesday! He's a really fun, chill dude!

Elder Nattress was our Tuesday Devo speaker, his talk was awesome! (Even with the last name of Nattress he didn't put everyone to sleep ;)  His talk from this last April General Conference is really good as well. One thing that really struck me was a phrase he used, "If you are the only convert of your mission, then your mission is a smashing success." That was really nice to hear among a lot of talk in the church about mission "numbers."

I was standing in line yesterday waiting for an almost taco salad (they ran out of tortilla chips) and I look up and standing before me is the man himself, J. B. Haws just dishing out tortillas like there's no tomorrow. I had a very short chat with him which was cool! Y'all need to check out his epic talk, "Wrestling With Comparisons." Honestly one of the best messages I've heard.

We said goodbye to our good Portuguese neighbors in Residence 2. It's always sad to dap up the boys for the last time. Their legacy will live on, as will the size 13 black leather slippers they gave us with the blue stitching and zippers on the sides.

I met my companion's cousin at the MTC right now. He bestowed the gracious gift of even more Hi-Chews. (Big W!) As I was walking out, I ran into Elder Turner from Providence! He just got out of a 5-day quarantine 'cuz he had the dreaded Covid. He also gave us a friendly warning about the tickle monster that's been roving around at nights preying on the exposed toes of the innocent (this is why you never sleep with the dogs out) No one knows who it is though. . . Elder Turner suspects it might even be him

I played piano for devotionals - one for the new senior missionaries and one for the missionaries who have been here waaaay too long. No one knew the hymn and the screens only showed one verse, but I couldn't see them, so all 700 of us got to sing verse one three times over. Pretty epic!

I forgot my book of wisdom/study while writing this email, so I don't have a lot of neat insights to share. However, I do know that there is symbolism everywhere* that points to Jesus Christ. Look for Jesus in everything and He'll show Himself to you.

Stay cool Everyone! Lock your doors folks, stay safe from the tickle monster. And, I hope you have a great week! Stay cool!

Love you all!

--Elder Baer

*[A Baer family favorite BYU devotional -- start at minute 18:40 for more insights about what Evan is referencing.]

PHOTOS:

Once upon a Mattress?

Squaw Peak

Censorship of Winnie the Pooh in China

A missionary's best friend!

Elder Biggs

The District

Elders Sheffield, Logan, Hart, [Portuguese Elder], Baer, Biggs, Groscost

Celebrity Central

September 11, 2023

你们好！How's everyone doing!  

I hear the harvest is bountiful and abundant these days! Y'all gotta tell me how all the garden fruit tastes. It's been so long at the MTC with cafeteria, and I can't remember the taste of strawberries anymore...

Anywho! This week has been a weird mix of living the exact same (almost boring) class schedule every day while also meeting every local big name I can think of! Some highlights include the following:

We got a new teacher, Brother Birch. He's a really quirky dude but he speaks Chinese really well and he has silly games where losers do pushups.

We rolled up to our weekly Tuesday Devotional to find out Elder GARY E. STEVENSON was speaking to us! *faints* His wife talked about work ethic and how someone's shoes can say a lot about them, their attitude, and their experience. Elder Stevenson (or "Gare Bear" as a district member once said) talked a lot about MTC history, and then about the first lesson, and then about pairing scriptures with handbooks, and then he ran out of time to speak. Kinda abrupt for a devotional, but we got a good random slideshow out of it along with a bunch of shout-outs to Cache Valley, more specifically Providence, more specifically the Stevenson's ward near Foxridge. It's interesting to see how different devotionals are with different speakers. This was a really good devotional, although it felt a little less personal and intimate as when Elder Godoy came last week and told jokes and messed around with what was showing on screen.

We went on a wild goose chase when our district leader got a text, out of the blue, from a missionary friend that said Chick-fil-a was being brought by within 20 minutes. This was pretty good news! . . . except the MTC doesn't want missionaries bringing food from outside, so we all took a hike outside the MTC gates to look for a Doordash driver who had Chick-fil-a. We then had to find a way to sneak some nugs into our bags, and then we proceeded to take turns chugging a large, VERY potent lemonade. We then needed to find the nearest garbage can for the lemonade cup, which turned out to be up the hill right in front of the temple doors (noice).

