Leaving for San Francisco! (Already?!?)

Hey guys!

So guess what? I'm going to San Francisco one week from TODAY! So crazy. They told me on Thursday that I was for real going to get moved up a district and that because the Oakland/San Francisco mission's next transfer was on the 21st of September, that's when I’m gonna get sent out hahah. I was like... wait what?! But I guess it's all good... I mean I AM practically a native Chinese speaker already and they only get 3 weeks in the mtc too... haha except not really! I'm learning pretty fast though and I can only assume I’ll learn faster when I get out in the field... I suppose I’ll kind of have to since I’ll be out there doing it haha.

My new district is awesome. I have 2 companions who also happen to be the zone leaders and they are great. One is Elder Buss who is from Wyoming and went to BYU Hawaii last year but he's the man since he's going to Toulouse, France and already speaks French since he did a year study abroad there as an exchange student. His Chinese is also already quite good since he took a semester at BYU-H and seems to be naturally gifted at languages. He said that he's been doing that thing that apparently president monsoon did when he was younger which was memorize a scripture every day for a year which apparently helped him to develop a photographic memory. I hadn't ever heard of this before but I started doing it a couple days ago and today memorized Jacob 2: 18-19.

Anyways, my other companion is Elder Harr who's Chinese is... well... less good. But he is still the man as well and is like 6 foot 7 and wears size 18 shoes which is absolutely ridiculous since it's double my shoe size haha. So massive.

This week has been good. The transition has been pretty easy between districts and my new district is cool. They keep telling me all the tricks of like gaming the cafeteria system. Like for instance, there's a trick to always getting a good cup of hot chocolate in the morning by opening the machine and shaking the powder keg thing at the top so that more powder falls into the other tube thing. Pretty genius. And the other day the line for taking dirty dishes and trays back was really long so we stacked everything onto the two sister missionary's trays and they walked up to the line where some of the other elders in line proceeded to take the trays from them. It was super funny too cause one of the elders who took a tray from one of our sisters just grabbed it with one arm and when one of the elders from our district offered to take it in for him, he was like "no i got this"... anyways, then he walked into the little alcove thing and we heard a glass hit the floor and shatter and were like "and THAT'S why you don't carry two heavy trays for no reason. Hahaha.

Went to the temple today for the first time since being here which was good. We just got back in fact and I have about 12 and a half minutes left on the clock haha. Anyways, it sounds like you guys are doing well in VA, despite not having a home... maybe you should just stay in the hotel for the rest of the two years! :D. That's cool that you ran into Mark Friend. How random. And I can't believe Marcus joined the Navy. I guess I could see him in the military though and that does sound like a sweet deal where they basically chuck money and degrees at you haha. Maybe I should do that... man... nah... i'll just live off of your guys' income for the rest of my life!

We got to watch a couple recorded talks from previous devotionals done here at the MTC last night. One by Elder Bednar called "becoming a missionary" and another by Elder Lund called "being guided by the spirit". They were both really really good although I think I preferred Elder Lund's cause I think it was a more interesting topic and it was a really funny talk. Also Elder Bednar just scares me since he seems super hardcore and I feel like I wouldn't be able to say anything around him without fearing rebuke or something haha.

Thanks for starting a blog for me mom! I think it might be a good idea if you could get Michelle to go on my facebook a post a link to it on there cause that'd probably be the best way for my friends to be able to see it. Also, I would send you guys more pictures but I don't think I can really attach them to my emails until I get into the field but I do have some good ones so I'll send them to you when I can. So I've gotten a couple letters since being here, one from my friend Jenna Wylie and another from Alicia Lewis which was nice. I'll probably write them back today even though I’ve never really sent or mailed a letter before ever haha so we'll see how that goes...

Anyways, sounds like the ALI is really fun to work with dad haha. It seems like you do a lot of hand holding in every job in the foreign service.

Ok I only have 5 minutes left and still need to email Joel. Things are going well. I really like the MTC and time is going pretty fast too. Have a great week mom and dad! I love you!

-Ian