[Title references this Kid History clip.]
大家好！Hello friends!
I’m afraid to inform you that the more time that passes in the mission, the less engaging my emails will tend to be. The good news is that before you can say "Fiddlesticks," I'll be able to have a real conversation with you. But for now, here's a cool epiphany I had this week and then some cool stuff that happened:
For a while I had this question on my mind, “Why do we need to ask for God's forgiveness?” God wants us to learn and grow and to choose that which is good, so aren't mistakes part of the learning process? Here's what I discovered:
Forgiveness heals the pain of Guilt or Shame.
Our lives are as if we are playing piano and constantly holding down the sustain pedal. Somehow all of our mistakes, good or bad, stay with us in our history and the memories of others, like how the notes of the piano are sustained. What Jesus Christ offers is a way to clear the sustain pedal to purify our souls and our music. When the pedal is cleared, the Great Teacher remembers the wrong notes no more. Whether it be the mists of darkness in sin or simply the veil that prevents the clarity of Godly thinking (“through a glass darkly”), when we ask for forgiveness from God and from others, we can receive true healing and clarity in our lives. So this week try and ask God for forgiveness in all your prayers, and see if that isn't true.
Anyways here's some other fun stuff that happened this week:
- Fay-Ann came to church! We met her for the first time this week, and we had an epic lesson! I was on an exchange with Elder White, who is from the Navajo Nation, and she is from the Siksika reserve here, where he served for 18 months. We also might not be hearing much about her anymore since she lives out of our area, so we need to pass her to a different ward.
- Margaret did not come to church ☹️ but she did come to a church tour! She had some cool questions, and she's the first person I've met who is Catholic and also somewhat willing to learn about the Church.
- Stopped by a member who said, “I would love to see Brother Verboom at church again soon.” Then we stopped by Brother Verboom, and he said, “I've been getting several impressions lately, and…it's time I come back to church.” God is brilliant in the way he leads his work, isn't he?
- Did a bunch of service on Saturday and got to eat some Chilean hot dogs!
- Elder Neff has some nifty tricks with the yo-yo, so a member had us for dinner and asked him to bring it. Little did we know he was the yo-yo MASTER!
Lastly here is this quote to chew on for a minute: “Never has the neighbor suffered so much since mankind got it into his head to save the world” ….don't feel like you need to save the world. Jesus already did that! All you need to do is love God and direct His love to someone.
Stay cool everyone! Love you all!
Elder Baer 熊长老
照片：
https://photos.app.goo.gl/yBaTy1Mc3BcoogrG6
Completos from Franny, our favorite Chilean member
“But the yo yo master did not stop, he just kept on yo-ing”
Elder Morell backing a car through two other cars between exchanges
Exchange pics (some still to come)
.jpg)
.JPG)
CoOl fiELd
.jpeg)
