Sister Lindsey Rose Flake

Sister Flake Returns with Honor

2009-11-13T20:24:00.000-08:00

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Friday the 13th of November was a lucky day for us as Sister Lindsey Flake completed her 18 month mission to Vancouver Canada and returned with honor via Delta airlines to SLC and Skywest to St. George to be reunited with her family. There to greet her at the airport were Grandmother Floretta Flake, family Dan, Shelly, Dawson, and Andrew Flake, cousin Angie Breinholt and kids Rilee and Sadie, friends Jayme and Shannon Steiner, neighbors Roger and Sydne Davies and Linda Hatch. The plane was actually early but we were ready for her. She was the last one off the small Sky West plane. She rode to SLC with four other returning missionaries: Sis. Huffaker, her MTC companion returned to Bountiful, one Elder to Preston Idaho, one to AZ and another Elder to Las Vegas. So wonderful to get her back into our arms and home. She was off to an Institute dinner and dance by the evening.

It's November and You Know What that Means!

2009-11-07T15:04:00.000-08:00

Well Heavenly Father helped me feel so loved at church yesterday. To be honest we were praying very hard that our testimony meeting would be spiritually uplifting because often times it gets a little crazy and you wouldn't want investigators there. But we did have a couple show up, one of which it was his first time. So we were so grateful at the out pouring of the spirit at that meeting.... First off Chiara received the Holy Ghost and her blessing was so beautiful. She was told that the angels are rejoicing at her decision to join the church and that she would be a beacon to her friends and a leader in the church. Wow! Sister Barnum and I were touched to tears. She looked so happy! They sustained her at the pulpit and later that day she shared with us that she was worried that the bishop was going to say "any opposed?" haha! We had a good laugh at that! And then Gina and Jeremy bore pure testimony! Her first time! Beautiful! Then Sister Phinney who helped fellowship Chiara talked about how she was having a hard time feeling the Holy Ghost in her life but by having the missionaries in her home teaching the gospel to Chiara she now feels it again and is excited about the gospel again. Then a first nation couple who we helped reactivate in Hope bore their testimonies and in tears thanked those in the ward who never gave up on them and thanked us for coming to teach them and relight the fire for the gospel. Wow! I love Heavenly Father! I felt like he was giving me a big hug! What a wonderful experience to have right before i go home. He loves all of us so much he knows what his children need....and he knew what i needed. He has infinite love....He has blessed me more then words can speak....i am forever indebted to Him..... My heart is full. And how best could he show his love to us? By sending His son to stand in our place! Jesus Christ is our Savior!
Love, sister flake

October 26, 2009 Email Happy Birthday Week

2009-10-27T20:23:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Sis. Flake!

Thanks for the emails and birthday wishes!
This weekend was one to remember! Friday night was Brennens baptism! Lots of people from the YSA were there so see him. And his mom and brother came. And really i am even more impressed with Brennen then ever after meeting his mother. I don't mean this rude but she is completely brain dead from drugs....she can barely talk and walk. Brennen is definitely a transitional character in his family. He could be right there with them, but he has chosen the better path....Its been a long road and it will still be hard with all the bad examples around him, but he has chosen Gods ways and i am so proud of him. The gospel does indeed change lives!
Then Sunday after church was Chiaras baptism! Never have I seen such radiance! Her and her friend Teya stayed up late the night before making a beautiful white baptism dress, and she looked so beautiful and pure! After the service she exclaimed, "I cant believe I'm part of Jesus Christs Church!" Ive never seen someone so appreciative of their baptism.... She really has a deep understanding and testimony.....probably more then many of us who have been members our whole lives! We are truly so blessed to be a part of HIS church!
Prayers really are answered..... Teya had been praying for a long time for Chiara that she would be able to be baptised. What a true friend. Who are we praying for?
I know God lives. His love is infinite! His arms are always extended! He hears our prayers. He weeps when we weep! He rejoices when we rejoice. I have a testimony of the reality of the Savior and His atonement! He is the only way. Of this I know!
Love, sister flake

October 19, 2009 Email

2009-10-20T20:11:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!
I feel so much love for you family! Thanks for your support through out my mission! Thanks for waiting for me to get home before Dawson goes through the temple! If there were two things that i missed most while on the mission it would be my family and the temple! I am so excited! Wow i love the gospel. Sorry the pics you sent didn't work for some reason but the hike sounded like fun. As for my birthday....remember less is more when your on a mission and have limited space. Dad how is it being 50?
Well i would like to tell you a few miracles....... Chiaras dad said yes to her being baptised! I have loved getting to know her. She has such a strong spirit! And this family the Phinneys where we teach her at live out in the country and they are just so much fun! I have really grown to love all of them and feel like they are family! And then there is the Bishop and his wife......they have been so helpful and they share so much love with us. Well we sang at church yesterday..... In Humility our Saviour. I am really stepping out of my comfort zone. Sister Barnum can harmonize so it really sounded nice. I love Sister Barnum! She is such a good friend to me. well we found some new people tracting this week.....it was really a miracle because it was a "No Soliciting" complex.....but we did it anyway cuz we thought it might be fun to get thrown in jail for the gospel of Jesus Christ.....so we found this women and her dad.....earnestly ready to hear truth....the first lesson was very powerful and we are looking forward to out meeting with them Wed. We found two other new people to teach this week too! I love doing this work! I love this gospel it is sooo true! Heavenly Father has shown us His infinite love through giving his son Jesus Christ to us! It is the supreme expression of love! And i feel it when i seek Him and put Him first in my life! The laborer in Zion will labor for Zion!
Love, sister flake

October 13, 2009 Email

2009-10-13T20:08:00.000-07:00

Hi! Sorry we didn't get to email yesterday because it was Thanksgiving. But we thought we would quickly stop in and give you a shout so you know that were alive. We had a Turkey Bowl yesterday with about 50 missionaries from the lower mainland. It was lots of fun! We had a big meal sat. sun. and mon. So we have been well fed:) i guess i will get two thanksgivings this year! That's exciting! Well i will be home in exactly a month. Just want you to know how much I love you! Happy Birthday Dad. There is a card for you in the mail. Sorry it will probably get to you late cuz of the holiday. Oops. Well San Jose, California Dawson! How exciting! You are going to be a stellar missionary! That's great that you are already practicing your Spanish! Wow! Things are great here. We have another baptism coming up. She is 15. Her name is Chiara. She is so awesome. Her friend started bringing her to activity night and the rest is history! Yea! Well don't got much time....i will write more next week!
Love, sis flake

Finally--some pictures from Chilliwack!

2009-10-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

We finally got a disk of pictures from Lindsey. They show where she lives, in a complex in an industrial area, picking wild berries, her current zone, the Vancouver temple under construction and the beautiful coutryside of Chilliwack. Click on the link below to view the web album. She looks very happy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5388553386990846385&authkey=Gv1sRgCMe0wKq3psn7iAE&feat=email

September 21, 2009 Email

2009-10-04T06:35:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!
So sorry about last week. We email at the local college and a biology class was scheduled to use the computers so i only got 5 min. I will try to make up for it now.
As far as i know the open house wont be till May. They want to do it after the Olympics now.
Things are still going amazing. We have lots of people progressing towards baptism. We still get lots of referrals. We even found a family to teach....i should tell you about our first meeting with Jana and Paul. Well we met them while looking for a less active Lady's home and scheduled an appointment with them a week later. So we brought Sis. Tompson, a wonderful women in the ward and we taught the restoration. My companion was reciting the first vision when suddenly we heard angels singing as she Said "This is my beloved son, here him." Everyone had their jaws dropped for 2 seconds until we realized it was their son who had turned on a movie in the back room. It was so cool! Well we had a good laugh and then brought the spirit back in.
Right now I am most excited about Leslieanne, she is a student from St. Lucia in the Carri bean who is living with a family in the ward while going to school. She is 19 and a spiritual giant. She is catholic but felt the spirit at church and is loving this new found truth! She keeps asking "why don't the other churches believe in the Book of Mormon...its obviously true...." :) After a spiritually strong gospel principles lesson she told me....."I felt this strong feeling of love growing inside of me....what is that?" Wow! I explained she had felt the Holy Ghost testifying to her of truth. So she is doing great but is in the process of realizing the church she has grown up in isn't true.
We are also doing alot of reactivation. Found out the bishops goal is to get the ward split as soon as possible. President is wondering if he should send another set of missionaries into the ward to help us out. We are very busy and our area is too big. We spend alot of time traveling. Heavenly Father keeps setting things up for us. He is working miracles here. And i just love these people so much! I'm so grateful to be able to spend my last bit here in Chilliwack with an amazing companion. By the way we have been getting so much fresh produce from the ward members gardens. I don't think I've ever eaten healthier in my whole life. We also have been involved with the Young men, young women, and primary lessons. The ward really knows how to use their missionaries in this ward. And we are tight with the bishops wife. She invited us over for apple crisp the other night and gave us two more referrals. Wow!
And this place is beautiful, and I'm use to the country smell...and dad i think you would like it. Thanks for the emails. Dawson i cant wait to find out about your call. Andrew good job with cross country! Mom I'm glad that you are getting to see fruits from your labors as a teacher. And thanks to Danielle and Steve for the cute pictures of Alexa. I love you all so much! I cant wait to spend time with you. I hope you are preparing for story time with Sister Flake when i get back. There's so much i want to tell you and i have so many questions for you.
Love love love ya! love, sister flake

Letters in the Mail

2009-10-03T06:59:00.000-07:00

Hello Family,
I'm sorry it has taken me so long to write and send pictures. I hope you enjoy them. I won't send any more home after this. but I'll take a bunch more and we can look at them together.
I love you all very much and am so excited to spend lots of time with all of you. So prepare yourself because I will be following you around. I want to cook for you and study the scriptures with you, and talk and play and hike! When this gets to you I will only have one transfer left.
I want to do my best with the rest of the time I have. Thank you so much for the support and the love and prayers...throughout my mission.
Love, Sister Flake
(We also received a letter from her companion, Sis. Barnam)
Dear Mother of Sis. Flake,
Thank you for parting with Sis. Flake long enough for her to be my companion. It was an answer/miracle to prayer to work with her. No one in the group of sisters is more hard working, full of faith, hope, and charity. She truely understands the atonement and works with the Savior, which few missionaries can boast of. I could prattle on forever about your lovely dughter, but I really wrote to you to thank you for the cool PMG-mini style! I love it! I keep it in my bag always! Thanks agin! Love, Sis. Barnam

September 28, 2009 Email

2009-09-28T06:43:00.000-07:00

Well hello!
It's been an amazing week with lots of small miracles and what a wonderful blessing it was yesterday to see Gina be baptised by her husband Jeremy. Their happy family can now go to the temple in a year! Wow! We have many new people to work with! We are really involved with the youth here. We took some Mia Maids on splits with us and now all the other young women are wanting too so i think its going to become a weekly thing! Yea! The members here are so wonderful. They are so missionary minded and that makes a huge difference! What a blessing to be here! I love it! I love these people! I love the Lord! I love the truth! I love you!

Love, sister flake

September 14, 2009 Email

2009-09-19T21:25:00.000-07:00

Hello! Cool picture Andrew! You dont look scrawny like the other guys! Thanks for the news. Sorry i dont write much. Great things are happening i just am getting bored of emailing i guess. I just want to tell you in person in two months. Well anyway. well i have to go! We have three baptism scheduled this coming month and a few more that are very close. we had 5 investiagarors at church.....the class has to use the computers. sorry i love you so much!!!!!!!
love, sister flake

(and another short note from her companion reflects that they are kindred spirits)

Dear Family, We have three solid baptism dates and six progressing investigators. Heavenly Father is truly continuing to open the windows of heaven upon us. Sis. Flake and I are one in the work, even though the opposition tries to bud into a beautiful companionship. He can try, but he won't succeed. It has been amazing to see so many answers to prayers. We have prayed for the power of the Holy Ghost, that we will be able to work WITH the Savior, and that the work will go forward. Prayers are answered, when we live worthy of the answer.

Love you lots,Sis. Barnum

Email September 8, 2009

2009-09-08T20:27:00.000-07:00

Wow! Thanks for the pictures....i want to wrestle a pig too. And little Alexa is soooooooooo cute! Wow.
We have had a spectacular week. But first i must say i am pretty sore right now. Sister Barnum and i did an 8k hike yesterday for pday. We hiked a very high mountain. Elk mountain. very steep and very enjoyable but my muscles have been dormant for a while so I'm feeling it today! Hallelujah that sister Barnum likes to hike!
Well members here keep helping us! I love our ward mission leader and his family. They remind me of my family! Anyway we had dinner at their house on Sunday and the wife spilled a glass of water on my lap on accident! It was so funny! We have a corn roast tonight that will be great! We have had many spiritual lessons this week and we now have thee people in line to be baptized. Two young men from Hope and Gina. Sorry I don't have too much time to write. as you know yesterday was labor day here so we couldn't get into the library.

I love you and I love the gospel!

Love, sister flake

August 31, 2009 Email Chilliwack

2009-08-31T21:02:00.000-07:00

From: Lindsey Flake [mailto:lindseyflake@myldsmail.net]

Subject: Chilliwack

Funny name. Beutiful place. This morning sister Barnum and I went on a walk by the river through the forrest. We found a log and did our studies outside. twas lovely! This week has been miraculus! We met with the non member wife of a less active and she wants to be baptised September 26. Her name is Gina. She has two children and a third on the way. So sweet! The members here are just making things happen. We also met with a refferal we got from the office the first day we were here! They are so eager to learn about the church. Members keep giving us refferals its amazing! Also we had some general authorities here so we went up to Richmond for a special question and answer session with elder Clayton. Neat. I had to give the closing prayer. It was great to learn from them. Basicly life is better then ever! My companion is full of faith and we get along so well.... she is helping me alot. The members here are incredible! Thank you for you prayers! I love this gospel!
Love, sister flake

Hello mother. Well before I forget I don't really care if or when I give my homecoming talk. I don't know that world anymore so you can figure it out and no matter what i will be happy with it. I have had a few ideas about school come to me lately. I am considering going into Psychology(i cant even spell it haha!) and being an art and dance therapist.... i know it sounds weird....but maybe you could look into it a bit for me... well you don't really need to cuz i can worry about it when i get home, but anyway.... well it is starting to sink in that I'm going home soon, but the cool thing is that it is motivating me even more cuz i want to do all that i can and feel like i gave it all i got. Anyway....i love you very much! Oh and thanks for the Hawaii package. I shared with the elders at zone meeting. So sweet of you. Thanks. love you.
love sister flake

New Return Date

2009-08-28T16:14:00.001-07:00

I received a call from Sister Oliver in the Vancouver mission office and they are moving Sis. Flake's return date to Friday, November 13. She will be arriving in St. George. More on the exact time and Missionary report date later....

Shelly Flake

August 24, 2009 Email Transferred!

2009-08-28T16:12:00.000-07:00

Hello Hello Family! I am so happy right now! I can’t even express it! I have been transferred back down to the lower mainland. Chillowack is so amazing! We have the biggest ward in BC and it is a farming town! Everyone here is so nice! And it is soooooo beautiful! My companion is amazing! Her name is Sister Barnum from Las Vegas. She’s just a year older then me and she has her master’s degree in teaching and has been teaching elementary for three years already! Can you believe it? So we do not have a problem with working hard..... Diligent is her middle name! It makes the work so much better when you both want to work hard! So life is just perfect here! Basically we wake up and run down the most picturesque country road with tall corn fields and fruit trees all over the place....and gorgeous tree-covered mountains in the distance....then at the end of the road there’s a bunch of blackberry bushes. We eat all the berries we can handle and then run back. Then for breakfast I have toast with homemade raspberry jam from someone in the ward and a couple of scrambled eggs from a local farm! wow! This is the life....and the apartment is sooo cool. It’s basically a dance studio. For some reason there are mirrors on almost every wall and the kitchen is big enough to dance in! It’s like God created this place for me! Wow! Well anyway we whitewashed the area meaning that there were elders here and we took their place. We have found that there was not much work going on here for the last year due to some disobedient elders....so ever since we bore our testimonies to the ward on Sunday we have had refferals just dumped upon us! Plus we have an area book full of unfinished teaching records that have already been very fruitful as we have been doing phone calls and drop bys. We found out that the bishop had been praying for sister missionaries. and this morning we got a phone call from a women in the ward who said she feels her friend is finally ready to take the lessons....she is the third person to tell us that and its only been 4 days! This is a missionary paradise! I can’t believe it! Sister Barnum and I have seen so many miracles! And I love Sister Barnum so much! She is an amazing teacher and knows how to follow the spirit! We laugh a lot and enjoy every moment! And we have a lot in common including that we both come from the desert and love fruit! Speaking of fruit! We feel that there is a lot of fruit to reap here! We know we have a great responsibility to get this area going.....we would really appreciate your prayers in helping us find those prepared to be baptized. There are a lot of people counting on us right now. It’s been so amazing to see the Lords hand in this work....especially in the last four days. I know this is His work. He is helping all these wonderful things happen here and we are blessed to be His instruments at this time. Thank your for your love and support! I am so grateful for this gospel. I know even more now that Heavenly Father has a plan for each of us and wants us to find the most happiness. As you may know the past couple transfers had been very trying for me. Discouragement was bringing me low....but the Lord has been preparing me...and has now poured out blessings and because I had felt sorrow for a while the joy is so much greater! I love the Lord! He is so good to me! I am forever indebted to Him! Love, sister flake
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Email August 17, 2009 Transfers Maybe?

2009-08-17T20:49:00.000-07:00

Hello i love you!
This is gonna be short because the Pennticton sisters are here. They had a sleepover last night. Katie made us breakfast and we all had companion study together..that was fun! We are anxiously awaiting phone calls from the president. Were all kinda worried because there are three sisters going home and only one coming out.....so that means they are closing a sisters area! oh dear me! Sister Brian says hi.
Well we had an investigator barbecue at a members home. went well. Well that's it for now. I'm doing good..... let you know whats going on with transfers next week i guess.. sorry so short but i cant stay focused. love love love ya!
The church is true!
Love, sister flake

Sister Flake has her Return Date!

2009-08-11T21:07:00.000-07:00

The mission office of the Vancouver, BC, Canada mission just confirmed that Lindsey will return from her mission on
November 11, 2009 in St. George at 11:00 am!!

