Week 1, Guatemala MTC

Elder Alex Walbom left for the Guatemala MTC on July 9, and will be gone for 2 years.  We know he will be a great missionary! Here are pics from the airport and his first email, below:

We received this text and picture a few hour later, which was sweet of them:

"Hey we are members from Utah on the same flight as your son! [from Atlanta to L.A.] We just wanted to let you know he's doing good!"

Elder Walbom's email week #1: 

"Sorry there aren`t pictures this week I haven`t been able to take them. We are only allowed to take them on P days and this is my first one and my computer time is in the morning. Also I will not be typing with contractions because this keyboard is spanish and does not have a user friendly way to do that. 

Anyways it}s been a pretty stressful first week. Big adjustments, new places, new people. Yep its been hard and there have been times where I have been absolutely homesick but those moments never last. I just remember that I am doing the Lord{s work and he gives me strength. I have prayed more and harder this week than I have ever done before in my life. I don{t think any of us here can do it without him.

On a different note. Language is coming along well. I have already taught a couple basic lessons in spanish. I can bear my testimony in Spanish. I can pray in spanish. It is super helpful to have Latinos around to practice with. They really want to practice English but the rule is that we are all supposed to speak in spanish all the time. Every waking hour we are supposed to speak spanish first and then English if we aren{t able to say what we want in spanish. <its fun.

I feel that I am going to have a hard but great time here in Guatemala. Adios!"

Elder Walbom sent us an email with a little more information, as well.  He said that the country is beautiful. There are mountains with active volcanoes in the distance.  His companion is an Elder Hunt from Cedar City, Utah and they get along well.  The food in the MTC (CCM in Spanish) is okay.  He lives in dorm style living, sharing a bathroom with 40 other boys, which he is not so happy about,  and his room is hot.  He said he enjoys the language and getting to speak with native speakers all the time.  He also says he looks forward to leaving the CCM and get out in the field (of course he still has another 5 weeks there).

One thing that was very frustrating to Elder Walbom, and to us, was that we missed our chance to speak this first week on his P-day (preparation day).  Apparently, we will be communicating via Google Hangouts (we had no idea of this) while he is in the CCM.  Well, the only one who already had an account was his brother, Ethan (whom he did speak with for 5 minutes).  By the time we figured this out and tried to connect, his time to communicate with family was over.  I didn't cry when he left, but I did cry when I discovered that we missed our opportunity to chat.

His dad reminded me that we only have to wait a week to speak with him (so much better than the old days- when missionaries could only speak with their families on Christmas and Mother's Day).  Still, we all had an expectation that we would get to hear from one another and a huge let down when that turned out not to be the case.  The fact that I later found he had sent 7 emails to me during his 1 hour window (I do not receive any notification sounds for emails) and a final email saying how upset he was that he didn't get to speak with us, broke my heart-- especially when I see that it has been a tough first week for him.

I'm glad he is leaning on the Lord.  I know we are praying daily that he will be supported and watched over while in Guatemala. We are also praying that he won't be too homesick and that he will always be aware of how much we love him!