WEEK 29 - Criminal Activity

Hello everyone this week was splendid and I miss you all so very much. Today’s spiritual thought is quite sad, so if you are not in the mood to feel sad let me suggest skipping these next 2 paragraphs. So there is a family here in Tyler that I have gotten really close to. It is a Dad and he has 2 daughters who are 9 and 12. His 9 year old daughter reminds me a lot of my 8 year old sister sister Jane, she is like so funny and nice and upbeat and as soon as I met her she just was the nicest person to me. Once she found out that I like Disneyland she absolutely bombarded me with Disneyland questions it was so wholesome. The 12 year old is much more shy and reserved but I started talking about Roblox one time and now we’re tight. The Dad is a super nice guy and works super hard because he loves his daughters so much and is trying to give them the best life he can. So you get it, a super nice family and I just love being around them. The Dad came up to me at church one time and said that the girls had an aunt they were super close to unexpectedly pass away that morning. He asked us to come over and share a comforting message. So we did and I talked about how when I was around their age I lost a good friend of mine and why it is so comforting that we can see them again. This was definitely sad for them but I think it was helpful for them to hear that. We met up again the next week and the Dad asked me to give him a blessing. While we were talking, we got on the topic of this family’s past. His wife and him separated when their youngest daughter was like 2 or 3. The wife and him had joint custody so they went back and forth between their parents for a minute. Eventually the wife got a new boyfriend and they got really into drugs. The boyfriend became super abusive and eventually their own Mom joined in abusing these two little girls. They were like 5 and 8 years old and they were being physically, emotionally, and sexually abused all the time. Then the Mom and the boyfriend had another son when the girls were a little older. He was like 6 months old and I don’t know why but the Mom and the boyfriend killed this baby. They got the police called on them and these 2 little girls' Mom made them clean up the blood from what had just happened. Eventually CPS got them out of that house and they now spend most of their time with their Dad. When I heard this I thought of the girl who reminded me of my sister Jane and couldn’t even imagine her going through hell like that. This story literally broke me and it was all I could think about for a lot of this week. Some things are so horrible that they cannot be fixed on earth like this. That is why we need Jesus Christ and His atonement because it can heal horrible horrible things like this. And that is why I have to do what I am doing and share this gospel to people who have gone through stuff like that. These people cannot heal without Him. Nobody reading this will probably ever have to go through something that horrible, but no matter what we go through Jesus Christ can heal it and I know that to be true. Gosh darn that was sad I am so sorry, I can assure you it was quite a bit more sad to hear it in person though. My week was actually so much better than my previous week so let me tell you about it I promise it is happier than the spiritual thought: - So I currently live in a quad right now, and it is a very hostile environment. I love living in a quad but like there are definitely some downsides to it. Everyone in this quad has just decided that dishes are completely optional so there is just a mound of dishes in the sink at all times. I literally cannot function in that type of ecosystem so I have officially switched to all paper goods which is great until I want to make eggs or ramen or literally anything other than chicken tenders in my airfryer. There is also a lot of criminal activity that goes on here as well. I bought 18 eggs and was excited to eat 3 a day and then day 2 comes around and I was like “dang where did my other 15 eggs go?” One time I went into my bathroom and was like “ah let me look at my manscaped 3.0 that I got for Christmas” and it was gone which was unbelievably concerning. I was in my bathroom last night and poof it was back but it is now not charging and I am very sad. Other than that and the average decibel level in this place it is not that bad. One time me and Elder Waters and Elder Barker wanted to test our luck and so we decided to throw a boomerang with one side that has an arrow on it and says a certain word and whoever that side landed on had to buy everyone braums shakes (braums shakes slap). You may call it gambling but it felt like wholesome recreational fun in the moment. Elder Barker lost and it was comical and me and Elder Waters were very happy to win and receive free braums shakes. I definitely miss the peace of living with my old companions Elder Campbell and Elder Cox though. Back then I would walk out of the shower and we would just say hi to each other something. But I get out of the shower here and they are like “SHOW US YOUR BRAND SHOW US YOUR BRAND” and then like tackle me or something. I very much enjoy these people but goodness me this place is intense. - On Thursday we were doing a lot of finding and just nothinggg was working. So we somehow ended up in this one apartment complex that was nowhere near where we usually go. We were knocking and nobody was really interested. Then we knocked on this one lady’s door and she came waltzing out and we told her who we were and she said that she wasn’t interested. Then I guess she changed her mind because she started talking again. This lady was pretty much live action voodoo mama juju from princess and the frog which was awesome. Except in this live action addition she had a major belief in Jesus Christ. She started talking about how He has blessed her life and then she told us “thank ya thank ya oh praises! thank ya for what ya do!” and I was like “ah of course your welco..” and as I was saying that, she screamed inches from my face “HALLELUJAH!” it was such a jump scare but it was wonderful. Then we started talking about why we are also grateful for Jesus Christ and every five seconds she would scream like “oh BLESSINGS! BLESSINGS RAINNN” and it was glorious. I asked her what he name was and she was like “The Lord’s Missionary Morgan” and I was like “neat I’m Elder Horsley (which feels significantly less cool than her name)” Then she just rambled and a decent amount of time she freed us from her thursday sunday worship on her doorstep. That filled me with the Spirit and our way back to the car I was like “Elder Brown let's knock this one door again that we have already knocked” then we did and this lady answered and was super interested and it was a super cool miracle. All credit goes to the Lord’s Missionary Morgan for inviting the Spirit, so blessings to her hallelujah. - So ya that was my week I am sorry for the roller coaster of emotions you must have felt throughout this email. I would be delighted to hear from you if you want to say hi! Thank you for reading this! Love you so much! - Google photos was super dope this week with moon photo shoots: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8