MERRY CHRISTMAS FROM OLYMPIA!!!

Oh man oh man can you people even believe Christmas is this week???? Well-I can't!

I don't want it to be Christmas because then we can't use our sweet excuse to get into peoples doors anymore :( (Can we come share a Christmas message with your family? Well sure come on it!) Ya-Jan. is a pretty lame month so I don't know what we will do about that!

This week has been a ball. We had our mission Christmas party on Tuesday, where we had 6 different groups of people doing white elephant trade off, then had our Christmas program, ate some yummy food and finished reading the Book of Mormon together as a mission! Wow- did I ever tell you how amazing the Book of Mormon is? I read it in a whole 7 weeks and it was FAST. My testimony about that book has been strengthened and I have come to realize what a powerful tool it truly is. The Book of Mormon was sent to us during this time for a reason and there is a ba-gillion and one reasons in there. I am starting all over again and I love it. I am so grateful the Lord restored His gospel back on the Earth and that Joseph Smith kept him self worthy and valiant to translate the golden plates for all of us today. The love of God is great!

After the Christmas party I got sick..boooo! I came down with a nasty head cold and I thought my head was going to blow up. But I wasn't going to let that stop me. We still went out every night and knocked on lots of doors in the cold. I probably should have stayed home and rested but we really needed the extra blessings. Our investigators have been a little "stuck" they haven't been progressing like they should. So, I decided to give it my best in hope the Lord would bless them. AND he did! We had 8 people come to church yesterday and we have two on date for the 24th. We have them all planned and everything, horray! Jane is so excited, she just called and wanted to know if she needed white underwear hahah! I love that lady! And keri wants a very personal small baptism, she text us last night and said she wanted the lights dimmed with candles hahahaha. This is gong to be a Christmas Eve I will NEVER forget.

I am so thankful for this time of year! I want you all to know, that I know- the Savior Lives! He lives! HE loves us all very much and is aware of everything we do and go through in this life. He wants the best for us and is ready and willing to give all He has to us if we will only keep His commandments and follow Him. One of my favorite scriptures is Romans 8:35-39 it talks about the love of God. I hope we can all set apart the busy commercialized Christmas and take time to focus on our Savior. Allow the spirit of Christmas to flow through your soul and you will feel His sincere, true, and powerful love flow though you those you serve.

I love you all,

xoxoxoxo

Sister Phillips

13 Days before Christmas!

Hello,

Wow, it is getting so cold here. It gets colder and colder. I ask people almost every week when It is going to get warmer because it is not fun. The low is 32 degrees but I will tell ya its not normal. It's wet cold and it freezes your bones and they feel like they are going to break in half. I would take Vernal 20 degree dry winter cold any day. But the good thing is it shouldn't last as long. They say it starts warming up at the end of Feb. So ill keep my fingers crossed for 2 more months. If not I will demand the be ET'd(emergency transferred) out of here...jk! I wouldn't do that!!!

How is everyone's Christmasholiday going? It's a little weird being on a mission during Christmas, but at the same time it is the best too! Everyone just wants you to have a good Christmas so they try to do what they can for the missionaries :D Sis.Eichenmiller and I were talking and we both felt like it wasn't quiet Christmas yet because we haven't been able to go shopping haha. Oh well, I amlearning budget control, which we all know I need lol!

This week was week 1. It was a good week. Jane aninvestigator had an interview with our mission president and it definitely solidified her decision to be baptised. She was so worried about what everyone else would think and she couldn't get over that. She told us it just doesn't matter anymore...yay! She is now praying to know if Dec. 24th is a good date for her to be baptised. We are going over to her house to make my moms famous sugar cookies on Friday. I can't wait! Keri finally is thinking about giving up her dog, which is a big step for her, when that dog is her life. Seriously her life. It makes me hate dogs. She could get housing and so many other things if she wouldn't have a dog. So we really hope this helps her. She is also getting baptised on the 24th. Tina, our lil. Miracle 2 weeks ago wants to be baptized to, no questions asked. We asked her if she wanted to and she didn't even hesitate to say YES. She had been looking for a Church to go to and they had been to a couple around Olympia but didn’t feel right about any of them, until their neighbors invited them to our ward. Tina said she had a really good feeling (the holy ghost) when she was there and knew that was the place for her :D So exciting. So we may have a literal "white" Christmas with lots of baptisms. That would be the best Christmas ever for a missionary!

Besides that everything is going well. We went over to the Kohlers house the other night (nutritionist) and they made us this "live" drink. It was pink and looked yummy until I tasted it and of course I say, "oh-that’s different". Needless to say it smelled and tasted like mold, pure mold, but I choked it down and kept telling my self that it’s good for my tummy, its good for my tummy. Gotta love them!

Oh how can I forget this story....

