Sister Flake's Mission Blog: ALOHA!!!!!!!!!!!

The view flying in to Honolulu🌺

View from tantalus viewpoint! So beautiful!
That's Diamond Head in the back ground.

Aloha everyone!!!
I'M IN HAWAII!!!!!!!!!! How crazy cool is that??!?! I love it here:) It is sooo beautiful. The weather is absolutely perfect, the people are so nice, and I get to be on temple grounds every day. WOW am I lucky!!!

Soooo I don't have a super long time to write, and I already know there is going to be sooo much more that I'll want to tell you all, but I'll try to get as much in as I can! I probably won't be able to share too many specific experiences this week, but rather I'll try to include more details about the people, place, and my schedule and stuff like that.

My trainer's name is Sister Blake, she's from Boston, and she is AWESOME!! I love her! We get along super well. She has been out for 5 months! We are an obedient and hard working companionship, and we have already seen so many miracles since working together!!!!

Sister Blake and I and yes, that background is REAL!!!😊

SO my surroundings are absolutely BEAUTIFUL!!!! Hawaii is gorgeous! (especially the side of the island I am on). The weather is a bit different every day, but you can always count on it being warm and pleasant outside:) It's the best... not sure how I lucked out being here;) I wish I could share the warmth with those of you who are headed into cold winters!!! For now I'll just send pics and try not to make you jealous hahaha;)

I love the mountains!!!

...and rainbows and palm trees...

My schedule is busy, but great! We have either morning or afternoon shift at the Visitors' Center (VC). I have morning shift one day of the week, and the rest of the time I have either evening shift or we are guiding the tram tours. Evening shift is from 2:30-8:00pm and morning is from 8am-2:45pm. During that time, we greet and take pictures for visitors out on the temple grounds, we answer any questions they have, and we do our best to help them come closer to Jesus Christ! Some people might say that we have it 'easy' at the vc... but it's hard work! We have a lot of the same challenges as full-field missionaries, but we also have some unique challenges as well. BUT there's NO place I would rather be!!! I absolutely LOVE the unique missionary opportunities I get here!

It's so wonderful how people feel the Spirit just being here

Tram Scouts is when we go over to the Polynesian Cultural Center(PCC) and we inform people about the free tram tours around Laie (go around community, through BYU-H campus, and stop at the beautiful, historic Mormon temple grounds) that are from 3-6:40 pm every day. The tours are 35 min long and leave every 20 min. Tram scouts lasts about 2 and a half hours, and then we go back to the vc and have evening shift at the vc. When we actually guide the tram tours (once a week on thursdays this transfer) we take the tram and sit up front and get to lead a tour! How cool! I love that I get to experience such a unique approach to missionary work:) I'm grateful that God has helped me to love it. I'm still working on memorizing all of the cool facts about the history and places we discuss on the tour, but I'm getting it down slowly! When we do tram tours people often think we are students or employees, but we get to explain that we are full-time volunteer missionaries:) Laie is a beautiful community. I LOOOVE getting to meet people from all over the world!! Every day!!! Whenever chinese tour buses stop by, I become a SUPERSTAR. Seriously hahaha they all want to take pictures with the blond white girls at the VC hahaha! It's great haha:)Most don't know any english besides hello, but one lady walked by me and said "beautiful"... it was so sweet!<3

Tram Scouts at the Polynesian Cultural Center!

pooped after a long day. Tram scouting (telling people about
the free tram tour at the pcc) takes it out of ya!

I'm a blond superstar!😂

Because we are over 4 YSA wards (for BYU-H), we don't have a ton of proselyting work to do, and we don't get fed by ward members as much as in family wards, but we still seek for opportunities to fellowship and serve the wards we are over! And because we have less work to do in our area, we get to do more online teaching currently. With our morning shift day as the exception, we follow the regular missionary morning schedule. We wake up and exercise from 6:30-7am, and then we get ready for the day and eat breakfast until 8am. Then we plan out our day for about 30 min. Then we have personal study time for an hour, then companion study time for an hour, then for the first 12 weeks of my mission we do another hour of "12 weeks" training to help me continue to adjust to life in the mission field. I LOVE having so much time to study God's word every day!!!! It's the BEST! I've set a goal to finish reading the Book of Mormon by November 15 (I started a little while ago) so I'm hard at work accomplishing that!

This is my planner. Sister Blake made this for me!

Another thing we spend several hours a day on is online teaching at the teaching center (TC). We get to contact requests for free bibles, copies of the Book of Mormon, and missionary visits, do mormon.org chats to answer people's questions, contact people we met and taught at the VC, pick up inbound phone calls to mormon.org... it's so cool! I'm able to help people come closer to Christ ALL over the world!!! Again, such a unique approach to missionary work, but it's allowing Christ's word to flood the whole earth!! Prophets have promised an increase in the people in our queues of 7x within the next 6 months to 1 year. WOW huh!?

