Miracles

This past week has been a great week. For one it was Thanksgiving-we ate dinner at 4 families homes. I watched what I ate and I actually did really well (pat on the back for me :D) We had Breakfast at the Latimers home and she made us yummy cinnamon rolls. They are a younger family and went to school at USU so we LOVE them!! She is like our older sister here. We then went to the Varners home. They are Recent Converts and LOVE the sisters. Then off to the Klumkers we went. Keri one of our investigators didn't have anywhere to go so she tagged along with us. It actually ended up to be really good for her because she was able to meet and connect with more people in the ward. Everyone was so excited for her to be baptized and you could just see her face beaming. We still are working on some things with her, but we hope she will be baptized in Dec. After the Klumkers we went to the Ganthers-where do I begin with the Ganthers. They are amazing. They do not have a lot of money but they would give everything they had to the missionaries. They feed the whole zone once a month and every holiday. It makes me so grateful for the things I have and helps me remember to be giving when I am with them. I know they don't have the money, but they love to give and know the Lord will bless them for there service. I love it! We then watched Mr. Kroogers Christmas (Its approved) and went home. It was a great day considering I thought It would be tough for me being away from family and all, but the Lord knew what I needed and filled my heart with so much gratitude that day.

Miracle #1...We are teaching a lady from Yugoslavia. Her name is Radmilla and she speaks serbian.

Her son Danielle is a recent convert and is a spiritual giant. Anyway- he translates for us. I think I told you in my last letter that she wanted to buy us boots and well...she did! She even bought us these furry so soft socks with penguins on them because she loves how affectionate and loving penguins are with there children and she wanted to take care of us like a mom penguin...ahhhh! We asked her if she would want us to teach her what we know about our church and about the book of Mormon that we gave her? She gladly accepted our invitation. We started teaching her about the prophets and how we believe there is a prophet on the earth today. She paused and it was quiet for a couple seconds and said, "teach me everything you know about this prophet you say is on the earth today." It was amazing. Then she said she felt like she had heard the name Joseph Smith from somewhere and she already knows he's a prophet. It was one of the most spiritual lessons I have experienced. This lady doesn't speak English and is Greek Orthodox, which means she is very set in her religious ways. But she is very in-tune with the Spirit and knew that what we were saying was true. Man I wish everyone could be that in-tune, we would be having baptisms everyday!!!

I'm not sure when we will meet with her again. Hopefully soon. Her son is really busy and we have to have him or we cant teach her. Danielle already has felt like he will baptize his mom, so I can't wait to see where this goes!

Miracle #2....Then the next day Sis. Eichenmiller had been working pretty hard that day to make up for our slow couple days with Thanksgiving and we hadn't eaten much. We decided to go grab something to eat and the Varners called us. They said meet us at wally world ASAP! We got there and they surprised us and let us pick out a small Christmas tree, tree skirt, and decorations. Again-this is a family that is living from pay check to pay check.

I just started crying because of the goodness in these people. They have nothing compare to what I even have and they are wanting to buy us a tree and ornaments to make sure our Christmas is extra special. This is what the holidays should be about. My heart has been changed and softened with the magical gift of giving. I hope you all take time out of the gift, lights, and shopping to help someone in need and thank our Heavenly Father for all that we have because it is through Him that we will have the True happiness in our life.

Miracle #3....Sunday is a crazy day for us. We wait by the door like little children by a cand store and wait to see if our investigators will come to church. This family walked in that we had never met before. They looked totally Mormon at first and then we got to chatting and came to find out that the wife wasn't a member. The husband is Less Active and she is looking for a church....YES!!!

They had some neighbors that invited them to come. Well they didn't really think they would show up and they did. In my mind I was praying the whole time during church that the sacrament speakers would say the right thing so she would feel the spirit. Sometimes it can be bad. Luckily they were awesome!!! We talked them into staying for all 3 hours and at the end of church she said, "Stephen and I talked and we think this is the place for us" Yahoo!!!! It's amazing how the Lord works. I was so grateful!!!

