Fighting the Good Fight

Sam and I play this game when we are at the airport. We pretend that if our plane were to be hijacked- what kind of a team would we have? We assess our potential fellow passengers as "WOULD NOT FIGHT' or "WOULD FIGHT." Sometimes it is obvious (military haircut, bulging biceps, B.A.C.A. tattoo..."WOULD FIGHT.") Other times it is less obvious (short Asian woman, wrangling two kids, looks pretty scrappy... "WOULD FIGHT, " at least for the kids sake)
I know we are a strange breed but it passes the time when we are on stand-by sometimes for a long, long, time.

This past week has been a hard one for me, and for many people I have talked to regarding the recent change to our Constitution. I have such a heavy heart, like this was the last finger in the dam holding back so many atrocities. Social media has been a cruel place full of so much hatred. I have been disheartened by the amount of people who "WOULD NOT FIGHT." Especially those that I thought for sure "WOULD FIGHT." There have been many who choose to stay neutral as to "not offend" or to "stay out of it." Or worse, those who have given in to what is popular.

The anxiety I feel is for the complete disregard society has for God, and His laws. His laws are constant and unchangeable, and cannot be bent according to the will of man.

We are living in a modern day Sodom and Gomorrah, where good is evil, and evil is good. It is going to get much worse.
Historically, this hasn't ended well.

I have a boy on the front lines of this fight.

I have an 18 year old boy who voluntarily left everything behind to share the gospel of Jesus Christ with others. Because our lives have been so blessed, and filled with the knowledge of Heavenly Father's plan for us- we can't *not* share this message of hope, and peace. Central to God's plan for happiness is the family. A traditional family- marriage between a man and a woman who are ideally able to procreate and raise children. Society has made a mockery of this, and an additional long list of morals and standards. God loves all of his children. There is no debate in that. This is why we have repentance. This is why our Savior suffered the Atonement- so we have the chance to forsake our sins, all of our sins, alongside someone who knows us each individually and can personalize the antidote to our suffering because He knows exactly how we feel. He knows because He suffered all.

It makes me sad to see those who "WOULD NOT FIGHT" because temporary happiness means more right now to them than eternal joy. This life is a test of character, and all of us have the potential to fight- that is why we are here.

"If you are on the right path, it will always be uphill. The Lord is anxious to lead us to the safety of higher ground." -Henry B. Eyring

It makes me anxious for my boy. I have to have faith that he will be protected as he goes about God's work, serving and loving the people of Colombia, even if his message is not a popular one with the world.

Here is his letter this week:

Well everything is going good here! It is getting really hot and apparently July it is the hottest month of the year, so we will see how that goes ha! Should be really fun! Nah but everything is good me and my comp are getting along and he is helping me a lot and we have some good goals set up for this next week which should make it even better! We haven't met the new President yet, he gets here in like 3 days. Then language still sucks but i am slowly learning, just takes time and that is the hardest part! This transfer ends on the 12 of august i am pretty sure. Kinda long but it will be sweet! Everything is good i haven't really had anything crazy happen and this week was really mellow.

Last Monday- We had a regular Pday where we put our clothes in a bucket and watched them spin around for awhile. After that we went to a mall out here and hung out there for a little bit and ate some food. Then we came back to the house and got ready for the zone meeting at 6. Really just a normal Pday.

Tuesday- We taught like 3 families on Tuesday it was cool! We had a pretty rad lesson with one of the families, Fam Puerta. We had no idea what we were going to teach them, so we walked in there and kinda went by the spirit. We talked about their baptism and then read the scriptures with them it was pretty sweet.

Wednesday- So Wednesday we had plans to go with our mission leader to the centro to take out the papers for one of the families we are teaching so they can get married and the husband can get baptized. But the mission leader was busy so we didn't get to do it. Which really kinda sucks but we have plans to do it on Tuesday now.

Thursday- Well we went to pass one investigators, Jose. He works security for the Glorias and turns out he got into a fight with some guy there and the police were looking for him and he left. Super crazy! We talked with his mom and she doesn't even know where he is. We taught her how God has a plan for everyone and that he knows what we are going through and what we need. It was super powerful and really awesome! Hopefully he is okay and we can see him soon. We also taught Fam Lopez and kinda drilled a little bit about baptism and everything like that, they are ready for baptism and everything but they think that they need to know more. 

It is kinda funny that you talked about obedience because we were at a members house and she started making us food and we got home late that night. Nothing crazy but its true we need to be obedient in all that we do! It really does help so much!

Friday- So today we got a couple of new people that we contacted, just some less actives and people like that. One of them we contacted was a girl that has come to church with her aunt. While we were at her house her brother came out and she said the he speaks English. Usually when someone says this it is like they can speak a few words or they don't know anything, but this kid was an English teacher and knew English really really well! It was really cool honestly! Then later we couldn't be in the streets after 7 because of the soccer game. The church had an activity though where they were streaming the game in the church. We were allowed to go to this so we bought some treats and went and watched the game!

