Week 62 9-28-15

 Man I bet it was nice to not have to do anything for once for Jazz and Show choir. :) Nope I didn't see this one coming at all, it was hard to leave because I've grown to love Cedar Rapids and the ward so much! What??? Dad, Spencer, and Dallin got to see Wicked? Man now I'm just jealous!! Oh and I heard back from President Jensen and sadly no I can't go to Vocal Point in Waverly. :'( Thats ok though. :) What?! A new ward and boundary changes?? Thats nuts! Well this w

eek was sad but good at the same time. :)

   Well I got transferred out of Cedar Rapids after a meager three months! :'( It was really hard to say goodbye to everyone that I've grown so close to. Saying goodbye to Brian Foster and his family was especially hard. You really grow to love the people wherever you go. My life won't be the same since I've met them, they definitely leave their mark on you. :) So I was transferred to Quincy, Illinois! It is an awesome place! So we're doing whats called "whitewashing here. Both me and my companion are new to the area, they just sent both of us here fresh and we replaced the sisters who had been here for only 3 months. My new companion is Elder Winn from West Jordan, Utah and he is awesome! He's been out for 10 months, and he is quiet but powerful. We're having a good time! :) Thanks to the work of the sisters, we had an 18-yr. old guy named Carter Henry baptized and confirmed this weekend. He is hilarious and the chillest guy I've ever met! We haven't been able to teach anyone yet but we've been doing some finding and have met some awesome people. Hahaha we met an older guy who said he was a "born-again" Christian. We knocked on his door and he opens it then says, "No way! Ok lightning might strike, this is crazy!" So we said, "Uhhhh what?" Then he goes, "We were literally just talking about you guys! I just told my wife that I've never seen any Mormon missionaries in our neighborhood and then you knock on the door 15 minutes later! This is weird!" 

     So we all had a good laugh at that! :) He was a really nice guy but he wasn't interested sadly. In his own words he said, "Sorry boys but we would end up debating because I'd try to convert you and you'd try to convert me and we'd get nowhere." Man I've definitely met some characters out here! I'm excited though, I think that this is going to be a great place. :) I'm a little nervous because neither of us know anything about the place, but this is Elder Winn's 3rd time whitewashing so he is a veteran. :P Church was awesome! One of our investigators, a 55-yr. old man named Randy who is paralyzed from the neck down, came with his less-active mom! He is probably one of the happiest people I have ever met in my life! He loved church too! In fast and testimony meeting and it went well but I still HATE standing in front of crowds! Haha but I loved the plays in highschool, go figure. :) Oh I forgot to mention that we live with some members, the Davis family, who are probably the most amazing people in the world! Besides my family that is. :) They're both in their 60s and just the best! I already love Quincy and I've only been here 3 days! :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Sad goodbyes!

Week 61 9-21-15

Rockin the shades!!

So about the Vocal Point thing, I've asked but no response yet. What Spencer gets home this week? Thats so weird!!!!! Thanks for that little story Dad, it made me realize that I've been thinking the same thing. Some days I feel like, "I've done all I can do! Why is this still tough and nobody is doing what they've committed to do?" It can be frustrating at times but I'm starting to deal with it and recognize that I just need to be more patient and love others. That has been one of the toughest things on my mission that I'm still learning is how to truly just love people. Still working on it. :) 

     Soooo I got hit with a bombshell this morning when President Jensen called. Elder Martin is training and I'm LEAVING!!!! :'(  I'm going to miss Cedar Rapids, the ward, and living with other missionaries so much! :( That makes two of my four areas that I've only been in for two transfers. However, I know that wherever the Lord sends me off to is where I'm needed. I've learned a lot of valuable things here in Cedar Rapids. I've been able to change some things that needed fixing and though I'm still not perfect, I'm slowly becoming better. :) This week was super rainy! We were on bikes too! Two of the days we got soaked! Haha there comes a point when you're so wet that you don't care anymore and we started riding our bikes through puddles a couple of times. :) On Tuesday we were able to teach Clay and he accepted the baptismal invite! He is in his 30s, has two kids and a girlfriend in Waterloo, and he really enjoys the Book of Mormon already! The lesson went really well and when we saw him briefly yesterday, he's already read a chapter or two!! Yes!!!! We were also able to teach a man named Joseph Lent the Restoration! He is 24, married and has three cute little kids, and he liked the lesson! We're not entirely sure how interested he was though because he told us that he was just listening because he didn't want to be a jerk and slam the door in our face. So we'll be going over that tonight a bit with him. :) He is an awesome guy though! This week was also kind of the Lord sorting out the wheat from the tares too. Kuwon, Kewan, and Dick and Bev all dropped us sadly. We were kind of down for a bit, but realized that maybe they just weren't ready at this time. I know that we've been able to plant some good seeds with them though. I know that they'll eventually be baptized, just not right now. :) We were able to make contact with Sarah! We read out of the Book of Mormon with her and she let us know that she likes us and the gospel, but she doesn't know if she is willing to give up any of her Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity problems right now. We'll be meeting with her this week hopefully so we'll see what happens. We were able to touch base with Karen Hoffpauir and Liz Allen again though and that went well! They still have solid testimonies of the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith which is a plus! Now we're just trying to help them come back to church. Speaking of church, haha yesterday Brother Ford was gone so we had to figure out how to do the translating for the deaf family in our ward. Thankfully we got all the technology figured out so it went well. :) We also had an awesome discussion on pride in Elder's Quorum! It made me realize that I need A LOT more humility because I'm a really prideful person in a lot of things. Thankfully we have the Atonement so we can change our hearts and desires. Sorry this week's letter is a bit short, next week's letter should be normal. :) I'm sad to leave Cedar Rapids, REALLY sad, but I know I'm going where the Lord needs me to go now. Talk to ya'll next week! (Everyone in Iowa always says "ya'll" I don't know why) :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 60 9-14-15

Man sounds like a blast!!! Thats nuts about the BYU games though! It sounds like it was awesome! :D No worries Mom, I know you'll bond with the Jr. High punks eventually because you're really good with people. Hey you raised us! :) It seems like the number of steers gets smaller every year sheesh! Well hopefully all goes well with the fair and school and whatnot! 

     THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING AGAIN AND AWESOME AND EVERY OTHER ADJECTIVE I CAN'T THINK OF RIGHT NOW! We were able to get into contact with Sister Liz Allen and it was a great lesson! We talked about daily scripture study and why its so important and she totally committed to reading even just a couple of verses out of the Book of Mormon every day! SWEET! Small and simple steps! :D We were also able to go and meet with Blane Blackburn (one of the less-active members we're working with) again and he is still having a super hard time with the death of his dad. We just talked about the Atonement of Jesus Christ and how He is ALWAYS there to lift us up whenever we need Him, any time of day. It was a really powerful lesson and just awesome. We went to our appointment with Dick and Bev Gates (two potential investigators) and we were able to teach them the Restoration!!!! They are an older couple in their late 60s and really open to learning about the gospel! Dick has never been baptized and when we invited him to be baptized he was like, "Oh yea definitely!" YESSSSS!!!!! It was an awesome lesson! Hahaha so random fun fact about Iowa: SO many people will just talk your ear off if you show even just a tiny bit of interest in their lives. So as missionaries, like every day people are just telling us their life story forever! Haha its so much fun! :) We were able to get in contact with Sister Hilton (another less-active) and we read out of 3 Nephi 11 with her and felt the Spirit guiding us super strong! I'm finally starting to recognize when the Spirit is guiding me now. Its taken me forever and a lot of humbling experiences, but I'm finally learning how to listen to it. We were able to see Travis Mcdermott again and we read out of the Book of Mormon and set a baptismal date of October 17 with him! He is super pumped to be baptized and even committed to coming to church! We were also able to find an older lady named Becky who has A LOT going on right now but I know that the gospel can definitely help her out. :) We taught her the Restoration and she accepted the baptismal invite without question and now we'll be giving her a church tour on Wednesday with some members! It was the best week ever! On Friday we did another exchange with the Spanish elders (the zone leaders encouraged doing a lot of them because Elder Martinsen is brand new) and I went with Elder Rader. We had a blast! We were able to teach some less-actives, talked to a SUPER drunk black guy for about 20 minutes about life, and just had a great time. Haha when we got home that night, we randomly had an epic Nerf war! No big deal. :) 

