First week as a trainer

My new companion is Elder H, he's from Quad Cities, Illinois, and he's about as fresh as a lemon. He's pretty quiet, a little socially shy/awkward, but he's got the conviction and heart for the work. This next week I'll start speaking more Spanish to him to get him more exposed to it. On top of that, I'm letting him take the reins a lot earlier than my trainer did, because I want him to be ready to train at 6 weeks. There have been missionaries that train after 6 weeks in the mission. Right now, I just need to help him loosen up and feel comfortable with talking to people. Granted, I'm still not completely comfortable, but I can do it without flinching or hesitating, so that's where I want him to be very soon. He's very passive, and doesn't like to make decisions, yet that's a very key part of missionary work. Making direct, specific decisions quickly. I really hope that as I put him on the spot, that he'll take it and run with it.

We did indeed watch General Conference, here in the Ramona chapel. They had a pretty old projector, so the picture was a bit off, but we heard everything that they said. Last conference, I wasn't particularly impressed with a lot of the talks given. I didn't feel like I could directly apply them to myself as perfectly as this time around. This conference, I was drinking it in, as though I had my face in a big barrel of living water. I loved every single talk, even the shorter talks by the members of the quorum of the seventy. It was over way too soon. I wish we could sit around and listen to 6 hours a day for 6 days a week. But alas, that would be way too many talks and choral pieces for those people to do. And as a missionary, we have access (kind of) to getting an Ensign. I was hoping that this apartment in Ramona had more copies of the Ensign, but alas, it has very few.

This week, we added a guy named G. We had just finished up Elder H's first night in the field, and we walked into our apartment. 10-15 seconds later, we hear a knock at OUR door. Believe me, 9 months and that's the first time anyone has knocked on my door. We answered, and it was our next-door neighbor, G. He's about 21, and he wanted to know if he could talk to us. We stepped out, and he began to explain that he wanted to give up drinking, smoking, and drug dealing to come unto Christ. He distinctly said "I don't want to become a Mormon. I just want to find Christ." Having gotten that a lot, I replied that we don't invite people to become Mormon. We invite them to come unto Christ. He told us that he'd had many horrible dreams in the which he thought he saw the devil and hell, waiting to take him away. He said that he would do anything to get away from that. We set an appointment with him, and went back into our apartment. We haven't seen him yet, but when we do, we'll talk to him about how to be rid of his sins and how he can be clean and free through Christ's atonement.

Along with that, we managed to get one of our investigators with a baptismal date. His name is D, and he's about 12 years old. His sister is a recent convert to the church, but he really doesn't have any church support from his family. He asked his mom if he could get baptized, and she said that she didn't care. We taught him how the gospel of Jesus Christ can make us happy in this life, and the next, and Elder H invited him to be baptized. We'll be working for the 26th of April.

Other than that, we really haven't had much happen in our area. We've been working hard, but we haven't had hardly any success in finding new people to teach except for G. Tender mercies, no?

Have a great week!

-Love, Elder Crook