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  

Week 48 6-22-15

     Thanks so much Dad! You have no idea what a great example you are to me with all you do for us. :) That's kind of random that they both got struck in the middle of summer, oh well what happens happens I guess. :) To answer your question Mom, ITS ROASTING WITH THE HUMIDITY! Hahaha I go through a white shirt a day pretty much because its so hot! Its a lot of fun though so its alright. :) And that is awesome about the Vocal Point-Disneyland deal! Sheesh Devin has such a "hard" life I don't know how he can stand it. :P You're getting a foreign exchange student! Whaaat? That's so awesome! I wonder what it'll be like! :D

     Well......this week was kind of a long one but hey that happens every now and then. :) On Monday, we didn't really do much because it was raining insanely and was super muggy all day! We met with Jared, the guy who used to be LDS until he was like in 5th grade, and it was basically just him telling us how corrupted our religion is. We'd draw a breath to try to say something and then he would just steamroll over us and keep on going and it was just really frustrating to be honest. At one point he held up the Book of Mormon in one hand and the Bible in the other and said, "My main concern is that these books both preach a different gospel. The Bible is the truth, the light, the way! The Book of Mormon isn't, etc." So it was slightly annoying but the Spirit was like, "Just keep telling him to pray about it. Nothing else you will say is going to work here." So we told him that a couple of times, said a prayer, and then took off. It was interesting because some of the things he brought up really made me think, but thankfully the Holy Ghost continues to guide us to truth and help build up our struggling faith. Lets just say, the Church is true. :) On Tuesday we were able to finally see Bob again! It was going to be the "make-or-break" lesson with him because he sadly hasn't been keeping any commitments and progressing at all. We went in and were lovingly bold as we let him know that he needed to keep his commitments to be able to build his faith and a bunch of other stuff. Thankfully, Bob truly had felt guilty that he hadn't been doing anything at all that we'd been inviting him to do and he resolved to do better. So there is hope! On Wednesday we went on exchanges again with the Knoxville elders! :D Elder Price and I went to Knoxville while Elder Kinikini and Elder Cook held down the fort in Indy. We drove up to Pella and did some finding as well as teaching some lessons to some of their members and it was great! Hahaha so guess what???!!! We went to see some members, the Jorgensens, and there was like 35 people in their home! Some guy shakes my hand and I was thinking to myself, "Man I swear I know this guy's face, who is he?" Then we find out that he is Sister Jorgensen's brother-in-law and he plays Randy in the kid history Youtube videos! I was like, "Oh!" and then we all started laughing! Forgot to get a picture with him though. :)

     On Thursday we had a great district meeting in Knoxville about the importance of the Spirit in our lessons. The rest of the day was sadly uneventful because everything we had fell through but it was still a nice day. :) On Friday, we had weekly planning and we were able to find some really cool potential investigators as well. Saturday, we had to go and drive up to Des Moines for an oil change and that was like the majority of the entire afternoon! We got back and then did some more finding as we got soaked to the skin because of the humidity. It was actually a lot of fun! :) Sunday was just awesome! We had some great talks given in Sacrament meeting on how we need to keep the Sabbath day holy and consecrated to the Lord. Then in Sunday School, President Cook led an awesome discussion on some of the events preceding the Second Coming and it was fascinating! Its so crazy to think that we're getting so close to the end! President Johnson led a fantastic discussion in Elder's Quorum on the importance of following the Spirit's promptings at all times. My testimony was definitely built during that short hour. After church we were able to have a short coordination meeting with President Cook and it was great! He loves the branch so much and does so much for it. :) We weren't able to have very much contact with a lot of our investigators so we'll be trying more this week. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake

Week 46 6-15-15

Wait Todd gave his farewell?! Jordan is home?! AGH!! Everyone is too old this is too weird!!!!!!! Whoa. Josh and Vicki are probably moving?? Oh no why is everyone leaving? Whoa that is so crazy...... I wasn't able to do counseling last wekk but should be doing it again this week I hope. :) And yup Elder Homer and I got along alright but sometimes we just clashed a smidge. Elder Cook and I get along pretty well too so that's nice. :) Well Indianola was Indianola! Great and some random things happening! :)

