"i'm still alive. thank heavens"

we got our first email! here's a clip from it:

My companion is Elder Dekker from Aniheim (sp). He is a lurp. He is also a dibetic so that always makes things interesting. Two other elders are in our room, Elder Atack who is from Oregon and Elder Keller from Cedar City. Everyone else in the room left a girl behind. It has been interesting to watch how they all handle that and how some have done better than others. Two other companionships in our district are going to Fort Worth. Others are going to Chile, Guatemala, and Nicaragua. The other elders in our district have been late to things so far and don't sit by us at lunch. I think that there is only one or two of them who are leading them astray. However this makes me very sad because they know what they should be doing and some don't stand up for themselves. The spanish is coming along. It is amazing how I still remember some of the things that I have learned. The second day was super long, probably because all we do is sit and on Thursday I thought a lot about you guys and what you were doing. Thankfully they already have us teaching an imaginary investigator. That has helped cheer me up and focus as well. The downside to being here is that all we do is sit, all day long. We finally got gym for the first time on Friday and I took advange by doing some cardio work. Little did I realize that I would hurt so much today. The food is ok, not as good as moms. They do have a make your own wrap line that I do like a lot. We eat luch at 11:30 and dinner at 4:30 so needless to say by bedtiume I am hungry. They serve milk and chocolate milk at everymeal and I think that if I want to stay slim I will need to lay off those here soon. The power was out this morning and for lunch so the foood has been sub-par lately. It is amazing to compare how productive I am here to what I was getting done at home. The first night I hardly slept, I have been sleeping well since then. And daylight savings should help that out as well. I have seen a few people here that I know: Keyan Norman, Tyler Loong, Nate Prusse, and others who you don't know. I love this gospel and get so much joy in sharing it in my broken spanish. There is no place that I would rather be.