HAPPY BIRTHDAY, COLESON & WEEK NO. #1

My grandson is TWO today. Happy Birthday, Coleson!




And, in other news:

WEEK NO. 1:

Finally, a letter from Elder Burnham! He has arrived safely in Sao Paulo, although he made the trip ALONE! No other elders were on the plane, which is not supposed to happen. He is loving the CTM (MTC, but in Brazil it is the Center for Training Missionaries), is managing well with the language and thinks his companion, Elder McGruder from Texas, is awesome. He cannot believe it has only been a week--the longest of his life--but he knows that what he is doing is what he should be doing.

An excerpt from his letter:

"The classes have been great, though sometimes very long. The language has been coming pretty easy to me so far. It is [my] and Elder McGruder's goal to be able to understand everything by the time we leave. We are known as the heavy-weight tag team champions of Portuguese in our district. The spirit here is very strong all the time and you can really feel the importance of missionary work as you study and learn to teach. I have felt very scared at times about being here, which suprised me, and the week was very, very long, which didn't placate that feeling. But the feeling that this is what I need to do and the place I need to be, and truly the feeling of the spirit with you constantly continually drives me forward. . . ."

A district is a group of missionaries. Zack is in a district of eleven (11). The Elders are paired up into companionships of two elders, usually. Zack's district has one companionship of three (3) Elders.

I have waited all week for this email from him. Now I know that emails will arrive on Wednesday afternoons. I still have not learned from whom he may receive emails. So, until I know, we will simply use regular USPS mail. Another long week awaits me....