Week 4 8-18-14

I'M SO OLD I'M ALREADY A MONTH DONE! AAHHHH ITS GOING TOO FAST!!! Hahahaha ok i'm calming down now. :) So first off, we haven't been able to get in touch with Zac (our investigator with the baptismal date) AT ALL! We've been texting and calling and (haha funny story) one night we felt like we should go see if he was at his apartment. So we busted on over there and he was gone but we talked to his roommate Anthony and we had a good ole' time talking about the Restoration with him. And then he was all like "hey come back in a couple days and we can talk" and we were like "YES!!!" (in our minds that is, not out loud) :) But then later in the week, Anthony texts us and is like "I'm comfortable with my own religion and thanks for the interesting discussion but i would rather not talk to you guys again." DARN IT!!! But hey we're planting seeds of faith y'know? So its all good. :) Tuesday we had zone training meeting with the sister training leaders and the APs and that was super fantastic! The APs (Elders Mcginn and Weiss) are way cool and spiritual and stuff, and they are like super nice and awesome!! So that was really good and we learned A LOT about diligence. Oh yeah, we also fasted for Zac that day too. :) Then that night, we made some chicken broccoli bake, went to Betty Spear's house (she is this older lady who was converted about 10-11 months ago and she is absolutely hilarious!!), and had dinner with her and Wilma (one of our progressing investigators and she is like the sweetes old lady ever!!) and Wilma and Betty hit it off right from the get-go! Hahaha so that was a lot of fun and we shared a super fantastic message about prophets and we printed out and gave Wilma the talk "I Will Not Fail Thee or Forsake Thee" by President Monson and she said that she would read it!! Sweet!!!!!! 

So to answer some of your questions, we usually contact people by knocking doors all over the place and we sometimes get referrals from the members but its mainly three families that give them to us (the Larsons (he is the branch mission leader who makes wands), the Austins (awesome car dude, he and his family are the best!) and the Durbins (they try to have a person every week over for dinner who is either a less-active or a nonmember). Our branch covers Waverly, a couple small towns within 20-25 miles in the surrounding area (Janesville, Shell Rock, Nashua, Tripoli, Denver, Plainfield, and some others i can't remember) and thats about it so its a pretty big area. Oh and mom do you know some song about "the little brown church in the vale?" Cuz that is apparently in Nashua. :)

On Thursday, we went on exchanges so I was with Elder Olson on the west side and Elders Andrews and Hollan hit the east side. Elder Olson is totally awesome and its interesting to see the other area I loved it!!! We placed a couple pamphlets, taught the Plan of Salvation to a lady named Jane, then we talked to this 91 year old guy named Campbell. He was a Catholic but he has doubts about, well everything!!! So we had a super good talk about a lot of spiritual things but it was also sad too cuz at the end he revealed that he doesn't believe that Jesus Christ died for his sins/is the Redeemer. It was sad. But that was still an awesome day!! Oh and Elders Hollan and Andrews taught a potential investigator of ours named Kevin and the Lord really prepared him beforehand cuz they set a date forSeptember 20th with him! He has been looking for years how to get over his tobacco addiction and his alchol problems and he said that the church is the way!!!!!

Saturday I met the Hjemeland family on Saturday (they are current investigators) and I already absolutely love them!! If i didn't know better i would have thought they were a normal Mormon family and I love them so much already! You certainly start to really love the people in your mission and I'm already seeing that manifested! :D :D :D :D :D On Sunday nothing was really working till we talked to Dave (he is the history buff who lives in the trailer park) that night and we had a good like hour of talking and he said he would really start to read the Book of Mormon now and like really search it and stuff!!! I love Waverly its so awesome!!!! Well, thats about it for the week so see ya later alligators!! I love you all!!

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 3 8-11-14

Man this was an AAAAAAAAAAWESOME WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So first off, on monday we had a suuuper good lesson with one of our investigators, Zac, about listening to the promptings of the Holy Ghost and we set a date for August 30th!!!! YYYYYYYEEEEEEESSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!! But the sad thing was we haven't been able to get in contact with him at all for the rest of the week and thats super sad! :( But thats ok we are still working on that. :) Anyway, then we went to Janesville (about ten minutes from Waverly) and we got a new investigator!!! So Deb Sullivan is an inactive member but her husband Jim isn't in religion right now cuz he has had really bad experiences with life and religion in general and he hates how all the Christians he has seen are all hypocrites and he had A LOT of questions but we went through Joseph Smith History with him and he really related with Joseph Smith and they both have a lot of the same questions about church y'know? He really like that and he has started to read the Book of Mormon now!!!!! K then a couple of days this week were a little tricky and we weren't able to get much out of it cuz like people just either didn't wanna talk to us or they would see us coming and hide! Hahahaha i mean c'mon we can see you guys through the window for goodness sake!! Hahahaha but oh well. :) But we had two potential investigators come to church and that was TOTALLY AWESOME!!!!! HALLELUJAH!!!! They had a lot of questions but we were able to answer them and that was totally awesome!!!! We also had interviews with the President and Sister Jensen this week and that was awesome they are so cool! Oh and guess what???!!!! Google Earth was President Jensen's brainchild!!! He has like a bajillion trophies for this and that and he is like super smart and stuff but he is so humble about it and that is soooo cool! Oh and if you could just send the pics in a small album that would work. :) And we have our own apartment on the east side of Waverly (thats our area) and the other elders have their own apartment in the west side of waverly (thats their area). :) But we share a car and it is a brand spankin' new one! Its a 2014 Subaru Legacy and it is a veeeery nice car we love it! So more in this week is we have this super nice 82 year old lady named Wilma who is one of our investigators and we had an AWESOME lesson with her with Brother Martin from our ward and that was awesome!!! Hahahaha so Brother Martin runs a classic car dealership so he is loaded and he picked us up for Wilma's lesson in this sick 2013 open-top black and yellow Mustang GT! Hahaha it was hilarious! But he is like one of the coolest guys ever and he is so humble and his family got converted about four years ago. So on Saturday we did a lot of service! First we served at the Waverly Community Gardens weeding and such (all the food goes to various food banks), then we went and moved some rock and did landscaping for the Swallows (nice, older couple in our branch), and then we went and built a base for a swingset playset thing at the Austin's house and that was way fun too! Then on Sunday we were knocking doors in a trailer park and we met and taught two atheists! They were dead set in their atheist ways but one of them was all like, "oh i guess i'll try praying but idk if it will work" and in our minds we were all like, "oh the spirit is gonna hit you so hard! Awesome!" And then we ran into this guy who was like a history buff and he thought the Bible was full of a bunch of manure but we had an awesome converstion with him and he took a restoration pamphlet and a Book of Mormon!! Thats the week!!!

Love

Elder Logan Flake

Week 2 Waverly Iowa 8-4-13

Elder Martin MTC companion

                                                                     Iowa Here I come!

Well first off, that is totally awesome that we got a pond-filler!!!!!! So I love Iowa its so green!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! And the Jensens are the absolute best and i love them so much they're awesome! My trainer is Elder Hollan and he is from Orem and he has been out about thirteen months. Hahahaha we are really similar with our humor and we're always havin' a good time and teaching people! I already totally love all of the people here! So there is this one investigator we have named Zac who is doing really well with the lessons and they have been teaching him for a while so keep your fingers crossed for a baptism!!! We've had some doors slammed in our face and some people saying stuff like "No go away I'm not interested!!!" And I was sad for like 1.5 seconds but thats ok! :D Oh and my area for the next twelve weeks is Waverly, Iowa. Its just barely bigger than Snowflake and its a college town for Wartburg College, which is some private school but its pretty cool lookin'. :) Hahahaha so yesterday we were teaching these three college girls named Josie, Rachel, and Salassi (she is from Africa), and Salassi HATED us!!! She was all like "oh you guys are so blasphemous and you don't even believe in the Bible, etc." And whatever we said she would just twist it around and idk. So that was a little sad but I think we really touched the other two girls so keep your fingers crossed on that too. But Waverly has a little branch here with about 60-70 active members in it and I love them so much! Our ward mission leader is Brother Larson and he is totally awesome! And get this he makes wands for a hobby! Like legit Harry Potter replica wands and he sells them for big bucks!!!! Hahahaha they are sooooooo cool!!! Oh and could you send me some pics of the fam  Elder Hollan wants to see them. :) Oh and in my blue seminary folder (Its either in my room or in my blue box of stuff) has a scripture mastery card or two could you please send those as well? Well, thats about all I got for today so thank you for all your prayers and.........THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 1 MTC 7-24-14

Well first off, my comp. is elder ryan martin from lyman, wyoming and he is totally awesome!!! He is like triple my size but he is way chill. :) I looooooove the MTC!!!!!! It is A LOT of hard work but it is soooo rewarding and I just love the gospel with all my heart! So Wednesday night me and elder ryan were teaching an investigator named Debbie and it was only our second appointment with her but the spirit was sooo strong and we all started crying at one point and it was amazingly fantastic and interesting cuz I like never get emotional even during super emotional things! THE CHURCH IS TRUE IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!!!!! But ya the MTC is definitely a different experience and I love it so much. :) My four teachers are Sister Avery, Sister Mitchell, Brother Leah, and Brother Bishop. Haha fun fact: Brother Leah is from England so he has an awesome accent and Brother Bishop is from Idaho but for some reason he has like the coolest New York Bronx accent and its the best! But my district is super awesome and we are all so close and its sooo much fun! Hahaha something funny that happened is Sister Fetter, one of the sisters in our district, went back home on tuesday because her boyfriend, an RM, wanted her to come home and get married so she did. Hahahaha we were just all like "ok whatever floats your boat I suppose!" :D But it was kinda weird at the same time. Haha :) Anyways, so my p-day is thursday this week and we fly out to Des Moines on Wednesday at like three in the morning!!!!!!!! I'M READY TO GET OUT THERE ALREADY!!!!!! So I'm not sure when my next p-day will be but i will let you guys know when i next e-mail on that day. And I saw Hayden yesterday when all the new missionaries were coming in! Haha we were like "oh my gosh I didn't thing I'd be able to see you! Whats up?!" It was awesome and we got to talk for a second. :) The experiences that i've been having teaching our "investigators" (members role-playing) has been sooooo good and definitely gotten me pumped for the mish life!! Some days have been pretty discouraging, but then one day you have an amazing experience happen and everything is totally worth it!!!!! And the MTC food is sooooooo good!!!! Its a good thing I'm exercising every day or i would get so fat from all of it!! Oh and tell Heather(my new sis, not my cuz) that I tried the granola and it was absolutely fantabulous!!!! Anyway, thats all i got for this week so see ya later alligators i'll email as soon as i can! (Oh and if you wanna send me a package mom just make sure it would arrive before wednesday) :) I love you all!!! And................THE CHURCH IS TRUE BABY!!!!!! :D :D :D :D :D :D