Day 2- He Made It!!

I got a call from Preston yesterday as he got onto the plane in NYC to let me know he had made his flight and that all was well.  It was a quick, 5 second call and all I was able to say basically was "I love you so much."  But it made all the difference.  I'm so glad he was able to call.  All night last night I kept looking at my phone to see if he had emailed.  I knew that they have the Elders email home when they arrived at the MTC.  I didn't know if he might call again from the airport in Madrid, and I didn't want to miss it.  So I didn't really sleep and checked my phone over and over.  :)  I'll get better at this.  Anyway- at about 7:00 a.m. I checked my phone and there it was:  a very detailed, awesome letter of his first day!  He knows how much details mean to me-  He is so great!!  Here it is, and it is long!  :)

Hello my wonderful family!

 

I absolutely love it here. Honestly there is no where else I would rather be. I was born to do this!! The flight was really boring. There was a lot of turbulence but that´s not really a big deal. My rear end hurts like no other. For some reason I am incapable of sleeping on an airplane. Our flight from SLC to Atlanta was fine, and I met this guy who talked to me for a long time on the plane (us missionaries weren´t sitting together on that particular flight). The flight from Gerogia to NYC was worse because we were in the back of the plane and our seats couldn´t recline. I sat in between Elder Smith and Sister Nielsen. It is so weird to refer to people as Elder. All of us need to work on exchanging the word "dude" in our vocabulary for "Elder". Our flight to NYC was delayed, and so we had to book it to our connecting flight to Madrid. Honestly as soon as the plane landed they had us get out first so that we could make the flight. They had a rover cart thing waiting to take us to the terminal, but it took us to the wrong one. So we got off and were running around the airport trying to find our gate, but nobody would help us. Most of the airport people couldn´t even speak decent english. We were sprinting through the airport! Thank heavens I didn´t have my carry on. It wouldn´t fit in the overhead rack on the way to NYC so they checked it with my other luggage (free of charge). I could not imagine running around with that thing and my duffel bag. Apparently I have way more crap than everyone else. Because all they have is a little backpack and two large suitcases. Whatever though. They found us running in the airport and put us on a shuttle to the gate to the plane bound for Madrid. Elder Smith almost lost his passport. But I picked it up. Lucky for him. I´m so tired. Anyway. We finally made it to the plane to Madrid and we got on, sat down, and waited for two hours because they had to defrost the airplane with high powered jet stream water. It was snowing in NYC. So our flight to Madrid was delayed. It was so long. The food on the plane wasn´t actually that bad dear Father. They had SO many movies to choose from. Wow. It was hard not to watch something. But we didn´t. Elder Smith wanted to and asked if he should and I was like "Well I´m not going to...but I won´t judge you if you do. It´s a long flight". Apparently he took that as¨"you´re going to hell if you watch a movie and I will judge you for sure" cause he´s been telling people that I said that. Haha. I feel like Elder Smith doesn´t really know why he´s here. He doesn´t seem like he´s into the whole church thing as much as Elder Webb and I. Elder Webb is great, he´s just super laid back. I have been literally jumping up and down giddy with excitement the past day but nobody seems to share my enthusiasm!! Sister Nielsen didn´t even want to go on a mission, but she felt like she was supposed to. Anyway. When we landed in Madrid I was beyond ecstatic. I couldn´t wait to breath my first breath of Spanish air!!! The airport in Spain is old. It´s weird to see everything in Spanish. Lots of people smoke. We got off the plane and walked for a while through the airport and then passed customs and got our luggage. And then we exchanged our cash for euros and waited for someone to show up. And then this guy in a suit came and in broken english asked if we were elders or whatever. Which we are. Elders. So he took us and put all of our luggage in the back of his truck (I have like twice as much luggage as everyone else) and then we drove through Madrid to the Temple Square. I´ve been taking lots of pictures. Madrid is wonderful. I am SO excited. My spanish is better than everyone else´s here. Which isn´t saying a lot. But I speak a lot better than I thought I did. All of the buildings look the same here. Red brick. It´s cool. The temple is BEAUTIFUL. I love it so much. We get to go through the temple every Thursday. We get to go contacting in the park or downtown Madrid every Saturday. And our P day is Thursday and we get to go on excursions throughout Madrid. The MTC President wants us to get to know the culture. His name is President Sitterud. My group of 4 was the first one here. So I met with President first and we talked for a while. I like him a lot. I am so excited to be here. They evaluated my Spanish and then I went and showered before lunch. Get this- my first meal in Spain was sticky rice with tomato sauce on it with hot dogs and bacon on top. And then apple, orange, and this weird pudding thing. And bread of course. Super ironic. But I don´t think that´s typical for here. I looked at the menu for the rest of the month and it looks pretty good. There are supposed to be about 50 missionaries coming today and tomorrow. We were first. And then another group of 2 elders and 4 sisters came a while after us. Elder Easton and Elder Dansie. Elder Dansie is hilarious and Elder Easton is just a really good guy. He seems like the AP type. My temporary comp is Elder Smith. We will be assigned our real companions tomorrow. Everything starts tomorrow. Today we just kind of do nothing. It´s frustrating. The MTC is the top three floors of this building. It has six levels and the bottom three levels are where the temple workers live. We get an hour each day to exercise. It is going to be hard here. Really hard. But I´m ready. I cannot tell you how excited I am!! Anyway. I don´t have much time left. We only get a half hour. But I am pretty sure I will be emailing on Thursdays. Not tomorrow though. The rooms are small. I can´t unpack because I may be moved to a different room. Everything is based on spanish proficiency. I will be a senior comp apparently so when we go contacting on SATURDAY I will have to try and place books of mormon. I´m actually not that scared. But I think I will be in a few days. I have to go now. I love you all. You´re welcome for sending such a long, detailed email. I miss you already :) I love you guys. Write me please!

 

Love, Elder Sharp