August 30, 2010

Dear Family and Friends,

Well it's official. We are about to leave Provo. We attended the departure meeting, which was sweltering hot, and was the MTC presidency talking to our district, and a couple hundred missionaries who departed today to their field. The meeting was full of advice on how to get into the field, phrases like, "tomorrow, when you arrive at the field...." and, "we are so proud of you for completing your time at the MTC. But we don't leave until Wednesday, and we don't get to the field for another 6 weeks. Haha.

Today, we start packing. Since today is our P day, and yesterday was Sunday, and tomorrow we are supposed to pack during gym time, we won't be able to go to gym! Though maybe we will pack up today really fast and be able to get to that much needed physical activity. It wasn't exaggeration when someone told me that days here start with shower, then sitting, then eating while sitting, then sitting, then eating while sitting, then sitting, THEN GYM!, then eating while sitting again, and more sitting after that to wrap up the day. Don't get me wrong tho, I love it!

Oh right, I was talking about departure.... The MTC president told us yesterday that if we are late to the travel office and miss the bus to the airport, we have to stay here for an additional 12 weeks as punishment.

Did you get my letter with the pictures? Roland so far has printed them out (it cost a dollar and a half to print those) and mailed them (it took two stamps and an envelope) home so his parents could scan the goodies on to the blog. The computers here are so locked up...it's ridiculous. We can't email pictures because we don't have enough access to the computers to see our camera or card on windows explorer.

Elder Johnson Moody is gone! He flew off in the afternoon of last monday. Elder Chris Holdaway (from our stake) left for the Baltic mission today. He happened to live about 7 doors down from me. By the by, Elder Roland Wood is a floor below me. Elder Elliott Moss... I have no idea when he lives but I saw him this morning on the way to the temple.

I never remember what I have already sent home, so I hope this isn't redudant, but I feel like I haven't given any detail as to who I know and why I know them. Alright I've said who I know, but they are all in my district. That means I see them for most of every day. Our district has our own small 20 by 10 foot classroom in which we spend all of our day that isn't MDT, Teaching, Sleeping, or Eating. I dunno why those are capitalized. Oh, and MDT is "mission directed time," which is to say, anything we need to do that day like extra study on a topic, buying another pen, or whatever. So basically I have been with the people in my district (district 1A, so we are the absolute first of every district in the MTC) since I got here. We all know each other quite well now, and there has been time for tensions to rise, fall, and rise again. I am gunna miss them tho, as we will likely be split up once we get to the Lima Peru MTC.

Which raises the question: If I do get a new companion, will he be a Peruvian?? Probably... Will he speak ingles? MAYBE NOT!!! AAHHHHHHH. More on that in my letter.

P.S. If I don't email y'all on a Monday, it's prob cuz I got time pwnt, so I would log onto this email from home if I was you and check the drafts, since those tend to save more than emails get sent.