      First off we saw James on Monday and were able to read from the Book of Mormon with him and discuss how faith keeps us anchored as the world gets crazier. It was awesome! Hahaha James is just such a character! Tuesday was SUPER RIDICULOUSLY hot! Our appointment with Adam fell through sadly so we did a little knocking around the area. We met a lady who....let's just say is not exactly the kindest to LDS missionaries. Hey that's the mission life right? :) We tried by Bob but he couldn't meet at the moment either. It was REALLY hot all day! The Lord does provide though! As we were knocking, one lady (she sadly wasn't interested) gave us a tall glass of ice-cold water which literally saved our lives! It was a total tender mercy! Its also nice to know that there are still genuinely good people in the world too. :) On Wednesday we had zone conference in Des Moines! They installed a bunch of these little devices called Tiwis in our cars. They like monitor our driving and squawk at us if we go to fast, aren't wearing a seatbelt, or are driving aggressively. I haven't gotten squawked at yet, mainly because I'm driving VERY carefully so I don't get reported. :) We had a bunch of wonderful and inspired trainings and we were able to all receive a lot of revelation which was awesome. :) We had dinner with the Hutcheson's that night and it was awesome! Hahaha they gave us some ice cream and I was thinking to myself, "For some reason this smells like coffee," before I ate it. I asked her about it, then we checked the ingredients and found out that there was a LOT of coffee in it! Hahaha she felt so bad! She kept saying over and over, "I'm so sorry Elder Flake! I almost led you down the path of SIN!" Hahahahaha it was hilarious! That evening we were doing some knocking and all of a sudden 4 police cars and an ambulance all showed up at this house like 50 feet away! We were just like, "What is going on?"" Then this random police officer came up to us and asked us if we could kindly leave the area. So we did because it was sketchy!

     On Thursday we went on exchanges with the Centerville elders and Elder Houston and I hit Centerville! We were able to teach an awesome lady named Sister Bairett who is less-active. She also has a dog that can do triple backflips to catch a ball! Hahaha it was great! :D As we were knocking, at one door like 7 dogs all piled on top of each other in the window trying to get at us! We just lost it we were laughing so hard! We were able to set a baptismal date of July 4 with their investigator Joanna too. She has been smoke-free for 6 days now ever since they taught her the stop smoking workshop! Centerville also got put on a tornado watch that night, the wind and rain was crazy! Haha so that night, Elder Houston was taking a shower and I was just in the kitchen when suddenly...it happened! Their entire metal kitchen light fixture randomly fell down on me and sliced my leg open! Haha I was just like, "Ummm...ow?" Luckily it wasn't a super serious cut, just about an inch long and a deep-tissue cut not a muscle. Whew! It was still painful but hey! I didn't have to get stitches! :) On Friday, we felt prompted to knock on a door by a potential and it opened! We talked to a guy named Reed and he accepted the Restoration! He is in his 20s, has a bit of a drinking problem, but has a definite grip on the Apostasy! When we first started talking to him he said, "I always get so confused why all these churches everywhere are always conflicting and never agree on anything it seems like! Why is that?" It was so awesome, we were totally led to him by the Holy Ghost!  That evening we were able to go and teach some less-active members, the Corbetts, and that was a great experience as well. On Saturday not much happened until that evening when we went to the adult sessions of the Des Moines stake conference. It was AWESOME! I saw a lot of members from my old ward in Des Moines and it was so cool to say hi to all of them again! Elder David S. Baxter of the Seventy spoke to us and he was hilarious! He is from Scotland (so he had a sweet accent!) and he mainly spoke about the importance of keeping the Sabbath Day holy.

     On Sunday, we went back for the normal session of stake conference and it was great! The Spirit was so strong. President and Sister Jensen spoke as did President and Sister Okiishi from the Winter Quarters, Nebraska temple. the stake president, President Pence, randomly selected audience members to bear their testimonies as well so that was a really neat experience. Elder Baxter then spoke about how trials and adversity are good and we should "rejoice in them." They really help us to grow the most. It was interesting to think about because I've never been the hugest fan of trials I'll admit. :) That afternoon we were walking around and it started to drizzle. So we put our Book of Mormons (Books of Mormon maybe?) in Ziplock bags and kept going. Then it literally dumped rain on us! We were COMPLETELY soaked to the skin it was great! Hahaha so many people were just laughing at us as they drove by, it made my day! No one answered their doors but we still felt great!

