We received our first
email and I am so glad he is enjoying himself and still has his sense of
humor. I miss laughing with him and
laughed and cried with his letter.
Dear Mom and Dad,
Well, I will start
with the questions and go from there.
1.What happened when I
walked away?
They took
me into a dark room and shot me full of weird drugs, then they beat me with a
pillow. Pretty crazy. Seriously though they took me through the courtyard there
and told me kind of what was going down right then. I went through some doors
to a table where they gave me my nametag and some info I needed to know along
with a little manila envelope. I got all checked in and got my picture taken
and my ID card that I swipe to get into doors and buy food and stuff. Very
secret agent. Legit. I got out of the main room there and my host missionary
took me to my room and showed me where all the buildings were. He dropped me
off at my classroom and the teacher (Brother Sender) started spouting gibberish
at me until I took off my backpack. I followed him to a computer lab where he
got me to understand that I needed to take an intro questionnaire. I was a
little freaked out but after I met my companion (Elder Mitchell, more on him
later) it was foot to the floor go time. By the time I got to lay down I felt
like I had been mentally sprinting all day.
2. Who are your
roommates?
Well my companion Elder Mitchell is in there. He is pretty cool, reserve duty
marine taking two years off to serve a mission. Then the other companionship is
Elder Naef (pronounced Neff) who reminds me a little bit of Uncle Wade. His
companionship is Elder Austin, he is from California. But I love everyone here because that's my
option haha
3. Have I met all the
Mada elders?
I
have! I don't know the french guys but there are two of them and one sister
from French Guiana. The other companionships are Elder Moulton and Elder Jensen
(not related to the moulton lead people or the Jensens from Seattle) and a
threesome companionship consisting of Elder Ludwig (like the drums, but plays
the organ like a boss) Elder Smithson (tall and lanky like me, but not as
ruggedly handsome haha) and Elder Eppich (like epic, a pretty cool dude)
4. Can I say anything
in malagasy yet?
Well the
title of the email means "what's new?" and I won't even bother
explaining how to pronounce it. It's really a phonetic language once you figure
out how to pronounce all the letters, but you don't put air behind all the
letters, so you swallow like half the word and you run any words together that
you can get away with. I'll send you a picture of my alphabet notecard when I
send pictures.
5. Did you get a
bottom bunk?
I sure
did! Elder Mitchell (his dad served a Korea mission in Seoul a few years before
Dad went there) took the top bunk without me even asking.
6. Is there really all
you can drink milk?
There is
all you can eat/drink everything. Even chocolate milk. The food was really good
too until all of the mission presidents showed up, then we started getting the
stuff they didn't want I think haha but it's still pretty good stuff. I have
had gas since I got here though, so there might be a connection there.
7. What is my routine?
I get up at six
thirty every morning and do awesome missionary stuff until ten-thirty when it's
bed time. Pretty legit.
8. How would I prefer
your letters?
I like
the dear elder at least while I'm here at the mtc because we only get half an
hour for email and I only have ten minutes left at this point.
9. Anything I need?
I need a
container for my bar of soap, but I got my sunglasses in the mail with the
picture book (thank you!) Other than that I'm good for now. I'll keep you
posted.
10. I have your
numbers in my address book.
The first night we were here we
taught some "investigators" as a big group of fresh missionaries.
Pretty interesting, and this one Asian guy totally blew me off when I was
trying to answer his question with a sweet metaphor. All of eight hours into my
mission and I already had my first frustrating experience. Dope. Friday evening
we taught an "investigator" who only spoke Malagasy. That was
interesting, because we could only say what we had previously translated into
Malagasy. He asked a question at one point and we had no idea what he said at
all. Elder Mitchell and I looked at each other because we had no idea what he
said. He must have got the point because he waved us on. The room here is super
legit. Any cover in the room that has a hole behind it had candy or something
in it. I got a tie from the junction box behind my desk. Captain America is
guarding it now haha
Do you know where my
patriarchal blessing or ankle brace are? I can't find them in my bags.
I will write you guys
a letter because I am out of time but not stories.
I love you guys all so
much,
Love, Elder Galbreath.
