Hello from a Very Happy Missionary!!!!

Hola Familia!!!!!

It was great to get your e-mail Mom. Thank you! I hope that you have had a great Circus Day! I can't believe you are practically done with school for this year. I also hope that you can finally get some sleep! I still feel like I don't get any sleep but I am resolved to the fact that I won't be getting enough sleep for the next 17 months. We have a roommate that is so cute when she wakes up in the morning. She hates waking up and it it takes her forever to get moving. Her first companion in the field is going to love her!:) I am sorry that it is Allergy season. I hope that it isn't too bad for you and especially for Derek.

Oh so I have been wondering when Travis Hall(cousin) is comming into the MTC? Do you know when or may he already be here? I would like to find him if I could. So with the CDs or the Tape player I am fine with the Tape player. You could send me a few more tapes if you want but I think I will be ok.

So tonight we should be getting our travel plans for Argentina and then next friday we will find out if we are getting reassigned. So they basically get our hopes up then they dash them. I just am so excited to get out and start teaching. We have "investigators" here but they are just our teachers so its really not the same. Both of our investigators are getting baptized this week which is awesome! So we will be getting new investigators next week. With teaching these investigators I have come to find out how hard it is to teach certain things, like the Law of Chastity, especially when one of your investigators is living with his ex-girlfriend and their two kids. I guess will be encountering that A Lot! The next year and a half are going to be quite interesting.:)

And Mom yes, the talk was in Spanish! I was so nervous but its nice because they only have to be 2 minutes or so. I am just glad that I got it over with so I probably won't have to talk again while I am here.

Thank you some much for the pineapple! We had to eat it really fast because we have no way to refrigerate it. Everyone loved it! Also thank you so much for the foam guns. I opened that package during one of our study times in class and needless to say we all played with them for over and hour. It was great! Very unproductive but it was good to take some time and just mess around. They are permantly in the residence so that they won't be a distraction but right before we leave we will be surprising our teacher with them. It should be Awesome!

I did get to host again and the fun part was that we got a new district in our zone yesterday and so I was able to escort a sister that is now in our zone. They are all going to state side missions. Some are going to cali and the others are going to salt lake. I am excited to have new people because our zone became quite small when the last district left. Elder Mcrae has the new district convinced that he is from England. He fakes an accent that sounds a little like John Lennon but honestly, its not very good at all but they all believe him. Its very funny! They all listen so intently when he talks.

On Sunday we got to here from President Daines and his wife. They are the Provo Temple President and Matron. They did an amazing job. They talked about the importance of temples and how as missionaries when have been blessed to be endowed with power to help us fulfill our missions. So because of their talks, The Temple today was a totally new experience. It was utterly Fantastic! On Sunday night we got to watch Elder Bednar's MTC Devotional "Character of Christ". Can I just say.............. IT WAS THE MOST AMAZING THING I HAVE EVER HEARD!!!! Elder Bednar is the Best! It was all about how we can live as he lived. We learned that the Character of Christ is simple. He turns outwards to serve others while the natural man(all of us) turns inwards. Gave 3 examples from the scriptures on how Christ show his character. One was in Matt. 4:2-12. Read it and also pay attention to the JST in one of the versus. Also find out what the real temptation was that Satan tempted Christ with. He also talked about becoming converted to The Lord. Not the functions of the church or the people, but The Lord! Spend your life learning of Him and us his strength to help you overcome hardships. It was really great.

Well I need to wrap this up! I love all of you so much and I hope you all have a fantastic week!!!! Enjoy everyday!!!

Lots of Love,

Alayna

 

Posted by Judy Flack

Week #7

Hey Family!!!!!!

Thank you so much for your e-mails, Mom and Jace!!! It sound like everyone has a quite the week!!! Thank you mom for the fun Pixar stamps and for the box with the instant breakfast, bubbles and the shaker! Also THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the Cinnamon rolls! One of the sisters in our zone became sick on Sunday so intstead of going to breakfast that morning the rest of us sisters ate all of the cinnamon rolls. So they were very much needed, Thank You!. The nerf guns sound like fun and so do the stickers, also some fresh pinnapple or something like that would not be turned down.:) They food here just sits in your stomach like a lead balloon. It tastes okay but it always messes with me. I guess its just preparing me for Argentina!

So about Argentina, it is more and more for certain that we will be re-assigned. The travel office hasen't heard anything different. Brittany Pasquale said she heard they have stopped Visas entirely right now but I have heard so many different stories that I am just going to take what comes! I know that I will be going to Argentina some day but I may only have a year there. They really need missionaries down there and its just said that things a so messed up with the Visas. I just hope they works things out soon.

So I am so glad that you all have a great Mother's Day! Sounds like Sacrament meeting and the lessons in Church were great! It was weird being here and having the speakers in the Sunday night fireside talk about mother's but not getting to be with all of you.

