I'm sure many are wondering

Yes, I am officially a trainer here in the good old Colorado Denver South Mission. I'm not quite sure at the moment if this is a blessing or a curse, considering what a challenge this has really become for me. My new companion’s name is Elder Gallardo, pronounced in a variety of ways. It all depends on your nationality. For us Americans it is simply pronounced how it looks. He’s from Newport Beach California, and has grown up in the church. Both his parents served missions. His mother actually opened up the Dominican Republic mission when she served. His father is Mexican so my companion will fit in just perfectly where he is going. He is headed off to the north Argentina mission. Can't remember the city... But it’s basically the northernmost part of Argentina. He has studied Spanish in the MTC for 9 weeks and now he's with me.

As far as the "greenie" thing goes he's not really green. He has been teaching with the missionaries at home for a good 3 or 4 years, so he knows how it all goes. Our week went really well though.  We were able to really work and we had such a good week, that the zone leaders congratulated us and praised us for like 10 minutes in District meeting. Afterwards the zone leaders said that they are really proud that I did so well because our area hasn't been doing so well for a while.

It’s hard to train, and this is why. In the MTC they tell you that your trainer will be this amazing missionary and that you should follow his example. I feel like it's been hard to gain my companion's respect because I've only been out 6 months. He's an awesome missionary though. Nobody's perfect and I'm certainly not the perfect companion to be around either.

As far as our investigators go, our good investigator on date for June 9th, has hit a bit of a road bump. She is struggling a lot, but hopefully we can prepare her for her baptismal date so she can make it. We did get a good surprise this week though. An excommunicated lady came to church last week and had asked the bishop to have the missionaries come over and teach the lessons so she can get re-baptized. When we went to the appointment, turns out she has convinced her nonmember husband and son to sit in on the lessons with her, so we were able to teach them all. It was a great lesson for everyone and it definitely had the spirit there as we taught. Hopefully in the near future we can get them all baptized.

Well that's what I got for this week, and we are headed into a crazy week to come.

Elder Bringhurst