The Return of Elder Phillips!

BIG DAY!!!  We were all so excited to get John back home! Kat, Ryan, and Savannah were able to come, we flew Megan here from BYU, and it just happened to be our spring break---PERFECT!  His flight was delayed by 6 hours, but some friends and family were still able to make it to welcome him home.

Buckners, Mark's family, and the Boyces, and Kate as our photographist (inside joke) joined us to welcome Elder Phillips

Savannah is not too interested in meeting her uncle!

 Of course, while I have my whole family together, I WILL get a family picture!!!

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March 13, 2017

On saturday we had a Zone Conference and I was able to see a familiar face: Sister Erikson! So we took some pics representing the good old 208 Area.

I am so glad that Megan is having this chance to participate in the Missionary work! I´m still secretly(yet not so secretly) hoping she goes on a mission

Im looking forward to seeing you again! I-ve really missed spending quality time with the family!

And Tell Steve and Rachelle and their whose family thanks for the package they sent!

Love you!

Elder Phillips

Look, we're frying Fish on ¨El Disco¨, the disk. Turned out pretty tasty!

I don't know Kotter, what ward's he from? (He is our new stake president}

I feel so proud knowing that Ellie's playing LaX! I'm so happy, I'm tearing up a little :´)

I hope those rolls make it! You may not believe it, but Mexico isn't very well know for its desserts. They're good here, but nothing like the ones from back home!

This week we had a Zone Conference meeting with our mission president. It was super awesome! He focused on what we need to do as missionaries to help our investigators progress and go to church. He focused on the importance of Obedience: The first law of Heaven. We have to explain the importance of obeying, even when we don't understand why.

In the book of Moses the comes a story of Adam, who obeyed the commandment to offer sacrifices.

6. And after many days an angel of the Lord appeared unto Adam, saying: Why dost thou offer sacrifices unto the Lord? And Adam said unto him: I know not, save the Lord commanded me.

What really stands out to me is that the angl didn't come to explain it to him after the first time, nor the second time. It was ¨After many days¨. Answers don't always come quickly. They may not even come in this life. But they will come.

As Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf said after sharing his personal experience, 

¨The answer didn’t come immediately. But eventually I learned that God’s promises are not always fulfilled as quickly as or in the way we might hope; they come according to His timing and in His ways¨

I heard a story once of a mon who found that he was lacking patience. So he prayed ¨Lord, please give me patience, but give it to me now!¨ 

It doesnt work like that. We must wait and obey faithfully. I know that if we do, good things will come. The greatest blessings don't come immediately, they take time. And if we accept the Lords will we'll see that they come exactly when we need them.

Obey. Be Patient. You will see the blessings.

I Love you!

Elder Phillips

Pictures

We were invited by a member to eat dinner. We cooked it ourselvs and it turned out great!

Note to self: Probably should've taken some before pics of the fish too. Oh well!

Also, After the conference Hermana Erikson and I took pictures! #Represent!

March 6, 17

Well congrats on taking stake!! (My Stake Women's volleyball team just won the championship :)

We will definitely have to play a lot of games in those months! I've been thinking about it; do we have any plans for right when I get back? And when will the next family reunion be?

well to be totally honest, not a lot has happened this week. We helped a family move yesterday (a very last minute operation) and taught the gospel. So nothin new there. 

I Love You!

Elder Phillips

February 28, 2017

This week was rough, but awesome and rewarding at the same time!! 

Erik got baptised! It was such a wonderful experience and he was so excited! I'm so glad that God led us to him! He has made so many changes in his life and it hasn't been easy for him, but he made it and is willing to live it!

We had a great activity knocking doors with the youth where about 10 young women showed up but only 2 young men! I couldn't help but think ¨Man, I hope I wasnt that lame when I was in young mens.¨ Unfortunately, I think i was!

 It was a great experience where the youth were able to see what it's like being a missionary for a few hours, and seeing how awesome it feels when people accept you. It was an awesome spiritual experience! But I did feel sad as I thought about how many youth were missing out on such wonderful opportunities because they had other ¨Bigger¨ priorities. And I started thinking:

What Priority is Bigger than God? 

