Week 1 Preston England MTC

Hello Family,
How's things going at home? Thanks for all the letters you've sent. NOT. Day 6 here in the MTC. Things are going great. The trip over was fine once you guys left me at the airport. Thanks for not making it awkward, NOT. Right after security though I met a young member named Art from the church. He saw my badge and was asking me where I was going. It was nice to talk to him though. He got converted when he was 21 and went on a mission when he was 23. He told me what I was doing the right thing which made me feel great.

Landed in ATL and went straight to the next gate where I would be waiting to connect to Manchester. A couple other missionaries were there already. Elder Peery and Elder Alsop. Couple great guys. Elder Alsop is in my district here. But for the next few hours more and more missionaries would be coming over till there was about 15 of us or more waiting there for the plane. It was really cool. PLay ride over was really long, kinda sore and boring. Talked to the guy next to me though for quite awhile about sports, mainly football (and I mean soccer, from now on when I mention football I mean soocer. I will specify American Football). So we got here and got to meet our companies. England by the way does look exactly like the northwest. Just with less big sicites so close together and the cars are on the opposite side of the road.

The MTC here is pretty small. I didn't realize how small. Theres about 30 to 40 missionaries here and thats it. Including a district of Elders from Germany who speak only german. My companion I got on the first night is Elder Felton. He's a small chap from Lowestoft, England. He's got a good accent but I understand fine. He's really short. Maybe 5'6''. We're total opposites like that. He is very fun though and has a lot of energy. Other guys in my district are from either England the U.S. or South Africa. The guy from South Africa is really cool though. Really nice and proper. In our room though, Elder Felton and I have a german companionship that don't speak really any english. We can communicate a little bit so it's good but interesting.

So we had the weekend of getting to know what the MTC is all about this last weekend and this week. It's a lot of hard work. Mostly in classes or meetings. We wake up at 630, go to bed at 1030 and I just pass out. The food here is fine. Nothing to complain about. Had a few english dishes which were good. All the staff and presidency here are amazing though. They really bring the spirit and are dedicated to helping us learn how to teach. Which by the way starts tomorrow. We've been doing practice teaching all week and tomorrow we get to go into Manchester and do some street contacting. Sort of a baptism by fire if you will. We're are the only MTC to do that which is great. I am really excited to go out and teach though. It seems fun and exciting and it's the good work that needs to be done. Other things that we have done... We went to the temple today which was great. The MTC, stake center, distribution center, and other staffing buildings are all on the temple grounds. The grounds are amazing and beautiful and so is the Preston temple. Which is only a minute walk away. I also talked to the staff and presidency about Ryan Lemmon because he went through last summer and is in the London South and they remembered him and said that he is a wonderful missionary so pass that along to his parents.
Other things, I could use some letters I haven't gotten any mail from anyone.
 
I hope all is well. Things are going great here. Nothing to worry about. I actually don't care about TV or movies or sports anymore. They don't really cross my mind during the day at all. Hope the trip to Honduras goes well. We get to write every Wednesday jsut so you know if you want to be on during that time and email back and forth. let me know.


Love,

Your son lol,

Elder Blaine Dudgeon