Elder Dawson Flake

Elder Dawson Returns with Honor! January 4, 2012

2012-01-12T15:36:00.000-08:00

Dawson flew home via Salt Lake City and arrived at the new St. George Airport at 4:15 pm. He was scheduled to arrive at 4:30 and luckily we were there a little early. His plane was actually landing and we pulled into the parking lot. We were able to get positioned and welcome him as he came into the building. A high school buddy, Bryan Lunt, came in on the same plane returning from his mission. Dawson rode from San Jose to SLC with an old companion, Elder Simmons.

It is so wonderful to have him home again. We all went up to Pres. Topham's house and he released Dawson. We could just feel the spirit of the release. It was both joyful and sad for Elder Flake to take off his badge that he has worn faithfully for two years!

Well done thou good and faithful servant!

December 26, 2011 Final MissionaryTestimony

2012-01-02T12:30:00.000-08:00

Hello again fam!

It was indeed a pleasure to talk with you on Sunday. Glad to hear ya'll had a merry Christmas and we had the same here : ) Our Christmas dinner was very humbling, with a family of recent converts- the Lunas. That day, they had just moved into a small apartment- they had been living with another member family, due to hard times, financially speaking. They didn't have any chairs or furniture, so we all just ate on the floor. But they shared their testimony of how although they have gone through many trials since there baptism earlier this year, the Lord has blessed them so much spiritually speaking- they are so much happier now. Beautiful family.

The spiritual things of God have so much more worth than the material things of this world! I am so grateful for the Gospel. After 2 years of spreading this message abroad- it has been confirmed to me time and time again that it's all true. The Restoration, the Book of Mormon- all of it. Jesus is the Christ! I would like to thank you all for your prayers and support over these past years. I look forward to many happy reunions here shortly. Best wishes and a Happy New Year.

Love Elder Flake

December 20, 2012 Dawson's 21st Birthday

2011-12-20T07:08:00.000-08:00

We had another great week : )

Mayanin has chosen January 7th to be baptized! We are ecstatic for that, I'm just a little bummed that I will just miss it : ( But as long as she gets baptized! The Gospel has done so much for her and it has been such a testimony builder for me to witness it. She is such a nice lady, and so determined to do what she knows is right- despite much opposition.

Also the fam 5- well at least the Mom and the kids for now- are committed to be baptized New Year's Eve! Please keep them in your prayers! Paul isn't doing too hot at the moment. He just has a lot of distractions- including many mandatory community service hours + his girlfriend. But we will keep working with him.

Thanks in advance for the Christmas package! We are having a mission-wide steak and eggs breakfast this Saturday : ) We also caroled at 2 old-folk homes this past week and on Wednesday we will get together as a zone to sing some more : ) It is fun. Just five of us elders sang last week, and I seriously doubt it sounded that good, but the nice elderly folk just smiled and made us feel like we were MoTab ; )

Today we are going to get together as a zone again to play sports at the stake center. We are going to try and get a cool investigator named William there. He's the 17 year old son of the fam 5. Welp, I'm excited to talk to ya'll on Christmas : ) I will probably be calling around 2-2:30 California time. So have a great week and talk to you soon : )

Love Elder Flake

December 12, 2011 Email

2011-12-13T16:29:00.001-08:00

Elders and Sisters help set up for the Christmas Creche display.

This young lady was recently baptized and below are her friends, family,
and ward members at her baptism.

Hi Mom : )

First of all, thanks so much for my B-day package! Good ol' summer sausage...

To answer your questions...

We will be eating Christmas brunch + make our phone calls at the Ruiz home- the same family that fed us Thanksgiving : ) It will probably be after church which would be around 1:00 or 2 maybe? California time. Because I will be seeing ya'll the following week (Will everyone still be there on the fourth?) I'd just assume doing the regular old phone call, if that sounds good to you. I know there family does have at least one computer with gmail chat capabilities. I'll find out if they have more. I guess it would be cool to see the new baby boy. I still have not heard anything about flight plans yet either. I will ask President in my E-mail today about that.

I can't think of anything really for the Christmas package. But I thank you in advance for it : ) I have a memory card for the camera, so don't worry about sending me the other one. A member photagrapher from one of the Palo Alto wards took us and 2 other companionships to Stanford Campus to take pics this morning. It was a good time and the pictures are going to look legit. We had another busy week. We found 10 new investigators this week- and we're not even focusing on finding! We have alot of people close to baptism right now. Hopefully I'll see at least one or two before I return. Well thank you for all you do Mom- you're the best : ) Have a fantastic week.

Love your son, Elder Flake

Broseph! I don't even no what CTE stands for! But congrats! You're the man! : )

So we had a really busy week last week. We found a lot of new people which means we got to teach the restoration a lot! I love teaching the restoration. You're going to be such a better prepared missionary than I was because when I get back we are going to study preach my gospel together, and practice teaching, sound good?

Hey so I've been thinking a little bit about what I wanted to do- carreer wise- and then last night I had a dream, I don't remember much, but you and I and some boys from the hood were there, and we were catchin critters! It's actually a theme I've drempt about various times on my mission. And then I thought, that would be a fun job, catchin critters. And then I remembered that that's what Seth Topham does for a living! So I might look into that field when I get back. What do ya think? Sounds like a pretty fun job, right? Ha ha, well we'll see what happens with that...

So you have not yet met our nephew as well, is that correct? I'm excited to meet him : ) Are you doin the 12 days this year? Are you keeping up with putting the stars on the tree? Are you doin nice things so you can put straw in the Baby Jesus' cradle? Ah... so many fun Christmas traditions... Well Bro, take care and spread the Spirit of Christmas every where you go, ok?

Love your bro, Elder Flake

Palo Alta Pictures from Dawson's last area

2011-12-11T06:01:00.000-08:00

December 5, 2011 Email

2011-12-05T16:53:00.000-08:00

Hello Mom : )

Thank you for getting the garments to me in such a timely fashion. I'm glad you are all feeling better from your bout with the flu. I have been very blessed with my health throughout my mission thanks to that awesome blessing. It's been pretty cold here the last few weeks. But it's snowed here only like once in the past century so my chances for a white Christmas are pretty slim. We've had a pretty good week, teaching a lot. I'm starting to wonder if maybe we are spreading ourselves too thin. Maybe if we focused more on specific people we would have more baptisms and more less actives back in church. Something for us to think about...

Mayanin is showing amazing courage by continuing on with us, despite heavy opposition from her family. She is the first person in her family in recorded history to study with a different church. Her brother and her daughter are especially giving her a hard time about meeting with us. Obviously the spirit is working with her, to see her continuing on despite putting cherished family relationships in jeapordy. It's a testimony building experience for me to witness. Thank you for praying for her.

So I don't know if I've mentioned much about the Zamora family, but it's a couple- not married - nonetheless they have 11 kids together, that the missionaries and ward alike have been working on for years now. We taught them and 9 of their kids all at once the other night. It was crazy. Like half of the kids are already baptized. Hermano Zamora needs to get divorced/stop drinking first, but both parties have set a goal to be married and baptized in the future. It will be a great day that I won't be here to witness, but we are going to help them continue to make their way towards it

We had zero contact with Paul last week. His phone is off and we can't find him home so that is worrying us. Well I got to get but thank you for all of your prayers. I hope Andy gets the chance to dunk over someone in his city league. I'm super jealous that he has that ability now. Well I love you all.

Love, Elder Flake

November 29, 2011 Post Thanksgiving Email

2011-11-29T20:58:00.001-08:00

Hi Fam : )

Sorry about Mom and Andy getting sick : ( But glad to hear you all had another great Thanksgiving up at Grandma's : ) I'm writing a day late because all day yesterday our whole zone was working on setting up for the Christmas Creche which is done annually here in Palo Alto. They bring in hundreds of nativity scenes from all over the world and it's open to all the public.

I worked on lining the walls with garland and lights for the most of the time; I also got to trim branches of pine trees for some other garland and also wreathes that they were making. It was fun to be there with all my fellow missionaries. Good 'ol Elder Fultz, my buddy from back in Hollister is here, and also Elder Porter, who graduated a year after me at Desert Hills is up here.

Thanksgiving was epic. Hermano Ruiz went all out. Our first plate was clam chowder in a bread bowl : ) Then we had the main course of the best turkey I've ever had + tri tip steak : ) I ate too much. But it was worth it : ) Also on Turkey Day we got to rake leaves again for an hour or so in EPA (East Palo Alto). It was fun to keep that tradition alive.

Friday night, kind of a last minute thing, an awesome family in the ward, The Bojorquez fam, had the idea to invite Mayanin (they are her awesome fellowshippers) to go up with their family to see the 'lighting of temple hill' up in Oakland. And she accepted and we got to go to. Jose Hernandez, another awesome member, took us up. There was a big music/dance presentation beforehand in this huge auditorium next to the temple, then we went out for the lighting. It looks B-E-A-Utiful. I love the Oakland Temple. Then we went inside the V.C and did a quick tour + 'the family' presentation and Mayanin loved it. She's amazing. We gave her a date for Christmas Eve, which she accepted readily and just asked what she needed to do to be ready. She's perfect.

But of course Satan isn't going to go down easy, and sure enough, the next she gave us a call, wanting to talk to us. Turns out her husband + her kids (all older) all kind of freaked out at the news of her getting baptized so soon (They are all Catholic). Mayanin knows what she wants though, but to appease her family, we agreed it would be best for now to drop the date for now, until her fam warms up to the idea. Please pray for Mayanin to have strength and also pray to soften the hearts of her family.

Paul's doing good. His baptismal interview is scheduled for this week. His girlfriend came to church with him this week and we are now going to try and start teaching her. The fam 5 (from El Salvador) are doing well. Ana, the mother, basically had a dream that confirmed the truth of what we have taught. Yea Latino's and their dreams! Hopefully the rest of the family follows her. So a lot of great things are happening right now. It's exciting : ) Well I best be off, but thanks for everything, and I hope ya'll have a great week. My companion from the south is starting to rub off on me ; )

Love Elder Flake

p.s thank you so much for the tree! We like to dance to the charlie brown theme song : ) I should be flying home Wednesday the 4th. The way they've always done it here is have the returning missionaries fly home Wednesday morning. I really can't think of anything I need for a X-mas package. Maybe a pair of medium garments? I ripped a hole in a pair or 2 and I find myself one short. I will send the memory card with my pictures this week. I need to take more pics... Included should have a pic from Irma's baptism atleast...

Well I love you tons! -Elder Flake

November 21, 2011 Email Last Transfer!

2011-11-22T21:04:00.000-08:00

Yep, today is the start of my last transfer... Crazy. Transfer calls came and it looks like I will 'die' in a threesome. It's cool though. I have two awesome companions so it's all good. So we had a great week. Paul is progressing very well. He should be baptized in 2 weeks. He's awesome. It's fun reading the B.O.M with him. He pronounces 'yea' like 'ya' : ) Another investigator that is progressing SUPER well is Mayanin. Elder Barrow and I street contacted her like a month ago. She is like in her 60's and is one of the nicest people I've ever met. She's told us how she feels like there is something missing inside of her. After studying with us the past few weeks, she believes that what we are sharing might just be the thing to fill the emptiness : ) She's amazing. I've never taught someone who scrutinizes the scriptures like she does. Last time we taught her, she had 2 pages of notes and questions that came up during her study of the Book of Mormon. It's awesome! She basically has a testimony of everything- but she was nervous about what her husbands reaction would be. We met with him on Wednesday. Turns out he's super friendly too : ) They both came to church yesterday and seemed to have a great experience! Please keep them in your prayers.

We also started teaching a husband and wife and her 3 kids on Saturday. They're the 3 kids that we've been helping a member teach English to for the past 3 or 4 weeks. They arrived here from El Salvador 6 months ago and they are awesome. They came to church as a family for the second time yesterday. So that is very exciting. Pray for them too please : ) So we are busy and happy. We are going to play B ball again at the stakecenter today with a bunch of other elders. Always a good time.

For Thanksgiving we're going to be eating very well- Hno Ruiz, the professional Chef/caterer in our ward has invited us over : ) He's good. We've already eaten stellar lamb and fle-ming-yan? made by him. It still probably won't be as good as the food from Grandma D up in Logan, but it should be a close second : ) Well thank you for all your prayers and support! I hope everyone has time to stop and think about all of the fantastic blessings we recieve from our loving Heavenly Father this week. Especially us as members- WE ARE SO BLESSED!!!!! I love you all!!! -Elder Flake

Thanks for the updates from my friends Mom! They are all doing great! Good to hear. I will send you some pics maybe next week? Don't bother sending the memory card back this time. These last 6 weeks are gonna fly by. I would love to be able to come home in time to see all the fam together, but I feel that I need to stick it out to the end. I believe some other missionaries already tried to ask anyways and got shut down. Thank you for signing me up for DSC though! What day will I start classes? Tell Nate I say Hi back and tell Kaity Datwyler thanks for the letter and also wish Andy good luck on his scholarships for me please! I love you Mom! Thanks so much for all that you do for me!

Your son, Elder Flake

November 14, 2011

2011-11-14T13:44:00.000-08:00

Hi Mom : )

I printed off your talk and look forward to reading it later. It's true that the youth in today's world have their work cut out for them in order to stay on the straight and narrow. I would say a little more so here in California than back there in Utah. There are a lot of lost and confused youth walkin around these streets. You can almost always smell marijuana when we are walking around at night. There are also a lot of very young parents here.

We are teaching quite a bit of youth. Paul being one of them. We took him up to see the Visitor Center Friday night. He loved it. He loves to learn and loves coming to church. Good kid. So sorry this is really short, but we got to run. Things are good. We are staying busy and having fun. I'm glad Andrew had fun on his date. Hope you all have a great week.

Love Elder Flake

November 7, 2011

2011-11-07T16:05:00.000-08:00

Hello Father!

How do you feel to be a Grandpa again? Older? Ha ha. That was exciting news. Dillon... So do you feel more comfortable conducting now on Sundays? I feel a little more comfortable teaching District meetings now after teaching them for about half my mission. It also helps that I'm a Co-District Leader along with Elder Barrow. We get to share the load. We get along well with our newest addition Elder Hoggan. He's fun. We quote a lot of movies (including the Grinch : ) to entertain ourselves in the apartment and when we are on the go. He was a big band geek before the mission, like my trainer, Tyler Burton, who asked for your number today so he could call you guys.

Our recent convert, Irma Matute is doing great. She is always reaching out to others and she loves serving us. We are teaching this cool kid Andrew's age named Paul right now. We brought him to church yesterday, and he liked it alot, but he's too mature for all of the youth in our ward. But we'll figure something out. This whole family (parents and 3 teenagers) that we just started teaching came to church yesterday. They are awesome. They are friends of a family in the ward and we have been helping a member friend of theirs teach the three kids English once a week for a few weeks now. It seems to be paying off. They are fun.

We've been doing more splits lately with members which helped us be able to teach 9 lessons last Thursday. That was a record for all of us. It was crazy. Things are good. I'm VERY well fed and happy here. The members love to feed us. We are still trying to run about every morning so hopefully that will help counter the increased food intake. Also I think my metabolism is still working great : )

Well thank Mom and Andrew for me for there e-mails. I'm writing Andrew a letter today. That's a cool experience Mom had with prayer. I've had several experiences similar to that during my mission. Prayer is great. Well I best be off. Thanks for your great example and all you do.

Love Elder Flake

November 1, 2011 Steve Young Fireside

2011-11-01T14:38:00.000-07:00

Congratulations Lindsey and Carlton!!!

I have a nephew!!! I look forward to helping Carlton teach little Dillon how to throw a ball when I return : ) Looks like he has a lot of hair. Is that as much hair as Andrew had when he was born? So where did the names Dillon and William come from? Sounds like a good strong name : ) Very exciting... So I imagine Lindsey had a pretty content birthday with the arrival of the baby : ) I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween yesterday and you all have a feliz dia de los muertos manana.

