Hello...

Wow, I saw the pictures of Vernal! It looks like Disneyland there. I wish we had snow so bad. I am praying for another crazy snow storm like we did last year. :) The Washingtonians are praying they will never have snow. They are so bitter towards it. It has been a lot colder here. My toes are usually frozen every night and I have to come home and un thaw them. The plus is that when it's this cold that usually means the sun is out during the day...so that makes up for the cold weather.

This week in the beautiful wa-tac has been a hard couple days leading up to a great ending. All week Sister Nanto and I were sick. We both had sinus colds, coughs, and hardly any energy, but we didn't stop working. We knew that we could do it and with everything going on with our investigators we needed all the extra help we could get. Thank goodness for awesome people who serve us warm tea door side ;)

During the week it seemed that a lot of our appointments kept falling through or everyone was sick. Only half of our ward was there on Sunday because everyone either has a cold or the flu :( Sunday rolled around and when I woke up that morning my first thought was, "today is going to be a good day." As we went to church there were two families who weren't able to make it, Tierras fellowship left for church without her (seriously?) and Sister Weaver ended up getting really sick, so she couldn't speak in our ward. I decided to push through it and remember what I thought that morning.

President Weaver still spoke and gave a great talk. I don't know what I will do without that guy. Everyone should have a P.Weaver in there life. The best part about sacrament was when President started to speak he choked up as he was expressing how sad he was that he didn't have his companion at his side. He really missed Sister Weaver because they are never apart. She goes everywhere with him. We love it! Throughout this week we have been working with a lot of families that are struggling with there marriages. It has been very discouraging. Some nights Sister Nanto and I would come home and be convinced that we are NEVER to get married. Then on Sunday when I heard my mission President speak about his wife is such a tender and respectful way, it reminded us that there is hope!! feew!

One of our awesome ward missionaries left church and picked up Tierra. The Hull family magically appeared at church. They had the hardest time coming at 1 pm and they came at 9 am??? I had to rub my eyes to make sure it was really them. I was so happy and it ended up being exactly what they needed. The Garcia family (Raymond, Debora and Bridgett) came to church in there little matchy outfits. They are the "talk" of the ward right now. Everyone loves them and are already planning there temple date.

After leaving church yesterday I was reminded why we work hard EVERYDAY. When it's 5pm, twenty degrees outside and the last thing we want to do is knock doors...you do it anyway. I love when we are finished because you have the greatest feeling of satisfaction. Even though we may not have found anyone who was interested, it doesn't matter because God will always bless you. Weather it be that night or the next week, blessings will always follow.

After Church we went finding for a couple of hours. Froze. Then we had a lesson with Tierra. She had told us that her mom said she wouldn't sign the baptismal rec. because she wouldn't sign anything she didn't believe in. BUT she didn't say she could send it to her dad and he could sign it! Her dad and her mom have joint custody. We immediately called President Weaver and he said if she could get it signed by her dad that she was good to go. MIRACLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Why didn't we think of this sooner?? I truly believe that her mom's heart was just soft enough to allow her to have her dad's permission. So today she is sending the record off and we are planning a baptism for Jan. 26th. I have a strong conviction that Tierra's faith has led her to this. She is a remarkable young women and I recall a scripture that made me think of her journey thus far....

".....know thou, my son, that all these things shall give thee experience, and shall be for thy good." (D&C 122:7)

We then had a lesson with the Garcia's. We invited Dawn and her son Kaunu to our lesson and when they got there they brought there whole family. p.s. there Polynesian. It ended up being so much fun. The lesson was great. We taught the gospel and the Macuguys bore wonderful testimonies of there conversions that brought the spirit so strongly. I asked Raymond If he would be baptized this Saturday. And he said that he always wanted to be baptized because when he was younger the other churches told him until he got baptized he wore the devils tail. ha ha. Raymond is a great guy. I am so thankful for that cute family. I am even more grateful for the powerful influence the spirit can have upon a heart. (2 Ne. 33:1-2)

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I invite you all to read Alma 5. Look at all the questions that Alma asks and ask them to yourself. I love the Book of Mormon and I know that it is true. I love you all.

Sister Phillips

This picture was the day before it dropped to the 20's

I was so happy that day and had no idea what we were in for haha.