Golden Arches, Golden Mail Day and a Golden Sunset.

This week's letter was a good one!
As most of you know, Sam works for an airline. As a result, we have traveled (on butt-clenching stand-by) quite a bit as a family. We have taken the kids with us on every trip- and have exposed them to a lot of different cultures. I like to think that this has helped Jayden not have too many issues with culture shock on his mission. Of course, visiting and living there are two completely different things, I get that. But this letter made me feel like maybe those trips *did* teach our kids a little about being grateful for what they have (McDonalds as a luxury?), and being respectful of others. I am also really happy about all that he is finally "getting." His packages (yay!), Spanish, joy in service, and a testimony of the Plan of Salvation.

Well first off Brendans picture is awesome! Haha possibly the best picture i have ever seen, it might even beat out Sealmacker;) Hey you can totally get carried away when writing me, I love it! I love hearing all the boring crap that happens haha! Oh i read the blog and i wanted to tell you that the Glorias are the big blue apartment looking buildings on the side of the picture, the others are just regular houses. Sorry i always give crap descriptions.

Anyway this week has been honestly kind of slow like there were some people gone and we visited a lot of people in the beginning of the week. So i don't have a ton of things to report or write about. So last Pday we went to McDonalds as a zone and it was so amazing haha! McDonalds is actually really expensive here haha! Like McDs is for richer people haha! It tasted so good though haha kinda sad but it really did! After we went and played volleyball as a zone and it was pretty fun! Then we had our usual zone meeting at like 6 in the afternoon and it wen really long but it has been one of the best so far! So after the zone meetings the missionaries that don't live close sleep at our houses and we get to hang out with all of them! Elder Velasquez brought a Spanish bedtime story book that had English translations in the back... They were translated Spanish to English and made no sense haha it was super funny!

Tuesday and the rest of this week were kinda boring, the zone leaders went to Medellin for a meeting like they do at the end of every transfer so it was just me and Bigelow in the house. We had a service project on Tuesday morning! Yay! I finally got to do a service project! Basically whats happening is this lady in our ward is redoing part of her house and putting a floor in so we went and helped make some weird things for the cement that they are laying!

Wednesday I had an intercambio with Elder De La Cruz, he is new to our area and he is a super nice guy! We taught a decent amount of lessons which was good! We were going to one of our lessons at like 3:30ish but the people were not home, so i was trying to think of someone that i could visit that was near by because the other Elder didn't know our area. When out of the blue this little kid came up and started talking to us about his brother Miacol,one of our other investigators. We asked him if he was at the house and he said yes so we went to Miacols haha kinda cool when we had nothing to do and i could not think of anyone then this happens. What sucks though is we got to Miacols house and he was there, but we started talking to him and turns out his dad died like 4 days before that from stomach cancer. Really sad actually. Me and Bigelow haven't been able to meet with him yet which sucks because we want to teach him the plan of salvation and that you can live with your family forever, hopefully we can meet with him soon.

Thursday and Friday were super slow. We had some lessons but a lot of people were gone or we visited them already and we didn't want to annoy them. The zone leaders came back though and I got my PACKAGES!!! Wow they are awesome! Thank you so much! The Moab dirt was probably the highlight of the packages though! I had a super cool friend send me a Spider-man coloring book so i can put my crayons and colored pencils i brought to good use!

Saturday we got our money for the next two weeks! We were in centro and i bought a hammock and a machete. We also went and got shakes again at the primera:) We bought our hammocks and the machete in this little place behind the Éxito there and it looked exactly like all the other places in Ecuador or Mexico when we would go to the little markets! I thought about it while i was there and when we were in the other places that i had to ask Dad if i wanted to buy something and i always thought that the people were gross and dirty. I know that sounds bad but now i view it totally different. For one i could talk to them and buy my own stuff and also now that i know the people a little bit better than i did before. i don't view them like this at all. I view them as just regular people. It was kinda cool just to take a step back and realize all of this.

Sunday was okay haha nothing interesting happened, it was really hot on Sunday but thats about it.

This morning before writing you we went to the cemetery really quick and took a look around and it was pretty cool! I will send you pictures with this email! Anyways i hope this week is amazing! I love you guys! 

Elder Wadley

Here are the pictures I got this week!

Golden Arches!!

Golden Mail Day! So far all of the packages I have mailed have made it!

Golden Sunset. (This was straight from his camera, no editing- isn't it beautiful?)

The next few photos are taken in a cemetery close to where he lives. I have this thing for cemeteries. Every foreign country we have visited, I have insisted on seeing the cemeteries. I am fascinated with the rituals and beliefs pertaining to death in different cultures. I have weird issues. This cemetery looks like a really cool one!

At first I thought these were apartment buildings. Nope. Crypts.

And for our last photo. We have A CAT. I know that this is shocking. This time it is alive, though. Here are Jayden's words:

The other picture is a cat--its alive!! We were eating at a members house and a big cat brought in a mouse and this little kitten ate the whole freaking thing i thought it would make you barf a little:)

Thanks, Jayden.
I added the red arrow so you could see why it does make me barf a little. Those are greasy mouse intestines.

I caught him online for a minute.
Our conversation:
Me: What the heck! You are using product in your hair now? I feel like I don't even know you. :/
Jayden: Yeah a brand of beaner gel haha i do my hair now its so weird huh?

I love this boy.