I'm Loving It

Yup, I was made a trainer this past Wednesday. Very crazy - I finished being trained on Tuesday and then became a trainer the next day. I got a call from President Beck on Monday morning asking if I am ready to handle this assignment. He explained what is expected of me and I accepted.


On Wednesday morning we had our transfer meeting at like 10:30, but all the trainers had to be there at 9:30 for a meeting with the Assistants and President Beck. He said that being a trainer in the mission is a more important assingment then being the mission president. They talked to us about what is expected and the responsibility and accountability of this assingment.


Then I got to meet Elder Geren and now were working hard in Anthem. It is going very good - he is very excited to be here on his mission. I have to teach him a lot of stuff and the pressure is on - I am now in charge of working with our ward leaders, deciding what and how we teach investigators, making appointments, deciding what things to do, having to answer anti-mormon questions, and a bunch of stuff.


But I'm loving it - it's so fun to help other's progress and see their excitement.


I'm not really sure on what an Elder has to do in order to become a trainer - all I know is that a lot is expected of a trainer because he helps mold the new missionary basically into a missionary (the MTC is great, but it's nothing like the field).


Usually Elders don't train until they have more experience, so it came as a shock to a lot of people that I was training.


Once President Beck gets the application for the missionaries coming in (about 2-3 months in advance) he works hard trying to find out which missionary will train him and where they will be. He takes new missionaries very seriously. So I'm loving it, and things are going great. He's a funny guy. Right after dinner each night, Elder Geren hops up and starts washing the dishes - cool Elder. He's my first born in the wilderness. I'm now a father.


The pastor was just a friend or something. That family wants to have us over for a nice dinner with steaks and stuff - so really looking forward to that and hopefully can help them start to progress.


We had a sister missionary in our district who got the exact same thing I did, around 3 days before me - so not sure if I got it from her cause we saw each other at Paul V. Johnson's misison tour (the day before I got sick). So it was just a one day thing - nothing big. We just have to call Sister Beck and let her know we are staying home from proselyting.


My new companion is 5'4. He's from Spokane, WA. Comes from a family of 5 boys - he plays the drums and was a wrestler - so he's got some nice biceps like dad. He's a ball of energy and wants to work hard which is very good.


How'd Carrie like BYU?


It will be a bit warmer this week - getting a nice tan which is cool, but not really since it's only a farmers tan.


Highlights of week: Monday - played ultimate frisbee as a zone which was fun and we got smoothies afterwards, birthed my first son into the mission, made an excellent decision last Monday to buy turkey & ham lunch meat with pickle stackers to make sandwhiches this week - they were excellent with a little mayo on multi-grain bread, yummy.


I'm excited for this transfer to take the lead, it will help me grow a lot. I'm glad Elder Geren is here. I'm loving it. Hope all is well.