April 30, 2010... A phone call???

About 5 minutes ago, I received a phone call from the MTC. The person on the other end began by saying, Hey Dad, This is Brayden. After I almost picked myself up from the floor, I asked how he is doing. He told me that it was felt that by the confusing information that we had received from the MTC that they allowed him to call to confirm to us that he never had shingles and that he has a small cold sore below his left eye and that everything is good. As originally planned, he will be leaving Utah for Honduras either late Sunday night (anywhere from 9:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. or very early Monday morning (anywhere from 5:00 a.m. to 7:00 a.m.). To make sure that we get the call, I asked him to call us on my cell phone. It has a speaker phone option and it will be a local call for him from the airport. So it sounds like a trip to Provo either tonight or tomorrow is in order to deliver his last package while here in Utah. I want to get a cassette recorder for him so that he has two options in Honduras to send us recordings. He was only able to talk to me for a couple of minutes.

April 23, 2010.. Preparing to leave the MTC

But guess what?!! I leave next Sunday for Honduras! I leave may 2nd at 830 pm for the airport.. then i fly to georgia at about 1am.. then at 10:50 georgia time I roll out for honduras.. So yeah its finally here I'm so excited!

A couple things.. If you have time I feel like I need some better chill shoes (since I never wanna be barefeet) they have these shoes called Tom's and they're supposed to be way comfy and sweet.. If jen has time to grab some (they have them at nordstrom) and if they're cheap I wouldn't mind some.. but if not its okay.. I'll be able to find some shoes in honduras I assume.. Um... I don't think I really need anything else.. If you send me anything in the mail be sure its here by friday at the latest because I don't know if I'll receive it after that point. Pretty crazy for sure!

I'm way excited to finally go.. Everything is great!

I love you.. I"ll be getting back on in a couple hours if you wanna respond by then.

Les Amo mí familia!

Brayden

#2

Also If you could send me like 50 cash or I could pull it outta an atm let me know through dear elder how I could get that. I just wanna make sure I'm good as far as that goes with my baggage and stuff at the airport. I'm writing you a letter tonight so know youll get taht soon. Love you. As far as those Tom brand shoes go you can find them online in pretty sweet colors and send them to the m.t.c as long as you make sure they would ship them soon so make sure its on a legit site. Have dad or jennica or slate do it cuz they will know. Thanks so much for the brownines and caramels and a new round of medication! I hope everything is going great at home. I'm about halfway through dads tape. As far as packages and what not all i've heard is the jesus stickers and everything. Be sure to look on missionarymalls website because they have a blog type thing and it will have info and stuff like that from what i've heard.

Um.... Not a whole lot else going on.. Just pretty stoked to leave for Honduras finally.. itll be pretty crazy not being able to speak with almost everyone there only in spanish. Especially my mission president! Expect a call from the airport!

Love you still! haha

Brayden

April 16, 2010 Email to Jennica

Well FIrst and Foremost tell Slate he is a RETARD for spilling dye on him Self.. (PIcture me pulling bending my arm in front of me and yelling YES!) cuz thats what happened. Tell him congrats on the Job.. Earthquake? Crazy.. Well if that isn't exciting I don't know what is.. I miss out on everything cool! lol MMM I ate prime rib at the temple today.. It was delicious.. and yesterday we had biscuits and Gravy for lunch.. someone came after my record of 7 biscuits and gravy.. so me and him were both at 8 and he gave up.. I had to separate myself because I came to win So I ate 9! Yeah.. Don't act like your not impressed. K remember those bomb brownies that had caramel and junk in them.. If you wanna make those when your bored I'd be okay with that.. As far as food goes here.. I hate it now lol.. It was nice for a while but everything tastes the same now and I want real food.. I'm so pumped to go to Honduras in like 2 weeks so that I can eat some legit food! They've got KFC and all that junk down there I guess and tons of good native stuff too! I hope everything Is going well.. Love you and Slate!

Sincerely,

Brayden

P.S. If the moon were made of Spare ribs would ya eat it? I WOULD DO IT>!!

April 16, 2010

Oh My Computere illeterate mother..

You just barely found out about that? Did you just think that the red lines appeared under words for fun?!

Haha sorry..

But Seriously that earthquake thing is Crazy! Elder Whites uncle is the engineer of the provo temple so before we ate lunch we talked to him for a second and he told us about it.. Pretty crazy! Also heard about some Volcano or something? Goll the world is coming to an end it would appear. Speaking of which I would like you to email me a list of all the signs of the second coming (its on the internet somewhere) Um.. Everything is still graet.. My spanish is coming along pretty well.. I can say anything I want as far as pertaining to the gospel which is cool. You just kind of loose your personality because you don't know all the words to express yourself.

Again not a whole lot entertaining is going on here.. I do have a funny story about an Elder in my District though.. Elder hafen was praying in spanish a coupld weeks ago and prayed for us missionaries in the district to have more castidad.... He meant to say the word caridad (charity) and we all began to laugh really hard hearing a missionary pray for Castidad.. Which is chastity.. I know i told someone that story already so i hope I'm not repeating myself on that.

