5/8/2017

The best problem ever that I was referring to is the fact that our Zone this month has too many baptisms! The Zone that we cover covers an entire stake. And the Stake only has one Baptismal font. This hasn't been a problem in the past because in the past several years this zone has averaged 3 or so baptisms a month. Not any more! The tide has changed! It is amazing the influence of faith has on a Zone. Our Zone is in fire. We are all so close and experiencing miracles frequently. So this month we are planning on having 20 baptisms and the majority of those fall on May 27th, so we're kind of scrambling to find other water sources nearby. That, my friends, is the best problem ever. 

Elder Flake

Dearest Family,

What an absolutely overwhelmingly wonderful and miraculous week! And
I'm not even exaggerating. It was that good. They are all that good. I
have loved every, single day of the mission. I wouldn't trade these
years for anything. Ever.

God moved us mightily to accomplish some pretty impossible feats. We
found out that our drug dealing friend had relapsed, so we went after
him and found him and shared a strong spiritual experience with him,
so strong that he was interviewed by President Robinson yesterday and
he put some things in motion so that he will be baptized on the 27th
of May. There is also a Navajo Native American Sister that has had
just phenomenal experiences with the Book of Mormon lately and is so
excited to be baptized, but she was going out of town to California
again... but we weren't going to let it get in the way again. So we
set up some skype lessons, got the Missionaries numbers over there,
found church buildings, and called her every night. But the most
important thing that we did was prayed. And guess what, on Sunday she
ended up back in Phoenix. She'll be baptized in a couple of weeks.
God's work is hastening! There is a girl named Nicole that is getting
baptized soon as well, she came to church yesterday for the second
time and got up and bore a sweet and powerful testimony that shocked
the Ward and got them so fired up to do missionary work that our Ward
is practically exploding! The passion and missionary spirit is so
strong! I wish you could feel it!!! It feels so great! There are so
many others. The Lord is hastening his work, and we have such a
complete honor to be a part of it. What a beautiful world. Some times
I feel so happy that I feel like I am going to explode. My little
heart can't handle the goodness of God sometimes!

We are super involved Zone Leaders, so we make sure that we go on lots
of exchanges with everyone in our Zone. Usually, Zone Leaders only go
with District Leaders, but we've got a high baptismal Goal to reach!
So this week I went to Vía Verde Ward with Elder Se. It is an all
Spanish area. It was fantastic! We had so much success just talking to
everyone and being beacons of light and rays of sunshine in some of
the darkest, grossest parts of Phoenix. We taught a wonderfully humble
and prepared Family of 4 the Plan of Salvation and invited them to be
baptized. They all agreed! It was a tender moment. They are
sacrificing a lot in every way to be able to join this church. May God
bless them.

Dearest Family,    5/1/2017

I love you.

Ki just got baptized! She is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G. Her father is a an
Elder just like us! Except for the Presbyterian church... but he is a
really friendly guy. Him and his wife came down to Arizona from Oregon
to support their daughter being baptized, we could tell that it was
pretty hard and emotional for them, but they really supported her. We
took them to the Temple Visitors center on Thursday and introduced them
to the church a little more. They LOVED God's plan for the Family
along with the Family Proclamation. Ki is 28, and a ultrasound
technician. She is amazing. She is a lot like you mom! She doesn't
like emotions very much... in fact, right after her baptism we caught
her in the hall so that we could ask her to share her testimony after
she got back into the room. She was so happy. Her eyes were wide. And
she was like this is surreal. She said that she got pretty emotional
right after the baptism and she said that she didn't know what to do,
because she doesn't like feelings! It was cool. God's work goes on.

Elder Flake

4/24/2017

Good morning Family!!!

What an absolutely amazing week! This week was one of the best. We had
the opportunity to exercise the priesthood authority of God a lot this
week. There was a Less Active sister who was allegedly cursed by her
roommate, so we blessed her, her home, and her car. She really
appreciated it. We also had a lesson with one of our investigators
getting baptized in a couple of weeks, and during the lesson, he
started having all the symptoms of a heart attack. Chest pain, The
left side of his body started going numb, he started to sweat, his
mouth got dry, he just started freaking out emotionally, he started to
cry, he was anxious, and he was convinced that he was going to die.
And all of this took place in a matter of minutes, from this
completely normal person. It was an incredibly stressful situation. He
started to talk about dead people and spirits... dark things. The dogs
even started to get anxious and almost started just randomly barking
and growling and pacing outside and in their cages. He was freaking
out. He refused to call for help or go to the hospital, because he was
from Mexico... He had never heard of a blessing and we were trying to
explain it, but he was having a rough time. We eventually where
compelled by him and the spirit to give him a blessing. As we laid
hands upon his head and said his name a contrasting sweet and peaceful
feeling just poured into and permeated the room. We felt him relax and
calm down. Oh, the peace was so sweet! How I wish you all could have
felt it. It was thick. He was completely fine from that point forward.
He kept saying: "look I have no idea what you did, but that was real."
He was convinced that we literally saved his life. And I can't
honestly say that that is not true. God alone knows what could have
happened. After that, we finished our discussion on the Book of Mormon
with the Love of God and gratitude to Him in our hearts. He then
committed to be baptized, and he is in for sure. God is real.
Priesthood authority and power is His, and it really works.

We had a good hike last week. We had a lot of fun!

4/17/17


Hello family!

What an absolutely crazy week. It is hard to believe that it is
already Monday. Where does the time keep going? This week we helped
our recent convert, M's get a job, and the Lord even helped us
with that! Ms is a hairdresser or Salon person or whatever that
is and there is this lady who cuts our hair up in Paradise Valley.
They are pretty good, apparently they are like $50.00 haircuts, but
they don't look to much different then the ones that mom gives! You
could be charging us a lot of money Mother! Anyways, we called her on
Tuesday to see if M could get a job there, because it is closed
on a Sunday and M usually has to work on Sundays. It was wild,
because that day the sister that cuts our hair had to fire someone
from her Salon and needed to hire someone ASAP. So M went over
that day, cut a guys hair, and was hired on the spot. It's pretty cool
how God is involved in the little things. We had the opportunity to go
to the Mesa Easter Pageant, which is the largest Easter Pageant in the
world. It made me think of all of you, because there were hundreds of
people in the cast and there were tons of families watching the
Pageant (around 10,000 people), and believe it or not, but I haven't
really associated with anyone under the age of 18 in a long time. It
is sad! It makes me miss all of you more and more! The Pageant was
inspiring, and several of our investigators went and enjoyed it. We
had Zone Conferences and were fed bountifully by President Robinson.
He is an inspired man of God

4/10/17


Dearest Family,

What a week! We actually had Transfers this week, and I am sticking
around here for another transfer. In fact, our entire zone is staying
the same... mainly because the Stake that our zone covers has been
selected to pilot a program from the area seventy, and the
missionaries are heavily involved, and have already received a lot of
training. Our zone is super tight and we are all very unified and
working on sacrificing and consecrating our all to the Lord. We have a
Zone Leadership Council once or twice a month where my companion and I
get together with our Sister Training Leaders and District Leaders in
our zone. We council together about our Vision, Goals, and Plans of
our zone. This week we had a pretty spiritual experience together in
receiving guidance for how we can inspire and uplift everyone in our
zone.

We are teaching a Presbyterian Korean Pastor. It is interesting. He
has a lot of questions, which make it quite difficult to teach. We
have come to the point that for each question he asks, we just give
him a list of scriptures to read, and we keep adding to the list as he
continues to ask questions throughout the lesson. It is going to help
us see how sincere he really is. Missionary work is the best. We get
to see miracles! Yesterday we had a pretty neat experience: about 5
months ago Elder B and I, as well as several other missionaries
decided to hike Piestawa Peak. When we got to the top, there was this
young Native American woman up there pondering. Elder B and I
approached her and started talking... eventually, we told her who we
were and about our message of Jesus Christ. It turned out that she
lived in central Phoenix, so we got her address and number and sent it
to some other missionaries down there, which were Elder L and Elder
Brn. The last thing that I heard about her was that they had taught
her, but then she moved to Georgia. I don't know how it happened, but
she came back and we got in contact with her again, and we met with
her Yesterday during church. When we met with her, she just poured out
her soul to us on the incredible things that she has been experiencing
in her life. She said that she had begun reading the Book of Mormon,
and then she got the Gospel Library App and started to listen to it.
She said that as she listened that the book really started to come
alive. When 1 Nephi 13 came around she was infatuated. She felt such
powerful feelings that she began to sob. She knew that this book was
from God and that it was powerful. She said from that day she has just
been different, and now the Book of Mormon and God and Jesus Christ
are becoming real to her. They have taken priority in her life. She
said that she feels like Nephi, she keeps trying to share all the joy
and happiness with her family, but they just won't listen. She is a
powerful woman who is converted to the Lord. She is looking forward to
being baptized and coming in full fellowship with the Saints of the
Latter-Days. It was pretty special to me to know and experience how
God has a plan for each individual person. It is amazing to think that
by just talking to a fellow hiker on a hike that she was able to
become converted and want to desperately learn more about Jesus Christ
and the Book of Mormon. It is a beautiful thing. God lives. Miracles
happen.

We had some roommates move in with us! Elder E and Elder Vn.
Elder Vn is from Norway, and he is completely deaf. I love that
guy. He is such a sweet soul. He can't speak... he can hardly read
English, all he speaks is sign Language. That would be quite a hard
life to live. But he is a ray of sunshine. He will be a Mission Leader
for sure. He is an amazing guy. He is 25 and he is a convert. We also
helped some YSA People propose this week. That is always fun... and
surprisingly spiritual. How have he missionary efforts of the Flake
Family been back home?

Elder Flake

4/3/17

Happy day!

LF

Happy day! LF Logan Flake | Mon 4/3, 5:15 PM You image2.JPG1 MB ATT00001.txt2 KB ATT00002.txt2 KB ATT00003.txt336 bytes ATT00004.txt350 bytes ATT00005.txt323 bytes   Dearest Family, How awesome was Conference?!? I love the inspired leaders of this church! They reek of goodness! I remember just looking at each of those men and women and seeing the pure light in their eyes and the sincerity of their expressions. We are so lucky to be blessed with such good people, as well as the opportunity to become good. Anyways, I loved it. Every single minute of it. Be motivated by faith and love! Not fear! The first session we watched with an investigator as he smoked. He is a great guy though, and is changing a lot. We watched the Sunday morning session at the Brewster's. We had called them a couple of weeks before and asked if we could use their house to invite some YSA Members and Investigators to watch Conference. They were very helpful and even went all out and made some savory and sweet Crepe's before the session started. It was so epic. Investigators showed up and loved it. It was a great experience! I'm going to have to take all of you to the Brewster's house some day. They said that they had a place for me to stay if we ever needed to come back to Phoenix. We had some excellent experiences at the temple this week. We went with Mercedes For her first time and she loved it. It was a special time. The temple president even came down and spoke with her... then he told Elder Brown and I that one of us should come back and marry her... that was strange

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Dearest Family,

How awesome was Conference?!? I love the inspired leaders of this
church! They reek of goodness! I remember just looking at each of
those men and women and seeing the pure light in their eyes and the
sincerity of their expressions. We are so lucky to be blessed with
such good people, as well as the opportunity to become good. Anyways,
I loved it. Every single minute of it. Be motivated by faith and love!
Not fear! The first session we watched with an investigator as he
smoked. He is a great guy though, and is changing a lot. We watched
the Sunday morning session at the Br house. We had called them a
couple of weeks before and asked if we could use their house to invite
some YSA Members and Investigators to watch Conference. They were very
helpful and even went all out and made some savory and sweet Crepe's
before the session started. It was so epic. Investigators showed up
and loved it. It was a great experience! I'm going to have to take all
of you to the Brewster's house some day. They said that they had a
place for me to stay if we ever needed to come back to Phoenix.

We had some excellent experiences at the temple this week. We went
with M For her first time and she loved it. It was a special
time. The temple president even came down and spoke with her... then
he told Elder B and I that one of us should come back and marry
her... that was strange