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!

Week 8: Nothing like a family all dressed in white

Hola Buenas familia amado mio,

Sounds like y´´all are having a blast visiting Jess and fam in Utah, and now yáll are driving to st. george to visit Grandma Flake. Tell her I love her please! And that I´m thankful for her faithful example that she has always been to her huge family and posterity. She is awesome.

Thanks so much for praying tanto for Familia Vargas! They really needed it because it´s a huge change for them---Juan to stop smoking and drinking, Yahaida to commit to be faithful to her husband, and all of them to be members of this church which is something that will always require much effort from them. The wedding was a little awkward at first, not a whole lot of people (including the abogada (lawyer lady)) didn´t show up right away, but eventually they got there. We had quite a few investigators come that were family of the Vargas family, so that was good. The baptism was much less awkward. It was directly after the boda, and so the turn out was great. Me and my companions shared a poem and song about knowing people before this life and commiting to finding them and teaching them the gospel. We brought lagrimas to the parents eyes. They are wonderful and I am so grateful to have witnessed the change in their life.

We have a lot of work to do now that Familia Vargas is baptized. We need to keep on teaching them all the lessons again, and work our tails off to find another family to teach as well as teach those investigators we already have. We have a lot that aren´t really progressing, so we´re going to determine this week if they´re going to progress or not and if not we will have to drop them....I feel really bad about it because some of them I feel like we might have neglected a bit, and that´s why they´re not progressing.

One of my comps straight up told me that she is expecting me to take charge now and to tell my comps what we´re doing each day (to an extent) and to put all of the baptismal dates on our investigators and to initiate every lesson. Phew. It´s hard, but it´s good for me. Definitely making me be less focused on myself and very humbling. They keep telling me that this is MY area and that since they´re leaving, they´re not obligated to do anything anymore. So, here goes to another humbling and hard week (not to mention sometimes awkward, like when my comps just stare at me expecting me to start, haha) and did I mention humbling? Still trying to find ways to serve them (if you have ideas, give them to me por favor...) but doing the dishes and buying some necessities for our quarters just isn´t quite enough. So true that having companions prepares one for marriage (i´m just glad I´m not going to be marrying two women who can be emotional rollercoasters sometimes, haha) I´m so grateful to have my two missionary moms who have been teaching me a lot about myself and what I need to change. And not to mention spanish and how to teach using examples and stories. They´re great and I am glad I have them as my trainers.

This Sunday, after the confirmations of Familia Vargas, Elder Tobar and I gave quick 5 minute talks, mine about Fe and his about esperanza. We found out the night before that we had the discursos this sunday.... luckily they only had to be 5 minutes. I wrote half of it down and the rest I just shared a personal experience, which was actually easier than I thought it would be. yáll know how bad I am at giving talks verbatum without reading...but that part was actually better than the part that I wrote. haha.

The longer I´m here, the more I realize just how important our attitude is. People are intrigued in those who are happy, smiling, and positive. I´ve realized that talking to people on buses, or just in the street. They will want to hear what I have to say when they see that I am happy to be here sacrificing time, education, employment, memories with family, etc. to be here sharing the gospel with others. And another thing is the importance of unity, in my case with companions, and in yalls´case, within the family. When we are united in purpose and attitude, we can have the spirit with us in our lecciones. Like I said, it´s been a humbling experience. Turn outward and look forward with faith!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Sarah Flake

Pictures Week 8:

Hermana Morales curled my hair for the baptism and wedding....it was kind of loco....

haha, and this is a pic my comp took at the end of the day after we had planned

A quickly thrown together wedding, but extravagance isn´t important. 

what´s important is that they acted on their faith and got married even when 

hardly anyone here in costa rica does that....perdon for the inmodesty of Carmen....

we have yet to teach modesty in detail...

The beautiful family was baptized and have made that step
        to take upon them the name of Christ! woohoo!

The baptism and wedding went off without a hitch 

(not sure if that phrase means what I´m intending, but you know what I mean...ha)

my comp took a pic of me brushing my teeth...

Remember to brush your teeth everyday to prevent tooth decay!

 and read your scriptures everyday to prevent truth decay! haha I´m really preachy, perdon

zone pic

Week 7: Change is Hard (and so is Lice)

Hola familia!

