Monday, March 20, 2017

Dear Family!                                         3/20/17

What an incredible week! On a mission, so much happens so fast that you hardly have time to even think and process things... so I'm going to have to dig deep to give you a look into the life that I am privileged of living. 

We have been miraculously finding so many prepared sons and daughters of God! They are being led to us and we are being led to them. A couple of weeks ago we were teaching almost no one... our area was rather dead... we were working with one very prepared person named M (a different M than I got to baptize in the Scottsdale YSA). She has been such a privilege to teach. She is so hungry and prepared to learn about her Savior and come closer to Him. Her father is a baptist deacon, and he was a very very unhappy man when she recently told him that she was meeting with us and then later texted him that she was going to get baptized. He gave her a bunch of scriptures and questions that he told her to ask us... to try to stump us. He gave us John 3:16: "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." And John 14:6: "Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me." When she brought those concerns up Elder Bn and I almost started laughing, but we tried not to because we don't want to disrespect her father. So, we explained and expounded all those scriptures and talked about the Doctrine of Jesus Christ. It turned out to be a very faith promoting experience for all of us. Then she got baptized the next week. What a powerful experience! Truly the power of the Godliness is manifest in the Ordinances! Truly the power of the Atonement is manifest in the Ordinances. The joy that is felt in helping someone come unto Christ in this way is so powerful and indescribable. It is a culminating event that is an outward expression of all of Mercedes' Sacrifice and Faith and Repentance and Conversion. It was a true treat. 




We have also had some awesome experiences with others. There is one sister in the Ward who is loved by everyone in the Ward and has been attending for around a year... and she is not a member... yet. Almost as soon as I discovered that, I had an bold goal to confront her ASAP... And we did. After a YSA FHE we were leaving and grabbing a quick drink from the drinking fountain, when she came around the corner. It was perfect! And it was even better because she was alone and her friends usually dilute or divert the subject when we try to talk about teaching her. So we just talked to her and asked if we could just teach her the lessons from an "informational" standpoint. She said YES! And we have had some incredible lessons with her so far, and we are planning on inviting her to follow the example of Jesus Christ and be baptized in our lesson this Thursday at 7... pray for her if you would! And us! We need all the help we can get!. Wish us luck. 

We are teaching several others that we have been finding through their significant others that happen to be Ward members! It is a great way to find! Start talking about their love life over dinner and then teach them the way that they can show their love to their nonmember boyfriend or girlfriend... we have to get creative with these young folks! 

We had some awesome interviews with the President! He is a good man... I love him a lot! 

So much has and is happening! I don't have time or brain power to tell you about everything! I am so sorry! I will catch up next week!

Elder Flake
3/6/17

Mother and Family,

I was finally transferred! But I was transferred to the other YSA Ward
in the mission: Paradise Foothills YSA. It covers all of Phoenix in
our mission, some of south Scottsdale, and all of Paradise Valley.
There are well over a million people in the area we cover.

What a truly splendid last couple of weeks. We had some powerful
experiences. Please forgive me for not writing for such an extensive
amount of time. These last couple of weeks we have found so many of
God's children that really are prepared to receive the gospel. The
week before this last week or two we spent substantial time transfer
Planning, which is basically when Elder B, President Robinson, and
I sit down for endless hours and pray and plan and think about who and
how and when and why missionaries will be moved from one area to the
next. It is a spiritual process. I have learned so much about
revelation and how it actually works with our best efforts. We sang in
church with one of our recent converts, from one of his R-LDS Hymn
Books. It was great! After almost a year in the Scottsdale YSA, it was
over! It is so good, but sad. But the Lord has called me elsewhere! So
elsewhere I will go. We also had an incredible opportunity this last
week to have two brothers from the missionary department come out
proselyting with us and also had a lot of powerful meetings with them.
We had Brother Cates who is the first contact for all MTCs in the
Western Hemisphere come with us. He was PHENOMENAL. He taught us so
much.

We went hiking again this week. This is the Paradise Valley Zone!