David is in Peru today! He called us from the airport in Atlanta last night at 6:30 pm. David had some problems using his phone card and somehow lost most of his pre-paid phone minutes with mishaps trying to reach us. Anyway, we resolved it by purchasing more minutes during an intermission and did not really miss anything. (Thank you AT&T.) David had some interesting observations and comments. I though I would pass some of them along, as they represent an interesting change in perspective - and I love his sense of humor.
Missionary Mail: "Mail is like gold for missionaries. I never realized it before, but I cherish every letter so much. Now I feel like a complete jerk for not writing my missionary friends more." (Yes, he complained about not hearing from you, Cody!) As for the "letter competition" in his district, David said that he came in second place "by one." He said that Elder Higley from Idaho had an unfair advantage because: 1) he had a girlfriend that was writing him everyday; and 2) he had a birthday while in the MTC. Anyway, David was grateful to have done so well. He said: "I got six letters in the mail today and read them over and over as we rode on the bus to the airport. They are so sweet."
"Care" Packages: David raved about packages of food and things he received from home, Brad & Whitney, Bro. Crampton and others. He said he and his group had a huge going away party and devoured the food. David also thanked Whitney for the fake mustaches, and said that his mustache was the best. (What did you send Whitney?)
Gaining Weight: David said that he tried so hard to put on weight and duplicate his brother’s feat of gaining 20 pounds before his departure, but to no avail.
Spanish Language: After three weeks of intensive training in Spanish, I wanted to test David’s speaking skills and asked for a little sample. His response: "Uh, yeah, not yet. We’ll see." (He never did it for us.)
Maralea: How is the language coming?
David: We’ll see in about four hours.
As David spoke to us from a phone at his gate, he made the following comments that just cracked me up.
"Our flight to Peru is huge! Hey, they’re giving instructions over the intercom in Spanish - and I’m not picking up most of it. That can’t be good." (So funny! That makes me laugh out loud just writing it. Classic David.)
"Well, it looks like we’re starting to board, but I’m not sure. I can’t understand them because they’re talking in Spanish!" (Uh, I don’t think we have to wait another four hours to see how the Spanish is coming. Ha!)
We said our goodbyes, good lucks, take cares (or take luck, a family favorite), and David was off to Peru. He will serve in the Peru Mission Training Center in Lima, Peru for five weeks before flying north to the Peru Piura Mission. David is anxiously awaiting his new adventure, knows he will have to struggle for a few months with the language, but is confident it will come. It will be so fun to speak with him again at Christmas, to see how his Spanish has improved and feel of all his growth. Anyway, enough from me, David’s most recent written letters home follow. (Hopefully, we will hear from him soon via email from Peru.) (Note to Jordan: Read carefully David’s words to you - and just accept them. Mom and Dad are really smart!)
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