I leave in a couple weeks i Hope so I'm way excited! Pray I don't get delayed! I love you all and hope everything is great at home..

Yo Amo Ustedes! (I love you all)

Su hijo y hermano, Brayden

April 9, 2010

I got some on this thing we call the free table (an abondoned ironing board that when people leave they put their junk on it. Gosh it's so nice out here.. Our walk to the temple was like perfect... definitely gonna miss a thing called spring when i go down to honduras. My Spanish might sound good but I'm not even close.. But when I get out in the field I will learn a lot more a lot faster.. I recorded a tape for you guys today so you'll get that soon! I love you.. hope everything is going great!

Love,

Your son

April 2, 2010

Well Mom.. Things are the same here.. just chugging along and working hard to be the best missionary i can and to get good at spanish... Last Sunday the Presidency called me as District leader so having that responsibility has helped to try and work even harder in knowing that I'm supposed to set the example for the rest of my district. All these Missionaries are so great and I would not have befriended them in any other situtation because were all so different but I love them all. I love receiving your letters.. I can only imagine how long it takes to write in calligraphy. It looks soo goood! Seriously its pro.. I showed my zone and they were like "She had to have printed that from a computer" or "Your mom can use a Quill?" haha.. they are awesome. I can't believe the bill passed! Thats insane.. that same night I had a dream that President Obama got killed or died or something.. pretty weird.. But I hope everything is going well for you. Sorry I don't have much time to write!

 

Basically You really can't know how great the work is.. and how great the church is.. until it is literally your entire life and your giving 100% of your efforts in helping the work progress. Theres no way there would be 55,000 young men my age out in the mission field if this wasn't the true Church. The MTC is a great and fun place.. although I do miss my mothers cooking. If any of you young men are on the fence about a mission.. Choose the right and serve. It's already been the greatest thing I've done in my life and I haven't even been out a full month! Heavenly Father will never ask you to sacrifice something if it isn't well worth your while. Remember that everything we do for Heavenly Father, we are paid back in exponentially greater Blessings.

 

I love you Mom! Thank you so much for all you do! Send me Emery in a box K?

March 26, 2010

 hope everything is going great.. I recorded some stuff for you guys to listen to but i recorded one last week and one this week so i don't knwo what is repeated and what isn't I said in my recording i needed a new shirt but I don't.. if you just send the one i already have thatd be great.

Dad I really enjoyed what you wrote me about even though some of it was a bit over my  head. the gospel really is such a great thing to do. I'm almost finished with the book of mormon already and started like a week before i left.
K so it looks like it's not going to let me send recordings.. major bummer.. I guess You'll just have to get like 20 of them when i go down to honduras. I thought I'd be able to email you guys pictures and recordings but i won't be able to till i get out in the field.

I appreciate all you guys do for me.. I'm sure its not easy to find the time to do all these things for me.

Your email you sent me was way short so I don't really know what else to say. Things here and pretty much the same always.. not really any investigators or anything new thats going on. A lot of our zone is leaving this week which I'm kinda bummed about.. these guys have like become really close friends.. Definitely friends I'll continue to have after my mission. Everything Is still great though.. Me and ELder white taught the first lesson in spanish twice this week.. we for sure suffered through it but it was understandable and we were able to get our point accross.

 

Taylor,

 You never wrote me back last week punk! What gives?! I hope your doing well still!

 

 

Well hope everything is great.. Let me know if I can do anything for you guys.. 

I love you all

March 19, 2010- More...

 

Thanks so much for the package you sent me mom. i loved the doo doo drops and caramels.. so did my roommates. kenzee sent me some cookies and so did ann smith so i had so much this past week.. then jennica sent me even more. it is nice to receive packages but i can only eat so much food.. ive been trying to put on weight but have only put on 3 lbs.. no fun right? my companion has put on 11..

 

my email got way mesed up today so i only had 11 minutes to resond instead of 30.. but im so glad to hear that all of you are doing weell. and that emery isn't waiting in the front room anymore.. that bothered me more than anything yet lol.. but i love it here and am having the greatest time with everything and everyone. attitude is everything has been my realization this past year or so and having a good attitude will make my mission that much better. my spanish is slowly continuing to get better.. i can go through scriptures in spanish and have a general understanding but can't understand all the words jsut yet. ive got a bunch of pictures to send you guys.. theyre getting developed today. tell jenni i don't have time to email her bakc but thanks for the cookies. and i have no idea what she said in her card because google spanish translator doesnt work well at all. havent heard from brittany.. hope she is well. ill send the harddrive and some pictures when i find the time.

