In Malaga!!

I had my fingers crossed that maybe my phone would ring today, with either Preston or maybe his mission president's wife letting me know that Preston arrived and where he would be serving.  Instead, we got this email this morning.  That's okay though.  At least we heard from him.  What would I say about Preston right now?  That's a hard one for me to answer as well.  The boy is passionate.  No debating that.  :)
 

I AM HERE!!! I LOVE him so much!! President Deere is fantastic. The PERFECT mission president for me. Oh I wish I could tell you just how happy I am!! We took a bullet train to Malaga this morning. I totally felt like Harry Potter in that train station. A bunch of odd looking kids with tons of luggage walking in a single file line boarding a train to begin the adventure of their life. Wow. It was cool. On the train ride I finally fell in love with Spain. I didn't really care for Madrid all that much, but it must have been because I wasn't in my actual mission yet. The countryside in my mission is gorgeous. The most beautiful landscaping I have ever seen besides the forests of Washington and Oregon. I flipping love it. The rolling hills covered with olive trees and random castles and fortresses everywhere...it is not deserty like everyone says it is. I love Spain!! And I LOVE Malaga!! We got here and there was such a different feeling. President and Hermana Deere were waiting for us along with all the mission staff and it was so amazing. So amazing. It literally feels different here. This is where I am meant to be. Oh my gosh I cannot tell you how much I love it here!!!!!!!! We got out of the train station and walked over to a capilla a few blocks away. Everybody else left their luggage in lockers in the train station, but I wasn't allowed to because the luggage scanner picked up the sword that was in my suitcase and they wouldn't let me store my stuff. That was ok though. Another Elder had the same problem. We just carried our stuff to the capilla. Anyway. We had an orientation and President Deere began interviewing everyone. They fed us pizza and we have just been waiting around. I just got out of my interview with him. He's so wonderful. Wow I'm blessed. The APs here are really awesome too. I really like one of them. He is really Christlike. Anyway, during the interview we just talked about my MTC experience and my family and whatnot. He asked me what my mother would tell him about me if she were there right then. That was a difficult question to answer.

There are 29 of us right now. And the four Provo kids should be arriving soon. 12 of the 29 are staying in the mission office/home for tonight and tomorrow because they have to travel far away and they need to get residency stuff done soon as well as it's a national holiday tomorrow so the transportation system is closed. So they can't leave here. 17 of the 29 (which is the group I'm in) will get our companions in a few hours and be on our way to our areas tonight. And then I will come back to mission headquarters next week to do my residency stuff. Anyway. I don't have a whole lot of time but I just wanted to let you know what was going on. Saying goodbye to the wonderful people I met at the MTC was hard. But I am so happy right now. I love this work and I am SOOO excited to do it. I could just cry tears of joy. Sorry for being so awful at writing. I will try!! I love you all. This is so amazing.

I love you

Elder Sharp