January 25, 2011

Do you think we have enough snow?

Well, it has been super crazy this week! I am having fun in Worcester. I am still in a city, just not quite like Boston. It has been super fun to be here and to do what God wants me to do.

Just to let everyone know....it has been like nuts cold here! At night it is way below zero and with the windchill, it is like death! The wind is what gets you. I am really thankful to have a car again! We are expecting another storm, which I love because it warms up to the twenties! I never thought I would say that I was grateful for a storm! We are just working hard and trying to be as efficient as possible.

The last 2 p-days we have just stayed indoors and played darts and card games. We also get a red dot (which means we shouldn't go out) or they tell us we can't drive because the weather is so bad. I am getting sick of staying inside!

Last Monday we met a guy that had a skin eating disease and almost died! I thought they only had that in Africa and stuff. He is fine now.

Tuesday, we got a red dot! I literally got sooooo sick of being inside all day. I was like we are going out and walk to the library! I just wanted to get outside! My companion was shocked! I think we did more than any other elder has ever done on a snow day!

Wednesday was a good day. We were super busy. It is just weird to have a car...you can do a lot more! We ate with this guy from Germany. He was crazy and has done all this stuff. We think he was in the CIA or something. No one knows anything about his past and he has no pictures. He is cool and huge and used to be a body builder. He is old now and just converted to the gospel. Then there is this other guy in the ward that is a professional cage fighter! He is cool and he is huge. He was just converted. I just really like the people out here. The ward is super good, but no one is big into missionary work. We are really trying to incorporate good things which is good for us too.

Thursday, we went to a blood drive at a public college and we got some good contacts. Most of the people were just like the majority of 20 year olds...super selfish and only worried about number one. It is hard to think about what I would be doing if I hadn't gone on a mission. My path is really different because of my choices. Then we got a new investigator from Liberia. He was apparently a diplomat there and knows a bunch of languages. He is super interested and just awesome. We also did service at the Bishop's Store House that day. I have done a lot of service with different organizations and it was super cool to see how good the church is at organizing and distributing service.

Friday we thought we were going to get a red dot so we went to grab some things we needed. Then we went over to the other elder's apartment. We didn't get a red dot...but we were totally prepared and then nothing happened. Funny!

Saturday, we taught 3 different people from Africa. How cool is that? We bump into them all the time and they all love Jesus too! It is really cool!

We had a normal Sunday...but we tracked into this guy from Laos. It was supper crazy. He had a Book of Mormon that was like a foot by a foot. We were reading and trying to find Mononi's promise and it was already circled! Super Cool! I also learned a good lesson from a member. He talked about how important families are...like nothing else really matters except family.

Yesterday was p-day again. We stayed indoors all day again because the high was only 9 degrees without the wind chill. Apparently, yesterday morning it was -30 with the windchill. We were chilling with a recent convert and the zone leaders. We played cards and talked and stuff. It was fun, but I can't wait till I can do stuff outside again!

Peace and Blessings! Love, Elder Phillips

January 18, 2011

I've been transferred to Worcester, MA. I have even less in common with my new companion. He is into Shakespeare and doesn't have an athletic bone in his body! He is super, super nice. It is super crazy. He is like the most loving and warm kid I have ever met in my entire life. Worcester is the second largest city in New England but it is more spread out than Boston. It is fun. We have a car now. The ward is great with great youth, which is fun. There has not been too many youth in the other areas. We are excited to work with them.

I will always be writing on Tuesdays now. We just got another big storm. We couldn't drive today, so we are walking to the library (to email) in the storm. I have on my winter coat and my rubber things over my shoes. I got here on Friday kind of late. It takes about 1 1/2 hours to drive here from Boston. The drive is beautiful. The work is a lot different here. Not so much street contacting and lots of visiting and knocking on doors. It is cool to have a different aspect of missionary work. We don't live with other elders, so it is a lot more quiet. I will have to work hard to maintain my Spanish. There is a lot of Spanish people, but they usually know both languages. I still get to translate, so that's exciting.

Saturday morning, we got to go help a scout with his Eagle project from the ward. We chopped down trees. It was super fun and I enjoyed it. It brought back good memories of tying down water heaters! We also work at the Bishop's storehouse a couple of times a week. I don't think we will be building any houses anytime soon, but there is plenty of service and we get free food....so that is solid!

Sunday, we had a meeting with the Stake President. We had to get up at 5 am and get a ride back to the city. The Stake President gave a great talk and compared us to aircraft carriers. He said the only way to survive a storm is to go and dive into the waves and fight back against the things in the world. It was amazing! I will continue to go on and keep doing the things that the Lord wants me to do.

