Friday, December 18, 2015

December 7, 2015 Christmas Came Early Folks!!

Good Evening my Family and Friends!
Today, I'll admit, has been an absolutely wonderful day. Should I relate to you what has made me the happiest person in Liberia? This morning, as I opened up my email, I saw an email from my brother. I automatically click on that one because those are relatively rare. (No judging. Just stating the facts.) I was expecting a nice letter but no. All I got was a picture. But upon further examination, that picture was worth 1,000 words. Maybe 10,000 words. It was a picture of the pitcher Zack Greinke with the caption that he has reached an agreement with the Arizona Diamondbacks to pitch. The thought came into my mind that I must have died in my sleep because THIS WAS HEAVEN!!! I cannot confirm or deny that I did a couple victory laps around the office out of celebration! I was stoked. I didn't know the Diamondbacks would do this. I didn't think they could do this. Where did that money come from? Ah. Who cares though right? haha. The Diamondbacks are stepping it up! If you all want to join the bandwagon now, I won't judge you. I welcome it. You can buy Dbacks gear from Marshalls. I won't judge. That's where you all got your Giants stuff anyways so what shame is there in buying Dbacks stuff from there? Right Dad? ;) ( Let the "Greinke broke his arm and is out for the year" jokes commence)
Now to my week. My foot has healed. It's not broken since it's not black and blue. But I do think I sprained it in my inability to move an object that is rolling away from me on a dirt football field in the bush. Please judge me if you will but it's an accomplishment to play on something that isn't designed to be played on, thank you very much. 
We have been able to get out and proselyte though which is very exciting. We are having a lot of success with our investigators but as we are moving closer to the baptism this Saturday, we have narrowed down our candidates from seven to five. One of them is the illiterate we discussed last baptism. She still is somehow struggling but the accomplishment for the week with her is finding a fellowshipper that is from her same tribe, the Krahn tribe, and speaks her same dialect. Now whenever we teach her, she will come to help us, translating all of what we are saying. This ought to help her in her ability to understand the things we are teaching her. 
We also planned for another baptism with a guy named Moses. He is about 21 years old and has a girlfriend that is very pretty and seems to go with the flow of every other Liberian girl (that means Virtue and Purity and all other synonyms are not in her dictionary.) We thought he was keeping himself strong but yesterday he confessed to us that he broke Chastity last week with her. After the lesson, my companion and I talked and we decided to push back his date. We haven't had a chance to tell him but it'll break his heart. He got up yesterday in Testimony meeting telling everyone how excited he is for his baptism. Maybe something like this will shake him and help him out with this problem. I went through a series of questions with him that went something like this, "Will you break Chastity around other people?" "No." "Will you break chastity outside in the daylight or just outside in general?" "No." "Well then, make sure when you hang out with her, you have people around and you are outside. Does anything ever good happen alone in the Dark?" "No." "Exactly." We'll see how it goes but if he can prove he can refrain from sexual activity by January, we should baptize him on Dad's birthday.
Lastly, we are teaching Moses and Emma Woe. Just the sweetest and nicest couple you can ever imagine. They bought my companion and I a bowl for food but since we can't eat FM's, they are waiting and asking each time we visit if they can feed us. So nice. Yesterday, we were teaching them and I had the prompting to ask him about his marriage, if it's traditionally approved or civilly approved. (Baptisms in Liberia must be civilly approved, not traditionally. Unlike Ghana, a baptism can be traditional to be recognized by the government.) Before I can ask him, he just went on a tangent that carried himself to traditional marriages in which he admitted that he is not civilly married, only traditionally. He asked if they can still be baptized. We told them no, that it has to be civilly approved and recognized. He accepted it and said he would work on it. I told him I'd follow up each week to see how it's going. Each marriage certificate costs $50. Don't know if I'll pull a Brandon or not? 
Well, I love you all. I'm doing well. Can't complain. We have Greinke. 
Love
Elder Treadway 

pic 1- Providing some service 


pic 2- My first African Weave



pic 3- Christmas Mist. 



pic 4- My celebration of the Greinke signing today