First Letter

Received 1st letter on Sat., March 30th...

Hola Familia!

First day was great! After Elder Cash, who is from New Zealand, took my luggage, he directed me into the building with the main offices where I received 2 plaques, an address card & my residence key.  With all my information for the MTC on the front of the envelope it all came in. Also, the card dad showed us in his white handbook that was all in German, I got one of those too but mine is in Spanish. Anyway, I got all my stuff & went back outside where I met up with a sister missionary host (I cannot remember her name) and we met up with Elder Cash to get my luggage. She took me to my residence to drop off my luggage and then she took me on a tour of the main buildings. Cyndi wasn’t kidding about the dork dots. Bright orange & right in front on the name tag so everyone can see.  They all started saying Hola, Hello & Bienvenidos! It was quite funny. Oh, and p.s. there is a reason they give you times to be there…I was the last one to arrive to our district classroom…they had already started an activity…oops. HaHa. We are in District 48A & there are 4 districts in our zone.

In our District there are 6 elders & 4 hermanas (the first few days I didn’t know who any of the elders were but since it has taken a few days to send this…here they are) us hermanas are all in the same residence room together and spent the first few days together cuz we were all the people we knew, there is Hermana White from Beaver, UT who is 20 – her companera Hermana Clark, 21 from Blackfoot, ID & my companera Hermana Andreasen, 19 from Mesa (smaller town called Queen Creek) AZ – she has been going to BYU for the last couple years and worked in the MTC Barbershop – so it was exciting to learn that she knew where everything was & such…also she is basically fluent in espanol. (Super Big help). The Elders: Elder Peterson, 19 from Layton – his companion Elder Afu 19 from Sandy – he went to Alta & graduated 2012 (turns out I graduated with his older brother). Next Elder Stowell, 19 from Cottonwood area – graduated from Brighton & Elder Mason, 18 from Ephraim, he is a very quiet kid probably b/c he is the youngest or one of them – but he is getting better the more we come together as a district. Next & last is Elder Cobb (who they named District Leader) 19, from North Carolina & his comp.  Elder Sessions 19 from Wisconsin. When you put us all in one small room for over 8 hrs a day you learn to love each other/ which is what has happened.  We all joke & get along quite well.
Anyway that 1^st day we went to like an orientation type thing that turned into a teaching experience example. They had 3 or 4 rooms set up like a small room in an investigators house with a bunch of chairs set up for the group of missionaries who would act as one large companionship while we taught them. Super cool experience to get an idea of what was going on. And after all that we ended up back in our classroom to meet our real teacher. Now our classroom is on the top floor of the building with 5 floors…I’ll let you try to imagine how many stairs that is that we are going up & down at least 5 times a day…& our residence that is on the 3^rd floor so add another flight or so. LOTS & LOTS OF STAIRS!!! But esta Bien just means we get to work off what we eat.
Some more on my companera Hermana Andreasen is one of like 7 or 8 kids & is a twin, her sister is actually in the MTC now, on the floor above us. She came in a week or so before us, & her oldest brother who just got off his mission like a couple months ago is working on the moving crew here @ the MTC. How cool is that? We keep joking that she and her familia are going to convert South America. Her parents served in Bolivia & Uruguay, her brother served in Paraguay, her twin is going to Chile & then Hermana Andreasen is going to Argentina and she has younger siblings to convert the rest.
Oh, so Thursday the day after we arrived, we found out that we were going to teach our first investigator on Friday night…en Espanol…we were all a little more than shocked, nervous, scared & all the above. But I guess that’s what happens when you only have 6 weeks to learn. So we taught the lesson & it went okay…minus the fact that I started crying in the middle of it – a big shock for me since I’m not much of a crier, (except for the fact that I started crying during McKayla’s letter Wed. night due to the fact that the excitement & adrenaline were wearing off & all). But I don’t know if it was cuz I didn’t understand anything that was happening, lack of sleep, slight stress or the spirit or a combo of all…cuz the lesson the next day went a whole lot better. Looking back on it now (about a week later) it is amazing how much I have learned in such a short amount of time.  It’s quite awesome!
The first few days felt like weeks, until we got to Sunday, then all of a sudden it was Wed. again. Crazy. I got both yours & dads letters (p.s. thanks for the quote) & the part about McKayla having to take your phone was super funny.  It is great getting the dearelders but handwritten ones aren’t so bad either.  Like I mentioned in the email, my P-day is Wednesday, we only have 30 min on the computer & most the time they are ALWAYS being used, but I will find time to send a quick one.  I think I mentioned this also, but if you really want to tell me something either write a letter or dearelder one, that way I can have it and know what to say in the email, and I guess if you send a dear elder before 2, I will get it that day otherwise I will get it the following day.
If you could get Shay to either get addresses from or have Cyndi Brett, Jamison, Tom & Natalie dear elder me their addresses that would be grand.
So some strange things…besides the fact that Elder Afu went to school with Shay…on Wednesday (3/20) night, I saw Elder Siggard @ dinner. He had no idea who I was until I said Shayla Snow’s older sister.  I also saw (Bronte) Sister Baird – Zoie’s younger sister. On Thurs I found out that Hermana Clark met a good friend of mine from high school @ EFY (small world). Then on Friday I met a Bro. Davis, who served in Argentina, Coradoba & was either zone leader to or trained (couldn’t exactly understand cuz he was speaking in espanol kinda fast) our friend Jason Law…so when you thought the world can’t get any smaller – it does.
Love you all!!! Can’t wait to hear about St. George.
Much Love! Hermana Snow