January 11, 2016 The Winter Wind

Good Evening Family and Friends,

This week has been a most excellent week for Elder Verdoni and I. It has been awfully strange and rather rewarding. This week, Elder Verdoni and I have never been more cold, it feels, in our lives. I had to pull out the sweater, pajama pants, wrap up in a blanket, and turn off our Generator because it was too cold. Even then, we froze to death throughout the night. Rain came pouring in and it was miserably cold. However, the real fear came in when Sister Carlson walked into the office. She was fanning herself because of the heat as I was wearing a sweater because of the cold... The lowest it got here was 71 degrees and I was freezing. I'm afraid to go home...

This week was a rather extraordinary week though when it came to missionary work. On Friday, we had the baptisms for the Doe Community branch. We had 11 converts baptized along with one child of record. We had Jacob, Helena, Susanna, Dorris, Arthur and Josaphine (married couple), Finda (Widow), Grace and Melody (Teenage Sisters), Moses, and Daniel. I had the wonderful privilege of performing the ordinance for all of them and I'm so touched by their willingness and endurance to wait for their baptism. It was great and they were all so excited for it. 

When Elder Bednar came to Liberia, he relayed an experience he had in Southern Africa. A Bishop came up to him and said, "Elder Bednar, we are having a problem. We are confirming 20 people or so in Sacrament Meeting that we don't have enough time for the Talks!" Elder Bednar then said, "Brother, The Reason we even have talks is to fill the time BECAUSE we are not confirming 20 people during Sacrament Meeting." What a profound statement and we finally had a Sacrament Meeting like that. The Sacrament meeting yesterday at Doe Community went likewise: Opening Hymn, Opening Prayer, Confirmations, Sacrament, Closing Hymn, Closing Prayer. It was extraordinary and wonderful. And the thing is, Doe Community is not even close to being finished. In the investigator class, we had 23 people there who were not baptized waiting for full time missionaries and the Branch has 42 non baptized children, which means there are at least 30 families somewhere connected to the church. Who ever comes to this branch next week full time will have work (cross your fingers!) Well, I love you all and hope you are doing well. I pray for you each and every day! 

Love

Elder Treadway

pic. 1- The Baptism

pic. 2- Daniel, Helena, Verdoni, Susanna, Me

pic. 3- Melody, Me, Grace, Verdoni (Sorry for the Blur... Liberians)

pic. 4- Dorris, Me, Josaphine

pic. 5- The Kollie Family. (The kids were baptized before Ebola. Arthur and Josaphine were just baptized.

pic. 6- The Kollies little girl, Noel.

pic. 7- Emma and Moses Woe

January 4, 2016 2016 Has Arrived

Hey Everyone!

What a Wonderful week this one has been. There were so many blessings that filled the week that my companion and I were surprised by. We were stuck babysitting for most of the week which was beyond frustrating. But, we had to keep our heads up and really try to push with our proselyting efforts when the moment was granted for us to get out. Because of the efforts which we laid forth, we received so many miracles. Let me list a few...

We knew there was a young woman named Surprise that lived in the Branch that has been going to church for some time but never has been baptized. Seeing that my companion and I don't really associate with the Young Woman all that much, we really had no idea which girl was Surprise. But the problem was, we didn't know her name was Surprise. We thought her name was Noel. We just knew that it was the Daughter of the Relief Society 1st Counselor. So we took the Young Woman President out with us and said, "Let's visit Noel!" So, we kept walking and we passed the Counselor's house. My companion and I were confused and wondered, "Where the heck is Sister Willson leading us?" We asked her and she said, "We are going to Noel." We were really confused at this point so we decided to follow. We eventually came to Noel, a Young Woman in the Branch we had never met with or talked to who had been going to church for about 4 months. Her brother was a member and so is her uncle. So we taught her and gave her a date for the 16th of January and she is more than ready for that one. Now that my companion and I have regrouped, we decided that we should visit the girl we thought was Noel. So we did that as well. Turns out this girl, who is Surprise, had been going to church for a year but had never been taught. So we began teaching her with her mom and now she has a date for the 16th of January and is well on her way. 

On the 2nd of January, we had a baptism of Moses and George (we thought his name was Josh the whole time till it came to filling out the baptismal record. I guess they thought we were calling him George the whole time too...) We came to the chapel and we waited for two hours and the water never was flowing. So, we faced a predicament. We could go to another chapel and wait for two hours to have that font fill... or we go to the nearby beach. We thought about it, thought about the time, the transportation and ultimately came to the conclusion that the best decision was to go to the beach. It still felt a little uneasy with my companion and I so I took a quick moment to find somewhere quiet to pray to know which was the best option. Knowing that Revelation comes not from questions but proposals, I told the Lord what we thought was the best option and asked to see if that was right. The answer I got was very distinct. The words that came to me were, "The reason for Fonts is for convenience. If it becomes less convenient to use a font then to go to a beach, then it's fine." So, off we went and performed the baptism at the beach. A very cool experience. Probably won't do it again. The waves disturbed mid ordinance.

