Tyra's Winter Dance

This was the pose that Jaron (Tyra's date) wanted to do. Super cute idea! It's always fun to have a good friend to joke around with :)

awwwwwwhhhhhh :) need we say more?

Cute kid! All grown up! We are so proud! Her Dress had Pockets!!!!!

Are you kidding me, why would you tell your mom this??

Hey mom,
Well I still haven´t gotten my package, but I´m not worried. Today we went to a place called a Manzana had slaughtered a goat and then ate it. I´m serious! We went to a goat farm, all pitched in to buy one, watched the cross eyed farmer go in the pen, tackle one, took it around back with 2 other farmers and KILLED IT! We all took pictures and some recorded it. It was so gross! He skinned it and cleaned it and everything! I took some pics but thought maybe I should wait to show them until I get home, lol. I almost felt bad because it was the one I almost petted while we were waiting. He bagged it up and we took it with some ward member from another area to a bbq place near the river and cooked it. It was really good. Now I don´t fell bad, it was worth it, only cost my 20 pesos and I got all I could eat. So here’s what you and dad should do. Buy a goat and start raising it, then when I get home we can eat it! lol.
So this new area is way cool. The weather is nice except for when walking through the thousands of acres of grape farms, it’s really humid in there. My comp and I as the councilors pretty much do everything because our branch president does nothing. Alot of our work now consist of trying to work with the members that come and trying to the rest to re-activate. Its something different and am learning alot about to groups of people function and how are the best ways to help them as a whole as a leader. Mostly because the members come to us before the go to the Pres. something else were trying to change. I Love you mom, I´ll send some new pics next week. Thank you for everything :)
Just so everyone knows, My MOM is the best MOM in the WORLD!!

Elder Treadway

Elder New Home, 6 months out.

I´m doing great! I love this new area, its like a little Paradise. And largely due in part to my new comp, he´s a stud. His name is Elder Arauz and is from Panama. And get this, I told this to Tyra already but he looks exactly like Jake from Twighlight! Its crazy but he´s like his twin. I´ll have to send a pic some time but its so funny. He hates it when I say something like that but its funny still. Today though wasn´t too funny, we all went as a zone to a local camp ground area and had a BBQ bun my comp was attacked by a bunch of Africanised bee´s. He got stung about 16 times! He took it like a man and after about 5 minutes said it didn´t hurt. I´m pretty sure I would of been crying. It happened when he went chasing after the football near a stream and he just brushed past their bush without knowing they were in there. It wasn´t very funny and we were all worried, but like I said, the guy is tough. And luckily didn´t have any type of allergic reaction.

My new area is like a little valley that’s got really nice weather compared to my last. Not nearly as hot, which I´m really grateful for. AND, there are TONS of Bolivians here, so many Bolivians. It’s basically like being in down town Mesa where there are alot of Mexicans, this is basically where I am here, only for Argentina, Bolivians are their Mexicans, lol. And yes, apparently they talk very fast, now I understand what it must have been like for Josh Boyd at first, very tough to understand if you´re brand new to Spanish. It should be fun though, they are a totally different people compared to your regular Argentine. Oh yeah, my comp and I are the first and second councilors in our branch. I forgot to tell that to dad. But now we can say that we´ve both been councilors at the same time, haha.
Thank you for everything mom, I love you, you´re the best, anyone would choose you to be their mom in a heartbeat ;)
Love, Elder Treadway

Elder Treadways Birtday

Here are some pictures. Me and Elder Porras (from Peru) after he smashed and egg on my head for my birthday. Us again on New Years Eve. Me after I bought my cowboy hat, There was this little kid with this mini horse that I was going to sit on to take the picture but he wanted to much money, so I paid him like a peso just to stand next to it, smart kid.