Sometimes we get so caught up in the insignificant activities that the world has to offer us that we are essentially shutting out the spirit. 

 Isaiah 55:2,8-9 

    Wherefore do ye spend money for that which is not bread? and your labour for that which satisfieth not? hearken diligently unto me, and eat ye that which is good, and let your soul delight itself in fatness.

    For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, saith the Lord.
    For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts

So why should we waste our efforts on that which really isn't important? Why should we suppose that our thoughts and desires are more important than those of God? Because they aren't!

So focus on God a little more this week.

Delight in Fatness

Elder Phillips

Here's my itinerary, I'll be arriving on the 29th of March.

I talked to Ben, but haven't heard back from him... So maybe. I think you're in a better position to communicate with him than I am. But if he can, it'd be awesome to room with him.

Elder Espinoza? (New missionary in our ward) Hmm, What ward is he from? I've been in Chapultepec1, Mezquital, Rio Nilo, and Nogales.

I've also been in the small town of Ascension and I am currently in the Villa Hermosa ward of Casas Grandes.

I'm looking forward to working. That's one thing I've learned down here: Work. The people here are naturally lazy and very few actually make it to College. But the ones that do usually live a better life and provide better for their families. Those who don't study (because they're lazy) usually end up working in a factory making car seats struggling their whole life. 

Working hard (and studying) pays off!

Gad to hear that Mark did well in his class!  And yes, those were good times😁

Why didn't the Priests ever have to teach when I was there? That would've been a great opportunity to practice before the mission!

February 20, 2017

Well im glad everything went well with work this week, everything's been going smoothly down here too.

Centennial Girls won State? Really?! Thats awesome!

I'm looking forward to kickin your butt at games again!

This week was pretty good, full of fun sights and hard work. We had interviews with out President, went on splits with the ZLs, and went on splits again with the members! It turned out pretty good and we almost met all of our goals.

This saturday we'll be having a baptism! Eriberto Gutierrez will be getting baptised! He's come a long way from his old life and is really excited to be able to change it even more!

We went to visit paquime with the Coss family. It was pretty cool, Ill send you some pics. It was cool seeing the ancient civilization that existed here in the Americas.

Have a good week dad!

These pics sum up my week quite nicely.

1. Paquimé!

2. A paquimé toilet!

3. Personal favorite, I call it ¨An everyday encounter  

Crazy to see that Megan's getting married! Who's the guy? (Family friend, Megan McOmber)

Oh just remembered, It's Casey, right?

This week has been a long one. Lots of work, but not as many results as we wouldve liked. But hey, That's the mission for ya! Just got to keep going with a smile on your face! One thing I've always remembered is when Dad told me one of his mission secrets: Always smile. And mean it!  Truthfully I have seen that he is right. I always thought that happy missionaries were happy because they were successful missionaries. But now I know that happy missionaries are successful missionaries because they are happy! 

We'll be having a baptism this saturday! Erik (El Tatu) Gutierrez has been coming to  church regularly for about 2 months now, and has made some very important changes in his life to prepare him for this moment. I'll send lots of pics!

We also went to Paquimé! Its the nearest (and only) major archeological site in our mission! They had a really cool museum full of artifacts and other assorted hud. But it was really cool! It´s like a labrinth in there and they let you get right up to it.

I Love you mom!

Elder Phillips  

February 13, 2017

Congratulations to James! Let them know that they can totally name their son after me if they want! 😋

And Alec Henderson!! Well done!!! Let him know that I'm proud of him! And Carson too! Wish I could be there!

The package arrived! Please send my thanks to Brian and Sara and their whole family! The package is awesome, full of wonderful ties and candies and food! I am forced to stay on Guard at all times to fight of the hordes of missionaries that keep trying to steal it!   Thank the Young women for the letter they sent! And the Newsons too!

This week was great! The weather changed again, from being hot outside to cold and rainy. We're still praying for snow! My companion has never seen it before! Can you imagine that?

This week we were in divisions with some future missionaries from the ward. The plan was to do some visits, contact a bit, and then meet back up in time to go home for the night. Everything went smoothly and we finished up around 8:00PM, giving us about 30 minutes before we had to head home. As we sat there waiting for the others to arrive, Brayan (the Member I was with) mentioned a friend of his who lived just down a nearby street. They live in a small part of town, off in the outskirts of the city where we had never looked before, so we decided to seize the opportunity. We went to visit them and to our surprise, it turns out that the mother is an inactive member (baptised when she was 8) and her 19yr old daughter also wants to get baptised! 

I know that the spirit was guiding us and helped Brayan to remember this family when we were close by. I doubt that it would've ever crossed my mind to go to that part of our area, but thats why God works through the people around us.

Alma 13:24

 For behold, angels are declaring it unto many at this time in our land; and this is for the purpose of preparing the hearts of the children of men to receive his word at the time of his coming in his glory.

I am so glad that I have this opportunity to serve the lord! I know that he guides this work and helps us to find those whom he has prepared! 

I Love you so much! Have a great week!

Elder Phillips

February 6, 2017

a great week! Lots of fun. We went to a super sunny lake and I got sunburnt!  Got a new hair cut too, don't really like it though. You know how it is though: new hair dude, turns out weird, charges more than normal. Yeah, its a blast. haha, but the work is going great! We hope to have a few more baptisms here in February (2) but they might be postponed until march. We'll see what happens. 

We've been focusing a lot on finding new investigators lately, and we've been having great success! we found a few new families who are super interested in learning about the church and we're hoping that they too will be getting baptised here in March.

The winter down here has been really warm! I'm currently chilling around with a short sleeve shirt! 

Glad to hear that Ellie'll be playing lacrosse!

Baptisms for some reason never run smoothly as planned. This week a random drunk man came in to join us and repeatedly asked us if we were doctors and could give him an injection in the heart (he said this while taking off his shirt) and offering us half a sandwich he had with him.

Everything followed smoothly after he left, but still... The mission is full of strange experiences.

Us with the family that took us to the lake (The Coss Family)

Toño's baptism!

Fillin' the font.  

January 30, 2017

Dad
Yeah, the baptism was great! her brother is really excited to get baptised this month. We also have another baptism coming up this saturday! His name is tony and he's super cool and ready!

Sounds like they all enjoyed themselves up at the lodge talking! and that your survival was pretty intense! Pizza and Pringles are what we call here in the mission The ¨Super Foods¨. Cuz they're super tasty! We've lately been munchin on donuts every week. And I hope that everything goes well with the house! I'll keep praying for you!

funny experience this week, A drunk guy gave my companion and I free hats! Mine has San Judas on it and my comps has Guadelupe! I'll send some pics! 

The mission is awesome. And I am loving these last few months more that any other time in the mission. And that's saying something! In these last few months I am hoping to baptise at least 5 more people. But they've still got a long way to go before their baptism. 

I can honestly say that I've learned a lot. And a new language too! And that which I have learned will serve me well for the rest of my life.

Have a great week daddio!

Elder Phillips

Mom

Sounds like you have an action packed weekend! Love that talk experience!  The truth is that The spirit is the true teacher, and if we let him in he teaches us what we need to say. And most of the time they are things we never would've imagined saying!

My week was a blast!

First of all, we found a funny little bird! I think it's what we call a parakeet? But im not too sure. We found him as we walked through a small park and stopped to take pictures. We went from taking pics to picking him up to having him follow us all day! He perched himself on our shoulders for a while as we walked to our appointments. Every now and then he'd get tired of one of us and would fly to perch himself on the other's shoulder or arm. We were thinking of giving him a name, but before we could come to a solid conclusion he flew away.

This saturday we have a baptism, so I'll be sure to send you more pictures of that. We also have plans to go visit a nearby lake this week! so that should be cool. It's probably the only one we've got down. here. 

Spiritual insight for the day:

Alma 5 (best chapter ever)

 62. I speak by way of command unto you that belong to the church; and unto those who do not belong to the church I speak by way of invitation, saying: Come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye also may be partakers of the fruit of the tree of life.

