March 23 Email

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!

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

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

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

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

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

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