"The great thing about the gospel is we get credit for trying, even if we don’t always succeed." -Elder Holland

This past week our youngest, Mikayla, turned 13. Officially all of our kids are teenagers. Until the end of July, when Jayden will time out and turn 20. So weird. We had all the kids close together, so we end up going through each stage of life in a big chunk.
Having five teenagers is a good mix of love and hate. I wouldn't say "hate" exactly- maybe more of a "I want to lock myself and what is left of my self-esteem into a closet until they go away."
The "love" part is what keeps a parent going. And getting e-mails from our missionary is a big part of the stuff I love right now.
Here is Elder Wadley's report this week:

Well holy crap Mikayla is getting really big haha what the heck!! That is super weird to see that! That will be soooo weird when i get home haha she will almost be 14 when i get back! i don't even believe it! Glad she had a fun birthday! Is that Momentum place the new one that just opened up by the alley?

oh and i still have room on my SD card so i am not too worried about it yet but when the time comes i am going to just buy a new one. 

Well this week hasn't been anything too special. This week was what we call transfer week. Basically is this week we have new people getting to the mission and people finishing the mission, and a lot of other missionaries that are going to different areas. It gets kinda nuts here in the office with all the stuff that we have to do. We had a decent amount of stuff that we had to do this time. It doesn't really involve me too much, but with all my comps busy i cant really do a whole lot. So the first couple days of the week are busy and it is hard to get a whole lot of teaching in but we still managed to get some citas in. 

Elder Wadley cleaning out a storage room in the office, photo courtesy of Sister Calderon. <3

Also this week Elder Gerber left the office. He is a missionary from Argentina and i love the kid to death.  My comp now i don't know if you remember Elder Larroza? I lived with him and he was my first zone leader when i first got to the coast, when i first got to the mission. Haha he is going to be my comp! Kinda weird how that all worked out but i am excited! He is a really good dude and i feel like i can learn a lot from him!

This week has been pretty cool. Like i said we haven't been able to leave as much as we would like to but i have been able to see the blessings of making the effort to leave and go and teach. We have been able to find some new people to teach and they have been reading what we leave them and everything. So it has really been a blessing to see that even though we don't get as much time to do everything we are still blessed like Elder Holland said "We get credit for trying" and i have seen that a lot lately! 

But the week has been good! 

Well i hope you guys have a great week! 

Love you all!Elder Wadley

Eating at "Planeta Comic en Santa Fé"

Colombian Chimney Storage

This week was a milestone for me!
It was the first time I have received a random picture of Jayden serving. One of the girls I taught long ago in Young Women's served a mission in Panama. She Facebook messaged me. Her friend happens to be in Elder Wadley's current ward. When he found out that Jayden was from Lehi, he sent this photo to her. Sometimes the world is a very small place.

Two cute faces! (I told my young woman she needed to date this friend of hers!)

Valeria told me that her mom, her cute grandma, and the woman who is hired to clean the office, all took a trip to the house that Jayden and five other missionaries live in to clean it. Yeah. So remember last week when Jayden wrote and testified that a "clean house is easier to feel the spirit in?" Well, he wasn't the one that did the cleaning! It sounded too good to be true to me! How embarrassing.

In the missionaries house- it is nicer than my kitchen!

While these ladies were cleaning, they found a lost set of sombreros that they take to the airport to pick up new missionaries. They use the sombreros as props for arrival photos. The sombreros have been gone for a while, and they thought maybe someone had taken them.
Valeria said they found them in the missionaries house, stuffed up the chimney?
What is going on in that house?
It sounds like a frat party!
With that little bit of background- here is Elder Wadley's e-mail this week:

Well lets get one thing right first off haha the sombreros were under the stairs and we had speakers in the chimney haha! Either way hah they were there and we had no idea.

This week has been decent, we have actually had a lot of things to do and it has been a little bit frustrating but also really good. I haven't been able to get everything i wanted done but little by little i am getting there. I think God wants me to learn something because it seems like when i am slowly getting caught up i get more crap dumped on me, needless to say it has been pretty fun:)

Glad to hear you are still keeping to contact with Valeria, Presidente says to give you guys a big and personal thank you for all you have done for her!

Well this week honestly went by super fast and it was really busy. We were doing stuff all day. We were able to have at least one or two appointments every day which has been nice. I have realized how much i really do like visiting people. Sometimes it is hard, because you tell yourself that it is easy to just sit in the office and do some stuff here but it is so important to get out and teach. 

Oh and i like that you are starting your scripture studies with a prayer and everything because well thats what we do as well and it helps so much. I have a terrible memory and i always start with a prayer and it helps me to remember what i have learned later on. Also something that i have and we use is a study journal. There is a part in Preach My Gospel that says " Studying is an act of faith" and we are going to receive personal revelation during that time and it is important that we write all of it down so we can also go back and look it over, especially if we have bad memories;) Just something to maybe make your study a little bit better.

Today we played soccer in the morning with President and his son and then had a lunch with them and it was really cool. That's probably the best part about being here is that we get to know the President and his family. We even helped him wash his dog haha! I did take some pics of today so you will be getting pics:) 

Oh and this week i am going to try a little bit more better about weekly emails and all that good stuff, because i have realized that i haven't been the best so i will give you a better recap from now on, i promise.

I love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Wadley

True to his word- there are pictures!

Washing the mission president's dog

Jayden, and the boys he shares the house with. I don't know names. Jayden?

