Week 30 2-23-16

     Man that is so awesome that Elder Nelson spoke to you guys in Stake Conference! Talk about a spiritual powerhouse!!!! Sounds like it was an awesome week with Regionals being amazing, and some random Show Low guy breaking his wrist, but hey it happens. :) The calves are starting to pop up too? That's so awesome!!!!!! Thanks Dad for that, its been a little tough lately. :) But....MAN THIS WEEK WAS SO AMAZING AAAHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

     So first off, I had exchanges with elder Hoskins in their area!! Again! Sheesh it was like the 4th one of the transfer! But we had a great time. :) We went and saw some less-active members in their ward, one of their member families fed us authentic Mardi Gras jambalaya and king cake! It was delicious!!! Hahaha so they had a Soda Stream machine and I've never used one before so the first batch sorta got all over the sink and us but it was hilarious! :D The next day, we walked to the library (in like 5 degree weather! I was bundled up like a ninja!) and then we did Mormon.org time. Then we went to B&B for lunch which is a little meat market place that has AMAZING sandwiches! Easily the best Philly Cheesesteak I've had in my life!! Besides that one time we had them in Philadelphia that is. :) Then we went and gave service at the Bidwell food pantry and that was a blast like always!! Hahaha those guys are a hoot! We were having a blast stocking shelves! :) Oh and that morning, we went and saw their investigator, Graham, and he told us that he has been having some suicidal thought lately and all this other crazy stuff. So using his tablet, we showed him the Mormon Message "Sitting on the Bench: Thoughts on Suicide Prevention". It was really powerful and the Spirit was so strong and we talked to him about it and man. It was just one of the coolest experiences I've ever had. That night, we went and visited another less-active family, the Koches, and they are awesome! We had a Chicago-style deep-dish pizza that was to die for!!! Ugh my poor stomach.........

     Thursday we had an amazing district meeting like always! Elder Whiting gave a really powerful training on the power and authority of our calling and it was really inspiring and made me want to work even harder!! And then at district lunch something awesome happened! We go to Wendys and as soon as the manager sees all 10 of us missionaries coming in, he slaps down $100 and says, "Its on me you guys get whatever the heck you want." WHAT?? Turns out he is a member from the Lenox branch who just moved to Des Moines! We were like, "Uh you sure man?" And he just says, "Oh 100% sure get what you want!" Crazy! AND THEN SOMETHING FLIPPIN' CRAZY HAPPENED! So we were knocking some doors in the apartment complex where William lives and we knock on this one door that looks no different than all these other doors. All we hear is this coughing and wheezing and then the Spirit started to say to me, "Get out get out get out." I was like "We're fine its just some sick guy or something." Then as soon as the person was almost at the door the Spirit goes, "RUN!!!!!" I turned to elder Deeds and I was like "LETS GO!" And then we booked it outta there crazy fast!!!!! I don't know why but we followed the prompting of the Spirit and got outta there! Then we went and tried by a inactive member named Alex Fratali and he is just a super nice guy. We were sitting there talking to him and then his friend Brandon came in and started listening to us. After we'd gotten to know them better, we started turning to 1 Nephi 21:14-16 to share with them. As we're turning to it, Brandon goes, "Hey is there a scripture in there that helps to let you know that God is still there? Because I feel like He has abandoned me." Elder Deeds and I just looked at each other for a second, and then I was like, "Wow, that's exactly what we were turning to." We shared it with them and talked about it and it was really powerful for all of us. Sweet experience. That night we were able to FINALLY get into contact with William again and we taught him the Word of Wisdom!! He loved it and apparently has already been living it so that's kind of nice! :)

