Training a Greenie!!!

Herro!!

Hello my wonderful Family!! I hope you're all doing sooo good! With watching General Conference this week, I've thought about you all! I love you!!

This week has been crazy!! We hardly did anything in our area and hardly ate because we never had time. I lost 6 pounds this last transfer. Eek. Anyway, we just had a crazy week. We did temple tours on Tuesday and it was DEAD, there was NO ONE who came so we just sat around studying Chinese and making phone calls. Then Wednesday we had District Meeting and English which ate up the day.

Then Thursday we had our weekly planning session and went to Taibei to "babysit" the new greenies that came in. So when new missionaries come in, they go out for a few hours that night with a missionary in the area and just contact and tract to get over their fears and just jump into it. So I went with a new missionary Sister Bready from American Fork. She was soooo much fun! We saw some really good things happen and shared our testimonies with some people that gave us their information to meet with missionaries in the future. It was such a good night. She was so much fun and will be an amazing missionary! Then, that night, I got a phone call from the Assistants to the President that I would be TRAINING one of the new greenies!! SCARY!! I hardly slept that night and had such anxiety through that next morning and all throughout training meeting. It was terrifying. I was afraid I would train a tall intimidating girl who would eat me alive. It's intimidating to train someone fresh from the MTC because they have all sorts of oddities and idealistic ideas of what a mission is. It's GREAT, because they have so much faith, but sometimes they can be very critical of their trainers. I heard it myself from the mouth of my MTC teachers, "Don't trust your trainer. You show them what's what!" Funny, because how the heck does the trainee know what's what?? So I came out of the MTC being totally self-righteous and wanting to put my trainer in her place yadda yadda. So anyway, I was terrified. But lo! Who was I to train? Sister Bready!!! We were sooooo excited!! She's SUCH a good sister!! She's already so brave and fearlessly contacts and shares in lessons and has good Chinese. She did ILP in China too so we have so much fun swapping ILP stories. She's just one of those personalities I LOVE!! So exciting!! It's been so good!! Training so far (as in...the 3 days I've been doing it...) is good because it feels like a fresh start. I can start doing things a little bit better, as if it's the start of MY mission. Plus it's good to have someone you can just serve a lot. I can try to help her do and be and have what I wish I'd done and become and had when I started out. It's soooo good. There's a lot of team work because she's not stuck in "her own way" of doing things because she doesn't HAVE her own way yet. So we can just do alot of learning together. It's fun so far. And she's so humble and so good. I'm so excited!

Conference was soooo amazing!! I loved President Monson's talk about Gratitude and Elder Holland's "Thank you" talk. I nearly bawled my eyes out through his whole talk. Everything just made me want to bawl.
So in honor of those talks, I want to say what I'M grateful for!

My mission so far.
For ALL of the things I've learned from every single companion.
For the investigators I can learn and love and teach.
For the Eastdell ward who got me on my mission!!
For FAMILY that helped me out financially, spiritually and emotionally!
For everyone who booted me out the door to go in the first place. Haha
For all the girls I've loved before. Who've wandered in and out my door. I'm glad they came along, I dedicate this song...to all the girls I've loved before...
For Jesus Christ and the Atonement that makes me so happy!
For a living Prophet who has all the power of Noah and Moses and Joseph!
For the Book of Mormon with revelations and personal revelation eeking off of every page.
For an awesome bike!
For an amazingly fun childhood!
For goodly parents that taught me right from wrong and didn't let me go on sleepovers.
For homeschooling! That was FUN!!
For the internet and email!!
For every letter I've ever received.
For delicious food including but not limitted to: steak, hot pot, spicy cucumbers, cot bread, Dad's chili, Mom's chowder, Jessica's cake, Michael's pancakes, and Rachel's cinnamon rolls.
For dressing up in ancient clothing and parading about pretending like you're from "the South".
For painting and beautiful music!
For poetry and the cello and the violin.
For movies I love like Fiddler on the Roof and Robin Hood.
For good friends that make awesome memories!
For travelling to distant lands and having insane and dangerous experiences.
For learning to master oneself and the power of the Savior to rip my weaknesses out by my toes.
For facebook...it's annoying but convenient for keeping in touch with people...obviously not on my mission.
For the convenience of a cell phone.
For a drivers license...a long time coming but still appreciated.
For every minute of my life.
For trials and heartache that help me become what God wants me to be!

And the list goes on! Send me your list!! Love you all, Coley