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
Monday, March 2, 2009
Monday, February 16, 2009
February 16, Email
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
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
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
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
Monday, February 2, 2009
Picture link from Langley
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
Christmas, New Years, Helping on the Farm, the Temple under construction, converts with Sis. Anderson from Idaho
Email February 2, 2009
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
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
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
My Joy is Full
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
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
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
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