does a word processing program come with the macbook pro?

just TextEdit

You do get text edit, but that may not do what you want/need.

If you want MS Office, you can get

http://store.apple.com/us/product/H2437LL/A/microsoft-office-for-mac-home-and-st udent-2011-family-pack?fnode=MTY1NDA0OA

You can send/receive office docs from PC's and Macs without worrying about how you save docs, and how they are sent. It's probably more than you need, but if you're looking for the most straightforward solution and don't mind paying for it, that's the way to go.

You can get iWork from Apple

http://store.apple.com/us/product/MB942Z/A/iWork-09?fnode=MTY1NDA0OA

which will allow you to open office docs, but there will be a little more work on your end.

you can also go for Open Office,

http://www.openoffice.org/which is free, compatible with MS Office, and may be slightly easier to swap files with MS Office users than iWork would be.

It really depends on what you need from a word processor.