Normality!

Hello!

This week has been back to Normal!Thank goodness, I didn't mind it to much, but Sis. Brown was a little confused haha. She had a lot of fun this week learning how a "normal" week of the life of a missionary works.

This week has been great! We have been staying really busy and working hard. It's been fun teaching Sis. Brown the ropes of the mission and of our wards. The investigators and members are really seem to like her. She got a comment last night on her teaching the Atonement and her face lit up!! She is a great missionary I just have to help her stop worrying so much, but if that's all I have to deal with so far I am fine with that :D I do have to train her on her driving skills a tad. She has almost wrecked and taken out the bottom of the mission car and ran into our shed pulling in- ALREADY! haha. And every time she does something she goes into a panic attack and if you can imagine I just laugh through the whole thing!

During the week we were able to teach Denise. She is a lady in her 60's and is sooo nice. We tracted into her but only met her husband and then she called her daughter and told her to call us because she wanted us to come back. The thing with Denise is she had a stroke 7 years ago and cannot talk, read or write, but she can understand us and answer yes or no questions. It's kind of a sad story,but really neat. Her kids were converted to the church when they were in high school. While her son was on his mission she was going to be baptized and then decided to wait until he got home, well during that time she had her stroke and wasn't able to be baptized. So she is now more ready that ever! We are trying to teach her husband with her to see if he will come too. If he comes that will be really good for her and, of course-him! We are excited to see where this goes!

Tina was also confirmed on Sunday! Yay! We are working with a lot of great people. Were at a point right now where we are trying to help them progress to baptism. They all have these little stumbling blocks that will take faith of there own to get over, but I have no doubt that they can do it! We are so blessed here to be in Olympia and to work with the people that we do. They have so much love and appreciation for the missionaries. Sis. Brown says she never wants to leave this place. My goal is to help her LOVE her 1st transfer, to feel confident in her teaching and to learn to do all of these things by the guidance of the spirit. I know the struggles I went through with my 1st transfer and know that if I can help her with any of those or help make her burdens lighter in any way it will help her gain more love for the people here and help us grown stronger as a companionship!

I have been pondering a lot this week of the "true" meaning of repentance. Repentance to me has always been a scary thing or something I tried to avoid, but my thoughts were taken back to the story in the Book of Mormon about Alma the Younger and his conversion story. If Alma hadn't repented and changed his heart he would not have been able to convert all the people and change many many lives. Alma repented to that he could reach his "full potential"! I believe very strongly that is what we need to do. Repentance is a gift that we have been given, so WE can all reach our full potential in this life! Doesn't that make you want to repent right now?! lol

Christ Lives!

Love,

Sister Phillips

WA-TAC

I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!

God Bless!

Sister Phillips

ICE STORM

Wow, I am surprised I even made it to email today it has been so crazy. We tried to come earlier but the library was so packed because it now as Internet so everyone wants to use it. Sister Brown didn't really bring any rain gear here so we have been trying to look for stuff today. You def. need some rain boots and a rain jacket in Washington.

My new comp. Is sister brown. She is from springville, ut and is 22yrs. She is awesome but terrified to be out here lol! and It didn't help she came out when Olympia had its worst storm in 20 years. She did not like that! She is great though, she will be a great missionary!

This week has been hectic!!! But fun too! This ice/snow storm has turned everyone for a loop and of course no one here was prepared for it. Olympia was at the eye of the storm and got hit the worst. Wednesday was the first big snow storm (sis. browns first real day as a missionary-poor girl) and we were advised by our mission pres. to stay inside and not to drive. So we walked a few places around to members houses and visited them and then I was going stir crazy so we decided to dig our car out and go to the Latimers house. They made us a yummy Indian dinner and let us come stay warm at there house for a bit. Then Thursday was even worse. We lost our power around 10am. We were to stay at our house that day.

President was suppose to come interview sis. brown but he couldn't even get to us all the roads were closed with falled trees and telephone lines. So you know me and miss fearless to drive in the snow was determined to get our little malibu on the roads and we only got stuck once :D haha! We ate dinner that night in the dark with the skeens a family in the ward. The Wright family invited us over to stay with them because they had a gas stove. Power ended up coming back on at there house around 3am that morning-luckily!

