January 23rd, 2017
Bonjour,
It's been a
really nice first week as a trainer. I can say it's definitely different
from what I've done before. A lot of thoughts go through my head as I'm
having this experience. Because I remember when I was a
"Bleu". Life is not easy when you're starting a mission, but so
far so good with my "son", Elder Langley. He's from Mesa, Arizona,
and is 18. His French is not the best... but he definitely tries and is
constantly making an effort to learn the language. We're getting along
fairly well as well. He has a good sense of humour and seems to have his
head on straight. It'll do my job to make sure he begins his mission in
an environment of love, obedience, and of course, hard work. Being a
trainer feels a little like being a French teacher. He asks me like a
hundred questions a day pertaining to French, which is a good thing. I'm
also at a point now on my mission where I'm thinking the least about
myself. The things that occupy my head now are working the ville,
members, and taking care of my Bleu.
A wise ol'
missionary once told me back when I was a Bleu that the most important
leadership position in the mission is not District Leader, STL, Zone
Leader or Assistant, but is in fact Trainer, because if we have good
trainers, then we'll have good missionaries. I think that's really
interesting to think about.
This week was
lots of finding, but we did manage to fix a couple of follow-up
rendezvous, so we're pretty excited about that. And Maximilien finally
got baptised yesterday!! The service was simple, and had a good spirit.
The members here
are really looking out for us. Everyone treated Langley really well yesterday
at church, we get fed like three times a week. And they feel almost like
family. So don't worry about us up here. Everything is fine.
For some reason,
President has called for an early Zone Conference for this Friday in
Lille. I find that kind of odd, but we'll see why, I guess.
Donc, À la
prochaine!!!
Sincèrement,
Elder Aburto
