October 21, 2013 Email

Dear Mom, Dad, and Jonathan,

I did get the package that you sent and I also sent you a letter which should get to you soon, I sent it on Saturday. This weekend I would have to say was a very interesting and spiritual experience. Saturday morning we went to the funeral of Elder Andrew Page. Our stake missionaries where there, plus 2 other stakes, making it almost 100 missionary's! I figured ya'll heard about that since you said be careful while riding my bike. Elder Zwick from the First Quorum of the 70 was there, and the talk he gave was incredible! He got up there with no notes and nothing prepared. He just had his iPad and scriptures with him as a library to refer to when he felt a prompting. During his talk he proclaimed Elder Page to be a man of God and twice mentioned that Elder Page and his dad, who also died, where in the chapel with us. We then went to the grave site and all us missionaries sang "Called to Serve". 

Later that night we went to the adult session of stake conference and Elder Call and I where greeting people as they entered the chapel and I got to Shake Elder Zwick's hand! Unfortunately, I did not realize it was him until he had past by. I then also felt bad because Elder call mentioned how he could just feel his spirit when he shook his hand, because I didn't recall feeling anything. 

He gave a talk that night and another one at the second session of conference. After it was over, me and Elder Call where helping set up a small lunch for Elder Zwick and a few other local leaders before their meetings, and as we walked out of the High Counsel room I saw him walking toward us and this time I felt the spirit unlike anything I've ever felt before. He came up to me with a smile and shook my hand and my companions hand and put his hand on my shoulder and had a brief conversation with us, and that made my day. 

A little later, me and my companion where still there, along with few other missionaries, when a woman walked up and says that Elder Zwick was wondering if we wanted to join all of them for lunch. We quickly replied yes and headed down there. They where waiting for us to show up before they started eating. After everyone got their food we sat at the table and I found myself across the table from Elder Zwick. We where all pretty quite, being in the same room as a General Authority, but he was so friendly and immediately started talking with us, and he started talking with me. As I sat down he asked me where I was from and then we started talking about the Temple. He told me the dates that they are going to have the events for it, such as the dedication, and when the sessions will start. He then showed me pictures on his phone from when they put the Angel Moroni on it, which I told him I was present for. He also showed me the mission home they picked for the Gilbert mission, which has a view of the Temple from the backyard. Towards the end, I told him about the thing you said at my farewell in your talk. About your wife being your translator for the spirit, he said that was good counsel so way to go Dad!

This morning he spoke to the whole mission, and at the beginning we recited D&C 121 like we always do at the start of a meeting, and he was so impressed with it and the spirit he felt from it, that he was going to recount it to a couple of the Twelve Apostles. I can't remember which ones, but I believe Elder Ballard was going to be one of them. One thing he mentioned a lot, and what I have been hearing a lot by others, is the historical significance of this time. Which is said to rank with the first vision and the restoration. He said he was very impressed with this mission, and said that we astounded him, and that we where some of the best in the field.

It was just such a good moment, but I have to tell you that the work the brethren do is incredible! They all can be nothing short of real Men of God. The spirit I felt while being across the table from him during that lunch, was more then enough, to wipe away any doubts of the church, I just wish ya'll could have felt it to. I love ya'll so much!

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

October 17, 2013 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

          Mom, I have something to tell you about second Nephi, I understood nothing from that either. I did not highlight a single thing either, I just read it and got the first part done. Most of second Nephi is from the prophet Isaiah and was copied in there by Nephi. But later after he is done copying it he acknowledges the fact that it is hard to understands and then he explains it in a much simpler fashion. Another interesting thing about that book is that I believe that at the beginning it says that only those with the spirit of prophecy can understand what it all means. A return missionary told us about when he discovered that, because he had the same problem, he then prayed and asked The Lord for the spirit of prophecy and he said that the book had a whole new meaning for him, so I thought that I would share that story with you. But don't worry about not getting much from it, not very many people do from what I have seen to be perfectly honest. 

Things are going great here. I wrote ya'll a letter and in the letter I said I would mail it today, unfortunately I forgot to put it in an envelope so it will be in the mail tomorrow. So when the letter says it was sent on Monday it lies. 

I am so glad to hear that Ian is doing so well with the Honda, but it doesn't sound like that the clutch will have much left to it here soon. Interesting fact manuals are called straight drives here in NC. 

