March 28, 2016

Wow! The photos look great! And it looks like you had a lot of fun doing it too :) more or less. And I love the old one from the pool that you found! 

So what do you do in this Manti trip? And does it happen every year?

This week has been quite awesome. Elder Madin is learning quickly and we´ve been having a blast! We´ve been working hard to find new people to teach with good results. A youth in the ward, Nestor Barajas, Sent us a reference to visit one of his friends. And when we went to visit him the whole family started listening and really enjoyed it. They invited us to keep visiting them and we plan on inviting them to the General Conference this weekend.

That´s another thing, General Conference in the mission is comparable to the Super Bowl back home. It is a huge event with all the missionaries speculating on who´s going to give talks, on what topic, how many airplane storries will Utchdorf use, etc. We want to invite EVERYONE to se it with us because it is always an amazingly spiritual event and the investigators can learn about the prophets and apostoles of our day! 

I highly encourage you to invite your friends to at least 1 session of conference this year. They will feel the spirit and they will want to learn more.

Romans 10:17

So then faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.

Invite someone to increase their faith!

Les amo a todos!

Elder Phillips

Here´s a pic of my companion ¨Studying¨ The Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith before going to bed. He has good intentions but never lasts too long reading.

And a picture of our new buddy Elder ¨Tablon¨ Madin. I guess you could say that we had a lot of spare time on our hands this week.

March 21, 2016

You really did have quite a crazy week! You think that Ellie and Megan are ready to go live on a farm now? (We got stuck in the mud, stuck in Oregon due to a back wreck on the freeway, and are remodeling the house. While visiting great grandma Thompson, Megan and Ellie explored the ranch, and bottle fed some calfs)
I can´t wait to see the new floors! Good luck! 

Down here The Holy Week (Semana Santa) Is pretty big. It was brought to Mexico by the Catholic church many hundreds of years ago. It is a week to remember the last week of Chrits life. It starts with ¨Palm Sunday¨, followed by ¨Holy Monday¨ and ends with ¨Holy Saturday¨ and ¨Easter Sunday¨. Many people don´t know why it´s celebrated, they just know that they don´t have to work and should go to church. But yes, it is a great time to teach and find people to teach. The kids down here get 2 weeks of vacation from school too! I hope that the streets will be full of people to contact!

I can´t wait to meet our new President! I hope that he´s awesome and I also hope that he allows us to play sports too. That would be awesome. Will they announce him in General conference? Do they do that? 

I love the story of your adventure! Did you ever make it to the creek, or did you run out of time and have to turn back? Did you have to push a lot?

This week I met my new companion, Elder Madin. He is from Mexico City and is great! He came to the mission prepared and ready to teach. He has a great testimony andis anxious to share it with everyone in Juarez! This week we focused on finding new people to teach. My goal was to help him to lose any fear of talking to strangers that he might´ve had and I have to say, he did great! After a few days of practice he was ready to talk to everyone! We found a several people who invited us to visit them this week, one of them being Rodolfo. 

Rodolfo is about 45years old and has lots of questions about the gospel. He enjoys reading the bible and when we invited him to read the Book of Mormon, he enthusiastically accepted our invitation. He said ¨I will read it, because I have a lot of questions that the bible can´t answer. And I know that i´ll find the answers here.¨ 

I can´t wait to visit him again! I know that the answers to his questions are in the Book of Mormon. And I know that he will find them!

 

Love,

Elder Phillips

MARCH 14, 2016

Awesome! What a crazy weekend! And David Johnson is the bishop now! 

Here on my end there hasn't been a lot of new stuff going on. Except the Transfers! That's right, Today is transfer day! Elder Kopsa will be heading off to Casas Grandes-Villa Hermosa to be the companion of Elder Ramirez, one of my ex-companions!  And I will be sticking around here in Mezquital and...Drum roll please.... Training Elder Madín! That's right! He's coming from Mexico City, Mexico. From a part called Cuautepec! He's coming in Green, straight from 2 weeks in the Mexico MTC! I'm feeling super excited to be training again and I can't wait to meet him!

