First week training!!!‏

Hey family!!! Ok, so I wanted to write more like a novel like I did last week, but I´m so short on time!

I messed with pictures again, trying to get those up, originally with the intention of sending you a pic of me and my treinada, but I forgot, and now it will take too long, so it will have to be next week! But check out the pics on photobucket! http://s610.photobucket.com/albums/tt190/heather_327/MTC/

Ok, so I have to be really quick, I really only have 10 minutes left. I wish this could be a super long drawn out email telling you everything but´I´ll have to resume. So!! Last time I wrote, I had just found out I would be training. Oh yeah, then I went to the office and got your package!! It made me sooo happy! Thank you so much!! I loved the sweaters and everything, I´m all excited for winter now:D And thank grandma for the granola bars, they´re amazing!!

So then....we went home and started the goodbyes for Sister Velasquez. She hadn´t really thought she would be leaving, so we said goodbye to the most important people. Then Tuesday...we got all her stuff ready, I packed an overnight bag, and we dropped all our stuff off at the "big house of the sisters" downtown. (6 sisters in one apartment - scary, right?) So we dropped off our stuff and went to the bus station to say goodbye to people leaving and meet the people coming.

So imagine how I felt when I saw Sister Raphaela standing there in the bus station!! It felt like no time at all had passed since I had said goodbye to her 6 weeks ago. But at the same time it was crazy to see her again - I had already forgotten what her voice sounded like. So I ran up and hugged her and we talked. So this is where it gets interesting. I had heard that she was going to be training as well, so I wa´sn´t surprised to see her there. But when she told me her calling, I was definitely surprised! She´s not training this transfer - not really. The 4 sisters who are training are me, S. Velasquez, S. Pinkston and S. Rose. So unusual - not one brazilian sister training! All americans and a bolivian. But S. Raphaela´s calling is something we´ve never had in our mission before - travelling sister. She´s a "treinadora das treinadoras", trainer of trainers. She has no area and no companion, but is going to stay 10 days as a threesome with each companionship of trainer/trainee. Crazy!! She´s so amazing the president made up a calling for her.

So I was also surprised when I found out there were 4 sisters training - I thought only 3 brazilians were coming. But someone let me know that one american was also coming - she had just got her visa and came straight from provo. Surprise after surprise! So that night, we ALL slept in the big house of the sisters, the 6 who always live there, the 5 who would be training, and the 4 who just arrived. It was insane. I stayed up ridiculously late talking to S. Raphaela about everything- our last transfers, what would be coming next, everything.

So the next morning, we went to the meeting for trainers and trainees. Up to this point, we didn´t know who we would be training yet, and the president didn´t either. He decided the night before. So the first thing we did after eating breakfast at his house was sit down at a long table to start the meeting. It felt like it had only been 2 weeks since I sat there next to S. Raphaela, hoping that she would be my trainer. So the President started announcing who would be with whom. So this needs a bit of explaining, but I was sure that I would be with a brasilian. All the rest of the trainers have about a year or a little less, so I´m way the least experienced. So it´s kind of a preconception in our mission that training americans is a lot harder and goes to the more experienced people. So if you had asked me then I would have said I would probably train S. Albuquerque, from Recife. We just had kind of a connection.

But....when he called out my name.....he announced "And Sister Madsen....will be training Sister Draut!" I was super surprised. Sister Draut is the only American! She´s from Las Vegas. So....from that moment on I´ve been her trainer! It´s been crazy!! She´s amazing, she´s 22, BYU grad in English. But it´s really crazy for her because...I don´t know, everything is so different! She is so amazed by everything, the butter, the chocolate milk, the sidewalks, she thinks everything is so different. So that´s crazy - it´s kind of making me feel like a brasilian already, I don´t even remember being weirded out by all these things.

But.....she´s great! It´s crazy though, definitely stressful to be a trainer, it´s crazy being "out on my own", responsible for everything, getting us places (we´ve definitely gotten lost a few times), knowing the right thing to say to investigators and contacts...teaching her how to plan.....it feels a little bit like juggling. Like, I was just getting the hang of being a junior, and now throw in a brand new american, now throw in teaching her portuguese, now throw in teaching everything myself because she can´t help me much yet, getting us around, planning, getting people to church, finding new investigators.....it´s been kind of a stressful week. But it´s great, and I know she´s going to be amazing.

So....that´s my week!! I´ve actually gone 5 minutes over time, so I have to close now. But thank you SO much for your letters (I got a batch last week, Mom, and another today!! Thanks!:D)

And all your support and everything. I love you all so much, and thank you for always being there for me. Have an amazing week, and I´ll talk to you soon!!

Love always,

Heather