Love,

Elder Logan Flake 

Week 45 6-8-15

     Thanks so much! Yup Elder Cook is a boss! And man is he a talker its hilarious! Well Dad I know its really belated but I sent you a birthday card! Hahaha sorry it took me forever! I'm glad that Dallin and Spencer are starting to get along better though that's always good. :) And yay for rain! That's so weird its like Snowflake has Iowa bipolar weather! :D Thanks for the vote of confidence too Mom and Dad it really means a lot. We're able to meet with some of our investigators fairly decently, but some less than others.

     Well first off we went to the Lake Aquabi state park on p-day! It was AWESOME! It was so cool to be able to just hike around random trails and enjoy nature and feel isolated from the world. :) Man it was great!  We also totally knocked into this guy named Jared who used to be a member! He is now Baptist and he was kind of a basher but in a nice way, it was sorta strange. But we'll be meeting with him next week so I'll let ya know how it goes! Tuesday we went and tried by Bob and Jared again. Bob was SUPER drunk and he couldn't meet at the moment and Jared was gone. That evening, we suited up in service clothes and helped the Foxes with their last big haul of moving the rest of their stuff to their moving truck! They left to Missouri Wednesday morning! It was sad, I'll miss them so much they are awesome! On Wednesday we went on exchanges with our Oskaloosa zone leaders and me and Elder Wardell stayed in Indianola. Elder Wardell is awesome! Probably one of the most genuine and loving people I've ever met in my life! We were able to visit Bob and teach him about the Word of Wisdom! He eventually committed to not buying alcohol anymore! YES! Hahaha it was sort of like pulling teeth because he just does NOT want to give up his beer! But we were able to show him the many blessings that will come as he gives it up so it was great. :) We were knocking and found a really chill college student named Adam who ended up becoming a new investigator! WOO HOO! That evening we were able to meet with Dakota again and teach his fiancée the Restoration as well! They are so awesome! They're already engaged so now we just need to help them get married! :) After a great district meeting on Thursday, we all went to PizzaRanch and stuffed ourselves on the pizza buffet! Hahaha classic elders! We had dinner with the Hansons that night and were able to teach them the FFT (finders, fellowshippers, and testifiers) lesson we just got trained on. It is a program the church just put out to help members become missionaries and to unify us all more. It went awesome! The Hansons were like, "If you ever need to teach anyone, our home is always open to have the lessons in even though we live a little ways away." Sweet!

     On Friday, we went on exchanges with the Knoxville elders and Elder Kinikini and I stayed in Indy. I love Elder Kinikini so much he is probably one of the most laid-back guys I've ever met! We were able to see Bob and found out that he'd gone out and bought a couple more six-packs of beer. :( Bob revealed that he feels he has next-to-no purpose on earth and that he would benefit everyone else if he just disappeared. It was extremely sad. We simply bore testimony of Heavenly Father's love for him and read out of the Book of Mormon some scriptures talking about it. We also were able to help him realize that God and Jesus Christ can help him overcome anything. It was a good lesson just a bit heartbreaking how hopeless Bob was. On Saturday we were able to go and help Brother Littlefield clean up his jungle of a backyard! Hahaha we all grabbed a pair of rusty hedge shears and took on the forest! We were able to get a bunch cleaned up though so it was good. :) Then weekly planning pretty much took the rest of the evening. We texted Kirt and asked him if he'd be able to make it to church and what we got back was 17 texts of cut-and-pasted anti-Mormon material. He pretty much got sucked into some hardcore anti and we had to drop him. On Sunday, Jacob Henry (our recent convert) brought his mom and one of his friends to church! We had a great fast and testimony meeting and I didn't really want to because I'm still not the biggest fan of speaking in front of crowds but I bore my testimony of the Savior's Atonement. We had a great discussion in Sunday School on the Savior's warning against hypocrisy and it was very enlightening! We then had a wonderful talk about grace from Brother Hanson and we read "The Gift of Grace" by President Ucthdorf from this last conference. We had dinner with the Cooks that night and were able to teach them the FFT lesson as well. Haha they are awesome! The boys all love to talk and they were just hilarious! It was a great week! Some sad points but overall it was great. :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake       

Week 44 6-1-15

     Whoa its summertime?! Man that is just nuts! And it sounds like half of Snowflake is taking off! The Goodmans, Rawlins, and the Griffins especially! Sad day... Jared and Bob are doing alright, we're just trying to help them get into reading the Book of Mormon on their own and praying about it. Haha they like to read it when they're with us but forget when they're not with us. So we're working on that. :) Are branch is awesome when it comes to welcoming and fellowshipping investigators! Everyone here is just super friendly and open with everybody! :D A lot of the branch wants to do missionary work more they're just unsure of "how" to do it so we've been working on helping them overcome their fears. The rest of the week was pretty good though!

