Week 12: Life is Short--the Mission is Shorter

I´ve already been in Costa Rica for two and half months! Yikes! Time flies....

This week has been a downpour pretty much every day. It´s great fun being soaked and walking in muddy water (especially when we have planned to visit Los Lotes, which is a kind of a ghetto, for lack of a better term...Some of the houses are made of cement, but others are just shacks) and when it rains, the street is just a mud bath haha. I´m grateful for my rubber shoes now, that´s for sure. We had a noche de hogar with Familia Vargas (our family of recent converts) and we brought María and Dianita (little sister of novio de María). It went really well, especially since Genesis (13 años) planned the lesson and did really well and even had activity planned, and then Yahaira and Carmen made some kind of fried bread for the treat and Agua Dulce. Loyda and Valerie had a hayday with my hair (they remind me a lot of Laura and Emma, especailly when they go at it with my hair, haha)

Aurora, one of our forever investigators, is going to be baptized this Saturday! Her two hijos are members, but are kids and don´t like to talk about religion or come to mutual or church. But she is finally fed up with the way her life is right now. Her husband abuses her, and she told us that she only feels better when we visit or when she comes with us to church. She is separating from her ësposo (they´re not married), and is going to be baptized! This week we had a huge attentance in the ward (128!) and the ward is getting stronger. In fact, our new ward mission leader is very enthusiastic about helping us,and wants to do his best. Things are looking up. I really have no idea what is going to happen next week when my companions go back to Guatemala, if I´m going to stay in Ojo de Agua or move to another area. I really want to stay in Ojo de Agua becuase I know my way around and LOVE the members here and want to keep helping this ward grow, but of course, I will be happy whereever the lord wants me to go. I love you all and hope you all work hard in school now that it´s starting again. Remember the things are truly important, and put God first before everything else. Life is too short to procrastinate the day of our repentance, or the day in which we truly study the scriptures and pray to our heavenly father. We need to do all we can to grow and become more christ like in this life. Until next week folks!

Love,

Hermana Flake

Pictures Week 12:

Week 11: The Field is White (and Muddy)

Hola mi familia!

Sounds like yáll are having a good time. Take lots of pictures :)

     This weekend we baptized María!!! She is so cute and her testimony is so strong. The baptismal service for her was perfect. Lots of people came (including investigators) and the spirit was strong. My companions and I and Stephany (a member of the ward who is 18) sang a special song for María, which is called Feliz Para Siempre. It´s a beautiful song and we´ve been practicing over the past couple weeks. Yall should look up the lyrics :) It starts with ¨hace un tiempo atrás¨ and then ya´ll can plug it into google translate. María really was a golden investigator. It all started a few weeks ago at our weekly portuguese class that is held in the church every thursday and taught by Daniel, a member who served his mission in Brazil. Maria´s boyfriend, Michael, has been inactive for years, but he is now actively trying to quit some addictions and is coming to church. The two are adorable together and have been a light in their family. Michael´s family (the ones who introduced us to Maria) have seen how the missionary work has affected María and are more actively engaged in the work of salvation now. They all want to be missionaries! Maria and Michael both want to serve missions, as well as the younger sisters of michael. Every member a missionary!!!

     Recently we´ve been visiting a lot of inactive or less active members and trying to help them come back to church or do the things like praying and reading scriptures as a family. It´s great to see these people remember why they were baptized and have a renewed energy to come to church. And on the downside, we also see a lot who just don´t get it. They think that they´re good since they´ve been baptized, and they don´t worry so much about praying, reading, or coming to church. These three things are so important! One member, who was somewhat less active a couple months ago when I first arrived, has, since we´ve started visiting her every week or two, started to become a member-missionary. Not only has she started coming to church regurlarly again and bringing her daughter to mutual, she now actively magnifies her calling and teaches lessons to the youth and sometimes primary every sunday. She also asked us missionaries to help her to do her visiting teaching, since her companion never can be contacted or has no desire to do her visiting teaching. So I went on divisions with this Hermana and we did her visiting teaching together. This last week, we had planned a noche de hogar with this Hermana, and she invited all her neighbors. However, no body showed up. But we told her that her efforts will be rewarded, in the Lord´s way and timing. She shared with us a story that bishop shared this sunday, about a man who was told by the Lord to push a boulder evrey day. The boulder never budged, and the man grew dissatisfied because he never saw the results of his labor. Yet he continued to push the rock like the Lord commanded him. Eventually the Lord came and talked to the man and the man expressed his concern about how he cuoldn´t move the rock. The Lord simply said, Ï only asked you to push the rock every day, I never said you had to move it...and now look at you. You´ve grown healthy and your muscles are strong. This was the end goal.¨ So, even if we don´t see the fruits of our missionary work, we can know that our own testimonies and conversion process are getting stronger through sharing the gospel with friends, family, and neighbors. 

