November 2, 2011 -- The Last One

So yes ladies and gentlemen, this is that last email that will be sent by Elder Brandon Treadway. Its been quite the last two years. I think that all of us have grown in our individual ways. I've learned more about myself in the last two years than I could have learned anywhere else. Definitely worth the leaving the iPod behind, avoiding the movies and TV shows (that are in Tagalog anyway so not too much of a burden). Just love everything that I've learned. Yeah I made mistakes and stuff but that's what learning is all about. Right? Just looooved it all so much.

And now for the recap for this week. If you thought that last week's email was crazy, then this one is going to blow your minds!!! What a great way to end the mission--with this email.

So the plan for Saturday was to have Ernie and Rowena get married at 10 am and then get baptized at 11 am with Lynn-lynn. Well, that was the plan. So Friday night at the interview we find out that Rowena and Ernie have something to do in the morning and won't be able to make it all done-up and ready for a wedding at 10 am and 1 pm would be much better. So now we have to get a hold of President Piol who is going to be the one marrying them. I contact him and he tells me that he can't postpone anything. But he can do 11 am. So now the question is what do we do now??? So we decide  to have it at 11 am and pray that it'll work.

Morning comes. The marriage contract isn't done. No witnesses. WHAT?!?!?! I totally thought that that was all done. I guess not. So then all morning we were running around trying to save this wedding. Because if it doesn't happen, then no baptism!! We go and get the marriage contract moving and edited up but its wasn't printing right at all!!! So the whole time I'm just praying that this stuff is going to work out before 11 am. FINALLY we get everything printed off and it looks great at 11:15. Elder Hardin and I run to the church and bust in the door to the church holding the papers. President Piol (who is not a very nice guy and didn't want to be there at all anyway) looks at the papers and I'm holding my breath. They're alright and the wedding happens. The wedding is over, they're man and wife, we have a nice lunch and then have the baptism. Happiest day of my entire life. No joke.

Then I reach in my pocket to check the time. No cell phone. I ask Elder Serrano if he has our cell phone. Nope. That means we left it at our Branch Presidents computer shop on his desk. No problem. We call the girl watching the shop but the phone isnt there. So we start calling the phone like crazy but nothing. So then I realize where it is. It fell out of my pocket while we were riding in the trisikad! Now, there are over 300 sikads in Toledo. They are all painted blue and they are the equivalent to New York cabs. I instantly gave up hope. Tough break! Looks like I'm gonna have to lose money outta my support for this one. But Elder Serrano, my companion and best friend, didn't give up hope. He told me later that he was praying all day that it would get found.

Later that night, Elder Hardin and I were taking care of some contract papers when we get a call on their cell phone. Its from some girl named Shirley. Her uncle is a sikad driver who found a cell phone in his kad. She was wondering if we knew anyone who had lost a cell phone. I was like "YEAH!!!!" So she told us to meet her uncle, Willie, over by the church at 8 am and he would bring the cell phone to us. Serrano's prayers were answered and I was quickly rebuked by the Spirit for my lack of faith and my neglecting to call upon the name of the Lord. Thank heavens for honest people tho, right? Right.....

So we go to the corner at 8 am the next morning and wait for the guy. Nothing. We waited until about 8:45 and then head home to get ready for church. Then we head back and wait. We talk to every sikad driver that we see asking them if they know Willie. Nobody knew him until we met this on guy who told us that Willie's number on his kad was 4 Largo. We wait for a long time and I'm just sitting there praying my brains out this this guy passes by. Then this lone sikad wheels by slowly. 4 Largo. Elder Serrano and I are in an instant full-on sprint for this guy. I catch him and ask his name. Its Willie. But he doesn't have the phone. He left it at home. He says he'll bring it to the church tomorrow at 10 am. Deal.

Next day. Church at 10. Nothing. We get on sikads for an hour just tracking back and forth looking for 4 Largo. Nothing. Praying like crazy again. Then that night we get a call from a member who happened to call us. The people were going to bring our phone but didn't have any money to make it to Toledo since they are from the next town over. But they say that tomorrow they will meet us at the church in Lutopan and give us the phone there.

Then yesterday morning Elder Serrano and I got up and headed out to Lutopan. At 10 am we got there and after a little waiting two girls get off a motorcycle and come across the street. I'm  wondering which one is Shirley because I want to thank her. Turns out NEITHER of them is Shirley. Turns out Shirley turned around and sold our cell phone that night after she called us! But she was dumb enough to not delete the contacts and the girls who bought the cell phone were former investigators that were pretty close with the Elders. So they were going through the contacts (Shirley didn't delete them) and saw some Elders in there and then got a call from the member. They brought us the cell phone cuz they felt bad for us. We flipped them 500 pesos cuz they spent 700 on our phone.

Crazy stuff. The prayers we said definitely got answered. It was a lot of work and a lot of prayer but somehow everything still happened to work out. Crazy. Who gets their cell phone back AFTER it gets pawned off??? That's impossible. But not with Heavenly Father answering prayers. He brought that phone right back to us.

Just a lil story to keep you guys full spiritually. Love you all.

See you next week!!!

B-Rad.

October 25, 2011

Hey everyone.

Hahaha. So this is my....second to last email. And this last week has just been soooo crazy! Its just Elder Serrano and I trying our hardest to get all these baptisms through before I'm outta here. Its so nuts! So much fun and so much running around. Just helping people while trying to keep my sanity and my patience too.

For example....

