WEEK 22 - Steam Room

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 work, but it is also just a super important part of life. So my challenge to everyone this week is to think about what the true desire of your heart is. Whether your desire is to get married literally 3 weeks after your mission is done (shoutout to literally everyone in my mission) or if your desire is to wait till your like older then that to get married (shoutout Calder lol). Or whether your desire is to serve God or serve yourself. Your desire is up to you and I challenge you to figure out what your true desire is, and if you don't like it, then idk change it. I did and so can you. - Sorry for absolutely altering the course of your life right there with that spiritual thought, but the desire of my heart is to press forward with this email so let me tell you about my week: - Speaking of desire there was a moment of this week where my desire was seriously lacking. So pretty much I felt very ill this Tuesday and that sucked because I made everyone sick and I couldn't go out all of Tuesday. Before my mission being sick was hype because I got to skip school and hang out with my Mom and like build legos and watch the lorax or something, it was wonderful. Out here when you are sick there is no hanging out with mom or watching of the lorax. There is only sleep which I am very bad at. So you can probably imagine the predicament I had found myself in. My companion was asleep and I was just sitting there bored. So I made the game time decision to be disobedient and get on facebook to watch a compilation of missionaries coming home from their missions and seeing there families for the first time. Gosh darn it was good. I shed a couple of tears (not because I am like dying to go home but I just miss my family) but ya I found myself in a pretty low point. And I stayed in that low point for a while. I was just in my bed eating the Cheez Its that I stole from Elder Cox watching this video I wasn't supposed to be watching and feeling sad for myself. So after doing that for like 20 minutes I was like "You know what? I am not doing this." So I made my own steam room. And it was wondrous. I went in my bathroom and I just covered up every single possible place steam could escape in my bathroom, turned on the bath to as hot as that jawn would go, then just let that place steam. Then for the cherry on top I threw an action figure bath bomb that my parents gave me for Christmas into that bath and it smelled celestial. So ya pretty much like an hour and a half later I walked out of that feeling much better. Then the next day my sickness was like pretty much cured. Call that a bad use of missionary time all you want, but that is the Elder Horsley version of sleeping to get better and it worked. Anyways the steam room was definitely a highlight this week (shoutout Chuck Ebiling you would've loved this). But like honestly it was a spiritual experience and I did a lot of pondering whilst in that steam room, and I learned that there is absolutely no point in sitting in our sins. So next time your just hanging out in your sin and doing nothing about it. Get up. Get out. And make yourself a dang steam room. - The food out here does not disappoint. I went on an exchange with my district leader Elder White and his super dope member took us out to dinner. (for all of the veteran readers this is the same guy who I got the 3000 calorie grande meal with at that Mexican restaurant) He told me that next time I come to his area to do an exchange he was gonna take me somewhere epic. When we got in the car he wouldn't tell us where we were going so like in the back of my mind I genuinely thought we might actually be going to Hooters. But then we pulled up to this super nice brazilian grill place where they walk around and slice you off an assortment of meats. When we got there Brother Stringham started taunting me saying that I was gonna be the one to eat the least amount of food because both him and Elder White are big dudes. He obviously had forgotten what I had done to the grande platter at the Mexican restaurant, so I took this personally. These men did not have the training that I have though. In the chinese area you don't really get the opportunity to not eat enough. They make sure you are leaving their home with type 2 diabetes, so I was ready to prove these men who had like 45 pounds on me wrong. And oh did I. They flipped the card to red when I was like 65% done, and they just watched in awe as I consumed smoked italian sausage at an alarming rate. I also learned a lot more about divorce then I previously knew so that was neat. But ya I left a knowledgeable overweight man and it was a great experience. He is such a good man and that was such a good memory. - Welp everyone I do miss you a lot and I greatly appreciate everyone who reads my emails and reaches out to me! I hope you have such an incredible week, and I hope you all know that I love you! - Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 Pictures: 1. New shirt from Gwen thank you 2. The best picture ever 3. The gym 4. My dearest Chu Yang 5. Destroying myself at Brazilian grill