Day 62

So I got a phone call from Brad this afternoon. I was driving home from work, talking to Carson and I totally hang up on her and take his call. He tells me that he wasn't suppose to go to the gym today but he did and he hurt his ankle. I am just getting mad at him that he wasn't being obedient and why would he do that and he totally starts laughing at me. HE DID NOT HURT HIMSELF.

HE IS GOING TO SPAIN. Apparently, his VISA came through so they are keeping him at the MTC for a day or two and then he gets to go to SPAIN. I am so glad for him. He is so, so, so excited. Now he can go to Spain and have a great experience right from the start. I was reading the Mission President's wife's blog today. Thinking oh next week when I read this I am going to see Brad's friends from the MTC but not Brad and now I will see Brad. YEAH!

His mission home address is on Facebook profile or email me and I will send it to you.

BRAD IS GOING TO SPAIN THIS WEEK

Day 58

5:30 PM Brad called. Finally -- apparently they time you when you call home at the MTC. He is flying to Louisinna on Tues. morning. He has to be at the travel office at 3:00 AM He sounded so good. We talked for about 5 mins. We put it on speaker phone so that we could all hear him. He sounded just good and happy to be doing what he is doing. Phew!!! I don't have to wait for a call anymore. That was agonizing all day long.

We are so proud of him and all he is doing. It is a great experience for him.

Day 57 --Part 2

MOM!! i put my memory card inside my stocking with that one package that i sent you!!! so you better not have lost it!! hahahaha that would be way frustrating uhmmmmm ok so here is the downlow... i will be calling tomorrow sometime... i can only have a couple minutes to call so ill call moms cell phone but GUESS FREAKKINGGGGG WHATTTT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! IM LEAVING NEXT TUESDAY!!!! ! and i got called to somewhere i dont really know where it is..... BATON ROUGE LOUISIANNAAAA!!!!! i cant believe it!! but my companion and one of the other guys got their visas so they are going straight to spain and then the last of the 4 is going to st g utah!!! anyways WE ARE FINALLY GETTING OUT OF HERE!!!! and im going to louisiana... so i just barely found out we are all kind of on a hype... uhmmmm so yeah my memory card was folded inside of my stocking when i sent that package home and then i will have a last box on one of the days before i leave sent to you guys with stuff i dont have room for / dont need. ummm im trying to think what else i need to say ... oh if it becomes available i would like a spanish ctr ring... hlj i think is the letters on it.. i dont know how long i will be in louisana from what im guessing it will only be about a week to a week and a half possible 3 weeks and then ... once i get my visa ill leave within that week ... so ill call tomorrow to you all and let you know my flight plans all i know is that i am leaving on tuesday morning!!!! its so unreal and then i will be able to call and talk to everyone after that at the airport or whatever ... anyways i am doing really well we had a cool expierience last night we gave each other blessings of comfort and had a district fast to help us with this last week and then i just got back from the temple and it was quite amazing like always ... maybe quite possibly the last temple experience for 2 years but we will see.. umm so im starving here and dinner is at 430 so that will change when i get out to the field i will have a normal dinner time again... as for espanol i got dads letter today.. you can let him know that i was able to read and understand the bishops letter in spanish i just skimmed it before sis dille cut my hair because i was late.. anyways i cant write personal letters this week because i dont have time to write them because dinner is soon and then i have class til 930 ... just know that you guys are amazing and i love the support remember to read in your scriptures and say your prayers and if that starts getting reduntant use PMG cause it gives super good insight on different things... i love you all todo mi corazon!!! ill call you tomorrow they say it will only be a couple min.. and then ill be able to tell you what time on tuesday i can call... i love you !!!!

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What do you mean you are not calling me??? I have been waiting all day. Well he is certainly excited. I am so glad that someone else will be not going to Spain immediately and then that he will be able to go to Spain almost immediately.

Okay and in my defense about the camera card. He never told me. How was I suppose to know that he stuck stuff inside. It is So exciting.

I think he has really good instructions about our scripture reading and prayer. Way to go! Brad!!

