WEEK 23 - How Bout We Trade Shoes

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 discrimation was dissapointing. I guess I can't really talk because I make fun of this one Sister in our zone for being from Boston pretty much every week (but in like kind of a nice way don't worry) but it was weird because he like did not know me at all and just like decided that he didn't like me because I went to Corner Canyon. I wasn't actually that offended but it got me thinking: isn't it so great that God does not care where I went to high school? Isn't it great that God has decided to have a love for all of His children no matter what? So in my opinion you shouldn't really worry that much about what these people think about you because God has already made up His mind about you, He loves you no matter what. I have also made up my mind about you and I think you are great, so keep it up. Gosh darn it is literally 12 degrees outside and I am not happy about it. I can't explain it, but I have a theory that it actually feels colder here than my brother Mckays mission, which is sitting at -34 degrees. My apartment says it is 74 inside, but heavens it feels like 60. But the faster I write this email, the faster I can go get in my very hot spider man bubble bath, so here is my week: - This week started off SWIMMINGLY with one of my favorite things that I have done on my mission. It was my best friends Chu Yang and Flora's first time at the temple. We went to do baptisms for the dead and it was great, and ya that is pretty much it... FALSE. There was so much more, this was such a loaded event. We had the wonderful opportunity to drive with our branch president and his wife Peter and Judy Wang. The temple is about a 30 minute drive from us, and about 25 minutes into the drive Peter suddenly realized that he wore his sandals instead of church shoes. This filled him with fear. He thought that all credibility was about to be lost when the branch saw him in only sandals at the temple. Idk what he was so worried about but I think he thought that they might take revoke the branch president calling from him if he went into the temple without church shoes. I love Peter so much so I was like "hey peter, I mean if you want to trade shoes you totally can wear mine." I guess I was expecting Peter to be like "no its ok, it was my fault, you can keep your shoes. Thank you for the offer Elder Horsley." Oh but his response was actually the opposite. Without the slightest bit of hesitation he was like "HOORAY ELDER HORSLEY! I accept." It was like giving a poor orphan child shoes for Christmas. The joy on this mans face as he walked into the temple looking all stylish with his new shoes, while his inferior (me) was being disrespectful and walking in with sandals was priceless (picture at the bottom). - We finally got into the temple and the temple workers seemed to think that we were with a fluent group of english members. The guy who was explaining how the temple works to us was like "the personal revalations and angelic witnesses you will recieve throughout this exalting ordinance will forever alter the course of your existence." Oh my goodness translating this guy to like 3/4 of the people there was exhausting. I didn't expect him to speak chinese, but I was hoping he would maybe use some vocabulary that didn't take a masters degree in religious studies to understand. Halfway through the explanation the workers took a break and the branch decided this was a great time for a picture. For those not aware of how temples work, that is not at all aloud, but its ok bless their hearts. Anyways after about an hour of explaining how the temple works we finally got to go do baptisms. And let me tell ya, there was not a better feeling then being baptized by Chu Yang. I was like holding back some tears honestly, just seeing how this man has changed his life. But ya that spiritual experience was sadly short lived. I got out of the font just overwhelmed with the Spirit and then I walked into the locker room. There was a quiet little voice in there that was like "Elder Horsley" in my mind I was like "yo this is the Holy Ghost this is awesome" then my branch president Peter waddled out of the shower and he was like "cold cold cold" with just absolute fear in his eyes. I just stood there with confusion for a moment, then instead of trying to figure out why that just happened, I got in the shower. And oh boy was it cold, so I guess he was justified, but it is hard to look at your branch president the same way after that. But the temple was just wonderful and such an incredible experience. I was so happy for Flora and Chu Yang! - It's always a pretty daunting experience bringing my male friends to Elders Quorum. And today was Elders Quorum. Today the temperature was like 15 and it felt like -2. So naturally our church population was cut by about 2/3. The 1/3 that was able to come was pretty shaken up by the weather, so about the first 15 minutes of class was a discussion about this weather and why it is the worst. Every like 3 minutes someone would walk into class shivering like they just got back from war and sit down gruniting very hard. Then the lesson started. Eric Wang was teaching and he made it clear that he was not the "teacher" but the "facilitator" I wasn't sure about it the first 4 times he said it, but after the 5th I knew that this man was no teacher, but a facilitator. I am not sure how it started but we got on the topic on why it is hard to immigrate to america. Wei Ming decided to pipe in and make quite the regard about americans and their names. If you want to truly experience free speech in this country, may I reccomend coming to this branch. Then we got on the topic of church callings. Peter Chen (the goat) decided that it was now time for him to take control of this conversation. He stood up and started pacing. You know he is serious when he starts pacing. It was also impressive because we were in such a small room, but nothing was gonna stop this man from pacing. He gave a beautiful sermon on why we need to start thanking church leaders less. It kinda was getting out of hand, but he took a seat and then the conversation continued like nothing happened. So that was cool. Elders Quorum and church wad great today. - So the week was good, there were some ups and downs, but overall a good week. I hope you all had a great week, I'd love to hear from you! Thank you to all of you who read these emails and reach out it means a lot! I love you so much, have a great week! I made piano hymn remixes for those interested: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 Pictures: 1. The best temple day 2. The fellas 3. Preparing for the temple 4. The trade of the century 5. Elder Cox striving for heart disease