 

i love you guys all so much.. being away from you puts how awesome you guys are into perspective.. your the greatest family i could ever ask for. this week elder cook came and talked to us.. but im out of time so i cant talk about it any more. have a great week.. hopefully next week it will be longer.. send you dear elders earlier next week k? love you bye

March 19, 2010- Ran out of Time

I ran out of time on my computer but my companion was gracious enough to let me use his remaining time since his Email was actually working correctly today. I can now answer a few of your questions better. I think that you guys can drop stuff off at the mtc.. but nothing perishable and idk if they would let you give me mountain dew of a lot of stuff.. but i was at the front office the other day and a father dropped off some stuff for his daughter and they made him remove the loaf of bread from the bag and took the rest of it to give to her.Those pants from missionary mall are my second pair of pants for my suit.. I can't decide if i want them or not.. My luggage was way full as it was and now i have lots more books and things to add to it so i don't now. As far as mp3's go I haven't even looked at doing that till today and i think i can.. so i will try and record things for you this next week. Sorry there is so little time for me to respond to you guys. There is a lot to do here all the time.. I am literally doing something from 620 am till 1030 every night. Oh and as far as talking to dr. katon. I went off the adderall all week this week since i was out and it was just like back to normal.. hard to concentrate and zoning out.. it makes things noticably better as far as focus but doens't wind me up as dad said in his dear elder.. i am able to sleep soundly everynight.. aside from my roomate who snores louder than any person has ever snored.. were going to record it tonight to prove it to him so maybe I'll send you what i listen to every night next week! Wish i had more time but I don't.. I love you all. Tell emery hello for me!

March 12, 2010- Mi Familia

I appreciate you guys keeping all my affairs and stuff in order and sending me things. Its such a great feeling to know that I have a loving family at home who looks out for me in regaurds to everything worldly. Me and Elder White are still getting along great.. I just make sure that I look out for him and try to be as nice to him as possible because he is a bit more shy than I am. The time is just flying by in here.. It's weird because it feels like I've only been here for like 3 days.. but it also feels like its been so long since I've been home. Keeping busy is the key here.. I notice on days like today reading emails from you guys that I tend to get a little emotional.. especially the part about emery for some reason.. But I really am having such a great time. I learn so much and have such wonderful experiences every day, it doesn't feel like school.. Its so much more rewarding. My friend Randy Taylor is in class in the same building I am and I see him almost every day so it is so nice to see a familiar face every day. I hope you guys are holding up well.. Two years really isn't a long time.. I'll be home soon and will be so much better off for it.

THank you for the Cinnamon Rolls, I ate one and shared the rest with the other Elders in my zone.. From the time they were opened to the time they were entirely consumed took all of 15 minutes at most. You guys don't have to send things tho.. We are more than adequately fed here.. I'm glad you got to talk to Cory dad and have a nice talk with him. Tell him thanks for the help with the ipod and helping with the car. I forgot to mention the wheel well I put it isn't adequately attatched at the bottom front.. look under the car and youll see where I'm talking about. Just put a couple zip ties in there attatching it to the other plastic bumper piece and you will be fine.

We had Bruce C. Hafen of the 70 come speak to us on Monday and he gave a great talk. A couple things I thought worth were worth mentioning to you guys. One of which is "Sitting in Church will do as much to turn you into a saint as Sitting in a garage will turn you into a car" It takes a  lot of work to get where you need to be spiritually and most of that is done on your own time. I have really come to realize this in the mtc and how much I've grown and progressed in one week studying dilegently. He also told of us something pretty interesting in chapter 36 of alma. Basically the entire chapter, the way its layed out, represents perfectly a type of ancient hebrew poetry called a cayasma. Basically it is telling the story in proper order then reiterating it backwards with the middle part of it being the most important. You guys should startdoing family home i evening though. It will help you guys draw nearer to eachother and get to know each other better. My email is totally freaking out for some reason and we are limited to 30 minutes so I'm sorry its so short. I need a couple things.. my black nixon watch.. and there were a few other things but I forgot my notes and only have 2 minutes left! I love you guys and hope your doing great. My spanish is way better..I can pray in spanish.. bear my testimony.. i have remembered the first vision in spanish and english. Its just great here.. Just write me through dear elder if you need to get a hold of me during the week. Love you soo much. Bye

Elder Adams

The count down begins...

Dear family of Brayden Cody Adams,

We are pleased to inform you that your missionary has been safely checked in at the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah.  We thank you for supporting your missionary and know that your family will be blessed as a result.

Your missionary's mailing address while at the MTC is:
Brayden Cody Adams
MTC Mailbox # 144
HON-TEG 0504
2005 N 900 E
Provo, UT 84604-1793

Please note the following items:

1.  Your missionary's service began today.  Please do not arrange or request visits with your missionary, including meetings at the temple or in proximity to the MTC.

2.  All missionary mail must come through the US Mail or commercial delivery services.  Hand delivered items will NOT be accepted.  Do not send pizzas, fast foods, ice-cream, or any items that will spoil if they are not refrigerated within 24 hours.  Missionaries are not called out of class to receive packages, nor do they have access to a refrigerator.

3.  Communicate with your missionary weekly through letters sent to the above address or through the email account that the missionary will set up within the first two weeks.  This account is to be used by immediate family only.  Telephone calls for missionaries cannot be accepted.  Your missionary will correspond with you on his/her first preparation day.

4.      Families and friends should not plan to visit missionaries departing to their field of labor at the airport or MTC.

Should you need to communicate with the MTC call 801-422-2602.  Do not reply to this email.

Sincerely,

Provo MTC Presidency