1/25/16

Hello Beautiful Family!

I think of each one of you often! I love you all very much. Each and
every one of you is so important to me. I am just starting to glimpse
and really understand how important family is. Family is everything.
And you guys are everything to me. Thanks for being so great. I miss
you a tun.

So this week was quite exciting! We worked very hard, and that is most
of the reason of why this week was so great. The formula for a happy
life is 100% hard work + 100% faith in God= HAPPINESS! Give it a try.
It really is amazing. The harder you work and trust God. The happier
you are. But beware of balance:) Too much or too little of anything is
not good. We must all learn the art of Juggling. We did a lot of work
with the French sisters this week. It was great. We went out with them
Wednesday and taught lots of people, I am starting to pick up some
French, but it is much more difficult than Spanish. There was one
sister we taught who spoke French and Spanish so the French sisters
taught her in French and we taught her in Spanish. It was Fun! She
made us some interesting cup of I-don't-know-what that was....
Interesting. That night I also had the opportunity to bless R and
his little granddaughter A. They are from Africa, and don't really
speak a lick of English. Only Swahili and French. So when he asked for
a blessing the French sisters were going to translate, but he said:
"no, God will hear their prayer." The pleasing was powerful and
potent, largely do to the faith of this spiritual giant of a man. He
could not understand the words I said, but I have confidence that he
understood the blessing. The spirit is the universal language that
speaks to every human heart. The faith of that man is astounding. The
next day, we received a call from the sisters and they asked if we
could give a blessing to another French boy in the hospital. Rl
had called one of his friends, and told them of the power of blessings
that he had felt the night before. He knew they worked and he was
reaching out to help a friend. So, we went to a children's hospital,
and met Em and his family. They did not speak English. When we
first got there, we had to wait out in the hall because there were
about 5 or6 doctors in there talking with the family. It was then that
the doctors broke he knew that the boy was going to die in a few days,
and that there was nothing to be done. When we went in it was very
solemn and emotional. Elder W anointed and I sealed. Since the
time we got the phone call to when we laid our hands on his head, I
had been pouring my sound out to God begging to know His will for that
boy when the time came. And I did. But, as it often happens in life.
Emmanuel's time had come. God did not will him to be heeled, and
although difficult. All that I could say, in the blessing, were words
of comfort and peace to his soul. After that blessing, the tiny and
shriveled body of that little boy relaxed and looked peaceful,
compared to his prior distressed state. Before we left, we blessed the
sister. Peace filled the room, and we left with smiles on our faces
despite the tragic situation. Earlier that day, we had gone to the
Phoenix temple with one of our recent converts. I was taught that day,
about the perspective of God. From the temple to the hospital room.
There was no coincidence in the events that happened that day, nor the
order in which they occurred.

Saturday, we were also privileged with the opportunity to go to the
temple with R and his wife that was baptized last week. They
brought the names of their family. R brought the name of his dad
and his son. It was amazing. I got to baptize R for his father
and son. A beautiful experience. Afterwards, he was deep and thought
and he told us that his son and father accepted the work that he did
for them.

So many other miracles have happened! I cannot share them all. I am
sorry! God lives! Isn't it wonderful? :)

I love you. Have a great day!

Elder Flake

1/18/16

Hello Family!

Awesome week. It always is. There is never a boring day out here on
the mission. Ever. This week, we taught A LOT of lessons. The entire
week was just filled with lesson appointments. Which, is great, but
exhausting. The amount that you have to think, combined with the
energy to focus on the spirit is just ridiculous. We had a lot of
really great lessons with some very interested individuals. The work
continues to hasten forward. You all would laugh if you saw me as a
missionary. I talk to almost EVERYONE. It is probably ridiculous.
Cómo, I was just at the gas station, and while we were filling up,
there was this guy in a mini cooper all the way across the way, but I
walked over to him... That was a long walk... And started talking
about his car... And then he just happened to bring up something that
related to the gospel or something, and we asked if we could meet with
him sometime... Like not at a gas station. He said yes, and now he's
getting baptized! What?!? That is a big deal! If we just open our
mouths and be an OBVIOUSLY HAPPY AND NICE PERSON AND A RAY OF SUNSHINE
and God will trust you enough to put people in your path. I LOVE IT!
Try it! You don't even necessarily be a missionary! Just open your
mouth and talk to people. Start off normal, and then God will give you
an opportunity to share something or invite or whatever! That is what
we are trying to do here! We are trying to turn 2 full time
missionaries into an army of 1000 member missionaries. That is how big
the Ward is..... But about 900 of them are less active. Just talk to
people! Friends, strangers, EVERYONE. Sometimes, we worry so much
about not offending people that we never have time to save them. So
save them! What is the worst that could happen?!? They could scream at
you or something? I promise Christ will forgive that for trying to
save them. Anyway, sorry, I am just very passionate ABOUT SAVING
SOULS! There is nothing better.

This week I was able to interview two individuals for baptism. That is
so cool. To see the gospel working in people's lives and changing them
in real time is unparalleled. The gospel of Jesus Christ now found in
this restored church really does transform people. It is doing to me,
and it is doing it to others. I have a first hand experience of both
of those.

We have been helping the French Sisters more and more often. It is
fun. I prayed and sang in French for the lessons and, also, for a
baptism. President was there, and so I might be switching to all
French work, and learn French. That would be interesting. It was quite
the experience. French is very strange. Here is a picture of the
French sisters that have been teaching me French.

Elder Bednar came Saturday! He was here! It was sort of AWESOME! He is so good. 

I love you all! Sorry for my lack of knowing what to tell you about what is happening in my life! 

You are the best family I could ever hope for. Thank you,

Elder Flake

> Dearest Family,                    1/11/16
> 
> This week was crazy awesome. There has been so much excitement down
> here lately! The big college football championship game is being
> played in our area. And so there are people from all over the country
> here. Everything is packed! Lots of people, big blimps in the sky,
> little airplanes flying around with advertisements trailing behind
> them. That has been fun.
> 
> This week, Elder W and I decided to try to teach a person of
> every ethnicity, and race. Just because we can. We ran into this
> Viatnamease guy, who was really interested, and said he believed in
> Jesus Christ, that he would love to meet with us, and all that stuff.
> So we went back the next day. And we talked to the son, and we find
> out that they were very astute Buddhists, it just happened to be that
> the dad didn't speak English. Yeah, that didn't work out so well! We,
> found A LOT OF NEW PEOPLE TO TEACH. The work is hastening. We have way
> to much to do, and way to little time to do it. We need about 20 more
> missionaries in our area alone! The work is really picking up.
> EVERYWHERE. I had an interview with President S and President
> says that it is not so much the area that is granting us so much
> success. He thinks it's me. But it is definitely not. It is God. And I
> am scared to accept even a little credit, because I don't want to lose
> the overwhelming success and miracles that we are having. God has made
> the area that I am now serving in, go from one of the worst, to now,
> one of the most successful in just a few short months. I had an
> exchange with one of the Zone Leaders on Thursday and he was just
> floored by the miracles and things happening in our area. The
> hierarchy for the mission is President, Assistants to the president,
> zone leaders, district leaders, trainers, senior companions, and then
> junior companions. On Wednesday, we also had the opportunity to feed
> homeless women at this kitchen in downtown Phoenix. Since I talk the
> most, they assigned me to give all the ladies their food. That was one
> of the most interesting experiences ever. The things that they told me
> were so strange. We gave exceedingly many priesthood blessings this
> week as well. And it still never, ever gets old. It so cool to just
> walk into hospital rooms without anyone even knowing you, give a
> blessing, someone is healed, and then walk out without saying a word.
> We truly are on the Lords errand. Yesterday, during church, I was
> talking to some Spanish folks, and all of a sudden I see this familiar
> face. It was brother P, a man and family that I knew well from my
> last area up in Eagar. They came to Central Ward because a few weeks
> before I left, their 8 year old daughter had something go severely
> wrong. She was flown down to Phoenix, and on the way down their she
> flatlined twice. This was an amazingly kind family, and one that I ate
> dinner with often. I remember playing and talking to that little girl.
> There is a children's hospital here as well. It is a massive hospital,
> and it just happened to be the one that they went to. Before I left
> Eagar, I felt as if I needed to give her a blessing, but I got
> transferred before I had the chance. As soon as I saw Brother P,
> I went and found Sister P, and when she saw me, she just started
> crying. And she didn't stop. But I hardly even recognized her, since I
> had last seen her she had lost way to much weight. Which she didn't
> even have to loose in the first place. It was sad. The situation has
> been pretty rough on her. Her daughter lost almost all mental
> activity. It was a miracle we found them. We have strengthened them at
> a time when they were alone. And I look forward to giving her a
> blessing. Much more has happened, but no time! I love you all and will
> see you soon!
> 
> Love Elder Flake

Dear My Mostest Favoritest People Ever,  1/4/16

This week was fantastic! I have no idea how I can possibly have so many consecutively fantastic weeks, but I really haven't had a bad week yet! It just doesn't happen! Sure I have bad moments, we all do, but by the end of the day, week, or month it is FANTASTIC! I hope that everything is working well with each and every one of you. So, today is the first day back to school. Man, it feels weird not following the normal schedule, and not even being in school! For 13 years I have had the same annual schedule. But now, NOPE! And I couldn't think of a better way to break the pattern. 

This week was sort of crazy with New Years and things happening. We weren't really supposed to even be out side starting about 6:00pm. New Years Eve. Mostly because downtown Phoenix turns into a drunken mess. But, with our luck, we had some set appointments that we got some special permission to go to. One of those appointments was in downtown Phoenix, and that was quite an experience. It also didn't help that we had the lesson outside. There was this one drunk guy who came over and started trying to bash the Book of Mormon in front of our investigator, but he was so drunk that he made absolutely no sense, and made a pretty big fool out of himself.  But we might try to teach him sometime if he ever gets sober. We had to cancel that lesson and reschedule because it was such a mess. New Years was awesome. We got some haircuts from this really interesting Spanish sister. Hen we went and had a double zone activity. It was awesome, we played sports for about 5 to 6 hours. Then we went home, got ready, studied us some Spanish, and then went and picked up a French man who was recently baptized in the Phoenix Mission, and then drove him to a lesson with the French Sisters that are in our district. He didn't speak English, but I was determined to figure out a way to communicate with him in the car, which, just ended up making him confused. Oye. We sat in that French lesson. And I decided that I really do not like not being able to communicate. ESPECIALLY, when we are taking about gospel principles! But that, combined with learning a new language has made me realize how long and tedious and how much work it takes to learn a language, and to be able to understand and speak. It has given me a new perspective on learning the language of the spirit, and of prayer and revelation. I believe that the language of the spirit is the hardest language that we, as sons and daughters of God, can come to understand and speak. Becoming fluent in that language is the ultimate feat of communication, because that is the UNIVERSAL language. I language that all of God's children can feel and not just hear. Many times in Spanish lessons or even English lessons, the people often remark how they have no idea what we are saying ( probably every Spanish lesson!), BUT they can FEEL what we are saying. That is the language of the spirit speaking to their spirit. And that is the Language that convinces and converts people. It is NOT all the fancy words we say and use. It is the simple feelings that the spirit gives as he speaks to their hearts.

Also, In our area in Downtown Phoenix, there are A LOT of massive hospitals. And because of that, everyone who needs a blessing calls us. So we have the wonderful privilege of giving MANY blessings. They are usually always special and powerful, regardless of how many we give in Acea, the potency of the blessings does not diminish depending on how many we give to those that we do not even know. There was one that we gave yesterday for a man that is 25 years old, had 2 little kids, and who has been in the hospital since September. He has severe condition. And has received over 5 brain surgeries recently. He had hundreds of tubes in him. We could hardly find a spot to lay our hands, but when we laid our hands on his head his eyes immediately opened, which should not have happened due to his sedation and condition. And they stayed opened through the remainder of the blessing. When we finished, there was a light in his eyes. We then left. More happened, but it was so special that I will share it with you privately when I get home. The priesthood is real. It is so wonderful to be able to use it. Like Elder Bednar, I know when there is a power beyond my own, that works in me and through me. The priesthood is real. It grants access to God's power, and if it be in line with His will, you can move mountains. 

I love you all so very much, and I wish you a happy and success full new year. This is the only full, complete year that I won't see you all, but that is it! I will see you next year! See you soon.

Love Elder Flake

12/28/15

 Dearest Family,
> 
> I love you, Despite my
> imperfections, my Heavenly Father still condescends to use me. And you
> wouldn't believe the powerful experiences that he has allowed me to be
> an instrument in. One of them happened Saturday: We were personal
> studying when we got a call from one of the sisters in our zone. She
> said that she had been talking to President , and that he had
> told her that she needed to receive a blessing. (I am not sure why she
> called us, because we aren't even in the same district, and that is
> usually a district leader or zone leader type of deal.) But she asked,
> so I called President and got his permission, and then we went and
> picked up her actual district leader. We gave her the blessing, and
> the words that were spoken were powerful, not because of me, but
> because of the goodness of God. It was, honestly, one of the most
> powerful blessings that I have ever been a part of. The spirit was
> very strong. I know that it may seem boring or a common thing to all
> of you, but it was a powerful spiritual experience that I will not
> forget for a very long time, one that fortified my faith and
> significantly helped it grow. But I think that is the point of grand
> spiritual experiences. They are to personally help you grow. To
> others, especially nonbelievers, the significance is hidden, and it
> seems ridiculous. But to those with faith, they are miracles. The rest
> of the week was really good. It was especially nice to see all of you
> on Friday. I hope the Holiday break is going well for all of you! It
> was, honestly, such an awesome Christmas. We went to the Mesa Temple
> lights with a Mexican cowboy . He is pretty cool. He loved
> the visitors center. And he told me that in two weeks he was going to
> make me a leather Mexican suit like he was wearing, we see what shall
> see. We also met this baptist priest, whom is willing to hear the
> message. That was pretty fun, he lives in the church that he preaches
> at. And so teaching him in a baptist church might be a little
> interesting.
> I love you all,
> Elder Flaco
>