Miracle #4....

The elders surprised us and decorated our door with Starbucks hot cocoa and circus cookies :D They wrote us a letter and were SO grateful they get to serve with the BEST SISTERS IN THE WA-TAC!!! It was so nice. Sis. Eichenmiller had just gotten out of a rough appt. with an investigator and was really worried about her. Then we came home to that. It was a miracle in my eyes because it was a huge tender mercy they lord blessed us with.

I promise if you look around you will see miracles all around you!!!

I am so blessed to be a missionary and even more blessed to have the Love and support that I have. I hope you guys all have a great weekend and know I love you so soo much!

I love you,

Sister Phillips

IT SNOWED!

Hello......

It snowed in Olympia!!! It was the best thing to wake up to snow. It only lasted about an hour, but it was still blissful! I'm jealous of you Utahn's that have snow already!!!

Can you believe Thanksgiving in on Thursday!!! I feel like it has taken and eternity to get here because you are so excited for it to come :D We have 4 dinners :/ I am so nervous to get sick. You hear all of the horror stories from missionaries that they are puking that night and I do NOT want that to happen. We’ve decided will eat different foods at each house or just eat sweet potato's ALL DAY....YUM!!! I'm not a turkey fan, so I wont have to worry about that. Everyone just wants the missionaries over, I guess they like us or something, I dunno!

This week has been great! We almost had one of our investigators baptized then she decided she wanted her daughter that is MIA to be there. Which is understandable, but now it's going to take a lot longer. That’s okay though. Jane is on date to be baptized on Dec. 4th. I am so excited for her!!! We also found 6 new this week and a couple potentials that we excited to meet and hopefully start teaching on a regular basis. Our homeless investigator Keri have a break down on us this week. It was scary. She was meeting us at the church so we could help her and when she pulled up she freaked out on sis. eichenmiller. I forgot the church keys so I ran back to the car and didn't see what happened, until the end .Keri did not have a good spirit with her was not herself. Sis. Eichenmiller started crying because it scared her so bad. It didn’t' really affect me to much, I guess I've been in some of those situations before and I just got more annoyed with her than upset. All of the elders came to our church. They are so protective of the sisters, its cute haha. They love us! But once she cooled down she apologized and now wants to be baptized haha. Oh gee!

It is sure getting cold here. I think I say this in every letter, but that’s because it's true. And when you walk in it all day you really understand how much you hate winters. At least in the summer time you get a tan!!!

Friday was on the best days ever!! I got a package with NEW rain boots, we found 3 new investigators, 1 miracle referral called us and scheduled an appt. to visit with her, and my bishop and his wife bought me my favorite Ice cream!!!!

There is a famous ice cream here called Tillamuck and this certain flavor (grandmas cake batter) that is SO hard to find. It's only in certain places in the state of Washington and only comes out during certain times of the year. They called us and told us they were coming over and surprised me with my ice cream (pic. attached) I was happy. That is the family we will be spending Christmas with as well. It was a huge tender mercies from the Lord.

Well...It's that time of year again when we think of all were grateful for!

So, here are some things I am grateful for.....

The Gospel of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints

Jesus Christ and my Heavenly Father

The BEST family in the world

The WA-TAC MISSION

Oranges

The scriptures

Rain boots

Internet

Letters

Food

Warm house w/electricity

Car

The coolest Best Friend any one could EVER have.

Sweet potatoes

Target

Crafts

Etsy

Olympia hippies

Evergreen trees

Love

Straight Teeth

Vitamin D

Companions

Hunting (makes for good conversation)

Rain :/

WHAT ARE YOU GREATFUL FOR THIS YEAR????

We have to remember that all we have is because of our Heavenly Father and Savior Jesus Christ. They created everything we see and I believe they did that because of the Love they had for us. They wanted their children to live somewhere where they could enjoy and see God's creations everyday. Remember how much you have been blessed and the lord will bless you even more ;)

I love you all,

I hope you have a great Holiday!!

Love,

Sister Phillips

Is it really Monday already?

