July 25,2016

John didn't write last week, but he has been transferred again....back to Juarez! He is also now the District Leader.
 Here is this weeks letter!
Poor Charlie! I'm gonna miss that dog :'(

Things have been good this week down here in Rio Nilo. The Branch is super supportive of the Missionary Work and they are all wonderful people. This week I got here with Elder Arlington (from LA California) and we got straight to work. We focused on finding new people to teach and reactivating inactive members. So far we haven't had any success with reactivating members, but we found several new families to teach! 

We went to visit a less active member whose name was found in the ward directory, but she wasn't home. As we walked away my companion and I both felt impressed to knock on the neighbors door. We did, and 2 young men came out to talk to us. We chatted for a minute and asked them about their neighbor (the possible member), and after a while they asked us about Joseph smith. We explained the restoration to them, and they accepted an appointment for us to visit them again. They were super interrested in the church!

Elder Phillips

A rather crappy first day (pun intended) I love the birds.

July 11, 2016

This week was awesome and we have a baptism coming up this saturday!

So my area is super rich and it's rough. It's a lot harder to find people to teach here, but the people who accept us are wonderful! This week we contacted a man outside his house and we put an appointment to visit him. He doesn't believe in God, but he told us that he'd like to find something to believe in. He confessed that he has a bit of a criminal reccord and drinks a lot, but truthfully, these are the people we are looking for! As we talked to him a scripture came to my mind:  

Mark 2:17 When Jesus heard it, he saith unto them, They that are whole have no need of the physician, but they that are sick: I came not to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance. 

I know that by preaching the gospel, we can change lives. I have both seen it and lived it and now I want to share it! I'm in a new area where I still don't really know the people, but my goal is to get to know them all and teach them the gospel!

Love,

Elder Phillips

Sorry for the short letter, but the good news is that a picture is worth a thousand words!

So check out all the great foods we have here in Nogales! 1. Cow tongue  2. The Pancho Mama (a giant hotdog with sausage, wrapped in bacon)  3. Vancouver Donuts!

 My companion in his knee therapy. His therapist is named Shamir (I'm pretty sure he has a crush on her)

And some investigators invited us over to eat cake for Elder Rodri's Birthday!

July 4th! 2016

June 29th, 2016. It was a wednesday just like any other. I got up at 6:20 AM, just like I always do. I rolled out of bed, stretched my arms a bit, and said a prayer.  My companion and I exercised in the house for a half an hour; stretching, jumping rope and doing pushups. At 7:00 I Ironed my shirt and hopped into the shower. By 8:00 we were both studying the scriptures.

At 8:30 we got a phone call from the asistents: "Elder Phillips, you've got changes."

So here I am, A stranger in a new city. I am in Nogales, just over an hour away from my last area; but everything is different. This is where the rich people live. Truthfully, it's a completely different world here. I'm used to poor families that work in factories for a living, not millionairs that go to Cancun every other month for vacations. In Mezquital everyone walks or goes in public busses. Here everyone has their own car. There are members here who have Mercedes Benz and even Ferrari's! 

To make a longer story a little bit shorter: life here is different.

My companion is Elder Rodriguez. He's from Mexico City, Mexico. He just turned 24 on Saturday,  he's a Lawyer and a businessman. He's super cool. We're working hard in a new area where the members don't really support the Missionary Work. Just a few months ago there were 3 missionary companionships here, now there's just one. And that's us. So there's a lot of work to do down here.

The good news is that the missionaries have been working hard up here, so we'll be having baptisms in July!

In other news, We celebrated my companion's birthday about 3 times this week! one family took us out to eat in a place called Wing Daddy's, and that was quite tasty. Another invited us over for cake and then today some missionaries invited us to go eat at a nearby restaurant. The place is called Playa Bichis. And I tried Cow tongue! And it was super good! Seriously, the tongue tastes great. I was quite surprised.

So Welcome to Nogales,

Elder Phillips