So we had a wedding planned for this last Saturday for Lynn-Lynn. SHe's the one whose been an investigator for the last 6 years and hasn't been able to join the church cuz she's living with her member boyfriend and they havent had the money to get married. So she got this paper from the government certifying that they had been living together for 5 years and we were told that that was the paper that certified them as married. Well, on Friday night, Churchill got called back to work in Surigao which meant that we needed to finalize everything ASAP. We went over to their house and Elder Hardin looked at the 5 year affidavit that they had gotten and said that that was the paper that considers them married. So we congratulated them and then went home for the night.

But the Philippines government isn't THAT easy.....not by a long shot.

The next morning, the day of her baptism, I get the prompting that we need to go double check with someone to make sure even though EVERYONE was telling me that that paper was the final deal. We go over to the DSWD (Department of Social Welfare something starting with a D) and ask them what that paper means. Well, turns out that the paper takes the place of the marriage certificate! We still have to have a ceremony in order to make this thing official! So then we went into a frenzy calling the district president and anyone else that we can to see if we can get these two people married before 6 pm that night. But just one dead end after another. And the worst part was that we knew that Churchill wasn't going to make it until next Saturday so we were definitely running out of time. Turns out that the thing that we needed now was a Marriage Certificate that they would need to sign at their wedding ceremony and we didn't even know what that looked like. Well, it was going to be postponed. THat was the bottom line. But that night during the baptism (we couldn't baptize Lynn2x but we still had 3 others get baptized) I went into the Branch President's office feeling really anxious and not good at all. I was really worried about Churchill leaving back to Surigao and Lynn2x not getting baptized. But as I prayed I said, "We did everything that we could, Lynn2x and Churchill did everything they could and I don't understand why we still failed. I know it is your will that Lynn2x be baptized" and then I felt the response of, "Yeah. It is My will. But not this week. If it was my will for it to happen tonight then it would be happening. Don't worry. Its all good." And then I felt fine.

But I had a new determination. I realized that Lynn2x's baptism was conditional on all of us doing the best that we could to make it happen. If we started slacking then we were going to lose the Lord's help. Elder Serrano and I decided that we could shoot for a wedding on Tuesday if we worked really hard on it. The Lutopan branch president sent us some papers for the marriage contract with the Elders at District MEeting. Then we were off to work. We needed to have this thing all typed out before Tuesday morning. We ran all over the place Monday afternoon looking for someone who could put these forms in a typewriter and get them all typed up. But that was looking impossible now. We got to the DSWD office and asked if they could do it and they said no. It was 5 o clock. People everywhere were going home. The government was going home for the night. In desperation we went to our branch president and asked him what we could do. He sat in his internet shop and proposed that he make a template for the forms and then print them off. We thanked him greatly and then left with a prayer in our hearts. Long story short, he couldn't but his wife was able to make a template. But then we didn't have any witnesses. So Tuesday morning we were running everywhere to get witnesses. Got four of them and then got back to the internet shop. We got it printed off and got to the church at 11 am for the 1:30 wedding. Lynn2x and Churchill got married yesterday and I was there for it. Sooooo happy. Maybe the happiest moment of my mission. Its definitely becoming the happiest weeks of my mission.

We're getting prepared for Lynn2x, Rowena, Ernie and Klein to get baptized this Saturday and then Soy2x the next week.

Love you guys. See you in two weeks. And here we are.....

October 19, 2011

Hey everyone.

So you probably were expecting an email about 24 hours ago NOT expecting me to be writing you on Thursday rather than the regular Wednesday. So first off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM!!! Its still your birthday back home so its nice that I get to wish you a Happy Birthday on your actual birthday rather than a day before. So the reason why we are emailing right now as opposed to yesterday is because in...5 hours we will be sitting at the feet of Jeffrey R Holland and hearing what he has to say to us. I have no idea what he is going to speak about but I'm super stoked. I got selected to be in the choir which really blew my mind because I dont fancy myself as any kind of standout singer or anything. Usually I just sing in choirs out of pure necessity or I get pulled into it....which is kinda what happened here I guess. We read the Book of Mormon in like 4 weeks or something to prepare for Elder Holland. Well, just my district. Elder Hardin and I thought it would be a good idea to prepare us for this super sweet chance. I am on Moroni 6 right now so I think I'll finish up as we are studying before he walks in with President Teh and Tad R Callister of the Seventy (Who I am super excited about!) It would really suck though to not finish with such little bit left!!!

The thing with the baptisms is getting crazy. Satan is trying sooooooo hard to postpone these baptisms. I have now payed for TWO weddings with my birthday money and I am all out of cash (so I would really love it if you could stick that extra birthday money in my account so I can get something for my going away party). Lynn-Lynn and Churchell (who is a member) are picking up their Certificate of No Marriage on Friday and then going straight to the Judge to declare Article 34 that states that since they did everything they needed to in order to be married before and have been living together for 7 years, the country considers them married and then BOOM! you may kiss the bride. Lynn2x is getting baptized on Saturday. 6 years of investigating the church just waiting for the wedding to happen. No money. Glad I could help thanks to all of you.

Then you have Jonathon who is ready as you can be. He's a really great guy. So full of the Love of God and humility. He's gonna be a great member. Great Priesthood holder.

Ernie and Rowena and Klein. Holy cow. These three have been quite the roller coaster. Just the most beautiful little family you ever did see! Rowena is one of the most converted people I have been able to teach my entire mission and Ernie isn't far behind. Klein is just 8 years old but gets read to out of the Book of Mormon Reader between playing with his friends and watching episodes of Dragonball Z (oh, to be a kid again!!!) But then we had a couple of bumps. First, they need to take some Family Living seminar before they get married. They got scheduled for October 26 but then at the same time, they also have to wait 10 days for their Marriage License after that. Which would postpone their marriage for 2 weeks. They are supposed to be baptized this week. I was curious if there was a way around it so Elder Hardin and I went up to the City Hall and talked to some lady who didn't want to help us at all and referred us to an office across town and so we headed over there and we were told that the seminar HAD to happen no matter what. I offered 500 pesos for them to get out of it. Nope. So then I just asked if it were possible to get them pushed up to this Wednesday rather than the next Wednesday. They talked about it and they approved it. So Rowena and Ernie did it yesterday. They get baptized on the 29th.

