Hey guys,
Elder Denison here. Well, I'm here. Got here yesterday morning and was met by the mission president at the airport. He seems like a really cool guy. Once we had all of our bags loaded up, we went to the temple. It is so cool. It's modeled after what they think the Temple of Soloman looked like. Anyways, we were only there for a while to take pictures.
After the temple we went to the mission home. There we had a kind of orientation meeting and such while President Ellsworth met with us one at a time. At around 4 we were paired off with companions for the night. I was put with Elder Tingy (flippin' awesome last name). We went back to the temple because at the temple it's a lot like the Salt Lake temple as in they decorate the whole thing with Christmas lights and nativities and such. We were supposed to walk around and greet people, you know, see who would accept the missionaries and if they were members to see if they had any referrals.
It was extremely intimidating. We were late so we missed the little meeting for all the missionaries to kinda tell them what they had to do and how to greet people. So I was thrown into the thick of this crowd and told to go and talk with every person I saw. It sucked pretty bad because once they saw someone with a name tag walking towards them, they'd start to walk faster. Even the members, because for some reason they don't like giving referrals.
And also, it was very very cold. That's right, I said it was cold. It was FREEZING!!! I think I am going to need another suit, so I will get back to you with the details of how we should do that.
Today I met my trainer and companion for the next little while. His name is Elder Shupe. He seems like a pretty cool guy. He and I are in a pretty nice apartment. (I'll get you the mailing address. If you want, you could just send stuff to the mission home and it will get to me eventually.) Yeah so, that's where I'm at. Oh yeah, I'm actually in Phoenix. It's the Arizona Mesa Mission, but my stake is actually downtown Phoenix. It's kinda weird. The area that we are in is actually pretty run down. It's looking worse then Magna, but hey, bring it on. =)
Oh yeah, Dad, if you were at the Boeing building last night or this morning (or both), I drove past you a couple of times. It was kinda weird because I knew you were down here and that you worked at the Apache building somewhere, and we were driving back from the Mission home last night, turned the corner and there it was! It was pretty cool.
Anyways, I think I've blabbered on for long enough. I hope to here from you guys soon. Love you all.
Elder Denison
