WEEK 17 - Restraining Order

Before my mission I heard a lot of people say "my biggest regret of my mission is that I didn't treat my companions as nicely as I should've." When I first got to the MTC I was literally given the GOAT companion at the start, my boy Elder Francom. Not only was he amazing, but the other missionaries in my district were literally celestial beings. I haven't heard from many of them, but I straight up wouldn't be surprised to hear that they have been exalted already (I love you guys). At the MTC me and the boys of the district did not throughouly grasp the rules of being a missionary, so we were all pretty much companions and it was wonderful. If someone wasn't feeling it and wanted to stay at the dorm we, would totally just be like "COMP SWAP!" or we would just straight up leave them behind completely alone and go on our merry way, and literally no one thought twice haha. Ah those were the days. Being around these people 24/7 was sooooo easy, and I thought back to people telling me how they wish they had treated their companions better, and I was like "dang they must not be very good people, this is easy" And then I entered the mission field, and learned that that is one of the hardest parts of being a missionary. Being with someone who you have nothing in common with other than gender, judasssss that is a challenge compared to my situation at the MTC. I have literally been welded (shoutout nick) to this man for more than 3 months now, and last week it was starting to take a toll on me. We'd get home from our vigorous missionary labors (which consisted of me spreading the gospel to other people, and Elder Campell being a absolute chatter box to only me and no one else) at 9 PM and I would let him use the bathroom and get ready for bed. By 910 the bathroom was mine and I would take a nice peaceful spider man bubble bath till 1020 and by then Elder Campbell would be zonked. One night I was sitting in my nice bubble bath and I thought to myself "How does Jesus see this man? If Jesus had the opportunity to have 3 months alone with Elder Campbell would he take it? Would he enjoy listening to random league of legends and missionary statistic facts all day? Would he be out talking to Elder Campbell right now, or would he be sitting in this nice peaceful bath void of random general handbook facts?" The answer is clear, he would do whatever to help Elder Campbell becuase he loves him and that means he would not be sheltering himself in a spider man bubble bath. And is that not why I am out here? To be a friend and a blessing to those who need it? This spiritual thought is for all of you in a similar situation to me, and even to those who are not. Sometimes sacrifing our own comfort to help those in need is the best thing we could do. I want every companion I have to look at me and be like "dang that guy is my best friend." I think I have done that with Elder Campbell, but I was just getting warn out, but anyways moral of the story: treat everyone with all of the love you have no matter how hard it is beacuse that is what Jesus would do. To the 10 people who made it through that I say unto you: shalom, and welcome to the email. This week was so good let me elaborate: - Earlier in the week we had a lesson with our elderly grandma chinese friend Zu Wei. She currently is a member of another church, but we will definetly see about that. Ever since the weather dropped below 70 degrees the chinese people in our branch have decided that it is now to cold to maintian human life, so we have this new thing in our branch where like nobody likes to help with lessons anymore, and it has been a burden because it went from 2 people teaching lessons (me and a member) to now 1 (me) and that is challenging, because I am newer and I do not know the lessons extremely well. If I had a poke-ball that straight up just had Lance Andrewsen (the goat of the chinese missionaries) in it, and I could just deploy that mid lesson, all of my problems would be solved. But I do not have that, Lance is busy in Taiwan doing missionary work or something. So lets pray for some political unrest over there so we can get that man to the Texas Dallas East Mission (just kidding don't do that). But like for real it is kinda hard to be in those lessons teaching alone, but we are getting through it. Anyways, the point of this story is that we got a member to come with us and I was so excited. The member and Zu Wei saw completly eye to eye on this random racist view that they apparently both had, so that was awesome, not the racism but the fellowshipping. And the lesson went really well, the Spirit was definetly there and also she has a corgi and she was also there. Then we went outside and our member was like "she is really humble, I just don't think she is willing to be baptized." She had said not one thing about her unwillingness to be baptized so that threw me off. Elder Campbell accepted defeat as well and was like "ah dang it." But I will not accept defeat, I believe in Zu Wei she is so awesome. But ya our members are funny and I love them, they have a gift of being able to jump to conclusions unlike any other group of people I have came across. - We got invited to go golfing with some members and returning members and I was so excited. Elder Campbell took a million years to get ready, in his mind golf is like 35% skill and 65% fashion. He was like "hey can I golf in this shirt?" and I was like "ya, I mean you can golf in pretty much all of the shirts you have." He was so stressed because he wanted to be "taken seriously on the golf course." Even though he spent so long getting ready we showed up and all of our friends were there and they brought their kids. So basically as a missionary you are not allowed to be alone with, hold, or babysit kids. They make these rules because tons of people hate missionaries and want to frame them as like child molesters or something. Elder Campbell loves to live his life in absolute fear, so when he found out about these rules with kids when he first became a missionary, he trembled. I don't think he has had that much experience with little kids in the past, because he runs a no nonsense policy when it comes to children. He took it upon himself to give himself pretty much his own restraining order against children. Like if a child gets within 20 feet of him, he will move farther out of fear. It is quite annoying because me and little kids get along really well usually. - I haven't gotten the opportunity to hang out with any of the kids in our ward yet because Elder Campbell has put his restraining order onto me as well. I will like high five someone under the age of twelve and he will be like "Elder Horsley, what are you doing! stop!" oh my goodness it is hard. So we got to the driving range and he grabbed his clubs that the members let us borrow and went pretty far away and started playing on the driving range away from all youth. This was my moment to hangout with them. They were super shy at first, and then I like made some kid joke that I forgot. We are now the bestest of friends it is awesome. They not only love me now, but the families do to and now they feel more comfortable with the missionaries so it is a win win. The kids loved to play this game where as I was swinging they would like run in front of me because they thought it was hilarious, and it was terifying because I was hitting bombs that day. It became to dangerous for me to play any more golf after like 10 minutes, so I just hung out with them. I instead showed them magic tricks, and after a lot of convincing, I was able to convince them that I am chinese. The kids invited me over to come play wii golf later this week and I am sure Elder Campbell is not hyped about it. I should've asked them if we could instead meet up this week and play league of legends, I am sure my companion would be more open to that. On a different note, Elder Campbell has caught the golf bug (not 100% sure how though, he was hitting like maybe 8 yards haha). He was like "oh. my. gosh. I am going to play so much golf when I get home" and I was like "ya you could totally like buy some used clubs and go hit around and see if you like it, it will be super fun" and he was like "oh no no no Elder Horsley. When I do something, I do it right (false). I am buying new clubs and maybe I'll get a membership somewhere." Bless his heart. But it was so refreshing to not feel like a villian whenever I am around kids. Today, mid sacrament they came to me and gave me high fives and a treat, so that was epic. It gave Elder Campbell an annuerysm but it was worth it haha. - This week was really good I genuinely have more stories but this email is quite long, don't worry future henry just refer to the journal I was quite detailed this week your welcome. - I love you all so much and I am just beyond grateful for everyone who reads these and reaches out to me! Please have such a good week, and know I am thinking about you! Pictures: 1. We walked a 10K to Dairy Queen (email back for this exclusive content) 2. Accidentally took this 3. Longhorn Steakhouse 4. Golfing 5. Cybertruck 6. Found this at chinese market