But then another road bump. On Monday, a member came to Elder Serrano and I and told us that he saw Ernie smoking a cigarette and drinking and stuff which made no sense to us because he doesn't ever do any of those things. We talked to Rowena and she said that he didn't so we talked to the member and he defended himself really hardcore that he saw what he saw. Well, we told the member that we were grateful for his coming to us but it all really depended on what Ernie said. We knew that he wouldn't lie to us and whatever he said, we were going to accept that as the truth and then deal with it from there. He got all flared up and said that Ernie didn't deserve to be baptized yet and that I shouldn't focus on numbers but on conversion. That kinda got me flared up but I just heard him out. He went off for a minute or so. I told him thanks for his help and that it was up to Ernie. Then the member said that if Ernie gets baptized and starts smoking, then I would be blamed. I said that was fine and that I wasn't worried about that anyway.

Then he said that he would testify forever to what he saw. I asked him to whom he would testify because I didn't want this guy spreading garbage about my boy Ernie. He said he was going to testify to the Lord. I told him that was good and that it should stop there and then he said the words that for the last two years, after all my work and focusing on the Atonement to help me in my weaknesses, and improving and trying to become more Christlike, have become just a dagger to who I feel I have become. He said, "You are so prideful". Two choices. I could blow up on this guy and tear him down for being the prideful one in the situation or I could walk away. I just said, "Okay, thank you", then turned around and walked away. I was breathing soooo deeply trying to keep myself from acting out, punching a tree, hitting a fence, throwing a rock, etc. Just clenched my fists and walked away breathing it out. And the Academy Award goes to.....

I can kinda see where he is coming from. He's an RM from a different time. The work soooo much more on the Spirit and Revelation than it was in his time. I know by the Spirit that Ernie is ready. In my view of how the Atonement works, a man with no addiction to smoking shouldn't have his baptism postponed (and in effect a wedding and the baptism of his family) because of 2 puffs of a cigarette. I'm not excusing him. But that's what the Atonement is about. Forgiveness for mistakes. He made a mistake and he deserves forgiveness.

Well, (as you may have guessed) turns out that Ernie did smoke. He took two puffs of a cigarette that his friend brought back from Italy. He confessed to Rowena when she asked. Its not going to stop his baptism. Not a shot. Two puffs isn't condemnation. He just needs to repent before the 29th and thats why we are here. He feels horrible about it. Might I say, the "pains of a damned soul". haha. But he's ready. Just a bit of paghinulsol and he's good to go.

So 4 baptisms on the 22nd, 3 on the 29th and hopefully 1 on the 5th.

What a week. Still sane and still lookin good....well, as good as I can.

Love you guys. See you in a bit.  Brandon

October 4, 2011

Hey family!
So this week has been pretty dang great! Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday money via my parents. It has really helped me. It also helped some other stuff out but I'll get to that later.
Things are going super good for our investigators at this point. We have all of them working on one thing or another. Most of them are ready for baptism, they just have to go to church all 4 Sundays. They are:
Jonathon Para-asi. A mild mannered security guard axed from his job in Lamac, Cebu. Met by two Elders out in Lamac, he listened to what they said and it clicked with everything he had ever wanted in life. He returned to Toledo, Cebu in the summer of 2011 to retreat from the pressures of his work life only to find out that his father was against any church that was not Catholic. After many arguments and quarrels, his parents moved out--leaving Jonathon a lone man on his tiny island home. However, he has a book--The Book of Mormon. And in his spare time he reads this book in order to feel closer to someone--to feel closer to God. He is awesome. He is getting baptized on October 22. He's got a great testimony of the Book of Mormon and of Joseph Smith. He's gonna be great.
Then we have Rowena and Ernie Macapobre. They aren't married yet which has made it pretty tough for us to get either of them baptized. Rowena is definitely more converted though than most of our branch. She does her home teaching, goes to church every week with her family and then reads the Book of Mormon daily. Ernie is just a humble, loving guy who wants to do what is right. He's had a tough life and his brothers are just a bunch of lazy alcoholics which makes him the example. The problem that they aren't married is seriously the only thing keeping them from getting baptized. That's why I'm so happy that some people sent me some birthday money because I was able to pay for all their papers to get them married. Now they are getting married on October 22nd and then going straight from their wedding to the baptism! They are getting baptized with their 8 year old son! My only family that I've baptized my entire mission but it has definitely been one of the sweetest baptisms I've prepared. Last night we were teaching Ernie about the Book of Mormon and Rowena bore the coolest testimony of the Book of Mormon. She cried and just testified of how it has helped their relationship and they don't fight anymore because of the Book. So excited for their baptism. Thanks for all the cash you guys sent for my birthday! Its how it happened!
We have other investigators that are getting close. We have the Bontuyan kids whose mom is a member and all their older siblings but because mom was inactive for 3 years, no baptism. Well, now Mom came to church last week and we set up a sweet service project building them a window and door for their house so they can all go to church and now we're having them get baptized on the 22nd as well.
All in all, we're looking at probably 9 people getting baptized on the 22nd. We're really working hard to get them all ready. We're visiting everyone pretty much everyday. Its exhausting.
SOOOOOOOOOOOO stoked for Conference this weekend! I know you all saw it and you got to see whats up but we are so stoked!!! We're doing a big District breakfast at this restaurant we go to (when there is money) and then going to watch the first Session on Saturday. We've got a bunch of investigators coming. Ernie Macapobre is stoked to go to Priesthood in his new white shirt and tie that I gave him. He's a stud.
Thanks for all the love folks! I'm going to be sitting in the mission home 5 weeks from TODAY!!!
LOVE
BRANDON