Monday was P-day and it was super cold. It was only in the teens, so we didn't want to go outside. We went and hung out with some other elders that live nearby. I don't have much in common with any of the elders here. They don't really like sports, so we played darts!

Peace and Blessing! Love you all!

Elder Phillips

January 13, 2011

Elder Still's Birthday!

Eating at the Indian Restaurant!

Dart gun wars!

Oh man! I am so tired this week! Last night we go snowed in again and we had to pass the whole day in the house, not too exciting. In the night, someone came and got us and we went to shovel snow all night! So you can imagine, my fat out of shape butt is dang tired! HaHa! It was fun doing something a little different.

I am getting transferred! No one can believe it, people thought I was going to train and be district leader, but nope, I am leaving. We don't know where I am going until Friday. Usually we can predict where people are going...but there have been so many changes that we can't guess. We all thought that Elder Still would be going because he has been here 7 months and I have been here only 3 months. But this is what the Lord wants, which is hard because we have some killer good investigators and people that will be baptized in the coming transfer. Whatever...life is great and we will keep moving and going forward! I was looking forward to a change....just not to packing again!

Sorry that I forgot to press send last week with my email! I will always write to my bloggers!

Last week was a fun week! It was Elder Still's birthday and we had a party for Family Home Evening. We went out to an Indian restaurant. The Indian people scared me into getting a "medium spicy" thing and it was not even bad...almost bland. How I have changed! Indian food is really good!

I just want everyone to know that I have the same mother as Nephi! She was "trippin out", too! She was such a "tammy"! I love it! She was always getting mad at the prophet and she was just so worried about her kids. ( 1 Nephi 5: 1-9)

Last week, we found this amazing investigator. He will be baptized. We taught him twice and he cried from the spirit it was so strong. It was amazing. Seriously, I am sad to be leaving him.

We have this member who loves to do missionary work. Imagine! I have developed a really good relationship with him and he is always so willing to help. He gives out Book of Mormons to his friends! Imagine! Members actually helping with the missionary work! That is the purpose of the church, really. If you love God, share it with others!

Saturday, we had a hard day of moving someone in the snow! It was the guy that we have been helping with his house for forever! We have done so much service for him, but it has been fun to do it.

Last Sunday, I proved again that I am my father's son! I got us a free meal at some random person's house just because I did a "dad" and gave this lady so many compliments. She was like "do you want to eat?" and I was like "sure!" I will always be in debt to my dad for that!

I love you all so much! Peach and Blessings!

Elder Phillips

January 3, 2011

Working on a puzzle of Fenway Park!

Doing service at the house we have helped so much with.

Sanding the floor! I have learned some cool stuff!

Snowed in....Doing some home repairs and cleaning at our apartment!

Snowed in....playing the best board game ever...Scotland Yard!

Look at the snow! You can't see the cars! It rained today...we don't have any snow left!

HHHHeeeelllloooo! y feliz ano nuevo. How is everything? All is well here! I just want everyone to know that New Year's Eve was really lame. No parties, just basically another day. We worked and saw some members. The buses didn't work because of the so called holiday!

We have transfers next week, so don't expect an email on Monday...but Wednesday.

Thursday, was a really weird day. All the people were crazy and high that talked to us. I had a lady yell at me because I wouldn't teach her because she was alone. Then there was a guy in a car laughing at her and then he told us to come over and he took a Book of Mormon. It looked like this guy lived out of his truck.

Friday was just awesome...NOT! New Year's Eve here is just an excuse for everyone to get drunk and go crazy...it was super lame. We went to a member's house and they fed us and we did service during the day. We cleaned and prepared that guys floor to put the varnish stuff on it. It was really fun. Then we went to some members houses and one of them is super inactive and he totally opened up to us and everything. It was super great! I am not going to say why he is inactive but I have seen people that have so much happiness when they have the gospel in their life and then they go inactive for the stupidest reasons and go from sooo happy to not happy at all. It is really sad to see especially when you have learned to love the people here like I do.

Saturday, we finished this guys house (stairs and everything) and it looks good.

Sunday was really good. We are really pushing to get more Spanish people in the ward and to get the branch started. They had a Spanish Branch a few years ago, but it disappeared and so many people left the church. I don't know why the church didn't notice that 300 people went inactive and why they didn't do something right away! Anyway, that is what we are working on. We are trying to bring the inactive members back.

We had a great week! Hope you enjoy the pictures!

Peace and Blessings! Love Elder Phillips