June 15, 2015:

Hey Dad, Mom, Jessica, Troy, Tyler, Travis, Laura, Emma, Darrell, Benson, Brian, and other family and friends (hehe, I just wanted to write all of your names )
There are so many iguanas here, especially as we are in the rainy season again. I want so badly to catch one. They are fast little devils. Haha. One of these days I will be able to catch one and take a picture so yall can see the beautiful iguanas that there are here.

Fabrizio recieved his mission call yesterday! He will serve in Argentina. He is very excited. Fabrizio is the young man who let us use his laptop in order to skype yall on Mother´s Day. He spoke to you guys a bit in english. Maybe yall remember him. Anyway, he is a recent convert (a little over a year ago he was baptized) and now he will serve 2 years in Cordoba Argentina. how cool is that?

We have been focusing a lot on two families in particular...Xiomara and Jackson and their kids, and Marbelly and Rodolfo and their kids. Xiomara and Jackson have to marry in order to be baptized, but Jackson doesn´t want to, but we trust that as we teach him, them, the importance of the Law of Chastity and keeping God´s commandments that they will make the right choice. Marbelly is already married, but she had a spiritual experience when she decided to be baptized in her church before moving here to San Carlos, so she feels like she shouldn´t have to be baptized again. Marbelly and Xiomara and their kids all came to Stake Conference, and they heard President Wilkinson speak and I know that they had to feel the Spirit, as I did, throughout the conference. We keep praying, fasting, and preparing for these families.

This month Costa Rica will be divided into two missions. I am pretty sure that I am part of the West Mission...I think my new mission president is from Honduras.

My companion and I are focusing on learning how to teach through testifying. I know that I want to be a challenging and testifying missionary. I know that God needs bold missionaries that declare repentance and baptism. I testify more than I have ever testified in my life.
I am excited to improve this week, to find lots of quality investigators, to challenge them to be baptized, to testify of the restored gospel, and to show my love for my brothers and sisters and the Lord through word and action.

Thank you for your love and prayers.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Flake

p.s. remember that I challenged you all to bring a friend to church, to mutual, or to an activity of some sort? I want to hear about the experiences when you do bring somebody :) and I have yet to hear from Troy in his own words about his experience....haha.

p.s.s. I hope that yall are enjoying the start of summer break! Remember that these easy going fun filled, sunny days are also a good time to form good habits. Exercise, daily scripture study, more meaningful prayers, learn new talents or practice instruments, read good books, service, service, service. Enjoy the sun, (but put on sunscreen so no skin cancer! he he) and smile! I love you all and am so happy to be part of this eternal family.

June 8, 2015:

Hey my beloved family,

Things are great. We are sad to see Elder Evans, our district leader, go home early. He has to have surgery on his neck, so he will be going home tomorrow to Utah. He has done a lot of good here in San Carlos as our district leader this last month and a half. I learned a lot from him. He is always so positive and upbeat.

This Sunday we had a whole huge group come with us to church. 7 of them over the age of 8. Marbelly came with her 3 kids. Maria came with her 2 nephews and a niece. We passed by Xiomara and Jackson´s house, but they had to do an errand, so they only sent Jeiner (their 8 year old son) with Marbelly. We were bummed that they didn´t come, but they said that for sure next Sunday. They came at 12pm to the church so we took pictures outside :) They are so adorable.

The woman in the zebra dress is Marbelly. The woman in the
blue dress is Hermana Ana Paniagua who is a member that
 gave us Marbelly as a reference (they are neighbors and friends).

Together with the elders, we brought 27 or 28 people to church (only 17 of those count as investigators), and we had an attendance of 104 people....but we are lacking still a whole bunch because as a ward, we should have at least 120 on a regular basis. We are working hard and the ward is trying to reactivate members, but we have a long way to go. Pital, about an hour away, is a group that wants to break away from our ward and become a branch. And when they do, we will convert into a branch unless we get the people to come to church, to participate, and to magnify their callings. We will continue to search out the lost sheep and challenge them to come back to the fold.