Another experience was at Doe Community. We were having nine people planned for baptism for this upcoming Saturday. There were two of them that still needed to be taught lesson 5. So we held them after church. It was Daniel and Grace that stayed, and Melody (Grace's Sister) joined. We had planned not to teach Melody because she was not able to be taught Lesson 4. We taught all of them Lesson 5 but as I looked at Melody near the end, I had the feeling that we should still baptize Melody. So, after the lesson, we held Melody afterwards and started asking her questions. She had been coming to church for over a year now and in Young Woman's and Investigator class was taught Lesson 4. She understood everything we talked to her about from the Law of Chastity to the Word of Wisdom. My companion and I agreed that she was prepared. I'm grateful for listening to that small feeling because it will allow Grace and Melody to be baptized together after waiting for baptism for such a long time.

Lastly, we visited with Moses and Emma to talk to them about baptism. Moses has been doing excellent with his drinking problem and we invited them to be baptized on the 16th of January. They told us they couldn't becauses they didn't have the money for their Marriage Certificate. They needed 50 dollars. So, as a Christmas gift, Elder Verdoni and I gave them 25 dollars each. We knew they had the desire, and were spiritually ready, but just lacked the funds to get their marriage recognized. So we were willing to step in and help with that one. Definitely drew upon some inspiration from a past Treadway experience. They were so happy and grateful for that and are going to be baptized on the 16th. This week was full of trials but also miracles. Truly, I've been able to see the Lord's hand in the work as Verdoni and I try our best. We both haven't felt happier in our whole mission. We are continuing to work hard and please the Lord. I love you all and hope you had an enjoyable New Years.

Love

Elder Treadway

December 28, 2015 Christmas in L.I.B.

Hello Everyone!

Merry Christmas to everyone! It was so great to be able to talk to the family on Christmas. It wasn't easy to put it all together, but when the moment finally came, we were able to talk to each other and it was great. It was really a special moment on Christmas. To start for the day, my companion and I got up and we started cooking our breakfast. I made some egg stuff as my companion cooked the bacon and hashbrowns. Sadly, it was so filling, we weren't able to eat that much. We then got ready and shot out to Doe Community to visit with Finda. Finda is the widow of Peter who passed away this past week. We found out this week that Peter was poisoned to death. He works in the Judiciary System as the Chief Sheriff and since Liberia is pretty hardcore, someone killed him for some reason. Very sad.

But we went to visit Finda to bring her a Christmas gift. We decided that we would buy her 50 kg's of Rice to support her for a little bit. She wasn't around so we dropped off the rice with a picture of Jesus on it. We saw her the next day and she was so grateful for the rice. She had a big smile on her face and she was smiling and laughing. She came to the investigator class and we taught Baptisms for the Dead to everyone. Finda raised her hand and asked about Peter, whether or not he is able to be baptized. We explained to her that he can be baptized, that they can be sealed, and that they can still be together again in the celestial kingdom. She had a big smile on the face and gave me a thumbs up. She is such a great lady and her faith at this time strengthens mine. This Christmas season has really been a special one. One that was not so much about me, but much more about others. It was nice to see people's Christmas and to improve their day with a smile or some service. Well, I love you all and hope you had a great Christmas as well.

Love

Elder Treadway

pic 1- Comfort, our RC, using the African spoon

pic 2- Just helping cook some fufu

pic 3- Christmas Breakfast

December 21, 2015 The Beauty of Delegation

Good Evening my Dear Family and Friends,

I am thinking about what happened this week and I am completely in awe on how everything worked out. President Carlson left last week and was gone for the entire week. He needed an operation so he went to SLC to get it down and has yet to return. As he was gone, he wanted us to hold our own Mission Leadership Council with the six Zone Leaders. The Sisters were not invited. Too much too handle without President. It turned relatively great. I wanted to make it a council and not a direct instruction so I did a complete study on how to hold a good council. We actually discussed some good things that would benefit the mission and have since implemented them. And there were no mutinies so I found it rather successful.

