WEEK 21 - Loitering In The Font

"I wish you knew you were in the good old days before they were over" -Andy from the office. Yep that quote is slapping right now. I miss my dearest most wholesome scrumptious little companion Elder Campbell. I never thought that I would miss him this much, but good heavens I do. I like my new companion, but Elder Campbell seriously was just a cool guy honestly. I loved talking to him. My favorite all time quote from him was when I was talking to him one night about dare night. Dare night is this thing that my high school did where you were like basically on a date and did a bunch of dares with your team, and it was pretty hype. I told Elder Campbell how for one of the dares I got a brand on my posterior and he was a bit shaken up that someone would even do that, so I instead gave him a much more wholesome example of what I did that night. I told him how me and Lexi both put pop rocks in our mouths, and then just kissed for moment (don't worry mother it wasn't that intense). But I was telling him this story and I was like "it was hilarious bro, but Judas it was like Vietnam in there, goodness gracious" and he was like "Wow that's awesome Elder Horsley, I just couldn't live with myself if I did something like that though." I forever refuse to forget that conversation it was soooo funny. Gosh these are the times that I'm gonna miss. I love that guy. But anyways the spiritual thought of this email is that Jesus Christ saw the good in everyone. Elder Horsley did not. I very often chose to see the negatives in Elder Campbell and I sincerly regret that. He had so much good that I just did not appreciate while I was with him. So that is my invitation to you today: try to look for the good in those around you not matter what. I can't wait to go to lunch with Elder Campbell after my mission and just absolutely pick his brain, and pick up all the dang wisdom he has acquired. Besides leaving him it was a great week, let me enlighten you: - So the best part of the week was definetly Flora's baptism. She loves the church and the gospel so much. She was like my Dad if he was a female chinese 22 year old anime enjoying college student. We had to go to the church very early to fill up the font for her baptism, and my new companion Elder Cox seemed to have quite the desire to fill up the font, so he was kinda in charge of that while I was setting up chairs and stuff. While he was filling the font he was like "do you think 3 stairs is high enough?" and I was like "ya that should be good." Oh it was anything but good actually. I really should have went over and looked at it, but he seemed to know what he was doing. Everyone started to show up and we actually had a lot of members and friends show up. But most importantly there was a Elder Campbell present. I hadn't seen him for like 13 hours, but it had felt like a year and it was such a joyous reunion. The talks went only like 30 minutes over so that was also epic. But now it was time for the baptism. I went to the men's bathroom to go get into the font and she went to the womens bathroom. I put my foot in that font, and oh my goodness I got like a third degree burn. I enjoy taking a nice hot bath, but this was even to hot for me. Oh also there was one more problem, the water went to my knees. I will be the font filler man from here on out haha. But I was more worried about Flora. It had been like 45 seconds and I was just kinda hanging out alone fighting the heat demons, while everyone at the baptism was just staring at me. Then I heard the toilet flush in the womens bathroom, and people started yelling at each other in chinese. I had not even a fraction of a idea on what was going on in there, I was just overheating from my knees down. So another like 2 minutes goes by and I was just kinda sitting there considering if it would be wrong to sit down on the stairs. Luckily my legs went numb so we were all good, but I was quite worried for the safety of my friend Flora and if the water would be to hot or low for her. Then she finally came out of the door and started walking into the font. She looked very scared, and she like didn't even notice the heat or the not impressive water level. She then whispered to me as she was quaking and was like "I'm very nervous Elder Horsley." In my head I was like "yes me as well Flora, this water may very well take your life when I fully submerge you." But don't worry we went forward with the ordinance, and she came out of the water and it was a very spiritual experience. It wasn't to hot and low for her, and that was a miracle. After the baptism Ma Na took Flora, me, Elder Cox, Elder Campbell, and his new companion to a very nice Korean BBQ place, and it was just a very great awesome experience. - So my new companion Elder Cox takes a lot of pride in the fact that when he was in this area 8 months ago they really liked him. He kept telling me that Peter Chen considers him to be his grandson and that he is his favorite. Me and Peter are pretty tight, so I was not fully convinced. We pulled up to church today, and it seemed like things have changed in the last 8 months. To start, Peter Chen brought his daughter to church and he introduced us to her. He was like "this is my favorite missionary Elder Horsley, and this one is Elder Cox." I was pleased that me and Peter had created such a brotherly bond, but I did also feel slightly bad for Elder Cox, but maybe he will win him back once I leave. Elder Cox is in very good shape, but in his most recent area he lost like 20 pounds of muscle. The branch was not very kind about that and started referring to him as "mr. little" dang this is a cutthroat enviornment haha. But he has been here for a lot of his mission, so he knows how to handle all of the harsh comments. But a lot of the ward was happy to see him which was good. Our class at church today was about how to be good parents and help your children grow. About halfway through class the teacher said that it is not good to hit your child. Peter Chen immediately raised his hand to debate this comment. He dismantled her argument by providing his own statistics on how hitting your child makes them smarter, stronger, and happier. Some of the branch was in agreement and sided with team Peter, so I worry for the children. But ya church was good and it was fun to see Elder Cox see his old friends. - So this week was pretty great, but I also missed you guys a lot. I would love to hear from you so we can chat. I hope you all have a wonderous week! Happy new years! (thats why I am sending it tonight) The computer lab is closed so I am sorry but I can't attatch any photos, but the google photos was quite fun this week: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 LOVE YOU