Monday, October 25, 2010

October 25, 2010 Email

Hello Family:) I really enjoyed the Flake Family newsletter. It appeared very gratitude themed, and it's not even November yet:) I'm so grateful for such great family and friends. You all inspire me.
So there work is goin well. We had some big lessons this week, including The Law of Chastity with Daniel and Lorenia, our baptismal candidates(Who are living together). They took it well, but because of legal complexities they can't get married right now. She's only here on a visa and Daniel is only a resident, not a citizen. So we are trying to find someone in the branch that one of them can live with because they are too poor to pay two rents. We are also teaching this Father named Jesus. He's a really good dad/guy and he is reading and praying and wants to know if our message is true. Please pray for him to receive an answer.
We also got to go to a baptism of the sisters in one of the English wards with Renato (he speaks English) and there was a really good spirit there. Plus Renato happened to know the guy who got baptized and another recent convert was there and both of these two men had just quit smoking, plus, the addiction specialist senior missionary was there and they hit it off so it went great :)
Ok, now one HILARIOUS incident that occurred Thursday morning before District Meeting. We were getting into the car on busy San Benito street to go to District Meeting, Elder Quinn took shotgun so I was going to sit in the back, I had just put my back pack down on one seat and hung my suit coat up and closed the door and was walking around the back of the car to the other side, when Elder Simmons gunned it to catch a gap in traffic, leaving me there, mouth open in shock as I realized he thought I was in the car- They left me! I was all alone! For the first time in over 9 months! So I just busted up laughing! Then I looked up and there were people sitting on their porch right there who undoubtedly saw what just happened, so I stopped laughing and I got kind of embarrassed/nervous, cause I was alone and didn't know what to do. So I walked down to the nearest corner and just stood there, still in shock of being alone, for like 10 minutes (that seemed like an eternity) until FINALLY they came back for me- they had gotten all the way to their destination, and had gotten out of the car before they noticed I wasn't there! What great Companions!;) So when they finally got back to me and we made eye contact we all just laughed our guts out, all the way back to the church, and there we told the story to the District and we all had a good laugh :) Oh, I love the mission:)
Well thanks for all your support and I hope this e-mail finds everyone doing well.
Happy B-day Lindsey and Happy Halloween! -Love Elder Flake
(Thanks Mom, in advance, for the package:)

Monday, October 18, 2010

October 18, 2010 Email


Hello from Hollister :)
This week was kind of crazy because first we had an all day trainer-trainee meeting in San Jose and the next day I went on a 24 hour exchange with one of our zone leaders, Elder Cornaby, back in Gilroy. He is a great Elder and it was a good experience. He was very good at hunting Hispanics, Using almost all of the 5 senses:) Down here in Hollister, we've been getting used to being in a 3-some. We feel like a small army, especially when we have a member with us. So it's a little different, but kind of fun. We still feel we need to reinforce our foundation (Our members) before we can start having people line up at the baptismal font, so we are going to bless alot of members homes and try and get them more excited about coming to church and doing missionary work. We found quite a few promising potentials tracting this week, including a few families, so that was good. We also got a few doors slammed in our faces this week... it happens.
I don't know if I've said much about Renato or not, but he's an investigator who we've been working with quite a bit. He's got problems ( hears voices in his head and is an avid smoker, ) but he's a really nice guy and wants to better himself. We promised him that if he did the BIG 3 (pray, read, and go to church) that Jesus Christ would help him quit smoking and be happier. He seemed excited to give it a try. Well I'd like to give my congratulations to Jason on his call:) Do work Jason-ba! I look forward to you joining me in the Lord's vineyard. It's a good place to be :)
Well, Thanks for all your prayers,
Love Elder Flake


Tuesday, October 12, 2010

October 12, 2010 Email

Hey fam-
I couldn't write yesterday because the library was closed for Columbus Day. Anyways, Elder Simmons and I got a call from the A.P's yesterday morning informing us that we were going to be joint-training a visa waiter, and that we needed to be up in San Jose by 2:00! It was quite a shock. So we got Elder Quinn, from Connecticut, who will be with us for some weeks or months until his visa comes and then he's off to Guadalajara Mexico. A bonus is he's already at our level of Spanish! He took 3 years in high school and was in the advanced Spanish class at the MTC and he can already speak! I'm super envious! But he's not going to slow us down one bit so we're more than glad to have a little greenie fire along with us. One thing is we have the smallest apartment in the mission- ha ha oh ya, Sister Jackson referred to it as 'a dungeon' yesterday at the mini transfer meeting :)- Elder Quinn is sleeping on a mattress that barely fits between our 2 beds
so it's really packed in there, but why I am I complaining? I know there are a lot of missionaries who have a lot worse living conditions so i'll just quit while I'm ahead. But ya were excited to have him and he's already a great missionary:) We should be dropping a few baptismal invitations this week so we'll see how that gos and we are still trying to get our branch members a little more focused on their purpose. Things are going good here though. Hope you have a happy B-day Dad:) Congrats Brady on the call! Do work! The church is still true!
Love Elder Flake
P.S Mom, I'm sending a little package for Dad and included is the picture card. That's cool you made that confrence note thing and Dad wrote that Bishop-rick message thng, ha ha, funny story :) I love you all so much!

Wednesday, October 6, 2010

October 4, 2010 Email

Wow, I'm super jealous you guys got to be at conference! It's amazing how much you cherish conference as a missionary. The last session is the only one we had to watch in Spanish, but for good reason - David and Isabel and their 3 boys all showed up for it :) Isabel has been coming to church, but this was David's first time and it was good, because the talk ( can't remember who gave it ) about parents needing to be good example to their children hit him pretty hard. We are planning to take them to the Temple V.C this Sunday and inviting them to be baptized. Please keep them in your prayers.
Speaking of the Oakland Temple, we had a really nice session there on Wednesday. Things make more sense every time you go and I had a good experience reading and praying for a good half hour in the celestial room. The temple is the goal! Congrats Meagan and Tom! One fun experience this past week was going on Splits with an Elder Frost in Gilroy-the Garlic Capitol of the World- while Elder Simmons was at a leadership training meeting in San Jose. Elder Frost had just been transferred there so he didn't know the area and I obviously didn't so we spent a good amount of time tracting and contacting and we met a lot of cool and whitty people who put 'Frost' and 'Flake' together :) Comments included "Where's Tony?", & " You 2 should dress up like cereal or something" And we couldn't resist this door approach: "Hi, I'm Elder Frost", "and I'm Elder Flake" - "and the message we have to share- Is Greeeaaat!" Ha ha corny, I know. We did it only one time and the lady we did it to happened to not speak any English and she just gave us the most confused, blank stare I've ever seen :) Good times...
So any how, things are going well. We are excited about David and Isabel and we have a few other investigators we are working with as well so we are keeping busy. Elder Simmons and I are enjoying all the sweets Grandma made, so thanks Grandma 'D' :) Keep on Keepin' on - Love Elder Flake