     We were able to teach Willine about half of the Plan of Salvation with Jacob and set a baptismal date for October 17 as well! She is doing good, just going through a nasty cold at the moment. Hahaha her little 5-yr. old son Isiah is adorable! He kept randomly interrupting the lesson by running in and just leaping onto her lap until she was finally like, "C'mon Isiah, please go to your room. This isn't time to jump on Mom, I've got company." Haha. :) We went with some members to pick Travis up for church yesterday morning but apparently he'd been partying all night and was super hungover. C'mon man! Oh well, he'll come next week. :) That evening we went and taught an African man named Yannick who was a referral from the sisters. HE IS AWESOME! We were just about to talk about the First Vision and suddenly two of his friends, Lionel and Jonathan, came in and they started listening too. The Spirit was super strong and all 3 of them accepted the invite to baptism! They're all awesome! I could tell that Yannick was really thinking about it because he was kinda quite at some points in the lesson and he had some awesome questions. This week my testimony was definitely built that the Lord has prepared people for the gospel in the areas where you serve. We just have to go out and find them! Now the main thing we're focusing on is maintaining contact with our investigators and helping them progress and come to church. One of the funny stories of the week: We were talking to a Muslim man named King and he randomly started talking about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ are one and the same. Later in the conversation we were talking about the ancient Apostles and he says, "No no no, you've got it all wrong! God has his own Apostles and Jesus Christ has own Apostles!" So we were like, "Uhh I thought you said God and Christ are the same?" He then said, "No no no you're wrong. I never said that, I said that God told everybody Jesus Christ isn't His son, He is Mary's son!" Man we were just confused! The people you meet on your missions are definitely characters thats for sure! :) Its always fun. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 59 9-7-14

  Man what a week! Greens Peak is the best! I'm sad I missed it.....:( That's awesome on the corn! You've just gotta take the good with the bad sometimes I suppose. :) Sarah does not have a date set yet because we haven't been able to teach her at all this week. She leaves for Chicago today to go get her kids or something like that so we're kinda just playing it by ear at the moment. Curtis and Melissa we've tried following up with but no word from them at the moment. But! We have the truck this week so we can get to places faster than when we were on our bikes! :D Its so weird to think that Devin and Heather are in their last year at BYU! Man that is so weird! The pictures are awesome too! Thanks! Why did Uncle Jason get a knee replacement? Just old knees or something?

     THIS WEEK WAS AMAZING AND FULL OF MIRACLES AND FANTASTIC AND AWESOME! After p-day, Kristi and her friends fed us pizza and we were able to discuss how the Lord can give us the strength we need to endure our trials. It was really awesome. She will come back to church and be active again, we can feel it! It will be a little bit of a long road but I know she can do it! :) We were able to visit the Walkners again on Tuesday night and read from the Book of Mormon with them. That was a blast! Hahaha Mike is probably the greatest 70-year old guy I've ever met! He just cracks us up all the time! :) I literally can't remember what else happened on Tuesday...well good thing I've got a journal. :) We had interviews with President and Sister Jensen on Wednesday and that was awesome! Man! The Church's leaders are just so inspired and awesome! I asked him for some advice on some things I've been dealing with for a bit (mainly feelings of inadequacy again, dumb Satan!) and I know that his counsel was directly from Heavenly Father. He inspires President Jensen so much. I literally don't have a clue how the Jensens just love everyone so much! Its so awesome how much love they have for literally everybody! They're the greatest. After interviews we did exchanges again with the Spanish elders, the zone leaders recommended doing a couple of exchanges this transfer because Elder Martinsen is brand new. Elder Martinsen and I stayed in their area and had a blast! He's been out in the field for about 3 1/2 weeks or so now, and he is from Queen Creek! Down in the valley! Haha he actually asked me if I was a Snowflake Lobo! I was like, "All the way!" :D We were able to talk to a lot of people and we had dinner with the Pitchforths from their ward. Apparently Brother Pitchforth knows Britney Kay Diaz and Lori Shumway Bailey! It was so weird! Small world I guess. :) Elder Martinsen is a stud and he has the Spirit with him so strongly! It reminded me of when I was fresh in the field, almost (whoa) 14 months ago. Thats weird........ On thursday we got 2 new investigators! One of them is a man named Kuwon Coleman. He is a minister for his church, married and has 3 kids, and is an honest seeker of truth! When we taught him the Restoration it was a little crazy because his kids were in and out the door like 50 times! However! The Spirit was strong and he accepted the invitation to baptism without question. The other one is Kewon Davis. He is in his 20s, lives on his own in a really nice house, and he told us that he's been feeling like he needs to go back to church. He took the Restoration and the baptismal invite well and is just a stud!! Oh yea I almost forgot! So, right before we went and tried by Kewon we started talking to this random guy named Jarell walking by Kewon's house. He was like, "Are you guys church people? Cuz I don't really go to church." We were like, "Well you're pretty close! We're missionaries, etc." He went on to say that he doesn't know which church to go to because he doesn't think any of them are true. Direct quote: "I just want to find the true church, but I guess I'll find out when I die if its even here." We bore testimony of the Restoration and gave him a pamphlet and our card! He couldn't meet at the moment but it was an amazing experience. He just needs the gospel to find the answers to his questions. 

     On Friday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders and Elder Shumate and I hit our area! Hahaha he is hilarious! He goes home in about 2 or so months, he is from North Carolina, and he is a stud! We tried by A LOT of people and were able to talk to a lot of people. Haha so we went to try by some people that another man referred us to and it turned out that they were actually inactive members! An older lady comes out and she goes, "Hi, how are you guys?" Then we were like, "Oh we're great! Have you ever talked to missionaries before?" Haha then she said, "Oh yes! I'm actually a sister, my husband and I just haven't been to church in years." We were like, "What???" She was like, "Yes. My name is sister Patricia Shelton." We had a nice chat and then she had to go but she said, "Oh yes you guys are welcome to try by anytime we're home. We'd love to talk!" Hahaha at the first chance I could I whipped out the ward directory and sure enough! Russell and Patricia Shelton were on it! You never know I guess! :) We tried by a lady named Bobby who used to investigate the church and she was home! She is 72 apparently (she looks maybe like 55 tops!) and she had a bunch of questions about the 3 kingdoms. We answered her questions as best we could and then we asked her if meeting with missionaries is something she'd like to do again. She said yes and we were able to give her a Book of Mormon! Jacob Orr came out with us again on Saturday and we were able to find 2 new investigators with him! One, a man named Travis, used to work with the missionaries like 2 years ago and he said that he'd like to start meeting with us again! The other one is one of the sisters' former investigators who moved into our area! Her name is Willine, she is from Haiti, and she loves God! Awesome so do we! :D Then on Sunday Blane Blackburn (a less-active convert we've started working with) came to church and he brought a friend! That was AWESOME because we didn't think he was coming!!! They were only able to stay for the first 2 hours but they enjoyed it! We visited him that night and while answering some of his questions about the spirit world and he was able to open up A LOT about how hard the death of his dad has been for him. It has really shaken up his faith a lot. It was a really cool experience and I feel like he trusts us a lot more now. It was just a great week! 5 new investigators and a lot of trust built with some of the less-active members that we've been starting to work with! Good times in Iowa! :D