September 27, 2011

Hey family.
Thanks for all the birthday wishes and what not.
 So basically there have been soooo many blessings just hitting me in the face this week that its just breathtaking!!!! We dropped Goody on whatever day we dropped him on. I think it was Monday. I was really concerned about how we were going to reach our goals and mission standards. Goody was an everyday investigator that got us about 5 lessons a week. We were having trouble reaching the standards as it was and I was scared that dropping him was going to hit us hard when it came to lessons. But I felt that everything was going to be okay. I had felt that we needed to drop Goody so that's what we needed to do.
Tuesday I was on exchanges with Elder Plania and we got three referrals. Two of which have turned into solid investigators.
Thursday we started teaching 3 children of an inactive member who, as a result no doubt of our visit, came to church for the first time in 3 years.
Saturday we received another referral who came to church on Sunday asking for a baptismal date.
Sunday we started teaching Rowena (our best investigator)'s husband Ernie and committed their entire family to an October 22 baptism.
Yesterday we had an Area Attack that resulted in the finding of an inactive RM and his family who is now going to be the focus of our reactivation efforts and his family a focus of teaching.
Why would I be nervous? It was in the Lord's hands all along. What a testimony builder. You receive no witness until after the trial of your faith. We have 8 people lined up for baptism now on the 22nd of October. I couldn't be happier. My companion and I are really good friends and our area is booming now. This is exactly what I want for my last 5 weeks in the field. haha. 5 weeks.....
Just keep on working hard and making things happen where they need to be.
Nice to hear that the Cougars were able to scrape out a win against the highly-rated Central Florida football team. I can see how that would be a struggle. WHAT THE HECK!!! We only won by 7??? I guess a win is a win is a win.... I'll take em any way they come but I'm a little nervous about the upcoming game against Utah State. I've only heard good things about Utah State this year. Also heard that the Giants lost the West. And what is going on with the NBA? Are there any scheduled games yet? Or is this lockout thing going to persist? I gotta see myself some Jazz ball when I get home!!!
Alright. So here we go into the last transfer of the mission. 5 weeks??? That's just crazy!!!!
Love you guys and can't wait to see you in a month and some change.
Love,
Brandon

September 20, 2011

Hey family!

So....wow. Where do I start off? Super just like...what......? Like, its hard for me to try and explain these feelings of just sadness and emptiness and hollow--...where could we have gone wrong? What is this? Are we not Brigham Young University Cougars? Why do we not fight then as such? Where is the Cougar Pride that we hold so dear? Are we putting too much trust in the hands of a Sophomore? What did we expect? Is a 44 point gap something that we can really roll over and accept as "just another loss"? Wow. "Therefore, in consequence of the turnovers of my Cougars, it is expedient in me that mine Cougar fans should wait a little season for the redemption of Zion--" D&C 105:9...with adjustments.

So this week we dropped Goody as an investigator. Yeah...it was a little rough. He has been my favorite. I've taken a lot of missionaries over there and been able to teach them how to teach using the Spirit and the scriptures (most missionaries in our mission only use the Book of Mormon and nothing else) to answer questions. He would be such an excellent member if not for his pride. He just wouldn't give anything a real chance at this point. As far as I know, we are the 4th set of Elders he has met. So...if that 5-7 times thing is right about contact with the Church, then he's due next time. I think we prepped him pretty well. He's such a great guy. But I totally trust the Lord that there is someone waiting for us elsewhere. We found three new investigators yesterday including one alcoholic who wants to change his life. We talked with him a lot about the one lost sheep and how Jesus searched it out. We told him he was that lost sheep and the Lord had sent us there to bring him back. It was one of my favorite lessons of my mission. Just seeing this guy who has thrown his life in the gutter trying to pull himself back out. Its impossible without the Atonement. He committed to not smoke or drink anymore so we are checking up on him tonight. Good guy. Just needs help.

Also, on a side note, MY DREAMS ARE BEING REALIZED!!!!! I guess you all have at least a minor understanding of my pure and just endless love for anything musical (yes, even Alison Krauss has some flavor at times). Well, we had this Service Project and afterwards we went over to the house of the member that helped us out and I noticed that he had a drumset. Well, Elder Serrano plays drums so I asked if he could maybe play a little. He pulls out the drums and then comes out the mic, then the guitar, then the bass. He's handin stuff out to everyone left and right! He hands me the mic and it turns out that Elder Serrano is INCREDIBLE on the drums and Elder Faustarilla is a KING on the guitar! Elder Hardin took the bass and just plucked away. We just messed around for a second and then Elder Faustarilla goes, "Okay guys, lets get serious..." and then starts playing "The Man Who Can't Be Moved" by the Script. It was so awesome. So I start singing. We're being super serious like we're in a concert but not thinking we're going to get very far until Elder Serrano comes in with the drums and then Hardin just hits one note after another and soon as we know it, we are ROCKIN!!!! We have now created our band for P-Days! We are "Sons of Thunder"!!!! Its awesome. Its not as big as it sounds.

Also big news...what if I said that on October 20, 2011, Elder Jeffrey R Holland of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints would be coming to the Cebu mission and doing a mission fireside? Just a thought...since he is. hahaha. YEAH!!! Holland, Tad R. Callister (whose talk on Joseph Smith and the Restoration became my blueprint for teaching the importance of the First Vision) and President Michael Teh. Its gonna be pretty dang awesome to say the least. I started the Book of Mormon over and plan on finishing it before the fireside so I can prepare. Its gonna be awesome.

