Elder Adams

At the end of April I flew back home to Washington for my youngest brother's mission farewell.  Bradley has been called to the Fortaleza, Brazil mission and reported to the Brazil MTC (missionary training center) on April 28th.  I still can't believe he's old enough to go on a mission!

There is an 11 year gap between Bradley and I in age, so most of my experiences with him at home were when he was a youngster.  Being the only girl out of six kids, I found Bradley to be my little alli.  True looking back I probably scarred him a bit by making him play barbies with me, but he turned out pretty darn well so I'm not too sorry for that!

I remember singing him and my other younger brother, Stuart, to sleep at night or reading them stories.  I would even pay him a quarter to sit and brush my hair as I watched movies...ok he really was a saint for putting up with me!

Basically, I can't believe he is old enough to spend two years teaching the gospel in Brazil!

That makes me feel so old...

After church we had a few people over so everyone could say goodbye to Bradley before leaving.  My oldest brother, Bryan, and his family drove over from Seattle for the weekend.  They were kind enough to pick me up from the airport and allow me to watch Barbie movies in their van with my nieces while driving over to Ephrata.  Lots of fun!

I love any chance I can get to see them, since we live so far away.  Their girls are true girls, pink clothes, princesses, and ponies through and through.  My kind of fun :)  Max on the other hand, had quite the hero complex with Bradley, following him around as much as possible.  Only 9 years til he'll leave!

 

We were able to spend some quality time with our favorite adopted grandparents, Grandpa Bill and Grandma Doris.  Grandpa promised he'd hold on til Bradley got back from his mission, so he better keep his word!

The next morning Dad, Mom, and I drove Bradley over to Spokane to catch his flight.  In the past missionaries have reported to the MTC in Utah, but with the growing missionaries in Brazil they opened a training center in Sao Palo.  

Checking in with all he'll need for two years...perfectly packed with care by mother.

It was really hard on mom and dad to just put him on a plane and send him straight to Brazil.  Ok, I guess we were all kind of a mess...

 

While he was going through security, the TSA checker turned out to be a member of our church and congratulated Bradley on his journey.

We had arrived to the airport two hours before it was to depart to make sure everything went smoothly.  After Bradley checked his luggage he decided it was better to go through security and wait by the gate instead of weeping openly with his emotional family on the other side of the glass.  After watching him disappear through the traffic of flights, we went back to the car in the parking garage to wait.  Yes, dad and mom refused to leave the airport until his plane took off.  So there we sat on the top floor of the parking garage watching his luggage board, then the plane taxi out to the run way, and finally the take off.  As you can tell from the pictures, my parents were a tad weepy!

  

 

He made it safely to Sao Palo and has been training for almost three weeks now, only 93 more to go!