Augus 10, 2009 Email

2009-08-10T21:02:00.000-07:00

Hello Family!
Wow Hawaii hey? Thanks for the pictures. I really am happy for you. promise. mostly..... haha! Thanks for keeping it a secret for so long so that i only had to be jealous for a short period of time:) The St. George airport sounds wonderful. Thanks for taking care of that mom. Oh and thanks for the package! you are so sweet!
Well its been such an interesting week for me. We taught some young people in thier garage. we met this long haired hippie in front of his house. I noticed he was wearing Ecuadorian pants so i asked him about them and he said his girlfriend just came back from there. so he invited us back to thier garage where his girlfreind and friends were hanging out. They hid the bong under the table as we came in. And we taught them about the nature of "the higher power" and how we can communicate with him. Then we left them the scripture of the day and they invited us back. It was epic!
We had another investigator pass out at the door because she accidently took too much medication. I was super scared but she came to and we got her some water and food and helped her into bed. Wow.
And the last drug story i have is that one of our investigators sons who is only 12 is heavy into drugs. So we treated him and one of his friends to milk shakes and tried our best to pump up thier self esteem cuz they dont seem to have any. His mom and sister came to church yesterday. The little girl was just glowing after primary. She gave me one of the best hugs ive ever recieved. She finally was able to learn about Jesus and she cant wait till next week! i love the gospel! It does wonders in our lives!
Love, sister flake

August 3, 2009 Email

2009-08-03T20:58:00.000-07:00

Well hello dear family.....i have a few quick and important things to say. First off...i know this is crazy but Sister Oliver in the office has already made my flight plans! I wasnt sure what airport you want to pick me up at. I told her Las Vegas....it doesnt matter to me so if you want to pick me up in Salt Lake then you need to call the office and let her know please, and then let me know too! I know its wierd! i feel nervous. Also if you could let her know, or me know the Bishops address...i know i should remember it cuz i lived there...but nope.
Also if any of you get an invitation on facebook from a Jean-Robert(ITs french) then add him and do some missionary work! He is 15, adopted from Haite...we work with him at the food bank and we have alot of laughs together. we are teaching him about God and how to pray right now. i told him about my brothers and he wondered if they had facebook and im not sure so if you do...or mom if you do...then you can talk to him. He is hilarious, you will love him.
Next.....i cant remember when the deadline for efy counselor is. But if its soon will you let me know...or sign me up or something? Thank you.
OK and also if anyone heres anything about fires in Kelowna...do not worry. Yes the forrest all around us is burning, and our ward did a fast that we will be protected, but we are fine and probably will not be evacuated. The westbank elders were on alert but its now getting farther away. We have a red sun! Scary eh? and our car had a bit of ash on it yesterday morning....its so smoky that you cant see the mountains. In the meantime we are asking people to come to our stop-smoking workshop haha!
another thing to mention is the fruit here! wow! There is so much fresh fruit that members keep giving us! Everyone here has gardens and fruit trees! We are so blessed.
Well Keith passed the sacrament for the first time yesterday and i about cried. I felt like a mother or something. Im so proud of him:)
Well right now i am trying to up my faithfullness and dillegence. I want to be doing my very best till the end. I am overcomeing alot of weaknesses and trials right now. Heavenly Father is helping me improve as a person as much as i can before i get home. It kind of hurts.....but i know its what is best. I love this gospel! I know i cant express it the way i would like too....its just so precious to me. I love you!
love, sister flake

2009-07-27T19:48:00.000-07:00

Hello dear family!

Ok I'm trying not to cry right now. i just looked at the reunion pictures and i just want all you Flakes to know how much I love you! And why are you all so tall....and im still short? HOly Cow looks like you all had lots of fun and ya'll better go to the reunion next year too because i miss you lots. Now you can all write me a letter and tell me how much you missed me! Haha just kidding.... Kind of.
Well another inspiring week. Our new ward mission leader is helping us get some good stuff happening here. We started volley ball at the beach on thursday nights. we had a good turn out, despite the rain. And we are starting the stop-smoking workshop at the church on wed. nights. Its a great way to get people in the church and also a really non-pressured way to contact people. People are more likely to talk to us when we ask them if they "know anyone who wants to quit smoking?" instead of "what do you think is the purpose of life?" Plus it helps people to see that we are trying to help in the community and people seem to like that. By the way the word religion is practically a swear word here. We hear this daily "Dont you know more wars are started by religion then in any other way?" Yeah....try getting around that. Peace, love, and Harmony!
But i do love these earth-loving, meditating, good-energied people here in Kelowna. I think that if i didnt have the gospel I would also be doing yoga in the park, backpacking across the country, and cherry-picking during the summer to to sustain me for the rest of the year, not to mention dread locks. Seriously.
Well Katie got baptised down in the states this week. And Tiffany Terry recieved the Holy Ghost at church. Lately we have been helping the members learn to seek personal revelation in their missionary efforts. We have been applying this ourselves in the work and have been seeing many more tender mercies of the Lord as we let HIm lead us. Im very happy to know the true nature of God. To be able to have a relationship with the Father of my spirit and with my Saviour and ultimate example Jesus Christ. Im doing this for Him. For any other reason, i promise i would not have made it this far with out going home. I love Him and want to obey Him for the rest of my life. I love this gospel, it means everything to me. Im happy to stand up for my Lord and teach about Him to all who will listen.

More pictures at: http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=ALBUM&id=5362613215355316209&authkey=Gv1sRgCMTO7IHc07-dDA&feat=email

I love you all ! Love, sister flake

July 20, 2009 Email

2009-07-21T18:41:00.000-07:00

Sent: Monday, July 20, 2009 3:40 PM

Hello people that i love! not much time but i just want to say that the gospel changes lives. we have had a few random phone calls from investigators this week just to tell us that they always feel so good after we leave thier home..... One sweet women, Jewls, told us that her husband, allthough hes heard lots of bad about mormons, likes us to come over because he said Jewls always seems brighter after we leave. And the same women called us to tell us that indeed repentence does work....she says " last night after i repented i slept better then i ever have and the next day i felt calm all day." wow isnt the gospel great? And Jesse when we found him had no belief in God, or Christ, but after being taught the Gospel says he looks forward to praying before bed...he says" i sleep better and feel happier"....and just yesterday we watched Finding Faith in Christ and he told us he feels like Chirst is his friend....... He never understood the whole christian thing...... but when he saw the emotion we had attached to the Saviour he says its easier for him to beieve. I know the gospel is true! i know it with all my heart! The cause of truth is worth everything we have! I love you !

Love, sister flake

July 13 Email

2009-07-15T20:05:00.000-07:00

Dear Family,
I have the faintest memory of writing last week. I'm not sure if i did,but i thought i did. I know that i wouldn't intentionally not write to my family. I might be losing my mind. But don't be worried. I'm sure ill find it soon. Well, first off....i thought i wrote this last week...but i guess i didn't.....Katie's getting baptised in Salt Lake on the 21st if anyone is around that day. Her future father in law is baptising her, thats why they are doing it down there. This week things have been taking off with member work. We found a less active women who wants her non member sister to take the lessons, and a young girl in the ward who wants her boyfriend to take lessons. so things are going great. One of our Jamaican friends, Nigel, came to church yesterday and was really eating it up. Tiffany Terry was baptised last night and her mom who has not been to church in years came and made an instant best friend with another Filipino women at church so now she wants to come every week. And they spent the time after church making Philipino food for the baptism together. Yumm. Frinedshipping is so important! Also Mauro has been 80 days alcohol free and we did a special fast with him so that he can get off the cigarettes. He wants to be baptised on the16 of August. We are so proud of him! There is a family in the ward thathas been inviting him over for all kinds of things... so again its themembers that fellowhip here that make all the difference....if it wasn't for them what we do as missionaries is almost useless... Be a friend......make a difference! Well the Sippels are taking us to the Tressels today. I guess its these old train tracks that are pretty cool that you can walk on and it takes you to all these beautiful views. I love nature so i am really excited. I will take some pictures. Maybe you can google it. Also i found a map at the library of all the cool places that you can hike and bike around here so when we all come back and visit we can hit up some trails. The Book of Mormon changes lives.... If yours needs changing then pickup the book and start reading. I testify that it is true. I know that it unlocks the mysteries of God and gives us the determination to live righteously. We need it. I could go off for days on the corruption of the world that i have seen out here. We must read the book. The world is on a path to a barbaric society where right is wrong and wrong is right. If we do not hold to the rod we have no promise. I love you all ! Stand up for whats right!
Love, sister flake

July 6, 2009 Email

2009-07-07T09:40:00.000-07:00

Lindsey sent a big I Love You in the family email today. She did reply to her last companion, Sister Wong and to her Grandparents.:
Hello!Thanks for the email and i did get your letter! Mahalo! It was great! You made me get emotional. Im glad that your relatitionship is improving! I knew it would.....its just hard sometimes to get used to a new person and a new way of doing things... im not gonna lie i was pretty frusterated myself the first few weeks.....i have to communicate a total different way with sister stevens...im kind of figuring it out now. so things are getting way better! Heavenly Father wants us to learn all we can out here so he gives us these experiences to grow. Well i will find out Jasons address and birthday tonight and give it to you next week. Katie is getting baptised on the 21st in Salt Lake. Tiffanys getting baptised on the 12. And Dans getting baptised on the 18th. he quit smoking! So good job Sister Wong! and guess what? Mauro has not been drinking for two months and he quit smoking last week so we will see how hes doing on that! Whoo hoo! LOve you so much! I will tell Katie what you said. oh guess what? Keith, Eric, and Jason are all getting thier priesthood this month and Keith bore his testimony yesterday! It was so good! wow! I think about you always! love you!
Love, sister flake

Hello Grandma and Grandpa! I got your letter. Thankyou very much! It was great to hear from grandpa too! I love you both so much! What a fun trip you will have! I also heard that in France they dont like Americans. But they do love Canadians.... Someone told me that if you go there you should wear a Canada pin because they will treat you much nicer if they think you are from Canada! Ha ha! Well have a wonderful trip and take lots of pictures! Love, sister Flakep.s. my companion has a great attitude and a great capacity to love! She says she knows the Capners.

June 29, 2009 Email

2009-07-01T21:25:00.000-07:00

Well Hello!
I'm an auntie! Holy Cow little Alexa is so beautiful! Thanks so much for sending the pictures. I kinda got emotional. You all look so happy and that makes me happy. She is so cute. Well I'm so glad that it all went so well! Congrats Steve and Danielle! Yippee! Oh and i forgot to thank you for the package last week mom. I'm so grateful for your support. My companions mom passed away when she was 13 years old...so she appreciates the support too. Thanks so much. I love you all so much!
Well things are going good here. We got the new ward mission leader that we have been praying for! He is on fire for the work so that just pumped us up a lot too.
The weather here is absolutely amazing and there are so many tourists around town. Its neat to meet people from all over the world. Today for Preparation Day we are going to play basketball with Keith. The 13 year old who was baptised last month. That will be fun! This week we spent most of our time tr acting down part-member families. Some our nice, some our rude, and some our crazy. So President asked us to concentrate on member work. So its been a little discouraging because i feel like were not working as hard cuz were not contacting or tracting every waking moment, and were not seeing much success at it right away......but president promised that it will work so we will keep going at it. People seem to be really afraid to share this with their friends...How can we help the ward members be missionaries? Any suggestions? Well anyway....I am grateful for the scriptures. They are a treasure in my heart. They help restore peace to my soul every time I feast on them. And I also like marking them.... its one of my only creative outlets. Ha ha! They are becoming very colorful. I think you can tell a lot about a person by the way they mark their scriptures...just a random thought that came to my head suddenly.
Well i have a lot to learn and i am trying very hard to be all that Heavenly Father wants me to be. I just want to please Him. I'm trying to be obedient as I can. I want to show the Lord how much I love Him. I know that we are all continually indebted to Him. How grateful I am for my Advocate with the Father, my Savior, my Redeemer, and my Freind.
Love, sister flake

June 22, 2009 Email

2009-06-22T21:03:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Still no baby? Hang in there Danielle! What a wonderful gift life on earth is! And to be able to make it through it as an Eternal Family! The blessings of the true gospel are infinite! We can be sealed as families! Its incredible! And when we put God first He is "bound" to bless us. I worried about leaving my family for so long and didn't want to miss anything back home.....but as i ponder on the forever eternal life that i will be able to have with my family i know that this year and a half is such a small token to give. I mean think about it....forever..... it makes sacrifice here seem so small......think about a trial your having....and now picture that trial in relationship to Forever...... We are so blessed! And everything that is unfair in this life will be made fair in the next. well anyway..... Guess what? we got a new ward mission leader and he is stoked off his hinges to have the calling! we are so happy!!!!!! He is a convert to the church and then served a mission a couple years later. Before he joined our church he was about to start his own church because he didn't agree with the doctrines he was learning in other churches. Then he met the missionaries and the rest is history. So with him and the new things we are applying from zone conference this area is going to fly...and its going to fly high! With faith in Jesus Christ. Also i know that i have so much to improve on....i just want to do my best for the Lord....and you would think that i got it figured out by now since I've been out a year....but i need help. i know i need to relax more and let the Lord take control. I am learning alot and i am learning that i have alot to learn. What have i done with Christs name? The gospel of Jesus Christ is restored to the earth!
Love, sister Flake

June 15, 2009 Emal

2009-06-15T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hola mi familia!
Thanks to all who supported me in the form of an email this week. It is much appreciated. Sorry bout your experience in Wyoming boys. Glad that your scriptures were safe Dawson. Sorry Justin that your PMG was stolen....priceless i know. But you're all still alive and you still have the gospel. :) Well I'm about to be an aunt and that is exciting. Please tell her hello and give her a kiss for me.
So just a quick update....I'm still a missionary..... We work hard.... We teach and testify often.... Its great! So Jason was baptized. It was marvelous. Remember Dan? Well we had to hand him over to the elders cuz hes actually in their area but he chose July 18th to be baptized. He already has the gospel glow! We are working on some new ideas for getting referrals from members. Any ideas? Begging doesn't work. haha! just kidding!
well today the Sippels are taking Katie, Sister Stevens, and i mini golfing. Wont that be fun?
Well this week I am very grateful for the priesthood. We were going through a bit of a stressful time and were able to receive blessings from Brother Sippel. It helped me feel peace and be reassured of the love and plan that God has for me. And brother Sippel respects and honours his priesthood. Before he gave us our blessings he went and shaved and got on his suit. What an example of respect that we should have for the power and authority to act in Gods name. I will always remember that.
Missionary work is kind of like a pineapple:) Mostly sweet and delicious but a little bit hard in the middle. I'm grateful for the hard parts though. I know its growing me as a person. And I'm grateful to be able to suffer a bit.
"If it so be that we suffer with Him, For i reckon that the suffering at this present time is not worthy to be compared to the glory which shall be revealed in us." Romans 8.
The church is true!
Love, sister flake

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June 8, 2009 Email

2009-06-08T20:59:00.000-07:00

HI!
What an exciting week! Well first of all today sister Stevens and i got pedicures from a lady in our ward! Wow. What a sweet women trying to share her talents to help the Lords work go forth! and guess what? a women she works with heard her say my name and told her that i called her a few weeks before out of the blue.....when she told me the woman's name i realized that it was this women that we called because we thought we found her cat that we saw on a poster......and it wasn't her cat but i then continued to talk to her and taught the first lesson over the phone....so we are going to try to meet up now to teach her again.... did that make sense? Anyway....the Lord works in mysterious ways. Well guess what? while we were doing surveys and contacting people at the park we received a bit of persecution. Its fun to talk about now...but while it was happening it was not that cool. So this one guy i was talking to i could tell was not interested but just wanted to share his opinion....so i said goodbye and then he walked away and came back later and walked back and forth in front of our survey table singing very loudly this awful Satanic song as he was listening to his earphones. Of course people were wondering whats going on and i was trying to bear my testimony to this other guy who was basically crying as he was explaining his desire to have God in his life.... and i just felt the most terrible feeling.....and i was praying in my heart that he would leave......and he finally left after coming up and interrupting our conversation saying" don't take this personally. i just thought it was the perfect song for the occasion." yikes! evil. and then a couple of other guys said some terrible things about the church.....so anyway....... Satan was trying to get us down because of what was going to happen later that night...... We met 6 Jamaicans who are living in a house together saving up money to send back to their families in Jamaica. Bro. Calvert came with us to the appointment and it was the most spiritual experience of my whole mission. We taught the restoration and the spirit was thick. They are so humble and sincere and by the end of the lesson they couldn't wait to get their hands on a copy of the Book of Mormon. Please pray for them....The Lord wants them.
Also earlier this week we were walking down the street and started talking to a young guy and asked him the purpose of life...he looked at us inquisitively and said that was actually what he was thinking all morning as his close friend died two days earlier.....we walked to the library to talk more..... we taught about God......he didn't know He existed....... until the spirit overwhelmed him as we told him the love that God has for him and that he lived with Him before he came here. Tears streamed down his face.....and mine...... and he then told us he had been walking since early that morning and was feeling so heavy.....and he then said "now i feel so light." Now Gunnar knows God.
I cant express the love and gratitude i feel for my Father in Heaven. There is no greater feeling then knowing that you have been an instrument in His hands. My relationship with Him is real.... and is everything to me. This is His gospel...it is true, no power can stop His work! I love my Savior and Redeemer. He lives and His atonement is real.. its real for me, its real for you..and its real for your neighbor down the street who does not know about it. Go tell them. Love you all! Love, sister Flake

