Not napping, just deeply pondering Lehi's Dream

The boy was a little later e-mailing this week.
I thought he might be- today was the day for transfers. He has been in his current area for a while, and I kind of guessed it would be time for some change.
Sure enough, he is heading out to a new area.
His email came while I was in the dentist chair. Again. This is what happens when you get older, you start to fall apart.
By the time Jayden's youngest brother goes out on his mission, I will probably have a broken hip or osteoporosis.
Here is the e-mail this week: No photos from him, but there is a photo! Later on that one...

Well Hi!

We got calls yesterday about our transfers and i am heading back to the heat of the coast!! Haha just when i thought i escaped it for a little while i am heading back! I am going to have another white companion and he is still pretty new in the mission and i think it will be fun! I will be in a different part-but in the same heat haha! 

Oh and that member is really cool that sent you that picture haha i didn't want you to see that photo because its super ugly haha! She sent it to a couple of other members and they all made fun of me!  No but the members here are super cool and really nice! I feel at home here which is really nice! 

(Mom interruption. I got a wonderful surprise this week. A friend request on Facebook! A sweet member in Elder Wadley's area Luzmery contacted me and said this:
"Hola soy la hermana luz mery castro, su hijo trabaja en nuestra rama, excelente misionero, y hoy estuvo almorzando con mi familia, y le dije que le iba a enviar una foto que le tome dormido después de almorzar, y me dio su nombre en el Facebook, un gusto saludarla"

Rough translation: "Hello I am Sister Luzmery Castro, your son works in our branch , excellent missionary, and today was having lunch with my family , and told him I was going to send a photo to you of him sleeping after lunch , and gave me your on name Facebook , it is a pleasure to greet you."

What a tender little blessing for me! My heart is so full- these sweet people of Colombia are taking care of my boy. I had to have Sam translate for me, my Spanish isn't quite there yet- and I told her thank you, and why is he so lazy to just crash on her couch? One of the members commented that he might have just been pondering on Lehi's dream. HA! For those of my non member friends who read this, here is a short little video clip that explains the ancient prophet Lehi's dream, found in the Book of Mormon- and is incidentally a symbolic description of our day, and what is going on the in world right now. https://www.lds.org/media-library/video/2010-12-06-chapter-6-lehis-dream?lang=eng It was nice to see his cute face, and to see that he is well loved. Back to his e-mail:)
 

This week was a little weird but went decent. We have been focusing a lot in finding new investigators and it has been hard-but we are getting there. We have done a lot of things to find people to teach; we have asked for referrals, knocked doors, asked people who they know, talked with members, and a couple of other things, and little by little we are getting more investigators.

This week went pretty normal. On Wednesday we had a special missionary devotional that was broadcasted throughout the world and we barely got to watch it because of crappy internet haha! Oh it finally rained a little bit though this week which has been nice, it has been hotter here than normal. 

Its going to be hard leaving this area. I really enjoy it here, everybody is really cool. But as dad always says "change is good!" I am excited to see what kinda of stuff i can learn and what kind of challenges i am going to face in my new area! 

I found a scripture this week that i like a lot, 3 Nephi 26:9,11

9 And when they shall have received this, which is expedient that they should have first, to try their faith, and if it shall so be that they shall believe these things then shall the greater things be made manifest unto them.

11 Behold, I was about to write them, all which were engraven upon the plates of Nephi, but the Lord forbade it, saying: I will try the faith of my people.

I really liked these verses because this transfer will be a little difficult but i know it is for good reason and there is always something i can learn from these tests. I like what it says in verse 11, that Jesus wants to test our faith. To see if we really can trust Him in our times of need. I promise that whatever test we have, if we put our faith in God we will be blessed beyond measure! 

¡Preguntas!

1. For about three weeks now, you have been discouraged over your lack of a teaching pool. What kinds of things do you do to get investigators? I am not meaning this in a negative way. I am just wondering if there are other creative angles you can explore? And remember that teaching the gospel is important, but service is also. When we emulate Christ- we serve, as He would. Don't be discouraged! Just be aware, and be willing. I pray that you will be directed to people who are seeking peace. The gospel brings peace. Service brings peace. Just a smile, or opening a door, or giving up a seat on the bus can make someone feel noticed- and that the world is still an okay place. It brings peace. Anyway. The question was: How is your teaching pool, and what are you doing to get new investigators? I already kinda told you. 

