July 27,2015: Miracles and Marriage Proposals

Hey fam!

This week was filled with miracles. We found a lot of families and people who are studied in the bible and intelligent. This is what are bishop challenged us to find. Families and studied people. The reason is because a lot of times missionaries, with the pressure their is to baptize every month, jump into poor areas or slums and start to baptize people who of humble circumstances but little means to be leaders in the ward if they even remain active. But our bishop told us he wants us to seek out the areas that missionaries usually call 'hard' because the people might be a bit richer or well off and turn us down a whole lot more. So this week we did just that. We found 25 new investigators including 5 complete families (at least husband and wife and maybe kids) and they are from richer neighborhoods\houses. We are opening our mouths and talking to everyone, contacting buses, talking to families in the street and knocking on doors. When I say 'knocking on doors', what i really mean is the costa rican way of knocking on doors....yelling 'upe' whenever we find or pass a house with their door open ;)

This week we had a relief society activity and primary activity that we brought Hellen and her siblings to. They really enjoyed it. They are progressing but very slowly. We will try to extend the baptisimal invitation again soon (they´ve had so many baptismal dates that have fallen through because they won´t come to 9am church).

I know we are following the spirit because many of the new people and families that we found this week told us that they were suprised that we knocked on their door specifically when they saw that we didn´t try a single other house near them. We pick and choose pretty randomly according to what we feel. One lady, who actually accepted a baptisimal date with her husband in our first visit, told us that she doesn´t know how she was able to hear our 'upe' because no one else heard us (she was in a birthday party deep within her house) but she told us that she heard our voices as if voices of angels....wow. The Lord is helping us out so much. He is putting us where we need to be and we are opening our mouths and He is speaking through us. This same lady cried and cried when telling us her desire to find someway to have a better relationship with her son, who wants nothing to do with her, and how she knows that we were sent by God to help her and her family. Wow.

Ok, funny story now. So we visit lots of inactive and less active members, and one of those inactive members, Lidieth, has a brother. He is not member, and he is 19. He has a way of crushing on sister missionaries, especially the gringas (american girls). So anyway, in other visits he has made remarks that point out that he has a crush on me, to the point where he once left a chocolate in my bible that said 'me gustas', which in english is 'I like you'.... anyway....this week we watched the 30 minute video about our Heavenly Father´s plan with Lidieth, Walter (the brother with a crush), and Bayron (another brother who lost his leg a few months ago). Then when we finished the lesson, I asked Walter to offer the prayer. After the prayer he got down on his knees and pulled out a ring and asked me in poor English, Sister Flake, would you like to marry me? Um....so that was pretty awkward, haha. I told him that he already knew the answer because I am a missionary and missionaries cannot get married. He insisted that I marry him after my mission. I told him that I want to marry a return missionary who shares my standards, and that he should focus on looking for God instead of thinking of marrying missionaries. So yeah....He told me that I broke his heart and that he was going to cry when I left. Haha. My companion got a huge laugh out of all that.

Well family, I have had a wonderful week and I know that we are exactly obedient to the mission rules and as a result we are able to witness miracles. It´s hard. We are always pretty tired. But we have a slogan, my comp and I , Regocijar en vez de quejar... in english, that means Rejoice instead of Complain. It´s all about attitude. We are focusing hard on loving our investigators and the members and being positive.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana S. Flake

July 13, 2015:

Hi yall

Yesterday we had 7 investigators come to church with us, but not a single one of them were we expecting to come, haha. All of them came with members that we have been visiting and reactivating, so that is cool. today we actually have a family home evening with Moises, the boyfriend of a less active member we have been visiting, so that should be good. They want to get married at the end of this month, and Jyth wants Moises to be baptized that same day (she brought him here from Nicaragua and is always telling him about how she wants to be an eternal family with him, but he has to be baptized in order for that to happen...talk about pushy jk). He finally got here to Costa Rica a couple of days ago, so now we can start teaching him the lessons and invite him to ask God if the church is true, so he can be baptized.

Saturday we had a funny or scary experience... We were traveling back to San Carlos from Alajuela (we had been in divisions with the Sister Training Leaders for 2 days), which is a 2 and a half hour bus ride. Anyway, we got to where our stop is, and my comp got off the bus, but I couldn´t because it was really crowded. The bus started to leave. I ran to the bus driver and told him I needed to get off at that stop. He told me that I had to wait until the next bus stop, which is 2 miles away! I told him that I am a missionary and have to be with my companion, and she already got off. He told me, with a straight face again, no. So I sat down with a big sigh, and i think his heart softened a bit, because he let me off only about a mile away from my comp. So yeah. I got off the bus and started speed walking for where my companion got off. I started calling my leaders to let them know we were separated. Finally I found her where she had gotten off, and everything was fine. Haha, we had quite a laugh about that.

Woops, I already have to get off now....
until next week folks!

Love,

Hermana Flake

Pictures 7/13/15:

July 6, 2015: "A little rain never hurt anyone" "yea, but a lot can kill ya"

Hey fam!

Well, today my comp and I bought umbrellas AGAIN. they all get ruined because it down pours so often and the wind is super strong, but this time we are going to keep the receipts, so if they are ruined again before a month we can get free new ones..haha. This week only saturday it didn´t rain. San Carlos is famous for the downpours. At least we are up so high in the mountains that we don´t have flooding problems like other parts of Costa Rica where whole roads are lost and houses are destroyed because the rivers and ocean overflow....

So I am doing great here in San Carlos. We have a new bishop and mission leader and things are looking up. We found a few families that we are going to work on getting them to church, getting to know families in the ward, learning the doctrine of the gospel, and preparing to be married (nobody gets married here, they just live together, but we are going
to teach them and help them to become an eternal family, like ours. :) This sunday was fast and testimony meeting. I bore my testimony about how we are so blessed to know what is the purpose of life. Here in the mission I have noticed that that is the number one thing that people in the world are looking for...understanding of their purpose and who they are.

I cannot believe that Jessica is going to be in the Dominican Republic in a couple of weeks!!! time is flying by!

This week I was studying a bit about Zion´s camp, the one that Joseph Smith formed when God told him that he needed to form a band of men to be help the Saints in trouble from mobs. In Doctrine and Covenants section 105 verses 1-3, 6, 10, 19 explain how God called them to form this group of willing men to test their obedience and faith, not because He wanted them to fight. They were tested and tried in those difficult days and weeks i believe. It makes me think a lot about the mission...we are here to find people and prepare them to make and keep covenants, but we are also here to be tested, to see if we will be exactly obedient to the Lord´s servants and to build our faith. I studied this theme the same morning that we recieved a message from our Zone Leaders saying that our new Mission President prohibited Coca Cola, Root beer, Pepsi, etc (any carbonated drink that is black or brown in color). My companion is fanatic for Coca Cola, and I like a good root beer every now and then, but it just reminded me of my determination to be exactly obedient to those that are our leaders. I shared these thoughts with my comp and I think she has accepted the fact that now she cannot drink Coca Cola, haha. I encourage yall to study a bit about Zion´s camp, and apply it to us in latter days. Are we striving to be exactly obedient to our Prophet, the Apostles, Stake leaders, Bishops, etc.? do we trust that they are men called of God and hold specific Priesthood authority?

My time is already up....I am so happy to know that yall are happy and healthy. Keep on being awesome!

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Flake

Pictures 7/6/15:

June 29, 2015:

Hey fam!

Well, last monday we had a Mission Conference with all the missionaries in Costa Rica to say farewell to President and Sister Wilkinson and their family. It was very spiritually impacting. When you have that many young missionaries in one chapel, singing at the top of their lungs, knowing that it´s the last time being with our beloved Mission President, it´s pretty emotional. I didn´t see too many dry eyes :)

I will be in the West Mission with a mission president from Honduras. His name is President Laboriel. They arrive today.

