Week 21 12-22-14

Christmas Spirit!

    Well first off, I will be skyping y'all around eleven ish which is ten ish AZ time in the morning!! So around that time just be expecting a call from either a Richley or a Sheri Craypo and it will be me. :) WOOT WOOT! I haven't gotten your package yet so I'm waiting and ready for it. :) Thank you for the sweater by the way its so warm! That's so awesome that all of your concerts went well and that Vespers was so powerful! Man I miss going to Vespers it was the highlight of the Christmas season a lot of years for me. :) I'm so excited to Skype you guys! I TURN 19 TOMORROW!!! I AM SUCH AN OLD MAN! ONLY A TEENAGER FOR ONE MORE YEAR!!! AAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! 

     This week was amazingly fantastic!! So all of the member lessons that we had this week (7) were awesome! So, instead of preparing a lesson and teaching them after dinner, we tried a new approach to get them more excited about missionary work. So, we would sit down and say a prayer, and then we would straight up ask the members "How do you feel like the attitude is towards missionary work in our ward?" And then they honestly respond and then we would ask them for suggestions on how we can improve because elder Curless and I were talking once and we just feel so disconnected from this entire ward unfortunately. Part of that was us not being as diligent as we should have been in introducing ourselves and stuff like that though. But every time we asked this, the members would be like "Say what?" And then they would give us awesome suggestions and then they would ask for suggestions on how they could improve on missionary work themselves and it has just been really successful! Every single time, we've tried this approach it is amazing to see the true and genuine trust that we're starting to build with the members here now! And it has been helping us to introduce ourselves and get to know the members at church a little better too! :D :D ITS BEEN AWESOME!

     Something else that was crazy awesome too was we helped a member of the Spanish branch with his member missionary work and it was amazing to see what a disciple he is! So what he did (and we helped him do) was he would take a 3 page English version of his testimony and a 3 page Spanish version of his testimony, The Testaments DVD, the Joy to the World Christmas DVD, a card that has the address and meeting times of the local stake center, and he would put it all into one big envelope. We helped him address and deliver 400of these envelopes to his family and friends!!!! Holy cow right??!!! It was super cool to help him out with it!!! :D Oh and Wednesday was....................interesting. Haha

     So we were going to the library at one point to print out some items and in the main foyer a man stopped us and asked, "Do you have a minute?" The next thing you know he is yelling and screaming at us and saying that there is new scientific evidence that the Book of Abraham is false and our religion is horrible and he was trampling our beliefs one after another! I was kind of surprised how calm we were both able to stay because the man was going to town on how Mormonism is a false religion and this and that but I'm pretty sure we were mainly calm because the Spirit was whispering to both of us, "Do NOT retaliate or debate back it will do no good." Haha at one point the guy started waving his hands around in elder Curless' face and actually grabbed the front of my shirt and shook his fists!!! It was insane! We calmly bore testimony, I was prompted to tell him some certain things, and then we just turned and walked away with him yelling at us to come back and stand our ground. Not ten seconds later, a man who had been listening to the entire thing stopped us and told us that we were doing the right thing and God knew and appreciated us, then he walked away. Maybe fifteen seconds later, a random black guy stopped us on the stairs and started rapping about how God loves us and we are amazing and then he thanks us and walks away. Then like thirty seconds later, we ran into an inactive guy who we have been trying to get into contact with for like 5 weeks!!! Man! The Lord really does look after His own it was miraculous! It was definitely a new experience for me that's for sure, I haven't met a screaming Bible basher yet. :)

     We had an inspiring and fantastic zone training meeting on Thursday and that was really awesome and I felt the Spirit so strongly there. :) Friday, we went with elder Shelly (office missionary) and taught a man that he had met at Wal-Mart and he became a new investigator! His name is Thomas by the way. Hahahaha so later we found out that the sisters had been teaching the Thomas's girlfriend but he had never been interested but now he is and the sisters gave his girlfriend to us so we are teaching their entire family now! :D They are all super solid! Friday and Saturday was a blast placing a bunch of "He is the Gift" Christmas pass-along cards downtown too!! Downtown is just the best because there are always a bunch of people walking around and they're not in an apartment so they can't slam the door/get rid of us that easily! :D :D Oh and something else cool was after we did some service for brother Vaughn on Saturday, he took us with him to try to contact some people he has been trying to find to help them come back to church and we were able to find three inactive members who kind of want to come back!!! It was a MIRACLE!!! :D This week was just awesome!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake  

Week 20 12-15-14

     So to answer your questions: we are still in the same zone and work in the same area and everything but we are in a different district because this district meets in our chapel and our previous district met in the stake center and I'm still not entirely sure why the switch happened but that's ok. :) It just depends when or not we're able to teach them because anything could happen like: not there, no time, etc. And they have to have at least all five of the preach my gospel lessons taught to them. THANK YOU THANK YOU FOR THE CAMERA!!! I used it the day I got it to take a picture of this FAT raccoon outside our apartment! :D And no details on Skype and whatnot yet but I will have details by Monday!

