I LOVE THE MTC!!

Family!!

Ok so our pday isnt until next thursday but they wanted us to quickly let y'all know that I am alive and SO HAPPY!!! I am loving every second of it here. My companions are Sister Condie and Sister Stewart. They are PHENOMENAL. Already changing my life. They have brought me so close to God these past few days. I love being in a trio. It is so fun!! They are my sisters, literally. We get along so well and are so beautiful inside and out. I know God sent them to be angels in my life.

Then there is my district!! OH MY GOSH I LOVE THEM. It is us three sisters and then 6 Elders and then us 3 sisters and 16 elders in our zone haha so we are very outnumbered. I am the only sister going to Scottsdale this transfer! But there are 3 other Elders so that's nice that I have someone. My district has blessed me so much with their testimonies. Yesterday we were doing quick invitations to pray and I was the investigator and one of the Elders was asking me to pray and I was supposed to say no. When I did he asked why, and just acting as the investigator I said I didn't know if God loved me. He said well you pray and ask God if you are His daughter. So I did. My whole body was blanketed in warmth and I started to cry! I am His daughter! I felt God's love for me SO STRONG. I know He is proud of me. OH! I am senior companion and a Sister Training Leader! So I get to train all the new sisters on Wednesday! Fun fun.

So here I am. I love it here. I am so excited to continue learning. Yesterday we taught our first investigator a lesson. WE WERE SO SCARED haha but I took us into the corner and we knelt and I pled with God to bless us with the spirit to teach with. Then I stepped off to the side and said my own prayer. I asked God to please let the lesson go well. We had a super rough day and our confidence in our teaching was shot. So I begged Heavenly Father to please let it go well so we could feel His love, discover the investigators needs, and gain confidence. Miracles my family. Miracles happened. There wasn't a dry eye in that lesson. I have never spoke with that much power before. This is what it is all about. Seeing people through Christ's eyes and telling them what He wants them to hear. 

I have drawn so close to my Savior. I devote all I have to Him. I have SO MUCH improving, but that experience was phenomenal. I am in love with the work. When they put my name tag on, I got goosebumps all over. I am not Crystalright now. I am Sister Flake, someone set apart to be a full-time servant of God (even though my ZL's  found out my full name and told EVERYONE. punks). With that comes so much responsibility, but so much power!! (Spiderman reference yes.)

So don't worry about me. I am loving it. Yes, there have been hard days. Yes my body and mind and rung to the core. But I love it. I fall asleep as soon as my head hits my pillow and when the alarm goes off it is so much easier getting up because I have a purpose. Thank you for the love. I will email next thursday and I believe my flight for Arizona is Aug. 4.  

Everyday is so fun too. We played sand volleyball this morning and yesterday was our first dayy to get to go to the gym at like 6am. OH HOW GLORIOUS! Being able to work out was seriously so great I felt ten times better. I am eating well, so don't worry Dad haha I have fruit and juice for breakfast and salads for lunch and dinner. We drink a lot of water and I probably have lost about 5 pounds already- all of that fried chicken weight haha. 

Just know that I am so happy. I don't have time to get homesick haha whenever I slow down to think about it I find that I am late to something else haha we just go go go! 

Family? I just want y'all to know how blessed we are. We have the true and living gospel here in our lives, bringing us closer to Christ EVERYDAY. I know I can work on this, but in D&C 110 I think.. or 88.. I cant remember I think its 88.. yes its 88 verse like 68 i reckon but it talks about having an eye single to the glory of God. My teacher said straight up "Get over yourself, lose yourself to find yourself." I think we each can do that everyday. We are simply here to grow closer to Christ. I encourage each of you to forget yourself and look to what you can do to grow closer to Christ this week. Cause he is just waiting for you, to bless you and give you the strength you need to make it through these days.

I love y'all so much!! Thinking about y'all doesn;t make me sad, it makes me so HAPPY. Because I am fighting to bring blessings to y'all. Yes its hard but things that are worth it are going to be hard. This letter is turning out longer than I thought haha they gave us more time and I have so much more I want to say! I love y'all. I gotta go now but thank you for your prayers. I really can feel them. Thank you for getting me here. It is changing my life. 

Much love,

Sister Crystal Flake 

ps- i think i got the whole families emails to send this too, make sure it gets to my siblings and if I got their email wrong have them email me from the right ones! Love ya!