Monday, October 27, 2014

Are you here to crusade?

"No, random guy, we teach about Jesus. Christians don't do that
anymore!" He is now our potential investigator and we have an
appointment for Thursday morning.

Heyo, peeps!

Life is going good! Lots of fun times and no damaged suitcases in
transfers! Yay!

Weekly Questions!

Have I hurt myself while on my mission?
Nope! Plenty of my companions have, but I've never had worse than a
bad cold. That doesn't mean it can't or won't happen, obviously, ne?

How am I coming along with the new greeny?
It's pretty good! His name is Elder Wallace and he is 18 years old
from California, although his birthday is on Christmas, so not too
long. He is a bit nervous to talk to people, but hey, that's always a
possibility, ne? Somehow everyone we have managed to have decent
conversations with in this area all speak English fairly well, which
makes him a bit happier haha

How is my new area?
It's pretty cool. We've just kinda been wandering in circles and
talking to people. Eventually we'll know enough about the area to pick
a couple of routes and use those, but for now it's just exploration!
The best kind!

How do I think I have grown the most?
Mmm... Probably my WSPM(words-spoken-per-minute) has increased
dramatically since I left. That's pretty weird, and we'll have to see
where it is after, but that's one of the biggest outward changes.

We had a game night on Saturday and played an hour long game of Jenga,
then a 45 minute game of Uno. It was actually pretty fun, but
unfortunately there was only one person who showed up.

Random Story Time!
I had an experience this week that made me aware of a very important
fact; don't accept a friend request from someone you don't know on
Facebook! As missionaries we're not allowed to, but we can send them a
message to figure out who they are and if they might meet missionaries
or if they are interested at all, and it's happened three different
times to me when that happened. One of them we have been working with
is a girl who lives in the Philippines, and she is very interested and
open to hearing lessons. Another just dropped off after I said I was a
missionary. The one this last week was openly dangerous and a
conversation I ended rather abruptly. I would love to provide an
opportunity for everyone to hear the gospel, but watch who you talk
to!

Elder Wallace and I walked around a ton and saw a lot of cool shops
today! It was way fun!

May your hammer be mighty!
Younger Elder Brooksby

Monday, October 20, 2014

Sprinkles!!!!!!!









What are these called, again?

"Sprinkles, Elder Thurman. Those are Sprinkles." The actual America
dies in old missionaries memories.

Hullo, peoples.

We got to go with a recent convert of two weeks and another member for
the first time to do baptisms in the temple! There is also an
investigator getting baptized in our ward on Thursday after transfers!
And a less-active kid I worked with almost a year ago recently
introduced his sister to the missionaries! It's all supa' sweet!

Weekly Questions!

Do Japanese people have pets?
Lots of dogs. Mostly really small dogs, but mainly dogs. Sometimes
there is the occasional cat, but they are more of the random mascots
than regular pets.

Are there any farm areas in my mission?
There's always the occasional garden, and sometimes the garden is
rather large, but nowhere near what you would see in America.

What is the industry where am I at? Professions?
Mah, everybody's a businessman or something else. The something else
is generally something to do with advertising or beauty salons.

How many Japanese YM serve missions? Do most serve or is it just a few?
A good number of them in Tokyo do, but we don't get a whole lot of
Japanese missionaries in our mission 'cuz it's not often that someone
goes to their home mission; we've had two or three, I believe.

Have I seen General Conference yet? If so, which talk stood out to me this time?
Yeah I did! I really liked the talk by President Uchtdorf on receiving
light. The one to non-members by Elder Bednar was also pretty cool.
Sadly we didn't have any investigators that managed to attend, but
that's okay, I'm sure the spirit got to them.

Dunno what to teach your investigator? Hey, Word of Wisdom! That's
always good! We taught Yazawa the Word of Wisdom with no preparation
'cuz the spirit told us to. Yey for role-playing things you don't
think you will teach anytime soon!

Random Story Time!
Most often the advanced class in English Class consists of older
people, and often they are not too into the idea of a game after
class, and in Kanagawa it was no exception. We had only one or two out
of twelve or so of them that would join, then the rest would head
home. We found that to be a problem, mainly because the main time we
invite them to take lessons, come to church, or invite them to some
activity is after the game is over and we're all eating snacks
together, so Elder Brown and I devised a plan. We got to do our plan
this last week, what we called the "After-class Discussion"! It went
way well! We made sure that they knew that it wasn't part of English
Class, so if religion came up, so be it, but it was mainly in their
hands. We started off by laying some ground rules, like no politics,
end by 8:30, no talking over people(which we all agreed was mainly for
the Americans), etc. etc. and I just started asking them questions
like "So how do you keep a "cozy" home?", "What do you do to make your
family cozy with each other?", "How do you think you can best keep
from fighting with family members?" and other thought-provoking
questions like that. We all totally felt the spirit a lot and two of
the ladies in that class are currently investigators! God is just good
at planning, and we are lucky enough to have a chance to get a glimpse
of those plans, if we are worthy of it!