I love that scripture! But i started thinking: As members, how can we follow his invitation? can we be baptised again? How is it possible? And I came to a few conclusions. 1. The sacrament. We can renew our covenants and essentially ¨be baptized unto repentance¨ again! and 2. We can go to the temple to do baptisms. Not just baptisms, but all the work that one can do there! If we remain worthy at all times to go to the templo we may participate in the fruit of the tree of life!

Now that brings another question: What is the fruit of the tree of life? 

Look it up! What? Did you think i was going to give you all the answers? 

Anyways, that's my short weekly summary. I hope you have a great week! 

Elder Phillips

Oh my goodness! Could he be any cuter??

I thought I would add Dave's letter in 

Hey congrats on the baptism. That is great!  Hopefully the brother will progress well too -- I think you said it was her brother. I liked the quote about behind every cholo is a mom who cares and wants the gospel (or something like that).

Some yeah, we barely survived. Mom was out of town all weekend. She went to the lodge with a dozen lady friends. They hung out, talked a lot, and then probably talked a lot and then talked a bit, and then shared some stories and then talked it all out. That is what the ladies seem to do a lot of and it was good. It is actually really good for them to go and get away for a bit. It is good to recharge every once in a while and build friendships etc.

So with mom gone I was in charge. Hence, why survival was in question. We ate pizza, I had pringles for lunch one day, we ate more junk food, and stayed up too late. It was great.

Some still don't know what is going to happen with our old house. I have been talking to my lawyer, insurance guys, the fire department, etc. it is kind of crazy. I am hoping it will all get sorted out soon so we can start putting everything back together. That would be nice.

It is wild to think about you winding down on the mission. Keep working hard. It sounds like you have an awesome companion you are training. Always remember and focus on why you're u are there. There was a work thing the other day where they were talking about companies and people that succeed at work. They said that some people can tell you what they do (I talk to people about the church), more successful people can tell you how they do what they do (becoming part of the local ward and community allows me to understand the people and share a message of hope), but the most successful of all are focused on why they do what they do (the love of the Lord has extended an opportunity for love and mercy to all of Gods children and I am motivated by love to share that message with my brothers and sisters). Keep a focus on why you are serving in Mexico and it will motivate you to do what is best to bless their lives.

Love you. Have another awesome week!

January 16, 2017

That is such a great story that he shared! And so true! (Kat shared a story from Elder Renlund about a man who by a miracle was alive, and when the Doc went to see him he was complaining about the cold oatmeal and warm milk he had)

I would have to agree, The spirit is an extremely important companion that can bless our lives if we let him. (I have a talk on the Sacrament this Sunday and asked him to share a story) A sacrament story... Well... I'm not sure if this applies...

Down here (it may be the same up there) If you're not inside the sacrament room when they finish the hymn, you don't get the sacrament. They don't bring it out to the halls to pass it around. And every time people still show up late. To me this is extremely sad and i can help but feel that they dont understand the importance of the sacrament. Its like a game to them, the ¨lets-see-who-can-show-up-latest-to-sacrament-meeting-game¨

But it isn't and shouldn't be a game. The sacrament is sacred, the single most important moment of our week.

This week we brought an inactive member to church, he'd been going through some rough times and needed help. When he was there he could fel the spirit helping him to change, and even though he wasn't worthy to partake of the sacrament, God was there whispering encouragement in his ear. 

Last week we were walking down the street when all of a sudden we stopped, turned, and knocked a door. My companion asked me why and I simply responded ¨No se(I don't know)¨. Out came a woman whom we had met once before, several weeks earlier. She told us that one of her friends is about to get baptised in our church and that she wants to learn more about it too. I know that the spirit was guiding us to find her, and that if we werent worthy, or hadn't taken the sacrament that week, it wouldn'tve been possible.

This week went well, the Gas strikes have all calmed down and people have stopped threatening the local governors (more or less at least).

Karla's getting baptised this saturday

Toni, Feb 4th

Ruth, Feb 18th

The work is moving along well here in the Villa. Have to plan the bap program now, but please share this with the fambam.