I loved reading all your emails about your weekends to Utah :) And I´m glad yall did something for the fourth of july, because I didn´t....haha awkward, but it was my companions from Guatemala that reminded me the day of...not me...oh well, I´m proud of my country and don´t always have to show it :) Like the ticans here when costa rica was playing in the copa mundial...they are PROUD of their country :) and I am too, they worked hard to get to the final four, first time in history (this was often my way of starting conversations with people on the bus, ha).

Our wonderful little family, the one with Juan Antonio, Yahaida, and their four daughters, is progressing well. Juan smoked a cigarette this saturday...but he´s trying to quite, and he fasted this fast sunday like we taught him. We taught them the Law of Chastity in full detail yesterday because they´ve struggled with this in the past (Carmen is 16 and has an adorable 2-week-old baby) and the parents have pasts as well. But overall, it went really well and we also went through all the baptismal questions with them to clear up doubts or misunderstandings since this saturday is their scheduled baptisms...and their wedding (two in one, ha). we also went over Palabra de Sabiduría (WoW) with them since the parents have been struggling with coffee and Juan with cigarettes, and they gave us their can of coffee to throw away. I sure hope they can be ready for their baptisms this saturday, but if juan keeps smoking, or yahaida drinks more coffee, or if Carmen can´t commit to chastity, we´re going to have to push some of their baptisms back...<but I have faith in them. they´ve made so many steps and are really trying to change their lives. They´ve come the last 4 sundays (menos Juan last sunday for work), and have had a family night with us missionaries and the Bishop´s familiy. Pray for them.

This past week, a young man who was a less active member, got in an accident on his motorcycle (he was doing a wheelie and was hit by a car). Apparently they all thought he was going to die for sure, but the next day he made signs that he might live. I´m not entirely sure since I only get bits and pieces from the conversations and my companions are at the end of their patience for helping me know what´s going on (they leave in a month and sometimes their heads are more at home than here...). Anyway, this sunday during fast and testimony meeting, the mother got up and bore her tearful testimony and of course with my luck, I had gotten up at the same time as her, so i was directly after her. So my idea of what i was going to share changed a bit as I sat on the stand, but it wasn´t bad. I bore my testimony about our blessing of having the knowledge of forever families and live after death, and a merciful heavenly father. And how I´ve witnessed the gospel change lives and families, so with this great knowledge we need to share the joyful news with our friends and neighbors. or something like that, in simpler words and in spanish, ha. The spirit was really strong in that meeting. After sacrament meeting, we had the Principles of the Gospel class where all of our investigators attend, and guess who was teaching....me...ha. The elders, who are also the zone leaders, delegated the teaching of this class to us sisters, and my companions delegated it to me. yay. but really it wasn´t too bad. I just had to think of some questions on the spot, delegate reading the sections, and ask the elders to write answers on the board. They (the missionaries)all helped to answer and give input, which really helped. Juan even told Elder Zelaya afterwards that he learned a lot. Phew. glad at least one investigator got something out of it :)

Things are better with my companions and it´s all because I decided to change my attitude. I had a lot of pride because I wanted to be exactly obedient and was ffrustrated when my comanions were anything but exactly obedient...but I realized that I was judging really harshly. they´re good missionaries, if a bit lazy, but they really love the people and explain things in a way the investigators can relate and understand. As i´ve focused on the positive, and tried to humble myself to serve them in any little thing even if I sometimes feel like the odd one out, I see where they´re coming from. They´re best friends and are both leaving back to Guatemala together in a month and a half, so of course they´re trunky and like to talk about everything together. I understand now, and am not letting things bother me so much. plus, if i want to help us be more obedient, I´ve got to be on good terms with them or they won´t want to change their ways at all (who am I, the newbie gringa to tell them what we should be doing?) I went through a bit of despression the last few weeks off and on, but not anymore. I´m here to show people the happiness the gospel brings, so I´m going to be happy and positive no matter what. If nothing else, at least i can be productive in that aspect :)

Hey dad, I´d love to hear some exerpts from your mission journal if you could type some and send them in an email. Maybe for when you were a newbie? I know you´re really busy, so don´t stress, I definitely won´t, but just a thought.

