El Parque Here I Come!

Dear Family!

I'm actually in the field! I have so many feelings, but the most prominent is excitement!  My trainers name is Hermana Altamirano! She is from Peru and I already love her!  We are going to get along so well!  The name of the sector is El Parque. I am so ready to get to work!  I love you so much!

Love,

Hermana Flake

 President and Hermana Wright

 New missionaries

Trainers with new missionaries

One Week Left in the CCM!

Hello Everyone!

Life in Chile is still fantastic! The weather is starting to get super warm! Spring is finally coming. The sun is always out and they have turned all of the fountains on around the temple and CCM. It is so beautiful here! 

I have had a super good week! It started out with all of the missionaries going to Santiago North leaving for the mission field! And we got a bunch of Latinos living with us in Alcantara! It is so fun! Hermana Stokes and I have two new roommates. Hna Ponce from Mexico and Hna Alcantara from Peru! They are the sweetest! They help us so much with our Spanish and we teach them things in English. Sometimes we have to do charades to figure out what is going on, but it's alright! We learn so much! On Sunday we taught them how to say Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious! It was hilarious hearing them pronounce it! We also got new teachers. Hermano Retamal, Hermano Torres, and Hermano Rossi. They are all awesome! 

This Sunday was the first one that was in complete Spanish! It was so difficult. We listened to a MTC Devotional given in June by D Todd Christofferson.. and I did not understand any of it. My mind was in a fog and it was so difficult! But its ok. Because then we had a discussion and I was able to make a few comments. The whole day Presidente Doll kept looking at me. And I stupidly kept making comments.. So I should have known that I would be the first speaker in Sacrament Meeting. I had prepared a pretty good talk. I think. Haha, it was about Faith in Jesus Christ. I just talked about how faith is action, not only belief. I think it turned out pretty well. The Latina Hermanas said I didn't pronounce anything TOO wrong. I was able to share a few experiences which is a huge accomplishment for me! Because preterit and imperfect are super difficult for me! 

This next week is going to be crazy! We are going contacting on Thursday. So it will be me and hermana stokes.. alone! We get to go on the metro and go to a park and just contact people and try to get some referrals! And then on Friday we actually go on splits with missionaries. We aren't sure what mission yet. Probably West or South! It would be cool to see somewhere that Hyrum and Devin were! I am super scared! But it will be so great! One week from today I will be with my mission president and he will be introducing me to my trainer! And then I get to go to my new area and get started on the work! Things are moving so quickly. Life is so great here! I love missionary work and being here! It really is the best thing in the world! I love you all!

Love,

Hermana Flake

One Month Down!

Hello Everyone!

Well, today marks my first month on the mission! Where has the time gone? I really feel like I just got here! This week was full of good food and learning a lot of Spanish. So... pretty much the usual!

We have been learning a lot about grammar and wow, it all pretty much goes over my head. But it is so helpful! Today we went shopping and we were talking to a woman named Ruth. It was so great! It was my first full conversation with someone out in the streets. We talked about her name being from the Bible and meaning faithful. And then we told her we were missionaries for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. It was exciting to try to talk to people! 

This morning another group of missionaries left for the field. It is crazy! We are now the oldest group here and we'll be leaving in 2 weeks! I can't wait! 

We met our mission president on Sunday! President and Hermana Wright! They are so so great. They were giving a devotional for the young single adults and we asked if we could see them. So we got to go in a classroom and talk for 15 minutes. They talked about all of the different things we do in our mission. And it got me so excited! I cannot wait to go out into the field! 

I have no idea how, but the Spanish is coming. The fact that I can have an actual conversation with someone on the street is so insane. But I definitely know it is the gift of tongues. I feel so much help!

Tomorrow a new group of missionaries come. They are all Latinos and most of them are going to the Santiago East mission. There will be 9 new hermanas living with us! It will be packed. We will have to start speaking a lot more Spanish. But it will be really good for us! 

That pretty much sums up my week! It has been great and I am excited for this next one! A week from Thursday we get to go out on the Metro and contact people in parks. And the next day we go on splits with missionaries in a different mission and spend the whole day with them! It is starting to feel real! I love it here so much. I am learning so much and growing so much!

Love,

Hermana Flake

                                                           

Chile is the Best!

Wow, I can't believe I have already been here for three weeks. Time is crazy here! So this week was a little interesting. Hermana Eaton went home. It was super hard and difficult to have her go home. But I think it was for the best. She left on Thursday and Hermana Stokes and I felt so weird for the next couple of days. We were constantly feeling like a part of us was missing. We miss her so much still!

