Don't worry that you didn't get any emails from me today (if you get this Monday). Monday is NOT my p-day. I have P-day on Wednesday and this week we've been asked, as a district, to be Host Missionaries, the missionaries that meet people as they arrive and take them where they need to go. I might email at a weird time of day, but I'll get to it, don't worry. I'll have more to say on Wednesday, but here's some info for now:
Mi companero es Elder Miller (My companion is Elder Miller)
Mi distrito tiene 4 Elderes y 4 Hermanas (My District has 4 Elders and 4 Sisters)
Soy el companero senor pero Elder Miller es el DL (I am the senior companion but Elder Miller is the District Leader)
Los Otro Elderes son Elder Leska y Elder Neider (the other elders are Elder Leska and Elder Neider)
Los Himnos en Espanol son muy deficil (the hymns in Spanish are very difficult)
Apprendo mucho aunque estoy aqui 5.5 dias (I have learned much in only 5 1/2 days)
(I hope Mom's Italian helped translate all that) (It did, I put translations from me in red)
I want you to know that I love all of you. One of the things I've learned while I've been here is that it's not all about me. Even when we're reading the Book of Mormon, we are asked to do it for the investigator, not for ourselves.
Love ya'll
Elder VanderMeyden
A compilation of emails sent home:
I love getting snail mail. It really helps me hold onto some of the information. I only have an hour for emails here. My first week went by really fast. I am having a great time with my compañero, Elder Miller. Elder Miller seems to be very similar to Ryan personality wise. He is from a smaller town 20 minutes south of Phoenix, Arizona. He plays Lacrosse and loves to work out during our 30 minutes of gym time. The Language so far is stuff I already know, applied to gospel principles like praying and testifying and giving lessons. I´m kinda set myself apart as someone who knows what he´s doing so people come to me with questions (I´m the smarty pants). The Spanish keyboard is kinda hard to get used to though. I´m learning how to apply a lot of the stuff I learned in my Spanish classes to gospel topics such as praying, testifying, and teaching lessons. It´s not all that different than I expected except for the facts that I have no free time and I´m on west campus which is all Spanish speaking so everyone I talk to can speak Spanish. It really helps when learning the Language and it means that when the other Spanish speaking missionaries from back home come by I´ll see them. The good food is at the Main Campus. I learned that today because after we went to the temple we stopped by. We don´t have nearly as many choices here at West Campus, but it still tastes really good. The ¨spiritual food¨ is also super amazing. I´m running out of time so I gotta go.
Love, Elder VanderMeyden
Pictures from the First Week (he didn't tell us anything about the pictures, so use your imagination. I assume some are his companion, his district, his room, the lunchroom, the temple, etc):