This week we were walking and we found a tarantula wandering around. I wanted to get a picture, but he ran away pretty quickly and I didn't get the chance. We're out here on the edge of Juarez where it meets the Desert. They say that there're loads of them, but this was the first I've seen up close.

The weather down here's gotten really windy and dirty. There was so much dirt and sand getting blown around that for a few days it blocked out the sky! You could look up and just see brown. The sky was brown! It was crazy! They say that March is usually windy but that it'll be getting worse in the upcoming weeks. Wish me luck!

This last week we lost several families of investigators. It was rough. We had been visiting them for a long time now, up until this week when we determined that they really don't have a desire to repent (change their lifestyle) and be baptized.  A common mentality down here is: "My mother was a catholic. I was born and baptized Catholic. I will die Catholic." We invite them to ask God what he wants for them, but  they are blind. Here's one of our recent conversations at the end of a lesson: 

Us: "If God told you that you need to change, would you do it?"

Them: "Yes, of course"

Us: "Ok, so how can you ask him if you need to change?"

Them: "By praying"

Us: "Exactly! Would you like to know which church is true? Would you be willing to change if God tells you to?"

Them: "Yes and yes."

Us: "Great! Will you pray and ask God specifically if this is his church? Will you ask him tonight?"

Them: "Hmm... No. My church is the Catholic. I don't want to change."

Us: "....."😕😢

I swear they must be brainwashing them over there. We had been visiting that family for a few months now, we'd taught them about the Restoration several times, the necessity of the Priesthood, baptism, They believe that the Book of Mormon is true and all, The wife was even baptized when she was 8 (but their family then left the church and she went back to the Catholic)!

 

 The good news is that we learned from it. If you don´t tell them straight up that Baptism is our goal for them, they´ll have a much harder time being prepared for it. The same with the Restoration. We must explain these points to the people in the first visit or two to establish the expectations for our visits. If we don't, they'll never progress and they'll end up like those families this week.

I can truly testify to you that This is God's church. That this is the only way to have happiness and peace eternally. We can have the Spirit in our lives, a divine guide that comes directly from God! But only if we're willing to repent and change our lives. I testify of that, in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.

I Love you!

Elder Phillips

(John and I got to email back and forth a few times today, that is always fun! )

I'm glad to hear that Justin came to church! Tell him to write me! I'm not sure if he's got my Email Address, but he hasn't written me yet! Ever! I think I wrote him just about every week while he was gone, and now I'm getting kind of Cheesed off because he hasn't even written me once! But ewither way, I'm glad that he'll be going to school in BYU now. It'll be a good environment for him.

Are those pictures of the Meridian Temple? Or the one in Utah? it looks great! And beautifully cloudy too! 

Have a great week!

I Love You!

Elder Phillips

March 6, 2016

WOW!! So Much is going on back home! And Grandma and Grandpa are building a NEW HOUSE???? Santa Vaca!! Where are they going to build it? So the package still hasn't arrived, but that's ok. I'll probably get sent down to the offices to renew my green card in a week or two, so I'll just get it then. I was thinking the other day, I'm a pretty spoiled missionary. It seems like you're always sending me packages of goodies and stuff. That's not a complaint or anything, I'm just saying... thanks. It's pretty awesome :) You're the best :) 

So this week We ate a new type a food called Panuchos!  It's like a tortilla stuffed with meat and cheese topped with lettuce, tomato, an egg (sunny side up) , cream, and more cheese! With salsa too! They were big and tasty and I ate a few of them. This week we alos had a baptism! Her name is Blanca Sánchez. The next day in church she was Confirmed and Then bore her tetimony! She had been investigating the church for about 2 years until we started teaching her. We invited her to pray specifically to God about her baptism and she got an answer! That´s what I love about God, he never lets us down. Never! He may not always give us the answer that we want, but he´ll always give us the one that we need. And thus it came to pass that we had a baptism on saturday.

Unfortunately, due to technical difficulties I am unable to upload photos. 