We got 2 new investigators this week, they are a couple. The husband is an interesting fellow, he says he has been working on cars his whole life. They have this Oldsmobile that needs a new water pump. He has the pump but he refuses to work on it because it is a transverse engine, I believe that is the proper term. But he evidently had no idea what it was technically called, because he kept calling it a side winder. 

The less active member we found a while back, the one that was less active for about 10 years, his name is Dennis. He has been going through some rough times so we have been seeing him again and we also gave him a blessing last night. But we always seem to go over there when he needs it the most, and he said his spirit is always lifted up when we go by. He is a guy you can have an intelligent conversation with on engines! He was telling us about an old 50's Pontiac he had back in the day, that had the old straight 8 flat heads. Also he had some relatives that lived in Mesa. I don't know whether you have heard of this, but one of his relatives died early on because he would repair leaks inside of full tanks like the big propane ones, and some fumes where still in there and the tank blew up and killed him. This was way back in the day so I don't know if you are Grandpa ever saw that in the newspaper. 

If ya'll stay home for Christmas, that could be a good thing, because Matt might be home during that time, and if every thing works out then he could be there when we skype. Well I hope every thing is going good in the ward, and I also hope that ya'll and the ward are actively helping in the quickening of the work. 

Dad if you ever get some time read the Preach my gospel book, there should be a bunch in my room, that is not just for missionary's. Read through some of that and see what ya'll could do and what the ward can to to help the missionary's in the ward. One thing I have learned, is that the most effective way for us to do our work, is if the ward finds the people and then has us teach them. That is in the book and I believe it was President Hinckley that said that. Just so you know, it is not coming from a lazy missionary. Can't wait to here from ya'll soon and I will do my best to write more often.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

October 7th 2013 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

          Thank you for the emails and the pictures! Mom, hopefully I  got the prayer in before you took your test. I said it around 11:30 your time. It is kind of weird being 3 hours ahead. There is a world clock on the iPad, it shows where it is day and where it is night, and when I am just about ready to go to bed and I see that the sun is still up over there, I feel a little funny about that and I have no idea why. 

Mom I read your email first so when I saw that my car was sold I was very depressed for about 5 seconds. That was when I saw the next sentence which did make me feel much better. Let me know how Ian likes the car. I also hope you got the oil changed on it because it needed that since before I left. 

It is interesting to think that I am now 2 months out. 2 months since I have seen any of you or Arizona, only 22 months to go. I think it was my first week here my companion pointed to the sky and asked me how far away the plane was. I said probably around 30,000 ft. He the replied "No, 23 months". From what I have heard it takes about 4 to 6 months before the home sickness goes away and before you start to really get into it, after that the time fly's by. But I have been doing well out here so far, there are no desires to go home until the work is done.

One thing I found out, is that there are a few people in the ward that are from Mesa! I think it was last week, we were at a members house, and I found out that the whole family lived off of Stapley and the 60. When they found out I was from Gilbert we spent most of the time talking about the valley. A couple of people here graduated from Mesa High in 93 as well. It was nice to talk to people that knew the same streets I know. I have noticed that the one problem we all face going from Arizona to NC, is the fact that it is hard to find a GOOD Mexican food restaurant.

One last funny story is that the bishops son whose name is also Matthew served in Tuscon! Anyway, in regards to the work we found 2 potentials and one of our investigators came to 2 sessions of General Conference. He seemed to enjoy it and could even tell us in detail his favorite talk and why. I also got the chance to run the area for a day when my companion went to an 8 hour meeting. Everything went fine, only a few people went inactive and stopped seeing us because of it (haha). But everything is going well and I hope to hear from ya'll soon.

Love,

Elder Matthew Pena

September 30, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

          I do have some good news! I'm not being transferred this time around. And also my companion was made district leader. They are dividing the current district almost in half. Right now the district is Albemaral, Kannapolis, and Concord. After the 1st our district will be just Kannapolis and Concord.

I do apologize that I have not been able to send a letter back home. I have been pretty busy and by the time the day is over I am pretty tired. There where a few interesting things that happened last week that I was not able to recap like I wanted to. One of those things I actually is, I got cursed at! It was not as bad as I thought it would be. The guy I could tell was trying to be nice, but he was not doing a very good job. We were seeing less-actives, and we stopped by his house. He had a garage where he builds racing chassis, he also had some nice cars out on his lawn. I was hoping to talk to him about it but that idea quickly went out the window when he said he wanted nothing more to do with the church and told us to get out of his garage.

