July 19, 2011

Well....this is gonna be a good one.

So this week was pretty sweet. Elder Prescott and I get along great and work together incredibly. For example, last week we reached all the mission stats standards. Its the first time that our area has gotten them since.............yeah.

We were really stoked. Then at District Meeting our Zone Leaders talked/bragged about their stats to the whole zone with their 41 lessons and their 125 I2Ls (Invite To Learn--its like every person you talk to in order to try and teach them). The mission standard is 140 a week and we got 160. So THIS week we decided to go big and just kind of stop the bragging for a week. So yesterday we busted out 238 I2Ls on top of our 45 for Monday! So now we have 283 I2Ls and 11 lessons for the last 2 days. Our goal is to break 400 I2Ls by the end of the week and still get the rest of the stats. At first it was all about showing our cocky Zone Leaders that they aren't the only ones who know how to get high stats but we witnessed something amazing. Seriously by lunchtime yesterday when we came home with 60 I2Ls, we had seen some incredible miracles! The Lord had paved the road for us to meet some people who were really interested in the gospel message! We had one of the most blessed days in my whole mission. I worked so hard along with my companions (four of us worked together yesterday due to certain circumstances) that I felt such a love for my investigators and for the Lord.

Like, its hard to explain. Since I've arrived here in Toledo 2, I've come home every night and just plopped down on my bed so pleased. So satisfied. So EXHAUSTED! Its so great to know that I was working my butt off all day long and not having to worry about any Zone Leader stuff. We've had some people ask me if I'm trunky being that I only have 4 months left. I love the fact that my companion can answer faster than I do. He says, "Not even CLOSE!" haha. Love that guy. He needed me and I needed him. He needed someone to push him harder and I needed someone to push harder. Its all been wonderful so far. He's really sensitive to the Spirit and the investigator's needs. I'm really good at helping people understand. We make a great team. The Lord is making some things HAPPEN here through us. I'm so grateful for that.

This morning (Yeah. Our schedule is so full right now that we have to teach people on our P-Day now. haha.) we taught this referral that came to church. It was so awesome. Her name is Rowena Makapobre and she felt the Spirit really strong at a church funeral on Saturday and really wanted to come to church on Sunday. We talked with her and set an appointment for today. Before we taught the lesson this morning I was talking with her a little bit and she said she had a question. She says, "Would it be alright if you guys teach me again after this time? I'd really like to keep going to church every week and eventually get baptized if that's not a problem. I'm just hoping that's okay." ....................................................................................................................YEAH!! THAT'S OKAY!! hahahahaha. So we were able to commit her to baptism before we even started the lesson. Pretty cool experience. She's got a baptismal date for August 20. STOKED! The Lord blessed us with that referral for our hard work. Make no mistake about that. It was the Lord. Not us.
We also had another great teaching appointment yesterday. We have this investigator named Lynn Lynn. She's been an investigator for almost 6 years but hasn't been able to get baptized because she isn't married to her boyfriend. They would be getting married but he works on another island and only comes home every 5 months or so. Anyway, we could tell that there was something wrong as of late. The first day I met her she said that she has a huge problem and she didn't want to tell us what it was. We just shared about the Atonement and then left her with that.

But yesterday we could tell that her problem had hit the tipping point and everything had blown up. I got revelation that it was about her boyfriend but felt like we needed to pray before I asked her about it. During the prayer I felt very strongly that I needed to ask questions to get her to tell us what was up. So I asked a few questions and she spilled it all out. She was just sobbing to us and telling us about how her boyfriend isn't coming back and how he met another woman out in Surigao. So then she showed us his texts and her texts and she laid it all out in front of us. I could tell that even though she has only known me for a week or so, she really trusted me.

So I thought for a second and felt very strongly that the Lord was preparing the way for her to finally get baptized. With him gone, she was now able to accept the gospel. I told her that even though it feels like every door was being closed to her, the Lord was opening the greatest door ever to her. We told her that she needed to pray, REALLY pray to the Lord and talk to him. Just close her eyes and talk as if He was standing there. I testified that that is how she will feel his peace. If she trusts in Him, We are going back tonight to listen to how it went. I've been praying really hard for her since we left. I have faith that whatever happens, the Lord is in it. I've really learned that over the last 20 months.
By the way. We found a restaurant run by an Australian in my area. We went with the other two Americans that worked with us yesterday in our big stats day. I had Chicken Cordon Bleu last night for dinner and this morning we had a 4 egg, bacon, cheese and sausage omelet with hash browns...amazing food. The best food I've eaten in the last couple years. A little on the expensive side. THe Chicken cordon blu cost me 5 American bucks. haha. Breakfast cost me 4. So....I'm open to chicken cordon blu fund donations. haha.