Online teaching!!! We have the 9-10 pm shift so we get ready for bed before hand.
We called and taught Frank in Nigeria right before this pic was taken!

Here is the teaching center (TC) where we do online teaching. We contact requests for free bibles/BOMs/missionary visits, do mormon.org chats, call/skype investigators, pick up inbound phone calls to mormon.org... it's so cool! I'm able to help people come closer to Christ ALL over the world!!!

Sometimes we have a shift at the TC during a shift at the VC, sometimes we come in separately. At the VC we keep our stuff in the "guide room" in the back. There's a fridge and microwave and stuff, so we eat meals there when we are on shift. And they always keep snacks in the snack drawer up front:) Each companionship also has a cubby in the guide room that sisters leave notes for each other in (esp for bdays and month markers on the mission) it's so sweet! I've received several notes:) I hit one month on the mission this past week! Crazy how fast it's gone! yet soooo much has happened.

We have 39 sister missionaries here at the VC, with 2 senior couples (the Goodmans and Chongs) plus the VC directors, the Swintons. They are all SO AWESOME!!! I love getting to be around so many missionaries all the time! They are all so happy and loving. I feel lucky to have this uplifting environment so consistently.

All the missionaries currently assigned to labor in the Laie Temple Visitors' Center! They are the best!

Oh yeah, funny side note: there are chickens EVERYWHERE hahahaha seriously they are ALL over!!!! It's wacky!! I know I'm technically in the states, but boy does it feel like I'm in a Central American country instead haha. We have a gecko living in our room somewhere too... we hear him sometimes, and once I saw him lol. We've got a few spiders, but there just the little ones we sometimes get in our basement in MN so I can take care of them no prob. We also get these little tiny lizards in our pad sometimes!

Oh yeah and groceries are SO EXPENSIVE HOLY COW ahhhhh I've spent more in two weeks of being here than like a month and a half at college in Logan. I am so grateful I have access to fresh fruits and veggies though! hahaha so many sisters have gained weight here... but I understand why... they eat sooo much meat and straight carbs. Often the dinner drop offs (if you're on shift at the vc) bring fast food, so if you have dinner dropped off to you every night you can see how weight gain would naturally happen haha. But that's one benefit of being in a ysa ward haha!;)

Since being here I have made soooo many connections! It's such a small world!

Hannah Williamson (from Lakeville) is in one of the YSA wards I am assigned to😊

Whitney Waters from USU came to the Visitors' Center. Small world!

We live in little homes called 'pads'. They are great! I have three padmates (my comp plus Sister Lundgren and Leung who are so awesome:). Our room is very comfortable in size! and we have AC #blessed. We frequently hear roosters crowing though haha it's great. I've got plenty of closet space and a huge desk to study at. We've got one bathroom for the 4 of us, and we have a laundry room too. We've got a kitchen and small dining room just off the living room area. It's a nice, cozy little place! Perfect for our needs! It's a great home away from home. So I live in the temple pads. There are also Park pads and beach pads, which are at different locations. We live right across the driveway from the Swintons! (They are the VC directors) and next door/back yard to many other sisters. It's so fun living in a little missionary community:)

So instead of sending stuff to the mission address you have, you can send it to the VC and I'll get it sooner! Cool huh?! That address is 55-600 Nani Loa Loop Laie, Hawaii 96762.

Well, I'm sorry I don't have more time to send experiences and more details. I have seen God's hand in my life and the lives of others sooo many times this week. It's so cool to have people come into the VC not knowing why they came, but leave having had a much-needed experience that brings them closer to God. I feel so privileged and honored to be a part of such an important and blessed work. I am so grateful! And it only helps that I get to serve the Lord and people in one of the most beautiful places EVER. The mountains, sunsets, palm trees, ocean waves (seen from a distance haha;), sea breeze, and beautiful temple are constantly having me expressing gratitude to God for the amazing opportunities I get to experience.

I get to go to the Polynesian Cultural Center (PCC) today!! Woohoo so excited!!!!!

Please let me know what things I've forgotten to explain here and I'll do my best to explain more next week!:)

I hope you all take the time to express gratitude to God for all of the blessings He has given you! Trust in the Lord.

Aloha nui loa,
Sister Flake

At the Mission Home when I first arrived

Dinner from a place kinda like Cafe Rio! (it was called North Shore Tacos)

I love that I get to wear Hawaiian sandals💕

There's a cool family history corner at the VC

View from our run this morning! It's so beautiful here.

Here are some pictures from my last couple of days at the MTC. What a great experience and a great group of friends I was able to experience it with...