Zone Leaders?!?

Elder Burr and I got to go to the temple today. It was a pretty cool experience. The spirit was very strong there. It's really neat to be one of those missionaries who I used to see.

The only place I know of to email is here in the laundry room. So that's where I am. Waiting for my clothes to dry. The computers are pretty busy. And we have only thirty minutes before it kicks us off.

The first couple of days here in the MTC seemed really long. My sense of time was completely out of wack. It feels like we've already been here for a couple of weeks. Sunday, and today have been going by quite a bit faster. I'm sure that the next several weeks will go by really fast. At least that's what everyone says who's been here for more than 8 weeks.

I absolutely love the food here. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to gain weight while I'm in the MTC. I'll start weighing myself and let you know how it goes. At least we get to exercise four or five days of the week. Saturday was the first day that we had gym time. Elder Burr and I ran a mile and then went inside and lifted weights. I even did 19 pull ups in a row last night. That was probably from lifting those forty pounds in my room before I came. An Elder in our Branch could do 28, so I'm not the record holder.

Your letters and candy were amazing. I loved hearing from you. You all had good advice. All of the letters are up by my bunk. I'm on the top. We also have desks with a board we can stick stuff to. That's where your picture that you sent me is Jonathan.

Oh I almost forgot to tell you. Our branch is brand new and consists of missionaries that all came in this last Wednesday. There are two districts in our Branch. Elder Burr and myself are part of District B. Elder George is the District Leader in our District and Elder Murray is the District leader in District A. Elder Burr and I, to our surprise were made the Zone leaders. That's not supposed to happen until you've been here for four weeks. Well at least we have the Lord to strengthen us. Who he calls he qualifies.

Elder Burr and I are getting along really well. We've become really good friends already. We keep each other in line as well. We have to constantly remind each other to keep our hands out of our pockets and to not say the g word - "guys". Haha.

I miss you all very much. The Lord is constantly providing me with comfort. Dad's blessing about feeling your love whenever I am lonely has helped a lot.

I'm about out of time. I love you all very much. I'll send you a letter today as well. I apologize in advance if I repeat myself.

Love,
Elder Arnold

Letter One!

Dear Family,

We had lots of free time today. That's why you're getting a letter from me on the first day. My P-day is on Monday so that's when I'll write in the future. I'm going to be professional at writing soon. I managed to write three and a half pages in my journal already.

After I left you guys we all went and got in line to pick up all of our stuff. That included dorm key, mission companion name, and other such things. My companion's name is Elder Taylor Jace Burr. He's from Alaska, I really like him so far. We have a lot in common. He's going to the Houston Texas mission, Spanish speaking. The other two guys that we share a room with are going to the same mission as my companion. That kind of makes me the oddball out.

I saw Elder Kuchar during lunch today. He looked pretty happy. We were both glad that we ran into each other. It turns out that I also saw two other people from Provo High that came in today.

We met our branch president today. We were with him for a long time. Mostly all we did was introduce ourselves. There was 24 of us. After we finished that, two "more senior" missionaries talked to us about some more helpful information and then took us on a quick tour. It wasn't way helpful because it was too much to remember.

I just thought you'd like to know, there are hand sanitizer pumps by every single door. I thought it was pretty funny. I guess they really don't want us getting sick.

I didn't think to take any pictures today so I'll make sure to mail you some on Monday. I'll probably just send you my SD card. I'll make a copy on one of my DVDs of course.

Except for the part where I had to leave my amazing family, today was a really good day. I really look forward to hearing from you. I don't get my email setup until Monday. Hopefully I'll be able to put all that info in my next letter.

Love,
Elder Arnold

Goodbye...

Today we said our goodbyes and Ben started his best two years...

The Fantastic Four

Proud parents who prepared him well.

Last family picture for two years!

See you in two years Elder Arnold!
We love you!