Saturday-Saturday was lame- all of our citas fell and we basically did nothing it sucked. We had one of the Assistants staying in our house. His name is Elder Opheikins, he is pretty cool. He is from Ogden and his first name is Jaden. Pretty rad!

Sunday- Sunday was freaking hot, and you cant really but anything on Sundays either which makes it worse. But we had a normal Sunday with church and all the regular meetings. We also had a lesson with 3 members and it went so awesome! I love having the lessons with members. 

Anyways this was my week. Super boring and i didn't take much pictures either, sorry. But let me know if you have anymore questions! I am more than willing to answer anything you want to know! I love you guys! I miss you like crazy! Have an amazing week! 

Love Elder Wadley

I caught him online, and told him how much we missed him. I know that is not the best thing to do to a missionary, but sometimes I think he needs to know that there is a hole in our family where he was, and that we haven't moved on without him.
Here was his response:

Mom. I feel like this practically everyday haha it sucks it really does. Realizing that when you get back that everyone will be changed and everything will be a little bit different is kinda weird and scary. But the mission is cool, yeah it is hard and really hard right now as i am still learning the language and everyone gives you crap about my Spanish everyday and that i don't really know a whole lot about the scriptures and everything but part of the reason i am here is to grow and become a better person honestly. It will go by faster than we think though.

It is the weirdest thing though because even when i first got to Bogota my first day i NEVER once felt out of place. I have always felt at home, obviously it is a little bit different than our house but i have always felt peace here. 

There are a lot of things here that remind me of you guys and it is hard and there will be stuff that will be different when i get back and it scares me but everything will be fine. It will be different but good! Mom i love you! I miss you more and more everyday and i cant express enough thanks to you for all you have done and continue to do for me! Thanks!

He is still fighting the good fight.
I can too.

New Companion, Same Area, Half-Hearted (thank goodness!) Attempted Robbery

This week Elder Wadley got a new companion. His second companion in the mission. He got another "gringo" which I have mixed feelings about. A part of me wanted him to get a Latin companion, so he would be forced to immerse himself in Spanish- BUT, the companion he got is AWESOME! Elder Anderson. Elder Anderson's mom is on our mission Facebook group- and I know that he and Jayden are going to get along well.
Here is this weeks e-mail:

Ugh so many Moab trips that i am missing! Oh and i totally miss the rodeo haha! As far as you staying in the jeep the whole time on tip over challenge, i don't believe it. Not one bit! I say pictures or it didn't happen;) If it truly did happen, thats awesome! I would pay to see that!

Hey i want you to imagine that 100 degree weather but its everyday. Thats a little bit of what it is like here. This week has been really bad for weather! Sounds like you guys had fun though which is really good! Besides it being really hot here everything is going really good! I am picking up some Spanish and its coming, super slow but its coming:) As far as the new mission president i have not met him yet. Everything is about the same.

Anyways i will tell you kinda how my week went, it was a pretty fun week!

Monday- Was a regular Pday, we washed our clothes and went and bought stuff. Nothing too interesting. We had McDonalds again on Monday. We also got the transfers this day which told everyone where they are going! Obviously i stayed and Bigelow left. 

Tuesday- So our whole zone came up Monday night for the zone meeting and a lot of people left Tuesday morning so they could start traveling to their new area. Elder Velasquez comp left also, so guess who was my comp for the next two days!?! Elder Velasquez!! Honestly at first i was kinda nervous for the whole thing because we both have the same amount of time in the mish and don't know a lot of Spanish. But it went so well! I think we worked really well together, heck we even taught full lessons! It was so fun and we got a lot of work done also!

Wednesday- So today i was with Elder V again but a lot of the citas fell and we didn't have a whole lot of time because we had to go and pick up our new comps. Which yes my new comp is Elder Anderson! He is awesome! Really all that happened today is we taught very few lessons because we didn't have much time. We passed by a ton of people but they were busy or not home.Oh we finally got a fridge today!!! Almost 3 months in the field and we finally got a stinking fridge! Oh i cant even tell you how nice it is to have cold water and food!

Thursday-Today was my first real day with my new comp! We had a really good comp study in the morning and we had weekly planning. The whole day went good we talked to a lot of people and introduced him to a lot of people as well! It is kinda weird leading the area! It is crazy how much i actually do know and remember!

Friday- Today was hot! It was like 110 degrees all freaking day! Oh we were dying! So today we rearranged the bedroom just because i felt like we should switch it up. We basically put both beds on the ground and thats about it. I like it a lot better now though.Other than that we almost got robbed today. Thats about it nothing crazy really happened. (Mom note: I asked Jayden about this "robbery" while he was still online- and this is what he said "We were just walking and these guys tried to stop us so they could rob us but we just kept walking." Here is a picture of them walking right after it happened. Apparently it happened as they were coming home from McDonalds. Which is a prestigious place to eat in Mogambo. No big deal. Almost get robbed, but TAKE A SELFIE WHILE IT IS HAPPENING. Haha! This is why missionary moms pray so much.)