Sunday was pretty great though, the only down size was that I have to give a talk in Sacrament meeting! We don't know until right after the sacrament prayers who will be giving a talk that day and I about died when I heard my name! it had been quite a rather difficult week previous and so I felt like I hadn't prepared as well I should have for my talk. I guess I did fine but there is a lot of room for improvement.

The Sunday night fireside was good, Brother Heaton spoke to us about where we need to have our investigators, and more importantly, ourselves look. He used the story of Moses and the Serpent on the Pole as his focus. So I really learned how simple and neccessary it is to look to The Savior. It was a great talk. That night we got to watch The Testaments!!!!! I was just a little excited for that.:) It is a good story except for the cheesy parts but it was a nice way to end the day with really driving home how much Jesus Christ has done for me.

On tuesday guess what............ Elder L. Tom Perry came and gave us the Devotional!!!! Ok I may just need to brag for a second. That is number 5!!!!!!:) He did an Awesome job. Since it was May 15, he talked about how the Priesthood had been restored exactly 183 years earlier. It was a great talk and his testimony was so Powerful and Sincere. They Devotional Review that we had after was also great! I love hearing my districts testimonies and the things that stuck out to them in the Devotional.

So last night as we got back to residency the fire alarm went off. I don't know if I told you all but my first few weeks here they alarm went off at 2 in the morning. It was so cold outside! I was just glad this time it happened at 9:30 at night. So I am sleeping this morning and all of a sudden I hear a light turn on and my companion Hna. Morgan basically yell at us, "Get up! We are late for the Temple!" I look at my clock and I said, "Hermana, its 4:40 in the morning!!!!" she then said, "oh, okay" and she went back to bed. She had heard someone moving in their sleep and so she look at her clock and saw that it was 40 on the minutes and assumed that we had slept in. It was quite funny but she was so mad when she thought we had slept in.

Well I loved hearing about the garden. It sounds like it is going to be beautiful this year, I hope that we have a wet summer. I hope you all have a great weekend and tell Derek and Kimberly to enjoy pelican and I hope dad can go up there with them! Enjoy the week with Uncle Bob and Mom, have a great last week in School! I hope everything goes great!

Thank you all for your wonder letters and for your words of love and advice. They really mean a lot to me! I hope you all have a great week and that maybe Kenai has a bath in sometime in his future! Give everyone lots of love from me!!!!

Love,

Hna. Alayna Flack

 

Posted by Judy Flack

Hello Everyone!

 

This has been a great week! I feel like I have grown so much! It is amazing how much you can learn in just one day here at the MTC. I hope everyone is doing well and that you are all taking time to have fun outside in this beautiful weather. I am soaking it up while I can.

So I am going to start off by telling you the latest on the Visa situation. So we have some Elders in our Zone that are leaving in 5 days. They have all been called to Argentina but their Visas didn't come so they have been temporarally reassigned to California, Oregon and Colorado. They will probably be there for two transfers or until their Visas come. So I hope mine comes through but I am excited that I could possibly get to serve in Two places! I know that it will work out the way that it is supposed to. It feels so strange! The oldest district in our zone leaves next week and then the other district leaves the week after which will make our district the oldest. That is crazy! In a little over 3 weeks I will know if I have my visa or where I will be going instead! It feels so far away and yet not far at all. I am so not ready to get out there. In English maybe but definitely not Spanish.

So sunday was a great fast sunday, we had a large meeting in the morning with everyone in the MTC. It was a two hour meeting and by the end of it my back was killing me. They don't know the meaning of a soft chair here. It was a great meeting where we heard from the MTC presidency and their wives.  They focused on Developing faith in Christ. It was great! The Sunday night fireside was great as well. It was Mark J. Lusvardi and he talked about Alma 17. Great chapter in the Book of Mormon!!! The sunday night movie that we went to was the restoration and the story of kirtland. The later was very cheesey. But it was pretty good anyway.

On Monday we got to watch 'The Miracle of a Mission' by Elder Holland. AMAZING!!!!!!!!!! That is all I can say. If you can find it I would recommend watching it!

Then on tuesday we got our 4th apostle! Elder D. Todd Christofferson! He did an amazing job! He talked about the Doctrine of Christ. 2 Nephi 31, 3 Nephi 11 and 3 Nephi 27. It was amazing!

I am so sorry that this e-mail is so short but I only have a half hour to type this and I have been distracted the whole time. I am so sorry. I hope I will write more next week. I hope you are all doing amazing! I love you all! Thank you for your love and support!

Love,

Hna. Alayna Flack

 

May 10, 2012

Posted by Judy Flack

Thursday, May 3, 2012

Hey Family,

It was great to get your e-mail mom!! Also thanks for all the packages and your letters.

