Friday, December 18, 2015

December 14, 2015 Innovation and Creativity at a Whole New Level

Good Evening my Family and Friends,
I hope to find you all happy and well. This week has been quite a week with all that has been taking place. But we are alive and well, and the week has never been more rewarding. Monday was transfers, so all of the missionaries within the mission were being moved around all over the place. In Ghana, we were able to utilize the public transportation rather well but the use of the transportation here is rather non existent. The only way we can move people around is through the use of the Mission Couples. Early Monday morning, transfers begins and doesn't end till 3 in the afternoon. Tuesday came and we had eleven elders come in from Ghana (7 were being trained in seperate missions before they came and 4 were from the MTC). They usually come in and we give them a quick orientation, supply them with boots, feed them, and send them to bed. They usually sleep with us in the Mission Office. However, their flight on Tuesday didn't land at 5 as expected but 8 instead. So, they didn't arrive to the office till around 9:30. We rushed to get everything set up for them and by the time we had everything accomplished, it was 11:30. The next morning, we woke up early, got them dressed and sent them on their way around 12. Later on Wednesday, we had another arrival of a missionary from the Provo MTC. I felt really bad for him. Here was this kid from Utah, who is coming from Utah which is roughly 30 degrees right now, landing in a place full of Black people, roughly 95 degrees with 100% humidity, stuck with a people who prefer to speak broken english and not normal english. Us other missionaries had the grace period to get used to the culture in the MTC. He is coming in cold turkey. And not to make matters worse, his luggage decided not to come to Liberia but to take a trip to Amsterdam. That kid had the hottest night of his life...
Thursday we sent him out to his area but we received two more Elders for the night. One of the Elders got Malaria deep in the bush so they came in and stayed with us for the night. Friday morning they went out to their areas. Finally, after Thursday, we were at peace for a little bit. 
As for amazing things that happened this week, we began teaching our class in Doe Community. We showed up on Wednesday and there were ten people there ready for us to teach them. We taught the Class the Restoration and they loved it. On Saturday we went again and there were 12 people there so we taught them the Plan of Salvation. We extended the baptismal date to them for the 9th of January and you would never have met a happier people. Yesterday, we went again after church because the Branch Mission Leader said that if we want a bigger crowd, then we would have to comeon Sunday because a lot of people work out of town during the week. Sunday's class consisted of 23 investigators. All of these people have been coming for months and have just been waiting for missionaries to baptize them. 
Saturday we had our baptism of Bouktak (our Pagan convert), Mike, Senebu (the girl in the video), Zolu, and Farley. We showed up Saturday morning for the baptism and there was no water in the font. We asked why and they said because the plug for the drain was stolen. So, any water we pumped in there would drain. We tried being creative to plug the drain. Some took a Duty to God book, ripped it up, and tried plugging the holes. That failed. Another decided to put tape over the drain. I had little confidence in that one and rightfully so. When the water came in, took it out easily. Finally, when we had 10 people brainstorm, we stuffed a hanky into the drain and took a giant stone and covered it. Worked like magic! The baptism continued perfectly and the five of them were baptized Saturday and confirmed on Sunday. It was awesome. I'm grateful to see their growth, especially Bouktak's, who through the teaching process has really come to know his Savior and full heartedly accept Christianity. 
As for other news, last night our Generator caught fire and we had to sleep without electricity. Since we live in a concrete hotbox, we took our mattresses and mosquito nets and slept outside in on the balcony. Such a great decision. I did not sweat... as much during the night. Well, love you all and hope you are well.
Love
Elder Treadway

pic 1. - Didn't work for me...














pic 2. - The Class on Wednesday















pic 3. - In the Bednar video, I asked about Somalia Drive. This is what's wrong...





pic 4. - the Baptism




pic 5 - The Camp out on the Balcony