Elder Treadways Birthday

Hey Everyone,
This week was a lot of fun. Starting with mission conference in Mendoza on Tuesday where we listened to President speak and then had a mission Christmas party after, including Santa Clause! Then on Wednesday which we know is the 2nd most important holiday after Christmas (my B-day, lol) it was really sweet, the family that we baptized last transfer really like me and so they threw me a birthday party. They invited a bunch of their other family from the other area and we all had soda, some weird dry Argentine pastry things at the start. Then they took us outside and lit off fireworks for 20 minutes. Then sang Happy Birthday first in English! The only words they said were ¨Happy Birthday- happy birtday- Happy biiirrrrrthdaaaay Elder Shreedway, happy birthday for you. (that’s about the best people here can pronounce my name) then they sang again in Spanish, it was So Awesome! Then they had this big cake that they made me bite into, then Richardo the dad of the family came up behind and pushed my face into it, it was hilarious. For gifts they gave me a new bar of soap and spray deodorant. I was just joking and asked if they thought I always smelt bad or something, but the blank looks on their faces when they obviously didn’t understand the humor told me they legitimately thought of it as something sincere. I was extremely grateful to all of them and for everything. (I have pictures of this but I can’t send them from this computer store. I’ll send them next week.) Then my birthday was finished off when we got home that night Elder Porras (from Perú) who lives on our pench came up to me and said ¨happy birthday man¨ then smashed an egg over my head, also something very traditional.
I was hardly homesick for Christmas at all because they don’t celebrate Christmas anything close to how we do in the states. Its not very focused on family, and of course the Catholics celebrate the life of the Virgin Mary more than the Birth of Christ, very strange. At midnight after Christmas Eve they start shooting off Fire Works which lasted until 5 in the morning. The next day it was a complete ghost town. Not a single person was in the street except for a couple staggering drunk people. So we just spent the day in our apartments. Eventually later towards the evening people starting coming out and some stores opened up. Me and my Peruvian friend shared a big bottle of Coke as we grilled a Chicken on our little 3X15 back patio. It was all around a very relaxed day that we didn’t have to feel bad for not doing much because there wasn’t anything we could do. My comp and I had a baptism yesterday, speaking of which. I found out at our Christmas conference that I made it onto the top baptizer list of the mission for the last 3 months. So I thought that kind of cool, I’m determined to keep working hard to see if I can do it again for the next 3 months. Thank you to all my extended family for all your letters that came in my Christmas package. It was really fun to read a little bit from my little cousins. I’ll be doing my best to get letter off to all of you through this next month. And a special big thanks to my immediate family for the bag of Taco Bell sauces, dreams really do come true. I let my Peruvian friend try some and he loved it so much that he says he’s going to go to America just to try Taco Bell. I love you, Happy Holidays, talk to you next week.

Con Amor, Elder Treadway

Elder Treadway letters home to mom.

11/6/10
Hi mommy!
That’s what everyone calls there moms here, everyone from 4 year olds to 30 year olds, its kind of funny sometimes because they do it in a whiny voice and everything and its just normal.
Well I’m not sure what could have caused your dream or made you worry about me. I will admit that this last week was probably one of the most stressful. My companion left this morning. I don’t think we both realized how close we were until last night and this morning. But I think you can say it was a good time working with someone if you both have tears in your eyes when saying goodbye. It was kind of funny because he’s an Idaho farm boy and was doing his absolute very best not to let it show, and I did the same. Last week we had interviews with President Lindahl and he just flat out told me that Elder Hurst was THE best missionary he’s had. I’m very humbled that I got to start out with him and learn what I did. I feel I’ve gotten to see the best example I could’ve of what it means to truly be lost in the work. The best part is that he did it so well I had no choice but to let it happen to me. I’m really going to miss him, but am excited for the future. Especially anxious for Wednesday for when I’ll more than likely be getting my first Latin comp! I’m really excited because over the last couple of days I’ve really improved in the language, and so if I get a Latin it will only help to speed the learning process, especially now that I basically understand better how to learn.
So that’s basically what’s been happening. Elder Hurst will be home on Wednesday and he’ll be going to BYU Idaho. (Funny thing, I told him about how Tyra will be going there, ever since he’s liked to tease me about he’ll try and find her and marry her so that we could be brothers in law for eternity, lol. He was just kidding of course, I told him I’d knock him out if he did.)
I’m starting to like Argentina. Like as in, now things are starting to become normal. The food is starting to taste good, I’m understanding a little bit more everyday when the people speak, and the work is just becoming more enjoyable because of that. Thank you for your letters, I’ll talk to ya next week, I Love You mom

