First Letter - April 5, 2008

Hello Family!!! WOW!!!!! It has been a long few days. I am so tired. I'm still trying to get over the jet lag that i have. The plane ride from New York to England was pretty good. I slept most of the way but i was still extremely tired after. They picked us up from the airport and brought us straight to the MTC. They took our bags up to our rooms while we went and ate lunch. We got to the MTC at about 12:30 or 1 becuase our flight had a long layover in New York. One of planes like crashed or something and so it took us a while to leave. As soon as lunch was over though they took us into a little orientation meeting and gave us some more name tags and some letters for us to write. Then we had an interview with President Sorensen so he could get to know us a little better. It was a great interview. We just sat and talked for a little and just got to know eachother a little better. He is a great man and i love him. After that we went and met our companions and saw our rooms and unpacked a little bit. My companion is Elder Hartwig. He is from Germany and has a little problem with english but it is a lot better than i thought it would be. He is a great guy and i love him as well. I'm rooming with him as well as Elder Nimer from St. George and Elder Brandenburg from the Netherlands. I have enjoyed getting to know them a little better. The food here is better than i thought it would be. My first meal was horrible but it's gotten better since then. I think we have had chicken almost every meal and so i'm getting a little sick of it and want something else. My room is not very big. It is just like a dorm room at the college and my closet is probably about the size of the scrapbook closet upstairs and there were only about 5 hangers in the whole thing so i had to put about 2 shirts on one hanger. I love it here though. The spirit is SO SO strong. I wish all of you could be here to feel it.

Today we woke up at 6 30 and showered and then had breakfast and then had personal study until about 8 30. We then went into a class taught by President Sorensen on our purpose as missionaries. He gave us 5 minutes to memorize our purpose on the first page of Preach My Gospel. I memorized it but my companion had a little trouble understanding some of the words in it and so i had to help him a little. After that we had another class taught by Bro. Pendenton. I think that's his name. He is from England and he served his mission in Scotland and knows Zach Hewlett. He taught us a little more about Preach My Gospel and how to use it. He showed us some of the Preach My Gospel DVD'S which show missionaries planning and carrying out their plans during the day. It is a great DVD and it helped a lot. After that we had a class taught by Bro. McMorn who is also from England and served his mission in London and served with Darren O'Brien. He taught us about Lesson 1 in Preach My Gospel and taught us a little more of how we can teach it as missionaries. He asked us some questions and i knew the answers because they were things that i was taught in mission prep.

After that we watched conference and it was a totally different experience watching it here then at home. The spirit was so strong and when we all sustained President Monson it was just one of the best feelings i have ever had in my life. We watched it live and it started at 5 o'clock England time. So figure that and the time difference is about 7 hours. We are watching the priesthood session in the morning at about 10 and then the Saturday Afternoon session at about 1 and then the Sunday Morning session live again at 5.

I cant tell you how much i love it here. I miss you guys but i know that i am supposed to be here on this mission. The MTC is an awesome experience so far and maybe that's because we haven't had any real hard classes yet but i love it. There are about 16 elders here and 4 sisters. President and Sister Sorensen are great people and they love what they do. This is their 4th mission.

I hope all of you are doing well. Mom don't worry i'm safe. Dad i took a picture next to Art and Ruby's (Carol) picture just like you told me to. You guys are the best family in the world and i love all of you very much. I do miss you guys but i love being here and i wouldn't want to be anywhere else right now. Thank you for all your letters for the plane. They helped me a lot. Thanks for all the prayers and support that you guys give me. I couldn't ask for a better family. I love each and everyone of you very much and i hope to hear from you soon. My P-Day is on tuesday so hopefully i can email again then. So email me before tuesday. The church is true and i love this gospel. I love and miss all you guys. Stay strong!! You guys are the best. I LOVE YOU!!!!!

Love Elder Rudd