La Piedra Del Peñól: Guatapé, Colombia

So this past week I sort-of lost my brain when Elder Wadley sent me a whole bunch of BOMB photos from his trip to La Piedra Del Peñól. I immediately edited the photos and posted them into an album on Facebook, and realized today that I forgot to post his email and update on the blog. I was just a little excited, I guess.

When Jayden got his mission call and I started to google Medellin, Colombia, La Piedra Del Peñól (Sometimes called Peñol de Guatapé or The Rock) was one of the major attractions in his area. I was hoping he would be able to visit it!  It looks freaking awesome. You can see the staircase zig-zagging along the crack of the rock.

740 knee-killing steps to the top for breathtaking views of the beautiful Colombian landscape.
Photos will follow, here is his e-mail this week:

Well just as a heads up i am still in the office haha! What happens is that when your replacement comes in the office you have to train him on how to do his job so i have been here all week long training my replacement on how to do some stuff. So this is my last official day in the office. Tomorrow i will be heading to Pereira to my new area. It is going to be really different but i am excited for it!

So today was my last Pday in the office and we went to the big rock! It is huge! I will shoot you some pictures in a second.

Not a whole lot has happened this week. It was transfer week so a bunch of new people came and some other missionaries finished their mission. Actually do you remember Elder Bigelow? My trainer? He finished the mission this week. How crazy time flies! 

This week i have learned a lot about stress! I have been super stressed out this week because i really want my replacement (Elder Canavese, from Uruguay) to do good here in the office so i have been trying to show him everything so he can kinda figure everything out and so he isn't lost like i was when i got here. We have had a lot of things to do and i have been stressed and it has made me super tired haha! But all is well now and we were able to do just about everything! 

Other than that this week has been pretty normal!

Like i said i will shoot you some pics in just a second! 

Love you guys!

Elder Wadley

From the top of The Rock: L to R: Elder Velazquez, Elder Oliveira, Elder Larroza, Elder Covarrubias, Elder Wadley, Elder Canavese, Elder Robledo, Elder Flores

The countryside from the bus window heading out to La Piedra Del Peñól

Eating breakfast at a little roadside cafe.

First view of The Rock

La Piedra Del Peñól, Colombia

They look so happy that I can only assume this was before the 740 stair climb.

View from the top- you can see cars in the parking lot for reference.

Beautiful views of Colombia

My favorite view of Colombia. :)

A Colombian Car Accident

For the past five months Elder Wadley has been serving in the mission office. He has loved being so close to President Calderon and Sister Calderon, and the other office Elders. He has learned a lot and dare I say, he has been spoiled by a very comfortable routine of being fed and pampered.
Like many things in life, it seems like once you get comfortable, change comes.
Sure enough, Elder Wadley should be in the process of transferring even as I type.
I was not sure if his new p-day would begin this Monday or next, but I do know that he is headed to Pereira to be companions with Elder Diaz from Argentina.
I look forward to hearing about his adventures in this part of Colombia. And I think both he and I are looking forward to him getting back out into the field and sharing the gospel.

I will say this about his time in the office. The Lord always knows what is best, not just short term, but long term in our lives- and what skills we need to learn to bring us the ultimate happiness. I wonder then, if Jayden learned all of these office skills because we have a family owned business, and we are going to need his help in that regard when he returns home.
Just thoughts.

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

Well so transfers are coming up this next week and i am officially leaving the office! It has been a good last couple of months but i am getting out of here. So life is going to be a little bit different. It should be cool though i am excited and nervous at the same time. I am going to have a lot of new and fun opportunities and i am excited. I am going to miss being here in the office though it has been fun with all of these guys and being with President and everything.

Also i don't know if i ever said anything or mentioned Elder Allen but he went home this week for health reasons. It was super sad to see him go. We were good friends here in the office and he is a really awesome guy! He taught and helped me so much and it was a real bummer to see him go. If you ever see him around give him a hug! 

Other than that we haven't had much else go on here. We have had a couple good lessons. We had a good one last night about faith and how everything starts with faith. It went super well.

Oh and happy fourth of July haha! We didn't really do anything to celebrate. I mean we ate a burger but nothing else.

Last week we were preparing something for President because they completed one year in the mission so we did a video and stuff like that. We went to their house on Sunday while they were out walking their dog and decorated their house and surprised them with a bunch of gifts and stuff like that! It was super cool. The only problem is we split up at night to go home because President has two cars. We went with President in his big Ford and the other Elders went with Diego (Presidents son) in the other car, and they got in a wreck. The car got busted up but everyone is fine but we were out waiting for the police and all that. It was kinda nuts. Needless to say it has been an interesting week.

Other than those things not much has happened. I will shoot you some pictures here in just a sec. 

Have a great week!

Love you!

Elder Wadley

Elder Wadley and Elder Flores (?) directing traffic. You can see the poor little skate of a car that rear ended them.

Behold: the munched car.

Elder Allen, Elder Wadley (wearing a cardigan like Mr. Rogers! I love it.)

At President and Sister Calderon's home for their one year celebration. Elder Wadley is the tallest Elder on the right.

Brothers and Rain

We sent Elder Wadley II off this week. Lots of blessings.
As cliche as it sounds, it was bittersweet. Bitter because of the temporary loss of our boy, and sweet too, for so many reasons. One of the reasons is the support of Brendan's brother. I wasn't the only one thinking "I wonder what he is doing right now?" the whole week. A sweet little Elder in Colombia is praying for, and rooting for his brother (by blood and in the gospel.)
And it makes my heart squishy to think that Elder Wadley had kind of a rough week this week. Their only investigator broke it off with them, and despite that, he was still focused on his brother- being happy for him- and not wallowing in his own disappointment. I think we can all learn a lesson from that. There is always sunshine after the rain, and sometimes even a rainbow or two.
Here is Jayden's email this week:

I saw Brendan's blog when you updated it! I am so pumped for him! All i could think is that "My brother right now is sleeping in the MTC in Provo!" I think it is so freaking awesome! I am really glad to see that you are able to see all the miracles during this week! I imagine that this week was pretty nuts! And if you were still able to sit back and look at all the little things that God has done for you is really awesome because usually we don't look for those kinda things! Proud of ya!

I am super excited to start reading about all of his "Adventures in Indiana" and see him grow spiritually and see pictures and everything from his mission! Maybe even him riding his bike around with his sweet helmet!;) 

Our week was pretty good! We had like our one progressing investigator tell us that he doesn't really want us to come by anymore which kinda really sucks! But we are going to be looking for new people this week and we have been doing a lot of street contacting. It has been kinda fun to go up to some random person in the street and talk to them you never really know what to expect. We have met all sorts of people and it has been cool!

Other than that we have had a decently normal week. We had interviews and a little training thing with President and it went really well and he helped us see a lot of things! It is a huge blessing being so close to him and having him help us out and everything! He is really a great guy! Well i don't have a whole lot to say as well, just want to let you know that i as well am seeing a lot of blessings in my life. Even when i am not the best person or if i am having a bad day or something God always helps us out and gives us blessings! 

I love you guys!!

Elder Wadley

Here is a picture of us the other day in our raincoats! 

It was raining really hard! 

Elder Larroza

Elder Me :)

Elder Flores