General Conference

This week was pretty darn good! Pretty sure it was because of the past weekend! GENERAL CONFERENCE! Oh my goodness! Those talks were just the best, right?? Elder Klebingat's and Elder Bednar's were by far my favorites! But they were all awesome! It was so nice to be able to listen to it all in English and understand everything! I have to give a talk in church on Sunday and I am going to use some of the talks for my talk. Tonight we have a lesson with Andrea, an investigator, and we are going to show her Elder Bednar's talk. Unfortunately, none of our investigators were able to come to the Conference. Our stake center is super far away.. But it's ok. We are going to watch talks with them in our lessons!

All in all this week was great! We made "Galletas de Los Estados" AKA Chocolate chip cookies... for our investigators. They were all in shock at how good they were. (Let's be honest, they weren't even that good. Cooking is kind of hard when you have an oven that is used by lighting a match.. You never know how hot it is in the oven!) But it was great that everyone liked them! We are hoping that we can give cookies to people and they will let us teach them haha! We have some great plans :) 

Today is the last day of my first transfer! Hermana Altamirano and I are still together! But Hermana Chavez, an hermana who lives with us, went home! I can't believe she finished her mission! And tomorrow Hermana Leishman is going to train a new missionary. So there will be someone newer than me here! Pretty sure she'll be Latina though, so I will still be the one who can't speak! 

Everything down here in Chile is great. Just working hard. The weather is warming up and I can already tell I am going to die in the summer.. We'll see how my super white skin does with this sun.. Haha! 

I love you all! If you didn't get a chance to watch conference.. go watch it! It was the best. Especially the second session on Saturday!

Love,

Hermana Flake

Divisions Alone in My Sector ~ Sept. 29

Okay, this week... was, a little different. My companion is a sister leader. This means that she is a leader over 2 other companionships of sisters. And because of this she goes on divisions with the other hermanas. So either I go to a different sector with a different hermana or she leaves. Well, so far I have always left... because well, I can't speak Spanish and I don't want to be alone in my sector with another hermana who doesn't know the area. But this week my companion decided that I would stay in our sector... I just about died! It was so scary! I was in charge. I had decide who we would visit. The people knew me, so I had to talk the whole time. And I had to remember where everyone's houses were. And my companion was Hermana Alcantara, she only has a month in the mission field too. And she speaks no English. But guess what. I did it! It was great! We had a bunch of lessons, went contacting, and found new investigators! It was fantastic! It was super hard to be the one who was making the plans and deciding what we would do next and planning everything. But I had so much help from my Heavenly Father. It went super well... I was so exhausted afterward!

Sunday was pretty great! We had 7 investigators at church. It was awesome! We feel like the Lord is truly preparing the people in our sector to receive the gospel. There is a lot of work to do. We are waiting for the weather to warm up. We are both sick.. pretty sure I am destined to be sick my whole mission. 

On Saturday I got pretty homesick. We watched the Women's Conference and I just wanted to be there! And when the choir sang "Ï know that my Savior loves me" I just thought of mom playing it for me. 

My investigators are doing super well! There is a 16 year old boy, the son of Andrea, who wants to learn everything. He wants to go to mutual on Wednesday and go to conference. His mom said that after we taught him the first lesson he talked to her and said "I have to learn more about this. I want to know if it is true for myself" His name is Fabian and he is great! We are hoping to see him right after we get done writing.

Conference is this weekend!!! I am so so so excited! I have been reading the Liahona from May with all of the talks from the April conference. It is my goal to read all of it before Saturday. It is an incredible experience to tell the people we are teaching about conference. We tell them there is a prophet on the earth today and that he receives revelation for us, personally. They all want to come and here what he has to say. It is making me feel so much more grateful for this special opportunity we have. I hope all of you will take advantage of this weekend and listen to the word's our Heavenly Father wants us to hear. I love you all! Hope you have a great weekend!

Love,

Hermana Flake

P.S. So sorry that I forgot my camera cord and can't send home any pictures. I will send a bunch next week!

September 22, 2014

This week was pretty great! Oh yeah, and it was the 18th! Chile's Independence Day! So let's just say there were a lot of drunk people the whole week and weekend. It was pretty...interesting. 

