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

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

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

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

bUsY bEeZ‏

i don't have alot of time but I will tell the highlights :D We committed Venel for baptism this week and he is so great! He said yes and explained that he wants to learn more before so that he goes in understanding. Yolande's Baptism is set for Sunday but we still need to teach her at least 4 times so it may get pushed back. We found out that Nirva's daughter Christy is actually 8 not 7, so looks like we can soon baptize her as well as Christopher as soon as he is ready. He is 15 and I think turning 16 in November. Anywho, I decided that he and Leslie will should get married :D Yesterday was ward conference, I was sitting by Anne when she started sobbing. I didn't know what was going but was worried she had gotten offended by soemthin the stake pres said. She wouldn't tell me. But after service she said, "It's so good. I am so happy. It feel so good." I was soooo HAPPY! I told her that what she was feeling was the spirit. :D So awesome. We threw Anne and Nirva a surprise party and they were so surprised! Hhahahahahaha. It was so nice and fun, they felt so loved. I really hope that I stay here another transfer. I love it here. Have a great week everyone. Sorry for the short email. I'll be back soon! :D

Love,
Sister Phillips