Saturday- Saturday was terrible all of our citas fell and i mean all of them. Even our lunch appointment fell. So we did not get a whole lot of teaching in on this day which sucked but it happens. The only good thing is the when our lunch fell we went to McDonalds again haha! Saturday was just a lame day though.

Sunday- Honestly this Sunday was probably on of my most favorite Sundays in the mish. Why? This might sound bad but its because we didn't do anything. So we had church and lunch after church. But the assistants called us and said that we cant leave the house until like 5 or 6ish because Colombia was playing Perú and it is dangerous to be out in the street during this time. So we went back home and slept! 

Overall this week was a little crazy but it was good. There are a couple things that i realized this week though one is that God truly does know you as a person and what you need and what can help you! With my new comp there are still a lot of things i don't know and he just wants to help me it is awesome! Another thing is when i was with Elder V i got to test out how much Spanish i really do know, which made me a little more comfortable to speak it. Another thing is that i am making phone calls in Spanish to our investigators and verifying with the DL which i don't know is pretty crazy to me! 

Anyway this is my week! I am glad you guys are all doing so good! I will talk to you next week! I love you! I miss you a lot!

Elder Wadley

This is his new companion on the left, Elder Anderson. And Elder Larroza on the left. At McDonalds, just prior to the attempted robbery.

Elder Wadley and Elder Velasquez. These two dorks got their mission calls the same day, and were friends in the MTC. They were companions for three days during this last transfer, I hope later on in the mission they get to be companions when they are both a little less "green."

I don't think Elder V was ready for this shot.

Part of Elder Wadley's area.

Cleaning the poo canals.

I caught Jayden online for a little bit. Our conversation:

"Are you online right now?"

"Yes."

"is the pkg with the carpet sample my bday pkg?"

"Did it have ding dongs in it?"

"i didn't open it because i didn't want to if it was my bday pkg"

"I don't remember which one it was HAHA! You can open it!. There is a cool towel thing in it that you will want to use now. Just save your birthday stuff? I probably have time to send you more crap for your birthday. I was just panicked for the deadline with transfers and whatnot. lol. It wasn't anything spectacular. I am very limited on what I can send. I can't believe you got ALL YOUR PACKAGES so far! Holy cow. That is awesome. Do you need anything? Where are my pictures Elder Wadley!!!!"

"Well my computer doesn't want to connect to me camera"

"KEEEP TRYYYYING!! I want to see your stupid face!Are you still keeping in touch with Aydee? How does she feel now that she is baptized?"

"She feels good and is super happy all the time! We asked her the other day if she could come to lesson with us now and i didn't know what she would say but she really really wanted to it was super cool!!"

"Oh I am so happy! Her face was so beautiful that day- so much joy in her eyes. I love it.

Do you have any other serious investigators?

How is your health? Shoes? Clothes? Everything good?"

"We have one other right now that wants to get baptized the rest are kinda iffy. My shoes are getting ruined pretty quick but i have super glue, and maybe sometime in the future i can find some type of shoe goo. My clothes are getting nasty but not terrible. One pair of pants is already fading."

"HOLY CRAP! hahaha!! I will see if I can mail you some shoe goo! That sucks! I may have to fly some stuff down to you for christmas. Just dont tell dad. Grandpa randy said he would take me. ;)

WHY WON'T YOUR PHOTOS WORK?!!

Where do you email from on p-day? do you have to go somewhere?"

"got it to work hold on just one sec!"

(pictures sent)

"I love you sweaty little pigs!"

 

Elder Wadley and His First Baptism in Colombia!

This week's e-mail was a pretty exciting one!
Elder Wadley and Elder Bigelow had a baptism! This was Jayden's first baptism in Colombia. Aydee had set a previous date, got nervous, and cancelled. They have been working hard to get her to this wonderful day! Aydee has been in my prayers as well.

Elder Wadley, Aydee, Elder Bigelow

Here is Jayden's e-mail, where he talks more about the baptism and his week:

Hey sorry! I totally forgot to tell you happy anniversary last week! Happy Anniversary! I cant believe you guys went to the zoo haha! You are fun parents! But wow the zoo sounds pretty rad with the whole dinosaur thing they got going on. I have two questions about it though, do they still have the lion drinking fountain and the butterfly exhibit?

I do love the people here, well most of them haha some are really weird and mean sometime but i try to love all of them as much as i can! They are all children of our Heavenly Father and i try to view them like that. What you said with Chris and Dad, its super true like this time I have to be a missionary really is kinda sacred-like it is a once in a lifetime deal. Sure you can do couple missions later but it is not the same. I am trying to make the most of it that i can but its hard with the whole language thing. I am loving it though!

Anyways this last week!

Monday we didn't have a whole lot to do for Pday so we just kinda hung out with the zone leaders all day and really didn't do a whole lot. We went to the mall there and had Subway and i found the cookies and cream Oreo's again! Then we had our regular meeting and thats really about it, it was just a really relaxed day!

Tuesday- We had another service project at the same house. we basically just carried around bricks for them haha it was lame but it was service and i was excited to do it! Other than that we had a few lessons and had a regular day it was nothing really interesting.

Wednesday-I had an intercambio on Wednesday with Elder De La Cruz, he is an Elder from Perú. He is really nice, a convert of two years and we had a good full day. We got a lot of references from members and other people. We taught a lot of good lessons to people and it just went really good. I think the key to having such a good day is that we were really obedient, with our studying in the morning and throughout the day we were obedient.

Thursday- It was just a regular day on Thursday, the only thing that was eventful on Thursday was that there was another red worm in the shower and thats really it. Not a whole lot to report on that day.

Friday-I had another intercambio with Elder Larroza, one of our zone leaders. He is super cool! We had a really good and really funny day! We had a really full and planned day which was super awesome! In the morning Elder Larroza had to go to the bathroom but the toilet was clogged. So we went next door to borrow a plunger, which i thought was gross, but they didn't have one. The girl that was there said we should try pouring hot water on it... We both started busting up laughing in her face! I felt kind of bad but honestly hot water that has been sitting there overnight! Anyway so we bought a plunger and all is good now. Later we had lunch at a members and there were two people there from Bogota and they were super cool! They were telling us about their cousin that was on a mission in Australia. Kinda crazy but they told us that they had cars and everything and got more money than we did. He also told us how his mission president bought him shoes one time because his got ruined. Then on the way back home Larroza was saying a bunch of crap about how our mission is hot and there is poop water and he had to super glue his shoes and all this stuff it was super funny! We had a lot of lessons and references that day too! At the very end of the night we had a Family Home Evening at Aydees house! It was fun we played some games and had a good time. When we got there Aydee said that the Jehova Witness that we taught, threw the Book of Mormon out the window haha!

Saturday- AYDEES BAPTISM! She finally got baptized! Oh it was so cool! So i guess the church didn't have any baptism clothing and so she had this huge jumper on and we had to roll it up a little bit so it would fit a little bit better haha! Oh but it was so awesome! The font was kinda nasty and the water was gross when it first came out. We got it cleaned up the best we could and filled it up. The water was still greenish but apparently thats normal ha! Our ward mission leader forgot to call the people who were supposed to be part of the program so we had to improvise. So it was short and sweet which i thought was way better! I think Aydee liked it better a little bit shorter as well! This is also the day i got my haircut and sent that snapchat.

Sunday- Sundays never feel like Sundays here, they are so different. anyway it rained in the morning and i was soaking wet because i lost my umbrella a while ago. Then it got really hot after. I got to participate in the confirmation of Aydee and that was a super cool experience! We also got all the transfers today!! I am staying here and getting a new comp! Bigelow is leaving:( But my new comp is also a gringo! Super rad! I am excited! I don't know if i am ready to take over the area yet though! It will be fun though! But yeah this was my week i will send you some pics! You are really going to like one of them;) I love you! I miss you guys tons!

Elder Wadley

A couple more picture from Aydee's baptism:

Elder ?, Elder Wadley, Aydee and baby?, Elder Bigelow and Elder ? (Jayden needs to fill in some holes here...)

Freshly baptized Aydee. She just glows here. I love it!

Jayden bringing home a lavadora (washing machine) previously they used a bucket and plunger. Apparently NOT a toilet plunger. :/

The home they did service at. Yep. This is a home in Colombia.

This is the photo he thought I would like. I do not like it. Not at all.

All in all, a good week.
I love this boy of mine.
When he left, I had never experienced such sorrow. Sending him off, knowing I wouldn't be able to take care of him, or see him for two years. I'm not going to lie, it was painful.
Sometimes it still is.
But I love the happiness I now see in his face from serving.
That he is bringing that happiness to the people of Colombia by teaching them about their Savior.
The gospel is true- and the peace and happiness it brings is worth it all.

Con Mucha Gratitud, Presidente y Hermana Pitarch

This week's e-mail was a little scattered, and no photos. :( There was another dead cat this week- just no photo evidence.
Colombian cats must not have nine lives.

President and Sister Pitarch, the mission president and his wife are being released, this week will be their last week serving in Colombia. Changes are happening, but the work is still moving forward. This is a picture of Elder Wadley with Pte. and Hna. Pitarch when he arrived in his mission.

 

For those of you who are not LDS that read here, a mission president presides over all of the missionaries in a "mission." This includes looking out for their safety, over-seeing training, helping them through problems with being homesick, etc- and so much more that I do not even realize. I can't even imagine the stress! These married couples will leave their homes, careers or retirement, and family to serve. This is a voluntary calling. They do not receive pay. The mission president's wife is called too. She serves as a surrogate mom to all those kids. They generally serve for 3 years in this calling. I will always be grateful to these good people for making my boy feel loved, welcome, and at home in a foreign country. 

Thank you to the Pitarch family! 

Here is Jayden's letter:

Well this week was not all that interesting and not a whole lot happened. Plus i don't have like any pictures this week, sorry. So the week basically went like this, on Monday we played soccer as a multi-zone activity. It was pretty fun, but i suck at soccer really bad. Then we had our regular zone meeting and thats really about it.

 On Tuesday haha we went to a less actives house and she actually had a dead cat in her backyard that we took care of for her. So yes we did have a dead cat this week but i forgot to take a picture sorry, i know you probably really wanted to see it. 

On Wednesday i had another intercambio and i went to a different area and taught over there. It went good. we taught some decent lessons and just had a fun time. Meanwhile Elder Bigelow had to go and pick up an Elder that was coming home from his mission. Because the Elders family has only girls in it so the missionaries had to be with him practically all day. While i was in the other area, we were teaching a lady and kinda going over baptism and she shared a really powerful testimony about baptism. She is a less active and she was telling us how being baptized with the priesthood -the way we do it is better than any other way and she felt better than she ever had before. It was super cool how she understood that the priesthood is key, and she loved baptism.

On Thursday we had an all day conference with president in the stake center. It was cool there were like 60+ missionaries there and president just talked forever. It is kinda sad that he is leaving at the end of this week. Hopefully the new president will be cool. But yeah, president talked to us and gave us all hugs and said good luck.

The rest of the week was not too interesting. We only had a few big events i guess you say, we had a family come to us saying that they want to come back to church and the rest of the family wants to get baptized which is kinda cool. So we are going to be working with them for the next little bit here. We also had a small meeting with Jehovahs witnesses while we were trying to meet with one of our families. We set up a return appointment, i thought it was kinda cool. Also Saturday night while we were walking home we met a guy that lives in Florida and talked with him it was kinda weird but super cool. Usually when someone talks to you in English here it is because they know like a sentence they learned on TV or something, but this guy could speak English perfectly. The other major event that happened this week is it turns out my comp never asked how to spell Aides name so turns out it is spelled Aydee. Anyways thats really my week nothing interesting this week. I will try and make this next week a little bit better! I love you guys and i miss you tons!

Elder Wadley

Golden Arches, Golden Mail Day and a Golden Sunset.

This week's letter was a good one!
As most of you know, Sam works for an airline. As a result, we have traveled (on butt-clenching stand-by) quite a bit as a family. We have taken the kids with us on every trip- and have exposed them to a lot of different cultures. I like to think that this has helped Jayden not have too many issues with culture shock on his mission. Of course, visiting and living there are two completely different things, I get that. But this letter made me feel like maybe those trips *did* teach our kids a little about being grateful for what they have (McDonalds as a luxury?), and being respectful of others. I am also really happy about all that he is finally "getting." His packages (yay!), Spanish, joy in service, and a testimony of the Plan of Salvation.

Well first off Brendans picture is awesome! Haha possibly the best picture i have ever seen, it might even beat out Sealmacker;) Hey you can totally get carried away when writing me, I love it! I love hearing all the boring crap that happens haha! Oh i read the blog and i wanted to tell you that the Glorias are the big blue apartment looking buildings on the side of the picture, the others are just regular houses. Sorry i always give crap descriptions.

Anyway this week has been honestly kind of slow like there were some people gone and we visited a lot of people in the beginning of the week. So i don't have a ton of things to report or write about. So last Pday we went to McDonalds as a zone and it was so amazing haha! McDonalds is actually really expensive here haha! Like McDs is for richer people haha! It tasted so good though haha kinda sad but it really did! After we went and played volleyball as a zone and it was pretty fun! Then we had our usual zone meeting at like 6 in the afternoon and it wen really long but it has been one of the best so far! So after the zone meetings the missionaries that don't live close sleep at our houses and we get to hang out with all of them! Elder Velasquez brought a Spanish bedtime story book that had English translations in the back... They were translated Spanish to English and made no sense haha it was super funny!

Tuesday and the rest of this week were kinda boring, the zone leaders went to Medellin for a meeting like they do at the end of every transfer so it was just me and Bigelow in the house. We had a service project on Tuesday morning! Yay! I finally got to do a service project! Basically whats happening is this lady in our ward is redoing part of her house and putting a floor in so we went and helped make some weird things for the cement that they are laying!

Wednesday I had an intercambio with Elder De La Cruz, he is new to our area and he is a super nice guy! We taught a decent amount of lessons which was good! We were going to one of our lessons at like 3:30ish but the people were not home, so i was trying to think of someone that i could visit that was near by because the other Elder didn't know our area. When out of the blue this little kid came up and started talking to us about his brother Miacol,one of our other investigators. We asked him if he was at the house and he said yes so we went to Miacols haha kinda cool when we had nothing to do and i could not think of anyone then this happens. What sucks though is we got to Miacols house and he was there, but we started talking to him and turns out his dad died like 4 days before that from stomach cancer. Really sad actually. Me and Bigelow haven't been able to meet with him yet which sucks because we want to teach him the plan of salvation and that you can live with your family forever, hopefully we can meet with him soon.

Thursday and Friday were super slow. We had some lessons but a lot of people were gone or we visited them already and we didn't want to annoy them. The zone leaders came back though and I got my PACKAGES!!! Wow they are awesome! Thank you so much! The Moab dirt was probably the highlight of the packages though! I had a super cool friend send me a Spider-man coloring book so i can put my crayons and colored pencils i brought to good use!

Saturday we got our money for the next two weeks! We were in centro and i bought a hammock and a machete. We also went and got shakes again at the primera:) We bought our hammocks and the machete in this little place behind the Éxito there and it looked exactly like all the other places in Ecuador or Mexico when we would go to the little markets! I thought about it while i was there and when we were in the other places that i had to ask Dad if i wanted to buy something and i always thought that the people were gross and dirty. I know that sounds bad but now i view it totally different. For one i could talk to them and buy my own stuff and also now that i know the people a little bit better than i did before. i don't view them like this at all. I view them as just regular people. It was kinda cool just to take a step back and realize all of this.

Sunday was okay haha nothing interesting happened, it was really hot on Sunday but thats about it.

This morning before writing you we went to the cemetery really quick and took a look around and it was pretty cool! I will send you pictures with this email! Anyways i hope this week is amazing! I love you guys! 

Elder Wadley

Here are the pictures I got this week!

Golden Arches!!

Golden Mail Day! So far all of the packages I have mailed have made it!

Golden Sunset. (This was straight from his camera, no editing- isn't it beautiful?)

The next few photos are taken in a cemetery close to where he lives. I have this thing for cemeteries. Every foreign country we have visited, I have insisted on seeing the cemeteries. I am fascinated with the rituals and beliefs pertaining to death in different cultures. I have weird issues. This cemetery looks like a really cool one!

At first I thought these were apartment buildings. Nope. Crypts.

And for our last photo. We have A CAT. I know that this is shocking. This time it is alive, though. Here are Jayden's words:

The other picture is a cat--its alive!! We were eating at a members house and a big cat brought in a mouse and this little kitten ate the whole freaking thing i thought it would make you barf a little:)

Thanks, Jayden.
I added the red arrow so you could see why it does make me barf a little. Those are greasy mouse intestines.

I caught him online for a minute.
Our conversation:
Me: What the heck! You are using product in your hair now? I feel like I don't even know you. :/
Jayden: Yeah a brand of beaner gel haha i do my hair now its so weird huh?

I love this boy.

Ballin', Super Powers y Un Otro Gato Muerto

It was a good week this week. Elder Wadley has been busy teaching- and he has learned to re-cap his week for his mom!

Well it is kinda weird growing up isn't it! It felt like a mission was always so far away and now i am on one it is crazy to think about! Its weird but super cool! 

So this last week we did go paintballing and it was pretty fun! We went to this ghetto little place in the middle of nowhere it took us forever to get a taxi out of there! We also got transfers this week and got a couple new kids! We got Elder Gabbitas as our new zone leader! He is the only guy here in the mission from England! He is a rad dude and the whole atmosphere has changed now that he is here, for the good! Also Bigelow is the new District leader which is pretty cool!

So this week was actually a really good week! This Monday we went paintballing and everything and just had a regular Pday.

Army of Elders

Tuesday is when all the new people got to the District and everybody else left early that morning. Other than that we had a really normal day. We taught our investigators and we even had a lesson with members, which here is kinda hard to do because the members don't like to do a whole lot. After our first meeting with them they told us they were going to visit Aide which was totally awesome we didn't even have to ask them!! 

The next day was pretty rough none and i mean none of our meetings with our investigators happened. They all were gone and it really sucked. So me and my comp took a little bit of a break and got some good treats from the bakery and just chilled for a minute. We eventually got to talk to somebody though ha! We went back home and I noticed that Elder Gabbitas has super powers! He doesn't sweat here! How freaking lucky is that! Like he doesn't sweat at all! I sweat like a pig! 

Thursday was almost the same a lot of our meetings fell again, but we did talk to some of our investigators. We also got a couple of news! One is a security guard of the Glorias her name is Eddy. We talked with her the next day and had a lot of questions which i think is awesome! We also started talking with another family, the Puerta family they are a family from Medellin and are cool. Their kids are always in Aides house.

