Mission Posts from Elder Pepperdine: 1st email from the mission field

Dear Family and Friends,

Adrian left the MTC on Tuesday, May 12th. Yesterday, Monday the 18th, we received his first email from the field. Thought you might enjoy. Also he has a request at the end of the letter.

Thanks to all.

Kristi

Begin forwarded message:

Hello Mom & Dad!

It's my first e-mail from the field! P-day is Monday here. I haven't even used my bike yet, actually. I have it in the apartment, but my companion and I have a car. It's really helpful in our mission.

Also, there are three basic types of areas in my mission. The valley, the mountains, and the desert. Yeah, I got sent to the desert. Based on the car thermometer, it just barely broke 100 somewhere we were tracting this past Saturday. It's still mid-May. oh boy.

It might be a little difficult to keep up the Spanish here because of how much English we need to use too, but my companion has confidence in me. My spanish coming out of the MTC is pretty good. But I need A LOT of work in order to be able to deal with native speakers as well as my companion does. But that's what I have the next eight months for. My trainer has only been out 10 months, actually. It might be hard to catch up to him in that time. Or I might do well. Who knows. Apparently no one could understand his previous companion because all that companion worked on was the accent, so he wound up speaking really weird and not very well with the actual Spanish usage, especially. My companion's got a foreign accent in Spanish, though.

Anyways, I'm doing really great now out here. ...

My apartment's pretty crowded. The missionaries here are hoping to move soon. Six of us with all of our missionary bags and stuffs in a four-person apartment. There used to be only four missionaries in there, until they stuffed another two in. They replaced a couple beds with bunk beds so we could fit. The bunk bed I'm on sways a little as you move on it.

Aunt Donna's wedding sounds really exciting. Have fun. I guess you won't get my snail mail until after you come back from there, though. So, here's an important note, straight from the papers they handed me:

My PERMANENT mailing address while in the field will be:

Elder Adrian Pepperdine

California San Bernardino Mission

8280 Utica Ave., Suite 150

Rancho Cucamonga, CA 91730

We will forward all FIRST CLASS mail to you (me) at your (my) current TEMPORARY address if it is sent through the United States Postal Service. Package requirements to be forwarded to you (you will get it quicker) by the regular postman:

Only packages sent PRIORITY MAIL or EXPRESS MAIL through the U.S. Postal Service can be forwarded to you.

All mail from foreign countries can also be forwarded to you.

Mail and packages that can not be forwarded will be kept at the Mission office until zone conferences or someone from the mission office comes your way. Packages sent parcel post, parcel select, ups, fed-ex, salt lake distribution center, pre-sorted standard, 3rd or 4th class mail come under this category.