We almost got attacked my 2 dogs in one night. We were out finding and we went to walk up to this house when all the sudden this dog came barking at us. He just looked like he was protecting his territory, so we moved slowly closer to the door and all the sudden this giant dog came from behind the house coming right for ME. Sis.Eichenmiller "said" she couldn't see so she darted and left his to kill me. I yelled, clapped my hands and started freaking out of the dog and the owner came out and was apologized up and down. That got my blood going. I don't think I have yelled that loud in a long time. Then the elders called us and were complaining about how cold it was and asked if we would say a miracle prayer with them. So we said a prayer and we look down the street and see 3 fire trucks all decked out with Christmas lights coming down the road playing Christmas music. It was so cool. They stopped for us and we got a pic with Santa and they gave us candy canes. They go all around the neighbor hoods all week and do that. I guess its a big thing here in Olympia, but all we knew at the time was the Lord sent us a miracle!!!! THEN...we get back to our finding and walk up to this house with a gate. Usually we shake the gate to make sure a dog doesn't come out and then were good to go in. So we did just that, went in, knocked on the door TWICE and all the sudden we turn around and see this pit bull growling at us. I almost peed my pants. We are trapped!!!! I start ringing the door bell frantically praying the people really are home-well they weren't. We start taking little steps and this time Sis.Eichenmiller is protecting mehaha. Finally we made it to the gate and we figured we had had enough of dogs so we just called it a night of finding. I felt like we were being protected from that dog because he would come run towards us then turn around, then when we got out of the yard he was hysteric :/ I will never forget that nighty now lol!

I hope you guys have a wonderful week and remember to keep the spirit of Christ in this Christmas Season. This work is truly the Lord's, anything we do or any success we have is because of Him. I feel like the luckiest girl to have the family I have and to be here in the Tacoma Mission serving our Heavenly Father and teaching them about the greatest truths on the Earth. Yes, its the best!

I love you all and wish you a Merry Merry Christmas.

xoxoxoxo

Love,

Sister Phillips

I GET TO STAY IN OLYMPIA!!!!!

Oh man oh man was I excited and Sis. Eichenmiller gets to stay too!!! We begged President to let us stay together. We didn't want new companions for Christmas and we wanted to finish all the work that we started this transfer. I am pretty excited. That only means we know our fate for next transfer.

She is leaving and I am staying in Olympia (yay for me) and getting a new comp. Sis. Eichenmiller has been here in Olympia for 6 months now and it will be 7 1/2 months when she leaves and this is only her first area, so she will be ready to leave my January. There is only 1 person leaving our zone, so we are officially the smallest zone in Olympia and it ROCKS! We are all really close and there is not contention between the Elders (will see how long that lasts). It's going to be a fun transfer!

This last week was a great week. Sis. Eichenmiller was stressing out every day because she didn't know whether or not she was going to leaving...let’s just say I couldn't wait for that transfer call!!! And on top of that one of our Investigators got thrown into Jail :/ and who does she call first.....the Missionaries of course. Oh gee! It was a stressful situation because we really can’t do anything. Long story short the ZL's told Pres. Weaver and he told us the only thing we are allowed to do it teach her, which is fine by me. But it's hard to tell your investigator that when she is someone who can take offense very easily.

Even though I love Olympia, I am sad because there just not very festive. People don't put up very many light or decorations around here. Probably because they are all trying to conserve energy, because that's what Olympians do! We did find 1 neighborhood that was all decked out. We now take a nightly detour on our way home :D We do get to go caroling this week though; I am pretty excited about that.

We will probably go a couple times because it’s fun and a good missionary tool!!! Christmas only comes around once a year, right?! But we prayed mightily for her and all is well. She decided she wants to get baptized on Dec. 24th so hopefully that will fall into place (please oh please oh please).

Yesterday at church we had a member bring a friend in 3rd ward and he was just soaking everything up! He doesn't have too much of a Christian background, but we can fix that real quick ;) He already believes in Joseph Smith and the First Vision and he was amazed that we have a prophet on the Earth today. He's a smarty pants though and he had to dumb down some of his questions for us haha. We are going to start teaching him next week after his finals with school are done. Then, Tina who we met last week came up to me yesterday and said, "I want you to teach me, what time and day you can come over", it was awesome. I was waiting to go talk to her and ask that same question, but I am glad I waited and let her ask me. It was great; I had never had someone ask ME to teach them before ha! We will see her on Thursday. The work is going great. We have a lot of potential for this area and miracles just keeps showing up all the time. I know that is because Sis. Eichenmiller are trying to be obedient and have fun while we work, it really does make all the difference!

Thank you all for your emails and letters I seriously have the BEST family and friends in the world!!!

I love you all,I hope you all are having a great Christmas time and always reflecting back on the TRUE meaning of Christmas. In this season of giving, don't forget about the all of the Gifts Christ has given you and how you can give to others!!!

Sister Lakyn Phillips

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