Peru here I come!

February 28, 2012

Well holy cow!!!!! I went to the travel office today to see if everything was in order and guess what_ (The question mark symbol doesn´t work on this keyboard so this _ will resemble a question mark for the rest of this email... okay_) They said that everything looks good to go with my visa!!!!! Can you believe it_ I only had ONE month to get it processed!!!! The Lord is really blessing me!!!! Another thing that is interesting was I went to a ¨Departure Devotional¨ and they call out all of the different countries and states that the missionaries are going to and we stand up if we are going there. President Brown called on Ecuador and I stood up proudly and looked around and I was the LONE RANGER for Ecuador!!!!! There were probably two hundred-three hundred people in that room and I was the ONLY ONE going to Ecuador!!!! Why am I the only one_ There were a whole bunch of elders going to Mexico but they all had to get temporarily reassigned because Mexico isn´t processing their visas.... that is depressing there were probably 50 kids leaving for Mexico this week.

Well what else.... I am breaking the rules and e-mailing you right now.... They don´t give you a P-day if you leave on your P-day soooooo I should actually be doing some language study before dinner.... I keep thinking some Nazi teacher is going to come in and see all of us girls on our emails instead of our language study program and kick us off!!!! So if this email is unfinished it isn´t because I accidentally pushed the send button.

I am leaving the MTC at 5 in the morning and our flight departs at eight-thirty-one (The semicolon button also doesn´t work on this keyboard and that is why I am writing out my flight times..... Gahhhhhh!!!!!) I get to Atlanta, GA at two-seventeen so I was going to call you then because our plane doesn´t leave until five-ten. Sooo be expecting a call between 2 and 5 Atlanta Georgia time!!! Please answer your cell phones!!! I got a calling card so I am going to use that instead of my debit card and hopefully I can figure out how to work a payphone. I think the last time I used a payphone was when I was at EFY and didn´t have a cell phone!!!

Well when I was packing my bags that was probably the first time I have felt homesick before.... Your letters ALWAYS make me tear up because I miss you, but putting things in my suit cases (very gent-alyyyyy, because I have too much crap!!!!) really freaked me out. I am leaving the country....... I am really leaving the country...... I am really really leaving the country!!!!!! I started to cry a little bit, and cried especially hard when I weighed one of my bags and it is 55 pounds!!!!! But things got better when we got down to study in our classroom the Elders in our district offered to give us blessings. It was a really neat experience for all of us. Many of the Elders have not given any blessings before so they kept taking out their white handbooks and making sure that they were doing things right. It was pretty funny actually.

I can´t wait to talk to you all and thank you so much for all of the letters and emails!!! I promise I read them all! I wish I could respond to them all sooner I am trying!!! Well I love you all sooooo much!!!!!

Love Hermana Welch number one!!! (The number sign also doesn´t work on this keyboard!!! Curse this place!!!)