"I first received" is correct and usable in written English.
You can use it to describe a time when you obtained something or received something for the first time. For example: "I first received my driver's license when I was 18 years old."
I rejoiced and wept when I first received communion from a woman.
"When I first received this Nobel Prize for Literature, I got to wondering how my songs related to literature.
Can half a year have passed since I first received, but didn't look at, Louise Glück's "Poems, 1962-2012"?
"In fact, when I first received the product, I reviewed the list of ingredients and did not see any prohibited substances," he said.
When I first received the news of Louis Ghost's impending 10th anniversary, I was skeptical that a chair could be canonized after only a decade.
"When I first received my results I was obviously fairly stressed and weepy, but after the tears had dried up something seemed to click in my head".
I'd first received a text from him at 2am, and heard again at nine o'clock that nothing was happening.
It was back in late April when I had first received the message from a NUS high school student who wanted me to bring YouthHack to Singapore.
When I first started receiving speaking invitations I was only invited to speak to the people of color (POC) groups.
"When I joined up with the national team, at first I received lot of congratulations from colleagues," Lewandowski says.
First, I received huge sincere support and nurturing when I was accepted as an undergraduate intern into the laboratories of Professors Edward Thornton, Arthur Humphrey and Britton Chance.
