The Elder Has Landed!

Finally, all the waiting is over and Elder Sawyer is officially "in the field," and LOVING it! Our first email from him on his first P-day, Monday, talked about everything from blisters to swap meets...but almost every paragraph contained the word "AWESOME" in capital letters.
He has said that his mission president is very strict and Elder Sawyer wrote how much he appreciates that--a lot easier to obey with exactness when the boundaries are clearly defined. He loves his trainer, Elder Shaver, and says he is SO good at Spanish. He said he's not a native speaker and so that's helping him learn the language the way he learned; he said he's really improving with his trainer's help.
He and his companion live in a nicer neighborhood, in the home of an older member couple who is good to them. The ward is bi-lingual and most of the Hispanic members are from Honduras, Mexico and some from Central America.
They tracted for several miles his first few days and then on Saturday set up a table at the swap meet, made a poster titled "La Restauracion Del Evangelio De Jesucristo," with a giant picture of The First Vision on it. They handed out pass-along cards, and displayed stacks of "libritos y folletas" (discussion pamphlets). He said it was "so cool; we had about 100 invitations to learn more in about 2 hours." He said one Asian couple even gave them food.
He loves his bike, but is worried that it's "too nice" and somebody might steal it...hope it's not too late to buy the insurance. His companion is a runner and for exercise he likes to run--he ran state in Utah--he said he ran with him the first morning, and has been riding his bike while his companion runs ever since ;-D
Mucho thanks to Miss Ashley for helping me get some of the pictures posted here that he sent home last week...looking forward to an email and/or letter this week with more updates.