Love,

Elder Logan Flake    

Week 58 8-31-15

     What?! Spencer's tendon got separated from the bone? Thats nuts! You watched Wicked? Nice! I remember when we saw it in New York! We also got to see it when I was a freshman on the band trip to California! The giant Oz head is so awesome! :) YEP SARAH CAME TO CHURCH! We've only been able to meet her once a week for the past two weeks but hopefully more soon! Sarah is getting closer, small step by small step. She'll get there eventually though, I can feel it. :)

     Monday was dope! We had an awesome time at p-day, nothing too crazy this time. :) We were able to talk to a LOT of people though which is always fun! Hahaha that night we had a banana-eating contest with our zone leaders! Elder Martin totally destroyed us all in it, man our stomachs just hurt afterwards! Haha so much potassium riding in our guts! :) Gotta love living with other elders! OK NOW THIS WAS SWEET!!! On Tuesday we went to an appointment we had with a man named Curtis at 2, he was gone but his girlfriend is like "Oh come back in an hour, he'll be here then." We came back and it was a madhouse! Curtis was there but he and like four of his friends were getting ready to have a barbecue! Hahaha rap music blasting, his friends preparing the food in the background, but he's all "C'mon in bros! Let me introduce you to my homies!" At least they turned off the rap music. :) We started teaching him and his girlfriend the Restoration and when we started teaching about the First Vision it was crazy! Everybody was super quiet and listening intently, even those preparing the food, and the Spirit was super strong. It was the most amazing thing ever. Curtis and Melissa accepted the baptismal invite without question and he even said, "I haven't been to church for 7 years and we've actually been looking for a church so this is great!" Pssh! Yea it is! On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish elders! Elder Rader and I were here in our area and we had a blast! We were able to teach Sarah Hubbard again with Jacob and it was great! We went in there with a plan to teach the Law of Chastity and some other commandments but ended up teaching about the importance of daily scripture study and prayer.

     It was a little bit scattered, but the Spirit was there and thats what matters. I've come to realize on my mission that we don't have to be perfect teachers we just have to invite the Spirit and do our best, then the Lord will make up the rest. Its been a hard lesson for me to learn because I'm kind of a perfectionist, but I'm FINALLY starting to realize that I don't have to be perfect. I just need to do the best I can and the Lord will help. That evening we were able to teach Brian his first new member lesson finally! We taught the Restoration and it was great! Brian is coming to church, loving everything about the gospel, and he has now been smoke free for like 2 months!!!! After 28 years of hardcore smoking, the power of the Atonement has completely helped him break that horrible addiction! Man the gospel is so true! :D We were able to teach our investigator Alson (he is a guy) on the bridge and we taught about the Book of Mormon and were able to set a date for October 24! Haha at first when we extended the date he just flat-out said, "No." Then when we explained why we extend baptismal dates (its a goal to work forwards, etc.) he was like "Oh that makes more sense! I thought you guys were just trying to rush me into it and I wanted to take more thought on it first!" We were like "Yep sorry if we came across that way, we're really just want to help you out." It was really good. SARAH CAME TO CHURCH! She's come three times now and is loving it! We're still trying to help her to get that initial "push" but she is slowly getting there! Man! Life is just going so great here! I love Cedar Rapids and I love Iowa!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 57 8-24-15

Things are great in Iowa Dal! Man thats so nuts that everyone is leaving! Hold goodness Snowflake is going to be a ghost town when I get back! :) Start going as soon as you feel ready to, I wish I'd gone earlier and participated more sometimes. It is such an awesome class! Sounds like life is still super fun back home too! I remember when our Priest's Quorum went out to Roosevelt and spent the day there, it was such a blast! Back when we were in 1st ward that is. Whoa, it just hit me that we're in 8th ward again. Weird. Anyway, life is great here in Cedar Rapids! Elder Martin is a stud, we get along fantastic, and Cedar Rapids is coming along!!! :D The main thing with our investigators this week has just been getting in contact with them because a lot of them have either been out of town or aren't responding to calls, texts, and us dropping by. Its alright though, great things are still happening! To answer your last question, nah I'm good for right now. I can't think of anything I need. :)

Random wall mural

Nauvoo Temple

     Well this week was sweet! After some intense basketball (hahaha I usually just run around doing whatever because I'm not very good but I have a blast!) and a couple rounds of zombies, we went out! We went down to the main bridge and talked to A LOT of people! We were able to teach a man named Rafael the entire Restoration and commit him to baptism!!! He is a stud! He was in Afghanistan serving in the Army and his convoy got hit by some type of explosive called an IED. He lost like 65% of his back and got two rods put in so he could walk. However, that man's faith in God is so strong that it was just humbling. He was very open and willing to learn and it was an awesome lesson. The mission's new initiative with trying to talk to everybody you see about the gospel is awesome for two reasons! First, we're talking to everybody and inviting them to learn. Second, haha its kind of out of my comfort zone because I'm not exactly the type to just walk up to someone and sstart a conversation. :) However, its been getting easier every time and now I'm just having a blast talking with everyone I can! :D We went to our appointment with Chelsea but sadly she was a no-show. :( But hey it happens sometimes, you can't win them all! We made contact with Sarah finally! It's been like a month!!!! We saw her on Tuesday and we set up a return appointment for Friday!! YESS!!!! Thank you Heavenly Father! :D Man it was a miracle! We were able to go and see Kristi again and.....its just kind of a weird situation. She doesn't like the ward here at all, don't know why because everybody is awesome, and her faith has been struggling as of late. The main thing we felt prompted to do was just talk about Heavenly Father's love and bear testimony of it. It went really well and now we're just hoping that she will improve and feel better. I know she can come back, its just going to take some work. :)   

     We went to our appointment with Clay, a potential investigator, and it was great! He was like, "I only have 10 minutes," and 25 minutes later we finished teaching him the Restoration! Hahaha I love how it works like that sometimes! :) As we were about to commit him to baptism, he had to go because he was late for work so we'll be doing that next time. He is awesome though! He was raised Baptist, he doesn't go to church at the moment but he loves God and Jesus Christ! We also found an awesome person named Allie! We knocked at this one door, no answer, and as we turned around she started coming up the steps. Man, missionaries are like the KINGS of awkward moments! :) We just started talking to her and she was super open! It was sweet! We haven't been able to teach her yet but we will soon. We had an awesome zone training meeting on Thursday and it made me realize that our leaders are so inspired. I've finally started to realize that even if I don't necessarily like the counsel we're given by our leaders, its the counsel that we need. It was awesome! On Friday we had three appointments set up that we were going to go to with Jacob Orr. Sadly only one of them didn't fall through. But it was Sarah and it was an.....AMAZING LESSON! We just asked how she's been and all that good stuff and then we all felt like we should talk about Heavenly Father's love and the importance of prayer. It was literally just what she needed! The Spirit was super powerful and Jacob was literally the perfect person to bring because he and Sarah just "clicked" and he could relate to what she was going through and all of these amazing things! One of the coolest things was that we were talking to Jacob afterwards and he has been struggling with his own faith that God loves him for some time. He told us how the lesson had really helped to restore his own faith and he was super excited! It was just a testament to me that although we may be the teachers of the gospel, its for us as well. :) We found another investigator named Alson on the bridge! He is from Guam and he has had a lot of awesome experiences that built his faith that God answers prayers. He told us that he knew if he asked God in faith, then he will get an answer. 