     Monday was awesome as always playing some intense basketball with our zone! Hahahaha I love basketball now! Me and some other elders mainly just run around the court really fast passing and blocking because we're not very good at shotting its the best!! :D :D Haha I love our zone though we are all so close. :) We rehearsed our district skits for Tuesday's Christmas zone conference too and that was hilarious! So for the Christmas zone conference, after all of the training by President and Sister Jensen and the APs, every district in all of the Des Moines and Ames zones do a skit that involves a Book of Mormon story. :) After p-day was over we went and read 1 Nephi 21 with Madison and whoa! I'd definitely like to encourage you guys to study that chapter, mainly verses 14-16 because it...is...POWERFUL! It was so cool to read. :) Tuesday, we had zone conference! We had an amazing training and message from everyone and then we had skits! Hahahahahaha man it was the best thing of my life!! But a lot of people told us that our zone won!! WOO HOO REPRESENT! Ours was a combination of some of the parts from Ammon's and Aaron's stories in the Book of Mormon, acted out and sung to the tune of none other than "Tribute" by Tenacious D! It was pre-approved by the APs and words were changed to go along with the story obviously. :) Hahaha we brought the house down! And then the other district in our zone did Nephi and his brothers going back to get the gold plates with a Star Wars theme and Star Wars music playing the entire time! They used awesome light up lightsabers and everything! Hahahahaha I got a cramp I was laughing so hard!!! :D :D It was the best! Quote from "Darth Coy" (Elder Coy) "Once mooore.....the Sith will rule Jerusalem and we...shall...have...peace." Zone conference nearly took all day but we were able to go and give one of the sister's investigators, Janet the sweet, blind lady, a blessing because she has had a couple of nervous breakdowns and that was an amazing experience.

     Wednesday, we visited Curtis briefly in the hospital before he had surgery to replace his hip and then we came home for the rest of the day because Curless was running a super high fever and migraine. I learned how to play some more songs on the guitar in that time though! :D Thursday, Curless could barely get out of bed so we weren't able to do anything that day either but that night his fever finally broke and Friday morning he was finally better! :D Friday, we went and visited Curtis in the hospital and he was tired but everything went well so that's good. :) We then went and did a bunch of finding but sadly only three people answered their doors. Haha one was an Indian guy who just looked confused but took our card anyway, and the others were two little girls maybe like 5-6 years old whose parents weren't home but they took our cards. After that we went and read the Book of Mormon with Madison and he is in 2nd Nephi now!! YES!!!

     Saturday, we had our ward Christmas party and it was a breakfast!! It was a lot of fun and we got to be in the little Nativity skit and that was a blast! And after nearly everyone had left and everything was cleaned up, Sam and "San" (apparently that's how her name is actually pronounced) showed up and we had apparently forgotten to give them the correct time of the Christmas party so that was our fault. :( But we gave them a church tour and talked about baptism and they both loved it and said they would come to church! Then we went with our zone leaders and helped move a less-active lady's sister and that took WAY longer than expected but we still tried to do some finding but no one was interested. :( SUNDAY WAS AWESOME!

     We went to ward council and then to sacrament meeting! And halfway through the meeting guess who shows up? None other than Sam and San!!!!! And whats even better is they brought their mom and little brother! And they were all dressed up really nice in shirts and ties and dresses!!!!!!!!!!! And then talking to them afterwards, they all LOVED CHURCH A LOT!!! It was super cool how Sister Pym in our ward was an amazing fellowshipper to San because she just "took her under her wing" and helped her out with everything and invited their family over for dinner and it was awesome! :D We then went to the Craypo's home for lunch and had crockpot lasagna! Then we tried to find a referral that we'd gotten from our ward clerk Brother Andersen but it was out of our area so we gave it to the Easter Lake elders. That night, we were able to go to a stake choir thing in Waukee that is similar to our "Night of Sacred Music" and that was awesome and the Spirit was so strong there. :) But there is the week in a nutshell!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 19 12-8-14

