Monday, December 6, 2010

week‏

Hey so this week has been a really good week, first off i gottransterred to the most amazing area in the mission, Harkers Island!It is beautiful, i don't know if it can stand up to the Kinston firstward as wards go but the area has topped the charts. I will have totake more pictures and send them to you i have a few but they are notthat great we have been working to hard and haven't had time to taketo many pictures yet.. So i am follow up trainning Elder Billin whocame out the sam e time As Elder Butts, although he seems as if he hasbeen out for atleast a year.. He is an amazing missionary, a real hardworker, he is from Riverton Wyoming. So i got here and got to meet afew people, the ward is in the same stake as my last area so i had meta few people before. but we got off to a great start, the night i gothere we had a Lesson with Monica Harrel who is a recent convert, thenthe next day we taught a lesson to the Humphry family, they arepotentail investigators, Then that night we taught two of orinvestigators both Jeremy who is a part member family, he is close toaccepting a baptismal date. Then Bob Ensminger who has came to churchfor years but doesn't want to get baptized. But this area is perfectthere are a lot of ducks and duck hunters, in fact this past weekendwas the Annual Core Sound decoy festival, It was pretty neat they aretraditaional hand carved wood decoys very pretty. They put so muchdetail into them, and so me of the decoys for one is into theThousands!! i couldn't belive it, but we got to talk to alot of peoplebecause the island was flooded with them so it has been fun.Love you all.Elder Phillips

Monday, November 29, 2010

week‏

My week has been good i got stuffed to the brim for thanks giving i now have the stomach to eat a whole cow because it is so stretched out. but it was good, so hard though both places we went were shooting guns and it was a big temptation Plus they both offered to let us shoot gal the thing i absolutely love to do and i can't do it what so ever.. But i held my self together.. it has also been one of emotion. I found out i am getting transferred and after 6 months i am attached to this ward It is so hard to say good bye i have to go say some more byes latter to day so that should just be peachy. I tell you what even after six months you gain a lot of junk trying to pack is just awesome. Also as i was packing we took a break and started to decorate for Christmas and it made me super trunky. But on the bright side on saturday we cooked for the Relief society ate some good food and went to good will i bought 11 ties at a dollar a piece all sweet polyester, and i found my trade mark, it is ducks i have about 6-8 ties with ducks on them.. they are pretty sweet.
Sorry so short.
Love yall
Elder phillips

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

General Authorities.‏




This week has flown by, it has been amazing though because we had three days with general Authorities. The Kinston Stake got a new stake presidency and we also had mission tour. I loved it especially getting to spend time with some General Authorities, which were for Elder Lowell Snow, Elder Cook, and Elder Allen F. Packer. It was neat for Elder snow and Cook we got to know them a little because we got to talk with them more that Elder Packer. But on sunday i invited Both Elder Snow and Cook to eat lunch with us because it was a picnic in New Bern, Elder Snow had to go but Elder Cook came so i got to Eat Lunch with a general authority. And while getting food he came up put his arm around me and said Elder Ya eating all the food? I said trying. then he squeezed my sides and said be careful now. ha ha

Monday, November 15, 2010

week‏

So this week went so quick i don't remember what really happened the first of the week but the end of the week was amazing, oh and on Wednesday we had zone conference. But on Friday i went on an exchange to woodington and we had a pretty amazing time first me and Elder Holt went to Belk which is like a dillards and he bought a new suit and i was so tempted to as well $300 suits for $100 i am still tempted to and they are some nice suits. Then we went down to his area and started tracting well we parked the car in the middle of nowhere and got on our bikes, we talked to this one Hispanic guy who told us to come back so we were going to refer the Spanish elders to him, so we kept going and we tracted every house on this road. Well when we got back and started strapping our bikes on a van pulled up next to us and a lady got out and marched up to us, she says can you tell me about your church? you missed my house will you follow me back to my home and tell me about your church? We were like heck ya!! so we went with her and it was the Hispanic guys home they are together. We taught an amazing lesson. in her home she already had half the church videos..
Then on Saturday i went back to kinston and we went tracting so on the side of the road we found a deer that got hit a long time ago and it still had antlers on it so we were joking about coming back in the middle of the night and cutting them off it was kinda fun. But then we went to the Harpers for dinner and had ribs, they are an inactive family that we are reactivating. There kids love us and we sat and played guitar. Also his redneck brother was there, so on the ride home we went spotlighting for deer!! ha ha and we told them about the deer we found and the brother was like lets get it so he hops out the truck and grabbed a saws all and cut the antlers off for us.. It was a fun night.. Then at church we had 3 investigators there, it was amazing especially cause Sister Thigpen and Westley were there. so that was my week hope yours was great love you all.
Love
Elder Phillips

Monday, November 8, 2010

The Close of another Journey‏

Hello Everyone,

I hope everyone enjoyed their week this week. This morning it started snowing here....crazy...that time of year already?

This week was rather crazy busy. Tuesday as a disrict we went and racked leaves for random ppl. We had met a lady named Gaile while tracting (that day when I was struggling that I talked about last week). We went and racked her leaves and she was so sweet and grateful. I am so excited to hear about what happens with her. So we had lots of fun playing in the beautiful automn leaves. I was really struggling tho... while praying that night I realized that I really needed to change my attitude. I was depressed the last few weeks to be leaving and realized that I was ruining the time I had left. After realizing that the week def got better.

Wednesday was a great yet sort of messed up day lol. It was my temple day haha. I get nervous, especially I think when it's been so long. Well we stopped to get some cash and my card wasn't working. So I thought well, I guess I'll just use my airplane money and hopefully the card works next week. So we get to the temple and I go to get my wallet and notice that I left it in the car. Oh man....usually I think if that happens you have to wait downstairs and you don't get to go in. Luckily President goes with us departing missionaries and was able to get me in. I felt so bad.... But the temple was amazing. I recieved alot of spiritual insight and direction, sadly they really rushed us out. We were able to go into another room and ask questions with the temple presidency. They wanted us to be motivated to go back often when we return home. So that was a neat experience. We had yummy NY hot dogs after and then were back on our way. It was so fun and nice to be on a train again :D When I got back I had left the cap open on my waterbottle so water spilled all over my scrips and the phone.... the phone of course stopped working... funny elders said they've done worse before and told me to put it in a bag of rice and in the freezer over night. Luckily this worked lol. After the trip I had my departing interview. It was so nice. President gave me some incredible advice on returning home and also gave me a blessing. It was so amazing. And has been very comforting.

The rest of the week was filled with appts with my families here to say goodbye. It's been hard... way hard.... not much more I can say about that. It was hard tho bc with all the saying goodbyes we haven't had alot of time to tract and teach like I would really love to be doing....since that is my calling and all....that's been the hardest part I think.....

On Thursday we met Sylvia who is an amazing member referral. Brother Davis talked to her while he was in the hospital, she is a CNA worker :) She is the mother of 3 boys: Isaiah: 10, and Abraham and Jeremiah 3. Brother Davis asked why she picked those names and she said they just kinda...came to her. :) She told him that she wanted her children to know about God and he told her that this was the perfect place. She is so amazing. She has had some really rough times. She also wants badly for Isaiah to be involved in volunteer work and such. Saturday night she called to reschedule our appt bc she worked overtime so that she could make it to the baptism and church the next day :D She also had amazing questions!!!! When we went over we had just told her our purpose and introduced the Book of Mormon so she read the intro and wanted to know who Joseph Smith was and so I taught her over the phone...she loved it! Then she asked, "Well what does it mean when it says the ancient inhabitants of the America's?" I've never had that one before :D She said she was so facinated!!!! :D Amazing!!! So she came to the baptism and LOVED it. She said she felt so nice and Sister Jewkes said that she could be the next one to be baptized and she answered, "I would love that. It is so beautiful. But I need to learn more." Eek! So we are so excited! It was super hard to say goodbye to her having just met her. The first night we met her, we felt right at home. We sat on the floor and talked with her. She opened right up and as we were leaving she told us to come back to our new home. SO HARD! It is so hard to meet such incredible ppl for just a little bit and then to leave. I want so badly to see these ppl gain their testimonies of the gospel and watch the new light enter their lives. So so heart-breaking. She stayed for sacrament and gospel principles. She smiled the whole time. I will miss her greatly, and but I am so grateful for phones!!!!

And last but not least, MARIA IS BATIZED!!!! Oh my goodness!!!! How beautiful!!! She had to go under 3 times, but she was just so beautiful! The service and everything was so nice. She said that she feels so good :D She then was confimed in sacrament.

Mike, Raishma, Ashley, Elizabeth Singh and her husband came from Queens yesterday to come to church with me and say good-bye. It was so awesome to walk out of the font doors and see them sitting in the back. Oh I LOVE THEM and will miss them SO MUCH!

I am so grateful for such an incredible and life changing experience that the Lord has blessed me with. The things I have learned on a mission are unforgettable and could be learned no where else. What a blessing to have been raised in the gospel and had such a blessing my whole life. I am so grateful for my parents and teaching me the ways of the Lord. Their selfless service to me as a parent helped me to be a teacher to those here in New York. My mission has deeply planted my testimony. The most valuable thing I have learned in the past year and a half is perfecty expressed in Elder Uchtdorf's words,

"As we extend our hands and hearts toward others in Christlike love, something wonderful happens to us. Our own spirits become healed, more refined, and stronger. We become happier, more peaceful, and more receptive to the whisperings of the Holy Spirit."

I truly have seen this on my mission and know that it is true. We are all here out of love. We were created and sent here because of love. And when we give ourselves to selfless service, we truly are serving God. In return we feel God's love. I know with my whole heart that He lives. I know that He loves us so much that He sent us here so that we can learn how to be like him and gain for ourselves eternal and complete happiness. He loves us so much that He sent his only begotten son, Jesus Christ, to suffer and die for us. I know that from the Garden to the Cross Christ carried my every pain, sorrow, and sin so that I can be happy and cleansed and could return to my family someday. I know that He lives today and stands with our Father. They will never leave us. Our job is so simple as to just take His hand and follow His footsteps. I know that this gospel is Christ's, established on the earth today. I feel so blessed to be apart of it; and so blessed to have had 18 months to share and testify of such a blessing. I know how to share this message and I will continue to do so until I return to Him again. I am so grateful for Joseph Smith and his incredible and numerous sacrifices to restore that which was lost. I'm grateful for a living prophet, Thomas S. Monson, who leads the church today, truly under the direction of God. Thank you so much for all of your support during this journey. I couldn't have done it without any of you. Your testimonies have all been witnesses to me. I love my Father in Heaven and brother Jesus Christ. In the name of Him, our Savior, Jesus Christ, Amen.

Love you all!

Sister Phillips

God is there!!‏

Hey
This week has been a difficult one a real trial of my faith, It started off pretty good a lot of good things happened we were able to teach a few new investigators and what not. We also taught a part member family who there daughter is going to get baptized the end of November but they didn't come to church either. But the real story is the Amazing answer i received.. So we taught the Thigpens this week and she set a date for baptism and to quite smoking, and she said she needed a ride to church. We were like heck ya we can do that to get you to church. So Saturday roles around and we finally find some one to give her a ride because she lives in the bottom of our area so we call they don't answer so we leave a message saying we got a ride and he will be there to pick her up and her son. Right After we do this we get a call from them and westley the son is the one on the phone and he says can you call our ride back and tell him we don't need a ride anymore, we are going to go to the Woodington Ward which is south of us.... i Was like are you kidding. He says i have some friends down there that invited me so it will be more comfortable.. Well needless to say he went with his friends and his mom didn't go and she is the one with the baptismal date.. bah plus we found out the member threw us under the bus, basically told them we were lying to them and we didn't care about them!! So we have been trying to clear up misconceptions now. The Girl told him that it didn't matter which ward he went to, that he could be baptized in woodington and be taught by the sisters or the Elders down there. Then told them the only reason we are fighting to get them to go to our ward and be baptized there is to meet our quota which is not true.. I was so mad i broke down and basically gave up, well you can't do that so i prayed hard i needed help i couldn't do it alone, after i prayed i walked out side and was pacing around praying out loud staring at the stars. There was one beautiful bright star i was watching and the clouds moved across it so i basically thanked god for the stars and asked for it to come back, right then i broke threw the clouds like right threw the middle and a huge shooting star flew across the sky!! That was my sign read D&C 35:8, God is there he cares for us all and is there to strenghten us in our time of need and he listens to our prayers.. i love it i felt the spirit so strong.. I felt the healing power of the Atonement so strong because i did have to ask for forgiveness of a few things i said and did when it happened. but i love you all and God so much it is unbelievable.
Love Elder Phillips

Monday, November 1, 2010

hey‏



So this was a fast weird week it seemed like nothing happened.. But it was halloween and we went to our wards fall festival were we had to judge the chili and the costumes, that was on Friday then on Saturday we went to the Second wards trunk or treat and i finished preparing my talk oh ya so we spoke in church on Sunday We were supposed to talk for about ten to twelve minutes. Elder Butts took twenty so they had to cut my talk short but i still took about twelve minutes i spoke on baptism it was way good and very bold because we have part member families that just don't want to commit or to change but they come to church every sunday so i basically told them to give up there silly little sins and get baptized and the bishop even asked me were you directing it towards them and i told him pretty much. I mean i spoke on baptism most every one there has been baptized. But i love speaking in church as a missionary because you can be as bold as you want and you won't make enemies.
Then Sunday night we went over to a members for dinner and we carved a pumpkin and stuff plus we had to be in by six so we had some fun i wish i could send you the videos and stuff but i just send pictures.
Anyway that was my week so i love you all
love Elder Phillips

*Be StiLL*‏

Hello Everyone!

This week was awesome, super tiring but awesome! I had a neat little experience. On Wednesday we were struggling finding people to teach. We'd knock and knock and no one would be home or answer. So we were trying to find an area with some activity. On top of that two of our appt's had to cancel. We weren't feeling anywhere so it was gettin a little frustrating. I was getting rather overwhelmed and flustered thinking, "Heavenly Father, why can't you please lead us to someone? Time is runnin short...I just want to teach..." I was just getting a little frustrated that He wasn't really "sending" us anywhere. I knew we needed to just pick an area and get out and tract, but it is hard to be motivated when you feel you've done it before and no one will be home. We had some calls that started coming of the past transfer and so Sis Jewkes was talking to them. She being the designated driver we were pulled over and so I was getting more and more ansy (sp?) just sitting there. Then I saw a guy walking and coming past the car. As he passed he gave a somewhat smile and I felt a pang of inward turmoil come from him. I thought, "Great! Someone to teach! Let's go!" But he continued to walk and whatever it was for some reason I was held back and didn't jump outta the car and go! As he rounded the corner, I got even more upset with myself, wondering what was my deal and why in the world did i just let the teaching opportunity that obviously Heavenly Father put right in front of my face, pass me by. When Sis Jewkes got off the phone, after driving around the block we decided maybe it'd just be best to go ahead and take our lunch. I hid out in the bathroom for a bit and read a new era article and then went into the bedroom and prayed for the rest of the time. We then went back out to attempt finding someone again. I decided that maybe we should just try to pull over and pray about a specific area. We pulled over and prayed and then stared at the map for about 5 minutes. I then realized I had left my thumb drive with my pics at the library that monday and went to the library to find that it wasn't there. Luckily it wasn't the one with all of my missions pics on it. As we got to the car I saw a penny on the ground. I felt inside something say, "Be still and know that I am God. Trust in me." We finally headed over the Area 7 and pulled over and tried to help a lady with leaves (which we've been dying to do) and she refused. We drove and drove and then decided on a street, Bayshore Ave. We taught 6 lessons and out of that 3 wanted a Book of Mormon, in 40 minutes!!!! One of the lessons, the lady had lost a son at age 18 and has lost alot of faith bc of that. I love being able to talk about the Plan of Salvation and how the Book of Mormon teaches about everything in life and brings comfort no matter what your situation is. We are so excited. So I def learned a lesson. Heavenly Father truly has his way of trying our faith and patience. He has his timing. We must be still, slow down sometimes and know that everything is in His hands. Our joy and happiness and peace must not be a product of circumstance, but a product of our faith in our Father and Savior Jesus Christ.

Maria is doing amazing! Her UT friend comes down this Thursday. She called last week and said that she can't seem to get herself down from the cloud she is on. :D She really is just so amazing. She is not focusing on getting everything together and ready, but focusing on the spirit and how exciting and special this time is. She really is so incredible. She told me that I have to come out when she goes to the temple. OH!!! I don't want to leave these people.... Her baptism will be this sunday at 12 and she will be confirmed after that in church!!! Wahoo!!!!! :D

Well I hope everyone had a Happy Halloween! Happy November and enjoy the beautiful automn season. I know that Heavenly Father lives and loves us, and that He is always with us, very aware of our troubles, desires, and dreams. He knows us personally, by name, and wants the best for us. How great it is that we have the potential to someday be like Him. Have a great week and I love you all!

Love,
Sister Phillips

Monday, October 25, 2010

hey‏



Hey so this week has went by very fast it is hard to believe. So we started another transfer and it seemed like we got a lot done but not at the same time we taught some very good spiritual lessons and everything but also had so interesting encounters. Just some rude people like always but so with all the spare time missionaries have which is very little we managed to put together a puzzle and also i made a saddle bag for my bike out of duck tape because President said no more walking around with back packs we look better when we are just with a copy of the Book of Mormon

fReSh BReAtH oF aiR~‏


Hola Family~

This week was a rather eventful week. We didn’t get out much with Tuesday being our deep clean day and then I got really sick and dr’s orders were to stay in for 2 days. Friday we finally got out and were totally exhausted but did some tracting, as much as we could. We knocked about 12-15 houses and each one there were ppl inside but wouldn’t answer. We asked a lady if we could help her weed.. “No.” “Ok, well can we share a card with you?” …. “NO.” …. “Is there a better time we can come back?” …. “NO.” ….. alrighty then! So that was our day. But the times we were able to go on Sat and Sun we were led to some awesome ppl and have return appts. We are really excited bc we found a very family oriented neighborhood and feel really good about it and so we’ve been spending our tracting over there. We are excited and pray that these ppl are prepared for our message.

