Lanao vaovao (What's new)

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.