Patience. You know The Plan.

Grandpa with his arms full of future missionaries, Sister Flake and Elder Morgan (thanks for the picture mom)💜

I will miss you Grandpa. I know you will still be with me helping me.💕

Aloha ohana!

"Patience is the capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering without becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. It is the ability to do God’s will and accept His timing. When you are patient, you hold up under pressure and are able to face adversity calmly and hopefully. Patience is related to hope and faith—you must wait for the Lord’s promised blessings to be fulfilled." -Preach My Gospel, https://www.lds.org/manual/preach-my-gospel-a-guide-to-missionary-service/how-do-i-develop-christlike-attributes?lang=eng 

This week I have learned much about patience, and I still have lots to learn😊 I've had many growing, refining, and tender experiences this week. Ultimately, through it all I know that I can find peace and strength through my Savior. We are given trials to help us grow and learn to rely on our Savior for help. I've been polishing up my song called "Let Him Lead," and felt I should share the words of the bridge in this week's email: "It's so easy to focus on the pain and the doubt, but when you do that you lose God from your view. Instead keep your eyes set on the One who set you free. Don't walk alone on a path meant for two." Let the Savior lead you every step of the way. When you keep your focus on Him, you can find joy in ANY circumstance.

We tried the Otai stand on the side of the road on the way to Longs and Tamuras for grocery shopping! the Otai from this stand was suuuper good! I'd say it was definitely better than PCC's fiafia farms, but fiafia farms gives us the otai for free. (this one was $5). Worth it though!

This otai was more "legit" otai. It had shredded pineapple, mango, orange, and coconut all mixed together in a chunky smoothie type mixture. Sounds gross but it was delicious, I promise!

The end of my otai... here's what it looks like consistency-wise

-Tom from Washington state was baptized on Saturday! I feel grateful to have been a small part of his conversion experience. He was a Bible request through mormon.org. I contacted him, and then sent his information to the local missionaries to have them visit. He began reading the Book of Mormon after the missionaries' first visit, and God had been preparing his mind and heart to receive the witness from the Holy Ghost that it is the word of God. You know what they say, "it's the Book of Mormon that gets ya!"😉 The Book of Mormon and Bible really do clarify each other. We can't pick one or the other! It amazes me how much God prepares the people He sends to us. Tom said he has been much more at peace with things since learning more about the gospel of Jesus Christ. He loves the Book of Mormon. Tom experienced the transformation that comes as we have faith, repent, are baptized by restored authority from God, receive the gift of the Holy Ghost, and try to live faithfully every day!

Pday morning temple trip! It was much-needed❤

-I GOT TO SEE THE PROPHET THIS WEEK!!!!! It was absolutely incredible!! I know that God really has called a Prophet to walk beside us and point out the way. He is the watchman on the tower, and he sees oncoming challenges that we otherwise cannot detect! Here is a link to his devotion here in Hawaii: https://www.lds.org/broadcasts/watch/hawaii-broadcast/2018/04?lang=eng One of the things that stuck out to me from his message to us was a comment he made about death. He said that our sojourn is finite--it's limited--here on earth. No matter how much we humans learn, and TRY to postpone our departure from this life, God ultimately controls that timing. Our bodies are intended to grow old. God is in control and His timing is perfect. When he said that, I thought of my Grandpa Morgan. I felt that he would be "graduating" this life soon (just like all of the students here at BYU-Hawaii who graduated on Saturday). God really is in control. His will be done. We can pray for "courage to accept [His] will, to listen and obey."

-I reeeeaaallllyyyy wanted to send the link for the video we show here in the VC called "God's Plan for His Families," but it is only available in Visitors Centers, so next time you're in Salt Lake City, go the the visitors center on Temple Square and see it! I know that our families really can be together forever through the temple. I know that I will see my Grandpa Morgan again. I know that he is now one of my angels helping me each day as I try to do the Lord's work.

Keep smiling, and keep your focus on the Lord! You are never alone. Just as Elder Holland said, "Don’t you quit. You keep walking. You keep trying. There is help and happiness ahead—a lot of it... You keep your chin up. It will be all right in the end. Trust God and believe in good things to come.” -https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1999/10/an-high-priest-of-good-things-to-come?lang=eng

I know that God's timing is perfect. He is with us in our trials.
I love you all dearly and will be extra-earnestly praying for you by name this week.
Sister Flake

KEEP SMILING!!!!!😊😊😊😊😊😊💕💕💕💕💕😘😘

I branched out and bought a HONEYDEW this week!! #adventurous😉

Lunch with the Chongs! Sister Chong's famous homemade parmesan bread is in the middle>>> It's made with whole wheat!

