Dear Mom,

We got some modified flight plans the other day, and apparently we are now leaving on January 6 instead of the 5th.  We were a little bummed.  That same day, we got to go on a field trip thing to get some birth certificate things.  I'm not sure why we needed them, but we did for some reason.  Anyways, our new flight plan, we leave Salt Lake City at 6 am and arrive at Los Angeles at 6:55.  We leave there at 8:00 and arrive at Washington DC at 3:46 pm.  We then leave at 6:10 and arrive in Austria at 8:55 am where we will then leave at 10:50 am and arrive in Albania at 12:25 pm.  So we'll be doing quite a good deal of traveling.

I think we'll probably try to call when we are at Washington DC between around 4 pm and 6 pm.  I'm not sure what time that is in Idaho, but that is what time it will be in Washington DC.  We probably won't be able to talk very long since there are 8 of us in the district, so we'll probably have to keep it short.  There might still be time for everyone to get a chance to talk.

Today we took this punch ball thing Elder Smith got in one of his Christmas packages, and we filled it with water and kicked it back and forth.  It was surprisingly strong and still hasn't popped.  It made a fun noise as it bounced across the floor.

We had a fun LGM a couple weeks ago talking about rumors we may have heard about the areas we're going.  Sometimes people tell missionaries that their mission doesn't have many baptisms, and it can dash our hopes.  So to show this, they had a missionary hold balloons, and when the guy mentioned what people said about not baptizing many people, he pulled out a pin and popped all the balloons.  It was pretty fun.

Last Monday, I was going to try to break the mile record, and I felt really good about it, but when I talked to the guy, he said it had to be done outside, and we can't go outside for gym since it is snowing.  So I can't break the record while I'm here.  It was a bummer, but now I can go back to playing 4 square every day at gym.

I put the $30 of Christmas money I got from Grandpa to good use.  I must say, that the stuff I'm excited about here in the MTC is much different than what I have been excited about before.  For example, I saw this pocket book of Mormon, and I was like, that would be awesome!  Mostly because it's about the size of my planner which I am able to pull out of my pocket rather easily, and I decided that could be really fun to have with me both during the mission and afterwards.

There's this missionary progression program thing our mission president has for us to complete before the end of the MTC, and several other levels to complete throughout the first year of our mission.  If we complete each one in time, we will be able to go on a trip at the end of the mission.  It's way cool.  I think the stuff it has us doing will also be way helpful in the mission field.  I'm practically done doing everything I need to for it in the MTC, and I found out that I have already done part of the things for the first transfer in the mission.

Anyways, If you need to tell me anything before I leave, you may want to send a dearelder or something because I don't think I'll be able to check email again here at the MTC.  Which is kind of exciting.  This is like the last full Wednesday at the MTC.  I'm way excited to get to Albania.

Me Dashuri,
Love,
Të lumtë fytyrën,
Elder Wallentine

E lumtë fytyrën (May your face make you happy),
Elder Wallentine