Last MTC email, still setting records for his running and Finally the Phone Call!

Cody said that he thought he would be able to email us this morning since they aren't leaving the MTC until about 4:30 pm today, so here are parts of that email.
Kumusta pamilya ko!! So this is my last email from the MTC! I leave in about 2 and a half hours for the airport. And i think i'm done packing. I hope i am haha joke lang.

So first i want to clear something up. When i talked about the horses, i wasn't saying i missed them more than you all. I was just trying to show that i'm not homesick. I do love all of you more than the horses. You are easier to take care of ;).

So this was a good last week at the MTC. They have records in the gym for different things, like free throws and threes and long jump and the mile and that. So this week i went for the mile record because it was only 5:23. I'm not in very good shape but i figured i could do that. I did it in 5:20. So i just barely broke the record. But the records are only for that year, so it wasn't like it was an extremely hard record to beat. But that is my worldy story this week for you all.......

Mom, i can only call from one place. I'm sorry. Don't worry about me though. Numerous prophets have said that the safest place you can be is on your mission. So i promise i will be fine. I am planning on calling from Salt Lake. So plan on that. But if we end up not having enough time there i'll call from San Fracisco. I can get a calling card here for way cheap and use that to call you with. Tell Kirsten she can come over if she wants.

For email, everybody can email me. But i can only email family back. And with that i'll probably generally just do one big email for everybody because of time. And for letters, i've heard here that if you want to just send regular letters to me through the Mission Home address, instead of pouch, that works just as good. Either way i only get them twice every transfer (6 weeks). So i get mail about every 3 weeks. So whichever way you want to send them to me is fine.......

So there you go. I don't know what else to tell you. If you have any questions or anything else you want to know, just ask me when i call you in a few hours. I love you all! God be with you till we meet again.

Elder Cody Brough

So now we settle in for the rest of the day and wait until evening when he can call. By my calculations he could call anywhere from 5:30 pm to 7:15 pm since they weren't leaving the MTC until 4:30, driving to SLC getting checked in at the airport, etc.

Lyndi, JR and the kids came over as did Heather to wait for "the call." We had supper and just sat around talking and Emily and Heather were in the den looking online for information about their cruise this spring. Time was going by and I'm starting to wonder if he really is going to call. FINALLY about 6:45 the phone rings and Gabe's little eyes get big as he looks at me and I say something about it being him! Ken jumps and grabs the phone but it's not to be, it is Heather & Roy's cell phone and since Roy was not here with Heather we all assumed it to be Roy. NOT Heather & Emily thought it would be funny to hear/see us jump and called the house phone from the den. Little snots, I told Heather that she is grounded and I didn't care if she has been married for almost 10 yrs. They got us!
A little while later Kirsten and Sara McKen got here to help us wait out the time. Right around 7 pm the phone rings again and it is from a pay phone and no one else would be calling from a pay phone! YEAH FINALLY! About this same time Heidi calls Heather so she got in on the conversation some too.

We put the phone on speaker and all tried talking to him. Elder Brough didn't have a lot to say - SURPRISE - his sisters were all vying for the "favorite" sister award, but when Kirsten got the phone she made some comment about HER being the favorite! Too Funny! We had him bear his testimony in Tagalog and it was awesome, I just wish I would have thought about it sooner but Emily did record some of it with her phone. It was awesome, he sounded so good! But his last comment to all of us was...
"Enjoy your toilet paper for the next two years because I won't have any"

UGH did he have to remind me of that. The people in the Philippines do not use toilet paper and I had heard that and didn't need a reminder. :) It's hard to believe that he is now so many thousands of miles away from us and I look forward to hearing of his adventures in the Philippines and look forward to the next phone call in May! ;)