FIRST LETTER!!

We got his first letter on Saturday.  All is now well in the world, never fear.

Dear Mom,
So I learned that my P-Days will be Thursdays so you can expect me to write emails to you every Thursday!  The elders here are awesome. We all became friends super fast! It's only my second day here and I already have a million stories to say, but I will save them for my emails becasue I have hardly any time to write today.

They have us on such a busy schedule!  I am constantly doing something. I have started waking up an hour early so I have enough time to do everything I want to do in the morning without having to worry about having to wait on the other elders in my branch.  I just got my first companion today too. His name is Elder Walker, he's from Orem Utah. At first he was a pretty quiet guy, but when it wast the two of us we talked a lot and became friends pretty fast.  I am a little jealous that he got a companion (me) on his first day thought. My first day here I was alone a lot.  And that was pretty hard, but I made friends with a bunch of international missionaries and they were awesome. I'll tell you all about them in my email. 

I am already speaking spanish too! Here they pretty much throw us into the fire when it comes to language, my teachers are not allowed to speak any English, so it's a really good thing that spanish was easy for me, but I definitely contribute my success to far to the Lord.  My teacher has asked me to help out the other students, because I am allowed to speak (some) English. I am so excited to get to go to class and keep learning Spanish. I know I've only met them today but the missionaries in my district are already my friends!

OK, so it's ridiculous how many sister missionaries are here!  The MTC president was telling me that more than half the mission applications are by sisters.  And I totally believe it! Right now it looks like a little less than half of us here are sisters, but there are more coming every week. Since I got tot he MTC a day early I beat the new missionary rush.  The building was full before but then today we had more than 600 new missionaries. Apparently next we are going to get almost 1,000 more! I also learned that there are currently about 60,000 missionaries in the field. And I think that the MTC president told me that it's expected to have nearly 250,000 by the end of the year.  It is crazy how fast missionary work is going. Hey I would really love it if you mailed me a good picture of our whole family.  I am trying to make the MTC my new home for the next month and a half, but it would be really nice if I could have part of my home with me here.  And stamps.  I have money to spend every week, but it would be really nice if I didn't have to worry about needing more stamps.  I'm having a great time up here! At first I didn't think I was ready, but now I know that I will be able to do everything that I need to do. Keep me posted with how everything in the family is going.  I love you Mom, and please tell the family I love them all too. I'll email you on Thursday,
Lots of Love,
Elder Hamilton Crockett