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11/14/13
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"Will you commit to brush your teeth every night before you go to bed?" We had to stick personal hygiene into a Word of Wisdom lesson.
Konichiwa, Kazoku!
Sorry the e-mail is a bit late haha times are packed and I didn't get a chance to write until now.
Well, let's get started, shall we?
Weekly questions!
Are they feeding me well?
Yeah! We get a ton of food from the members every Sunday in the food basket and also at least every 2 weeks we eat at a members house and eat fish stuff, like fish and crab boiled in fish oil with a fish sauce. I like fish.
Ideas for revelation through prayer?
Well, say what you want to God, then go and live how you think he wants you to. If you "aren't feeling" the spirit, do what YOU think you should do. God knows what you will chose, so as long as you are listening and trying to live your best, God will take care of the rest, ne? A lot of the time you will realize that the spirit directed your choice and you didn't even notice it. There's a bit of power behind the "always have the spirit to be with them" promise, ne?
Yo, Haley and Tyson! You guys have to set the traditions for missionaries in our families, so let me know what we're doing, ne?
I had my first dream in forever the other day! Crazy zombie Apocalypse and shtuffts, but still!
Random Story Time!
So this week's random story is more a story of a man, a crazy man, a VERY hidden blessing, and an awesome friend.
I may have mentioned the crazy drunk guy we brought to our Halloween party drunk, and I may have mentioned that he came to English class drunk, but there is quite a bit more story after that! I will go through the timeline of it.
So here in Japan it is common for people to drink and smoke because it is not seen as a bad thing, so from when he was very young, Suzuki kyodai had drank sake(saw-kei), starting from when his parents were divorced. He eventually drank so much that he became dependant on it. He could not go 12 hours without it without having extreme withdrawal symptoms, such as vomiting and being so weak that he was unable to move. daOne y he decided that it was not making him happy, so he went to a hospital to quit. He spent 2 days locked in a room going through these extreme withdrawal symptoms, then he was cured from those symptoms. He became happy for a while and got married, but that ended badly and he went into extreme depression. It was then that he remembered that if he drank sake he would forget his problems, so he began to drink again. Several years passed and he became very ill and his liver became "very sick" as he put it. So he decided that he had to either try and make his life better by quitting sake, or to live for only a little while longer with no cares until he died from it.
That was when we met him on the street.
When we first saw him, I realized that he was drunk, but Elder Flack hadn't noticed so he invited him to our ward Halloween party that night and got his number. I remember saying "I love crazy old guys" to Elder Flack afterwards. He came to the party and English class drunk, but we still tried to help him and gave him a Book of Mormon. We also invited him to church, but by then we had learned to ask him to not come drunk. He called us a few days later and told us he had lost his job, so we invited him to start taking lessons and gradually learned his story. We taught him about the restoration and the Word of Wisdom in our first lesson, then later that day we went to a members house and taught him lesson 2. He told us at the end of the Word of Wisdom lesson that he would have to drink some sake before he came to the members house with us so that he wouldn't go into withdrawals, but he told us he would drink very little. It was then I realized that he would sweat a lot when he was with us because he would either not be drinking and be close to 12 hours, or he would consume the minimum amount required to keep the withdrawal symptoms at bay and it was very difficult for him. He came to the member's house in a suit and was very respectful. In fact, we learned he was a master chef and he took over the cooking so that the wife could rest.
We have had several more lessons with this man and learned that only 10% of people with this kind of health problem survive and successfully stop drinking, either because the symptoms kill them, they get severe depression and kill themselves, or the go and drink so much that they do a not-smart thing and get killed.
He is turning to Jesus to be his "rope" that he can hold onto so that he doesn't fall. He had a dark feeling about him when we first met him, but he has decided to make his life worthwhile and follow God. He wants to be baptized on the 24th of this month, and if he can get through the rehab and successfully quit before then, he will be one of the strongest members I have ever known. Worst case scenario, he has told us "Even if the rehab kills me, I will die happy because I tried to follow Jesus."
Pray for this guy, will you? He is too cool to miss a baptism in this life, and all the blessings that come with it.
This is why I am on a mission. I am here to help people change their lives and come unto Christ. It is an amazing feeling.
Love you all! Dendo hard!
Younger Elder Brooksby
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