Yeah. That was seriously 1/10th of what happened this week. Best week ever.

See you guys in a couple months.
Love,

B-Rad

July 12, 2011

Hey mom and dad.

Wow. So it feels so great to not be a Zone Leader any more! hahaha. YEAH!!!! love it. I've been a zone leader for 9 months--not including the 5 months I was a district leader. One reason why I got stepped down is because there are a lot of missionaries that need to get stepped up to zone leader and DL positions so they're moving some of the seasoned fellas out and making them Senior comps. I'm pretty sure I'm in line to be training soon. Maybe next transfer, maybe my last transfer. I'd love to train Peter. My new companion is Elder Prescott from Everett, WA. He's like 27 years old and he's got a heart of gold. I'm trying to help him perfect his Cebuano. He's been in the field for 8 months or so, so I'm hoping that I can help him out. He has a real desire to learn and he catches onto stuff really quick. When I got to the area it was DEAD. haha. Just like every other area since my first area. We had nothing. So we unpacked and then we hit the pavement tracting. He said that his last companion was really trunky and it carried over to him. They didn't do much work but he's excited to be working with me. We're working really hard. Like REALLY hard. No car. Lots of walking. Feels great to come home exhausted again. I showed up to the area and Elder Prescott told me that some of the missionaries in the zone told him that he was gonna hate me and that he should get a gun ready cuz he's gonna want to kill me or something like that. Hahaha. We had a good laugh. At the end of the first night, we were laying in our beds and I said, "Elder Prescott?" He goes, "Yeah?" I go, "Thanks for not shooting me today." hahahahahaha. We were cracking up. Its going to be a good transfer.
I'd say probably one of the weirdest changes in not being a zone leader any more is that I see all the things that people are doing WRONG and I feel like I shouldn't say anything cuz I'm just a grunt again. Like my Zone Leaders live in our house with us and they don't even go all 3 hours of church. I'm just like, uhhhhhh.....what the heck?! So I'm going to talk to President Schmutz in my email about what he would have me do in situations like that. Its just bugging me.

But holy cow. I had to withdraw quite a bit of personal and I'm sorry. But I was expecting to get reimbursed for all my travel when I got to Toledo but they didn't have any Zone Fund! So now I have like 900 pesos reimbursement lined up once the ZF gets here. Its kind of bugging me a lot.

Got to see Elder Drake and Elder Heer at the Transfer Meeting. That was really nice. I love those guys like brothers. Elder Heer had some great stories like always. He bribed the LTO (Filipino DMV) to get his license procedure sped up and it all blew up in his face. It was a hilarious story.

Alright. I love you guys.

I'll be home for Christmas,

Elder Treadway

July 5, 2011

Hey mom and dad.

So this was a good week. We're getting a lot of progress with our new investigators. We just committed this family of 5 to baptism. I'm really excited for them and we are also teaching their neice down the street and she's progressing really well too. The problem is that I'm outta Camotes tomorrow! I'm heading down South to Toledo. I'm happy and kinda bummed cuz I thought for sure that I would be heading off to Negroes for the Final Round but it looks like that aint gonna happen. But thats alright. The Lord needs me in Toledo so that's where I'll go. That's one thing that I learned out here in the field. The Lord calls us where he needs us. Not where we want to go. But part of me is kinda excited because I heard my new house has hot water. So we'll see. hahaha. Oh yeah. And I'm done with being ZL. YEAH!!!!!! hahaha. I promised Heavenly Father that I would be a ZL and do my best until he decided I was done. Well, he decided I'm done being a ZL, so I'm done! haha. Time to be a grunt again. Love it!

Met our new mission president on Monday. Really great guy. He's really different from President Hansen in a lot of ways. He gave a great workshop on Nephi and how the story of the brass plates applies to missionary work. It was amazing. Also, he doesn't take anybody's fake stuff that they do to look good in his eyes. He sees right through that garbage. I love that. We have so many guys here that just act good in front of the President just to get leadership positions or get put in solid areas. Hate that stuff.

Hope I have enough money for the transfer. I don't know if I will. I'm going to take a look at my funds and decide whether I need to withdraw or not. I'm on the fence with if I need to or not.

I got my package with the shoes and candy. Thanks a lot. Those shoes look like they could be used on the moon! That's pretty heavy duty. I'll see how they work out. They feel a tad small. Do you want me to save them for ben if they're too small?

Other than that, our week was pretty mundane. Just worked hard and that's about it. Lots of travel with going to ZLC and what not.

Love you guys,

Brandon

June 28, 2011

hey mom and dad.

Yeah. So lets just get the important stuff out of the way first. Jimmer.

