And you can have that certain knowledge that in due time God will wipe away all tears and that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor. 2:9)

Family,

Hello! It sounds like from the emails it has been a sad week in the neighborhood. That may an understatement. My heart goes out to the Robins family. I have grew up with them most of my life and love them very much. David was so loved and one amazing person, I know that he will be greatly missed. I also know that he is safe and back home with his Father in Heaven. What greater peace can we have than that?

When George A. Smith was very ill, he was visited by his cousin, the Prophet Joseph Smith. The afflicted man reported: He [the Prophet] told me I should never get discouraged, whatever difficulties might surround me. If  I were sunk into the lowest pit of Nova Scotia and all the Rocky Mountains piled on top of me, I ought not to be discouraged, but hang on, exercise faith, and keep up good courage, and I should come out on the top of the heap. (George A. Smith Family, comp. Zora Smith Jarvis, Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University Press, 1962, p. 54.) And you can have that certain knowledge that in due time God will wipe away all tears and that eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him (1 Cor. 2:9)

I have learned a great lesson of not being discouraged on my mission. Everytime we get discouraged it distracts us from that still small voice, which is the spirit. Therefore we never know what we could be missing on the other side. I have learned that when things don't work out like we planned or there is a cork in the schedule, just have Faith that God will take care of it. Everytime I have experienced this we have been blessed. We have changes in our schedule about everyday, but everyday God leads us to where he wants' us and then miracles occur.

Last week Sister Lyles and I went on bike for the day. We have discovered that bikes rock! We have so much fun and get to cover different ground in our area. That morning we had an appt. with Kyle (our investigator) and he had just woken up and wasn't at all ready, so we decided to come back later. On our way out of the appt. buildings we stopped and talked to this man washing his car.We told him that we were missionaries and had a great message to share about the restoration of the gospel.He looked at us really funny for a min and then said,"ya sure, why not?", so we introduced him to the Book of Mormon and took him on a church tour the next day :)Mike came to church the next day and we taught him the first lesson later that night with a member. See we love bike days :D

Kyle is getting baptized this Friday!!! It has been a long journey with him, but well worth the wait. We met with Kyle last Friday and our goal was to put him on date solid for this weekend. We had been praying mightily all day for the spirit to be in the lesson and to allow Kyle to feel confident and know with absurdity that this is what he wanted.About 15 min before we went into the lesson I had a prompting that we needed to change the lesson and watch the Restoration movie, Sister Lyles agreed and we met Kyle and Chris his fellowship at the church.The lesson ended up being perfect. Kyle accepted to be baptized and really for the first time opened up to us about a lot of things!! The spirit was so strong. After the lesson Sister Lyles was so excited that she almost shook Kyle's hand off. She said if he had been a girl she would have jumped on him ha-ha.

Wow this is a long email, So much has happened ahh!

Do you remember Paul? We found Paul at a gas station one day (don't ask me why now that I think of it because he drives a Prius??) Paul was baptized on Saturday and President Weaver gave us permission to go :D It was amazing. Paul was excited to see us there. He is such a special man. He said he will forget many people in his life, but never his missionaries that brought him home to his Heavenly Father! We too, will never forget Paul! It reaffirmed to me why I am out here serving a mission. It truly has been one of the greatest blessings in my life.

Also-Mary (our invest.) had her baby!!! He is soo cute and his name is Jordon Jackson. His little sisters just love him and are very precious to there little baby brother :)

I am so grateful for our Father in Heaven and his Son Jesus Christ. I am very grateful for the Book of Mormon and the power it has to transform lives. In the beginning on the Book of Mormon it reads, "one of the books purposes is to; convince the Jew and the Gentile (us) that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself to all nations." That is our purpose, is to help build there Faith in Jesus Christ and one of the best ways is through the Book of Mormon. If you ever want to know if he is really there, all you have to do is start reading!!

 

I love you all,

Sister Phillips