My favorite thing about my new friendship with Valeria and her mom, is that now I get bonus photos and insight on my boy from another perspective.

I got these photos from Sister Calderon through Valeria. :)

The boys during lunch.

Looks like Jayden took over the hammock.

These next photos were my favorite. Selfies! The other side of which I haven't gotten- haha!

Here is another funny thing I noticed with the pictures he sent me. The one of him and the dog- he is in causal clothes- I have never seen that shirt, but the socks. The socks were ones that I sent him FOR HALLOWEEN. In October.

The Concept of "Clean Your ROOM!" is Finally Understood

This past week was a really good one for us. Elder Wadley's mission president has a daughter (Valeria) that moved out here (Provo) to attend Brigham Young University. We were able to pick her up, and spend an evening with her. She bowled for the first time (got a strike!) and we played laser tag and fed her. She speaks English really well, and was gracious enough to let me practice my terrible Spanish on her.

Future Elder Wadley (Brendan), Shayne, Sam, Me, Valeria, Shianne

She told us about Colombia, and Jayden and her home country of Peru. She brought with her a package from Elder Wadley. It was filled with treasures for each of us (fridge magnet, Colombian bracelets, etc) and each of us received a hand written letter! My letter is one that I will most likely always have tucked inside my scriptures. It was full of gratitude and testimony-everything a mom wants to hear.
Valeria is darling. We are planning on smothering her with love while her sweet parents look out for our boy.

Here is Elder Wadley's e-mail this week:

This last week was pretty normal. We had a couple things to do and i still have a couple things to do but i am slowly getting everything set up and ready to go. We had an Elder come back to the mission this week. The kid i replaced here in the office healed from his surgery and was able to come back to the same mission which is awesome. He is going to be living with us for a week and its nice to have him back! This week i learned an important lesson, well two actually.

One is that having a really clean house brings the spirit. Living with 6 other guys sometimes it is really hard to keep the house clean.

Other lesson i learned that i cant get angry or frustrated. This week there was one day where i was honestly mad over some stuff that was kinda important. But because i was angry i wasn't able to feel the spirit. All of those negative kinds of emotions impede us from feeling the spirit and well i have felt like this before but i never had thought of it in this way. Without the spirit i wasn't able to do a whole lot of things that with the spirit i could do, it made everything a little bit harder.So that is my challenge to you guys is to not get so distracted by negative feelings because in the end everything will be okay and it is so important to always have the spirit.

Don't have a whole lot to say i love you guys!!

Have a great week!

Elder Wadley

No pictures this week.
I asked again for photos. Jayden told me his camera was "pretty full." I had to tell him that you can clear the memory card. He didn't know. How did I miss teaching him this? We are going to try having him dump the card into Dropbox.
Does anyone use something different that would work?
Silly boy.

"God sendeth more witnesses, and He proveth all his words."

We got a short email from Elder Wadley letting us know that he would be unable to write to us on his p-day this week because of "stuff." Without going into too much detail, it looks like Medellin, where he currently is, is having some political unrest "stuff." I know without a doubt he is being protected. I am also confident in the inspiration received and direction given by President Calderon. We love this wonderful man- and his sweet wife.

This has been a very emotionally charged week here for many reasons.
We have had so many blessings. My heart is so full it leaks out of my eyes. The experiences are too tender to share. I just know that God is aware of us, individually. He answers prayers that aren't even uttered. He blesses us with things that we didn't even know we needed until He grants them to us.

Elder Jayden's younger brother Brendan received his mission call. He will be serving in the Indianapolis, Indiana mission, and reports June 29th- in 85 short days.

Many of the blessings we receive currently are because we have a missionary out serving the Lord. Soon to be two. We are so proud of our boys, and humbled by the blessings we receive and will continue to receive on their behalf.

I was really relieved to have an e-mail come in from Elder Wadley, and the miracles continue- he sent photos!

Here is his e-mail:

Hey there mom and family!

Well what an awesome week! I cant even describe how excited i am for Brendan! I have been so beyond pumped for him! Oh and June is going to come by so fast! Words cant even describe how excited i am!

He is going to be a great missionary and have so many great opportunities! 

Other than that my week hasn't been that interesting i have been in the office basically all week because president had interviews and my comps had to do a bunch of stuff so i couldn't really leave. As far as missionary work it has been kinda slower this week. We did have a couple little lessons but nothing really that cool. 

Oh and was conference amazing or what?! There were so many great things that were said! I was able to learn so much and feel the spirit so strong! I was able to find so many answers to questions that i had! 

I really don't have a lot to say this week because i have been cooped up all week.

Anyways life is good! I love the mission! 

I just wanted to share a scripture that i believe that i have shared before but with conference weekend i wanted to share it again.

2 Nephi 11:3

And my brother, Jacob, also has seen him as I have seen him; wherefore, I will send their words forth unto my children to prove unto them that my words are true. Wherefore, by the words of three, God hath said, I will establish my word. Nevertheless, God sendeth more witnesses, and He proveth all his words.

I really like the part that says that God will establish his word by three. How many times did they talk about a certain subject but multiple times? It is another testimony that God chooses the stuff that needs to be said in Conference and that it is really His conference and His words!
Well i love you guys and again i am super proud of Brendan!
Talk to you later!
Elder Wadley

"Here are some pics of a FHE we had where we learned to cook some food!"

It looks like they cooked some Platanos (fried plantains)