Tuks and training

November 24, 2014

WOW, I cant believe that a week has already passed! But then I think about all that has happened this week and cant believe it has only been a week! So I thought it was a great idea last week to do a list of highlights, so thats what I'm going to do again :) :)

Algunas Reflejos Desde Esta Semana:

Reflejo 1: The church has chosen my mission as a testing mission for a new program they are thinking about starting for all foreign speaking missionaries.  We are 1 of the 4 spanish speaking (or possibly all language speaking, I don't know for sure) missions to be doing this new program. What this program entails is an oral language test every 3 months. The recordings are then sent to the mission headquarters in SLC to be compared against the previous tests to determine the effectiveness in the programs of the church in teaching spanish to gringos. So, I took that test for the first time on Tuesday, it was an interesting experience...a written prompt pops up on screen, you have 40 sec to read the prompt and prep an answer, then it records anywhere from 30 to 90 seconds of your verbal response in Espanol. It was different teaching missionary lessons to a computer ;) We were talking afterwards and all decided the internet attendant must have totally thought we were trying to teach him! :) Haha :)

Reflejo 2: Then on Wednesday I was able to have an intravista con Presidente Smith (interview with my mission president). It went really well!! :) I got a lot of help with some things that were going on in the zone and district, as well as some great help and insights on some personal matters! :) I love President Smith so much. He is so in tune with the Spirit and was definately called of God. For this intravista we had to travel down to San Francisco, but because of our success in the month of october (month of miracles), Sister Smith made us all homemade cinnamon rolls. THEY WERE FANTASTIC!! :)

Reflejo 3: Thursday morning my companion and I were studying when the phone rang and the APs (assistants to the president) asked to talk to me. Uh oh, what did I do? Are they going to tell me I have emergency changes a week before the actual changes??? "Hello?" "Hey Elder Flake, this is ________ (ap). I'm calling because the Lord has called you to be a trainer starting this next transfer." Yep! Im training!!! :) So I will be receiving a brand new missionary straight out of the CCM tomorrow and will be training him. That means that by the time training ends (a couple days after valentines day), I will have been in this area for 6 months. But it's just crazy! Technically today is MY last day of MY OWN training...and then tomorrow is the first day of TRAINING! I feel so inadequate and humbled even by just receiving the call...but the Lord wants me, so I'm going to give him and my new companion all I've got! :)

Reflejo 4: Later on Thursday I headed into yet other division :) This time though I was the one that left my area and went to a different town! :) It was soo pretty, I'm including some pictures I took there :) While there I was able to experience a mayan sauna called a Tuk. So it's a brick structure with very hot stones inside and a bucket of cold water. You climb in and pour cups of cold water on the hot stones and then just sit and sweat out all the toxins and the steam cleans you off as well. Then you climb out and there is a bucket of boiling water and a bucket of cold water and you mix cupfulls of both to make a just right temperature bucket of water that you then dump over your body! :) It was awesome!!! :) :) I've only experienced that kind of thing once before, while I was at Philmont. At Philmont though they didn't have any hot water for when you came out...haha :) I enjoyed that difference :) :)

Reflejo 5: Well, as I kind of already explained, tomorrow is changes and marks the completion of my "training" as a missionary. Also, since I will be training now, my current companion and I will no longer be companions...only downside to this change. I know that he will go exactly were he is needed most and needs to be, but I'm sure going to miss him! :) He is such a sweet and awesome guy! And was always down on being a little crazy and having some fun sometimes :)

Goodbye dinner for my awesome companion!

Reflejo 6: HOY! A quick taste of some of the other stories and experiences I'm having... First off, this morning I walked around the corner of the church just in time to watch a bird fly straight through the open capilla door into the church. Yeah, we had a bird in the church...me and my comp like bosses caught it and released it back into the wild ;) :)

This bird likes church!

Then for the last shabang because my comp is leaving, we went out to a far reach of my area (30 min flete ride) to eat some of the best food I've had since being in Guatemala, definately a place we will go visit as a family when we come to Guatemala after my mission. But the fun experience from this is that we were riding in a flete, a pick up truck for transport, and it was packed. So we had one foot, securely, in the truck and the other on the tailgate while flying down some dirt roads in the mountains of Guatemala!! GUATEMALAN LIFE!!! :) (Mom, we were completely safe and fine :))

Well, there are a couple highlights from this week for you guys! Love you guys a bunch!! Can't believe it has been 4 months (and 2 days) since I left home...it feels like yesterday and now we've got Christmas around the corner. CRAZY!!! Love you guys a lot and am LOVING being a missionary! Keep up all the great work at home and always remember to smile!! :) :)

With Amor Tu Hermano, Hijo, y Amigo,
Elder Flake

My zone for Month of Miracles

Tuk (sauna)