Elder Phillips: October 12, 15

John's letter to his dad cracked me up this week! here it is!

"So I am curious about some stuff. You have not said anything about being in sketchy places, dodging drug dealers, bull lets, or roving gangs of gradient on robbers. Is that because my little pony land is part of your mission and that is where your are stationed or are you just not talking about that kind of stuff? I am just curious about the sketchiness that your see and what kind of craziness you witness down there." Dad

Ok, so about all that, this week some major sketch went down. More or less this is one of the nicest parts around here, but the pony land parts are where the Sister missionaries get sent. This week outside the church (monday at 4 PM) two guys from rival gangs got into a fight. One lives right in front of the church and is almost always drunk, and really super tattooed. The Tattooed guy stabbed the other a few times with a knife and now is in jail. The guy who got stabbed walked down the road a little bit before he collapsed dead.

We had a killer storm too! loads of wind and rain, it was crazy! In another part of the city, it was hail the size of a golfball. Those with the wind caused many broken trees and hundreds of broken windows and windshields. it was all over the news down here. In our area we just had loads of rain. just for about 20 minutes, but the streets were flooded afterwards.

This morning we got followed home after out daily run. Fortunately, I have seen about 100 episodes of Psych, NCIS, and Burn Notice, so I was able to ditch him in a nearby park. I'm kind of a professional spy.

That's really all that's been happening down here this week. But yeah, stuff happens occasionally. Not much, but occasionally. you probably shouldn't tell mom about the murder or the guy following us. But the storm, was cool.

Great to hear about The BBQ and all the kids getting sealed together! 11 in total? Any others on their way? And how many were adopted? I hope that everything goes well for them. I really miss BBQ. They have Carne Asada (grilled meat) down here, and they all love it, but I find it's not nearly as good as the ones back home. Nor do they use BBQ sauce much.

What up with dat?

And my companion says that he'll take you up on that offer. And he is my favorite companion yet. He is super fun and really spiritual too. He wants more pictures of Megan, but I think mom is intentionally avoiding them. She sends photos of everyone but Megan, and Elder Escobar is not amused.

Love you Dad!

~Elder Phillips

I will have to take a super BAD picture of Megan to send to him :)
Here is my letter
Hey Mom!

Happy Birthday! Did you really think that I'd forget my Mother's Birthday? No Way! Any presents that you'd like me to send to you guys?

That car is pretty super legit, I hope it lasts even longer than the durango did! And Tom's engaged! What happened! When? He's only been back 5 months! To Who? send me some photos!

So today is our Zone meeting. Sorry, but now you'll have to wait another month to send anything :'( But that's ok. When you send the next package can you include something for my companion? His family is super far away and it's super expensive for them to send packages. so maybe you could help him out a bit.

Elder Escobar asked me for a special request from the family this week and I told him that you could help him out. He wants a picture of my family (You, Dad, Megan, Ellie, and Anna [and kat if she's there]) holding a sign (a poster or something) that says "We Love You Elder Escobar".

If you can, It'd be awesome!

I'm glad you're meeting with the Buckners, and I hope that they are able to decide soon. Chris wrote me this week. I was so excited! He doesn't currently plan on serving a mission. Really, just show him love. No matter what he ends up choosing, show him Christlike love and help him feel wanted.

GUESS WHAT!! PHOTOS!

Yup, Elder Escobar and I had a blast this week, and we have many photos to show you. The first one is of our river crossing. It rained a lot one day this passed week and we had to cross over a a stream using a big old pipe.
The second is of the train tracks. He had never seen a train before so he was super excited. We took loads of pictures down there!
The third photo is because we found Cream Soda. And everyone knows that the best way to end your day is with a bottle of cream soda.
And one more of my companion.
And one more with Diego, the son of one of our new investigators!

I Love you Mom!

~Elder Phillips

and the one to ALL (those letters are not as exciting as our are)
Hey Everyone!

We had a fun week down here in Juarez, Full of rain storms and other parties.Things have been great this week, but I can't believe we are 3 weeks into the transfer. We are working hard, and partying hard. Yesterday we had a most excellent fast & Testimony meeting, and all of us missionaries went up and bore our testimonies too.

Our main highlights this week were: Finding and teaching Diana and Sophia.

Diana is 18 years old, has a new baby, and is the daughter of one of our contacts. We met her when we came to visit her mom, and had a super awesome doorstep lesson. She doesn't really know what to believe right now in her life but is searching to find the truth. Fortunately, that's kind of why I'm here. We began talking and put another appointment to teach her about God's plan for us. The second visit went great and she better understands her purpose here on the earth.

Sophia found us and asked us about our church one day, and invited us to visit her. She already wants to get baptized after just 2 visits! She knows that our messages are true and wants her family to hear it too.

Keep them in your prayers!

Also, enjoy a few photos of your favorite Missionaries having a cowboy party and trying to cross a flooded street!

Love you all!

~Elder Phillips

AND I GOT LOTS OF PICTURES!!!! I didn't take the time to put them in order that he numbered them, so just figure it out!