jAmAiCa QuEeNs!‏

Hi family. Things are a lil diff now, I only have an hour to email so I will do my best to hurry and get everything in.

I LOVE JAMAICA! It is super crazy J I can’t believe it is already Monday! So a week ago I was getting all my last packing done. We had a zone activity and played Billiards in Dyker Heights. I think the hardest thing has been leaving that zone. I can’t believe I was with some of those ppl for 6 months, 4 transfers! I created some really good friends who helped me a lot and I was sad to leave. Tuesday morn the office elders came and got me. S. Bartschi was really sad, but we made it. I got in the van and asked where S. Kevan was. My new comp, S. Smith looked at me and said, “Your really don’t know anything that is going on do you?” Apparently not. Well turns out that we WERE being blinded in and I was sr comp. great! Haha. Taking over an area and learning it all by yourself you think would be really hard…but it hasn’t been. Jamaica is really an easy place to get around. It’s all buses and we only use one train. And I stick out like a sore thumb for sure! J Our apartment is really nice so that is fun. Groceries are really expensive. We have incredible ppl here and it really is the land of the prepared. A family of 6 was baptized last week, so there were 6 confirmations yesterday! The ppl are so humble and sweet. I have already made great friends. It is so hard bc they have really cheap clothes!!! J haha, I love living on such a small budget. We have ppl who are wanting to get baptized and I am really excited. I feel that this is going to be a really good place for me. I think that the trial of the faith is bringing forth it’s blessings J At our combined district mtg there were a lot of coming baptisms and I was like “yeahhh!!!” and they all looked at me haha. One of the elders told me they are just so use to it. They have had at least on baptism a week this whole transfer. Wow. I am so excited. I love when they have brick roads and sidewalks too J Just thought I would throw that in there. The Lord is ever mindful of us. He knows what we need. I can’t believe Brad leaves next week…so crazy… I can’t believe its already about March…kinda scary… I am excited for summer tho, but I have heard it gets really bad here. And I was in a car last summer J Jamaica is a very busy city and I love it; alot of ppl. I know that isn’t very much, things have just been crazy. I’m doing my best at being a good missionary as well as leader. I love you all and hope you have a great week and enjoy Brad’s farewell!!! I love you Brad!!! You are going to be GREAT!



Love always,

Sister Phillips

nettie pics

make sure you read both letters this week!

wHeN liFe ShOoTs LeMoNs~

What up? Well, this week was one of those that makes you realize how incredible the good weeks (last week) are. A couple weeks ago we ran into a media referral that we were teaching and got too busy. She told us to call her so we could come over. We went on Tuesday and all 3 of her kids were there (Precious:22, Princess:16k, ?: like 19, he is disabled) Love the names?  well we taught a powerful lesson and brought up how families can be forever. Her face lit up and loved that. We are going back tomorrow, we hope that now is her time. Sadly this week was full of jukes (dropped appts) and we lost most of our investigators. I can honestly say that it has been really rough. We saw a few rcla’s this week (recent convert/less active). It was hard as well bc one has lost her testimony completely and has a bazillion ?s She showed us a news clip she recorded of 3 gays who were formerly Mormon, one even stating that he served a “Mormon Mission.” They were saying that the members need to know that the church is a lot more involved then we think it is. She was saying that the church is being persecuted, and that some circumstances its ok to be gay. We got her to change her mind on that one though. It was kinda discouraging. We have a lot of people that are struggling and it’s hard to feel your helping anyone. But we just keep working hard with faith in the Lord. What was the hightlight was when we were walking down fulton street. This is te place where you find a ton of shopping stuff for cheap; so there are a lot of pple there….its actually kinda the ghetto lol. Well as we were walking I hear Bartschi gasp. I turn around and she is stopped in middle of the sidewalk and I see a silky white slip at her ankles. LOL!!! She didn’t know what to do, so she was just standing there hunched over. I’m tryin to get her to come around the corner away from everyone and the guys watching in the car lol. We were laughing so hard. Saturday we were really excited bc we had 4 appts that day which means busy, which we love. One after another we got juked, each and every one. We hope this week goes better than the last. That’s all I have to say for now. Thank you for all your prayers. I love you all so much and will be back next week  Love you!~Sista P

i have 2 weeks because of the vacation.

