The Missionary Brainwashing Program

I was watching a bible video the other day, one where two of the apostles find Jesus' empty tomb, but when one of them left the tomb a couple of seconds before the other one, unexpectedly I thought "Oh no, he can't see his companion!". It's no longer the MTC, "How long have you been in the MBP?"

Hello e'vebody!

We met a man named Captain Chiba yesterday! He wants to learn about Jesus!

Weekly Questions!

How is life in Japan this week? How is everything going with Elder Brooksby the younger?

S'all going sweet. Life is great, people are great, getting packages is great, things are great!

How do I like training? Loving the training thing?

Yupp yupp! It's supa' awesome! We're having a good time out here, partying it up, Younger Elder Brooksby Style!

Where's my trainee from?
If you went generic and guessed Utah, you would be right! Spanish Fork, of all places!

About the Book of Brooksby, how is it that I am able to compile so much information? Do I just find quotes throughought the week and add them on my tablet, or just write them all down P-day?
I collect references throughout the week, then organize them when I have the right amount to make a chapter. Sometimes I don't spend many personal studies finding references, so sometimes it's a bit longer than a week before I finish it, but there is always a Book of Brooksby chapter under construction!

What can I tell you about Mr. Yazawa? How did we find him?

Well, he is a 83 year old man who lives alone, has liver cancer, speaks excellent English and runs his own hardware store. Elder Parks and I ran into him our first p-day in the area and were just observing the sharp-looking garden tools when he came out to see if we needed help. We started asking him the names of some of the tools in Japanese, then he started asking what they were in English. From there we determined that he has very good English and can communicate excellently, so we asked if he would be interested in coming to our English Class, but then he pulled out a flier that had been given him the day before by some other elders.

Currently we have any missionaries who walk by his shop dropping in and visiting, inviting to various activities and such. He eventually received a Book of Mormon from someone and now we drop off little notes with scripture references on them for him to study. He said he really wants to learn, but also wants to go slowly because it is confusing sometimes. It's now not so much a question of if he will get baptized, but rather when.

Have I ever been to a musical before?

I've been to plays that my siblings were in, but I don't quite know what exactly defines a "musical". I went to see "the little shop of horrors" once, and that was actually pretty cool.

Do I feel like there is so much more to do in Japan?

Mmm... There are different things to do here, not necessarily more. You kinda have to understand that the only similarities between America and Japan is that there are people and we live in the same century. Maybe that's a bit of an overstatement, but you get the idea.

What are my thoughts on dreams?

I believe that dreams are a random collection of thoughts and memories created or recalled by your mind in your sleep, then when you wake up, your mind reorganizes the random images into a recognizable, somewhat orderly story. That's what I think.

Can I imagine a new, made-up kind of animal?

Yeah, why?

We saw a guy with an English hat that was actually proper English. It was crazy.

Random Story Time!

Elder Shurilla and I were on splits and we started talking to this guy near a train station, and I could not for the life of me figure out how to connect anything to anything this guy was interested in. I tried families, life after death, purpose of life, prayer, if God exists, etc etc... Until finally when I asked him if he knew anything about Jesus, guess what? He said that their religion seminar could have studied Christianity, but they studied Judaism instead! Just our luck, right? But wait, Younger Elder Brooksby can connect anything to the gospel, right? Jews, a family of Jews that went to America! The Book of Mormon! Sweet! Book of Mormon placed and the younger brother studying the bible will also get to read it!

That was the first time I had ever used Jews to get into a gospel topic. It was an interesting experience.

That's about it!

Peaches of oats!
Younger Elder Brooksby

Old picture from Hodogaya, but I don't really have any new ones.

Impressive

Impressive Map...and cute missionary too!

Impressive Bug...not so cute

Impressive...don't get lost!

"He's about one baby from going home."

"Since when did that become a measurement?" "I dunno, but I'm about
two babies away, if they were both born slightly premature."
Missionaries have weird ways of measuring time...

Heyo, peoples!

Weekly Questions!

How am I? Am I alive?
Yupp yupp, doing good! Thanks for being so lovingly concerned about
me! I'm sure that, were I dead, I would happily inform you of it! Boo.

Do I speak Pig-Latin?
I used to be able to, but I haven't spoken it recently. I still have
the understanding down but my speaking could use some practice.

How is my mission going?
It's going? I feel like I'll get to be here forever. Mah, things are
good, and better yet, people are doing good, including myself!
Progression all around, which is a success in my book! Oh wait, I
actually do have. A book, huh? Haha anyways, yeah, it's good.

How do I like being a trainer?
I've wanted to be a trainer my entire mission and finally get to do it
for real, and it's supa' sweet! Elder Brown is gonna be AP for sure
and we're seeing a ton of miracles. It's like I've been given a mostly
blank white canvas and was told "Make something sick out of this!",
and let me tell you, it's gonna be sick! I'm exited to do it again
next transfer, or at least that's my hope.

Where do I want to cruise to when we do the "Family all together Cruise" again?
Japan! Or dizzyland! Does it really matter? Europe is pretty cool,
too. What about Hawaii? Or Alaska? Anywhere is good, just wanna make
some supa' sweet memories!

What is my favorite thing to do on a cruise?
Eat ice cream 'till three in the morning, obviously. What else is there?

Do I like to travel?
Mmm... Hard question... Travel is like a break from life, right? I
enjoy life and the chance to progress within life, and that is
important, but travel is nice for getting a break from it, so then you
can refocus and prepare to do beast at life again, plus you get some
cool memories and meet some sweet people, which is always helpful. But
as far as a "yes-or-no" answer, I would have to say no right now,
because I've been taking a two year break from life and will be glad
to get started on that track of progression again.

Do I have a favorite flavor of ice-cream?
Play-doh or superman is the supa' bestest! All of my companions had
either never had it or thought it was gross, but hey, I guess I'm just
a peculiar person, ne?

What's your favorite kind of pie?
Lemon meringue pie, prolly. Mainly just because it's hard to spell and
it's not generic. I like peach cobbler too, but I dunno if that's
pie...

What cloud is your favorite?
Rain clouds! Blessing clouds are cool, too. Gloom clouds are fun and
iClouds are overrated. The word "cloud" is supa' weird, too. It's like
a loud clod, like, a clod of dirt, but instead it's clods of water
falling from the sky, with deafening thunder. I guess it does make a
little sense...

What has been your most memorable experience this week?
Well clearly not much, seeing as I am pulling my planner out to figure
out what we did this week... Hmm...

Sorry for those amazing persons that have to request my blog to be
updated, but I don't currently have control of that! If you want
updates from the humble-yet-amazing Younger Elder Brooksby, you will
either have to write me directly and ask me to ask my mom to update
it, or you could just ask her yourself. I must say, though, I do enjoy
option one a lot more! I enjoy any form of communication, even if it's
just a postcard you write in a deliberately confusing way just so that
I understand it but my companion doesn't. That's cool, too. Now it's a
challenge! Let's see how many confusing postcards Younger Elder
Brooksby can get before he transfers!

Way cool kanji shtufts here, but you all know Yoshi, right? The turtle
egg thingy? Well, the character "吉" is read in names as "Yoshi", and
it's made by using the characters "士" meaning "samurai", and "口"
meaning "mouth". From that, we learn that Yoshi means "Samurai Mouth",
which I found pretty cool.

Random Story Time!
Everything went smoothly this week! No hitches or bumps on the
journey! Therefore, no particularly interesting stories, sadly.

Mr. Yazawa, one of our potential investigators, is way close to
becoming an actual investigator! It's supa' sweet! He's 83 years old
and has cancer! He's gonna get baptized!

Peace to the world, goodwill toward doggies!
Younger Elder Brooksby

My map is bigger than yours!

My apartment is better than yours! I would be surprised if anyone
knows what song that is revised, but Elder Brown and I have been
making an awesome map this past week! It's gonna be supa' sweet! It's
also bigger than the other elder's map!

Hello, everyone! I fed my trainee Nato! He hated it! Gotta love the
trainer life, ne?

Did you know that when you leave a carrot in the fridge too long, they
melt? I do now!

Weekly Questions!

Why is the most stressful day Sunday?
I dunno, maybe on Sunday you realize how far you are from perfect? I
find Sundays out here are easiest when I leave the schedule up to God
and know that he knows how to drive. It just doesn't work out here if
you try and keep your Sunday schedule intact as you planned it, and
trying too hard and stressing yourself out about it doesn't ever end
with what you wanted to happen actually happening, so what's the point
in doing so

What makes me laugh?
Funny things? I actually laugh at random times now, sometimes when it
makes no sense whatsoever to laugh. It doesn't take much effort, now.
One of those weird changes of the mission, ne?

Do we have an oven?
We have a microwave oven, bit other than that, nope! Would most
missionaries even have the skill and time to use an oven, I wonder?

What do I want or need for Christmas?
That is an excellent question! I honestly can think of almost nothing
that I would want that I don't already have. I would love some
fingerless gloves, but those would be more useful before Christmas,
ne? I like Twizzlers, but that would be a want, not a need. I really
have everything I need, so how could I really ask for more?

Did anyone notice that I seem to be ending most of my sentences in
question marks? Wonder why that is? Would you believe me if I said
that I am also wondering?

Random Story Time!
While it was still Elder Parks, Elder Thurman and I, we taught a
lesson to a guy who had only been a potential investigator until that
time. As Elder Thurman was explaining to us who he was, he explained
that this guy loved psychology, and therefore a regular missionaries
worst enemy, but quite frequently my best friends! Anyways, I learned
a couple of new attack tactics that I call the "Principal Packet" and
the "DNA Support System". The principal packet is to teach several
principals, but when they seem like they wish to argue the truth or
accuracy of one or more individual principals, you make all of the
things you have taught into a "Principal Packet" by saying something
along the lines of "So how do you think you can know if all that we've
taught you is true?" or "Would you want to know if what we have taught
you is true?", so that way they are all tied into a kind of
"true-or-not" bundle, which they can then test to discover the truth
of the whole of it.
The DNA Support System is actually something the guy we were teaching
came up with. We were explaining that the bible and the Book of Mormon
support each other and provide backup for when one doesn't have the
details or the same information as the other one does, and then after
about fifteen minutes he suddenly got it!  He walked up to the board
and drew two simple DNA strands side by side, then he explained that
each strand of DNA is the blueprint to the creature or plant of which
it is a part of, and each strand is basically the same information as
the other, but when one strand is damaged or parts of it are
destroyed, or simply when one is missing the complete information, the
other strand will correct and supply that same missing, damaged or
incorrect information. Then we all thought that was way cool and quite
literally applauded his understanding. That was a cool lesson.

I saw a member from my first ward at a Mexican restaurant in Yokohama
today. Brother Blackhurst really gets around! He also paid for us
while we were eating, so when we went to go pay and they told us that
he had already done so, we were grateful, to say the least.

Have an awesome day! Loves!
Younger Elder Brooksby