Comings and Goings and Comings and Goings and Comings......

Today was my trainer's last day in the mission.  Sister Chueh has served wonderfully, and I am so happy that I had the opportunity to work with her, even though it was for a short time only.  Sister Chueh was part of the tri-panionship in which I started my mission, and I am grateful for the guidance she gave and the example she was to me.  She is off to a new adventure, and it's going to be awesome!

In the meantime, I am still in Chinatown, which is as crazy and awesome as ever.  We had a couple of changes in our zone, with Elder Williams leaving and Elder Foley returning.  One of the strangest changes to me is that for the first time on my mission, Elder Murray and I are no longer in the same district!  Nine months later... crazy.  He's still in my zone, so I'll still see him all the time, but it will be a change.

The other big news from this week is that we have a new sister in our midst!  Sister Chen from Taipei, Taiwan joined us in the mission and is being trio-trained by Sister Woo and Chan.  Yeah, that's going to be confusing.  (Chen and Chan are the same name in Chinese, only with different romanizations.)  They are living with us now, and Sister MacKay and Khong are moving out.  Hopefully Sister Khong and I don't experience too much separation anxiety.  We have lived together since we came into the field. All the same, I'm excited to be living with another native speaker again.

Today in transfer meeting, President Morgan posed a question that really made me think.  Every once in a while, it is important to refocus on what is really important.  I like doing self-inventories from time to time, and I think I will add this question to my personal list.  He asked us "Who do you love more?  What do you love more?  How can you better show your love [to the Lord]?"  I think the answers to these questions are some of the most telling of a person's character and their focus than anything else.  Can I really say that I love the Lord more than anything, or anyone, else?  Do I love Him enough to study His words every day?  To talk to Him on a regular basis?  To give up, as King Lamoni's father put so eloquently, "all of my sins to know [Him]?"  As missionaries come on their missions, leave behind their former lives, that is one step in telling Him how much we love Him.  The next is through exact obedience to His commandments.  Even though not all of you may be on missions, I would still encourage you to look for ways to be exactly obedient to the commandments of God.  He gives them to us so we can show our love for Him, and as a direct result of our obedience He blesses us more than we can imagine.

Whew.  Hopefully that meant as much to you all as it did to me when President talked about it this morning.  I love all of you, and I am grateful for all you do!

Love,

Sister Beer

Zone Conference! [Who can spot the Ginger?....]