In other news....if my calculations are correct, I think I only have 6 REAL P-Days left. After that I'll be in the mission home waiting for mom and dad to pick me up. Pretty crazy but...yeah. Nuts. Almost home. Just working til the end though.

Take it easy kids.

Love you all.

Brandon

September 13, 2011

Hey everyone!

Man alive. I can't believe that we are coming to the end of this journey together! I say together because you guys all have been there for me throughout these two years of trial and happiness. It has been awesome hasn't it? I love it. It's been so much more than me talking to people about God. Emails just can't even come close to capturing just what has been happening over this period of time. Not even close. Its been miracle after miracle.
Speaking of miracles, GOT MY BIRTHDAY PACKAGE TODAY!!! Opened it up but didn't open any of the stuff in there. Its all wrapped up. Good move. I could tell what everything was and was super stoked! haha. Yeah, I guess I shouldn't have really expected to get a Mountain Dew in the mail. But I guess it was worth a shot right? REALLY excited about the Cheddar Chex Mix. Good pickup with that, fam!

So Goody has been quite a roller coaster of an investigator for me. I'll tell you what! I have been having everyone but the Spirit and my companion telling me that I need to drop him like a rock but I just felt that there was hope. I knew that the Spirit knew something that I didn't. Yesterday we talked with him and he told us that he felt that the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith were both true. I was so shocked that I forgot to commit him to baptism! dangit. It's okay though cuz we're gonna go back and try it this week.

We taught some kids yesterday. One was a Pentecostal kid that had a lot of Bible verses in his head but had no idea what Priesthood was. Sooooo many churches only want to talk about prophecy though. He brought that up but we told him that we weren't into changing topics. His friends though on the other hand seemed VERY interested and one of them told us that he was really looking for the true church. He actually started out being the least interested but I think him hearing about Joseph Smith's First Vision really sparked something and the Spirit had a great chance to testify to him. We have a return appointment with him.

Things are kind of tough for us right now since everyone is having baptisms in the zone except for Elder Serrano and I even though we are trying our hardest. The Lord wants me to finish strong even though things are tough. That's what is up here. I'm pretty sure that's it.
Speaking of trials, TOUGH LOSS FOR THE COUGARS!!! Gosh... The game has been quite the discussion the past couple of days for us here in the field. President has kept the APs in the loop on the results and the APs have kept me up to date. A one point loss is the most bitter of losses. But they need to get the taste out of their mouths and get back to the grind because we have a big game coming with Utah on the line at home! Hope you guys have a great time at the game. I'm praying for you guys and for the Cougs...to do their best. Because I know their best is better than the Utes' best. Don't worry Dad. I'm almost home. You got your BYU Back of the Couch Pacing Companion back in no time! hahaha. Miss you dad.

Miss you and Love you all soooooo much.

I'll be home for Christmas!
Brandon

September 6, 2011

MAAYONG PASKO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's Christmas time again!!! hahaha. Well, at least it's Christmas time again here in the Philippines. As long as the month ends in 'ber' then it is Christmas! Being that it is Christmas time again, it really is kind of a wake up call to how close I really am to being home. Just trying to keep my head above the water of "trunkyness" and just keep doing the things that I need to be doing.

You know, I've realized that Satan never was able to discourage me about my mission all these months. Not once did I ever feel real discouragement. I always knew that I was in the Lord's hands and that He would not let me fail. But now as I approach the end of this tunnel and begin to see a little clearer things that are waiting for me outside of the tunnel back home, I'm starting to feel a little bit of discouragement. There are those who are doing their best to keep the commandments and stay on the path. I know this and I thank you. You are safe. But we must be mindful of those whose path is a little more rocky and a little more unstable than ours. Sometimes, even when we are trying our best to build our foundation on the "rock of our Redeemer", Satan sends those mighty winds that shake and those whirlwinds that disorient us.

It is in these times that we must remember where we stand. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. We know what we know and we know how we know it. "If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God" writes the Apostle James (James 1:5) and "By the power of the Holy Ghost ye may know the truth of all things" (Moroni 10:5), writes the ancient prophet Moroni. How do we know that this is Christ's Church restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith? We have been answered by God through the power of the Holy Ghost. How do we know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God? The Holy Ghost. How do we know that there is a living prophet today? In the same manner. Is there any other way to obtain the knowledge that man cannot give? Truly, Moroni meant "all things".

There are those outside of this Church who are intent on its destruction. Satan of course is the head of this attack, for his role is to deceive. And that he does in any way possible. There are those who write, speak, film, record and in other ways produce media that attempts to tear down the teachings and beliefs of this church. But this is Christ's church. It will not fall. It is the Kingdom of God. It has been restored in the dispensation of the fullness of times, never to be lost. It is the kingdom seen in vision by Nebuchadnezzar in the book of Daniel which "grew to fill the whole earth". It is here to stay. Try as they might, these attackers of the true church of Jesus Christ might as well "stretch forth [their] puny arm to stop the Missouri river in its decreed course, or to turn it up stream" than to try and stop this work from progressing. It is not the work of man. It is the work of God.

 Archaeological evidence is not the basis of faith. Physical proof is not the basis of faith. He who says, "show me and I will believe" echoes the words of the same men who ordered the death of the Messiah. Those hypocritical Pharisees did not want to believe. Signs would change nothing for them. And they will change nothing for us. For us to know, we must learn as Peter, that great Apostle did:

“When Jesus came into the coasts of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, saying, Whom do men say that I the Son of man am? …

“And Simon Peter answered and said, Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God.