2.Have you witnessed any miracles or tender mercies this week? One thing that i have truly noticed is that God knows exactly what you are going through and knows how to help you.

3. Have you learned any new Spanish words this week? Yeah a couple i need to learn more this week though.

4. It is going to be your HUMP DAY (mission mid-way mark) soon, do you have plans? Does your mission do anything for the halfway mark? Burn ties? I have know idea what we are going to do haha, sweat?

5. Are any hot chicks writing you? There area one or two:)

Anyways i love you guys and hope you have a great week!!

Elder Wadley

Elder Wadley hit 11 months today. Not that anyone is counting or anything, but yeah. :)

From Sam's email. A little back story: The Wadley family owns two bowling centers. Sam runs one, and his Dad runs the other. As a result our kids have worked at the family business since about the age of 10. Elder Wadley found a sweet six lane bowling center for p-day and sent Sam these pictures. I am sure he probably could have run that place, blindfolded.

Six lanes!

Keeping your own score.

If you look really close, you can see that they don't have machines that set the pins, they have kids behind the lane that set them up after you roll a ball.

Elder Wadley should probably be grateful he wasn't a "pin boy" back home at his job. I am glad to see he is keeping up on his bowling skills! Making the family proud!

Hiking in Los Yarumos and a Crappy Cookie

Here is Elder Wadley's email this week:

Well Happy Birthday Dad!! I hope all of your wildest dreams come true!!

Sounds like you guys had a pretty fun time in Cali! Oh and the water there looks real pretty! Things have been really good and difficult here. We had a lot of people tell us this week that they are not interested which totally blows because we don't really have anybody. But we are going to try to get more investigators this week and hopefully we can get a ton!

This week was pretty normal. All the leaders went to Medellin for a conference and we had another Elder with us for like 2 1/2 days. We got to work in his area for a day and it was pretty fun. We haven't done really a whole lot of interesting things this week. Last P-day we went to a park: Los Yarumos.

It makes me laugh how they just slap their name badge on wherever on P-day's

Neature. It's pretty neat.

It was pretty cool we went on a little tour thing that they had set up and learned about the planet ha! It was pretty cool though. We also went on another little neature walk. 

(No, "neature" is not a typo. Jayden and Brendan had this weird obsession with some YouTube series that referred to nature as neature, because nature is "pretty neat." So ever since then they have both called anything outdoors "neature." I realize that I have raised weirdos.)

Other than that we haven't had a whole lot happen.

I am almost done with the Book of Mormon and its been great! I am excited to start it up again! Oh i wanted to share a scripture with you guys in 3 Nephi 18:21.

"Pray in your families unto the Father, always in my name, that your wives and your children may be blessed."

If you weren't doing family prayers, better start. 

I will attach a couple photos as well:)

Las Preguntas

1. You mentioned a couple letters ago that you did a secret Santa thing? Tell me about that? I forgot to ask about it. Well it was a normal secret santa. We had a person and had to buy them something. I had a sister missionary and bought her a sick spiderman scarf;)

2. Have you finished reading the Boof of Mormon yet? What is your favorite story? Our family is in third Nephi. Just plugging along. :) Almost done. I want to finish it this week:) Something that i really did like when i was reading a little back was the example of Moroni. The dude is a stud ha! We should all try to be a little more like him. 

3. What have you done for PDay lately? Anything fun? The park and i think we are going to do something fun today as well.

4. Have you had any more incidents since you changed your locks? Nothing:)

5. I am sending a package soon- let me know if you need anything. I'm sending you a new journal in it. I am all good thanks!:)

Love you guys!! Talk to you next week!

Elder Wadley

I will leave you all with a photo of Elder Wadley's attempt at making a cookie. In a pan. On the stove. 

Sorry Betty Crocker.

When I asked him what kind of cookie it was supposed to be, he answered with "a burnt one."
I think I see some little sacrificial chocolate chips in there.
Sad.

PB&J for the USA

Goodness! I almost completely forgot to post Elder Wadley's e-mail this week. Sam and I took off for California WITHOUT kids, and I guess I was a little too giddy about ditching the "mom" title for a few days. It is funny though, how when your kids aren't physically THERE with you, they are still always with you.

Thinking of my boy in Carmel, California

 Hey fam!

