A Stranger In a Foreign Land

May 6, 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

We’re finally starting to see some tulip buds in Calgary which is cool! And it’s been raining a lot more than usual! Has your spring been pretty good?

Not a lot happened this week. . . that is until Saturday, when we had an opportunity to hear from the one and only:

ELDER PATRICK KEARON!!!!!

I can’t tell you how excited I was after hearing that he was coming to speak to the mission! We all met up in the wilderness of Magrath and got to shake his hand before an absolutely fire meeting. There were some other great speakers there as well, such as Elder Kearon’s wife, Elder Bennett of the Area Seventy, and Sister Kristin Yee of the General Relief Society Presidency.

Here’s just a few takeaways front the meeting listed below.

Some cool thoughts from Sister Yee:

• When the Lord moves/answers quickly, it’s with a purpose
• When the Lord moves/answers slowly, there is a purpose for the pause
• The Gospel of Jesus Christ is preached to the one; it is for each individual. Each and every individual will receive the opportunity to hear of Him and to know Him.
• God wants you to be happy now!

Some cool thoughts from Sister Kearon:

• What would happen if Abinadi didn’t have the same integrity? Where would the second half of the Book of Mormon be?
• What would happen if Moroni didn’t have the integrity to “not deny the Christ”? Sometimes we must be as Moroni, as pictured on top of each temple, and do what he does best - stand alone.

(Sister Kearon referred to the week of the Savior’s Atonement as the Passion, a title of many musical settings for the event. It made me think a lot about how Christ feels about each one of us, how the redemption of mankind is literally His Passion.)

Some cool things from Elder Kearon:

(If there’s one thing I learned about Elder Kearon, he’s a very righteous, intelligent goofball. I was surprised by his quick wit, his plethora of movie references, and a very accurate impression of Elder Dallin H. Oaks.)

• We, as missionaries, have been set apart to proclaim “Glad Tidings of Great Joy.” We must become the message and be cheerful.
• We thrive on opposition, hunt for stretching opportunities

There’s a small summary for you. Besides that, we mostly had a few lessons with some curious friends, where we taught them about prayer. We'll be trying to meet with them more this week.

Roda attended the temple to perform baptisms for the dead on Friday! We’re excited for the coming years when Ernest gets a temple recommend!

I’d invite you all to think a little bit about integrity and think about something small you can do to show your integrity this week. As promised, when we live with integrity, we gain greater self-respect and inner peace.

Stay cool Everyone!

爱你们！

–熊长老

Evan Baer


Photos:

Calgary

Temple Trip

Fancy Member meal

Fields to Magrath

Missionaries in Magrath

 Sand raiders

Subs with the District

An AI depiction of me brought to you by the Mandarin District

"Tony A-ward winning moment"

[Title references a skit from the high school improv troop, Wingin' It.]

April 29, 2024

 Ladies and Gentleman. . . .

. . .

WE'VE DONE IT!!!
Through the grace and mercy of the Lord, the Calgary Varsity Mandarin Branch has now become the Varsity Mandarin 

W A R D ! ! !

This transition took place in the looooongest sacrament meeting I've ever had (approx. 1.5 hours) and we have a new bishop now! Everyone's super excited about it! We're also hoping some of the other Elders don't quit doing missionary work after this. lol

The Lord really has a way with timing, too. Roda's son Ernest was the first baptism of the Mandarin ward, and one of the other Elders commented on how valuable children are in the eyes of God. I had the privilege of confirming Ernest a member! Very nerve-wracking, but very cool.

We asked a friend named Ryan to pray this week, and he said he felt as if someone was guiding him. That was pretty epic!

We went on a hike on Saturday with some members and friends to the Canyon Creek Ice Caves. It was Soooo long but really cool! I got a lot of Chinese practice, plus some caving practice.

Zone Conference happened this Wednesday, and I got some cool ideas from that. We were reading a lot in John 15 and discussing what the word “abide” means, and I realized that if you change one letter in the word it becomes “abode.” It made me think again about how both a temple and the sacrament represent Jesus Christ, the temple being His house or His “abode” and the sacrament being how we let Him “abide with us.”

This week I noticed what is perhaps the great miracle of the Calgary mission. We are soon saying goodbye to our good member Lucy, since she is moving back to China (and no, that's NOT the miracle). She came to Canada a year and a half ago, was baptized, and made further covenants in the temple within that time. The ward is helping her find a church building in China, just as we did with Mr. Zuo. So many others have been led to Canada to find the Tree of Life, and then led back to China to build up the congregations there. Thus, even in China, against the odds of restricted speech, the Gathering of Israel is continuing. Truly, nothing can stop the Lord from accomplishing His work and His glory.

I'm going to relay an invitation from our district leader to you all, and invite you to look for one small miracle or a tender mercy every day this week! Our prophet has emphasized how seeking and expecting miracles will make life better.

Keep it up everyone! Love you all! 爱你们！
–熊长老

Photos:

Ernest's Baptism

Pics from the hike (including The Tick! But not his fearless sidekick, Arthur)

Random pictures from walking around the week before

Our district celebration

"Let me introduce you to my little friend"

April 22, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

What a strange week! We started off the week struggling to contact a lot of our friends we’ve been teaching, and then we ended the week with 4 completely new friends coming to church and a lesson with 3 of them immediately after. So as you can imagine, church this week went like this: *Internal Screaming*

Here’s a quick update on the friends though:

    MingMing said she’s busy, and her son has got some stuff going on with band? She hasn’t been to church yet and couldn’t meet with us this last week, but we’re hoping she can meet and come to church this coming week.

    Jem is still on date for baptism and still doing good. She was out of town this weekend, but she’s making good progress towards baptism.

    We met with a young college student named Ryan, who’s reeeeeeeally shy but kept showing up to random stuff this week, so that’s a good sign!

    Liu and Lundy attended in-person English class and then said they’d come to church. Liu seems more interested, so we’re gonna meet with him more this week.


Other highlights of this week include Elder Tang made me a cake which was super nice! It was made from scratch, too! (The cake was not even a lie!)

In other news, we drove all over the place this week and now we have little to no kilometers left for this month, so this week is gonna be really exciting.

I've been thinking this week about prayer, and how there are blessings that God can grant us conditional on our praying for them (see Prayer in the Bible Dictionary). So this week, pray for something specific that you need, or something specific that you would like God to help you with. Then look for the small, detailed ways that He’ll answer your prayers. I promise God always does answer prayers, and as you pray for blessings we will receive them.

Aight, that's it today. Stay cool guys!

Love you all! 爱你们！

–熊长老

So There I Was . . .

[Title refers to the way Evan's Uncle Steve begins every story.]

April 15, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Things are getting warmer! It’s super nice! Maybe Canada believes in Spring after all!

Since being in the South, I’ve seen a bunch of people I’ve met before! While walking around SAIT campus I ran into Danny, a guy I met at a train station way in the northwest of Calgary. While handing out fliers at the supermarket I saw Miya, a lady to whom we gave a tour of our church. The biggest surprise though came last week on the day of transfers.

So there I was . . .  buying some small groceries for the weekend, when I saw Randy! Randy is a guy that I had seen a few weeks earlier when Elder Bigler and I decided to tract in a little neighborhood I hadn’t been to. We met him while walking back to the car and he seemed really down. In talking to him, we discovered that he had no money, no job, and was on his way to go beg for food at a convenience store. This is the part where I failed as a representative of Christ, and instead of doing something really loving like buying him a sandwich and eating dinner with him, I just got his number and told him God loved him. Real helpful. Fast forward to Walmart, I saw him in the aisles still begging. . . for some dog food? He had a job this time and just didn’t have enough to keep his dog going for another week until he got a paycheck, so we helped purchase some goods for him. (I got him that sandwich this time!) There are reasons we’re led to people more than once, and God knows exactly what’s needed. I now have a testimony that the Lord’s servants truly are being led by Him, especially when it’s hard to tell.

A BIG miracle from this week is our friend Ming Ming. 

So there I was . . . on lesson 2 with her, she told us she had been baptized in a different church on a whim based on a suggestion from a friend (oof). Kinda weird especially since she knew hardly anything about God or Jesus Christ. We then got a text a day or two later saying she looked up the Church and noticed how everyone was saying it’s an “Evil Cult,” but disagreed and said she wanted to keep meeting because she felt good. BUT THEN when we sent her the Prophet’s message, “Think Celestial,” she replied with THIS HUGE Golden Nugget of truth:

“Only in the Celestial kingdom can one inherit Eternal Life, while in the Telestial Kingdom one can only have immortality. That’s why it makes sense that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost are separate entities”

. . . . .to which, after picking my jaw off the floor, the only reaction I could articulate was “EYYYOOOOOOWHAAT!!!!”

I now have a stronger testimony that the Prophet truly speaks the word of the Lord, and His word will bring revelation, clarity, and strength to your life!

We went on a Hike this Saturday in Kananaskis! I discovered a few interesting things, such as just how much I missed mountains and how much more beautiful Canada is once you leave Calgary.  :P

We had Stake Conference this weekend, and boy was it wild! They pulled a fast one on us and switched up the Stake Presidency! I got to play the violin too!! It was a good time!

Reflecting a little bit back on last week, I invite all of you to find one thing you can do this week to bring the temple into your life. Something simple -- I, myself, am going to help clean our apartment today. I promise that as we do this we’ll experience more peace, the peace that comes from the Prince of Peace, Jesus Christ (See John 14:27).

Love you all! 爱你们！

–熊长老


Photos:
 

Some Pasta

Pics from the Hike

 

 

 

 

 

The weather. Neat.

Savior Redeemer of My Soul

"Savior Redeemer of My Soul"

April 14, 2024,  Calgary West Stake Conference

Trans-Conferential Railroad

April 8, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

How was conference? Any favorite talks? Any favorite conference jokes?

To everyone that sent me an email in the last little bit, Imma really try and get back to you...it may just take another 6-7 days since this was a challenging P-day for communication. Thus this email is going to be very small and dry… just like the climate of Alberta…except the small part.

Transfers were on Friday! After a good 6 months in the northwest of Calgary, it is time to say goodbye for just a minute, cuz I'm moving down south! I’m in a trio with Elder Scoresby and Elder Tang!!! They’re awesome! I’m still trying to get my stuff situated, but it’ll work out.

The work already seems really good! The south area has a lot of friends being taught, and a friend on date. Elder Scoresby also got someone to meet with us by cold-calling them on Facebook messenger! Wild!

Conference weekend was fun! We watched as a district at the church with all the sofas in the building put in one room. Our trio also went to Calgary Tower and got a bite to eat from the restaurant up there.

Soooo, y’all probably remember a lot of the stuff from conference, and if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t remember a lot more stuff from conference. They should be posting talks sometime soon, though, so stay tuned. I’m excited to re-read the words of the modern day prophet, President Russel M. Nelson. I’m really impressed with his words relating to the events of the Kirtland temple and the Priesthood keys given there, mainly the keys of the Gathering of Israel, the keys of the Gospel of Abraham, and the keys of the Sealing Power.

Today I’ll extend the same invitation President Nelson did, and invite you to read the dedicatory prayer of the Kirtland Temple offered by Joseph Smith (D&C 109) and consider

• how your life would be different without these keys, and
• how Christ manifests himself in your daily life.

The Prophet has stated that these keys mentioned in D&C 109 are evidence that God loves all of his children. I promise that as you read this section, you will gain a greater understanding of God's love and the benefits of the temple.

Have a week! Find yourself some good art, food, and music for me

Love you all! 爱你们！
–熊长老


Photos (good luck :)

[The new companionship: Elders Baer, Scoresby, and Tang]

[General Conference scene]

I got a call to be AP

1 April 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

HAPPY EASTER!!! How was everyone's Holiday? I hope it was not as snowy as ours.

Quick Friend Update: Ernest said he wants to be baptized next month! We helped him resolve a concern about the baptism water temperature. Evidently we filled the font too early for Roda’s baptism, so the water went cold for her, and she didn’t want Ernest to get sick after being immersed in cold water. We promised Ernest that God loves him and won’t let him get sick because of being baptized, and he seemed more relieved.

We had three new faces at church yesterday! The branch members were wonderful fellowshippers for new friends. One lady told us she really liked the atmosphere and the enthusiasm of the members.

We also had the longest lesson ever with a member who kept going off in Chinese about something. I think it was successful, though; the guy we taught seemed to feel more that God loved him.

...also April Fools! What you see in the subject line [being called as AP] definitely did not happen, don't worry.

Luke 24 has caught my attention with some cool scriptures regarding Christ’s resurrection. Shortly after Christ’s resurrection, He appeared and talked with two other disciples, on their way to Emmaus, who invited Him to stay for the evening. Only after He abided with them were their eyes opened to understanding that he was Jesus the Christ.

This week I invite you to think of one small thing you can do to let the Savior’s influence abide with you, and act on it. I, myself, am going to put a picture of the Savior somewhere recognizable in my apartment. I promise that as we let the savior “abide with us,” our eyes will be opened, and we will come to know him even better.

Have a great week! Love you all! 爱你们！
–熊长老


Photos:

Temple Pics from Tuesday 

Me making a dumb face in front of a mural 

Spring???

Holy Week Batman!

 March 25, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Happy Holy Week!    

Yesterday was Palm Sunday! Did anyone do anything cool? Read any cool scriptures? Listen to any cool talks? Eat any good food?

Our Palm Sunday was really good! We had two new faces show up to a linger-longer, as you will see:

We met a man named Steve while expanding our tactics at the train stations. He didn't speak a lick of English, but he did come to church on Sunday! He had a ton of questions which I didn't understand, but luckily Elder Tang helped me out. We also taught a lesson to a new friend that the south Elders had met. Somehow, we were assigned to give her an English evaluation, and then we were able to teach her a lesson, and then we saw her at church!

The members were really awesome this week! We had several members talking with these new friends at church and giving rides to some as well! We also had a member volunteer to visit a part member family that hadn't been to church in a long time! The Branch is doing cool stuff!

Ernest said he has been sharing the Illustrated Book of Mormon Stories book with the neighbor kids in the house. He also said he experienced some opposition while doing so, as one of the girls kept interrupting him (I think the struggles children face are often very similar to the ones adults do—mortality is the same no matter what age you are). It’s still incredible how he’s sharing the gospel as a 10-year-old! 

I’ve been thinking about how “Palm Sunday” is a cool name for the day commemorating Christ’s entrance into Jerusalem. Perhaps it’s been said a lot before, but I think it references the cool connection between the palm leaves and the palms of His hands. Just as the palm leaves were placed to provide a way for Christ to enter the holy city of Jerusalem, the marks in His palms are a reminder of the way provided for us to enter the holy presence of God. Palms provide the way for progression.

The rest of this week is Holy Week! This is a wonderful opportunity to study the life of the Savior, especially the events leading up to His atonement, crucifixion, and resurrection. The Church has provided an Easter Study guide that you can look at as well! This week I’d invite y’all to study something in the scriptures about the life of Christ and then do something that He would do. (I’ve stumbled and fallen some on my “no criticism” goal, but I’m gonna retry this week! 6 days! no sweat!) As we keep our focus on Christ this week, we can find a little more joy and meaning even in the mundane routine.

Easter is in 6 days!! Have a fantastic week! Enjoy the surprises that God gives you!

Love you all! 爱你们！

–熊长老

Photos:

 

Welcome Spring :P

Gem from Personal Study

Seniores Donair Pizza with the gang Elders

Costco’s “Vladmir Poutine” as I now call it due to the war crimes it committed against my bowels. Definitely Canada's Greatest Prank so far

The Grind Don't Stop

 3/18/2024

Happy Saint Patrick’s Day yesterday!

Was I the only one who forgot? I feel really bad, I usually look forward to this one a lot. There’s some great music you can find for St. Patty's.

What a Crazy Week!


Quick update on our teaching pool:

    Fred’s baptism had to be moved again since we haven’t taught him the Word of Wisdom yet, so we gotta make sure he’s good to keep that for a couple weeks. He’s making great progress, though, and seems slightly more open and relaxed every time we meet with him!

    Roda brought a friend to church who’s renting in the same house. He’s been in Calgary for 1 week and he’s trying to find a job so he can stay as long as he can. He was very interested in our English class.

    Ernest is awesome, as always.


We had a lot of time at home on Tuesday. I almost burned the house down trying to make cookies. Didn’t know that the butter wrapper had metal on the inside. *gulp*

Wednesday was Zone Conference! Brought to you by the Mandarin District. We set up all the tables and chairs, we provided the musical number, and Elder Liu was playing piano for all the hymns. We had to leave early for some service to help the Orthodox Church move some pallets of food (the wooden kind, not the appetite kind) but they had done it all before we got there. (Fake News strikes again!) Regardless, this was perhaps one of the most thoroughly enjoyable days this month. We talked about baptism and the covenants and blessings associated with it, which was very simple and pretty easy to understand. Then there was a whole section on Companion Unity which was SOO good and exactly what I was looking for!

Then a cool miracle happened after Zone Conference! Our Mission President spoke earlier that day about how every effort is magnified by the Lord, no matter how great or how small. My companion said he wanted to go hang up fliers so we did that. I was feeling a little discouraged and was praying that our small efforts would be magnified. A few minutes later we got a call that the weekly in-person ESL [English class] needed Mandarin missionaries to come quickly, so we drove back down to the chapel. As we were walking across the parking lot we saw this guy walking our way, and we told him about our classes and asked him if he wanted to see what was going on inside the church. . . and he said YES! One of the Bishops got his number too!

We had an exchange with the zone leaders on Friday. I was with Elder Horseley who used to be in the Mandarin District! We were grinding some finding at the train stations. I also saw JingJian! He came to church a few times in November, and I was thinking about him a lot recently, and then he showed up to the T&T when we were handing out fliers! It was so cool to see him again!

Yesterday involved even more tracting. There was a cool moment, though, where a girl answered the door, and we didn’t know how old she was, so we just started saying the usual stuff. She wasn’t interested in church, but was really interested in the Book of Mormon, despite her dad telling us to go away from upstairs. Super cool.

Remember last week when I was talking about fasting from criticism? I had an epiphany on Tuesday that self-criticism can be, perhaps, just as poisonous. The devil’s ambitions are to make men and women miserable like he is. Criticism is an easy way to become miserable, whether by fostering anger toward others or by demolishing our own divine, inherent worth. So I'm continuing my fast these next few days, and I'm putting self-criticism on the altar as well. Feel free to join! If you can, find something you like about yourself every day this week and give God a quick thanks. When you start to see how valuable you are to your Father in Heaven, you will be able to help your peers see it too. Or in St. Patrick's Day terms: once you get the snakes out of your island, the grass will seem a lot greener. 

(yup. that's a grood anagoly :] )


I, unfortunately, didn't put many good scripture references in this time, but feel free to find some yourself! Y'all are awesome!

爱你们!

–熊长老 (Elder Baer)


Photos:

Elder Bigler and I last P-day “up the river”

 Sunrise

 Zone Conference

 Chinese Crepes that a member bought us! 非常好吃！

 Monkey see, Monkey do

Down By the Riverside

 [Title refers to this folk song.]

3/11/2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!


*Quick tangent time*

Not gonna lie everyone. . . looking back, this week was incredibly difficult; perhaps among the most difficult weeks I’ve had (with the exception of finals week, of course :P). Study and experience remind me, though, that these periods are crucial for our joy and well being. This is when we grow the most. This is when we do the uncomfortable in order to experience greater comfort.
. . .mmmokaythanksthatsalltheendamen.

I hope everyone else had a fantastic week, though! The weather's been super warm in Calgary which has been cool. We're getting a ton more sunshine now which is super nice! Or, at least, we were. (Confound you, Daylight Savings!)

Experiences from this week:

Fred finally returned our call on Sunday! We hadn’t had a lot of response from him this week, but he answered yesterday, and we’ve got an opportunity to teach him this week. I’ve stumbled a little bit in my worry for him, but my companion has helped me remember to have hope and faith.

We got lectured by two different people this week! Both happened shortly after we gave them a copy of the Book of Mormon, and both responses were that Elder Bigler and I need to read the Quran. I honestly think it would be a cool experiment to read and pray about it’s truthfulness, just like I do with the Book of Mormon, and see what answer comes to heart. One guy told us, though, that the English translation doesn’t do justice to the original Arabic, which makes me really grateful that the Lord has allowed the record of the Ancient Americas for “all nations, kindreds, tongues, and people” to receive revelation.”

Cool Tender Mercy! A great song came to mind several times that I’ve been whistling and singing during rough moments. American Spiritual “Down by the Riverside” has a surprisingly uplifting tune and some simple yet profound lyrics, implying themes of baptism and the Atonement of Jesus Christ. (The Spirit was so nice as to remind me of that!)

Easter is in 20 days! Surprise! On a related note to the point above, I’ve made a new challenge for myself, now that we’re halfway through Lent (aka prep-season). My challenge is to go these next 20 days without saying a word of criticism. No pointing out flaws. No “talking smack” about anyone. Our prophet, President Nelson, said this perfectly, “‘If there is anything virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy’ that we can say about another person—whether to his face or behind her back—that should be our standard of communication.” Looking back over this email, I can see there’s already a long ways to go (apologies, Daylight Savings), and there’s gonna be some mistakes, but it is possible! I extend the same invitation to all of you beloved fellow friends, to join me these next 20 days in “fasting” from words of criticism and laying them down by the riverside. The great promises of peace and good cheer will be fulfilled as we do this.

Stay awesome!

爱你们!

–熊长老


Photos:

Post DCM study group???

Chinook arch? Or just March I dunno.

"Youuu got to gooo dig those holes"

[Title refers to this song from the movie Holes.]

3/4/2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

It’s March Already! Crazy how that happens!

Remember that time that I was mocking the snow in Logan? I spoke too soon. The weather was about -15 Celsius and somehow still managed about 7 inches of snow! On Saturday afternoon we had planned to hand out some fliers, however we could see that that wasn’t going to happen with the storm we were experiencing. (I wish I had a picture of a phantom car or two we saw on the side of the road. . . scary.) Instead, we decided to drive around a neighborhood and see who was shoveling and then hop out and help them. Boy, was it a lot of shoveling! (I had the holes soundtrack playing in my head the whole time. . . odd.) That then gave us an opportunity to place two Chinese copies of the Book of Mormon!

We had some member meals this week!! (miracles do happen) I tried Hot Pot for the first time! A retired couple in the branch made a bunch of stuff for us to try Hot Pot, and it seemed pretty cool. It’s a lot like pho that you make for yourself at the dinner table. We had a meal that was about a half hour north of us in Airdrie, but it was surprisingly nice to get out of Calgary. I never knew I would miss empty fields of cows and hay that much.

This is usually the part where I would write some inspiring scripture message or some cool invitation that’s helped me be happier. . .Today it’s more of a rant on an earlier idea. Remember when I was talking about action/inaction a few months ago? Well I’m pretty darn sure now action is always better than inaction. Inaction most often seems to give up our agency, our God-given right to choose. The thing I think causes inaction the most is worry and fear. The devil is the greatest proponent of fear, and God is most often inviting us to combat “What if” with frequent direction to “Fear Not.” The phrase  “take no thought” from Christ’s Sermon on the Mount has been on my mind lately in relation to worrying or anxiety as we would call it now. I’ve always had the tendency to worry, perhaps thinking that more concern would prevent bad circumstances from happening. But that rarely actually helps. What does help is having confidence -- having faith (an attribute that implies action). As Christ said, we “cannot add one cubit” to our situation by “taking thought” or worrying about something, the only thing worry does is make us unhappy. I’m hoping to internalize this a little more and take more steps to develop faith instead of anxiety. I’d invite y’all next time you’re in a “But what if…” situation, say a little prayer to gain some confidence and faith to say, “No worries, It’ll be okay.”

A Story by Elder Baer. You’re Welcome. Stay cool everyone! Enjoy some 27 Days ‘till Easter!

爱你们!

–熊长老


Photos:

Dinner up north 

Blurry photographic evidence of the white witch continuing her magic

Last week's finalists on Survivor  [referring to the branch hike to Nose Park Hill - see last week's post]

🎶We've Got to Make it Through the Winter🎶

[Title references the song from Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.]

February 26, 2024

The winter up here has been really warm actually, There’s a lot less snow than I hear there is in Logan (count your blessings :P )

大家好！Hey Everyone!

Yet another 168 hours in Canada gone by, in which I learned that I am going to be training Elder Bigler another 6 weeks. He’s pretty lucky he gets to tolerate me for another few weeks :P 

Some wild stuff happened this week though:

Our friend Fred got a job interview! …He hasn’t heard back yet, but we’re hoping for some good news.

We had a couple people check out the Church! Responses varied, ranging from “Where can I get some scriptures to read” to “I need to pick up my…uh…I gotta go” It’s amazing how the influence of the spirit is different for everyone. lol

We had some exciting dinners this week. We drove 2,000 leagues south to the Branch Mission Leader’s house where a different member was invited over to cook. I then got grilled by the cook about my Chinese, my confidence, and… how young I am??? weird.

Our branch planned a hike at Nose Hill Park (you heard me right) on Saturday morning. We started off with about 25 people. 30 minutes later we had 6 branch members and 3 missionaries who were still hiking. It was worth it though and made for a great excuse to get hot chocolate from “Timothy's.”

Thursday was really eventful (as you shall soon see). Thursday evening we pulled into the church and saw two trucks with guys organizing stuff. We asked if we could help and they instead gave us a bunch of food to take home. Cool blessings I suppose!

–Everyone buckle up. It's about to get Ca-razy up in here–

We got an emergency call on Thursday to make a visit to the children’s hospital and give a blessing. The situation was really frightening—a fourteen year old girl had OD’d in an attempted suicide and was still in limbo between life and death. Elder Bigler and I gave her a blessing (This was his first time saying one in the mission!), as well as her step mom who was looking after her and relayed to us a lot of crazy history about family trauma related to parental drug use.
…
On Saturday we received notice that she was awake!!! We were told she still had some off-perceptions of reality, but she was able to eat and drink. I was impacted by two really important truths from this:

• Never EVER do anything to give up the great gift of life that your loving Father in Heaven has given you. The “slings and arrows” of life can be excruciating, but God has promised incredible blessings as we Endure to the End (D&C 63:20)
• The authority of the priesthood has real power to enable the will of God to take place on Earth. This power, when truly experienced, is substantial proof that Christ's original church has been restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith – no other church can claim this same authority. What a great gift that God has given to bless his sons and daughters.

That's it, thanks for flying “Baer Canada” Hope to have you aboard again soon!
爱你们!

–熊长老


Photos:

Yesterday's dinner (Anime filter included)

Carrots

 

Us finishing street contacting at the UofC

 

Ginormous "Buffalo" chip

 

food from Thursday