February 15, 2010

Good morning cadets!

This week has been perhaps the hardest week of my mission. I have been called "Joe" over 50 times, I've hard some trouble with the language, the contention in our home continues to grow because of other companionships and their difficulty to get along and the culture clash of Filipinos and Americans that is tough to get over for some. Luckily, I've immersed myself in the culture already. But it was rewarding week at the end. First off, we had an excellent zone-wide FHE at a members house where I was complimented on my Cebuano several times by the members and by the other missionaries. That was a boost of confidence.

I'm sure that you remember when I told you the story of how Elder Arbado and I took the long exodus out to the far side of our area to teach those former investigators who didn't get taught again after their first lesson. Well, after returning over and over to teach the Sister up there, we have been receiving impressions that she really isn't all that interested. She is VERY Catholic and she seems very bored and disinterested with what we are doing and sharing with her. So we decided to drop our visits to her down from 3 times a week to 1 a week. But we have had hidden fruits up there and we now understand the purpose of my prompting all those weeks ago to head up there. Its wasnt just to teach Sister Jimenez. We have been teaching lots of inactive members up there after our teaching appointments and one by one they are all coming back to church. Last week 5 out of a family of 6 came to church. The one who didnt come, their seventeen year old daughter Jennalynn seems somewhat defiant to come to church. But we're sure that through our continuous prayer, planning, and showing of love for her that she will see that the church is where she belongs.

Yesterday we were out tracting and we passed a house with a woman and kids inside. I grabbed Arbado and we went back to the house. Turns out that the woman's husband was home. He all too eagerly accepted us into his home. And as we sat down, I felt the Spirit tell me to not say anything. Which was weird. But it was a very powerful prompting to just sit, listen, and nod with interest. As I listened, he unfolded to us that he was a Born Again Christian who served a 10 year mission for his church. As he started to unfold his beliefs to us, the Spirit told me that the reason that he had so eagerly invited us in was to challenge us. He began to quote Bible verses to us in order to establish Spiritual dominance which as I listened, I realized that the verses had no applicance to the situation. He was just quoting random verses. Which was really funny. So we continued to listen as he told us that certain parts of our religion were not necessary (which of course is funny because every part of the restored gospel is necessary) in today's world.

He started to explain that baptisms for the dead was false and that God clearly stated in the Bible that man cannot get to heaven without baptism. "So why would God contradict himself and let the dead be baptized?" Elder Arbado responded that baptisms for the dead was mentioned in the Bible and as soon as those words left his mouth the man jumped on them with his response. "Where? Do you know the book, chapter and verse?" It was clear to me that the Spirit was prepared to leave if this got any more confrontational. So Arbado told him that he didnt know and I told him that I would be happy to look it up and show it to him. We continued to listen further and when it was time to leave he told us that he enjoyed our conversation and that he looked forward to talking with us again. He said that we would just discuss--not teach. And that eventually, one of us would be converted to the others' religion. As we left, Arbado and I chuckled to ourselves. Because we knew who will eventually be converted. :D

A sad thing happened this week that was pretty tough. As I have been striving with all my heart, might, mind and strength to be obedient to every rule that I can, my eyes have been opened to discrepencies in others' conduct that is hindering their conduct. One of the biggest problems has been an Elder that has fallen HARD for a girl. He has gone on a number of activities with her and his companion that could be considered dates, called her on the phone for hours, and conitnuously told me that he has serious feelings for her. Although I love the Elder, I love him too much to let him make a big mistake and ruin not only his mission, but his area, the area that SHE lives in, his companion's work, and the missionary work in the area in general. Especially with a temple coming in. So I called President and asked to meet with him. I told him everything that this Elder had told me. I told him that I just wanted to help him and that I didn't want him to think I was "tattling on him" but rather looking out for him. President told me that this was a huge problem and that he has sent quite a few missionaries home because of girl trouble. So this morning we received transfer calls and he is being tranferred. I felt really good. I know I did the right thing. Even if he finds out, I know that eventually he'll understand why.

OKAY! FOOD STUFF!

Last night I was on exchanges with Elder Clark again and I ate blood on my rice! An investigator gave us this bowl full of brown sauce with chunks of stuff in it. We asked the ward missionary that we were with what it was and he told us that it was blood. He said that it was pig blood that is boiled until it turns brown and then they chop up its liver and throw it in there to boil in the blood. Yummy huh? To be honest, it wasnt that bad.

The other night I also ate pig mask. Which is the head of the pig and they scrape off all the meat and fat off the pig's head until its just a skull and then they sautee it! Its actually pretty good with rice. Its a little chewy. Especially the snout. Thats got some chewing involved.

That same night a member scooped this greasy gray stuff out of a fish and slapped it on my plate. He promised me that it was good. I told him that thats all he needed to say and to tell me what it was after I swallowed. Yeah...its the fat from the fish's stomach. Its really soft and it has the consistency of watery mashed potatoes. Its a little salty. But its not tooooo bad. Luckily there was cake for dessert. Chocalate. Not fish cake or anything.

Last Wednesday we went bowling again. I still suck. Hopefully I can pull out a better game today. Last week we played pool too. Gosh. Its heaven.

Here's a great story. So the other day Elder Arbado and I planned really hard for Monday. We planned something for every half hour which we have never done. So our day was stacked. We PLANNED to tract. Which is usually our backup plan. So as we went about our area tracting with all we had, we reached our 20 people tracted goal. We were done and heading to our next appointment as we saw these two people sitting under a tree in their little manmade shack. We made the split second decision to stretch our goal and just talk to them. We walked over and began to chat with them. It was obvious that they were very poor. As we talked, I couldn't fully understand everything but I could definitely feel the Spirit very strong as we conversed with them. We set a return appointment to teach and left. As we were walking away, I asked Arbado for a full recap of what happened.

He told me that they see us walking by all the time and were very curious about what we did. They had heard that we talked about God and thats all that they really knew. So when we came and talked to them, they were really excited and were super stoked to hear our message the next day. We then commenced high fives and continued our walk. Nice huh?

We taught them yesterday and they LOVED it. We go back tomorrow.

Alright...lets see...anything else?

Oh! I didnt budget my money very well this last support and I had 400 pesos left with two weeks to go. But guess who made it until this support period with 2 pesos??? THIS GUY!!!! Yeah! Our companionship made it with a total of 26 pesos. Sweet. We decided to budget better this time.

Hope that everyone had a good week. I love and pray for you all. Sounds like people are doing really well from what I've heard.

Stay safe. Turtle Power.

Elder Treadway