So the big news for the week in my neck of the woods is that I am now in a 3 some again! Elder Hoggan from American Fork has joined forces with us. He's a really good missionary and we are excited to have him. He was serving in the Bolivia Cochabamba mission (which one did Heather serve in and which mission is T.J in again?) but then he had to go home for some medical reasons and now he's with us : )

President wants us to double our work by going on splits all the time with members so we should be able to cover alot more ground now. It's a little tight now, as far as living space goes, but we have more room than the 2 months that I was in a 3 some back in Hollister ;) In the 4 or 5 months Elder Hoggan was in Bolivia, he sure learned alot of Spanish. He speaks better than me.

Also this weekend, I had the chance to 'become friends' with one of my childhood heros... Steve Young! He's in my stake and he held a fireside Sunday night for the youth. I called us friends because he explained in the beginning of his talk that one of his goals of the night was to make friends with all of us : ) He did so by telling us some of his childhood experiences and fears. He was a moma's boy growin up ;) He also talked a lot about faith and how he had to have faith as an nfl quarterback when he would have to throw to his receivers (namely Jerry Rice) without seeing them because he was too short. He has a very strong testimony. It was awesome.

Well I got to get, but my congrats to the new parents and I look forward to meeting my new nephew : ) Love Elder Flake

October 24, 2011

2011-10-30T18:14:00.000-07:00

No baby yet, huh? Maybe he/she will have the same B-day as Lindz? that would be cool. Well I'll be sure to keep her and the new baby in my prayers this week as well then.

Well, Irma Matute got baptized and confirmed this weekend!!! The service was great. We had a really good turnout from the ward and the spirit was strong. She felt so good, a lot of relief. Irma is such a great person. If she isn't doing something for someone, she isn't happy. Kind of reminds me of my grandmas and you mom : ) Irma always wants to make us food- and she even gave us a gift bag and thank you card on the night of her baptism! She is still going through tough times with her marriage and also with some immigration problems, but now with the gospel, she has so much more hope facing these problems. It has been a great blessing to get to know her and help teach her. The whole Matute family is just awesome. So life is still muy bien here on the Peninsula.

Elder Barrow is from Houston Texas. I served along side him in Salinas for 6 months. He's awesome. We get along wonderfully. He goes home 6 weeks after me. He speaks the language so well and is a great teacher. We get up and go running at 6a.m almost every morning. We both love sports and climbing on things. We both just laughed when President Watkins told us we were going to be together. We couldn't believe it.

So we have a ton of good investigators right now- it's amazing how the Lord is just putting boat loads of people in our path. As of right now, it looks like our biggest challenge will be getting them all to church. Many of them have road blocks that keep them from coming to church on Sunday at 9 a.m. We are going to try harder to get each of them a member friend. We think that should help. It is fantastic teaching 20+ lessons a week- all pretty much to investigators.

So for the first time since Fremont I'm back in a zone where all of us missionaries are close together. So we are going to be playing a lot of sports. Last week we played a bit of football, rugby and ultimate Frisbee. It was a good time. Well thanks to all those who keep me and us missionaries in your prayers. I invite you all to rise up and be better missionaries yourselves. It's not easy but the Lord will help us! Make it a great week!

Love Elder Flake

October 17, 2011

2011-10-19T19:27:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad : )

Glad to hear you had a good b-day. Tennessee tacos. I need to make some of those one of these days. It's been too long. I ate like a dozen pupusas this week. They're a staple/delicacy of El Salvador. There are a couple families in the ward from there. I don't know how to describe pupusas or exaclty what's in them, but they're good.

This was the first Sunday my whole mission where I saw a full chapel in a sacrament meeting. It's a beautiful sight. I talked about the Book of Mormon in my talk. I used a little bit of Elder Callister's talk from conference, including the line example and how the Book of Mormon helps us clarify the doctrine of Christ. It was fun.

Also this week we made a trip to the Oakland Temple with some investigators : ) Norma and her 11 year old Jazmyn and 6 year old Diandre. We all felt the Spirit and the idea of an eternal family sunk into them. I love the temple! I hadn't been to the visitor center in a while and I saw for the first time the new Lucy Mack Smith narrated version of the 'Prophet of the Restoration', and also they added a scene or 2 to the "God's Plan for the Family" feature. The first scene looked to be filmed in Southern Utah, Snow Canyon maybe? I love God's plan for the family! It's fool-proof :)

That's exciting Lindsey could have a baby this week. Let her know that she's in my prayers! So it was a great first week here. We taught like 22 lessons and found 9 new investigators. It's awesome to be teaching so much. Elder Barrow is really good at engaging people and slipping into teaching them before they even know what is happening ;) We are very excited for Irma Matute who will be baptized this Friday. She's a very special person and was super prepared to accept the Gospel. She joins her mother and 3 sisters who are also members. Awesome family. Now we need to work on the men.

Well we got to get going. Hope you have a nice trip to Philly. I'm excited to see pics of my new niece or nephew :) Thank Darrell for me for coming down to help you and Andy finish the job.

Love Elder Flake

October 12, 2011 Transferred to Palo Alto

2011-10-17T17:24:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom! I'm in Palo Alto!!!

This is one of, if not the best wards in the mission! We received like 5 referrals yesterday and had 3 member presents my first day here! There are 7 people being taught right now who have solid baptismal dates! It's crazy! Yesterday we just drove from appointment to appointment! It's heaven! I'm paired up with Elder Barrow, a buddy I worked closely with for 6 months down in Salinas! He's a fantastic missionary! I'm already learning a lot from him. I am SO blessed to be here and am excited to serve here until the day I come home.

So our apartment is in Menlo Park, the church building is in Red Wood City, and we do most of our work in East Palo Alto. I'm just 20 miles down the road from San Fran! There are so many trees here! So different than Salinas. It's beautiful. I'm actually just right across the bay from Fremont, where I started out. There is so much work here. It's going to be a fun 3 months. Yesterday I got to meet Irma. She is a really sweet lady from El Salvador who was just flat out not happy with life, then Elder Barrow and his former companion, taught her every day last week, cause she was just eating it up, and now she's happy! The Gospel brings happiness!

Thank you so much for the package! Elder Gile and I loved the bread and jam. The Davidson's said they really enjoyed their visit with you, and are very grateful for the cook book, and the shepard thing. My last night, they made our whole dinner from recipes in the cook book! It was awesome. Good people. I'm going to miss Elder Gile and a lot of the members there in Salinas. I pray everything works out for Gloria. The last we heard is she was in Yuma working in the lettuce there. She's in a tough spot financially. We'll try and get in contact with her and send the missionaries to her down there. Well I love you very much and I'm very grateful for the opportunity to finish my mission here on the peninsula. Exciting stuff is going on. I'll fill you in on more next week: )

Love Elder Flake

Visit from Dawson's Bishop in Salinas

2011-10-07T21:45:00.000-07:00

Dawson's Bishop from his Salinas branch, came through Utah on his way back for attending General Conference. He stopped by with his wife to visit us and pick up a package. I had fun baking bread and cookies and packing some homemade strawberry jam per his request to send. I also stocked up on some of the basics for he and his companion. Bishop Davidson said that Elder Flake is a great, humble, and obedient missionary. I gave Sister Davidson a hug when they left and asked her to deliver it to him from me!

October 3, 2011 Post General Conference

2011-10-07T21:36:00.000-07:00

Yea spiritual feast week! It was a great temple experience. Bishop Davidson took the 4 of us elders up the 2 hour drive to Oakland. It was a beautiful clear day, and up on top of the hill where the Temple is you could see the whole bay area. It was a great session, i learned a lot, and then I had cool experiences in both the Celestial Room and the chapel with the Book of Mormon. Both times, I just flipped open the book and the passages of Ether 12 and Moroni 7 were both perfect for me. Just like many stated this conference -God speaks to us through his written word.

Speaking of conference- it was awesome! Lot's about missionary work! Especially in Priesthood session. I love the first presidency. On Saturday- I'm sure we all felt God's love for us during President Uchdorf's talk. During all of President Eyring's addresses, I just find myself writing a ton of self-inspection questions. I don't know how he does it, but he's good.

Then President Monson, ha ha, he's a goofball! 'Hello!' and then his joke about him going to dedicate the new Wyoming temple, cause 'there's good fishing there!' He then fulfilled his role as a prophet calling the whole world to repentance. God's standards don't change! The commandments are not mere suggestions! Good stuff... I'm excited to re-read all of the talks in the coming months. Great Conference...

So what else happened this week? Gloria is still in Mexico as far as we know. She hasn't been answering the phone lately so we're kind of worried about that. I also went up to San Jose on Friday for the leadership meeting. President Watkins is an inspiring individual. He makes us all want to be better. He also gave us a look into his hobbies from back home and showed us some pictures of his Indy race car. He did an analogy using the car (using math-he always uses math :) and he told us that the car actually performs better the faster it goes. It is more likely to spin out going around a corner at 90mph than 120mph. He didn't believe that when his coach told him, but when he put it to the test, he found it to be true. He likened that to us- how we are scared to go faster, or work harder, cause we don't know if we can, or what will happen if we do. But if we take the chance to raise the bar, we will find that with God's help, we will be made capable of doing even more than we thought possible. Pretty cool.

Also this week, we had a good lesson with Juan Chavez. It's a little different teaching him than the majority of the people I've taught here in Salinas. We teach him in English, he has a nice apartment (he actually lives in the same complex as us), and he doesn't work in the fields. He has desires to change and come closer to Christ, so it's a pleasure to teach him. Que mas...

A member took us to In-n-Out between sessions Saturday and told us he would pay for our burger, but only if we ordered the 4X4 (4 meat patties). So we took the challenge. It was gooooood. I felt kind of grossed out at myself though after eating that burger, a full order of fries, and a shake. But it was worth it :)

Today we are planning to go to the bay with a less active couple. Martin and Hortencia. They're cool. Well say hi and thanks to Bishop Davidson and his wife for me please! Thanks in advance for the package! I really can't think of anything that I need... Maybe some home made strawberry jam :) Transfers are next week. I'll find out if I'm really going to finish my mission here in Salinas! It would be 7 transfers! It's a good place to be though, so esta bien :)

Well I love you all muchisimo!

Elder Flake

September 26, 2011 Temple Trip and Conference

2011-09-26T17:33:00.000-07:00

Hola familia :)

I'm glad that you had a nice trip. Great job Lindsey and Carlton on your missionary work! I hope your friends continue coming to church! 3 to 6 weeks til Lindsey has her baby!?! Crazy!

So this past week Satan threw another curveball at poor Gloria. Her Mom, who she hasn't seen in years, just had a heart attack and slipped into acoma. So Gloria, upon hearing the news, jumped in her car and headed down to Mexico to see her. Satan really doesn't want her to get baptized, because every time she gets close, something like this happens. Please continue to keep Gloria, as well as Denis and Kain in your prayers. Denis and Kain are being watched by a cousin until Gloria gets back. We're not sure when that will be...

On a happier note- tomorrow is our bi-annual temple trip! The Bishop will take the 4 of us Spaniards up to Oakland tomorrow in time for the 12:00 session. Then it's confrence! So it's going to be a great week, regardless of the fact that we are hurting for investigators right now. Hopefully the Lord will answer our prayers this week and we will find some of the elect who are bound to be out there.

Also this week, we had a fun ward volleyball activity that we (the missionaries) put together. Some investigators of the other elders as well as some less actives that we have been working with came out, so it was a success. Everyone had a good time. Well that's about it for me. Thank you for the prayers. I know that we will all be blessed to hear from God's chosen leaders this weekend! So don't miss it! And invite a friend!

Love Elder Flake

September 12, 2011 Visit to Monterey, CA

2011-09-13T18:58:00.001-07:00

Hello family :)

We just got back from Monterey. It was a good time. As a Zone, we went to the aquarium and then after Elder Gile and I + one of the Salinas English companionships explored Monterey a little bit. It is a beautiful place - very fancy. Those pictures of Elder Empey were very humbling. It sounds like he is having the experience of a lifetime down there in Bolivia though. Good to hear that. We are indeed very blessed to be living here in the U.S. My companion has 2 brothers over seas in the armed forces so hats off to them and all those who help protect our country.

So Elder Gile and I are working hard and having a blast. We were meant for eachother ;) He is a very entertaining, positive Elder. Yes, we are still doing the English class every Thursday night. The last 2 days we passed out about 100 flyers trying to get a few more students. We have a few regulars who are now investigator of the other Spanish Companionship, so it's starting to pay off. We had a great first lesson teaching a young man in the parking lot outside of his apartment the other day. His name is Cristhien and he accepted a baptismal date : ) Please pray for him- to have desires to continue on learning and to follow Christ. Looks like Andrew had a fun prom : )Well I hope you have a great trip to Canada. We have to visit Monterey some future day. God's creations are so beautiful! Well I got to run. You are in my prayers.

Love Elder Flake

September 10, Letter and Pictures

2011-09-10T16:54:00.000-07:00

Salvador's baptism!

Elder Flake and Elder Gile

!Hola Familia!

Sorry I'm so bad at writing! I got a new comp! Elder Gile from Kansas! He's awesome! We are going to have to work super hard, but we will have success! I just have to have the attitude that I'm going to finish my mission here in Salinas--which actually is quite probable. It's kind of nice to be with a fellow gringo again. He wakes up with me at 6:25 to go play B-ball or tennis. (We invested money into buying rackets @ Goodwill)
Our apartment complex has a tennis court and the complex across the way has a b-ball court. :)

We taught a good Restoration lesson to a daughter/mother combo tonight. They should be solid. I have to carry the heavier end of the teaching load being as my comp only has 7 months out. His Spanish is pretty good though-better than I was at 7 months out. Elder Gile is fun. We sing together as we hake around or when we're in the car. He might be goofier than me! We are both dedicated to being strictly obedient and working hard so we should see success.

I hope things are good back home. I hope you don't feel like I've forgotten about you (because of the lack of letters) It's just there is always so much to do out here! I pray for you every night! I hope you enjoy the pics!

Love Elder Flake

September 9, 2011 New Companion!

2011-09-07T19:18:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom :)

Today I'm sending you my pic card with a short letter. So this will be brief. I got a new companion! A gringo named Elder Gile. He's awesome. I'm very excited for this transfer. We are going to work hard, have a little fun on the way, be very obedient and have success. Elder Gile is a very determined missionary, 7 months out from Topeka Kansas. Well sorry this is so short. I hope all is well back home. Thank you for your prayers.

Love Elder Flake

Hey Bro!

So you did the sunrise Timp run, huh? Pretty cool. I'm putting that on my bucket list. You down for doing it again next summer? :) That's cool that the X country team is doing so well. Jake Powell is a prodigy. Good lick staying on Varsity! My new companion,Elder Gile, is a lot of fun. He also still has some greenie fire so we are going to do some serious work out here. Ha ha, Elder Gile got a nice welcome to Salinas - he got 4 flat tires with in his first 3 days all on the same street! Plus he wrecked his bike! Terrible luck. He's buying thorn proof tires now, so that should help stop that problem. I've never got a flat :) Well bro, thanks for the e-mail. Make it a great week!

Love your bro Elder Flake

August 29, 2011 Email

2011-08-29T16:36:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad!

Good to hear from you :) Ya, I've only been in 3 areas and Salinas might be my last one. Elder Mote is getting transferred up to San Jose so I will be getting a new companion tomorrow and holding down the fort here in Salinas. I only have 3 transfers left! Crazy... I'm glad to hear you are staying busy with work up in the cool mountains. I was blessed to spend this summer in the coolest area of the whole mission. It maybe broke 80 a couple of times here. Pretty nice, eh? 60's to 70's all day long :)

I look forward to doing some good, physical work with you when I return. Ha ha, ya, nursery would be fun - as long as I don't have to change poopy diapers. What's new... Last P-day we went to the beach and threw a ball and ran around on the sand. It was a good time and it felt amazing to have sand between my toes. We also came acrossed a Seal just chillin on the beach. Took some pics of him. The biggest blessing of the week was finding a family of 4 to teach. The Martinez family. We taught them a quick restoration and my new companion and I will be going back to teach them this week. They're a nice family. Pray that they understand the importance of our message! I look forward to working with a new companion who maybe will bring some fresh ideas of how we can find more people to teach. Well Dad, I love you lots. Thank you for your prayers,

Your son, Elder Flake

Hey Steve! Take it easy!

