Miracles have not ceased

Hahahahaha this is how the VC sisters view me... the salad sister hehe

This is the board for the month of May! A companionship decorates the guide room board each month. This month was Sister Preslar and Sister Buhler

Aloha Ohana!

Okay I'm just going to apologize in advance if this week's email is super duper like "the epistle of Sister Flake." There are just so many awesome spiritual experiences I had this week! I'll begin with some comic relief though to mix things up...

With our online teaching work and while Sister Wu is learning English, I literally have to walk Sister Wu through every single little tiny step (spelling nearly every word, punctuation, grammar, where to click, when to click something, etc). I told her to type "local missionaries" in a text, and didn't spell it out for her at first, and she typed "loco missionaries." It made me laugh, and I explained what "loco" means in Spanish. We got a kick out of it. Luckily we fixed it before she sent it to our potential investigator! I suppose all of us missionaries are loco... but just pertaining to the gospel!😉
Also, you'd be so proud of me and all of the Mandarin I'm learning! I'm trying to learn a few sentences each day. I'll be fluent before you know it😎

We walked up to the temple hill gazebo for 12 weeks one day. So beautiful!

 Well, this week I experienced many tender mercies from the Lord that brought me continued peace and comfort. It has been hard to not be with you guys right now, especially at the funeral, but I have felt such peace. I know that this is where I need to be, and it's the best place I could be right now. Here on a mission, I am living a lot more in "eternity" and a lot less in "time" because of the constant and powerful Spirit I feel here all the time. So many general conference talks in this previous conference talked about the importance of being close to the Holy Ghost daily, and I can see why! I am living proof that the words of the Prophet and Apostles are from the Lord Himself. I am living proof of the miraculous strength, comfort, and calm assurance we can receive from investing ourselves in a relationship with the Spirit. Always stay close to the Spirit. Each moment you invest in the Spirit adds a drop in your spiritual soil. Those drops sustain you through hard times like these! I am experiencing being sustained emotionally, spiritually, and physically through the enabling power of the Atonement of Jesus Christ. It is absolutely incredible.  Alma 37:45 the words of Christ will literally carry and sustain me beyond the vale of sorrow, Alma 31:30-31, 38 The Lord always gives us strength when we ask for it. Sorrow can be swallowed up in the joy of Christ, and Alma 42:8 death is a necessary part of God's plan.

-Here's a really cool example of the Holy Ghost guiding the Lord's work here in the Visitors' Center: Sister Blake and I got to be companions for a few hours on shift one day. We met a SUPER cool Latino family from California when they came off the tram from PCC! Dacia is the mother. We took their picture and talked about the temple in San Diego as we walked in to the VC. We introduced the Christus narration to them and offered them a guest card with the invitation to pay attention to what they see/hear/learn here that applies to their lives now. Long story short, after an awesome conversation about families and faith they were ready to fill out the guest card so missionaries could bring them a Book of Mormon and share more of our message to help unify their family! As we were speaking to them, a particular verse in the Book of Mormon, Mosiah 4:9, that I read a few days prior kept coming to my mind. I wasn't sure why it was coming to mind because it seemed sort of random, or that it didn't exactly relate to Dacia, but I went ahead and shared it anyways. As one of the sons, Hector, was reading the verse, I realized "holy cow, this verse relates perfectly to them!!" Both sons had told us they were kind of on the fence about religion and God. I had mostly been focusing on Dacia's faith and situation, but realized that God had inspired me to share that verse for her sons. I KNOW that they each felt something special inside their heart while they were here. I also know that it got the sons' spiritual gears turning a lot more in their heads. We used the verse several more times that day. Here it is: "9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and in earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend." The Lord truly is fulfilling His promise that I will be given what to say in the moment I need to share it! It's miraculous.

-Food tender mercies: There were several of these this week actually. One morning, Sister Boyce made german pancakes for the four of us, just kind of out of the blue. It made me think of home and feel loved because we looove our german pancakes back home😉 Also, one of the sisters wrote me a note and gave me some "Sister Flake comfort food" (sugar snap peas, carrots, and a Tillamook cheddar cheese stick haha... classic Sis Flake😄). Grandpa loved Tillamook cheddar cheese, so it reminded me of him. It was the simplest act of service and love from this sweet sister missionary, but it made the biggest impact on my mind and heart that day and days following. Please never underestimate the power of your simple acts of kindness.

Sister Boyce's german pancakes! What a tender mercy😊

YUMMMM yes, that's homemade buttermilk syrup right there too!

Heaven-sent tender mercy from Sister Preslar

Tillamook cheese... grandpa's favorite!

I also felt the love through food for bfast wed morning. I made an egg and sausage burrito... eggs and sausage are the classic breakfast at Gma and Gpa's house! It made me think of walking up the stairs and being hit with the delicious smell of Gma cooking💕Note also my shirt choice, necklace, and bracelet😊 I wanted to feel extra extra close to home today.

-another tender mercy was on Thursday at the VC. God sent the sweetest, most enthusiastic woman to the VC to shower me with hugs and buoy me up. There are angels among us, many of whom are the people we associate with!

-We met the COOLEST couple from Estonia on Thursday! They walked past me at the PCC, and I invited them to take the tram tour. It quickly became obvious that they were both deaf, and spoke sign language. A turn of events happened, and they ended up changing their mind from just walking around PCC to coming on the tram tour (their choice may or may not have been strongly influenced by my opinion of the tram tour being way cooler than walking around the PCC after the shows are all over for the day😉). The husband knew a little bit of English--he knew enough to translate each word I spelled out in sign language in English, into Russian or Ukrainain in his head, and then to sign it to his wife (who I gathered did not know much English). They know Russian and Ukranian.  Sister Wu and I got to take them on a tour at the temple, and it was a neat, Spirit-filled experience. Sister Wu told me it was the strongest she'd felt the Holy Ghost since she has been here in Hawaii! We determined that the strong Spirit came as a result of ALL of us FOCUSING so intently on the conversation. We HAD to, or else we couldn't communicate anything! Even though sister Wu doesn't know any sign language, she was so invested in the conversation, and contributed greatly to the Spirit felt. She had felt something very special about the couple. This experience re-taught me how much power comes when we truly focus on something, and when we simplify as best as we can. We are all God's children! I know this couple will remember our interaction for a very long time. Uncle Wilbur, my deaf great-uncle, prepared me to be able to help this couple in a unique way😊

Here is the SUPER cool deaf Estonian couple we met!! The Spirit was so strong as we focused intensely on each other. It was like we were the ONLY people present in the whole visitors' center! I offered to take a pic for them, but they wanted us in it too💜

-One last super cool miracle was a text I received from Jennifer from Georgia. We met here at the VC here in Hawaii a few Fridays ago. She expressed the desire to be baptized when she returns to Hawaii next month. As a missionary, having someone text you telling you they want to be baptized makes you go into SHOCK haha! We're in the process of preparing her to understand the sacred nature around baptism, and hopefully prepare her to be baptized when she comes back! We fasted for miracles the other day, and BOY has the Lord sent miracles or what!!! More to come on Jennifer in future weeks for sure💕

I guess a huge theme from this week is that the Lord loves each of us, and He is perfectly aware of our feelings, experiences, and hardships. He is working everything out for our good. I'm sure of it. Sometimes hard things in life happen, but there is incredible good that God orchestrates from the tragedies. It'll all be worth it in the end, so keep smiling and move forward with faith!

I've also learned that there seems to be more tender mercies that occur in our lives when we take the time to notice and record the ones that the Lord is already giving us. Take time to appreciate the little tender mercies each day. Record them somewhere. The Lord will send more and more! That's a promise from a special representative of our Savior😊

Love you all! Keep smiling!
Sister Flake

IT'S A TUK-TUK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! #vivalaguatemala

J chillin on the tram!

Here's the Married Student 2nd ward ohana after our meeting about missionary and temple work!

ENCHILADA SOUP>>> My fav. This was a great comfort food this week too:)

We had a VC "bonding activity" on Saturday night! We watched 17 Miracles and the Goodmans and Chongs provided delicious pizza and dessert😋😋😍 It was great quality time with my sisters💙 Especially my baby, Sister Hunkin!

This is the coolest Korean woman I met at the VC this week!