     Hahaha on Tuesday we were giving service at Helping Hand and we helped a guy load up this big truck with a lot of random donations and we got filthy! Man there were some RANDOM things in there! So after that, we went home and had to change and shower again because it was nasty. :) Fun story real quick: for lunch we had some hot dogs and some bacon and we were like, "Hey! Why not combine the two and have some bacon-wrapped hot dogs?" So we did and it just tasted like a hot dog with bacon wrapped around it, nothing really huge. We were kind of let down. :) All day was really bipolar rain! At one point it was just pounding down! We parked the car and got out and there was no rain at all for about fifteen seconds or so, and then the heavens opened more than ever on us! I was just like, "Umm ok Iowa whats up?" This place has the most bipolar weather I've ever seen! We were able to go and see Bob and we went through 1 Nephi 1 with him and explained it to him. He is doing good with his reading, he just needs people to explain it to him slowly so he can understand. :) Haha that evening, we went to go try by a potential named Johnny that we'd found about two or so months ago (he lives in a little town called Milo and almost never make it down there because of miles) and he has been reading some of the entire standard works! We talked to him on his porch and it was pretty much just him wanting to bash with us. At one point he turned to the part in the Book of Mormon where Ammon and King Lamoni are talking. He points at the verse where it says, "God is this Great Spirit of whom you speak" or something like that. He was like, "See! Your own scriptures say that God is a spirit and doesn't have a body!" We did our best but sadly it just wasn't the greatest. We gave service at Goodwill on Wednesday morning (an Iowa thrift store chain) and that was entertaining sorting through all the donations! Haha again some people just throw away the most random stuff! We were able to read out of the Book of Mormon with Jared as well and he is hanging in there and working on some issues still. But I know that he'll be able to overcome it with the gospel. :) That evening, we went and had dinner with the Childs' and they are awesome! 

     On Thursday we went on exchanges with the Centerville elders and I went with Elder Lindhardt here in Indianola. Hahahaha he is hilarious and has one of the funniest laughs I've ever heard! We found out that we are really similar! It was great! We tried by Bob once more but he wasn't able to meet at the moment. While knocking, this one lady when she found out we were LDS hopped out of her door and started talking to us! She was like, "My daughter just moved down to Mesa, Arizona and she said that she was surprised by how many of her neighbors are Mormons!" We talked to her for probably a good 20 minutes about the Church! She ended up not being interested overall but who knows? Maybe we planted a seed of faith. :) Friday we had zone training meeting in Osceola and it was great! Hahaha Elder Deeds just got transferred there so when we saw each other we were like, "No way!" Then we rushed at each other and he gave me a huge hug! Hahaha I love that guy! The trainings that the zone leaders and sister training leaders gave were definitely inspired. It was awesome! When we got back to Indianola, we were walking to go try by some potentials and we felt prompted to talk to this guy sitting on his porch smoking a cigarette. His name was Dakota and we were able to teach him the Restoration and give him a Book of Mormon! He is in his 20s and a really cool, open guy! Man it was awesome! On Saturday we helped the Foxes move a bunch of their furniture in preparation for their big move on Thursday. This Sunday was their last one in the branch before they take off to southern Missouri. I'm going to miss them a lot they are just awesome! Hahaha before helping them move, we got to help to bottle feed one of their calves. Its been so long since I've been that close to an animal, besides people's dogs and cats that is, so it was awesome! We were able to take our recent convert Jacob with us to a lesson that we had with Bob that afternoon. We again read from the Book of Mormon with him and Jacob gave a POWERFUL testimony of how the Book of Mormon and it was inspiring! Jacob is an inspiring example. On Sunday, we had a fantastic sacrament meeting and Elder Cook and I gave talks! As we were moving the Foxes on Saturday, the phone started ringing and it says, "President Cook" on the screen. I was just thinking to myself, "Oh no I've got to talk." He asked Elder Cook to speak on faith in Jesus Christ and me to speak on grace. It went pretty good I suppose. :) Haha I still am NOT the biggest fan of standing and talking in front of big crowds!! After church, we met with President Cook and had a coordination meeting with him on how missionary work was going. It was great! President Cook is awesome and we were all able to trade some ideas and pray for guidance as to what we can do to better unify ourselves with the branch. Later that evening we were FINALLY able to meet with our investigator Kirt!!! He has just been super busy working crazy hours in Cedar Rapids and the surrounding area. We were able to teach him about the Book of Mormon and he committed to a date of August 2nd! He is such an awesome and humble guy! 