12/13/10
So I went to McDonalds for the first time today. It was SoO good! I really miss tacos though.
So my new comp is pretty good, Elder Luce is his name. He is from Las Vegas and is pretty much exactly like Tanner. He wear’s glasses the same and everything, and his personality fits too, its really funny.
So you want to hear something funny. I almost got my lights knocked out by a tree branch. Its been really windy from this past week, and all the streets are pretty much lined up with big tall trees. But, their really dry and very powerful winds come through and break off ¨Big¨ branches. We were waiting at a bus stop last this past Saturday night and we heard this big cracking noise, all a sudden ¨Bam!¨ this huge branch that weighed like 40 pounds just landed on the ground right next to me. I don’t now how it didn’t hit me because if barely scraped the bottom of my ankle and shoe, like as is it literally fell within centimeters of me. We were just kinda like ¨Holy cow man, You just about died!¨ haha, it was pretty funny.

Being prepared

Hey everybody!
Well, it is definitely allergy season, and its hot, like in our pench especially at night, and the mosquitoes have been arriving. Then the other morning we discovered and outbreak of ¨magnets¨ in our pench. It was really gross, haha. Good thing I came prepared and my background is in ¨Pest Control¨ haha. This week seemed to be more busy than most. And a couple funny things happened. One, the bishop of our ward has a sign design shop (which is also his families house, like most of all businesses and stores here). While we were at their home for lunch he wanted to take a picture of my companion and I. I didn´t quite catch exactly what it was for but didn´t think much of it. Until yesterday while at church he called us into his office and showed us a paper weight/sticky note box with our picture printed on the side with some scriptural quotes around the rest of it. And then he tells us that he made and sent one to every bishop in the stake, the stake president, AND our area president; President Arnold of the Seventy. So as of right now a general authority may or may not have a picture of me on his desk.
Another thing, in front of our apartment we live in is a town plaza, and the last couple of week’s there’s a group of teenage boys that hang out there at night that we´ve befriended. (you know your friends when they are ¨sincerely¨ offering to share their marijuana with you. It was funny when that happened because I thought the were just being funny cuz they know were missionaries but then I realized they were being serious but only because the like to talk to us and were trying to be friendly) anyways. We´ve spoken with them a few times and every time they always have more or different questions so we told them to come to church which they got excited about and said they would. But yesterday morning they didn´t show up (which I was kind of expecting) but on the walk home we ran into one of them and asked him where they were. Come to find out, as he explained to us. They were really planning on coming, but the night before they all got caught drinking their beer out in the street and were taken to jail and were just let out yesterday morning. We thought it was funny and told him that’s one of the reasons he shouldn´t drink any more, he said he was thinking the same thing, then told us how he and his friends want to have an Asado with us. When it really comes down to it, this group of 5 young men really are good guys and don´t have any bad intentions for anything. I can only imagine the impact the gospel would have on their lives which every time we talk to them, they´re more and more interested in asking us serious life questions which you can tell they just simply have never had the influence of good or bad in their lives before. So we´ll see how things go with them. This morning my comp and I were invited to speak to a high school class by an hermana in our ward who´s a teacher. So we went and spoke for about an hour and a half to about 55 students. We told who we are, explained some things about the states and then spent the time answering questions. I´ve really come a long way with speaking. I apparently have the opposite problem of most everyone else, I can speak really well for the short time I have, but I can´t understand worth a dime. But it was still cool think I was able to carry myself through our little presentation and explain everything I wanted to a crowd, and I still found a way to tell a joke or two and got them to laugh. I felt like my old self, lol.
Other than that not a whole lot else is different. I have my first legit mud hut experience while we were helping some other missionaries of our zone about 45 min away from where we are. Oh yeah, we finally had my First Baptism! Last Saturday night we had a baptism for a 9 year old girl of an inactive family who’s been becoming reactive. We´ve been teaching her and were waiting for her dad to get cleared through the bishop to do the ordinance. It all worked out great and we´ve built a good relationship with the family. Its been awesome to see the changes that have been occurring in their lives as they´ve been becoming reactive. The dad is a great guy and is always ready to share his testimony of how he knows for certain of the blessings he and his family have been receiving as they started coming back to church. (blessings like, getting work cuz he was jobless for the longest time, and his families unity, because not to long ago, they were seriously considering divorce before. But now, they´ve done a complete 180, its been great.)
I hope everything is going well for everyone else, thank you for your thoughts and prayers, I love you all.
Elder Treadway