October 26, 15

Hey Dad!

I'm glad that my letter was able to help you guys out, How have they been progressing? Do they still go every week to church and activities and stuff?

And I saw some pics from Annas birthday and it looks like she had a blast! And that bike of hers is super genial too. That's Mexican for Awesome or cool. And how was the zoo? did you go too? Did you get to pet the goats?  

And that pizza joint sounds awesome! Down here they have little ceasars, but it isn't quite as good. After eating about 5 slices you get kind of bored. And that should never happen while eating food! But how hot do you think that oven is? doesnt the cheese burn or something?

El Centro just means The Center. Kind of Down town. They have a lot of markets and stuff that are pretty cool and you can find a lot of stolen goods there too. Super cheap.

Hahaha, don't worry! Those photos arent in our house, but in an investigators house! Ours is super nice and cool. Actually, it's really cool. Freezing in the mornings according to my companion. But the weather here is practically the same as Idaho. A bit warmer, but nearly the same.

However, yes. Sometimes we do need to use the "Light Switch Gloves" when messing with the lights. 

Have a wonderful week full of rainbows, flowers and butterflies!

Elder Phillips

Hey Everyone! 

  

      The Area is good, we are seeing much progress in our investigators. If all goes well, we will also have a Baptism this Saturday! Our investigators understand the importance of reading and praying, we just have to get them to church. I don't know why, but nobody wants to go to church down here. Maybe we need to offer refreshments after sacrament meeting or something :) This week I will be Ponderizing:

Jacob 1:19

     19 And we did magnify our office unto the Lord, taking upon us the responsibility, answering the sins of the people upon our own heads if we did not teach them the word of God with all diligence; wherefore, by laboring with our might their blood might not come upon our garments; otherwise their blood would come upon our garments, and we would not be found spotless at the last day.

I feel like it is a wonderful scripture that reminds us that we need to do all we can to help others to come unto christ.

      I am very grateful for the opportunity to be a missionary here in Juarez and there is so much I can learn during these two years. I know that I am here in this mission for a reason. I know that there are people here who need my help, and I just need to find them. I know that I will be able to. 

Hechale Ganas!

Happy Halloween!

Elder Phillips

Hey Mom!

Thank you so much for all the photos! They are undoubtedly the best part of Pday. I love seeing the family so much! I hope Anna had a fantastic birthday! And from the looks of the photos, I believe she did :) I hope that you are able to fix your Camera too. That's a pretty Schnazzy bike that she got! You say that the zoo has improved, in what way? I still think the zoo is super awesome, but then again, I haven't been to many others. Are there more animals or something? The petting zoo part sounds awesome! And lots of goats :) Do they have the screaming or fainting goats too? Because they are hilarious. Funny story about goats: There's a guy in our ward down here who works with leather and is going to make us covers for our scriptures out of goat hide. They look super legit and hopefully will help preserve our scriptures. I'll make sure to send you a few photos when they get finished :).

My companion was so excited to see the photo you took for him! He wants me to tell you that he loves it very much. He loves it and loves you all too. He says not to worry, because he will take care of Elder Phillips and protect him from all the mean racist Mexicans. And that one day, he will come to Boise Idaho to visit us.

And Elder Sanchez (From Guatemala) says that he will protect me and come visit us someday too.

If you remember Pedro's cousins from Napoleon Dynamite, that's basically Sanchez and Escobar for me.I truly miss Kneaders. French toast just isn't the same down here. Tell Megan that the photos are awesome and that she's half the reason that they're going to visit us after the mission :)​

Tom sant in December! And Katie too! And Kim! Crazy! Send me photos of all those crazy kids and their lovers!

I Love You!

Elder Phillips

October 19, 2015

Hey! Super awesome! Does Colton still have that mullet? I sure hope not. And does he plan on serving a mission? I love the poster (I made a great monkey poster of Megan for D3) and miss the sushi and soccer playing :( I'm sending you a photo of Elder Escobar's face when I told him what happened to your camera and that he wouldn't be getting any pictures soon. (I dropped my D300 off the back of the truck while trying to take a picture for him)

And another of Elder Sanchez (El Gordito) with the train. I'm vey proud of my photography skills :)

I Love You Mom!

Elder Phillips

Hello Everyone!

This week was really awesome. I really feel blessed for the opportunity I have been given to serve a mission. My testimony grows daily and I can truly testify that we have a prophet in our day and that the Book of Mormon is true. We are not left here alone in the earth to stumble our way through this life. God loves his children.

And so, we get to this week. It was awesome. We went to visit some members, who gave us some jackets to help keep us warm this winter. For those of you who don't know, it gets cold down here. Really cold! Like Idaho cold. My companion is from Tropical Honduras, where the weather is always wonderful and there's a double rainbow every morning. Pray for him. I don't think he's going to make it.

Anyways, These jackets are super awesome! So I included a few photos of them.

We have a wedding coming up this week! Rogelio and Anabel are going to Samalayuca for their wedding. I've heard that it's really cool down there, hopefully I'll get to see it some day! 

And if all goes well, we'll be having a baptism the 31st of October! 

 I am mindful of you always in my prayers, continually praying unto God the Father in the name of his Holy Child, Jesus, that he, through his infinite goodness and grace, will keep you through the endurance of faith on his name to the end.

Moroni 8:3

~Elder Phillips

October 12, 15

John's letter to his dad cracked me up this week! here it is!

"So I am curious about some stuff. You have not said anything about being in sketchy places, dodging drug dealers, bull lets, or roving gangs of gradient on robbers. Is that because my little pony land is part of your mission and that is where your are stationed or are you just not talking about that kind of stuff?  I am just curious about the sketchiness that your see and what kind of craziness you witness down there." Dad

Ok, so about all that, this week some major sketch went down. More or less this is one of the nicest parts around here, but the pony land parts are where the Sister missionaries get sent. This week outside the church (monday at 4 PM) two guys from rival gangs got into a fight. One lives right in front of the church and is almost always drunk, and really super tattooed. The Tattooed guy stabbed the other a few times with a knife and now is in jail. The guy who got stabbed walked down the road a little bit before he collapsed dead.

We had a killer storm too! loads of wind and rain, it was crazy! In another part of the city, it was hail the size of a golfball. Those with the wind caused many broken trees and hundreds of broken windows and windshields. it was all over the news down here. In our area we just had loads of rain. just for about 20 minutes, but the streets were flooded afterwards.

This morning we got followed home after out daily run. Fortunately, I have seen about 100 episodes of Psych, NCIS, and Burn Notice, so I was able to ditch him in a nearby park. I'm kind of a professional spy.

That's really all that's been happening down here this week. But yeah, stuff happens occasionally. Not much, but occasionally. you probably shouldn't tell mom about the murder or the guy following us. But the storm, was cool.

Great to hear about The BBQ and all the kids getting sealed together! 11 in total? Any others on their way? And how many were adopted? I hope that everything goes well for them. I really miss BBQ. They have Carne Asada (grilled meat) down here, and they all love it, but I find it's not nearly as good as the ones back home. Nor do they use BBQ sauce much.

What up with dat?

And my companion says that he'll take you up on that offer. And he is my favorite companion yet. He is super fun and really spiritual too. He wants more pictures of Megan, but I think mom is intentionally avoiding them. She sends photos of everyone but Megan, and Elder Escobar is not amused.

Love you Dad!

~Elder Phillips

I will have to take a super BAD picture of Megan to send to him :)
Here is my letter
Hey Mom!

Happy Birthday! Did you really think that I'd forget my Mother's Birthday? No Way! Any presents that you'd like me to send to you guys? 

That car is pretty super legit, I hope it lasts even longer than the durango did! And Tom's engaged! What happened! When? He's only been back 5 months! To Who? send me some photos!

So today is our Zone meeting. Sorry, but now you'll have to wait another month to send anything :'( But that's ok. When you send the next package can you include something for my companion? His family is super far away and it's super expensive for them to send packages. so maybe you could help him out a bit.

 Elder Escobar asked me for a special request from the family this week and I told him that you could help him out. He wants a picture of my family (You, Dad, Megan, Ellie, and Anna [and kat if she's there]) holding a sign (a poster or something) that says "We Love You Elder Escobar". 

If you can, It'd be awesome! 

I'm glad you're meeting with the Buckners, and I hope that they are able to decide soon. Chris wrote me this week. I was so excited! He doesn't currently plan on serving a mission. Really, just show him love. No matter what he ends up choosing, show him Christlike love and help him feel wanted.

GUESS WHAT!! PHOTOS!

1. Yup, Elder Escobar and I had a blast this week, and we have many photos to show you. The first one is of our river crossing. It rained a lot one day this passed week and we had to cross over a a stream using a big old pipe. 
2. The second is of the train tracks. He had never seen a train before so he was super excited. We took loads of pictures down there!
3. The third photo is because we found Cream Soda. And everyone knows that the best way to end your day is with a bottle of cream soda. 
4. And one more of my companion.
5. And one more with Diego, the son of one of our new investigators!