Chong's lunch group! I can't believe we only have one more with them before they go home:'( Cho, Kasamatsu, Boyce, Lee, Pressley, Wu, Takara, Lam, Yun, Flake

pday Dinner with the Hokansons from Oregon. They are so great! They gave us quinoa for Sis Wu to try this week>>>

I finished my PB pretzels this week. I was feelin' the love from home through food!

What a "Wu"nderful week!!

Here we are anxiously waiting for our new "babies" hahaha

Aloha my ohana!

Wow, can you believe it's been 10 days since my last pday?! So much has changed. First change is my new companion! Sister Wu (pronounced "oo", as in the "oo, ahh" said when people see the temple for the first time😉 is from Taiwan, she looooves noodles, rice, Taiwanese crackers, and food in general, she has two siblings, her parents are converts to the Church, she studied nursing before her mission, she's not afraid to share her testimony, she is happy, she works hard, her English improves every day, and she is so beautiful! This transfer I have a new pad, a new schedule, new padmates, a new companion... everything is so new! It was been fun to adjust and come to love my new circumstances😊 Our pad has a beautiful view of the temple. I am so lucky to serve on temple grounds daily!

We can see the temple from our kitchen window!

Here's our new room!

-First things first... I need to wish Dad a HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!!!! I hope you have the BEST birthday filled with love, peace, and joy 😀 Thanks for being the best dad out there. Wo Ai Ne! ("I love you" in Mandarin)😉❤

-This week most of my energy and attention have been on helping Sister Wu practice and improve her English. English is a difficult language! Learning another language in general is very challenging. Shoutout to all of you folks out there who have learned another language. I can't imagine how much of a culture shock it would be to be placed in a totally new environment and be expected to be able to communicate with people naturally! Sister Wu is so brave.

Laie Point with Sister Wu! That's probably the most exotic thing we did for pday today. She wanted to catch up on a lot of communicating with family since it has been so long since pday, so we just sort of laid low this pday😊 I'm perfectly content with that! I finished my song "Let Him Lead" and had much to communicate home myself as well❤

-This week I have learned a lot about enjoying the pace of life that God gives you. Sister Wu and I have seen the growth that occurs inside ourselves when we focus on others. Life is better when you choose to simplify. Take things one day at a time. It has been a nice change of pace! I am looking forward to continuing to learn from, and with, Sister Wu😃 Take time to enjoy life! Just like President Hinckley said, "life is to be enjoyed, not just endured!" Notice the tender mercies God gives you each day😊😊😊

-In Sister Wu's testimony at our Visitors' Center Training Meeting yesterday, she said that "I and my companion are very happy, very work hard, and many time share testimony". She is the sweetest❤ It has been soooo amazing for me to see how much her English has improved, even though it's only been one week! We will keep working hard. The Lord is with His missionaries.
 -Funny highlight: On Friday we had a shift over at the Polynesian Cultural Center. There was a large group of Asian tourists walking by. One of the men was wearing a hat that had some Chinese characters on the side, so I assumed it was a Chinese tour group. At the end of the group, there were a few young adult men. They looked at me and one of them stopped and said "cute!!". I, assuming they were Chinese, quickly responded with "thank you. We are friends" in Mandarin (feeling all proud of myself)... they looked a little puzzled. It turns out they were Japanese hahaha... that humbled me quickly!😂😂

-Food: Sister Wu's first dinner here she made delicious "hot and sour" noodles for us. I even ate it with chopsticks! I felt so accomplished😉 I contributed salad and apples... classic Ashley😉 We also had a dinner apt with the Tupuas in our ward. Lexi made THE BEST peanut butter cheesecake. I didn't know there was such thing as peanut butter cheesecake, but my world has been forever changed because of it.😍

Our first dinner together. She made delicious "hot and sour" noodles. I ate it with chopsticks! I contributed salad and an apple... classic Ashley😉

Lexi and Jim Tupua! M2 ward. We love them! Lexi made THE BEST peanut butter cheesecake. I didn't know there was such thing, but my world has CHANGED because of it.

-Hawaii [anti]highlight: Maybe I shouldn't include this because it's pretty gross, but since I've already started typing about it I might as well finish haha😉 This morning I woke up and walked to the kitchen sink to rinse off my retainer, and I felt a lot of "crumbs" on the kitchen floor. I thought it was weird because we hadn't eaten anything crumbly the night before. After I turned the lights on and looked at the floor I realized that there were MAGGOTS everywhere!!! It was absolutely disgusting haha! I had heard legends that this could happen if you don't take out your garbage soon enough, and I guess we went one day too long in taking out the trash... LESSON LEARNED for sure!! Despite how gross it was, it made for an exciting morning today haha! I felt like the exterminators in ghost busters vacuuming up all of the little maggots on the ground. Thankfully we generally are bug-free here! I'll take cane spiders over maggots.

THESE MAGGOTS WERE ALL OVER OUR FLOOR AHHHHHHHH😱😷

Well, this week I found a lot of joy in seeing Sister Wu feel confident and happy in sharing her testimony with others. She is seeing that she really CAN make a difference in peoples' lives here! I think we often each overlook how much of an impact we can have for good. Your example matters!
One last study highlight from this week: I was reading in "Jesus the Christ" and it referenced Matt 19:29. I am coming to really understand that the things that appear to be "sacrifices" really are the greatest "investments" I will ever make! Anything you "give up" for Christ's sake will be given you "an hundredfold" and you'll "inherit everlasting life". Wow! Give Him your willing heart, and serve with all your might, mind, and strength!

Keep smiling😊
Love, Sister Flake

I met the Nielson's friends from Springville this week! The Dunn family. They were so sweet💜

Aloha 'Oe! Sister Belmonte from Philippines (lives in Canada)

Sis Lin aka my mission step mom :')

Man I'll miss her!

Sis Lin "2" from Taiwan

I'll sure miss sister Elden. She taught me so much! She is the most diligent and HAPPY missionary ever!

Sis Park from Korea

My mission grandma!! Sister Staheli from Provo!

Sister Taylor from Lehi Utah

Man, we had a lot in common. She taught me much in regards to perfectionism.

Aloha 'Oe!

Okonoma-what-i??

Aloha Ohana!

You know you're living in paradise when you see TWO rainbows in one day! I love living in Hawaii. It is an absolutely BEAUTIFUL place. The loving people just add to the natural beauty here. I'm so lucky to be serving a mission here❤

Well, it's transfers again already. Can you believe it? Time is flying by. I feel like this transfer just started! I got a call from my mission President today extending the call for me to train another new missionary! I'm so excited to come to love another daughter of God who has been called by a Prophet to be a special representative of Jesus Christ. Woohoo!!

I found out yesterday that ELDER HOLLAND IS COMING on May 15, and he'll be speaking to all of the missionaries in my mission!!!!! The missionaries on Oahu get to actually be in the meeting with him in person. AHHHHHHH I'm so excited! I know we don't pick favorite Apostles... but if we were allowed to pick favorites he'd definitely be one of mine!!😉 One of my favorite talks given by him is found here. If you haven't listened to it before, or haven't re-listened to it yet, I invite you to do so!!

FOOD HIGHLIGHT: We had dinner with the Meguros again, and they made us okonomiyaki. When they first told us what is was called, I was like "Okonoma-what-i?!?" They spelled it out for me and said it a few more times before I got it down haha. It was soooo good! They do such a great job of helping us branch out and try delicious Japanese food. It's been fun to learn about the Japanese culture from them! They are such good examples of faith-filled disciples of Christ. Then to top it off, Nao made homemade cheesecake. YUM!

Nao and Haruki Meguro! They move back to Japan on April 23 😢

Another Japanese Dish! It's called okonomiyaki! It's deeelish. The Meguros made it for us. I love them!

Top left are the dancing fish flakes you put on top of the okonomiyaki. Bottom right is the fish bullion stuff for the cabbage mixture.

...okay okay okay, I can't just have ONE food highlight, right?! The second was probably our lunch at a Mexican food truck at the Fijian market today. I tried "huarache" and it was suuuper yummy! It's a fried corn tortilla with beans in the middle (the beans are sort of in between layers of the tortilla), and some type of white cheese on top, along with cilantro and onions! The owner of the food truck loves sister missionaries and gave us the rice and beans for free 😊 Also, I attempted to make omrice after trying it twice at dinner appointments and LOVING it... and it worked!! Maybe I'm secretly an eighth Japanese😎 It was SO HOT in our kitchen the night I made it. I worked through sweat and heat for that omrice... I think they key was cooking the egg using chopsticks😉

Lunch at a Mexican food truck at the Fijian market!