We had stake conference this week and were able to go with Maria to the adult session. It was really good. They were having a new member mtg in the morning before stake conference started and we weren’t planning on going, but when we got home Maria said, “I’m going to the new member mtg if you girls would like to come.” Ahhh! She asked us!!!! Hahaha, awesome! Toney was also there!!!! He is doing so awesome! He is about to receive the Priesthood! It was so nice to see him, along with my other family in Riverhead! :D There was our area seventy there and his wife is so cute. She talked to Maria and when she got up in stake conference talked about her! Maria was tellin her about her baptismal date of Nov. 6th (yeahhhh!!! She was tellin everyone :D) and she said that she hoped she knows enough. So when Sister Lansing got up she told Maria that she knows enough and she has incredible faith that will continue to grow and she hopes she will take that step. Awesome! So It was a really incredible week, we lived for those high moments, although we were stuck inside for almost the whole week, our days we were out were filled with highs and that was our fresh breath of air that keeps us alive. I LOVE it!

It’s been hard to have to keep saying good-bye to my families in Riverhead. As each day passes it brings more and more tears shed. I’m so grateful to be apart of such a marvelous work. Each day things happen that confirm the truthfulness of this gospel. What a beautiful blessing it is to be apart of it, born into it! Yesterday a family was baptized, well 3 kids of a reactivated spanish sister. What a blessing it is to see this new light enter their eyes, a light of peace, hope and happiness that is now in their family. As we met with Maria she told us that as she did her assignments, she found her testimony. As she read scriptures that she found to explain her feelings, we listented to the new breath of hope in her voice as she told us how she knows that this gospel is true. She has an incredible power about her and we see the spirit is with her a lot as He continues to confirm the truthfulness of the church. I know that her brother is on the other side and is anxiously waiting for his work to be done. I know he has been a big part of her conversion. I love this gospel, and I love so dearly my Father in Heaven. I know He loves each of us and desires each of His children to come back to the fold. How grateful I am that He has entrusted Maria in our hands.

Love you all!

Sister Phillips

Monday, October 18, 2010

week

So this week was one of those long but short weeks. we had training all week so we were in that from like 8 till 5 for three days so that was really long and really because it was some what of a repeat of last transfer, but there were a few things that i did learn that are useful and hard like extending a baptismal invitation on the first contact that is hard. But a lot of it is just following the spirit and asking inspired questions. For training we had 7 missionaries at our apartment so that was crowded and the first night we went on an exchange with the Assistants talk about intimidating the one we were with like doesn't like to laugh so it was hard. And to make the night more stressful both our plans blew up in our face so i was trying to find something to do. So we went to a part members home and the husband and kids are not members and taught a great lesson on the Book of Mormon and finding answers to prayers so that was good. We also taught the Thigpens three times this week and the first to lessons were really good and we showed the Joseph Smith movie the one you can only see and the visitors centers it was amazing we set a baptismal date with both the mother and the son on Saturday. Then Sunday they didn't come to church and they called and said they are confused and don't know that it is true any more so we went back over and had to resolve concerns an invite them to read the Book of Mormon again. The son Westley was about to throw the copy of the Book away but he decided not to and though that he would actually read it and try to find an answer. So that helped me a little bit, i was having a bad day yesterday from that whole deal but now i am alright. This is also the first week of the transfer i am staying in Kinston bah it is hard area everything is just to far to get to work so this will be another hard biking transfer. And i created a new planner and dedicated the back to lynette being how she is dying so i will have to take pictures and send them to you next week. any way love ya
Love Elder Phillips

lOVE


Hello! This week was awesome! We got lots of beautiful rain and it is really feeling like fall here. I love Fall in NY!
Maria is doing awesome! The Bishop told us yesterday that she looked so happy :D We were a little nervous bc it was the Primary Program and was a bit...crazy hahaa, but she loved it! She has such a huge heart! She wants to spend time with us and even asked if we could move into her house so that we were in a safer neighborhood! She worries about us all the time she says! I love her! she thought that she had a long ways to go before she could get baptized, that she needed to know the B of M and everything! So when I extended the commit to get baptized she was really surprised and we told her we felt she was so ready! She is praying about November 7th!!!!!! Woot Wooooottttt!!!! :D
Rob and Eli were at church again yesterday. things are going really well, the Lord is truly blessing us so much. We have had some awesome member lessons this week (when a member comes to lessons with us). They are so great! I love this ward and I really love the people here in New York. This work is truly the Lord's work and I feel so strongly the love He has for all his children as I serve amongst them. I love you all and hope you are safe and sound. Sorry it's so short and simple, but most importantly the work is going forth.

Love,
Sister Phillips

Monday, October 11, 2010

this week has been a little different with the whole preparation day on Wednesday, it kinda throws you for a loop, but this week has been pretty good actually we were able to teach and get a hold of a lot of less active and inactive members. That and working with family mission plans with the active members. Yesterday was a little disappointing because we were supposed to have two investigators at church and they didn't show up, we were supposed to have a lesson with them right after and we figured that would also help them get to church, but the didn't show and they wouldn't answer the phone either so that was sad. It is just kind of weird that she won't come to church because she knows it is true and she has already read half the Book of Mormon and she knows that is true also, i think that it is her son that is the hold up because he has kind of a wall up and we are just starting to break through the wall. Other than that it has been a really good week.

ToNeY~‏

Hola!

Oh I love New York in the Fall! Automn is sooo beautiful! The leaves are changing deep red all around us and wherever we tract there are lots to crunch. :D I LOVE it~ We had a great week this week. Yesterday we had 3 investigators at church! :D Maria, Rob, and Eli. We are so excited for them and feel so good about them as well! We also are teaching Yvenel and he is coming to church next week and he really is soakin everything up. I LOVE teaching the Plan of Salvation, especially when they have such soul searching questions that the gospel answers. We are so lucky to know “Why we are here and why a loving Heavenly Father would send us some where so….well, evil.” How blessed we are to know that we DO have a Father in Heaven who watches out for us and loves us more than we can even imagine. And we have the key to everlasting and complete happiness! So things are lookin so great here :D Also, yesterday I was able to return to Riverhead to see the baptism of Toney!!! :D It was so incredible and beautiful! :D When he came up out of the water he started laughin and grasped Elder Doxey in a hug. He kinda of raised his hands in the air as a "Yes! I did it!" I know that Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ were right there hugging him and crying and laughing right along with him, tellin him a job well done and welcome home. Oh my goodness...it was so beautiful! It was nice to see everyone there again. It was so amazing to remember the first day we met/found Toney and then to see how much he has changed through the atonement of our Savior. Wow. So amazing. I LOVE IT!

Last week was my last combined district mtg and it was really sad. I didn’t know it and so I wasn’t prepared to give a Departing Testimony. I didn’t know what to say at all and it was so hard. I told em I didn’t wanna do it lol…I’m so sad that it was my last…it was too hard to not let the tears flow. I also received stuff in the mail and just left it in the mailbox for another day lol. Luckily I still have time to get these awesome people into the healing waters of baptism. It’s def a journey of mixed emotions. I will be leaving part of my heart with my many new families here in NY and it is a hard and sad thought to think that I won’t see some of these ppl for a lot longer than 18 months. As I think of my mission I hope that I served with all my heart, might, mind and strength. I hope that I did my Father’s will and that I can finish with comfort knowing that He is pleased. ….anyways….

I’m soaking up as much as I can these last days and striving to love and capture every last moment. As we wind down to the remaining 346 brothers and sisters of ours that we are searching for, we are sacrificing even more and working even harder. I know that returning home comletely wiped out and exhausted will a great feeling. I’m so happy to have such a spectacular time to see miracles of lives changed and faith challenged and friendships made. I love you all so much and hope you enjoy your next week.

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, October 4, 2010

SpEcTaCuLaR miRaCLeS*‏

Happy Monday!

Hello from Bayshore! I hope everyone had a great conference weekend and had questions answered and some amazing spiritual upliftment! Wasn’t it great!? I am so sad that it is already over! It goes so fast! It was so nice to hear a prophet of God speak. And the music was INCREDIBLE! Every time conference is here I just can’t help but think of how richly blessed we are to live in this dispensation. To live in a time where we don’t have to walk in darkness but that we and our families can be guided by a prophet and apostles truly called of God. What a blessing! Feel free to email me your favorite speakers or things that stood out to you. I’d love it!

Sunday and Monday were some tear filled days of saying good-bye but it did feel right to be going. Well I am loving it here in Bayshore! It is so good to be back and see all of my family here again! :) I remember missionaries saying how weird it is to go back to old areas but it really hasn’t been weird here at all. My comp, Sister Jewkes, is so awesome! She is on her 3rd transfer and is a hard worker! I LOVE LOVE LOVE her! She is from Taylorsville, UT! There really, I believe, isn’t a better way I could’ve had for my last transfer. …Idk if that sentence made sense…. But what I’m trying to say is this will def be the best way to spend my last transfer. We have seen nothing but spectacular miracles! And I believe that they are going to keep coming. At transfer meeting President Nelson told us to make October a month to never be forgotten and pray to see spectacular miracles and we def are being sure to make that true. So lets talk about some spectacular miracles!

Tuesday we jumped right in to teaching and it was awesome! We got home (which is a diff home then when I was here:D) I unloaded my bags, got some food and off we were! We went to see a 17 yr old young man and ended up rescheduling, but as we were walking away to our car there was a lady sitting out on her lawn, so we decided to go talk to her. She ended up being from Africa and actually asked us to go to Africa and bc we have such “pretty skin” to find a man there and get married. It was really funny. Then a young girl (sr in HS) came out and I waved her over. We got talking and she is just awesome! She talked about how no one here is aware of God and disreguards Him and she is apart of the Bible Society at school! Yes! Well she loves the BOM and wants to share it with the Bible Society and she has been lookin for a church to go to around her. She had a dream when she was younger doing missionary work and so that is what she tells everyone she is gonna do when she is older! She came to conference yesterday and we are so excited to talk some more to her. We ended up having 3 investigators at conference yesterday, 2 of which are new within the past couple of days! Which leads me to the incredible MARIA!

Maria went on a business trip in SLC a few months ago and actually went again about a month ago. A friend there gave her a BOM and told her some things she really needed to see while she was in SL. She has been to Music and the Spoken Word twice, saw the Joseph Smith movie, and said that when she stepped on Temple Square she felt so at peace. She had a lot of miracles happen when she was there, one of which when she was trying to find the church. She went to temple square and they gave her a paper with the address of the church to go to. So she went out and while walking she really had no idea where she was going. So she stopped to ask a lady and the lady put her arm around her and said, “I’m going to. Lets go together.” Her name ended up being Maria as well. Much of the miracles of Maria will have to wait when I get home, but she is so incredible. She has already read 1 & 2 Nephi. She went to a church out here and they told her she was in the wrong area so she felt kinda tossed around. Well she called us like Thursday and said she wants to come and is very interested in the church. Then her friend from UT called and Maria really has been callin us since then. She came to a session on Sat and one on Sunday. We met with her after Saturdays and it was incredible. Her story….she’s incredible. We are so very excited to teach her and help her to find the peace and comfort the gospel brings.

So that is the sum of the miracles for this week. I hope everyone prays to see miracles as well. I know that if we do that we can see them. The Lord will use our every effort. I love you all so so much and hope everyone continues to be safe and healthy. Have a great week!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, September 27, 2010

Back to the Beginning~

Welcome Autumn! Yeahhh!

We had a good week this week to close up the transfer. We had alot of great lessons and visits with Less Actives. The work is going so well here and it is great to see everyone progressing so much. I love seeing the change from 12 weeks ago to now. Wow! I can't believe I I have been here 12 weeks!

I hope all you Relief Society women were able to see the broadcast. It was so nice and I am PUMPED for conference! Yeahhh! President Monson was so funny that night! We were able to drive down to Plainview to see it and brought two inactives with us! So that was super nice! It was so weird to be there again! My very first Zone Conference was there. I saw some ppl from the Bay Shore ward whom I hadn't seen in prob around 13 or more months. It was so nice.

Sat afternoon I got a call from President. He asked me a few questions tryin to gather info about this next transfer. He asked me about Bay Shore and I told him that I would really love to end my mission here in Riverhead. After prayin I called back to be more clear and he said he had prayed about it and that I need to go to Bay Shore. It is so hard bc I don't really know what i want lol. I just want this last transfer to be the best and no doubt, I will make it the best!

Testimony meeting was so good yesterday. I had been preparing a song for sacrament for the best few weeks. It was the "Our Mothers Taught Us" and I had all 6 of the elders plus 3 of the young men from the branch doing it. We called to put it on the program and were reminded that it was Fast and Testimony Mtg! Oh No! Well we were able to get it approved by the Branch President after callin a second time with a different route ;) I had one of the young men bear his testimony on the Book of Mormon at the end of the mtg and then we did the song. It was AWESOME : D So we had a great day with a Break the Fast after with lots of yummy food.

Anywho. I hope everyone is enjoying the changing leaves! I lvoe the feeling of fall. So spiritual! Something so awesome that I pondered and studied this week was about our earth. I was reading in Jesus the Christ and I've been pondering on what it is about Fall that just gives me that "spiritual" feeling. I love that the earth was created spiritually before it was physically, just like us :) And just a few weeks ago I was talkin to my comps about how i felt that the earth has feelings. Well, then I read in Jesus the Christ about how after Christ's crucifixion the earth grew dark and stormy as we know. Elder Talmage says that it was a great manifestation of how upset the earth was to see her creator die such an ugly death. And i started thinkin of how when the ppl turn to evil the earth goes into famine and pestilence. The earth does feel. Then! I was listening to a tape of conference from back in the 80's and I can't remember the name but he was talking about how the creation is an essential and important part of the Plan of Salvation. In order for us to leave Father's presence to have our own experiences He had to prepare a place to do so. I just love it. And now i'm blabbereing. Anywho!

I love you all and hope you have a great and fantastic week!!!!

Love,
Sister Phillips

Monday, September 20, 2010

the Lord's work~

Weengapo!

Another great week! When is there NOT a great week as a missionary!?

Lots of great things are happening here and we are so excited! We are starting week 6, last of the transfer and are curious as to what is going to happen. I wanted to end in the city….but…. I really am hoping that I stay, but I of course know that whatever happens is the will of the Lord and there are reasons. I really love the people here though, and would love to end my mission here. We find out Saturday night, we’re sure one of us is leaving. :’(

Tuesday night we had a great visit with an inactive that we have started meeting with. We have really seen him progress and we are super excited. He was baptized in 95 his first day at church! He taught and received the Melchizdek Priesthood (sorry for spelling). But he hasn’t been for prob about 10 years he says. He is amazing and says that he knows he should get back to fulfilling his duty. We of course answered YES! He is working on getting work of on Sundays. He is for sure able to come tho to both night sessions of conference and PRIESTHOOD! He already has it down and planned, what a great time for him to come! :D

We did sadly, loose an investigator this week tho. He was 16 and we were so excited for him. You can see that he is struggling with something and lonely. He struggles with his younger brother who is involved with drugs and that group of friends gives him a hard time bc he is so good. When he is bored he does things for ppl and he is concerned for the poverty around the world. We went over and he was washing his neighbors cars J His dad is a preacher for the Baptist Church his family attends. After we left the last time he said that he didn’t believe in the Mormons and told him to throw out the book :’( and he of course did. Someday….

Wednesday was my last Zone Conference :’( It was so good. It is hard to be a somewhat older missionary who feels she knows somewhat of what she is doing and now all the teaching stuff is being changed. I feel that I am back to not knowing what I am doing lol. It is hard, but what a great way to end. I see the spirit doing His great works.

Saturday was the war social out in Amaganset (richest area of the Hamptons). We got to go to the beautiful Atlantic Ocean. Oh my goodness I love it there. Wow…. It was so good. The other ward was having movie night and they were projecting “The Testaments” up outside. We had told Toney to go. Recap on Toney.

He came to church a few weeks ago for testimony mtg and the ward showed him a lot of love. He has had a really rough life. He is 18 and showed us his biography for school. It really helped us to understand. His family is Baptist, not practicing tho. He is very street and so we knew it would be hard, especially where some family would laugh when we visited and yell upstairs, “Toney! The Saints is here!” LOL.

Well we decided that this time instead of meeting at the house we were going to go to the park nearby. This way there would be no distractions and we’d be able to ask inspired ?’s that would help us to know his needs. Well, that is exactly what happened. Toney is someone who really cares what ppl think of him and ppl watching. So he looks around before he pulls out his BOM J and wouldn’t kneel to pray, but its ok. As we taught we found out a lot of things that were holding him back. We taught according to the needs the spirit told us of and were able to end with him giving a kneeling prayer. He was able to attend the first branches movie night and when we saw him Sunday….there was a change. While watching the movie he felt “funny. It was weird. He had never felt that before.” He also prayed right after we had left and got the same funny feeling. We of course told him what the feeling was and there happened to be a baptism after church for the other ward. Our car broke down sat night on the way home…well it was in the process and we were able to pull into a members house who knows about them… so we had to leave after church bc our ride had to. That night (last night) our District Leader who is in the first ward said, “Now I have a question…. Toney was telling everyone at the baptism that he is getting baptized on Oct. 10th?” J We had asked him to pray about it and he said he wants to and well everything else just happened J He is still praying about it, bc the tenth is pretty soon for everything but that is the story for the week J

I love this work. We wouldn’t have ever thought that Toney would be baptized. But we have to remember to never judge God’s children. This is his work not ours. Even the vilest of sinners can repent and be changed.

Love you all and have a great week!

Sister Phillips

this week‏

Hey
This week was a pretty good week it started out really slow with a lot of canceled appointments and a lot of tracting but we pushed forward and work hard putting forth our faith. On Thursday we did a very good weekly planning tried so hard to figure out what our investigators needed and how we could help them progress, and i got to say the closing prayer and in my prayer i was so sincere in telling the lord we are doing the best we can and we need some help. And Behold ask and ye shall receive, That very night we were on an exchange and most of the people didn't want to talk with us right then, so it was around 830 and it would take atleast twenty minutes to get home but i was like hey lets stop by this last potential, her name was Meredith. So we stopped in and our exchange really didn't want to stop because it was dark and they had kids, but we did and when we knocked a guy came out and told us that she was just the babysitter. So i felt to ask if he would like to learn more and he said ya so we sat down and taught him a little and left a Book of Mormon, right before we left he says "It is interesting that you stopped by because my wife has been getting on me to find a church and get back into going." it was amazing!
Then the very next night all we had is tracting and right before we left i was thinking hey there are some really nice less actives around the corner that we could go visit instead of tracting lets do that, but then the thought came to my mind that i was hindering the work if i did that because that is not where we need to go so we went knocking doors, and the last house they let us in and wanted to know more about the Book of Mormon and wanted to read it and find out if it was true. It really helped me to see when you are prompted to knock doors even if you think it isn't the most productive you need to do it because we are lead to those few that are open and prepared.
Those were not all the success we saw this week, we ended the week on a high note. We went over to an investigators home for a lesson and she had a list of questions so we answered them and i asked if i could ask a question. I asked have you received and answer to your prayers and she said yes. So do you know it is true? She said yes, so i invited here to be baptized and she accepted! it was so exciting. Then we asked her son if he received and answer and he said no not yet but i will support my mom and go with her to church and take the lessons, i couldn't help but feel that he will be baptized very soon as well.
That was our wonderful week, it truly is amazing to see the spirit work inside people to change there lives and come unto Christ. I love it, and i love you all,
Love
Elder Phillips

Monday, September 13, 2010

sickies‏

Hey family! I hope everyone is doing well, happy and healthy! Not a whole lot of new stuff this week. We are passing around a really bad cold bug so we were in for 2 days on that one. We are crazily in our 5th week, we find out next week if we stay or go. I’m so curious as to where I will be saying “see you soon NY.” What a bitter sweet emotion. I am excited tho to see these cute new lil girlies in the family. I am excited to hold some babies :D We did however get our first referral here this week! :D The elders had given a BOM card to a lady that works at Stop and Shop, she called in and we’re her missionaries. We are very excited. She and her husband have 2 kids. They are Christian, she has only been so for a year and a half. They try to go when they can, he works Sundays now tho. We are very excited. They gladly took the Book of Mormon and are happy to read. :D Yesterday was a good day. I played in sacrament for the missionaries and was very nervous. The spirit was so strong tho as I was ferverntly praying for and I actually didn’t obviously mess up! I was so happy bc I really hate performing as far as piano goes. Tony came to church so that was good. Things are great and I am getting logged off! Have a great week! LOVES!!!!!

Sister Phillips

This week‏

This week has been a busy one, there has been a lot going on, so on Tuesday we had to leave our apartment at 6:30 to be to Raleigh at 8:45 and the drive was fun we went with Brother Herring and he is crazy but so funny. so i had trainers meeting and got to learn all the fun things i have to make sure to do and be a good example, all that stuff. Then i met my Companion Elder Butts From Chicago, his dad is in the navy so he has lived in Virgina and Utah all these other places and this past summer he was working in soda springs so when i picked him up we came back to Kinston and we ate with Brother mooring who is quite southern and it was a good time we had some massive steaks and they were so good i loved it. Then we got picked up by meeko, he is one of the youth in our ward and we went and taught a lesson to the Thigpen family, it is a mother and her son. We answered a lot of questions and invited them to be baptized. The mother is pondering on it and Westley the son said no because he doesn't believe that the Book of Mormon is true so i taught to that concern and helped him understand that if he puts forth that faith and has a desire that i promise he will get an answer so he is going to continue to read and pray for an answer. So the was amazing. Then on Wednesday we had district meeting and we did a new member lesson with Erica and it was the last one so then she went to the bishop and set up to get her patriartical blessing and she got that yesterday. so that was neat. OH so miracle story We got a referral from a guy in Raleigh of this girl named Emily so we called her a while ago and she said she wanted to met with us and she would call us on Monday to set something up well she never called so Tuesday we called and no answer so then on Thursday we called again and the phone was disconnected so we were like ok i see she is dropped, this was like two weeks ago. SO then on Tuesday she called us and said ya my phone got shut off and i saw you guys in this Mexican restaurant but i was to afraid to talk to you so do you want to meet there on Tuesday, we were like ya!
Then on Saturday we ate with an inactive member and they had a fight with some people in there ward in Albertson so they were not going back there and with some other troubles they picked up smoking but they are an awesome family. so a scripture popped into my head, and the spirit told me that is what i needed to share even though my comp said we should gear it towards the kids i felt i had to share that scripture, so i did and it was exactly what they needed to hear They even asked me about it the next day when we dropped by so that was so cool. the Scripture was Mosiah 24: 14,15,21
Then on Sunday we were able to get up with an investigator that is so busy it is impossible to catch him but we did and we taught a short lesson and set up a return appointment. So it has been a really good week and it has been harder but well worth it. Plus some punk teenager was trying to shoot us with air soft guns so that was funny. so That was our week very good, very spiritual. and i love you all tons
Love
Elder Phillips

Tuesday, September 7, 2010

NEwS‏

Hey
This week has been a pretty good week i have had a lot of good news and some bad news but it has been fun. So we started off the week with a bang and we ended with a bang, during our p-day activities i went and was doing back flipps and i kept coming a little bit short so i was like man i can land this. So i did i landed it and my ankle snaped! Ok just kidding it just popped and i shook it abit and it popped again and i was good i kept playing on it. But as soon as i stopped it started to kill and i could not put any weight on it. so i was on crutches for most of the week but i didn't let that hod us back we worked hard and kept on truckin. Also this past week we have been teaching this older man he is about eighty and he just doesn't get the point he has done a lot of sinning and he just makes excuses for it. So this last meeting he just wouldn't listen so i put it straight i was really bold and told him that he was wrong that his church was false and we are the only ones with aythority, like i basically taught a very bold serman. It was sweet. That was the best and majority of our week. But so the ending bang was i found out i am TRAINING it blows me away i am still a greenie myself but i guess the lord knows what is needed so i will do my best and work hard.
So i love you all i hope your week has been awesome.
Love
Elder Phillips

One Big Family‏

Well this week flew. I helped the worlds best mission correlator pack up and move on Tuesday all day. It was a super long day. I worked as the sisters went and taught. Yeah for a trio and member splits! LOL. I was totally exhausted! I was so sad to see them leave. We had heard of the Hurricane warning from everyone, it was at a #4. Thurs morning we got a call from President asking us to come "sleep over." Haha. So we had to be at the mission home that day and we also asked instead of 9 Liters of water we now needed 9 gallons! It was so funny at the grocery store for all of us to be getting so much water....27 gallons! Our cart was towering...greedy lil sisters haha. The register said a choice word and that everyone was freakin out about this thing. Haha. Well we got to presidents and had a great time. We met alot of great people. That night we were going to go to a DA with the spanish elders there and as we were waiting a 15 yr old boy was going around selling the varsity football coupon books. Sis. Nelson invited him in and introduced us. We actually ended up teaching him. He had only been there for 3 weeks, his parents had just divorced and he had had 3 very important people suddenly die. He said that he was actually lookin for a church. So awesome. We were able to go with the elders and eat some yummy yummy Bubuza's. Soooo yummy. We got to tract quite a bit on Friday with Sister Nelson which was so good. We got back on Saturday morning and nothing had really even happened. Haha, the elders had to stay in and I guess that it was practically sunny out lol. But safety first :)
Yesterday was the best fast and testimony meeting I've been to. 4 spanish women got up one after another bearing strong tear filled testimony's of strength and how the gospel has changed their lives. Our investigator Tony came to church for the first time. He really likes to talk and decided he'd like to do so at the pulpit. We were a bit nervous. After talkin for a bit he mentioned that the Book of Mormon had changed his dad's like (now deceased) and he knows therefore that it DOES change lives. After another 5 mins of talking his ride, Ssiter Wallace came up, rubbed his back and came in. She is incredible and really did this in such a loving way. She talked about how children like Tony that go through such hard trials and tribulations and how great it is when they attend the church with us. Then after her Brother Vogal got up and before he spoke he shook Tony's hand and then started to talk about the Pre-Mortal Life. He turned to Tony and said, "Did you hear that Tony? You and I, we shouted for joy to come here. We were happy." I can't even explain how strong the spirit of brotherly/sisterly love was in the chapel that day. It was so incredibley strong. What great ppl. It was so humbling to see a brother and sister of Tony's, who once before this life knew each other and loved each other, who in common chose to follow Jesus Christ and come to earth, stand and show such powerful love to their brother who they loved.
I really do know that we each are so important in our Fathers lives. It's as if we were the only creature Father had ever created, He knows us that personally. Each one of us is his beloved son or daughter. We are all brothers and sisters, black, white, tall, short, blonde hair, black hair....each of us chose to come here and we are all trying to return to Him who gave gave us life spiritually and physically. I hope that I can be a helping hand to those of my brothers and sisters who have lost their way. The people here are incredible and are such a great example to me. How blessed I am to have such a wonderful family at home and in church. I know that my Father lives and that He loves me so much that He would give His only son, to die just for me, even if I were the only creature He had ever created.
Love you all so much and I Hope you have a good and safe Labor Day.

Love,
Sister Phillips

Monday, August 30, 2010

ya‏

Ya so i sang yesterday! i was so nervous i am a terrible singer i can do it for fun but i hate getting up in front of people and singing but they forced me into it and we sang nearer my god to thee i messed up but maid it sound good any way i just harmonized until i could pick back up. I guess it sounded good though i hope so.
SO this week has been crazy spiritual we had a 3 days of leadership training from 9 til 4 and i learned so much they have like changed the way missionaries will do things and they are going to start teaching it in the mtc come may. so it was way cool plus it is awesome that we even got invited, and so what we have learned we are now even teaching it to members and that is most of what we did this week was teach members the doctrine of christ and it was awesome.

siLLy SiSteRs-----‏

Hey there my grand family! I don’t have much for updates this week. We had a great week of tracting and are still teaching a lot of people, just workin on getting them to progress. The weather here was feeling a lot like fall and the nights are getting cooler and darker. It’s weird bc it feels too early for that. We are half way through the transfer and I’ve been thinkin about my last transfer. I said since I left the Island last time that I didn’t want to come back and I wanted to die in the city J As people here have been finding out that I only have one left, with their sad faces they add, “Well you’ll prob stay here…we sure want you to stay here…” This happened twice this week and my heart just pulled at those words and their faces. I seriously have grown to love these people so much. Course…when does that not happen right? Every area I seem to grow so attached. I love the city and would love to say good bye in the city….yet, it would be so hard to leave these people after only 2 transfers with them. I was planning on bringing up the city with President in my President’s letter…but now I’m thinkin that I will leave it all up to the Lord. I feel there is still a lot of work that needs to be done here. It feels good to be loved and it feels really good to see all the great things that are happening here. To see the fruits of our diligent labor of the first transfer is so rewarding. I will def leave a piece of my heart here in New York. But thankfully I have a good 9 weeks left to give my all! J

This week had some funny things seriously happen. Man, 3 tired girls is not a good combination….we tend to get pretty giggly and silly. I think I will withhold the one bit of hilarious news due to public humiliation haha, but you can gladly ask my mother lol. But the other part well, plainly put…we just tend to create the title “Stupid Sisters.” Haha. So we were leaving an investigators and going to go look up an inactive. The map showed that the road that brought us goes right through, right to the place we were going. So we get down about half a mile and like a few of roads in our area it turns to sand. I’m thinkin it looks pretty deep….but my comps rooted me on and insisted we continue. Haha…oh no. So we get going and about 30 maybe 40 feet in the car starts sliding all over the place and sinks. I stop and go to back up…. But the wheels spin. Now, from the many times of being stuck with Bailey and his “fun digging” I learned a few things haha. My comps are out of the car yellin at me to keep tryin and I knew that we would burry ourselves. Luckily there were some nice blocks and pieces of wood around where we were (we were stuck on a trail that looked as if it was going straight into a mountain full of trees lol) and so we gathered all we could find and did our best to stick them under the front tires (gotta love front wheel drive) . But each time we tried we sunk deeper and deeper. So on our hike back to civilization lol we called the elders who had a great laugh and were able to get a shovel from a security guy to the housing development where we were. By the time the elders got there we had shoveled a bit out and realized we were . When the elders had a look and made a go they told us to go find some ppl to recruite. When we got back they had jacked the car and shoveled it out and put boards under the wheels more. We and 4 boys pushed and we got it out. What a chore! Hhahaha, ya….we remembered the last time we had a chevy Malibu, and we got a diff car since then. Why did we get stuck? Bc we had a Ford. Haha I’m jk. So that was quite an eventful day. We continued the day with sand in our nylons and between our toes and dirty shoes and skirts. Haha, memories~

Well that is all I have for now. I hope school is going good for everyone and you have a great new week! J and Happy September! :D

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, August 23, 2010

jOy iN tHe jOuRnEy~‏

Hey family! How is everyone? Tuesday we picked up our #3, Sister Tauteoli or “T.” J She is from Tonga and left from Cali where her fam now resides. She is great. She was a former Methodist. I lived with her for 3 transfers in Brookly so we are excited to serve together and have an extra sister to help us with our massive area :D We did a bit of tracting this week and got in to teach a spanish mother and her 2 daughters. They came to church yesterday! So that was super awesome! They really liked it :D We also went tracting to our neighbors and now have a few ppl from that, which is super awesome. We had some sad experiences with it as you always do. An old man who is an artist really let us know that we need to put our heads on straight and stop selling religion and making ppl believe what we believe. He told us to pause and think if there really is a god and got really….just not good. He also said he has tried killin himself 4 times. Crazy thing? We could see him in a baptism suit. It was sad, but hopefully his heart will soften. We are loosing one of our most active members/family. The worlds best correlator is moving and I just cried! He is the most loving/caring person I have ever met! But…..he is being a traitor!!!!! He is moving to RALEIGH NORTH CAROLINA! Yup, hey it makes me rather happy he is going there to my awesome missionary brother and I really hope he gets to serve in his ward. Gosh, Idk what my deal is lately but I really don’t have much to tell….we are teaching lots and its great. We really are doing great and as I said before of how I felt this would be a great transfer, it truly will be! Our teaching pool is really starting to fill with investigators and we are doing what we are here to do. Cry repentance and bring ppl to baptism by bringing them hope through knowledge of our savior and redeemer Jesus Christ. Time flies, I got to my last zone conference next week sadly. I am doing my best to fill my days with work and doing what the Lord would have me do. I love this gospel and I do know that it is God’s church on the earth today. I can say that it is the only TRUE church, and by saying that I mean that it has ALL the ordinances and principles that Christ established. I love you all so much and hope you have a BEAUTIFUL week! Love you!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, August 16, 2010

hey‏

Hey family
Hows everything going at home i hope you are all well and having fun with school about to start. This week has been another hard tracting week, the lord is truly testing our faith and our diligence and i payed off some. On friday we were able to set up six return appointment for this week which was awesome i really hope they are solid. some bad news is that our really cool investigator that we haven't been able to get up with, we finally did and it turns out the reason he hasn't been home is because he has been in the process of moving to Fayettville, so that is a bummer, but i am grateful for him because he was amazing i have never been in more spiritual lessons then with him i really hope he will continue to progress and go to church. This week we also did a lot of service like on tuesday we did service for two different people and it was all yard work and i was bright and wore shorts when my legs haven't seen the sun in 6 months and my neck either. so i got fried and it hurt. What another great week.
Love
Elder Phillips

errand of angels~‏

HI FAM!

Well it’s the start of my 2nd to last transfer. I was a bit saddened to put away yet another daily planner last night as I wrote in our weeks numbers. Sister Winterton and I are staying but have to go to transfers bc…..we are getting another sister! Yeah…another trio!..... hahaha, its all good. We’ll see how this trio goes :D We ended the transfer with the best week we’ve had yet. Tracting acutally felt a bit productive this week! We taught 17 lessons which is the hightest for the transfer by over double! And got 3 new investigators!!!! Wahoo! We finally got investigators! It’s the 4th watch. :D We are really excited, and what a way to start the new transfer! Woot woot! We’re prayin hard for these new people. We went to Manhattan for a dr. appt and on our way back we had an awesome experience. As we went through the turn style (?) we saw an indian lady strugglin with groceries. (I hate groceries in the city) She gladly accepted our offer to help. We walked to her home with her which ended up being right across the mission office. She invited us in for juice and we gladly accepted :D We sat in her room on the floor (different style of lounging I guess :D ) and talked for a bit. She is from Pakistan and the only one here. A brother in TX but she is alone. We somehow got on the subject of mothers and she just had such great stuff to say about her mom and I asked if she was in TX or Pakistan. She then hung her head and was silent a bit and said that her mom was dead. We gave our apologies and she said she had just died that morning…. That is why she wasn’t at work that day. I pulled out a pos pamphlet and taught her a short lesson. She just stared at the pic of Christ for at least a minute as we sat in silence. It was sad bc the flight to pakistan is 24 hrs and they bury them there rather quickly. So she was not going to be able to say her last good-bye. As we were leaving she asked where the church was and said she would like to come with us sometime. She only wanted to if we were there…. But then we offerend to send our friends over so that she could get to know them and then go with them :D This worked. She offerred any help to the church of any sort bc her mother taught her to always serve. As we left I was so humbled. Heavenly Father is so aware of each and every one of his children. We were able to be instruments in His hands that day and be angels to a lonely aching woman and hopefully leave her with more hope than what the Muslim religion gives her. What a great lady. The Lord truly does answer our prayers through other ppl. More than we even realize. We just have to step back and reflect so that we don’t miss those answers. While tracting we came up on a man on the ground on the corner. He was squirming, holding his back, crying. I tried talking to him, he finally said he didn’t speak english. (he was hispanic) What a blessing when I guy was riding past who spoke spanish. The man had just been beaten. He tried to get up and fell again. We ran to get the car bc we had left the phone. We were gonna call the spanish elders. By the time we got back he was wobbling to the back of a house. We suspected his. We had been talking to the police dept on the phone and they were able to take care of it from there. So sad…. This world. It was all bc of racial differences too. Hatred to our fellow men. Well, as for now I think that wraps up all the good stuff. I will let you know how it goes with our new investigators next Monday J I love you all and hope you have a blessed week~

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, August 9, 2010

dUsK~‏

Hi my lovely family!

There are a few highlights of this week and I am super excited to share them! We have been working quite a bit with less actives and part-member families. I think that our efforts haven’t been wasted and this next transfer is going to be a great one. We found a sale on brownies, 10 for 10. Brownies sure bring out the love J We’ve been takin them to those we are working with. Sister W is a member I think her whole life? Or just a really long time. Brother W isn’t a member but acts like one J He is so awesome. He comes to church every week, and to all the activities and such. Last week he told his wife that testimony meeting was really good and that it really touched him. J We took them brownies and Sister W’s son from a former marriage was visiting with his big very active family. So it was a way good visit and they invited us right in to sit and have a piece of cake with them J Then we were invited to dinner with Marco (the five star chef.) Dinner was so yummy mmmm. We got a call from Sheila thanking us and told us that Marco has been talking of joining the church. J We are so ecstatic! But life is good. We’re in our last week of the transfer and I have great feelings for next transfer. It’s gonna be a good’er! J I love you all and sorry it’s short!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, August 2, 2010

short‏

Sorry this is going to be short.This week has been a pretty good week a lot is going on. We started out the week with a bang, we got a referral from Salt lake some one had requested a Book of Mormon so we called and set up an appointment for that night, so we went and taught the restoration and they invited us back, the way they came in contact with the church was because one of there cousins got baptized the week before so they were kinda interested in what we believe. Then we have an investigator that has a goal of being baptized on the 14th but he has to get an interview with president because he has committed a felony and has been in the drug game. so hopefully that goes well for him, it has been amazing to see him change his life around, the gospel can change anybodies out look on life and can help them overcome any challenges. On Tuesday we had a crazy spiritual lesson with him i could hardly believe it, it is just crazy when they are open to the spirit he will testify so strong you can't help but feel it. We were able to get up with a lot of people this week and able to teach them hopefully the work keeps the speed. Oh and i have some good news and some bad news, the bad news is that North Carolina is making me fat! i have gained 25 pounds so far and half of it went to my thighs and butt, but that is mostly mussel, the other half is going to my stomach. And the good news we get to have a car for the month of August because the other elders went over on miles.. So other then that everything is going pretty good.
Love Elder Phillips

Monday, July 26, 2010

Its short‏

This week has went crazy fast it was the last week of the transfer and it has been the hottest it has been in a couple years here so it has been fun.. It is interesting to talk to the member and just local people here, they keep telling us how they had the worst winter in a long time and know the worst summer and they are all expecting to have a really bad hurricane. I kinda hope it happens while i am here and i get to go help people clean up and stuff.
It has been a pretty good week though we started to teach a girl named Ashlee Johnson she is friend of Ricky Jarman, the story with her is that She wanted to learn but not quite ready for the lessons so Ricky gave her a gospel principles book and she read the first like fourteen chapters of it and then had a question on the Priesthood so we started teaching her on Wednesday and she has came to church three times now. We are hoping to set a baptismal date this Wednesday with her, so that will be really cool if that turns out.
Then on Saturday we had a pioneer day with the ward and we got to play old fashion baseball and checkers and stuff like that, so it was fun and we got to talk with everyone in the ward. Then on Sunday i spoke in Sacrament meeting with the high council on repentance, it went well i think i really did it all of the top of my head except for a few scriptures here and there and a section from a conference talk by Elder Uctdorf and i basically called everyone out to repentance so it was pretty good, i just hope the young women of the ward get it, because it is pretty sad when the members are way immodest and our recent convert is more modest then them all it drives me nuts. But the talk was fun to call people to repentance in a loving manner.
So sorry there isn't more to report on but i love you all.
Love Elder Phillips

bEaUtiFuL liFe~


Hi family! I can’t believe how fast the weeks keep going… It was a good week as always. As a missionary idk if there is ever a very bad day J We did a lot of tracting this week and actually found some good ppl. We are plannin on droppin by to see them this week so we’ll see how it goes. Patrice is catholic, Kerry is Lutheran and Audrey never had a religion. She was awesome tho. When we got to her door she was just steppin out. We ended up teachin her right there on her porch. We were centering our message on families and she said, “Well if you have a structure of families and Jesus Christ that is great!” She explained that she was raised believe in Jesus but that was it. No church or anything. She wanted to change that for her family but didn’t know where to go or how to go about it. Now her children are grown but we shared our unique message and it was all very new to her, of course. She loved to read things from other pastors bc they uplift her. So we gave her a pamphlet and she said she’d have to think about it. Her husband came out and saw us and said, “I LOVE your commercials!” J He was so nice. A very nice family that we really hope we can bring into the gospel. We also taught a 21 yr old boy. He isn’t interested in the gospel at all…. He was amazed at the fact that we don’t drink at all. He believes in Jesus Christ but doesn’t practice or anything. I wish so bad we could get in with his family bc he has 6 older sisters who have kids. He said he’s never thought about what is gonna happen after this life. So hopefully we got him thinking. He was nice. He’s from FL but comes here every summer. His first boss was jimmy buffet lol. Sat was an ASL BBQ, so that was fun, I am learnin sign like I’ve always wanted. I love those ppl. I love the ppl here. The storms here this week were incredible. Wow I love the storms here!~ We got to watch the dark clouds filled with lightening over the ocean. My goodness it was so beautiful. It just down poured! We did some service this week with a less active and her bf in their 30’s? He is a 5 star chef and is Paris Hilton’s personal chef (lol). We got to go help prepare food bc he also caters. We got to cut food and also try it. Oh my yum! It was super neat. Well that really is just about it for now. We just keep truckin along, tryin to find those who are prepared. Have a great week and love you all!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, July 19, 2010

hey‏

So this week has been awesome, we are really seeing the blessings of hard work and being obedient, i can't believe that it is going this well. First i will start by telling you that when i was in Apex we met a guy named Paul Gunther and Paul was in a wheel chair and couldn't walk because of an accident at work and we started to teach him, i believe we taught him 2 or 3 times before i left and i actually never thought i would see him get baptized but he did this past week that is so cool i am so happy for him.
But on Thursday we were tracting this Trailer park and it was about time to head back for the night and Elder Alexander said lets try this last one then we will go back in for the night, so we did and we met Tome who has had a rough life he has seen his brother die and his mother. So we taught a little bit of the Plan of Salvation and then set up a return appointment for Saturday. So then on saturday we were at the church all day helping with Stake Education day, we were cooking and they needed a lot of help so we started wondering if the appointment was going to go through or if he was going to bail on us like most people. SO it was time for the appiontment and so we went and he was waiting out side for us to show and he was reading the Book of Mormon, the lesson went awesome the spirit was there and he recognized the spirit and we set a baptismal date with him!! it was so cool, he even came to Erica's baptism and church the next day. The gospel is so amazing to see it change lives.
Also on Saturday we had Erica's baptism which went amazing i actually got to baptize her so that was an amazing experience, she has progressed so fast and she will make a great member, she already understands the scriptures better than any one i have met. The spirit at baptisms is incredible being able to witness someone that has changed there life around and decided to follow Christ is so amazing. So i get to talk this up coming Sunday on repentance so i am preparing for that and i love it i love learning more about the gospel and one thing that has stuck out to me this week is we need to have more faith and not only believe in Christ but believe Christ. which is so crazy because if we believe Christ then we won't sin and we will have perfect faith. but i hope all is well with you all.
Love
Elder Phillips

tHe WiLL wiThiN~‏

Hello everyone J Another week down, time flies, I can’t believe it is already Monday again. This was a pretty rough week so its nice that it went fast. We had door after door shut in our faces…no one even would listen or give us a chance to say anything. Finally yesterday, our last house, an older lady answered and they were about to have dinner with their family that I think was visiting. She read our tags and asked us if we could come back J We are hoping and praying that she is the reason we were out there. It is hard to come from the city, teaching a ton bc you are surrounded with ppl) to the Island where it is very slow and feel like you aren’t teaching anyone. I know there is a reason that we are here in Riverhead, I know there are ppl here that need us…and we just have to remember that. It is hard not to get discouraged and not focus on numbers as well as keep the faith as we go from house to house especting each one to gladly say, “We’d love to hear your message!” Sister Winterton and I work really well together. It is as if we are living here as friends. We get along great and laugh a lot, and that really helps when the work is slow. Opening an area is hard stuff, but I know that this experience is really going to push me and make me stronger. We are praying lots and hard, as well as tracting and teaching every person we meet. If we see a family we will find a place to pull over and share a card. Yesterday we got doors shut and blinds snapped shut lol…its rather sad, I wish ppl weren’t so scared and hard toward us. But its ok. We moved into our new apt on Saturday. Wow, I feel yet again so spoiled. We live in a beautiful apt. It’s huge. We have nothing to fill it with. I wish we had a couch lol. I wish I would’ve gotten pics but I guess that will have to wait for next week. We have a dishwasher and brand new carpet, huge closets each and more closets. Laundry is right on the campus which is nice. I feel so spoiled and idk…like I’m not a missionary bc I am not living in a broken down ghetto apt with the cocroaches J It is so beautiful here. The ppl here they have all these things that they fill their lives with, trying to fill the whole they have with things that only bring them temporary happiness…. We are so blessed to have that whole filled with everlasting peace and happiness. Anywho, we are looking up a lot of inactives and are doing really quite well there. We have gotten in with quite a few and I feel pretty good about them. I think that we will be able to help some if not all of them to come back J We are doing our best to be creative and think of diff ways to find ppl and also help them and serve. It is kinda hard lol. But life is good. I love it here and I love being a disciple of the one who died for us all. I feel Him lifting me and guiding me every step of the way. And I know that He is always there. How rich in blessings we are just for knowing that. I love you all so much and hope you have a beautiful and blessed week. J

Love,

Sister Phillips

Monday, July 12, 2010

liViN iT uP~

Holla familia!!!!!



