My First Day in Oregon!!!

Hello family,

I'm glad I got to email you all so soon, I didn't know when my new preparation day would be but luckily it was soon. (I needed to do my laundry!) My flight was great, I enjoyed getting out of the MTC into the real world again. Elder Sutton and I went to a Smashburger in the airport and got breakfast sandwiches, and they were really good. The flight to Portland was great! I sat next to Sister Benson and Elder Brown, an elder going to Portland that wasn't in the same district as us. It was fun flying there, since Elder Brown had never flown before. Plus, it was overcast all day so when we ascended through the clouds it looked like the peak of the mountains were islands. Sister Benson, Elder Brown, and I just talked the whole way there.

Portland is beautiful! I cannot believe how green and wet it is here! The view of the Portland area as we were descending was amazing- all these rivers and trees! The parking garage outside the airport had all these vines hanging off of it and every tree I've seen has moss on it. We didn't get to see much of Portland, but what I did see as we were driving by it looks so cool. The mission president and his wife, Brother and Sister Morby, are super nice and friendly. I really like them a lot (which is good). Anyways, after they picked us up at the airport the AP's took us to the Portland Temple and it is easily the prettiest temple I've ever seen. It's made of solid marble on the outside and it's just surrounded by all these green trees. Plus, the spires look really neat! I'm super excited to see the inside, I've heard that there is a garden inside of it!

The rest of the day was really overwhelming and confusing, to be totally honest. We showed up to the Lake Oswego Stake Center for transfers and there were dozens upon dozens of missionaries. My trainer's name is Elder Baxter and he's from Utah. He's really nice and I think he'll be a good trainer. We did a really brief orientation thing before we got our transfers, and I'll be spending the next 12 weeks in the Wilsonville/Stafford area. It's just right outside of Portland, so we're still really close by. Getting adjusted to everything has been weird. We have dinner with a lot of the members since the wards are really strong here, so that's why they don't give us a ton of money for food. It was rough getting settled into our new place though, because the missionaries before us didn't clean it up at all before they left. All this old food in the fridge, garbage in the drawers, etc. It was frustrating to come into that... Not to mention two baptisms over the next two weeks. I don't think I'll be doing any baptizing but Elder Baxter and I still have to do a lot of work for them- like teaching a few of the discussions (mostly some of the commandments). I'm really overwhelmed and it's stressing me out, but hopefully as I keep going along I'll get into the swing of things.

I miss you all so much, and I really miss my district already. I got along so well with them so well, and it's hard not having them around.

Well, I gotta' go get my laundry and grocery shopping done.

I love you all,

Elder Burge