Also: Here´s a little shout out to the Newson family! Thank you for sending such a wonderful Valentines Day Card!

I Love You Mom! Have a wonderful week!

Elder Phillips

How aweome! I love it when the Converts in the church have super strong testimonies! And good luck on your new calling! Remember when one of the girls prayed that you'd be Bishop? That was super funny! I hope you get put in the Sunbeams. It'd be nice for you to be back with people of your own maturity level :) haha!

So everyone down here hates Donald Trump. EVERYONE! They only know that he wants to build the wall bigger and stuff and kick out all the illegal immagrants, but they all have illegal family living in the states... so they hate him. So what's actually going on there in the political world? Who's running? Who's winning?

I Still love how he calls it "Open mike Sunday". And how old is Ashley? There's a young lad down here (17 yrs old) who's going out with a less active member and she's coming back to church now. Maybe I could try the same approach with her after the mission. No promises, just saying that it may be an option. But I'll need photos, her full name, interests, age, and all other relevant information sent to me in the next email. :D

I Love You!

Elder Phillips

February 29, 2016

Hey! Good luck finding another Engineer grad! Weren't you going to get an Intern or something? And is Anna still playing on Juanjo's team? Good luck with the calling too! Maybe you'll be the Ward mission leader or something cool like that! Does our ward have ward missionaries?

Wow, the mission really goes by fast. I can't believe that they're already almost done! But don't worry, I think I won't have any trouble collapsing at the finish line. Being a missionary can be quite exhausting at times. But the best parts are the results. And that makes it all worth it. Every rejection, every slammed door, every day spent walking in the burning sun, it all becomes worth it when that one person says "yes, you can visit me", "Yes, I would like to know more" or "Yes, I will get baptised". Those are the moments that we work for. I say work because that's exactly what it is. It is work. It is a constant struggle to find those whom God has prepared and bring them the message of the restored Gospel. But hey, they never said that the mission would be easy, only that it'd be worth it.

This week we contacted a pair of people walking in the street. Ages 21 and 40ish. We Talked for a while, asked some questions, and came away with their names and address. We passed by to visit them on saturday, but nobody was home. Sunday came and we had a bt of free time, so we stopped by again. This time they were home, and invited us to come in. They wanted to know how they could have more peace and happiness in their lives, and a better marraige. Normally, we'd share a scripture about that from the book of mormon (like 4 nephi or mosiah 2:41) and then teach about the restoration. But as the time came for me to share the scripture, something stopped me. I felt like it just wasn't quite right for them. So instead, I shared Galatians 5:22, talking about The Spirit. We taught them about the Holy Ghost and Repentance and finally, baptism. We closed by inviting them to be baptised, and they accepted! They didn't know us, but they felt the spirit testifying of our words and knew that it was the will of God. 

God is preparing the people for his message. And when they feel the spirit, they recognize it. 

That's all for today, I Love you!

Elder Phillips

How fun! Savannah just learned how to crawl? I bet you got loads of awesome cute pictures! All of my companions think that it's super cool that you're a photographer. They always like to ask me if you have a really big camera with a lense like a telescope. I tell them yes :) We didn't get to see the pope, he didn't drive through my area. And even if he did, we have more important things to do! but yes, it would've been cool. The 11yr old still doesn't want to get baptised. He knows it's true, but just doesn't want to change. I hope he comes around soon.

We'll be having another Zone Meeting (Package day) on March 7th.

So tell me, what are Kats plans? Does she want to have more kids soon? 

So the question for the week... What are those circle fabric things that you sent me? What are they for? Here are some pics of our thoughts...

1. Hats? Like a yamaka? Or a bowl?

2. An oven mitt?

3. A pot holder?

4. A hot pad?

5. a frisbee?

Haha, i don't know :) 

I Love you!

