Hello family! We finally got a chance to e-mail. IT'S HOT. At least compared to how it was at home. My flight was alright but I was unable to get up during my 11 hour flight. I met the other Elders at ATL airport about an hour before my flight. I was incredibly bored. Most of them are from Utah but there was one from Florida, one from Canada, and a couple of them were from Idaho. They're all nice guys. I arrived at the MTC and you wouldn't believe how different it is here. The car ride to it was scary. They honk every 2 seconds. I guess they use it as a warning that they are passing the other person's car. There are street vendors everywhere who come right up to the car trying to sell things to you. Especially at one of the toll booths, there were about 50 of them. My companion arrived at around 11 P.M. the first night. He is from Sierra Leone. I forgot my USB cord in my room and I only have 30 minutes to e-mail so I can't send you any pictures yet. I'll send them on Thursday if I have time. Right now I'm trying to learn how to do their handshake. All of the African Elders do a sort of finger snap when you give a handshake. I can't do it yet but I'm getting the hang of it. The food is okay. Our lunch on the first day I didn't like, but that night we had brown rice with some sort of spicy sauce that was actually delicious. So far for both breakfasts we have had oatmeal. I've tried cooked plantains and they're pretty good too. Just now for lunch we actually had spaghetti but with a really good meat sauce. I'm enjoying it all so far. It's been kind of hard just getting used to how different everything is. We have been told to actually grow our toe-nails out to prevent ingrown toenails. It'll be uncomfortable but worth it. There's so much more i want to say but I don't have much time! A group of about 16 french speaking Elders and sisters arrived last night. I was able to talk to one a little bit. It was actually amazing. I was able to remember most of the French I learned in school right off the top of my head, it's so awesome how the spirit works like that. I've slept REALLY well both nights so far, I didn't even wake up once! But my roomate's companion and my companion both keep getting us up at 5 instead of 6:30 hahaha. Oh well. It's best to get up early and get ready anyway. The pillows are just a pile of lumps so that's annoying but it's whatever. So far i've slept with nothing covering me it's just WAY too hot. I miss you guys so so much! Especially Jen, tell her I miss her a lot. Tell her I wish I could just talk to her about everything that's been going on face-to-face. This is just 40% of everything i wish i could talk about. I miss all my friends too, but I'll survive. I just can't wait to get out to on the field and start working! The only thing I REALLY didn't like so far was the fish and beans we had last night. Haha anyway, I'll e-mail you guys again Thursday I hope! I'm safe (so far) and having a good time :)
-Love Elder Gagne
