Hey Dad.
Great to get your email this morning. It’s been a wild past couple of days. Things really got shaken up for me.
On Saturday we had the baptism of Sister Daisy! YES!!! Her and her two daughters were baptized. It was cool because they are the first people that Elder Arbado and I found, taught, committed and baptized together. My first full circle! It was awesome. Sister Daisy is EXTREMELY spiritual! I'm so excited for her future in the Church. She's going to talk to Bishop on Sunday with her daughters for Dedication Recommends for the temple. GREAT STUFF!!! I asked her how things have been going since her baptism and confirmation and she said it feels like my heart is always happy. That was great to hear because when we first met her she was REEEEALLY struggling emotionally because her husband left her and they're separated now. But now she's happy all the time. The Spirit can do that. You know, work miracles.
Then Sunday afternoon Elder Arbado got pulled out of our Ward Mission Coordination Meeting by the zone leaders. After about 10 minutes he came back. Emergency Transfer. Apparently something happened on Negros in Dumaguete Zone and they needed to split up two angry missionaries so they looked at who is the happiest and is having success. Elder Arbado and I. Actually, we're not sure why they picked us but we're pretty sure that’s why. Quite a compliment.
So I found out my companion is Elder Nambio who "hates anything that isn't Filipnio. Especially Americans". I'm like, that’s great. I know I don't look like it but I AM American. I heard horror story after horror story about this guy. So Sunday night I just asked Heavenly Father to help me to magnify my gift of kindness. I think I'm a pretty easy person to get along with and I don't like contention at all. So the next morning Arbado and I went to the mission office and there was my new companion. I just forced myself to forget everything that everyone said about him and just be his companion as if I had no idea who he was. And so
far it’s seemed to work. We've laughed, had a good time together, taught some great lessons, and things seem to be going really well so far.
I had a feeling before I came out that because I get along with people easily that I was going to be receiving companions that have relationship issues or that are tough to get along with. So....here we go. It starts now
apparently.
Nice to hear about the Lord's basketball teams. The Jazz sound like they are doing great. I pray for them every night. Just kidding. But we really needto get some fit healthy guys on that roster that can avoid injury. And thenBYU losing in semifinals...dang. But Florida! That would be a great win. Actually, ANY win in the NCAA tournament would be a great win.
Alright dad. Just realized that I forgot to email President Hansen. I love you and hope that you have a great week.
Brandon
Elder Treadway
First baptism in the Ocean
Cebu, Philippines
March 17, 2010
Hey Mom.
What a week. Elder Arbado is gone. He got emergency transferred to Negros Island in Dumaguete Zone to go and rescue two missionaries. So now I have a new companion Elder Nambio who before I met him I heard everything bad about him. So when I met him I decided to look for all the good that there was to find. Pretty great guy. Loves to work hard--which is all I ask for. We tracted a lot yesterday. Its great. He gets SO excited to see clusters of houses and then asks "can we go tract over there?" So we got lots done yesterday. He's a little quiter than Arbado so I've had to use a different side of my personality with him. Interesting.
Interesting story. So we have this investigator Maya that seems really interested in the gospel. We've only taught her twice. So yesterday we're with a ward missionary Rene. He lives behind them. Now, we start to walk up to the house of Maya and he grabs my shoulder and tells me that he'll go first. So I'm like...sure if you want. So he walks up to the gate and yells "AYO!!" (which is like knocking). Mayas neice comes out and sees Rene and instantly she's scared. I can see it on her face. Rene asks if Maya is home and after the girl thinks for a second she says no. So another ward missionary with us turns to me and whispers "I think she's lying". I agreed. But it was weird. Why would Maya have her lie to us if she was so interested before?
So I tell the girl that we'll be back on Friday and then we head out. As we're walking away, Rene grabs my shoulder and tells me "If you come back on Friday and they aren't home, drop them. Don't go back"
So I got thinking as we were walking. Why would Rene say that? Why was the girl scared? Why would she lie to us? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?
Then my lawyer/detective mind started turning and I had a thought. Rene lives relatively close to Maya. Like, they're houses almost touch each other. Back to back. The girl looked like she knew Rene. And she looked like she didnt like him that much either. His comments and desire to go FIRST all started to piece together the puzzle of the situation. So I pulled the other ward missionary aside and explained to him that I thought that Rene's family and Maya's family may not be so friendly to each other (and here in the Philippines if you don't like someone, you really dont like them). So I think that they werent too friendly to each other and Rene would either not like Maya to investigate or just didnt want to teach over there. So I had Romel- our other ward missionary go talk to him. Turns out, the families dont like each other and Rene doesnt want her to go to the same Church as him. So we sent Rene home and went back.
This time Maya was home. (Go figure). We started the lesson about the Book of Mormon when I remembered that last time we had only GIVEN her the Book of Mormon. No reading assignment. But she had all these post it notes sticking out of it. So I asked her what they were. Holy crap...
Turns out that she was really interested in it. She didnt know where to start so she read the Restoration pamphlet over again. But this time, she looked up EVERY scripture in both the Book of Mormon and Bible. She realized that if she didnt recognize the scripture, it was probably in the Book of Mormon. I was so excited I almost cried. Elder Nambio was in shock. Romel was whispering to himself, "Oh my gosh! Yes! Yes!" She was like, "this book is really great! Its got a lot of good things in it." So we continued our lesson.
Pretty cool huh? What if I hadn't listened to the Spirit that told me something was up with Rene? What if we hadnt gone back? What if we had brought Rene with us? I'm just glad that the Lord prepares a way for everything and everyone. Cool thing.
Alright mom, we're going to go do go karts for our district activity. Yeah!!!!
Love you,
Brandon.
What a week. Elder Arbado is gone. He got emergency transferred to Negros Island in Dumaguete Zone to go and rescue two missionaries. So now I have a new companion Elder Nambio who before I met him I heard everything bad about him. So when I met him I decided to look for all the good that there was to find. Pretty great guy. Loves to work hard--which is all I ask for. We tracted a lot yesterday. Its great. He gets SO excited to see clusters of houses and then asks "can we go tract over there?" So we got lots done yesterday. He's a little quiter than Arbado so I've had to use a different side of my personality with him. Interesting.
Interesting story. So we have this investigator Maya that seems really interested in the gospel. We've only taught her twice. So yesterday we're with a ward missionary Rene. He lives behind them. Now, we start to walk up to the house of Maya and he grabs my shoulder and tells me that he'll go first. So I'm like...sure if you want. So he walks up to the gate and yells "AYO!!" (which is like knocking). Mayas neice comes out and sees Rene and instantly she's scared. I can see it on her face. Rene asks if Maya is home and after the girl thinks for a second she says no. So another ward missionary with us turns to me and whispers "I think she's lying". I agreed. But it was weird. Why would Maya have her lie to us if she was so interested before?
So I tell the girl that we'll be back on Friday and then we head out. As we're walking away, Rene grabs my shoulder and tells me "If you come back on Friday and they aren't home, drop them. Don't go back"
So I got thinking as we were walking. Why would Rene say that? Why was the girl scared? Why would she lie to us? How many licks does it take to get to the center of a Tootsie Roll pop?
Then my lawyer/detective mind started turning and I had a thought. Rene lives relatively close to Maya. Like, they're houses almost touch each other. Back to back. The girl looked like she knew Rene. And she looked like she didnt like him that much either. His comments and desire to go FIRST all started to piece together the puzzle of the situation. So I pulled the other ward missionary aside and explained to him that I thought that Rene's family and Maya's family may not be so friendly to each other (and here in the Philippines if you don't like someone, you really dont like them). So I think that they werent too friendly to each other and Rene would either not like Maya to investigate or just didnt want to teach over there. So I had Romel- our other ward missionary go talk to him. Turns out, the families dont like each other and Rene doesnt want her to go to the same Church as him. So we sent Rene home and went back.
This time Maya was home. (Go figure). We started the lesson about the Book of Mormon when I remembered that last time we had only GIVEN her the Book of Mormon. No reading assignment. But she had all these post it notes sticking out of it. So I asked her what they were. Holy crap...
Turns out that she was really interested in it. She didnt know where to start so she read the Restoration pamphlet over again. But this time, she looked up EVERY scripture in both the Book of Mormon and Bible. She realized that if she didnt recognize the scripture, it was probably in the Book of Mormon. I was so excited I almost cried. Elder Nambio was in shock. Romel was whispering to himself, "Oh my gosh! Yes! Yes!" She was like, "this book is really great! Its got a lot of good things in it." So we continued our lesson.
Pretty cool huh? What if I hadn't listened to the Spirit that told me something was up with Rene? What if we hadnt gone back? What if we had brought Rene with us? I'm just glad that the Lord prepares a way for everything and everyone. Cool thing.
Alright mom, we're going to go do go karts for our district activity. Yeah!!!!
Love you,
Brandon.
March 9, 2010
Hey Mom.
Hope that everything is going well for you guys back home. Sounds like Ben and Brian are doing well. They are always in good spirits when the season starts. And then they slowly diminish as the season goes on. Hahaha.
Things are going really great. We had zone conference yesterday. And Saturday we are going to help in the temple! Can't believe it! We're gonna be moving in and arranging furniture. The temple is going to be done in 2 weeks. Its cool to get the same feeling that I felt as the Sacramento Temple was going up a few years ago. Its the same temple as ours too! Crazy huh? Same look and floorplan.
