Week 10 9-29-14

Real nice, Logan

Fall colors starting to show.

Iowa hills

Well first off, thats super awesome about all the AllState stuff mom i'm sure that it was just a total blast as always!! :D And congrats to "S. Dog" on his football stuff its such a blast! Yea i got the package and when i opened it up me and elder hollan were both like "AGH THERES SOOOO MUCH CANDY!!!!" but it is slowly being consumed we're trying to limit ourselves on it. :) So the week now:

     We went to the Buettell's house and had dinner with Wilma there and that was a total blast! Hahahaha elder hollan and i made funeral potatoes but we put waaaaaay too many bread crumbs on top so it was like sand! But they still tasted decent so oh well. :) After dinner, we taught her about family history and set up an account for her! Woot woot! TUESDAY WAS THE BEST DAY EVER!!!!!! We went to NorthStar (a handicapped home we volunteer at)  and we karaoked (is that how you spell it?) for like three hours with all the NorthStar people and it was the best thing of my life!!! Hahahaha i had to start out so i sang "Separate Ways" by Journey and it was a blast and we were all rocking out! Hahahahahaha at one point me, elder hollan, elder andrews, and elder olson all sang "I want it that way" by the Backstreet Boys." At one point I sang "Living on a Prayer" with Lynn (a super smily Northstar dude) and that was the funnest thing i've ever done! Hahaha man it was just the best!!!!!! We then went to Janesville and had dinner with the McAllisters from our branch and that was a blast! Fun fact: she knits legit Weasley sweaters (like from harry potter) and sells them for like 150 bucks!!! Sheesh between the sweaters and Brother Larson's wands that he makes we could totally open a harry potter shop in the area and make bank! After that, we were lost on what we should do but then we felt like going to Wilma's house so we did and we went and read some of the Book of Mormon with her. 

     Wednesday Wilma's son and his wife came up from Cedar Rapids (about 1.5 hours away) and we met with them and Wilma and they were telling Wilma why they converted and it was super awesome and the Spirit was soooo strong but Wilma looked a little overwhelmed. It was Kathy's b-day last week but we missed it so to make up for it, brother ackerson and us took her a meatloaf cake smothered in gravy and it was hilarious! She hasn't been able to cook for herself for a long time and she wanted some meat. Hahahaha we went into her house with a candle stuck in the middle of it singing happy birthday at the top of her lungs! :D She loved it!!! Thursday we had an AWESOME district meeting and training on the Book of Mormon and using it more. We then went to Janesville again (Waverly is getting a little discouraging so we thought we'd try some of the other towns). Nothing really was happening so we went back to Waverly and were able to get into contact with a less-active guy named Craig Herrmeyer and we found out that he and his family are kind of apostate and have some CRAZY views but we were able to have a good discussion with them and encouraged them to read the Book of Mormon and pray and they said they would try. 

     We went by on Friday just to see how Wilma was doing but any time we brought up the gospel she deflected it so keep her in your prayers cuz she is on the fine line. Either she is going to get baptized or she is going to drop us idk its close to the decision time for her. Oh i forgot to mention we saw Kevin twice this week and had EPIC lessons on the Holy Ghost and the Word of Wisdom!!! He has been doing so good and he looks so much happier! After his lesson on Friday I had a NASTY headache! So much that we went home for the rest of the day cuz i couldn't do anything at all. :( Saturday we went and did service sealing the skate park with this sealant stuff that smelled HORRIBLE but we had a fun time with that still. :) Our appointments fell through (hahaha again!) but in Janesville we were able to meet Henry and Susan, a really old couple who are VERY Lutheran, and talked with them for like an hour about the Restoration and committed them to reading the Book of Mormon!!!!! It was awesome! (hahaha he tried to bash with us!) KEVIN CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN!!! He came to sacrament AND gospel principles class this time! Then he had to go but hey! HE SAID THAT HE IS LOVING IT!!!!!!!! Oh and we set a baptismal date with him for November 1st! I forgot to mention that. :) So it was a little bit of a hard week but we still had some epically awesome things happen! Keep Wilma and Kevin in your prayers!

