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.