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