June 27, 2016

That sign is super hilarious! Do you think it´s specific enough now? 

How awesome about the new ward mission boundaries! I met two missionaries in the MTC that went there! Elder Baurro and Sister Bertalini. 

So It is sad to hear that Great Grandma died. She lived a long (very long) and happy life. She probably wouldn´t want to see us crying, but rather smiling and laughing because of all the positive memories we have of her.Just remember: we know where she went and we know that she´s happy there.

This week President Derbez is going home and President Owens will be arriving. Every latino in the mission has joined together in fasting and prayer united in their cause: Futbol. We hope that he lets us play sports. 

Have they announced wwhen the temple will be officially opened yet?

So to answer questions: I have 13 months in the mission

I have had 8 companions

I am still in my second area

I am in the Mezquital Ward 

I´ve been here for 7 months 

and everyone here knows me.

and it is awesome. 

I love this ward. It has its fair share of problems, but it´s improving. The weekly assistance here has been growing (slowly but steadily). Some of the members are super helpful, but only some. This week we brought 2 calenders to the Relief society, one to sign up to give us food and one to sign up to do visits with us. We explained to them the importance of the calenders: to keep us full of food and them full of the spirit. We explained that we can help them do their visits to members and they can help us visit investigators, and we´ll all end up happy and successful. We left the calender with them and went on to our other classes. When we went back to pick it up at the end, we almost cried. It was empty. The members had filled the food calender (because they love us), but not a single one had signed up to do visits with us. So i got a little angry and threw it in the trash. Here´s a picture below (if you zoom in you can see that it´s empty). So I guess you could say that we got a little upset. 

So we´ve been spending a lot of time finding more people to teach. The members hardly ever give us references which leaves us one option: Door Knocking. At first this tactic was greatly frowned upon for lack of results and risk of finding crazy drug dealers, but I´ve found it to be decently effective. How else are we supposed to find people to teach? we talk to people when we can, but when there´s nothing else to do: we knock doors. 

Another way to find new people is through service. Unfortunately, the people here are very stubborn\prideful and never accept help unless  they´re dying. so it´s not a very reliable source. We´ve had projects painting houses, gardening, and basic landscaping projects too. but not many. This last week we helped a less active member paint his house. 

On the average P Day we buy food for the week, wash our clothes, clean the house, write the family, and then we get together with the other missionaries of our ward to play games. We can´t play sports (yet) so we play card games. I´ve taught them how to play Scum and Egyptian War. In turn, my companion has been teaching me a mexican game similar to poker. We normally play for an hour or two and then go to our District meeting.

This week we´ve been teaching several extreme Christians. One guy started shouting and crying at the same time while telling us about how much he loves Jesus, and another told us a story about how he had achieved perfection for 3 months. so... It´s been an interesting week.

Let me just say that I know that the church is true. I know that The Book of Mormon is the word of God and that if we follow the principles written in the scriptures we can achieve great things. Not great in the world´s eyes, but True Greatness. I know that Christ is our savior and that he loves each and every one of us. Asi Es.

Amen

Elder Phillips