First Letter Highlights

Alright! We have received our first OFFICIAL basic letter. I will give the highlights as the mushy gushy stuff is just for me! :)

06/05/2015
Sorry! Today has been the first day I have even had a chance to write. The whole ship day was a lot like moves day on my mission to be honest, just more intense obviously. So we have our permanent drill sergeants now, we have two of them. I like them both and I think I will like basic. Some things are tough. I messed up after saying I knew how to do something really bad and so I felt pretty stupid, but it's pushing me harder to do better and pay closer attention to detail so that I can be ready next time and do well. I'm sorry about the phone call. I know it was rough. Hopefully we can get a phone call soon though. Tomorrow is my first PT test. We are only doing the 1 mile and one minute push ups and sit ups to assess us what we need to improve. It was so good to hear your voice and Audrey's too, but it made it hard too. That day already I had been a little homesick for the first time.

06/07/2015
Hello! I am at church and it feels like a load just lifted off my shoulders. Something familiar feels nice. I miss you guys a lot. It is a lot harder on weekends because we aren't nearly as busy as the weekdays so I think of home a lot more. I am doing good. Tomorrow we start week 1. This week had been week 0 and now all the real stuff starts. We have been issued pretty much all of our equipment except for our gun. Our drill sergeant said we won't get our phone until we get out of red phase which is three weeks long. We got to do a team building exercise on Friday where we had to do obstacles together as a team and get across a bridge that had been blown up with just wood planks and rope. Or we did one with a zip line and we had to get our whole team across the water and get a casualty across as well.

It's the end of the day now. It has been a very easy day. Church was great. I found the only other member in my whole battery which is four platoons that each have about 47 or 48 people each. So in total we have around 150 people and each platoon has 2-3 drill sergeants around them all the time. But anyway back to church, I brought a guy with me today because he wanted a quiet church to meditate in and heard our church was quiet. HAHAH. Then later today I found a guy who almost got baptized when he was 16 and his mom wouldn't let him but he said he really liked it and he said he would come with me next week. I think I will give him a Book of Mormon. One of the counselors in the branch did an interview with me for like 15 minutes and he used to be a drill sergeant here. He gave me really good advice. He was telling me that you need to remember to not let the Army take over your life and become more important than the things that are important in life. Family, priesthood, the temple, and education. He let the Army become more important than his family. But he kept encouraging me to chase our dreams and do what we want in life and to make sure that our kids keep those things in mind and make them a priority in life. HAHAHHA he said I need to enjoy the primary and don't worry about other callings because one day I will be bishop and will miss the primary. I was only able to give you my address. So if other people want it you will have to let them know. How is your family doing? Have you seen them much? How is baby Winda? She will be so big when I come home! I have been here for 2 weeks, it feels like two months hahaha. I hope that you and Audrey like living one base with me. It's going to be a much different lifestyle. I didn't get a shower last night because I was working on an assignment and ran out of time and I was soaked in sweat, my uniform was still wet this morning and I just took one it feels so much better. HAHAHA I don't think I have ever sweat this much in my life except maybe Florida. It's been upper 80's and into the 90's with humidity everyday and the people from here say it gets up to 110 a lot of days during the summer.I feel like I have already lost another five pounds even though I eat a lot everyday, I'm eating a lot more here than I have been the last four months. They have this system for food where everything is in a different group - green, yellow, and red. Green is the best food for you, I usually only get stuff in there and I like most of it more anyway. But they have angel food cake and this parfait to put on top that is so good! I try not to get it very often but it is amaze so I have had it the last three meals.