“And Jesus answered and said unto him, Blessed art thou, Simon Bar-jona: for flesh and blood hath not revealed it unto thee, but my Father which is in heaven." (Matthew 16:13-15)

Why was Peter blessed? What set him apart? Because he had the faith to trust. Yes, there was the evidence of the Savior's divinity in each miracle that he performed. Yes, there was power and authority in the holy and sacred words that departed from His lips. But how did Peter really know that Jesus was the Christ? Our Father in Heaven by the power of the Holy Ghost. That is faith. The physical evidence was just an additional testament to the Apostle. What really had testified was the Father. This is revelation. This is wisdom. This is life eternal.

So to those who deny the works of God, to those who say that the Heavens are closed, to those that say that God does not call prophets any more, to those that reject new scripture, to those who have not ears to hear and hearts to feel, I say this: God is working just as much now as he ever has. He has called a prophet to lead us and guide us. He has caused Another Testament of Jesus Christ to come forth, even the Book of Mormon. He offers to answer our prayers and our questions by the power of the Holy Ghost to those who diligently seek Him and desire to know.

I testify of this. Because he has answered me. And he will answer you. Trust Him.

I love you all. I know I didn't talk much about what's going on here or back home. But its all good.

Love,

Brandonrandon

August 30, 2011

Hey family!

So let me go ahead and make some comments on some things that I have not commented on the past few weeks. There's been some death going on back home and everyone affected is in my prayers. That's awful. But it makes me glad for my understanding of the Plan of Salvation. You know what I mean? We all know what happens after this life and its all so comforting. Heavenly Father doesn't want to leave us in the dark with stuff like that.

Elder Serrano and I have been putting our shoulders to the wheel and doing the best that we can to do the Lord's work and in his own way. We had a really great zone conference with President Teh of the Area Presidency about obedience and stuff. It was really great.

Elder Serrano and I had a really great experience this week that allowed us to use our Christlike attributes. Here you go...in NARRATIVE FORMAT!!!!!

Elder Serrano and I sat down across from Barbe. There was a a smile on her face that we hadn't seen before as she sat down with her Book of Mormon on her lap. "How have things been going?" I asked.

"Good," she responded.

"How was your reading?" I inquired. It seemed as if there was something about her that was not there before. We had been praying and hoping for a miracle with Barbe to help her with conversion. Two things were in the way of that--her reading of the Book of Mormon and her church attendance.

"It was really good," she said. She opened up to it and began to tell us that she had prayed about the passage about Alma baptizing at the Waters of Mormon. She reported a feeling that she hadn't quite felt before. "I feel that its true," she said.

We opened up our scriptures and read with her of the desires of the hearts of those who were baptized at the Waters of Mormon. Of their desire to follow Christ no matter what the costs. Of their desire for eternal life and them seeing baptism as an inexcusable method to achieve this salvation that they desired so much. I looked Barbe in the eyes and asked, "Barbe, do you desire eternal life?"

She nodded her head.

"Then will you, Barbe, enter into the waters of baptism and be baptized by proper authority into Christ's restored church this October 1st?" The commitment seemed to flow so naturally. The Spirit was behind those words.

She paused for a moment in silent pondering. She looked at my companion and then back at me. "Yes," she replied.

All of a sudden, a howl comes from inside the house as if someone had just been seared with a hot knife! The door to Barbe's house opened and out stepped her father--shirtless, tattooed and eyes wide in a drunken rage! "GET OUT HERE!!!! GO BACK TO YOUR CHURCH! GO HOME! YOU HAVE NO BUSINESS BEING HERE AND IN FRONT OF MY HOUSE! YOU'RE ANNOYING! GET OUT OF HERE! YOU HAVE 15 MINUTES TO LEAVE MY HOUSE OR I AM CALLING THE POLICE!"

"Get back in the house Dad!" yelled Barbe. A wave of sadness swept over us, quenching the fire of the Holy Ghost which we had been feeling just moments before. Barbe was embarrassed. I was somewhat upset at his instant outburst towards the two of us. I had talked with him many times before and without problems. He was a kind man as long as he was sober. Mumbling to himself, he stepped back into the house.

Taking a deep breath and trying to regather ourselves, I looked at Barbe again. "So October 1st, Barbe," I said. "It's going to take some work but we are here to help you out. You are not alone. You know what you need to do though... It's going to take at least 4 weeks of you going to church in order for you to--"

"HEY!!!! ARE YOU MORMONS DEAF???!!!!" I put my head down realizing what was about to happen again. The door opened and out stepped the man again--a little more crazed and a little more angry. The cigarette in his hand quivered from the shaking of his half-clenched drunken fist. "DO YOU WANT ME TO CALL THE POLICE?!?! WHAT IS WRONG WITH YOU HUH?! I DON'T WANT YOU HERE! GET OUTTA HERE! GO HOME BEFORE I DO SOMETHING THAT I'LL REGRET!!!"

"GET BACK IN THE HOUSE!!!! MOM!!!!" Barbe had reached the point of anger now. Treating her father kindly in his foolish drunkenness now no longer seemed the correct option.

Her father continued with a pointed finger at us. "YOU HAVE 5 MINUTES TO GET OUT OF HERE! THIS HUT IS FOR PEOPLE TO REST NOT FOR MORMONS TO SPREAD THEIR LIES!!!!" After a second or two of staring at us, he went back into the house and slammed the door.

It would be a lie if I said that I was feeling a little of the natural man pulling at me. I could easily have yelled back, piped up, given him a piece of my mind so to say. But I held my tongue. What would Jesus do?

