Monday, January 29, 2013

This week has been crazy!  I got my new "greenie" companion.  His name is Elder Pointer and he's from Sacramento, California!  He's a stud and I've been learning a ton from him!  I feel like he's my trainer.  He loves sports and played rugby at a junior college in California.  His dream is to play rugby for BYU after the mission. His Spanish is really good actually and he has the desire to talk to everyone about the Gospel. We are here in Canelones and with much prayer we've decided to begin with a fresh start here.  We are looking for new investigators to teach and have been talking to many, many people.  At first, I thought that since I got a gringo companion I would have to do everything, but he's actually been helping me a ton and willing to do the work.  At times I make him do things by himself to see how much he actually knows and to see if he understands the people without me and
he has impressed me a ton.  We are going to see miracles here in Canelones, so I'm pumped! It has been a crazy week, but I'm doing great. This is my first time to be a senior companion, but I feel like I've learned enough to be on my own and to help Elder Pointer out.  With faith in the Lord, anything is possible!

The thing that was really weird this last week was that I had to travel early in the morning by myself to the mission home in Montevideo to pick up my new companion! It was weird being alone but it also made me realize how much Spanish I knew and that I actually knew what I was doing! It was a good experience and at times I was laughing to myself because I couldn't believe I was in a different country, speaking a different language, and knew how to get to a certain location in a completely different city. The Lord has truly helped and blessed me, no doubt about it!

 

It was awesome to see Elder Hicks at the mission home and to see that we were both going to train and be senior companions for the first time. We were both super nervous!  The other cool thing was to see that we are going to be in the same district, so we´ll see each other every week in our meetings!

It was funny because when I arrived at the mission home, President Armstrong pulled me aside and said that I'm going to love my new companion and that he's a rugby player.  So, before I knew who my companion was going to be, I was looking at all the new "greenie" missionaries and from their size guessing who was a rugby player and who would be my companion.  I guessed wrong (but he was my second choice by size!)

Anyway, we´ve been having a lot of fun getting to know each other and having funny experiences in the streets. He´s already accustomed to Uruguay because he went to the Argentina MTC and it's basically the same thing from what he told me. So I feel like he has a jump start in his first week as compared to my first week here in Uruguay.  As of right now, my group from the MTC is the only group to be from the Prove MTC here in the Uruguay mission. Pretty interesting.

Anyway, all is well and I´m loving the mission! We are working hard and I´m learning a ton now as I train Elder Pointer (but I feel like he´s come in here pre-trained).  Don´t worry about me, all is well!  I love you guys tons!