HaPpY mOnDaY!

This week was the best week that I have seen in Park Slope yet! Although it was the coldest one yet! We ripped open the handwarmers for our boots and mittens and still thought our noses were going to fall off! :( So, while my famiy is tanning on a boat somewhere, I was bundled and frozen crying repentance! :D It's great! LOL. I think that my sacrifice of not going home and going on that cruise is why we were so blessed! LOL.Monday we had an appt with Annie and Alfred, a couple about 50 yrs old. Annie ordered a bible a transfer ago and we gave it to her and she told us that she already had a church. So that was that. Well we got them again and it said that there was a man in the house, Alfred, who also wanted a bible and wanted to know more of our message. We were curious if that was true or if they just wanted a bible. Well we went over Mon night and taught them about the Restoration. We left them with “The Restoration” DVD and commited them to pray if the thing we shared were true. As we were talking Annie then told us that she has been praying to know if she was in the right place, where God wants her. We were so excited! We told her that He would answer her prayers. They have a 17yr old daughter but she always leaves before we get there  LOL, she doesn’t like us… So we went back and saw them and they said they don’t doubt that Joseph saw what he did. We taught them the POS and they are taking everything in bc they already believe it. We committed them to pray to know if Joseph is a true prophet called of God and to know if the things we taught were true. So we are praying away for Annie and Alfred. Oh ya! Also, Annie told us that she didn’t want to tell her pastor about reading the BOM yet bc she was afraid he’d tell her to stop. She said that she wants to know for herself before he knows.  yes! Wednesday we went and visited a RCLA (recent conver/less active) but weren’t planning on seeing him. His mother was a former investigator and we were going to try to teach her again. The RCLA (her Son), Alex, happened to be there. He was baptized about a year ago I think, but hasn’t been to church for 5 months. We are meeting with her again this week and they both promised to come to church and she’d bring her neice  She thinks that church is boring but she is giving it another try  We did a lot of street contacting this week and also looking up some YSA’s (Young Single Adults). Sadly, we were able to get ahold of two and both said they didn’t want anything to do with the church anymore. Man…so so sad…. I really wish our ward could bump it up. I pray that everyone who reads this goes out of their way to be a Member Missionary. Whether it is through a LA or sharing a card or testimony or whatever with someone of another faith. It is SOOO hard to be a missionary and have a ward who has INCREDIBLE potential (especially in NY) and doesn’t use it. It is true, missionaries are here to teach and members to do the finding. We are doing ALL of the finding ourselves. Sad thing? 98% of our ward are RM’s. We have the greatest gift! Why aren’t we sharing it!? It is so discouraging for us missionaries to see this. We could have so much more success if our members really did as President McKay and President Hinckley say….MEMBER MISSIONARY! These are prophets who have told us this. Why aren’t we doing it? I wonder why I didn’t do it when I was at home? When it has been asked over what, 20 years ago!? I really pray that all of you can help the missionaries in every possible way. We are just young adults sacrificing so much to try to help bring our lost brothers and sisters back home. Please help us. Go out of your way when you see someone at church who you don’t know, you could be the one who keeps them there. I only say this bc this has been the hardest thing in this area and for the past 4 transfers, it’s exhausting. Members are too busy, therefore the work is a bit slow butdoing our best to not become discouraged or feel that we are alone in this war. It is so so hard….freak! We don’t even get fed that much here!!! Lol, but hey, I’m keeping my chin up and doing my best. Sorry for that ranting. I’ll continue with our incredible week Sadly on Thursday we ended up dropping Guinette, out eternigator of 3 years. She told us that she needed some time and that she didn’t want to be classified as a Mormon and she still wanted to have an occasional drink and gamble. So we said when she was ready she could give us a call  It was hard but hey, sometimes