.: Tacoma

Hello Family and Friends,

I hope you all had a great week. I hear it was a little chilly in Utah? That's expected though right?! It hasn't been the greatest here either. Really grey and cloudy and sometime during the day the sun will poke out for a moment-you just hope you catch it :)

This has probably been one of the busiest weeks of my mission. Our numbers were out of this world! (we don't focus on numbers, but we do set goals) and we reached them all and exceeded some. We have been very blessed here in Tacoma. We find new people to teach everyday and now it's just getting them to progress. The hardest thing for us right now is getting our investigators to church. We mention 9am and people think were crazy! ha ha. Yesterday I called 4 people to wake up and none of them answered-they were all still asleep...ugg! So this week we will stress the importance of coming to church. I read a talk this morning from Elder Quintin L. Cook in a conference ensign and he said, "The sacrament is the most sacred and important thing we will do ALL week." I thought that was pretty amazing and I hope that the Lord will bless these wonderful Tacoman's with a added desire to wake up a tad bit earlier to come show there Heavenly Father of their willingness to obey His commandments.

These last couple of weeks there has been a lot of changes going on in our ward. We got a new Bishop and new RS Pres. Bishop Anthony is the greatest. He wants to stack up our ward missionaries and have them go visit EVERY member of our ward and inspire them to do missionary work...Yahoo! We just got 2 new ward missionaries yesterday and we are getting 2 more here soon! Then the ward council (which includes us ;D) will go on visits once a month to families in need. When you have a missionary minded Bishop, then you will have a missionary focused ward. I am so excited to be a part of the beginnings of future miracles that will come from there added efforts to re-activate Heavenly Fathers Children!

This week we are having our mission tour. That is where one of the 70 will come tour our mission and make sure that all is up to parr'. So...we all had to deep clean our apt. Which was AWESOME! I was so happy to have time to do that. We took 5 garbage bags to good will of just stuff that past sisters have left :/ I'm sure sister Renner was happy for that too! Elder Quigley (senior missionary who is over our cars) came to inspect our apt. and we passed with a golden star. He then told us that he would take us to the grocery store and he would buy us 30.00 worth of groceries. Sister Hoffman and I stacked up on fruit and peppers :) then took us and some of the elders to pizza the next day. :D We love him! While hanging out with Elder Quigley we were telling him about on of our investigators that we are working with and how he stood us up on a church tour and then later came that week. Come to find out that Elder Quigley was his baseball coach for 4 yrs. and Mike was his starting player. E. Quigley was so excited to hear this and want's to be a part of all his lessons :) Mike couldn't believe that Coach Q was a Mormon ha ha. Elder Quigley is a convert and has only been a member for 10 years. We pray that something will happen with Mike. He is a little stubborn, but maybe this is just what he needs to open his heart to the Gospel.

The BEST part of the week was that President Weaver let me go to Denisse's Baptism!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We drove to Olympia last night and as soon as I stepped in the stake center I knew I wasn't going to be able to control my emotions. Denisse had been waiting for me and when I walked through the doors she came and gave me the biggest hug. It was one of the most special moments. She looked so cute. Because she cant walk very well her son-in-law Joe had to carry her in his arms and take her down in the water while he was holding her. It was so amazing. The spirit was so strong and there wasn't a dry eye in the house. I am so greatful that Heavenly Father let me be apart of Denisse's conversion. I think I was the one who was blessed and changed by her. She reminded me that the Lord will never forget you. She has waited for 9 years to be baptized and yet, the Lord knew her heart and prepared away. She reminders me to be patient. Denisse never became bitter or discouraged because of her disability, but she did her best with what she had and was very patient with the herself and in the Lord's timing. I also got to see Peter! Ah I miss them so much.

Also guess who spoke in church on Sunday?? Peter and Minh! I was blown and away and I think my jaw dropped to the floor. New members of less than a month both spoke in sacrament meeting! I am a missionary and I still get nervous speaking in sacrament. Wow! Everyone told me that it was one of the most amazing sacrament meeting they have been to. I guess Minh stood up and the first thing he said was, "Hi my name is Minh, and I am a recovering Drug addict and Alcoholic" ha ha. But what better example of the Atonement and that Christ truly can change any ones life who is willing!!

This week has been great, but I know I would be useless if it wasn't for my Savior Jesus Christ and the guidance and direction of the Holy Spirit. There is a part in PMG that really stood out to me this week that I want to share. This is a quote by the prophet Brigham Young. He was not baptized until a year of learning about the restored gospel. This is what he shares, "If all the talents, tact, wisdom, and refinement of the world had been sent to me with the Book of Mormon, and had declared, in the most exalted of earthly eloquence, the truth of it, undertaking to prove it by learning and worldly wisdom, they would have been to me like smoke which arises only to vanish away. But when I saw a man without eloquence or talents for public speaking, who could only say, "I know by the power of the Holy Ghost that the Book of Mormon is true, that Joseph Smith is a Prophet of the Lord, ' the Holy Ghost proceeding from that individual illuminated my understanding, and a light, glory and immortality were before me. I was encircled by them, filled with them, and I knew for myself that the testimony of the man was true."

I hope you can all take from that, that all you need is a strong testimony to change one's life. Sometimes we get caught up in "I dont' know enough to share with my friends about the gospel", but Brigham Young teaches us-all we need is a sincere testimony of our Savior Jesus Christ.

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

Love,

Sister Phillips

WA-TAC

Pictures:

1. The back porch view of our Ward mission leaders house! That's my area :)