     Sarah came to church on Sunday!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Jacob and Jaycee brought her and she stayed for almost all of the three hours and she loved it and it was the best thing ever! Whew! I gave a talk on the Spirit and revelation (haha Brother Johnson called and asked me on Saturday afternoon) and I think it went good.  I've never really been a fan of standing in front of big crowds and giving a talk. :) Out of the blue we got a call from Blane Blackburn, an inactive recent convert we've been trying to get in contact with forever, and he wanted to know if we could meet that evening! We went over that night and got to know him better and found out some of his main concerns. We again simply bore testimony of Heavenly Father's love and did our best to help him out. A lot of people were needing reassurances of God's love this week for some reason. Oh yea! So we were knocking some houseboats by the river and at one we started talking to an older gentleman named Terry. He invited us right in and fed us brats randomly! Man we were so stunned by their hospitality! Haha you just don't really see that nowadays like ever! He and his wife Diane were super nice, sadly not interested, but they are just genuinely good people. It was one of the coolest moments of my entire mission just meeting them. Its always nice to know that there are still genuinely good people out there. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 56 8-17-15

My new "old" companion Elder Martin

Well, our week was great! :) And yep we've let the police know but we haven't heard or seen anything yet. :) We've got some kinda junky bikes the mission gave us that'll do the job for the moment, but we hope that we'll be able to find the original bikes. :) 

     MY NEW COMPANION IS ELDER MARTIN WHO WAS MY MTC COMPANION! He went home for health reasons and then he got to come back out in February and now we're together! Yes!!! :D It was so sad to see Elder Bolinder go home though. :( Just as I start to get to know a lot of missionaries they all go home, Elder Curless goes home in six weeks! :'( Well we were able to be blessed to find a new investigator on Monday named Chelsea! She is in her late 20s, is married and has the cutest little 2 year old boy named Cameron! She was telling us how she was "led to Christ" about two years ago while serving in the Air Force and so that's why she wanted to talk. She is super open and willing to learn and has awesome questions! It was great because the lesson was a little scattered but the Spirit was still there which is always a plus. :) That night we taught Michele in the Perry's home and it was great! We read some of Alma 32 with her and we all had a great discussion on what faith truly is and how we can help it grow. It was awesome and went really well. Michele is awesome! We were able to meet with Liz Allen again on Tuesday and we also discussed faith with her. Liz is super cool and very willing to work with us which is always good. :) Thursday was just sad...... So many people that I knew went home! Although we had 23 new missionaries come out which was nuts! Mainly because we've been getting like 5-10 or so for the last like 4-5 transfers so 23 all at once was like "Whoa!" President Jensen goes, "In the Cedar Rapids 3rd East area Elder Flake will continue to serve, and he's going to have a new companion. Elder Martin." I was like, "YES!!" Oh man it was the best thing ever!!!! :D :D Elder Martin is 6' 4" (haha I'm only like 5" 10") and he is a STUD! We are having a blast together already and its only been like 4 days! We were able to finally contact a less-active member named Kristi Gilligan and it was good. She has depression and doesn't like coming to church because she feels like everyone there judges her. We just simply did our best to listen to her and help her out the best we could. It was kind of a sad experience but it went well. :) Hahaha the weekend was one of those where every single appointment that you have falls through! We did a bunch of finding and met some cool people. :) 

     Haha one man, he was a Jehovah Witness, was like, "We have similar religions but I challenge you to try to live the life of a Jehovah's Witness for a couple months! You'll come out of that a changed person for the better!" He liked to yell a lot. :) And I think I'm good, I love being a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. So we're all kind of pumped because this week was pretty tough, other than finding Chelsea, so that means that this coming week is gonna be AWESOME! Its funny how many rises and falls there are in missionary work. Some weeks you're like, "Woo! We're on fire! Everything is awesome and I'm loving it!" Then some weeks its like, 'Well hey at least the Gospel is still true." :) It has also been really weird because those weeks where everything falls through and it seems like nothing at all is going on, those are the weeks that I'm the happiest! Hahaha it makes no sense! Its like, "Why am I so happy? Life stinks right now!" Then I always realize that I'm happy because I'm serving the Lord with all my strength. :) Mission life is the best! Brian is doing great and loving life! Well except for Sunday morning because he was sicker than a dog, but other than that he is doing great! Sunday was awesome and its sweet how close we are with most of the ward! Everyone is always super friendly and happy to see us! They're just like, "Hey Elders! How are you doing? How goes the work?" Oh man its the best! Cedar Rapids is awesome and I love it here! :D

Love,
Elder Logan Flake

Week 55 8-10-15 Bikes and Baptisms

     Awesome! So Taiga is a boss at Nerts then? Sweet! Brian's baptism was awesome!!!!!!!!! It was so great, I love him so much he cracks me up! Yep his wife Christine is a member who is coming back to church now! We have three wards here and Elder Bolinder got his bike back! I'll give you details in a sec. And yes I went to the temple on Saturday, details later. :P

    I don't have too much time this morning so it might be slightly brief. :)  Monday was good, we had a great p-day and had a blast with basketball and chair soccer and all that other fun stuff. We were able to see Sister Albin again and read out of the Book of Mormon with her which was great! Tuesday I was in Iowa City all day with two of the elders there because Elder Bolinder went to the temple along with everyone else that he is going home with. I was with Elder McDonald and Elder Green and we had a great time! We went and shared a message with one of their members, did some finding, helped move around some furniture for some members, and then we had dinner with some members! It was awesome! We were able to have a lesson with Liz Allen (a less-active member) on Wednesday and it went really well. We got to know her a little bit better and then we were able to encourage her to get back into the habit of reading her scriptures again and praying which was really good. :) We had dinner with the Johnsons that night-pulled pork sandwiches!- and we were able to watch "I'll go where you want me to go" with them and discuss how we can all be better missionaries. Hahaha they are hilarious! At dinner we were all discussing the weird foods that we've all eaten on our missions. :D On Thursday we had a great district meeting (Elder Bolinder's last.....) and he gave a fantastic training! Jacob Orr came with us to a lesson with Ty and we taught him everything else in the Plan of Salvation in what happens after death. He thought it was really interesting and loved it! Now the only thing that we need to focus on with him is getting him to church because we get him rides and he is always a no-show. So we're working on that. :) OH YEAH I ALMOST FORGOT! We were driving back from district meeting and then we suddenly saw the same man from last week riding Elder Bolinder's bike! We followed him stealthily, called the cops, and go tour bike back! The cops were like, "Do you have a silver bike lock on the front? Elder Bolinder went, "Yep! I can open it too." So he went and opened his lock and the cops gave the bike back to us. The man said that he'd bought it from some black guy at a gas station and whether thats true or not we don't care. We just got the bike back which is all we really wanted. :)

Brian's Baptism

     ON FRIDAY BRIAN GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!!!!!!!! The service was fantastic and it was so amazing! He has come so far and completely changed his life and his wife's faith has been restored in God and she comes to church again! Near the end of the baptismal service he asked if he could say a few words. He bore a powerful testimony of the Atonement and God's love and it was sweet. On Saturday we had the opportunity to go down to Nauvoo-again!-because one of Elder Bolinder's recent converts was going to receive his endowment. It was an awesome session, I was able to learn some VERY interesting things about myself that I didn't know, and the Spirit was powerful! The temple really is the House of the Lord, I love it so much. When we got back that evening we went to go talk to some of the people fishing off the bridge and it was great! I was talking to this awesome one-armed guy named Dante and holy cow! Thank heavens for the Holy Ghost because there is NO WAY that I would've been able to keep up with him otherwise! He was super smart and a stud! At some points when I had no idea what to say, I suddenly started answering his questions and bearing testimony of things that I hadn't even thought of! It was so cool to feel the Spirit working through me so powerfully. Whoa. On Sunday, I had the opportunity to confirm Bryan and that was an amazing experience as well. I love Brian so much! :) We tried by a lot of people that afternoon with Tyler (a recent convert) and at one point we noticed that he had a flat tire. So we pulled into the gas station to fill it up, they had free air, and it wasn't even halfway full when it suddenly blew! It sounded like a gunshot and I jumped probably two feet in the air!!!!! He had a spare though so all was well. :) We had dinner with the Munsons that night and it was great. They are like one of my favorite families in the whole world! The week was super busy and awesome! Not to mention....WE GET TRANSFER CALLS TODAY! I know Elder Bolinder is going home but whats gonna happen to me?! Hahaha I don't know! Oh and I went out this morning to take the garbage to the curb and I noticed that now BOTH of our bikes are missing! We had them chained up to this huge metal pole in the yard! Aw man seriously? Oh well, we'll figure something out. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake  

Week 54 8-3-15

     Awesome awesome awesome! So wait I'm confused, who has a new car? The family or Alyssa? That is sweet about Taiga! Haha man! I'm sure its quite a big change for him coming to Snowflake. :) I'm sure he'll have a great time though. Sad that there wasn't any Black Thunders though, those things are the best! :(  Random question: did you get the package I sent? I sent home a little package with some stuff I've been given in my mission that I didn't want to cart around. So did you get it? Just let me know please. :)

     Well this week was a little nutso but awesome! Its crazy because ever since I've come to Cedar Rapids we've been like insanely busy ALL the time! We got haircuts on p-day! My hair grows super fast so man it felt great! :P We had a blast, Elder Barron and I collided heads accidentally when we were having a HUGE Nerf war but we were fine. It was pretty funny actually. :) We were able to go and visit the Meck family again and we took Brother Zimmerman (he is in the Elder's Quorum presidency) with us. We shared a message about how the Book of Mormon can answer any question we might have and we left everybody (including ourselves) with a commitment to read with the intent of finding the answer in the Book of Mormon. I'm kinda pumped to find the answer to my question now. :) OH YEAH I ALMOST FORGOT! Elder Bolinder's bike got stolen! We came back from p-day and it was gone! We asked all the neighbors if they'd seen anyone go into our backyard and they said they hadn't but that they would keep an eye out for it. We called the police department and let them know and that was the end of it. Or so we thought.........details in a sec! Tuesday morning, we went and gave Jacob Orr a blessing and that was awesome. He asked me to give it and I can't remember what was said but let's just say that Heavenly Father definitely knows and loves all of His children so well. We had lunch with Brother Lahman that afternoon and helped him lay more of his brick path for his yard. Brother Lahman is the best! I love him so much! :) We had an appointment with Brian at the library Tuesday night but Brian forgot about it so we rescheduled for Wednesday. We had dinner with the Dixons that night, they just moved into the ward like a week before I was transferred here, and they are awesome! They are a bunch of fun and we had a fun object lesson with the kids about the Atonement. On Wednesday we went on exchanges with the Spanish elders! I was with Elder Rader and we went in their area in Hiawatha. Hahahaha Elder Rader is one of my favorite people ever! He is probably half my height (and I'm only like 5' 10") and I have no idea how he has so much energy! We were able to find a new investigator named Porfirio! He is probably the most solid, humble, and smartest 16-year old kid I've ever met! I had a blast though, Elder Rader is such a stud. :) Elders Bolinder and Barron were able to teach Sarah with the Fords from our ward and apparently it was a great lesson! Elder Bolinder told me that they feel Sarah is starting to realize the importance of living the commandments which is awesome! They were able to contact Ty (a sweet guy who was a potential investigator) with Brother Couser form the ward and they were able to teach him the Restoration! Elder Bolinder was like, "Man it was awesome! The Spirit was flowing freely, we were all completely unified in our teaching, Ty had some awesome insightful comments, it was AMAZING!!!" We had dinner with Jacob and Jaycee on Thursday and that was a bunch of fun like it always is!

     That night we were able to visit the Walkners again and it was great! Hahaha Brother Walkner is hilarious! He had ridden RAGBRAI (its this huge bike race across the state of Iowa) last week and he told us he'd accidentally drank a little cider with alcohol in it, thinking it was apple juice. Later that day, his pedal had caught on the side of the road and he got dumped in the grass off his bike. So, he told us that he felt that was because he'd accidentally broke the Word of Wisdom. Hahahaha it was hilarious! Friday night we were driving home and a man rode past us riding a bike and Elder Bolinder goes, "Wait! Thats my bike!" So we parked the truck and took off after this dude and we stopped him at a stoplight! Sure enough it was the bike, with Elder Bolinder's bike chain still on it! Elder Bolinder said, "Sir, thats my bike." The dude swore us out about 50 billion times and then Elder Bolinder said, "I'll call 911 on you sir." Then the dude snarled at us, cussed some more, and took off riding away as fast as he could! So we called 911, they sent us a police officer (he was awesome!) and we gave him the details of the bike and the man, pointed the direction he was heading and he thanked us and said he'd search around but don't get our hopes up. We walked back to the truck, talked to a lady on her porch and explained the situation and asked her to keep her eyes open for the man and the bike. She goes, "I know exactly who you're talking about, he visits the house next to mine all the time and he has stolen bikes before!" We were like, "Wait what?!" Another lady across the street said the same thing! So we let the police know that we'd found a house that the man frequents a lot, then we went home. The crazy thing is, that house where the man goes all of the time is only like 2 blocks from where we live!!! Its nuts! On Saturday we were able to read with Sister Fernandez out of the Book of Mormon again, and then we went and taught Ty with Brother Couser again. We met with Brother Couser beforehand to go over what we were teaching (the Plan of Salvation) and it was great! We went into the lesson better prepared to all work together in unity to teach. We found out that Ty didn't have any food at all and Brother Couser goes, 'Well Ty c'mon and get in my car, we're going to Wendy's!" So we followed them to Wendy's and after he'd eaten we taught him there. IT WAS AMAZING!!!!!!!! The lesson flowed really well, the Spirit was powerful, we were all completely unified in teaching, and Ty had some great insightful comments! We only got about halfway through the lesson then we had to leave because it was our curfew. Ty randomly started talking about how he and some of his neighbors had been talking the other day about what happens after death and apparently they were just saying how they hope they make it to heaven right after they die. He said to them, "No you don't go straight up to heaven, its not Judgement yet. You just kinda wander around with some other spirits in a resting place I think." It was crazy because we haven't even taught about the spirit world yet and he already knows some stuff about it! Man! We had an awesome fast and testimony meeting on Sunday. Christine, Brian's wife, bore a great testimony how Brian taking the lessons has helped to restore her faith and bring her back to activity. Forgot to mention that we finished teaching Bryan on Wednesday night because that was the only night that he could meet on besides the day of his baptism because of work! We were on exchanges but the other elders taught, he passed his baptismal interview with one of our zone leaders, and he'll be baptized this Friday at 5:00 PM! :D :D It is so awesome! The Atonement has completely changed Brian's entire life and helped him to stop smoking! God really is a God of miracles.

Love,

Elder Logan Flake    

Week 53 7-27-15

     Awesome awesome! Man my first missed Flake rodeo that is SO weird to think about! In Dallin's EFY pictures he looks like a mature little stud which is super weird because the last time I saw him was just before his sophomore year........I'm so old! I TURN 20 IN LIKE 9 MONTHS! AAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!! Calming down now. :) Its a miracle that Smokey didn't poop or pee! Whew! :P Another choir, a foreign exchange student, man home is changing so much! We've picked up some sweet potentials, we spend about 5-7 hours or so a week finding probably, and no we don't have Ipads. :( But its whatever because I'm so used to doing it this way anyways. :) Scott is a stud! I'll give you some details on when I met him in a sec. :) The gospel is super awesome and I LOVE it!

     Monday was kinda goofy because Mike (potential investigator bike repair dude) tried to fix my bike's crankshaft and it broke their tool! So it wasn't going to be done until Wednesday, but he gave me this beastly ancient one-speed bike to borrow until then. It was a blast to drive but hills were TERRIBLE in that thing! :) We were able to talk to a bunch of people and then we went to FHE with Jacob Orr (a recent convert of about a year) and Jaycee (his member girlfriend, thankfully they don't live together!) and that was awesome! They fed us hamburgers and then we watched the "Mountains to Climb" video with them and it was awesome and brought the Spirit super strongly. For some random reason, in all my studies and whatnot I just kept on relearning again about Heavenly Father's love for us! I was reading the Ensign the other day and it kept emphasizing how God ALWAYS loves us no matter what we do! Even if we feel we've gone so far that there isn't a way back, that is a total lie because He still loves us and knows that we CAN return. It was super awesome. :)

I met Scott Hendrickson in Nauvoo!

