Out of the MTC and into the field

People,
I have been most impatient with my time in the MTC. I've been counting days until I would leave the place. Maybe it was because I was in the advanced Spanish class without really knowing Spanish or maybe it's because it was like being in church all day. Anyways, I finished packing at 10:55 this morning, ran to the travel office, said a quick unceremonious goodbye to my companions, Elder Mendoza and Elder Sanabria (Osito), and was off. I and another reject Elder took the mission van to our mission. It was a rather uneventful two minute ride. Yes, I am serving in Provo for the next six to ten weeks. More specifically I'm in Orem. I'm really excited to serve the people of Happy Valley.
For the reason of me being put into this mission a couple of days ago, I am with two companions, Elder Brendlinger from Bend Washington, and Elder Santos from Guayaquil Ecuador. I don't really know them since I met them less than two hours ago, but they seem like nice friendly guys. My last two companions were cool. They were very patient with me. I will miss Elder Mendoza's fighting lessons that he gave me and this other missionary during gym.
What happened last week? We had a teacher change. We got a teacher from Guayaquil, Ecuador who would not allow English in the classroom and made us do a lot of practice discussions which was intense. The two American teachers we had were chill which I liked. My companions would laugh at me because every since I entered the MTC I started farting, a lot. What else. I got to know all of the Elders and Hermanas in my district fairly well. I learned various things about life and people from all of them. One of them, Elder Sievers, is going to Neil's mission in Paraguay which is exciting for me, since that is some sort of connection. Anything else... one of the Elders is going to play for BYU's rugby team after his mission and he is Mexican which is interesting. Another's Grandparents almost died and uncle did die on a crossing from Cuba to Florida where they were lost at sea for three weeks. He said at the time they didn't know much about God, but they had a firm belief in the Freedom they had heard was enjoyed in the U.S. where later they were converted to the restored Gospel. There was a Colombian guy who's dad was an institute teacher, a sister from Otovalo Ecuador who's family was involved with the textile business (dad and I visited some of the factories there two years ago which was interesting), and another shy sister from Draper.
I am going to miss my companions. Elder Sanabria will for ever and always remind me of a teddy bear, and I was inspired by Elder Mendoza's desire to learn and improve
I am so happy to be here in Orem. I'm very happy for the opportunity to experience two missions instead of one. Twelve days ago it was split. Most of the land in the mission went to the St. George mission. Our mission goes from point of the mountain down to a little past Payson and from Santaquin all the way past Vernal to the Colorado Border. We live in the basement of a members home which is nice. I'm surprised someone would just give all that space to a couple of young guys for free. The Old missionaries in the office (there are about six of them), told me that 75% of the missionaries live with members and as of last year this was the highest baptizing English speaking mission. That would be cool if I get to see someone go through the process of joining the church because I have never seen that before. I will work hard to find those prepared and ready to accept the restored gospel so I can see that happen, but then I've heard here members do the finding or they find us. That means I'll probably do lots of teaching.
-Elder Reed