How is everyone?? I hope you are all great and are getting ready for Thanksgiving!!! We already have 3 dinner appt. Yikes!! We decided we will do a course at each house, so that way we wont be sick when we go home :D

Not a lot has happened. We are still working with the same investigators. One of our investigators decided that it wasn't for him. I was heart broken, but you do everything you can and then remember that they still have their agency to choose. All hope isn't lost for him yet though, we are still praying for him and hopefully can see him tomorrow. Kerri decided she wants to get baptized she just has some issues she needs to figure out first and Jane wants to get baptized too once she understands that she can't drink coffee and tea-that’s been a hard one for her! No worries!

On Friday we had our sisters retreat in Tacoma. All the sisters came and we stayed at president and sister weavers house. We had to be there at 4:30 and when we were all there they surprised us and took us all downtown Tacoma to eat at the spaghetti factory! It was so yummy and it was just fun to be DOWNTOWN, I didn't want to leave. We then we to a musical called savior of the world put on by the multi-stake. It was amazing; I was really impressed that members could do that. President also let us stay up past 10:30. We went to bed around midnight, but some of the sisters stayed up until 3am :( I would have died the next day. Sister Eichenmiller and I were already dragging with the loss of 2 hours I couldn't imagine anymore. We woke up and had a yummy breakfast and then had a scripture study together. They are so amazing and they spoil the sisters like crazy! I think because they have 5 girls of there own, so pres. just loves the girls more anyway.

I sent some pictures of our last p-day. We went on a little hike with the Elders. It is so pretty here and the fall colors stay for more than a week, its awesome! It is getting sooo dark though. It is pitch dark by 5 pm and sis, eichenmiller and I are both wimps, so the fact that sometimes we tract out in the middle of now where is a big deal for us. We tend to sing church songs and pray the whole time that a bear wont come eat us. I’m actually not scared of animals, I'm scared of the crazy people here in Olympia!!! The good thing about Olympia is that most of the crazy people are high, so there not very mean and would be easy to take down, lol!

We went to dinner at a members the other night and it was the saddest thing. Her husband is dying of cancer and he just came home, but they don’t' give him much time to live. They love the sisters because sister missionaries found her one day and she was baptized. Anyway, she shared this quote with us that I love. This women who's husband is on his death bed it strengthening me...she is amazing!

Surely there is no more powerful missionary message we can send to this world than the example of a loving and happy person. The manner and bearing the smile of kindness of a faithful member of the church brings a warm and an outreach which no missionary tract or videotape can convey. People do not join the church because of what they know! They join because of what they feel, what they see and want spiritually. Our spirit of testimony and happiness that regard will come through others if we let it.

-Jeffery R. Holland

I love this quote because when we are just being us we are sharing something with people that are powerful. When we can accept who we are, we will allow ourselves to enjoy true happiness and want to share it with others. That is why as missionaries it is essential to have the spirit with us. Without it-we fail!

I hope you guys have a great week....

Until next Monday!

xoxoxox

Sister Phillips

WA-TAC

WINTER IS HERE!

Winter officially came last week.

It doesn't get above 60 degrees and in the morning when we leave, which is around 11 it's 35 degrees...brrr! I definitely will be investing in some warm winter clothes and layering. It has been raining every night as well, so we wake up and it's all foggy and misty-it's kinda creepy! I also found out that I need "REAL" rain boots, normal boots are just not cutting it. If it starts raining during the day or while were tracting, my feet are soaked and freezing! The other night we had some "baby mama drama" with one of our investigators and we stood outside in the rain for about 5 min. Needless to say, when we got back in the car I could ring my hair out with water. It was fun!

This week has been great though, kind of a rollercoaster, but it ended really well. Keri one of our investigators currently just became homeless because she won’t give up her dog. Its silly. She has assisted living available for her, but they wont allow pets and she would kill herself before she let her dog go. Our bishop tried talking to her, she received a blessing and sis. ikey and I even took her hot cocoa. Then yesterday a sweet miracle happened a one of our ward missionaries offered keri a place to sleep at night-AND- she showed up at church without us even calling her :D She says she has been a Mormon her whole life and is so thankful she is finding the truth. We feel like she needs to get her life in order a little bit more and then hopefully she can get baptized.

