Happy Birthday Elder Wadley, Here's a Skin Disease!

Today is Elder Wadley's 19th birthday!
I have had other missionary mom's tell me that the times when you miss them the most, God throws a tender mercy into your life to ease the ache.
It is not a coincidence that his birthday fell on a Monday- which is his P-Day and I caught him online for a minute. This is not the same thing as a giant hug, but it is better than complete silence on the first birthday I haven't been there for.

"Here is my birthday ding dong and candle"

You guys. This email. I know I am emotional anyway, but I am so happy for many reasons. 19 years ago today I had a c-section for this boy- and today? Today is my payback.

Well dang haha thanks for your email mom! I loved it, kinda depressing but super awesome! Oh and no matter how old i am i will always need you in my life! That will never change! I also don't think i will ever become a man either ha i am super immature;) Really thank you for all your help in my life i have learned so much from you and i don't think i will ever stop learning from you mom! I love you and thank you for everything you have ever done for me and all the stuff you continue to do for me!

The selfie with the missionaries totally sucks haha! No but i am glad you are helping them out, lessons are sooooo much better when you have a member there to help testify. 

Oh by the way i totally got a couple of things this week, two letters from grandma bonnie and a pkg of homemade suckers!! 

Anyways here is what my week kinda consisted of-

Monday- After we got done writing we had a zone activity at the church and played soccer as a zone it was super fun i totally blow at soccer though! Other than that we had a zone meeting so i got to chill with everybody. The zone leaders talked about some really good stuff and really we have been told some really great things this week that make me want to change up some stuff a little bit.

Tuesday- Nothing interesting happened on Tuesday we began to work again and started to find less actives to work with.

Wednesday- We met our mission president! We had a conference with him! I didn't take any pictures though, sorry. He is an awesome dude, super short but really good! He talked about a ton of great stuff that like i said make me want to change a little bit. Now that i can understand a lot more the meetings mean a lot more also! In the last meeting with our old president i couldn't understand a whole lot so i didn't get much out of it but this meeting i did. Anyways it was a super powerful meeting and he did a really good job. When we got done we went to the ward activity and watched a movie.

Thursday- Was pretty lame we went in the morning to do a bunch of marriage papers and they area a pain in the butt. When we got back we didn't have any lunch so we made our own and i just ate eggs. Six of them to be exact. Then we had to re-do a couple of things for the pres in our house and stuff and once that was all done we went out and taught.

Friday- We had our interviews with the new Pres and his wife. The went really good, i was actually able to talk a little more in these interviews so it was cool. President wants me to tell you guys thanks. He says thanks for raising me to be a good kid. When we got out of our interviews it was freaking hot and it has been hot until today.

Saturday- Okay Saturday was pretty awesome and i will tell you why.. So first off i was studying that i totally did not understand in Spanish and it clicked within 5 minutes it was awesome! I am starting to pick up things a lot faster now but it still is a pain in the butt and i still struggle applying them when i speak but i am learning! YAY! Also i gave my first blessing in Spanish! It was the coolest experience of my life. The spirit was so strong i felt like i couldn't even stand like it was honestly so amazing! God helped me out big time with it oh my gosh i cant even tell you how cool it was! 

Sunday- We got some baptismal dates set and we will see what happens there but Sunday wasn't very interesting either.

I think that is all i have for now. Please let me know if you have any questions! I love you! I miss you tons! Thank you for everything!

Elder Wadley

 He sent a picture of his chest. I cropped this picture in to show the good stuff.

"This is my disease i am getting haha its going away oh not to mention my sweet missionary tan. Probs shouldnt post that one but i wanted to show you anyway"

Here is our conversation:

"WHAT disease??!! What the heck? Did you throw tea tree oil on it?

And it looks like someone has been doing push-ups?"
"No i have just been getting fat. The disease just comes with sweat and heat no worries"
"Tea tree oil is an anti-fungal. You have it in your medicine bag. Mix it with something else though- its pretty potent. It will work on that for sure. What are you doing for your birthday!!!"
"We are going to the mall and i am going to buy everyone yogurt:)"

I've loved this boy for nineteen years. Skin disease and all.
Happy P-Day, B-Day, Elder Jayden.

Tons of rain, and yet no water.

I often ask Jayden questions in my emails to him. Some get answered, and some don't- I think they get lost in the shuffle of my long, boring emails! I tried a new thing this week, and it worked. I asked him numbered questions. HAHA! Here is what I asked him:

1- how are you doing with your companion?
2- when are the next transfers?
3- how is the Spanish?
4- do you have any new investigators?
5- how is the new mission president? Has he changed anything?
6- how is your health?
7- did you open your birthday package?
8- any spiritual experiences this week?

His email this week is below. The first thing he did was answer the questions. :) I am going to have to remember this. Also- any other missionary mom's out there- the numbered questions get their attention! Who knew?

Sounds like a really boring week back home. Glad i am missing the whole cleaning thing ha that sounds terrible. The weeks here go by so fast i felt like i was just writing you yesterday. With that everything kinda blends together. Nothing really crazy happened this week either. Just a normal week. To answer all of your questions...

1- My and my comp are fine, we butt heads every once and awhile but we make the best of it.

2- The next transfer comes on the 12th of august, i think.

3- Spanish is getting better but still not perfect.

4- We have a new dude named Luis, he is super cool.

5- Haven't met him yet, we have conferences with him and his wife this week. He hasn't changed anything yet.

6- I feel great. My view on clean has changed a lot.

7- I opened my birthday package awhile ago, the Ding Dongs were amazing!

8- Nothing really major i begin to recognize smaller things every week but nothing crazy.

Mon- So this guy in our ward we call him Cabeza de Puerco, invited us to have lunch with him on Monday, of course we said yes i mean it is free food. He fed us turtle....Turtle is not very good, its not bad just not good. He gave me two feet with the skin and toenails and everything, the whole time i was eating it i could just imagine you barfing or at least dry heaving:) It started to rain really hard so we just kinda chilled at his house for awhile. We had our meeting that night and all our clothes were drenched with water, so we went to the meeting with wet clothes and we were super uncomfortable. 

Tues- It rained again! It rained a lot this week it was awesome! I slept with my sheet because i got a little cold it was great. While we were at lunch there was a thunder crack that was so freaking loud i swear it was right outside the door! It set of a couple car alarms and everything.

Wed- We went to take out these pain in the butt marriage papers for one of our investigators. We went there, paid for the papers and they told us to come back in the next couple of days to actually get the papers. We have all the papers now which is good but we need to go back again this next week to get a marriage date.

Thurs- Me and Elder Anderson had our weekly planning session and went really good. We finished and started talking about some of the problems we have with each other and worked them out a little bit. It helps a lot to talk things out, but to talk it out in a manner that is respectful and where you're not yelling at each other. Also on Thursday we didn't have any water in the house at night. I had showered that morning and since it rained and everything throughout the day i didn't sweat hard, so i didn't really need to take one at night.

Fri- We woke up and went to the gym and there was a little bit of water because i washed my face and brushed my teeth so we thought all was fine. We were wrong. We came back to the house super sweaty after the gym and there was no water. We studied in the house until lunch and came back after lunch and there was still no water. So we went to work super gross and sweaty. I felt so disgusting ha! When we came back from teaching in the night....there was still no water. 

Sat- When i woke up i went to the bathroom and there was just enough water to shower, the pressure was terrible but i got to shower! Hey also you remember that journal i have had since i was little, it has the picture of Jesus on it? I totally finished writing in it! Filled the whole thing up! Anyways it rained really hard on Saturday i will send you a picture of our flooded street. Whats funny though is that i totally bought an umbrella like 30 minutes before it started raining really hard! How freaking lucky is that!?

Sun- It was a normal Sunday. You're hot and thirsty and you can't buy anything haha. Church and everything went good though then we just had a normal teaching day.

Like i said the days blur by so if you want to know more specifics or anything please let me know. I will try to find cooler stuff during the week:) I took more pictures this week for you though! Let me know if you need or want anything else!:) I love you!!:) I miss you lots!! XOXO

Elder Wadley

"I found the true reason for shirt pockets!"

"Cabeza de Puerco." (Jayden is a dork.) "Oh he is wearing my rain fly from my bag haha"

"Here is our flooded street."

"Here is me and Anderson eating street corn." (I promise his companion is a cute kid!)

"A dead thing." I asked him if I needed to start a whole album called "Dead Things of Colombia." Every week he sends me this crap!