Day 57

so i am going to keep it mega mega short this morning so i have time later in the noche. i need twistables green blue brown red dark orange light orage and yellow pink. i need my memory card back and maybe another one along with it ... por favor. pens, and mechanical pencils.. SO to the good news i get a reassignment tonight!! like 1 in the afternoon and i will be able to CALL YOU GUYS!!!! ok so the call wont be for very long but a couple of minutes the thing is its out last time at the temple here and that is at our temple time so the earliest ill be able to call is around 3 give or take. which means mom i need you to answer the phone when i call... and if other people wanna hear obviously i know its last minute but yeah.. ill be able to call at the airport next week so no stress really. anyways i got to go to uvu to see the consolate on monday which meant that when i get my visa in the next couple of weeks ill be able to just fly out from my reassignment ... MY GUESS IS florida... anyways i dont wanna waste my email time right now in case something happens later but expect a call on mommas cell tonight cause thats the only number i remember. you guys are the best and ill let you know the knews when i call... ill probab send a email later to let you know what else but i wanna save my time just in case something happens... love you all ... elder b.


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I can't even believe how much excitement this generates for me. We get to talk to Brad. Yippee!!! We are so excited and obviously you can see how excited he is.... I guess the message from Natalie was a little wrong and they are sending him to a US mission until he gets his VISA. We are just excited that hs is moving on. Where is your guess of where he will go?

I think definitely on the east coast somewhere.

Day 56

Well, yes there is no letter but Brad in his infinite Brad-ness sent us a message today. Rich said that when he got home from work today there was a knock on the door and a young girl named Natalie told him that she works in Brad building and he wanted to tell us that he probably is getting his VISA and he will be calling us tomorrow. Wahoo!!!!! We will be so excited to hear his voice and be able to talk to him for a few minutes. Of course, we are all wondering what phone he will call and I am going for mine.:) We are so excited that he will be going to Spain NEXT WEEK and be able to truly start serving the Lord. Yippee!!

Day 50

Here's his latest email.

HELLO ALL!!!

its always so hard to think so early in the morning about what i can write about with whats been going on around here ... nothing way exciting like i always say just normal routines .. wake up shower get ready go to breakfast go to class study maybe teach a lesson go to lunch go to gym (if its right after lunch) go back to class study some more go to dinner go to class maybe teach another lesson plan for the next day and then go sleep and repeat. its quite exhausting after a while to be quite honest but it is what it is. its been sounding like everything has been going well.. and that my presence is getting taken over by all. haha lets see. this week we had another district leave so now we are officially the "oldest missionaries" in our zone which is really weird and hopefully its only for 2 weeks more. one thing i learned is when you are living how you are supposed to that is when change happens. so if something drastic in your life happens i guess its supposed to be a good thing because you must be living really right. so embrace it i guess. and continue living right. I got made District leader on sunday which pretty much means that i can get the mail for everyone .. but everyone already knows the combo for the mailbox so it doesnt even matter.. i also have a couple extra meetings. But dont get your hopes up that will probably be the only time that i say anything about a leadership position and that is just cause it doesnt matter. anyways i know this week is short but have a great week!!!

For familia!!!!!!

Mom!!!

ok so i wrote you a lovely birthday letter and sent it but i guess they didnt read the 1100 west very well so they sent it back ... i fixed it and then i dont know what happened but i tried sending it and then just got frustrated and through it away. it was supposed to be on your birthday i promise i did it ... HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! Thanks for your letters i love the little paragraphs and then te page of talks haha they make me laugh. oh and you have one more birthday until you have to worry about feeding me again so just keep that in mind. We went to the travel office yesterday to talk to the crew and they said that they send flight plans out 10 days before your supposed to leave. (this monday) and if its not going to happen then they call you in and it gets cancelled so i guess no news is good news just pray that they dont call me down. anyways hope you had a good week! love you lots!!!

Dad,`

Thats good that you made dinner. i heard everyone liked it. January is a rough month but im sure that it will come soon enough. there isnt a whole lot to say because its always the same thing herebut we will find out in the next couple of weeks if ill be in spain or not. anyways good luck with work!

Portia and Lance,

Mom told me FELICIDADES!!!! I hope all is going well, i havent been able to write lately just because of busy...ness So much to do so little time you know ... PLus the temple has opened up again so thats even less letter time. and its so stressful making sure i have everyone that needs to be written written so it doesnt always get done.Anyways you guys are awesome i love you guys and miss you tons! keep chugging and praying and reading your scriptures. If it gets boring make it fun be creative. like i said one cool thing that i learned is that the Lord blesses those that are creative a little more than those that are just the same as everyone else! Keep me updated!!!

Kelsey wayne and ryker

Ryker is getting big!!! i have the christmas pictures up on my little section of the wall. i hope it was way fun!!! every one that has written me or that i have talked to has said that he keeps getting bigger!! and that he is in the way fun stage .. thats ok just keep me posted, i hope stay strong! love you!