We also ran into another family tracting named the, Sanvigs. He is a single dad with an 11yr. old girl and a 14 yr. old boy and his wife died of breast cancer a couple years ago. Instantly for some reason I felt this strong connection with this family. He was very willing to meet with us when we first met him and set up an appt. to teach the first lesson. We came to find out that some people knew him in our ward and were his neighbors a few years back. SCORE! We showed up at his house and he made the sisters a pizza to eat for dinner. I knew I loved this family!!! We taught the first lesson and the spirit was so strong. Brother Lusk one of his friends that came with us who is a member bore a powerful witness of how the Gospel can bless your life. It was amazing, I had to hold back my tears. The daughter Olivia was eating it up. I just pray that they were able to recognize the feeling they to were having. I know this family has so much potential. I have never felt so much love for a family before and have had only met with them one time. Hopefully we can meet again this week and make progress and get them to church. Pray for the Sanvigs, they need this soooo much.

There are so many great people here in Olympia. There is a family named the, Brashers. I call them g-ma and g-pa. There in there 70's and are the cutest old couple ever. (besides my grandparents). When we are having a bad day we go to there house and they sweeten us right back up. They have massage sofa chairs that I love to sit in and their house is always SO warm. Brother Brasher is not a member, but he still loves when we have gospel conversations. He even came to church yesterday. He is huge into Football, so whenever a big game is on he lets us know just in case we wanted to "stop by" ha-ha :D

Sister Eichenmiller and I are doing great. She is a great missionary and a very powerful silent teacher. Yesterday she said I was so "authoritative" haha. I said me? no way! I blamed my dad for that one. She said it is a good thing though. Our investigator Kerri also calls me Miss America. I hate it and I think she knows I hate it. But Sis. Ikey and I balance each other out very well. She is quiet and powerful and I am bold and get strait to the point. I love it.

What else.....

Oh I almost forgot. I met one of our RC (recent converts) the first time this week. His name is Daniel. He is amazing. I am determined to meet with him once a week because he is my spiritual therapist. He is so smart. He blows my mind with the deep doctrine we discuss. We got deep into 1 Nephi 8 about Lehi's dream and the tree of life. How many times have I read that story??? A billion AND I have never noticed things that he pointed out to me. He also taught me a very noteworthy lesson. He said, "if we are comfortable we are dead". The people who are "comfortable" in a spiritual sense are not progressing, therefore, they are dead. Our soul and our spirit is really who we are inside. If we are not going through trails, happiness and sorrow we are not allowing ourselves to progress. Pres. Uchtodorf said, "We comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable". So when we go through hard time in our lives, just think...I'm alive!!! I am growing and being molded into the person our Heavenly Father know we can become.

My testimony has grown so much already. I love this work, it is the best work we can be engaged in.

I miss you all so very much and hope you have a great week!

Love you,

Lakyn

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!

Can you believe it's Halloween today??? I feel like we have been looking forward to it for ever, so it took a long time to get here. How is everyone? Any fun plans for Halloween??

We have to be locked up tonight from 5-9 (orders from the mission pres.) I guess they have had a problem with people dressing up as LDS Missionaries and getting in trouble. Then the cops will call our mission pres. and tell him they need to come pick up their missionaries, haha. So, we have to stay all bundled up in the stake center with our zone in case the popo's call he will be able to account for all of us! Our zone is the smallest in the whole mission. There is only 9 of us. It's great though, it makes for a really united group. We are going to carve pumpkins and play games and our mission pres. and sis. weaver gave us a basket filled with goodies, but it is all wrapped up and we can't open it until tonight!!!! They even said they put a movie in there :D Which is surprising because pres. weaver said, "movies are a cuss word in my vocabulary for missionaries" hehe!