Side note: I don't get much accomplished Monday mornings, unless it is computer work. I am too excited refreshing the computer until his email comes in. His emails and photos get me through the rest of the week.
Everyone told me Monday's would become my favorite day of the week- and they are.
Missionary Monday's are the best!

Normal Missionary Week

This week's letter from Elder Wadley. The work seems to be rolling along! He apologizes when he has a "boring" week like this week- but honestly, from a mom's perspective- no news is always good news. A nice, dull week means he is safe. No attempted robberies, or falling in poo canals. He makes no mention of how his Spanish is progressing. I hope it is getting better! He is hitting his six month mark soon- and that seems to be the turning point for language. I keep praying for him to be able to understand and communicate.

Sounds like you had a pretty fun week! Glad to hear it, it is always good to hear that my family is doing good! That lake house looks freaking sick! Hope you had a wonderful time there! Brendan's and Shayne's hair looks freaking awesome! Say hi to the Sadleirs for me! Nah but everything is going good here! We finally started going to the gym this week and i have been super sore but it has been good! Nothing really new though. Our investigators are doing good, we have a couple problems here and there but nothing crazy. The lavadora buckets are good i actually just got done using that piece of crap. Me and Anderson are doing pretty good, we have our differences as does everyone but we happen to manage it:) Oh and no worries about the whole birthday money thing i don't really want/need anything plus i have money that i have saved that i can use so no worries. Thank you though. I opened my package and haven't done a whole lot with it yet though. Anyway this is how this week went...

Monday: I got a haircut last Monday after i got done writing you guys and then we had our district meeting and it was hardcore pouring rain. It rained a couple times this week which was awesome! Other than that Monday was really boring.

Tuesday: Tuesday was our first official gym day! It was great! We worked hard and i was super sore for the next couple of days, but it felt good to be working out hard in the mornings! We came back home and started an intercambio with the zone leaders, I went with Gabbitas in my area. It was super fun, Elder Gabbitas is a rad guy! We looked like secret agents though it was dope because he has my other pair of glasses so we were almost matching it was sweet. We had a good day though, we taught some good lessons and got caught in the rain together hahaha! No but it did start raining pretty hard on our way to an appointment. Then we finished the night at Gertrudis´s house ( The same place where i skyped ) and she made us food it was super nice of her.

Wednesday: I got really lazy writing in my journal this day. I ended up writing in it on like Friday. I cant even tell you how important it is to write in a journal. Especially for me because i forget everything, and it doesn't help that the days just mesh together here.

Thursday: Nothing interesting really happened, it was just teaching and walking and then we started an intercambio in the night.

Friday: I was in a different area with Elder Esquivel. He is a pretty cool dude, he is from Argentina, recent convert to the church and is super nice! We had a fantastic day ha we taught like a million lessons it was great! We talked a lot about a bunch of different things.

Saturday: Saturday was Andersons birthday! We just had a normal day, nothing really special during the day. In the night we ordered pizza and just kinda chilled it was cool. 

Sunday: Sunday was normal, we had church and everything. The weather was super nice which is good because it totally sucks when it is super hot and you cant buy water on Sundays. We had two really good lessons with the bishop. He came to our appointments in the night. Then we went and talked with a family that we haven't seen for awhile and they are having some pretty gnarly problems. It's honestly really sad. 

But yeah that was my week sorry it was super boring but like i said they all mesh together now haha it all happens so fast! I love you guys and hope you have a wonderful week! I love you guys!! XOXO

"Here are some lame last ditch effort pictures i took:):):)"

Wadley and Anderson

I caught Jayden online and this was our email conversation:

Love you too Mom!

Anything i can do for you? Or anything else you want in my emails?

(Bless his sweet heart.)

Honey-

are you happy? maybe I am reading too much into this letter, but you seem to be a little sad.

is there anything specific I can pray for, to make things happier for you?

I know the language is a PITA right now- is it getting better?

be patient. study. practice. that is how it is going to click for you.

Yeah i am happy i just miss stuff from home like normal. I am happy though mom:) 

I just want to be good at the language but it will come with time:) And i just want to be a 

good teacher and help people but it is hard and i am not really good at it but also comes 

with time:)

(Oh my heart.) 