I have also been super super sick this week. They sent me back to Alcantara one afternoon because Hermana Doll, the CCM President's wife, said I looked like I was dying. I felt like such a baby not being at the CCM and working hard. But I have been sucking it up and getting through the days! I love it here so much!

I had my first fast sunday in Chile this week! It was such an awesome experience. A lot of Sacrament Meeting was in English because people were bearing their testimonies and couldn't say them all in Spanish. I am so exhausted from learning Spanish. But it is coming along! I have days where it goes super well and I understand and can speak. And then somedays where I can't do anything. But it is incredible how much help I am receiving from my Heavenly Father. I am learning so much!

On Tuesday we went to the temple. It was so fantastic! I love how much better I feel after going. It gives me the motivation to continue working hard even though I am so tired! 

All in all, this week was a little crazy. But so many good things happened! We taught a lesson to one of our teachers and he said he could tell that we were trying to apply everything we had learned from the CCM into our lesson. He said we did great. Things like that give me hope that the language will come. It might take a few months, but I'll be fluent soon! I love you all! Thank you for writing!

Love,

Hermana Flake

                                          Eating a Completo

 The Gilberts who ran the Alcantara

 On the bus to the CCM

On the street of Pedro de Valdivia in Santiago

Two Hermana Flakes! One from Utah and the other is from Washington D.C.  Both are descendants of William Jordan Flake.

   In front of the CCM

                                                             

New group at the Alcantara

Gracias familia!!!

Ah. Another week down in the beautiful country of Chile. Our first batch of missionaries left the CCM this morning. It was pretty heart breaking. They are all going to the West mission. 15 people from Alcantara left so it feels way empty. My favorite companionship of sisters left so I was sad. But I am so excited for them!! I can't wait for that to be me in 4 weeks. Seriously.. 4 weeks left here? Sometimes it feels like forever and sometimes it feels like I got here 2 days ago. Time is so odd.

The language is coming so well! I feel so blessed to have such a keen mind. I am not struggling too badly with it. And I stay very patient with myself. It is nice to remember all of the great examples of awesome missionaries that went before me and learned a new language too. I am definitely catching on faster than the rest of my district. I just want to help everyone! I feel so bad for those who are struggling. 

This weeks excitement... Hm, not much has happened that has been out of the ordinary. Oh. I got crazy sick. Like wanting to die and only wanting mom to take care of me kind of sick. Haha. But it's ok! I survived and I only have a bad cough now. Hooray! Yesterday I woke up and felt like a bus had hit me.. I just wanted to sleep. And when I got to class my teacher said that I had to go to the doctor immediately.. She wouldn't take no for an answer. So I went and he said that I was super sick and super contagious. So they put me in an abandoned classroom that has a couch and made me sleep for a few hours. I woke up feeling pretty crummy but decided that I didn't want to miss anymore class. So I toughed it out for the rest of the day. And then I woke up this morning feeling 100 times better! Thank heavens. Being sick on a mission is the worst. I can't imagine how much worse it will be when I am actually out on the streets everyday.

We don't get to leave the CCM as much as I would like.. Mainly just for pdays. But our teachers like us to walk around the temple grounds and talk to people. We've done that once or twice. The most contact we have with non members is our bus drivers. We always try to talk to them and ask how they are. Hermana Kioa even gave one of them a Book of Mormon and he read some of it! 

The food is still hard to get used to. But all of our teachers say that the food here is nasty.. haha. They all said it is just cafeteria food, and that it isn't a real representation of what real Chilean food is. Hallelujah! Haha, I can handle eating it... But it isn't the best.

I am still super grateful to be here! Homesickness is definitely not an issue. I don't know why.. but I am super happy that it isn't! I can't believe 2 weeks have already gone by and that I have learned so much Spanish already!

Love, 
Hermana Flake

                                                             Hermana Tolk and Flake

                                                

HOLA FROM CHILE!

Ahhhh!!! I cannot believe I am actually here! Wow. Okay, so this is like the best thing in the world. I seriously love everything here! It is so hard. But so good! I have been so lucky to not have any homesickness. I am in a tri companionship. Hermana Stokes and Eaton are great. I love them so much.

