9.26.16 - Coqueiral, Brazil

It is so hard to say in such a short amount of time and space to be able to say what has been going on lately!

As an update...I am with a new companion in the same area as a zone leader. My old companion, Elder Omar, left to go home today! BACK TO SÃO PAULO!

But Elder Frutuoso is super excited and a very hard worker. I cannot express what a blessing that is.

On sunday we learned about how we can get the members involved in the work. This ward is really small but I believe that the Lord can capacitate these members to perform miracles and lead many to the waters of baptism!

I love it here!

E. Flake

9.12.16 - Coqueiral, Brazil

To just give you a picture of the difficulty of writing today....I am using windows xp in a dusty lan-house with a poor internet connection.

WINDOWSS XP PEOPLE

Anyways to be brief but effective in communicating my week I will start out by saying the mission council was awesome! Basically mission council is when the the mission leaders group together and discuss the mission around a big table with the mission president. I am excited to be in the council and it is a very humbling experience being a leader (because I know nothing hahaha)

I have 2 minutes before my computer credit wears out so just know that I love yall and may God be involved in your life (hint...won't happen if you aren't sayin your prayers people)

Elder Flake

8.29.16 - Coqueiral, Brazil

Yesterday we Baptized Hana! She is a 17 year old girl. I have loved seeing the progress she has made to come to Christ!

Other than Hana, we have been trying very hard to find new people to teach. We were asking a member to pass us some references and she said that she was scared to do so and then the other day we visited her again and she gave us 32 references

32 REFERENCES PEOPLE

That is a lot of people to go visit and eventually baptize!!

As far as our ward goes, it is very small yet very strong. Plenty of wonderful people for me to describe to ya but it still wouldn't do

How are my companion Elder Omar and I passing the time? SERVING I can't tell you how tired we are here in this area. Unlike São Lourenço da Mata, (my past area) there is no KOMBI which was our primary source of transportation. Here, our legs are having to make due. I have never walked so much in my life I am pretty sure. I think that every area I move to, I have to walk more BUT HOW WONDERFUL IS IT BEING IN THE LORDS SERVICE

I am serious. There is so much opposition. To be frank, the Enemy is making is mark on these people. There is a growing "religion" called macumba which I won't go into much detail to describe because it is satanic. Many many many people are taking part in this gross form of worship and it makes things more difficult. This area that I am in has more than I have seen in any other part of brazil that I have served. But, I am glad to be on the winner's side AM I RIGHT?

So other than this, my companion and I our fighting the urge to be lazy and not use our time (the Lord's time) unwisely. We have lots of other missionaries as well to take care of and our responsibility is quite weighty. But all is well! We are doing so great!

Elder Flake

8.22.16 - Coqueiral, Brazil

Yep we are enhausted here in the new area Coqueiral! It is crazy how hard we are working! We are almost running to our appointments because we are just so excited! I love it here in my new area! It is a lot smaller but that does not mean we don't walk 5000 miles hahaha.

My new companion is going home in 6 weeks to São Paulo and he, Elder Omar, does not want to leave here without giving it his best shot! So we are working to the point that we are falling asleep in random places. I think one of the worst was when we were on the train and I fell asleep and leaned my head on the girl to my right but I woke up real quick super embarassed. I fell asleep reading a manual and the book fell on my face! I always get super tired when I move to a new area and have a new position. I am much much much more stressed being a zone leader. Their are tons of missionaries to attend to and lots of meetings and things to get done. We have mission counsel with the mission president next week. I am hoping to learn a lot and help a lot with the progress of the mission here in Pernambuco!!

With that said just know I am doing fantastic and miss the better majority of you slackers that I haven't heard from in decades hahaha.

Have a great week!

Elder Flake

8.15.16 - Coqueiral, Brazil

WHELP it is Elder Flake here and I am super excited to report that I am now here in the area Coqueral! I have also been assigned zone leader in Jardim São Paulo which makes me super SUPER nervous but mostly excited! I feel so young in the mission and I ask myself how on earth can I lead other missionaries but I know that my faith will help me grow and I will be just fine!!

We got to spend a saturday with President Bigelow and his family and it was such a fun experience! We arrived there and started a gospel discussion with him and the other missionaries that reached the Padrão de Excelência (Standard of excellence!) Super faith inspiring. I need to study more on how I can increase my faith because acting on faith is how we gain pure knowledge and testimony that the power of Christ can bless us! After that we all played some basketball and futbôl (soccer)! Not to mention that the place we played was incredibly fancy!

Also, for our last p-day as a district, we decided to go to a dam and an old catholic church that is at the edge of our area. Sadly, the original plans fell through because we couldn't find a way to get there. We do not have a car and there is no way to get there by bus.....it is just a dirt/clay road super super long that goes densely into the sugar cane fields and junglish area. SOO YEAH. That was when I stepped up with another elder that is going home this week. We left everyone in our house and we went hunting for somebody to take us there. After asking around the city we found a guy that was walking to his old kombi van and I told him, "We wanna do something crazy.." After telling him the conditions of the road I offered him an incredibly low amount of money (10 rais per person) and not expecting a great response he said, "BORA LÁ CARA" which is colloquial for LETS GET OUT THERE DUDE!

......so we went. To sum things up, it was flippen awesome and also we got to make tons of noise inside of that tiny van all together! It was SOOOO FUNN!! We found human bones in the old catholic church and the dam was insanely large! It all was in the middle of nowhere. It took forever to get there but we passed the time cracking jokes and just having fun listening to some Nashville Tribute Band hahaha! We got tons of dust in our eyes and we stopped many times along the way to suck on sugar cane and push the old volkswagon kombi.

But on a spiritual note (this time in Portuguese)

Estou tão feliz com o progresso que estou tendo aqui em Brasil. Estou aprendendo como realmente ser um servo do Senhor e como melhorar minha personalidade. Eu quero crescer pessoalmente para que eu possa ajudar outras pessoas fazer a melhor decisão possível....SER BATIZADO! Eu nunca vou deixar de fazer esse serviço!

COM TODO AMOR EM MEU CORAÇÃO

Elder Flake

8.8.16 - São Lorenço, Brazil

So this country is goin wild with the olympics happening! Even though I am not too close to Rio, the country as a whole is going nuts! There are huge street fests and many people are partying and enjoying some competition!!

Other than all the craziness, things are swell being a missionary! I am so grateful to get to know many many people! Tranfers are this next week and I have been here for 6 months already so it is likely I head out but who knows!!

I can't describe the love that I have for the people we teach and the members we have been able to know! Our district of missionaries is baptizing like crazy! We beat our goal for july so today we are going to party it up here in São Lourenço da Mata!!

I am so grateful to be here in Brazil! But I also hope the US is whoopin it in the Olympics!

Elder Flake!

8.1.16 - São Lorenço, Brazil

I am officially not a teenager now. How crazy is that!

Thanks for the birthday wishes and I hope the better part of you are doing fantastic!! I don't have too much time to write today but here we go!!!

We had another baptism. His name is Antônio and he is very humble and a very focused and just man. Miguel Panta, who we baptised 9 days ago, shared his testimony very powerfully. He mentioned how he his not sure exactly why he he prepared himself the way he did to follow the "Mormons" but he said very firmly "I know that you just have to continue in this path."

My testimony of this church, the Church of Jesus Christ has grown so strong. I wish I had more of a chance to be more open about my beliefs before I decided to just pack up and leave for 2 years. I know that this is the way and I am a witness of the blessings that one recieves for following this path.

Have a good week people!!! My next birthday will be in Tennessee!!

Elder Flake