Sorry this email isn't going to be very long or interesting either because i don't have a lot of time! Our week has been better! The area is slowly getting better which is good and we are starting to find more people to teach. There is still a lot to do but we are slowly getting there! 

This week went pretty normal.We did have a pretty good activity on Saturday, where we all prepared typical foods from our country and a bunch of people came! Other than that we had a pretty normal week. 

I caught him online and what do you think I asked him? Yep. What food did he fix to show off the United States for this food festival? I swear, boys are not the best communicators. Nor is he good at representing the USA! He fixed...get this: PB&J sandwiches. Strong work, Wadley.

Sorry to here about your crappy dentist week that totally sucks! Tell Mikayla to brush her freaking teeth! 

Also today i don't have anything to send pictures so i don't even have pics for you this week.What a failure of an email ha! 

Anyways i will finish off with your questions:

1-When are next transfers? 25th

2-Do you add anything to your Aguapanela? Like lemon juice? I don't really anything to it. 

3-What is the gospel principal that members and investigators in Colombia struggle with the most? Tithing? Word of Wisdom, (with the coffee)? Word of Wisdom and Chastity 

4-How is your teaching pool? Any new investigators? Do you knock doors in your area? Do you have any creative door approaches? We knock a lot of doors haha! Door approaches, well we use the whole "we are not from around here" and stuff like that.

5-Do you need anything? Nah i am all good here:) 

Well sorry again for a poopy email, i will try to make next weeks a little better:)

Love you lots!

Elder Wadley

I know I have said it before- but I am not bugged by the short e-mails from my boy. This just means that he is busy doing the work that he was sent to Colombia to do. His thoughts are occupied with the people there, and the work. The first few weeks that he left, when I still hurt, I never thought I would reach this point of not missing him. Don't get me wrong. I still miss him- I just don't worry about him. And I am particularly proud of him for being such a successful little chick outside of the nest.

"Moroni is a Stud" -Elder Wadley

This week flew by, and all of a sudden it was Missionary Monday again!
Elder Wadley must have had a quick week too, because his e-mail was short.
He did send a couple of pictures though, so YAY!

Here is his e-mail this week:

Hey fam!

Happy new year!! 

I can't belive that we are in 2016! It is freaking crazy!! 

Well this week has been pretty decent. We are slowly getting more people to teach and bettering the area a little bit.

On new years eve and new years day we got to together as missionaries again and celebrated! We played games and just kinda chilled for that night and the next day. Really this week hasn't really been anything cool. Basically normal stuff.

I am getting closer and closer to finishing the Book of Mormon again and i am loving every part of it! 

I have a lot of goals and stuff that i want to accomplish this year and i am excited for the challenge!

I really don't have a lot to say this week so i guess i will leave you with a little bit of what i was reading this week.

I was reading in Alma about Moroni (by the way he is a stud) and how that the Lamanites were going to attack the people of Moroni and thier armies were big. But with the help of the Lord nothing bad happened to them and they defeated all the of Lamanites. 

It made me think about how much faith I need to put in the Lord when the outcome of the situation looks bad. 

Anyways i encourage you to read the story its really good! 

I love you guys! Sorry for the short email!  Talk to you next week!!

Elder Wadley

I know that my boy is a missionary now, but some things are really crazy to me.
He starts his day (according to his Christmas phone call) a little after 6 am. (This is the kid who couldn't scrape his back off the mattress before noon.)  He boils water for his morning Aguapanela. (a popular drink in Colombia- it is basically a chunk of boiled sugar cane that has hardened into a hockey puck looking thing. They break off chunks of it, and add it to boiled water like a sugar tea.) Then the details blur in my head, but they have individual study (scripture and language) companion study, exercise (!!), breakfast, and get ready for the day. Then they go out to appointments or tracting to find people to make appointments with.

It still blows my mind at the changes he has made in just a few short months. He is quoting scriptures and is "loving every part of it" and "has lots of goals and is excited for the challenge." ?????
Who the crap is this kid?

I like him.

Also in his phone call he mentioned that some people roasted a whole pig during the holidays. He sent me a picture of it. It reminds me of the first few months he was out on his mission and would consistently send me photos of dead things.
At least this one was edible, although he and his companion were not invited to hog down on that pig. Maybe another time.
Incidentally, there are many ways to say "pig" in Spanish: Cerdo, Puerco, Chancho, Cochino, Galapago, Cochinillo.
And I guess Jamon- if you get to eat it...right off of the curb.