     YAY SAAS IS BACK IN THE GOOD OLE' U.S. OF A!!!!! Huh its weird to think that she is a missionary no more.....awesome. :) And THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for the new camera! Sister Shelley at the mission office called saying "Elder Flake you have a package and we live like ten minutes away from the office so I went and got it. Hahaha when I opened it up the first thing I said was YYYYYEEEEEESSSS!!!! Guess what happened..................................ELDER CURLESS AND I ARE GOING ONE MORE ROUND IN DES MOINES!!! HOOOOO DOGGIE!!! YES! I'm so glad that we get to be together for one more transfer I love the dude to death! :D :D

      So Monday was a normal day, not p-day, because of transfer calls that week and we did service for brother Vaughn cleaning up his place. We then went and visited the Brown family of our ward and that was a blast! Their little boy, DJ, is 9 years old and he has some sort of handicap but he is the sweetest and looooves the missionaries! We shared a message with them and it was extra awesome because we were able to connect with the dad! He hasn't been to church in a number of years so it was really cool to see him get touched by the Spirit. :) I love being on a mission! Then we went and contacted a referral from some elders in Houston, Texas and it was awesome! So his name is Sam Aye and he is 14 years old and was being taught by the missionaries in Texas before he moved to Des Moines. We recapped the Restoration and he loved every minute of it! The even more amazing thing is his sister, Sam Win who is 20 years old, wanted to listen as well and they both ended up accepting the invitation to baptism!!!! IT WAS AWESOME!!!

     Tuesday, I had a cold and was really sick ALL DAY so we weren't able to do anything at all. :( Hahaha Curless is a goober. So while I was taking a nap in the afternoon, he randomly strung rubber bands all over my bed and made it kind of like a trap because he wanted to see what I would do when I woke up and saw them all over the place. So when I woke up, my first thought was "huh?" And I just couldn't figure it out! Because my mind wasn't really functioning that well cuz I was sick I suppose. But elder Curless just busted a gut laughing at my confused face. :) But by the time 8:00 p.m. rolled around I was finally recovered. :)

     Wednesday was p-day and that was a blast! Hahaha we were all trying to figure out what game to play next at one point, then we decided to play mofia. Hahahaha man I love my zone they're so much fun! It was hilarious and we all had a blast playing it! :D That night, we went and read the Book of Mormon with Madison again and that was fantastic as always too. :) Thursday, we went and did Mormon.org time and then we went and saw Curtis and read out of the Book of Mormon with him again. :) He has been getting really nervous about his upcoming hip replacement but some of the passages we read with him were comforting and really helped to calm him down. Man the Book of Mormon is amazing. We then contacted some referrals and even set up a return appointment with one of them! :D :D Then we helped brother Spencer jump-start his car because it was dead and he ended up inviting us over for dinner that night and we were able to go and share an awesome message with him!

     Friday elder Curless was sick so while he slept, I learned how to play the guitar a little bit because we randomly have one lying around our apartment. :) He was better that evening so we went and were FINALLY able to contact Mike Borah, he is a referral from nearly 5 weeks back who wanted the Book of Mormon and we haven't been able to meet with him because crazy stuff always happened whenever we try, and we gave it to him and had a really good lesson on the Book of Mormon! The only sad thing was that we learned that he'll be gone for nearly six months traveling the U.S. but we were able to get the Book of Mormon to him literally a week before he left! Talk about an epic miracle! :D

     Saturday we had our get to know you district meeting and that was a blast! We got switched to the Easter Lake district and they are a lot of fun! :D After lunch, we did a random unplanned exchange and so elder Hoskins and I stayed in the Easter Lake area and elders Curless and Clark went to our area. We did some finding, but not a lot of success, then we went to the Easter Lake ward's Christmas party. Hahaha I got lucky that they were having it that night I guess. :) Sunday we went to church and that was awesome! I love fast and testimony meeting! And that night we got to go to the Christmas devotional broadcast!!!!!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 18 12-1-14

Thanksgiving with the President and office staff

Thank you thank you thank you for my snow boots!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Literally the day after I got them, we got like 5 inches of snow!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sounds like a lot of fun as usual! Hahaha that's great that mom and Heather both preg tested, hahaha that picture of Heather's face is priceless!! :D And to answer your question Mom, they are all struggling less-actives, there are so many less-actives in the ward that the only thing our Bishop wants us to do at the moment is trying to get them in a good habit with reading the Book of Mormon. This week was super amazing!!!! A little slow at first but then.....MIRACLES!!!