TUESDAY WAS NAUVOO! Brother Ford drove us and the zone leaders down and we got to go to a session in the Nauvoo temple! It was sweet because it was a total spiritual recharge and I was FINALLY able to receive an answer to a question that I've been wondering about for ages! The Church is true and the Spirit is awesome! We had time to see the brickyard, the blacksmith's shop, check out the Vistor's Center, and go to a variety show before the pageant began. And...I met my future brother-in-law, no big deal. Hahaha we were talking to some of the performing elders in the Vistor's center and I met an Elder Solomon who is related to Cade and Colton Solomon! He noticed my name and he goes, "wait, do you have a sister named" I said, "Alyssa?" Then he was like "Yea!" I said, "Do you know Scott Hendrickson?" He grinned and said, "Wait here for a sec," then he took off into some random door! Like two minutes later he walks out with this tall dude and his nametag says "Elder Hendrickson." He sees me and he goes, "No way! You're Alyssa's brother!" I was like "Yea man!" We started talking and he is a super chill guy! I like him a lot! Halfway through our conversation he goes, "Wait, I was going to send her a letter. Hahaha do you want to write a little something on it?" Pssh! Of course! He whipped it out, I wrote a sentence or two, then we both started laughing! We gave each other a big hug and then he took off because he was in the variety show! Hahahahaha it was the greatest thing ever!

     The Nauvoo pageant was awesome and the Spirit was super strong there! I loved it so much! Haha we didn't get home until like 1:30 in the morning! Then we still had to wake up at 6:30 which was brutal. :) Wednesday we went on exchanges with our zone leaders! Elder Schwendiman and I stayed in our area and Elders Bolinder and Ellis went in theirs. We went and gave service mowing a member's lawn because he couldn't and that was a blast! Haha at one point, the lawn mower randomly made this horrible grinding noise and the next thing I know a random belt shoots out of the bottom! It was snapped in two! It was just the belt that allows the lawnmower to be self-propelled, so for the next hour I muscled it up and down the lawn. :) We did some knocking, tried by a bunch of potentials, and then we were able to teach Brian at the library that night! His aunt that they live with doesn't want us coming over anymore because she doesn't like Mormons. So now we teach him at the library. :) By the way, as of today Brian has been 100% SMOKE-FREE FOR OVER A WEEK! YEEEESSSSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were able to address a bunch of his concerns, Satan has been working on him overtime, but he still knows the Book of Mormon is true! He is still super pumped to get baptized on August 7th! :D Exchanges were a blast, I love Elder Schwendiman so much! He is hilarious and we had so much fun! We helped Brother Lahman dig more paths so he can lay some brick down and that evening he fed us dinner! His son (Richard) was there visiting from Newton, Iowa and it was awesome because he is a recent convert of Elder Bolinder's when he was in Newton! Then on the 8th of August we get to go to Nauvoo again because Richard is going through the temple! Haha on Friday we were doing service at the library dusting off a bunch of their shelves and straightening a bunch of the books. Some random older gentleman comes up to us and this is the conversation: "Are you guys volunteers?" "Yup!" "Mormons?" "Yup!" The next thing we know, he starts bashing on us and all this craziness! Its like dude! We're just giving service at the library c'mon! We said, "We don't want to argue sir, have a good day," and then he walked away. Man the people you meet on your mission you'll never meet anywhere else! We were able to get in contact with Sarah again which was good. She felt like it would be easier to get baptized and then live the Word of Wisdom and the other commandments, so we had to explain how living the commandments before baptism helps to prepare us for baptism. It was cool because at one point in the lesson we were just like, 'Sarah, we hope you know that we love you!" She was thrown off guard! But then she replied, "Thanks, I love you guys too!" It was awesome! Learning how to really just love people is so awesome! On Sunday none of our investigators were able to come to church but its ok. Sarah was busy, and Brian's new schedule with his work had thrown his sleeping out of whack so he'd accidentally slept right through until like 12:00! We tried calling him earlier that morning but no answer. After church, he called us back and was like, "I'm so sorry guys! I promise I'll be at church next week!" That evening we were able to find a new investigator named Bruce! He is probably the most fit old guy I've ever met! He is in his 60s, rides his bike all over the place, and works out! He is paranoid and schizophrenic, but the Spirit was strong and we were able to help him see that Heavenly Father loves him. It was an amazing lesson and my testimony was built a lot! What a sweet week! :D

Love,

Elder Logan Flake  

Week 52 7-20-15

     Man what an awesome week!!!!!!! It sounds like summer has just been a super total blast!! Yup Sister Meck wanted to know if you were on Facebook when we were visiting with them yesterday and she whipped out her phone and sent you a friend request. :) Hahahaha of course Spencer just randomly bumps into Elder Bednar, why not? :) Thats crazy that you got to see Payge too! Her letters are the best and so awesome! I had no idea that I had that positive of an effect on her....whoa. I still remember the day that I got an email from Brock telling me that he was going on a mission. I was like, "WHAT?! YESSSSSSSSS!!!!!!!!!" I was super pumped for him! Brock is one of my best friends ever!!!!! (haha I like a lot of exclamation points) :) I love the members here (which is saying a lot because I absolutely LOVED the Indianola branch) and I love living with other misssionaries too it is a blast! And I don't know about the whole Waverly thing but I'll definitely ask President Jensen about that. 

     THIS WEEK WAS SO FULL OF MIRACLES THAT IT WAS INSANE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! So first and foremost, on Monday we went and taught Brian the Plan of Salvation and he was like, "Whoa guys its kinda weird how this literally fits in with everything I used to believe." Yep thats because its true! :) He randomly gave us some fantastic fish that he made as well. Hahaha he hands it to us and goes, "Didn't know I was a chef now did you?" We took a bite and we said, "Well, we do now!" Brian is awesome though I love that guy so much. Which is saying a lot because I don't know why but nearly my entire mission (with the exception of some) it has been really hard to truly just love my investigators. Brian, on the other hand, is just a fantastic guy and I really do love him a lot! He is such a stud! We were able to (finally!) visit Sarah again on exchanges! We went with the Spanish elders and Elder Barron (he was in my first zone!) and I went to our area and then Elder Rader (he was actually in my last zone!) and Elder Bolinder went to their area. We were able to go with Brother Couser from our ward to go and see her and we taught her the principle of obedience as well as the Word of Wisdom. It was a great lesson! Brother Couser (who is a convert to the church and had struggled with Word of Wisdom problems as well before he joined the church) bore a powerful testimony how the Word of Wisdom has blessed his life in so many ways. It brought the Spirit really strongly and was awesome. However, Sarah was like, "I still want to be baptized and be righteous and stuff, but it'll have to wait until after my birthday on August 11th." So we were like, "Uhh why?" Then she told us something along the lines of how on her birthday her and all her friends are going to have a big party and drink and do all sorts of other stuff. She was like, "Then after all that craziness I'll want to keep learning more about the church." *sigh* Thats not how it works Sarah sorry. We'll be working with her to help her see the true importance of living God's commandments at all times. On Thursday I woke up, looked at the calendar, then wanted to go back in my bed and hide. BECAUSE IT WAS MY YEAR MARK! Its going WAY too fast! I'm just barely starting to figure out how to be a good missionary and follow the Spirit and love people and all that good stuff! It was super weird and made me feel ancient. Man, a year gone by already. It does NOT seem like its been that long already. Anyway, we drove down to Davenport (in an insane rainstorm the entire time!) and had an awesome zone conference down there! I was able to see Elder Houston again, it was awesome! I see him and he goes, "Elder Flake! No way c'mere!" Then we give each other a big hug and start talking about the good ole' times even though its only been like three weeks since we last saw each other. :)