President Wilkinson talked about having a vision. We should always have a vision of what we desire to accomplish. We should ask God what He wants us to accomplish. Then we should take the necessary steps to make our dream, or vision, a reality. I am so thankful for all the things I have learned from Pres. Wilkinson. They are innumerable. The whole time he was giving his lecture, he had a long white thread on his coat jacket. I noticed it and was a bit bothered that he didn´t seem to notice it the whole time he was giving his presentation. Then he started to talk about how Satan starts with threads, things that seem harmless, but they build up until they are strong cords. Genesis 13:8-12. Abraham was the prophet. Lot made two bad decisions. 1. not to follow the prophet. 2. he put his tent facing Sodom. Genesis 14:12. Now Lot is living in Sodom. He went from threads to cords. He now was living in the most wiked city and obviously not living the commandments of God. It all started with the thread of not respecting the ordained line of authority that God has placed for us here on the earth. We must obey our Priesthood and Auxillary Leaders. When Pres. Wilkinson enlightened us with this story and example, I remembered something that Dad had taught us one family night years ago (I don´t remember if we were living in Tennessee or not, but I think I was probably 10 years old...maybe mom or dad remembers). He had us lay on the ground, and he put a thread of dental floss across our forehead. Then told us to lift ourselves off the ground without our hands. It wasn´t easy with Dad holding down the dental floss, but it was possible. We could lift ourselves up. Then I think that dad put a piece of rope across our forehead. This time we could lift ourselves up. It´s the same idea. Satan works little by little, first with pieces of string, or seemingly harmless sins, and then with strong rope, which is millions of tiny pieces of string put together. I know that in order to defeat Satan, we have to deny the threads of sin that he offers us. We must be EXACTLY OBEDIENT. I love that first I learned this principle in family night, and again here in the mission. Thanks pops.

Well, things have been rough here in San Carlos, because our baptisms keep falling through....Marbelly, Wilmar, and Greyci we hoped to baptize last month, but they didn´t want too, and they didn´t come the third time to church. We are working hard still to find inactive members and to teach them and to testify so that they have desire to return to the gospel, and some of them came this Sunday. But we need more. Pray so that Marbelly will recieve a spiritual answer from God that the Book of Mormon is true and that Joseph Smith is a prophet and that she needs to be baptized by someone authorized with God´s Priesthood. I love you all and hope that this month you all were able to invite friends to church and mutual. If not, make it a goal this month! :)

Love,

Hermana Flake

Pictures 6/29/15:

June 22, 2015: Lets ` a` go (Mario voice)

Hey yall!

We have had a week filled with service. First we helped Gabby and Greivin move.They are a family of recent converts who are now going to live in Puerto Viejo.

We are very sad to see them leave and now we are in need of Young men and young men's presidents. Then we helped Sonia, our cook, clean an apartment that she has. Then Saturday morning we went to help cook with Marielos, another recent convert, for the Father´s Day activity that we had in the church saturday night. Lots of service is good for the soul.

Anyway we have been focusing on visiting less active, inactive, and part member families. President Babb, our stake president, challenged us missionaries to have 30 lessons with MARCs each week, and we have to give a report of who we visit and what we teach them. We have our work cut out for us. We also have been focusing on Marbelly and her kids (her husband now doesn`t accompany us in our lessons when he isn`t working). She is praying to know if Joseph Smith was a true prophet. Still hasn`t recieved an answer. We are doing everything we can so that she can be baptized with her two kids this Saturday. Yesterday, after church, we went with Kliver,a young man in the ward, and with the Elders to look for some inactive youth that Kliver knows, so he took us to where they live. Then we ate lunch with the Alvarado Family and then shared with them a lesson. Jonathon, the boyfriend one of the Alvarado daughters was there (he had come to church as well,and has come several times with Susanna, his girlfriend). We shared with them lesson 1,the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and challenged him to be baptized when he recieves a confirmation that these things are true. He accepted for 26th of July. We can only teach him on weekends when he comes to visit his girlfriend, but that we will do.