I'm confident you passed your big test. Have you taught Alexa how to throw a spiral yet? Ha ha, I bet playing with her just gets funner and funner as she gets bigger and bigger. So what did you mean by no NBA season? They can't not have an NBA season can they? That sounds like herecy to me. Well I hope you have a nice break from school. I'm going to be getting a new companion here tomorrow, so that should be exciting. I've been with the same elder (Elder Mote) since March! So it will be nice to have a change there. Well Steve, thank you for your prayers. I pray that all is well with you and your little family. Love Dawson

Hi mom! I promise I will send a note and my picture card this week. I'm sorry I haven't got around to that. I will repent. I'm glad to hear that Lindz and Carlton survived the Hurricane. Crazy stuff. So i will finally be getting a new companion. I learned a lot from Elder Mote, but this area needs a change of pace, and hopefully whoever my new companion is can help me take things to another level. Ha ha, i thought i told you about the Tuberculosis thing. My bad. So like 2 months ago, we picked up a new investigator who was on medication to recover from Tb. Armando Arreola. He turned out to not be interested, but the mission office, upon hearing that we were teaching a man with Tb, wanted us to get tested, just in case. Elder Mote and I both came out negative ( we DO NOT have Tb :) So that is that story. Well I best be off, but you will get mail from me soon. Thank you so much for everything Mom. I'm pretty sure you're the best Mom ever. Love ya tons, Elder Flake

Hey bro! That's a funny story of you having to run home from your morning bike ride ;) I have never had to replace a tube my entire 4 months here on a bike :) Ha ha, Elder Dimond, one of the other missionaries serving here, has had to replace his tube like 8 or 9 times! Poor guy. 17:36, not bad bro. Don't let that little Sophmore punk beat you! Ha ha, jk just do your best bro :) Who's the top dog on the X country team these days?

So bro, who are your teachers? What do you do for lunch? I look forward to going on lots of bike rides + rock climbing with you next year. Well love ya tons! Keep reading your scriptures! I just started the Book of Mormon again for like the fourth or fifth time on my mission. It's a good book! I highly recommend it :) Do a good turn daily - Love Elder Flake

August 22, 2011 Email

2011-08-24T19:59:00.000-07:00

Hey family!

Elder Flake here in Salinas. Sounds like everyone is doin well, good to hear. So what happened this week? Fidel didn't make it to church this week, so we'll have to push back his baptismal date :( But he's still the world's nicest old man and we have an appointment with him tonight so a la mejor he'll still be baptized here in the near future.

I did some more service on an exchange this week with Elder Campbell. It was a 'clean up Salinas' project and we got to wear little orange vests and walk around the streets and a park picking up trash. There was a BBQ after so that was nice.

As a part of the Zone Goal this week I had to ask 2 random people on the street to be baptized. The crazy part was that both of the people i asked said yes! One of them Elder Mote and I will teach on Wednesday, and the other was this cool black guy named Keis who the English Elders will go and see. I should ask random people to be baptized more often... :)

On Tuesday we had a Zone Conference and I got to hear from Elder Gavarret again. He's a very loving man. President Watkins is a very qualified man. He talked a lot about the need to be 'pro' in our actions and appearance, and that we need to win the hearts and minds of the ward members, and especially the ward council members, in order that they will trust us.

On Monday we ended up going to the park and throwing a football and also playing scategories at our Bishops house. It was fun. We're hoping to get a member to take us to Monterrey or somewhere today. Just to see the sights. This will most likely be the last week of Elder Mote and I being together. I can't imagine us being together for 5 transfers. I'll let you know next week about transfers. We have the car week this week. So hopefully we'll be able to meet with a lot of our potentials we have gotten from all the contacting and increase our teaching pool a bit. Well that's all for now. I love you all so much!

Elder Flake

August 15, 2011 Email Release date: January 3, 2012

2011-08-15T18:59:00.000-07:00

Hey Momma!

I hope your transition from summer life to school life goes smoothly. I got all the notes from our couzins :) Tell them all thanks for me please :) So what's the next big event you're planning as part of your calling? Speaking of callings, the Monterey Stake Presidency just got re-organized during stake conference this weekend. We went to the Sunday session over there in Sea Side. Elder Gavarret of the first quorum of the 70 was presiding and an area 70 by the name of Elder Cordova accompanied him. They were both Latinos! So they held a special meeting for all the Spanish members of the stake after the main session :) Both meetings were great. It was good, I think, for our members to see that there are Latino leaders in the church. Both meetings had a missionary theme. Pres. Watkins and his wife spoke.

The week was pretty slow, teaching wise. The majority of our appointments that we did have fell through :( We did do a lot of service though :) First, we took down this dead tree for a very nice little old lady named Betty. I used a hand saw and chain saw to trim the branches off, then we called our Spanish compadres, Elder Barrow and Elder Dimon, and they helped us push it down. Now Betty is an investigator of the English Elders :) Then on Saturday, the 8 of us elders here in Salinas helped out with a city 'clean up Salinas' project. There were multiple large garbage bins lined up along the street, each for a different material, (metal, wood, plastic etc.). And we helped people unload there junk from there cars and trucks and threw it in the bins. It was kind of fun. They payed us in all the little cezars pizza we could handle :)

Welp, tell my friends former elders Montague, Cox and Thompson that I say hi and that I salute them please. That's cool that I will get to fly into the new airport. I still got a lot of work to do though so we can't be thinking about that :) Thank you so much for your thoughts and prayers mom. They are appreciated.

Love your son, Elder Flake

Very good to hear from you! You're a senior now!!! Wow! Let me know how your first week of school goes, ok? Which classes are you taking, who are your teachers etc. Sounds like you had an awesome summer. I look forward to hangin out with you all next summer. We're still gonna do a crazy road trip, ite? I'm happy to hear that you are doing X- country again. I think I got about the same time as you my first race my senior year. So you definitely have a shot at breaking my PR. What was it, like 16:30? Ha ha, looks like you had a pretty crazy fan club at your race :) Our cousins are crazy aren't they? What's Justin up to these days? Tell him I say hi, ok?

The mission goes on here in Salinas. We meet so many people everyday. It gets frustrating some times because WE know that our message is so important, and you try and share that with others, and no one gets it! But you just got to keep on inviting and pray that Heavenly Father will put a person in our path who is spiritually prepared enough to understand the importance of what we are talking about. Well bro, make the best of your senior year. You're such a nice kid and everyone knows it, so just keep being yourself and continue to reach out to the friendless. I love you to death and hope to hear from you again soon.

Love Elder Flake

August 8, 2011 Email

2011-08-15T18:56:00.000-07:00

Sounds like the reunion was a success and a good time. I just read that article in the Ensign about that pioneer who built the Pine Valley chapel and discovered Bryce Canyon. Pretty cool. Tell Rebecca congrats for me on going through the temple. Jason just told me he got transferred to Snow Flake. Ha ha, that's awesome.

I'm glad to hear that Dad is staying busy with jobs. Tell Jonba and the boys thanks for the letters, and Sister Johnson as well. Are you ready to go back to school Mom? :) I know Andrew probably isn't. Sounds like he had a pretty fun summer.

So this past week, President Watkins iniciated a new key indicator of getting 20 contacts a day (or 140 per week) and Elder Mote and I got 146 :) That's a lot of people. We're usually pretty good at talking to just about everyone we come across, but now we're even more focused on it. You never know who the elect are going to be. Fidel Santoyo, who now has a baptismal date for the 28th of August, was a man we just went up to in the park and started talking to him. We had a cool lesson with him last week. He said a great prayer and was touched by the Spirit. Well, I look forward to reading all the notes from my couzins. The package did finally come :) Thanks! You are in my prayers.

Love Elder Flake

Hello again Mom,

So I got a call yesterday from Sister Whithers, who is the mission secretary up there in San Jose. I guess Salt Lake already wants to know which airport I'm going to fly into by this Friday. So I think it would be cool to fly into St. George (is that new airport close to being finished yet?), but I'll go where ever you're gonna be :) The regular transfer/missionaries leave day is Wednesday, January 4th. But maybe you can ask Sister Whithers to confirm which day I'll be coming home (if she even knows yet). This is crazy even talking about this stuff. The address that you need to contact is: 2011549@ldschurch .org. Call the mission office if you have any questions. They need to know by this Friday. I'm doing good :)

We chopped down a tree for a little old lady today for service. That was fun. I'll try and send pictures soon. I got some pictures today from Danielle of cute little alexa. She keeps growin! I love you very much! Hope the school year starts off great for you! Love Elder Flake

Hey Danielle:) Thanks for the e-mail. I remember recently getting a letter from you that included some of Alexa's artwork, as well as the work of your primary kids, ( I actually was in the same zone as that Elder Miller before he recently got transferred) but I don't remember costco pictures. Hopefully they're on there way. Thank you for thinking of me and tell Alexa I think her artwork is fantastic:) Alexa is so big... I saw a 2 year old at church yesterday and she was running around and I was thinking, wow. Alexa is big. I'm very excited to play with her when I return:)

That is cool you are in all those clubs. I'm impressed that you know how to sew and quilt. I look forward to seeing some of your work. What books have you been reading for your book club? I just finished Jesus the Christ, and now I am reading 'Our Heritage' The beginnings of our church are pretty amazing. Those pioneers sure were tough. Funny stuff happens on your mission. Whether it's a bike gang of kids stocking us on our bikes or some lady you just met grabbing your hand to say a prayer, or some little girl finding that pulling on your arm hairs is pretty entertaining, and she doesn't stop, not even while I'm praying:) It's fun... Well, love ya sis. Tell Steve I wish him luck on his big test. I hope you all have a fun, relaxing 4 week break break. Love Elder Flake

August 1, 2011 Email

2011-08-01T15:59:00.000-07:00

Hey family!

Looks like you had an awesome week at the reunion and Yosemite. That glacier lake by bear lake looked like a good time! Why hadn't we gone there in the past?!? That water had to be freezing- you're all crazy. Good work Andrew taking over my role and being the first one to get in the water.

I remember rainbow falls. That was a good time. I hope everything turns out well for the Flakey reunion.

We had a pretty good week. The Lord blessed us with 6 new investigators, including a family via a member referral. Our elderly friend Fidel Santoyo broke our church attendance slump this Sunday. The member we took to our appointment the past week picked him up and did a great job fellow shipping him. Fidel had a great experience. Manuel was not able to make it to church this week, but we did have a good lesson with him and he accepted the invitation to be baptized. He's from El Salvador and lives in the same house as a member (the one who brought him to church last week). Member involvement makes so much of a difference in this work!

Hermano Vasquez was able to return to his home in Hollister after the surgery. Hopefully this will act as a wake-up call for him and he'll get back to church. Jamie Martinez (RC) had a great time at girls camp, made a bunch of friends, and is already excited for girls camp next year! Yea girls camp! 11 year old Marcelino Gerardo (RC) demonstrated his skills on the bass for us last night. (His dad and uncle have a band and music is their life). He's good. Such a bright kid. I think we baptized the next August Rush.

We also got a new car this week. A shiny, brand new 2011 Corolla. (They sell the mission vehicles before going over 50,000 miles). Then I rode up to San Jose on Friday with my MTC roomie Elder Bennet for President Watkins' first leadership meeting. It was good- a lot different than President Jackson's style, but it was a good meeting. Pres. Watkins is really big on image. He gave us all a table etiquette tips page ( which I think should have a revised version for the Spanish program ;) and he also had us all bring our uggliest tie for a tie exchange. I guess he knows someone from Mr. Mac because he had 200 nice ties there as part of the exchange.

Well I best be going, but I want to leave my testimony that I know the church I'm currently representing is the Lord's Kingdom upon the earth today. Joseph Smith was the restoring prophet and the Book of Mormon contains the Word of God, revealed to his servants here on the American continent. Families can be together and that is God's plan; His work and His glory.

Thanks for your prayers, examples and support; Love, Elder Flake

July 25, 2011

2011-07-25T13:20:00.000-07:00

Hey family up the road!

It was BIG week down here in Salinas this past week, with the 101st Salinas Rodeo, California's largest. Lot's of vaqueros (cowboys) came, and the streets were pretty crowded for a couple days, but now things are slowing down again. Elder Mote and I stopped on our bikes outside the stadium to watch a couple of bull rides on the jumbo tron the other night. That was right after some crazy homeless guy tried to push elder mote off of his bike. Luckily he bounced off some bushes and was able to keep riding. I was riding behind, so I just dropped off the curb into the street out of the guys reach and got by him. Ha ha, it was pretty funny. There are a lot of homeless people here in Salinas. It's sad.

Well none of our investigators came to church this Sunday :( But a member brought a friend that we are going to start teaching :) His name is Manuel. It seemed like he enjoyed church. We did quite a bit of street contacting this week. Hopefully some of the potentials we got from that will turn out to be solid. There is a less active from the San Benito Branch (Hollister) who is now at the big hospital here in Salinas. It's actually hermano Vasquez, the one we helped remodel a house over Christmas time 6 months ago. His Kidneys failed, so he just had a surgery and now he will have to start doing dialysis 3 times a week. I hear dialysis isn't very fun. The waiting list for a kidney transplant is 6 years now-a-days... We gave him a blessing, and then a few days later we stopped by to read a chapter of the Book of Mormon with him. He is a funny guy, a good man.

This week we also had a fun ward party. It was the 'Zarahemla challenge'. There were 3 teams and they played a series of games (such as sling shot shooting, a big puzzel, etc.) mixed in with questions from the Book of Mormon. Then at the end, a member did a presentation on the Navajo Indians, and then we had Navajo tacos- and they were super good. It was a fun evening. Well, I better e-mail President Watkins, but if I have a little more time I might write a little more. Well I hope you enjoy your time here in the Golden State. Stay away from Fulsom prison, I here it's a bad place. The lake sounds nice though. Send me some pics!

I got a letter from Darrell on Saturday, Gracias primo! Thanks for the salutation Jonba! A Town, you're my hero! Parents, you're amazing :)

Love Elder Flake

July 18, 2011 Email Transfer-Stay in Salinas

2011-07-20T06:29:00.000-07:00

Wow Mom, that is quite the compliment Pres. Topham/Sister Dalton gave you and the fam. Thank you so much for your examples! Sounds like the hard work you all put into the trek really paid off, and had quite the impact on everyone involved. That's awesome.

So transfer calls came and it looks like I'll be spending my fourth transfer here in Salinas, still with Elder Mote. We thought for sure Elder Mote was being transferred. Obviously I'm supposed to be learning something from him that I haven't figured out yet. He's very serviceable. Also he is a great teacher and loves the people we teach and associate with. So maybe he's slowly helping me improve in these areas, and Heavenly Father thinks one more transfer with Elder Mote will be for the best. We don't always get along super bien, but we are understanding each other more and more as time goes by. So I might finish my mission here in Salinas? I only have 4 transfers left... We'll see I guess.

The English class went well. Only 3 members showed up, but they all learned a lot and seemed excited about it. We advertized it quite a bit the last few days, putting flyers in laundry mats and the like. And people have started calling so we expect a better turn out next week. We found and taught this cool young couple this week. Pedro and Ernastina. They are very nice/humble and accepted our invitation to be baptized :) So that was exciting. Also, the 4 of us Elders in the ward all gave talks in Sacrament yesterday. I got carried away I guess and I took 15 minutes only leaving 15 minutes total for Elder Mote and Elder Barrow, and they had to skip the rest hymn... but people said they enjoyed my talk :)

Of course, we all spoke on missionary work. I shared the experience of how Jamie saw the example of the Domninguez family, members who are practically family of Jamie, and because of the happiness that the Gospel brought to their lives, she pursued it and was baptized. Now Jamie is about to head off to girl's camp and it is a blessing to see her change from the Gospel. So ya, I talked a lot about being an 'example of the believers' and 'letting your light shine' to all their non-member friends. And also I suggested ways that they can take the first step in sharing the Gospel with their friends. And of course I told them how much the Gospel has blessed the lives of our family and will bless anyone who accepts and applies it.

What else... This super nice, like celestial good lady, who is always giving us fresh fruits and vegies, and packages of bottled water, and anything else she thinks we need, is taking 6 of us Elders to Olive Garden for lunch today. Her name is Hermana Rico. She is the best. Well familia, Haz lo Justo and Mantenga la fe and stuff alright? Thank you so much for helping me be out here and for your tremendous examples. Way to do missionary work Andy! Tell Shelton I say Hi :)

Love you much, Elder Flake

July 11, 2011 Teaching English

2011-07-11T06:41:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom:)

The work continues on here in Salinas. Things are a little slow right now. We have a few investigators. None of which are super promising, but with a little work and by helping them keep a few commitments, things could definitely happen. We need to find more people. To help with this, the 4 of us Spanish elders here in Salinas are going to begin teaching an English class every Thursday. There are already a handful of members who are excited about it. So that's good. This will be my first time trying this.

Speaking of language learning, our recent converts, the Apolinar family, taught Elder Mote and I some Mixteco last night, while we we were visiting with them. Kuni Kushi! (I'm hungry:) It's a crazy language- sounds like Chinese. They are doing well. They work so hard... Before my mission, I never thought about where the strawberry I was eating came from. These people spend hours of backbreaking work out in the sun caring for, picking, and packaging the fruits and vegetables we enjoy. And they do it for $45 or $50 a day. It's a tough life...

5 and a half extra hours of meetings? That's crazy Mom. A typical Sunday for me?

8:00- coordination with ward mission leader
9:00- P.E.C
10:00- call investigators to remind them about church; or if we have the car, we go to their houses/apartments to wake them up
11:00-2:00- Church
2:30-4:00- proselyte
4:00- dinner; on Sundays we usually eat with bro. Vargas (the Elders Quorum President) and his family, or la familia Apolinar
5:00-8:30- We usually are busy with appointments, if not, we proselyte some more (street contacting, visiting potentials, less actives, etc.)
8:30- return to the apartment, I get the numbers from the district and then I report them to the Zone Leaders
Sunday is game day. How well it goes is determined by if you get investigators to church or not.
Well Mom, thank you for your prayers and sacrifices in my behalf. I love you very much. Good luck with the trek.Where are they doing it? Andrew would make a great Indian. I hope you have a great week! Love Elder Flake

p.s, I have not received the package yet, they must be holding it till transfers next week (Tues. the 19th) bummer :(

Love you Mom!

July 6, 2011 Email

2011-07-08T19:56:00.000-07:00

July 6, 2011

Hello Family :) Sounds/looks like you had a fun time at Lake Powell. We got to meet with Pres. Watkins twice already, with interviews and a 'meet and greet'. He's awesome. Different from Pres. Jackson, but awesome nonetheless. He appears very smart and is already coming up with some new ideas to help lift the mission to another level. He emphasized the importance of obedience, hard work, and having a positive attitude. It will be interesting to see the changes that occur in the next 6 months.

We found a new investigator who seems promising named A. A. The only thing is that he has Tuberculosis. He is on medication, so it shouldn't be too contagious, but the mission medical adviser wants us to teach him out of his hotel room, in an open area, as a precaution. For P-day we went and hiked again at Pinnacles. It was fun, although it was hot, like 100. We are accustomed to the 70's here in Salinas ;)

The East side of Salinas, where all the Mexicans live, was crazy on the 4th. Smoke and fireworks going off everywhere. We're not sure if all of them knew exactly what they were celebrating, but they were sure having a good time ;)

Oh, one other cool thing I found out yesterday is that this younger guy, 23ish, named Juan, who Elder Gainor and I found in Hollister got baptized! He's the one who when we knocked on his door informed us that his Dad was being brought over from the hospital that afternoon so he could die at home. We talked and testified to him of the Plan of Salvation before later referring him to the English Elders. Now he's baptized! Miracle! I'm on exchanges with an Elder Campbell from the Philippines right now. Well I better get going. Thank you so much for your support. I love you all.
Peace and Blessings, Elder Flake

P.s Mom, please inform Lindsey that I did get her letter and I will be writing her back soon. Did you get the postcard-picture that I sent Alexa? I have not yet received the package you sent. Love you!

June 27, 2011 Email

2011-06-30T15:34:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom :)

Thanks for the e-mail and the package in advance. Before I forget, my new address is:

Salinas, CA 93907

It's a nice apartment. One of the nicest in the mission according to Elder Wynn, the housing coordinator who came down to help us move with his truck last Monday. We are going to love saving money with the washer and dryer.

So I said my goodbyes to Pres. and Sis. Jackson on Friday at the leadership meeting in San Jose. They were both super tired. They ran to the finish line. They go back to Mesa tomorrow. I will meet Pres. Watkins this Thursday at a Zone Conference in Sea Side (Monterey).

Not too much exciting happened this past week. We are still trying to help Lorenzo get his answer/realize he's already received one... I interviewed a cool man named Juan for baptism. The other Spanish elders are teaching him. We had a really spiritual discussion, during the course of which he revealed that he was living with a women who he is not married too. So he wasn't able to be baptized this weekend, but I explained to him that we (us as missionaries, as well as God) were going to be with him to help him make the changes in his life necessary to qualify him to receive the gift of baptism. He's having a tough time in his life but he has a lot of faith that baptism will help to restore peace to his life.

The Lord blessed us to find a family of like at least 8 people, who we taught for the first time last night. The room was just full of people and they were all paying attention. It was cool. We taught lesson 3 and it went pretty well. We have another appointment with them next Saturday. We also found 2 other new investigators the past week, which is great because our teaching pool was getting pretty shallow.

And finally, yesterday, Reyna and Odilia had us over for dinner and after we taught them about the priesthood and gave them there first blessings. Odilia has been having some major back pains due to the back-breaking work in the fields. So we gave her a blessing of health. And so, to not leave Reyna out, we gave her a blessing as well. It was a good experience.

So thanks mom, for sending the envelope full of all my buddies letters + the memory card. Sounds like they all are having amazing experiences. It sounds like Darrel's wedding was nice. I hope ya'll have a good time at lake Powell. Tell Andrew not to jump off of any cliffs that I wouldn't jump off ;)

So I hit 18 months this week. crazy... It's crunch time now :) Well thanks again for everything Mom, Love Elder Flake

June 20, 2011 Email

2011-06-20T11:10:00.000-07:00

Yea! We finally had the double wedding + triple baptism this past weekend! Everything went great! We did our baptism, of Reyna, Odilia, and Gerardo Apolinar - on Friday, with a quick wedding ceremony right before. We had a good turnout from the ward. I got to baptize 11 year old Gerardo and also confirm him a member in sacrament meeting on Sunday. All 3 of them were excited and happy :)

I also got to attend Salvador's baptism in Hollister on Saturday as well! He was very happy to finally be able to enter the waters. It took a whole year to do the divorce thing. But he made it, and also 6 of the 8 missionaries who taught him were able to attend. Good ol' Elder Simmons baptized him. I told Salvador I'll be coming back next summer to attend the temple in Oakland with him when he is endowed. This was obviously a great week. Yea baptisms!

We also have an investigator, Lorenzo, who could be baptized as early as this weekend. The problem is he doesn't think he has recieved a legit enough answer yet. Apparently he's has a lot of interaction with God in the past, like even hearing his voice and seeing things and the like, and he is expecting that kind of caliber of an answer now. We explained to him how the Spirit works but he just doesn't seem to get it. Bishop suggested that we try fasting with him for a day this week so we'll try that. Any other ideas? Please keep him in your prayers. Even if Lorenzo isn't baptized this week, the other pair of Elder's in the ward have a baptism scheduled for this weekend so we'll be keeping the font full here in the Salinas Third Ward.

So thank you for your prayers! The Lord is truly blessing us here! Oh, and congrats to Darrell and Eve! Hope everyone has a fantastic week,

Love Elder Flake

(Dawson sent a picture card but the envelope was slit when we got it and the SD card was missing! Bummer!) He sent this picture with a letter to Andrew for his birthday.

Dang, that stinks about the card... Oh well. So ya, the only one of the recent converts that speaks English out of the Recent Converts is Jamie. You could just send me the letter and I could give it to her if you wanted to send her your congratulations. That would be cool:) So is Grandma really going to move back to Tenn? Oh man, I was hoping she could teach me how to index when I got home. Well, I wish her the best. So I got to jet cause we're going to move apartments now, but thank you family so much! You are the bombs! I will send you our new address next week.
Love Elder Flake

June 13, 2011 Email

2011-06-13T14:28:00.000-07:00

Hey Fam.

Thanks for the e-mails. Jamie got baptized and confirmed this weekend! Yea! She asked me to baptize her and it was a great experience! She was really nervous, and wasn't comfortable being in front of half the ward who showed up, but she went through with it :) She's got a long, tough road ahead of her with her family situation and all the temptations for young people that are out there in today's world, but she just made a BIG step in the right direction, and with the Holy Ghost as her guide, she can come off conquer. I will send pics in a letter this week. And I sent Andy Rew a letter that should be arriving any day, with a memory card. Yea Baptisms!

We finally got all the paper work we need to be able to marry Reina and Odilia to their husbands! We are planning a double wedding + a tripple baptism this weekend! Exciting times! Also being baptized this coming weekend back in good ol' Hollister is Salvador! The times might just work out that I can be at both baptisms! Espero que si con todo mi corazon! So to answer some of your Q's Mom, Yes, I am in pretty good biking shape, but running shape, probably not.

The new mission president will be arriving on June 28th, the same day President Jackson is going back to AZ. I will be saying bye to Pres. Jackson this Thursday at a Zone Confrence. Actually I will probably see him one more time at a leadership meeting the next week. 3 things I learned from President Jackson? 1. Boldness. I am called of God and my authority is above that of the kings of the earth. 2. Humor. A little humor goes a long way. A lot of humor will take you even farther ;) 3. Be Yourself. If you feel like busting out into song, go for it! He did it all the time, in front of hundreds of people:) God gave us each a certain personality, there is no sense in trying to hide it or change who we are. Ha ha, one thing I will look for in a wife that Sister Jackson has? Positive attitude. It's no fun being a downer. Like Sister Jackson always says: It's a beautiful day! Every day is a beautiful day in the California San Jose Mission!

Other news, We are moving into a new apartment next Monday. I will e-mail you the new address next week. Elder Mote and I are excited because it's a huge upgrade from what we are living in now. It's newer, will have a dishwasher, washer, dryer, + a wood burning fire place- none of witch we have now. The washer dryer will save us $20 a month. Cha-Ching! Well I best be going. I give my congrats to Rebecca. Spanish speaking! Woo! El idioma de los Dioses! Also congrats to Darrell and Eve. I recieved their wedding announcement. They look like a cute couple (Darrell probably hates me for saying that ;) Well fam, thank you for your support in all forms. You are the best of the best.

Love Elder Flake

p.s

Happy Birthday Andrew!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

17! Live it up bro!

June 6, 2011 Email Staying in Salinas

2011-06-06T14:02:00.000-07:00

Hi Mom!

I'm alive and still in Salinas. You have been getting my e-mails every week, right? Sorry they are not very detailed. I'll try and do better this week. So transfer calls came and it looks like nothing is changing. I will be spending my third transfer with Elder Mote. Which is ok because we have to see Reina and Odilia and Gerardo finally reach the waters of baptism together. They are still having complications getting that darn birth certificate here from Mexico. But with prayer and faith we'll figure out a way to get it here somehow.

Our 15 year old investigator Jamie Martinez is excited for her baptism this weekend and we are too! But like always, Satan is doing all he can to stop it. But we will fight him to the bitter end. She's come along ways. Trying to get her to pray was like trying to pull teeth, but now she volunteers to say them :)

I had procrastinated doing exchanges so this past week we squeezed in 3. I had a really good experience with a greenie from Samoa named Elder Ete. He's a big rugby player. He's very humble and has a powerful testimony. Ha ha, there was this crazy guy that we met while contacting in the park, and while he was just trying to bible bash, Elder Ete calmly bore his testimony with his thick accent. The power of Elder Ete's words and the lack there of in the words of the other guy was so apparent.

Later we were teaching a less active family who only a few years ago were very strong in the church. We shared a shortened version of the Restoration with them and the spirit was very strong. Then we took turns asking inspired questions,and I felt prompted to ask the head of the household if he was reading from the Book of Mormon. He responded 'no' and it became clear to him that there was where he needed to start his road back to activity. He committed to begin reading from the Book. Elder Ete asked him to share his feelings of the Atonement and the good brother got teary eyed while expressing his gratitude for this gift of gifts. It was a powerful experience. So life is good here in Salinas, the weather is still beautiful and the Gospel is still true.

Love Elder Flake

Oh, and to answer your questions Mom, the charge at Marshalls was from when I bought Elder Mote a shirt for his birthday. I withdrew the money ($140) to buy the marriage licenses, but because of the birth certificate problem, I wasn't able to do so. Know that I love you so much Mom! Thank you for being amazing :) Love from your son, Elder Flake

May 31, 2011 Email

2011-06-02T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Momma!
Thanks for the pics! Those crazy Suttners! Ha ha :) Sorry I don't have much time right now. I'm on exchanges with an Elder Carmichael from Washington D.C. So, no one was baptized this past week :( We were one original birth certificate away, but now we will have to wait for this certificate to arrive from Mexico. It shouldn't take long though. Bummer deal...

Last P-day we went to the coast. It was beautiful. I'll send pics. We have 2 investigators right now with baptismal dates, one being this young mother named Jamie who is cool. She practically lives with members and she agrees with everything we have taught so that's good. We need to find more investigators though... Life is good though and I love you! My family is in a yacht club! I don't even know how to spell yacht though! Oh well!

Love Elder Flake :)

May 23, 2011 Email

2011-05-28T12:18:00.000-07:00

Hey Dad :) Sounds like you all had a fun week. I hope we have a wedding this week. I might be paying for it, which means you might be paying for it :) $150 is definitely worth opening the door of salvation to 3 people, don't you think? Well, The other elders in the ward had a baptism on Saturday, so that was good. Hopefully it will be a kick off baptism and many more will follow. We had two of our investigators who have dates in June there to witness it so that was great. I shook the hand of an Apostle on Saturday! Elder Ballard and the other members of the 70 who spoke are obviously men of God. Powerful speakers, very inspiring. The future of missionary work looks to be through the internet (Mormon.org) and also through more member involvement. I should have brought my notes so I could tell you more about it. My bad. It was definitely a high-light of the mission though, for sure. This week should be pretty crazy, I'll be going to a leadership meeting up in San Jose on Fri. Then 2 other days, I'll be going on exchanges to fulfill my District Leader responsibilities. THEN HOPEFULLY WE'LL HAVE A DOUBLE WEDDING AND BAPTISM ON SATURDAY! Today we got permission to drive over with a member to Hwy. 1 to drive on the coast and see what there is to see. Hike around a bit and take pictures. That's awesome you were able to resurrect the old Hobi cat. Ha ha, rubber duck yellow- I got to see this :) How many turtles do we have now? That's crazy. Who'd a thought? Well thank you for the prayers. They are definitely appreciated. Love Elder Flake

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 6:27 AM, Shelly Flake <shellyflake6@gmail.com> wrote:

Good Morning Dawson, We have had a nice weekend with Danielle and Steve. They had Steve's brother Shawn get married so they were all here. We took them up to the Pioneer park and Andrew showed them how to repell down the Dixie rock. The weather has been really nice and great for doing things outside but now it needs to warm up a bit more so that we can take our newly repaired sailboat out to the lake. We painted it "Rubber Duck" yellow and it looks pretty good. We had a good Fathers and sons outing up at Veyo pool this weekend. The river was pretty high so we were more careful with the little kids around the river but it was very pretty and we had a bout 100 fathers and sons there. The turtles are multiplying. It is spring and the little turtles are hatching and popping out of the ground like daisy's. I am going to be busy this next month with a few jobs that I have lined up so I am glad for that . I am looking forward to finishing the job up at Duck Creek with Andrew this Summer. We have been praying for those you are teaching to work towards baptism. It is great that you are busy and having success. Have a great week Love Dad

Hey Dani! Thanks for the pics? Say hi to St. George for me and give Alexa a hug and a kiss for me as well :) Mom tells me that Alexa recoginizes my picture and says hi to me by name! That's great she hasn't forgotten about me :) I told Dad that we might be having a wedding of our own this week. Two faithful investigators, Reina and Odilia, just need to tie the knot so they can enter the fold of God through baptism. We've been having trouble getting all the original birth certificates so they can get their marriage licenses. We'll hope and pray we get it all figured out by this weekend! So how's life? Where are you reading in the scriptures right now? I just read about the Anti-Nephi-Lehi's burying their swords. The faith of thos people! Well, I love you and hope you enjoy your time in George Town. Love Elder Flake

On Mon, May 23, 2011 at 6:45 AM, Danielle Jackson <daniellejackson825@gmail.com> wrote:
que tal?

I'm writing your from St. George today! We got into town last Thursday evening for Steve's brother, Sean's wedding. He married Cari Sue Green from St. George in the temple. Friday night was the reception at the huge Cox mansion by the springs and then Saturday morning they had the wedding and after that the luncheon. It was a wonderful time. Steve had to fly home last night to go to school this morning. Alexa and I get to stay until Wednesday afternoon. Alexa sure love grandpa and grandmas house. She likes to look at the fishies and jump on the tramp and run around. It has been nice to be in sunny weather and I already have a sun burn. I hope everything is going well for you! If it's not, pray and work harder ;) We sure love you and miss you!

Love, the Jacksons

May 16, 2011 Email

2011-05-16T20:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Mom! I hope you had a great day yesterday! Sounds like Dad and Andrew helped to make it special.

That's awesome that the ward is having another baptism. Great job Bro. Johnson! I was actually invited by a member of the Monterrey Stake Presidency last night to read that talk by Pres. Uchdorf- and all those sections in Doctrine and Covenants. I will do it tomorrow for Personal Study. The Bishop drove us over to Seaside (by Monterrey) last night for the Stake Priesthood conference. It was great. One cool thought from that was this: Many of the choices we make either allow us to be justified or sanctified. Choose to be sanctified!

I am very excited to hear from Elder Ballard this Saturday. I have been reading his book, 'Our Search for Happiness'. If only all non members were required to read that book... A lot more people would understand what the church is really all about. Sad news for our investigator G (who also is the Mother of investigators D and K) To make a long story short, she just found out that her 'husband' has been cheating on her, and this caused her to have a panic attack- she already suffers from depression- and now she is in the hospital because she overdosed on her pills. Poor woman. She is so sweet. Please keep her in your prayers. So this also means that the baptism of D and K (that was planned for this weekend) will again have to be pushed back... We had it all planned out and they were excited, but Satan got in the way! Ughhh...

Good news for this week is that we found 4 new investigators, which meant that we got to teach the Restoration 4 times this week, and that's always nice. One of them, Lorenzo, believes our message- but one obstacle we will have to overcome is that he is still practicing the Old Testament version of the Law of Sacrifice. He has sacrificed chickens, candy and even cookies. Kind of strange but he does seem interested :)

Well, we are going to keep chuggin along. It's crunch time for Reina and Odilia and Gerardo, They have continued to faithfully attend church, but they haven't done anything about getting their marriage licenses. So we are really going to push for them to get going on that, and Si Dios Quiere we will still have a baptism in May (on the 28th) and a wedding to boot :) Thanks for your prayers.

Love Elder Flake

May 9, 2011 Mother's Day Call and Email

2011-05-09T21:16:00.001-07:00

Thanks Mom! I'm glad you had a great day. How did Andrew do with the feet wash? Today we just plan on cleaning and chilling. Maybe I'll write some letters. I've been procrastinating to write people back for a while now. oops;) This week, besides getting the double wedding going, we hopefully will be able to extend a few baptismal invitations to some newer investigators that we have.

We had one cool experience last night with Carmen, one of the cousins of Odilia and Reina. We invited her to say the closing prayer after our lesson. This was her first time praying so we ran her through how to do it before she made the attempt. She offered a wonderful prayer and she got a little emotional from the power she felt from talking with our Heavenly Father. It was cool. Yea for the Power of Prayer! She looks to be solid just like the rest of her wonderful, humble family:)

Well, hope you have a wonderful birthday! Thanks for being the most amazing Mom in the entire galaxy!

Love Elder Flake

Hey Grandma!

Thanks for the e-mail. I hope Logan is beginning to warm up a little more now that it's May. I also hope that you had a wonderful Mother's Day yesterday. Thanks for being such a great mother and grandmother. Especially thanks for raising my mom so well. So have you and Grandpa made any more fishing trips lately? Sorry you didn't catch anything last time. But like you said, at least you got some fresh air :) Fishing is kind of like missionary work. Some days we don't even get a bite (someone interested in our message). But on those days, atleast we went out and gave it our all!

We do have quite a few investigators right now, mostly from one family, so that's good. Hopefully we'll catch a few of these 'fish' and have some baptisms this month. Thanks for being such a great example to me grandma, and grandpa as well. Let me know how Heather's wedding goes. Tell her congratulations for me if you would please.
Thanks!

Love Elder Flake

May 2, 2011 Email

2011-05-02T18:16:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom :)
We had a pretty good week. Saturday for the California wide Helping Hands day we helped repaint and cleanup a baptist church. Then we had a BBQ after. So we had Baptist's at our BBQ ;)

The glasses came and they work perfectly. Thank you. We went to west pinnacles for P-day today. A member took us. It was nice to hike around in the beautiful outdoors. I'm excited to talk to ya'll next Sunday! We still haven't found anywhere to skype yet, but we are going to ask a few more members this week. Around 4 p.m should work. I will call ahead before to let you know if we are going to skype or whatever. Let me know how Craig's surgery goes.

Well let the Angels kiss you and the Devils miss you, ok? Ha ha some cool white lady in a power chair that we contacted told us that the other day. Well lots of love and we'll talk to you soon. Love Elder Flake

Alexa swims? Bin Laden was killed!?! What's going on in the world! We have one of the greatest families of all time, don't we? I tell people that all the time out here. I'm excited to talk to you Sunday!
Love Elder Flake

On Mon, May 2, 2011 at 7:45 AM, Danielle Jackson <daniellejackson825@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey Elder Flake!

What's new?? I suppose you've heard the news that Osama Bin Laden was found and killed. So far it seems to be bringing more unity in the USA. That's good! In our news, not much new. I started my second class, Parenting Skills, which is only three Saturdays for a couple hours. Alexa finished her swim lessons. Steve is writing a book. We are all doing great! We are excited to hear your voice on Sunday! We have a wonderful mother don't we!! We are lucky to have the parents we have and for being brought up so well! Keep up the good work that I'm sure you're doing! We love you tons!

The Jacksons!!!

Easter Message April 25, 2011 Email

2011-04-25T13:39:00.000-07:00

Yea Darrell is engaged! That's exciting news:) Thanks for the package Mom. That $10 gift card was inspired:) It's going to save Elder Mote and I for the last week of the month. I put the Easter Eggs you sent to good use by having a easter egg hunt Sunday morning with our investigator Odilia's 2 kids; Gerardo (10) and Perla (6). They had a great time hunting the eggs and we had a good time watching them. We also hid a picture of Jesus for each of them, which I think was a Dave Suttner tradition.

Our ward also had a Easter party that included an egg hunt as well on Saturday. It was a great time and we had a few investigators turn up. I kept the egg painting tradition alive by hard boiling some eggs and we bought an egg painting kit at the dollar store then after church on Sunday we went over to our investigator Gloria's and painted eggs with her kids Denise (9) and Kain (11). We also talked about the true meaning of Easter. Denise really wants to get baptized and hopefully we'll still be able to get her and her brother baptized here soon.

So we'll be on bikes again this week, and i'll be putting my new wheels to the test. My first bike started to have serious issues so i traded it and $40 to another Elder who likes to fix bikes for another used bike that he had just fixed up. Hopefully this one works out better :) The new transfer starts today and Elder Mote and I plan to baptize this time around. Gerardo, his mom Odilia and her sister in law Reina are super super super ready to be baptized and if all goes well they will be married and in the water before the end of May. Their Esposo's are scheduled to get back from working in the fields of Oxnard the 5th of May. The plan is to start teaching the esposos when they get back, and maybe we'll be able to baptize all of them together which would be sweet. Such awesome humble women. The whole ward loves them.

The mission is beginning to re-use an older tactic for getting more member refferals called 'The Harvester'. It's a flip chart that helps members catch the vision of our mission and also helps them think of specific people they know who are ready to hear the restored gospel. Switching gears, there are a lot of parents here that are struggling to raise their teenage children. One of them is Gloria Luna, a new investigator of ours- super nice lady. I love testifying to them how the Gospel of Jesus Christ blesses families. Because it's so true! My family is so blessed because of the Gospel! It's amazing!

Well, I got to jet. Be excellent to each other!
Elder Dawson Flake

Dawson's latest pictures from Salinas are at:

https://picasaweb.google.com/shellyflake/Salinas?authkey=Gv1sRgCLmKvMurlYCYkQE#

April 18, 2011 Email

2011-04-18T20:00:00.000-07:00

Hey fam,

Elder Mote and I received some bad news this week. Hilda dropped us, and Denyse and Kain will not be baptized this weekend as planned. I guess Hilda's husband said some things that scared her away from her desires to continue learning from us and get baptized... Gloria, our investigator/mom of Denyse and Kain will not be able to make it to church on Sundays, due to the fact that she will be going to visit her son who's in Juvie near San Francisco. So there gos the support of Denyse and Kain. But hopefully we'll be able to work something out like convince Gloria to go and visit her son only everyother week. And with Hilda, hopefully we can get her to attend the baptism of her friends Reina and Odilia, who are still very solid, here at the end of May. So all hope is not lost- although it seemed like it Saturday, when we recieved all the bad news. Ha ha, and to top all the sadness off of the day, a bird pooped on my shoulder! Talk about a bad day! But it's ok. We did pick up two more FAMILIES as investigators this week, so that's exciting.

And I'm going to play basketball today! First time in MONTHS. We'll play with the other Elders here and try and get a few other guys. Who knows if I can still even make a lay-up. Also this week, I taught a District Meeting on the Atonement. But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.

-2nd Nephi 1:15

I LOVE MY SAVIOR!

To start the lesson, I read this story called 'The File Room' It's intense and it really brings home the reality/necessity of the Atonement. You should look it up. Somehow. I got it from the 'little book of inspirational stories for missionaries'. I'm so grateful for the Atonement! It's amazing! Incomprehensible! But it's REAL. Jesus Christ is the hope of Israel OUR HOPE. I hope you all can take some time this Easter to read a tleast one of the Gospel accounts of our Lord's atoning sacrifice, plus perhaps a Topical Guide scripture search in the Book of Mormon of the word Atonement. We are reading the Book of Mormon as a mission right now marking everything that pertains to the Atonement and it's AWESOME. I just read beautiful testimonies of the Savior's mission by Abinadi and King Benjamin. He is risen! Well I love you fam. Thanks for being amazing. You are in my prayers.

Love Elder Flake.

p.s Mom, thanks for taking care of the glasses. Sounds like you had a crazy adventure on the Virgin. I'm glad you're fine. I hope you felt the Spirit at the baptism. Sounds like Andy had a good time with Jonba and the gang. Thanks for the e-mail. I sent a picture memory card in the mail. I hope it makes it. I love you all!
Elder Flake

April 11, 2011 Email

2011-04-12T14:48:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom :)
We had a good week. 2 new baptismal dates bringing the total to 7! They are all pretty solid too:) The first of the baptisms will be the 23rd of this month. Dennise (9) and Kain (11) are the kids of a long time investigator, Gloria Valerio, who really wants to get baptized, but she is waiting for her divorce papers to go through, so she can get married to the man she is currently living with. So it was decided that we would go ahead and baptize the kids first, and then she will follow later on when all that stuff gets taken care of. Dennise and Kain are awesome.

They love our lessons and they enjoy doing the 'homework' we leave with them after each lesson. They are smart kids too. The other day I asked them if they knew what the word 'gospel' meant, and Kain sure gave us a surprise when he replied 'good news'- I had completely forgot that I told them that 2 weeks earlier- it blew us away that he remembered. Gloria really wants them in the church because her older son who's 16 is already in Juvenile Prison. So we have fun teaching them. I have a few object lessons that I like to use, and some of the Hispanics really get a kick out of them. I will have to demonstrate them to you when I return.

So today we got permission from President to go the Montery Bay Aquarium, so I'm excited about that. We are going to take the bus, which will cost like $7, but we got free admission tickets at the library :)

I'm going to order some glasses online at the Bishops today before dinner- from at Zennioptical.com. Elder Simmons used it and said it's cheap and decent quality- at least good enough to last me the rest of the mish before I can get my eyes checked again and then I can get some nicer new ones.

I received the letter Grandma sent with a check a few weeks ago. I'm not sure if it was dear elder. How often does she send them? Tell her thanks for the check please :) I'm going to send a picture card home to you guys this week. The only thing I can think of for you to send in the package is Elder Mote wants a copy of Grandma Flake's recipe book- he really can cook :) That's awesome that another one of your students is getting baptized. You should definitely go and support her at her baptism. How's Juan doing by the way? And also how is Craig, Sean, and Ricardo doing? It was good to hear from the boys from the hood. Thanks for that letter. Well love ya mom, make it a great week!

Elder Flake

April 4, 2011 Email

2011-04-04T17:52:00.000-07:00

Hi Dani!
So how was your celebration of the day of your birth? Was that the occasion that called for dinner at Bennihana's? Alexa looks so cute, and she already has all of her teeth? One miracle we had this week was 6 investigators came to conference! And they all came to the same session ( 4 of them are related )! So that was an awesome sight. Conference was great! Which one was your fave? They've all kind of blended together in my mind, but I remember feeling the spirit real strong during the talks of Elder Holland and Pres. Uchtdorf.

I'm also glad I'm still out here in the field because in Priesthood Session the single men (R.M's) were called out multiple times on waiting around too long before getting married. I'm too young to get married! But I don't have to worry about that for a while so it's ok! I need to focus on getting other people married right now (3, maybe 4 of our investigators right now - all women, need to get hitched before they can be baptized). Elder Cook was right! Women are so much more spiritual/righteous than men! Men won't listen to us! -basically all of our investigators/potentials are women! Maybe we need to change our finding approaches... I guess all the men are working in the fields right now... Any ideas Sister?

Well I love you and hope you have a fantastic week. Congrats getting the new job! Don't you love living in an apartment? Always a baby crying or a kid hitting the wall in the next apartment :) iPerseverar hasta el fin!

Love, Elder Flake

Hey Lindsey!

You are going to have a baby! And you ran a half marathon! You're crazy! Congratulations again- I'm already excited to come home and see my 2 month old niece or nephew :) Sorry you and Carlton got sick :( I've been having a bout with the cold the past few days. Nothing serious- i just have to travel carrying tissues. You remember the pleasant noise I make when I blow my nose? My comp's ears have been experiencing it all weekend long! I feel bad... especially now that he has gotten my disease. But I woke up feeling some-what better so things should be running normally (like the amount of snot coming out of my nose) soon :)

Well I hope you enjoyed conference! I sure did! Which was your favorite talk? Well I hope you are feeling better today and that you have a fantastic week.