it takes a lot more faith to drop someone. We have faith that in time she will find her way, and that she is in the Lord’s hands. Then, Friday night we went and saw Rhonda. As you know Rhonda has been a very devout Pentecostal who wants the truth but is afraid to find it. We decided to watch the Restoration DVD again with her since it has been a few transfers. Wow…the spirit was SO strong! When it was over Rhonda was crying and I was crying as I bore my testimony and then Bartschi was crying when she was bearing her testimony! FINALLY! Rhonda finally said, “I don’t doubt that he saw what he saw. He was asking very important questions about what is saved and his life. If he saw two beings then he saw it.” We’ve been waiting for this for 4 transfers! Oh my freakin wow! It was so so amazing! Then Saturday we had an appt with a referral named April who is 41. She is in an addiction program and her sponsor was just baptized a week ago in Idaho!!! So her sponsor referred her. April told us that she has been looking for a church. She was in a Christian one for quite a while and then it closed down. She had a ton of questions and we are meeting with her again. We have high hopes for her!THEN! Lol, yes there’s more. We had another appt of another referral named Roseanne. I taught Roseanne the POS over the phone. She has had a rough time with the death of her mother and brother in the same month in ’08. So we were feelin pretty good about her. We get there and turns out that she knows nothing about God other than he exists. She wasn’t raised in church and hasn’t ever gone. So when we were teaching her more in depth about the POS and she loved it. Then right in middle she said, “Did you know that you aren’t supposed to bring purses?” ….what? “Did you know you’re not supposed to teach with purses?” Our bookbags? “Yes, it says that in the bible. If you were teaching truth from the bible you would know that and follow it’s teachings.” We were like, are you serious? Are you freaking kidding me? She told us she would show us next week. I said why not this week? She didn’t know where it was. So I looked up “purse” in the BD….Luke 10:4. I explained that it just means to take no thought of what we’re going to wear or eat but that God will provide. She said no it means what it says. This went on for about 15 minutes and she started calling Bartschi a liar saying that she already knew that. She said, “They told me you’d react this way. Look at the way you’re reacting.” I told her that I know that we have a prophet called of God who leads and guides us today and that we follow his teachings. She said, “He is teaching you wrong things.” Then I had had it. I was done talking to a wall. I said Roseanne our time is precious and we are here to teach, not to be taught. When you are ready to listen you can call us. She just laughed. I then told her that I came over to tell her that her mother lives and that she can see her again as well as live with God if she followed him and that when she is ready to hear more of our message she could call us. She tried to tell us that she is ready but that we just weren’t teaching truth. We said have a good day and left. I was so frustrated that I just cried and called our Zone Leaders. Lol, they actually said I handled it better than they would have haha, so that made me feel pretty darn good. So that is how our week ended. Wow, oh ya, I told her that this was so silly to be fighting over a purse….instead of salvation!??? Wow, never heard that one before. Pretty silly. And very very sad. My heart was sad that she would push away salvation bc of a purse. Well family, that is finally the week! We had a great and very very interesting one. Met a lot of very different people. I LOVE it. The work is hard but goes one. I pray that we all can be prepared to find those who the Lord has prepared for us individually and when we are put in their paths that we will speak up and not be ashamed of our testimony of our Lord and Saviour. This gospel is true and I know it. Just as Joseph, I will never deny it. Even on a mission there are times that Satan will try to deceive and have us question. Invite those times, those are the ones that strengthen our testimonies. I love you so much and am so grateful for my family who loves and supports me and has taught me everything I know. Have a blessed week full of love, service, and try to find someone this week who you can bring closer to Christ. He will use us.Talk to you next week!~Sister Phillips