February 15, 2016

Happy Valentines day!

Fun fact for you: Si means yes in spanish, but to slang it up like a street thug you say "simon"( Pronounced "Seemown"). Yup. So now you can talk like all the hip kids here in mexico! "Do you have any siblings?"   answer "Simon"

Haha, so the game went more or less pretty poorly? But they beat the silver team! That's good! Does she practice her serves a lot at home? And are her overhand serves good?

Woah! They already are going to the temple? That's great! How awesome!! And when will the Meridian temple be up and functional? And now you have a Mexican? How cool! I had a companion from down there in Puebla. HHis name was Noe Aguilar. The mexicans are very bold in naming their kids. Very common names here are Jesus, Jose, Maria, and occasionally you can find a name like "Jesus el salvador Martinez" which means Jesus the saviour Martinez. yup. I know a guy named Gazalem too! crazy right?

And how did the Photoshoot go? Did Kimberlee just get married or did that happen a while ago already? What are those two kids like? Do you have pictures of them? That's a problem that many people have down here too and lots of kids end up on the street at a young age. I'm glad that they were able to get adopted.

And Alex is going to Japan! Awesome! How cool!! Does he already know the language a bit, or is he going in green?

The package did arrive this week and we wasted absolutely no time in eating some of that candy and sausage with easy cheese on crackers! So good! Thank you for helping send it and pack it all in there :) I Hope that you all love the package that I'll be sending you! Only problem is that I may be waiting til about may on some of the stuff, so I think I'll have to send you guys 2 separate packages. Darn. 

I do have one problem: My pants. They've started to develop holes. I'm gonna try stitching them all up as best as I can, but I'm afraid that it's almost time to retire the colors if you know what I mean. so If you could send me a solid durable pair of pants that would be great! Or cash, pants are pretty cheap down here.

So this week we had a blast! I'm sending you some of our pics of the Juarez scenery. It's pretty desolate and dry, but the mountains look pretty cool. Also, there are loads of little stores in every neighborhood that have huge Coke signs that sell just about everything you need. Eggs, potatoes, avacado, milk, shampoo, gel, cereal, Coke, You name it! so that's a part of the scenery pic.

So we had a meeting and It really helped me and my companion to notice that we weren't super good at contacting people in the streets. We did it well, but not super well. Afterwards we noticed that it is more efficient to get to know them a bit and just talk to the people. And talk to everyone! When we started applying this in our regular day, we found that we had much more success and people wanted us to visit them rather than us trying to convince them to let us in. As my companion always says "They tell me that you can catch more flies with honey. But I've caught more honeys by being fly." haha, so honestly, I have  noticed that Preach my Gospel has all that we need in it. It is our guide to success. And when we live by it's principles and follow the instructions that God gives us, we have success. Sometimes I wonder "How have I not noticed this before?" It's something so basic and simple. But when we stick to the basics, we can't go wrong.

I Love you all! Sorry your letters are put together today. Love you lots! 

Elder Phillips

 On Sun, Feb 14, 2016 at 7:21 PM, Dave Phillips <boisedwp@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey elder --

I did not want you to feel like you did not get any valentines this year, so that's why you're got some hearts and a missy face from me. (Kind of sad if I am the only valentine your get).

So yesterday was Ellie's first volleyball tournament.  I went. Mom was in Utah doing a photo shoot. It was great. Ellie played really well. Her serves are pretty weak, but otherwise she is really good. The first photo below is her hitting her first EVER overhand serve over the net in a game!  So that is a good thing!  The other photo is just a rondo me one of her hitting a ball.

So she is on the U14 bronze team for Club Idaho. There were 6 other teams in it. Two of the others were the gold and silver teams for club idaho. They played pool and got creamed. Leader who they played the silver team in eight quarterfinal match and beat them. So that was really cool that Ellies bronze team beat the silver team. It was A great win because they have a number of girls who have never played club volleyball before.

Today Aaron Buckner was presented to be ordained a priest. He and Jenny both were given limited use Temple recommend's as well. So now they can go to the temple and do baptisms for the dead. It is really cool to see them progress in the Gospel and see the Joy that it brings to them.

The baptism for the Buckner's was last Saturday. Two days later one of the missionaries was transferred out. The missionaries left behind his only been out three months and he received the green companion who is from Mexico. So he is training and has only been out for three months. That is crazy! But he is a great missionary. I have been very impressed with him.The new elder, Elder Dnura, is from Puebla Mexico. He says it is south of Mexico City.  He seems like a pretty sharp missionary too. He has good English, so that helps!

Keep up the good work!  We love you mucho Bueno. Did you get the package yet?  I hope so. I crammed as much as possible in the box. Mom got all the stuff, so you need to thank her for it, but I did the packing so we could get as much as possible in it. What else are you needing?  Craving?  Let me know and I will make it happen for you.