Love Elder Flake

March 28, 2011 Email

2011-03-28T12:37:00.000-07:00

Hey Mom,

We had a good week. I'm very glad that we had the car this week because it rained every day until yesterday it was beautiful. Today looks to be a beauty as well. I did hear there was some flooding in the Santa Cruz mountains, but here in Salinas it was just wet. I loaned my bike to the greenie Elder Dimond for the week, and it started falling apart on him, so then we loaned the other Elders Elder Mote's bike, and Elder Barrow was riding it yesterday and he got hit by a beamer (BMW)! Elder Barrow is fine- he flew through the air I guess, but he's just a little sore this morning. The Lord protects his missionaries :) But so now both Elder Mote and I both have some major fixing up to do on our bikes. That's probably what we'll be doing for the majority of today. His might be totaled.

On the plus side of the week we found 6 new investigators! For the most part they were found from knocking on doors, but one named Hilda was a referral from our golden investigators Odilia and Reina. She seems pretty solid. We gave her a chapter to read in the B.O.M, and she read it and even marked all the words she didn't understand (which was quite a few because her first language, like Reina and Odilia, is Mixteco- except Hilda's Spanish is worse). So there will be a little language barrier in teaching her, but she looks to be pretty golden as well. She accepted a baptismal date for the end of April.

Also yes I have a few months more out than Elder Mote. He's a really good missionary. You wouldn't even know he's only been in the church for 4 years, he knows the doctrine so well. I'm also the District Leader here. I have another small District- only 6 of us, including the zone leaders. I hope you have a good experience up at the training meeting, and enjoy general conference as well (How could you not?).

Our Temple trip is this Wednesday (Yea!). Bishop Davidson will be taking us up. He kept his Spanish up from his mission and has been the Bishop for 3 years now. Good man. He's a retired principal.

Congrats to Carlton and Lindsey on their runs. I'll have to beat Carlton's time when I get back :) Give Levi my congrats if you haven't yet. I'm excited for him. Hopefully we'll have time to swing by Costco today and I'll order glasses there. It looks to be a lot cheaper. Well Mom thanks for everything. I'm happy here in Salinas, and well fed (The members here make sure of that-really good Mexican food), so don't worry about me. I'll look both ways before I cross the street on the bike this week :) Enjoy feasting upon the words of the prophets!

Love Elder Flake

March 21, 2011 Email

2011-03-21T13:09:00.000-07:00

Hola from Salinas!

A large town with 2 Wal-marts! I'm excited to go there today for the first time in months:) Salinas is a Rodeo town full of Mexicans. It's awesome. I'm in a car share (You get a full week with a car, and then the next full week is on bike) and was on a bike all this past week! I gained so much respect for biking Elders! I've been pampered with a car my whole mission! It wouldn't have been so bad, but it was windy/rainy all week. I bought a used, but in good condish, mountain bike for $80 from another Elder. Then Elder Mote and I had to spend $40 on a heavy duty bike lock, because I guess about every missionary gets his bike stolen while serving here in Salinas.

Oh, Elder Mote is my new comp. He's awesome! He moved to SoCal when he was like 11 from Mexico City and he was baptized 4 years ago here in Cali. He's 24. Awesome guy, I enjoy working with him. Salinas is supposed to be one of the most dangerous areas of the mission, but after a week here, I haven't seen anything too sketchy and neither has Elder Mote who has been here 2 months. Besides 4 golden investigators (all one family) who will be baptized on April 9th, the investigator pool here is about bone dry. So we are going to be doing a lot of finding. Being on a bike instead of a car makes things a lot different. You talk to a LOT of people on a bike. It's fun:) Other perks of Salinas is that it's right close to Monterey Bay. We will be going to the famous Monterrey Bay one of these P-days. Another Perk already mentioned is that it's big, we got options in grocery stores, restaurants, everything.

Also I'm in my first ward! It's a small ward, but a ward nonetheless. The Salinas 3rd ward. There are 2 English wards here. There are 4 missionaries serving in our ward (the ones we share the car with). Last Perk: There are a TON of Mexicans here. TONS. In half of the town it's like I'm IN Mexico. No one speaks English. Pretty cool. So in other words, I'm pretty excited to be here. Thanks for your prayers,

Love Elder Flake

March 14, 2011 Transferred to Salinas

2011-03-16T07:43:00.000-07:00

Lindsey is going to have a baby!?!?!?! WoOooOowwwW! Congratulations! That's crazy/exciting! When will you know if it's a girl or boy? I'm betting it's going to be my first nephew :) Congrats again, that's exciting.

I got the call Saturday night that I will be getting transferred. Rumor has it I will just be going around the other side of the mountain to Salinas, but I won't find out for sure till tomorrow at transfers. I have enjoyed my time here serving in the San Benito Branch, but it will be nice to have a change of scenery. 7 months is a long time. We are going to play one last game of indoor soccer at the church today with some members, and then my main man Hermano Miranda is going to make a Carne Asada feast tonight to make sure I have a full stomach as I head off tomorrow.

I'll share one cool experience we had this week. We showed up for an appointment Tuesday morning and the person wasn't there. So we began to contact potentials in the area like we had planned, and for like the first 5 doors, no one answered. But finally at the last door, a 23 year old man named Juan answered the door. He informed us that his father was being brought over from the hospital later that day so that he could pass on in his home. We saw the hospital bed already in there set up for him. Juan then informed us that 2 days ago, he had been thinking about the Mormons. Turns out growing up he had a good friend who was a member of the church who apparently was a really good example to him and even brought him to a few mutual activities. So with this knowledge, we shared a bit of the plan of salvation with him and testified that families can be together forever. He really appreciated our visit and thinks we were an answer to his prayers. He's now an investigator of the English Elders because he doesn't speak Spanish very well. It was pretty cool. The Gospel truly does bring peace to the soul and God does answer prayers. Well I'm off to a new land and new adventures. I hope ya'll have a great week. Love Elder Flake

---- Wow, Lindsey is going to be a mother... Sounds like Philly was fun. I want to here about Andy's missionary experience in the Ghettos of West Philly. I remember when we got to go out with some Elders when we picked up Dani from D.C. That was fun. If I do end up going to Salinas, I should experience some real ghetto as well. I guess the Nortenos and Surtenos (the 2 biggest gangs in Cali) clash their quite a bit. We'll see what happens. Love ya fam! Elder Flake

March 7, 2011 Email

2011-03-07T15:16:00.001-08:00

March 7, 2011

Ha Ha! Ya Dad, you show Carlton how to play tennis ;) 85% activity rate- that's pretty impressive. We might be close to 50% in the branch? Do you think if you get the ward to 100% and baptize all of the nonmembers in the boundaries that our neighborhood would be taken up, like the city of Enoch? That would be cool...
Where are the Callahans moving to? Tell them I say thanks for being great neighbors. Speaking of people moving, last night I attended the Outgoing Fireside of my trainer Elder Burton. His testimony was awesome and when he bore his testimony at the end in Spanish, he sounded like a native speaker. We brought Salvador Rodriguez up with us again- his third outgoing fireside and he's still not baptized!!! But finally, he's in a position financially where he can start saving money and get those darn divorce papers started. With any luck, he will be baptized some time this upcoming transfer. He's going to make a bomb member. Future Elders Quorum President tal vez.
I had one cool experience while on exchanges this past week worth sharing. We drove out into the boonies to see this referral, turns out they weren't home. So we decided maybe there was another reason we had traveled out there, so we decided we'd knock a door or two. So the first house we drive up to, kind of a cabbin lookin thing up on a little hill in the middle of nowhere, we find this lady sitting on her steps watching 2 little boys. So we start to talk to her and it was pretty random us arriving at her house in the boonies but she agreed to listen to us and we ended up teaching her the Plan of Salvation because she had the question where do I go when I die? It went well and now she's an investigator of the English Elders. So that was cool, but it's only half of the story. We ended up getting lost on these little country roads, I hit a squirrel, then we ended up having to pray for direction because the fuel light had been on for a while and we didn't know which way to go but after the prayer we both had a distinct impression to go a certain way and we ended up rolling back into town just before we ran out of gas. Ha ha, it was kind of fun.
Well thanks for your tournament idea, I don't know if our District is big enough to pull it off but we'll think of something. I need to think more outside the box. Well Dad I hope the rain has subsided and that you have a great week.

Love Elder Flake

Danielle,

Yes I got your Valentine- Thanks :) Alexa's old enough for Nursery! No way! Harry Potter, good times. Did you see the sixth movie? Of course Steve won Risk. I find out this Saturday if I'm getting transferred. If I stay one more that would give me 9 months in Hollister!!! The church is true and I love you. Elder Flake

Hi Mom,

Sorry I don't have much time. Thanks for the package in advance. I haven't done anything about the glasses yet. I decided to wait and see if I get transferred next week before I deal with that. Veronica didn't come to church yesterday because she was sick. We'll keep praying for her and workin with her and see what happens. We have a new investigator with a date named Rocio Ruiz who we met this week. I'll let you know more about her next week. Well I love you and thanks so much for everything.

Elder Flake

March 1, 2011 Email

2011-03-02T17:15:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom!
I'm in Gilroy right now on exchanges with one of our Zone Leaders Elder Badger from Washington. We ate lunch at Sizzler because I did good at not spending much last month and we came out together so we were celebrating our year out in the field mark which is tomorrow. My comp E. Gainor came out the same day as well so we will have to go get an ice cream at Foster's freeze tomorrow to celebrate.

For P-day yesterday we went to Fremont Peak again. It was cold, but nice to get out into the outdoors nonetheless. Sunday it was my turn to teach the newly started Gospel Principles class. We only had one investigator show up, but it was still good. I taught about the Atonement. I love my Savior! I focused on His suffering in the Garden and showed her via Alma 7:11-13 how the B.O.M helps us understand more about why and what Jesus was suffering for. Something that Lindsey shared with me via a letter months back. It was great because she had doubts about the B.O.M and I think this might have helped clear things up. District Meeting went ok. I'm trying to practise what I preach and use more of the How to Begin Teaching Points from PMG in my work and it helps a lot. I'm going on another exchange Thursday and then Friday I'll be up in San Jose again for another meeting.

I'm glad you are enjoying your new calling this far. How are you going to build a St. George Temple? Sounds like Dad's department... Tell Nate I say Hi. I'll try and write him back next P-day. That's sad about Sean. Tell him I say Hi and I'm praying for him. How's Craig Tippets doing? I'm good on stationary Mom, thanks :) I love you and hope you have a great week.
Love Elder Flake

Hey Dad:) It actually snowed here the other day! Only for a bit I guess. We didn't even notice. That doesn't happen much here. Jimmer sounds like the man. Did you ever serve as a District Leader? Or did they not have those back in the day:) It's tough, but I'm learning a lot. Thanks for your prayers! Love Elder Flake

Hey bro! Good ol Purple Rock :) Sounds like you're having fun. Keep after that Pre-Cal, I know it's hard, learned that one the hard way- twice;) I had an interesting experience knockin a door the other day, we were looking for a potential- Upon answering the door, this large tatted Mexican answered and said ' First of all, You're knockin too $%*# hard! ' So I apologized for my inconveniently loud knock, and then i asked him if the person we were lookin for was home and he informed us that she no longer lived there. Then I guess E. Gainor was giving him a stare so the guys like 'What?!' And my comp replies 'What?' and then mr big 'n tough is like 'hmph' before slamming the door. Some peoples kids...

Well take care bro. Where are you reading in the scriptures right now? I just got done reading the 4 Gospels. They're pretty awesome. Love ya bro! Elder Flake

February 25, 2011 Letter to Andrew

2011-02-25T16:32:00.000-08:00

Yea Republicans! A rare sighting in liberal California....

The Dazzling green suit!

Amigos, Elder Gainor, Dawson's new companion.

Happy cows come from California!

I saw Ely's (Dawon's toyota 4-runner) the other day, so that was cool--same year and color. So that suit-The 'dazzling' green one, is a traveling suit between the two companionships of Elders here in Hollister. Elder Simmons and I found it in the branch closet that gets filled with the used clothes from the members of the wards that they've donated to the branch members. It's fun!
Oh, I found out that I'm allergic to cats! whenever we're in a house with a cat; my nose just gets bugged a bit- no big deal. Mexicans like dogs (mainly chihuahuas) over cats anyways.
People give me a hard time about my name (Flake) all the time--mostly white people cause Mexicans don't know what it means, but some Hispanics make the connection between 'Flake' and the Spanish word 'Flaco' which means really skinny. So in both cultures people find a way to poke fun at the family name.
The mission got a little tougher with my call to be District Leader. Just becaue now I have to prepare District Meetings and our lessons for our investigators, but the Lord qualifies whom he calls, so I just got to step up and have faith. I've got my first Baptismal interview to do this week, but is should be fun. We'll keep having fun and keeping the commandments.

Love,
Elder Flake

February 22, 2011

2011-02-24T15:11:00.000-08:00

Well we're still fighting the good fight here in Hollister, CA. Now that we know the name of the man that's coming in to be the next mission president; W. Lincoln Watkins from Alpine Utah, it's setting in that President Jackson will be leaving us coming up here in June. You have to be made of something else to be a mission president...

So I got lucky the past 2 weeks in getting out of teaching District Meeting, but the luck ends on Thursday when I'll be teaching #2, on the "How to begin Teaching Points' in PMG. Hopefully I'll feel a little more comfortable teaching the District this time around. I will also be performing my first baptismal interview this Wednesday as well.

One cool/crazy thing that happened this past week was we were teaching this investigator Veronica who we had dropped like 2 months ago, but we decided we'd go by again and we had a good lesson with her -she's going through a rough time right now, being divorced and without a job- but through the power of the Book of Mormon we were able to lift her spirits, and at the end of the lesson I opened my mouth to invite her to keep a commitment like read the Book of Mormon, or come to church or something, but what came out was an invitation to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized! It kind of came out of nowhere, but she accepted and now she has a date for the 19th of March. She came to church on Sunday and is keeping her commitments so it's lookin like she might just be baptized on the 19th. We'll hope and pray. Well I got to get, I hope this E-mail finds everyone doing Super bien.

Con Amor, Elder Flake

New Mission President in July

2011-02-19T19:39:00.000-08:00

Weston Lincoln Watkins, 49, and Rebeckah Ann Gillins Watkins, five children. Alpine 2nd Ward, Utah Alpine North Stake. Brother Watkins serves as a branch president at the Provo Missionary Training Center and is a former counselor in a Provo MTC branch presidency, ward executive secretary, high councilor, elders quorum president, assistant high priest group leader, ward Primary worker and missionary in the Mexico Mexico City South Mission. Retired director, Credit Suisse. Born in Bronxville, N.Y., to George Elwin and Geraldine Swensen Watkins.

Sister Watkins serves as a volunteer at the Provo MTC and is a former counselor in a stake Young Women presidency, ward Primary president, counselor in a Young Women presidency, counselor in a Primary presidency, counselor in a Relief Society presidency, ward and stake single adult adviser, Primary worker and Young Women camp director. Born in Las Vegas, Nev., to Gerald Robert and Lois Etta Rollins Gillins.