 

 

I found out that one of the counselors from Scout camp at camp New Fork was a Mandarin class supervisor here! . . . And then I found out that he quit a couple days later :(

Elder Groscost generously attempted to give me a wet willy with Vasoline. I was unharmed in the incident, and I now know the Lord does deliver his people.

Sunday was, if you'll pardon my language, b*tt-fre*king wild!!! [Editor's note:  we blame Lauren for instructing Evan in this gross abuse of our mother tongue.]  We got a bunch of Elders in our branch this week so we had our priesthood meeting before our sacrament meeting to get a bigger space for everyone. Right before priesthood meeting I found out I was playing keyboard for sacrament meeting. Right before sacrament meeting I found out I was playing an additional rest hymn. Right before the rest hymn I found out that the hymn number was suddenly changed. I found out during the final hymn that "Count Your Many Blessings" has 4 verses, not 3. That made for kind of a train-wreck at the end there, but it wasn't too bad. Then the train crashed and blew up entirely (as in the style of Lawrence of Arabia or The General) when the branch president called me up to illustrate that we all make mistakes and we need to see past them. He unintentionally illustrated this further by consistently calling me "Elder Kealey."

 

I looked over my shoulder at lunch and happened to see BONNIE H. CORDON eating two tables away. *double faint* Apparently she just works here now!?! Crazy.

 

We then received word that instead of another Sunday night devo from the Mission Pres, we were getting a "musical fireside" with the JENNY OAKS BAKER Family!! *faint hat-trick* The instrumentation was really nice, the music was overall good, and any time one of the family was at the mic it was a little more difficult to relate. It was still good though. . . it made me really grateful for all of you epic friends and family members.

 

 

 

I'm sure I've chewed your ear off too much already (Mike Tyson style) but I got one more thing that I gotta share! This Friday, Saturday, and Sunday is Rosh Hashanah. Rosh Hashanah (also called the "Feast of Trumpets" or the "Day of Remembrance") is a Jewish Holiday where the Jews remember God by turning to him in prayer asking that God will remember his covenant to re-gather his people, Israel. It was during Rosh Hashanah in 1827 that the Angel Moroni* gave Joseph Smith the Golden Plates* to translate. There's this REALLY cool article I found that you can read below that goes into more depth about it. This weekend, I invite y'all to join in the celebration by doing one thing to help in the Gathering of Israel. Whether that be through proxy temple work, family history research, or helping our neighbors and friends, you and I can be an answer to prayer and fulfill God's promises by continuing our part in the great Gathering.

You can read more about the connection between this Judaic festival and the restored gospel of Jesus Christ here: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/ensign/2000/01/the-golden-plates-and-the-feast-of-trumpets?lang=eng

I hope all of you have a fantabulous week! And I hope the harvest is good to you this year! 

Love you all!

 

--Elder Baer

 

 *Evan shared his love for the art of Jorge Cocco Santangelo in his call home this week

 

More PHOTOS:

 

Sleeping pranks on Elder Hart

 

Sleeping pranks on Elder Logan

Chapter 4, in which Elder Baer gives a rather detailed account of serious and not-so serious matters in an effort to illustrate how the Mission Training Center is, in fact, quite "dope."

 September 4, 2023

Happy Labor Day Everyone! How is the day off of. . . whatever you're doing?

As the weeks go by at yon Missionary Training Center, I'm continually amazed at how cool my district is. All the Elders in room 217 are real Renaissance Men. Elder Groscost played football for Alta, rocked a blond fro, and has D&D experience? Crazy! Elder Biggs was a baseball star and crushed the AP Calc test? Bonkers! Elder Sheffield lived in China and Switzerland? Wild! Elder Hart takes cello from BYU professors? Big Flex! Elder Logan has an associates degree and had sponsorship in boogie-boarding competitions? That's not even the half of it! 

