Elder Wadley: Officially a Hoosier Today

Today Elder Wadley wrapped up his time in the Provo MTC, and flew off to Indiana to start his real adventure. To re-cap his last week in the MTC, I will give you a few quote highlights of his short and sporadic e-mail clips this past week.

"why do you even work out its stupid honestly i had abs once and there overrated i like my belly way more"

"we are going to the temple today so thatll be good umm other then that nothing really to fun um so i miss music like crazy im sick of hymns everyone always says ohh hymns invite the spirit there great blah blah its crap hymns suck."

"yeah if you guys can, then come to the airport ummmm also if you do come to the airport could you bring the sunglasses i have hanging in my jeep that twould be great or grand as some might say."

Brendan is entertaining, I will give him that. If you think that from these words he is kind-of a sassy pants- well, he is. But underneath that sarcastic shell is the tenderest of hearts. I recognize this in him because I share his aversion to "feels." This will probably prove to be one of his biggest changes these two years- to be able to open up to and love the people that he serves. The Lord has a way of using our strengths and our weaknesses to refine us.

We were able to sneak up to the airport to see him off on his plane. I would like to state for the record that I kept my cool the whole time, and only had a minimal breakdown when we left. I didn't want his last memory of me to be a horrible mascara stained mess.

He was at the airport with six other Elders headed to Indianapolis. His companion was right by his side, Elder Fonohema. They are just darling.

They had to wake up at 3:50 this morning to take Trax up to the airport, and despite that- the smiles on their faces were infectious. Brendan was anxious to board the plane- where he somehow finagled a first class seat. He wanted to settle in with his free drink and snacks. So quick hugs and pictures and they were off.
He did turn and wave- but it was more of a "peace out" than a "good-bye."

After filling some holes in my heart with some no-bake cookies supplied by Mikayla, I received an e-mail from Brendan's mission president.

Your son, Elder Brendan Wadley, arrived safely in Indiana.  It was a pleasure to meet and welcome him to the mission.  He has a solid testimony of the gospel and is excited to be doing the Lord’s work.  Sister Carlson and I look forward to serving with your son during this special time in his life.

I know Elder Wadley will appreciate letters from home, but I discourage phone calls or visits except for emergency situations, and with prior coordination with me.  I recommend that you send all mail and packages to the office.  We will forward items to your son's apartment address.  For your information, due to postal regulations, packages can only be forwarded when they are sent Priority or First Class mail.

Sister Carlson and I will love, care for, and watch over Elder Wadley as if he were our own son.  Thank you for the love and support you have given, and will give him on his mission.

Sincerely,

Daryl H. Carlson
Mission President

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All is well.

Elder Wadley, Uncensored and Unpunctuated

Today was Elder Wadley's first official p-day in the MTC. My phone chimed in with his e-mail when I was in class at the gym, and it gave me a fine excuse to sit right down on my bench and read it. Priorities, people! This week has not been a bad one for me, emotionally. I have been at peace, and I know that Brendan is right where he is supposed to be. It also helps that his e-mails seem happy. More than happy, I guess. He has no filter and is completely uncensored and I kinda love it. I need to warn y'all that he doesn't believe in punctuation. I thought about making the edits, and figured it would take me all day. So you get them how I get them, I don't see this magically changing in the future.

this week was horrible i want to be dead lol just kidding yeah ive gotten the donuts and the package. the fireworks sucked this year they did them on the 2nd because BYU is lame but its mostly cause family nights are wednesdays which again is stupid we never did family night and i turned out just fine! (Disclaimer- we occasionally had what we lovingly referred to as "family fight nights" that began and ended in prayer.) i haven't been playing soccer mostly just play volleyball or four square congrats on cleaning the house thats pretty cool i just did laundry so thats just as cool um also the food here blows and i hate it but we eat a lot so im not ever hungry my comp is super cool and he is really good at talking to people we have these things called TRC's and they're very fun has anyone drove my jeep yet? i read four books in the book of Mormon in two days just sayin. granted it was jacob enos jarom and omni but hey four books-plus enos is an awesome book hey i need something i need chik fil a nuggets with a lot of chick fil a sauce can you make that happen? also tell shayne to email me that jerk yeah so anyway i might get on later so stay alert or something k bye

Elder Wadley

Here is a little of our back and forth: I am in blue and Elder Brendan in red.

You shared the cookies and Sunny D i sent with your roommates, didn't you?
Holy cow. It's weird having you gone- but you seem happy. Are you happy? Do you need anything?

yeah i shared ummmmmmmm as far as more things go hows about idk send me some really just fun things like my gameboy or something like playing cards maybe some marijuana to take the edge off  this is a lot of religion for one week idk surprise me

You are terrible.

Tell me what a typical day is like for you. When do you wake up- what is your schedule? What is bedtime, why is the food terrible?

no thank you on all that but hey the food does just suck

Brendan. Listen. I haven't been on a mission and I want to know stuff. And I am your only solid contact on the outside-keep me happy I want to know what your schedule is like!

my schedule is as follows  breakfast sit in a class for 5 hours lunch sit in a classroom for 5 hours dinner sit in a classroom for 5 hours go to bed thats basically it although we started trc's this week which are really fun and we get to exercise for an hour so its basically prison but with the spirit

hey mother whats brown and sticky?

Dang it Brendan. I'm afraid to hear this answer.

a stick

Go read some books!

lol

I got some photos too! Thank goodness his roommates are taking photos. Thank goodness his roommates are tolerating him. He is kind of a mess! I did send some earplugs for Brendan to hand out- he snores like crazy. One of his roommates already thanked me for that.
His departure date for Indiana is the 18th. I get one more p-day email from the MTC. And I have ten days to get him some apparently vital Chick-fil-A.

Elder Darrington, Elder Cepeda, Elder Wadley, Elder Fonohema

I am assuming this is after or before exercise time. No taco-pits, must be before.

Provo Temple

Brendan is third from the left. He looks like he misses his Mom and her constant camera to his face.

He brought this dang Ape mask with him to the MTC- this is Elder Cepeda wearing it around.

I miss this face!