Note: In honor of ten years of leaving on a mission, I have decided to resurrect this blog by publishing my mission emails. I'm also annotating them with ten years of hindsight. I have abbreviated names--it's one thing to write them in an email, but another to post them on the internet. I'm not sure how this convention will go, but I have to start somewhere. This is my first email, with the subject line "Howdy."
Ma chère famille,
Ici je suis en le MTC, et je suis bien.[1] Today (Wednesday) is our
prep day, the only time I am allowed to email/write letters. We are only
permitted to write on our prep day.[2] The exception was our
first day but we didn't have time. It's just as well because my first day felt
like a funeral, but since then everything has been just fine.
We usually stay as a district during classes, meals,
studying and such, which I like. My companion, Elder Hi. (also going to
Spokane), and I are pretty different (he reminds me a lot of [my cousin] Rayce)[3] but we get along fine. He
is from Pleasant Grove and knows tons of people here--even his sister-in-law
works here. We share our residence with Elders Ha. and M. (from Vernal and Salt
Lake, respectively), who are also going to Spokane. Our district leader, Elder
W., and his companion, Elder G., are next door. They are going to Portland.
Elder W. is all-around amazing as a district leader.
We obviously do not live near the other members of our
district, Sister V. and Sister C. Sister V. is coming to Spokane with us, while
Sister C. is going to Portland. We supposedly leave two days earlier which
means Sister C. will be solo for a few days.
As for me, I am doing fine. It's amazing how the Lord has
already blessed me--little to no homesickness or unkind thoughts. I am excited
to be a missionary.
I do realize now that I watched WAY too much TV.[4] Things constantly remind
me of the various things I used to watch. The first few days I always thought
of <i>The Flying Nun</i>[5] because this is like a
convent and the show always showed two sisters walking on the convent grounds
like we do. But pretty much anything I've ever watched in my life has entered
my thoughts at some point.
Oh, a slightly unfortunate event. While the other elders in
my residence brought music, I was the only one to bring a CD player. Each
missionary only has one small, inconvenient outlet, and the speakers do not fit
in the plug, so we are music-less. But we're out of here in not too long.
Well, I need to get ready to do my laundry. I'll write you a
letter while my clothes are being washed.
Love,
Elder Melville
[1]
I loved writing in foreign languages, and I never really got over the fact that
I was called to speak English.
[2]
They told us we couldn’t say “P-day” in the MTC. They really didn’t like
initialisms in the MTC.
[3]
In retrospect, I think my cousin is less of a jerk than my companion, but ten
years later, maybe I only remember the bad things.
[4]
This is true. I was obsessed with 1960s sitcoms.
[5]
(1) Our missionary email did not permit us to put things in italics, so I tried
to use HTML tags. Obviously they didn’t work. (2) Yes, there really was a TV
show about a flying nun.
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