first letter!

Full of exclamation points and excitement...just the way we like it.

Surprise!!!
we get to email in the mtc!!! yay! okay!!! so! the mtc is great! the first day is brutal, i remember looking at everyone in my district the first day and seeing everyone's googly eyes. its pretty bizarro the first day. but it gets better every day. i'm learning so much. i have amazing teachers. brother lovejoy and sister higginson. both served in brazil. and they're both byu students. they are fantastic and quite possibly the best teachers i could get. they're so upbeat. and my district is hilarious. there are four sisters and six elders. these are the people we're in class with all day and meet with for church[plus some] and everything. everyone but me and elder thielen[pronounced thee-lin] are going to dc south. and elder thielen is the district leader which means he just talks at the beginning of meetings and picks up mail. elder mcfarlane is his companion and then there are elders holmstead, sackett[he knows logan mcneil-went to hs with him], davis and peterson. each one has a great sense of humor and they are all so great to learn with.
sister arnett is my companion, she's from orem. she's been a hairdresser for 3 years now and has just been doing that since high school. we share a burning love of 30 rock which we discovered the first night here and we've been growing closer and closer every day. she helps the days get better and she doesn't let things get boring. i love her. we get along really well and sister higginson thinks we work well together, which i have to agree with! we can focus when we need to and have fun when we want to. its loverly. sister hahn and sister bagley are the other sisters in our district and they are so funny. sister bagley came on the mission with the same worries that i did. and i feel fairly close to her because of that. sister hahn has a laugh that is simply contagious and we all love having her around.

quick story: one of the districts in our branch[the group we meet with for church] is all girls and they were all supposed to fly to hong kong on monday. because they learned cantonese they were here for 3 months. their flight on monday was delayed so much that they would have had to spend the night in sf so the mtc brought them back. then they were supposed to leave last night but they mission president in hong kong couldn't pick them up. so they are still here and all their luggage is probably in hong kong and they are leaving the mtc for real[we hope] tonight.
most of them are grateful they didn't leave yet though because Elder Ballard came to speak last night at devotional. it was INCREDIBLE! he is such a powerful speaker. i can't really believe i didn't take as many notes in his past conference talks. it might also be that i'm paying just a little more attention. but it was incredible. he talked about having a positive attitude and an excitement to share the gospel and then we will have success. one of the greatest things was he said, "we are in a hurry... people do not know who God is" and the need our message. I'm so glad i get to be a part of this work. i know my hard work here will pay off. and i think that phrase will keep me motivated for the rest of my mission.
family, i love you so much. i don't know that this is getting to everyone, so please send it on to whoever wants it. thank you so much for supporting me. i love you forever. i'll email next week and before then i expect letters. ha.
sincerely with my missionary love,
sister madeline mcneil

ps- my p-day is wednesday, and its the only day i get to write letters. just so you know. and also, i leave the mtc two weeks from yesterday! yikes!