From Crappy Spanish to Crappy English

A short e-mail this week. It seems like the weeks are flying by. We are counting down the days to send Elder Brendan on his mission, and counting down the months until we get to see Jayden again. All good things. Change is so hard- but so good too. Elder Jayden has just over 9 months left until he is back on American soil. It has gone so fast, and it makes me anxious for him, since I am sure he feels the time draining out of the hourglass even more profoundly than I do. We even have an official release date! February 9th. :)

I have noticed so many changes in him lately. One of the things that will not be noticeable to the rest of you reading the blog is that his English is getting crappy! HAHA! I correct his e-mails before I post, but I can tell that he struggles to find the words he wants to use in English now. I am so proud of that. I know how hard he worked to be able to communicate in Spanish.

Here is his e-mail this week:

Well sounds like you had a pretty decent week and everything seems to be rolling good! Crazy to see that people are staring to come back from the mission already! That is super weird! The time is going by so fast! Soon Marcus, Nate, Derek and everybody will be home and then i will bring up the rear end haha! Wow haha weird to think about to be honest!

This week has been decent. Sunday was one of the best days i have had in a long time! Here in the office you don't really feel like a missionary as much. You are still a missionary and doing important stuff but in doesn't compare to actually being out in the field and walking all day. Sitting in front of a computer for half the day isn't the funnest thing, but the office is awesome at the same time. On Sunday is really our only day to be full time missionaries. This last Sunday Elder Larroza and I had a really good day. We were able to visit some members and investigators and we felt the spirit really strong in every lesson that we taught! At the end of the night we were both just like WOW haha. It was a really good day! This week has honestly been filled with good lessons where we felt the spirit really strongly and that is something that i have missed a lot lately. My comp is a stud and we are enjoying life. 

Other than that this week has been good! I have been able to get more work done which is always nice to get some stuff off my back. Also the Lord has helped us this week find a couple new people to teach- and to know what things to teach to some people that really needed to hear it. 

Well today we played soccer like usual and we were going to go buy some stuff but it just started raining like crazy haha! So i am not sure if we are going anymore or not.

Well don't have much else. Sorry kinda a lame email. I don't have a whole lot to say. 

Love you 

Elder Wadley

The second change in him I noticed in this e-mail is where he said "the Lord has helped us this week find a couple new people to teach.." Previous e-mails have always said "WE are struggling to find people to teach" or "WE found some new investigators..." This is the first time I have seen him recognize that it is the Lord who prepares people to hear His gospel. I know that Jayden knows this, and has always known it- as all missionaries do. It is through the spirit that people are converted, not by the hesitant words spoken by inexperienced young men in broken Spanish.
But this is the first time he has acknowledged this in an e-mail home.
This is the good stuff. His testimony is growing so much.

Doctrine and Covenants 84: 88 "And whoso receiveth you, there I will be also, for I will go before your face. I will be on your right hand and on your left, and my Spirit shall be in your hearts, and mine angels round about you, to bear you up."