First Letter!

Words can't express how excited we were to receive Andrew's first letter from the Missionary Training Center in Provo, Utah! 

Excerpts:

It's great to be here. Great to finally be a missionary. It's a little strange to look in the mirror and see myself with the name badge. The missionaries always seemed a lot more mature than I feel now.

I have two companions - Elder White and Elder Cisternas. We're a companionship of three because a missionary got sick (or injured) before he was supposed to come. They're great.... my companions and I want to be here, and so we're being obedient, we're working hard, and we're doing well. We feel like we were matched up very well.

Here's something that may come as a surprise to you, since it did to me: I've been placed in the advanced Spanish class! From the very beginning, no one spoke English in class. Most are native Spanish speakers - everyone except Elder White and I. This also means that we're only going to be here for three weeks. We don't actually study Spanish in class, we just speak it. I'm doing fine. I can understand almost everything that is said, and I can speak fine. It takes me a little longer to read in Spanish. 

My companions and I decided yesterday that we would speak only in Spanish, to be better prepared to be immersed in Spanish. Entonces, todo es en Espanol. (My companions tell me I talked in my sleep last night - but I was speaking Spanish, so it was okay. :) )

Since I'm only going to be here for three weeks, I probably won't be here for Christmas. However, my mission president also tells me that there are problems with getting visas for Argentina. So I may be going to an English mission first. I'm not sure where I'm going to be on Christmas - no one seems to know exactly when my departure date is.

We taught our first two real lessons, completely in Spanish, yesterday. Our teachers assume the characteristics and past experience of investigators that they taught on their missions. We teach them from the beginning and help them progress. We feel that we've done very well with our first two lessons con "Shirley" (we taught her again today), and did allright with our lesson with Lorenzo.

I've memorized the missionary purpose in Spanish, as well as the invitation to be baptized.

This place is great. It's hard, but feels so right. We're working hard.

I didn't have to get any more shots. :) Thanks Mom.

He reports that the food is good, and there is a lot of it .... pretty important, I imagine, when feeding an army of 19-year-old young men! But the cooks in the Stockton household were pleased to hear that he prefers the burritos and potato salad from home :)

We're so proud of Andrew. He says:

The days are long and packed with activities that demand concentration. I've never had to focus hard on something for so long before. Today is our Preparation Day, (from now on it will be Thursday, but we're new and so it's a little different,) so we get a little bit of a break. It's hard work. :)