TextLayoutImporter and creating elements from XML

I'm trying to use the functions available through the TextLayoutImporter class to create elements from XML. 

For example, I would like to use this xml:

var chase_xml:XML = new XML('<p>chase</p>');

in conjunction with the "createParagraphFromXML" method of the TextLayoutImporter class to create a ParagraphElement that I can add to an existing TextFlow using the "addChild" method of the TextFlow class.

Unfortunately, I keep getting an empty paragraph rather than the paragraph I am sending into the importer.

The code I've been tinkering with:

var _headerTextFlow = new TextFlow();

//using the same config as the TextFlow I already created, since that is what I understand the purpose of the config to be?  I also, unsuccessfully, tried setting it to null

var new_importer = new TextLayoutImporter(_headerTextFlow.configuration);

var spellParagraph:ParagraphElement = new_importer.createParagraphFromXML(spellXML);

trace('get text: '+spellParagraph.getText()); //this traces as 'get text:  '

_headerTextFlow.addChild(spellParagraph);

Is this function just non-functional?  It would be pretty useful to be able to go directly from XML marked up for the TextLayout Framework to FlowElements.  I was going to try to write a class to do just that when I dug into the source and found functions such as "createParagraphFromXML."  Unfortunately, they do not see to be working in a way I can understand...