First Word via Snail Mail

We were very excited to get our first letter from Erica on September 9th via snail mail.  I will be abbreviating names of others for privacy purposes.  Any words in [brackets and/or italics] are my comments or clarifications for those who may not know all the "lingo". :)

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Sept. 4, 2013

FIRST DAY!    BOM DIA!

Dear Father and Mother Greenall,

Today was the longest, most incredible, whirlwind day of my life!!!

I am so sorry I wasn’t able to notify you that I arrived at the MTC! [Minor, easily overlooked detail when you are NOT the parent!]  As soon as I got here I was swept away by my wonderful Portuguese-speaking (Mozambique Mission) host who swept me away into a flurry of excitement – like a surreal dream.

 

My companions are Sister L. (from Idaho) and Sister Ch. (from Kentucky); we are the only 3 going to Belem from our district and zone!  [Side note…this means they are the only three currently in the their group at the Provo MTC going to Belem Brazil.  They will be joining a group of about 200+ others once they arrive in Belem.]

 

Guess who I saw!  Not only Sister C. and Sister A. (BYUH bffs!).  Also Sister P.!!!  [This is an old friend from San Luis Obispo CA she hasn’t seen in years.]  She’s going to Tuscon (I think), AZ.  It was amazing to see her!  We both recognized each other right away.

Today we did so much, but the BEST part of all of it was the “Teaching Experience” where we rotated room to room (each had a different investigator) [Investigator is a buzz word for someone who has questions about the gospel or is interested in learning more] and taught Javier, Jose, and Anarold, as a giant new missionary companionship (about 50 missionaries?).  The Spirit was undeniable.  I learned sooo much.

Guess how many new missionaries came in today?  ….about 605!  I’m surrounded by a modern day Army of Helaman!!!

I love the mission already and I love you both so very very much. “Disneyland isn’t the happiest place on earth, the MTC is.”   TRUE!  I know this is Christ’s true church.

Love,

Your (official!) missionary-daughter, Sister Greenall