Week 21:

My wonderful family,

We have a wonderful ward here in Coronado! And each time I am in a new ward I feel the same way, Like we are one big family as members of the restored chruch of Jesus Christ. And i shared my testimony which I have done more in my mission (like officially over the pulpit) than combined in all my life. I never was very good a public speaking...haha. And i was always a nervous wreck when I finally did decide to share my testimony. But for all you reading this, don´t ever give up! Keep on going up there even if you feel like your heart might just jump out into the congregation. I actually enjoy sharing my testimony now (and what´s more, its in spanish...). This ward is adorable, lots of older couples, as well as young families with lots of little kiddos. I´m in heaven. haha. This saturday was the baptism of Argentina. She has been investigating for 3 months, and finally decided to enter the waters of baptism....which, funny (sad) story....So Argentina is an older lady, and an adorable one at that. She was really concerned about being baptized because the water would be cold. And for some reason my comp and I told her that we would heat up the water for her. So she was expecting warm water.....and that is definitely not what she got.....So we were told to not even try because other missionaries had tried boiling pots of water, but they were never successful, so we didn´t bother....my comp was convinced that God would heat up the water....because one missionary in our zone told us a story of how they were unsuccessful in heating up the baptismal font, but when their investigator entered the water, he said thank you elders for heating the water for me. But lo and behold, this miracle did not happen for us....she was moaning as she entered the water because the cold water hurt her joints.....I felt SO BAD.....but after the ordinance and when she was changing she told us that she didn´t feel cold anymore, and that she actually felt kinda hot. We were trying to help her dry off as fast as possible and brought her a cup of hot agua dulce....never will promise hot water again.....only in the temple is the water heated..haha.

( I hope yall don´t mind, but I always insert a part of my weekly letters to my mission president, into these weekly letters....so this is the excerpt that I wrote to my mish president)..Well, two weeks have gone by here in Coronado, but it feels like 4 days....I´m not going to lie, I took a back seat and was complacent for about a week, because honestly didn´t feel a lot of pressure because i felt like my companion needed to teach me the area and help me to meet our investigators and members, etc. But i´ve realized that she needed me to take charge. She has a strong personality, but I do too, its just harder for me to take charge when I don´t have the best control of the language. A couple days ago we came home after working all day, and our district leader called as always, and really was telling us how we need to improve and giving advice and telling us that things have got to change. Afterwards we talked a lot and we´re both really honest with each other, and we expressed our thoughts and I flat out told her that she has got to start trusting that I know a little bit about what I´m doing and that even though she knows the ward, the members, the area, etc. that I´m not just a piece of meat sitting in the refigerator....haha I didn´t use those words, but I want her to know that I am going to start taking charge. We have felt moments where we were guided by the spirit, and I hope that now she has faith that she can be successful. She still has a hard time believing that numbers are a good thing....but we´re progressing. I love her so much, even though she can be frustrating at times (and walks EXTREMELY slow)....haha. But i´m working on patience and want to teach how to be diligent and work HARD. I love being a missionary even though sometimes i just feel like a kid placed in another country with GREAT expectations....but that´s what it´s all about. Christ didn´t have it easy when he preached the gospel, or when he sacrificed for our sins. but he did it. now that is my motto....just do it (sorry NIKE...haha). OUr goal is to find 20 new investigators this week......we have an awesome district leader who pushes us to reach our potential. And great especialistas who know how to encourage and push us as well.

