Flex you muscles

Hi there.
I have never looked at mxml and flex before. I am trying to come to grips with this method:

<mx:Model id=“results” source="…/assets/data.xml"/>

question: Does flex compile the xml when you run??? and if so does that mean that you can not just place an xml file and reference it.
Problem: I Need to use more of the xml data for the rest of the interface. To me it looks like it is compiled, not dynamically pulled in.

Next question.
How can I draw in the xml data in dynamically??
Just use a standard actionscript method?

hope this makes sense? brndn