     The trainings we were given was great and the Spirit was really powerful the entire time. President Jensen is an inspired man and is awesome. He is hilarious, knows what he is doing, and loves everybody. I love him so much! :) That night, we felt like we needed to go and see Brian so we just went and dropped in on them. He was stressing out major! The night before he was praying and asking God for a sign that this was the right thing to do and he was feeling really conflicted with what he felt he needed to do. He dropped a BUNCH of questions on us that caught us off guard but thank heavens for the Ho;y Ghost. We were prompted to answer him with the scriptures and we found the answers in the Book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price. The main one that we felt impressed to read was D+C 6: 21-24. It is the Lord's response to Oliver Cowdery when Oliver is trying to find the truth. It hit Brian really hard and he just started crying. I was privileged to bear testimony on how doubts can strengthen our faith and it was one of the most amazing experiences I've ever had in my life. The Spirit was literally powerful in that home and we all felt it. He later told us that he is 100% committed to continue meeting with us. On Friday we were able to go and teach the Stop Smoking Workshop to Brian at the Hodson's home (members of the ward) and he gave solid commitments to obey all 15 steps to the letter! He hadn't had a cigarette for nearly a day! The lesson was awesome and I know that he can do it! He can be smoke-free for the first time in his 28 years of smoking in just a week!! On Sunday, we went with Brother Bullock to see if Sarah remembered that she wanted to come to church and she was ready and she came! The ward just fellowshipped her to death and everybody was super friendly and she really enjoyed it! The sisters in the ward just welcomed her in with arms wide open. :) Brian came as well and he is a boss! Oh man this week was so awesome! By the way, Brian has now been smoke-free for nearly four days! I now have a more solid testimony that if we ask Heavenly Father for miracles, He REALLY will grant them according to our faith! The Church is true and the gospel is just awesome!!!!!! Oh and me, Elder Bolinder, Elder Rader, Elder Barron, and the zone leaders all got permission so we are going down to Nauvoo tomorrow to do a session, enjoy the city, and then see the pageant that night! I'M PUMPED!!!!!!!!!! Man I love my mission!! 

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 51 7-13-15

First off thank you much for the package! Me and all of the other elders have just been pounding all the food like crazy! :D Haha it was great! Those were some awesome videos of the anvil firing! I've never seen it before so it was sweet!!! Cedar Rapids is the second biggest city in our mission and its like 160,000 or so people I think? Its similar but definitely different from Des Moines. We have three wards in the city and a couple of branches scattered around the stake. Guess what?! Waverly is actually in this stake! I was looking at a map of the stake boundaries and I see "Waverly branch" just about 80 miles north of here!  

     Guess what? This week we had the bikes because we are in a car share with some other elders in our zone and it was HOT AND HUMID! But! It was absolutely FANTASTIC too!!!!!!!!! :D On Monday we had a great p-day! Its so weird to have a zone p-day again and actually see other missionaries instead of just me and my companion! After p-day ended we were knocking and a lady named Julia opened the door. We start talking to her and were able to teach a brief version of the Restoration and she loved it! She is super humble and open to learn! Hahaha so apparently she is 30 but she looks like she is like 22, it was weird! On Tuesday, we went to a couple of appointments but they sadly fell through. Haha so we're on bikes and my bike is kinda goofy and I was gasping and wheezing trying to get that thing to keep going! We were able to fix it up so now it rides like a dream but whew! I am a little out of shape! Haven't touched a bike in like a year! We went and helped Brother Lahman transplant some flowers and grass shrub things and then he fed us Italian sausage! After that we got picked up by Tyler (A recent convert who is hilarious and I love him!) and we were able to go see a less-active member named Joanna. Haha her nickname she always tells us to call her is "Mama Joe." She is hilarious and super cool! That night we had dinner at the Andersens, fantastic Dominican food because Sister Andersen is a convert from the Dominican Republic, and we were able to share a message on obedience. It was great and the Spirit was pretty strong. They are so awesome! :) We also felt like we should go and try by Brian Foster and his family again so we did and we were able to teach him about the baptismal qualifications. Haha Brian and his wife Christine are like a comedy duo! Wednesday we went and helped Brother Quillin (an older gentleman in our ward) mow his lawn and do some weed whacking! After that, we went to our appointment we had with Julia but it sadly fell through because she was at the doctor's office for an sinus infection. We went and gave service at one of the libraries, haha they had me try to straighten a bunch of kids books, and then we did some finding. We were able to talk to a lot of people though because they were everywhere! Our mission is doing a new initiative called OYM which stands for Open Your Mouth. We try to talk to literally EVERYONE we see and its been fun! It was kinda uncomfortable at first for me because I'm not exactly the type to just randomly go up to someone and start talking to them about the gospel. I'm a little more reserved at times y'know? But! Its gotten easier as we've done it more and now its just a blast! 

     On Thursday we had our weekly planning session which was long but good. :) We were then able to and visit a member, Sister Meyer, and read out of Doctrine and Covenants with her. Hahahaha she is probably one of the funniest people I've ever met in my life! Ok I know I say that about a lot of people but its true. :) As we were riding over to the library to do our Mormon.org time, we stopped and randomly started talking to this guy walking on the sidewalk. He was sweet! His name is Austin and he has kind of been wanting to come back to church again and we were able to set up a return appointment with him for Saturday! On Friday we had our district meeting, it was fantastic and we were trained on beginning with the end in mind, and the Spirit was strong! Brother Lahman randomly called us out of the blue and invited us over for an early dinner so we were like, "Uhh sure!" :) We visited with the Mecks that evening, they're members who just moved here literally two weeks ago, and then we went to see Brian Foster. HOLY COW!!!!!!!!!!!!! Ok so we get in there, he sends his kids upstairs, and then after the opening prayer he says, "Ok guys I nedd to tell you something." First off, he tells us about this amazing spiritual experience that he had that morning. After that he says, "I am finally ready and willing to commit my entire life and will to God. He has given me so many blessing like this new fantastic job I just got and many other things and I know that this is the path I need to take. Teach me everything and I will do whatever He asks." We were like, "......Alright." We'd gone in planning to teach the Gospel of Jesus Christ lesson but we scrapped that and ended up going over the baptismal interview questions with him and his wife. I've never seen him (and didn't think he would) cry before but like 3 times we were all brought to tears and the Spirit was just insanely powerful. It. Was. A. Straight. Up. Miracle. On Saturday we were able to go with Brother Ford and teach Sarah the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That was an AWESOME lesson! She had some concerns about is she'd be strong enough to stay active after she was baptized but the principle of enduring to the end helped her out a bunch. We arranged a ride for her to come to church and everything and she was pumped to come! Our appointment with Austin sadly fell through but it happens sometimes. SUNDAY WAS AWESOME! Brian and his family all came to church and stayed for the whole three hours and felt the Spirit really strongly and loved every second of it and it was awesome to see how the ward completely fellowshipped him! Whew! That was a long sentence! We went with Brother Bullock to go pick up Sarah but she'd left a note on her door that said, "Go without me to church today sorry. I'm not feeling well." Hey its not a drop so there is hope! :) The rest of the day was HOT! 90 degrees with 80% (or something like that) humidity and it was roasting! However, the Lord was able to bless us with a bunch of super nice people who would give us water as we went. :) We had some fantastic rice, roasted green beans and Spam, and a beef+pepper stir-fry with the Munsons that night though. They are from Hawaii and are probably the most awesome people in the world! This week was just great. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 50 7-6-15 Transferred!