We got breakfast that morning and ended up seeing the Draft on the TV there. We saw picks like 7 thru 14 or something. When I saw that Jimmer went to the Kings, I almost broke down and cried. No doubt the Jazz wanted him. And now he's on the Kings. I can't stand the Kings. I ridicule the Kings constantly. And now I have to turn back just to see my hero play ball. But that's okay. I'm not a Kings fan. I'm a Jimmer fan. And we are getting Jimmer Jazz jerseys made anyways! haha. No we're not. But that would be great.
It cracks me up that you got season tickets. Elder Nelson's dad wrote him that in the 2 days after the draft, the Kings sold more season tickets than they had the year before. hahaha. Kings fans. So conditional. But as for the Jazz, I'm pleased with what happened. Enes Kanter and Alec Burk. Lets make it happen boys!
I had one of the best weeks of my mission this last week. We had so much fun and worked stinkin hard! Wednesday we went to the Holy Cave which was hilarious because of the tour guide was sooooo funny! It was a legit spelunking tour that took us pretty far in for about 30-45 minutes. We gotta do it when you guys come. The guy found this cave in the 80's and he's named all sorts of things that look like Catholic statues and stuff. Mama Mary, Santo Nino, 12 apostles, Baby Jesus, Holy Cross. The guy was so funny. "These are the challenging moments in life!" He kept saying that. All English tour. Loved it.
Then we found a golf course in our area while we were tracting the other day and we went to go check out how much it would cost us to do a round of golf on P Day. Well, they just gave us a bucket of some balls and told us we could hit. So we hit a couple balls and went back today. 20 pesos only for a bucket of balls. Me and Elder Nelson were rippin em. The funniest thing was that there were cows grazing all over the driving range and my companion hit a cow with a ball. haha. It was hilarious.
Then on our way home we stopped behind this car and I looked in my rearview mirror to see this girl come screaming up behind me on her motorcycle. She clearly wasn't looking and then she noticed me, turned, tried to correct, overcorrected and then ate cement SO HARD! Her motor flipped and bounced off her back. Miraculously she wasn't hurt too bad. Just a twisted ankle. But we got out and checked on her. Then I looked around and realized where this was happening. In the exact same spot where Elder Deguidoy crashed the car 6 months ago. Right in front of the elementary school where all the kids were out at recess and watching us. The kids were yelling, "The Mormons crashed again!" Then some guy said it was my fault. But I got saved cuz some drunk dude came out and said, "I saw the whole thing!" Funny enough, he was blind in one eye. I find that a humorous irony. But he told them what happened and we left. The girl was fine. We see her sometimes. She's pretty embarassed to see us though.
The other day we went to see Angel and we found out that her sister was at the house. The one that called and yelled at her. She also got really mad when she found out that we were teaching her brother. So we go over to meet her and see if we can soften some hearts or something. We get over there and the whole family is there. We shake everyone's hand. I get to the sister to shake her hand and she doesn't look up from her book. Actually she was reading the dictionary. She clearly had just grabbed it so she could look busy. Anyway, long story short, she didn't shake our hands, look at us, anything. She thought she would be the family hero and oppose the Mormon missionaries not knowing that her whole family loves us. haha. Its okay though. Her mom ripped her a new one and then the next time she asked some questions and sat in on the lesson. So things are better now. She's friendly. I think she thought that we just talk bad about the Catholic church. I never even say the word Catholic when I teach. So...her bad.
Long story short for the week, Elder Culango and I really worked hard this week and tore it up. We got lured into some Bible Bashes and turned things around really well, found some great investigators, made some good friends, have some really nice progressing investigators, improving ourselves, looking for ways we can help the Branch better, did some Family Home Evenings and just did the work the way the Lord wants it done. That way when this transfer is over we can dust off our hands, look what we did and say, "Dang boy! That's how we do it in Camotes!"
So yeah. I'm just staying focused and just keep on keepin.
Love you guys.
Brandon

June 21, 2011

Hey everyone!

So to start everything off, HAPPY FATHER’S DAY DAD! I know I wasn’t there which bites for both of us but don’t worry cuz this is the LAST holiday thingy before I come home. I think that they should let us call but they don’t really let that happen for some reason… Hope Father’s Day was great and you enjoyed yourself in Hawaii.

So this was quite a great week! We had Angel's baptism on Saturday which was awesome! It was a short and sweet baptism but we really felt the Spirit and that's what matters. Right as we finished, a storm started coming in to the coast so we thought it best to probably get out of there and not stick around too much. Buuuut missionaries love picture taking. So we hung around for a bit after everyone left and took some pictures at the beach. It felt great to actually be waist deep in the ocean! haha. I can't wait until you guys pick me up so I can actually have a good time in the water.  It was nice and warm Dad. Just to let you know.  She bore a great testimony to us at the end of the baptism. It was really great. Great day for us. After 8 weeks of working really hard we get to see some nice fruits of our labors. We baptize. That’s what we do. Not for the numbers. We do it because that’s how people come unto Christ. Legit.

Then over the past couple of days Elder Culango and I have really put an emphasis on tracting. Yesterday we I2L’d about 80 people on top of the 40 or so we tracted into the other day which puts us at 120 of our 140 goal. We have lots of return appointments too. I’m pretty sure this is my last transfer here though. Its true diligence to work hard to improve an area even when you know you aren’t going to be there to reap the benefits of your labor in that area. But that’s okay. Christ got transferred (to heaven) before he was able to some of the people he taught get converted. But that’s not what mattered to Him. He just did what He was supposed to do, was obedient and then when it was His time to go, He didn’t complain. He’s the best example of everything.

Thanks Dad. To be honest, I am really shy to take money out. But right now we’ve been eating vegetarian! We ate some chicken yesterday for the first time in 2 weeks and it tasted like manna! Haha. Elder Culango and I have really been pounding down the vegetables. We make this mix with lentil beans, coconut milk and some vegetables that is sooooo freaking good! Slap that on some rice and you are feeling good until dinner! Then for dinner you have some vegetables that got boiled in some water and then you put in some meat taste powder, boom! Then you throw that on some rice too! Its delicious! But when things get really tight to where we won’t have any money (aka Emergencies) then I’ll take some money out. Thanks for your concern.

Love you guys! Take it easy! Don’t stress yourselves out. Just stick with the basics and life is easy. Trust me on that one.

I’ll be home for Christmas!

Brandon

June 14, 2011

Hey gang!

So this week consisted of us trying to survive basically. Haha. We had no money up until Friday. We had our Zone Conference in Cebu so each of us had to borrow 500 pesos from the zone fund to make sure that we would at least be able to make it to the Conference. We kept trying to put together plans with the APs that would be cheap for us to get to the Conference once we got to Cebu but certain conditions made it so that we had to drive aaaaall the way to the temple and then backtrack to Mandaue. Not the greatest plan but we kinda had to do it. Thanks for putting some cash into the account. I took out enough to make it back to Camotes and to get us something to eat for the next couple days while we wait for support. Our situation is a dark one here with no ATM. But we must survive!

Sunday we went back to talk to the Seventh Day Adventist, Joel. We sat down and to be honest, we were relying 100000000% percent on the Spirit to tell us what to talk about. Once we finished the opening prayer I knew that we had to talk about the thing that he had NO belief in—Priesthood. So we started talking about it. I told him that our message is that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the Earth through the Prophet Joseph Smith. All of it has been restored—most importantly the Priesthood and he stopped me instantly. He said that Priesthood is a hoax that the Jews believed in so that they could say that they were better than everyone else and a “chosen” people. He said he didn’t believe that. I told him that that was not the purpose of the Priesthood. He told us that any person can be used by God to do His will. I told him that he was correct but nobody can perform the ordinances of the Gospel without the Priesthood. Then I took him on a journey. We took a little journey from Exodus to Deuteronomy and then to Hebrews and then to the Gospels and then to the Book of Mormon and then we threw a little testimony on it for seasoning. DING! He goes, “Okay. I believe in this priesthood thing. But about the Sabbath day—“ Yeah. So we told him that when we come back we’ll talk about the Sabbath Day. Haha. Its great. It all comes back to that for them. We go back on Sunday.

Then yesterday we got shut down by our investigator. He was super good every time that we taught him. He was asking all sorts of questions, making it an actual convo, all the good stuff you want. We hadn’t been able to teach him much but he had a Book of Mormon and told us that he was going to read it. Then yesterday we get there and he comes out with his Book of Mormon. He’s like, “Thanks! I don’t want this!” Then he basically insulted us to our face and told us that they Book of Mormon was as worthless as trying to harvest corn with wood rather than a scythe (Wow. Witty right?) and that he thinks its just a joke. He apparently got healed in his church and that was good enough for him. So I wasn’t going to argue with him. He can do what he wants. Is the Book of Mormon true? Yeah! Too bad he won’t read it.

Things are going alright. Angel’s brother Dominic is getting less shy of us so things are getting better there. We’re stoked for Angel’s baptism this Saturday. 10 am in the ocean! She asked me to do it so I’m pretty stoked. I haven’t been able to baptize in the ocean yet.

 Talk to you guys next week. Love you guys. See you guys for Christmas! And Thanksgiving puhon. Haha.

Brandon