I'm going to be training a brand new missionary starting this Thursday and I am very excited for it!

So transfer day is tomorrow, and Elder Nonu is being transferred to a place called Sorsogon and his new companion will be Elder Rowlings. As for me, I am staying here in Libon and I don't know who my new companion is going to be because he hasn't arrived in the mission field yet! Yep, I'm going to be training a brand new missionary starting this Thursday and I am very excited for it! I don't know if he is going to be a foreigner or a Filipino, but either way, I am very interested to see what it's going to be like!  I am feeling good, but with this last 6 weeks, I feel like I have moved away from the spirit a little bit, just because of the wasted time that we had. But I have a lot of hope for a second chance during my training, and I just REALLY hope that my trainee is humble and wants to be obedient.

As for this last week, we didn't have much happen! Transfer announcements came on Saturday night, so ever since then, we have just been going around to all of the members and stuff so that Elder Nonu can say his goodbyes to all of them. I'm really gonna miss Elder Nonu and all of the stuff that we did together, but he's super excited to be leaving, as he did not particularly enjoy this area. But he will be missed by me and all of the other members.

The members here are okay. It's a branch, so the members are not that strong in the faith and are very unaware of their duty, so that's going to be my first focus when I start training. There are some strong members that I really do like though: The Reblando family, the Cerilo family, and the Sabaupan family are all great and very strong in the church :) They are nice to us missionaries all the time :) Only about 60 people attend church every week, as compared to Irosin where we had anywhere from 120-145. Church is actually not far at all, because it's literally the building next to our apartment 😂 but that brings a lot of problems with the members dropping in our apartment unexpectedly, and some of the members have actually slept at our apartment before. I told them it was not allowed, but the other missionaries in the apartment said that it's okay because no one ever said it wasn’t allowed...

Guys I'm really sorry that I don't have much to say, but I can promise that I will have a TON to say next week with my new trainee! But I am very happy and always am, I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Elder Austin Cook

The only picture I have is just of the activity we did earlier today. We dug a bit and put searing hot rocks in it and then placed food wrapped in tinfoil in the hole with the rocks. And then we covered it with banana leaves to cook. I guess it's a Samoan thing, and since Elder Nonu is Samoan, he wanted to do it before he left.