Hi family.

     Um, first CONGRATULATIONS to Kelsie, YOU'RE ENGAGED! I was so

excited all day when I got the email. I AM SO HAPPY FOR YOU!

     Well this week was certainly an unexpected one. Lots of emotions,

haha. Let me explain... Wednesday night we got a text from the zone

leaders saying we were to be at the stake center the next day for an

emergency meeting with President Johnson. They didn't know what it was

about themselves, so obviously we were panicking all night wondering

what was happening. President Johnson, former business man/ CFO is

never so unorganized about anything. Everything with him is about

productivity and effectiveness. So the big news is, I'm being sent to

a new mission. Baltimore, Maryland! It was not easy news to take in

honestly. I've spent almost the last two years since I got my call

setting my mind on the fact that I had been called to serve in

Pittsburgh, PA, and this is where I was meant to be. I should have

paid a little more attention to the line in the call letter that says

"your assignment may be modified according to the needs of the mission

president."

     I am the only one being sent to Baltimore with only two transfers

left in my mission. Afterwards President Johnson and the APs pulled me

aside and explained how he really did struggle over my name, but knew

that he couldn't give me the opportunity to speak Spanish in the

mission anymore, and that I could there. It was kind of cool, they

said how any time a missionary is changed from one mission to another,

like when a missionary is assigned, a member of the quorum of the

twelve has to approve each case. So if they know it's right, it must

be, right? Haha.

     Baltimore, Maryland here I come?

     So here's how it'll work. The Lancaster stake is being moved into

the Maryland, Baltimore mission. So I may end up staying here until

the end of my mission, or I may spend my last transfer somewhere in

the new mission. I've decided I'll be happy with either. I obviously

love where I'm at and the people here, but if I get transferred, I

assume it will be somewhere else Spanish speaking, so it's something

new. I've already been here longer than average, and with Hermana

Smith WAY longer than average. So it's possible she will stay and I

will go. It's also possible though because I only have one left here

he will keep me and send her. I JUST WANT TO KNOW. Haha. The only

other bad thing is I'll be going home with a group of people I don't

know. When missionaries go home they give a departing testimony at the

last zone conference, and spend the night before they go home in the

mission home with the mission president and his wife. It will be even

weirder if I stay in Lancaster until I go home, because the only thing

that will change will be going home with another mission, haha. This

week is going to be strange. We feel like we're just in limbo right

now, in between missions haha.

     As for her in Lancaster, we're working with some really solid

people right now. Suzie is eating the Book of Mormon up, she's already

midway through the book of Alma, haha. This week we asked her again if

she knew it was true, to which we got a 15 minute explanation of all

the reasons she knew it to be true, and added that she wouldn't have

the book in her hands if Joseph Smith wasn't a prophet of God. Very

happy missionary moment.

     We also started teaching a guy named Pablo from Santo Domingo who

just got here. It just so happened his friend from the DR had been

inviting and taking him to church for a while now. God definitely took

care of him, we found him within 10 days of arriving to the states.

     It's been crazy in Lancaster this week. It was celebrate

Lancaster day on Friday and Saturday, and there was a huge gay pride

festival on Tuesday and Wednesday. We've had some fun encounters! Haha

     That's really all for right now. My mission just isn't going to

end the way I ever thought it would. But it's okay, new things are

good.

Hermana Sears