Love, 

Elder Logan Flake

Week 9 9-22-14

9-22-14

     Well first off, idk why this transfer is short but the next one is seven weeks so it balances it all out. :) And brother Larson (our branch mission leader) was in the MTC around the same time you were Mom so I was just wondering. :) Thats crazy that Grandma is going on another mission! Hahaha i remember when i first found out she was doing another one my first thought was, "why am i not surprised? Thats totally like Grandma to serve another one she is so awesome!" :D And thanks for Devin's address now i can finally send him a birthday card! (And its really late!)

     So it has been really bipolar weather this week here in Waverly for some reason. Hahahaha one day we had to wear our coats cuz it was freezing!!! And a couple days later it was so hot that sweat was literally dripping off us! Blech! It was disgusting! But its all a good time. :) Monday we had an awesome p-day (like always) and it was a blast! After p-day ended we got to go and (finally!) see Allan Engel (this really nice less-active college guy) and we read out of the Book of Mormon with him and had a super awesome discussion about it with him and he said that he'd read it more.! Woo hoo! We then went with Sister Swallow (awesome member of our branch! Her husband has really bad cancer) to Wilma's house and we had the most fantastic and uplifting discussion on the Atonement ever! It was sooooo powerful!!!! We then taught this guy named Chris and that was interesting... Well, first off he is eighteen and working like sixty hours a week and (he says) he is an affiliate marketer on the internet and makes bank on that. He told us that last year he pulled in almost nine million dollars. Soo we're not sure if its legit or if he is just a pathological liar but we're working with him. And then Tuesday was like ARGH!

     Hahaha so we had five (count 'em five) appointments all planned and we prepared lessons and everything and EVERY SINGLE ONE FELL THROUGH!!!! Haha it was like "C'mon guys! This is salvation here!" But its whatev we still had an awesome day. :) We went to this gigantic farmer's market and got like seven potential investigators! Woot woot!!! So that totally made up for the dropped lessons from earlier!! We then went tracting and met some cool people and thats always a blast! :D After that, we went and had dinner and an awesome lesson on member missionary work with the Ackerson family. They live in this GIGANTAVIOUS house that needs a lot of work but its the coolest house ever!! And randomly a couple weeks ago we discovered that Waverly has a Masonic Temple! I don't know what it is or what they do in it but its got the same logo on the outside of it just like the one in National Treasure! The G within the triangle thing! Hahahahaha oh man i love Iowas its so random! 

     Wednesday we power washed the Buettell's house to get all the mold off and that was a blast cuz i've never power washed anything before! Hahaha half the time Elder Andrews just power washed me! :D Brother Buettell then took us to the huge John Deere factory in Waterloo and he got us in on a tour cuz he used to work there. Man that was fascinating! Some of those tractors are gargantuan!!!!!! After that we cleaned our car for like 2 hours cuz we had car inspections the next day at zone conference. Then we knocked into a nice, older guy named Bruce and we had an awesome lesson about the Restoration with him! Haha he is VERY opinionated about gay marriage-he hates it!! Then we had an awesome lesson at the Garner's home (he is the elder's quorum president and they are way awesome!). 

     Thursday was my 1st zone conference! We drove down to Iowa City (like two and a half or so hours away) and the APs, Sister Jensen, and President Jensen all gave trainings and that was awesome! (They didn't even do vehicle inspections darn it!) The Jensens are just the best and so nice and amazing. :) It was kinda weird to see a lot of the missionaries who came out with me looking changed already. Well, i guess that i'm not really the same anymore either. :) My mission has already started to change me for good. :) When we got back we had an awesome lesson with Paris and Bria (awesome dude and his girlfriend) about the doctrine of Christ and she had A LOT of questions but the Book of Mormon totally pulled through and answered every one of them it was amazing! Like one of them was she asked us whats the deal with infant baptism and what do we think of it so we turned to Moroni 8 and it boldly answered them on that one! And then she was like, "Oh! That makes so much sense!" It was fantastic! Friday we went to NorthStar and had a blast there like always! Hahaha man those guys are hilarious! And then we had an AMAZING lesson with the Buettells with Wilma and we talked about the Plan of Salvation for a good hour! She straight up told us that it made so much sense!!

     Saturday we were working at the Community Gardens and the heavens opened on us! It was like "oh its a little chilly this morning" to "AAAHHHH RAIN, LIGHTNING, AND I'M SOAKING WET!!" After that we went and met with Sister Hollandsworth (an older lady in our branch who doesn't come very much) and it was good but kinda awkward cuz i don't think she really likes us. Kevin (our investigator who has a lot of problems with drinking and chewing tobacco) invited us over to his house for burgers so of course we went! Hahaha Kevin and his wife Paula (she is atheist) are hilarious! Then he told us he'd come to church! We then met a boss, Dan, and we had an awesome talk about the Restoration with him!

     ON SUNDAY KEVIN CAME TO SACRAMENT MEETING AND LOVED IT!!!!!! THE CHURCH IS TRUE!!!! HE SAID HE FELT THE SPIRIT!!! YESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It was the coolest thing i've ever seen in my life!! After church we went with brother Larson to Kathy Curlee's house and we gave her the sacrament and talked about the Book of Mormon. Man i love the Book of Mormon its fantastic! Holy goodness her faith is amazing! Everything that can go wrong in life happens to her i swear! Keep her in your prayers please. After that, we had dinner at Brad and Angie's (they're the investigators who love us :D) house we talked to them and had an epic heart-to-heart and discovered their fears about what was holding them back from moving forward with talking to us. They committed to start praying about the Book of Mormon with real intent!!! I love them and their family so much they just need to get baptized already! Thats about the week!

Love, 

Elder Logan Flake

Week 8 9-15-14

    Thats totally awesome about the fair (especially those really good prices the boys got!-I'm slightly jealous) and about the concert! Hahaha oh mom, your life always seems to be a little crazy. :) Yea you can totally post my letters just as I write them, if i don't want you to i'll let you know. :) And we're allowed to say their names. :) But this week was super amazing!!! So monday we got our transfer calls (me and elder hollan are staying :) and this transfer is only five weeks this time so i won't be with him for quite three months but oh well thats how it goes) :) and then we went and cleaned out Wilma's garage (I vacuumed like fifty bazillion spiders and spider webs it was the best!) and then we found out from her that she is still having a problem with believing the Restoration, specifically the Joseph Smith part. We then went to Readlyn and talked to Brother Jones (his entire family except for him are members, we just call him brother jones) and we found out that he doesn't believe that our church has the priesthood. He believes that when Joseph Smith died, God took the priesthood away. And ho-ly c-ow he believes alot of random CRAZY things! But i still love him because he is super chill and really nice. :) We then finally got in touch with Paris (this way cool black guy) and we taught him about faith and repentance and he was saying like, "thanks guys i think that god led you to me i just needed that tonight." He has lots of faith and is way cool! Tuesday we went on exchanges with the Waverly West elders and i went with elder andrews to the west side of waverly. Appointments fell through left and right but we still had a blast and met alot of awesome people! Hahahahaha on one of the doors we knocked this lady opens the door and says (in a THICK russian accent), "hello nice boys how are yu today?" She wasn't interested but man it was awesome cuz she had the thickest russian accent i've heard in my life! It was such a fun day!