Saturday was a really great day! I started out the day kinda out of it. Me and my comp pulled out the Adjusting to Missionary Life book and went through it together and talked it out a little bit. Honestly it really helps to talk out stuff with your companion even if you don't want to it really does help! After my comp had to meet with the zone leaders for a little conference thing and they talked about what he should do as a district leader and all that. Once they got done we all went to lunch at the centro because we didn't have lunch with a member that day. We ate at this little restaurant and was good they had a really good juice, Nispera juice. Super good! After Elder Gabbitas bought us all Oreo shakes. While we were sitting and eating our shakes there was this Iguana hanging from a little tree branch and we were all wondering what it was doing. All of the sudden it just drops like a solid 4-5 feet to the ground makes a big ol thud and runs away! We pretty much all spat Oreo shakes everywhere! It was pretty funny! After this we went to a baptism that the Hermanas had and we invited Aide. She came and we put another date with her for the 13th of June! I think seeing what goes on at a baptism made her less scared to be baptized.

A pretty flowering tree that smells amazing.

So on Sunday we had 10 investigators at church!! 10! It was awesome also a little bit crazy but super awesome! We had family Lopez there and this family is so cool! They seem so eager to learn and they love when we come over! They even asked for a Gospel Principles book after one day of coming to church! They made us food on Sunday and make us juice whenever we come over! So we had them come to church and Aide and one other guy! It was awesome to see all of them there! Aide got there a little bit after we started the sacrament and she seemed upset about it. So either she understands the importance of the sacrament or she was mad she had to sit in the sun for a little bit longer. So if everything goes well we should have a good amount of baptisms pretty soon!

Yeah this was my week it was a pretty good one we had lots of fun and had a good amount of lessons and everything! All around a great week! I am glad to hear that your week has been going good! Anyways i love you guys and hope this next week is amazing! Love you and miss you tons! 

Elder Wadley

Oh mom for future packages if you send any can you slip like a small pack of AA batteries in there for me, batteries are super expensive down here. Also a carpet sample? Not saying i need a package just next time you do send one just maybe slip these in Thanks! I love you Mom!

A carpet sample? He misses carpet. HAHA!
He also sent this photo of a funeral procession on foot.

"Death parade, they have a big walking thing when people die."

 

 

 And another photo of a dead cat. What is with boys? If it's not poop, it is dead things.

He has informed me that the next transfer will be a big one, and if I am sending packages, that if it doesn't get sent soon- it will be another 8 weeks before he will be able to pick it up from the mission office. It is so weird to be working this far ahead. I am getting his birthday package sent tomorrow to try and make the transfer deadline. His birthday isn't until the end of July. The thing about the packages though- he doesn't seem to care. It is just me. It is hard to be a mom this far away.

We made our regular meal for Memorial Day- a pasta salad, marinated chicken and a jello/cool whip salad. It was always Jayden's favorite. Especially the pasta salad. After I made it- every one of the kids had to remind me that "Oh mom, that is Jayden's favorite." I heard it five times. I already knew. It feels weird to be eating his favorite things. Truth be told- we will probably have a lot of leftovers. Between Jayden not having his share- and none of his friends dropping in for a plate. Change is the sucks sometimes.

But- I am proud of my boy. I wouldn't want him anywhere else. I love to hear his stories and see his smile. And I notice things in his e-mails "We had family Lopez there and this family is so cool!" It was not the Lopez family, it was family Lopez. It looks like his Spanish is coming along. In Spanish, the adjective follows the noun. I hope he continues to pick up the language. Everything will change for him when he is confident in communicating.

Then maybe he will look for people, instead of dead cats. :/

Protests, Teaching, and Weeds

Elder Wadley is alive and well, and seems to be falling into the routine of an actual missionary! This week we got updates on the work he and his companion are doing.

Dang i cant believe school is out already that is crazy!! I am so glad i don't have to deal with that though haha! It is terrible having to deal with last minute crap! Well this was the last week in this transfer and it was pretty good! We had a lot of lessons and picked up some new investigators which hopefully we can get them to progress and get to baptism.

So this is kinda how this week went, last Pday we went back to the primera and ate ice cream and a hamburger! We saw some monkeys but i didn't get any pictures of them:( We found a 1,2 and 5 mil stores, they are kind of like dollar stores and i bought a couple things haha i bought a little game that has like Tetris on it.  The rest of the week wasn't really anything special just kind of a normal week. We had another intercambio with our zone leaders basically we walked a lot and accomplished nothing. So that made us tired the next day as well plus a lot of our appointments fell through that next day.We did have a couple lessons that were pretty cool! One is our investigator Miacol he is 18 and pretty much knows all the stuff we are teaching him it is cool he knows a lot! We asked him to be baptized and he said that he was going to pray about it. Another one is we contacted a reference from our Ward Mission Leader and we slowly started to teach his whole family. We were teaching his sister and cousin and invited them to be baptized, and the sister ,Beatris, said she had been praying about what church she should go to and be baptized and all that stuff, my comp said that we believed that us coming to their house was an answer to her prayer. She said that she knew it was an answer to her prayer! Even cooler is that this happened while we were teaching about Joseph Smith and the Restoration! Their family all really like hearing the word of God hopefully they can progress and we can keep working with them! They are a super nice and humble family! After we got done teaching them we were walking back and they had fires in the street! A bunch of people were protesting and had fires in the middle of the street. They would take stuff from random people on the street and throw their stuff in the street in the fire! Oh Colombia! Other than that we had a couple other lessons. Aide still doesn't really want to be baptized which kinda sucks.So yesterday was a pretty rad day! So the last couple of days have been overcast and rainy, so it has been a little bit colder. So on Sunday I guess it was raining hard core ( I slept through it ) but it cooled down and the power didn't go out so we had the fans going all night so i actually slept cold!! Like at one point it was colder outside than it was in the church, and the church has AC!! But it is kinda sad because this "cold" i am talking about is maybe like 70 degrees haha! But i am used to 100+ degrees so it kinda makes sense i guess. Anyways this Sunday after lunch we went to Abe´s and took a nap haha and when i woke up there was a pizza sitting on my lap! I thought i was dreaming but he went and got us pizza! They also made us hot chocolate! Then later that night we taught the same family i was talking about earlier , the Lopez family, and then came home and that is pretty much my week! 

I hope everyone is having a good time back home! Love you guys! I miss you!

Elder Wadley

My heart is so full of love for Abe and family for taking care of and loving my boy. I am sure that the pizza and hot chocolate are a huge sacrifice for this family. It makes me feel helpless to not be able to hug them, and pay them back somehow. I can only pray that the Lord will bless them in some way for their kindness, and that He will make me aware of opportunities to be able to pay it forward. It is very humbling to be the mom of a missionary- and feel so grateful to strangers.
 Sam's letter:

It was like 70 degrees here for a couple of days! It felt so good! Hey man i always look for white fluffy clouds and they make me happy! I also saw like 10 stars the other night haha! I love the pics man! So i have two things for you specifically. One is we went shopping the other day and i bought Cookies and Cream Oreos!! Do they have them in the states! I sure hope so because they are amazing!! Like so good!

The other is you know your story about teaching the guy with the sucker and the money and he did not get it at all? Well i had a similar experience on an intercambio this week haha! We were teaching this lady about the priesthood and how to baptize you need to have the right authority and she didn't get it. So Elder Larroza did an example, where if you were driving and got pulled over by basically an ice cream man and he started to write you a ticket you would think he is stupid and you wouldn't take it right? She said that yeah she would take the ticket haha! We were like uhhhh, and said if a police officer pulled you over he can write you a ticket because he has that authority haha and she didn't get it oh man it was so funny!! 

As far as the Spanish and all of that i don't know man i feel like almost i am digressing a little bit i mean some things are staring to click a little bit but not much.  I try to practice my Spanish, but i still cant talk worth a poop. Other than that it is pretty good though and i teach a little bit in the lessons but normally I just sit there and smile a lot haha. 

We still try to work with Aide but she hasn't been home lately and i don't really know what to do about her. It kinda sucks but hopefully we can get her to baptism.Anyways i like thats about it for now, I love you Pops! I miss you!

Protest fires.

(I feel like maybe Colombia is on to something here with the protest fires. I think I will adapt this. When our ward changes church time to the 9:00 block, I will just toss my church stuff into a street fire in protest!)

"Glorias"

The area Elder Wadley is in right now has these government housing buildings. He calls them "the glorias." This is a view of them. He said the wealthier people paint their homes, and upgrade the flooring to tile, etc. The next photo is a ground level view of some of the glorias.

Some very welcome rain clouds!

Eating a hamburger. Side note: for the 18 years I have known this kid- he refused to eat hamburgers. He thought they were "Gucky." (<--five year old Jayden) Now he embraces the burger! And rice every day. That is another food that he wouldn't touch with a ten foot pole.

I noticed his sweaty face right away. Hahaha!

Also on the weekly food menu. "Alphabet Soup." I hope he ate Spanish words.

And a "selfie."

I am not sure if this is going to work. He sent me a little video clip of these plants that grow in more tropical climates. We discovered them years ago on a family vacation to Puerto Rico, and saw them again on another trip to Ecuador. The kids were fascinated with them. When you touch them, the leaves close up- like a Venus Fly Trap. Not sure what they are called, or why they close up, but Jayden was excited to find them in Colombia.

Pretty cool how something like a common weed, some fluffy clouds, or a scattering of stars can make you feel connected somehow.