I tried "huarache" and it was suuuper yummy! It's a fried corn tortilla with beans in the middle (the beans are sort of in between layers of the tortilla), and Jaedon's fav white cheese on top, along with cilantro and onions! The owner loves sisters and gave us the rice and beans for free 😊 ("si I looove rice and beans!!"😉

YUM:):):)

Yes, I'm sitting on a minivan chair haha. I feel like if the Flake fam opened a food truck we would do something super cool and creative like this for our seating😉 It made me smile!

30-minutes-and-lots-of-sweaty-heat-in-the-kitchen-later...

I made OMRICE!!!

I've recently been trying to think of ways to use Facebook more creatively in furthering my purpose as a missionary. I've been working on an original song! I wrote lyrics for this particular song a few weeks before I left on my mission last year. Now I'm working on a melody, and touching it up. Hopefully I'll finish soon! It's called "Let Him Lead." Here's a sneak peak at the lyrics for the chorus... "Let Him lead you to a place where you'll find peace amid the pain. Let Him help you understand that in His loving arms you're safe. He waits patiently until the moment you recognize the need... to let Him lead."

We had a fun bonding activity at the VC on Friday. We played Jeopardy with topics that deal with the resources we have available here at the VC. The STL's made the questions. It was so fun! I love serving in a Visitors' Center. Oh yeah, and the senior couples made homemade ice cream sandwiches. YUM. Any prayers on your behalf that my teeth won't be totally rotten by the time I get home because of all of this sugar I consume would be appreciated haha😉😂

The Goodmans made homemade ice cream sandwiches for us! they were so good holy cow...

One online teaching miracle is with Debra. I logged on to my teaching center account and looked at my "current interactions". There was a direct phone call that appeared to be from Debra (the woman I met from Wisconsin several weeks ago). I had had not luck contacting her via text or call at ALL since meeting her here at the temple, so I quickly called her back. The first miracle is that she answered the call!! I asked if we had missed a call from her, and she said she did not call. That's the second miracle!! Her call was in my current interactions, but neither she nor I had called the other person. Wow, huh?! I got to have a 30-40 min conversation with her. I was able to more adequately introduce her to the Book of Mormon (at the temple I had about 30 seconds to explain it because she had to leave on the tram tour back to PCC). We read from it together, she asked some questions about it, I bore testimony of its truthfulness, and committed her to read a portion of it. I set a return appointment to call her for another lesson/visit. What a miracle! Debra is a very special daughter of God. It's so neat that technology allows for me to continue teaching her! It was a special experience for me because I had a meaningful experience with Debra when they came on vacation to Hawaii, and how I get to continue helping her come closer to her Savior, even though I'm thousands of miles away. The local missionaries had been unable to contact her thus far, but I updated them and they'll be trying again this week.

I've been coming to slowly understand that a huge thing God wants me to learn on my mission is how to listen. More specifically this week I was realizing that He not only wants me to become a better listener, but He wants me to improve the skill of being able to concentrate/focus in general. This will help me more sincerely reach out in love to all of God's children that visit the temple.

Today we went to Terilyn's baptism! She's the one that Elders Russell and Winward brought to the VC and we took a Spirit-FILLED tour through God's Plan. It was awesome! We got to share our experience with Teri while we were waiting for her to get dressed after being baptized. Baptism is so special! I can still remember the peace I felt on my baptism day😊

The eyes really are a window to the soul. We met two sweet families this week. We met Bree and Jordan from California, and Daylene, Tom, and Colby from Washington. We had wonderful experiences with both families, and the Spirit was felt. One thing that sort of stood out to me today as we interacted with them was the look in both Bree and Daylene's eyes as we spoke. I could tell that they were both just soaking in our words and testimony like a sponge! As we testified of temples, how the gospel can bless them, and how much God loves them, it was almost like I could see the spiritual hunger in their eyes being quenched a little bit. The restored gospel is able to fill the vacantness that many people feel (even good Christian people feel that vacantness sometimes). I know from experience that the restored gospel of Jesus Christ fills voids and mends hearts. It's incredible. This really is Jesus Christ's church on the earth today! I know it!

I love you all! Keep trusting in the Lord. Because of transfers, my next pday will be Tuesday, April 17.
Keep smiling!
Sister Flake

"District Awesome" !