     Wednesday was actually p-day cuz thursday was transfers and that was a blast! Sister Farsnworth from my district is the only one who left but we got Sister Geiger who apparently used to live in Snowflake and might be related to me? Idk i wouldn't be surprised cuz there are A LOT of us Flakes. :) We came home and got Sister Buettell (she is an older lady who is hilarious!) and we went and showed Wilma the restoration video and that was awesome because it really cleared up a lot of the stuff that she has had questions about. YES!!!! :D Thursdaywe went with Brother Buettell (hahaha he is such a troll hes flippin' hilarious!) to Kathy's house and taught her the Restoration and that was awesome! We then went to Readlyn again cuz Sister Jones (she is from Mexico) wanted to show us how to make REAL (those are her exact words) beans and rice and they were fantastic!!!!! We met with James (the inactive fifteen year old) and sorta-ish taught a lesson he is really confusing to try to talk to...huh i don't know. That night, we taught this nice family (Bryan and Rebecca-a young married couple we bumped into a couple weeks ago) about the plan of salvation. It was really good cuz he had some doubts and really good questions which showed that he was really thinking about it, thats kinda rare so it was awesome! And then Friday was da bomb!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     So first off, we had a get to know you district meeting (cuz we have sister geiger in our district now) and that was a blast! Hahahaha we played beer pong (but with this nasty fruit punch stuff instead of beer obviously) :) and that was hilarious cuz we are all really bad at it! Whenever you made the ball in one of the cups (they were numbered 1-10) you had to answer the question that went with that cup (most embarassing experience, favorite mission moment, etc.) We briefly met with Kevin and found out that he has only slipped up and drank once in the past week and a half! Yes!!!! And he is trying to replace chewing tobacco with sunflower seeds! Yes!!!!!!! We then went and had dinner at the Durbins house (they are so awesome!) and after that we took brother durbin with us and met with Kevin again and gave him the Church's "Addiction Recovery Program" book and talked about it and talked about signs from God and other random awesomeness and it was the best!!!!!! Saturday was reeeeeally hard, maybe the toughest day since i've been out here. We went to the church to meet a lady that we had an appointment with and she fell through and never showed up which was really sad (her husband killed himself four months ago and she wanted to know why and what happened to him, thats why she wanted to meet with us). We then went to the Sullivan's home (they live in Janesville, she is an inactive member and her husband is a nonmember) and they fed us chili!!!! Hahahaha they are the best even though they kept on redirecting the conversation every time we brought up gospel topics.....but we're working on that. :) (haha they really helped to bring my spirits up though) Sunday, we went to church (awesome as always!) and we discussed with our branch mission leader what we can do to give the branch a view of how they can help with missionary work. Our branch is kinda stagnant and our branch president just doesn't seem to care about missionary work and he is gone all the time. Its a little frustrating to be honest. :/  All of our appointments fell through but we were still able to get some good stuff done. :) So it wasn't the most productive week but it was still super good. :) Alrighty i'm signing off so later!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

The Little Brown Church

Week 7 9-8-14 Nauvoo Temple Trip!!

Am I in Heaven?  No you're in Iowa.

                                                                              Nauvoo Trip w/ Elder Hollan

                                                                        Nauvoo Temple!

Dear Family,

So once again, this week was pretty much amazing and a total blast as always! OH MAN TUESDAY WAS SUUUUUCH A DAY OF MIRACLES! Ok so we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders (Elders Belliston and Parry) and I was with Elder Parry (love that guy he is a total boss!). So first off, we went and had an awesome lesson with this guy named Christopher who is my age but he is like crazy smart and making big bucks and we taught him about the doctrine of Christ and he was super open and he really liked it! Yesss!!!! Hahaha when he first opened the door he was just in a pair of boxers and we were like "do you wanna put some pants on bro?" and then he was like ".......yea i suppose i can do that." Hahahaha it was hilarious and we were all just laughing about it. :) We knocked a bunch of houses around that area and no one was really receptive but thats ok it was still fun trying. :) Haha at one of the houses we knocked a teenage girl opens the door and is like "i'll get my dad" and then she went back inside. Random fact about Waverly is that like half of all the houses have a dumb sun porch thing in them so its like: The steps up to the sun porch door, then the sun porch, then the actual front door. Anyway, so this dude comes out and sees us standing just outside the sun porch and he goes "OH NO!" and runs back inside his house and he slammed the door so hard that i'm sure something in his house totally broke. :) It was pretty funny but kinda sad at the same time. We then went and had dinner at the McAllister's house (member family who lives in Janesville, they are super legit!) and that was a blast because they are so fun! Hahaha for dessert Brother McAllister brings out this massive bowl just filled with all kinds of candy bars and there were like FIFTEEN BUTTERFINGERS! I loooooooove butterfingers! Anyway, we then shared a really awesome video called "I'll go where you want me to go" with them (its about member missionary work) and then we had an awesome discussion about it. :)

After that, we knocked in Janesville and got three new potentials! WOOT WOOT!!!! We then went and dropped in on Brad+Angie Hjemeland ( its pronounced "jemelend" i think?) and that was awesome cuz we've been trying to get into contact with them for like two weeks! We had an awesome discussion with them on random gospel things and on the three kingdoms and now they are FINALLY interested in meeting with us for the teaching the gospel part not just because they love us! No joke, the Hjemeland's looove us they are always trying to do things for us and buy us stuff and whatnot and we're just like "Agh stop! Why are you so wonderful?!" Hahaha its a lot of fun! :D When we got back to our apartment that night, we were talking with Elder Belliston and Elder Hollan and we found out that they were able to have an absolutely awesome lesson with Chelsea and Cody (two of our investigators who dropped us last week) about the Plan of Salvation and they ate it up! And they were able to get a hold of Kevin (who we have been trying to get into contact with FOREVER) and he totally broke down and opened up to them saying how he was so ready to get rid of his alcohol and tobacco addiction cuz it was destroying his life and he needed our help with that! No problem we can help!!!!!!! And Kevin's atheist wife Paula said she would try to pray!!!!!!! Yesssss!!!!!!!! The Church is true!!!! Amazingness!!!

On Wednesday, we were able to go see Kathy again (with President and Sister Winter-our branch president+his wife) and we had a super good lesson with her on D+C 121-123 (you should read those sections they're amazing) and we got to change her little mobile wheelchair wheels and that was actually a lot of fun! hahaha i totally threw away all of her old wheels and parts and then she was like "could you guys put the old parts back in the box?" and then we were like "oh yea no problem!" and i had to dig through all this DISGUSTING fettucine alfredo and old chicken and i totally almost barfed like three times and Elder Hollan was crying cuz he was laughing so hard! My hands smelled like chicken for THREE hours! Anyway, we then went and saw Kevin (even though he told us not to cuz his wife was sick we felt like we needed to so we just did) and we were able to have an awesome lesson on faith and repentance with him and I was really touched by the Spirit and nearly crying at one point cuz I was sharing a really personal experience and it was awesome he was really touched. It was truly an awesome experience. Then we went to branch council and shared a syllabus with them that we'd made about a missionary class that the stake wants us to start teaching and that was good to get a lot of input from all of them. And then we went and had an epic dessert (scotcheroos!!!!) at the Larson's house and that was awesome cuz Brother Larson showed us this purple wood wand that he is currently working on and it is waaaaay cool! Thursday we had a really good district meeting and that was awesome and then we gave a church tour to Kevin and it was fantastic and he is going to come to church this Sunday!!!!!! Hahaha when we were cleaning up the church before the tour, we went to clean out the font and it was just naaaaasty!!! I killed at least fifteen spiders (one of them was huge!!!!) and a couple crickets and then we destroyed cobwebs and picked up mouse droppings in it. Obviously the font hasn't been used for some time but we're gonna change that. :) 

Friday we went and taught Nicki about faith+prayer but she still kinda believes the same as before. Basically, in her eyes all humanity is "fallen" and God is a big jerk. But hey we're meeting with her again this week so thats good. :) At the Community Gardens that night, me and Elder Andrews had waaaay too much fun destroying rotten melons all kinds of different ways (haha spearing them, splatting them, dunking them, shot-putting them, etc.) and that was a blast!

