Last P-day at the MTC week 4!

November 11, 2016

Hey everyone!!!

So a lot has happened this week. I had to say goodbye to most of my district on Tuesday and that was really hard. Now it's me, Sister Garn and Sister Mudrow, who joined our companionship so we're a trio now :) Since most of our district left, we got 3 new sisters in our room and I’m slowly adjusting to them being there. LOL. I'll try sending pictures again. Maybe email me (alyssa.phillips@myldsmail.net) if you want the pictures so I can share them with you on google drive.

We started our special Visitor Center training on Wednesday and that's been great we have 3 teachers Sister Gessel (whose father is part of my mission presidency in Cali) and she teaches us in the day, then we have Sister Riding who helps us with our online teaching and chats we do from Mormon.org and then we have Sister Kendall Who teaches us in the evenings and she'll be the one to take us to temple square tomorrow!!! I'll be at temple square from around 2:30/3:00 pm until around 7:20pm.

We've learned about greeting and how to manage our time and how to study for our investigators. So to clear up some stereotypes everyone usually makes about Visitor Center Sisters; half the day we are in the Visitor Center and the other half of the day we are out proselyting in our assigned area. We also teach people online for a portion of the day as well and something that I learned that I didn't know before is our job doesn't end when those people leave the Visitor Center. We get their info and follow up with them and the missionaries the whole way all the way up until baptism as a support and even after. And if they don't feel comfortable with being taught by the missionaries we can teach them at the Visitor Center or online/phone/texting, etc… which I think is super cool! Most people think that since I’m going to a VC that I won't get very many baptisms but it's the complete opposite because of the follow up and also the teaching online. To all of my missionary friends out there, please treat our referrals like gold, because they are!!!! We get these people ready to be taught for you!!

Hermana Farnsworth was chatting with a man from China who came here to the US and visited a Visitor Center and wanted to learn more about the church so he moved his family here. He only has 6 months left until they have to go back to China but he wants to learn as much as he possibly can before he goes back and even wanted to attend church this Sunday! The Lord definitely prepares those who are ready for us to teach. We just have to be led by the Spirit!

OH! I forgot to tell you about the Referral Center (my dad called it the tele-center). We're doing that here and our district was in one of the pilot programs for it so the other sisters in my visitor center class hadn't done it before so we were lucky. We call people to verify their address if they've ordered a free Bible or Book of Mormon and it's so much fun to offer to send them a free Book of Mormon if they've ordered a Bible. Most of the time they say yes and then we send the referral to the local missionaries. We do that for all over the world not just in the US. We also do online chats from Mormon.org and yesterday we talked to a guy about priesthood and relief society and women and the priesthood. I also chatted online with someone who wanted a tour guide who spoke Chinese (we were both typing in English) and she wanted to chat online before meeting with the missionaries so I transferred her to the Mandarin speaking missionaries online so she could better understand. I'm going to hopefully send her an email to follow up with that tonight. 

Oh, I sent in my vote on Saturday. I voted for the first time and found out Trump won :P Just know the Lord will protect and guide us so just remain faithful and remember it's a commandment to keep the laws of the land! LOL. I saw my little sister's teacher that works at her daycare today. She apparently talks to people here about her faith and how she goes to a community church.

On Fast Sunday (it was brutal but worth it because we got steak for dinner), we heard from the members of the MTC presidency and their wives. President Bertasso (one of the councilors) said we, as missionaries, are becoming the 1st vision to those we teach and that the Book of Mormon combined with the Spirit is the most powerful converting tool we have. I also liked how President Burgess's wife, Sister Burgess, talked about gratitude and humility going hand in hand and that you can't grow spiritually unless you have an attitude of gratitude. She also shared something from Elder Oaks’ talk "Give Thanks to God in All Things Even in Our Afflictions".

OH!!! Before I forget, we had the famous violinist Jenny Oaks Baker who is the daughter of Elder Oaks!!!! She and her family are SO musically talented! They all played songs for us in between Sister Baker giving her talk. They played and sang "The Prayer;” “I Am a Child of God;” “Abide With Me;” “A Poor Wayfaring Man of Grief” and “Amazing Grace.” It was SO beautiful!! She and one daughter played the violin, another daughter sang and played the piano, another daughter played the cello and her little boy played the acoustic guitar (he can also play electric too apparently ;)) and her husband also talked. Sister Baker talked about when we acknowledge God, He will guide us (Proverbs 3:6). She also said we shouldn't dismiss God after we think our trials are over. She also talked about priesthood blessings and how she'd get them before her auditions and performances. She also talked about how we all sometimes get jealous of each other and she made a great point (I think her mother told her this.) "Do you think you can build the kingdom of God by yourself? (Proverbs 3:5 lean not unto your own understanding). You should be happy for other's successes. She also talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy and she said that she made it a goal to not practice on Sundays like everyone else did and that she was able to be more energetic and able to practice the rest of the week and put in 100% because of the rest she got on Sunday.

She also shared something her nephew said in his homecoming talk when he got home from his mission: "When you put in 95% on the mission you have success but when you put in 100% you have even greater success." She also talked about how service is important but what people need more than service is love; she said “When you are in the service of your fellow men you are in the service of your God.” She also talked about how she lost her mother and how she prayed for her and had faith that God could heal her but her point is that true faith is faith and trust in Christ. We exercise our faith but it is ultimately the Lord's will. She said because she put her faith in Christ and not in her mom's recovery, when her mom died her faith was strengthened and not shattered. The Lord hears our prayers. Keep His commandments (do all we can do) and D&C 46:13-14 eternal life is promised even to those who believe on other's words. But if you know Christ is the Savior you need to speak out about it to those seeking to find. Her husband, Matt, talked about establishing our legacy in the mission. Legacy's definition: legal term - leave someone something in a will. But in our culture it's more so defined as leaving something for future generations and he told us to establish our own legacy in the mission where you teach - will leave something with the people there. 

LOVE you all!!!! 

Email Address:
alyssa.phillips@myldsmail.net

Mission Address:
Sister Alyssa Phillips
California Oakland/San Francisco Mission
4945 Lincoln Way
Oakland, CA 94602