     I GOT TRANSFERRED AGAIN! I was transferred to Cedar Rapids (the 2nd biggest city in the mission so its quite a change up) and I am now with Elder Bolinder who is on his last transfer. :) He is from Firth, Idaho and absolutely hilarious! It'll be the first time I'm with a companion who is on the home stretch of his mission so it'll be a great learning experience! :) I was able to say goodbye to a lot of the members before I took off and it was sad because I have grown to absolutely love the Indianola branch. Everybody is just so fantastic and awesome there! Well, we went to transfer meeting on Thursday and I saw Elder Hollan for the last time! He is home now and done with his mission which is really weird and makes me feel ancient! It was fun though I was able to see a lot of people there that I knew including Elder Curless again! :D Oh by the way, we live with our zone leaders in a house that a member rents out to us and it is super fun! Anyway, we got back from transfer meeting and the evening was BUSY! We went and saw an investigator named Brian Foster and answered his questions that he had about baptism and the Holy Ghost. We were then able to teach him the Word of Wisdom (he has problems with smoking and tea) and he committed to do his best to live it! He is an extremely humble man and super nice. His wife is actually a member who started to return to activity once he started taking the missionary lessons! Miracles all around! We were then able to go and see some recent converts, the Falkners, and they are an older couple who are probably the nicest people I've ever met! We went and read the Book of Mormon with them and it was great, the Spirit was so strong. :)

     Friday was kinda nuts! First off though, we were able to go to the ward 4th of July picnic for a bit which was a blast! They did it on the 3rd because nearly everybody was going to be gone on the 4th. We had hot dogs, played some epic volleyball, I cracked a bullwhip and scared myself to death because it was so loud, and a bunch of other great things! The ward is super friendly and all of the members are just awesome! :D We then went and mowed some lawns for Brother Harvey (the older member whose house we rent out) because he broke his ankle so he couldn't do it. Then we went and weekly planned and by the time we finally finished that, it was nighttime! On Saturday we went and helped to clean the church in the morning and then we had a great get-to-know-you district meeting! So our district is the Spanish missionaries Elders Barron and Rader (who I've been in their zones in previous areas so I know them fairly well), the zone leaders Elders Ellis (who I came out with) and Schwendiman (who is actually Elder Cook's trainer), Sisters Gygi (who was in my MTC zone) and Schrader, and then me and Elder Bolinder! It was a blast and so much fun! After that we tried by some investigators and did some knocking.

     On Sunday we had an AWESOME fast and testimony meeting in sacrament meeting! This ward is the BEST! There were actually quite a few members who at least knew where Snowflake was! It was great! We had an awesome discussion about the Savior's suffering in Gethsemane and how much He loves us to do that. It was really powerful. Then we had an awesome discussion in Elder's Quorum about priesthood dispensations. After church we did some finding and it was...interesting. Haha we started talking to this older guy, he was standing in his yard and we were talking to him from outside his fence, and we said, "Would you be interested in a message about Jesus Christ?" He just looks at us and says, "No, I've got better things to do." So we said, "Ok, do you know anyone who could use an uplifting message?" He slowly turns around, gives us a death glare and says, "You're lucky you're over there and not over here," then walked away muttering under his breath. Sheesh dude! It was kinda weird! We drove by this random bike repair shop and Elder Bolinder felt like we should go back and talk to the guy in the shop working on a bike so we did. His name is Mike and he is a Seventh Day Adventist. We got to talking and answered a LOT of questions that he had about our religion and we were able to have a great conversation with him! He said he might be interested if we could answer him this one question, Is it important to keep all of the commandments or just the ones traditional to your church? He said, "Next time you guys stop in, answer me that one out of the scriptures." It was a lot of fun talking to him he is a great guy! :) Thats about the week!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 49 6-29-15

   Man sounds like everyone is going to be super busy all the time! The week was great! Hard, but super awesome at the same time! Its been like 75-90 for the entire week with random rainshowers! That's just the good ole' bipolar Iowa weather though. :) Hearing about the whole gay marriage thing was just crazy. Ugh. We get one hour of LDS.org time a week and when I saw that I was like, "Wait what?!" The Lord still guides His church though I know that to be true! We'll just have to "hold to the rod" and endure it well and then we will be blessed. I'm doing a lot better and starting to be more positive again finally! :D Things are looking up! Oh and we get transfer calls today too, I have NO IDEA whats going to happen!!

       Well, this week was definitely a hard one but its amazing to see how much the Lord can bless us if we endure. On Monday, we had dinner with the Bodines (they are just here for a little while because Sister Bodine is singing with the Des Moines Opera and they're here in town for a bit) and it was great! They are an awesome family and super pumped for missionary work! After them, we were able to briefly stop by James again and see how he was doing. :) Monday was a little slow but it happens sometimes. :) TUESDAY WAS AWESOME! We went knocking and met this awesome lady named Kathleen! She is a married lady in her mid-20s with four kids and is super prepared! We taught her the Restoration and while it wasn't the greatest lesson ever the Spirit was strong and we were all able to feel it which was sweet! She even said, "I always hear about people getting knocks on their doors and talking to missionaries about Jesus. I was just wondering if I ever would." She wants to raise her kids right and feels that the Church is the way to go! :D It had kind of a sad afternoon because we went to an appointment we had with Bob and he decided he was done meeting with us. Then right after Bob we went to our appointment with Dakota and Natasha and.....they dropped us as well. So the Lord totally blessed us and it was awesome because we found Kathleen right after they dropped us! We also were dropped by Adam as well.

     On Wednesday we went and gave service at Goodwill again sorting all the donations. Man people still donate the weirdest things sometimes! We were able to go and see Nancy Smith again and try to help cheer her up because she was super depressed. Thank heavens the gospel is such a joyful message! The Spirit was strong and we all felt great as we read out of the Book of Mormon with her. :) That night it was raining ridiculously hard and the lightning kept me up half the night! In the morning we found about half and inch of water on our bathroom floor and in the laundry room! Thank goodness we happened to have a mop and a ShopVac with us! On Thursday, after we were finally done cleaning up the wwater that morning, everybody (us included) was late to district meeting because a lot of the main roads were closed with water coming over them so we had to take the random country roads to get to Knoxville! We had a great training on our purpose as missionaries and we had an awesome testimony meeting with it as well. The Spirit was really strong and it was just great. :) We went to go see the Corbetts that evening and it was insane! Their little boy Joe was going CRAZY!!!!! It was just an interesting experience that's for sure. On Friday Sister Strain was able to come with us to teach Kathleen about the Book of Mormon and it was great! They both just clicked and the lesson was awesome! Members are so awesome because they are great fellowshippers and their testimonies are just solid!

     We were able to teach Gerry, an older Methodist lady, the Restoration that evening and she enjoyed it and thought it was interesting! She might have a problem with learning more but we'll be working on that as we go. :) Saturday we did a bunch of finding and we were able to go and visit Sister King in Martensdale as well. She is probably one of the nicest older ladies I have ever met in my life! We were also able to FINALLY get in contact with Sheldon Midas, a less-active member, and we arranged for him to come to church tomorrow with Brother Strain! On Sunday, Sheldon bailed on church but that's ok we'll work on it with him. :) Kathleen was going to come but her father is pretty much on his deathbed all of a sudden so she understandably couldn't make it. In Sunday School we had an awesome discussion about the importance of developing our talents and sharing them with others. It kinda made me realize I need to work on that more and not just "bury" mine. :) We were able to help teach the Primary about the Holy Ghost and that's always a good time! Later as we were walking, this guy who we'd given a card to earlier in the week drives up to us and says, "Hey can I meet with you guys this evening? I'm going through a rough time right now man." We were both like, "Sure!" and set up a time for that evening. After a great dinner and lesson with the Kentners, we hustled on over to our appointment with the guy. His name is Tiberius and like all of his family and friends have just left him for some reason or another. He said he has tried a bunch of different religions but none seem to be working out for him. He had a bunch of questions that were all able to be answered by the doctrines in the Plan of Salvation! He was just like, "Man this is awesome! It makes so much sense!" Yeah it does because its true! It was just awesome. So we lost four investigators and the Lord blessed us with three new awesome people to teach! A mission is the best thing ever! :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake