I apologize you haven't heard from me sooner dear family but it's officially p-day and they are pretty strict on the rules here. I found this out very early on when the mtc president came barging into our room at 10:32 telling us to turn off the lights and they we need to be better missionaries. Lights out was supposed to be at 10:30. Regardless, I will begin from when i left you.
The first elder i ran into in line at security in slc was elder burgoyne from taylorsville, who's only been on a plane once when he was nine. He must have been a little shell shocked because all he could say for the first hour or so was, "this is so crazy. this is crazy". We eventually were met up by three three other elders at the gate. manning, dudley (originally from London), and starr. We flew to JFK where we picked up two more elders. Mannwaring from Newport Beach (originally from Utah) and Mlynar from Detroit. We then ate some Burger King for like ten bucks a meal at the airport and waited for our flight for about three hours. I called home from a payphone, but as expected, no one answered. The flight to Manchester was pretty rough but I did have my own video screen with digital radio and games. I played round about a thousand games of solitaire and jammed the black keys. When we arrived in England it was everything you expect. It was cold and it was raining, and hasn't stopped for six days. We were picked up by brother mount, who looks like a professor straight out of harry potter, after going through customs, adjusting to everyones accents. The agent at the desk said cheers to me. We walked out to the mission van and loaded in. It was great to drive through and look at all the scenery, we were able to see the manchester city center from the motorway and some countryside in between manchester and preston. The mtc sits on a large complex that includes the temple, the distribution center, a stake center, temple patron housing, the temple presidents housing and the mtc. The grounds are beautifully landscaped with a giant fish pond, flowers and hedges. the whole place looks like alice in wonderland. We were welcomed by the mtc presidency and ushered through a variety of interviews, orientations, and other routine matters. Missionaries from all over the world started to trickle in from all over the world until, finally, there were twenty some of us. 7 americans, 14 brits and some australians, danish, swiss, philippino, german and taiwanese.
My companinon is Elder Youles from London. He's short, buff, buzzed head, and a flat nose. He looks like some sort of british henchman from a movie. He by far has the thickest accent and I always have to make him repeat everything he says. He's very reverent about spiritual things, a funny guy and a great companion. He's also kind of shady though. He has a ton of fake rolex watches that he's been trying to sell since he got here. He's been teaching me lots of things though. Like how to put on a duvee cover, and how to talk like you're english. drop your h's, th's are f's, and er's are uh's. With this many brits around it's hard adjusting to being the foreigner. Every meal there is some sort of weird english dish that is just awful, they're "fizzy drinks" are totally different, they're cereal is off, and every single one of them is good at football. I also learned that they love listening to an american accent just as much as we love listening to a british one.
The classroom instruction is very helpful. It's very directed and focused on what we need to be taught. we do a lot of role play and things and we are going out this friday to the manchester city center to have a crack at being a missionary. I'm glad i've gotten over the fear of talking to people but the context is completely different and it's still a little terrifying.
I have to run because i'm only allowed thirty minutes but I love you all and I hope to hear from you soon. Write me letters if you will.
Love,
Trace
