WEEK 47 - Chinese Girlfriend

Ni hao everyone I hope y'all are about to have a splendid 4th of July. This time last year I was lighting my friends up in a church parking lot with roman candles, now I'm lighting the people of Texas up with roman candles except these ones are filled with the good news of the restoration of the gospel. Both experiences have been great. This week we were having a phone call lesson with our super dope friend Joanna. When I am teaching people I love to tell them how I found them. During this lesson with Joanna the Spirit told me that I should tell her how I found her and her Mom Yan. This prompting was incredibly easy to follow because I love doing that and also I remember that experience so vividly. It was about 6 months ago when I was dying for some Costco pizza, so we went to Costco for lunch. We got there and I quickly noticed that there was a multitude of Chinese people in this Costco. This made me very excited, so I ordered my food and meandered my way over to these two Chinese ladies and sat by them and started speaking Chinese with them. And oh how they loved speaking Chinese with a young white man. Little did I know that this would grab the attention of many older Chinese women there and soon I had an audience of them listening to me speak. I was loving life in this moment. I looked around at these people watching me and I saw this lady sitting at a nearby table watching me with a smile on her face, and the moment I looked at her I instantly knew with absolute surety that that was who I needed to talk to. She went back to her seat and I wrapped up my whole sermon thing and walked over there. I wanted it to be natural so I bought another slice of pizza (after already consuming thousands of calories) and went and sat by them and introduced myself. I shared with them about the BOM and got their info and stuff and we started teaching them, I ended up getting transferred to a new city soon after that experience and I was heartbroken because I loved Yan and Joanna so much. Recently since I came back to the Chinese branch we have started to teach them again. I told Joanna that story over the phone and she just started crying, she was so grateful that God led me to them so I was able to share this important message with them. The cool thing about this whole story is I knew. I knew without a shadow of a doubt who I needed to talk to. There were so many Chinese people there, but I just knew it had to be them. Joanna was so grateful that God loved her enough to let me find two people in need. I think we all sometimes are waiting for a prompting like that to go help someone, where we just know they need us. Plot twist, most people need love and help in their lives and they are just waiting for someone to find them. I sure hope everyone is able to have experiences like that but in all reality we might not just "know." I have met tons of people who needed us and I wasn't prompted to go there. Whether you are prompted or not, go help people and be their friend, there is so much need for that. I looked through everyone this email goes to the other day and I realized that everyone on this list is ELITE and extremely capable of helping others, please do it. Gosh darn I love being here in the branch but judas, these people are another breed and I love them so much. This week has some pretty fun stories so enjoy: - Ok I was gonna share a story about my world class noodle chef friend Charlie the other week but I just didn't for some reason idk. So the other week I went to this restaurant called East Wall and I wanted to invite all of the Chinese folks there to church so I went around talking to them. Charlie was this noodle chef at the noodle bar just absolutely kneading the soul out of the noodle dough or whatever you call it. He just was overjoyed when he found out I spoke Chinese and demanded that I watch his performance. So for the next 10 minutes Charlie started doing a noodle preparation dance performance to various Chinese pop songs and I sat there hyping him up in pure awe at this wonderful craft. The hostess of the restaurant kept coming over and turning the speaker down and honestly just messing with the vibe, and he would look at me, give me a devious smile, and turn that jawn right back up. He finished and we chatted some more and he tried to recruit me to his noodle academy or something and then we parted ways. So we pulled up again this week and Charlie was as hyped as my Dad was when I told him I was going on a mission. He whipped out his purest noodles and my man got going to work. He got the place bumpin and declared that he was going to start his performance for the whole joint. He finished his performance and I was inspired to say the least. Charlie then proceeded to announce to the restaurant that I was a very handsome young man. I was flattered and then he said it like 4 more times and then he beckoned me over to him. I was honored to once again be in the presence of Charlie. He said "Elder Horsley do you have a girlfriend?" and I said "haha no" and I could tell he felt genuine sorrow for me after I said that. He told me that he could definitely find me a Chinese girlfriend and I was like "oh haha missionaries sadly aren't allowed to date" and he was like "no I will find you a Chinese girlfriend." My bloodline is about to have some diversity if Charlie has anything to say about it, because he is more than determined to give me a lit referral. Very excited about this. He then told me about his desires for worldly fame. He said that women must idolize me all over this great nation because of how handsome I am. I sadly informed him that that wasn't the case, but he did not accept my answer. He told me that with his talents and my impact I have on women we could take this noodle operation global. I am so on board for this opportunity because frankly I can't even fathom a better business partner than Charlie. Please go leave a 5 star review for the restaurant East Wall Chinese Cuisine in Plano Texas and hype up Charlie and say that ma zhang lao sent you. - So yesterday in church we had this really nice old lady come and teach us about assembling 72 hour kits for emergencies. She seemed really excited but I don't think she realized the unhinged biome she was entering. She got there and started on her presentation and it went well and our branch was very respectful for about 15 minutes. She was talking about emergency communication and Peter Chen raised his hand and told everyone his idea on having an extra phone for emergencies, he was so disappointed that something like that hasn't been invented yet. I almost chimed in to inform him that actually that has been invented but instead I just let him keep going. Then a different Peter raised his hand. He claimed that in 1998 in Taiwan he and a few others were tasked with the assignment of creating the 72 hour kit and their list has been stolen without any credit given. He later said that this kit is for your final 72 hours of life. If you have ransacked every deceased person in town and you desire to live 3 days more, then you can use this. Everytime the nice lady who was teaching would mention a slightly unnecessary item, this Peter would make a sassy regard and talk about why it is so unnecessary. I felt bad but if you can't take the heat don't come to the Chinese branch I'm telling you. My friend Kan told me how he hoped today's lesson would be a gospel related lesson and sadly he has not been to a gospel related lesson yet but he is cool and will get baptized soon. The Chinese branch is great, but it is rarely gospel oriented. Everyone emails me and they are like "oh wow I want to go there" or "oh haha I'd love to meet this Peter Chen" you say that but I don't think 70% of you could take the heat. We are trying to find other teachers who want to teach about gospel stuff but usually it will most likely turn into a debate about Mao Ze Dong or communism (that has happened). But I love this branch and I am doing whatever I can to help make it sustainable. After a surprisingly good sacrament meeting we had a branch potluck! There is a lot of drama in this branch, but nothing will band these people together like a good potluck. It was fun hanging out with all of the members and our friends during the potluck. At one point I went and sat down at a table with my friends Kan and Dora, our branch president and his wife, and Peter Chen. Peter Chen was telling the story about how he found out his wife died, and it was very sad. Then out of nowhere he looks at me and asks the very same question that Charlie asked me: "Horsley do you have a girlfriend?" I again was like "haha no I do not" and Peter was stunned. The whole table started to grill me on why I needed a Chinese girlfriend and they said they could totally supply me with that. Peter leaned over to me and was telling me that if I want to maintain gender roles, Chinese girlfriend is definitely the way to go. According to Peter, I will have some serious regrets at the end of my life if I don't have a Chinese spouse. Oh how I wish that women back home held the same views of the older men and women here. Luckily when I get back home I won't have to stress whatsoever about the difficulties of finding a spouse, because by the looks of things I should have about 3-4 arranged marriages waiting for me back here. - The work here is good, we should have some baptisms coming up and I am way excited about that. I hope all of you are having such a great summer, I'd love to hear about it. Have an amazing week and know that I am your biggest fan. - By the way I have heart wrenching news. I am only allowed to have family on my google photos now. It has been a good ride. I feel very bonded to the google photos crew. Pictures: 1. Cool tree 2. Kissing the cool tree 3. Lunch with Peter Chen 4. Sadly the store was closed 5. Lit plan of salvation 6. My boy keyshawn