February 14, 2011 Happy Valentines Day

2011-02-14T15:47:00.001-08:00

Happy Valentine's Day Mom!
And congrats on the new calling! You are going to do great! We had another successful week. One success was beginning to teach Agustin, who came to church for the first time yesterday. He declined our invitation to be baptized but our last appointment he explained to us that his testimony of the book of Mormon is growing like the seed he read about in Alma 32. He was actually the first guy Elder Gainor spoke to his first day here in Hollister right outside our apartment. So we are excited about him.
Hermano Miranda's friend Mario told us that he wanted 2 weeks without meeting with us to think about whether or not he wanted to be baptized. He hadn't been reading from the Book of Mormon so we strived hard to encourage him to do so and he agreed to it. So we will pray that the spirit touches his heart sometime during these weeks. Please keep him in your prayers as well.
We had fun cleaning up a Less Active's front yard Saturday morning. We had noticed that their front lawn was in need of make-over, so we took advantage of calling a branch member who had his own landscaping business and he brought a lawnmower, weed-wacker, leaf blower, rake, and some clippers and we went to town. After a few hours of work we had it looking pretty good. The Garcia family wasn't home when we did this, but somehow Hermana Garcia found out it was us and she came to church Sunday and was very grateful.
Well Mom, I'm excited for you, and know that you will continue to be a great example. I don't know how many lives you've touched by doing the little things, like writing those small notes of encouragement or congratulations that you've been writing over the years; I'm guessing a lot, but I know for sure that your example of love and service has made a monumental difference in my life. Thanks so much!

Love your son, Elder Flake

February 7, 2011 New Companion!

2011-02-07T16:31:00.000-08:00

So I got my first native companion! Well, kind of. He was born in California to a Canadian Father and a Honduran mother, and then at age 2 his family moved to Honduras, where he was raised. His name is Elder Gainor and he's great. Perfectly fluent in both English and Spanish so this is my opportunity to really learn some Spanish.

One other thing i found out is that if your companion is native, it helps you get in doors. People we met for the first time were just letting us into their homes (which usually doesn't happen much) so we got to teach a lot and we picked up 10 new investigators! So this looks to be a successful transfer.

My first District meeting didn't go as well as the week went, but it wasn't a total fail :) One thing I did like was an idea I got from PMG which was to list (for like 2-3 minutes) all the truths and ordinances that we have because of the Restoration. It just helps us realize how truly blessed we are as members. After we did this activity, as a competition between the Elders and Sisters (the Sisters won, of course) I challenged the District to invite the members they meet with this week to do the challenge, and I extend it as well to all of you :)

So I'm excited for the new transfer and things are going well. Thanks for your love and support,

Love Elder Flake

Wow Dad, that was a great article. You got skills :)

Unity truly is important. Especially as a missionary. You need to be unified with your companion, ward or branch leaders, and especially with the Holy Ghost. So ya, looks like I'll be in Hollister for at least 7 months total, with a chance of a whole 8 and a half. But you're right, it's a good place to be. With plenty of Hispanics :) Andrew is going to be a great missionary. Just the basics I believe will help him prepare the most- daily scripture reading and prayer. To be at least familiar with PMG will definitely help as well. It was also cool to have that stint of having Eduardo take the lessons at our house. Having missionary experiences now will make the transition to being in the full time service much easier. Well love ya Dad, and thanks for the prayers.

Love Elder Flake

January 31, 2011 Email District Leader

2011-01-31T18:49:00.000-08:00

So transfers is bringing 2 big changes;
1. I'll be getting a new companion, & 2. I will be taking the position of Elder Simmons as the new District Leader. I will be serving my 5th straight transfer here in lovely Hollister. Transfers are tomorrow morning. I've served 9 transfers now! That's a lot. I'm pretty nervous to teach District Meetings (every Thursday) and to conduct baptismal interviews. But the Lord qualifies whom he calls, so it should be good. Luckily our district is small, only 2 sets of Elders (including us) + the Sisters. I went up to San Jose friday for a leadership training meeting. It was good. Elder Pottorf, my MTC companion, was called as a zone leader! It was good to see him and he gave me some good advice from his experience as a D.L. It was a pretty crazy week with 2 exchanges + the all day meeting.

We had a good lesson with Margarita, the friend of Angeles, on Wednesday. We watched the Joseph Smith movie and explained the importance of the Book of Mormon. She said an awesome prayer at the end of the lesson and she seems pretty interested. Elder Simmons said goodbye and took pictures with a lot of people yesterday and we will be doing a lot of that again today. It's been a pleasure to serve with him.

Well I'm excited to see who my new companion is and nervous to teach my first District Meeting this week. Vamos a ver que pasa. Well thanks for your love and prayers.

Love Elder Flake

January 25, 2011 Email

2011-01-26T10:27:00.000-08:00

Hey,
The computers here in the Hollister Library have been having issues so that why I have been e-mailing on weird days. Hopefully it will not be a continued problem. This will probably be my last week serving with Elder Simmons. He's been here for over 7 months and we've been companions for over 5! I've probably spent more time with him than any one outside of our immediate family! 5 months of 24/7 together adds up... We've had fun and had some success together.

So we started over with David and Isabel's family and last night we gave them a brand new baptismal calendar with the baptismal date for the 5th of March. They think that it might be a little soon, but with prayer and work on their part as well as ours we hope to see some miracles.

The Lord has definitely blessed us with beautiful weather this past week with 60's and 70's all day long. And it's supposed to stay the same for the coming week, before going back to the usual rainy winter days.

Ha ha, Elder Simmons found that shiny green suit and it's created, as Elder Wynn from Hollister first ward called it, "The Elderhood of the traveling suit" :) We take turns wearing it to District Meetings.

I got the Flake Family newsletter today- congrats Jason! You're gonna do great! Well thanks for everything Mom, I did get the contacts and I probably will buy a new camera this coming P-day. Lot's of Love!
-Elder Flake

Hey Dad:) Thanks for the e-mail. This week wasn't too eventful. A lot of our appointments fell through and a couple people dropped us :( We saw some Miracles at church though- We went by 2 inactives this past week- and they both showed up to church! One of them, a lady named Antonia, hadn't been in years! And they both had a good experience there! Yea!

I'm almost done reading Jesus the Christ. It's so sad and amazing to me how His chosen people rejected him after seeing so many miracles... But He is risen! And the Hope that that brings is more amazing! He is our Hope( Moroni 7 40-41 ).

Well I got to get going but thanks for everything and I pray that you'll be blessed with more work. There are a lot of branch members with out work here... But it's ok cause they have the Gospel :) Have a good week,

Love Elder Flake

January 19, 2010 Earthquake in Hollister

2011-01-20T19:30:00.000-08:00

Hello family:)
We are alive and well here in Hollister California. I felt my first Earthquakes finally! After serving in the Earthquake Capital of the World since August, it was about time. It was only a 4 point something and the shaking lasted only a few brief seconds and it didn't even cause anything to fall off the shelves or anything. And I guess there was one the night before this little one in the middle of the night that shook hard enough to wake everyone up in Hollister BUT my companion and I. People kept asking us if we had felt it, but nope.
Pues, the baptism of Rebeca and her little bro Evan was nice. The less active father was able to perform the baptism and the next day at church the WHOLE family was there together for the first time since I've been here. So that was great to see. The kids were sure fun to teach. Other than that, success stories include the finding of some promising looking new investigators. All referrals- tracting still hasn't shown much fruit. We're still tracting at least a couple of hours a week, but only when we run out of better things to do.
We also have been making some baptismal calendars that we plan on revealing to our investigators when we invite them to be baptized. We threw a football with the English Elders on P-day and that was fun. And my legs are still a little sore... they're not used to sprinting... Well it looks like there was a good flaky turnout at the sealing of Hal and Desi- congratulations to them:)
Pues I pray that all is well with ya'll and I thank you for your prayers.
Love Elder Flake

---

Sorry bro that you're sick. I hope you are better by now. Mom, the battery in my camera must be fried or something + the zoom is malfunctioning, so this next p-day I'll either replace the battery or just buy a new camera if the battery is like $20 or $30 and a nice, new camera is only like $100. Sound good? Have fun at the ball games- congrats Andy on the scholarship again- and know that I love you all! -Elder Flake

January 14, 2010 Letter and Pictures

2011-01-16T16:23:00.000-08:00

s

Hey Fam, :)
It's P-day. This morning included helping a sister in the Branch move, e-mailing, and all you can eat Pizza! There's not much to do here in small town Hollister and Pres. Jackson has put a 7 mile radius P-day limit, so we can't really go anywhere else. but it's OK. Naps are a beautiful thing on the mission. and in P-days past we've played indoor soccer and basketball at the church with the English Elders here, who were pretty tight with some branch members. Bro. Miranda is one of which who you guys will have to meet either in this life or the next. He's our Branch Mission Leader and he's hilarious. He's a heavier set Mexican, but he can still PLAY soccer; just like every other Hispanic--it's in their blood.
So we're excited about the baptism of Rebbecca and Evan (Pictured with flour/Temptation Obedience game that I lost and had to dig out the chocolate kiss using only my mouth. :) They are good kids and they usually come to church with their active grandparents.
We are hoping that the baptism helps to reactivate the parents. How did Coleman's baptism go?
Other pictures include the baptism of Angeles. We were blessed to teach her. She was super prepared for the gospel and it helped her out a lot. Awesome to see. Also pictured is Renato, the gangster looking dude. He had come so far; overcoming so much then because of family pressure he told us he couldn't be baptized. So we are going to give him some time before going back and seeing what we can do to help him overcome his fears/doubts.
I have a lot of people to write back from the holidays.
Elder Simmons and I burned a shirt for our one year mark. :) Missionary traditions... One of my shirts got a big ink stain in the pocked (the victim) but all of my others are still in good shape.
So we don't have many investigators right now, but we do have a good list of potentials. We'll be doing some tracting and tyring to get some referrals from members the next couple of weeks.
I love you all and I'm very grateful for your prayers and all.
A-town, I expect a meaty hand written letter sometime next week, you hear me? Ha ha, thanks. :) Thank you Mom for your consistency--DAd, you could step it up too. :)
les Amo Muchisimo
Elder Flake
Spiritual Thought: What is there to hope for? Moroni 7:41

January 10, 2011 Email

2011-01-10T16:19:00.000-08:00

Rosie's baptism

At the top of the 'Oven-mit' rock at the Pinnacles.

Hello Family :)
Good to hear everyone is doing well. That is an impressive Snowman Andrew and the Ray Flakes made. Yea Lindsey and Carlton are continuing to find joy in missionary work! It's members like you that us missionaries love :) Keep it up! It looks like Andy had a fun Senior Ball. My congrats to Hal and Desi. Yea for Temples!
Both Angeles and Rosie should be going to do baptisms at the Temple in Oakland with the other recent converts in the stake this Saturday! Yea for the plan of Salvation! Isabel, a lady who we began teaching months ago, returned to church this Sunday- and she brought her husband and 3 boys with her! Yea for families! 10 year old Rebeca and her 8 year old brother Evan will be baptized by their less active dad this Saturday. Yea for baptisms! Hopefully this will re-light the fire of the parents testimonies and bring them back to activity...
So the work here picked up a little bit as things started getting back to normal this week. We have a page of various potentials that we will be stopping by this week and hopefully we will be able to find some elect among them. One is a family that moved here from St. George after living there for a year. The Mom, Jannette, worked at a taco bell that I've eaten at :) We had a little adventure in San Jose after dropping off Elder Quinn last Tuesday. We had a slow leak after running over a screw and so we took it to wheel works and while it was being fixed we went street contacting. We were in an area that appeared mostly inhabited by Asians and Caucasians, but as luck would have it we found a Hispanic doing some landscaping and after a good, long gospel conversation we referred him to the Spanish speaking missionaries there in San Jose. So that was cool. This week we also had a mini Zone Conference in Morgan Hill where President Jackson revealed the new Mission Statement to us. It is an inspiring document written by the Zone Leaders which basically describes the ideal mission. Pretty cool. Well Elder Simmons and I still enjoy working with one another for the most part, even though we've been together since August.
Well, there is joy in the work :) Thank you for your prayers and support.

Love Elder FLake

HEy Mom, Yes I recieved Grandma's package and I wrote them a thank you letter. The contacts have not yet arrived. I will try and send my memory card to you today. Lots of Love, Elder Flake

January 3, 2011 Email

2011-01-03T15:53:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year from Hollister!
Thanks to all for your birthday and Christmas wishes:) Big news today in that we received a call informing us that Elder Quinn at last has received his visa and he will be shipped off to Guadalajara Mexico tomorrow. It was a pleasure to work with him and he was a great help. We'll be sad to drop him off in San Jose tomorrow.
Pues the Holidays in the Mission was definitely a different experience. But I think we did about as much as we could while being away from home to make it a memorable Christmas. The three of us and the English Elders even got together to reinact the Christmas Story as found in Luke 2. It wasn't quite the same as how we usually do it at Gma & Gpa Datwyler's- but it was fun:) Other than that, the last 2 weeks were pretty darn slow work-wise, but we did get to do a lot of service:) I got to use a few skills I obtained from my old man Dan painting and flooring a house that a member of our branch was needing to move into by this last Saturday. It was nice to work with our hands for a change. We also ding-dong ditched a few members with kids to make sure they had at least a few gifts to open on Christmas which was a treat. Also New Years Day we started helping members of the branch set resolutions for the New Year to help them come closer to Christ. One Less Active member, Lionel, decided his goal for the year would be to go through the Temple, joining his wife who just barely went through for the first time. We got to know him a lot better because he was our 'boss' while we were helping the Sister prepare her house to be in shape to move into. Awesome guy. So overall we had a nice Christmas Season. But on the other side of the coin it's nice that it's over because now people's lives should be getting back to normal and less busy. We are going to be doing a lot of finding this week. Got to fill up the teaching pool.
Both of our recent converts, Angeles and Rosie are doing very well and making more friends at church. Thanks again for the blessing all of you are in my life and i hope everyone takes the advantage of the opportunity we have to think at the beginning of this new year on how we can bring our selves and those around us closer to Christ for the year 2011. iDios les bendiga!

Love Elder Flake

HEy fam!
It was nice to see and talk to you! Sounds like you all had a blast in St. G town. Thanks for the pics Mom- Andy looks like a giant! Good work on the snowman Lindsey & Carlton! That thing was huge! Was Steve the best shot at the skeet shoot of the family like he's the best at everything else in the family? I guess besides tennis and biking... I'll beat you at something someday Steve! Alexa looks great and you all look great!
Love Elder Flake

Happy 20th Birthday on December 20th 2010 Email

2010-12-20T16:01:00.000-08:00

iMERRY CHRISTMAS!
We had an early white Christmas with the baptism of Angeles Quezada yesterday. She was super ready and it was a special baptism. Angeles is going to make a strong member. Other big and surprising news is that Elder Simmons is not getting transferred. He has been working hard here since June. It's a good thing we get along because this will be our fourth transfer together. That's got to be close to a record or something. So our happy threesome will remain intact at least until Elder Quinn receives his Visa. I guess very few changes were made at all this transfer. Probably because it's Christmas and because this past week was one of our best ever as a mission with 27 baptisms. So this coming week should be fun. We are going caroling at an old folks home on Wednesday, and we'll be looking for random acts of service all week, maybe we can swing by a soup kitchen or something. So I will share a thought that we have been sharing with our members this Christmas season. It's a pretty common one but good nonetheless:

6And so it was, that, while they were there, the days were accomplished that she should be delivered.

7And she brought forth her ^afirstborn son, and wrapped him in swaddling clothes, and laid him in a manger; because there was no room for them in the ^binn.

Make room for Christ in your lives this Christmas Season!

I am very grateful for my Savior. I am reading in the New Testament right now and it's amazing what he accomplished. The Prince of Peace, our Perfect Example, the Redeemer of the world. He is the Hero for mankind.

Thanks for all the Birthday and Christmas wishes. I'm 20! That's OLD :0

I hope we all can feel the love of our savior this week and help others to feel it as well.

Hey fam :) iFeliz Navidad! This Morning I opened three of the presents from that birthday package you sent, (I'm saving the other three for Christmas) they had been sitting under the tree- Thanks! 20 is pretty old isn't it? I've been thinking about it lately and things are going to be different when I return home. I'm going to be an adult. O well. I guess we all have to grow up eventually... So Andrew is getting some meat on those bones, huh? And Dad, 185? That's pretty slim for you- have you been losing weight? ;) A-Town! Merry Christmas :) I think rugby would be pretty sick and you would probably be pretty good at it. It's good to hear Eli is doing well. Well I'm excited to talk to you all on Christmas! I will try and call atleast after 2:00 p.m. I'll try and call like at 6 but we'll see. Welp, talk to you soon!

Love Elder Flake

December 13, 2010 Email

2010-12-13T21:31:00.000-08:00

Hey Mom :)
I'm glad that you are having a wonderful Christmas Season. Things here in Holly Jolly Hollister are great :) I don't know what to tell you about how many or which missionaries will be here for Christmas. Because transfers are on my Birthday. Elder Simmons has been here for 6 months so it is likely that he will be going. But then again there is the weird situation with Elder Quinn and his Visa so it will probably just have to be a waiting game. So I'll let you know next Monday :) Thank you much for my B-Day/Christmas package. It's nice to have some presents under the tree:) Good call Andy on including 'little Marcus' and 'Bum chin'. I was definitely missing them;) You aren't sending another package are you Mom? i don't think I need anything, But if you HAVE to, maybe include a wrapped present for both of my comps because their Moms don't spoil them as much as you spoil me :) Oh, And I will be most likely using a members phone to call on Christmas. A few have offered already.
Lots of love! Elder Flake

Hey Dad:)
Sounds like you all are enjoying the Christmas Season. That is a LOT of stuffing. It's good to hear the ward is doing well. Did you get a tree with 2 good sides this year? Or has the perfect tree evaded us once again this year? It's good to hear that the Jazz and the Cougs are doing well. We are still playing basketball every Saturday. It's fun. So was the Christmas party in the church this year? I still remember that one year when you set it up where Grey Stone is now, up below our mountain. That was really cool. Our Branch Christmas Party will be this coming Saturday. It will be intersesting to see the Mexican twist on that. We got to go up to San Jose last night for another outgoing fireside. My second companion in the field, Elder Medrano was one of the missionaries going home that bore his testimony. It was nice to say goodbye to him. There were also some really moving musical numbers performed.
We took our recent convert Rosie and our eternal investigator Salvador up there with us. He's the one who needs to divorce his first wife who is back in Mexico before he can get baptized. His brother is probably getting deported this week and that whole process has kept Salvador from working on getting divorced. He's dirt poor and needs a few hundred bucks to start the divorce papers. What do you and Mom think about me using the $200 that you just gave me to get his divorce papers started so that he can get baptized? Just a thought... We will be playing Futbol (soccer) today with some members of the branch. I'm excited for that. And then we will be having another baptism this Sunday with a really cool lady named Angeles! She is in her 20's and has a little 4 year old girl. She also recently went through a divorce. She's smart and is just eating the Gospel up. We've been meeting with her for a month and she's through First Nephi :)
Well Dad, Thanks again for supporting me while i'm out here and just for everything. Have a Merry -Christ Centered- Christmas.
Love your son Elder Flake.

December 6, 2010 Email

2010-12-06T18:16:00.000-08:00

Sent: Monday, December 06, 2010 12:16 PM

iFeliz Navidad Mom!

You had some cool experiences this week. We had a special experience this week with the baptism of Rosie Reyes yesterday:) The Spirit was present, lots of members showed up to support her, and it went picture perfect. The Gospel will be a great blessing in the lives of Rosie and her daughter Crystal. I give thanks for the opportunity I have had to be a part of her conversion. I am excited about the Christmas season. We have plans to carol and also door bell ditch gifts to members of the branch who are struggling financially and have kids. I know that you are already making plans to make your Christmas special by making the Christmas of others special. You have been a great example to me of doing service. It truly does bring more joy to serve than to be served. Have a great week.

Love your son

Elder Flake

Hey Lindsey:)

Yep, it's crazy how time flies, isn't it? That's funny you have resorted to stealing branches from the park to make your own Christmas tree. Way to be resourceful;)
We were lucky to discover a 6 ft. plastic tree in a box in our closet! I'll send pics, it's nice. You should send me a pic of your makeshift tree:) So mom just reminded me of that big disapointment you had with your recent convert on your mission. It's definitely tough to see someone reject such great light when they have tasted it. But ya, you just got to keep moving forward...

I don't know if you had a chance to watch the First Presidency Christmas Devotional last night, but if you did, I'm sure you loved President Uchdorfs talk as I did:) He basically quoted 'the Grinch' for his talk! I still quote the Grinch among my companions all the time:) That's one thing I'm definitely going to miss this year- watching that with you and the fam. I'm still excited for the Christmas season, no doubt. Basically every member of the branch is dirt poor, so we should have lots of opportunities to bring smiles to peoples faces. We just bought a bunch of stuff at the dollar store we plan on giving to kids in the branch. Do you have any ideas regarding this? Well Lindz, thank you for the note and I hope you make this Christmas special.

Love Elder Flake

November 29, 2010 Email Thanksgiving

2010-11-29T18:43:00.000-08:00

Hello family :)

This week was pretty tough/discouraging, but life is hard so I better just put on a helmet. Tuesday was one of the saddest days of my mission. At the door, on 2 separate occasions, both Gonsalo and Renato told us that they couldn't be baptized. And both reasons pretty much came down to family opposition/pressure and the dreaded line "I'm Catholic". With Renato it was a real heartbreak. We have seen him progress so much... We are not giving up completely on them. Please keep them in your prayers. And Salvador & his family. We just found out this morning that his brother, who is a member, got deported.
But on the good side, Rosie is getting baptized this Sunday! She is the 19 year old daughter of a member. Ever since she started coming to church, she knew that this is what she wanted. Also, Angeles, a friend of a member who we started teaching a couple weeks ago is progressing very well. She is real smart and is just eating the Gospel up. She should be baptized in December as well.
Thanksgiving was great too. Back to back fantastic meals. A LOT of food. We also raked leaves that morning for some less actives and a few random people, one of which tried to give us a $10 which we didn't accept. So that was fun. So all is not lost. Tuesday was definitely a trial but the Lord has blessed me with so much that i can't complain.
Thank you so much Mom and Dad for your support! I'm learning so much out here and I'm trying hard not to waste any of the time the Lord has given me to serve Him. With lots of love, Elder Flake

November 22, 2010 Email

2010-11-22T18:49:00.000-08:00

Happy Thanksgiving from Hollister.
We just got back from San Jose where we went with an investigator- Salvador- to meet with an LDS lawyer who is going to help him out with his divorce issue so he can get baptized. He will be eligible to be baptized next week now:) Yea! Salvador is awesome and he is already one of the strongest members of the branch. Other good news is Renato has decided to get baptized! We were teaching him the Plan of Salvation and it just hit him that this is really what God wants him to do! He's come so far!
In other news, our last P'day trip to Pinnacles National Monument was a good time. I'm taking Andrew rock climbing there in a year. If any one else wants to come, let me know:) It was beautiful and there were plenty of things to climb on. I did sadly forget my camera, but hopefully I can get some pics from the other Elders. Things are good I'm excited that it's the Holidays:) And you should be too:) Love Elder Flake

Mom, thank you so much for the package! It was indeed a pleasant surprise. Did you make up all those rhymes? I rapped them all out loud to my companions:) Also, Sister Stott was a great woman- please send the Davies my regards. And that is crazy that Kaitlyn is getting hitched, although that doesn't surprise me. I really can't think of anything I need at the moment- Maybe just a couple non Christmas Cd's would be nice- oh, and I just put in my last pair of contacts, so if you could send more of those, that would be nice. I normally wear glasses, but it's nice to mix it up with contacts once a week or so.
Thanks much! Lots of Love! Elder Flake

November 15, 2010 Email

2010-11-15T16:42:00.000-08:00

Hello Mom:)
I'm glad you liked the letter. I'm jealous that ya'll had the chance to put lights up at the Temple. We had the pleasure of helping put up many different Nativity scenes in a downtown shop window earlier this week. It's a promotion the Hollister First Ward is doing to get the church some more exposure in Hollister during the Holidays.

This week we helped Renato quit drinking coffee after helping him quit smoking the week before. We bought him a bunch of hot chocolate as a substitute for his coffee. It's awesome to watch him progress. He called US to remind us to get him a ride to church yesterday. Just talking to him makes me happy. He's 34 but he acts inocent like a child. We've been invited to spend Thanksgiving with Pres. Rose' family up in Gilroy. So it looks like I'll be having a traditional American Thanksgiving dinner anyways. All I can think of right now for Christmas is a C.D or 2 of churchy music. The few C.D's I have now are getting old. As far as clothes and things go, I'm still good, thanks:)

We are finally going to Pinnacles today for P-day. So that should be fun. I can't believe you ate a live fish A-town! Did you just swallow it? Sounds like it was a really fun, and somewhat disgusting date;) Well we got to get going but thanks for your weekly letter Mom (it's nice to always get mail atleast once a week;) and for all you do for me while I'm out here. Have a great week! Love Elder Flake

Hey Lindz! Thanks for the e-mail. That's cool you have non member friends. i didn't have very many non member friends... I had one from Ukraine:) I'm not exactly sure of the contents of a Mexican Thanksgiving dinner or if they even celebrate it- I'll find out here real soon though:) Take Luck! Lots of Love- Elder Flake

Halloween in Hollister Letter to the Family

2010-11-12T16:03:00.000-08:00

November 8, 2010

Hola Familia!

Just thought I’d send ya’ll something via snail mail to make mom happy because I haven’t in a while. It’s p-day and we’ve finally got email and shopping done and we still have not finished laundry. We use the English Elders machines because it’s free, but we can only do one load at a time so it’s a long process, especially since there are 3 of us these days. It’s pretty fun being in a threesome—rarely a dull moment.

And it’s also cool that I’m the least sporty of the 3 of us. Elder Simmons is all-state in Football, baseball and wrestling while Elder Quinn played football (QB) and ran track collegiately at BYU. It’s kind of weird cause he knows all of the players personally, but mostly it’s cool. So we all have a love for sports. The only time we get to play anything though is Saturday morning B-ball at the church. Usually 12 or so guys show up and it’s a blast @ 6:00 am. Most the guys who go are not members as well so that’s pretty cool. Elder Quinn is 6’3 and can dunk. Andrew is 6’3-can he dunk? So he’s still growing huh? Way to go bro! I’m super jealous. I’m still 5’11 ¾ and 157 lbs.

So Dad-You’re 50 something years old and you still got the desire to go out and play some ball. Way to be! I should start using you as an example of the blessings from obedience to the Word of Wisdom. J

So we had stake conference this past Sunday as well. Elder Whiting, from Hawaii, the presiding area 70 seemed really cool. He opened his talk with a warm A-lo-ha! Brought back some good memories of the islands…One thing he said reminded me of a blessing in disguise that we had as a family growing up. He said that when he was a newly called Bishop, he found out that upon his child’s Sunbeam instructor’s question of “What does your father do?” his child replied, “He sits on the couch and watches sports.” This caused Elder Whiting some years ago, to cancel his cable subscription. I’m very grateful for the environment that you and mom tried to create in our home. Instead of Monday Night Football-we had family night.

Also making things like: family scripture and prayer, eating dinner as a family and working together to stay unified--all priorities showed us kids the way families can be most happy/protected and also as a missionary, I can easily testify of any of these things we did as a family because you and mom lead the way. J

Well, thanks again for all you’ve done for me Dad and I hope that you can continue to have work in these difficult times and stay in shape for another decade or so; so we can have some more fun when I get back. J

Mom: Thank you also for making such a good team with Dad in following the prophet’s counsel of making our home a sure foundation. It sounds like you got a lot out of both general conference as well as stake conference. Thank you for being an example of a ‘feaster’ of the words of Christ. The primary song ‘Follow the Prophet, don’t go astray’ is so simple, but so true. I just finished the Book of Mormon along with the rest of the mission (making all ‘revelations’ in blue—a lot of my BOM is blue J and it is such a clear cut example of how when the people reject the prophets because they ‘forget’ the liberation from captivity of their fathers. I’m very excited to get the conference issue Ensign and go through all the talks again. I’ve kept the last conference addition because I went through and marked it all up and now it’s special to me.

So how’s school mom? I hope you are still enjoying helping all those kids of yours getting a better perspective on what this life is really all about. Thanks for your great example that you’ve been to me throughout my life. So many children have been blessed because of a mother’s righteous example; because they knew the way and their children followed (Alma 56: 47,48). I am blessed with one of those, like the 2,000 stripling warriors of old. Thanks mom, I love you. J

A-Town: You’re growin up in a scary world bro. Our generation is very confused. Maybe not so much back in Utah, but you can defiantly see out here in Cali that people don’t know that they are the sons and daughters of God

We are so blessed to be born in the gospel. To have the knowledge of what we have and the peace that comes with this knowledge. And we get to share it. J You are going to be a great missionary bro. Just keep doing the little things that make a big difference, like reading the scriptures and praying-every day.

Also, on a lighter note, have fun! Live it up! Not the way the world perceives fun, but true joy fun. It sounds like you are doing a lot of biking and climbing and that is awesome. One thing I regret not doing enough is going on group dates. Dad was right! :0 I was a little too scared of girls I think, and probably if I would have hung out less with the guys, and a little more doing group games with guys and girls, I would have had more fun and done less stupid stuff. Just a thought. J

So how do you like school? What’s your favorite class? Teacher? What do you do for lunch break? What’s a typical day after school for you? Who do you hang out with after school? How’s it being in the Priest Quorum? What is your favorite color? Still blue? Pues, I love you! Keep being awesome. J

So fam, I’m doing good. J I’m learning every day—I still got a long ways to go, but I’m learning. I know that God loves us so much that he allowed his son to suffer the pains of all the earth so that we can return and live with him as Eternal families. It was and is the only way. Thanks again so much for your love, prayers, and support.

Love, Elder Flake

November 8, 2010 Email

2010-11-08T12:26:00.000-08:00

Hello from Hollister!

First of all, transfers came and went, and nothings changed- so we'll just stay here in our threesome until Elder Quinn gets his visa and is shipped off to Mexico. This will be most likely my last transfer (third) with Elder Simmons, so we decided we need to make some things happen. We want to definitely continue to help the branch get more of a solid foundation, but we also want to baptize this transfer. We're getting off to a good start; we found a member who lives in San Jose who is a lawyer and is going to help Salvador take care of his divorce issue so he can finally get baptized. He's been having the missionaries at his place for over 6 months now, but hopefully things will go smoothly with the divorce and he could be baptized as early as this upcoming weekend. He's already living like a member and we all love him; he's hilarious.

Then there is Rosie, the daughter/granddaughter of two recent converts. She is in a very similar situation to which Cristian (from my last area) was in being that she is young (19) and has a baby. She has been coming to church with her mother and grandmother for a while now, but didn't seem very interested until we found out this week that she wants to be baptized. We have a date for her on December 5th. She came to Stake Conference (which was really good- an area 70, Elder Whiting, presided) and seemed to enjoy that. She seems nice and is very quiet. Also we are teaching these kids of an awesome family that have us over for dinner every Monday, the Swains. The grandparents are very active and super nice, but their parents are less active. There is 10 year old Rebecca and her little brother Evan (who is turning 8 at the end of the year; so they'll be baptized together shortly after.) They are fun to teach and hopefully in the process of teaching them we can help to reactivate the parents.

Other good news is that Renato quit smoking! He said the voices (that he hears in his head) and God teamed up and decided that it was time for him to kick it. So he went from smoking a pack a day to nothing, like that! Miracle! We also had an awesome spirit-filled lesson with a cool member of the English ward (Bro. Walters; who quit many addictions himself before converting) that helped Renato out a lot. He is fun to teach and I enjoy encouraging him to keep from smoking and to pray and such. Maybe I'll be a counselor of some sort some day... Pues I hope this e-mail finds everyone well and happy. If you're not happy, pray or read the scriptures or something, becaues the gospel of Jesus Christ is happiness :)

Love Elder Flake

Thank you Grandma and Grandpa for the dinero! We'll put it to good use:) I hope it doesn't get too cold in Logan this year. Thanks for your love and support, Love Elder Flake