We had a way good day today, going to chill at Enoshima. I totally
told Elder Brown to watch out for the sea hawks that attack people and
carry off small children, but he didn't believe me. Now he had the
wonderful task of cleaning some niku-mon, or meat bread, out of his
pants because they wanted it and he didn't give it to them. The first
one hit me in the head with its wing on the dive, so it looked way
funny as it kinda lost balance in the air. Now every trainee of mine
knows that I never lie!

I ran into a member of an old area of mine and they surprised me
extremely. Elder Brown said he's never seen me go that shade before,
and I must say, it takes a lot to surprise me, but they managed it. It
shocked me so much my brain ceased to function properly, and that
coupled with my reaction obviously made my companion want an
explanation. I hope that from now on, in cases of surprise, I will be
able to retain my thought-process a bit better.

~~~~~~~~~~TRANSFER UPDATE?!?!?!~~~~~~~~~~
1. Elder Thurman stays for his 6th transfer in this area.
2. Elder Thurman's new companion is Elder Sharman, the same transfer
number as me. It's gonna be great 'cuz the readings for their names in
Japanese are way close, サルマン and シャマン, or sa.ru.ma.n and sha.ma.n, so
people are totally gonna mix them up all the time.
3. Elder Shurilla stays and is training a new missionary.
4. Elder Bowerbank and Kobayashi stay the same.
5. Sister Fuggle stays and is training a new missionary.
6. Sister Funakura is transferring somewhere that I don't remember
with a companion whose name I don't remember.
7. Elder Brown transfers to Tama, known as having tons of girls and
"Hello Kitty Land", and his new companion is a transfer 2 missionary,
Elder Naganuma, so he will be training him.(Told him so.)
8. Younger Elder Brooksby transfers to Kawasaki to open the Kawasaki C
area, as well as train a new missionary.

Yeah, surprised you with that random *BAM* Transfers! right? Bwahahaha!

I finally sent off a package on 10/17! I've been working on doing so
for so long! Now I don't have that unfulfilled goal in my planner
anymore. That's a good thing.

Loveds! The special people especially! Short ones the most!
Younger Elder Brooksby

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Dear Parents,


We would like to express our gratitude for your prayers and support. All the missionaries were protected during the storms and rain. There was no damage in our area. We will continue to do our best to ensure the safety of each missionary.

Thank you again,

Japan Tokyo South Mission

Monday, October 13, 2014

The thing that got me was the kids in Africa.

The deciding factor in one of the debates Elder Brown and I have. I'm
sure you can guess who won the debate, ne?

Hello, people of the earth!

I've been sick for the past week! I'm almost better! Yey!

Weekly Questions!

What do I think about in my daydream moments...if I have them?
Mah, I've figured out whenever I think of shtufts like that I get a
really weird feeling, so I don't do it too much. I described it to
Elder Brown as being almost nostalgic about the future, and he said
that he got the same thing all the time, and after thinking about it
for a while he identified it. It's the feeling of longing. It's not
something I'm familiar with, so I don't think too much about shtufts
like that too much, but it does get my creative side running when I
do.

Who do I think has changed the most since the last time I saw them?
Mmm... Prolly Tyson, but I dunno. I don't think that any of the
younger kids will have done much more than grow up haha

What special things do the Japanese people do for holidays?
They drink. That's about it.

Do I need Halloween Candy?
Hey, if there was a desire for sending candy Younger Elder Brooksby's
way, there would be no regrets from this side of things!

Did I get the packages?
Yupp, I got one! Thanks a ton! Love you the most bestest!

I came up with a really good icebreaker question; If you could have a
mythical creature attack this building right now, what would it be?
Elder Brown wanted either the imps from Harry Potter or a sphinx, 'cuz
then we could all just sit there and solve riddles. I thought a
werewolf would be pretty cool, or anything that could turn you into
one if you survived.

Random Story Time!
My largest problem: I'm not awkward enough! Around girls, at least...
Every area I've been in I've had some kind of problem to one extent or
another with girls, especially ones in English class, and I always
wondered why it was only me. Then, recently there has been a group of
two or three of them following us back almost to our apartment from
English Class every week, so we told our zone leader about it and he
was like "Hey, what am I supposed to do about it?" but then Elder
Brown noticed that he always felt awkward around girls but I don't
seem to be, so we think that is the problem. New challenge for Younger
Elder Brooksby: Be awkward!

We had a pretty fun dinner with our stake president and 14
missionaries last night! It felt oddly like a normal party...

That's about it! Have an awesome day in this wandering island in the
sky of ours for me!
Younger Elder Brooksby

Typhoon Vongfong

Dear Parents,

As you may have heard, Typhoon Vongfong is hitting Japan. It will hit Tokyo between tonight and tomorrow morning in our time. The missionaries are instructed to stay indoors. We hope it will pass while they are asleep.

Japan Tokyo South Mission has an emergency action plan and has provided each missionary a 72 hour kit. Each companionship has a cell phone that we can call and email in order to get in contact.

All missionaries should have contacted their parents today, however, Musashino Zone missionaries did not have their preparation day on Monday this week. You will hear from them on Tuesday.

We appreciate your love and prayers for your wonderful missionaries.

 

Sincerely,

Takashi and Naomi Wada

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

The secret to a successful life...

Always carry a guitar. Anyone with a guitar instantly has more
presence and authority in any situation. Wonder who is the most
attractive? The man with a guitar. Who knows the answers to life's
great questions? The man with a guitar. Who has the ability to solve
any problem? The man with a guitar. It is almost certain that God
himself carries a guitar.

Hello all of the everybodies!

I figured out a formula that changes all concepts of my world! Lack of
hatred for mosquitoes=No itching! It's crazy, but if you can overcome
the deep, ingrained section of your soul that despises the creation of
mosquitoes as a means to afflict and torment man, and if you can love
them for that very same reason, their bites will never annoy you
again! Weird thought, but try it out if you can!

Weekly Questions!

Conference; how was it? What was my favorite part?
Conference; the big event that we don't actually see until next week, sadly.

Could I watch Conference in English or Japanese?
We could watch it in either, but unless they have an investigator that
would be uncomfortable without them, missionaries generally watch the
English version.

If I could see yourself as an Apostle, which one would I be?
Elder Bednar, prolly. He's way soft-spoken and logical yet spiritual,
plus he's young, energetic and still has hair.

Do they have ice-cream in japan?
Yupp. Not quite the same as America, and in no case the same
quantities, nowhere near the same price, but yes, there is ice cream.

Have my culinary skills improved since I left?
Are you implying that there had been room for improvement? But I guess
yea, I've gained a bit more experience in cooking without a microwave,
cooking from scratch and shtufts. Really, though, all that I've
learned is the one-word formula called "The Brooksby Recipe for
Success": Guess.

Do I like knocking doors, walking in circles or looking for addresses
forever better?
You mean do I like housing, streeting or visiting members better, ne?
I'd have to say I personally enjoy streeting the most, but really
anytime that I can be face-to-face with a person and an opportunity to
give an invitation, that makes me happy.

How was the storm? I got to put my feet up the table and take a break
until the storm blew over, right?
Well, it was conveniently timed, actually. I ended up getting way sick
the night before, and was out of commission the entire time the storm
was going, but then the storm stopped right as I was feeling like I
should go do something anyways, and we made it through alive and
actually had a pretty good day! It was kinda cool.

I saw a ton of Hodogaya members this last week! We saw the Saito
couple who was visiting Sister Saito's sister, I believe, and we also
saw Sister Ushijima who came down for the day to get some acupuncture
shtufts done, and she said she would say hullo to her family for me,
which was extremely nice of her, then we saw Ai Saijo, the ping-pong
almost-master. I claimed that title in the tournament we held. But
yeah, it was supa' crazy! Elder Brown thinks it's a sign, but of what
I'm not sure.

You know you're doing a decent job as trainer when your trainee tells
you after reviewing the day "Yeah, I'm kinda worried... I'm almost
starting to expect success."

Random Story Time!
The sisters asked Elder Brown and I to get them a stack of B5 paper
for printing out some papers that we use to explain the Book of Mormon
when giving it to someone. We got the paper from a stationary store
near our apartment and brought it to the church the next day, then
they told us thanks for getting it so quickly and reliably. We found
out later that they had been asking the other sets of elders for a
month or so and none of them came through. Just goes to show you, if
you do it right the first time, even the small things, you come out on
top, right?

Something else my trainee said: "I googled poison." meaning "I
searched poison in gospel library." in missionary language.

Lovedsedses! Have an awesome week!
Younger Elder Brooksby
Ps. Legit Brooksby in Kanji: 小川隣-Ogawadonari-Next to (a) small river(s)-Brooksby


Monday, October 6, 2014

Typhoon Phanfone Alert

Dear Parents,

I hope you will soon receive messages from your missionaries. I would like to quickly update Typhoon Phanfone. It has passed Tokyo area this morning while missionaries stayed in their apartments.  We now enjoy sunny Monday afternoon. Although we experienced heavy rain, all missionaries are safe and sound. For missionaries in the Yokohama zone, they will have a preparation day on Tuesdaydue to the temple visit. You may not hear from them today.

We are very grateful for the opportunity to serve with your wonderful missionaries.

 

Sincerely,

Takashi and Naomi Wada