Josh, a.k.a. Elder Pittman, and his missionary companion Elder (Greg) Gardner, left the Provo MTC around 5:00 a.m. on Tuesday, September 28, 2010 and headed on up to the Salt Lake City airport. They flew to Guatemala (with a 4 hour layover in Dallas) to spend the next 6 weeks in the missionary training center there.

Elder Pittman said the other missionaries in his district arose at 4:00 a.m. and in Spanish, sang “God Be With You ‘Til We Meet Again” to Elder Gardner and Elder Pittman. I was deeply touched by that. Just this week Josh wrote about how great it was to sleep in to 6:30 a.m. They work very hard in the missionary training center, so these young men prize their sleep, making it all the more impressive that this district arose to see off their comrades this way.

Josh talked about how much he loved his time at the MTC. It was a great time of growth, self-discovery, and of course preparation for the errand the Lord has in store for him.

By the way, I won’t tell you who cried more on the call, Nicky or me. I’m taking the fifth.

Knowing Josh was flying, we looked up the weather conditions in Guatemala City and learned Josh was headed right into Tropical Storm Matthew as it soaked Guatemala City. More than 260 people have died in Guatemala so far this year in mudslides and flash floods.

Thankfully, the family received the following email from Josh the day after he flew to Guatemala.

I do not have very long but I am writing to let you know that I made it and we are all fine.

I got a new companion once I got here but I still see my old companion [Elder Gardner] a lot.

The food is really good, and the beds are really comfortable. There are not many of us here. The elders apparently pick up Spanish really fast here which is good.

The MTC has guards around it 24 hours a day 7 days a week. We are very safe.

As I have said the food is really food, and is very fresh; they also add a cinnamon sugar to water melon which is really really good. I did not get to call as I thought [when we landed] but we are allowed to email.

My p-days are still on Wednesdays so no change there.

It was raining really hard here before we started to land, and we pulled up and nearly had to fly all the way to El Salvador. Fortunately with a little prayer and faith we landed after circling to the north and trying again.

The keyboards here are really weird, so sorry if there are spelling mistakes. It is currently the rainy season and it will be ending in about November.

I love you all and hope you are all well.

Lots of love,

Elder Pittman.

Sniff. Sniff. We love you too, Josh and hope you stay well.

p.s. Don’t you just LOVE it how he talks more about the food than he does the storm!