So this week has gone by pretty fast but I feel like it all runs together and so when it is finally p-day I feel like I don't have anything to say. This week we got chewed out by our teacher Hermano Orme because we don''t speak spanish all of the time. It made us all feel horrible but it is so hard to get into Spanish mode. I guess things are picking up for me with the language but I still have a long ways to go. I am talking a little bit more in the lessons which is good but my companions threaten to have me teach a whole lesson. They are great but you know me and I want to rebel so bad at times and just tell them to let me be but I know they are doing it because they care. This sunday was great. Robert Swensen gave the fireside and he talked about staying happy, having fun and doing good while we are on our missions. It was awesome! The Temple walk was great as always but this time we spent our day taking panoramic pictures at the temple. The movie for Sunday night was Legacy, I never realized how cheesey that movie was until watching it in a room full of 19 year old boys. It was hiliarious!

Classes are same old same old but we got a new district this week and now we have 3 new Hermanas in our zone. The new district will all be leaving in 3 weeks so they will leave before we do which makes me really antsy! I have been here for a month and I can't even think about being here for another month. I really hope me visa comes through on time.

Dad or Mom, can you ask Bishop Hill for Brienne's address. I would like to write her. So Tomorrow we have TRC which is where we teaching people who are members so its like a family home evening. Its a great experience and I hope things go well with that tomorrow.

On tuesday our devotional was by Elder Edwards of the seventy and his wife. They did an excellent job! He talked about living your life in a way that lets the spirit be with you all of the time. He also said if we get discouraged we can read Alma 8:13 and feel better because that is what a bad day as a missionary is. He also said that the real reason that we all came on missions is because we love The Lord and how true that is because that is the driving force for why I am here. In the end he said "There are no wasted motions when you are on the Lords errand doing his work." I Loved that! How true is that, as a missionary I should never get discouraged if some I teach doesn't get baptized of if someone doesn't want to listen. They will find they Gospel in their own time and I will have helped in some small way.

Oh I forgot to tell you but I love the food at the temple! It is way better than at the MTC. We have breakfast there every morning after we do a session or whatever we do for our temple time. I really miss your food mom. It was really great to get the pumpkin chocolate chip bread, everyone loved it and it felt like home. Thank you!

Well I should probably wrap this up, my time is almost up. I love you all so much and I know I say this all the time but thank you for all of your love and support. Give Kenai a big kiss and a hug for me! I miss that furry mess! Thanks again and have an Awesome week!!!!

Lots of Love,

Hna. Alayna Flack:)

 

Posted by Judy Flack

Hey Everyone!

I hope everyone is doing great! I just got back from the temple. Our whole district was in the same session today and afterwards we ate lunch in the temple cafeteria. It was an awesome experience. Oh and I saw Aunt Sherry at the temple today! She had just gotten out of a session and it was really nice to see and talk to her for a bit.

So I think I maybe making Derek jealous again but guess who came to our sunday night fireside...... Elder Ballard! He was Awesome!!!! Pres. Brown spoke to us first and then we had a special musical number by.......... you'll never guess. Yep, David Archuleta. He sang The Spirit of God and the second verse he sang in spanish and I was bawling by the end of it. He did and amazing job and it really brought the spirit and the Elder Ballard talked about how there will never be a more important time in our lives that serving a mission. It was all around an Amazing Sunday! Our Tuesday night Devotional was with Elder Gibbons of the seventy. He talked about how the most important way to be effective in having people come unto Christ is through the members and how our missions don't end when we come back, we are always supposed to be doing missionary work but inviting those we know to learn more about our religion. It was great!

This week has been pretty good but by yesterday we were all ready for a p-day. We have had grammer lessons everyday this week, sometimes twice in one day so my mind is fried!! We got a new district yesterday of all boys! They seem pretty nice but they all had the Deer in the Headlights look. I am sure I still look likt that most days.

So this week we started doing the TRC. Its a time were we get to teach volunteers who come in, who are members, about some gopsel principles. It was nerve racking because they are acutal members and will have no problem telling you if your spanish is really bad. But it was a really good expience and it was nice to get their feedback on how we taught.

I don''t know if I told you this but right now we are teaching two progressing investigators. They are both our teachers but one hour a day they go into a different room and they become this other person and we teach them like we would a real investigator. One of the investigators, Gilberto, is really hard to teach. he just sits there and if we ask him a question he just says "I don't know'' and thats all we can get from him. Its really frustrating but I know that this practice will be good for us.

