New Companion - Elder Costa

"I got my first Brazillian companion, Elder Costa from Minas Gerias, Brazil. So goodbye to speaking English. But if that wasn't enough, Elder Costa has only been away from home for 3 weeks, including the 2 and a half weeks he spent in the MTC. So that makes me...TRAINER!!! Ahhh, way crazy. It's gonna be some trying times, but I'm gonna give it my all. I will definately learn more from this than he will ever learn from me. But he is way cool. His family isn't members of the church and stuff, but he loves the mission and is gonna be a hard worker. We are gonna baptize all of Bom Clima. For sure. Whew, I slept like 2 hours last night just thinking about it. But I'm up for the challenge. Maybe not for the restless nights, but we will have to see. So here goes nothing..."

"I'm excited that like half of the Elders from my MTC group are training. President Urry said training is the biggest responsibility on the mission, even bigger than being an Assistant to the President."

After several months of service, missionaries become proficient in teaching the gospel, and more effective in bearing testimony of its truth. If they are speaking a foreign language, they accommodate to its dialects. As they grow and mature in experience, they may be transferred to different areas in the mission and placed with different companions, or assigned to meet new challenges and work with new people. They may in time become trainers for newly arrived missionaries.

--from All About Mormons