Elder Phillips

February 22, 2016 (10 Months out)

I love the photos! How awesome that they went to the Church Sweethearts dance instead! It really is way better. And it sounds like it was such a blast! Texas Roadhouse is one of those places that they don´t have down here =( But hot tubs and tubing too, Awesome! How much snow did they end up getting? Down here we´ve gotten stuck at a constant 20-28 degrees celsius (60-75 fahrenheit) And I knew that Kutter goes to a different school, but Sophie too? When did she change schools?

And I thought I did send that letter to both of you... Sorry!

Money can be sent in cards (they don´t relly bother opening them to search em) or in packages. And dollars are perfect. This close to the border it´s super easy to exchange them anywhere we go.

I´ll try to keep the photos flowing, but what do you mean by sending them large? I usually just attatch the file to my letter and send it. Is there a better way to do it?

It still feels so weird to think that Maren is serving a mission already! She still seems so young!

Good luck on your lesson, It sounds like it´ll be super fun with some great examples =)

now here's a solid general letter for the public, feel free to change or edit it in any ways you feel necesary 

First off, here's a shout out to The Hines. Thank you so much for the peanut butter!

So this week we went with a former investigator. She hadn´t been progressing much so the last missionaries here had stopped visiting her. When we came to visit her we found that she had read the Book of Mormon completely, knew it was true, but still didn´t want to get baptized. But after sharing a lesson about the importance of baptism, we invited her to pray and ask specifically ¨Is now the time for me to be baptised?¨. The following week we came back and she had her answer. Her baptism is planned for March 5th and now we´re trying to help her son recieve an answer too. He is only 11 years old, but he´s pretty Catholic and is struggling to make his decision. 

Another fun thing happened this week! The Pope came to town! Everyon got the day off from work, the busses and taxies were all closed off. It actually turned out to be a great day though. Nobody had to go to work so we were able to visit loads of people! Street contacting this day was also pretty productive and we found new people to teach!

These past pew days we have been visiting some less active families and we found something very surprising: All of their marraiges are falling apart! After talking to about 4 families in the same situation, we came to a solid conclusion: 4Nephi 1:11-13 

11 And they were married, and given in marriage, and were blessed according to the multitude of the promises which the Lord had made  unto them.

 12 And they did not walk any more after the performances and ordinances of the law of Moses; but they did walk after the commandments which they had received from their Lord and their God, continuing infasting and prayer, and in meeting together oft both to pray and to hear the word of the Lord.

13 And it came to pass that there was no contention among all the people, in all the land; but there were mighty miracles wrought among the disciples of Jesus.

It is such a simple promise! These families got married, but stopped keeping the commandments: going to church, fasting and praying. But if they were to just keep doing these things (going to church, fasting and praying), the lord promises them that they would have more peace in their lives! They could have a happier, closer family!

So remember this. If ever you feel like your family has too many problems and you´re always fighting, Ask yourselves ¨Am I keeping the Lord´s commandments?¨ 

Receive the Holy Ghost, [for] it will show unto you all things what ye should do. (2Nephi 32:5)

Elder Phillips

So yeah, the pope came to town and for many it was a huge deal! He was on 24hr TV Broadcasting. Makes me wonder, when did he go to the bathroom...

Haha, but yeah. All the Super-Catholic people were camped out by the road from 4am til noon just to see him pass by in the pope mobile for a few seconds. Many people were kissing his hands and kneeling and bowing down to him too. They sold T-shirts everywhere that said (translated) "Juarez is love" or "The missionary of Peace and Mercy" with a picture of the pope, the virgin guadeloupe (kind of a second virgin mary. they have a few different ones down here), and "The X" (a landmark built here in Juarez).

How cool that they know each other! Does he have any good embarrasing stories about Elder Aguilar?

And yeah, $ is perfect. The exchange rate is pretty good right now too!

Tell Aaron that I'm proud of him and glad that he was able to make this step in his life! Did everyone in there family end up getting baptised, or did a kid or two not want to?

So what is your advice for sending a package to you guys, Fedex? UPS? I'm not sure which'll be best but I'm trying to get it to you guys soon, cheaply, and in 1 peice!

I Love you dad!

Elder Phillips 

That is some pretty scenery there!

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.