We then went with Anders Larson (pronounced "awnders") to Tripoli and taught Helen and Brian Milius and their family (we tracted into her last week) about the Restoration and they were really accepting of it and now they are new investigators!!! WOOHOO! Oh yea and a random downside, we got a text from Chelsea asking us to leave her alone cuz its starting to creep her out how we always wanna talk with her and cody. We think she might have gotten "anti-mormoned" so thats really sad. So we're currently unsure what to do with them. :/ Saturday we got to go with Brother Larson and Anders to Nauvoo for the branch temple trip!!!!! It was awesome!!! I've missed the temple so much even though its not even been two months since i last went. But we got to do two sessions and wander around Nauvoo a bit! Sunday we had church (which was awesome as always!) and we studied and did some weekly planning (that always takes the longest) and then we went with the other elders to Lorelei and Dave Dilly's house in Shell Rock for burgers and s'mores it was awesome they are so fun! (Lorelei is like the chief staff person at NorthStar) I wish i'd gotten some pics of their house cuz its very unique i have to admit. :) Thats bout the week though!

Love

Elder Logan Flake

Week 6 9-2-14

     Sorry about the late letter but because it was Labor Day yesterday, EVERY single library and grocery store (except for Walmart) was closed so we couldn't really do anything about that. :) But anyways, GAH RESPONSIBILITY!!!!!!!! So this week was the week where I was the senior companion and I make like all the decisions and whatnot so that was actually a lot of fun and a really good experience for me. :)Monday night we went and taught the Jones family (they live in Readlyn) and that was a really good lesson cuz we talked about faith and how it gets us through the hard times and such. (Hahahahaha so they have a daughter named Celeste who is my age and she was TOTALLY hitting on me and Elder Hollan throughout the entire thing it was soooooo weird but strangely funny at the same time! Hahaha!) Haha so tuesday we were knocking doors and we went up to this door to knock it and as I raised my hand to knock, this guy opens the door, comes out with a Bible in his hand, and says "Alright lets turn to Colossians 1." And we were both just like, "Oh no we got ourselves a basher, its gonna be one of those days." Haha we were totally judging because he is actually really cool, his name is Paul Klinge, and we had a really good talk with him about the Godhead and such and he is the nicest guy ever. :) Later in the week, we had a discussion with him for like an hour and a half and he told us his religious journey. Haha he calls himself a "Lutheran Bapta-Costal". :) 

     On Wednesday, we got to go and do service at NorthStar again and I looooove doing that cuz its so much fun and the people are all hilarious!!! Jeremy, one of the disabled people at NorthStar, told us that he likes it when we come cuz it makes him happy. Thats so cool. :) Later we went to Tripoli (about 20 minutes away) and we knocked doors and that was fun even though nobody was really interested that much. Planting seeds y'know? :D Hahaha while we were driving there the phone rings and it says Sister Austin (from our branch) so I answered it and it was their daughter Airyn!! She had to come home early from her mission cuz of some medical problems. Hahaha I answer and I'm all like, "Hello this is Elder Flake" And then I hear, "Hi Elder Flake this is Hermana Austin how are you today?" Then me and Elder Hollan were both like WHAT THE DUMP? Hahaha it was just like huh? Anyway, they were just setting up an appointment forSaturday. :) Oh and earlier that day, we were trying to contact some less-active people and one of them (Brother Engel) especially cuz he hasn't come to church quite some time. So we knocked on his door and this little naked Asian boy (he is like two) answers the door and he starts saying all this rapid-fire Chinese stuff! Hahaha we were like "where is your mom? Can we talk to her?" Then he'd be like "*&*$%%#%^#" and run off and get a random toy and show it to us. (Thats meant to be Chinese by the way i don't know any real words) We eventually were able to see brother engel and talk to him and he is way cool and a super nice guy. (The little boy is his son-he married a really nice Chinese lady named Sanae) :) 

