August 11 email

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

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

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

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

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

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!

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!