Love,

Elder Logan Flake  

Week 43 5-25-15

Thanks Mama! :P Man summer already??!! That's nuts! Branding looked like a blast! Man Dallin and Spencer look so old its kind of tripping me out I have to admit! Weird.... So the nonmember boyfriend, Ron, comes to church nearly every week yup! Its kind of a weird situation I must admit. :) This week was a little nutso though I have to admit! Good week just kinda crazy!

     First and foremost, Elder Homer got transferred to Kirksville, Missouri! And I got put with........Elder Cook! My district leader from the MTC!!!! Crazy right??!! He is great though! Anyways on Monday we were walking and this random guy comes up to us and goes, "Brothers please listen with an open mind. The knowledge I have needs to be shared." He then proceeded to tell us how Jesus Christ was a master of meditation and that's how he healed people. And apparently the head and the heart of Christ represent different conciousnesses of Buddhism and all this other interesting stuff? He was a nice guy but it was just kinda different. Haha the people you meet out here! :) Tuesday we went and saw Nancy so Elder Homer could say goodbye to her and that was kinda sad because she really likes him a lot. :( That evening, we had dinner with the Johnson family and they fed us some FANTASTIC spaghetti with venison and all this other amazingness mixed in with it! :D They are the best! We shared 1 Nephi 3:7 with them and talked about how the Lord always provides a way to do anything He asks of us. On Wednesday we had good ole' p-day! Nothing really much happened that day as there weren't too awful many people home. On Thursday, the Mcgess took us up to Iowa City for transfers and it was awesome! I got to see Elder Curless and Elder Deeds and Elder Hayden and a whole bunch of other people who I haven't seen forever! Hahaha its always a good time seeing old faces! :) When they called my name I stood up. Then President Jensen goes, "And Elder Flake will have a new companion, Elder Cook!" I was like, "No way!" Elder Cook is a boss though and he is an Idaho farm boy from Shelly, Idaho! (He told me to put that in) :) He is one studly guy though! I like him a lot already! That evening, we were able to go and see Bob and we set a tentative baptismal date with him for July 26! He is pumped it was sweet! He said that he wants to "feel good inside" and I know the Atonement can help him to do just that. :) On Friday we had get-to-know-you district meeting in Knoxville which is always a good time!

     That night, we were walking back home and this random guy drives by and goes, "How are ya doing?" and then drives off a little ways and parks. We felt like we should go back and talk to him so we did and he and his friend he was with are awesome! Their names are Elijah and Crishane and we gave them a basic Restoration lesson on the spot and Elijah accepted a Book of Mormon! Saturday nothing too eventful happened because sadly almost everyone we tried by was either not interested or not home. But I introduced Elder Cook to Nancy Smith and she likes him already which is awesome! Hahaha that night as we were eating dinner, Elder Cook randomly grabbed a rope he had and went out to the backyard and started roping a bucket! Hahaha it was awesome! On Sunday Kirt was going to come to church but he had to cancel at the last minute unfortunately. In Sunday School, Sister Hutcheson led an awesome discussion on how we need to seek for those that are lost and it was awesome! Then in Elder's Quorum Brother Allen led the lesson on the talk by President Uchtdorf called "On Being Genuine" or something like that. It was a powerful lesson though and it really touched me. We were able to see Lois again but she told us that she was not interested anymore and dropped us. It was pretty sad but hey at least she was nice about it. Thats always a plus when they're not mean. We saw our investigator Jared and were able to read the Book of Mormon with him and set a tentative baptismal date for August 2nd! He has some BIG Word of Wisdom issues but we know that he'll be able to overcome them. :) Yesterday, the Cooks invited us out to a Memorial Day BBQ at their place with them, the Kentners, the McIntyres, and the Burrows! Man it was a blast! We had burgers and hot dogs and played soccer, bocce ball, horseshoes, and all this other fun stuff! Our branch is just awesome! But yup that's about the week in a nutshell! :)

Love,

Elder Logan Flake