I finally have news and of course when I do I really have a lot! Last Thursday we missed a call from pres. So I am going to the voicemail all laughin at sis. Bartschi bc we are sure she is training….well it came back at me when pres asked for me to call him back. He told me to sit down (haha) and told me that I was going to open an area on the Island for sisters. I am pretty excited yet was really sad to be goin back to the Island (car=weight gain and not the city.) Sunday was hard. Things were crazy getting stuff ready for the baptism. We found out at church that she was leavin on wed for Haiti till Sept. So we were all callin prez tryin to figure out if we could have her confirmed that night or they could do it in Haiti. We we got it approved for that night and then it was a mess trying to figure out how we were gonna get everyone to Richmond Hill where the font is. We finally got it all figured out (we hoped) and the ZL’s said they’d give us a ride. We go to pull away and we got a flat! So we got to quickly throw everything outta the trunk and change the tire. It was such a crazy stressful day and the baptism of course left me sobbing. Afterwards, Anne asked us over for dinner. It was so nice and there were fireworks all around her house. It was beautiful. One of the best 4th of Julys! Monday after the ward bbq I was rollin my clothes and getting rid of quite a bit tryin to make everything fit. LOL. I have accumulated quite a bit haha. I will be workin on that the next 4 months. Luckily I will be leavin a lot of these ugly sister missionary clothes and never so them again! MUAH AHAHAHAHAHAHAH! Alright so it was way funny bc when they announced in transfer mtg the new area and that I and sister winterton were going there, the elders were so funny! All the gasps and such. A whole bunch came up to me afterwards and told me how lucky I was and how it turns out to be everyones favorite that serves there. Oh ya. We are in Riverhead. As far as you can go on the Island till you hit water. We got a nice chevy Malibu (now I really have to watch what I eat lol) and it took us 11/2 hours to get here at least. It takes us that to get to some of the members. We cover all the Hamptons and also shelter island, which we have to take a ferri to get there. We are also living in the Hamptons. Hampton Bays. We aren’t there yet tho bc for now we are living with the sr couple in their nice house J For the first time in a year I have been able to read on a couch and have carpet. We have a nice room in the back surrounded with windows and it is right on the churchs property=next door J We even get to eat whatever we want lol. So I feel completely spoiled…. No “we lived in a shaq with the ghetto ppl with rats nibbling our ears and toes.” Lol. We are doing a lot of tracting trying to find ppl. We fearlessed at walmart the other day. One of us would take their cart and the other would teach. Haha, we haven’t met a mean white person yet! They have all been pretty nice. We know where Billy Joel and Calvin Clein live so we are thinking that will be our next stop hahaha. A family just got baptized and they seem like they’ve always been members. She even taught the lesson is RS yesterday! But their 2 daughters (16, 14) got baptized first then came the parents and now the brother whos almost 8 is on his way. J They are incredible. The dad actually is the one who started going. It is so amazing to listen to him. He was so concerned about his family and his daughters having the high standards, they even searched through churches and couldn’t find what they were looking for. When they came to the LDS it felt right at home and it was everthing they were lookin for J so amazing, they are white too! Lol. We are feeling really good about this area. The ward is so sweet and are so excited to have sisters! For the first time! It feels so nice when they are so excited J Well I think that is all for now. I hope everyone is doing well and has fun at the reunion! Love you sosoosososos muchess! Take care, be safe, KEEP THE FAITH~



Love,

Sister Phillips

sorry really short.‏

Hey
so this week has been a very hot week and we have been doing a lot of trying to find people to teach and it hasn't been to great i don't think we found any body that has potential so it has been hot to help us out and nobody want to step outside. But with all the biking we have done i have biked about half way home, i am like a few miles away from a thousand and i have to rotate my tires but it has been fun. So this week we have a baptism which is awesome i am excited because she is so ready that will take place on Saturday night. Nothing to exciting happened this week other than we had interviews on Wednesday and while we were there two different people came into the church looking for help and wanted to meet with the missionaries but the only problem was they were in the other wards boundaries, then we all went to a little Mexican restaurant and there were 13 of us missionaries and some guy drove by and yelled Mormons and flipped us off and we laughed. Then on Friday we biked to Snow Hill which is about 17 miles from our house and as soon as we got there a freak storm hit and it was like a monsoon so we quickly took shelter at a gas station but we still got soaked. So we realized it wasn't going to let up anytime soon we called the Browns who live in Snow Hill and they came and picked us up, so we chilled at there house tell it was time to go to dinner then they gave us a ride to our house we changed and then went to a missionary homecoming party, it was funny to see him because he wasn't ready to come home so he just came and talked to us about missionary work and then he spoke in sacrament the next day. So basically it has been a pretty hot long week with no income, but that is alright because it is fun just going out and trying to share the gospel is fun i like it a lot. the gospel is such an amazing thing that as we start to understand it we can't help but want to share it. anyway.
Love you lots
Love
Elder Phillips

Tuesday, July 6, 2010

hey‏

Hey
So it has been a really fast week this one i don't know where it went. time is flying I hit my four month mark which means i am 1/6 the way done, that makes it seem so short! but it has been so fun i love seening people light up as they come to a realization that this makes sense and that it is true it is a truly remarkable experience. So basically missionary work is all through the members tracting is kinda unproductive, everyone has a friend that is nt a member and everyone that isn't a member knows a member. So guess what the good thing is, the zone leaders banned the zombie game hurray now we get to play ping pong and basketball i am so happy... So a crazy thing happened this week, so we just got done setting up a family mission plan and we had to get up to the church for a lesson with Erica, the church is about 20 minutes away from where we were. So we are biing up the bypass when a flash of lightning and the sky fell! it was just dumping buckets of water and the wind was blowing way hard, with in a few minutes the streets were flooded and we were drenched it was a lot of fun.. i don't think that i have ever been that wet in my life and ihave never seen it ran that hard, we couldn't see like 20 feet in front of us. so we get to the church with ten minutes before the lesson and luckly bishop was there and had two towels in his office so we dried off the best we could and taught the lesson all wet so that was fun. I was wearing a really crappy tie and it is totally ruined now because it was a silk tie. A member came and gave us a bag of 50 ties and they were the ugliest thing ever so that was what i was wearing.
So then on saturday we went to a really southern pig pickin and it was so good, the barbeque here is not what we think of in the west, so when i get home we will have a real southern bbq. Also they deep fry everything, hen the fair and other event like that happen and they have the stands you wouldn't believe teh stuff they have, fried butter fried dr. pepper and all sorts of stuff like that.
Anyway i am doing good i hope everything is good with you.
Love you lots
Love
Elder Phillips

Monday, June 28, 2010

hOt MeSs~‏

Hey everyone! Wow! I can’t believe July is already here…. This week is my last week of Transfer 9. 3 more to go. Idk until Sat if I am stayin or not, but I am sure I am leaving. My hopes are not to. Friday we were able to go to the temple with Nirva and Anne. Wow, it was so so incredible. They were so so darned excited during the lesson when we were telling them about it. We got there and it was so neat. I really enjoyed doing some with them as well. Seems I haven’t done those in forever (other than here on my mission). It is so nice to be at the temple and doing work for those who have passed on. I miss being there so much. I hope everyone has a happy 4th of July. Idk if I will be emailin next week, the library is closed…. Yolands date got pushed back and is this Sunday J July 4th. Well its another short email. Sorry I aint got no exciting news. Its been hot here and I love it. I don’t like being sweaty and sticky, but I love the heat. Well I love you all and hope you all have a fun and safe holiday. Loves!



Love,

Sister Phillips

hey‏

Hello Everyone it has been a pretty good week a lot of success was seen and our work is paying off. It is so amazing to see the fruits of our labor we taught a girl named Erica Jusko on Wednesday and Sunday and we now have a baptismal date for July 17 it is so exciting and so much fun to see her grow and find out that the church is true. and she keeps commitments!! So Erica is 17 and getting ready to go off to school and has dated to Mormons so she knows a few people of the church, the hardest part is that she actually doesn't have a religious back ground so it is weird because we have to adjust our teaching style, most everybody down here is hard core into the bible. but that is all right because she knows it is true.
We have been biking so much that it isn't even real most likely by the end of next week i will have hit a thousand miles and ya know it isn't the biking that is so bad it is the heat, the heat index was at like 115 degrees the other day and we are like the only ones out side, it is hard work and i have never sweated so bad in my life. But it is fun to teach people especially when they understand and it makes sense. Like we started to teach this really rich family and the wife Her name is Katrina was way excited and she just sat there and was like ya that makes sense i will totally read the Book of Mormon and she had some way good questions, man i just love it so much that i just laugh and the people who think they are funny by yelling and flipping you off and all that kind of stuff.
The Gospel is so amazing everything is totally worth it, Satan works so hard and is a real jerk but there is no way he can hold us down when we receive that lasting conversion and testimony and it is sad to see those that have lost that testimony and fall away because we must look at the bigger picture, but what can ya do other than work on strengthening them.
So the south does stuff to you my English and my IQ is dropping by the minute, i can't believe the way i catch my self speaking, it is weird but the food out here is awesome, you don't know what your missing until you try a really southern bbq it is way good and they feed you a ton of it, and they expect you to keep shoveling it in so i am getting feed real good.
so everything is going great with me
love ya all
Elder Phillips