This week we got the new liahona (it´s like christmas when we get new liahonas, haha, at least I enjoy reading them cover to cover, in spanish and english, hahah) There is a powerful article on THE PRAYER OF FAITH. wow. en serio. yall should read it. One idea that I really liked, and that I´m trying to put into practice, is reflecting before praying. It even suggests writing in a notebook to write down blessings, how you have seen the lord´s hand, or names of people that we want to pray for. And keep that notebook close, and whatever thoughts come to us as we pray or after we pray, WRITE THEM DOWN. this is revelation. and then ACT ON THEM. or we can´t expect to recieve more. we should pray for the prophet and every leader of the church. pray that we can overcome temptation, including the temptation to be complacent.  as i was studying this theme, the prayer of faith, i came up with a circle thing, haha, or a life cycle of recognizing the impressions of the spirit.  it starts with gratitude,----> love for God and charity----> desire to be obedient to the commandments and to god´s will----> prayer, meditation, service, magnifying callings, sharing the gospel, reading and studying the word----> the holy ghost tesitfies and speaks peace and joy to our soul-----> Revelation or thoughts, good ideas, knowledge, light and truth------> gratitude   :) that´s the circle that I came up with. Thought it was pretty neat and felt very enlightened, hahah, but just goes to show that we can all recieve personal revelation :) I love you all so much and invite you all to read the articles in the Liahona, the ensign, friend, new era, etc. Especially maybe yall could use the idea of having a family night focused on having more thoughtful prayers. And the activity can be found on lds.org (i believe) just look up prayer sandwich.....I thought it would be a good idea for family night, and yall could make sandwiches, with each part of the sandwich signifying a part that should be in our prayers....just an idea. Ok. now i am ranting again. Sorry that These are not the most interesting letters. I just kind of ramble and ramble. I will improve one of these days....haha. Love you all so much!

Love,
Hermana Flake

Week 20: Welcome to Coronado...not in Kansas anymore

Hola familia!

This place is gigantic! And cold! I never thought I would say that I¨m cold here in Costa Rica...but here in Coronado we´re in the mountains and it´s cold in the evenings and getting out of bed is freezing. Yesterday I had my first hot shower here in Costa Rica....apparantly right now the water heater is broken, so we´ve got cold water, but when the members we live with fix it, bingo, we´ll have hot water. Yesterday the members we live with let us use their shower so that´s how it came to pass my first hot shower here in Costa Rica ;) haha. anyway, on to important things....

Yesterday and Saturday we had the wonderful opportunity to listen to General Conference--I hope you all had the opportunity to really listen and find ways to put into practice those things that they taught us. Of course, we listened to all of the conference in Spanish....I missed hearing the real voices of our beloved prophet and apostles, but it was still amazing. And really tuanis that 4 talks were in other languages...what did yall think of that? when the speaker started speaking in chinese, spanish, or portuguese? haha. I loved the two talks that were in spanish because we got to listen to the real voices of those two speakers, but the rest were translated over.

So Ojo de Agua is a lot different from where I am now. Pretty much every one here in Coronado has a car. and the houses are mansions compared to what I´m used to in Ojo de Agua...It´s city, so people don´t greet each other like we always did in Ojo de Agua. Apparently this area has been really low in numbers, lessons, new investigators, and baptisms....yay me, haha. I don´t know the area still because my companion hardly knows the area as well, so this will definitely be a learning experience as we learn the area together and look for new investigators (because we barely have anyone...). We are going to rely alot on faith, and being obedient so that we can see miracles here in Coronado (because we desperately need some). Today we had a great activity that the Sister Training Leaders put together for all the sisters in our zone, and we talked a lot about having faith and working hard and being obedient and talking with everyone, so that we could witness miracles in our areas and have baptism--- how to have faith and really endure and be postiive even when it seems like we´re not having success, because if we still work hard, and are obedient, the miracles will come, we just have to be patient and really believe that they´ll come. Hermana Cobourn is one of our especialistas (sister training leaders) and she is awesome. She is in her 19th month because she extended her mission for another month and she was in my first ward at BYU.

My new companion is Hermana Canales; she is from Honduras. she is 19 years old. She has almost 3 months in the mission (just barely finished her training), and she is fun-loving and loves to talk. I hope that I can lead by example how to work hard and that I can learn lots from her and that together we can be successful tools in the Lord´s hands here in Coronado.

