New comp and other news

So..my last transfer starts this week. Sis Cramer has been transferred to Su Jung and I'm having a hard time letting my "daughter" go. It's like sending her to kindergarten or something. I just hate the idea of sending my little Wyoming "farmgirl" in to the big city. It just doesn't seem right...but it is, and her nex companion is just going to be great for her. I'm just sad she's leaving. My little piece of the American countryside is disappearing :(.

My new companion is Sister Swenson. She's from Nevada, I guess. I went with her on a split once. I'll be honest...I'm such a tired, worn out missionary that just the thought of being with this energetic, excitable and TALKATIVE girl for six weeks just EXHAUSTS me...but I think she's God's gift ot me to make it so I have the strength to drag to the end with every ounce of energy left. Here goes nothing.

I've been cut out of Pungho...so I'm only in the Chinhae Ward. I have mixed feelings about the whole situation. I am really relieved at the thought of only having to worry about making one ward happy, but I really loved a lot of people in Pungho...it's like transferring, but not.

I've been asked to be the Sisters' Representative for my last transfer. Usually that just means I'm in charge of doing the splits, but the Church is opening a brand new missionary program here for which they won't even strart the training in the MTC until May. President told me that I'd be a huge pioneer in trying to apply the program to have it ready for the 15 new missionaries coming in when I leave. I'm really nervous to be able to know what I'm doing with a program I've never worked with before, but I'm also really excited. I'm so grateful that hte work of the Lord---or at least our method of doing it--is always chinganing and improving with time and experience. the things I've heard about the program are really inspired already. President Jennings will train us leaders on it this weekend and then we will trickle it into the rest of the mission. i'm grateful for Personal Revelation, because I think there'd be no way I could ever teach people about something I've never done before without it. The Spirit will teach me and then I'll be qualified to teach others. The Lord does not leave us without a way to accomplish the good we are called to do.

Amazing News!! The other night I was really struggling to know what to do the next day....ALL of my appointments had fallen through. I finally justh ad the spiritual prompting to just trust that htere would be a miracle and that it would help me know what to do. A few minutes later Sister Peterson, my MTC companion called me from Seoul. I mentioned a while back that she had found her biological family. Turns out she only found her Dad that time around...and that she has only recently figured out where her mom is. HER MOM IS IN CHINHAE!!! She didn't know I was the Sister in Chinhae., but I am. She gave me her mom's name and birthday and asked me to try to find her. miraculously I had a wide open day the next day...so I went to the police station to try to find her and...they found her! But they wouldn't give me her address (though I saw part of it on his paper...she lives right by the Pungho Church...sneaky me...reading Korean better than they think). I didn't catvh enough to find her, just the neighborhood. They took me to a more centralized office (the THIRD ride in a cop car on my mission....nice little theme....the police have become my personal taxi service). They offered to let me call them ,but I really wanted Sis. Peterson to call instead of me ( "Hi, I'm your child that you put up for adoption's MTC companion...what, you've never heard of the MTC??") Then it occurred to me that our Bishop is like the head Cop of this area...so I called him...he's working on it now. He's in touch with Sis. Peterson now. I think she's got the address and such now. She's got permission to come down and visit at the end of the month and she'll be staying with me :) I'm way excited!

There's a lot of change going on now...pray for me to have the strength to know how to make the best of it and just keep going strong to the end. Trunkiness is a real disease--but there's a cure...you just gotta love the work

Much love to all!

~R~