WEEK 55 - Pink Eye

What is up friends and family!? I hope you are doing well! I sure am because I am just absolutely loving reading the new missionaries emails who are like 1 week out and they are like "my gosh this mission thing is truly flying by!" I love you new missionaries thank you for bringing joy into my life. For a matter of fact I love everyone who is reading this, I pray for you and hope you are doing amazing! 🚨Before I start, if you have found that your testimony is at all depleting or the stuff you hear about our church or about religion in general is discouraging you whatsoever or causing you any sort of questions or doubts or whatever is eating at you, the Lord needs you to listen to the voice recording I attached below, I hope it helps🚨 Anyways here is my spiritual thought. There is so much against the BOM and Joseph Smith and Christianity in general, it's insane. I am like 98% sure everyone on here has heard something contrary to the restoration or the Savior Jesus Christ and you at one time or another have wanted evidence, I have been there too. We all want evidence in our lives for the things that we care about. Like for example when I was getting fat out here, I was hoping someone would be like "dang you look shredded Elder Horsley" but instead I go to the Chinese branch and they're like "dang Elder Horsley you've gotten fat" that's a funny example, but it mattered to me, so I wanted the evidence that I was correct. With all of these things so contrary to the truth of the Savior and the restoration many of us are just searching for something, anything that will be solid evidence for these things that we want to believe. Luckily in this case we have evidence, if you require evidence about these things listen to any of these 3 talks: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/media/broadcasts/mtc-devotional-with-elder-bednar?lang=eng&mode=watch (start at 26:30) https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/lawrence-e-corbridge/stand-for-ever/?M=A https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/hugh-b-brown/profile-of-a-prophet Evidence is cool and all but when it comes to the things of God we need more than just evidence, we need faith. Laman and Lemuel saw evidence, Judas saw evidence, Lot's wife saw evidence, so how did any of them turn? Because evidence isn't enough. In a spiritual sense evidence does not equal knowledge. Faith equals evidence. If we truly want to embrace these truths and have that knowledge there is only one way to do that, and that is to get close to the Lord. The Lord designed it this way for a reason. You can turn to anything in this world and it will never give you the knowledge you are looking for, the only way you can get that is through the Lord. It is because He is more than anything this earth has to offer. If you truly have a desire to know the things of God I promise you that there is only one route that can give you that knowledge, and that is through the Lord Jesus Christ. If you want to chat on this topic hmu I have quite a bit more to say, the Lord is so good. Anyways, I hope that made sense, but let's move on and let me tell ya some things from the week: - I was on an exchange with a legend named Elder Little and we were playing street ball with a bunch of people. Everyone thought I was this one famous kid from tik tok and I was like "guys I swear to you I am not him" and they didn't believe me, and after much pestering I just submitted and took pics with all of them - I was feeling fat after a hefty meal we had with a member, and this one lady in a market in a very sus way hmu, that was neat - I met the most racist man I have ever met or will ever meet in a Walmart - I got sick and on Sunday I woke up and felt like my lungs were gonna collapse - I am loving my mission and I am so hyped for everyone who is just starting you are going to love it So ya pretty solid stuff, here is the main funny story from the week: - So POV we have a lesson with our friend Amy and we are looking for a member and just no one is in the mood to help out with our lesson. We finally get a member and he says "do you like cake?" and we were like "ya sure sounds good we love cake, thanks for helping out." He pulls up to the lesson and I first greet his child who looked like he either just partook of cocaine or he had pink eye. I'm trying to start the lesson and the Dad whips out the cake and he's like "ok who's hungry?" Our friend Amy saw no problem with the current situation so she raises her hand in excitement and I am like "oh ya haha thank you so much." The child with pink eye was feeling extra ready for cake I guess because he just went right into it and started slamming some of the frosting and pounding some of the mangos on the cake. As he was pounding some of the mangos from the cake, I watched him have a change of heart and literally put one in his mouth and he thought about it, removed it, and put it back on the cake. I genuinely saw no way out of this without eating the cake, because they were so nice to bring it, so I indulged in the cake and just hoped I would be ok, and I was. The lesson went well so that was awesome, and none of us ended getting pink eye. Miracles. Ok I swear next email will be better I am just so sick right now and my cognitive function is not what it once was. I love you all so much though and I hope you have an amazing week! Join for a good time: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 1. Elder Hansen 2. Me and Elder Hansen exchange mirror pic 3. Fat tie (thanks Elder Cox) 4. Me and Elder Little exchange mirror pic 5. Matte black cybertruck