And the Crowd Goes Wild!

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

We are experiencing a lot of grief and loss in the mission currently. Elder Liu has "died." He has gone the way of all the earth, Taiwan in particular. I'm gonna miss him. Our Mission President is also "on his deathbed," and will go back to Utah on Tuesday. He will be succeeded by a certain “President Barth,” whom we have yet to meet. We hope he eventually becomes as awesome as our last mission pres.

Elder Scoresby and I went street contacting a lot this week. We had an funny time once when we passed by this beggar with a cardboard sign and everything, who suddenly started shouting that we and all the church members are pedophiles, as well as some other nasty stuff involving shotguns. It was hilarious! I feel sorta bad for the guy as well, he was really shooting himself in the foot there.

Transfers happened this week! I'm back in the northwest area—the apartment I've been in most of my mission. Hooray and what not! I'm also with Elder Labrum again who finished my training. I also basically got called out at transfers when the Mission pres. said these words:  “Some of you are moving back to old areas. Some of you even have old companions again. Know that even though things may look familiar, this transfer will be a different experience.”

… and boy oh boy has it already been different because of this:

¡¡¡INSANE MIRACLE ON SUNDAY!!! 👇

So there I was… on my way to church, and Elder Labrum told me he found this guy named Sam when talking to people at the public transit stations. Sam met once earlier in the week and then came to church, and he seemed super stoked to be there. We snuck in a little lesson at the end about the gospel of Jesus Christ, and God was so generous as to give me a very fitting basketball analogy** that he understood very well. When we got to point #3 about baptism, we had a member explain and show him the font. That's when he shook us with, “So when can I get baptized?” So SAM IS NOW ON DATE to be baptized in mid-July!!!!!

**This is the extended, thought-out edition of the basketball analogy, aka “The Gospel, as told by Michael, Magic, Larry, and Jon”:

• God is the coach. His winning streak has no beginning and is without end. He has put us on the court to become basketball players. We get to choose what kind of player we want to be. But if we want to be an NBA All-star, here are the steps we need to take so we can be champs:
• Have faith in the coach. He knows how to win, He's got the perfect game plan. Trust the coach and follow what He says.
• Practice. The coach asks that we practice. We'll frequently miss shots, passes, and rebounds, but the coach will help us improve as we practice. (Or as Michael would say, “Stop it, get some help.”)
• You can't be in the NBA if you're not on the team. Sure, some of us may know the coach pretty well. Some of us might’ve practiced on a few Sunday afternoons. But all that practice won't amount to as much unless we try out for his team. And the great news is no one gets cut from God's team!
• Get a Jersey! The Jersey reminds us whose team we're on, it helps us get the words of the coach in our heads all the time. When you're on the team, you can hear what the coach is saying all the time, not just on Sunday afternoons.
• Repeat. Keep trusting the coach. Keep practicing. Don't quit the team. Play worthy of the Jersey. March Madness is stressful and the opposing team is in everyone's brackets, but remember the coach’s game plan! Remember how happy you'll be when the buzzer-beater shot is made, and the coach and all the retired players in the bleachers storm the court with him—for in the coach's case are many trophies, and there is a place prepared for one with your name on it.

That's it for this week! Stay cool everyone! Literally though, It's getting mighty hot this time of year!

Love you all! 爱你们！

-熊长老


照片： 

park job

Calgary Tower

 

 

 

 

 

 

Crazy

19 June 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Wowza! I reeeeeally gotta be getting these out sooner! My sincere apologies to everyone for the lack of good communication and response.

'Aight, so I forgot to share something last week that is actually really miraculous in hindsight, so behold!

One day we found we had an extra hour in the afternoon and decided to huck a street contact. We waved down this lady who didn't speak hardly any English, so we asked the classic “Where are you from?” to which she replied “Moose Jaw.” After a moment of scratching my head and wondering, “Where in China is there a place called Moose Jaw?” we gave her a Book of Mormon and wrote down her last name “Wang" and what wasn't a super valid phone number. BUT! We discovered a few days later a curious correlation! We got a referral sent to us over two weeks ago by some Elders in Saskatchewan, who said the person they were teaching was stopping in Calgary before going back to China. We had called a bunch with no successful contact. On another glance at the referral, we saw that the name provided was Yang Wang which came from Elders serving in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan! We're still not able to contact her successfully, but she's got a Book of Mormon now, which I'm confident will come into play later.

As far as the past few days, it was wild as always. Some older couple living just outside of Calgary offered to feed a bunch of missionaries on Thursday. I think they must've discovered some gnarly buried treasure somewhere: they had a massive house with a ton of stuff. The guy feeding us was showing us his garage of all these jigsaw puzzles he had done, and when one Elder said “Woah! Where did you get this Ferrari!” he replied “Oh, that old thing?”

Crazy.

Companionship Update: My companion and I have now become Lamanites after bringing upon ourselves the mark of Wahl (Alma 3:4). . . I don't feel like talking about it a bunch, but just be aware some of these pictures you see may look different for a minute.

I don’t have a great spiritual thought this week, but I’ve been looking at some Chinese characters I think have really cool meanings. Check it out (you may need to zoom in to see)

聖 = Holy (耳 = ear/to hear, 口 = mouth, 王 = king, Lord ⇒ Hear the Words of the Lord)

望 = Hope (亡 = death, 月 = the moon/month/cycle/rebirth, 王 = Lord ⇒ The Lord of Death and Resurrection)

耶稣基督 - Jesus Christ

 耶 - transliteration, has the same character for hear 耳

 穌 - revive (魚 = fish, 禾 = grain)

 基 - foundation (其 = his/theirs, 士 = earth/soil)

 督 - direct/oversee (叔 = father’s relative/younger brother, 目 = eye/gaze/see)

(Personal translation) 耶稣基督 ⇒ Hear Him who is risen, who works miracles, our cornerstone, our foundation; look to the beloved Son of God

If you would like, take a look in some scriptures and look for a new pattern. Patterns help us better understand truth.

Stay cool Everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！

-熊长老

 

Photos:

Last pic with the Mission Pres 

[The president and his wife have completed their mission]

A slice of scripture?

Ferrari 

 

sad hair day

 

Elder Scoresby at Peace Bridge

 

 

 

 

Thirsty as a Jackrabbit in July!

 [Title probably references this clip from Rango.]

12 June 2024

Supplies! Wednesday P-day again!

 Updates with friends this week:

• We think our friend Liu could be close to accepting baptism! He’s been invited a couple times, and he's pretty hesitant. He's got a lot of secondary questions that he's been wading through, but we're really hoping he decides to put his faith in the more important principles. Please pray for him!

• We met with Lilian, a regular student of English class, for the first time, as well as her husband. Her husband told us he had been researching a lot of religions and hoped to tell us about them. We had a very short lesson about God and about prayer, but wow it was very Spirit-led! We're meeting with them again tomorrow IN PERSON!!!

Last Wednesday was Zone Conference, and the chapel we met at was about 3 blocks from our house, so we walked! It was great fun! It felt so unusual walking that much, I had to check my tag to make sure it still had Mandarin on it.

Last Thursday or sometime, we went a-walking downtown and ran into this guy who wanted to “““ask us a question,””” which was code for lecturing us that there are many false Christs spreading the Devil's word these days, and so the only way our soul can truly be saved in Heaven is by turning to Jesus and condemning all religion of any kind. . . .  Interesting take. Almost as interesting as his last point about how we worshiped Joseph Smith (classic). He was talking for a very long time but that provided me with a fantastic opportunity to silently pray for him (gottem :])).

Around last Friday we heard about a big water line inCalgary that broke, and now Calgary's water supply is at critical levels in some areas of the city. Then we also received a notice on Sunday from the Mission President that all baptisms were to be postponed until further notice. . . .  I don't know how that's gonna ride with the whole "every companionship should baptize in June" ambition, but I have faith that God will either help us work towards and receive a miracle or that he will help us out in some other aspects of the work.

Today we went to THE TEMPLE!!! I've noticed a pattern in the most divinely appointed sources, that even though the experience can be the same, there is always something to be learned. The words of the scriptures and other great books can be read over and over again, and there will always be something new you can learn. Truly great music can be heard over and over again, but there will always be something new you can discover during each listen. When going to the temple you can always perform the same ordinances as before, but no matter how many times you go, God will always reveal something new to you. I invite you all to pick something edifying you've seen, heard, read, witnessed, or experienced before, and try it again! Notice what you learn this time around knowing that “repetition legitimizes" a

[Editor's note:  we may never know.]

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老

照片

sunsets

Contacting in Public

Walking to Zone Conference

Mendelssohn!?!?

Dinner with our recent Convert friend Jem at the Canadian equivalent of Olive Garden

What are you doing here?

3 June 2024 

[Title references this SNL sketch.]

在一起，所以阿尔玛看到自己的弟兄时非常高兴；更令他高兴的是，他们仍是他主内的弟兄，而且他们更了解真理了，因为他们的理解力很强，且都努力

–阿尔玛书17:2

The above is an excerpt from Alma Chapter 17 verse 2. I had a miraculous experience this last Tuesday that reminded me a lot of this scripture. So there I was, ordering a Vietnamese sub sandwich downtown shortly after our District Council Meeting, and one of the other Elders suggested we walk across the street while we wait for our sandwich and take a picture by a big mirror they had there. As we walk over there, we see a big group of people, and one guy turns around and says, “Hey, It’s the missionaries!” To which I eloquently replied, “Well HellooooooaaauuuuuuuuuughhhhaaaaAaAAAAAAAAAA-I-KNOW-YOU!!!!” Suddenly in front of me were several friends [from home] of several different ages and previously different social circles all congregated in Calgary!!!! I am now convinced that Calgary has gotta be up there among one of the best cities ever…for the time being.  [Prophetic!  It's in the top 100.]

Other people we met this week include Wenjia, an actually legit referral from the sister missionaries! He has shown some great interest in the church, and I hope we haven’t scared him off yet. He came to church this week, as did our friend Wendy, whom we are now teaching every Thursday night after class! We invited our friend Liu to be baptized, and he said he needed some more time, so we invited him to pray about it. We hope he is willing to set a baptism goal with us this week. On a completely unrelated note, the mission has now set a goal for every companionship to baptize in the month of June. . . . Kinda daunting, but super cool! Knowing the kind of companion Elder Scoresby is, and how he’s whipped me into shape, I think with the Lord’s help we can do it!

We hosted a little party for our English class students on Saturday! It went well. I would’ve liked a little more time to talk 1-on-1 with more students and spike some interest in church, but I suppose the games and fun was tolerable as well. (We all know you can’t be having too much fun out here😉)

Over the past week our district focused on gratitude, and I’ll be really honest:  my focus kept shifting in and out a lot, but overall I thought more about gratitude this week than I have in previous weeks. It was great! Our geliebten/beloved Apostle Elder Uchtdorf recently shared some great wisdom in General Conference regarding the phrase “seek and ye shall find.” When we express Gratitude we are really seeking that which is “virtuous, lovely, or of good report or praiseworthy,” and we develop more of these attributes in our own lives. This week I invite you to say a prayer of just gratitude every day, and take notice of how you feel. Also a bonus invitation—go 24 hours without complaining about anything. I know that the less we focus on things that are out of our control, the more we can take action towards things that are in our control. I know that God brings forth great blessings to those who are grateful.

Most of all I'm super grateful for all of you--my friends, my family--and for all you've done for me!

Stay cool Everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老

Serendipity

28 May 2024

What are the chances!?!  An encounter with family friends on the streets of Calgary. 

(Each is connected to the other two in different ways -- discovering that is half of the surprise in the photo!)

Marisa, Elder Baer, Lauren

Two Times Devoured

[Title refers to this clip from "Horton Hears a Who."]

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Is school already out? Or almost out? Get this, the schools in Canada don't start summer break until the end of June! 💀 Crazy!

This week our district launched our reorganized online English class, and boy it's been a lot of work. We're doing about 1½ hours every day of some sort of class-related work, whether it's teaching the class, holding 1-on-1 lessons, contacting students, or grading homework we give them (gross). Even with all of this it's looking to be very successful — as a district we had 7 friends come to church, and most of them came as a result of our recent class revisions.

Tuesday was a bit crazy. Our Mission President came to DCM and gave us all interviews afterward. One of the Elders persuaded the Mission President and his wife to take us out to dinner that evening. It was great . . . except for the part where we also had a scheduled member dinner as well as a 1-on-1 lesson. Miraculously, we managed to make all of them by chowing down food at untold speeds as well as receiving many a “check your speed” warning from the car. It was a great 1-time experience (hopefully 🙏).

A cool miracle happened on Wednesday! We showed up to the in-person English class on Wednesday and Elder Scoresby and I had 4 people in our room. Our English lesson went well, and then right as we were about to end our friend Lundy asked a question in Mandarin along the lines of, “If Christians have such high expectations, how do you meet up to that when you make mistakes?” That got us talking about repentance and about the need for a Christ. At about that time everyone in the room was begging to learn more, and before we knew it we were teaching the whole Restoration to four different people! Elder Scoresby said he had never spoken such good Chinese as in that hour! This also led to a good lesson with our friend Liu!

Saturday brought us a wonderful opportunity to go hiking with some friends and members in BANFF!!!! It was good. I got to share a little bit of gospel, I learned all about Tibetan burial rituals for monks, and we got a bunch of good pictures. We also found a great Indian buffet for really cheap right after the hike! It was awesome . . . except for the part where we also had a scheduled member dinner right after that. (Not a 1-time experience I guess, it just keeps happening!!)

I've been thinking a lot this week about a synonym of faith: confidence. This week I learned that the more confident we are, the better our relationship with others is. If we are not “assertive,” so to speak, we may tend to become far more passive or aggressive—little confidence may lead us to compare ourselves and put others down, or we may tend to put ourselves down. When we have complete faith in ourselves, our worth and our abilities, we also gain great faith in others. The best way we develop faith in ourselves is by growing putting faith in Jesus Christ and taking actions to become like him. My invitation this week is a little vague, but I invite you all to find a small opportunity to build or share your faith, and notice what happens as consequence. I know that as we have confidence in God, our confidence and love in ourselves and in others increases.

Stay cool everyone! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老

Photos

Dinner with the Mission President

An extremely entertaining moment in the car

Hiking + Banff photos in no particular order

Chapter 41, In Which Elder Baer Spends an Obscene Amount of Time at the Church Building and Experiences Some Changes Within the Work

20 May 2024

 大家好！Hey Everyone!

Everyone surviving alright? I hope so! Prayers to you if you're going through it right now! Hopefully the weather is at least treating you alright.

Big Highlight of the week:
Our friend Jem GOT BAPTIZED!!!!! It was an extremely chaotic baptism if you can believe it, and the new bishop of the ward mentioned a lot of ways we could improve our missionary-member coordination, but overall it was successful. It was also a little because of Highlight of the week #2 which is…

Transfers Happened! Unfortunately, Elder Tang is leaving the trio :( But I am staying in the South of Calgary with Elder Scoresby! It’s also a 5 week transfer, so we’re about to go crazy with the work!

Highlight #3 (If you can call it a highlight): We’ve been doing h*cka English class slides to prep for a transition into a more “serious” English class. We’ve been at the church basically all the time just prepping stuff. It’s also exciting, because I get to do more phone calls—something I do not thoroughly enjoy but is kinda necessary for my development as a human being. Growth is a good thing, painful but good.

Fun fact, I had an out-of-body inception moment this morning. I took a nap and dreamed that I walked to the living room, and fell asleep, and started almost dreaming about some rock band going on. Once I woke up from my living room nap, I meandered back into bed so I could wake up from my bedroom nap. . . weird. Story by Elder Baer, you're welcome.

There’s been a little debate among our district about the idea of revelation—how much of the missionary standards are inspired, how much of the prophet’s words are inspired, etc. Last week I decided that rather than argue my opinion with others, I can find a witness for myself through some prayer and some faith. . . and over the course of the week I forgot to do that (oops). But I’m re-committing myself to do that this week! I’d invite all of you to follow the guidance of James 1:5 with me and “ask of God” about some wisdom you might be lacking. I know for a fact that God always answers prayers, and that those who diligently seek will always find, according to God's timing.

Stay cool Everyone! Love you all!
爱你们！

–熊长老



照片

English class slides

A sign of God's Covenant

Snow

Mega Catan

Member meal

Jem's Baptism

"I'm not dead yet"

[Title references this scene from Monty Python and the Holy Grail.]

May 13, 2024

大家好！Hey Everyone!

You'll never guess what happened this week. . .

My companions and I got Covid! :P So naturally, this week was not our most productive week, but it might have been our least productive. It was alright though. It left me a Lotttt of time to study the scriptures and to play the violin!

I made a crazy discovery while reading the Book of Mormon! There's a big chiasmus in 2 Nephi 4 verses 17-35 inclusive! For anyone who is unfamiliar with the term, this article has some great explanations and examples of what I'd call a poetic mirror sandwich. Here's the pattern I found:

A) “nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted”

B) “why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow…

C) “and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?”

D) “Why am I angry because of mine enemy?”

E) “Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin…

-

E) “Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul”

D) “Do not anger again because of mine enemies…

C) “Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions”

B) “Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord…yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.”

A) “O Lord, I have trusted in thee, and I will trust in thee forever”

What a powerful way to write! Nephi builds up a series of questions and problems he faces that all lead up to this turning point: “Rejoice,” and these questions are now put in a higher perspective.

Now there's a lot I missed in here, so if any of you are looking for a puzzle or a challenge, I'd invite you to to read 2 Nephi 4 and see if you can find more matching parts of this chiasmus. You can also turn to your favorite passage of scripture and look for patterns like this as well.

For those of you who haven't been blessed with as much time to study, I'd invite you help someone out this week! After a week of bumming around I'm finally starting to see more than before how service is the best way to find purpose and happiness. (Thanks to my mom and my grandparents for helping me learn that producing is a higher joy than consuming - always). So go do something cool for a friend, a family member, or a stranger!

Hope you all have a fantastic week and find a lot of joy! Love you all!

爱你们！

–熊长老



Photos:

Chiasmus

Me being sick

Cool Sunset

Less cool attempt at seeing Aurora Borealis

[Note: A newer phone camera would probably have done the trick, but you can still see hints of the magenta and green coloring from the solar storm in the edges of the lens flare.]