Be honest- would you rather not hear about the stuff going on at home? Does it make it harder for you?

 

I love hearing about it!! It makes my week! 

(Right back atcha, Elder Wadley)

A Colombian 4th of July

This was my first "panic" missionary Monday. I usually hear from Elder Wadley late morning- around 8:30 my time. Around 2pm I messaged Jayden's companion's mom on Facebook (how cool is technology sometimes?) and said "Nan Anderson- have you heard from the boys? This is really late for Elder Wadley- I hope they are out on an adventure and not stuck in a poo canal." A short time later I got the email from Jayden. I had to laugh at my choice of words to Elder Anderson's mom.

First off i totally miss fireworks on the fourth! It was totally lame without them! We did have a dope celebration that i will tell you about in a little bit! Where the crap is Barbados? Tell him i said congrats!! I cant even imagine Mikayla being as tall as you i honestly don't believe it! But its super cool that everyone is doing good! It is also nice to see they are cleaning up the "Ghettos" a little bit!;) Official road signs! That is awesome! Hey sorry i am sending this email late, we had some stuff to do today. Here is what my week has consisted of, and honestly it was not that interesting.

Monday- So last Pday after we got done writing the family Elder Anderson and I went back to the house but i totally forgot to grab the keys and the phone off the desk so we couldn't get in to the house or call the zone leaders. So we went back to the internet and got a fudge recipe that we were going to try out later.

Tuesday- We did our laundry on Tuesday because we didn't have time before the meeting on Monday because we couldn't get into the house ha! We got our money for the next two weeks on Tuesday and went to the Exito to but stuff for the week! When we got back we dropped our stuff off in the house and started walking towards lunch. The people we had lunch with lived clear out in the booneys! We went a way that would have been faster but since they started cleaning the poo pits there wasn't a bridge. So we started walking along the poop canals and my comp totally sunk into poop sludge and his shoe was stuck really bad in this sludge and when he pulled it out he got it all over his hands. It was super gross and black and it was really stinky.

Wednesday- 1st of July! Holy cow i can't believe we are in July already!! It is crazy i still feel like it is May or something. On Wednesday we had an intercambio and i was in my area and it was fine just a normal kinda day, we taught and walked really. I totally shined my shoes that morning and you couldn't even tell by the end of the day!

Thursday- It was boring nothing cool happened.

Friday- Happy 4th! So we had a normal day as far as teaching wise and everything. Except we tried to teach this guy named Alejandro because he never comes to church because he thinks he is too fat, which he is pretty fat but not enough that he can't come to church. But while we were talking with him he got up in the middle of the conversation and left to go sleep, so that was cool. Anyway in the night we celebrated 4th of July! Elder Velasquez was here on an intercambio and so it was Me, Anderson, Velasquez, and Gabbitas. Gabbitas is from England but he wasn't opposed to eating hamburgers with us ha! It was super rad though we just had a lack of fireworks:(

Saturday- Was kinda cool, we went to go and teach Family Puerta but only their daughter was cool. We started to talk to her about a bunch of things and it was really cool when we asked her if she could see the change in Aydee after her baptism, which she said yes. Then she also said she can see a change in her brother, she said that he never liked to read but now he reads the Book of Mormon all the time. I love to see the change in peoples lives that only the Gospel can bring!

Sunday- Well it was fast Sunday so we fasted and well its fasting! So we had church and then went back to the house to load up on water for the day because usually Sundays are freaking hot and you cant buy water on Sundays. But when we got to our first appointment for the day it started raining hardcore! It was awesome it was the first time it has rained in so long! But we taught some lessons and thankfully they were pretty close to each other!

But that is it for this week not a whole lot to say it wasn't that interesting and they are going by faster and faster! It ends up being Saturday and I am like oh crap i haven't taken any pictures this week for my mom. I did realize something though that God is putting me personally through some tests right now basically i realized that these tests are going to help me grow as a missionary and a person. Normally these things are not things that i usually like to do either which sucks but it is good to grow and kinda get out of my shell a little bit. Anyway i think this is about it! I love you! I miss you! I hope you have a great week!

Elder Wadley

Here is me and Anderson chillin

Our fourth of July meal

This is the only picture i have of us on the 4th (which we actually celebrated on the 3rd) 

And there is red on my face because we had 3 cameras with self timers.