I gave Barbe a fist bump, re-emphasized October 1st and we stood up to go. Just as we were standing up, the door to the house swung open and out charged out of the door holding one of the thickest wooden poles I have ever seen! "YOU DON'T WANT TO GET OUT OF HERE THEN I'M GOING TO BEAT YOU ALL TO DEATH! GET OUTTA HERE!!! NOW!!" He moved closer but I backed away, grabbed my comp and walked away. It was against what I really wanted to do inside. But I did it. I was patient. Even though I could have showed him the Spirit World very quickly. It was an awesome experience. Cuz Barbe is getting baptized!

See you next week!
Love you all,

Brandon

August 24, 2011

Okay!!!!

So its a BOY! And its FILIPINO! hahaha. I was totally expecting an American greenie with the construction of the MTC and what not but that's okay. His name is Elder Serrano and he is a BOSS!!!!!! He's from Quezon City so he speaks Tagalog....and ZERO Cebuano. haha. But that's okay. He has a nice American here to teach him how to speak a Filipino dialect. He thinks that's hilarious. He tells everyone that its so ironic. He's really good at English and he works really hard. And THEN!!! Both of our zone leaders (that were Anti-Elder Treadway for some reason that I still cannot figure out) got pulled out of the area and Elder Culala and Elder Hardin got put in who just so happen to be two of my really good buddies! I'm so stoked! It's awesome! So now it is me and my two buddies and my kid all in the same house. Its so much fun and we can really feel the Spirit because there isn't a single bit of contention at all! That was something that was constantly present in the last transfer. It was Elder Prescott and I knowing that the Zone Leaders didn't like us but them ACTING like they did with no genuineness. It was really tough. Probably one of the hardest challenges I've had in my mission. To be in a house with people that just could not get along with me no matter how much I tried. Sad.

But Elder Serrano is a boss. He and I went out yesterday and we tore it up! We got some pretty hard rejections and some pretty blatant lies right in our face like some kid telling us that we couldn't visit him because he went to school from 7 am to 8 pm. hahahahaha. That's not school. That's slavery. I told him that most people just can't say no so they try to make it sound like they really want to listen but just don't have the time. But since it was raining yesterday, everyone was stuck at home and it was doors in our faces and people telling us to never come back and all the good stuff. I love it. I'll take some doors in the face for the Lord. I'm trying to teach him that whatever happens, the Lord is in it. I really want him to understand that early on in his mission. 2 Nephi 2:24 has become one of my all-time favorite scriptures. Why do bad things happen to good people? Why does life seem so tough? There's your answer. Game, set, match. Definitely one of the greatest lessons I will ever learn in this life. I'm glad I learned it this early.

Love you all!

Brandon

August 16, 2011

Hey everyone

So this was a really good week for Elder Prescott and I. We changed our schedule so that we could teach Goody every day this week and he is making a lot of progress. The other night we were walking home and he waved to us so we went over to talk with him and we ended up meeting one of his friends that is also doing some religion searching. We gave her the shindig and let her know what we had to offer and she was really into it it seemed. Well then she texted Goody and told her that she was really interested. So Goody is now offering his house for us to teach her. As for Goody though, he told us that he is looking at getting baptized in the church. But its a tossup between us and the Seventh Day Adventists. haha. We'll see. We've been answering all his questions and giving him the good stuff kids go for. He just loooooves deep doctrine. Too much. But we try our best to stay on track. He told us the other day that he believes everything that we have told him an that he really trusts the both of us. He said that he's met with other Elders before but he feels that the two of us were really sent to him FOR him. He's great. Really great.

Aaaaaaaand on another note, I'M A FATHER!!!! AGAIN!!!! hahaha. I'm going to be training another kid this transfer! I'm so excited to train again. And then my really good buddy is coming to be my zone leader and stay in my house! I'm gonna die with training and having my BRO in the house! Love it! The area is going great too and its going to explode once Goody gets baptized! MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM.......tastyyyyy. haha. Love this stuff!

Nice to hear about Brian and school. Jones' class is the greatest thing ever. Its funny. The other day I told someone that when I get home that's one of the first things I'm going to go do. Go kick it with my high school teachers and principal. They gave me kind of a puzzled look but....its different for them for sure. haha. Miss NP3. If any of my teachers are reading this, prepare for my RETURN!!!!! haha. Awesome.

Yeah. So my birthday is in 6 weeks! This upcoming transfer is my birthday. Weeeird. But yeah, the list of birthday wishes is out now! You may be wondering why I only asked for food and razors. Two reasons: A) I miss that food like crazy. B) I figure that college is coming up in 4 months or so and I really am going to need a nice Macbook for college. So I figure, go light on the birthday and ask big for the good 'ol Holidays. I think we're catching the drift that I'm blowin... haha.

As for everything else, love you all! Take it easy! See you next week! 11 more emails left.

Love,

me.

August 9, 2011

Hey everyone.

So its been another week for me out here in the Philippines and first off, BEN IS GOING TO ITALY!!!! WHAT THE HECK!!!!!!hahahaha. That is way too boss. When I read that, I was just like, "Hey everyone! My brother is going to Italy!" And they were all cheering and stuff. Pretty awesome. He's going to do great out there and just tear it up. We are sure going to have a lot to talk about after our missions. We are going to have some very similar teaching experiences I would assume. Problem is, when he comes home, pizza, spaghetti and lasagna aren't going to be delicious. As for me, I would kill for some lasagna. Or just a burger with real beef. haha. Food back home is calling me....3 months kapin.

Things with our investigators are going well. We're teaching them the doctrine and trying to help them keep their commtiments. With Goody, one of his buddies stood up in the middle of the lesson and asked me kind of flippantly to prove to him that the Book of Mormon was true. So you know what I did? I stood up too and held up the Book of Mormon and said, "You want the evidence of this Book? You want proof? Listen to the words of a Prophet of God. (Then I read Moroni 10:3-5) That is your proof. By the power of the Holy Ghost you may know that this Book is true. There is convincing evidence, yes. But none as convincing as the testimony of the Holy Ghost. You feel that you need to judge this Book. No. You're wrong. You are the one who is going to be judged and this Book will be used in that judgment. So I advise you to do as Moroni invites. Read it, ponder it and pray about it. That's my answer to your question. And its the prophet's answer. And it is the Lord's answer." Then I stood there for a second. I felt like ABINADI!!!!! hahaha. It was awesome. It was powerful and not accusatory. Bold but not overbearing. It was the Holy Ghost through me. It was sweet.

Sorry that this email is so short. I sent a long one to Ben and we have a temple session in 30 minutes.

Love you all.

Brandon

August 2, 2011

Hey everyone!

So this was just another week in the life of Elder Treadway. Making work happen and letting things fall into place.

I'd say that the coolest and most interesting thing that happened this week was when we got let down by one of our investigators (or as we call it here, punted). She was really sick so she told us to come back the next day. While walking, Elder Prescott was like, "what are we going to do now?" I felt like we should go back to the house since we were close and maybe grab a couple former investigators out of the Area Book to follow up with. We get back to the house and I had to go to the bathroom but I told Elder Prescott to go grab two or three pages out of the Former Investigator section that he felt good about. He came back down and told me that he felt like we should go visit this one girl that lived kind of close to the church. We took this one road not sure if it would lead to the house we were looking for. As we were walking, we passed this little path with a man walking in our direction. He yelled out, "HEY!" (Which is totally common since people just shout to us since we're American). I ignored him but IMMEDIATELY I felt the distinct impression to talk to him. So I spun around and walked to the guy and started talking to him.

Turns out this guy, Goodie, has no religion because he is confused. He's bounced from church to church and has found falsehoods in each of them. He's studied the Bible like a maniac and knows the thing inside and out. He's listened to the Elders once before but neither of them were very good at Cebuano so he didn't want them to come back. We talked to him a little bit and he was just spittin his beliefs at us which lined prefectly with the restored Gospel! We just stood there for the next 45 minutes just talking. It was a super awesome lesson. He really wants us to visit him. We did yesterday and it went REALLY well. He's read into a lot of stuff. I'm sure a little bit of Anti-Mormon stuff and so we'll be excited to answer those questions.

But I just feel so deeply that we were led to him by the Spirit. I went back and highlighted all the times I said "felt" in the last couple paragraphs. Over the course of my mission, that's how I've only been able to define the promptings of the Holy Ghost. A feeling. And I just feel deep inside that Goodie has been prepared for us. So hopefully we can do some work. I'm excited. He asked for 1 1/2 hour time slots on our schedule. Its gonna be sweet.

Outside of that, just doing what we do best. And loving it.

I'm really looking forward to hearing what happens with Ben. I'm gonna call Florida. haha. Idk. There's a lot of places he could go. My advice is this, man: Whatever happens, the Lord is in it. And that's the way the cookie crumbles! haha.

Hope everything is going well for you guys back home. Love you guys and think about you all the time. Well, enough. haha.

Thanks for all your love and prayers,

Brandon

July 26, 2011

Hey crew!

So just to get the news out. Yeah. Elder Prescott and I did NOT hit 400 contacts this last week. We got 362. haha. Close but not quite. But its cool. The Zone Leaders, APs, and President couldn't believe it. haha. But we're feeling really good about the way that the work is going. We're just working our butts off and trusting that the Lord will deliver the rest. He's doing it so far. So things are feeling great. I just feel really good about the work right now. I'm working my tail off. We come home every night exhausted from walking everywhere, walking in the rain, talking to people, teaching people, dropping investigators, getting let down, getting stood up at appointments, eating, and just doin work. haha. Love it. Dad, you said we're keeping Satan on his heels. haha. Nope. I think he's on his back.

The referral that we got last Sunday, Rowena, brought her husband Ernie with her to church on Sunday and they both just ate it up. They loved it. Elder Prescott and I were both speakers in church. We had both really prayed a lot seperately to know what to talk about. He felt he needed to speak on the importance of the First Vision. I felt really impressed to speak about the importance of Joseph Smith. It was funny when we told each other later what our talks were on. Then we get into sacrament meeting and the opening hymn was We Thank Thee, O God, For a Prophet and the closing hymn was Joseph Smith's First Prayer. Crazy! But in my talk I really focused towards the end about the Book of Mormon and its importance in knowing that Joseph Smith is a true prophet. So then last night Elder Prescott and I went to go teach Ernie and there he was at 8 o clock at night reading the Book of Mormon by himself with a flashlight. haha. It was awesome to see that. I couldn't be happier. Both of them are determined to get an answer that the Book of Mormon is true.

Sounds like things went great at the Treadway Trek. Really excited to be there next year with all the girls too! I think its a good idea too to get the women more involved. I mean, we all love camping right? And Big Sur? Awesome! Love Big Sur. The fish stories from the Trek though were hilarious. When you said that Ben's fish was just swimming around I was like, "Ooooooo....He's goin in after it." hahaha. Sure enough. Way to go Ben. You're a champ. And then Brian pullin in the champ! Way to go Boss!

3 months to go baby! Alright. Word on the street is that I'm going to be a trainer this transfer. But whoever I train will know Peter from the MTC so we can chat a bit. I probably won't see him at all though. We'll have to see. I wanna see him before I check outta Cebu.

 Aight! Love you guys!

Write me back if you didn't this week!

Peace.

Brandon

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