Today we are in San Jose, we ate pancakes in the mission office with a whole bunch of missionaries. Tomorrow is a huge mission conference with all the missionaries in Costa Rica. And then we will be officially divided into two missions I believe.

Life is great. It isn`t easy (especially when it rains , correction, downpours every single day.) haha. But it is great. Talking to people abuot the gospel of jesus Christ and inviting them to be baptized into the true church is great. Being rejected by rich Catholics before we can get a word out, great too, haha. It is good for the soul to knock on doors in rich neighborhoods. Some people are so blind and deaf to the truth. But those humble in spirit will listen, and they will feel the spirit testify of the truthfullness of our message. I know that is true.

Keep on being awesome! Try to be a little better each and everyday. That was the motto of my book of mormon teacher at BYU. I am going to study more Christ like attributes this week, because the reality is that we are here to develop these attributes and to live Celestial Laws so that we can live in God`s courts above.

Love yall,

Hermana Flake

Pictures 6/22/15:

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

May 4, 2015: Sacrifice

Hey my beautiful family,

Things are good here in San Carlos, Costa Rica. This week we found quite a few less active or inactive members that we we didn´t know where they lived. We have a new district leader here in San Carlos...he is as tall as or taller than Jonba...haha. So we get a lot of looks whenever we are with the Elders here in San Carlos. Yesterday Carmen came to church! Carmen and Jorge have a baptismal date for June 15th (it´s so far away because we have to help them to get married...they have the ring and everything, just need plans). She loved it! Felt the Spirit super strong...it was fast and testimony meeting so she heard lots of testimonies. Anyway, after church, and after Ward Council Meeting, we took the bus to go eat lunch with the Gonzalez family and Bryon, a recent convert of the Elders. Later we went to visit people who live close to Carmen and Jorge, and we taught them the steps of repentance. As we were teaching, a woman entered and exited carrying items from her house. When we finished the lesson, I asked her if she was moving from her house. She said yes, and I told her we were going to help her. And we did. for about 2 hours we helped move clothes, beds, books, shelves, tv, bags, boxes, you name it. She was moving to an apartment about a block away, so we were like ants, moving stuff from one apartment to the other. Carmen and Jorge helped us too :) And then a neighbor boy (about 19 years old) jumped in to help carry the refrigerator, oven, and washing machine with Jorge. The best sabbath days are the ones filled with service. Anyway, Tuesday we will be teaching Lorena (the woman moving her house), Bryon (the neighbor boy) and his sister Diana :)

I felt so hopelessly defeated Saturday and sunday. We have been teaching and visiting Rosa and her family for almost a month now. Only Melanie and Juan Carlos (10 years old and 6 years old) have come to church....Rosa, Fransisco, Helen, and Noelia have not come. We have brought the Primary President, as well as her counselor, our ward mission leader, and a recent convert, and taught them the Plan of Salvation and Dispensations and Apostasy. Saturday night we went with the Elders (they wanted to help us commit them to come to church). we had already commited them to coming, and they had already said they would come. We taught them about Joseph Smith ending the Apostasy. We told them that to know if all that we are teaching is true, they had to come and see for themselves. And then Rosa told us that she is Catholic and wants to go to Mass....until she is sure about changing religions.....NOOOO!!!!! We explained and testified that she could only recieve an answer from the Lord if she puts forth her part in the investigation of the truth....then we invited her to pray to know if her and her family should come with us for at least 1 hour, and if they felt bad they never had to come again. She prayed. We told her we would call at night to see what she had decided. At 9:30pm we called. They said they would all come, for just one hour. Halelujah!  Then morning comes. Message from Rosa: We are going to go to Mass. Respect our religion as we respect yours. umph. what a heart dropper. We love this family. So. much. we have testified and taught, laughed and cried. But Rosa just cannot get over the idea that she is playing games with God by coming to a different church....I just didn´t understand. I still don´t fully comprehend why it is so dang hard to help people to understand and to come to the truth. To let go of the false traditions and to open up their lives to the blessings of the restored gospel and all of it´s promises. It just makes me all the more grateful for having been blessed with the restored gospel for all of my life. I know who I am. I know God´s plan. I follow Him in faith. I believe in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I will honor His name. I know that my family can be eternal thanks to the power and authority of the Priesthood that God restored to the earth again. And I don´t care if nobody ever believed on my words, or converted thanks to my visits. I cannot deny what I know to be true, even when it seems that sometimes the worlds is so blind, so hard hearted, or so numb to the spirit. I have felt the truth, and the truth has set me free. Like I said, we love this family. We will not give up on them. I know that one day soon they will enter the waters of baptism to start their journey towards being an eternal family. But I sure would like to know how to be able to get them to come to church. That would be a great start. ha.