Ok, so the other day, saturday actually, my head was itching a montón! So I told my companion hermana morales that I thought i might have lice...and she said it was very likely. SO we checked. and lo and behold there was a whopping 25ish bugs in my hair! que asco! literally it was disgusting and kind of fun (i´m not going to lie, i like when people comb my hair, and killing lice is rewarding in a weird way) haha. But we covered my hair in vinigar and washed all my bedding, and now i´m good. was pretty funny. we discovered the culprit to be Loyda, and possibly the whole family Vargas (Juan, Yahaida, etc...) and since Loyda is always with me when we see them (I´m her favorite, haha, and when I´m not there because sometimes we do splits, she annnoys my companions to death asking where is hermana flake?, haha). So yeah...I´ll probably get lice again if since I´m not going to just push her away. I love her and her family. Vale la pena

Well, six weeks has come and gone, and it flew by. None of us here in Ojo de Agua had cambios yesterday (every six weeks there is the possibility of being transferred) so here´s to another six weeks learning as much as I can from my two mothers as they call my comps. I love you all so much and hope you all are trying to share the gospel each and every day, whether it be talking about it or just being positive, helpful, and happy. Until next week folks!

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Sarah Flake

Pictures Week 7:

cool lizard we found in the washing machine

 of the member we live by

photo below is of our zone minus one elder 

who somehow got cut out of the photo

Week 6: "Forget yourself and get to work"

Dearest Familia,

This week was different...we had a baptism :) The thing is, Laidi (the woman we baptized) was baptized when she was eight, but we have no record of it, so she had to be baptized again. It was a good thing though, because she is less active and hasn´t gone through the temple yet, and this gave her another chance to feel the spirit strongly in her life. Her husband, Pablo, baptized her, so that was precious. Juan Antonio and his two younger daughters came and watched the baptism, so that was awesome. And Yahaida (the soon-to-be-wife of Juan Antonio) and all her daughters came to two hours of church this sunday, but Juan had to work. I desperately don´t want to lose this family, so we are visiting this family almost every day of the week. In fact, we are having dinner at their house tonight. I love them so much, but Satan works super hard on those families that are preparing for baptism...pray for them.

So I decided that I am just going to do my best to be exactly obedient to the rules, but I´m going to serve my comps and be as helpful as I can to them. I cannot do my work here as a missionary if I cannot even get along with the people I´m living with 24/7. Though I feel like the only way I am ever able to get a long with them is when I am not being focused in missionary work, I am going to stay positive and just do my best. I need to forget myself (and even my desires to be the best and most effective missionary I can be) and get to work serving my companions and my investigators...

Costa Rica is progressing in the Copa Mundial and let me tell you, the ticos here will let you know how proud they are of that :) It´s awesome, but the day of the game was loco here in the streets. Remember that we should always have goals that we are progressing towards. And these goals should be specific and written down and somewhere where you can see them often. Continually be trying to improve something each and everyday. Never be content, but always be happy. People are watching, and if we want to be effective in sharing the gospel, we have to show that we love to live it! Energy and attitude are everything. I love yáll and want to keep hearing from yall! Tyler!!! send me an email once in a while, will ya? haha ;) 

Thanks so much for your desires in being a forever family! Continue to be missionaries and share the gospel with everyone, through words and actions. Help the missionaries in the ward, and even go on splits with them, or have a family night in our home with some investigators and the missionaries. It helps so much to have help from the members in this great work of giving the world the truth. Sorry for being preachy. I just wish I had known all this before my mission, so that I could be more helpful in our ward at home and I wish I had gone on splits with the missionaries. It is so effective. I love yall and pray for yall always :D

mucho amor,
Hermana Sarah Flake

Pictures Week 6:

One of our investigators has a new pet iguana...chiva!

I cut my foot on a metal cable. haha

Hello my family! 