I Love you Mom!

~Elder Phillips

and the one to ALL (those letters are not as exciting as our are)
Hey Everyone!

We had a fun week down here in Juarez, Full of rain storms and other parties.Things have been great this week, but I can't believe we are 3 weeks into the transfer. We are working hard, and partying hard. Yesterday we had a most excellent fast & Testimony meeting, and all of us missionaries went up and bore our testimonies too. 

 

Our main highlights this week were: Finding and teaching Diana and Sophia. 

Diana is 18 years old, has a new baby, and is the daughter of one of our contacts. We met her when we came to visit her mom, and had a super awesome doorstep lesson. She doesn't really know what to believe right now in her life but is searching to find the truth. Fortunately, that's kind of why I'm here. We began talking and put another appointment to teach her about God's plan for us. The second visit went great and she better understands her purpose here on the earth. 

Sophia found us and asked us about our church one day, and invited us to visit her. She already wants to get baptized after just 2 visits! She knows that our messages are true and wants her family to hear it too.

Keep them in your prayers!

Also, enjoy a few photos of your favorite Missionaries having a cowboy party and trying to cross a flooded street!

Love you all!

~Elder Phillips

AND I GOT LOTS OF PICTURES!!!! I didn't take the time to put them in order that he numbered them, so just figure it out!

October 5, 15

Hey Mom!

I love all of your photos! And I am super thankful that I get to miss this diaper stage (more or less) and get the super fun toddler :)

So I have a bit of happy news: Transfers! Yup, that's right. I am now here with Elder Escobar, from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. And he is awesome! He has 6 months in the mission (only a little more than me!), and is great at teaching, contacting, and he is super friendly! He loves the US and already has requested permission to marry Megan. He is probably my favorite companion. But I don't know, it's only been a week.
His family is from Honduras and he has a twin brother serving his mission down by Cancun. He's pretty awesome (and loves American candy ;D).

This week we did a lot of contacting! a lot!! However, it all paid off as we found new investigators, People who are ready to hear our message and make the necessary changes in their lives. We have made so much progress in this area (Still Chapultepec 1.2) in just this week, I love it! I know that we're going to have success!

Sorry, once again I have no photos. But Next week! We have some great plans coming up!

And sorry the letter is short (again). If you start feeling down, just remember:

I Love You!

Elder Phillips

Hey Hey Hey! (DAD) 

 

General conference was really amazing! Super powerful talks. I truly learned a lot! I am glad that the Buckners are listening to conference. With the spirit that they undoubtedly felt, I believe that they will make the commitment to be baptized soon.

Did you see that priesthood session? It was awesome! It was in Spanish, so I missed a few things (mostly jokes), but it was really excellent. And then Sunday too! The afternoon session was three or four short powerful talks, one right after the other! I have really developed a higher appreciation of general Conference.

 

Thanks for sending pictures of the Katherine, Ryan, and The Little Beast! Super funny :) I think that child is going to be hilarious! But what did you do for 4 days at home? Working out back? Watching the NFL?

 

So who are the elders in our ward nowadays? do I know them? Do you have any pictures of them? What are they like? My new companion is Elder Escobar. He's from super far away, Honduras. He is super awesome and he's a hard worker too. We are going to have a great time together and a super successful cycle! I don't have pictures today, but next week i'll have some of us together.

 

Love You!

Elder Phillips

Hello Friends and Family!

 

This week we started things off with a little something that I like to call: Transfers. Yup. But guess who gets to have another 6 weeks (and hopefully more) here in Chapultepec? That's right, Elder Phillips does! My new companion is Elder Escobar from Tegucigalpa, Honduras. He is super chill and fun, has 6 months in the mission, and has a twin brother serving in southern Mexico, in Yucatan!

 

General Conference was awesome! If you didn't see it, I would highly recommend that you watch it. Right now. Literally, I mean right now. Stop reading this and go watch it, then you can finish reading my letter and write me back. Why? Because It was super awesome and I love you. That's why.

 

This week we spent a whole lot of time contacting. and it paid off. We were able to find the people whom God has prepared. Many times, we were rejected. However, it really doesn't matter. What matters are those few people (Because yes, they are few) who have made room in there lives to learn of Christ.

 

So it has been a good week. The Lord has blessed us in so many different ways. And he will bless you too. Just go out of your way to share the gospel today.