A day in the CCM:

We start our day at 6:45 and get up and go downstairs for personal study, then we eat an interesting breakfast... okay, breakfast is the hardest meal for me here. I do not like the yogurt on top of fruit loops.. so I usually have the bread. Which is so fattening, but so delicious! I cannot stay away. All of the other sisters never eat it... but it is too good to pass up! And then we do some exercise. My companions dont like to run, so I go with the other sisters. I love going all around the streets! We live in the old Swiss embassy. It is called Alcantara and that is what street we live on. Its about 15 minutes from the actually CCM. IT IS SO BEAUTIFUL! I live in a room with 5 other sisters. After we exercise we get ready for the day and then get on some buses and head to the CCM. Then we go to class for 12 hours! Okay.. a little less than that. But pretty much. Its crazy hard, but so great. We have three teachers, hermana ceballos (who is the sweetest girl ever! She got home from her mission in bolivia 18 months ago and she is awesome) and then hermano alvarez (he served in long beach CA and he is great!) and then hermano henriquez (he also served in long beach. He is super hard on us, but it is so helpful) The spanish is coming along. It is super hard... but I know that I will get it eventually.

We are teaching our teachers who pretend to be investigators they had when they were on their missions. We are teaching Clelia, Cristobal, and Rodolfo. It is way hard to teach the lessons in Spanish, but when we follow the Holy Ghost somehow we know what to say. The gift of tongues is real. I dont know anything, but somehow they are always able to learn from our lessons!

Ok, there is just so much to say! I dont know where to start.

I like my companions! They are great. Hermana Stokes and I are best friends. Seriously, we feel like weve known each other for forever. And there are a few people in the CCM who were also at BYU with me. They are familiar, but we werent friends. 

I miss you guys so much! But I am so glad that I am serving a mission. Today is Pday so we got 2 hours to go around the city and do what we want. We went to Liders (Chile equivalent to Walmart) and picked some stuff up. And then we went and got empanadas! SO GOOD OH MY GOODNESS! I got an empanada de pino. Okay, Hyrum and Devin were not exaggerating. They are the best. I just want to eat them all day! The food in the CCM is kind of... odd. So many carbs... Seriously, I need to run hardcore every morning so I dont gain too much weight! I just cant express how happy I am here. And how happy I am to be serving the Lord. I miss everyone like crazy. But it is so worth it! 

We can only send one picture per email, because the system cant handle it. So Ill try to send a few. Here is one of me eating an empanada this morning! I want another. 

We have lunch next and then we get to go to the temple. I cant wait. I really want to feel the spirit and have some peace. My mind is so full of words from two languages (and probably some made up words...) that I can barely think sometimes.

Oh yeah. Sundays are the best here. It is all in english, except for sacrament meeting. So it is way nice. The spirit is so strong. We get to watch a devotional by elder holland that he gave in the mtc in 2011. It was so great. I love him. And we also watched On the Lords Errand, the video about pres. monson. And our relief society lesson was great. It was on hope and the two sisters who taught it were so good! They were super good teachers, they are going to the north mission... I wish they were going to East.

We were on the street eating empanadas and we ran into 6 sisters who are already on their missions. There were 4 from east. we asked them so many questions. there were some scary things they told us... ok, i mainly just freaked out that they didnt have hot water... meh. i like warm showers. But oh well.

Anyway, I think thats all I can write for this week. We don't have much time. Oh and sorry that the punctuation and spelling in this is atrocious. These keyboards and hard to figure out! I love you all! You are in my prayers!

                                                     

In front of the Santiago Chile LDS Temple

                                               

Hermana Eaton, Stokes and Flake

Lorraine's companions

Living at the Alcantara

YUM!!  Empanadas

We have this same map at home!

It's cold!

Lorraine's District

                                                     

I MADE IT!

Hey guys! Well right now I am sitting in the Alcantra. It is an area of the CCM that houses the extra missionaries. I am in a threesome companionship. Hermana Stokes and Hermana Eaton are with me. There are 38 people living in the house right now. It is the old Swiss Embassy, so it is absolutely beautiful! I am still in shock that I am here. But I am so excited! My Pday will be on Tuesdays while I am in the CCM. I love you guys and hope you are doing well. I am not super homesick, so keep praying for me! It helps a lot that they never let us have a spare moment. I guess that we drive to the actual CCM at 10 am everyday and get home at 10:30 pm. I am going to be working like crazy. Hopefully this language will get easier! I will talk to you in less than a week!

Love,

Hermana Flake