I Love you!

Elder Phillips

(To Dave)

Oh dear, I remember those activities!  Who are the priests nowadays? _How many are there?

I heard of a place called Castle Rocks that might be cool. Or Craters of the moon. I dont really know but ive heard that they're cool places. Just make the food good and Everyone{ll be happy! When are you planning it for? will I be home in time?

Do you get many opportunities to share the gospel with people back home? Looking back on it I had several oportunities but i rarely took advabntage of them

Pic of my companion, He's from Tropical Chiapas (we should totally go some day, its beautiful down there)

January 9, 2017

So much has happened lately! 1st of all I was unable to go to Juarez for the Trainers meeting due to Road Blockades that were put up by gas price protesters. Gas prices rose 50 cents per gallon and the whole nation went crazy. Gas stations were burnt (not here thankfully) and roads were closed off, not allowing food nor gas nor people to pass by. The small city I'm in panicked and super markets were emptied of food. We too were instructed to be prepared for at least a month without being able to buy more food.

Fortunately, it only lasted for a few days and food was allowed entrance by thursday. We were also able to have transfers on tuesday night. My companion is super awesome! I love his so much! His name is Elder Rivera and he is so excited to be a missionary! We planned everything out well, and on his first day here he ws able to put a baptismal date with an investigator! We plan on having a total of 3 baptisms in the coming weeks!

Last night was a roller coaster of emotions. we spent the day doing visits with a youth, named Daniel. Super great guy. We went with him to visit some investigators and had some really great lessons. afterwards we went back to his house to share a message with his mom (less active) and his step dad (investigator). His brother and sister were there visiting from Mexico City and we had a great lesson, made of us all sharing our favorite scriptures and talking of the importance of scripture study (Read Joshua chapter 1.) As we finished up, Daniel's siblings asked for blessings so that they'd travel home safely and his sister asked for a blessing of health. sp we gave them blessings and the spirit esas there strong. As we left their home my companion told me how great he felt and we just walked and talked about the great responsability we hold. we finsihed up the day having met our weekly goals of lessons and we felt on top of the world. Elder Evans and Torres (our neighbors and fellow missionaries in Villa Hermosa) got home with some Chicharrones to share and we just sat around for a feew minutes telling stories and laughing for a while. All was going well and we were all happy.

 Then President Owen Called. 

I answered and he spoke to me in english " Elder Phillips, I'm calling to talk to your companion Elder Rivera" he explained "But I wish to explain things to you first. His mother just got off the phone with me... His grandfather passed away last night. From what I understand, he's been sick for a while now and died in the night, So I'll be giving him bad news and I want you to be prepared, ok?"

I passed my companion the phone and was rather shocked to tell the truth. I had no Idea what to do.

I'm not going to go into too many details about what happened that night, but the spirit was there with us. I want you to know that many tears were shed and it became one of the saddest yet sweetest memories of my mission.  

I know that the Lord sends us trials to try us and to strengthen us. And my companion has grown stronger thanks to this experience. And so have I

Remember how much you love your family. Be grateful for the great plan of happiness.

Elder Phillips

January 2, 2017

What! I cant believe im missing all that snow! 

Its still warm down here... Well not warm, but not snowing!

Good new! I'm going to be training a new missionary this cycle! I'll be going to the offices (in Juarez) to meet him today!

Happy aniversary!

The truth is that i have almost no time today. Last night they told us about the transfers: I'm staying here, but i'll be training again! A brand new missionary from Chiapas, Mexico! His name is Elder Rivera and I have to travel to Juarez in about an hour, so i don't have to much time right now.

These last few months will have to be the best ever! I'm grateful for the opportunity that I have to train, because it means that i'll be forced to be a great example: so noslacking off for me! haha 👍

Down here its been obnoxiously warm. No snow. a few days of rain. This morning was the first time we've gotten frost this winter! They say that Juarez just got through a few storms though, so ill tell you what its like over there. But i'm just cruisin on by with a sweater for now.

Love you!
Elder Phillips