 

With Love,

Elder Phillips

Sept 28, 15

Hey Everyone! 

This week I´d like to start by extending an invitation to all of you: Watch "Ephriam´s Rescue" and if you enjoy it, share it with somebody else!

 I had the opportunity to see this movie this week and it was really good. We watched it with a family and we could see them as they were touched by the spirit. It was so good and spiritual!

Today marks the last day of this cycle in the mission. My companion is getting transfered to some other part of the city, and I will be put with Elder.... Ok, I already forgot his name. But I won´t actually meet him until tomorrow.

This week was a good one. We met a new family this week, Familia Dias. They are having a few troubles in their lives right now and really need the gospel. The mother is Christian but I believe that she´s willing to open up and listen to us. I know that the gospel can help them in there lives and all of you too. No matter what your problem or your trial, The Gospel Will Help. And by holding firm to that which you know is good and true, you will be upliften and guided in these times of need. 

D&C 6:36 Look unto me in every thought; doubt not, fear not.

A little something to help you remember. Look to the scriptures when you need a bit of help. You´d be surprised in all the ways God is willing to help you.

With another investigator, he had many questions. So many questions. And in truth, questions are wonderful things. The most important revelations have been given as the result of honest questions. However, We need to remember to ask God for the answers. Because when God gives you an answer, you can be sure it´s good.

Well, that´s it for today. Have a good week everyone. Do something different this week to help someone else. Give your mom a hug. Pray for the Investigators.

Elder Phillips

Just thought I would throw in MY letter to him just in case I ever need to remember what I said :)

Hola eldero philipo!!
Como Estas? Como eran los crepes? Tan bueno como sus madres? sus imágenes eran divertidos! Pensé que tu compañero se veía como un niño!
Enough Spanish for me!
I bet the rain felt awesome! I LOVE a good rainstorm!
We had Wild West night Friday, missed having help me decorate. I only have one more Wild West night to do....EVER! Next year Anna will be in 5th grade and then I graduate from elementary school. They served the best food of all Wild West nights, delish pulled pork. Mmmmm.  Saturday was the kick off for general conference, women's conference. This will be a fun general conference for you, remember how they started broadcasting people in their native language? You will actually get to listen to some in Spanish! Also, I think you'll also finally figure out why we all love conference so much :-) I doubt kids understand that very well. I've been listening to a lot of talks by elder Holland, he is such a rockstar! I can't wait to listen to him this time. On Thursday morning I am driving to California to see Katherine! I will take the kids and aunt Sally maren and Emma.  Since we will be driving on Sunday back home I'm not sure if we will be able to hear the broadcast :-( good thing we have it on the Internet! I still haven't got on your Facebook, sorry. It's the busy season of fall with all the sports, and photography, and school events! I barely survive the fall.
Today was Parker whiting, and Sterling Boelter farewell. I only got a picture with Sterling but you will just have to imagine what Parker looks like :-)
Did u see the eclipse tonight? It was pretty cool, just thought it was fun that we could all be staring at the same moon!
Well, we all miss you, but not so much that we want you to come home!!
BE A GREAT MISSIONARY!
Love, mom

And now for his reply! He always writes me, that good little missionary of mine!

Funny story, I did see the eclipse! We were with familia Gallardo watching "Rescate de Efraim" (Ephraims rescue) and we went out and watched it for a while! I took some pictures but learned something profound: When taking photos of a lunar eclipse during the night, it´s all just going to look black. yup, who would´ve guessed. Oh but that movie is so good! I love it so much!

The Elder from the photo is Elder Brazell, and  he´s from Nevada. He´s going home tomorrow! He is an awesome missionary and was our Zone leader. And yes, he still looks like a child in those pictures :)

I´m afraid that i´ve just realized something, I won´t have any other Wild West Nights! I´m crying a little now :´(

So tomorrow we have transfers. And I´m staying here again! And my companion is going off to who knows where. This will be 4 transfers here with 4 different companions! Crazy! This means I have 6 more weeks of Chapultepec 1.2! Wahoo!

So recently I started thinking about family history work, how much do we know? how far back has it been traced in our family? Who were the first members on your side and dads side? Any awesome stories? I´d really love to hear anything that you have! I really didn´t do any family history work before the mission, but I´d love to get working a bit after if I can! 

I love hearing from the family every week, I love the stories and the photos and everything! I love hearing about all the little things that happen back home. 

I still haven´t heard back from chris. He´s gotten my letters these past months but I haven´t heard anything.

I Love You Mom!!!

Elder Phillips

AND Dave's letter:

On Sun, Sep 27, 2015 at 7:48 PM, Dave Phillips <boisedwp@gmail.com> wrote:

Hey --

So it was a good day at church today. Sterling boelter and Parker whiting both had their farewll today. Sterling is going to Florida Tallahassee and Parker is going to riverside California is speaking Spanish. The both leave this week.

This weekend will be general conference   It will be great. It always is. The buckners were out of town this past week so we did not teach them, but we are scheduled again for Monday night. It should be great. They are coming to church for all 3 hours for a few weeks in a row and seem to be liking it. It will be awesome when they join the church!

So Thursday is official slack off day here at the Phillips home. Megan whines cuz she doesn't want to get up early, mom whines cuz she doesn't want to do 2 leg days, and so I decided to go to the temple early on Thursdays. So I got up at about 5:10 -- earlier than a work out day! I went and did a session at the temple. It was great, but the.on the drive home I got rear ended by a driver not paying attention. So much for blessings for going to the temple!!

The guy who hit me was a nice guy. He is a construction worker who used to do MMA fighting and has trained with Phil Lott. He was a great guy. We were sitting there for an hour waiting for the police to come so we just talked about stuff while we waited. I spent about half the time talking about the church and stuff. It was kind of cool!  He was a nice guy. He lives in the neighborhood by the Neal's.

The bummer about the accident is that it jacked up my neck and head. Not as bad as the time when the semi truck smashed us, but it is sore. Bummer. So I did not work out on Friday. Not sure I am going to tomorrow or not. I am afraid of not having it heal quick. That would suck.

We had the ward chili feed last week. There were so many people there!  About 50 non members were there. It was a great event with lots of good people. It seems to get bigger and better every year.

I hope,you have another great week. We love you and pray for you every day.

David Phillips

Holy Guacamole! 50 non members! That´s awesome! Down here a real struggle we have is that the members are afraid of inviting people to events. It´s great to see that you guys don´t have the same problem! Haha, think about the potential temple blessing here: You met someone new and can send the missionaries to visit him! Those sound like some pretty awesome potential blessings! Good luck with your Head, not that you used it much anyways :) I hope you get better soon! 

One thing we did new this week was watch a church video with a family and it really brought the spirit. It may be a good thing for you to do with The Buckners. Just a fun little movie night or something. We watched Efraim´s Rescue. I had forgotten how amazing that movie is! Super good. 

In our ward the members got challenged to assist the temple more frequently. In the talk of my companion, they were compared to children asking their parents for a toy. Begging, and asking every day until they get it. And they use it and enjoy it for a while, but soon enough, they set it aside. I´m so glad that you´re not doing this with the temple! Keep going often! 

I Love You! Share the gospel today! Slack off next Thursday!

Elder Phillips

September 21, 15

Hey Everyone!

Life down here is just full of surprises! It Rained! A Lot! And we ate Crepes, Which are actually a traditional Mexican Dish! Ok, not really. But they were still really good!

So I wasn´t really expecting this to happen, but it was raining for nearly a full day! Back home, yeah, that might happen. But here? Almost never! I have truly developed an apreciation and love for the rain.

Spiritual Thought for all of you: I was watching some Mormon Messages and this phrase really struck me: A Journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step. So let´s make sure that step is in the right direction. Make sure that it´s the step you should be taking. Every action we have has far-reaching consequences. Sometimes good consequences, sometimes bad consequences. Most of the time we can´t see the consequences, not at first. Most of the time we want to see the promised blessings immediatly, but that´s not usually how God works. First we have to take a few steps of faith, and then the path becomes clearer. So remember to trust in God. Remember to rust in his plan for us. God kows all things, and we truly know so little. 

So who are we to doubt God and his ways?

Also, Mexican Holidays! El Grito! the 15th of September! 

And Mexican Independance day! the 16th of September!

We had divisions that day and I was with Elder Brazell, our Zone´s Fearless Leader. Basically what you do is stay up until about 11:00PM and then shout "¡Viva México!". This was the night that their war for independance began. And they celebrate their Independance day the following day. Here are some photos of our "Grito". As well as our trip down to the Centro

So that was this week´s fun activities! Have fun everybody! 

Sincerely,

Elder Phillips

September 14, 15

Hello Everybody!

I´ve got photos this week! Woohoo!!

So this week has been super awesome. Eating Ice Cream, Rededication of the Mexico City Temple, Zone Meetings, and other amusing tidbits!

We had some Ice cream this week. This doesn´t happen too often down here. And it was delicioso. Chocolate covered strawberries and tres leches. Super good. yup.

1st Photo is of my companion and I. Elder Ramirez with the red tie, and me with the purple tie (in case you couldn´t tell. I´m looking pretty brown these days) 

2nd photo! My Zone of missionaries! all 20ish of us after our Zone Meeting!

3rd photo! Because you know, there´s always that 1 selfie.

So This week was also the Rededication of the Mexico City Temple! We were able to watch the Cultural Celebration and then the rededication and they were super amazing! The Celebration was all about how the church arrived here in mexico and the pioneers and missionaries and stuff! It was really awesome and you can probably still watch it on LDS.org if you´d like to see a bit of Mexican culture!

Fun News! A missionary down here is from Boise Idaho! Elder Engberson I believe is his name. He´s not in my area, and we only met once, but yup! he went to Rocky Mountain. Cool beans, right?

The Lord has been good to us here in Juarez, Blessings are flowing in constantly. And when we look at the big picture (The Really Big Picture) We can truly understand how little is truly required of us to recieve these blessings. Blessings of families, safety and health, and in the end, eternal life with our families. And all we are asked to do is keep the commandments and live our life as Christ lived his. Now is that really too much to ask? I don´t think so.

And so I end this letter. I know that the gospel is true. And I´m here to share it. If you know that the gospel is true too, I invite you to share it with those you love. 

Read your scriptures,

Go to church,

Stay in School kids 

& Stay Classy Boise,

Elder Phillips

Hey Mom!

That is all so wonderful! Mostly. I´m glad to hear that Margi was doing well. And all them girls heading out on missions! I think it´s just something they decided to do to help pass the time until I get back :) If you get their emails, send them to me! I´d love to hear from them all!

Thanks for the pictures, I always love seing the family! Remind Taylor and Tyler that they look like goofballs. And the package arrived! Awesome! Thank you for sending the Mormon Messages and The Hymn Books! I had started to think that you´d forgotten! Can you believe that I´ve already been out here for 5 Months? Crazy how fast the time flies! And the Star Wars Fruit snacks too! Super delicioso! 

Don´t tell him I said this, But has Brother McOmber been putting on weight? maybe it´s just the picture, but dad´s looking slim and Brother McOmber is looking a bit bigger in the middle. Just Saying.

So people in this area have begun asking me for my Facebook. Which is totally fine and all, But I need to enlist your help. I need you to update it! Like go through and remove the worst photos (from back when I was super fat and stuff) And maybe add some new ones of the Idaho Scenary. I seem to remember 1 picture in particular of Jack and I during Mary Poppins that may need removed... You know the one. If I remember correctly you have the Facebook info and all. jdphil@cableone.net. password: I think it was 123soccer123. I think. maybe just soccer123. or something like that. Por Favor!

I Love You Mom!

Elder Phillips

Heyyo Daddyo!

It sounds like BSU was having a bad day. But I do really like that CTB picture you sent me :) it´s pretty legit! I think they should make CTB rings. Which reminds me, did I ever tell you I lost my CTR ring? I can´t remember. But yep, life happens. You should start calling on those punks at church to give last minute talks. That´s not unrighteous dominion, right? I´m pretty sure that the man upstairs would understand :)

And how did Ellie´s talk go? was this her first one ever? That´s pretty exciting!

So our mission president has a son on a mission right now. He has told us, As an official rule of the mission, That writing your parents and answering their questions is a MUST. It is an official rule now. But yeah, ok. I guess I could do that. I was trying to write more anyways, but sometimes it´s difficult because we dont have too much time.

The package did arrive and it did make all of my wildest dreams come true! Thank you for sending the hymn book! It is super awesome and I bring it everywhere with me now. And the fruit snacks too :) totes delish. I have been cursed with another companion who doesnt like star wars. I don´t understand, Is God Punishing Me? It´s been a real trial of faith.

I´m glad you saw Justin! I think he´s been trying to avoid writing me or something. But I´m glad he has a calling and is going to church! 

And Pedro is from Juarez! I´m going to find his house! or maybe just call him: "Hey is pedro there." " Who is this?" "I´m a missionary, I like his best friend ever. Gosh"

That´s how our conversation would go.

Glad to hear your making progress with the island too! It looks awesome!

I Love you!

Elder Phillips