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

My Dream Is True!

Lorraine left this afternoon for Chile. She will arrive in Santiago tomorrow, July 16th. She is thrilled to be serving her Heavenly Father and represent her Savior, Jesus Christ.  She quoted her Grandmother's poem at her farewell. Her Grandmother served in the Eastern States Mission in 1935 as a young woman.  She wrote this poem while on the train from Boise to Salt Lake City. Lorraine said these are her exact feelings.

It was a tearful but joyful parting. We love our girl. We are so pleased she has chosen to serve the Lord.

Lorraine met Sister Stokes in the airport. They are traveling together, serving in the Santiago East Mission.

The Decision to Serve

I have been called to serve in the Chile Santiago East mission! I could not be more excited! I catch my flight on July 15, 2014 and head straight down to the Chile MTC! It is crazy. But I am so excited to serve. I know that this is what my Heavenly Father would want me to do. And I cannot wait to meet the people of Chile. I hope that I can be a tool for the Lord and say what He would want me to say! My mission is actually happening, and I could NOT be more ecstatic!