Friday, Saturday and Sunday all we did was check on people, shovel snow and clean up the roads and peoples houses. I felt like a tornado came through Olympia there were just trees and power lines all over the place, even live wires just hanging down on the roads.

It was a little creepy at night. We ended up staying at the Wrights for 4 days and our power finally came back on late last night so we got to go home. Poor Sister Brown def. Got thrown into the worst of it. Hopefully it will go back to normal this week. Our bishop in 3rd ward still does not have power and 50% of 4th ward as well. It is just sooooo sad to see peoples housed ruined and cars with trees on top of them. Maybe this will humble the Olympians a little haha!

Well besides all of the natural disasters going on we did still come through with a baptism!!!!!! Tina Marshall was baptized and it was an amazing service. I was so pround of her and her desire to follow our Savior Jesus Christ. We gave her a reading assignment last week to read alma 32 and when we met with her on thurs. She said she was reading and came to vs. 16 and instantly she knew she was to be baptized and it was suppose to be this sunday the 22nd.

We were a little worried because the stake center was out of power as well, but it ended up turning on sat. night (feew). I was greatful everything turned out okay, the Lord def. helped us out with this one. We werent suppose to leave our house thursday but I knew we needed to meet with Tina and I am so greatful I followed the spirit and she was able be baptized.

Well I have to cut this one short.

I love you all and hope you have a great week.

Love,

Sister Phillips

SNOW DAY!

It snowed in Washington!!!! A LOT.

(and yes all schools were cancelled) It has been snowing here since Sunday, but it doesn't all stick because it rains and then snows on and off so it melts pretty fast. The roads are nasty since they only have like 3 snow plows for for the whole city of Olympia. I had to kick Sis. E out of the drivers seat pretty fast when it started snowing. She does not do well driving in rain or snow haha. gotta love her! I will attach some pics below of the beautiful snow.

We were hoping the our church services hadn't been cancelled and luckily they weren't but there were a few others that were haha. That is so funny to me! After church on Sunday we went to our Bishops house to have Sis. E's "last super" and when we arrived bishop was pulling the kids behind his truck on a sled. It looked so fun and sis. Shirley could tell we wanted a ride to, so she found us some sweats and coats and we got to go sledding!!! It was so much fun. Our bums were frozen though and we were sooo wet, it was all worth it though!

Transfer calls came finally around 9:15pm Saturday night. President was killing us for making us wait all day long for them. Especially sis. E because then she was having panic attacks all day :/ Sis. Eichenmiller is moving next door to Lacey, WA and she will be companions with Sis. Holman. Sis. Holman was with me in the MTC and she rocks. The specific area they are going to has not had sisters for 15 years and it has been called the "man zone" so they are pretty excited to break that streak!

And for me.....I get to Train!!!!! Yay, I was so excited! I have only been out for 5 months, so I didn't really expect it. But I get to go pick her up today. I don't know who she is yet, so it will be a surprise for both of us when I go pick her up! I am a little nervous, but at the same time a very humbling time for me to know that the Lord would trust me with this responsibility. Poor girl gets to come to Olympia in the snow. Hopefully she is not from Arizona or somewhere warm or she is going to freeezzzzeee!!!

This week has been bitter sweet for me. We had to go say goodbye for Sis. E to all of our investigators, recent converts, and members and it was just so sad. We worked so hard with all of these people and they all have a strong connection to the both of us together. So, this week will be opposite for us. I will be helping the new missionary get to know everyone and form connections of her own. I hope she is not shy or we will break that real fast ;)

We also went on a hike with on our investigators the Sanvig family. It was so beautiful and dropped us out on the beach.

We even found a jelly fish :/ It was so cool and when were leaving we got to see this amazing sunset!

Hopefully we can start teaching them on a reg. basis now.

It's been a little struggle, some of their best friends are super anti, so that does not help the situation at all. But Morris is a smart guy and hopefully he can see what is from the devil and what is from Christ.

