hApPy tHaNkSgiViNg!

Well this week was a…different week. I will start off with my miracle story. Monday night we had planned to go look up a lady we met on the bus that was just baptized Baptist. We went to see her and her daughter, Nicole, said she had to work late that night and was really sorry. So we started talking to the daughter. We learned that she goes to church every now and again with her mom and has an 8 year old son (:D) named Shavaun. We taught her a little about the church and she really liked that they have classes for the children. She committed to come to FHE tonight! We are going to pick her up and we are super excited. We had a BOM on us and gave it to her and as we did Shavaun gasped. He loves to read and we told him we’d bring him his own and he was super excited. Nicole told us that she was just heading to read the bible, which she does before bed so she’d read the BOM instead. So we left and called her a couple days later. She said that she had read but only a little. I asked her what she read. She told me she read the first 2 chapters of Nephi and the introduction, and that Shavaun read half of one of the chapters as well! I was like, “You said a little!” LOL. We were so super excited and are praying she can continue to read and pray.
Tuesday was our Sisters Conference. It was okay. It was fun to get together with old friends/pad mates, but you all know girls…they’re so competitive. The room was filled with pride lol so it made it a little hard. Girls would talk about how they trained at an early age on the mission and about their success and other things. So it made it really hard for sisters who are….not so prideful. It was more like a group therapy session as well lol. But it was fun, we had a really good lunch 
Wednesday we didn’t get out bc I became really sick. I think it may be from my flu shot I had got the week before but the cold is going around so who knows. My lungs were really struggling and I didn’t sleep at all. I did however, discover an incredible “tea.”  All it is is, hot water, honey, and lemon. It tasted so good to me and I guess it clears out your lungs…and it did! It also gave me a lot of…well I can’t say energy, but I guess I can say… “kookieness?” Lol, maybe it was from being in all day but I couldn’t stop talking and laughing at everything.
We met with Rhonda again and it was again a really good lesson. The spirit is always present and strong. We had her read Elder Hollands amazing talk from conference and also watch The Restoration. It was new for her so it makes me wonder if the missionaries that baptized her, then, really just went and dunked her…. But as we continue to teach her she still is filled with fear that it is true as well as if it isn’t. She wants so badly to be on the right path. We were talking of how we knew that what we taught is true and just the yearning in her voice when she asked, “How do you know,” was just heart wrenching. Her heart needs softened, every night before we go to bed we call her and share our favorite BOM scripture with her. She hangs to tightly to the Bible. That’s actually what sparked her at the beginning. The Elders that baptized her were teaching her about the Spirit world and she had never heard anything like that! She said, “You show that to me in the bible!” So they did, right there in Colossians…or Peter, idk what one…anyways. After she saw that she was so happy and had gained testimony of the spirit world and is a perfect example of conversion. She went around telling everyone about the spirit world and what she had learned. So we know that all we need to do is help her to receive the same about Joseph Smith and the BOM, but each time we show her the verses from the Bible she interprets them differently. Slowly but surely she is coming around. She tries so hard, she is an amazing woman.
So that’s about it for my week. It was a rather slow one, being sick and all. I hope everyone has a very happy Thanksgiving! I will surely be missing home and the good food  We did barely get someone to let us come lol. I think everyone is leaving town. We are going with our Relief Society President and another sister in the ward. I will miss the family! But I hope you all have bunches of fun! I love you all so darn much and pray for you always!

Happy Turkey Day!
<3 Sister Phillips