Week 56: Drinking is bad.....very, very bad!

Hello Friends and Family,

This week was transfers. I was able to see and say goodbye to Elder Blackburn, he finished his mission on Tuesday. The rest of my MTC group extended their mission by 3 weeks so I'll say goodbye to them in 2 weeks.

On Tuesday night when we came home, we were stopped by a lady as we were driving down the road within our flat complex. She warned us that there was someone passed out drunk in the middle of the road up ahead and that she was going to get security. As we approached the man we discovered it was one of our investigators. lol. We parked the car and then went and stood around him as we waited for his wife and security. After some time he woke up and immediately took is shoe off where we discovered a nice gash on his ankle. His wife then began explaining they had had a fight and he was abusing her so she locked him in the house. He then proceeded to kick out the back window which explained the nice gash on his ankle. He got up and hobbled back to the window of their flat where he crawled back in. His wife then requested us 4 missionaries to stay while she packed her and her 5 month old daughters things. So we all went into their flat where we discovered our investigator sitting on the couch, drinking a beer, and soaking his ankle in water. The flat looked like a war zone! Blood everywhere. Our investigator was pretty chill. He wasn't aggressive or anything. We ended up having a bunch of laughs with him which turned into us going outside and conducting sobriety tests with him lol. I was able to summon a little bit of my inner cop which was fun. It runs in the blood. We played some games with him and made an agreement if he lost then we got to take his beer but if he won he got to keep it. Let's just say he lost and 4 missionaries each got a beer lol. It was a pretty crazy night.

Later in the week we were able to check up on this investigator and share with him some of the Addiction recovery and 12 step videos. They really hit him hard. He has a very strong desire to quit drinking and smoking. He loves his wife and daughter and knows and see's how alcohol is going to cause him to lose them. He has been sober since Thursday. Him and his wife were going to come to church but he was on call for work so wasn't able to.

Well I got sick on Wednesday/Thursday with the Flu. Friday we went to the area for a bit but then came back to the flat so I could rest. On Saturday I was still feeling pretty bad but we still went to the area but ended up returning around 6 pm because it just got worse. So Saturday night I decided to try a South African remedy that everyone says gets rid of the flu. It's a mixture of some medicine and a ginger drink. They say you drink it and then get in bed and wrap yourself up in your blankets. You're suppose to stay like that all night and you will sweat it out. Well... I tried it. Within a few minutes of getting in bed my body was sweating. I wasn't able to sleep at all that night. The next morning I woke up still feeling the same. The one positive is I probably lost some weight from sweating so much. But I'm feeling better.
This week we are having Zone Conference.

But that is basically all that happened in SA this week.

I love you all. Elder Siale and I are doing great and working hard.

Love Elder Rash