Joseph Enters "The Field"

We got an email from Joseph yesterday. He's been gone six whole weeks and we're all still alive. He was only going to be at the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for 6 weeks, so we knew that this was the end of that part 1 of the mission. Last week he told us that he would be leaving the MTC on Tuesday. So we were thinking of him on Tues and were not sure how entering the field would affect his free time p-day or how much time he's have to write letters. I had my notifications on on Tuesday in case he wrote us then, nothing, but we heard from today and got some pictures, yay! I was online the same time as him, but we didn't have any back and forth with him, we just got his mass email to everyone (boo). No, it's ok. (But he better send me some journal entries next week!) I shared this picture on facebook, and come to find out that our good friends, the Dahls, know the girl in the green shirt... The sister on the left is their niece! We knew she was down there, I'm guessing that she's training the sister in the maroon dress, so they met! Small world!

I don't think Joseph knew that relation or that is why they took or shared that picture with us, but still, it was fun to find out. Here's a picture of the new missionaries and some of the trainers

Joseph's trainer is Elder Aquino, he is from Peru. He is trying to learn English, so they are going to speak English in the apartment and Spanish when they are out working.

We also received an email from his mission president, Pres. Shumway with more pictures, yahoo.

That would be so fun to be mission presidents! I'm assuming this picture below is all the new missionaries.

And I don't know who the Elder on the right is in the pic below (President assistant maybe?), but the Elder on the left here is Elder Aquino again. Elder Aquino looks like a great missionary, I'm so glad Joseph has him as his trainer!

 

Joseph is super excited to get to work with him. They are going to a new area,  Lo De Coy, where previously there were sisters. So one fun fact about that that Joseph mentioned is that one of his MTC teachers, Hermano Herrera, lives in the Lo De Coy ward and works with the missionaries. Hno Herrera thought it would be fun if Joseph came to his ward, but the chances weren't good - Joseph was the only one from his MTC District going to the Guatemala South Mission anyway, plus there were sisters in the Lo De Coy ward. Well, Hermano Herrera mentioned it to the sister missionaries in his area, just so happened the sisters were transferred out and Elders were moved in. They met each other in passing and the sisters recognized Joseph's last name - Elder Wride - from Hermano Herrera's comments about a missionary in his MTC district, and couldn't believe Joseph was going to that area! So that's the first miracle of his mission. :) So they will both be getting to know the ward, members, and area together. You can read his full letter on his mission blog. Things are good, he looks so happy and he's always in our prayers.

Life marches on here on the home front. The high school kids went to school registration this morning. Seems like we were just here - they can't believe how quickly it feels like the year went by. I just nod my head and say "Yup, it's just gonna keep picking up speed from here!" Each year seems to go faster. I'm hoping the busy fall season will help the third trimester go by quickly - school, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, then baby! Yay!