Leeds Me, Guide Me: Elder Saylin 2017-2019: June 2015

                It's been forever! It's been a crazy week here. So first things first, my toe is broken. After the long plane rides to England and no sleep whatsoever we finally arrived at the MTC. Instead of resting, we just started right away with our first full day at the MTC! After some introductions and getting our room assignments and name tags, we went out to play some soccer. I didn't want to dig through my stuff to find my tennis shoes so I grabbed my sandals and then kicked them off to the side when we started playing. While walking out to the field I was running to catch a football and didn't see where I was going. I kicked a curb and fell into some bushes and my foot hurt pretty badly, but I thought it was nothing. While playing soccer with a bunch of European kids that were young "Messis" and wrecking everyone, I kicked the soccer ball and it destroyed my toe. It killed! I didn't play after that and when I went back inside to change, I took off my sock and my foot was huge and purple! I felt too embarrassed to go say anything to the MTC people because it was the first day and I thought it was just heavy bruising. When I woke up the next morning it was even bigger and I could hardly get a shoe on so I went and said something to the doctor here and he took me to the hospital. They x-rayed it and sure enough it's broken! They said I have to wear a boot that goes all the way up to my knee for 6 weeks! I have another appointment tomorrow so pray for me!

               My companion is awesome. He's from southern England and we get along like best friends! He reminds me of Sam Smith and Quinn Taylor. We laugh way too much and find it hard to pay attention when we are together! (Which is all the time because we are companions.) He's super funny and he teaches me the accent and has a lot to teach me about England!

              My companion is from Hastings. There are 33 of us here! So small! My district is awesome. Two from Utah, one from Idaho, one from here, one from Spain, one from Bosnia (first missionary ever from his country), one from Kenya (3rd missionary ever), one from Hawaii! I think I go to Leeds this Wednesday!

            The food is alright here. I had this like roll thing yesterday with shredded duck and cheese in it. It was alright but I gagged once or twice! We never get to go outside.... like ever. My companion and I go out every so often and go for a walk but they don't let us have nice outside time. I seriously mean that! It's super pretty here other than the rain all the time! Super green.

             We have people here that are our investigators and we have to schedule meetings with them and plan lessons. They are never allowed to break character to help us or anything and they record the lessons so we can watch and learn from how we teach so it's pretty intimidating! We have a super strict schedule that they plan for us and they have literally every ten minutes planned. No breaks! It's sort of like jail but not really! Teaching is hard but I'm getting better at it.

             So missionaries don't get i pads in the mtc, just in the field, but they selected 8 of us to be guinea pigs on testing ipads in the mtc and because I'm so cute they chose me:) I got it yesterday! So I can read your emails every single day! It's pretty cool.

               Well, I miss you guys tons! I hope everything is well and no one is dead! I love you all very much and keep emailing me!

Love,
Scott

ps I'm typing on a UK keyboard so that's why my grammar and stuff stinks!

Momma!
I miss you so much! I cant believe its already been a week. Thank you for getting me all ready for this!! I couldn't be here with out you! It's been really crazy here. I'm learning a lot! It's hard though. It's hard to wake up at 6:30 and work and get no me time, and then go to bed and get up and do the same thing again! I wish you were here to iron my clothes and do some laundry and clean my room and plan my lessons for me, too! I might send the coat back.... it's terrible. All the English missionaries have slick cool rain coats, not big American ski jackets! haha I need to get a new one! I'm doing all right though, I get sad and miss home a lot though every now and then....just as predicted, though!
> I love you mom. You're the best mom ever and i'm grateful that you got me here! England is awesome!

Hey Dad! I hope you got my other big email to everyone! I miss you so much! I talk about you all the time to my buddies here! I miss our chats and your advice and our study time. It's been good here, though. My testimony grows every day and I'm starting to understand more and more and become a better teacher! It's fun to be with all the missionaries but its pretty hard being away. There are a lot of times when no matter how hard I try, I can't forget myself and I get pretty sad and miss being back home and being able to talk to you guys whenever I want. It's been a really long and eventful week!

I love you dad. I miss you every single day and I wish I could call and talk to you for a little! Thanks again for getting me here both physically and spiritually. I wish I had the right words to be able to convey how grateful I am for you. Love you lots.

WE WOKE UP TO HIS FIRST EMAIL!!! IT ARRIVED AT 5AM OUR TIME. THIS IS BETTER THAN CHRISTMAS MORNING.

I'm here! long day. feels like 5 am to me but its noon here! there are 33 missionaries here, some weird, some cool. my mission president here has the most yellow teeth ever and he seems pretty funny! it's pretty here, and i'm already learning the accent!

I miss all of you guys a ton! for sure a day I will never forget. I'm just supposed to email you guys to say I made it and I'm alive! the keyboards here are all messed up because its a UK version so thats why my grammar and everything is terrible! I dont realy have much to report other than I have to sleep in a bunk bed. I have some letters for y'all that I need to send back but idk when ill be able to or when they'll get there so check the mailbox everyday. i love you all so much and i miss you like crazy! talk you you soon!