Elder Henry Horsley

I'll be honest at the beginning of the mission I didn't really think that the gift of tongues was a real thing. I thought that it was just kinda a synonym for language study for missionaries serving in South America. Pretty much every email I was reading at the time was like "gift of tongues gift of tongues gift of tongues." And I was like "judassss I wish these people could talk about anything else." But they couldn't. They kept literallly only talking about the gift of tongues. I never really saw this gift of tongues thing happen, until the other day I looked back on my chinese abilities throughout my mission. At the beginning my chinese was decent, but I couldn't teach really well because it was so hard to learn the dang church words. I studied chinese for an hour a day, but really wasn't grinding the dang church words. And then boom, I don't remember when, but all the sudden I can teach the lessons good and I know the words. So ya it may ...

Throughout my life I have kinda marrinated in the idea that in order to add value to something you had to be the best at it. That was quite the unfortunate thought process I beheld because it is hard to be the best at things when there are so many amazing people around you. Elder Campbell is the best at eating absurd amounts of Buffalo Wild Wings, my boy Nick Gordon is the best at mingling with women of all backgrounds and ethnicities, and my Mom and Dad are just the best parents ever. Sometimes you just beat yourself up wondering why you can't be as good as these other people. Well let me tell ya some good news that I have discovered through an story. So back in the day when I suspected my brother Mckay was taking steroids (he actually wasn't but he was gaining muscle at a very suspicious rate) I remember him and my Dad having a conversation in my kitchen. I remember my Dad was like "Mckay you may have these nice big show off muscles, but let me tell you what the smart t...

I have officially been stereotyped and oppressed this week and I am absolutely heartwrenched. So basically I had the wonderful opportunity to meet this new missionary who just joined our zone this week and I was like "Howdy there, my name is Elder Horsley what's your name?" and he was like "yo what up I'm Elder ___" and I was like "neat where are you from?" and he was like "I'm from Utah" and I was like "fantastic, what high school did you go to?" and he was like "Maple Mountian" and then another missionary heard our conversation and piped in and he was like "bro Elder Horsley went to Corner Canyon" and this man just looked me in the eyes dead serious, and was like "you freaking prick" then walked away. I was like "ah darn." That wasn't very nice, but I am well aware that my people are not very well liked because our high school is good at things, but this malice act of pure discri...

Everyone knows that the success of a missionary is dependent on the amount of baptisms they have or if they hold leadership positions. I often share that little nugget of information with my mission leaders because I enjoy seeing the fear in their eyes when they believe that that is an actual opinion that I hold. Believe it or not that is not my opinion and actually not how you can tell if someone is a good and successful missionary or not. Actually what I found out is that a good and successful missionary is one with a strong desire to serve God. So this week I have been trying a lot harder to work on strengthing my desire everyday. I'll be honest, sometimes I'm like the gosh darn candlestick guy from beauty and the beast, and my only desire is just to serve. And then sometimes I am just a bum, and my desire to serve is subpar. Not only are the days that I have the desire to serve more successful, but they are also more enjoyable. Desire is such an important part of missionary...