It's going good here. I sometimes find it frustrating that my companions sometimes treat the mission like a vacation away from home...but they're also trunky (only have 2 months left), so there's that....I've been told by my district leader over the phone, that I need to try and be an example to them and step it up, because my comps an be a bit lazy sometimes....but it's hard when I'm the greenie and they have each other and will both be returning to Guatemala in 2 months. I love them though, and will do my best to get us all to be more productive.

        Despite our slacking-ness, however, we have a beautiful family of investigators (i mentioned last time) that came this week for the second time to church, and after we mentioned that they should get married (no one here gets married...it's just the way it is in Costa Rica) Juan Antonio (the father) went and bought a ring and will propose soon. We're going to help them plan the wedding! I love seeing them progress, especially since their daughers are so adorable and remind me of our family a little bit. Especially Loida, who is six, and acts and even looks a bit like Emma (other than the fact that emma is not a tica...ha). I hope to send pictures of them sometime. The father smokes and drinks, but has promised to quit...and as fate would have it, the lesson in the principles class this sunday (which he attended) was about Ayuno (the fast) and how fasting can help us to overcome addictions and become more spiritually strong. It was really awesome. We text him every night at around 6pm, when he said his urges to smoke are strongest, to help him remember his promise. One good thing is that his soon to be wife, said she won't marry him unless he stops smoking :) I love this family so much, and hope to find more like them.

I will be going on splits this week (wednesday) to Belen so I will get to see how another companionship works. I'm pretty excited and nervous because I will probably have to go way out of my comfort zone...it's good for me. 

Thanks so much for your prayers and examples of a happy family! I love you all so much and want you all to continue growing and learning! Spiritually especially, but it's awesome that you're learning sign lanugage mom! Everyone should have a desire to learn something new and challenging. 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Sarah Flake

P-day Photos

Hola familia!

Another week flew by... It´s so true when they say that, in the mission, days are long and weeks are short. 

Thursday was a successful day--of course it wasn´t perfect and it wasn´t easy, but it was productive and I was dead tired at the end of the day. after the usual morning routine (exercize for 30 minutes, shower, breakfast, personal study, companionship study, planning, lunch) we did divisions/splits, with Hna. Morales with Stefanie (young member), Hna. Escobedo with Ma (our "mother" who cooks and does our laundry for us), and me with two young members (Goudy and Fabianna). For me, it was super hard because they don´t quite have the experience and confidence of a missionary, so I had to talk alot, which is so hard because my spanish is bad and I´m not always sure what people are saying--but it was good because I had to get over myself and talk.

Saturday was Costa Rica playing in the Copa Mundial, so people here treated it like the Super Bowl-everyone was watching the game. So our mission president changed our hours for that day, we proselyted from 9am-12pm, studied from 1-4pm, and then went out to proselyte again from 4-9pm (the game was at 1pm). COSTA RICA WON by the way...haha People went beserk and cars were honking at everyone :)

This sunday, we went on splits at 7:30 am, Hermana Morales went to the Ward Council Meeting while Hermana Escobedo and I went to try and bring our investigators with us to church. We tried a couple doors but no one was home, but then we went to the house of a family of brand new investigators (we haven´t even taught them a real lesson yet) and asked them if they would come with us for an hour or two of our church meetings. and they said yes! so we waited for them to all shower and get ready...which took a while...and unfortunately we were 40 minutes late. However, they caught the end of sacrament meeting and then stayed for the second hour of our meetings. They are adorable, and I look forward to teaching them the gospel and baptizing them. They are Catholic, and very good people. Juan Antonio (the dad) accepted a baptismal date the first time we met with him...so it´s looking up. I wish our ward would have greeted them a bit more..you know, to fellowship and make them feel really welcome, but with time and as we continue to work with the members to encourage them to also do missionary work, I know the ward will become better at that. I´m still trying to grasp the language...it´s mostly just hard to understand when people talk extremely fast, or when there are distractions, noises, etc (like rain pounding on the tin roof, or music in the background, or lots of people talking at once), that sort of thing. Well, I love my companions and the elders we work with in our area, and the ward members who often help us with splits and everything. I pray to see a miracle happen with this family, and to be obedient and worthy to witness such a miracle.

Love yáll! tell jessica to send me an email! I´d love to see pictures as well! until next week! 

Mucho amor, 

Hermana Sarah Flake