This week we found an inactive member who was baptized 3 years ago. His family is not member. He doesn´t have a testimony, and things that we trick people into joining the church. He loves the missionaries, but he doesn´t believe in things about the church. But he said he will come to church with us next Sunday, with his whole family. We testified and challenged him and answered some of his doubts. We will continue to do so and look for more families like his.

Jesenia, a recent convert, blessed her baby yesterday (finally) and she said that she felt so good now that the baby has been blessed and given a name. I am thankful that the Relief Society president helped make that possible. Jesenia has a very complicated situation, but they are helping her to feel loved and cared for.

Barrio San Carlos has come a long way, but it still has a long way to go. We need a bishop. The ex missionaries in this ward are inactive, menos activos, or just come to church and don´t do much else. There needs to be a focus on return missionaries being leaders, shepherds for these flocks. I know that I will be a hard working ward missionary or member missionary when I have to take off this nametag.

I am excited to keep seeing miracles. I am excited to keep improving, to find more lost sheep, to help families prepare to enter the waters of baptism. I am excited to keep working here in San Carlos. I have lots of faith that things will start clicking and the gears will turn and we will have a strong ward here.

Can you all keep in your prayers, Xiomara, Jackson, and Jeiner? We are preparing them to be married this month, and baptized as well. They are from Nicaragua and are adorable. The gospel is changing them. I will keep yáll posted.

I am so happy to be in the Lord´s service. I am so so proud that Jessica is leaving soon to serve the people in the Dominican Republic. I am so proud of Mom and Dad who are constantly serving in callings in the ward, helping neighbors, friends, acquaintences, and most importantly, our family. Thanks for everything!!!

Con muchísimo amor,
Hermana Flake

 Pictures 6/18/15:

Xiomara and Jackson, with their sons, Jeiner, Heiner, and
 Stewart. Grace and Brian are their cousins.

Our crazy district haha.

lots of rain

all of the agendas i have had up until now haha.

 I am between Kliver and Andres, awesome youth in the ward who are the
only members in their families or the only active member. They are great.

June 1, 2015: For the Strength of Youth

Hey wonderful beautiful family!

Things are great in San Carlos. This Sunday we had planned on bringing 2 families of investigators, but they canceled on us. However, 2 less active families that we have been visiting came, so we focused on making them feel welcome and loved. We have been focusing on inactive youth trying to reactivate them and get them to come to seminary, mutual, and to church. The youth really are the door to references because they invite their friends. This sunday one boy brought his friend to church and today we played basketball with an inactive member who brought his friend and will bring him to seminary and to church this Sunday :)

We´ve been trying to help Flory stop smoking and be baptized, but she just doesn´t keep with the goals that we set with her...She has tons of pain because she suffers from bone cancer and lots of other health problems. She has been visited by missionaries for 9 months now and still hasn´t been able to be baptized because she cannot give up smoking. We visited her every single day this week and brought her something every single time we visited. I don´t know what else we can do to help her. We fast and pray for her every week.

We have lots of faith that Xiomara and Jackson will be baptized this month. They have to save up in order to pay for the lawyer to marry them, but they are great. We love them so much and they are adorable because they love each other so much and are always doing things together as a family.

Hermana Flores and I are doing good. Sometimes when things get hard and people are rejecting us left and right, I notice that my companion gets really down on herself or loses hope in the situation. I am learning that I have to be doubly happy so that my companion can also be happy. Like make jokes, or help her to laugh at weird things I do. Haha. I am learning lots about how important it is that we be happy not only for ourselves but for others.

Another week has gone by. Time flies too much. It´s already June. Wow. Hey, I want to challenge yall to do something this month. This month, invite a friend to mutual. And after he or she comes to mutual, invite him or her to church and offer to pick him or her up and go together. Introduce him or her to the missionaries in the ward. Will yall do that this month? I want to hear about who yall decide to invite :) tell me what happens. Troy, Tyler, Travis, Laura, and Emma can all do this challenge, right? Go get em! :) This sunday 4 young single adults came to our ward and gave talks. One of them is a young woman who just recieved her mission call. She is the oldest of 11 kids. Her family is all inactive except for her. She wants so much that they can come back to the gospel, and she is so brave because she will leave them and serve a mission. The other youth was a convert about a year ago thanks to a friend that invited him to church and to his farewell when he left on his mission. His whole family is super catholic, but he told us that he feels selfish when he doesn´t bring his friends or invite his family to come to church with him. He knows the gospel is true, and only came to know so through his friend that shared it with him. We never know who will accept the gospel. But our duty is to share it with everyone we know. So the challenge is on. Who accepts?? (If you bring someone to church, take a picture with him or her at church, I want to see your pictures).