Carson

MATC will be way fun! just have fun with it The times that yo have the most fun while learning you will remember the most and actually enjoy doing it. you prob wont have that problem too much. keep chuggin with the grades it will come and im sure edwards will let you make more shirts he is way chill about it. oh. p.s. i got your hug from mike! or elder parry thanks!! anyways keep me posted on life and whats going on love you a trillion!!!

Abster

Hey dude!! thanks SO much for the pictures!! you are getting really good at drawing!! I hope you are doing really good at school.dont forget that school is important ok?? you are the best! i miss you so so so so so so much! Learn the piano because then you can play some really cool songs. Remember to read your scriptures! and keep an eye on Carson for me. dont let her get out of hand!! love you and be good!!

Love you all!!!

It is good to see that he is having fun and going through the experience of the MTC. I can remember my own experience and I only spent three weeks there. I was ready to leave but they certainly have a lot coming up as they get ready to leave the MTC and move on. He will probably leave the MTC on February 2nd and go some place but it really depends on how soon they think he will get his VISA. Of course life changes for us all and we are moving on in life. Things will be changed and we will have grown. Hopefully in a good direction.

Well, we love the interest in Brad. Thanks for your prayers and support. Thanks, Laurie

Day 42

HELLO ALL!!!

you guys are the best support ever. but i want to start off with something really really really cool that happened last night. so every tuesday night we have a devotional with a general authority so anyone from the 70 and up pretty much or like a general member like relief society and so on. so elder holland came last night and he gave probably the best talk i have ever heard in my life. he talked about the progression of missionary work and why it is so important that we need to be converted first and all this still like how pmg was born. he gave a story about peter when him and the other apostles didnt know what to do so they went and did the only thing that they knew how to do and that was to cast their nets ( aka go fishing) they fished alll night with no success not even one fish so there was a person on the beach that said to go on the other side and they didnt know who it was but they listened and were obedient and got more than they could handle, they realized it was Christ and they hustled to the shore as fast as they could Christ had seen how hard they worked all night ( side note real quick, this week i have been focusing on Charity and Love as my christlike attribute) and when they got to the shore they saw that Christ had made them breakfast that was really cool! but then he asked if the apostles love him and they said yes and he eventually said then drop your nets and feed my sheep. stop going back to those things that you know how to do and get to work so when the sheep come in the mission field and throughout the mission field we will be able to feed the sheep. Anyways that was pretty sick to see Elder Holland pretty up front and he gets WAY into his talks tambien.

AS far as all the other stuff is going spanish is coming along i feel like i have hit a wall with it but i can teach a very general first lesson to someone. its just hard here because with spanish thats all i know is with the lesson so if i try just talking to people then i cant do it but they dont focus on that here cause you can just learn that by talking with the people i guess. i dunno it can be quite frustrtaating.

Ya last night i had quite the memory (light bulb) i dunno. i remembered mikey was coming in today it will be hard calling him elder. but i might slip a note into his little pack that every one gets. That time went by super crazy fast ! but i guess thats kind of a good thing for me if its going fast in the MTC cause it is really hard.

I play volleyball during gym time with the missionaries that are going to the phillipines and i forgot to tell you who one of those missionaries are Josh Ostler (kolton was on my soccer team) they are way funny but they leave this next week so now gym will be boring cause basketball is not the best in the mtc. haha maybe ill play 4square .. can you see me doing that??

ANYWAYS ... i loved having the stocking i felt like i had my own part of christmas .. sorry for keeping it so long. oh and remember that some of the pictures are just for family use and the videos arent for the blog! haha a couple of them we just got bored on p day when the temple was closed so just keep that in mind. enjoy the pictures i have had a couple of letters that have said ryk dog has been getting big so that sucks that i am missing all the crazy stuff.

---Well, it is really nice that he is experiencing the opportunities to sit at the feet of the Lord's servants and be able to learn from those truly amazing men.

I'm glad that he is finding some physical outlet and I definately think that he should start playing 4-square. It is the game of choice for my second grade boys.

I, too, am excited that he is finding friends and seeing those people that gave him great support at home will be there to give him additional support. We love Michael Parry.

We are glad that he is having great growing experiences as well as some fun in the MTC. He is truly growing in the gospel and we are thankful for that.

Day 36

Here's his email.

HELLO!

