July 22, 2008 - Alex has arrived in Santa Rosa CA!

We received our first letter from Alex upon his arrival in California. His mission President gives each missionary an addressed and stamped envelope with a piece of stationery and the missionary's first assignment is to write a letter home to let everyone know that he has arrived safely. Here's Alex's account of his arrival on Monday, July 21, 2008:

I'm at the mission home and safe. It's very nice here and the Mission President and his wife are awesome. We stopped at the Oakland CA Temple on the way to Santa Rosa - it was closed but it was AMAZING! It had a terrace where you could walk up and see for miles. I took a ton of pictures.

(If you'd like to see a picture of the Oakland Temple, here's the link: http://www.lds.org/temples/main/0,11204,1912-1-49-0,00.html)

Then, from there we went to the Golden Gate bridge. WAY COOL! You could see Alcatraz from there too. More pictures of that too!

So, anywho, things are fantastic. We had our orientation, and I'll have my interview pretty soon. I'm starting to realize that I'm actually here so it's kind of a shock at this point. I'm way excited but a little intimidated. I'll find out tomorrow where my first assignment is.

We get two temple trips each year. I'm really excited. We either go to the temple in Oregon, Sacramento or Oakland. It depends on where you're serving at the time.

Well, flight was good and drive was good. Two elders had to take a later flight because it was overbooked. They just got here. Glad it wasn't me! :-) That's about it.

I love you!
Love, Al