     On Friday we were able to see the Buchwalds! They are a less-active family who are really nice and they invited us over when we asked if we could come and see them sometime. We went and had AMAZING fruit smoothies with them (they have this GIGANTIC Ninja blender!) and then we had egg rolls! We were able to share an awesome thought with them and they said they would be at church on Sunday!! Yes!!! We tried by Lindsey, one of our former investiagtors from when I first came to Des Moines, and (sorta) Re-connect with her! So we'll see how that goes. :) On Saturday morning, we helped a member of our ward move out from his mom's house (which is good because he is like 32) and that was fun!! Then we went to Aung Yo Trae's home and blessed it for them because it hadn't been blessed yet. I got to do it and that was a really next experience. :) Then we had authentic Burmese food while we sat cross-legged on a mat! We had noodles and soup and fruit and something that smelled like fish but definitely WASN'T fish and all this awesome food! Then we went and contacted a media referral named Prince! Hahaha we were about done with the Restoration when his cousin suddenly bursts in, runs over to the sink, and then he starts puking up his guts into it! We were all laughing and gagging at the same time! Then we went and taught Cecilia, an investigator that elder Deeds and elder Whiting found on exchanges, the Plan of Salvation and it was awesome! Her son Phil joined in and he had some really great questions! It was such a great experience! We then went and contacted Korey Reed, another media referral, and we were able to teach him the Restoration! Ho-ly good-ness that guy is a boss! He is super spiritual and has had some crazy awesome spiritual experiences! So we went over to try and see Abinadi, he was gone, but like 2 blocks from his house there was a stakeout! Three police cars, spotlights all trained on this one house, and a bunch of police cars roaming the neighborhood looking for someone! It was crazy I'm just glad we were able to get out of there!

     On Sunday we had an awesome ward council at 7:00 in the morning! Man I love how enthusiastic Bishop Dyer gets about everything! Cecilia and Phil came to church! Sadly, Prince, Korey, and William all bailed but hey you've just gotta keep your head up. :) But Cecilia and Phil both loved it and totally want to come back!! We went to some appointments, they fell through, and then we did some finding in the 2 degree weather! Gotta love Iowa! :) Then, because we were invited, we went to Brooke Burgess's 17th birthday party! Us, the Burgesses, the Meteers, and the Heltons were all there and had a blast! Man that food was all amazing! By the way, cranberry ginger ale is possibly the most amazing thing in the world! Later that night, we went hometeaching with Brother Green but sadly all of the appointments fell through. But it was ok because we got to know Brother Green better and that guy is a hoot! What a great week!!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 29 2-16-15

    Man what a fun-filled week!! I'm glad that Jazz Mad went well! And thanks so much for that awesome letter! Gah! Dallin is dating???????????????????????????????????????????????!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! That's so weird! Yep this transfer we've been doing exchanges up the wazoo! I'm going on another one this evening! Yep its still cold! It literally started snowing 30 minutes go! Hahaha I love Iowa!!

     This past week was a long, hard one. We tried by Victor a couple more times but he was always gone at work and we couldn't get ahold of him. :( So we'll keep trying but we've got no idea on whats up with that. Keep him in your prayers please! We tried some more less-actives and that was interesting! Haha one of them was a legit, sassy, old black lady! She opens the door and is like "Oh you guys again? Come on in!" She is really awesome and the only reason she hasn't been coming to church is because she has been taking care of her husband who doesn't have the greatest health. But man she was absolutely hilarious!!! Then on Tuesday evening, we swapped companions and I went with elder Whiting in their area. We had a dinner with some members of their ward, they're pretty awesome, and then we did some finding! Wednesday morning, we headed out to contact a referral he had but he sadly wasn't home. :( So we did some finding in that area and like the entire neighborhood was full of Buddhists! Hahahaha it was hilarious! One guy opens up his door and as far as the eye can see, his house is FULL of life-size Buddha statues everywhere! Its a miracle he was able to even come to the door! Hahaha oh missionary life and the people you meet!

     We then tried some finding and saw an investigator of theirs named Graham, that guy is awesome! Then we did service at Bidwell, which is this giant food pantry! We unloaded like 4 pallets of food off a truck and then stocked the shelves and that was just a blast! Later that night, we were doing some finding but we had to go home because it was just TOO COLD to even try to do anything! Haha so here is the funny story of the week! We tried by a less-active member's house and no one was there. As we're about to leave an older lady pulls up in her car and is like "Oh they aren't here right now they are in West Des Moines." We said, "Alright thanks for letting us know. Who are you?" And then she said, and this is a direct quote, "I'm just here to check the beans." Umm..ok? Whatever that means? Then she pulls out her phone and pretends to talk on it so we just left. As we started to drive away, we notice a random guy open up the door, stare us down, and then he invites the lady inside. Hahaha ok?? Apparently they WERE home!

     On Friday night, our ward had a "Valentine's Bash" party thing which was a blast! The only thing sad about it was that missionaries aren't supposed to dance, so me and elder Deeds sat there and suffered listening to all of the good music being played. :P Saturday, we had bacon-wrapped hamburger, which was amaaaazing, at the Cluff's house and we taught them the Plan of Salvation. Hahahaha man their little boy Jonathan is adorable! It was awesome because we were able to help Brother Cluff give his wife a blessing as well because apparently she has been dealing with some hard stuff lately. Sunday, we had dinner at the Voss' home and we had roast and mashed potatoes and gravy and green bean casserole and apple fritters and ice cream! It was also really cool because David Garrison (a less-active that brother Voss hometeaches) and his wife Mary came to dinner! We shared 1 Nephi 21:14-16 with them and then a lot of us were able to share a bunch of really cool spiritual experiences and how we knew that God is always there for us. Another funny story! So when we were giving service at Brother Vaughn's house, I couldn't find a knife anywhere so I was trying to open a cardboard box with the point of a pen. Looking back, that was really stupid of me. Long story short, the pen exploded onto  my white shirt, Brother Vaughn randomly gave me a new shirt that he bought for me yesterday (sheesh that guy is so stinkin' generous!), and he fixed the stained shirt somewhat. :) Welcome to the life of Elder Flake!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 28 2-9-15

  Thanks for the awesome letter! Sounds like Snowflake is kicking into high gear! Sam and Vandee bought the Home Slice pizza place and are running it?? What??? And Dallin is going to be getting his driver's license??? WHAT??!! And the house might be sold and you'll all move??? WHAT??!?!!! Man leave for a mission and everything changes!! :) That's so awesome with all that's going on though! To answer your questions, the ward members have been praying for missionary opportunities and are working on that. Oh by the way, WE FINALLY FOUND VICTOR AGAIN!! He apparently had to work on the day of baptism and now he is getting a new work schedule so we can coordinate something with him and we'll be re-teaching him everything before he is baptized so pray that everything will go through! As for Pastor Philip, we haven't been able to find him so we're working on that.

     Hahaha so on Monday after we did laundry at brother Vaughn's house, for some reason his drain in the basement started backing up so we were like running a pipe snake down the drain, nothing happened. Then we tried some drain cleaner and nothing happened but some black sludge started bubbling up!! So I got down on my knees-in work clothes obviously-and stuck my hand into the pipe and started pulling out a bunch of nasty goop. Nothing we were doing was working!! So brother Vaughn called Roto Rooter and they apparently came over the next day and flushed the pipes with superheated water and that finally did the trick! Yup just another week in good ole' Des Moines!

     On Tuesday we went on exhanges with our zone leaders and I went with elder Petersen in our area. Hahaha man I love that guy! We hit the east side of our area, some areas were REALLY ghetto, and tried to contact a bunch of less-actives and we did some finding as well. Hahaha even though we were both bundled up, we each caught a cold because it was so cold! Especially elder Petersen poor guy. Haha we met this one lady named Tonya and we taught the Restoration to her on the doorstep and it was interesting. The lesson was good but man! We were both getting weird vibes from her so it was kind of strange! And we met a random guy named Lef from Estonia! Sadly he wasn't interested in the gospel though. We then went and read the Book of Mormon with Madison and went home. Another miracle was the Shafers had us over for meatloaf and mashed potatoes! They are a less-active family who we've been starting to meet with more and they are awesome!!!! On Thursday I went on exchanges again!

     After an AWESOME district meeting, elder Hoskins and I hit our area! We did a lot of finding and met with some awesome less-active members who were open to us stopping by again some other time! Miracle! :D Hilarious story real fast: I had to go to the bathroom so we stopped at a nearby McDonalds and I went. I went to get a quick hot chocolate and the cashier, an awesome black guy named Deonte, was like "Can you go shake everybody's hand in the restaurant and introduce yourself to them?" So I said, "Umm...what?" Then he looked at this little card he had in his hand and he then said, "Alright, can you turn around, tell everybody your name and then yell your biggest fear?" Then I just said, "What? Look man can I just pay for my drink?" Then he told me, "If you do it, the drink is free." So I turned around and in a loud voice said, "My name is elder Flake and I have claustrophobia!" All of the employees went CRAZY cheering while all of the customers, including me, looked confused! Hahaha so apparently all of the employees were having some kind of contest that their manager gave them and they had to try to get a customer to do one of the random things on a card that the manager gave to the employees. So after my announcement, Deonte pulled out a McDonalds sticker that said "I payed with lovin" and gave it to me along with my free hot chocolate! Best bathroom stop ever right? Hahaha it was hilarious!! And weird!!

