WEEK 28 - Anime

Before I knock on any door I always have the exact same fantasy play through my head. I always imagine someone opening the door crying and saying “Elder Horsley where have you been all this time?” I would always respond and say “I am so sorry I took so long but I am here!” And it would just be super dope and we would just absolutely rejoice together. So this kinda happened today but it was different than I expected. There was a lady that just randomly spawned at church today and her name was Sveta. We talked to her and she was saying that she has been going to Mcdonald’s and Subway to find the missionaries. If this was me and Elder Campbell we would’ve found this woman instantly (we got mcflurrys at mcdonald’s quite often haha). But here in my new area me and Elder Brown don’t go to Mcdonald’s that much. But she found her way to church all alone and was so excited to meet us and wanted to learn how to speak better English and she wanted to know Jesus Christ. This whole week I was sick and struggling a ton. It was a top 5 hardest week of my entire life, but I was so grateful for this miracle at the end of the week to show me that God was looking out for me and still using me when I was at one of my lowest lows. Last week I talked about how I like did not want to write an email. I wrote that and to my surprise I got numerous threatening emails telling me that I needed to continue writing emails. Thank you all for aggressively fixing my mindset, because I now understand that there are consequences to my actions. I am going to do my darndest to not miss an email all of my mission because these will be quite neat when I am home. Thank you everyone reading this who cares about me I miss you so much you have no idea. Let me tell you lovely folks about my week: -So at the beginning of this week we had the wonderful opportunity to go out with a fella in our ward named Brother Mayhew. Brother Mayhew has the purest heart of probably everybody else in all of Tyler Texas. The things he does and just the way his mind operates is so delightful to witness. By far my favorite attribute of this man was his laugh. He was slightly shy at first but after about 15 minutes he got more comfortable with us. We were going around knocking some doors around a lesson we had soon and it was so cold. So I was like “gosh darn I cannot wait for it to not be cold anymore” and Brother Mayhew replied with “I like the cold because I can wear clothes that make me feel skinny” and after he said that Brother Mayhew erupted. The street literally shook oh my goodness. His laugh was so glorious, so naturally I attempted to make him laugh. And honestly I was using some of my best material but it just wasn’t landing with Brother Mayhew. The only man that could get that type of reaction out of him was him. So I just started prompting him with questions that he could easily cleverly respond to. He mentioned that in his old YSA he used to be the Elders quorum president so naturally I made an Elders quorum joke hoping he would like build on it or something, but he quite literally repeated exactly what I said and he nearly passed away from laughing after that. Then we got in the car and we had to make a left turn and there was a car coming in the distance. Brother Mayhew saw the gap and he took. As he was shooting the gap he was like “we are not getting t boned tonight Elders” and again he just died laughing. This experience warmed my heart because the car was maybe 15 seconds away but Brother Mayhew felt like he was in fast and furious, but again just another wholesome experience. Then he started making credit union jokes and it was just great. Ok I could write like 10 more experiences with Brother Mayhew but you get it, so I will leave it with those. I love Brother Mayhew and he makes me want to be better. - This whole week I was just missing Plano (my old area) sooo much and I had such a desire to go back (I definitely will cause I am a chinese missionary hallelujah). Luckily my wish got granted and I was able to go back this Saturday. But can you guess who was able to attend with me? The most delectable, plushable, serendipitous man to ever walk the earth: Elder Campbell. It’s funny that we havent been companions in nearly 3 months and I see him probably every other week, but I am not complaining, Elder Campbell is delightful to be around. The reason we got to go back is because it was the chinese new year party there, and it was a pleasant experience. I got there and it started pretty much exactly how I expected it to start. Our branch president got up and like introduced our church to everyone at this event and then he had a counselor in the stake presidency come up. He began by attempting to say happy new year in chinese but it really just came out like “ching ling kling lao” that attempt at chinese really took me back to whenever I go to a zone conference and anyone who breathes and doesn’t speak chinese comes up to me every 5 seconds and is like “CHING CHONG CHING CHONG” but the stake presidency guy then attempted to land a couple of jokes about the chinese culture and they did not land (given that the majority of the crowd was not familiar with the english language) but ya what a way to start. But the the party began and it was so dope. Sometimes I wish I was chinese because they have like kung fu and dragons and super good food, and we as white people have like obesity and colinization and crime. Oh well. During the performances there was this dude doing calligraphy so I went and requested him to write my name and he spoke at maybe 400 decibals louder than necessary and everyone in the building was watching me order my calligraphy but that was cool. Then to top it off during a performance there was like a chinese cultural video playing in the background that was kinda like anime and Elder Campbell defaulted to whispering anime references into my ear because this excited him. I got spanked a couple of times by chinese men, took some pictures with like 4 women I have never met, got hugged by many women in my ward (not allowed as a missionary) overall just a really good time, and I look forward to going back sooooo much. - This whole week I was having such an incredibly hard time missing you guys and missing home so I’d love to hear from you if you have time. Thanks for reading my email I love you so much. Have a great week! - Google photos is a good time: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8