Easter Message April 25, 2011 Email

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

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

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

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

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March 28, 2011 Email

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

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

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