Both of our wards have trunk or treats last weekend, they were so much fun. We have two wards and they are complete opposites. It's kinda hard. One is super focused on missionary work and the other could care less. It's really hard, we are having pres. weaver come speak to 3rd ward and hopefully call them to repentance hah jk! Anyway, 4th ward had a chili and cornbread cook off. It was crazy! They had over 20 different kinds of chili and corn bread. Let's just say sis. Ikey and me were well fed!!!

We now have 3 investigators we have on date for baptism in nov. I am so excited for them. I have found that you have to work so much harder when you have a lot of investigators, because you have to constantly check up on them...or satan will. It's the best kind of work to wear yourself out in. I love it. One of our investigators in named Jane and she is 60 years old. She knows it is true, but struggles with large crowds and anxiety. So, that's a problem with church and activities. But she did come to the trunk or treat and brought her grand kids and they all loved it (score)!!! She also stayed for sacrament and Sunday school yesterday, she couldn't quiet make it for relief society. Will work on that! She is on date for Nov 13th :D

Keri... well what can I say about keri. She says she has been a Mormon her whole life and she didn't even know it! She is currently homeless right now, which is hard. But she wont be for long and she recognizes that the Lord is helping her. She also thinks we were sent to her so she could help us as well. Maybe true, I dunno.

Then Kaden is 9 and he just can't wait to be baptised-it's getting over his mom. So, I feel like were trying to convert his mom (and she's a member) not him. Oh well.

Olympia is AWESOME!! I seriously love this place. It is so pretty and there are so many crazies it makes it really fun. Sis. Ikey and I went to downtown Olympia last Tues to meet with Keri and had quiet the experience. Olympia has lakes everywhere, its so cool. Anyway, they have a lake that goes around the capitol that we were walking around when we looked up the side of the hill and we see all of these hippi protesters marching and screaming "world peace" with there white flags and tambourines. I felt like I was watching forest gump or something. Sis. Ikey and I looked at each other and said, "walk fast". We both knew we needed to get out of there and fast. Liberals are not fans of Mormons, especially when the republican party's highest candidate is a MORMON!!!

It was fun to see that though. I got to see the "real" Olympia everyone has been telling me about.

I am so grateful that I am able to be apart of the Lords work here Olympia. We had so many miracles this week, it was amazing. The Lord is definitely aware of every single one of us, no matter who you are. The Book of Mormon will bring you closer to God than any other book on Earth. I love it!!! It's amazing how you can love the strangest people, and I know that is the pure love of Christ. I hope you all have a great HALLOWEEN!!!! Send me pics

I LOVE YOU ALL

XOXOXOXO

Sister Lakyn Phillips

OLYMPIA!!

I got transferred!!!!

I was SO SHOCKED.

I had told everyone I would be staying and probably taking over the sunrise area after Sis. Fisher left. AND...I finally put a little girl on date for baptism and I get transferred :( That’s okay though. We got our calls on Saturday while I was on exchanges with another sister. I was expecting for her to get transferred, but then we both did. Sis. Fisher is staying in Sunrise, Puyallup training another greenie (good luck). One of the members said, I guess they decided to move you instead of the cats, lol! I will miss that ward, there were some great people there, but was ready to leave.

I am now with Sis. Eichenmiller (pronounced iken-miller) she is so amazing. She is so nice and loves to work HARD! This is only her 4th transfer so I'm not far behind her. Olympia has struggled big time lately with disobedient elders and a lot of problems occurred, so president weaver said, and quote “were sending a few of you in for clean-up." I am thrilled to know he would trust me enough to come here and help gain back the trust of the people in Olympia. Yay!! There are only 2 elders and my comp. that were in Olympia before and they took everyone else out and put all new in. I am ready to work hard in this area and see a lot of success. All the Elders warned me, they said, " sis. Phillips remember the 3 H's. 1. Hippies 2. Homo's 3. Hobo's haha. I already love this place. It will be interesting when I meet my first "real" liberal. I have really never had to deal with them before. Good things to look forward too, right?!

