February 23, 2011

Well, for starters this last week has been completely crazy. First off, we had a baptism last week! Kaitlyn Robinson was baptized on Saturday, it was really awesome. She is the daughter of a Less Active member that we helped become active again. Her mom is the member, but her dad isn't a member, so hopefully now we can start teaching him as well. But that wasn't the crazy part. The craziness started this past Friday. We were going to an appointment, just like any other, when the phone started to ring. So I took it out and it said "President Cotterell". So naturally we started to sweat, haha because he never calls us. So I answered it, "hello, this is Elder Rider", and he said, "Elder Rider, how are you?", "good, you?" he said "good. Do you know why I'm calling?" I said "nope", and he laughed, and then got really serious. he said "Elder Rider, you have been called by the Lord to be a Trainer for a new missionary who will be arriving from the MTC this Monday" Then there was a long pause. I immediately started thinking what? I've only been out for 4 1/2 months, nobody trains at 4 1/2 months. You usually won't train until you've been out for at least a year. Then he said, "you probably don't feel qualified, that's because you're not." Then he told me all of the reasons that I wasn't qualified, haha. But then he said "Who the Lord calls, he qualifies." Then he gave me a bit of advice, and told me that the calling of trainer was the most important calling in the mission. If we don't train new missionaries well, the mission will fail. He also told me that I will affect this missionaries life more than anyone else besides his father, and that my influence will affect him far beyond his mission, so I need to not mess up, and that was that. So then I had all weekend to sit there and panic about training because I don't feel like I am ready to train anyone else, I'm still trying to figure things out for myself. So yeah, it has been crazy, but I now have a new companion. His name is Elder Brewer, he is from Albuquerque New Mexico, and he has been here in North Carolina on his mission for 2 full days now :) He is awesome, I'm really excited to be working with him. Well, that's what is going on here. We have another baptism coming up this Friday, which I am really excited about. I love you all, and love the lord and serving him.

Love,

Elder Rider