     There are so many people out there waiting for something that can only be found in the restored and full gospel of Jesus Christ. The field is white already to harvest, so thrust in your sickles and get to work! :) Talk with everyone even if it´s just chatting about the weather. As you talk with people, they will feel or see something different in you guys. I love you all and promise that one day i will write down the funny things that happen to me in the week  (Trust me, there are plenty...) that´s my goal, to remember and write down embarrasing, funny moments so I can send them to yall so that I´m not always just preaching. haha. 

Mucho amor,

Hermana Sarah Flake

Pictures Week 11:

Yo y Ishmara 

Two young men that the elders in our area baptized this Sunday.

family of the boyfriend of Maria (the girl we baptized) . 

They were integral to the conversion of maria ;) 

Week 10: Every Member A Missionary

Hey Yáll! 

I´m terrible and I didn´t write in my journal very well this week so my letter is going to be really short...sorry...

We still have María who is progressing extremely well. Her baptism is this saturday and she is simply precious. She is only 17, but she is very mature and spiritual. 

We have been trying to teach our main taxi driver, Oliver, and his wife, but so far have only had one lesson so far, which was basically get to know who they are. We are good friends with Oliver because he drives us around a lot, but it was the first time we met his wife. I will keep you posted on their progess.

I loved reading all the emails yáll sent me this week! Thanks for the pictures as well! I promise that next week I will write a more fulfilling email and include pictures. It´s just that this week, literally, I took no pictures.....estoy malo! perdon. Haha. Thank you for your prayers and keep me posted on your going-ons. Love yall bunches,

Hermana Flake

P.S. I wish I had infinite energy, but I swear I am dead tired a lot. All part of the mission I suppose, ha. I will just have to work harder on eating more veggies in order to have energy :) 

P.S.S. Keep enjoying your summer break! And Jessica, make sure you are balancing the work and the fun :) Sounds like you are doing good though, since you still like your job even though you´re working like a horse ;) Love yall!

Week 9: Nothing Exciting This Week...

Hello my wonderful family!

This week my companions and I had to travel to San José to get my huellas (fingerprints) done. So that means we stayed at the ¨sister house¨ and all the other gringas and two of the latinas that came to costa rica the day I came, were all there :) It was nice to hear about how the work is moving in their areas and to finally speak a little bit of English, ha. With that finally done, I´m not at risk of being thrown into prison anymore...haha. Now I´m completely legal here.

We¨re still working with Familia Vargas, because they still need to be guided and helped a lot. They came this Sunday, but they have been slipping on some things that I won´t go into detail, that members shouldn´t do, so we´re going to have another family night with them on top of our other visits with them. They just need help quitting habits and forming new ones. Don´t we all?

Ok, so we have another investigator who is a gem. Her name is María and she is dating a member who is inactive and addicted to marijuana. His name is Micheal, and his Mom, Dad, and two sisters are active in the church (his mom is a counselor in the Relief Society), and since meeting María, has a renewed desire to quit using drugs. The way we met María was at our weekly Portuguese class that we hold on Thursday nights in the capilla, which are taught by our good friend, Daniel (return missionary who served in Brazil). Anyway, Micheal and María both came as well his mom, and they really enjoy learning Portuguese. Then after the hour-long class, we talked to them and planned a Noche de Hogar in their house. Last sunday we had the noche de hogar, and it went really well, and we committed María to a baptismal date :D We taught her again this last Thursday right before the portuguese class and plan to have another noche de hogar tonight. We are hoping to prepare Micheal to be worthy to be the one to baptize her, but even if that isn{t possible (I´m not sure the rules about how long someone has to wait after having used drugs to be worthy of the priesthood again...) we hope to help him change his life around. I love them a ton and they are always smiling! Pray for them :)

Sorry I don¨t have any picturesthis week....just one of a delicious fruit that looks really cool and a pic of Carlos, an awesome 10 year old who is a great example in his less active family. He practices magic tricks, so that´s cool :) He also made me a bracelet with those little rubber band things.

Jessica! please tell me about your life! I want to hear about school, dates, funny stories, hanging out with family, embarrasing moments, everything! Troy, Tyler, Travis - you all too. Happy Birthday Laura! in a week!!! Tell Emma, Darrell, Benson, and Brian how much I love them! I love yall!