Changed

Aloha 'oe Hawaii

Aloha ohana!
Wow, I never thought this week would come, but it has. My mission has meant everything to me. I am a different person than who I was when I left Minnesota 18 months ago, changed for the better by Christ. I'm going to miss the people, nature, food, experiences, and everything else about being here! It's bittersweet.

Here's just a few highlights from the week, and then I wanted to wrap up with a brief testimony:
-Junior committed to a baptismal date! Woohoo!!! He will get baptized on March 23. I'm pumped for him and wish that I could be here for it. He is a neat guy. He had to miss church last Sunday, and a few days later he told us that he felt very weird missing church. He said he's been to a lot of other churches, and whenever he misses a Sunday it feels fine, but when he missed our church last week, it made him feel really weird/off. He told us he thinks it's the blessed bread and the water... we were like "YEAH, you're absolutely right! It's because of the sacrament blessed by the proper priesthood authority!" It's always cool to see others come to their own conclusion about a truth, like the importance and sacred nature of weekly partaking of the sacrament. I feel blessed to have gotten to teach and help Junior.

Junior aka Martin Garcia, but he goes by Junior

-I ate PIG'S BLOOD this week. AHHH. We went to a filipino baby shower for Jheciamae, someone we are teaching, and they had all sorts of fun foods. The lumpia was great, as always, as well as the rice desserts (as if they didn't eat enough rice during the actual meal, they have to make desserts out of rice too;). I didn't realize it was pig's blood until after I dished and started eating... soooo of course I kept eating it to be respectful! It actually didn't taste that bad, it was just the thought of eating pig's blood that was weird.

Jessa at the baby shower

-We had a mini mission tour with Elder Klebingat of the 70, and it was amazing. My mind was blown to bits by the doctrinal stuff he taught us about. Those 3 hours felt like 3 minutes! Spiritual things like that always go by fast.

Well, I just want you all to know that I have a testimony of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know He lives. I know He loves us. I know that God is our loving Heavenly Father. When we talk with Him through prayer, He always listens--there is no line to wait in, or appointment to be made, to talk with Him, but rather we can pray anytime, anywhere, and we have His full attention. I know that the Lord has called a prophet today, and it is President Russell M Nelson. President Nelson directs Jesus Christ's church on the earth today. I know that I've been protected as I've followed the Lord and His chosen servants. I know that the Book of Mormon is true, and that it changes lives. I know that any sincere truth-seeker who reads, ponders, and asks God with a sincere heart to know of its truthfulness will gain a testimony by the power of the Holy Ghost. It's happened for me. I know that families can be together forever through the temple. I know with all of my heart that the things I've taught and testified of for the past 18 months are true! My heart is filled with gratitude for the experiences I've had.

If anyone reading this has even an inkling of an interest to know more, please do not hesitate to reach out. It would make my day, and it could change your life❤

Love you all, and I'll see you soon! Keep smiling, and love the pace of life God gives you this week (I'll be doing my best to do so too!).

Love, Sister Flake

Reminder: I will be speaking at church about my experiences on Sunday, March 17 and would love to see you all there. Church begins at 10:30 am. Email or message me if you'd like the address of the chapel. I hope you can make it!

Waipio is so beautiful!!!

the SUNSETS in hawaii>>>

Our district!

Gratitude project!

Auntie Anna!

the hakulei she made for me

Mahea and her siblings (auntie faith's grandkids)

Bro Wilkes from Bear Lake!

Bro White, we're distant cousins!

Sister Lavaka❤

Nicole and Lohi!

The Kylers!😀

Chandra💗

...Just take the chicken

Aloha ohana!
This week was wonderful. Things are really starting to move forward in our area here! We were able to set a baptismal date with Denise for the end of March. I am so excited for her, and I know that being baptized by the proper authority, and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost, will give her the strength she needs to get through the many challenges she's facing right now. We also were able to have a lesson with Josslyn, and set a baptismal date with her. One miracle for the week was meeting Deja. She came to a lesson with her cousin Megan, who we have been teaching for a few months now. Deja has great questions and a desire to learn. We were able to set her with a baptismal date for April. She wanted to get baptized when she was younger, but her family didn't attend a particular church and it just didn't happen at the time. It's a miracle that the Lord led her to us so that we can help her learn about God's plan, and help her make covenants with Him.

Michelle, Megan, and Deja💗

We got to try some creative things to find more people to teach this week. We decided to carry my ukulele around and sing "Love at Home" to anyone and everyone that we could! Surprisingly, several people didn't want us to sing to them, but many people did let us share the song. It's neat to see how quickly music can bring the Spirit. The people who listened loved it! It also taught me that we don't have to do things the way they have always been done in the past--be creative! Be innovative! Try new things, and if it doesn't work, then laught it off😂

We also got to try the Book of Mormon experiment this week. That was fun! We printed out pages of the Book of Mormon, and then walked around asking people if they would participate in our experiment. We gave them a printed page and a highlighter, and asked them to highlight anything that stood out to them (I want to try it again and say highlight any time the name of Christ is used). It was a great way to segway in to talking about the Book of Mormon--one of my favorite things to talk about! On my mission I have really gained a deep love of the Book of Mormon. I know it is another testament of Jesus Christ. I invite everyone to read, ponder, and pray about it sincerely! I know if you do, it will change your life.

I got to go on an exchange with Sister Jensen this week. It was awesome! Aside from trying to take a picture with our friendly neighborhood pig (who we are still picking a name for), I learned importance of being yourself! It's exhausting to try to be anyone other than yourself. God made you unique for a reason. Just as He loves you for your unique talents, personality, and attributes, you can love those too!

Sister Jensen from Canada🍁

...ft our friendly neighborhood pig 😂

This week we were driving back from Paauhau, and we drove by these two chickens who were fighting. They looked fierce! Man. They had their neck feathers all poofed out, scary-looking... it was crazy.
While on the topic of chicken... A guy named Paris (we met him before) walked up to us when we were walking down the street and handed us a takeout tray of chicken wings. We were hesitant to take it, but he stuck it out, gave us the look, and said "just take the chicken...". Haha! People are so kind here, sometimes forcefully😂 But hey, I'll take being "threatened" to take chicken over actually being threatened about something serious anyday!

Today we drove down to Waikoloa for our preparation day. We were able to check out the Hilton resort, and it was so nice! I got to see dolphins and sea turtles, so that was exciting😊

a dolphin!

cool waterfall at the hilton resort!

Well, I can't believe this is my last week out here. Eighteen months has flown by! The people of Hawaii will always hold a special place in my heart💕 I will be speaking at church about my experiences on Sunday, March 17 and would love to see you all there. Church begins at 10:30 am. Email or message me if you'd like the address of the chapel. I hope you all can make it!

Love you all! Keep smiling, and love the pace of life God has given you this week.
Love, Sister Flake

Mauna kea is in the background! This is Hannah Walker, she came with us to the district flood. It was COLD!

Waimea😍

Gancinias😊

Auntie Georgia! Lives up in the mountains. She's so cool!

yummy taco salad🌮

Sprint to the finish!

Aloha ohana!

We had an awesome zone conference this week. I learned, or re-learned, a few important things from zone conference that I'd like to share. 1. if you ever feel distance in a relationship that is important to you, pray together, either more frequently or more sincerely. 2. express love to the people you love. Especially as a missionary, we work so hard to obtain love for people, so it is so important that we express that love! It applies to any relationship as well. 3. daily repentance does not refer to a time each day where you beat up yourself for the fact that you're not perfect, rather it's a time to recognize areas that need improvement and acknowledge that you can't change anything without the Lord's help. It was a Spirit-filled meeting that was much needed!

In connection with what I learned at zone conference, that evening we had a lesson with Jason and Chandra. Before our lesson, I prayed sincerely that my heart would be filled with love for them. Heavenly Father definitely answered my prayer, and at the end of the lesson I was able to express it to them in a very natural and sincere way. It was special. A big part of their motivation to learn more about the gospel is for their kids. They want their children to have a solid foundation of faith, and they need the healing the gospel brings for themselves. They are so special to the Lord, and now to me too! Please keep them in your prayers. Pray that they will continue to be willing to act on the message we share. Before we visited them tonight, we had sent Chandra a link to a video about family. Chandra told us she was surprised because the video was eerily similar to her life, yet we didn't know any of those things about her life. It was a perfect time for us to explain that the Holy Ghost guides us in the missionary work that we do, and even if we don't know her perfectly, God does, and we are God's servants.

We got to do a big family home evening with the Martinez family. We did an activity about how to grow the flame of their faith. We must constantly nourish our flame of faith, or it will burn out. We talked about how prayer, scripture study, and weekly partaking of the sacrament help keep us spiritually recharged, and keep the flame burning bright. Keep doing those things!😃

The Martinez Family!

I officially made spam and egg toast for breakfast one morning. I'm a true islander now😉🌴🌺

We got to be witnesses at a wedding at the chapel yesterday performed by Bishop Heaton. In contrast, the Demello family (they were baptized a year ago) were sealed in the Kona temple on Saturday. We didn't get to attend with them, but we are so happy for them😊 It made me reflect on how grateful I am for temples that unite families for eternity, not only "until death do you part". It was interesting to see the contrast between the two.

Sloan and uncle Tini's wedding💗

Today for pday we got to do a cool "hike" through a lava tube! I put it in parenthesis because it wasn't really a hike, it was more of a walk, and then exploring lava tubes. It was really neat though! There were lots of poor little goats that got trapped down there and couldn't make it out, so there were goat bones and spider webs all over the lava rocks. It's crazy how diverse Hawaiian landscape is. Sister Bjarnson told me that Big Island has 11 of the 13 different climate zones possible. Crazy huh?! I'm not sure if that's accurate, it might just be 8, but still, that's a lot.

lava tube entrance

The whole district clan

Love you lots, I can't believe I'll get to see you all in 2 weeks!

Love, Sister Flake

Love Sis Bjarnson! They made us lunch for after district council

Denise!

I bought sushi of my own free will!

PIG - just out wandering around, no big deal

Sister Kapu and Hia (RM from temple square)

Auntie Ronny Triphan and her grandkids

Lunch with Auntie Sweetie at Grandma's Kitchen in town