Well... its always so hard to write a productive email cause its only 7 in the morning. on a typical day my companion is still getting out of bed and im ready to go to breakfast. sooo i usually just study until he gets up and showers and gets ready. Anyways i always feel like i email and then in the night i get thoughts of what i should have wrote instead.

MY GLASSES!!!!! oh i was so pumped to get them i knew right when i saw the package that it was them!! it was hard this last week to 2 weeks because i was having to use brain power that i already didnt have to focus on what was going on. and that was quite challenging but now that i can see the words clearly it has been extremely helpful especially since im starting to understand a little bit of what i need to know. Im glad you guys play wii for entertainment. sounds very productive. haha but that is really good that you guys all got to relax a little bit. the only time in the day that we get to relax is from 10:15 - 10:30 which is "quiet time" but its not that relaxing cause writing in your journal everything you want to say before the 10:30 lights out time so that you can be obedient. thats ok because that isnt as nearly as stressful as writing letters on p day! haha

WE need more boys in the family, so that would be way sick i guess and also more adeles huh?? i bet that in the future generations it will end up being adele adele rands or bradley or whatever it ends up to be haha Also that is funny about your kids at shool because i remember always doing that same thing haha with the Brad and brad... and ya. I hope you are making carson do her laundry all by herself because being here doing it i actually get ALL my stuff back and want to know something else that is really cool too??? i actually get it ALL back WHEN im done!!! i know its quite amazing how i dont have to wait 3 months for a pair of socks to return haha. Thats rough to hear about grampa. poor guy. tell him i love him!! and of course i will say some prayers for him! its weird that it is '11 already i still write 10 in my journal and stuff ... its quite frustrating. so today is my 5 week mark in the mtc meaning i have 4 more here if it goes as plan b says .. otherwise ill prob be here a little longer and get transfered or .. who really knows whats going to happen. Oh bueno noticas for the day my companion forgot to extend his liscence.... yeah.. so he has to go to the dmv to get it done. lets just ponder what this means. i get to leave for a couple while he has to get this done!!!! haha its oing to be weird seeing the outside world .. the awkward thing is that there is another companion that needs to do the same thing and my companion tried to get a split to go out ... i dont think he likes me very much still.. we have to have a companionship inventory every single day becuase the branch preisdent said we needed to but the thing is i didnt say anything to him in my letter which means it had to be my companion. but when we have our inventory he still doesnt say anything!! i dont know what i did but mom you have helped me a lot growing up. monday our inventory was about negative comments because all he says is neg comments about EVERYTHING and it makes it hard to be here so i was like my mom said to me whenever i got in a tiff with my sisters that its not really necessary to be negative and it makes it harder for everyone ( of course that is the Brad retelling the story at 7:10 am) and he was like ya i guess you are right .. I GUESS YOU ARE RIGHT?!?! hahahaha it was funny but its like everything i say it has to be opposite or make himself better than me. so im learning patience every day. but its hard. Spanish is coming this week we are teaching the first lesson solomente en espanol. we have already tried 2 times. one my companion like broke down and was almost crying and kinda freaked out at us all but i dont know how its my fault when he practices his signature during study time but the 2nd time we taught yesterday went really really well he bore a solid testimony and then complained after....so thats my life all is well here .. im starting to live by hakuna matata when its stuff that happens that i cant control. i am alive and well and i finally get to go to the temple agian after a couple weeks so that will life my spirits up as well. I love you all!!! thanks so much for your support. i cant describe celestial feelings with telestial words but you all mean so much to me! my time is almost up and i hope i send this before it runs out but keep your heads up. Dont forget who you are!!!!

Elder B.

My dad, who is 78, tore his rotator cuff cleaning the snow off his truck. So today he is having surgery to repair that. The doctor tells him that there is a 40% chance because of his age that it will work. We hope he is in the 40% that it is a success.

I am making Carson do her own laundry. I realized when I had to give Brad a crash course in laundry doing that I had forgotten to give away that particular job with Brad and Carson -- so now Carson is getting very good at it.

My niece just had a baby on Jan. 3rd named Lilly Adele. We have quite a few moms, sisters, nieces with Adele as the middle name.

I hope that he will understand that the challenges on a mission are the things that make us grow. It can be a companion sleeping a little extra when we are ready to study or go. Or companions that are difficult to get along with or the negativity that people that can have at times or learning a language. Those challenges are things that you can't change but your attitude or your encouragement is what can change our experience. Hakuna Matata