Week 32 3-9-15

   

I got to see my trainer Elder Hollan

Laser beam!  Not photoshopped

 

 Well first off, GO MOM!  I love the small town! And yes we have a small private college called Simpson College, just like Wartburg College in Waverly. I think that they are in the same division? Although Des Moines was a blast because it was just the big city! And sounds like a bunch of fun with the musical! I know that Dallin will be great he is a boss!! :D And nice comment there Dad. :P But thanks Dad it was always awesome being able to work with you on a bunch of stuff together. I'll definitely pray for you with your job. Yeah this week was a little tough for that, basically 3-5 hours of finding every day and not very many were interested. But you just do what you can with a smile y'know? :) The only thing I can think of for the package is maybe peach rings? I CAN'T FIND ANY ANYWHERE HERE FOR SOME REASON! :'(

     What a week! Well first off it was kind of interesting because this is my first area so far where its not a zone p-day its just me and my companion. :) So after e-mailing and shopping, we went to the church and shot some hoops and played the piano and whatnot. Just kinda chillin' thats us. :) After p-day was over, we went to the Hutcheson's home for dinner and that was awesome! We had lasagna and sister Hutcheson told us all about her horses and all this other fun stuff! Don't worry she is over 60 years old so we're not breaking any rules. :) Then we shared Ether 12:4 with her and we all talked about how with faith in Christ we can hope for better things to come. Which is good because the world is going crazy! On Tuesday we went and gave service at "The Helping Hand" ( a little thrift store) and we folded donated clothes and hung them up. Man there were some funky clothes in those bags! I folded up some random Japanese style silk shirt that had this crazy Chinese design on it! Darn it! I forgot to take a picture. We then met with Bryan, he is a former investigator, and that was....interesting. Basically, he told us all these random things, faith is garbage, etc. So that was kind of interesting having to "defend" my faith. But it all turned out alright so no worries. :) We then went and saw the McGees, who are an older couple who don't come to church very often. They are awesome! We were able to share with them Alma 7:11-12 and we all talked about the Atonement and it was pretty cool. :) Wednesday was FREEZING! Almost all of our appointments dropped so we went finding for about four hours in 15 degree weather (with wind chill) but we were able to find Jake and Jessica who accepted a Restoration pamphlet! So fingers crossed on that one! We also met David, who is a really nice guy but a HEAVY smoker and he has had a lot of awesome spiritual experiences and he likes the King James version of the Bible the best. He just kind of randomly told us that. :) He ended up not being interested but it was awesome to meet him and talk to him about religion and God. We also met with Jacob Henry, a 16 year old guy who is currently our only investigator and he is getting baptized on March 29th, and set up baptism details with him. Man that kid is a stud! He's been handing out Book of Mormons (or Books of Mormon however you say it) to his friends at school! Hahaha so we were trying by a former investigator, and as we knock on the door elder Homer says, "Oh by the way she has a zombie dog." Umm...what? She invites us in and then her dog comes out. So her dog, Lexi, broke its back a little while ago and got it went blind in one eye and when it walks anywhere it drags its hind legs like a zombie! When it came creeping out of the kitchen I was like "Gah!!" It totally caught me by surprise. But the dog is really sweet it just walks creepy. :) And then Thursday rolled around!

     We had zone training meeting in Osceola (about 40 minutes away or so) and wow talk about a spiritual steroid shot in the arm! The sister training leaders especially! We started with a prayer asking that the Spirit teach us new things and then we very simply studied the first three paragraphs in Preach My Gospel in the Restoration lesson. It was "God is our loving Heavenly Father." We read through it and shared what stood out to us and why. It was extremely powerful and many testimonies were strengthened, especially mine. Wow it was awesome!!! Then for the zone leader's training we did some deep doctrine diving on the "Holy Spirit of Promise." It was fascinating!  Anyways, it all boiled down to be obedient on your mission and do everything you can and the Holy Spirit of Promise will seal your mission. IT WAS AWESOME! Hahaha that night we were going to an appointment with the Foxes (members) and we totally got lost because they live in the middle of nowhere! We called them and they pulled up Google Maps and gave us directions so we were all good. :) Thank heavens for satellite images! But the Foxes were awesome! Hahahaha we had a good time getting to know them and then share a message. :) Friday we did a lot of finding again, not much happened sadly but we were able to set up some return appointments. We had dinner with the Johnson family again and we had French toast and sausage and bacon! It was to die for! It was also like 50 degress all day! Sheesh break out the beach shorts! Haha on Saturday we met with Nancy Smith (she is the member whose home we live in, she is currently at a nursing home) and read from the Book of Mormon with her. Geez she had some deep questions! "Where is heaven?" "Are there people like us on other planets?" "How can we know?" When we were walking back to the car I was like "Ugh my brain hurts." :) We then had dinner at the Child's house (she is a less-active member and he is a nonmember) and we had burgers! I haven't had a good burger forever it seems like! They were super sweet though and gave us a bunch of food to take home. On Sunday Jacob came to church and he brought his mom! Apparently she hasn't been interested at all in the past and was against him joining but she wanted to come and see for herself what he was "getting into." She left after sacrament but she said she really enjoyed it! That evening, we went to the Hanson's home for dinner, haha sister Hansen had looked at the meal calendar and noticed we only had one dinner for the week so she told us to come over that evening, so we did. :) They are awesome! Hahaha Sister Hansen in hilarious and Brother Hansen is kinda quite but still a goof! They told us as we left, "If you guys ever want to come over for dinner just tell us the night before and we will definitely feed you guys any day of the week!" Sweet! Then, randomly that night we get a text from some phone number and it says, "Hi this is the Mkayla is this the LDS missionaries in Indianola?" Us: "Yes?" Her:" Sweet! Could we meet at the library tomorrow at 6:00?" Us: "Sure that can work." And then we never got a reply back so.....this'll be interesting? And last night, the Hancocks (members) randomly gave us a HUGE bucket of KFC chicken! There go my thighs......

