Day One

We dropped off Eric at the Family and Church History Headquarters Mission in Salt Lake City yesterday morning (Friday, January 4, 2013). Today, Saturday, January 5, is his P-Day. So following is his first correspondence from the mission field:

(Andrew has a hard time saying goodbye)

Hey dad, your e-mail is the only one I remembered and I'm not even sure if it's right.  And yes they just had me make a new g-mail account, I was expecting to get an LDS.mail account but whatever.

After you guys left I just went through some more orientation stuff where I signed a bunch of junk (because I obviously haven't filled out enough papers for this) and I got my money for the month where I divided it up into $40 for groceries each week and $16 for laundry for the month. 

I then went to a fancy luncheon to welcome all new missionaries, and that included the senior couples.  I don't think anyone was expecting me to eat all of it but I did, the salad, then we had meatloaf, then a dessert was some sort of ice cream in a cookie bowl thing, and I ate it all.  I probably shouldn't have because I was so full I could barely move.

After that I started my training immediately ..sort of.  Let's just say that I can definitely tell this is a mission run by a bunch of old people.  I got a trainer named Elder Gilbert, who is one of the senior couples.  (Elder Scotto is my companion trainer.)  And he seemed really confused at how we should start because I haven't been given an e-mail account yet, so we wandered around talking to other trainers about what we should do, and they all seemed equally confused.  But in the end it turned out I didn't need my e-mail account to get started because I can add that in later.  So yeah, definitely a mission run by a bunch of old people.

You met Elder Scotto my companion, and he's a really nice guy.  He's an incredibly skilled cooker and I'm glad to have him because so far he's made meals for both of us and they've all been excellent.  

Today (Saturday) I went to the local Wal-mart my first time to buy my food.  I think I did pretty well, except I went $5 over.  Luckily I prepared some emergency money for that.  I should be spending way less next week because I have all the cooking supplies I need now and it will just be food next week.  

And that's about it, hopefully you'll get this and be able to reply by next Saturday.

(NOTE: Eric means no offense to "old people". He says, "I just found it humorous.")

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Eric also sent a message to his mom:


Sorry I e-mailed dad first but I forgot your e-mail.  I'm having a great time.  I haven't been assigned a zone yet obviously because I'm still in training but I'll get that in about two weeks.

My companion is a nice guy and very helpful.  He cooks a lot and has prepared a meal for both of us so far.

I just remembered that I don't have a camera or anything which could be useful.  I'm sure you'd like to see me with all the Elders I'm meeting.

And I forgot to tell dad that one of the senior missionary couples is from Japan, and their names are Elder and Sister Ejima.  I haven't gotten the chance to talk to them yet, but I think they're still learning English.

I'd like to tell you more but my one hour is almost up.  So until next Saturday!

(Elder Scotto and Elder Larson)

You can contact Eric at:

Elder Eric Larson 

c/o FCHH Mission

JSMB-East 3rd Floor

Attn: Young Missionary Directors

15 E. South Temple St.

Salt Lake City, UT 84150-346