     Monday, we had p-day and it was a blast!!! We played some epic basketball and trash ball (which is kind of like ultimate Frisbee), and then a bunch of us sang at the piano and watched elders Garner and Mkenna have an epic lightsaber duel!! Hahaha yup! Then we did some finding, nothing came from that sadly, and then we went and read with Madison from 1 nephi again. He is doing so good and FINALLY starting to read a little more on his own now! :D YES! Tuesday, I got my snow boots in a package! :D Which was a total miracle because the next day the heavens unloaded six inches of snow on us out of nowhere!! :) We contacted a bunch of referrals we've received from the office but sadly no one is interested. Sometimes I just wanna be like, "C'mon people! This is salvation!" But you do what you can y'know? Haha yea. :) That night, Royal took us out to A Dong. a really amazing Vietnamese restaurant! :D

     Wednesday was awesome!! So first off, we were getting ready to do our companion study that morning and we were like "what should we study? Hmmm....the Atonement!" So we had like an amazing hour long deep discussion on the Atonement and it is so amazing! All of the stuff that the Atonement does for us and enables us to do is just jaw-dropping! Best study of my life! Then we did service for Brother Vaughn, cleaning up his yard and then decorating it with Christmas lights and that was a bunch of fun. :) Haha ever since I've come to Des Moines its been awesome because members are always like "New elder! Yes free service!" Its been a blast! :D Then we did a bunch of knocking on people's doors, I think that Iowans hearts get a little cold during winter :P and then we went to the Diaz's home for dinner and had spaghetti. :) It was awesome because their dad John, who is not a member, whenever we've come for dinner he has never been interested in any of the lessons that we teach the rest of the family. But that night as we were talking about just random religious stuff, he was totally interested and asking questions! YES! Hopefully it continues!

     Thursday was Thanksgiving! :D :D :D We had a short district meeting at 10:00 and elder Coy gave a fantastic message about the power and authority of our calling and it was super awesome and a spirit slap in the face! After that we went to the mission home and had dinner with the office missionaries, President and Sister Jensen, and the APs. Hahaha no one in our ward invited us so President took pity on us and invited us to their Thanksgiving. :) It was a blast! Hahahaha president Jensen is absolutely hilarious!!!!!!! :D After that, we went with our zone leaders to a Hispanic member's home (the members told the ZLs to invite other missionaries), the zone leaders are in a Spanish branch, and had Mexican Thanksgiving! Chicken, enchiladas, and tamales! Haha I gained like 3 pounds that day. :(

     Friday, we went with elder Stringham (office missionary) to Norwalk, Iowa and got a couch from the missionaries there to put in our new place because we didn't have one. The couch took over an hour to get from the curb outside to inside our apartment. Even with the ZLs helping us, we somehow managed to scrape a little paint off the walls and break a light because the couch was so big!We're fixing those today though so no worries. :)  Its a hide-a-bed couch so it weighed about...oh fifteen tons? We then went and read the Book of Mormon with Curtis and that was super awesome as well. :) Oh and here is a random example of what a goofball elder Curless is. So itsFriday morning and I'm just sitting there reading the Book of Mormon. I suddenly hear elder Curless making these weird noises from where he was reading the Bible on the floor. The next thing you know, he starts acting like a zombie and tries to eat my leg! So naturally I fended him off with a Nerf sword, no big deal. :) Yup we have a lot of fun together. :)

     Saturday we got haircuts from this place called PlatinumKutz! Its a barbershop run by all these super legit black guys that were absolutely hilarious! I sit in the chair and the guy was like "Hey how you doin? My name is Royal and I be cutting yo hair today!" Hahaha best hair cut of my life! Then we went to a baptism that Elder Garner and Mkenna had and I saw....................ELDER HOLLAN! So Hollan's current companion, elder higbee, was Garner's previous companion and had been teaching this guy getting baptized so they'd gotten permission to come down from Waverly for it!! I saw him and I just stopped. He goes "Son?" Then I said "Father?" Then we ran toward each other and hugged and it was awesome being able to see him again! We talked for a little while after the baptism, it was good to see my dad again. :) AND THEN SUNDAY!

     Went to church (which was amazing and awesome!), had lunch, then went finding in 20 degree weather! We were like "Alright, weknow that we can find at least one new investigator if we put our trust in the Lord." So we did and went and knocked doors for nearly four hours, the weather dropped down to sixteen degrees, and we found THREE! One was Wilbur, a super awesome kid who was totally amazing and a boss! And the other two are Eduardo and Diego, these two Hispanic guys who were totally open to learning and asked really good questions and are really interested and awesome! At one point Diego directly said "I don't even know why I wanted to jog over to Eduardo's house tonight but I just felt like I should, and I think that God wanted me to meet you guys." YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake