WEEK 60 - The Unpardonable Sin

Judas how is it week 60 my heavens. This mission thing has been fabulous if I do say so myself. I love you all and hope everything is wonderful in your life right now! So my dad Tony just called to be a bishop and to be frank with you I am not really surprised whatsoever. Like you can't just be that faithful and always willing to serve and that in shape and not be used as an instrument in the hands of the Lord. My amazing mom sent me a voice memo of the church meeting they were at and it was wonderful. My mom got up to speak and she was in tears as she said "I don't think there are many men in the world that have developed a shoulder injury from the amount of time they have spent by the side of their bed on their knees praying." It was pretty powerful, and then my dad got up and dropped the coldest first words he could muster as the new bishop, he said "I have a confession to make, when I am kneeling by my bed, it hurts my shoulder because sometimes I fall asleep when I'm saying my prayers" That line set the trajectory for his service as bishop and it's looking bright. The spiritual thought I want to give today is sparked from that elite bar dropped by my dad in sacrament meeting today, and the message I want to share is about the impact you can have on others. I remember growing up when it was time for me to go to bed I would go into my parents room to say goodnight. I can recount so many different experiences where I would walk in and I would see my parents on their knees praying. To be fair there were a decent amount of times that I would catch my dad sleeping, but he and my mom ALWAYS would be praying at night and I just didn't understand why at that time in my life. When I came out on my mission it was very hard for me at the beginning. On my second day I was really struggling and I was making some serious considerations of going home. I remember sitting in our apartment thinking if there was anything that I could do. I didn't know much about the gospel, but I did know one thing, and that was that I knew that I could pray. I could go way more in depth to that story (stay tuned for homecoming talk) but I will just say that that prayer changed my day, my mission, and my life. I don't know if I would've ever known to pray if I hadn't walked into my parents room at night to see them praying hundreds of times. I am grateful for the example they have set for me and I am hyped for all of the lucky people who get to have my dad as their bishop! Alright that was a lofty spiritual thought my condolences. Anyways, here is my week: - We were playing basketball with our good friends Alex and Haifeng and as I was walking out I hear my friend Alex go "Hey Elder Horsley" and he mosies he way over to me and boom *SPANK* idk why so many chinese folks here spank me but they do - Zone conference was fun, you should've seen the profound comment Elder Yee dropped it nearly brought me to tears - We pulled up to a member's house for dinner and their 5 year old son Henry had a sticker on his shirt that said "ask me about Kelso" so I asked him and he tells me his secret that he's apparently harboring a frog named Kelso but I cannot tell anyone. Right at that moment his mom walks in and sees his shirt and is like "oh Henry tell me about Kelso!" and Henry just repeatedly blasphemes before his mom and says he has no idea who Kelso is and I just sat there dismayed. I do not know if he really is harboring a real frog, but given his track record I could totally see it being a frog named Kelso that he is hiding in his room Alright this weeks main story is comical in my humble opinion: - So this Thursday I went on an exchange with one of my favorite missionaries out here, he is so lovely. We were in my area and had a member meal with some members that I love, but I get food poisoning probably like 15% of the time I go there. They decided to make turkey legs and they were good, but idk if they were cooked long enough. We ate them and we had just a great time at dinner and then we went on our way to English class. We get there and he was like "oh no Elder Horsley I've gotta go" and I was like "alright" and set up the English class. Anyways, like 30 minutes later he meanders his way out of the bathroom and English class starts. What he failed to communicate with me was that the toilet literally would not flush and he left an absolute abomination in it, but he just let it sit during English class. So English class ends and we all leave. By some miracle I felt the need to go to the bathroom later that night, so we stopped at the church. We get in there and I am like "ELDER ______ HOW?! HOW COULD YOU JUST WALK AWAY FROM THAT?" and he was like "ahhhh I forgot" idk how a human being can forget a nearly unpardonable sin like that, but we started to try to fix this act of pure malice. It was getting late and we just couldn't fix the toilet, so we just had to leave that monstrosity there marinating all night, oh I felt so horrible. I was sure that when we came back the next day this building was gonna have to be rededicated or something. Anyways, we come back that next morning for interviews with President and boom there is a plumbing guy there and I was like "sir you have no idea how sorry I am" and he was a super nice guy and he explained to us that it was a brand new toilet and that he hadn't connected it to water yet. But it all worked out and now we can laugh about it, and I love that missionary so much. My goodness I love you all so much and I care about you and I hope that you know that! I would love to hear an update on your life! I will see you all next week, have a great week! Google Photos: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 Pics: 1. On our way to the temple 2. Lunch after the temple 3. Mirror pic 4. Me and Elder Turner 5. Me and Elder Sorenson