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Flake

May 26, 2015: Rainy Days and Sundays

Hey yall,

It´s been a great week. As far as us being positive, finding lots of new investigators (18), teaching families, seeing two families come to church with us (Xiomara and Jackson came with their 3 sons), putting baptisimal dates, and finding joy in the small things, we had an amazing week :) The bad part about our week is that Sunday we had an sacrament meeting attendance of 58 people....11 of these were non members! Only 47 members came to church! Three less active families that we had visited and taught this week, that had committed to coming to church, didn´t come because it was pouring down rain :( But my companion and I are happy that some inactive youth that we´ve been trying to get to come to seminary, came to Luis´ baptism (investigator of the Elders) on Saturday.

Jeiner, Heiner, and Stewart

We continue to focus on aumenting seminary attendance and reactivating the youth in this ward. In fact, we are focusing a lot on a few young men and women that have less active families, Moises, Breiner, Jeremy, Alexandra, Jennifer, Andres, Andrey...Basically all of the young men and women in the ward are less active members or inactive...so we are searching them out, teaching their families, and bringing them to seminary and mutual and to church. Moises and Andrey came to church yesterday!!! for the first two hours :) yes! haha, and today we played basketball in our pday with Jeremy who is 14 and loves to play basketball :) He wants to play in the NBA (tyler would definitely be able to whoop him, haha but he plays with heart) so we played today, my comp and I against Jeremy and his friend (not good at basketball...my comp plays better than him haha). We kept the score close and I let them beat us by 1pt ;)

So we have been doing all that is humanly possible and not against the agency of Melany...but she didn´t come to church and now we will not be having a baptism this month :( But my companion and I are still in good animo because we will baptize Flory (an eternal investigator that only has to stop smoking to be baptized) who we are helping her to stop smoking for her baptism the first week in June. We have a family that we will help be married and baptized the 25 of June as well, that came to church yesterday! We are looking at the positive and staying with good spirits because we know that all is well when we trust in the Lord and are obedient with exactness.

Elder Evans, our district leader, is such a good example of staying positive in any circumstance. He has oscilosis (dont know how to spell it) and is in constant pain. However, he is constantly helping us to look at the bright side of things. We have lots of unity in the district of San Carlos even though Pital is far away. Ward unity exists, but the number of members that really understand ward missionary work or saving lost sheep is really poor. I have high hopes for Ward San Carlos, but the testimonies of members are weak and we need more leadership. We will keep giving it our all, and I hope that the members will be moved in their hearts to be more active and to work more.

Lately I have been thinking a lot about the pioneers and their faith and obedience. They suffered so much in order to obey the prophet´s voice which they knew was called of God. Am I willing to do as much as they are in order to follow God´s appointed leaders? Are we like the sons of Helaman who obeyed his every word. They knew that he was not perfect. But they trusted in his calling and duty to lead them in God´s name to protect their familes, homes, and beliefs. Do I do my best to obey with exactness the prophet, the apostles, the seventy, general presidencies of young men and young women, mission presidents, stake leaders, bishop, zone leaders, sister training leaders, district leader...etc. I know that God is a God of order. He does not walk with us, but his servants here on earth are here among us. Do we follow their inspired counsels? I certainly will do my best to be obedient and diligent in heeding God´s servants.

I know that Thomas S. Monson is a prophet of God. I support him and his counselors and the apostles. I know that they posess the keys of the Priesthood to direct God´s work of salvation. We are a prophet-led people.

With love,

Hermana Flake

                                        Pictures 5/26/15:

May 18, 2015: Show the Love

Hey fam and friends!

This week has been great. I am learning more about my companion. Amazingly she found 11 new investigators in one day when she was on divisions with Hermana Hubler (our especialista). I need to learn more from my companion, many things. I also want to learn how to be able to give her the energy that she needs to always work like she did when on divisions. I know that when I learn how to do that, we will have more union in our companionship and we will be able to teach with power authority and focus and these new investigators will convert into progressing ones.

Anyway, this week has been great even though we´ve gotten soaked three days straight...haha. Good old San Carlos. When I was on divisions with Hermana Montoya in Alajuela we had a great couple of days finding and challenging investigators to accept baptismal dates. I also was able to see the unity in the Zone Alajuela. They got together to practice
a song and skit that they presented in the Stake talent show. I know that our zone tries to be united as well, we just have a little bit of a distance barrior, haha. We are hours away from everyone in our zone. But we are in constant contact with our leaders, so that´s good.

Last monday we had a great family night with a less active family. We talked about the importance of raising children in truth and righteousness, being examples, and creating celstial traditions as families. What we do, the little things, make up the eternity. I constantly remember something that mom ingrained in me. She always said that her kids are her investment, or in other words, everything that she does to help us to learn new things, develop talents, or to learn the gospel is worth the price, the time, the effort. It is so important to think of the little things that we do as families, such as all the family nights where I still remember the object lessons that dad gave ;) and I use them in our lessons with investigators and less active members haha. Thanks mom and dad for preparing me for these moments. Anyway, this family came to church this sunday :) I am so thankful for the knowledge of the gospel that helps give us desire to be a little better each and every day and to fight for our families.

We are always fighting to be exactly obedient. That is one thing that I love about Hermana Flores. We fight to be obedient with exactness in our schedule and everything. I just hope that I can help us to be so focused and into the work, that she doesn´t have the time to think about her family and home so much. I know that her situation sometimes makes it difficult for her to not think about them, but a trunky missionary, no matter how obedient, cannot be as effective. That is something that I have heard, learned, and witnessed to be true.

So, today we didn´t really have a pday...our zone leaders told us last night at 10:15pm that we had to be in Alajuela at 9:30am...which is a three hour bus ride from here. So anyway we went and we got to see "meet the mormons" :) it´s pretty sweet. Talk about a tear jerker (the last part about missionaries, haha). I love it. We got back to our area around 5pm, and so we are writing a bit later than usual (but not our fault, ha). we have a family night to run to, so I am a bit short on time...

But...I had a three hour bus ride, and being the nerd that I am, haha, no but being the avid reader that I am, I read for about an hour or two from an old Liahona from January of 2002, which is General Conference talks :) There are a ton of really powerful talks in that thing. Wow. Well, one of them that I really liked is from Dallin H. Oaks, " Compartir el Evangelio" or Share the Gospel. Talks a lot about sharing the gospel for the right reasons, having sincere desires to share our testimony out of our love for others. I love a part that says " The most effective missionaries, members as well as the regular missionaries, always work out of love." Mosiah 28:3-4 and Alma 29:1-2. This love is something that we must pray to have, and work to develop, because it doesn´t always come naturally (not always easy to love complete strangers ha).  Moroni 7:47-48. I will work on that more this week. If I am doing what I do because I desire that my brothers and sisters come to the knowledge of the truth and recieve the blessings of doing so, nothing should be too hard to overcome.

Thanks for all your love and prayers!

I love you all!

Hermana Flake

                                        Pictures Week 5/18/15:

May 11, 2015: Faith In God's Promises

Hello fam!

Yesterday I saw each of you all grown up haha. Thanks for always being there for me. I love you all so much.

This week has been a bit rough. My comp and I are obedient and we are working extremely hard, and we have been working extremely hard to teach Melany and Hellen (they are sisters in Rosa´s family). Rosa likes to listen to us and participate in our lessons, but she will not come to church. She says she is catholic and will always be catholic and won´t come to our church even just to get to know it...so yeah. but her daughters, Hellen (16 years old) and Melany (10 years old) are learning and participating a whole bunch. Melany has come to church twice, and we have been working so hard so that Hellen would come. We have brought members over (the primary president, our mission leader, recent converts, etc. etc.) and saturday we gave her a tour of the church after we taught the Book of Mormon with Duais (our mission leader and a return missionary) and it went really well. She wanted to come to church, she committed to coming, we offered to go with her in car, and we told her that Satan was going to put a petty excuse or some kind of trial to tempt her to not come Sunday (yesterday). That´s just what he did...We recieved a text at 12am saying that she was having contractions (she is 8 months pregnant) and that we should pray for her, but that she didn´t think she would be able to come to church....I sent her messages telling her that we were praying for her and that this was the trial, but that she could defeat it....we called at 7:30am and she said that her mom was going to take her to the hospital instead of come to church with us.....ouch. Yeah, so that hurt. Her baptismal date was for the 30th of this month, but if she doesn´t have 3 times to assist sacrament meeting, she cannot be baptized. I have been trying to have faith and trust that everything will work out all right if we are just obedient, fasting, praying, working, having daily contact, using members, etc. that God would provide the miracles, or at least help us to reach our goals and to find those who are prepared and to baptize according to the wishes of President Wilkinson (2 baptisms each month per companionship), but it doesn´t seem to be happening.... I know that the promises are real and true, but my faith is lacking. I just have to accept that maybe God´s will is different from mine...haha. Maybe I have to learn to have more longsuffering and patience...yup that´s probably it.

Anyway, the good thing is that my companion and I have decided to work with reactivating members and recent converts from last year, and aumenting seminary assistance and church assistence. That is a real problem here in San Carlos, and even though it is hard because as missionaries we are expected to focus on investigators and preparing people for baptism, we will be focusing on finding those who are already baptized but who are not faithful or who don´t come to church. Presidnt Wilkinson promised us that if we reactivate, we will also baptize...until now we haven´t commited to reactivating faithfully...we have been looking for some of the inactives, but we didn´t really make it the priortiy. But now, it´s on. We will put the promise to the test. We are going to reactivate, reactivate, reactivate, and according to the promise, we are also going to baptize. Here we go! haha

Faith. I have been studying faith quite a bit. It truly is a power. Faith heals. Faith builds, faith moves mountains. Faith raises from the dead. Faith is a real power, but it seems so hard to obtain. Faith means we hope for things that we can not see, but that we know are true. I hope that the promises will be fulfilled that come from the mouths of prophets and leaders called of God. But Sometimes it is so hard to pass through the trial of our faith. When nothing seems to be going right. When everythings seems bleak,. When no one wants to accept us. When those that have accepted us once tell us they no longer want to learn from us, when they haven´t even given us a chance... That is my trial of faith. I know that the message we share is true. That is enough for me. He never said it would be easy. It was not easy for Him. Why should I expect it to be easy?

Well, I hope that reading this doesn´t put you all in a depressed mood. haha. I know that when we are obedient, when we follow the words of the prophets, when we do the little things, we are always blessed. Maybe not immediately, but we are always blessed.

Jessica and Troy :) you two are the closest ones preparing for the mission field. I just want to tell you both, that you are so blessed to be in this family. We are so blessed to live in the United States and to be in such a strong ward, and mormon community. We are extremely blessed. There are so many people who do not have the knowledge of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ and therefore do not recieve the blessings for living it as we do. The call to serve a mission is to unselfishly allow others to recieve the same blessings we have. But yall can start now. We are always examples in everything we do as members of Christ´s church. And not just to non members. Do the little things to put on the full armor of God. Read and study the scriptures and the word´s of modern prophets and leaders. Pray with the desire to be lead by the spirit. Magnify your callings. Be a friend to those around you. Smile. :) Never think that you are not good enough. You are God´s children. We are children of God. We are blessed with that knowledge and the knowledge of how we can become like Him. I love you both. You are such good examples to me of hard work, obtaining and sharing talents, and diligence. But most of all you are my best friends. Keep up the good work, and be happy doing it :)

Well, my time is about up. My thoughts have been a bit scattered, so this email is a bit long and confusing, haha. So until next time :)

Love,
Hermana Flake