Carrots and Flour and Bamboo

Last week, Elder Wadley sent a really short letter. I got the impression that he is somewhat discouraged being in the office day in and day out. He adores being so close to President Calderon and his family- but he has never been a big indoors kind of kid. His attitude about it is so awesome. He is really learning the whole "bloom where you are planted" thing. I told him he is finally adult-ing! Let's be honest- most of adult life is a series of completing tasks you didn't really want to do in the first place, and then repeating them over and over again. I am constantly amazed at the things he is learning on his mission. Things that will serve him throughout his life.
Here is his e-mail from last week, and this week's e-mail will follow.

I don't have a whole lot to say this week. I have been mainly in the office doing an Excel sheet for President. I have done this sheet about 600 times haha! Every time i would finish they would change something! Needless to say it has been pretty fun. Other than that i gave a talk on Sunday! I pulled out the whole "put flour in the scriptures and blow it off like it is dust" and i told everyone that the "dusty" scriptures were my comps haha! It went super good and everybody laughed! It was kinda fun! 

Also this week, i don't know if you remember Elder Mackinlay? He is the kid i replaced here in the office because he had to go home for surgery? Well he got his surgery and came back to the mission and was here for about 2 months and just went home yesterday for the same problem. Honestly really sad because he is a great dude and a good missionary. I will send you a pic of him. If you see him in the street give him a high five or something! 

Elder Flores, Elder McKinley (green shirt) and Jayden

Well this week hasn't been a whole lot of interesting because i was mainly cooped up in the office doing that thing in Excel. Its done and looks good though! Well i love you guys!! Have a great week!

Elder Wadley

This week was a very busy one for us back at home. It was a huge Brendan week! He had seminary graduation, and then High School graduation. He has about 30 short days until he reports to the MTC to begin his mission. What a blessing for our family- to have two missionaries serving at the same time. Since Jayden knows what is in store for his brother, he is so excited and happy for him.
Some back story- Brendan skipped out on the mandatory meeting the day before graduation because we kept Jayden's cap and gown for Brendan to wear so he didn't need to go pick one up at the meeting. Apparently in that meeting they strictly instructed all of the graduating kids to wear best dress underneath their gowns. Brendan showed up in a Hawaiian shirt, shorts and flip-flops. :/
Here is Elder Wadley's e-mail this week:

Well hey congrats to Brendan! I am proud of you man! And i think that it is cool that you went in shorts and a shirt haha who gives a crap! I went in bright blue Nikes and a t shirt ahah! Its whateves! And wow we are down to 30 days that is absolutely crazy man! I am excited for you it and you will be super awesome!

Our week was pretty normal! We had some work to do in the office and we got out to teach as well. We have some people that are getting ready for baptism now which is awesome! We also had a cool ward activity that and i will send you some pictures a little bit later on. 

Basically it was like a Ward Family home evening. We had a short little message from a ward member and we also had a couple games and refreshments:) I will send you a dope photo of all the missionaries playing a game where we had to look for chocolate in a bowl of flour. Good times. Other than that i have been eating a lot of carrots and celery this week. Presidente called me a rabbit and gave me a couple hugs!

I'm going to tell something kinda weird and cool that has happened to me this week. This whole week i have been studying in the chapters in the 2 Nephi that you have to compare to Isaiah. I have really been liking them and understanding a lot about them and i really want to study more from them which is super cool and weird! Really the promise that it has in 2 Nephi 25 is true that we will be able to understand what they are saying in these chapters.

2 Nephi 25

4 Wherefore, hearken, O my people, which are of the house of Israel, and give ear unto my words; for because the words of Isaiah are not plain unto you, nevertheless they are plain unto all those that are filled with the spirit of prophecy. But I give unto you a prophecy, according to the spirit which is in me; wherefore I shall prophesy according to the plainness which hath been with me from the time that I came out from Jerusalem with my father; for behold, my soul delighteth in plainness unto my people, that they may learn.

 5 Yea, and my soul delighteth in the words of Isaiah...

Also my comp and i have set the goal to do cooler things on Pday and take more pictures. :)

This email is all over the place but no worries. 

I dont have a whole lot more to say, The church is true and i love you guys! 

Elder Wadley

Bless him. I still find the Isaiah chapters in the scriptures incredibly hard and almost as good as a sleeping pill. I usually skip them altogether or quickly skim them. I guess this is an obvious indication of where my spiritual level is at. Something to work on.
Ya'll. I got pictures too.
I got his e-mail when I was driving home and I almost ran off the road!

After they dug their faces around in bowls of flour to find candy. Looks like only one Elder was successful. The rest just have paste-y boogers.

If you get a minute, click on the photo, it cracks me up how hard the audience is laughing.

Again here too- the kids are cracking UP.

This next photo Elder Jayden sent is of  "this public bathroom i found. I had to pee really bad one day and they don't really have public bathrooms here but i found this really cool one and i don't know if you can really see but i don't fit haha i had to duck to get in and scrunch my shoulders haha!"
I love his companion in the mirror taking the picture, and really? What is this place!  Why the bamboo curtain?

Lunch in the office. <3

I am so proud of Elder Wadley. As his testimony and faith increases, the Lord is making him more capable of learning and teaching His gospel.
As a mom I don't think you can ask for anything more. He has surpassed my level for sure, and has become an example for me.
Isaiah? Really?
Impressive.

Charity and Urine Samples

This week Elder Wadley went on an adventure to the zoo, so we didn't hear from him until a little later in the day. His preparation day is still on Saturday, as he is still assigned to the mission office. It is always fun for me to be going about my Saturday chores and hear his e-mail chime in. I am glad he is doing some fun things while he is in Medellin. I hope he gets to explore even more. He actually sent some pictures too! I love photos, but as he has grown in the gospel, I am really loving his words. Especially this week. Some really mature advice about what he has learned about charity; the pure love of Christ. Makes my eyes leak.

Well this week has been kinda crazy at first but overall pretty normal. We started out the week with a conference here in Medellín with President. We were in charge of putting a lot of it together. It sometimes is a pain to do it all because it takes time away from our teaching time, but i also do like it because it is a different way to help out here in the mission. There are pros and cons to everything.

This week i have been studying a lot about charity. Because lately i have lost a lot of the love that i had for everybody. For my comps, members, and other missionaries. I haven't been the funnest most of the time and honestly that bugs me so bad. It is hard to love everybody for many reasons but  i also see it as a huge opportunity to develop my charity a little bit more. I was studying in Preach My Gospel and there is a part that i really liked, it is in the second paragraph in spanish it says "Nosotros debemos tratar de desarrollar esa clase de amor." (It is a little different than the english version) I really like how it uses the verb "tratar" this verb translated is like saying to try. Right then it struck me that we are not going to be able to develop this type of love here on earth but we can always try. We are not perfect and all loving but we can try and thats what is really important. And if we keep trying we will eventually develop that sort of love that Christ has.

Other than that this week went pretty good. Me and me comp just got back from the zoo and we had a good time haha! It was better than the Dubai zoo ill tell you thats for sure. 

Well Love you! Have a great week!

Elder Wadley

I loved his words this week. Isn't he wonderful? I am so proud of him. And a little in awe. When did he get so wise?
Then his photos from the zoo balanced it all out.

He is still a little bit of the cute idiot that we know and love!

Parque Zoológico Santa Fe

This last photo is of Elder Wadley and his companion while they were out doing some service.

I asked him what service they did. Here was our conversation:

Oh that is with Elder Flores we went to do a little service for a less active lady, She had those huge bags of bottles and basically we were making sure the lids fit on all of them haha it was super fun! They are the urine sample bottles hahah! 

Oh my heck!! That is hilarious! I hope you washed your hands! What kind of service is that?

They weren't used haha! I don't know it was her job make sure they have good lids haha!

What struck me about this conversation is that it didn't matter to him how important the job was, only that this sweet lady needed it done, so he just dove in and did it. He always has a smile on his face- and I have the sneaking suspicion that his charity level is higher than he thinks. But- his mama probably needs to follow his example more.

The Much Anticipated Mother's Day Skype

This past Sunday was Mother's Day. Traditionally missionaries get to call home on this day, and on Christmas. Those are the only two dates we get to "see" him via Skype. Thank goodness for technology! The connection was super crappy. At times his face looked like an impressionist oil painting with his mouth on his chin. And we strained to hear him during those minutes- and dang it, because he was saying some good stuff, and we just sat there with tight-lipped smiles on our faces BECAUSE WE COULDN'T HEAR HIM. :(  I am sure he thinks that his family has lost some brain cells since he left. But given our distance, and the technology in Colombia- we were grateful for what we got.

His Skype avatar, man, I get excited when that thing pops up!

We were able to talk with him for a a little over an hour. He told us about the office, and the things he does there. He spoke to Sam in Spanish, and bore his testimony to the family in Spanish. He looks so confident and happy! We get to talk to him one more time while he is still a missionary in the field. I contrast this phone call to the one we had a year ago on Mother's Day- when we both needed each other so much, and how hard it was to see him- and how devastating it was to say "goodbye." This call was much less painful on my heart. The weird thing for me though, is my desperate need to hug him! That hasn't gone away. When I see his face, he seems so close and yet my arms feel so empty.

I got my annual Mother's Day photo of me and all the kids!

We talked about normal family things for about an hour. Then I gave him some alone time with his brothers. I especially wanted him to be able to talk to Brendan before he leaves on his mission next month. This is when the good stuff happened!

Elder Wadley told his brothers about a cab ride he and his companion took. The driver was talking about cocaine, and Jayden played dumb and asked the driver what "cocaine" was. "This" he said, pulling up a full bag, along with a bag of marijuana. Then as an added bonus, he hit a button on the tape deck in the car, and out popped some pink ecstasy tablets in the shape of "Hello Kitty." The driver handed the pills back to the boys. Jayden asked if the driver was always so open with his passengers with his "wares." "No, but you guys seem cool." HAHA! Oh, Colombia.

I could hear them all laughing in the next room as Elder Wadley shared stories. It will be another 3 1/2 years before my boys are all back together again.

Our time was almost up. We wrapped up the Skype call with a family prayer, and said "goodbye." Man, goodbyes just blow.

But I feel like the "welcome home" is going to be worth every one of them.
Nine short months.

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."

"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.