     On Thursday before district meeting, we got taught how to do family history by Sister Swallow (from our branch) and that was a lot of fun even though I'm still totally confused by it! :D After district meeting, I made A LOT of cookie dough and we baked up a bunch of cookies and ran them by members and investigators and that was super fun as well. :) We also taught an atheist guy in the trailer park about prayer and he said he would try it out and it was super awesome!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We then stopped by Dave's house (history buff dude) and met with him. He had just lost his job earlier that day and he was super depressed but we were able to have a good lesson with him on faith and the Book of Mormon and he said he'd try reading it more. Friday we went and visited Kathy Curlee (a recent convert from our branch-she got baptized in may) to see how she was doing, haha she lives in the middle of nowhere! And man her life is hard! Majority of her family hates her guts and thats super sad. Her daughter and her daughter's boyfriend live with her and all those two do is sit around and smoke weed and break the law of chastity! Sheesh c'mon people! Kathy also has MS so she has some hard physical trials as well. But even though her life is really rough Kathy has THE STRONGEST testimony I have ever seen in anyone! She is sooooooo cool! We had a really good lesson on how afflictions and trials always happen before the good things can happen and that was really cool to be able to have that with her. That night the Smiths (in our branch) gave us dinner and we were able to share a good lesson with them about missionary work. Hahahahahaha they are both hilarious! They actually met on their mission (they were both in the Philippines) and they had some hilarious mission stories!

     Saturday we did service at the Community Gardens (always a fun time!) and then we went to Cedar Falls cuz Elder Hollan had to interview Mary (an investigator of the sisters in Cedar Falls) for baptism so we chilled up there for a bit. We came back and appointments were falling through left and right, no one was interested, UNTIL we knocked on an apartment door and a lady named Nicki answered! She has had s craaaazy hard life and she doesn't believe in God cuz she says "if God is loving like you say, how can he let bad things happen all the time?" But we were able to have a good lesson with her on the Atonement and the gospel in general and we are going back on Friday. :) After Nicki, we went to the Austin's house and had an awesome lesson on missionary work and that was a lot of fun. We also got to hear Airyn talk about all of her mission stories and whatnot and those were way cool-she served in Carlsbad, California. :) After the Austins, we went to Kevin's house to see if he still wanted to come to church (we haven't been able to get a hold of him at all) and he said he would! Sunday we had an excellent sacrament meeting, Kevin didn't come but hey the church is still true!! We went to an appointment we had with an atheist college student girl named Jolisa. She wasn't there but we met her boyfriend Abebe (he is Ethiopian) and he is way legit and chill and he was all "oh you guys can come back on Friday she'll be back from Chicago then." Sweet!! :D Yesterday nothing was really working but we were able to go and share a lesson with the Lassen family from our branch. They used to be Jehovah's Witnesses and they were converted about two years ago and they told us their conversion story and it was crazy!!!!!! Well thats about the week in a nutshell!

     Oh and yesterday we were able to go down to Nashua and watch these crazy chuckwagon races!!! They have four horses harnessed to an old wagon and when the gun goes off, the team throws like a stove and a bunch of other stuff in the back of a wagon, and then they take off racing other teams!! IT WAS SOOOO COOL!!!!!!!!!!!! After that, we went to "the little brown church in the vale" and took pics of it and stuff. Its a really old, historic little church in Nashua and it was awesome! :) Oh i totally just remembered this but on Tuesday we went to go see Josh (our new investigator-college aged guy) and he tried to give is the Book of Mormon back but we had a good lesson on his doorstep about the Book of Mormon and praying with real intent to find out the truth and he decided to try it out again. :) Awesome. :) 

Love

Elder Logan Flake     

Week 5 8-25-14

8-25-14
   
 So this week was a smidge of a discouraging one but it was still fan-flippin-tastic!! So first off, Monday we just went knocking doors when p-day ended and not really much happened in that department cuz most people weren't interested but it was still awesome cuz we planted like 20 seeds of faith in them I'm sure!!! Hahaha really fast, so for some reason whenever I'm pumped/happy/warding off discouragement about something, I always snap my fingers in my right hand fast and say, "Planting seeds, planting seeds!" Hahahaha elder Hollan just about dies laughing every time and I have no idea why i do it but it makes me so happy for some reason! :D :D On Tuesday, we went to go see this dude named Lynn that we gave a Book of Mormon too but he was gone and on his doorstep was a bag with the Book of Mormon in it and a note that said, "Missionaries, thanks so much for visiting with me but I'm going to stick with my own religion." :( But thats ok we were only sad for like two seconds. :) Oh and did I ever tell you that there is a gigantic Nestle plant here? Its the plant where they make all of the Nestle drinks like Nesquik and Ovaltine and whatnot!! (fist pump!) And the young men's leader in our branch, brother Smith, said he could hook us up with some sweet deals on Nestle stuff! SWEET!!!! (literally) Hahahaha tell Dallin to be jealous!! We met this girl named Ashley that elder Hollan and his previous comp. had talked to in the past and we had a really good discussion with her on faith and the Atonement. She is 21 and has a baby, and her life has just been horrible so that was really cool to explain that stuff to her and it helped her to see the good in life again to some degree. :) Oh and we also talked to Jeff (one of our potential investigators) and we had a really good talk/lesson about the Restoration. He is the nicest guy ever but kind of confusing. He'd be like, "oh that makes perfect sense! But I just don't know if its true." C'mon man!! 

     Kevin (our other investigator with the bap. date of Sep. 20) fell through twice this week cuz he had to work overtime and his son lost his job but he is still super willing to meet with us again this week so thats pretty awesome!!! :D And Zac briefly contacted us and said he was sorry he has been so busy and then we lost contact with him again. Nut we still haven't given up on him he WILL get baptized I know it!!!! So Thursday morning, it was just pouring buckets but we went and mulched A LOT of pathways in the Community Gardens cuz we had said we would, and God totally protected us cuz it was like crazy lightning all around the place as it rained! When we were working and it started flashing lightning all over, we felt like we would be able to finish it and nothing bad would happen so we did and nothing bad happened. :) Later that morning, we got to go and have an interactive lesson about how Christ is our shepherd with all of the disabled people at NorthStar and that was totally awesome!!! Hahahahaha Jeremy (one of the NorthStar people) was the "shepherd" and everyone else followed him making sheep noises!!! Hahahahaha they're all the best!!! On Friday, me and elder Hollan drove down to Iowa City for a new trainers and trainee meeting with President and Sister Jensen and the APs and that was way awesome!!! The Jensens are sooooo nice and awesome and legit and all around like my favorite people ever! :D Hahahaha when we were trying to meet up with the missionaries in Cedar Rapids to go to Iowa City with them, we totally got lost in this neighborhood for a couple of minutes and as we were driving around it was like ,"Please don't hurt me!!" Hahaha it was hilarious!! Saturday we FINALLY got in contact with James (15 year old less active guy who was baptized in December) and we connected over the most random thing ever! Hahahaha video games! So that was awesome!!! 

     Then we talked to this former investigator couple, the Battersons, and that was.....interesting. Lets just say that she kinda dominated the conversation with randomness (your church is just another denomination/result of the Apostasy, the Book of Mormon isn't true, etc.) and they are not quite ready yet. But they are super nice and I know they'll accept the message someday if not from us. :) And to answer your questions Mom and Dad, it hasn't been too hot up till now, but this past week has been pretty humid. And Waverly is about 10,000-11,000 people or so. That library pic was actually the library of Cedar Falls (about 20 minutes away) and its where we send e-mails. :) But the small Waverly library is REALLY nice too! Like all of Iowa has insanely nice libraries I swear! We have a little (emphasis on little) church building in Waverly and its a nice little place. Oh on Sunday, Brother Matthews (a less-active guy) and his wife Kathy (a nonmember former Catholic she doesn't do much with religion anymore) came to sacrament meeting!!!! Well thats about it for the week so talk to ya'll in a week!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake