WEEK 9 - I will literally never eat at Chili's again

My entire mission so far if somebody came up to me with a button where I could press it and it would send me home and there would be like no consequences, I would've without hesitation hit that button with a smile on my face. But not anymore. Ladies and Gentlemen that is how much I like it now. This is great. I miss all of you unlike anything else but like I can see why I need to be here. Such a wonderful week this week: - The week started off great. We went to Wang's house for dinner. Eric's sister and her husband were going to be there, they are not members and Eric wanted us to tell them about our church a little bit. So I was ready for maybe one of my first normal visits with anyone in this branch. We arrived at there house, and oh goodness, there was SOOOO much good food I was so excited. Eric asked me to give the prayer, so naturally I gave a pretty subpar prayer about how thankful we were for the food and the Wangs and the Gospel and stuff. I said Amen. I looked over to the other side of the table because Reigi Wang was thanking me for my prayer, I turned back ready to grab about half of the total prepared chicken Lo Mein when I noticed "where is my bowl?" Eric had taken the liberty of filling up my bowl for me. Sadly no chicken lo mein but he thought I would be very interested in this eggplant dish so he filled my bowl with it. I ate the eggplant stuff and then was given more food to eat. It was good but I was really eyeing that chicken lo mein that was going quickly. I had about 6 bowls of food, until I had any sort of freedom in the creation of my bowl. Erics sister and her husband frank were strongly encouraging me to eat more. They wanted to see the amount of food that a American could eat. They made a comment: "you eat like you are fat but your somehow strong, WAA!" Similar to most of the comments I receive I did not know how to take this one. But I gave them a true american tourist experience. Basically after eating more then the other 5 people at the table combined I got a chance to get some chicken Lo Mein. I was so stuffed but I wanted some so badly. So I got some and was about to take my first bite. Then Eric was like "No, wait, you need to have this sauce. He got some fish sauce and began pouring it on this thing I had worked so hard to get. I was not a fan of the fish sauce but they are such nice people I just don't even care whatsoever. - So dinner ended and it was time for the lesson. I was ready to give a very simple message and testimony for two people who hadn't really heard about God before. Eric's sister though was not what I thought she was. She lowkey she just started bashing against us and was actually kind of mad. Luckily all my experience of dueling anti mormons online came in handy here. It soon turned into a 3 v 1 with me, Eric, and Reigi versus her. With two respective spectators in her husband Frank and Elder Campbell. Elder Campbell was not dying to share his insight on the topic we were discussing and Frank decided it would be better for him to video and eat clementines (The video is in my google photos I was crying as he was videoing it, it was so funny he was just so confused). I was teaching to my full extent here when I noticed that either I could choose to go to the bathroom and defecate or literally explode. So I went to the bathroom and hoped Elder Campbell would represent the Plano 5th Branch Chinese Elders well in this duel. I finished in the bathroom and then came back. Just a little background info before this next comment: Idk why but all the chinese people here in Plano are way to comfortable talking about diarrhea. Eric and his Sister were arguing pretty intensely when Reigi decided to whisper to me asking if I had diarrhea. This caught the attention of everyone, so the discussion took a U turn, and the topic was now on my bowel movements. That could be the most uncomfortable I have been this mission. After some of the longest minutes of my entire life Eric pulled out a selfie stick and then we took a picture and all said goodbye. Frank sent me his videos and I just laughed, but overall a fantastic experience. - The next day we also had an interesting meal with Ma Na. Her parents were in town so she invited us to her house. So I knew Ma Na was rich, but not this rich. We got to her house and it was literally beautiful. It was so massive literally just for her and her two year old son. She had like 5 super nice cars (idk which ones I'm not a car guy). I have always told myself that if I ever got the opportunity to have an unlimited amount of dumplings, that I could eat a unholy amount. And I was right. Luckily Ma Na knows how much I like to eat chinese food and she had her Mom prepare a multitude of dumplings for me. It was so funny, Elder Campbells spot had like a small plate of like 15 dumplings and she had like 100 by me. I did not eat a 100 but I ate just a completely unreasonable amount of them. Then she saw the fatigue that I had from eating that many dumplings, so she said we could go look in her backyard. So her backyard was pretty much the size of like 18 hole golf course. It was probably the nicest backyard I have ever been in with statues and bridges and a actual river for fishing, and super nice swings and a pool and multiple places to BBQ. So I toured that then the inside and the inside was just as nice. Then I needed to wash my hands because they were dirty. I went into that bathroom expecting to just wash my hands. Then I saw the toilet. And it was a robot toilet. So I definitely used it. It was time to use the robot features (if you don't know just look it up) and oh my goodness I just started laughing so hard. I did not know how to turn it off, after a good amount of time I thought maybe you just stand up. You don't just stand up. That caused a mess and I started laughing even harder. Then Ma Na started knocking on the door proceeding to give me bathroom advice. Figured the dang machine out, but I want one of those toilets they are soooooooo funny. Gave a spiritual thought then left and I had so much fun, just like I do at every Ma Na meal. - I went to a super nice chinese place with Jeff and Bella the next night and everything was great, and I had once again overeaten. Then Jeff asked if we would like dessert. I declined, Elder Campbell did not. So we got dessert. I had no idea what he ordered but it came out and it was this porridge thing. Given that I was born after the year 1850, I have never been the biggest porridge guy. Especially when you add a 1000 year old egg (preserved duck egg) to it. It was bad. The worst thing i've had yet for sure. Thats the story sorry I just wanted to include that. There was also a robot waiter and I thought it was funny, but apparently it's like inappropriate to laugh at that at such a nice restaurant. So I was chastised for my sense of humor. But ya that was it. just wanted to tell you about the porridge duck egg. - Everything is a food story so far and I am sorry. I just eat a unholy amount of food here. Guess which food item gave me food poisoning: option 1: chicken feet, option 2: preserved duck egg porridge, or option three: chicken tenders at chilis. So Elder Campbell really really really wanted to try Chili's all of last transfer. So he made the executive decision as trainer that we were going to Chili's to start off the new transfer strong. So we both got food poisoning and that was literally the worst thing ever. I did not fall asleep that night till 6:25 AM (you are supposed to get up at 6:30) so that was actually horrible. Also we only have one bathroom, and it was really hard to hold in gosh darn food poisoning. So at about 4 AM I was waiting for the bathroom for like the 9th time, and I had been waiting for like 20 minutes, and I hear the shower turn on. Elder Campbell had to shave. I almost lost it. But I didn't and I somehow survived his like 30 minute long 4 AM shaving endeavor. Thinking back it is funny, but I can assure you it was not in the moment. So the next day we were not the most effective missionaries due to food poisoning. - We went to the fall Fiesta-val on saturday which was a stake activity. It was so fun, except that me and Elder Campbell were still recovering from food poisoning. There was a Chili cook out, and I told Elder Campbell that eating that chili would not be a good idea for our current state. Elder Campbell took my advice as a grain of salt, and no joke had every single possible Chili that this stake had made. So that was a rough night for him but I genuinely tried so hard to warn him. Then the stake president was like kids gather around its story time. The missionaries gathered around as well and the first story was really fun from this cool grandma. Then it was time for the second story. He proceeded to recount an extremely graphic war story from his grandfather. Then the third speaker had a great uplifting story. Then the fiesta part started and there was this 50 year old lady from the spanish ward that was seriously pressuring me into dancing with her. Elder Harper (a missionary who was also there) was not helping this situation, in fact, he was hurting the situation. He decided to encourage this lady looking to dance with me. It was looking like I might not be able to squeeze my way out of dancing with this lady who did not know english. All hope was lost but then Elder Campbell came in clutch at that very moment and said we had to go. And I was like so sorry, next time. So let's pray we don't have another fall fiesta-val. This place is so foreign, the ladies back at home had little to no interest in me, but the older woman here are the polar opposite. My moral cleanliness has been protected at every turn this mission. That sounds funny, but like fr, there has actually been so many miracles that have gotten me out of very weird situations with women 3-4 times my age. - I listened to a talk today that literally will change my life forever. It says so many good things. I challenge you to listen to it. It is called "His Grace is Sufficient" by Brad Wilcox. Even if you are my Dad, who has likely listened and annotated this talk over 100,000 times, I think you should listen to it. Everyone needs to hear this: https://speeches.byu.edu/talks/brad-wilcox/his-grace-is-sufficient/#byu-header - Missions are cool. Please everyone on a mission or people who are about to go please add me to your list: henry.horsley@missionary.org - Thank you to everyone who reads my subpar emails and talks to me on P Day it means so much, I hope everyone has the most amazing week ever, and I love you more then probably anyone here on earth does. I can't wait to talk to you all today! I can't attach videos to my emails but trust me there are so many great videos I have of tai chi fan dancing and fiestaing, but they are on the google photos if you want to watch them here is the link to join: https://photos.app.goo.gl/qwGY1QhS99ne5wGy8 LOVE YOU ALL Pictures: 1. The selfie that ended the contention 2. Me explaining the Gospel of Jesus Christ 3. Saying goodbye to the loml Alste Larson (he went to Sweden) 4. One plate of the dumplings I partook of at Ma Na's (sorry Bilth) 5. A balloon 6. Ma Na's backyard 7. The actually good food at the nice restaurant before the porridge 8. Me and Elder Campbell in the beautiful backyard