First Letter Home

Once we had dropped off Missionary Madi the count down and excitement all went to when we would receive our first communication from her. It was at the center of all of our minds wondering what it was like for her to be immersed in this new world. Every conversation in our home seemed to revolve around her, and were filled with lots of wondering about how she was feeling, what she does each day, is she sad, does she wonder what in the heck she is doing, what is her schedule like, how is the food? It would be hard for any of us to walk away from life as we know it for 18 months. The strangest part is the lack of opportunity to have her contact home. We are newbies at this also and have "No Idea" what we are supposed to do either. Finally Saturday we got home from ice fishing at Bear Lake, Utah and Scott comes in and announces that we have our first letter from Missionary Madi. We were so excited. Strange in this electronic day and age that a letter could be so priceless and exciting.

First Letter Home - Written 1/30/13 (night she arrived in the MTC) straight from her MTC Bed.

As you can see from the way the letter has been addressed she has not exactly been overcome with the spirit of the lord. No great spiritual change after 9 hours in the Missionary Training Center. She let us know that as soon as they arrived it was straight down to business. Check In, Bags to her room. Off to the classroom to start to learn her language Cebuano. The teachers speak zero English and only Cebuano. She realizes she has not only a language to learn but a lot to learn about the gospel. Her companion is from Samoa. She shares her room with 4 other sisters who are all going to serve in Tacloban. There are a ton of Elders and Sisters in the MTC at this time who all attended Davis High School with Madison. She sees them everywhere. She let us know that she only asked herself twice "What the heck I'm doing here"! She is also the only 19 year old in her district. Her letter was full of her fun personality and gave us all a good laugh. Boo! Now we miss her even more. There was also a list of items she must have and soon. We will soon learn that this is a common occurrence (lists of needs/wants) in each letter we will receive.