July 13, 2010 Email

Hey Dad:)
I like your old truck-man from snowy river analogy;) I hope it can make one more trek. The work is going ok. Cristian missed church, and hence we have to move her baptismal date back a little bit. She still seems pretty solid though and we have faith that she'll come through.
This week is kind of different because Elder Medrano bacame the new District Leader and they are doing some 'hecka' (SO many kids here in Cali use this word all the time- it means a lot:) training down in San Jose- for the new PMG that doesn't come out till May 2011i guess. But Medrano says it sounds like it's going to be pretty sweet. Anyways this week Medrano is going to be down in San Jose for all of the day time so I am paired with Elder Egbert, a big, jolly Chinese speaking Elder from SLC. We had fun today and together, we can talk to twice as many people:)
This last P-day we played some indoor soccer with some other Elders and some youth in a church building. It was fun. I'm getting pretty good at Futbal cause some times while we are tracting, some kids playing on the street will invite us to play and we join them for a bit. I'll probably play in the next World Cup in 2014;) I'm still getting better with the language so that's good. Being with an Elder who only speaks Chinese makes me have to do all the talking with Hispanics. And it's proving that I can communicate on my own which is nice to know:) And because Medrano is the new D.L, I'll be going on more splits so that should help to continue to push myself out of my comfort zone. It sounds like you guys will be really busy the next few weeks. I hope you have fun and don't have any car trouble:) I'm doing good out here. Let all the couzins know that i Love them.
How's the calling going? Try not to get complacent with it. i have to constantly remind myself to keep looking for more ways to serve/be more effective as a missionary. Well love ya and you're in my prayers,
Elder Flake