On the 18th we had a meeting for the new missionaries. It was so awesome! We listened to the testimony of a woman named Victoria. She is getting baptized in December and has this incredible testimony in the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome! We then got to ask her questions to try and help our investigators. Hermana Leishman, who lives with me, found her in March. When I got back to our sector I told her and she was so happy! 

After the meeting we went to the church for the party. Unfortunately a bunch of our investigators didn't come.. But we had a few there! It is so different from a normal ward party in the U.S. There was a table of "salads" haha they call potatoes with mayo on top a salad.. Eh, its alright. So many empanadas, churipan, and meat. It was good!! I have also decided that they don't believe in dessert here. Weird, right? Then they started dancing and singing karaoke. It was hilarious! They dance the Cueca and it is super cool! Everyone here dances. I am so glad we weren't allowed to dance. I'm so awkward... haha

The next day we had divisions with the hermanas in La Reina. I went with Hermana Huber and went to their sector. Oh my goodness, it was so much nicer than our sector! I was shocked. I have gotten so accustomed to our little sector. But I love my sector so much :) Hermana Huber and I had some... adventures together. We went to a crazy party.. and didn't know how to escape. There were a lot of drunk men and a couple of members who kept us safe. Let's just say my blonde hair makes me stick out like a sore thumb in this country. But, there was a plus to this sketchy party, we got chocolate cake! The next day we got yelled at by a drunk man who almost started chasing us when we ran away from him. Yay for drunk people..... 

All in all, this week was great. We couldn't find a whole bunch of people because everyone was out of town. But we are excited to meet up with our investigators this week! 

Love,

Hermana Flake

P.S. Sometimes you spill something on your skirt and then a Chilean family insists they pour salt all over you. And sometimes you eat food and think you're doing well. And then they bring out more and you think you might die. That's my life now! And it is fantastic! 

Lorraine on the balcony of her 10th floor apartment

Baptism of Nayibe!

This week was full of craziness and so much work! It was fantastic! First off, the baptism of Nayibe! It was yesterday and it was such a special day. Her husband, Rodrigo, (who got baptized a few months ago) baptized her. She was so happy. It was a wonderful experience and one I will never forget!

We also found two new investigators who are truly prepared! One is named Andrea. When we visited her we shared a little about our purpose in being in Chile, that we want to help and bring happiness in her life, and that Christ can help her personally. She talked about how she has always felt she has a purpose but never known what it was. And she got emotional when talking to us about Jesus Christ. It was a tender moment. We saw her later in the week on the street and she was so excited to see us! We have another lesson with her tomorrow and we are hoping she has made some more progress!

We also met Loreto. She is an older woman and very intelligent. She believes in Christ and studies the Bible but doesn't have a religion. We taught her the first lesson about the restoration of the fullness of the gospel and she got so excited. We talked about the Book of Mormon and she was so engaged. We pulled one out of bag and wrote our testimony in it and then handed it to her saying it was a gift. She had a look of shock on her face and said: A gift? Really? I can read it? And we told her yes and she got so excited. We asked her to read the introduction before our next visit. And she said she would read the entire book. She was excited to get started right when we left. Yeah... it was a pretty great visit!! Unfortunately we don't get to see her in forever.. This week is the week of their Independence Day here in Chile. So practically everyone is out of town visiting the beach or the South. 

I love seeing the miracles that are happening all around me. It is truly incredible to see the hand of the Lord so prominently in my life. It is pretty hard to do this. The language is coming.. But it is pretty frustrating at moments. 

Oh. This was a week of feeling thrown under the bus for Spanish. I should be grateful... but it was crazy. First off, I am in a district of only Latino missionaries. Second, my companion and I had to teach the district lesson on Tuesday and it freaked me out. Third, when I got to church on Sunday a counselor in the bishopric said I would be giving a talk... in 5 minutes. And play the piano.. So.. I pretty much died. But it is alright. With all of this practice my Spanish is coming along better and better. I feel very blessed and know I am having so much help from my Father in Heaven. 

I love you all! Hope you all have a great week!

Love,

Hermana Flake

Pictures: One is of Nayibe's baptism, Sushi a few days ago... SO GOOD! and one of last Monday. It was Hermano Caldaron's birthday and we had once, had a little Family Home Evening, and played music. It was great!

El Parque!

Wow, another week gone! Crazy how time is in the field! This week has been fantastic! Just a lot of walking, getting to know people, and being confused by Spanish. You know, the usual! It is pretty great though! 

We had a stake activity on Saturday because the month of September is Chile's Indepence Day of sorts. It is crazy with Chilean pride everywhere! I love it!! We bought a flag for our apartment and need to buy some more stuff to decorate even more! On Saturday we had a bunch of empanadas and it was great! But unfortunately I got some kind of bug. Because for the next 2 or 3 days I was sick with the flu. Ugh, it was pretty miserable. I tried to go out and work a bunch but my body couldn't really handle it. Shoot. But I feel way better now, so it's not an issue!

Today we went to San Cristobal. It's a big hill where you can see most of Santiago! It is so beautiful, I'll attach some pictures. Of course there was a bunch of smog, there is always smog. But it was so beautiful! We met up with a few other sisters. It was fantastic! Then we had pizza... oh how I miss American food. I am quite happy with the food here. But there are times where I just crave my mom's cooking.

Next Sunday I have my first baptism! I am so excited! The woman's name is Nayibe and she is so awesome! Her husband got baptized 5 months ago and they have two sweetheart boys. They are so awesome and I can't wait to see her get baptized! She is so ready and it's so exciting! I am hoping our other investigators can come and see! It has been a great week. And I look forward to the work we can do this next week too! Love you all!

Love,

Hermana Flake

First Week in the Mission Field

Friends and Family!

Wow! I am actually in the mission field! I have been here for a week and wow it is so crazy! My companion is Hermana Altamirano! She is fantastic! From Peru and goes home in December! She can understand and speak pretty good English, so it is way helpful. But there is definitely a language barrier. We are in El Parque! It is about 45 minutes from Santiago, but is still considered Santiago. It is pretty awesome! The people are so great here and I have loved it! It is a completely different world here. I don't even know how to describe it. I have never been anywhere like it. People are in very humble circumstances here. There is graffiti everywhere and some streets have houses made out of tin and have no electricity. It is very different. The church building is definitely the nicest place in the entire area.

Hm, where to begin? My last week in the CCM was great! I went on splits to the Santiago Sur mission! We went to a city called Ciudad de Niños. It was a lot different than this area too! Way poorer. I was really sad to say goodbye to my district when we got our trainers on Tuesday. They were definitely like my family. But I can't get over how great it is! It is super hard here. I cannot speak Spanish at all... But it's ok! I can usually get my point across. And during lessons I teach a point as well as I can and then my companion explains it more. It works pretty well. Each day gets better and better.

We live in an apartment building, on the 10th floor. It is so great! I wake up every morning and study. And I look out the window and see the beautiful Andes! They are gorgeous! I can't get over how pretty of a country this is. I love this area. The ward members are fantastic! Everyone is super nice about my Spanish. There are some members who speak and I have no idea what they are saying. And then others speak and I can understand almost everything. My companion said it took her a couple months to understand the sueper Chilean Spanish.. and she is from Peru! They just speak super badly sometimes haha. I live in an apartment with my companion and one other companionship. They are in the same ward with us. They are Hermanas Chavez and Leishman. Hermana Leishman is from Lehi! She graduated a year before me. 

I am getting accustomed to everything. I have definitely been humbled this week. I feel pretty unintelligent a lot. It is something I had never really experienced before. I feel frustrated that I cannot even express my feelings the way I want to. But it is ok. I am relying on my Heavenly Father more than I ever have before. It is a learning experience and I am grateful for it. I love being a missionary! I love teaching people! We have a baptism on September 14. A woman named Nayibe is getting baptized. Her husband Rodrigo got baptized in April and she couldn't because she was pregnant. But she had her baby and can get baptized now. She is the sweetest. Their family is from Columbia and they are just great! We also got 2 more dates for baptism. Elsa and Carlita, a mother and daughter. We taught them the first lesson and felt inspired to invite them to be baptized on October 12 and they said yes! I am so excited to continue teaching them and help them prepare. This is a wonderful area. There is so much work to do!

Sorry this was such a crazy long letter! So much has happened! Oh, and today was my first Pday! We made Peruvian food and it was so good! Fried Sweet Potatoes, pesto pasta, and some super good meat. I love the food here. Some isn't my favorite.. But I have been able to eat everything. 

Love,

Hermana Flake

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