     On Friday, we were able to see William and his family and set a baptismal date for March 7! It was kind of an interesting lesson though because we started talking about the Restoration and then William kinda took the reigns and taught his family the Restoration pretty much! Hahahaha man he is a character! But it was awesome and we still have a lot of work to do with him and his family! :) We also saw Curtis that afternoon which was a blast because he is hilarious! Man I love that guy!! Ha-ha another random story: we were knocking a neighborhood and on one of the doors this big black guy opens the door, looks at us and our nametags, and before we say anything he just says, "Yea, this is a crack house so I'd appreciate it if you didn't knock this house again bye." And then he slammed the door. Gotta love Iowa! On Sunday it was stake conference and that was awesome! Bishop Dyer gave a talk on the importance of developing Christlike attributes and then in Sunday School, the stake president, President Pence, went through a bunch of them and we all discussed them and how we can better develop each one! It was awesome!

      So in my personal study on Sunday afternoon, I just sat down and read out of the New Testament and it was fantastic! I need to get so much better acquainted with it because the life and ministry of Jesus Christ and his apostles is just amazing! I'd encourage you all to start studying it more! When we were knocking in this kind of sketchy neighborhood, we suddenly saw a random cat corpse lying in some yard! So we were like "Ok?" and then not five minutes later we saw it! This sign outside a random, scary-looking house that said "Sugga Babies Day Care." Hahahaha not "sugar" but "sugga!" (pronounced shuga) :) Man I love Des Moines! We then went to a surprise birthday party for Sister Craypo that the Robinsons (family from our ward), the Velas, the Vosses, the Pooles, the sisters, and us had all set up. Hahaha sister Craypo came through the door and we all started belting out "Happy Birthday" as we gave her a cupcake with a candle in it! It was the best!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake     

Week 27 2-2-15

   Dallin is going to be dating????????? AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH HE'S SO OLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This week was a weird one! That is literally all I can say! But man it was the best!

     First off, there was a miracle! I went on exchanges with elder Whiting on Tuesday and we stayed in our area. Appointments were falling through everywhere!!! So we stopped, said a prayer asking us for guidance, and then the Spirit was like, "hmmm....go to 15th street." So we did and we met this awesome black guy named Philip who is a pastor and we taught him the first lesson and he accepted the baptismal invite and he was the first pastor I've ever met who didn't want to bash with us! Whew! That was a long sentence! Wednesday, we tried a bunch of potentials but....nothing. :( So we started to go through the list of less-active members in the ward that we had gotten from our ward mission leader and tried to contact a lot of them. It was really good in some cases and in other cases just plain weird. The good things were that probably 3 of the 7-8 people we contacted this week are interested in us coming back and talking to them and seeing why they don't come to church and whatnot. Then there were just some interesting people. One was a 90 year old lady who says she belongs in the Greek Orthodox church and she never should have gotten baptized, the Church is wrong, etc. But yea it was fun. :)

     When we were knocking on Thursday, we set up a return appointment with an awesome Army guy named Darrell! Hahaha but when we came back, his Rottweiler was chained up on his lawn and that thing was NASTY and wouldn't let us come close!! We also saw someone's silhouette watching us through the window so that was....kinda weird. We then went to Bishop Dyer's home for dinner and we had amazing tortas! It was awesome because we are FINALLY starting to get close to Bishop Dyer and he is starting to trust us more! Yes!! Friday night, Royal took us to Jethro's BBQ and brought each of us a GIGANTIC sandwich called the Eminecker!! So it goes like this from the bottom up: bun, breaded pork tenderloin, bacon, pulled pork, buffalo chicken tender, brisket, huge angus hamburger pattie, buffalo chicken tender, pulled pork, bacon, breaded pork tenderloin, bun. not to mention a legit POUND of waffle fries on the side. I didn't even eat a third of the burger and had to stop! I've been eating it for dinner for the past two days!!!

