MTC: a place of accelerated spiritual learning

Aloha!!!
Holy cow!!! A whole WEEK has already gone by!!!? Time has flown for me. It's honestly amazing how things work here at the MTC. I was thinking about it the other day, and I know that God is helping me learn so much and also be able to focus for so long each day. Think about it... the majority of my 16 waking hours are spent studying and learning. There is nooo way I would be able to do that with my own mental/emotional/physical capacity. There is also no way I'd be able to do it for a topic other than Jesus Christ's gospel. It's been a miracle to see how I've been able to focus and learn so much here. The days go by so quickly!

Well this week was awesome!! Here's are a few highlights:

➽We had our first ever lessons with investigators! This is what "TRC" on the calendar is referring to (teaching resource center). Sis Taufa and I had two investigators that we taught. The MTC hires people to come and be 'investigators'. The majority are members of our church, and just pretend not to be, but there are also a large percentage of them that are not LDS. They don't tell you if the investigator is Mormon or not, so you just assume they aren't! It was kind of intimidating to teach at first, but it is sooo good to practice formulating questions and really trying to teach by the Spirit. Our first investigator was Morgan. We got to teach her two lessons. She was awesome! We were able to really testify to Morgan how much her Heavenly Father loves her and wants to help her. The lessons are 45 minutes each, which seemed like FOREVER long when we were preparing the lessons, and I was so nervous we wouldn't know what to say, but holy cow 45 minutes FLIES by! We had some great discussions with both of our investigators as we tried to meet their needs/concerns. Our other investigator this week was Arielle. She was great too! It was more difficult to teach her, because she would get kind of distracted and would ask lots of detail-oriented questions. It was tough to teach her because she wasn't sure she had a desire to know Jesus Christ better. We did our best though! We learned sooo much about how to be more effective teachers from her.

➽I got to sing in choir!!! Oh how I love singing, it's one of those things that I didn't realize I missed so much until I got to sing again on Sunday. We sang "Joseph Smith's First Prayer" and it was POWERFUL. When we performed it, the Spirit testified to me so strongly that Joseph Smith really was called of God to restore Jesus Christ's church on the earth! It was amazing!

➽Sunday night after the devotional we got to watch a devotional Elder Bednar gave at the MTC a while ago. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. Holy cow, I learned sooo much. It was exactly what I needed to hear and learn! It was all about the Character of Christ. I'm not sure if you have access to it or not, but if you do, READ IT! It is an amazing talk that has made me determined to do better focusing outward rather than being so self-centered. Wow it was so good.

➽The graham canyon cheesecake at dinner on Monday night was sublime>>> It's the first dessert I've actually gotten from the cafeteria and it did not disappoint.😋

➽One of my teachers, Sis Severe, is the BEST! I know she loves us missionaries, and more importantly she loves the gospel so much. She does an amazing job teaching by the Spirit. LOVE HER.

➽I got to see a few more mural and quotes around the MTC. They are beautiful and inspiring. I love them! One of my favorite ones is of Jesus hugging a woman, and He has a tear falling down His cheek. I just imagine that the woman is me, and it helps me to feel my Savior's love for ME personally. I've just gotta do my very best and Christ does the rest!

➽The sunset view from my classroom is awesome. God's creations sure are beautiful!

➽Today is preparation day (pday), so I got to wear CHACOS today #theobsessioncontinues😍😍😍😉 My feet are in heaven having actual support in my shoes today  #ripsisterflake'sfeet 😁

➽My district sisters and I got to go to the temple again this morning! We ate breakfast at the temple (super good omelets). I was able to spend some much-needed time pondering some scriptures and feeling God's peace❤

➽I learned so much this week about teaching by the Spirit, and ways to be a more effective teacher. It's been incredible to see how much I've learned and grown and changed over the past 9 days!

➽I'm so excited for General Conference this weekend! I can't wait to hear from God's prophet and apostles that lead His church today. Get ready for a spiritually overwhelming weekend!

Well, I'm out of time! Sorry to be kind of short, I'll try to type faster next time haha;)
I love you all and I want you to know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ love each and every one of us individually and perfectly. They are always by our side, ready to help us out. All we have to do is ask! I'm grateful for the opportunity I have to serve God's children.
Have an amazing week!
Love,
Sister Flake

I found Elder Croft again!

The MTC is beautiful!

This is my ipad screensaver and I LOVE it.
This is one of my absolute favorite pics of the Savior.
I love His calm, inviting, peaceful expression. Perfect!

I'm a missionary!

September 22, 2017

Alooooha!!!!! I can't believe I've only been at the MTC for two days... it feels like it's been wayyyy longer than that because they keep us so busy!!

Alright I'll just preface my email by saying sorry if I have lots of grammatical/spelling errors, we just don't have tons of time to write so I'm just going to try to get everything down that I possibly can! Sooooo the Missionary Training Center (MTC) is CRAZY...but crazy awesome!!! The first day was reeeealllyy fast-paced and they kept all of the new missionaries super busy. Everyone says if you can make it to Sunday things start getting a little more normal haha. I love it here!!!! The MTC campus is beautiful, and the mountains are the best backdrop I could ask for by far.

Well to start off, we dropped off our stuff in our rooms and then met our district in our main classroom (we have two teachers, Sister Sheffield and Sister Severe, who will teach us during "classroom instruction" time each day while we are here). Sister Micah Young and Elder Austin Steinicke from Centerville are both in my district!!! (They went to elementary school/jr high with me.) What are the chances?! haha!  AND Elder Vawdrey is in my zone! I feel like I keep running into people I know... there are a few people from USU I've run into, several from Centerville, Nathan, the Carrolls, and Spencer Croft multiple times haha. It's fun to see familiar faces! MN was such a great mini-MTC for me. It really helped me understand other religions better, and gave me a good base-line knowledge of other religions. I know this knowledge will be super helpful as I go out and teach the people of Hawaii!

I found Elder Morgan!! It was so fun to talk to him!
Cousins--baptized on the same day together
and now both serving missions at the same time :)

And I found Elder Croft! WE'RE MISSIONARIES
reppin' the AV ward at the MTC :)

Sister Carroll found me!

My room and my awesome district sisters!

SO my companion, Sister Taufa, is super great! She is from Salt Lake City, she's 19, she's been to Hawaii several times (her parents are from Tonga), and she is such a sweet and laid-back person. Make sure you look at all the pics I took (I tried to take lots, just for you mom #loveya;). My district sisters are sooo fun, and we get along super well and we all smile and laugh lots and lots:) My room is on the bottom floor (thank goodness #blessed), and we share it with 6 total sisters. It's cozy, but we each have plenty of space with closets and such. We got all unpacked and situated Wednesday night before bed. The moment of truth... the MTC meals... *dun dun duuuun!!!* haha, but honestly I really like the meals! They feed us super well and they always have a wide variety of fruits and veggies, and lots of them. They also have ice cream/cookies/sweets at every meal but I'm gonna shoot to have sweets once a week :) All of the other people in my district are from Utah except Sister Payne (CA) and I haha! Utah, the land of Mormons...

It's the famous map!!! Sis Taufa and I will both be serving in the Hawaii Visitors' Center

Wednesday we had some really cool 'class' experiences where there was a large group of missionaries in a room with one 'investigator' who had questions. It was hard because if you had something to say, usually lots of others did too, so I only got to share a few times, but it was a great experience to get me thinking about typical questions people have about our faith! One of my biggest goals for my time here at the MTC is to really learn to trust and lean on the Spirit in both teaching opportunities, and also in my personal studying/questions. A majority of the classes so far have been focused on understanding our missionary purpose (To invite others to come unto Christ by helping them receive the restored gospel through faith in Jesus Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism, receiving the gift of the holy ghost, and enduring to the end.) and the importance of the Spirit as missionaries. The Spirit is the teacher! He's just working through me. I need to get better at relying on Him more, rather than sticking precisely to a message I have prepared. Oh yeah and I LOOOVE wearing my missionary name tag!!! It makes me so happy to look down and see "Sister Flake" and "Jesus Christ" so close to each other. It really is incredible to have the chance to be a representative of Jesus Christ on the earth, and to be His hands and feet and voice in inviting others to come closer to Him!

My companion and I by one of the many wonderful quotes around the MTC

The best district sisters EVER at the Provo temple.

I didn't realize we would receive an actual proselyting 'license' of sorts, signed by the current prophet. SO COOL HUH?! Anyways, it says the expiration date is March 11, 2019, which sounds pretty far away, but I know it's going to go by sooo fast. So preparation day (pday) has been great so far!!! We got to go do an endowment session at the Provo Temple this morning. That temple is GORGEOUS holy cow. We also finally got exercise time (we didn't have set exercise time Wed or Thurs and I thought I was going to go insane sitting in classes all day hahaha, so my comp and I went for a quick run with a little extra time we had last evening and it felt sublime😊) so we went to the gym. There's an indoor track on the top floor of one gym, so I ran around that and then did some abs/arms/legs... anyways needless to say it felt AMAZING. Seriously, I didn't realize how much I neeeeeed to exercise to feel energized hahaha.

Oh yeah, we had a zone meeting last night where we met our branch presidency and their wives (they are all super great and I can tell that I will like them), and Sis Taufa and I have been called to be the music coordinators for our branch! Cool huh?! So that means that we are in charge of picking the hymns we sing at our Sunday church meeting. The current music coordinators are going to teach us about it this Sunday, and then we'll be in charge of the next two Sundays (one of which is General Conference though, so we won't plan anything). They are having the sisters wait to watch the General Women's Session of conference until next weekend, and we will be watching it at the same time as the boys watch the priesthood session. Smart I guess. I'm so excited for conference next weekend! Bummed I won't get to wear my pj's all day like you guys back home, but it'll be wonderful and uplifting all the same;)

WOW this email time goes soooo quick, so sorry if my emails are short/random/crazy/hard to understand! But just know that I am happy here, and I am well taken care of and loved, and I am learning sooo much, and I know that this is where God wants me to be:)

Love you so much!!!! Thanks for being the best family/friends ever, and for supporting me in my decision to serve😊💕 HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!!!!
xoxo Sister Flake

I thought this was a pretty light fixture!!! There are sooo many
beautiful paintings/murals and lights here. It's AWESOME.

Here is a (partial)zone picture at the Provo temple this morning on pday!
They are awesome! The boys in my district aren't pictured.

Here are some pictures from my send-off! First pictures from the MSP airport where my family put me on a plane to SLC...

My awesome bros (we're missing Jaedon as he is at school in Utah)

I love you!!!!!!!!!!

Let the adventure begin!!

Then Grandma, Grandpa, and Blaine picked me up at the airport.
We went to Wendy's for lunch before they dropped me off at the MTC.

See you in 18 months!! 

Off I go!

Well, this is it! In 3 days I head out to serve the wonderful people of Hawaii. I won't be bringing my phone with me but I will have the chance to email once a week, so feel free to email me at ashley.flake@myldsmail.net I'm grateful for this opportunity to serve God's children! See you in 18 months!