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 31 3-2-15

  

Now that is a burger!

Free Hot Chocolate.  Definitely lovin it!

One of the awesome Sisters here in Iowa

Love these people!

  What an awesome letter! AND WE TOOK STATE IN BASKETBALL WOOOOOOHOOOOOOO!!!!! That hasn't happened forever!!!!!!!!!!!! EXCITING! So to answer some of your questions, sister Craypo sees me at transfers and randomly asked me what mom's phone number was so I gave it to her. :) My new companion is elder Homer from Sandy, Utah. I am actually a transfer ahead of him so I'm senior companion and I drive and whatnot but he just got made the district leader so its been fun to see him already start to grow from that. :) Man I feel so ancient I've been out for almost eight months!!! Indianola is almost exactly like Waverly! Like same size, same feel, everything I love it already! Oh and we live in a member's house and its really nice! The member actually just got put in a nursing home but she still lets us live here. :) The branch is awesome we have probably about 40-50 active members and they are all spiritual powerhouses!! The district is awesome we've got a bunch of great guys! There is us, the Knoxville elders, the Centerville elders (their branch is so small that they meet in a barn for church! Awesome!), and the Oskaloosa zone leaders! 

     Haha so on Monday our entire complex's heat went out so that was freezing! We were able to meet with William and answer a lot of his basic questions which he has been wondering about forever and that was really good to be able to do that. That evening, we were visiting Madison when the phone started ringing and I look at it and it says "AP Elder Cleverly." Elder Deeds and I just looked at each other and we were both like, "Ohhhhhh boyyyyy." So I answered it and then he told us that Deeds was staying and I was getting transferred. :( But the good news is that night the heat came back on in our apartment! :D Tuesday, we went and said goodbye to Curtis. It was kinda sad and the poor guy started crying. :( I'm gonna miss him he is so awesome! Two random stories real fast! So, we were doing some tracting and at one door this big black lady answers the door and says, "I don't care who you are or what u sellin'! So you can just take yoself outta here!" And then she slammed the door! Oh the people you meet on your mission! :) Later, we were knocking and we met this guy whose name was....Ant! He was a super chill guy and REALLY into nature! Hahahaha that was one of the most interesting conversations I've ever had in my life trying to tell him about Jesus Christ while he tried to tell us about how nature is better. :) On Wednesday, Brother Vaughn took us to The Latin King, which is a reeeeally nice Italian place, and gave me a going away lunch! He also gave me a really cool painting that had the letter L made out of flowers and all this other cool stuff. Man I'm gonna miss brother vaughn too! He is just awesome. At the church, it was p-day, we were all signing each other's little books and whatnot and it was just a blast but sad seeing everyone in my zone for the last time. :) THURSDAY WAS TRANSFERS!

     Brother Huermann (an older guy in our ward) took us down to Iowa City and fed us IHOP for breakfast! And at transfers I saw elder Hollan and elder Curless! Elder Hollan is in Quincy, Illinois and elder Curless got made district leader in Dubuque! :D I got put with elder Homer and we went to Indianola! We went and had dinner at the Johnson's home and they fed us amazing fried chicken! They are legit and I love them already! Friday, we went to go see a potential investigator named Sam (a nice Asian lady) but we ended up talking to her (American) husband Dustin instead. He let us right in and we just answered A LOT of questions that he had about "Mormonism" and it went really well. We just simply bore testimony at the end and invited him to read the pamphlet and pray about it. He said he would do that and he'd call us if he wanted to meet again so fingers crossed! We then went and met with Christian Whipple (an inactive member) and his girlfriend and we were able to just have a simple discussion with him and try to see if we could help them come back to church. Oh and randomly half the power in Indianola went out for a couple of hours because someone crashed into a power transformer! Hahaha what the dump Iowa?! On Saturday we had a get-to-know you district meeting in Knoxville (about 30 minutes away) and that was hilarious! Our district is just fun! When we got back we went and saw Nathan, a potential, and that was pretty much just a bash. He didn't believe in the Priesthood and his perspective on it was kinda weird and we tried to make it not a debate. It was good though and I hope we answered his questions alright. We then went and tried by john Weir ( a former) and that was just plain weird! We tried talking to him but he would just sit there and give us one word answers and stare at us. Awkward.........it was really weird. Then we were able to go teach the Plan of Salvation to Gerald Conklin ("Conk") and that was really good. He is about 90 years old and a really nice guy. When we reached the part about the spirit world, he just broke down and started crying because he lost his wife about a month ago. It was really sad. On Sunday we had an AWESOME fast and testimony meeting! There are a bunch of members that are spiritual powerhouses in Indianola!!! And then inSunday School we talked about The Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5 and it was awesome! Hahaha in Elder's Quorum the lesson was on strengthening your marriage so elder Homer and I didn't really contribute much. :) Later that day we were knocking and on one of the houses this big college-age guy opens the door and then says "Come on in!" So we did! His name is Joey and he lives with his parents Dawn and Chris. They were extremely nice and we talked to them for a while. :) They even gave us sugar cookie bars which were amazing! They politely declined our invitation, they are devout Catholics they said, but it was just so nice to be able to talk to some really good, humble people! :) And that was the week!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake