Thank You Jerry and Co.

Привіт знову! Let me just tell you firsthand: I don't know what it is about the MTC but it activates the part of your brain that controls your dreaming and hijacks it and then decides to forward you the weirdest dreams you have ever had in your life. If you want some seriously psychedelic dreams, you don't have to do drugs, you just have to serve a mission. I almost never have dreams and then this last week I had some that are definitely going on my watchmojo top 10 strangest dreams list. I had one where I thought there were all these secret passages in my house and I was very disappointed to wake up and find out that that was not actually something we had decided to build onto our house during these past infinity months of construction, but we finally did get grass in our yard, so that kind of made up for not having hallways inside our walls. However, on the other hand, with everything finally getting done, that means that the pool we've been working towards is getting done too. I simply cannot wait to sit in the backyard and enjoy the pool from the sideline. PSYCH. I was honestly hoping that it would never get done so that I could just get home after two years and be like "oh awesome there's a pool here" and dodge the whole "dang it there's a pool here" while I'm finishing up the MTC. It's looking like the closest I'm going to get to swimming in that pool is by showering in the house next to it, but I'll take what I can get. On another completely different topic, the MTC has been great this week! My companions and I have taught a bunch of TRC's, and they have been awesome! It's been really good with helping me learn to teach better, but I definitely still need to work on being more concise and simple in my answers. That's what the TRC's are for though, so we're just going to keep hammering them out for the next few weeks. It's amazing to feel the Spirit that is there in those lessons, even though they are mock lessons, so I cannot wait to get out into the field for some genuine teaching experiences! I'm still super grateful for the time that I have left in the MTC though, because it will for sure continue to help me in my Ukrainian and understanding of the Gospel. I'm also super stoked to keep getting to know my district better! They're all awesome and they're going to be amazing missionaries, and I have loved getting close to them. Elders Hasson, Farrow and Walbruch asked for a shoutout, so if you know any of them, send some holodets their way. They would absolutely love it. ALSO, if anyone is looking for some nice, fun, competitive basketball games on Wednesday's between the hours of 10 and 4, let me know. I played some pickup games today and it really quenched my thirst for some of that Junior Jazz action. ALSO ALSO: I went to Hu-Hot this week for lunch with my cousin Will (soon to be Elder Horsley), and when right as we were leaving they were playing some Grateful Dead songs as background music for the restaurant. I'm not going to lie, I have been missing that stuff. I haven't been listening to any music, but it was very nice to hear one of my favorite bands playing. I don't know if it was divine intervention reaching in to get that song playing, but I like to think it was. God watches out for each and every one of us, and he knows how to make us all feel loved. If you look for those little gestures in your life that seem like coincidences, I'd like to argue that more often than not, that's just God's way of giving us a simple "I love you", because he really does and doesn't want us to forget it. FINALLY, for my spiritual thought of the week, I would just like to share with you something from the missionary devotional. The speaker was John A. McCune, and during his talk he addressed all the missionaries, saying "You are all out doing God's work, and he wants you to succeed. As you look to God in faith, he will not let you fail". I know that this is true, not just for missionaries, but for all of us! All good things come from Christ, as it says in Moroni 7:24, so when we go about doing good things, we're, in a way, doing the work of Christ! As we do this work, God will not let us fail. He wants us to succeed in spreading the Gospel and in spreading good works, and he will not let us fail as we do these things. We may oftentimes be fearful of doing these things, but as we have faith and look towards Christ, that fear will diminish. Faith and fear are negatively correlated, as I learned from the missionary devotional, so I challenge you to all work to build your faith and to abolish fear from your lives. No one wants to be fearful, and there is no better way to avoid being so than by having faith in Christ. Don't forget it! I love you all, and thank you for all your prayers and emails! They mean the world! - Elder Horsley

^ The district ^ Gordon Ramsey (known to friends as Starooshna Hasson)