Finding My Inner Asian

Aloha and mele kalikimaka!!!!!!! Christmas time is the BEST!!!!

Well this week was super awesome!! (surprise surprise!😉) I absolutely LOVE Sister Lin. She is a convert of about 2 years, and she has such a strong testimony and conviction of the gospel. I know without a doubt that God knows what and who I need in order to reach my full potential and become what He wants me to be. I learned sooo much from Sis Blake. I loved my first transfer so much!!! It was a time of learning, growing, and seeing miracles.

The biggest things I learned during the transfer were: Faith precedes miracles, the Book of Mormon is POWERFUL (it changes lives), that something I need to work on while on my mission is forming a habit of more meaningful prayer, and that I need to give my mind and heart to God, in addition to my strength and might, to be changed by my misison.

I'm so excited for the things I will learn from Sis Lin! She is so happy!!! All the time! She is one of the sweetest, most giving, easy going yet hard working, bold, fearless people EVER! It's only been a week and I already have learned so much from her about being a better missionary/person. She is sooo good at sharing everything she has with others (especially food). I'm not used to sharing, I kind of just keep things to myself (especially food), so I'm working on doing better of selflessly giving! And she's teaching me about Chinese culture! So far I've loved everything Chinese/Asian she's given me! It surprises her, apparently most American sisters don't like these things. I've discovered that I love Kimchi, latiao (chinese 'junk food'), dumplings, tofu (it's alright), and Sis Lin's fried rice. It makes me think I'm part Chinese deep down or something!!! I'm finding my inner Asian ;) Oh yeah Sis Lin also told me that Asians think all Americans are sooo beautiful ...no wonder they always want to take pictures with us! I'm going to try to do a good job of having her experience American foods too. She doesn't really like chocolate, so that's kind of devastating, but I think I'll survive the transfer;) She asks me a lot of questions about English, so it's really testing my knowledge of the English language/grammar. I enjoy it!

I LOVE MY CHRISTMAS DECOR that I received from home!!! I finished putting up my Christmas tree and hanging the ornaments and lights. It all seriously makes me soooo happy:) I plug in my Christmas lights as much of the day as I possibly can, and listen to Christmas hymns too:) We hung the stockings by the bookshelf with care... they look so adorable! And I set out my gifts at the base of the tree in a bag, and then on Christmas Eve I'll set them out individually:) Thank you thank you thank you!

These are so cute!! Thanks mom❤

I finally found the Big Dipper this week!!! I've been searching for it ever since I arrived in Hawaii. Sis Lin and I woke up early at 6:00 to go run before our meeting at 7:15am, and it was still kind of dark out... dark enough to see stars, and I looked up and saw the Big Dipper!!! It was a different orientation and place in the sky than I'm used to, but it's the same old big dipper:) I saw it for about a minute before clouds covered it back up. But I'm thankful I finally found it! It sort of makes me think about how I'm feeling a lot more oriented here now that I've had some time to adjust to life as a missionary... and it's THE BEST!!!!

Well, I have very limited time to include too many of my awesome experiences this week so I'll just pick one quick one!
This week one of the Light the World days was based off of the "suffer the little children to come unto me" scripture. I prayed for an opportunity to reach out to a child at the VC today. The Lord suffered 6-yr-old Natalie (came from Texas with her family) to come unto me! I gave her a little temple picture and asked if she knew whose house it was. I explained it's God's house! I asked if she knew who Jesus was and she said yes. I told her that when we are like Jesus it makes us happy:) It was such a sweet, tender moment. Children are so precious and pure. It was so neat to testify so simply to such a special child of God! The truths of the gospel are all contained in the Book of Mormon, and they are so so so simple--simple enough for a child like Natalie to understand them. I know that when we pray with faith, God answers our prayers! When we have faith, miracles happen. Read Moroni chapter 7!!! after vs 28 ish... it's so good! Miracles are wrought by faith. I love reading the Book of Mormon because it teaches me about God's plan for our happiness:)

One last super neat missionary moment this week (I guess every moment for me is a missionary moment right now 😂) was on Friday. There was a huuuge band group with 46 High school students that came into the VC at 9:40 am.  None were members of our church, some may have been Christian, I don't know. They wanted to see the 6 minute Laie video, so we showed them in one of the theaters. They only had until 10 am so we had to be very conscious of how we used our time! I felt that we should bring them into the Christus room and listen to the narration. We had about 6 min left when the Laie video ended... time for action ;) We took them to the Christus room, played the narration (90 sec) and then Sis Lin and I went and stood in front of the whole group, in between them and the statue of Christ. Right there I testified of Jesus Christ as our Savior, His love for each of them, and the joy and peace we find in Him. The spirit was so strong! I really felt God's loving presence as I bore simple testimony of my Savior Jesus Christ. It is so neat being set apart as a special representative of Jesus Christ!

My planner cover for this transfer

Oh yeah, and I met a family from Rochester! They are cancer research scientists at mayo. It was so fun to connect with them in Hawaii of all places! God's hand is in everything:) Well, Christmas is quickly approaching!!! Take the time to do simple acts of service, and think about Jesus Christ as you do so. The joy that comes when we focus on Christ is ENDLESS and not conditional upon circumstances.

I know Jesus Christ is the Savior of the World! Through Him we can return to our loving Heavenly Father one day.

Continue to trust in the Lord,
Mele Kalikimaka!!!
Sister Flake

Some fun Christmas decor set up down the road🎄

Oh Christmas tree, oh Christmas tree!!!

I LOVE MY TREE:):):) and I got my first ever real-flower lei today!

Names of Christ Countdown to Christmas

The nativity in front of BYU-H

Laie Temple Visitors Center missionaries in 1998

Laie Temple Visitors Center missionaries, December 2017. We've grown!!❤

Aloha 'oe for Sister Kim... she's going home tomorrow!😭 That seems sooo far away for me but I know it will go fast.
We decided to drown her in leis❤❤🌺

Sis Sicotte is going full field (she will be proselytizing this transfer)!

Sis Tuavao going full field too!

Sis Kasamatsu is going full field also!