Tuesday, May 25, 2010

May 25, 2010 e-mail

Hello from Cali. Things are picking up slowly as far as teaching appointments go. But out of the people we are teaching, none of them seem real solid. One cool finding experience I had this week: We were walking through this parking lot and I spotted this guy, kind of hidden, just chillin, sittin on the curb. And I felt inspired that we should talk to him. So we go up to him and we end up teaching him the whole first there sittin on the curb in the parking lot. It was cool. We have a return appointment with him later this week. We have also been busy visiting less actives, some who haven't had a visit for a long time. Bro. Valentine, one of the few white people in our branch, who speaks just a little more Spanish than I do, has been helping us out quite a bit lately since he lost his job at Nummi( A big car manufacturer here). He has been a good help. O, and I heard today that Pres. Obama is going to be in my area tomorrow for something at this solar power company? I'll try and slip him a Book of Mormon if I run into him:) For P-Day Elder Medrano and I climbed Mission Peak. We climbed it from a different trail that was a little tougher. We made it though:) But we almost didn't because this bull came running out of the bushes at us-probably because I was wearnig a red shirt. But me and Elder Medrano went all Matador on it and chased it off. It was a little scary there for a second though. O and one other funny thing that happened this week. For service we were helping to bus tables at this community dinner honoring volunteers- the mayor was there and like a 100 or so honorees. And so I'm bussing tables and I'm filling this Indian guys water And it gets near the end so I tilt the pitcher just a tad more to get the last drop and that's when disaster struck. A bunch of Ice comes fliyn out and goes all over this turban-cladded guy's lap! So i start to give him my deepest apologies as I'm cleaning up and to my pleasant suprise he jokes in his Indian accent "It is ok, hot weather out today, no?" Ha ha so it was still kind of embarrassing, but atleast it was the chillest Indian man in the world:) Any how i have to go but hopefully things continue to get better here. I'm noticing small changes in my self for the better so atleast all this work isn't going to complete waste:) No, we have been blessed to help some families and have helped a few inactives get back to church. I alsohave a good feeling that with the Lord's help we will be able to help somebody come into the waters of baptism and bask in the joy of the Gospel this new transfer. Please pray for hearts to soften and doors to open here in Fremont. Thanks, with love, Elder Flake
-- Thats crazy you guys are already getting out of school! Congrats Andy on survin your year as a Soph. And give my congratulations to all my buddies that graduated this year. Gps and translator are great. O and my guess for Adam is Japan. I'm doing good. And I love you so much!

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

May 18, 2010 Email

Hey Mom!
I hope you had a wonderful celebration of the Day of your Birth:) I'll try and get you a better pic some time this week. Thank you so much for the package! I was just expecting the translator, (which is a really nice one by the way, gracias:) but I got a lot more! I'm set on cereal for another week, Thank you:) Congrats again to Andy on the Scholarship. So this week...Elder Medrano got this weird sickness so we were apartment bound for a couple days. He was just really dizzy and had a headache. But he went to the Doctor yesterday and said he's fine and he's feeling better. With Medrano, we're teaching more lessons than before, but we still aren't finding anyone who realizes what we have! They are either like that's nice... but I'm Catholic. Or "i already believe in Christ, so I'm good". They just don't get it... But we know there are prepared people out there, it's just a matter of finding them. In P.E.C this week, we went through the whole list of members in the Branch, wasn't a very big list, but we circled all the less-actives and we are going to be hunting them down this week. Our philosophy is to start with what we got, the foundation, and use the members to try and build off of it. We had Zone Conference in the woods earlier this week, It was really nice up in the hills and we had some nice, spiritual experiences. My favorite part was just when we were given about 30 minutes to go off by ourselves and write in our journals. i had a good experience just sitting under a tree and writing my thoughts. Then also we had our once a transfer zone party which was fun. It was raining so we met in a chapel instead of a park, but we had a nice BBQ, played some B-ball and volleyball, and had a good time. Thank you for your prayers,
Love, Elder Flake
- Also thank you for your letter Dad, ha ha it was funny. It's probably a good thing you ate those cookies :)

Monday, May 10, 2010

May 10, 2010 Email

Hi,
It was great to talk to Elder Flake on Mother's Day. He is still struggling with his Spanish, but I think that it is because he can get by talking English most of the time. He's gained a little weight and gets free day old bread at Costco (and muffins and baked goods!) He gets a little Basketball in but they have a car and spend most of their p days doing laundry and writing letters and such. He says the weather is perfect!

Sent: Monday, May 10, 2010 6:12 PM
Hey It was good to talk to you yesterday:) I was missing you guys for about an hour afterwards but then we taught a powerful first lesson to 4 Guatamaleans and i forgot about you again:) Tell soon to be Elder Spilker that you can tell if an Hispanic is Guatamalean if they are especially short, have rounder faces, and according to my experience are quiet,if not shy, but are really nice.
Elder Medrano is a very good teacher and in general a great people person. And he's bold. He TOLD this guy yesterday ( As in gangster told ). This guy said in the Bible that it never says that marriage is a requirement. So Medrano whipped out some scrips in Genesis and Corinthinans and then said that if he was too cheap to pay the $100 or whatever it is to get married then he is too cheap. This guy (a non-member) has two kids with this sister in our branch and they have been together for like 15 years and are still not married, a sad common truth out here. I bore testimony after about how he can know the truth through reading and praying and it felt good. I am e-mailing a day early by the way because we have a zone confrence that is going to be an all day thing tomorrow, at a state park in the woods. It sounds fun. And I bought a Garmin GPS for $100 today at Walmart. Well I hope you enjoy the pics I sent and have a great week.
Love Elder Flake

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