June 1, 2009 Email New Companion

2009-06-01T21:20:00.000-07:00

Hello my dearest people that I love! What a week! First of all, my dear sister Wong has been transferred to Richmond (which is 80% Chinese) to speak mandarin. And yes I did cry when she left. Wow I really love her. Saying goodbye at the airport was difficult. So now I have a brand new missionary companion, Sister Stevens from Tremonton, Utah, fresh from the MTC. She’s teaching me a lot. She is a twin and the youngest of ten children. She is really athletic so that’s nice, and a very hard worker. She really catches on quick. It’s been great so far! We work and forget to eat and drink, and wear sunscreen.....i love that! But we both are pretty burnt from four hours of contacting at the park. But the Lord blessed us with lots of potential investigators.....
Oh yeah! on Monday sister Wong and I finally were able to commit Jason to baptism....I’m not sure if i even told you about him...missionaries have been teaching him for 6 months, and he was really stubborn, his wife is a member but has not been active, they have a cute little daughter named Kaylee... We have been meeting there almost every Monday night....two months ago we told him we couldn’t come over anymore until he went to church, we have always invited him but he never made the effort, so we had to be bold. We were not sure if he would do it.....but he did! and he’s been going ever since....and now he will be baptized on the 13th! Whoo hoo! As he started really trying hard to come to a conclusion about the book of Mormon his life began to change! It saved their marriage and even people at work have made comments to him that he seems different! The gospel really does change lives! Please pray for their family that all will go well till the baptism....Satan likes to stop people whatever way he can.
Keith received the holy ghost at church yesterday :) we also recommitted Tiffany for baptism on the 4th of July (it’s not a holiday here).. So things are going very well here. Oh and something kind of crazy. Katie’s dad kicked her out of the house because of the whole Mormon thing.....so she is living down stairs here at the Sippels house.....so she has joined us for dinner appointment and running in the morning....it’s kind of crazy.... its only temporary til she can find another place. But its fun getting to know her more. and the ward has really reached out to her here. The Sippels are so nice to let her live here. So lots going on here! But i love it! Thanks,

Love, sister flake

Dearest Sister Flake,
I just want you to know how much I love you and miss you! I shall write you soon. I came to realize you did teach me a lot since I am no longer with you. You better write me soon too...lol I miss laughing with you. Hope all is well with you and Sister Stevens.
Love, Sister Wong

Email May 25, 2009

2009-05-25T21:40:00.000-07:00

Well hello everybody!
Good to hear from all of you! Congrats on the excellent grades bros! And yea Dawson you are done with high school! How does that feel? I appreciate the pictures you sent. Well i love you all and are so proud of you!
Well this week was the most stressful of my whole mission i think. But the Lord is helping me learn to cope with stress. So basically we changed the baptism date for Keith and Tiffany about five times. We were having the hardest time coordinating with parents and with leaders. Anyway it was a big mess. But what happened is that Tiffany will be waiting for her dad to be prepared to use his priesthood so he can baptise her....probably in a month or so. And we ended up having Keith's baptism on Sunday. So all this stress kind of building up was finally washed away as we watched Keith wash away his sins in the waters of baptism! Beautiful! The service was beautiful! We had the youth do the talks and prayers and it was awesome to see how they are so accepting of him. And Keith's mom was there and was really fellow shipped well so we will be working on her, as well as Keith I'm sure. So Keith bore his testimony after the baptism and tears of joy just filled my eyes! The Lord has great things prepared for him. Last week he told us that his class mates and teachers were all throwing questions at him during class when he announced to them that he was going to be a Mormon. He said he was surprised because he was able to answer all the questions. He has so much courage and i am just so pleased with the strength of character of the youth of the church today! wow!
Also Katie went to six hours of church yesterday. She really just thirsts after knowledge! Teaching her has been such a blessing....and like i said before....shes teaching us too. I love the people here. I love teaching people of their true relationship with their Heavenly Father. There is no other message other then the true restored gospel that could get me to walk up to crazy looking people of all walks of life and bring up something as controversial as religion. This gospel means everything to me! I know that this is Gods church!
Love, sister Flake

2009-05-18T22:05:00.000-07:00

Well hello! I love you soooooo much! Just a few points of business before I get started...I did receive the memory card...thanks a ton. I hope you enjoyed the pictures I sent you. So did Fusi give you a call? I got an email from her. Which is crazy cuz i was thinking about her the other day? You remember her right. The one from Tonga...or Samoa...can’t remember, she lives in the Boulders and I use to pick her up for church. Well I can’t email her back cuz of the new rules....but can you get her address for me...or give her mine? Thanks so much! Mom I just wanted to say I got the pictures you sent and you look beautiful, and Sister Wong thinks you’re pretty too. You look pretty too dad! HAHA just kidding.....anyway my brothers are huge its kinda scary... how am I gonna keep up on bike rides now? No chance.
So anyway ....life here is great! We had a miracle this week. We met with Keith and asked if we could talk to his mom. At first she said " no he doesn’t need to be baptized, has already been baptized in the Catholic Church." Then we kept talking to her and 5 min later she said she needed to think about it....then we talked a little more about authority and showed her the Strength of Youth pamphlet....and then she said" ok let me check my schedule." Wow! Isn’t that great! She agreed! So Keith and Tiffany will be baptized this Saturday! The Lord answered our prayers...and thanks to all of you who participated in those prayers. Faith in Christ works miracles! So then we had another great miracle from God. Remember about a month ago when I told you I had to buy new Nikes cuz my feet were having problems? well when we were in that store at the mall on Preparation day there was a couple there and the guy was like" hi sisters" and we were like "woa, oh hi" cuz that doesn’t usually happen....so found out he was a member from the states and his girlfriend was not a member from Kelowna (long distance relationship).....so we asked her if she was ready to meet with the missionaries?...haha....and she declined but was very friendly. Well....we forgot about it till last week when we got a call from the office with this girl, Katie Turner as a referral! WOW! So we met with her this week and wow! She is amazing.....she has already been going to church with her boyfriend in the states and came back so she can get a visa and meet with us so she can be baptized! So we asked her how she feels about the church so far....well basically she bore her testimony and we were all teared up as she explained how the first time she walked into the LDS church she was filled with an overwhelming feeling of the spirit....she said she felt like she had returned home! She knows it’s all true.... She is already in Alma and she has notes on every page with things she has learned and questions for us..... she also came to church with us and answered most the questions in gospel principals...the ward members were like" do you want to get baptized after church?" ....she is on fire with the spirit! Amazing! I feel so privileged to be a part of teaching her....she is an elect daughter of God....she grew up in the catholic church...her family is strong catholic....she was frustrated with her church because every time she would ask questions they would tell her "that’s just the way it is....don’t worry about it." so any way she will be baptized in June and she is so amazing and such a great example and faith builder for me! And please pray for her family because they are kind of mad about her investigating the church...The gospel is true and the spirit is real! Love you all!
Love, sister flake

Click on the link below to see more of sis. Flake's photos from Kelowna.

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/sredir?uname=danflake&target=PHOTO&id=5337314724488462914&aid=5337314581196355041&authkey=Gv1sRgCNuYyZn44KfsUg&feat=email

May 11 Email and Mothers Day phone call

2009-05-11T22:08:00.000-07:00

Hi Friends and family,
We had a delightful visit with Sis. Flake on Sunday morning. She sounds like all is going well. She loves her companion Sis. Wong. They go to the church and dance once a week for exercise. Sis. Wong likes to shop and likes Sushi. Good thing that Lindsey likes that too. They are in a very beautiful area and she says that they are just wearing sweaters now that it has warmed up. They live close to the church and there is just one ward in their area. She will have been out one year on the first week of June. She should be returning in November.

May 11, 2009

Oh how wonderful it was to talk to you yesterday! Wow! you are all as amazing as i remembered. Thank you for your much support and encouragement. what a blessing. and i cant beleive that the next time i will talk to you will be face to face. AHHhh! oh yeah before i forget.. .yes mother i do have another memory card and yes please send me the other one and then i will send you more pics. and Happy Birthday mom!
So my companion and I are of one heart and one mind....yesterday at church sister wong introduced herself to someone: "Hello, im sister Flake" haha it was so funny once she realized what she said. And i wrote my presidents letter yesterday and put down her name instead of mine on accident. We definately have unity. Speaking of unity...this is what we are focusing on as we teach members at dinner appts. "Now ye are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citezens with the saints and of the house hold of God." So we ask: What makes a stranger turn into a friend? we want to help our ward be one and welcome everyone. sometimes we can get caught up in just going and talking to the same people....but we need to make sure that no one at church is a stranger. So we have been challenging every family to say hi to one new stranger every week untill there is no longer strangers or foreigners at church. i extend the same challenge to any of you that may be reading this right now. We are all brothers and sisters. Lets act like it. UNITY! ..........ZION! its a wonderful thing. i just felt like i was making a commercial....ha ha.....anyways....
I dont know what to talk about other then the church is true and we have investigators who are progressing.... after church yestday i was talking to Keith ( the 13 year old investigator) so i said "hey Kieth is this really the true church" and he said "yeah"....and i said " how do you know?" and he said " everytime i pray and ask God about it i just feel to good." and it is my testimony that it is so good....every bit of it. I just love rejoicing in this glorious gospel. Keith also offered a simple and beautiful prayer at our last appointment....." please help my mom to let me be baptised so that i can recieve the priesthood, and the holy ghost, and live with you in the Celestial Kingdom." How beautiful and simple it is. And we have it! Take a minute and think how blessed you are to have this. Who can you share it with? Pray and find someone today. well thats all for now...until next week....love, sister flake

May 4 Email

2009-05-05T16:22:00.000-07:00

News from Sister Flake in Kelowna, BC, Canada

Subject: This is God's work!

OH my goodness! I feel so blessed to be a part of this great work! Things have really taken off here! It's been a spiritually powerful week! At zone conference president inspired us to challenge more people to be baptized...not to wait tell their ready...but to challenge them to be ready....so we asked almost everyone this week and we now have two people being baptized on the 23 of May! Well i don’t think that I have told you about them yet. Tiffany is 12 years old. Her father is a member that hasn’t been to church for years because of work..... but we have been teaching her and her friend Keith who is 13 and had interest. So we have been teaching them for about a month and they are so wonderful. I love teaching them. They both came to church yesterday and they are already excited to be involved in the activities and the youth really engulfed them! Yea for the wonderful members of the ward. One little problem is that Keith's mom is Catholic and has not agreed yet. So please pray that she will soften her heart and allow him to be baptized! He received his answer about the Book of Mormon and started reading it at school during reading time. His friends have tried telling him bad rumors about Mormons and he was strong enough to resist! WOW! For the strength of youth!
Also pray for Mauro....he is one of those eternal investigators...he wants to be baptized so bad but he is an alcoholic.....but this week he called and said he is done with the beer! He said he was drinking and looked at the beer he was holding in his hand and as he read the brand of beer he was determined to change....the can read "Hells gate" clever brand name eh?
Now to tell you of some answered prayers. I told you how our ward is in the "way older" category...and most our investigators are young....so we have been going to the other ward to find fellow shippers. Well yesterday at church we had 9 people in their 20s move in to sell security systems for the summer! We already have two of them coming to appointments with us this week! WOW! The Lord is so amazing! what a huge blessing! And Dan came to church this week. He's praying for a baptism date! and then another amazing thing that God did for us ....we had scheduled two appointment at the church Friday night....not knowing that the other ward had a convert baptism scheduled that night as well. (the elders forget to tell us those things sometimes) but anyway God knew...and it all worked out because Dan and David got to be at the baptism and the spirit was powerful as usual! Thank you Heavenly Father! So as you can tell I am very happy and being a part of this great work is so fulfilling. I know that this is God's church! I know that Joseph Smith was a prophet! I know that God is with us in this work! The gospel is true....you better believe it!

Love, sister flake

April 27 Email

2009-05-05T16:20:00.000-07:00

So i am writing today because we had zone conference yesterday. wow! we learned about how we can get to the "boiling point" in our areas. I learn so much from president and his wife. and i love testimony meeting. we have three recent convert missionaries in our zone! Their testimonies just blow me away.... i am so grateful to be working with one of them... sister Wong is so wonderful. i just cant say enough good about her... we really feel unity together and it is a huge advantage in our teaching. we have had many opportunities to be bold....and the more we lay down the line for people the more success we are having!
my goodness! I have never felt so much desire to serve! Things are really climbing here! We had loads of new investigators last transfer and now there are a few who are progressing! we had two come to church actually! It has Begun! the one guy, Dan, just got out of jail and has had a major change of heart. He wants to be clean of his sins! So that’s going well because there is a man in our ward who went through a similar lifestyle before joining the church that is fellowshipping him....so what a blessing! the other one that came to church is the husband of a less active....Jason. They have had missionaries over for months now but he has not progressed....sister wong and i didn’t want to waste Gods time so we told him we would not come teach him until he come to church. and guess what....he came! and we challenged him to be baptized....so he said he would pray and let us know. Yeah... he has a problem with Joseph Smith....we told him.... "you can not receive a logical answer to a spiritual question." so we are excited about him.... well i will tell you about others next week. i love this work! I love bearing testimony! The gospel is so true! I know that God is there and Christ is our Savior!

love, sister flake

April 20 Email

2009-04-21T21:45:00.000-07:00

Thanks for the updates Family! Sounds like the weather is great down there. Its warming up here and people are a lot more happy....including us :)
Well we had really neat experiences this week finding people to teach....i love talking....you may have already known that....but i know that we really surprise almost everyone that happens to walk on the same street as us because we greet them with huge smiles and just talk to them as if they were our brothers and sisters...oh wait...they are....anyway lots of people have really surprised looks on their faces when we start talking to them. And then we have wonderful conversation and i am just having the most fun time talking to all these people. and I'm learning so much about culture, religion, philosophy, communication, and even drugs. haha! yeah and all in the same conversation haha! so its like college only interactive learning!
anyway.... i have to buy new tennis shoes today because last week we started jogging for exercise and i got really bad shin splints because my tennis shoes lost their cushion. Oh and something funny...i found out from Sister Nelson that i am the richest missionary in our mission! Yeah she actually told me its a big problem and that i need to start spending the money in my account...haha! I guess i really did learn something in young women's and relief society about being frugal. its such a funny word....
anyway i have to tell you about these Filipino's that we tracted into a few days ago. we started tracting their complex early in the afternoon but decided that contacting would be better cuz no one was home.....so that night we came back to tract that complex and the second door we knocked on Rochee from the Philippines opened the door and invited us in!!!!!!! holey moley! and so we started sharing the restoration with him and this other women who lives there and guess what he said? " i knew that i was supposed to let you in when i saw you at the door....i can tell you are messengers from God." The spirit was so strong.......we will teach them this week......this is something that has never happened to me before and i was beginning to think it only happens on foreign missions. But i guess they are foreign so maybe that's why...they are so humble and kind! wow! and also we are teaching Javone from Jamaica who is also very humble. But Dima from Russia is not so humble....anyway....its so neat to be teaching so many different people. well anyway i am so grateful for the gospel. It is so true and it makes me so happy. i love you all! Keep up the good work!
love sister flake

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Easter Letter April 13, 2009

2009-04-13T21:49:00.000-07:00

Hello family!
Hope you had a happy Easter. Guess what? We went to a member’s house for dinner on Easter and they made the same dinner you always make mom! Ham, potatoes, homemade buns (Canadian for rolls), and even angel food cake! Can you believe it? So that was nice and yes I got the wonderful Easter package on Saturday. It brought us great joy. Especially that little squiggle pink thing. Funny! Oh and those shirts are so cute thank you. And that’s too bad about grandma’s package....but I wouldn’t want too many packages at once anyway:) So thank you for making sure that I feel love and support.

Well we volunteered for the community on Good Friday for their annual pancake breakfast and Easter egg hunt. The Victory Life church put it on. There were thousands of people there and it was so fun to help out the little children. I got to stamp hands. and it was a beautiful spring day. My only complaint is that the music was Christian rap which I think is an oxymoron. Yeah I felt that it was disrespectful and we were not the only Christians who felt that way. Other volunteers agreed with us. Anyway we handed out a few pass along cards while we were at it. Also we saw this drama about Christ’s crucifixion and resurrection. It was kind of like interpretive dance celebrating the resurrection. and to tell you the truth because of the rock music and the interesting interpretation of Satan I actually felt a total absence of the spirit.....it actually really affected me....probably more so because I appreciate the art of dance so much.....anyway....I just felt even more so the importance of having the whole restored gospel with the Holy Ghost to back it up. We go to church to keep covenants and not to be entertained. The Lords church and organization is perfect and does not change. Even as the world changes and new things become popular our beliefs, doctrine, and worship will remain the same! Have you ever realized what a great blessing that is?

Anyway....we are continually finding many new investigators and now have great member fellow shippers to help. It makes a huge difference! We finally have some people progressing! Keeping their commitments! Yea! I will give you more details next week! Thank you for all you do! Love you so much!

Love sister flake

April 6 Email

2009-04-06T19:49:00.000-07:00

Thank you all for your love and support and prayers. Sister Wong and i have been truly blessed! Its been an amazing week. The Lord is helping us do hard things.This week we had two people at the food bank with the desire to learn about our church. So we already met with one, and the other we will meet with this week. So far so good. The stronger our faith and confidence in the Lord the more He just places people in our path. Its so neat to see. Tracting has really been paying off for us as we received four new investigators again this week! Wow the Lord is so wonderful! Well we have still been helping that single woman with the seven kids. This week we painted her basement. It was fun and we have built a relationship with her six young sons. I love going there cuz they remind me so much of my little bros. They would make such good Mormon boys. I wish that Dawson and Andrew could come out here and fellowship them. Well the great thing is that the mom fed us dinner and told us that one of these days we should just come over to talk and not to work.....so that is a great opportunity that we have been praying for. I will keep you updated!
Anyway i really loved conference! Holy cow did anyone else feel that wave of the spirit when the choir was singing "We thank thee oh God for a Prophet" and they started showing the pictures...wow the spirit was incredible. and it answered a question for me for an investigator that i will share with him this week. His name is Dima and he is from Russia. anyway he is all philosophical and was suggesting that an answered prayer or feeling the spirit just comes because you want it to and attract that feeling into your life....but its not a real answer...blah blah blah...etc... anyway i thought about it and could not come up with a way to explain it..... but while in conference and the song was being sung i was just sitting there listening to the beautiful music and thinking about the many different hairstyles of the women in the choir...not asking for or expecting any spiritual manifestation then all of a sudden whoosh! The spirit flooded my body and tears filled my eyes. so i want to share that experience with him and testify to Him of the reality of the spirit and of God. Well i know this is the true church. i know Thomas S. Monson is a true prophet.....how grateful i am for this knowledge! Not just because it all makes since but because i have felt it and cant deny it! Love you all!
Love, sister flake

March 30 Email

2009-04-06T19:46:00.000-07:00

Well Hello family! sooo wow dad first counselor. Holey moley. that will be a new experience and i know that you will do such a wonderful job dad. but no one told me who the bishop is. Could you give me more of a low down please. and Danielle looks so cute with her big tummy. and how fun that you could celebrate her birthday with Brandy. That is so nice. Well how tall are my brothers now? how are they doing in track. I hope that they like it. You know hockey is huge here! Way bigger then the NFL. Do you know how much it costs to get all the equipment to play. Your looking at around 500 dollars. so i guess its a good thing that they dont play much hockey down there. well you asked me some questions that i guess i should answer cuz i usually avoid questions...sorry. so anyway we wake up early so we can get a ful half hour exersice in. we do 800 jumping jacks and then we have free weights that we use. i weighed myself for the first time on the mission and found i have only gained three pounds. apparently thats really good for this mission. haha. and pdays we have been just hanging around at the house relaxing or go shopping together.... we get along so great. we are more then just companions we are great friends....we have sooo much fun together no matter what we are doing and she has a laugh that she cant hold back ..kind a like mine so its great fun. and im learning cool stuff about hong kong and china and even learning to speak a little chinese. i will practice for you on the phone on mothers day.
as for my easter package get what ever you want. but make sure you get stuff for my companion please. she doesnt get much from her family. she is the same size as me. and we share clothes. so thats fun too. my clothes are getting so boring. haha.
so anyway this week was great. we tracted some houses by the Okenogan lake. so we had a beautiful view as we walked from house to house. we have alot of great conversations at the door because the people here are way layed back. we talk about hockey, the weather, or telecommunication powers with normal and odd people and then find some way to tie it into the gospel....its really fun. we found some hippies this week. and also taught a really wonderful christian family. they looked like mormons. we asked them simple questions that they could not answer. so we layed out the plan of salvation and testifed of the simpliicty of Gods gospel and that the truth can be felt....i think they felt the spirit but then they disagreed because they told us that their pastor told them that they cant trust thier feelings.....sooo sad.....we also spend alot of time at peoples doors trying to convince people that not all christians are hypocrites. you would be amazed at the new teaching skills we have aquired as a mission. we hardley ever say statements....we put everything into quesion form...its the only way to keep the door open...we have also found that the more compliments we give those we are talking to the longer they keep the door open....im learning so much about communicating. anyway....i will let you know as soon as we get some progressing investigators. right now we are teaching about 15 people but only one is progreesing. you should pray for Geoffry to decide on a baptism date. he is an african american who is 12 years old. he has been going to church for 2 years but doenst want to commit tell he feels ready....he is awesome! You should pray for him. thanks! Love you all so much! The gospel is truer then ever ! Love, sister flake

March 23 Email

2009-03-24T19:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Friends and Family,
Well thank you so much for the pictures of Moab.... i love the pictures of everyone "jackie Channing" it up the side of the rock. and i noticed that you took all the same pictures in all the same spots as the last time we were there....the only difference is that it was different cousins and i was not there. haha oh well. im sure there will be other trips. Mom Deanna called me last week and we talked a long time...she is excited about going to the temple but maybe you can continue to motivate her to prepare for it. She told me " i dont know how your mother does it.....i miss you so much and worry about you being safe....it must be so much harder being your mom...." anyway it was really sweet. She is excited to meet you someday..... and i am so excited for you all to meet her....if she was the only reason for me coming here it was worth it. well sister Wong and i have had an amazing week! We recieved four new investigators this week!!!!!!!!! HOly MOley! The Lord is blessing us so much.....i have felt the spirit in great abundance at these teaching appointments.... i feel that there is something very special about our companionship and we sure are learning a lot from each other. She is my motivation! From the moment we wake up in the morning and have companionship prayer i am determined to find more people like sister Wong who will accept the gospel! her prayers are so humble and sincere. it is very touching to hear her and work with her. And like i said we laugh a lot...because we both just love laughing....only at appropriate times of course:) anyway.... we have dropped quite a few people since i got here..... sometimes as missionaries we hold on to people even when they are extremely stubborn because we are afraid if we let them go we wont have anyone to teach....but we were bold and took that risk.....we let go of a few people and with in th next week we found 4 sincere people who actually want to learn and not just debate....so we feel very blessed and i cant even explain to you the joy that comes from teaching other people these great truths....like Elder Dickson said, the general authority who came to our zone conference last week, "we are here to share with people insight on who they really are". That’s probably my favorite thing to testify to people of! That they have a Father in Heaven who loves them soooo much and knows them by name! well, its spring here now! yes we do have sunshine and the snow is gone! And we have flowers popping up here and there! This is a cause for great rejoicing! Tracting just keeps getting better! Sister Wong and I got to talk in church yesterday. There was going to be three speakers...but for some reason there wasn’t.....so sister Wong went first, did an excellent job, but only went about 15 minutes.....so i got up and talked as long as i could...... i thought i was going to faint! Haha! But i was amazed at the way the Lord just gave me the words to speak...it just kept coming.....wow! Talk about blessings. So i spoke about the power of the book of Mormon and why we should share it with our friends....i explained that the best decision i ever made was to begin reading the scriptures every day....and any good decision i made after that was because of that first decision....to drink from the living waters daily....and i thank my older sister for that!....i remember seeing her study her scriptures before bed and so i decided i would to it too. Thanks Danielle! And happy birthday! I will be thinking bout you! well i love you all so much! Thank you for everything!
Love, sister Flake

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March 9 Email TRANSFERRED!

2009-03-16T18:20:00.000-07:00

Hello family! Thank you for all the inspired emails! You are so wonderful and i love you so much! Well Surprise! I have been transfered! President is white washing Langley with elders and sister Anderson and i were transfered up to the Okanagen! She is with sister Duong and i am with sister Wong from HOng Kong! Haha! We are serving in Kelowna which is so beautiful....its the vacation place in BC! Yes its more north and still cold but once it warms up this place is gorgeaus and known for all its orchards and organic fruit. you should google it. people are way nicer here and laid back. and loads of old people. our ward only has 7 young men and young women. but thats ok cuz we are going to grow the ward. Sister Wong is so amazing! She joined the church in 2003 in HOng Kong and she has been going to BYU Hawaii and working at the PCC! she is so sincere and hard working...and we love to laugh. She has gotten really good at english. sometimes she is a little hard to understand but its getting easier. It so neat to be working with a convert. It makes the work seem even more important and worth it! Her family are not members so please pray for them.
The members here are so nice and very friendly and we have lots of dinner appointments. They are more missionary minded then the last ward. They actually had a baptism here the week before i got here so thats great. Its about -10 right now outside and we have been tracting in snow but it doent feel as cold as the lower mainland because the air is more dry. we live with an old couple. so its like we have this huge house that we share with grandparents. they are so sweet. the Sipples are theier name. They started letting missionaries live in thier house when they went on their mission to Hawaii. Now they are living with us. its kind of wierd sharing the kitchen and everything with them but i guess we will get use to it. So i am happy to be here. i feel like i am supposed to be here.
We have been finding new people to teach. we found a cool hippie with dread locks that we will teach this week;) Old people love to invite us in and talk but usually dont want to budge. I will miss sister anderson....i learned so much from her. But we are still in the same zone. and this is her last transfer. I really love tecahing and we get to do a whole lot more of it here. Thats great! oh yeah we flew here by the way. The man next to me avoided me...oh well. so now i am far from the mission office and most the missionaries so things willl be a little different because we are a little more isolated. but really it is so beatiful here and lots of wildlife and mountains! Very neat.
Well love you so much!
Love sister flake

March 16, Email Kelowna, BC CANADA

2009-03-16T18:17:00.000-07:00

Hello Friends and Family!

I appriciate your love and support! I really love it here in Kelowna. People are much nicer....i wonder if its just my perspective or attitute or something...but this place has a total different feeling then Langley. We have had a great hard working week except that Sister Wong has a terrible cold. She is so determined though. It snowed again yesterday and she was feeling terrible but she wanted to keep working.... I feel so blessed that i have been healthy even though all my companions have been sick.... hmmm...i hope im not the one making them sick!

Anyway this week we met with Amythest. She is 18. we found her tracting and she is golden. She went to Victoia for spring break but we are looking forward to teaching her more when she gets back....in the mean time she is reading the Book of Mormon! Well we do schedule alot of appointments as we tract, alot of them fall through but there are those few who are serious about it! We do lots of service with the food bank and dad you would be proud of me because we have been helping a single women with 7 kids dry wall! i think thats what its called..but anyway yeah im working construction! And we tract a whole ton. i really enjoy it to tell you the truth.....funny things happen all the time that sister Wong and i enjoy laughing at in between doors....instead of crying! Ha Ha!

God is blessing us with litte tender mercies here and there to help us remember that he is always there for us. I'm still trying to build up my faith more. The ward is so wonderful! We had a great pot luck yesterday. WE need a felloshipper for Amythest but there is no one in our ward her age! So hopefully she starts bringing friends to church who want to be taught too. I never thought i would be in a ward that is youthless......maybe i can help bring in some youth while im here. well thats all for now. love you all! The church is true and its all worth it!

love, sister flake

March 2, 2009 Email

2009-03-02T20:23:00.001-08:00

Hello dear family! i love love love you! Just wanted to make sure you know that. Sorry I didn't tell you much last week. to tell you the truth we are going through some rough times. we work are hardest and try to create and plan and set goals for the work to move forward. There is just so much anti here.....it's a battle every day. I am learning a lot. i feel that i am being tested at the one thing i thought i had. Optimism usually comes naturally, but now i have to stay on my knees untill i can get it back...... I am being stretched and it doesnt always feel good. we are trying so hard to exercize our faith. This is sister Andersons last transfer and she is such an amazing hard working missionary...she has seen so much success in other areas....it's just hard to see her struggling too. we are just so glad that God is letting us go through this together.....it would be so much harder if it wasnt for this great companionship and friendship that we have! we just want so badly to get this area moving forward before she leaves in 6 weeks. We have been doing alot of contacting and tracting and we have been serving a lot too. Trying to love the ward and the people more. its sad to see the ward struggle. we have such great leadership but they have so much weight on thier shoulders because not everyone is doing thier part. The attitude seems to be that church is a social club and any duty or calling is just done for "extra credit" but not out of sence of duty or obedience to God... I hope it doesn't sound like I'm complaining im just trying to express to you the issues we are having with the work here. Any ideas on how to unite the ward and help people reach out? we need help! Just trying to love and do all that i can! I want so badly to share my testimony with people who will hear it!

Love,

Sis. Flake

February 16, Email

2009-02-16T14:21:00.000-08:00

Hello Family,
Wow! Were going to have a little farm! That is so neat! Kind of funny! But really neat! I actually cant stop smiling right now! Remember when i planted a garden like ten years ago and we left for a few days and everything was scorched! That was sad. but i am sure that you will do a great job. your gonna have to bring in a lot of soil you know....that hard dirt wont grow a dang thing. i cant wait to milk the cow....anyway...... has anyone realized that i am at my half way mark? holy cow! Speaking of cows......anyway ...... Sounds like everything is going great down there!
Tell Jacinda hi and she can wear anything she wants of mine as long as she does it with
S T Y L E! HAHA just kidding...anyway....congrats Andrew on your eagle! I am amazed at you..... you have a letter coming in the mail. Dawson I hope yourmaking the best of your senior year and helping everyone else too! Anyway i guess i can tell you a bit about the week. we have been finding new investigators so that is great.
On valentines we heart attaked a bunch of less actives and investigators and our relief society president. It was great to spread some love. One family in our ward adopted a cute little African girl named Elly......she remindsme so much of my little Michelle in Ecuador! and she likes me lots and i like her lots...anyway i love you all so much!
love sister flake

February 9, Email

2009-02-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

Hello dear family!
Thanks for the emails. thanks for the prayers for June. thanks for your encouragement! I just love you all so much! I am so proud of you all! Sister Anderson has been sick this week so thats too bad. we ditched a bit of church but I know God understands:) OH yeah mom thanks so much for sending that picture to Sheila! Oh my she loved it! and she gave me two big hugs...one of them she said was from you! Thanks for that! I almost cried! It meant so much to her mom! And the baptism was so wonderful! Lots of people showed up and Sheila was so calm and peaceful and never stopped smiling! so they invited all the sisters who had taken part in teaching her to bare testimony...it was very touching. Others bore testimony as well....including two converts that moved here from Russia....wow! The spirit was very strong and all were edified! wow the church is so true!
Also this week we taught a family! Amazing I know! There is a huge amount of Buremese people who have saught refuge here....( Buremese people are from the country Burma;) haha. dont worry i didnt know that either! They were all refugees in camps in Thailand where they had to live for 12 years untill they could move to Canada. So anyway we have met tons of these beautiful people around here....they are so humble and believe in Jesus Christ....the problem is they have only been around at most for two years so they dont speak good english....but we did an investigation and asked around until we were led to a man named Skari ( funny i know) who just graduated the free english class that the government offers to these people.....so we have taught them twice.....him, and his wife and 5 year old daughter.....they are receptive to the spirit because they are so humble and live simple lives unlike the rest of the canadians around here....sorry that was not very positive i take it back...haha...anyway we have to teach so simply and there is no church materials in thier language so last night we promised him that if he read the Book of Mormon in enlgish daily that the Lord would bless him to understand and improve his enlish... so he says he will continue to pray about the BOM and Joseph Smith till he finds the answer....
In the mean time president is doing what he can to stop the CLA church (Christian Life Assembly) from teaching anti mormon. and also we were invited to talk to some college students about our religion at Trinity Western University located in our area...its a huge christian school. they have a club specifically for "learning about mormons" which we didnt find out tell later that its soul purpose is to "save the mormons souls" yeah...so anyway this school is one of the reasons why they call our area the bible belt. anyway they were very nice to us.....they asked me what it was like growing up in a mormon family....... i got emotional as i told them how wonderful it was and then bore testimony of the church and what it has done for our family and felt very moved by the spirit.....they could not dispute it.....they tried to bring up polygamy...etc.... but we were able to handle it all very well with the help of the Lord....anyway as you can tell i have had plenty of oppurtuinity to strenghthen my testimony! Oh how grateful i am for it! i know this gospel is true! The book of Mormon is the word of God! It has become a treasure in my heart! It is so powerful! i love you all!

love, sister flake

Picture link from Langley

2009-02-02T16:07:00.000-08:00

http://picasaweb.google.com/danflake/LindseySnow?authkey=Wttj6ihwAig&feat=directlink

Christmas, New Years, Helping on the Farm, the Temple under construction, converts with Sis. Anderson from Idaho

Email February 2, 2009

2009-02-02T16:00:00.001-08:00

Oh dear family! How i love you! Thanks so much for the emails. I so appriciate your support! Mother thanks for taking care of everything i asked about. Thank you for the updates bros! i am so proud of you two! and dad thanks for the enouraging words. Can you really tell that i am maturing? because i still feel pretty inmature most the time! HaHa. I soppose thats one reason im out here... :)
sorry i didnt update you much last week.....i ran out of time and my email was erased. but life has been good..... we did have a major trial......the hardest trial of my life actually.....well it could have been....but we recieved priesthood blessings and so we are doing fine...... i didnt really want to say it cuz i didnt want any of you feeling discouraged because everthing is going to work out the way the Lord wants it to. so anyway june, the wonderful women who was just baptised had an old friend rip her beliefs apart. and she invited us over to let us know that she would not be coming to church anymore. Yes it hurt...it hurt bad....and her "christian friend" was there to make sure she went through with it. I have never felt so much coldness....she had been manipulating June and then she manipulated us and told us we couldnt talke to June anymore and then kicked us out of Junes house. I felt like i had just met the devil. we sobbed and then sobbed some more and then got a blessing from the elders and felt much peace and have felt great ever since. June is going through a major trial of faith..... we know that she will come around soon...... she has felt the spirit and so much love from the ward....once this manipulating anti mormon gets out of her life she will come back.....or once she realizes how evertyhing in her life that got better since being baptised gets worse again..... anyway im telling you this so that you can help contribute faith as a principle of power and unite with us and the wonderful ward members here in getting June back into the fold! and dont worry about me because it just makes me want to work harder....seriously i feel so much peace about the whole thing and i just want to save as many people from the devil as i can. so anyway..... tissues any one? haha..... well i know more then ever the truthfullness of this gospel.....i love bearing my testimony to the children of God here in Langley..... its such an amazing feeling to go from house to house bearing testimony to everyone even though most dont listen. The spirit is so stong....it burns with in....and i love it because i love the Lord! and even though it would seem as if were not getting anywhere sometimes the Lord blesses you with the spirit so strong that you just know that what you are doing is what the Lord wants you to be doing at that time. and then you feel how much he loves each person you talk to you and i know there is not a better feeling....and i am just so grateful for our Savior Jesus Christ who has gone through the ultimate rejection and a perfect suffering and i am just so happy to be able to suffer for the cause of bringing the gospel and the Lord makes it so the suffering doesnts hurt....i love Him so much....i wish i could express it to you,.... i love feeling Him so close to me. Thank you all for the prayers and please pray for June.... love, sister flake

My Joy is Full

2009-01-21T07:55:00.000-08:00

Dearest family!
Wow life is just full of changes right now! Dad i will be praying for you.... and i feel for you but im not sad because i know we will all see grandpa again...and what a glorious day it will be! I love you dad...and Congrats Danielle and Steve! A Girl! How special! and thanks for the pics your apartment looks so cute.
I am so excited to tell you about this past week! Amazing! Friday night we went back to Poco for Larry's baptism!!!!!!! wow! It was so special and emotional to be back with my wonderful friends there and the spirit was extremely strong....and Steve, Sheila and thier daughter McKenzie were there they are a family that we taought almost the whole time i was in Poco. Steve has not been to church for 30 years..hes not active and his wife is not a member....anyway we use to meet with them twice a week but she was taking very small steps....and then some miracles happened such as the poco sisters basement suite was flooded just as steve and shielas basement suite was finished so they moved in! Yeah can anyone say ....miracle? So we did exchanges after the baptism and i stayed with sis. Barnum at shielas house.....when we got home from the baptism shiela came down stairs and said "what was that feeling i had at the baptism? i have never felt anything like that! it was so wonderful...so we explained and rejoiced and they invited us up for breakfast in the morning......so sister barnum and i prayed right before we went up for breakfast and we both had a strong imprission that we were going to set a date for shiela that day......and guess what? as we were talking everyone got emotional and sheila told us that she had dream that she was getting baptised!!!!! so through tears we set the date for the first Saturday in February!!!!!!!!!wow the Lord is amazing!!!!!! and steve was even crying...he had to leave the room to get some tissues..... wow! The spirit was so strong and i feel so blessed and privileged to be there for that! Can you imagine? The Lord is so great! Oh and then that day was full of many more miracles including Jennifer, the women i told you about last week who was drinking weed with milk..... welll we promised her that we would visit her if she went back the hospital and so we kept out promise because the hospital is in Poco.... we got a bit lost on the way there and it was so spooky....its this really old large mental hospital and there was lots of fog that day and all these bare creepy trees and i saw some of the most interesting people ever there.... but anyway we got a little lost...but that was part of Gods plan because we walked in and asked for jennifer and her mom happened to have walked in at that exact moment. so she took us up there and told us that Jennifer had been waiting for us and knew that we would come....so we sat on the couch with Jenifer and i was so overcome with love for this women...i held her hands and offered a prayer for her and i was overcome with love that God feels for this women who has completely ruined her brain and her life.... and she is not even capable of becoming a member of the church but that is how much God cares about the individual....that all these things happened to lead us to this women just to let her know that God loves her so much.... i have been forever touched by this experience. wow...so im not done yet...cuz June was baptized Sunday after church!!!!!!!!wow the most amazing baptism i have ever been to! We had 80 people from the ward stay to witness her baptism! The spirit was so stong.... the speakers did an amazing job and sis anderson, elder park and i sang "I stand all amazed." wow and then we had a pot luck after and June made so many friends....oh yeah and we had the water to hot so there was a delay ....bishop almost burned his feet off......so we had to wait and put more cold water in....but it was so special because the ward started singing hymns rather then just stand there and there was so much unity felt!!!!!WoW! i cant even express the joy i feel! if iwas any more full of joy i might pass out like Ammon did when he felt joy! HA HA well i better get....i know this all sounds too good to be true but it really is that good because Our father in heaven is so wonderful! I am soooo grateful for the gospel! It changes life's....and sharing it has changed my life forever and i just want you all to know that Jesus Christ is the way!He is the truth and the Light! I love Him so much and He has helped me so much! I love you all ! Love, sister flake

Trial of Faith

2009-01-21T07:54:00.000-08:00

oh family!
what a week i have had! Lets just say i have had a trial of my faith and have been pouring out my soul and the Lord has delivered me from bondage! I will tell you about it later. like in a year from now...but basicly i just want you to know my fire is burning bright again and the Lord has restored to me my determination and drive and i am ready to work harder then i have ever worked before! I am so grateful for my Heavenly Father who is molding me....and yes it hurts but my motto is "come what may and love it!" The "refiners fire" has a whole different meaning to me now....and yes i am probably being over dramatic like i sometimes am but i just had this major pardigm shift! So i feel so happy right now! I dont know how i lost it but now that i have it back its amazing and wonderful! So wow.. the things i am learning..... well a short sum up of the week...we were an assistant to helping an escape convict...saddest thing i have ever seen....please NO one do drugs! and anyway as missionaries were not allowed to turn people in....but God loves her so much that he let her learn about how she can find peace from missionaries......but the drugs have a hold of her....she was so hooked she was drinking weed shaken up in her milk..... and yes i do know what weed smells like....i found that out the first week of my mission..ha ha ..anyway the world does not have happiness to offer....only captivity...hold to the rod! I dont have time to tell anything else....sorry so short!
Love you all! Love, sister flake

December 22, 2008 Email

2008-12-30T12:23:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Its been another great week! We have been really blessed! The ward here is amazing and is taking such good care of us. We have seen more miracles but we have also had the adversary in our face trying to get us down but together sis. Anderson and i keep each other up and positive.
There has been alot of snow and yes we tract in it! It is invigorating! The spirit keeps us warm or at least helps us keep our thoughts off the fact that our toes our numb. We realized we need boots because our shoes keep filling up with snow so we will go buy some today....lots of people feel bad for us but not so many let us in. Ha Ha.....also people are so busy celebrating Christmas that they dont have time to hear a message about why we have Christmas. Isn't it ironic? Well it does not matter cuz we just keep working hard and we have had some really neat experiences and are still setting up appointments with many people for after the holidays. But untill then we will continue tracting! wow i am learning great things about perserverance and prayer! President has given sister Anderson and I the special assignment of figuring out how to get the "im allright Jack" people to listen to the message we have...so please let us know if you have any ideas on how to help the people who are content with thier life as it is to have a desire for the gospel in thier lives... That is our mission right now....President told us he wants us to become universal teachers so that we can convince anyone that they need the gospel......he has actually asked us to be "traveling sisters" so next tranfer he will send us all over the mission to do exchanges with all the sisters so that the sisters can get as much training as the elders do. That will be a really neat experience. We actually spent an hour with President at zone confrence talking about these ideas. He is such an inspired man. He also gave us blessings. I am so grateful for the Priesthood.
well i almost forgot but on Tuesday we set a baptism date with a women named June. She is a single women with two kids. She loves volunteering and serving. She was a refferal from the spanish elders. She went to a Christmas concert at the church and felt the spirit so strong that she went the next night too. The sisters taught her the first lesson and she knew it was all true. So we taught her again. we cleared up some questions and the spirit was so strong it was almost tangible! Then we set the date for January 18. Wow what a neat women. And Satan has been working on her ever since but she is overcoming because she knows what she felt is real. Wow! It is such a neat thing to feel the holy Ghost work through you. I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ!
Love, Sister Flake

December 29, 2008 Email

2008-12-30T12:21:00.000-08:00

Well hello!
Wow that was so great to talk to you on Christmas! And it made it even better to here from all the cousins and grandma and grandmpa too! Thanks for the advice and encouragement. Were going to be trying alot of new things. So i was telling you how are ward mission leader is kind of hard to communicate with because hes chinese....well i had an epiphany yesterday during ward correlation. We were trying to help him express his many great ideas in a way that people would listen and be enthused and it worked really remarkably...and i had the thought that i should change my major to communications....? Not that i have time to think about it much now but i really feel that the training im getting out here is preparing me for the future....well obviously ....but i was just thinking about everything ive learned from president about persuasion and helpping people find truth and plus all the english classes ive taught here.... i just want to help people express themselves and help people understand each other...a peacemaker.... and anyway it will help in all aspects of my life. So mom is there a communications program at Dixie? well anyway it could help me be a more qualified motivational speaker as well! HA HA! Well back to the mission...sorry bout the tangent. The soup kitchen at the Catholic church on Christmas was such an amazing experience. We went there not intending to proselite of course... and we served dinner and then sat with some homeless and widdows.....it was an incredible expereince....i had 5 people at the table with me asking all kinds of questions about the church! I couldnt believe it....they were interested in our beliefs and such. I felt like i was in an interview. It was the topic of discussion. One lady was so excited to know that i went on a date with donnie osmonds son! HA HA! and we talked about the new temple and everything else! And they started telling me all the people that they know that were mormons. and this really cute 18 year olg girl from the catholic church sat next to me and had the most sincere questions about the purpose of life and Christ....she was telling me how she has a religion course at her catholic high school but they dont use the bible to teach it....they just talk.....and so she was really wnating to learn about the bible....so i taught her a bunch and taught her her relationship to God....That He is her Father in Heaven and she is a daughter of God....she was really toched and the spirit bore witness that it was true. we talked about meeting again....i gave her information about the Ecuador orphanage program becase she was telling me about her desire to reach out and do some kind of mission.....and she plays soccer so we had a connection. she was a really neat girl and at a cross road in her life.....She was telling me how her freinds are pullling her one way but she wants to have that relationship with God....she knows she cant have both right now....so it was so neat that God placed us at the same table so i could share with her the reasons to stay on Gods side and stay strong against temptations. So her and the lady on the other side of me who was a widow from Ireland expressed their desire to meet agian! Who wuold have thought that would happen! At a catholic church! The Lord is so aware of each of us! This is His true church and People are drawn to the light the gospel gives us....if they are searching for that light! So let your light so shine! And pray to be placed in places where the Lord can help others through you! The gospel so so true! The Lord is my Light! He is my strength! I love you all!
Love sister flake

December 15, 2008 Email

2008-12-30T12:20:00.000-08:00

Hello!
Oh my goodness! So much has changed! First of all thank you so much for the packages! Wow! It was all so nice and thanks for the camera! Holy Cow! You are amazing! I love you all so much!
Well yes i have been transfered! God strengthend me so much to be able to leave those people who i love so much because He made it easy when you know how usually i can get sooo emotional when i say goodbyes...ha ha! well there was some tears shed by my favoriets there... i love them so much! sherry sammy and deanna especially. and we helped the LeBrun family decorate their tree on my last night there...it was really special. David then decorated me as an angel! Ha ha! I love them so much!
So we switched! Sis. Barnum took my place and i took hers in Langley. My companion is the short Sister Anderson, not the tall one that was my trainer. Anway!! I cant even explain to you how amazing things are going allready....we knew we would serve together eventually....we did exchanges two months ago and hiked Grouse mountain together and since then we had both been hoping to serve together..... wow! so this place was completely dead two transfers ago when the sisters were brought in....sis anderson and sister barnum spent two transfers tracting almost constantly here. and they had one progressing investigator......well lets just say that God knew what was capable with the two of us together because we have been bombarded with miracles since i got here thursday! HOly Cow! God is so amazing! i can not even tell you! We pray all day we have the spirit so strong...and sis. anderson is so obedient and full of enthusiasm so together we are able to do so much!WOW! litteraly miracles....God is working miracles for us....i have never felt so much courage and strength.we have so much unity...when we teach together you can just feel the spirit so strong! i have not really had that unity with my other companions so its just been so amazing because our goals and ambitions are the same and we are both willing to do whatever it takes and so far, its only been three days, but God has just poured down blessings.
so the first night we went tracting in -2 degree weather....yes its cold. and we only went to seven houses and we got invited in to teach and then spent half an hour with another person outside teaching. Then the next time we went tracting in the snow! we got seven phone numbers and taught three lessons on one street! and you know what we dont even take time to go have dinner we just go all out out quickly from door to door and God has blessed us with meals from members that happen to live on the street that invite us in unplanned! wow the members are amazing!
we had a lady come to church with a friend that we sat next to who felt the spirit and then leaned over and said " i have some questions can i give you my number?" Thats unheard of here in Canada! someone offering us their number! Gods work is just booming here! and members are giving us refferals...that never happens! wow! i have never felt Gods love and strength so much in my life! we are preparing this city for a temple and the spirit of God is changing hearts in this place and we are here to enthusiastically gather these elect people! Miracle upon miracle upon miracle we have seen since we have been put together! And you know what our schedules are already filling up with teaching appointments.
So can you tell im a little excited? oh yeah and this members girlfreind who has been coming with him to church talked to the bishop after we taought them in gospel principles and she wants to be baptised..so we will be teaching her soon! and so you can see that many great things will be happening here!
so basically Langley is a pleasant little place....dad you would love all the barns everywhere! and its called little hollywood because lots of movies are filmed here and all the youth our into danceing and acting and singing! so i can relate with the people a little there. it is gorgeous here! and you know what? saturday morning we worked on the farm! Yes the elders in the area next to us have a nonmember that they help with the farm and they needed extra help feeding the cows ! wow it was so fun! we rode on the trailor behind the tractor and tore the hay of the roll and through it out to the cows so fun! the ward is great! Sister anderson is from idaho! She is so dang cute and enthusiastic! We are non stop talking and having fun! wow this is what i wanted missionary work to be like! Non-stop, hard working, miracles every moment, spirit strong! This work is amazing! keep praying for me! The adversary is getting stronger here too......the church is truer then ever!
Love, sister flake

Email December 8, 2008

2008-12-08T17:17:00.000-08:00

Hello!
i love you! thanks for the updates! Sounds like you are all doing well! That makes me so happy! Thanks for the pictures... a little update..... it is warm here....well compared to Provo. it stays around ten degrees celcius... sometimes i dont need a coat...just a sweater and guess what we have not been outside...we teach constantly and dont have time for tracting and only can contact on the way into appointments. so remember when we use to get like 600 contacts a week? well that hard work payed off because now we just teach and get not much more then 20 contacts a week....and God is really blessing us because we still get about three new investigators a week from referals etc. Amazing!
And Christmas is big here too. We helped our landlord with her Christmas tree and tonight we are having FHE with Deanna, Larry, Gil, Sammy, an Sherry putting up a tree! All of my favorite people...we had FHE last week together too....i guess its tradition now. Its great because Sammy and Deanna are recent converts, Larry is an investigator and Gil and Sherry are less actives. so its really enriching for all! Also they are all really poor. so i was hoping that we could buy Deanna Scriptures for Christmas? I could get a member to buy them at the distribution center and pay them back. Did i tell you she wants to go on a mission in a year? Yeah she is on fire! mom..she doesnt do email....so just write a letter...Thanks.
So anyway its just amazing to me because Deanna is just like the glue that holds all these people together. Its great because there are alot of rich people in the ward who they dont really seem to fit in with so its great that they have all found freinds with in each other. But like the humble Zoramites in the Book of Mormon, the poorer people are way more prepared to listen and more welcoming to other people....cant we all be a little more welcoming to new people? Anyway....today we are taking the sky train to Vancouver! Wont that be exciting? Maybe you can google it to see what im talking about.....its like this train that travels 30 feet above the ground. Pretty cool.
I dont know if i will be transfered i will let you know as soon as i can. But i just love the people here so much! They are angels and my life has been changed forever from associating with them. Another thing is I love the youth in the ward here i have made lots of friends and have tried hard to strenghen them as well.
Merry Christmas! Cant wait to talk to you! Good job being missionaries yourselves!
Love, Sister Flake

Email December 1, 2008

2008-12-01T16:25:00.000-08:00

Tis the season to be jolly!
I am so happy right now....i should be sad because its the holidays with out my lovely family but i actually have been so overcome with joy this week....and somewhat emotional......i have never felt so close to Christ. This past week has been an amazing spiritually growing time for me. First off i had an interview with president that really got me thinking about how i can draw closer to the Lord.....and then we spent some time in Burnaby at the Nativity Festival..... while we were waiting for our investigators to arrive i sat in the chapel where they were showing the nativity movie over and over again. I watched it three times in a row. with tears running down my face i sat and pondered the Love of our Saviour and prayed for a fair amount of time..... since then i have been looking at people and seeing Christ with in them..... this has changed the way i teach.....and our last few appointments have been filled with the spirit as i have concentrated on loving them rather then worrying about what to say next.
This is real happiness...i have never felt the Christmas spirit so strong. I love my Saviour. There was a Christmas concert Saturday night at the festival and we had two Persian investigator families show up and we went with a less active lady that we love.....she told us that this is the first Holiday season for at least four years that she has felt the Christmas spirit and she says she thinks its because she has started reading the book of Mormon again......it is a powerful book....it is changing lives. and then we were visiting Sammy, a recent convert from Iran who was baptised in February....the spirit was felt so strongly as we talked about Christ and celebrating His birth.....this will be Sammy's first Christmas as a Christian..... i cant explain how wonderful it is to be introducing our Saviour Jesus Christ to people who do not yet know Him.
Love, Sis. Flake

Happy Thanksgiving

2008-11-24T18:04:00.000-08:00

I want to share with you the three things i am thankful for this year and you can read it at the dinner table at grandmas at thanksgiving. Oh my im getting emotional just thinking about all you sitting there.....its like my favorite thing of the whole year....anyway.....

1. Family: yes...all of you! I have never felt so much love for you in my whole life! Every time i see something neat or have a cool expereince i want to call you up and tell you about it. Thank you for suppporting me, appriciating me, and loving me. And i have such a wonderful legacy to live up to. The more i think about it....i realize my extended family has had such a great influence on me. i look up to so many of my wonderful cousins, my grandparents who are pretty much the best ever, and my aunts and uncles. Thank you so much for living what you beleive and being such great examples. Honestly. Sincerely. Thank you.

2. Gods Love: There is no better feeling in this world then the feeling of love that i feel from my Heavenly Father. Especially when i pray. I know He knows me and is molding and shaping me into who He wants me to be......when my soul hungers...He is there to feel it. When i am down and depressed he lifts me up. When i feel unworthy He lets me know that i am a daughter of God and that my Saviour Jesus Christ has suffered for me, sister Lindsey Rose Flake...He knows me, my name, my strenths, my weaknesses, my trials, and my heart. And He has that same love for all His children on this earth.

3. The truth: So many people are wandering to and fro in this wicked world looking for something to fill the hole with in thier soul.... How blessed we are to have the truth....about God and His plan for us... we must never take these truths for granite..there are many who do not have them and feel very lost....we must treasure up the truth and share it with all that we can!
Sorry i have ran out of time.....ilove you all! the week went great all is well! Ill tell you more next week!

Sister Flake

November 17 Email

2008-11-18T15:58:00.000-08:00

Wow! another great week of teaching and learning! I really loved zone conference...President is so inspired....the things he told us were answers to questions i have been pondering. Can i just tell you how much i love studying....its like theres never enough time...the scriptures have become a treasure in my heart and when i read them it feels me with courage to go and do the things the Lord has asked me to do. We also had stake conference this week and it was so great to see so many faithful saints out here in this worldly part of the world. There is alot of excitement about the temple being built.....and i am so happy that i will be able to be here when it opens. and the blessings from the temple being in the area is already changing things. The number of baptisms in BC has had a dramatic increase and is on the rise. Its really neat to see Gods power and miracles here.
Please pray for Larry....he was doing so good but Deanna called us on Friday really sad because Larry went on a drinking binge....and he was finally getting off of the Boos. But hopefully this will be the last time cuz he will realize it does not bring him happiness.... Deanna went through the same thing and she came out strong so i am sure Larry will be able to as well....and still be baptised in December.
Well we are getting some amazing refferals and teaching all kinds of different people..... We taught a man from Sri Lanka yesterday....he was just eating it up....also we will be teaching a man named Rudy from the persian gulf who is ready to be baptised. And a really neat thing... we were teaching our investigator Mel at a members house and a construction worker was fixing her door..... we introduced oursleves and then he left before i could talk to him about the gospel....and i was like dang i should have said something...but then he came in aagin because he forgot something....wow....so we ended up getting his number.... well we taught him on thursday and it went so well! He told us that though he was catholic there was still something missing in his life! Thats a great thing to hear as a missionary.....bingo! So we have another appointment....his name is Fernando and his is from El Salvador.....Yeah isnt it great how many differnt kind of people we get to meet with!? also an Iranian lady from english class invited us over for lunch. so we mad persian food together and talked about Jesus Christ because she is interested in becoming Christian! Wow sooo things have really taken off here and it is so fun and wonderful...
I love testifying to so many of Gods children here on this earth....also something that president has taught us to do is when ever we finish an appointment we explain to them about satan and how he will try harder to tempt them and lead them astray from the truth.....we have to do this because i cant explain to you how hard it is to help people remeber what they felt with how hard satan is working on them here....it can cause great dissapointment sometimes....but we all know that the Lord is stronger...we are on the winning side! We must stay close to the Lord in these latter days! Well the church is truer ever! Christ is our Savior!
Love, Sister Flake

November 10 email

2008-11-10T15:56:00.000-08:00

Well hello!
Another great, and wet week here in Port Coquitlam! Miracles are happining! I never know where to begin but.....yesterday a man from an island near the Persian gulf came to church and told us he has been going to the mormon church on and off for ten years and he now wants us to teach him so he can be baptised.....apperently he was once on a business trip to salt lake and was invited to church there. he travels so he has been goint to church in many different places...but now he is living in canada. wow!
Sis. Huffaker and i went on exchanges here this week....both our companions were sick so we were covering two areas while they slept and watched church movies it was really exciting to be all over the place....it was awesome and i learned so much from teaching with sis. huffaker.....we hadn't done it since the MTC and we are both alot better now:) . one of our investigators ended up in the hospital so we asked the Burnaby elders to give a blessing for her and then we taught her about faith in Jesus Christ and what it can do. Her mom was there too and now might be interested in learning too! I just realized how much i love teaching! it is so fun and brings so much satisfaction to bare your testimony to those who are just begining thier own testimonies. oh and guess what? President spent two hours with sis. Huffaker and I studying and answering questions! We appriciate him so much!
The gospel of Jesus Christ has been restored! I know that my Redeemer lives! I dont have words to explain how wonderful it feels to know He loves me and has a plan for me. Keep the Faith!

Love, sis flake

So i heard Jenn Olsen turned her papers in! I want to know where she gets called!

Staying in Port Coquitlam!

2008-11-03T16:40:00.000-08:00

Monday, November 03, 2008 11:56
Hello!
Thanks everyone for the emails! I really love hearing from you! Sounds like you are living fun, fabulous lives! I hope you realize how much i love you! So guess what? Im still here! And I am still with Sister van den Bosch! Crazy eh? Yeah its unheard of in this mission for sisters to be together for three transfers...but....the Lord knows best! Also the Lord answers prayers and Deanna, Sis. Lebrun, Sammy, and Sherry(our best friends here) all told us that they have been praying that we would both stay! Isnt that great? and apparently the Lord still has plans for us here. We have a lot of fun together....and though we are very different we each have strengths where the others weaknesses are so we work very effectivley together.
So 6 months in Port Coquitlam! Can you belive it? I just love the people here and we have many progressing investigators so it's best that we both stay here to help them along!
So.... we are teaching Patricks friend Taylor at the LeBruns house. He really likes learning and going to church. And we had a little neat miracle. Patrick lost his moms cell phone trick or treating and after our lesson the next day with Taylor, Sis. Lebrun asked me to pray for them to find it. We did and then left and a half hour later they called us and someone had called them to return the phone that they found! So it was really neat because Taylor, and the LeBruns were all able to see the power of prayer! God is amazing!
We will be teaching Davids friend Sam, with his family tonight! They have had missionaries before so the seed has been planted...The father is from Nicaragua and the mother is Italian! NeatI willl let you know how it goes....

We are also teaching a family from Mexico.....the spirit was so strong the last time we were there! Wow! We are praying for them to find thier answer....you can to... Arturo, Rosa, and Sara Ortega.
We found out from President that we have to call Salt Lake to get permission before any Muslims are baptised because thier family back in Iran under law is supposed to kill anyone in thier family that converts....this is very serious business and we have to be very careful..... So as you can tell we teach such a variety of people! it is so neat! I just love people! Well i wish i had time to tell more stories..... I love you !
Love, Sister Flake

Happy Birthday Sis. Flake

2008-10-27T16:51:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

Oh Family!

So good to hear from all of you......Do you know how much i love and miss you? ALOT! Yes transfers this week more then likely one of us is getting booted out of here. I would love to stay here but i understand that God knows much better then I where i should be. We willl see soon! So yes this city is booming with missionary work.... we barely have time for finding anymore because of all the teaching we are doing....which is a huge change for this ward.... President Nelsons vision and inspiration have changed this mission! Seriously....the amount of baptisems are increasing rapidly....for instance in our ward they usually baptise one a year......since President Nelson got here we have had 4 with 4 more on the way in November! Yes...did i tell you about Mel and Kevin......they commited yesterday.....they are so golden.....and we love them they are so feindly and nice.....and both patrick and David who were baptised both have friends who have been coming to church who want to bea baptised at the end of November. so... i want to say thank you to my little brothers because they have prepared me for dealing with young boys:) God is pouring out his blessings! At Patricks babtism on Saturday the spirit was soooo strong as his father bore his testimony about the Book of Mormon.....its the first time he has ever born his testimony and he has been inactive for over 5 years....so it has been so satisfying and heart-warming to see thier family change and grow while the boys have prepared for baptism. I love them so much.....they have kind of been like a second family this past while. This is the true church! Our Heavenly Father wants so badly for us all to return to HIm someday! I love you! Love, Sister Flake

Thanks for all the birthday stuff! And man i got so many cards and the ward members are so nice to me! Deanna made me dinner and pie and got me balloons...the Danatos got me flowers and cheese cake.... Sammy got me lotion and took us to lunch....and Sherry is throwing a party for me on Tuesday! Wow i have never felt this loved. Thanks so much!

October 20th Email

2008-10-25T19:07:00.000-07:00

Oh my goodness! I am so sorry again! Last week I wrote a long email and i tried sending it but the email service logged out for some crazy terrible reason. Oh man! Sorry, so quick recap of the last two weeks.....yes Deanna got baptised and it was the best day of my life! WOW! She is so happy and she found a great job two days after she was baptised! The Lord has been blessing her so much! She is soo happy! And it makes me so happy! And Daivd was baptised on Satruday. It was great. His father was able to do it and we set a date for his friend who came to watch him for November 8. We plan on teaching his whole family! and Deanna’s friend Larry we started teaching as well.... he really loves the Book of Mormon! So more excing events coming up! Patrick wiill be baptised this Saturday......we are busy and its great! The church is true and it changes lifes! We have been having such neat experiences lately and my testiomony keeps growing. I keep getting birthday cards! Thanks too all of you! This gospel is so great! God lives and we are His children.....He loves us more then will ever understand......i want so serve Him till the day I die and am so grateful for this time i have to draw closer to Him.....Jesus Christ did and does so much for us! I can't put into words how much i love Him and appriciate the great atonement that he did for us.... In the name of Jesus Christ...Amen.
Love, sister flake

Note from Port Coquitlam Member

2008-10-18T16:18:00.000-07:00

Dear Brother and Sister Flake,

We wanted to write you and thank you for sharing your daughter, Sister Flake, with our ward. In her short time here in Canada, she has had a wonderful impact on individuals in our ward, as well as the ward as a whole. We love her bright, bubbly, positive outlook and find it a delight to be around her.

You have truly raised a wonderful daughter and can be very proud of the work she is doing her in the Port Coquitlam ward. She and her companion have truly gotten the missionary work rolling in the ward. Thank you so much.

May the Lord bless you and your family,

Best Wishes,

The Dunn Family

New Pictures from Surrey

2008-10-11T15:38:00.000-07:00

Click on the link to view Lindsey's latest album of pictures http://picasaweb.google.com/danflake/LindseySurrey#

Vancouver Temple

2008-10-10T08:39:00.001-07:00

The beautiful Vancouver Temple is currently under construction. More info and construction pictures are located at http://www.ldschurchtemples.com/vancouver/ .

October 6, 2008 Email

2008-10-07T19:43:00.000-07:00

Hello! Its been another hardworking wonderful week! I love it here! I have an advantage being from the desert because i love the rain! Its pretty much always raining but its fun and smells good. We picked up four new investigators this week.... by tracting and refferals! Its so great when people let you in! I love it! So we have been meeting some really neat people. We are excited about this women and her 10 year old daughter that we taught the first lesson to on Saturday. After the first vision we asked them what they thought or felt..... the cute girl Annalisa said "It makes me feel special." What a wonderful way to express the feeling of the spirit! It makes me feel special too! We then asked them if the story was too hard to believe....Annalisa didnt blink an I and said "i believe it!" The mother said that she will pray about it. This is a good example of why the Lord has asked us to become like little children!... Maybe we can all take a look at our lives and ask our self what more we can do to become submissive to our Father in Heaven like a child.
As far as our progressing investigators go...... if every thing goes as planned Deanna will be baptised this Saturday, David the next, and then his brother Patrick the next week(he wanted his own special day). Wow! but we need prayers because Deanna is still struggling with the w.o.w. she wants to be baptised so bad.....she keeps slipping.....but if she can just make it through this week we know that the Lord will make it easier for her and she will have the Holy Ghost to help her. Pray for her please. She recieved a beautiful blessing last night from the elders. And then we all sang Amazing Grace together....which she wants us to sing at her baptism. The work is moving forward! The gospel is so true!
Guess what? Thanksgiving is on Oct. 13th here....so the Library wont be open again....so probably i will write on Tuesday next week.
So dad...thanks for the email....i totally agree with you about the making it simple thing.....i have been trying to do that myself. I am so glad that Eduardo is getting baptised...very exciting! Keep up the good work! I loved conference.....seeing the choir kind of made me miss home though....all those nice looking mormon people! HaHa.
Love, Sister Flake

Email September 30, 2008

2008-09-30T19:03:00.000-07:00

Well Surprise! We actually are having P-day today. Sorry to fool you. Thanks for the email mommy. Yes we did get to go to the broadcast. It was wonderful! Just what i needed to hear. We had a very inspiring zone conference yesterday. I loved it. i love president Nelson and his wife. we are learning how to strengthen our teaching skills through asking more quesitions. Its kind of salesperson approach....so i am learning how to persuade and convince using the scriptures.....its pretty neat and will be helpful for the rest of my life..... whenever i am trying to get my way....hah ha just kidding. Anyway.....wow miracles are still happening here.
First of all we had mini missionaries with us this past weekend! So fun! We had two cute young women from the stake come and stay with us for a couple nights. They got to do a little bit of everything. They said thier testimonys were really strenghtned...they didnt want to come at first but they said they never thought it would be so fun! also it was funny to see how they reacted when people would get mad and not want to talk to us. I think its funny now, it doesnt phase me...but for them it was new haha! usually people are pretty nice though. and one night we all went to Deannas and sang amazing grace as passionately as we could... the spirit was really strong.....poor Deanna. Bad stuff keeps happining to her and she is really depressed. We were not trained to deal with that kind of stuff....luckily a wonderful women from the ward has been helping her.....she needs lots of prayers please.
David LeBrun, the 9 year old finally set a date! The 18th of this month.....and then a few days later his older bro. Patrick chose the next week, the 25th. they dont want to do it the same day for some reason....oh well....so anyway thats really exciting....and has been a long road.... but they were all at church Sunday! Including the father! They are headed in the right direction. We really love them!
We got an awesome media referal Sunday night! Wow! This couple we took the Lamb of God video to are so prepared for the gospel! We both got the chills when we walked in to thier house....we just felt different....and they had so many questions for us. They had so many Questions and want all the videos and books we have to offer! ITs super....we are giving them a tour of the church on Friday and they said they will go to conference! WOW! We walked out with our mouths hanging open! Crazy! The Lord answers prayers! The gospel is so true! Jesus Christ is the only way! Well i love you so much! Thanks for everything!

Love, Sister Flake

--

September 22, 2008 Email

2008-09-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

Hello and so sorry about last week! We went on a hike and it took way longer then expcected.....but it was awesome! But i feel really bad and i have been missing you more this past week cuz i didnt get to check the emails...and we could have been dissobedient and went on a dfferent day....but no way. So yeah anyway we went and did the Grouse Grind which is basicly a hike in North Vancouver that goes straight up the skiing hill. It was easier for me then most missionaries becaouse we hike so much as a family but it was still pretty tough. But the view up top was amazing! And up there is all kind of exciting things..we watched a logging show and saw big bears (in a cage of course) and then we went back down on a ski lift thing....i took pictures that i will send home today:) so sorry again....but maybe we can do the hike together after the mission...that would be fun. Andrew you should look it up on Google.
yeah so transfers came and went and we are staying the same allthough most the people around us have changed....we are still getting fed very well...the weather is getting a wee bit chillier and rain occurs regulary.... you wouldnt believe how fun it is is to tract in the rain though! I love it! Seriously. I will write you a letter today with pictures included....get excited! Thanks for the many emails and pictures....
Next week I won't be writing till wed. because of zone conference on Monday. so sorry again....i really do love you all so much! and i still cant get over how huge my brothers are! Mom how do you keep them fed? and they are exercising so much to....they must each eat like 6000 calories a day with how much they are running.
Anyway so back to missionary work.....i am learning so much about faith and prayer.....things work out how they are supposed. A few highlitghts..... sister van den Bosch and I were walking down the street in New Westminister....and she walked both feet in to wet cement! HIllarious!! we still laugh every time we think about it! The construction workers thought it was pretty funny too!!!! wow! She is a blonde...we all have our moments!
well one of our investigators Nyla passed away on Thursday....She was the mother who had cancer....i cant remember if i told you but we have been teacching and singing to her for a while now.....we even visited her in the hopital a couple of weeks ago and had the zone leaders give her a blessing...and her daughter Natasha was there and asked for one too... she is 18 and we have been trying to teach her too. we gave her a bom...she actually called us the morning her mom died to let us know...we hope to be teaching the rest of the family about the plan of salvation this week...sad news.... but things happen for a reason....i think her family is being prepared...and they will be able to do her work....they are from Iran....like many around here who have left thier country because of our country.
Anyway......Deanna is doing way better.....we chatted with her...the reason she called us the other week is because her boyfrined broke up with her so she was upset and decieded not to get baptised....but she now knows its what she wants to do....so she has to quit smoking again....but her and her boyfriend came to church yesterday, it was his first time....so things are looking up for them... Joes uncle influenced him to not get baptised because he needs to reasearch all religions before he is baptised....yeah bad news eh? well satan is working hard here......but you know what? we just work are hardest and we know that the Lord is in control...... well i will tell you more next week!
Love, sister flake

September 16, 2008 Email

2008-09-17T21:39:00.000-07:00

Well, we didn’t get an email from Lindsey this week, but we did receive a letter by snail mail today. Here is what she had to say:

I love you! I miss you so much! But I promise you that I am really supposed to be here right now. I mentioned to you that I received a blessing out here. It was a really neat thing and I really needed it at the time. I was told that the Lord, my family, and my friends all really love me, along with the people that I serve. And then he said that what I am doing now is necessary for what I will become. It was amazing how much comfort I felt from the blessing and I am just so happy because I was reminded that the Lord knows me and has a specific plan for me.
I am really trying to follow promptings and I think I am getting better at it. I am just so happy because I am progressing and I really love the people here. There is so much to learn from other people. Sin is really bad and ruins lives—but people are blinded by it! I feel like I have come face to face with Satan with all the bad stuff I hear and see out here. We are so sheltered in Utah. Please don’t forget why we are so blessed. It’s because we have the gospel! If you follow it—and serve a lot you will be always blessed!
Well, three months eh? Long time no see! It sounds like life is exciting there. I love you all so much—and I don’t think I will ever leave home again. J Seriously, no more Provo for me.

Love, Sister Flake

Email September 8, 2008

2008-09-08T17:28:00.000-07:00

Holy Cow! My little brothers are huge! Thanks for all the pictures...wow how did you grow so fast, what are you eating? You look so different.....you are still handsome even more so! Good job with track boys! and Dawson sounds like you had a really exciting week. Way to go! I just love you all so much... thanks for being so awesome! Its great hearing about your life...i have been away three months...i hit my record for being away from home since i was in Ecuador for only three months. so i am one sixth of the way done:) when i am home i am not ever going to leave just so you know. i miss you....but dont worry i dont have time time to think about it.
Anyway....
So missionary life has its ups and downs but i have managed to stay positive through it all. The truth is Satan hit us with all he has on Sunday......will just put it at that....Deanna may not be baptised.....or maybe later....and a bunch of other stuff happend all with in a couple hours....i took it pretty hard but then after church and a few tears I asked for a blessing from one of the korean elders and i have felt commpletely fine ever since. I am so grateful for the priesthood! It was actully a really neat experience and i know that the Lord is looking out for me. I feel His love for me so much out here. I am learning so much and i am full of happiness. I am so glad the Lord knows what we need better then we do.
On a more positive note.... we got another baptism date with a wonderful young man named Joe! I don't think I have even told you about him yet because we were not sure how serious he was....but we met with him Saturday and he had read a ton of the book of Mormon and he had tons of questions about baptism! So basically he asked what he needed to do to be baptised! Awesome! He is so great, really humble and in tune. He is 25 and he had a brain tumor so he talks really slow....but he understands well. His father passed away earlier this year and he was excited when we told him that he can see his father again someday. So the date is set with him for the 27th. Reza met with the bishop so he is still progessing..... we have to find out what is going on with Deanna I think it has to do something with her mom who is a baptist and told her she was never going to talk to her agian......yeah satan is terrrible.....but i think it will happen later.
so.....the weather is still awesome here! this is such a beatuful place. We played football, soccer and ultimate frisby today with all the lower mainland missionaries. On pday all i want to do is run around all day because i feel so confined the rest of the week. you know me i like to be moving and a haf hour of dancing at the church in the morning is not cutting it.
well time is almost out! I love you sooooo much! really i do! but i love the Lord and i love serving Him. I am really getting to know Him better out here. I know that this gospel is true and its so great to be able to share it! God is real. Christ is our Savior! Love, Sister Flake

September 2 Email

2008-09-02T18:07:00.000-07:00

Hello Everybody! Thanks for all the emails. I feel loved. Incredible week....but first thanks for the package! We gave alot of the food to the skate park guys! Ha ha! Thanks for being so thoughtful....those orange chocolate ones are really good....It is still warm here....it rains alot more though...no big deal i like it. We really do get fed a ton here are members are soooo good to us! Our bishops daughter just left today for the mtc. She is going to be at the SLC temple square! We switched places! She is awesome and we will miss her.
I will send some more pictures soon. I dont have time to take very many. Wow dad! you are doing excellent at your calling! The stake is using your idea! thats awesome... Remember member work goes like this PLSI Pray Look Speak Invite! Its all you got to do! The precious stones are working really well...the member work is really picking up. I am glad that you and mom are doing so much missionary work! Awesome....Boys you can invite people too! Think and pray about one person at school that could hang out with you and your mormon frends and they all you have to do is invite them to an activity! Simple!!!!!Can you imagin if everyone did that!
Well Danielle and Steve sounds like you have been majorley blessed! Keep up the good work....dont just hang out with the members though always invite some of the non members....you are such great examples so shine your light! So Dawson homecoming eh? WOW you are soo funny. way too fool them! Did they get it on video? Cant wait to here about the dance! Andrew way to go on your eagle project you are awesome? HOw is cross country going? Do you like your teachers?
You know what? One of the reasons why the youth have problems up here is that there are no school activities...Teachers etc. dont want to volunteer their time and there are no particpants.....so sad. Its good to be involved. we still hit up the skate parks a couple times a week and we have been the answer to a couple of prayers there. Neat!
Oh yeah so i did not write yesterday because of Labor day! Sorry! But anyway oh yeah great news! Deanna has decided to be baptised on the 13th!!!!!!!!Amazing!!!!!! I cant express to you how happy I am! She is really enjoying planning her baptism and she want us and Sister Anderson to sing Amazing Grace with her after she gets dressed.....It has been so neat to see her whole journey.....We met with her last week and got her a blessing from the Korean Elders then we all bore testimony and the spirit was so strong i just knew i had to ask her right then! so she said yes! Sad thing is that she told her mum and she told her that we are a cult. she does not believe her but we have got to explain to her the opposision of the truth. Anyway God is helping her and she will make it! Please pray for her to be strong..... Reza has put his baptism off....we need to explain a few more things to him....he still believes its all true.... so pray for him too!
Now I will skip to the miracle we had this morning! So in my morning prayers i was really specific today! I prayed to find an investigator today...preferalbly a family and it would be nice if they didnt have to get a ride to church!....yes i was that specific....and guess what? we were sitting in the church teaching english when i see someone walk in....i went to greet her and she said she just moved down the street and was looking for christian church to go to! WOW! so i took her and her little son on a tour of the church! She loves our focus on families and the primary program....then i took her to the Joseph smith picture and did the first vision! The spirit was really strong! and she kept saying wow! i told her about the book of mormon and she asked for one! So she has been prepared. she is excited for church on Sunday....she has two children 6 and 8. they are Persian and very beautiful and kind!wow so be specific in your prayers the Lord wants to bless us! we are so excited to start teaching them! we are meeting many people! The Lord Loves us! Our prayers are answered!
Love,
Lindsey

August 25 Email

2008-08-26T18:14:00.000-07:00

I am so sorry! Holy cow! Whats my problem....i can't properly send an email! How hard is it? HA HA! Well i thought i sent an email last week...i know i wrote one...so i dont know where it is! SO SORRY! i choose not to be angry at myself will you do the same? anyway.....i dont remember what i wrote. So i will have to read it to you out of my journal when i get home. Sorry if you worried. Thanks for the letters from Jini. its fun to hear about other sis. missionaries....yes i would love to have Elder Flakes address...he sent me a letter from the mtc. I dont have the package yet but please no more graonola bars....i told you a lady from the ward gives them to us regularly and so to be honest we have over 150 graonola bars in our house right now!!!!!! We do not need food here! our ward gives us alot! And i refuse to gain weight. please send love and church cds.....they get old fast. but i really dont need anything.....maybe more family pictures.... anyways....So Dawson who did you ask to homecoming...and did she say yes? Andrew! You are stellar! Are you guys being as nice as you can to everyone?
Mom and dad! good luck with your talk! You are both so amazing and i am glad that you have this oppurtunity because you are such good examples. we had a zone meeting that i had to speak at on wed. about faith.....and this week i am speaking about PMG: "Talking to everyone" so i am getting my chance as a motivational speaker.....mom can you send me my pom poms? Just kidding.....anyway.....and Danielle and Steve you are so cute and your apartment looks nice. Be member missionaries!
Progression with investigators is happening....i am learning alot of patience. We are asking people to make big changes. I love my companion! We laugh alot! anywone want to go to new zealand with me when i get home? we can stay at her house. we are really relying on our members for support and they have been wonderful. We have had miracles. We have areally amazing zone right now! Lots of faith. Our mission president is so inspired! We had interviews this week and he spoke words to me that i knew came from God. I really needed it. And he gave me some great advice that I really needed....."sister Flake......relax!" and thats what i am going to do.....i can be so intense and trying to work hard that the spirit cant always talk to me.....so i am going to do my best and let the Lord do the rest! i am too blesssed to be stressed! Anyway.......mom...i think i am picking up a few more of your traits...and its hard trying to be perfect all the time...so lets relax and let the Lord help us out...what do you say?
Well....sorry i have not really shared any inspiratitonal stories...i promise they are happening though....This is the Lords work! I know this is the true church! I know that we have a Father in Heaven who loves each indiviual....lets do all we can to share that love with as many as we can! Love, Sister Flake

More Pictures from Surry

2008-08-18T20:02:00.000-07:00

Here is the picture link to all of her new pictures from Surry. http://picasaweb.google.com/danflake/MissionSurry

Pictures from Surry

2008-08-15T16:40:00.001-07:00

Lindsey in front of the home where she lives in the basement apartment.

Lindsey with the mission president, his wife and the Surry zone.

Lindsey with Sis. Anderson and Deanna. She writes, "This is Deanna! We Love her! And she loves everyone! So sweet! I think she was a hippie!"

August 11 email

2008-08-11T20:56:00.000-07:00

HI everybody!
Lots of change this week! Thursday Sis. Anderson left me for Richmond where she will be doing Chinese work. I now have Sis. van den Bosch from New Zealand! She is great and has an awesome accent. She has been out 9 months and she has served here in Poco before so its great cuz she knows the ward and everything. We are both short blondes and we have a lot of fun together! We are seeing lots of miracles!
We are getting lots of member help which is awesome and makes things work out so much better! Yesterday we had eight investigators at church! unbelievable! when i first got here we were lucky to get one....so the work is just really progressing and its going to keep getting better and better...President has a great vision of this mission really booming and i completely believe him...I think that’s why things are really picking up. FAITH works miralces...when used as a principle of power...look it up Faith in the bible dictionary! It’s amazing what we can do if we believe we can do it!
So Dawn gets baptized this Saturday! She is so ready! We are going on a picnic with her this week...she has taken time off of work to focus so she wants to spend more time with us. Her and her Samoan boyfriend are planning on getting married in the Samoa temple next year. I am learning so much about all kinds of different cultures.
Deanna quit smoking!!!!!! amazing!!!!! she just had to desire it enough......she told us she wants to be baptised!!!!!!but we still have to set a date. This morning we went on a hike to a beautiful waterfall called Crystal falls with her and her fiancé Larry and another friend from the ward. WOW the forest is so beautiful! I am so blessed to be in this beautiful place...
We had some great success tracting yesterday...we found two new investigators to meet with this week... we met them both with in a half hour! so you just got to let the Lord know what you want and if you really believe and its a righteous desire He will give it to you! And you just cant believe what other people may say.....if its negative don’t believe it and get it out of your mind!
Speaking of members and food....we ate at some Chinese members house and I ate a little fish.....bones and everything that was just fried up in a pan..... no likey.
Well it’s going to be a really amazing transfer! I will tell you all I can. I miss you so much but its ok. Family you are so amazing! I love hearing about your lives. Danielle and Steve i know you can really touch lives out there....don’t be afraid to talk to people:) Good job.. Dawson.....I think you are learning and will continue to learn that everything happens for a reason.....God knows what is best for you and i think you are going to love doing cross country with Andrew. Andrew! Yeah seminary! Advice is that definitely take scripture master seriously...i so wish i would have....take a little time to memorize during your daily scripture study.... be a friend to everyone....and never ditch. mom and dad.....you amaze me! Thank you so much for being the most perfect parents! I love you so much and appreciate more then ever all that you do! Thanks so much!

Love, Sister Flake

August 4 Email

2008-08-04T22:37:00.000-07:00

hello!
MIssionary work is amazing. I am learning so much...and am having so many life learning experiences and crazy things happen all the time that i wish i could have time to tell you about....someday. So i sent a long letter last week that you should be getting soon. It is a holiday today..Happy BC day! The library is closed so we are using the computer at the Farrances in our ward....they are awesome to the missionaries...they have the missionaries over for lunch every Saturday.
So Dawson dont be afraid to be creative and try crazy new ideas for seminary.. its all new so just go for it. be prayerful and seek inspiration. You will make a difference for good for many people.
Andrew...i only did one day of cross country...i think you will last alot longer....you will be wonderful! How did the state long jump go by the way?
Mom i say definately do the HIll Cumorah. YOu would love it. and they would love you! And the boys would make great Lamanites....maybe they can get blown up like i did! its lots of fun!
Dad keep up the good work...get the members involved as much as you can in the missionary work....we started a new program in our ward..i did it in my singles ward and so told our ward mission leader about it. anyway... in every auxillary ask a volunteer to take home a special rockand a BOM and pray all that week for a missioary experience..then they report back about it the following week and someone else takes the rock. it gets everyone talking about it...and i know that when you pray for something righteous the Lord will bless you with it...its one way to get more investiagors.....any questions? It worked great in the singles ward....everyone knows someone who is not a member.
So this week has been awesome....We met with Dawn again last night....she is so excited to be baptised and has a ton of support from members. the 16th is the date!
We have met twice with this Iranian man in his 50s. HIs name is Reza and he wants to be baptised on the 30th! He went to church for the first time yesterday! So he just walked into the church o amonth ago and talked to the bishop who was there because he said he was looking for a christian church.....he is muslim. so bishop gave him our number. so we have taught him the first two lessons with members from our ward there. he is reading the BOM and he knows its all ture! He was a professor in Iran...very smart man. he wants his family to learn too...so we will let you know how that goes. wow! BLessings!
So Michael had a baptism date for a few days....but now he says he wants to wait and see....so we are still working with him. He took us to eat chinese food with Bro. bird...one of our ward mission leaders.
Deanna was at Church yesterday too! And she bore her testimony! Wow! We were a little nervous....but she did such a great job....she just said how she loved the feeling she feels at the church and she said how grateful she was for the missionaries and that she is glad that we have helped her stop drinking and that she is going work on stopping smoking!WOW! so then she decided to say a prayer for everyone and thanked God for the spirit that was there and for the gospel! so it was definately differnt but everyone mentioned how powerful it was....the whole meeting was....and our wonderful members noticed all the investigarors at church and so they bore strong testimony and some even spoke directly to the investigators during thier testimonies promising them blessings for being baptised! Also this less active...Sherrie bore her testimony for the first time in years..we have been working with her and encouraged her to bear her testimony..and she got up after Deanna talking about how she stopped smoing to join th church! Powerful meeting....and the flower guy Marty was there....we set up an appoinment with him for this week...no flowers this time. thats good. and then saturday we were contacting at the mall and i had an impression that i needed to speak to this man i saw. he was kind of far away so i almost didnt do it...but i did so i invited this man joe to church....which we do all the time....but he did show up!So he was there and the members really welcomed him he wants to come back next week. WOW! things are going so good! The Lord is really blessing us as we strive to be obedient.
Transfers are Thursday but we dont know whats going on till WEd. sis anderson been out here since April....so we are both pretty new. and she has been in poco the whole time.
Presedent met with us the other morning because he was in the area to meet with the stake president. HOw nice eh? YEah so he gave us some great advice.... i like himalot. \ The other day at the skate park someone actually asked for a bible! so there is slight progression there! ALot of the work we do here is more like a drug free campaign.....the youth in this city are not getting taought morals from their parents...but the youth in the church are awesome! Its really fun telling kids...and adults how uncool it is to do drugs...unlike popular belief...haha and im pretty bold about it too!
Yes mom we are getting fed alot...often times by investiagrors so thats awesome! This is getting to long...i better stop....i love you all thanks for your support and letters....love, Sister Flake

July 28 Email

2008-07-29T14:36:00.000-07:00

Hello!
Thanks so much for all your letters! They make me happy! Sounds like the reunion was a blast. Yes we do get the ensign so you dont need to send it but thanks so much for the spanish one...that was very nice. Happy Anniversary mom and dad! Thanks for loving each other! I love you both so much!
So far we have only had one rainy day. They say there is only two seasons in this area rainy season and consstruction season. anyway....today for pday we played football with about 50 other missionaries...so much fun!
This week has been full of appointments. Zone conference was so good! Our president is inspired...and his wife has daiebetes so we got to take her to dinner...well she payed....but it was great to spend time with her...and she is so knowledgable about the scriptures so we were able to learn alot from her. Oh and the night before we spent at the other sisters, sister Huffaker and the other sis. Anderson, house because conference is an hour away...it was fun. Dawn, Deanna and Michael are still progressing. Our newest investigator came to church yesterday..his name is Fuji and he is 21. He has long hair and is in a band and is an intellectual...so we contacted him at the mall last week and we have taught him twice since then.....he says he does not believe in God but he keeps wanting to learn more and he reads the Book of Mormon, and he enoyed church. soooo he is starting to open up his mind.....and more importantly his heart.
oh yeah...we keep getting invited to sing for things...we sang at zone conference, the mission President fireside, and church yesterday. Im getting lots of practice.
We gave David ( the nine year old) a really interactive and entertaining first lesson....we let him be Joseph smith and he saw a pillar of light(a flashlight) and then he had to search in the back yard for the silver tinfoiled plates! it was great fun! he has a very short attention span.... his mom baught him a new tie for church. He really loves primary. So things are moving along with our wonderful investigators. Deanna made us dinner the last time we had an appointment with her..very nice....so anyway....I am writing you all letters today so get excited and sorry but you wont get them for two weeks.
Love you all so much!
Love, Sister Flake

July 21 Email

2008-07-21T20:01:00.000-07:00

Nii how! hello in chinese! i know hello in many different languages now... well thanks for all the great emails.....i have not read them yet. but i am finally getting some letters...and i am glad that you are finally getting some of mine...sorry it took so long and too bad my pictures got lost....dang. You are all the best and i love you so much. i cant wait till you can come see how beautifull it is here.
So the most exciting news this week! We commited two people to baptism yesterday! wow! sooo great! we knew that if we showed the Lord that we could work hard by contacting like crazy(oh the koreans already beat our record by the way...didnt evey have it a week...thats great though)that we woulld be blessed....and this past week was so full of appointments we barely had time to contact. and we had a coulple people call us for appointments! so a boy named David who is 9 came to the church for the first time since he was a baby....his family has not been active....but we have been visiting them alot and builing a bond with david...is just treat him like my little bros...and him and his mum(yes its mum in Canada) came to the stake pic nic on saturday....so i hung out with him most the day and made him promise to go to church with his mum who has been coming the last couple weeks...anyway...he came to church and so did his dad! so we gave him a tour of the church and all the secret rooms and top secret stuff "wink wink" and thn we took him to the font tsught about baptism and sang the special baptism song....then we asked him and he said yes! so probably the last week of august or whenever his older brother gets home from cadet camp....he is 13 and we will get him baptised too!
so our other baptism.....a member refferal.....she is this really cute women in her 20s who works at a gym and is dating a member in the singles ward so she had been to church with him five times and she asked to start talking with the missinoaries...so we went there on sunday night taught her the first lesson and commited her for baptism the third week in August.....wow! and she is so ready she knows what the spirit feels like and is excited to learn more and more! so we didnt really have to work for it....she is so ready! wow this work is so exciting.
the three people we had at church last week were all there again! michael agreed to take the lessons so we meet with him tonight..... Deanna is still progressing as well.... after sacrament michael turned to Deanna and asked "the spirit is here isnt it?" soo we are way excited bout both of them and the ward was so welcoming to them...the other guy brought me flowers again so we are going to have to hand him over to the korean elders because its getting kind of wierd.......but its nice because we give the flowers to people who need love dureing the week.
anyways miracle story.....we met with this women that sis. anderson had met with before i got here. her 21 year old daughter was killed in a freak accident three months ago and she is in depression.... on her last day of work before taking time off for mourning she happened to cut the elders hair...they got her number and then sis. anderson and her last companion went and visited her...so she invited us to come over again and this time she wanted us to meet her friend who lives next door and is dying of cancer...... really sad stuff i know...so we happened to have a dinner appointment before that with sis. kovaltsenko who lost her husbannd foour years ago...we had the inspiration to invite her to come with us to khatiras(the lady who lost her daughter) wow we taught them the plan of salvation and the spirit was so strong....we prayed and sang for them.....and sister kovaltsenko was able to help so much because she had been thorugh it you know...anyway everyone had tears and we were all comforted...we have another appointment with them tonight. wow! the Lord knows exactley what we all need! This church is so true! God loves us all so much and he knows each one of us! Read your scriptures daily ! you will recieve the inspiration you need in life.
so for pday we met all the missionaried in Richmond and did a free car wash...it was supeer fun.... president baught us pizza! thats why i didnot write this morning...love youall...bye bye

Sister Flake

July 14 Email

2008-07-14T14:52:00.000-07:00

Hello! So sorry about last week. Apparenty i typed the address wrong!oops...but i resent it. will you forgive me? So i have not been recievingemails from grandma...she is probable sending it to the old adress...sorry ikeep messing everything up. And wow it takes over a week to get yourmail...and i wonder if you recieved anything from me yet. The mail does notcome sat. or sun. here. So yes the weather is still beautifull here! and this place islovely...i love the forrest! and i love our ward...they are so nice. thisold lady with an english accent brought us a costco size box of granola barsto church for us yesterday...she calls me sister Fizz because she thinks iam so bubbly! Ha Ha. Anyway they are my family away from home. So...we had three investigators five investigators at church yesterday!WOW! Deanna who we i talked about in my last weeks letter.....her fiancetook her out to buy a dress for church the day before! She looked sopretty....anyway we are still working with her to stop smoking.. anysuggestions from anybody....i have never dealt with this. but wow i loveher she is so EXUBERANT.....like you know kind of hippie like all aboutpositeve energy and expressing herself thorugh movement....we were meant foreach other ha ha! and she calls us all the time. we meet with her againtonight.... oh yeah so i was the speaker yesterday.....i really wanted to say whatthe Lord wanted me to say and it was about building your testimony...howperfect! i bore a heart felt testimony. so the other guy michael showed up too! he is the one who stopped us onthe street last week to tell us that the BOM was true! so funny! well heliked church but does not want to meet with us till he has read all the BOMso he is busy just converting himself and then BAPTISM! The other guy who was there is this guy we met the day before in thepark.... i told him i was speaking in church the next day and he promised mehe would come...well he did...and he brought me floweres! soo kind of wierdand sounds creepy but its not...ha ha. so he said he wanted to come nextweek to. So it was awesome! we have progreesing investigartors! The Lord reallyblessed us this week becasue we went so hard core! I dont think i toldyou this but we wanted to break the contacting record for the missio whichwas 783....so we fasted last week for it because the law of the harvest saysthat the more people you meet the more baptisms you will have and we havemade a goal to have three this transfer(will you pray for us to be able todo this? thanks) so anyway we got the korean elders involved tooo.....andthey broke it 2 weeks ago with 830.....so we had to up ours......and we didit! we contacted 842 people! can you belive it? we didnt do pday so wecould do it.....and so we met and testified to over 120 people a day! itwas awesome and believe me i am no longer afraid to talk to anyone becauseGod gives me courage! So we hold the record now! But we are challlenging theelders to beet it again! So yes we are working hard and the Lord is blessing us tremendously.yesterday we met with a man and his wife...he has a major in religiousstudies.....so you know its one of those stories....anyway he is soconfused because he is seeking the truth by only using his head...and theLord helped me bare strong testimony about the fact that a testimony comesfrom what you know in your head and more importantly feel in your heart!....and he softened up and agreed that that was important.....so we willlmeet with them again in a while...i think the wife is having a baby likeright now. oh yeah! we have been back to the skate park three or four times....weteach about 12-18 teenagers at a time! we brought them popcycles! so we toldsome of them the story about alma the younger......they cant pay attentionvery long...so it is slow with them....but we really feel that God wantsthese punk kids whose parents have never taught the m anything about moralsvalues or God to know that God loves them and that there is hope...we haveto help them with drugs too...so we will continue to go over therealot...the funny thing is that they actully like us being there and alwayswant us to stay longer. well the church is true........i know that the Lord has a plan for all ofus....and i know why he sent me here.....love, sister flake

July 7 Email

2008-07-14T14:51:00.000-07:00

Hello!Holy cow! This work is amazing! I will just tell you a few hightlightstories. well earlier this week we decided to be bold and we went to theskate park and talked to some of the dudes there. (i can say dude because idont know how else to explain them) anyway we taught them and more peoplegathered...we were teaching 7 or eight of them at one point. it was coolbecause its kind of unexpcted for someone to come teach a bunch of punk kidsabout Christ....but we did it....and we are going to keep going back....theyneed hope and they need to stop doing drugs. Some of them were geuninlyinterested! Awesome! God wanted them to know that they are loved.Oh and i have already used spanish twice in contacting! Wow the Lord wasreally helping me because i testified to this lady Elena about the book ofMormon and she said she wanted one so i got her number to give to thespanish elders. amazing!Yesterday sis. anderson and I fasted( the longest i ever have). and we sawmiracles. we went to teach this women who we met contacting namedDeanna...and let me just tell you....she has been so prepared for thegospel...i have never met some one with so much faith. she has had 4 neardeath experieinces and she is a smoker and drinker but she relys on God somuch....she just needs direction...anyway she was soaking up the lessons andi testified of the book of mormon that it was the word of God....she took itfrom me closed her eyes to pray and then opened it up to a random page...sis. andeerson and i were both praying that it would be a good versse....and she opoened up to Enos.....which you should all read! tears came to hereyes as she read vs. eight.... thy fiath hath made thee whole...... she said"i know this" and we told her she could find out if the book is true andbefore we could tell her to pray about it she said... i already know itstrue! wow the spirit was so strong.....we set up an appointment for todaybecause she wanted to meet with us as soon as possible...she wants to makeus creapes too... she gave me the longest hug and told me she loves me somuch and kept thanking us for the truth...then she took my hands and said "there is something you are not telling me that you know... and i thought fora minute and the spirit had me tell her that the Lord wanted her baptised inhis church. and the she said....and there is somthing else.....and isearched my heart and said a silent prayer and the spirit had me teach herabout the word of wisdom and i said " Deanna the Lord wants you to stopsmoking and drinking." She nodded her head and hugged me... she knew thatswhat the Lord wanted her to know..... my companion later tolde me that thatis what she thought to say as well. This is Gods work....we will go see howshe is doing today and teach her more....her fiance was there learningtoo... he told Deanna that he wanted to go to our church this sunday! sothey will bothe be there...and guess what? bishop asked me to speak nextsunday! the ward is so great here,,and very supportive.one more miracle. there is this older man named Michael that we ran intorandomly(inspired i am sure) the first time we met him he told us we arefull of light...we gave him a bom but he didnt want to be taught....thesecond time we saw him we asked him if he read and he said he had glanced atit so we commited him to read it again....then yesterday we saw him in townand he came up and asked if we had a bom with us....he opened it up and readthe first line of the intorduction and looked at us and said " see this bookis true!" he testified to us that it was true! and then he asked us whereare church was...he said he wants to read it all and then we can teachhim... we exchanged numbers and will probably see him at church! wow! anywaythe gospel is true and we can heaer about miracles but our testimony canonly come from reading and prayin on our own!
Love, Sis. Flake

First e-mail from Canada!

2008-07-01T10:44:00.000-07:00

OH hello!I am here and it is amazing! Every minute is exciting and important! I am here at the Port Coquitlam library using the computer. That is our area and our zone is called Surrey. We are about an hour east from Vancouver. It is a beautiful city with lots of parks and trees. we went on a jog throuth the forrest this morning! i love it! I am so blessed to be here!Ok i will start from the begining. We said hello and goodbye to President middleton and his wife. They are very nice and served us dinner and then we stayed the night at a hotel because they were moving out of the mission home already. It is soooo diverse here! 90 percent of the people here are not canadians. Everyone just immigrates to this beautiful place.. and guess what? it is not even cold at all. Its way warm....and it has not rained since i got here. its like 9o degrees most the time. So my companion is sister anderson from Heber city....shes only been out three months and is a trainer. she speaks french and chinese...and so she gets an hour of language study each morning....so i do too...so i am going to finish learning spanish....that way whoever we talk to we will be able to speak to....well almost. wont that be awesome?Ok so we live in the basement of a really cute house in a nice safe neighborhood. nothing to worry about mom:) We wake up and do aerobics at the church for a half hour with a cute 18 year old member girl named Kristen. OH and we ride our bikes there becase its just down the hill from us. we have a car and bikes so we do a little of both....very fun riding bikes and its good PR. we have already had three member families mention that we looked like we were working hard on our bikes....and we are. We talk to everyone! We average about 50 contacts a day. WE spend alot of time in the mall parking lot testifying to people..many think that we are crazy. ITs not even scary beause all you have to do is start walking towards the people and then the Lord helps you know what to say... some listen some dont. IT is amazing! This is the Lords work . i feel him working through me and i use to be so scared to approach people but now its just like easy. Amazing! We have also been teaching alot....we dont have any progreesing investigators yet....but a few close ones....we had an amazing experience fri. a 16 year old boy named Edgar from El Salvador....it was a refferal. we stopped at his house and he eagerly let us in....we taught him the first lesson! we gave him the book of mormon. he just ate up everything we said. the spirit was strong.... i know he will read and pray about it....we will meet with him again this week. he wants to come to church next week. his family only speaks spanish which is one of the reasons i want to learn it....and i know the Lord will help me learn it fast. So it was great...he is golden.we were also able to teach a family from India...the Skotsvys! They are beautiful...only the 12 year old daughter knew english so she had to translate everything.... we sang to them I am a child of God and the spirit was stong. We gave the girl a Book of mormon and we are ordering one in the Farsee language for the mom. They were so nice...she wore like those really beautiful colorful india outfits and sat on the beatifull rugs on the floor...she also gave us cookies and tea...which we kindly refused to. really nice generous people...we were able to get a sewing machine from some members to give to them.....they are poor and were originally refugees from Afganastan. we look forward to teaching them more.We have had four dinner appointment with members. three of them have been hamburgers on the barbque! ha ha! but its fun to eat and be outside and with members. we have been visiting a ton of less actives too! This work is so great! oh there are two korean elders in our area that go to all the dinners with us...they are so funny. Last night we all sang at our appointment and the wife is going to have us sing for sacrament meeting.... the ward is strong here. they are so nice and great! we are going to make the ward even bigger though! i really love the people here and i am learning so much about other cultures and stuff. The Lord loves all His people.We are also teaching a new convert from Iran... he gives us persian bread from his dads store...so good. People are so nice to us. anyway i will talk more next week..this is so long. i did not even know i could type this fast! we are going to the peace arch for pday with a bunch of other missionaries..including sis. huffaker! its an arch between the borders...and we will see the beach! Love you! sis. Flake
3177 Sylvia Place
Coquitlam, BCV3E 2R4
now that you have my adress you can all write me! yeah hoo!

New Mission President

2008-06-24T07:18:00.000-07:00

Sister Flake will be getting a new mission president in the next week or two. Here is their Bio:

President Kent Kruger Nelson
Spouse: Jannilyn
Served: 2008 - 2011

Comments:Kent Kruger Nelson, 60, Canada Vancouver Mission; Kaysville 20th Ward, Kaysville Utah Crestwood Stake; ward Sunday School teacher; former bishop, high councilor, stake mission president, stake Young Men president and missionary in the Canadian Mission. Associate Partner, Hendricks & Partners. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Rene Ensign and Ruth Mary Kruger Nelson. Married Jannilyn Dickey, four children. A ward Relief Society teacher, Sister Nelson is a former ward Young Women president, counselor in a ward Primary presidency, ward Sunday School teacher and gospel doctrine teacher. Born in Salt Lake City, Utah, to Myron Leolin and Mary Christine Calcote Dickey.

June 23 Email

2008-06-23T16:42:00.001-07:00

From: Lindsey Flake [mailto:lindseyflake@myldsmail.net]Sent: Monday, June 23, 2008 3:48 PM
Hello! This week was fast and amazing. We have spent alot of time in theRefferal center and i have had some amazing expereinces...oh and this shiftkey on the keyboard doesnt work good so i am not going to capitalizeanything. sorry. so anyway.... i was able to send misionaries to four offive people over the phone. wow! it feels so good to talk and testify topeople. i just try to say what the Lord wants me to say. i have got to knowsome really neat people from all over the country. i have been talking tothis one lady more than once who is a jew and 85 years old! she is fromgermany and the only one left of her family. she was 10 years old when allthe bad stuff started happening over there. anyway its amazing that ihappened to be the one to contact her because i learned so much from herabout being accepting to other peoles beliefs and standing up for the truth.she speaks at schools and and places now about the haulicost. anyway....iwas able to testify to her about the whole first lesson the first time italked to her... and it was the first person i have ever testified aboutJesus Christ to ho does not believe him to be our Savior....and i felt thespirit stongly as i told her that i know that He is our Savior and that heloves her and suffered and died for her......she didnt say anything for along time and i just let it soak in...then i commited her to praying to knowif Jesus is the Christ and i sent the missionaries to her house with a bookof mormon... i have given her number to someone who works at the referalcenter who i can trust since i am leaving tommorow... wow neat.... and all ido is try to love her like God loves her and then i know what to say to herbecause its His work and he lets me know what to say. The worth of everysoul is great in the site of God! Oh and she loves mitt romney.....shesays there is a light in the face and the voice of mormons she is sosweet.....i talked to her for over an hour and at the end of the call shetold me she loved me! she is such a nice old lady.Dad....she asked me if i followed politics...i told her i use to be and shewas very happpy...she thinks that there are not enough americans standing upfor truth.... i told her that now i am focusing on sharing the truth of Godand she said "all truth goes together with God." it really was a blessingfor me to talk to this lady! She said, coming from a women who saw hercounty fall apart "Fight for God, you will die anyway....fight for God! anddont let them take him out of our schools and county!" Neat lady!anyway.....i do leave tommorow. i am very excited and i have pass alongcards for the plane ride. i have made so many friends..... its been anamazing three weeks.... oh and all the general authorities were hereyesterday....but i never saw them. they were at another sacrament meetingfor the mission presidents..... oh well. we still had a way good devotionalfrom some other guy.
love,sister flake

Lunch with Sister Flake

2008-06-19T13:09:00.000-07:00

I just got back from work where I got to eat luch with Lindsey at the MTC! I also got to listen to her make a few calls in the Referral Center. She basically baptized one lady over the phone! She is incredibly happy and excited to head to Vancouver in five days!

Pictures!

2008-06-18T14:52:00.000-07:00

Photo Link:
http://picasaweb.google.com/danflake/LindseyMTC02

2nd MTC Week

2008-06-16T19:29:00.000-07:00

Hello! Who was the greatest bible Dr..... Job or Moses? Its close cuz Job had alot of patience....but Moses delivered the whole house of Israel! HA HA! Good times at the MTC! Life here is a lot of fun because the gospel brings so much joy! The more you study the happier you are! So I would really suggest reading from the scriptures every day if you are not. The scriptures have become a treasure in my heart! We study them all the time but it doesn’t feel like enough because the more you learn the more you want to learn! Elder Bednar said we must drink from the reservoir of living water daily! Will you commit to daily scripture study? I promise you that if you do the Lord will give you so much happiness and direction in your life! Anyways..... I am having so much fun and learning so much! We have had a few pretend teaching appointments and they went well. We work well as a threesome. We joined the choir. I love the devotionals here! They are so powerful. And guess what? We just found out that President Monson is coming next Sunday to speak!!!!!!! Amazing....so right before we leave. I guess they are having a new mission president conference so we will be there for it! So Neat! What a blessing! Holy cow! I will tell you about it next week!
Love, Sister Flake

First P-Day Email! June 8, 2008

2008-06-09T16:17:00.000-07:00

HI! OH my i only have 20 min. time here is limited! But first of all I loveyou so much! I am having a great time here! Its hard work but I love it! Ifeel the missionary fire! I have two amazing companions! Sister Huffaker isso sweet! She is going to Canada too. Sister Hughes is From Chicago and sheis going to San Fransico. Her companion never showed up at the MTC! OH well.We really like having her! I like the food... i drink chocolate milk everyday its great! I love gym time! With three sister we were able to play jumprope! Ha Ha! Also i provided a challenge for some of the elders at 4 squarewhich apparently is one of the most competitive games around here! I lovelearning so much about the gospel the spirit is so strong here!I cant waitto get out and share what I know! So my district is alot of fun! Also we gotto go to the temple today. I knew that I would not have a hard beingobedient but what I do have a hard time with is knowing what the rules are!There are so many of them.....But I am learning. We have learned the firtlesson and will teach volunteer fake investigators tommorrow. Sorry I am soflighty and not organized in this letter...I think i willl learn to be moreorganized in this next year and a half......oh yeah sometihing else i needto work on..... My companion sis. Huffaker and I could not make it through ahymn with ou laughing the first two days! She laughs just as much as me...its fun...but we are working on not doing it in class any longer.. Maybe ishould have not said that...sorry mom. we are doing much better now.my letter willl be more spiritual next time.... sorry.... not enough timetoday.... but the gospel is so true and God is leading this work! I knowthat he is already preparing some people for us to teach in vancouver! Iam so excited to get out there. The gospel brings so much joy!!!! and themissionary mantle is real....we all know how i have always had a hard timefocusing...well i can do it here....and i can memorize things like 90 timesfaster here! Its amazing..... I am so greatful for Gods help....He makes meso much better then I really am!Love, Sister Flake

Family i need my tennis shoes the red nike ones.....and maybe some flipflops for the shower! Thanks so much! I miss you....but dont worry i am sofocused on the work it doesnt bother me. Boys I hope you are excited tocome here because its so amazing! You will really love it!

First Letter

2008-06-06T16:44:00.001-07:00

We received a letter from Lindsey today. She says her companion is from Bountiful, Sis. Huffaker. She says that she is sweet and fun and she reminds her of her friend Michelle. She said, “The great thing is that she is quick to laugh! We are going to have a great time together. We had a cool testimony meeting. It’s neat to see the different backgrounds that everyone comes from. This is going to be a neat experience although right now I feel overwhelmed.”

MTC!!

2008-06-06T10:21:00.000-07:00

Lindsey entered the MTC on the 4th! She reported at noon and we got to enjoy a few last minutes with her watching church commercials, hearing from President and Sister Boone, and watching a bit of the old "Called to Serve" video. Then came the time for good bye's. At least us girls got teary-eyed. We all got hugs and then Lindsey went out one door and we went out the other. Lindsey will be awesome!

Farewell

2008-05-12T07:40:00.000-07:00

Lindsey's farewell will be on May 25, over Memorial Day weekend so we invite you all to come. We meet at 8:30 am!!! Little Valley Chapel. You are invited for lunch and fun after.

Called to Serve!

2008-05-09T14:56:00.001-07:00

Lindsey has been called to serve in the Vancouver Canada Mission! For the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. She will enter the MTC on June 4th 2008!