Sister Flake's Mission Blog: So many Flakes...

Here's a legendary posterity pic. (R to L) Sis Blake - Sis Flake - Sis Hunkin - Sis Wu - the new Sis Flake (being trained by Sis Wu) - Sis Elanzo (trained by Sis Hunkin) - Sis Roney (being trained by Sis Elanzo). 5 generations!!!💗

Aloha Ohana!

The big Halloween party at the chapel last week was a hit! All of us missionaries (45 sisters, 8 elders, and 5 senior couples) enjoyed spending time together playing games, eating food, and building friendships.

Yesterday marks the beginning of yet another transfer! Sister Taufa and I will remain companions and STLs, we don't know our proselyting areas yet though. We will know later this week, but we may be placed in a new area (we had to open 3 new areas with all the new sisters who came). Sister Boyce is the new STL, companions with Sister Preslar. We have been hard at work at creating a new schedule that balances all of the sisters' time in the VC, TC, PCC, and area better. We've taken a more formulaic approach, and it's worked wonderfully. I'm so grateful Heavenly Father has inspired us with new ideas as we desired to improve and be more effective! Now our VC, TC, and PCC shifts never overlap. Before we'd sometimes be "double booked", but it's no longer like that. We gained 14 new sisters yesterday, and lost 8 (plus one went full-field), so we've got 50 total sisters here now. Of the 14 new sisters, 11 are from the U.S., 1 is from Japan, 1 is Chinese from Australia, and 1 is Brazilian but has lived in Utah for a few years. The new Sister Flake arrived, and guess what?? Sister Wu is her trainer! Sister Wu just thought it was the bees knees that her trainer was Sister Flake (me), and now her trainee is Sister Flake too. Sister Elanzo, my mission granddaughter, is training Sister Roney, which makes me a great-grandma! We got a 5 generation picture with Sister Blake before she left. President Bekker called a mission-wide conference call to discuss some impressions he's had. He invited us to make this transfer a transfer of UNITY. He said to make this transfer the best transfer of your companion's mission. I'm looking forward to working with Sister Taufa for another 6 weeks, and I know Heavenly Father has specific things He wants me to learn from her. She has been so patient and loving during this past week--it's been a busy week with quite a bit of administrative stuff we've needed to do, but we've definitely had some neat ministering and proselyting opportunities as well. Oh yeah, we were also informed that dinner appointments with members on weekdays will no longer be happening. We've been asked by the area authority to cook our own dinners in our apartments Monday through Friday from 4-5pm. 5-7pm is to be spent out in our area finding, and 7-9 pm is for appointments, or additional finding. While I'm sad to not have that time with members, I'm excited to see God lead us to so many more people to bring to Christ as we use those prime proselyting hours well.

One neat experience was with Alice from Africa. She recently moved to California. She submitted a request for a free Bible, so I picked up her request and called her. After some getting-to-know each other, she told me she has been searching and searching for a church ever since she moved, but she just hasn't found the right one. I was so excited to hear that! I had previously explained to her that I was a volunteer missionary serving in Hawaii right now. She asked if there was a branch of our church near her... I was like UH, YEAH!!! I was able to conference call the missionaries in just a few minutes later, introduce them to Alice, and they set up an appointment to meet the following evening. Technology is so cool! I have a testimony that God is really preparing people to receive the restored gospel of Jesus Christ! He either leads us to them, or He leads them to us. I am so grateful for the opportunity to serve in the teaching center online.

Sister Taufa and I had a wonderful ministering opportunity with Indica and her 2-yr-old daughter, Brylee. We met her last week on Monday. We had asked the Stake President, President Shumway, who he knows that we could visit after our dinner with his family. He told us that it was Indica's birthday that day. We had made some cookies that day to deliver to some people in our area, and for some reason I brought an extra bag of cookies. I wasn't sure why. But when Pres Shumway informed us it was Indica's birthday, we whipped up a quick bday note on a sticky note and delivered some bday cookies to her. Indica was really touched by it. We could tell it meant a lot to her to be remembered on her birthday, even though she didn't know us. She's been through a lot in her life, and she's only 21. We had invited her to come to church with us, as she expressed a desire to come back to God and have Him in her life again. We were sooo excited to see her at church this past Sunday! She thanked us after church for helping her feel comfortable. She really opened up to us, and said she feels we are people of God that she can trust. It was evident she was really grateful for our love and care. It's neat to see that people can really feel that we've been set apart as representatives of Jesus Christ by His very own authority on the Earth today. People can feel our setting apart.

On Thursday Sister Taufa and I had 24-hr exchanges with Sister Ju and Tagawa. I went with Sister Tagawa for the day. She is the cutest! She's from Japan, has been out about 16 months, and is serving as a sister district leader and doing wonderfully at it. We forgot ourselves and got to work--it was so satisfying! Being busy with the right things is incredibly rewarding. We were both reminded that it's not about what we want, it's about what the Lord wants. This is the Lord's mission, not ours. One funny highlight from the day: we were on shift at the VC when she asked me "can I go get my chopstick?" and did a funny hand motion to her lips. I was so confused because it was smack in the middle of our shift, so it's not like we were going to go make some noodles or something. It took me a second, but I realized she was talking about chapstick. I was able to teach her the difference between chopsticks and chapstick. We both got a good laugh out of it😂

Sister Tagawa and I

Dinner apt while on exchanges with Sis Tagawa. The husband is from France and made some yummy homemade bread! Apparently all french people can bake😉😀

I think the coolest feeling ever is feeling the Holy Ghost work through you to touch the lives of others. Being an instrument in God's hands is so special, and it's something ALL of us can be if we are simply willing to give Him our whole heart, might, mind, and strength. We don't have to be perfect, we just have to be willing.

Well, have a wonderful week! I've got MLC in Honolulu coming up on Monday, so more to come on that next week. Ciara's baptism had to be postponed, so pray that things will work out for her to be baptized soon.

Love the pace of life God's given you this week, and keep smiling!😊

Love, Sister Flake