The next guy we saw was just a weird situation. We met a member, that had no idea that he was a member! He was very nice and said he would be open to hearing the discussions. We are in the process of finding out how his name is on the ward directory, because as far as he know's, he was never baptized. He did say that his mother is a member, so we are talking to the ward clerk about that. 

We have one really good investigator now. He has been to church twice and last night he came over for dinner at the Mitchel's with us. He did have some word of wisdom issues, but he is doing very well with all of it. After the first time we taught him he said he took all his alcohol and dumped it down the drain and this was before we asked him to. Then we challenged him to give up coffee and tea. We went over 2 days later and the thing of coffee he had was gone. We are now on the stop smoking program, which is said to get people to stop smoking, in a week. So far it has been at least 2 days. We will check back in today and hopefully it will be 3, but I'm sure it will be. 

One last thing, ya'll remember the story I told you in my last email. Before we left the Mitchel we got down in prayer and asked Heavenly Father what our work was for that night. The first family we saw, the one that I recounted in the last email, was one name that came up. The second family we saw was another name that was given to us by the spirit of God. We went over there and did not give them a lesson but just sang them We Thank the God for a Prophet and then we left. Yesterday at church the father of that family came up to brother Mitchel and asked him why we came over that night. He told him how we had prayed asking what our work was for the night. The father started to cry and said that, that was exactly what they needed at the time and that, that was an answer to his prayers. 

Anyways, I cant wait to see some of the pictures from the race, and I want to know how you are automating the master caster. Also, I do not recall you thinking of any kind of target system before I left so I am very curious on  what that is all about. Also I have found a scripture that has helped me answer a few questions I have had. It can be found in D and C 130 if ya'll want to read it. There was also a good ensign article I read that you might like. It is in the 1980 September issue called Gospel and Science or something like that. I believe it was the last article in that issue. I love ya'll and cant wait to hear from you.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

September 16, 2013

Sorry that these are out of order. I had to take out a few things that Matthew asked me not to post on the blog, so that is why it's real short. I wanted to post what I could.

Dear Mom and Dad,

          Every thing is going great over here. I did get the letter that was sent a few days ago and I did very much appreciate it. I sent a letter on Friday so it should be there soon. I really don't have all that much to say about this week, but as soon as I start walking out of the library I will remember something. We use computers at the library and I was looking and I can't send pictures from here because there is no USB port that I can put my card reader into, (big waste of money that reader was). Anyway I'm going to take a few more pictures and send the SD card in the mail. A few of the other Elders I know have done that. You can also send me an SD card with some pictures on it from back home and of some of the races, please no videos though thanks.

I went on my first transfer on Friday. That is where the district leader comes over to our area for 24 hours to see how things are going basically, and I go over to his area for that time. I was in a place called Albamarl, or as my companion calls it Albahole, because it is this great big place with nothing in it. It was a very fun experience and I got to be with a couple of different Elders that where really fun to work with. Yes, there where 3 in that companionship. Please don't put this in the blog. (Content deleted) Okay, we are good now. Two people this past week thought I was a seasoned missionary and where surprised to find that I have only been in less then a month, so that made me feel good.

I know that as soon as I leave I will think of 5 things I wanted to say but I can't think of them right now. One last thing something that might be good to show Jonathan is Mormon.org, Go through some of the profiles and videos that people have of themselves, you know those I'm a Mormon videos, that would be good for him. 

Also, Dad look up Vai Sikahema in your high school year books from Mesa High, he was a football player and track star there, He later played for BYU and is a news sport caster in New York I believe. He came and gave a talk to us the last Sunday I was in the MTC. Anyway I will talk to you all later and look forward to your letters.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

P.S. Remind me I need to write about all the interesting people in this ward, some of them have done some pretty neat things. Also, one of them almost tricked me into eating a slug.

September 23, 2013

Dear Mom and Dad,

          I do have some good news. I will be able to save you at least $15 every month and I will tell you how. Another missionary that lived in the apartment before me left a hair cutting kit behind, like the one we used to have. Now I know that this would be the cause of some concern to you, me cutting my own hair. That is why I decided not to tell you about it until after I used it. I cut my own hair this morning and it came out pretty good actually. Messed up in some spots but you can only see it if you pay close attention and even then its not a big deal.

Some bad news, some of our investigators it seems probably won't be keeping their baptismal dates unfortunately, but we had a great experience last night. We went over to a members house for dinner, The Mitchel's. Brother Mitchel is a very smart guy and him and Elder Call get into deep gospel discussions all the time and Brother Mitchel will quote talks given from the 70's if he has to, he is basically a scholar. Anyway we had a revelatory experience when choosing which members to see that night which I will explain in a letter later this week. The first place we stopped at was a family that we caught at just the wrong time. But they gladly had us in for a lesson. During the lesson Brother Mitchel had a scripture he wanted to share but he wanted me and Elder Call to find our own that we thought would be good for them and he said he wanted to see if we could get the scripture he had. Elder call had one already in his head, which was not the one Brother Mitchel had, and started talking about it, while I had no idea what to bring up. I drew a total blank. I pulled out the Book of Mormon and thumbed through it but it didn't feel right to me. I then pulled out the New Testament, now I love to quote Matthew so I figured I would go to Mark and change it a bit. Opened to Mark didn't feel right. Then went to John, still didn't feel right. Then I said fine and went to Matthew.I was reading the chapter summaries when one thing stuck out to me in the summery. It was chapter 11 and I found the 3 verses that would fit perfectly for the family, Verses 28-30. After Elder Call finished Brother Mitchel then asked me to share. I said what it was and then Brother Mitchel stopped me and said that the scripture I found was inspired because that was the exact same scripture that he had and that he wanted to see if we would follow the promptings of the spirit and find it.So I thought I would share that story with you.

Everything is great here. One last thing, go to www.chasewinfieldsculptor.com. This is a gentlemen in our ward that we are pretty good friends with, we just got back from lunch with him actually. He is pretty well known as a sculpture and did a horse trophy for the guy from dirty dancing, Patrick something. He also did a bronze bust of Richard Petty that is in the Richard Petty Museum. Look at his work and you will see how amazing it is. If you see the one of  the Last Ruler of Russia before the communist days, I have seen it up close. I love you all so much and can't wait to talk to you all at Christmas.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

P.S. I got the package and my car is not that bad to drive.

September 9, 2013 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

          I'm still not sure if I am allowed to send pictures or not, but I have an interview with the Mission President this week, so I will find out more then. This week, not to much has been going on. We taught one of the new investigators that we found and she wants to set a baptismal date, so I will keep you posted on how that goes. 

We also found a new investigator the other day. This guy is pretty much living the gospel already. The stuff he told us was right in line with the Doctrine. He is a mechanic, and he also drag races. He was showing us some of the decals on his car and one of the ones he showed was under the hood, and it read "Real men love Jesus". He said he was church hoping, trying to find the one that best fits with what he believes and what goes along with what he has read in the Bible.  So hopefully he realizes, he has found it. 

Every thing else is going great! The ward here is unbelievable. Here, I feel just like any other member, only with a title. Our dinner appointment last night cancelled, so the Bishops wife said that we could go over to their house for dinner. We didn't want to impose, but she said it was alright, she was only making panini's. By the way I hope you proof read these before they go on the blog. (Side note from me, yes I do proof read them. I have to!) After dinner, they had us over to a homecoming for a recently returned missionary. There were so many desserts there. They were trying to give us and everyone else, desserts to take home. We didn't want to take any because me and my companion have made a decision to eat healthier. I swear I have gained 10 pounds, I don't know when, all I know is I have never weighed over 150 and now I'm at 160!

Anyways later that night, after we returned home, the return missionary stopped by our apartment and handed us two plates of desserts from the party and said "here we wanted you to have this." So much for watching what we eat.

I also have to be careful what I say around the church members. One of the members was picking us up to take us to lunch and I was telling him how disappointed I was that I went 5 dollars over my budget. Next thing I know, he is trying to give me 5 dollars!  People here are really nice, even if they don't like you. 

I need to start wrapping this up,  but Mom I am really proud that you are going back to school and everyone I tell that to, is happy for you as well. Jonathan, good luck at your game, I'll tell every one here how you do. They absolutely love football over here. Dad thank you for keeping me posted on the races and guns and such, it does help through the week looking forward to that little piece of home. Tell Basha I'll pray for them all. Other then that the work is going great, I'll write a letter later this week and give you more details.

