January 25, 2012

This week was transfers and the best thing in the whole world happened....I am staying! Yes! I love the branch and we are just so busy with everything. I am just loving the work here! The next good news is that my companion is staying, too! He is great and I love him so much. He is probably getting sick of me though! He is really doing well. He is learning a lot and I am going to let him take more of the reins here so that he will continue progressing. No one in our apartment was transferred, in fact no one in our district was transferred. We are having fun as a district. I think that it is good sign that no one got transferred. I think it means that the Mission President trusts me as the District Leader and that we are having a lot of success. I am pretty sure that we are all still together for a reason and I hope and pray that I can find it and that I can be a benefit to everyone here.

The weather has been unusually warm this year. I think we deserve it after last year! Ha Ha! It snowed close to a foot one day and we went out and pushed cars and then just kept working. Walking in the snow is hard. We were so tired after walking in the snow all day that we took the bus home. Elder Morris just passed out on the bus...it was so funny! The members have been so nice and giving us rides. The snow all melted and it is crazy warm again.

We had an awesome baptism this last week. It was so spiritual. We did it on Friday night which gave us plenty of time to prepare. Her story is so fantastic. It ended up being a lot bigger miracle that we thought. She is so happy and wants to do well in the gospel. She also made so much great food for after the baptism. It was awesome. This was probably the most spiritual baptism that I have experienced on my mission.

We also have a couple of new investigators that will be baptized very soon. I am just loving life here and trying to enjoy it. We have a ton of extra miles for the car this month because we were planning on taking missionaries to the transfer meeting in Boston. Since no one was transferred, we decided to go to Hartford today. We are planning to get haircuts, go to the mall, and say hello to the missionaries here. It should be fun.

I love my mission. It means the world to me. Peace and Blessings. Have a magical week.

Elder Phillips