     Saturday, we helped brother Poole move to his new place in Windsor Heights and sadly he is now in the Beaver Creek Ward. :( I love the Pooles so much they're awesome! We then had dinner with the Childress family and they are all awesome! I (kinda) played the piano and elder Deeds played the ukulele for a moment with them before we left! It was awesome! Then around 7:00 or so it started snowing and then at 8:00 we get a text from the assistants saying that cars are grounded because the snow was coming down hard! So we went home. And then that night, we got a text from Brother Greene (the ward secretary) that church was cancelled because of the weather!! And then all of Sunday the heavens were unloading snow and we had to stay inside because of the weather and President Jensen had to shut down the mission because of the cold and snow blowing!!!! IT WAS CRAZY! At about 3:00 or so, the zone leaders texted us saying, "you wanna come over?" So we bundled up and layered our clothes and we headed over because we were going stir crazy! That and they live two streets away. :) We played, Settlers of Catan (which elder Deeds destroyed us all at), talked and hung out, and then elder Petersen randomly showed us a bunch of magic tricks. :) It was awesome and when we left to go back home around 8, they were just like "Thanks guys we would've gone crazy!! But man what a week!!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 26 1-26-15

    Well first off congrats to Dallin on Regionals! MY LITTLE BRUVUH IS GROWIN UP! Sounds like a pretty mellow week but hey those are the best sometimes!! Des Moines is the best I never wanna leave! Elder Deeds is a boss too I love the guy to death! He is an awesome worker! So this week was hard.

     This week we felt like we needed to start trying to see some less-actives from the directory, we have almost 400 of them, so we put together a list of about ten families living in the same neighborhood. We went and tried to see every single one of them and it was....interesting. Some were awesome and wanted to come back to church! :D Some didn't care, and some didn't even know anything about the gospel which was interesting because honestly I'm not sure why they were baptized because they don't care at all. :( But on the bright side, on Sunday night Brother Petersen (our ward mission leader) and Bishop Dyer went through the ward directory and listed families they would like us to focus on. And on Tuesday night, us and the sisters are having a meeting with Brother Petersen to figure everything out so we can start doing more to help the ward out. :) So that's exciting! Elder Deeds and I have just been talking and we both felt like we need to start focusing on the less-active members more.

     On Wednesday, we went with brother Vaughn and helped him to paint a nursery that Alzheimer's patients use in a senior care home that his niece runs. It was kind of creepy because the people with Alzheimer's play with dolls and change their diapers and such because they think that the dolls are their children. But it was cool being able to help them all out. :) And later that day when we were knocking doors we totally taught a Nepalese family about Jesus Christ! They are all Hindus but they were curious why we were going around and knocking doors and it was awesome because the Spirit was so strong and they all speak English well which made it even better! Whew! That was a long sentence. :) We also tried to contact a inactive boy named Jayden that the bishop asked us to go see. Hahaha a HUGE black bro opens the door and when we asked if Jayden was there he was like "Man! Tell your people to stop coming by cuz that guy has been gone forever!" He then invited us in because he wanted to talk to us! His name is Lance and he studied a lot of theology in college so he kinda sorta tried to bash with us but we didn't bash back so we kind of taught the Restoration but not really. He was a cool guy though. :)

     Fun story real fast: we were trying to contact a less-active named Hawa Smith but we didn't know what apartment number he lived in. We knocked on this one door and a black guy in a white Muslim robe comes out and we asked him "do you know where Hawa Smith lives?" He shook his head no, got some flip-flops on, then started leading us around the complex knocking on doors asking for Hawa Smith in Arabic! He spoke a little bit of English but all of the other apartments spoke Arabic as well so he kinda translated for us as we went around!!! We didn't find Hawa but man the experience was priceless! We also were able to FINALLY contact victor! Which was good because we haven't been able to get into contact with him at all! We clarified everything for his baptism, which was on Saturday, and he was pumped to get baptized!!!! Sadly, we also found out that Beatrice's mom, who lives in Africa, just died of Ebola. That was sad to hear.

     Friday we had an AMAZING zone training meeting which was fantastic! President and Sister Jensen are just so inspired with everything!!!!!!!!! Also, planning for the baptism has been so stressful with finding speakers, and then they can't come so we find others, and all this other stuff! BUT! We got it all figured out! On Saturday was the baptism!!!! And.................................................................................... Victor bailed. That was heartbreaking, that's all I can say. It really stunk. Yup. But the sisters had asked me to baptize Deborah (their investigator who was also getting baptized) so I was able to do that which was really cool. :) Just seeing the pure joy on her face when I brought her up out of the water was awesome. :) And on Sunday I was able to confirm her as well, which was REALLY nerve-wracking but it was awesome!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake