E-mail 1: March 19th

(Received March 19 by E-mail)

Hello all! Things are going rather well. I hope you all are well as well. :) Fear not if I seem to be addressing random subjects. I am simply responding to the things asked about in the letter I got from my family. I hope you enjoy the update. :)

I know that this is where the Lord would have me, and that He loves me. I know the Lord 'giveth no commandment save he shall provide away'. I know it will turn out. :) I am enjoying the friendship of my companions and roommates. I am adjusting to figure out how to adapt how I feel the Spirit to my new mindset and schedule. It is almost as though I am focusing on learning about the Spirit so much that I forget to feel it. :P

We do some service. Each week we have one service project for an hour or so. Most of the time we are either in meetings or learning or eating or studying. It is a very tight schedule. We often have a hard time because we only have so much time to do what we need at the end of the day. Stuff like writing in our journal and planning for the next day. Then they ask us to do things like read from the missionary handbook every day and a handful of things like that and all the sudden you are struggling to get everything done and actually get in bed by 10:30. I hope to be able to be a host for new missionaries, but out zone isn't getting any more as far as we know for the rest of our stay. But apparently our zone didn't expect us, so we might get some anyway. Maybe I'd be able to be a welcoming host anyway for someone.

There are 6 Elders and 2 Sisters in my district. Sister Imbach and Sister Kingrey (Frankfurt Mission), Elder Larsen and Elder Gleeson (Berlin Mission, I don't know if he's related to the stake president. I don't think he knows either), Elder Gamble and Elder Marshall (Frankfurt Mission), and then Elder Gibson and I. My companion and I get along well. We mesh well and are vaguely the same personalities. A district has class together and is encouraged to do things like meals and firesides together. My room has 4 Elders in it. Elders Gamble and Marshal are the other ones in our room. Elder Gamble is the District Leader. We have cool guys in our room. They are good guys. Not bullies, not slackers. They are all good guys and I am looking forward to the 6 weeks I have here.

Oh. That's another thing. I have been assured that I have six weeks. 6 weeks is the pilot program. It used to be 9. My stake president must have been confused.

I have no idea how many people are in our zone. Lots. Like 5 districts. But 2 are leaving Tuesday, and in theory we won't get anymore until after we leave for the Field. Our zone consists of everyone going to the Germany missions. (Berlin, Frankfurt, and Alpine which includes pieces of the south of Germany and other surrounding countries that speak German.)

My companion and I have been called as the Zone Leaders. It's actually not very exciting. We preside at zone meetings, but we have a branch president specifically for our zone, so he always takes care of those meetings. We mostly set a good example and try to answer qutestions and be there for our Districts, giving a little direction maybe here and there. Mostly our responsibility is to help orient and welcome new Elders and Sisters. However, if you see above, you will notice that we may not even be getting any new missionaries until after we leave. So we shall see.

The food is good. Maybe a bit bland, but they have like 3 or 4 main courses at each meal to choose from. It's nice to get 3 square meals a day at appropriate times.

Anyway! I'm out of time. I hope this was satisfactory. And if it wasn't? Write me! I would love to get more emails. I recieved a couple letters from family, but my first week in the MTC was entirely devoid of contact from my friends. That was kinda sad to me. In any case! I encourage all of you to strive to come even closer to Christ and to love this Gospel, and our Loving Father even more than you do. The keys of happiness, here, and hereafter, are contained therein. And be kind. We need more kindness in the world today. :)

Aufwiedersehen! (Goodbye!)

*Note: All green text is German translation from the German text preceding it.