First Letter Home

I did not have a new picture so this is a picture we took the Sunday of his farewell.

This was the picture we took of him modeling his new P coat, he loves that thing...Hope it is warm enough!

We received our first letter from Elder Golling (finally!).  I know it has not been that long but when Monday came and went and we did not hear from him I was sad about that.  Anyway, turns out his Pday (preparation day to do laundry, email home, go to the temple, etc) is on Wednesday so he cannot email home until tomorrow.  Anyway...his letter was great.

I forgot to mention that the day Michael left we had to take him to the doctor because his throat looked scary to say the least.  So, the culture was negative for strep but the doctor went ahead and gave him an antibiotic.  It turns out that he got some sort of itchy rash and he was getting worse.  He went to the MTC doctor and they drew blood.  He has mono!  Crazy!  It has not slowed him down at all.

Elder Golling is loving the MTC.  He was made District Leader.  There are four missionaries total that are going to Finland, three young men and one young woman.  His companionship is the three young men.  He is learning the language but I will quote his letter to let you know how that is going,

"The language is absolutely ridiculously hard.....I feel like my brain has been scrambled but slowly my mind is growing back and pieces come together."

He says that he can pray, bear testimony and say hi and bye and how are you in Finnish now.  He loves the language and the way it is organized.  He says it is a beautiful language.

He is extremely happy and so glad to be on his mission.  His letter was wonderful and he sounds great.  A couple of his teachers know some of his friends and he thought that was great.  Oh, also, he says the food is great and he can eat as many bananas and he wants!

Please keep him in your prayers that he gets well and learns the language.  Thanks for supporting Elder Golling with your thoughts and prayers!