Holy cow this week flew by! It was a special one. Tiana and Treasure's baptism went wonderfully. The Spirit was so strong, and I know Heavenly Father is so proud of them. One of my favorite things was seeing them walk in wearing their beautiful white baptism dresses after the actual baptism ordinance. They looked so bright, clean, and pure! I sure love those two girls and am so proud of them. I know that their baptism is just the beginning of their spiritual journey home to God!
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| ❤❤Tiana and Treasure❤❤ |
-We took down all of the Christmas decorations in the Visitors' Center on Thursday, and then a few days later the VC closed for renovations. It's going to be an adjustment interacting with guests on the temple grounds only. I miss the VC's resources, but I'm grateful for this opportunity to grow through learning new ways to transition to gospel topics and engage guests in a conversation about the restoration of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I really took for granted having a giant globe with copies of the Book of Mormon in 85 languages, as well as questions of the soul written big on the wall, having a big mural of Christ visiting the Americas to use, and having the powerful Christus statue and narration. The renovation is supposed to take 4-6 weeks, so the idea is that it will be open in time for me to sneak in a few more weeks inside the renovated VC. That means our online teaching center has officially moved locations as well, since the VC is closed. We moved to the converted pads--two of the temple pads have been turned into our online teaching center! It's pretty cool what they've done in there. I'll try to remember to take pics and send it next week. They made a doorway between the two pads, so there are 4 total rooms with computers for online teaching, and as all of the chromebooks come in from the individual pads, we'll have 6 rooms up and running. Sadly having chromebooks in our pads has come to an end, but it was great while it lasted!
-We were finally able to meet with Jessica again! We're trying to help her see the need for a restoration, and understand why the Book of Mormon is important. She's pretty content with where she's at religion-wise, but she's open and curious. Hopefully we can help her progress in her own personal conversion!
-Miracle of the week: During one of Sister Spencer's very first VC shifts ever, we met a couple from Washington. Our interaction with them was somewhat brief, and a little bit awkward to be honest. We tried to get to know them, but it was hard. The whole time, the wife, Leslie, seemed to be somewhat distant and hesitant. You could tell she was holding something back. After an awkward conversation with attempts to share the gospel with them, they wanted to go outside again. We went with them and spoke a little longer. After we shared a verse from the BOM, Leslie said "your moms must be really proud of you". We said she must be proud of her kids too, and she burst into tears. She opened up about some things that had happened, and then walked away. We tried to comfort her, but it was still an awkward interaction. Fastforward to this past week. We got a voicemail from an unfamiliar number, and came to find that it was Leslie! We had given her a card with our number before she left. She said that she's been thinking about it a lot since she visited the temple, and she feels like our church can really help her. She said maybe we could help her meet missionaries, and that she thinks she wants to become a member of the Church. We were SHOCKED. What a big miracle, right?! Pray that things will go smoothly as we try to help Leslie and her husband! More to come on them. 💗
-I had an exchange with Sister Kirkham from Herriman, Utah. She is a rockstar! She's so knowledgable and humble. I love getting to learn from the sisters around me.
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| Sister Kirkham❤ |
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| North Shore Tacos on our exchange! Sister Kirkham is so funny. She saw mine and it looked so good, then she opened hers and it was straight aluminum foil and small haha, poor girl. That's why you choose salad over tacos😉 |
-For pday today we drove down to Kaneohe as a district to go shopping! We first stopped at the winward mall in search of dress pants and other clothes. Of the 8 sisters, I was the only one to find dress pants that fit and were in line with the standards given for missionaries; AND they were only 12 bucks! I guess the Lord wanted me to give dress pants a chance. 😂
-This week we got to paint a shed for some service in our area! It was a blast😀 Seriously, it was way more fun than painting should be haha😂 It was great to get some variety! It was for a guy named Louis in our area. The Elders are teaching him right now since he's a single young adult male, but it was great for us to get to know him a little bit better so we can encourage him as he continues to progress in the gospel.
-This week we were able to get out in our area more. It was awesome! We tried to go out earlier in the day a few times, and just talk with everyone we saw. We were able to give out 2 copies of the Book of Mormon, which is awesome for our area!! One of the copies of the Book of Mormon that we gave out was from a referral a member gave to us. She said to stop by a home on the oceanside and ask for Dawn. We did, and the person who answered the door said that Dawn just moved last week. Darn, huh? But we were able to speak with the person who answered the door, Bonnie, who happened to be visiting her dad while on winter break from college in VA. We introduced the Book of Mormon, shared how much it has helped us in our lives, and offered her a copy. It was just a little miracle that came from talking with everyone and always asking for referrals.
This week I realized a big change that has happened in myself. It was one of those things that you don't realize has changed until something clicks one day in your head. When we did our painting service, we parked a ways away and walked to Louis' house. On our way, we stopped and talked with quite a few people, taking almost 20 minutes to walk a normally 2 minute walk. We had a meaningful conversation with a mom with young kids, and briefly greeted an elderly couple, among other interactions. When thinking about those simple interactions later, I realized that I was talking with everyone we saw because I genuinely cared for them, and I know the blessings the restored gospel can bring to them. I realized that my heart has changed from being duty-driven to being love-driven. I've still got a long ways to go with it, but it was just neat to see that I'm making progress. That's how we all are with our weaknesses--we make progress little by little. Just like Elder Bednar says "If today you are a little bit better than you were yesterday, then that’s enough. And, if tomorrow you are a little bit better than you were today, then that’s enough." It's so true! Be patient with progress😊
Well, have a fabulous week! I've got three exchanges this week, so that'll be super fun! I sure love the sisters in my district.
Keep smiling, and love the pace of life God has given you this week!
Love, Sister Flake
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| We spent a few minutes at PCC😊 and watched Samoa |
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| These are all of the people our district helped last week😀 |
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| There's only one person who has better photo expressions than me... Sister Spencer😉 |
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| The yummy smoothie from Bonzai Bowl😋 |
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