I'm also continually amazed at the things one can witness at the MTC, such as the following (grab some popcorn and snacks if you need):

--I've been getting up for morning runs with Elder Groscost (he and Elder Logan are workout champs). This morning we saw a deer, a stray housecat, and a legit owl all on campus. Just goes to show, you never know "who" will want to meet with the missionaries. Could've been a great teaching opportunity if we knew the language.

--The difference in Sunday Devotionals vs. the Tuesday Devos? Wild! Tuesday Devos are basically epic conference talks directed to the missionaries from General Authorities of the Church. Sunday Devos are like gospel thoughts from the MTC president, but they're always introduced via presentations about his personal life; highlights include film from high school football career and a live Heisman pose on stage. Highlights also include our good Cantonese Elders likening the scriptures and "taking by stratagem" in chess.

 

--We got a lil' talking to after we all showed up 10 mins late to watch an epic arm wrestle between Elder Logan and an Australian Elder. 100% worth it.

 

 

--My companion ordered a mini mah-jhongg set that arrived this week. Facebook Marketplace really coming in clutch.

a

--I was writing in my journal one night when I heard a bunch of gut-busting yelling coming from somewhere on the floor above. That's right y'all, the bros upstairs doing the HAKA!! I think there was a big district of Elders from New Zealand heading out, so I'm guessing that was their goodbyes. One of the most rad things I've heard at the MTC (in addition to the organ hymns at Devos)

--All the Elders at the MTC on Fast Sunday? You'd best believe the line for dinner gets  w i l d ! The poor people serving in the cafeteria, trying to hold down Gondor under siege.

--I was sitting in sacrament meeting yesterday and our branch president asked some of the other branch presidency members to bear their testimonies. Mark and Sheri Nyman are switching out of our branch. But the CRAZIEST thing happened when he got up to bear his testimony of the gospel of Jesus Christ. It felt like I had a sixth sense flip on, where I could feel so strongly that the spirit of the Lord was upon him, almost to the point of seeing it. My physical eyes obviously just saw him, the pulpit, and the blank wall behind him, but I guess my "spiritual eyes" if you will could discern that there was power in the room. There's one more testimony that the Holy Ghost is manifested in innumerable ways.

I hope all of you have a fantastic holiday to enjoy the fruits of your labors, and a flipping good week! Love you all!

--Elder Baer

 

PHOTOS:

  More wildlife on MTC campus?

 

The district -- unity is lookin' good

Teacher, Elders Biggs, Hart, Groscost, Sheffield, Logan, Baer

 

Items for improvement

[Who puts chocolate milk in the irons?!?]

 

Jesus is my Anti-depressant

 (Subject line brought to you by my favorite district member)

August 28, 2023

你好吗！What's Good! How we doin'? How are the August "Dog Days" treating you? I hear everyone's gettin' back into school these days. . . 

. . . my condolences.

Y'all. This week kinda just . . . happened. There's still noteworthy stuff to tell, but at the same time some of the days just seemed like copy and paste.

A General Authority, Elder Peter M. Johnson, came for a Devo this Tuesday! Unlike a lot of other lecture style devotionals, Elder Johnson was very interactive. He had a couple people on stage who he just asked a bunch of questions about overcoming the world and what that looks like. He talked about faith and confidence - and then the spirit gave me a cool lil' nudge so WARNING: brief sermon incoming! *inhales deeply*

So to have faith is like having confidence in God and in yourself, but what does confidence mean? See the word "confide" in confidence? To have confidence might mean to confide in something, or confide your trust in something, right? To confide in something might mean to "be one" with something, as we do during the sacrament when we take His name on us. So when we "Let God Prevail" we align our view with His, our views are one, we confide in the Lord, we place our confidence in the Lord, and in essence we have faith in the Lord.

. . . Kind of a circular thought in retrospect, but I thought it was cool in the moment.