I hope you all know how much I love you and I love my Savior Jesus Christ. I am so thankful for all that he does for everyone and shows his hand in all of our lives weather we realize it or not. The Book of Mormon is the word of God and is full of magic!!

It truly changes peoples lives if they will but open the pages to read and study it. I believe there is no greater force on the Earth than that single book! I know my Savior Lives and he Loves us ALL!

Love you,

Sister Phillips

Serbiantism!

This week flew by it felt like. I can't believe it's already Monday. That means this is week 6, the last week before transfers. :/ I'm not sure what will happen to be quiet honest. Sis. Eichenmiller is pretty positive she is leaving, so we are in the process of telling everyone her last goodbyes (she has been here for 7 1/2 months and there's a lot of people) I keep telling her she is going to stay now because she is so positive she is leaving haha. I don't think she would like that. She loves this area and me of course, but this is the only area she has been in her whole mission, so I don't blame her for feeling ready to be transferred and experience other areas.

Our mission President called us and said, "Sisters we extended your mission", What? They moves transferred to Tuesday instead of Monday now so everyone in the mission will now be going home on Wed. and not Tues. He thought it was pretty funny. I don't mind one bit though, because now we get our P-day back, yahoo! President Weaver is cracking down on the mission. We are now strictly a preach my gospel mission. We used to have what was called the "WA-TAC STANDARDS" and he told us to either send them home or throw them away :/ He's pretty serious. It was something that the last mission president made, but Pres. and Sis. Weaver are trying to be strictly obedient to the prophets council, so that our mission can be blessed. I think it will be awesome, you are always blessed for your obedience.

So I hear there is an Elder in the Singles ward that is from Olympia-Elder Wood? I know his family, his Mom just got up on fast Sunday and bore her testimony about her son serving in Price, Ut and I thought hmm...he's close to Vernal-and then I find out he is in Vernal! Small world ey?

The best news is that Radmila got baptised. We had a serbiantism! The sweet lady came clear to Olympia, Wa to find the gospel and I was the lucky missionary to be able to have taught her and be apart of this. Her whole process of conversion was just perfect. All she wanted was to follow the example of her Savior Jesus Christ. So when we asked her to be baptized or obey all of the commandments it wasn't even a question in her mind because she had a relationship with Him already. During the baptism her son, Daniel translated, which was really special for her! She is the funniest lady. She will come up to you and have a conversation when she knows you have no idea what she is saying, hah, And because of that a lot of people fell in love with her! After the baptism many people came up to us and told us that it was the most spiritual baptism they had ever been to and it is all because of her. When people really understand there savior and are baptized for one of the simplest reasons, they obey Him, there is an overwhelming feeling of love that comes. It reminds me of the scripture, "If we love Him, we will keep His commandments" and boy does she have a lot of Love! (okay so I just realized I forgot my camera in the car so the pics will come next week).

While studying the Book of Mormon this week I have felt this overwhelming joy flood my mind. I have asked the Lord to help me understand how to have the spirit with me more fully, so the spirit can reach out to my investigators and teach them. He has opened my heart and mind to understand how important the spirit is and the key role it plays in "true conversion". Our investigators will not be "truly converted" unless it is by the spirit of God. I found a quote from James E. Faust in Preach My Gospel pg.91, "The gift of the Holy Ghost comes after ones repents and becomes worthy...The Holy Ghost bears witness of the truth and impresses upon the soul the reality of God the Father and the Son Jesus Christ so deeply that no earthly power or authority can separate him from that knowledge."

I love you all and hope you have a great week!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Happy New Year!!!

Can you believe it is 2012!!!

That just seems so weird to me. I feel like it could still be 2010 for some reason. I hope everyone had a great New Year and made some great goals/resolutions. I was looking back on the 'predictions" I made last year for the New year and serving a mission was NO where in there haha. Gotta love it! This year Our mission president wanted us to be in by 7. So our zone decided to go out to dinner at Outback Steakhouse. YUMMMM! It was all most of our first steak on our mission. OH it was better than chocolate cake!! Even better than the steak was that we ran into one of our investigators when we left, the Sanvig family. I'm sure you remember me talking about them before. Morris Sanvig told us they were just to busy for lessons so we stopped seeing them. They had been lingering on my mind lately and I felt like we should go back and see them and then we ran into them at the restaurant. It was a huge miracle. For some reason I have this crazy connection with this family. I know one way or another weather it be through me or someone else they will accept the gospel in there like. His wife died 2 years ago from breast cancer and it has been really hard for them. :( Anyway-Morris gave me a big hug "awkward for me" haha, but I couldn't turn it down and his two kids were excited to see us too. They said we could stop by this week!!! THEN- we were playing football and OLY high on monday and ran into them there too! Coincidence? I don't think so!!

Radmilla our serbian investigator is getting baptised on Saturday! She is so awesome, I love this lady. It really is amazing that she had to come clear across the world to find the Gospel. We were meeting with her on Saturday and we asked her if she wanted to get baptised on the 8th, she looked at us and said NO that is to soon. We were a little disappointed and then she put her head back up and said, actually the 8th sounds great! My mouth dropped. Then she said she would like to be baptised on the 7th because that is when the greek orthodox church celebrated Jesus Christs birthday! Either way we didn't care, were just so excited for her to take these steps of faith in her life.

I hope you all know how much I love you! Think of me when the sun is shinning and send a prayer my way!

I want you to all know the power of example is real. Be that light someone is searching for weather it be by helping someone or just smiling at them, it will make a difference. Always remember someone loves you and that is ME!!!!!

D&C 43:15-16

"Again I say, hearken ye elders (sisters) of my church, who I have appointed: Ye are not sent forth to be taught, but to teach the children of men the things which I have put into your hands by the power of my spirit. And ye are to be taught from on high, sanctify yourselves on ye shall be endowed with power that ye may give even as I have spoken."

Love you,

Sister Phillips

Christmas in Olympia

Christmas is officially over :(

It is sad! I hope Olypians at least keep there stuff up until the first of the year, probably not though!

How was everyones christmas?

I had a great christmas!!! My family made sure I was well taken care off and I was very spoiled. Our misson pres. told us that we could sleep in on Christmas morning, but we had church at 9am and who sleeps in on Christmas anyway? We tried to talk him into letting us sleep in on our p-day, but he didn't go for that :( I guess I'll try sleeping in next Christmas!

We then opened our present's, went to church, then went to our bishops house to call our parents and have christmas dinner. It wasn't quiet the same as usuall because of course your not with your family, but for what it was, it was great! I was very thankful I was able talk to my family and be with a great family that I love dearly on that special day. It definetly helped the "trunkieness".

On Christmas Eve Jane and Keri were baptised!!!!

It was a great day as well. Jane is the funniest 61 year old lady I have ever met. She was absolutly glowing after she was baptised, it was amazing to see her finally take that step of faith she has been putting off for so long (3 moths haha) President Weaver even surprised her and came to her baptism...ahhh! Keri baptism was great as well. We are so proud of them! I have no doubt that they will be active members in the church!

The whole week was just filled with a lot of fun things. Members invited us over and we made gingerbread houses, we got like 20 "goodie plates", they made sure our dinners with them were EXTRA YUMMY :) we made cookies with one family, the peck family bought us snuggies lol, we went carolling, and then we got to experience tracking down my christmas presents at the post office the night before christmas eve 30 min before they closed...it was scary!

My family is so amazing that they sent our whole zone a christmas present. There is a pic attatched. They had a bunch of goodies and a sweet gift card to target, thanks again mom and dad!!! All and all it was an amazing week!

As I was reading the Book of Mormon this morning I came across this scripture in 1 Nephi 17:3

"And thus we see that the commandments of God Must be fulfilled. And if it so be that the children of men keep the commandments of God he doth nourish them, and strengthen them, and provide means whereby they can accomplish the thing which he has commanded them; Wherefore, he did provide means for us while we did sojourn in the wilderness."

This scripture tells me that all things are possible. No thing is to great that the Lord can't help us accomplish it. If we do what He asks, He will always prepare a way, you just have to believe!

I hope you all have a great christmas!

I love you so much,

Sister Phillips