We live in this cute little condo. It looks and smells like a log cabin. It's much better than my last place. And we have a sweet new car. :) It's so pretty! We ate dinner with members last night and they LOVE the missionaries. They all just got baptized a couple months ago and if they could they would feed us everyday :/ I am nervous about gaining weight, members think you have been starving, so they cook these giant meals and desert for you. I love it, I just have to remember that we live in America and I think they'll be okay if I don't eat everything on my plate..ugh!

How is Utah??? I miss the fall leaves. There are a few here, but mostly there are evergreens and they just stay green all year. When we tract at night I just think to myself how cold it is in Utah right now and I feel much better. The people here keep saying it’s going to be an ugly winter this year, but there definition of a bad winter is a couple feet of snow. I would be okay with that!! I love this work and it is 10 times better when you have a comp. who loves the work as well. Being on a mission is by the hardest thing ALREADY I have experienced, but so worth the things you gain in return. The Lord will always pour out his blessings upon those who seek first the kingdom of God. I know of that to be true and I see it change people’s lives every day. I know the principles and doctrines we teach are true and they are for everyone. The gospel of Jesus Christ is a beautiful thing that I will ever be grateful for. :D

I hope you all are doing great!

I love and miss you all so very much.

Love,

Sister Phillips

WA-TAC

How are my Utahn's?

I sure miss that place...already!!

This week has been, well, interesting.

We moved, we met a drunk lady and she is coming to church (YES), and I discovered I may be allergic to cats.

We are teaching a little girl named Mckenna and she is SO excited to get baptized. We also met a lady named, Heather. She just went through a divorce and is having a hard time and is looking for a church to attend...SCORE! We are still teaching Wil Green, but I am worried about him, he seems a little hesitant, but we just have to pray for him and teach by the spirit and them let him chose.

I am learning how to be patient with people and how to be patient with myself. My companion and I see very differently and I am learning to humble myself and give in to her (which kills me) Yes, I need to be humbled!

Moving has been quiet an adventure. The lady we lived with is getting married and wanted us out asap! We had no idea where we were going until the morning of. I was a little nervous. We ended up with a single sister and her sister-in-law in her basement living room. Let's just say, I'm glad its temporary. The lady we live with now is the best though. She is so sweet and lost her husband not to long ago, so I think it will be good for her to have some more company.

I am trying to think about what to write to you all, but I don’t remember what happened last week. It was so crazy that I tried to block it from my mind lol.

I did have a tender mercy given to me this week though!!! The day we were moving we weren’t able to study that morning and oh man could I feel it. The spirit had left and I had never felt so crummy. We decided we needed to read the scriptures. I didn't feel like I could focus in our new house because it still wasn’t organized, so we drove to an empty parking lot by target and read in the bible for 15 min. It was Amazing, the spirit that flooded into our car and changed my NEGATIVE attitude into a NORMAL happy lakyn one. We went finding for 2 hours after and I was in the best mood! I was so thankful for Heavenly Father blessing us that day and letting us know he was aware of us and we could do it. As a missionary you can't afford not to have the spirit with you 24/7. Nothing will covert a person more strongly that the spirit it self. We can try to "woo" them with our knowledge, but for most that is not enough. Something I remember while teaching them is "if they say it they believe it, if you say it they tend to doubt it". The message is much more powerful if they believe it and when they can feel the spirit testify to them that it is true, than us just telling them! I hope that makes sense.

I want to share with you this quote from Boyd K. Packer:

"Since baptism is essential there must be an urgent concern to carry the message of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every nation, kindred, tongue, and people. We accept the responsibility to preach the gospel to every person on Earth. And if the question is asked, "you mean you are out to convert the entire world?" the answer is, "yes, we will try to reach every living soul." Some who measure that challenge quickly say, "Why that's impossible, it cannot be done! To that we simply say, "perhaps, but we shall do it anyway."

Amen.

Well I love you all,

I will try to have a better letter next week

xoxoxoxo

Sister Phillips