Cool thing this last Sunday. This lady came to our ward with her family to bear her testimony and share with all the members about how much her son who had served his mission there 5 years ago and her brother who had served his mission there 900 years ago had loved the mission, people and the culture. Then she shared a little about how they both were doing. And what do you know...they're from Sacramento! They're from the Carmichael Stake. So we didnt know any of the same people. But...kinda cool.
There's this guy in our ward who thinks we're lazy missionaries for some reason. That reason happens to be that we were smiling instead of laughing at the TERRIBLE piano playing in sacrament as we were sitting on the priest's bench. Its not as if the whole ward was cracking up as silently as they could. I think part of it has to do with the fact that the piano player was his sister in law....??? Anyway, he thinks we're lazy. So we're gonna ask him to work with us and instead of taking the motorcycles all the way up to the top of the mountain to go teach lessons...we're gonna walk all 3 miles and contact along the way. We'll see how lazy he thinks we are after that.
About the Vans, I would definitely prefer my blue ones. I dream about them on my feet. So soft. So comfortable. Also, if I could get some money to get pants made that would be great. I'm down to one pair of pants. All my other ones are too tight and hot for the Philippines. Missionary Mall failed us mom. We've been dooped. The shirts are WAY TOO thick for the Philippines. I dont even wear them anymore. I found a shirt from a past Elder in our house and had bought one in the MTC. I cycle between those two and wash them each after each use. Its a terrible life to live. So I need pants and shirts money. I dont know if you can work something out with Missionary Mall but this is awful. I was so discouraged when I had to put on one of their shirts this morning and was just sweating like crazy.
Anyway, besides that, could I have the mailing address for Jessica Goold and Lindsey/Heidi? I haven't written any of them and lost Lindsey's address.
No strange food this week.
I've been using toilet paper and the Lord has blessed me with a timed bowel that only wants to poop before breakfast, after lunch, and around 9:30. All times that we are home.
Alright, we're going to play golf. Time to show these kids whats up. Love you mom.
Elder Treadway alias Brandon
Hope that everything is going well for you guys back home. Sounds like Ben and Brian are doing well. They are always in good spirits when the season starts. And then they slowly diminish as the season goes on. Hahaha.
Things are going really great. We had zone conference yesterday. And Saturday we are going to help in the temple! Can't believe it! We're gonna be moving in and arranging furniture. The temple is going to be done in 2 weeks. Its cool to get the same feeling that I felt as the Sacramento Temple was going up a few years ago. Its the same temple as ours too! Crazy huh? Same look and floorplan.
Cool thing this last Sunday. This lady came to our ward with her family to bear her testimony and share with all the members about how much her son who had served his mission there 5 years ago and her brother who had served his mission there 900 years ago had loved the mission, people and the culture. Then she shared a little about how they both were doing. And what do you know...they're from Sacramento! They're from the Carmichael Stake. So we didnt know any of the same people. But...kinda cool.
There's this guy in our ward who thinks we're lazy missionaries for some reason. That reason happens to be that we were smiling instead of laughing at the TERRIBLE piano playing in sacrament as we were sitting on the priest's bench. Its not as if the whole ward was cracking up as silently as they could. I think part of it has to do with the fact that the piano player was his sister in law....??? Anyway, he thinks we're lazy. So we're gonna ask him to work with us and instead of taking the motorcycles all the way up to the top of the mountain to go teach lessons...we're gonna walk all 3 miles and contact along the way. We'll see how lazy he thinks we are after that.
About the Vans, I would definitely prefer my blue ones. I dream about them on my feet. So soft. So comfortable. Also, if I could get some money to get pants made that would be great. I'm down to one pair of pants. All my other ones are too tight and hot for the Philippines. Missionary Mall failed us mom. We've been dooped. The shirts are WAY TOO thick for the Philippines. I dont even wear them anymore. I found a shirt from a past Elder in our house and had bought one in the MTC. I cycle between those two and wash them each after each use. Its a terrible life to live. So I need pants and shirts money. I dont know if you can work something out with Missionary Mall but this is awful. I was so discouraged when I had to put on one of their shirts this morning and was just sweating like crazy.
Anyway, besides that, could I have the mailing address for Jessica Goold and Lindsey/Heidi? I haven't written any of them and lost Lindsey's address.
No strange food this week.
I've been using toilet paper and the Lord has blessed me with a timed bowel that only wants to poop before breakfast, after lunch, and around 9:30. All times that we are home.
Alright, we're going to play golf. Time to show these kids whats up. Love you mom.
Elder Treadway alias Brandon
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