We also had a Christmas Party for the mission that Elder Verdoni and I were in charge of. I remembered an activity Tyelar Eggers held with the youth when he returned from his mission called the Carnival of Life. I thought that it would be fun to do at the Christmas party so we had to get everything set up for that. Carnival Games, food, drinks, we had to get the chairs to the mission home. It was so much work. Luckily, I learned the Beauty of Delegation and having other people do jobs. We were able to string everything together and it worked out beautifully. Maybe I can tell you a little bit about it on Friday.

Something legendary happened today at the Party. President and Sister Carlson own two Crocodiles in their compound. One of the senior missionaries thought it would be a shame to have a Christmas Party and not bring a gift for the Crocodiles. (They are sorta named. People call them Ben and Jerry. I like Luke and Leia). The Senior missionary thought bringing two live Chickens to throw into their den would be a great gift. So we got it ok'd, bought the chickens, broke the wings so they couldn't fly and through them in one by one to watch. It was awesome! The first chicken was stupid and jumped in the water to escape... Failed. The second one was smart. Both crocodiles were in the water and it came right to the edge. One croc striked but barely missed. The chicken never went to the edge again. It was so smart that one of the members at the party took a long stick and pushed it to the edge. Once it got to the edge, the Croc didn't miss twice. It was great for all 50 elders in the mission to watch. Gotta love Christmas! 

But all went well. Proselyting is alright. We have a sad situation where an investigator in Doe Community got really sick and is being operated on at the hospital. The wife ran into us today in town and just broke down sobbing in front of us. Our hearts broke. She was so afraid for her husband. The doctors sent her to go buy medicine which cost her 200 U.S. That's money that they don't have. Please keep Peter in your prayers for him to receive a speedy recovery and Finda so that her heart and mind may find peace in this situation.

Well, I love you all and hope you all have a Very Merry Christmas!

Love

Elder Treadway

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

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

November 30, 2015 Tree Stump v. Foot!!!

Good Evening Everyone!

I hope you all are doing well. I hope you all had a wonderful week, especially a Thanksgiving week. Some may be curious and think to themselves, "I wonder how Elder Treadway celebrated Thanksgiving?" Well, let me tell you... working. We didn't celebrate it at all, if you don't count eating rice celebrating. It was relatively lame in hindsight but we didn't even think about it being Thanksgiving. But we thought about it on Friday and felt a little remorseful that we didn't celebrate Thanksgiving. So, we celebrated Black Friday by buying some Chocolate Chip Cookie Ice Cream sandwiches and eating those. So, a little redemption... I guess.

This week in Proselyting was relatively successful. We didn't add any new investigators or receive any referrals but we were able to really move quite a few people along to baptism. A lot of times, with a big number for baptism, it's a rush to teach them everything. But, we are feeling comfortable where everyone is at right now and there is no need to have a big rush. We have one investigator, Mike, who seems to come up with some random question that seems like he got from an anti- mormon. It's funny because he'll ask us a question like, "How many people will be saved?" So we answer him and just say, "Anyone who chooses to really." He then asks us to read Revelations, yes, the one about the 144,000 (oh those Witnesses) and we just go and pick apart that scripture. Not so much pick apart but truly explain it to him. He just has a smile and says, "That works for me." He knows the church is true but I don't know where he gets these questions because they are typed out on a piece of paper.

Today, we went and played a football match today. It was a rather hot day. No clouds. 100% humidity and I'll say that people were comparing my face to the color of the setting sun. But as we were playing, the ball came my way. I let it pass knowing I can catch up to it and control it. I decided to make a pass without controlling the ball so I go to kick it pretty hard. As my foot comes down with great strength, a Tree Stump decided to sprout from the ground magically. My foot slammed it and the pain was excruciating. I don't know what a break feels like seeing that Treadway's have metal bones (knock on wood) but this was painful. I try to rub some dirt on it but the pain didn't leave. I sat out for about one minute, drank some water, and then ran back in because the game was tied 4-4 and we were playing to 5. I couldn't end it on a sour note. One Elder I heard mention, "Man. Treadway's back. I'm not on his team but I want them to win now." And win we did! Was it worth going out again to win? Yes. How does my foot feel now? Awful! Good thing President Carlson is a doctor. He checked it. It's not broken. He thinks. Just a really bad sprain. Hopefully it feels better this week. Well, Love you All and Hope you are all Well.

Love

Elder Treadway

pic 1. We need to transport 12 Elders to town? This is how we do it!

pic 2. Our investigator Muhammad. He is not muslim. The mom liked the name

pic 3. Me and my Glorious Ice Cream Sandwich

pic 4. Kids playing Imaginary Soccer out of old batteries, bottle caps, and a sardine can