First Mission Letter

The following letter was sent home, by e-mail, on Saturday, October 24th.

Dear Mom and Dad,
I am writing you on my first P-Day. It was fun today we went out to the field and played soccer. I am having a good time in the MTC thus far. But they definitely were not ready for all of us here at the MTC in Provo. Here is the reason why. There are 11 Elders and 3 sisters in my district, 4 of us are going to the Teresina Mission, 4 of them are going to the Belou Hor-azonte mission and 6 of them are going to the Belem mission. All 4 of us that are going to the Teresina mission were all called to the Belem mission first but we all got transferred. So to go back to why they were not prepared for us on the first day the 14 of us in our district after we got our nametag and everything else like our 20 pounds of books to help us learn Portuguese. they put us in our classroom and we were supposed to have a teacher but we didn't so we all sat in that classroom for about 3 hours waiting for a teacher. The first day went by really slow and long but these past two days have gone by faster and faster. We finally got our teacher problem figured out and we have two really cool teachers. They are Brother Hardesty and Brother Pena. I am really loving the language of Portuguese and I think that I am learning it fast. My companions name is Elder Cook, he is very cool and we are getting along really well. I havent heard much of anything about my Visa but we will go in due time. I really miss everyone already but as I said the days keep going by faster and faster. Dad if you could forward this to everyone in the family or something like that. There is also a website that they told us about for you to use and it is www.dearelder.com. It is a way for you to mail me faster. I love you and I will keep you updated with as much as I can. Keep me in your prayers.
Love Elder Crittenden