Our district helped welcome the new guys to the MTC on Wednesday. Kinda fun, kind of really weird to be on the other side of the situation just waiting for someone to wipe away some tears before they start the journey of meetings and more meetings. I carried luggage for a guy who said he had a call to Spain, and then had to recover from cancer real quick before he got re-assigned to Arkansas. BRUV!! The man's dedication is insane.

Language immersion started on Thursday, and that's when all the days really started to be the same. We got two awesome teachers: Sister Spangler who is a fantastic pantomime and has a slight speech impediment, and Sister Hutchinson who is really funny and uses a bunch of trendy words and gestures even though she allegedly dislikes Gen-Z and the slang. . . .

We taught our same "investigator" friend from two weeks ago. My companion Facebook-stalked her and found out she is a church member. Makes sense now considering lesson #2 seemed like it was set to easy mode.

Y'all. Chinese Family is wildly complicated. Imagine not having the simple terms like brother & sister, aunt & uncle, grandma & grandpa; but imagine that each of your aunts and uncles has a specific different title depending on whether they're older or younger than your parents, or whether they're on your mom or your dad's side, or whether they married into your family, etc, etc. It'll really make your ancestors dizzy.

SUNDAYS BRO! They're so rad!! Everyone here complains about Sunday being the busiest day of the week, but I haven't seen that yet. We have sacrament meeting and an evening devotional, and then a big study session in between. It seems a lot more chill than showing up to early morning Stake meetings and then church and then mission prep and then a different mission prep and then a fireside. (Loved the grind this last January. #blessed) As it turns out I can listen to music during our "Go and Do" 2 hour study time. New favorite part of the week for sure. Passio Secundum Johannem by Arvo Pärt was an absolute study banger! A bit on the repetitive side, but the intro though. Heck*n' good stuff. But even more rad was the stuff I was studying. Get buckled everyone, brief sermon #2 incoming.  *big inhale*

Okay, so the Sacrament, right? We partake of the Sacrament before we "Feast on the words of Christ" with some prepared or sometimes impromptu messages from the pulpit. The sacrament itself goes back to the Last Supper, Christ's Passover meal with the Apostles. Ever thought about the symbolic significance of a meal? I had a huge lightbulb moment realizing that meals are a universal symbol of unity. Families gather almost every night for dinner, and we invite friends to join us on holidays and celebrations as well. As we sit at the table we sit in unity, often all eating the same dish as well. Before we eat we often say a blessing, showing unity to God. We hold feasts at weddings when two families become united as a man and woman make vows to each other and to God to unite with God's power in one family. We hold a banquet at funerals when all attending unite to commemorate and celebrate the life of one who has passed on, or one who now unites with the heavenly hosts. Even the very act of eating unites the power of nutrients in food with the organs and cells in the body. Christ shared several examples about the significance of meals: the parable of the Wedding of the King's Son, all of the parables involving vineyards, the feeding of the five thousand, the meal with men on the road to Emmaus, and of course, the Last Supper. It is only fitting that when we take the Lord's name upon us we gather as neighbors and friends in unity for a [sacramental] "meal" so to speak. 

The point is, It's no wonder that we unify ourselves with God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost by partaking of bread and water placed on a table. It's no wonder other faiths refer to this sacrament as "communion." Just a little something for you to chew on this week ;)

Best of luck to y'all this week. Let me know how things are going! Love y'all

--Elder Baer

(Photos include district elders in good study, A temple trip from last week with our good Cantonese district, and a sub-par performance instrument from the hands of the Lord)

 

Morning nap study

Elders Hart & Groscost

 

 

 

More napping studying

Elders Biggs & Groscost

MTC Sleeps

Foreground: Elders Biggs, Groscost, Baer

Mid background: Elders Hart, Logan

Far background: sleepers and non-sleepers

 

 

Provo Temple with the Cantonese district (from Home MTC)

 

 

Provo Temple 

Elders Hart, Groscost, Baer, Biggs, Sheffield, Logan 

 

 

"a sub-par performance instrument from the hands of the Lord"