The One With Nothing

This week I got ripped off by both of my missionary boys.
Neither one of them said much of anything- I suppose they both had better things to do on their only day off than sit in front of a computer and keep their mother alive with their words.
Whatever.
Candy Corn is out now, so I guess I will just eat my feelings.
Here is Elder Brendan's e-mail:

well this week has been really good we have a baptism coming up on Saturday which is sweet! um honestly nothing interesting really happened this week except we had a zone meeting

Really, you guys. This is it. We had a little back and forth, let me see if there was anything notable in that conversation...
Oh, right. At one point I asked him if any missionary work was being done, and he reminded me that he has three baptisms on date. I told him that I would like to hear about the things he teaches his investigators, or things he is learning about the gospel and this was his response to that:

the spiritual experiences are lame stories that frankly if i was at home and heard i would get bored so thats why i dont tell you them

Nope. I want them. :) They aren't boring to me at all. This is the whole reason we are supporting you. I would like to see the fruits. And also the wild ass photos. I need a good mix here. How about one churchy story a week and one funny and you are off the hook. And maybe a pic.

meh we will see how i feel oh hey yeah we cleaned out a goat pen today at the farm so that was fun but i do have to leave for official now love you have a great week

And then he was gone.
Maybe next week I will figure out what he is actually doing in Indiana.

I sure miss his dumb face.

"Everything we do is serious out here."- Elder Wadley

This past week Sam and I took a little trip to Ecuador for Sam's mission reunion. He served there cough23cough years ago, and it was a good excuse for us to go to South America. Sam added an international plan to his phone for the sole purpose of me being able to catch Elder Brendan and his brother Elder Jayden online. Okay, so Sam used the wifi for other things too, like navigation, but the most important thing I think, was e-mailing with my missionaries. :) Elder Brendan was a man of few words, but many photos the last couple of weeks. The photos wouldn't download on the crappy South American wifi, so I had to wait for these treasures until I got home.

Here is his e-mail from last week, and this week's e-mail will follow.

hey so i found my camera luckily it wasn't in my backpack because my backpack got stolen so that sucks um this week was pretty good Ronnie was really cool he decided he really wanted to change so that's good also i just realized you said email dad hah but ill finish anyway we had three investigators at church and one was named Chris he is Ronnie's friend and hes very unaccountable he asked elder Eschler to unhook his echo so that was great aha

How did your backpack get stolen? That sucks.

i forgot to grab it out of the car and our car got broken into i they took it which literally all it had was my water bottle, pamphlets, a knife, missionary handbook, and a lighter so they didn't even get anything good

Thanks for the photos!! They are taking a thousand years to download here. I will have to wait until we are at the hotel and not on hot spot. :/

Are you happy?

im always happy jeez what kinda question is that

Elder Wadley, Elder Darrington

Here is Elder Brendan's e-mail? well mostly our back and forth from this week:

everything has been pretty normal here not much has really changed it still super hot and everything is still green ronnie is fine hes a little crazy but fine we might have another baptism with an investigator named kim coming soon so thats exciting that makes baptism dates oct 1 oct 8 oct 15 theres one on each of those i dont really have a plan for general conference at the moment

Terre Haute, Indiana Sunset

So what is the funniest thing that has happened to you lately?

ummmm nothing really everything we do is serious out here.

Riiiiight. Why were you tagging that building? I am not sure if you will pop back on today but I wondered the story behind the graffiti pics? Is it a members place? How did that happen? Also whose butt is this?

the graffiti is at the fosters farm chicken coop and the butt is bro riley, if you look close there is a surprise

 Indeed.
The most common comment I get from people who follow Elder Brendan's mission report is how refreshing it is that even though he has been sent out to preach the gospel, how cool it is that his personality hasn't been changed or been diluted in any way.

Sometimes I wonder if work is actually being done, or if Sam and I are financing a two year smart-assery tour.

The One Where Elder Wadley Splits His Pants

Elder Brendan has always been a go-hard-or-go-home kind of a kid. He is hard on clothes. He frequently blew the knees out of his Tough Skins when he was in grade school, and when he got older his shirts resembled used napkins. He never knew what happened when I would question him about missing pockets or industrial strength stains. I am not surprised that he has already obliterated some slacks.

this week has been really good ronnies fine and i misplaced my backpack which has my camera in it so no pics and i have no clue where it is so that kinda sucks also ive been to that ross when i was in vegas before i left remember when i did that good times

I need to chime in here with a little back story. Our family took a quick two-day trip to Vegas this week. We did all of the family friendly things, hit the pool, did some shopping, cleansed our palate at the Vegas temple and then came home.
A few months ago- when Brendan had his mission call, and was waiting to serve, he and some friends took a little road trip. No big deal, right? Well, all of a sudden they were in Vegas. They ate at a buffet and apparently shopped at Ross and WHO KNOWS WHAT ELSE. He is an anomaly. I think sometimes moms don't know what their kids do until way further down the line. Sometimes ignorance is bliss. I don't really want to know what his "good times" were.

um some members gave me some clothes yesterday which was pretty sweet i blew my pants apart when i was there so they gave me some and they gave me some really nice shoes as well they had been looking for a missionary to give them to for awhile and they fit me so that was sick

Can I mention that I sent Elder Wadley to Indiana with no less than 10-12 pairs of slacks, and three pairs of really nice shoes? Uuuuugh.

Oh my heck your pants!! 

Brendan! I need pics of this crap. It's PDay right? Find your dang backpack!

Did you tell those members thanks for the clothes? What kind of shoes did they give you? How did you blow your pants out?

i was bending over and tying the shoes they gave me and blew out the crotch and the shoes are these really nice eccos i told them thanks will you send me the guitar that was in my room

So, Brendan doesn't play the guitar, never has.

no

well i havent found my backpack there two possible places that i can think of for it and if its not there i have no clue where it is and that means i lost my camera so that sucks why wont you send the guitar? 

Sweet. That was a 250.00 camera but hey let me spend more money to send a guitar, that you don't even play, even though your missionary papers specifically said not to bring musical instruments. I'll get right on that.

But I still love ya. :)

I think he is gone now.
They were planning on going bowling for p-day.
Or maybe he is still trying to look for his camera, or perhaps a little disgruntled at me for thwarting his dream of mastering the guitar.