So I hope I can remember everything you had asked me about mom but if I don't say something in this e-mail I might put it in the letter. So it would be nice to have that other old navy shirt and you don't need to send me my sunglasses until I leave. My clothes seem to be holding up pretty good but compared to both my companions I have no clothes whatsoever! They have a ton of clothes, I don't think one of my companions has had to wear the same thing twice yet. So one of my companions has a pair of Dansko shoes but that is all I have really seen. Most everyone wears their nice shoes around here. So I would like to know if you could maybe send me some foot powder for my flats. They are starting to really stink! Also if you could send me a small calender or the one from my room I would really appreciate that. I feel like all of the days run together and I have a hard time remembering what day it is.

I want to thank you all for your prayers, they mean a lot to me. Thanks for all of the letters you send and for your support. I am so glad to be serving the lord at this time and I am so blessed to have a family who is there to support me. I miss you all and I hope this next week treats you well. Enjoy the beautiful weather! I love you all so much!!!

Hermana Flack

Posted by Judy Flack

Week #4

• flackjl@yahoo.com

Message flagged

Thursday, April 26, 2012 5:16 PM

Hola Everyone!!!!

 

This week has been utterly Amazing!!! But first I want to tell you mom that my p-day has changed permanently to thursdays. They just have some many people here right now so they had to change the schedules around a bit. So I now have Temple at 6:50 in the morning! This morning we did Sealing. They were amazing and our Sealer served a mission in Argentina and he has been a mission president in Chile. It was a really great experience!

I feel horrible Dad! i forgot to tell you Happy Birthday!! So HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!! I hope it was fun!

So Derek thank you for your e-mail, it was great to hear from you and I am excited that you closed on the house! Now onto the yard sale and then Florida! I am sure you are all way excited to get going. Oh and Derek you can be jealous again because on Tuesday guess who came and spoke to us at our Devotional.... Elder Nelson and his wife! It was Awesome and Sister Nelson is a rock, she was amazing! Elder Nelson did a really incredible job and I have never written so much in my life. It was all about the doctrine of Christ and I learned a ton! On Sunday we had Sister Dibb come at talk to us during Relief Society and she gave us some advice from President Monson. It was a really amazing sunday. Sister Nelson gave a talk in Sacrament meeting and she did a really good job. The temple walk was awesome a usual.

So this week has been kind of hard because will will be losing two elders from our district because they are leaving tomorrow morning for the mtc in the Dominican Republic. We have become quite a close district and it is hard to see them leave. After the devotional on tuesday we have a devotional review where we talk about what we learned and get to share our testimonies and lets just say that we were all bawling by the end of it. It feels like a part of our family is leaving. But I am super excited for both of them. They are so amazing!

Classes are going good but i am still frustrated that I'm not picking up the language like I think I should. I know it will come with time and I really need to to put all of my faith in Christ and know that the only way i can learn spanish is through him.

I hope that Youth conference is fun for you mom! I am sure that it will be.

So the food here at the MTC is not that good. Its edible but that is about it. You have to stay away from the mexican food though because you will have problems for a long time after if you do that. I haven't tried the orange juice but some other people have and they haven't had a problem with it. So that was a false rumor. All in all things are great here but I am getting antsy! I know I still have six weeks lefte but man I want to get out and start teaching! I know that this is where i am supposed to be and I am here this long so I can learn the language but it is a long time. I hope it picks up soon.

I hope I have covered everything but if I haven't sorry. I love hearing from all of you and i hope this next week is amazing! I love you all soo much!!!! Thank you for all of your love and support!

Lots of Love,

Hermana Alayna Flack!

Week 2

Hola Familia!!

 

Sorry I haven't written yet today but I probably won't write until about this time every friday. So today we got to go to the temple this morning. It was great! We also got to sleep in til 7:50! It was Amazing! Today has been a great day to chil and write some letters and do Laundry!

 

So Easter Sunday we got to have a special Easter Devotional with President Packer. It was incredible! I learned so much! Our tuesday Devotional had Elder McMuilln and his wife and they talked about the power of the Holy Ghost. I have really enjoyed my classes this last week because we have lesson where we are able to discuss Preach my Gospel and the Doctrine of Christ. I am still struggling with the Language but I pray every day for help to learn. This past week and since I got here we have been teaching what is known as a progressive investigator. All in Spanish! Lets just say I only say about two words. His name is Carlos and he has been really great to teach. Two days ago was our last day to teach him because he is actually one of our teachers and this was just an experience to show us how much we need to rely on the lord and I definitely learned that! My teachers only speak spanish unless we are talking about PMG or discussing doctrine.

 

Sunday was also great because we were able to go on a temple walk. It was great to get out and just sit and look at the temple and think. It was also a very nice day on sunday. This past week has really showed me how much I need to rely on the Lord and how blessed I am!

 

Sorry this is such a short e-mail but I need to go get ready to go to dinner and then head to class! I love you all so much and I hope this next week is Amazing for all of you!

 

Love, Hermana Flack