Love,

       Elder Matthew Pena

This YouTube video I just had to share. Matthew didn't send it to me, but I just felt I needed to share it.

Two Years: Carli Barlow

September 2, 2013 Email

Dear Mom and Dad,

Everything is still going great and is getting a little better. My companion is great and we are getting along really well. Sorry about not emailing yesterday but our Mission President moved p-day to today so we could work on the holiday, since people were more likely to be home. I'll tell you more about that later.

This past week has been fun and hard at the same time. We got fed ribs twice this week. The first time was over at an investigators home. They really enjoy our company and wanted us to feel right at home since we are so far from our home. So they fed us about 4 rack of ribs, and they were unbelievable! I have never seen so much food go away that fast! There where 7 of us at the table so..... Also, last night we got fed ribs again but this time it was at a members home. The member played the guitar and was happy to show me some of the music he plays. He has a Martin D-38, it's a newer guitar, and it sounded incredible! Probably because that was the first guitar I have heard live in about a month. He offered to let me play, but I had to refuse due to mission rules. It killed me a little, but I'll get over it. 

However this whole week has not been all good. Our teaching pool has gotten real shallow lately and making appointments has been getting more difficult. We had to do a lot of track ting but so far no good has come from it. We figured no one would want to talk to us on Labor Day, because they were either out of town or they had family over. But, we decided being discouraged about it, was not going to help, so we showed a little faith and made a goal of knocking on 100 doors. When we first started, I said that I would talk to the first person I see sitting out on there lawn, people do do that out here. So I did, and we taught them a lesson! The lady said after all we said she already figured the book to be true, and we got 2 new investigators before we knocked a single door! In total we only knocked 13 doors, but found about 3-4 new potential investigators.

 In other news I have seen a fire fly so, I now know, that they are real, and I have also seen a couple of slugs. In other bad news NC has a lot of spiders that are very big and very scary. 

To wrap it all up, mom you would like this, coleslaw is big down here, and it is really good. They put that stuff on everything. Glad to here all is good and I hope you got the letter I wrote. Tell Jonathan I said good luck with football season.

Love,

Elder Matthew Pena

Matthew's first day in the mission field!

Matthew with President and Sister Craven

Here is a picture of all the new missionaries!

17 new Sisters and 13 new Elders!

Snail Mail Letter!

Dear Mom and Dad,

I'm going to get into the habit of writing you more. As I'm sure you know, I made it to North Carolina alright. Flying over Charlotte, we all marveled at the landscape. It is so green, the likes of which I cannot recall ever seeing before, and the beauty is beyond description.

After we landed, we all got together and went down to meet the Mission President and his wife. They greeted us and we got our bags. As soon as we stepped outside, it was like a wall of humidity. It wasn't too bad at first, but when I started to help load the bags, that's when it got bad. They then brought us to the mission home and fed us really good. After a quick Q and A with some of the Elders and Sisters, we all went to our temporary residence. We stayed with some of the Elders.

The next day, all the new people went to an old chapel for a few more lessons. Then later that afternoon we were brought into the Chapel which was filled with other Elders and Sisters. It was there that we were paired up with our new companions. My companions name is Elder Keegan Call and he is from Detroit Michigan. I said goodbye to my old district and headed off.

I am in the Kannapolis area. I have been out here since yesterday. A member drove us here and he was so nice and had a thick accent, but it's not as common as you may think. Elder Call introduced me to the people in the front office of the complex. They are not members but they treat us as we are best of friends. Already we have talked to a few people.

We get to use iPads and we are basically writing the book on how to use them. I have already met some interesting people and I will tell you more later, there is just so much! Until then I'm doing fine and I am sure God walks along with each one of us during this time.

Love,
Elder Matthew Pena

P.S.  P-day is Monday and Dad can't send me any video on YouTube

New Email Today!!!

Dear Mom and Dad,

          Every thing is going fine so far. I have found adjusting to missionary life to be a little more difficult, but I know I will come around soon. I hope you will also get the letter I sent. It is from my first day here and I don't mention it in the letter, but we got rained on while we were biking to the church building to use their computers. We use Facebook for online proselyting. We also are using iPads, and we are one of the trial areas for it. There are only 5 other places in the world that get that privilege. Four in Utah and one in Arizona. The days of missionary's going around knocking on doors is going away. Now we rely on the local ward more then ever for referrals. While in the MTC I met a group that was going to Gilbert, so one person took a picture of my name tag in hopes they will see you guys and show you. 

The place I'm in is pretty nice, lots of trees and wooded areas, that I would absolutely love to go running through. I have been mostly just working out, and I figure that I will do that mostly, because we only get 30 minutes to work out in the morning. Its enough to get something out of it, if you work hard enough. Yes, I have been fed pretty well. Every night we have been fed by someone. Last night though, our dinner appointment cancelled on us, but another member fed us at the last minute. He was a member and his wife isn't, but she was still real nice to us. They made us bacon and eggs with grits which I have to say, I really like. But there was a lot of bacon and plenty of food it was so good. This southern hospitality, is kind of overwhelming. It does take some getting used to. Before I forget, I have passed by the house with the nascar.

One cool experience that I want to share with y'all is one morning my companion was going through the member list to find someone to go give a message to. He came across one name in-particular. He gave him a call and he answered which is a miracle in and of itself. We made an appointment and saw him that night. He was very happy to see us and said that when we called he was contemplating going back to church. He is inactive, and has not been to church in the last 10 years because his mother is not very found of the church, and he was living with her for awhile, but is now back on his feet. But this was just the thing that he needed, for both him and his son.

I love you all and I look foreword to hearing from y'all soon.

Love,

Elder Matthew Pena

First Email from MTC - August 15, 2013

Dear mom and Dad,

     I figured I would send this email to the both of you just in case. Sorry it took so long for me to email, but my P-day was not until Thursday. I have to say that there is a lot that has been going on! It's to the point that it is hard to recap an entire day, let alone a week. I saw Sister Waller last night and today, she is in my zone and her districts class room is right next to mine. It was cool to see all the new people come in and remember what it was like for me. It was like drinking from a fire hose. Right after processing, they threw you right into it. Our 2 main classes are 3 hours each. So far, the food has been pretty good and I have no complaints there. On Tuesday we had our devotional at the Marriott center, it was the first one to be televised live to other MTC's around the world. Elder Richard G. Scott of the 12 came and talked to us on prayer. The spirit from his talk is beyond words. I do kind of wish I was learning another language now, only because when he talked he gave an Apostalistic (sp?) blessing on all the missionaries learning another language. It is amazing all the things that go on in here, spirit wise. One of our teachers has be playing an investigator and each companionship goes in a teaches him. We have been doing this for awhile now, and just the other day he ran into some really tough times with his addiction that set him back a bit, so after me and my companion talked with him, my companion wanted to give him the blessing. We were really "lucky" that he had his oil and I had the cheat sheet! When it was over my companion was shaking and our teacher had tears in his eye's, and he was not acting that part out. I wish I could tell you more, and if I have enough time later I might send another email. In short, we are all getting along very well and are all pretty good friends with each other, and to Mom every one loves you Especially Elder Turnbow. 

Love,

       Elder Pena

Second Letter Home - August 9, 2013 9:25 pm

Dear Mom and Dad,

This is the only paper I have, so that is why it has the stubs on the end. Also, I do not have the return address for the MTC, so I just put our address down. I am tired. We are in class, or doing something 13 - 15 hours each day. The first day when we taught someone, we did it in a big group so it wasn't too bad. Today me and my companion taught for the first time. My companions name is Elder Burrup and yes I did bother to learn it. There are 6 of us in the room and we are an entire district. i am the senior companion and my companion is district leader. The whole thing at the MTC is pretty hard but I am getting along fairly well.

Love,
Elder Pena

First Letter Home - August 7, 2013 5:30pm

Dear Mom and Dad,

It feels like there is a lot going on, even though it has only been 3 hours. Processing went so fast you wouldn't believe it. Then I was dumped right into class with my companion. I found out in class that we are teaching someone tonight. We went through orientation and there are people from all over the world! A lot from Arizona and a LOT from Utah! Had dinner and the food was good. 1 dinner down, 11 more to go. Love you and see you soon.

Love,
Elder Pena

P.S. So glad I'm only here for 12 days!