I hope that I can get to know this area well enough to be a better help for my companion to know where we should go so that we use our time more effectively. This week should be a week filled with talking to everyone, looking for nuevos, and praying fervantly to be led in the right direction, so that we can find those who are ready to accept the gospel and enter the waters of baptism.
I love being a missionary!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Flake

Pictures Week 20:

Miguel's Baptism

Week 18-19: The only thing constant in this life is change

 Hola querido familia y amigos!

Wow.

That went by too quickly. Fastest cambio ever. And now I´m leaving the area where I started my mission....not going to lie, very hard to leave the people that I love so much there. The members. the investigators. our cocinera y ¨ma¨. The area that I´ve grown to know and even the taxistas. I knew my way around and loved being there. And now I´m off to embark on a new adventure here in Toyopan. Miguel´s baptism was great. It was early before Church this sunday. We had Maria, a recent convert and an angel gave one of the discursos about baptism. She is awesome. Miguel really understood what step he has chosen to take and will be a faithful member of the church. I loved Ojo de Agua so much. Right now I´m probably annoying my ex-comp so much (Hermana Tordecilla) because I just sent her an email reminding her to tell everyone how much I love them and am going to miss them, and to tell her not to forget taking care of my recent converts and the other new members, menos activos, and our investigators....part of me will always be in Zone Heredia. It was a privilege. Well. Off to another chapter in a new area....It terrifies me and is thrilling at the same time. Mission life is crazy.  I am honored to be numbered in the ranks under my captain, President Wilkinson. I want to be a more worthy and diligent instrument in this great work.

I´m so glad that I was finally able to catch up on all the emails and photos that yall sent me of Grandma´s funeral. Last week we weren´t able to send emails because we ran out of time with our zone activity. I know that Heavenly Father is working in our family on both sides of the veil, that grandma and grandpa flake are reunited at last and are smiling down on their huge, happy family. It´s not perfect, but our family knows how to love one another despite our differences, arguments, trials, misunderstandings, hardships, etc. I know that families can live together forever if we stay true to the teachings of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I am grateful so much to be a member of the restored church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints, and for the opportunity we have coming up to listen to a living prophet and his apostles and other
leaders of the church. I know that if we listen and apply what they teach us, that we will be more able to remain faithful and be anchored when the storms and tribulations come (and they will come). Yet again I am short on time which means that I go straight to my preachy self instead of sharing the funny, sad, happy experiences that I´ve had this month and a half (that literally felt like a week).

Every single day it rained this month. Literally. And everyone says that it rains even more in
October.....yay...haha. Thanks for keeping me updated!  I love hearing about the ward at home! This may sound cheesy but anything related to church, church callings, missionary work in the ward, family home evening, members in the ward, less actives, leadership in the ward, the growing testimonies of Troy, Tyler, Travis etc. I love that stuff so much because that is my life right now 24/7 focused on helping wards grow (Que Chiva that now we have a bigger ward!!!!) reactivating less actives, finding new families and converts, working with the members to find new investigators, and trying to help people gain their own testimony of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. So keep it coming ;) I love you all so much and am so happy to hear that you are all having consistent family home evening, scripture study, prayer morning and night. Literally makes me want to cry, because I see too many examples here of families that don´t do these things and they are not active and dont have strong testimonies and their children are wayward. THe little things are SO important, especially always having the temple as a goal. I hope that yall always look for ways to help the missionaries in the ward by giving them references and hosting family home evenings for their investigators, or offereing to feed them every once in a while. I realize now how much strong families are needed in helping the work of missionaries in pushing forward the work of the Lord. I´m gettting too preachy....sorry. I love you all more than i can explain, and I´m not going to lie.....every once in a while I break down and cry myself to sleep (i promise it´s once in a blue moon.....but stilll) It was an accumulation of the funeral and not being able to be there and tears of happiness at the same time because yall were able to have a ¨family reunion¨ even though it wasn´t really planned. I miss yall, but I wouldnt trade being here serving the people of costa rica for anything.

I´m doing good. don¨t worry about me :) I am just grateful to recieve weekly emails from yall

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Flake

Pictures Week 18-19: