I'm A Trainer!!!!

Hello from the Philippines!,

This week is the first week of the new transfer. Transfer day is Tuesday....however, I will not be transferring with most of the rest of the mission because I am training this next cycle! Which means I'll be training for the next 2 cycles because training lasts 12 weeks.

Sister Erandio and I got a call from President Maurer asking if we'd both accept this calling. We will be driving down to Tacloban for a trainers meeting on Wednesday, and then we will meet our anaks - our trainees - on Thursday and go to the areas we've been assigned. What will most likely happen is I will stay in Calbayog with my trainee, and Sister Erandio will be transferring to a new area to white wash with her trainee.

Why is this happening when we are still both so early in our missions? Other than our batch, the next biggest batch is going home this week. And...8 of the sisters that are leaving are STLs in the mission. Which means that all of the older sisters out there in the mission that probably would have trained, need to fill those STL spots. Plus, there are 9 new sisters coming in, which means 9 trainers are needed.

Heaven help me!!! I still hardly understand what anyone says. It's like I know what words they are using, but in how they phrase the sentence or what exactly they are asking me with those words, I have no idea. Last week there's no way I thought I was ready, but this will be good for me. Your prayers however will be much appreciated.

One of the members has a monkey!!

Person of the Week? > President Nicandro. He is the elder's quorum President and he is one of the most spiritually uplifting people I have ever met. He absolutely LOVES the missionaries. He is always doing everything he can for us and feeding us and giving us stuff. His testimony is nothing less than amazing. And he  takes elders with him several times each week to go visit members and less actives. He is also a convert and has had a very hard life.

Then the missionaries came and first taught him the Plan of Salvation. It completely changed his life. He pulled his life together, and now he's one of our branch's best leaders, an extremely successful entrepreneur, and the nicest guy you'd ever meet.

It's amazing how much the gospel changes people.

My little spiritual thought for this week is on trials and the impact they can have. There is nothing in the whole world that can build you and strengthen you and that of enduring through a trial and making it out better than you were before. Nothing could give you that knowledge, strength, confidence, testimony, than enduring through that trial did. That is a huge part of this mortal life - so that we can learn how to deal with struggles and problems to the best of our ability.

In the mission I've seen this a lot in myself. It'll be really really hard for a couple weeks, and when I finally realize I'm okay and still alive, I think, "Wow, look how far I've come now compared to myself a couple weeks ago."

This whole training process I know is going to be one of those experiences. By the time I'm done training, I will be halfway through my mission and will be a much better missionary than I am now. Hopefully that thought can outweigh the fear that I know will strike soon haha.

There's nothing in the world like serving a mission. It's one of the best things you could ever do.

Have a wondrous week everyone! Love you all!

Love Sister Russon