The other day I was talking to Hermana Vasquez (my latest companion before Hermana Flores) and she asked me if I had known what a mission entailed and all the heart aches, the pains, the difficulties....if I would have still chosen to serve a mission. I told her that I would have probably studied Preach my Gospel more first, that I would definitely still have served a mission. It is hard. But I know I have changed. a lot. I hope. haha. I sometimes think about how I was just before the mission, as well as the few years before....I am not the same. Not at all. My mission has changed me, and continues changing me. Not saying that missions change us involununtarally, (that is not how you spell that....but there is no spell check here....haha), we have to allow it to change us. Sometimes my stubbornness prevents me from changing more.

Well family. I love you so so so so so so so so so much. I always am testifying about yall. Literally. Haha. About eternal families. That is truly why I am here. I know that Jesus Christ lives. And he died so that we could live again. in families.

Con mucho amor,

Hermana Flake

April 27, 2015: The only sure thing is change

Hello family,

So my companion had changes, so we woke up at 5 am to catch the 6am bus and we arrived in San Jose at 9:30am....and I am still here waiting for my companion to get here...so yeah, she already wrote her family, so I am here writing to you all now :) My companion, Hermana Vasquez, whom I had for only a month and a half, is now in Coronado, my other area! Haha, so last night I wrote a few letters to converts in Coronado for her to take to them from me. My new companion is Hermana Flores who is also from............guesses anyone????....dun dun dun dun.....Guatemala. Ooosh. She is my fifth companion from Guatemala. I am going to have to visit Guatemala one day to visit all my comps and amigos from the mish because there are a ton of Chapines here.

The ward is a bit more united now that President Wong came and convinced the members of the need to bring the lost sheep to the herd, but we still have a long way to go. I look forward to the week of the family because the whole focus is in doing things as a family and inviting non members to come and participate. We have a new ward mission leader who is awesome. He truly knows how to help ward be more involved in the obra misional. This sunday he was greeting everyone as they came to church, and then asked the members to sit closer to the front so that we arent all so scattered as it normally is. This weekend we had Gabriel`s baptism. His mom and little brother came too. It was very special. Escpecially since Bryon, a new convert, was able to baptize him. That was awesome.

Well, I am very very happy to be in San Carlos. I am happy to be in Costa Rica. I am so happy to be a missionary. I am so grateful for all the work and guidance of my Mission President. He`s the kind of president that inspires us to be better, to be more faithful, to be obedient with exactitud, and to be happy. This is the last change for President Wilkinson, because in June come the new mission presidents and the mission wiill be divided in half. Wow. I love the Gospel. I love my savior Jesus Christ. I know that he leads this work.

Con mucho amor,
Hermana Flake

p.s. sorry this is so short....my mind is on so many other things right now and I didn`t bring my study notebook to share some of my personal studies with yall. haha, i am sure youre relieved ;)