MERRY CHRISTMASSSSS!!!

Hello everyone!! I hope you had a very Merry Christmas and took advantage of remembering the Savior Jesus Christ and the real meaning of Christmas this year :) 

Before I talk about this week I want to finish talking about last week because I ran out of time for my email and didn’t get a chance to talk about last Saturday and Sunday!! 

Saturday (Dec 17^th): like I said last week was crazy! We had over 2200 people come in the Oakland Temple Visitors Center that day! That morning we had about 80 youth come in and they split them into 3 groups: Visitors Center tour; Outside Tour and Baptisms in the temple. We had to split the Visitors Center tour group in half after that because there was about 26 people in the group! We showed them God's plan for the family, some of the new meet the Mormons and 8 stories about the missionaries from District 2 :) 

Then we went to see the Penesini family and taught sister Penesini the plan of salvation and answered a question about giants in the Bible that had been bugging her for years. :) We made plans to go visit them again on Christmas :) Then we gave the Samoan Sister's a ride to an investigators house for a lesson since their car was in the shop. After that we had dinner at the Scott's house. We ate salad and had an enchilada bake :) It was pretty good :) One of the other sisters warned us that they don't cook very often and that the food might not be good, but besides the dough being slightly undercooked it was yummy :). Then we went back to the Visitors Center and after showing a group "Light the World" we asked them for referrals and this really nice member gave me 2 referrals! Oh, and a funny story… So Sister Brinton and Sister Chiang had had a baptism and when they went to go drain the baptismal font, the tool thing they use to unstop it wouldn't come out! So Elder Neves (a senior missionary) went over and put on a jumpsuit and drained the font then put his suit back on and went back to the Visitors Center :) 

Ok, Sunday: (Dec 18^th 1 week until Christmas!! Even though Christmas is passed now). We had ward council and then, I SAW A POSSUM!!! A real live one for the first time in my life!!! IT was HUGE!!! Like the size of a cat! And it was FAT! IT was walking along the top of the fence dividing the church parking lot and some houses.

Then Sister Ellefson gave us chocolates for Christmas :) and one of our recent converts, Michael Angelo, got to hold the microphone while they blessed the sacrament! :D and he has gone to give the sacrament to a few people at their homes in our ward :) He's also supposed to get his patriarchal blessing soon too!! Also, another cool story: before I went to the MTC, My mom took me to temple square to do mission pictures and talk to the Visitors Center sisters there to see how Visitors Center life is, and we took a picture with one sister and sent it to her mom. They live in San Jose (not too far from my mission; the Oakland/San Francisco Visitors Center mission). Her mom found me at the Visitors Center today and gave me and Sister Muench Toblerone Chocolate as a Christmas gift! And she sent a pictures back to my mom :) 

Sister Chiang and I went on outside tour today (It was freezing! Note to self: Always remember to wear tights on these nights!!). We got 2 Catholic families to fill out referrals for missionaries to stop by! Another funny story... I was companions with Sister Brinton on Christmas schedule and we were on women's bathroom right next to the break room. Elder Ward ( a senior missionary) went inside the break room and when he came out Sister Brinton asked if he liked the banana bars that were in there and he said he got diverted by the chocolate cake! And then Sister Ward came around the corner and he told us not to tell her because she hates people eating sweets. She's also on a vegan diet because it's the only thing that makes her migraines go away. But I've heard her food is really yummy :) Then, when the coast was clear, Sister Brinton and I went into the break room and ate spoonfuls of chocolate cake :3.  It was delicious!

Ok, Finally onto this week... I'm sorry... :)

Monday: I got my white elephant gift for our gift exchange :) it's in a sparkly box with sparkly glasses and beaded necklaces all from the dollar store :D 

Then - Best thing ever happened  - We went to classic burger where the missionaries have a tab. People can put money on the tab for us to eat free! BEST BURGER EVERRRR!!!!! The "Classic Burger" is a burger with pastrami on it (thanks for educating me about the goodness of pastrami Dad!) :) and I had grilled onions on it too. SO GOOOOODDD!!!! We also had chocolate shakes and fries! We went with the Samoan Sisters and it was a lot of fun :)

Then we went to the chapel and wrote our emails. None of our potential investigators were home so we went to Family Home Evening at the Broberg's house with Michael Angelo and we talked about patriarchal blessings :) Then we went to a recent convert's house (Tori) and taught her about tithing and fast offerings. Then I attempted to make lasagna. I was a little hesitant to try lasagna after the whole minestrone soup disaster... But, it actually turned out pretty good! Maybe I’ll add a little more sauce next time though :)

Tuesday: In personal study I finally got my True to the Faith book out and started reading it. WHY HAVEN'T I OPENED IT SOONER!!?? WHERE HAS THIS BEEN ALL MY LIFE!!?? It was beyond fantastic! It was mindblowingly good! I read under "scriptures" and it was cool to learn more about what each of the standard works was about. Then I researched "millennium" and it was cool to be reminded of some things that will happen. Then we had district meeting, and during one of our practices when we taught the Samoan sisters about prayer, Sister Tafua did something really funny and I laughed so hard I had tears streaming down my face! I don't think I've laughed that hard in a very long time :) and since district meeting was held over lunch time, Elder Selli and Elder Tung made us traditional African food!! It was stew over rice :) And my mom sent another box full of stockings!   

Wednesday: Our new missionary follow up meeting was amazing! We talked about adjusting to missionary life and how to have a good study etc. We learned about the power in short and simple lessons. Then we went home and ate lunch after stopping by the mission home. Then we learned the importance of prayer during 12 weeks. Then at the Visitors Center I got a cute mini Chinese calendar and a silk purse from Sister Chiang, and Bro Alliling gave us chocolates :) I also got a HUGE box full of presents from my mom :) Then I had a non-member fill out a referral for her friend!

Thursday: Michael Angelo's car was broken into last night! They stole his medication :/ I'm so glad that he didn't have to pay anything to fix the window, but more importantly I'm so happy that he was able to forgive whoever did it even though we don't know who it was. Then we had our Christmas program! We all got together and heard talks and sang songs and then we did our white elephant gift exchange! Someone brought a fresh Christmas tree all wrapped up!!! IT was a lot of fun! I got some ring pops (one in the shape of Rudolph's nose) and some cars and other stuff.

President and Sister Frandsen's children came too. One gave a talk and 2 grandkids sang for us :) they were 2 little girls who sang "Gethsemane." Then we went to a less active member’s house and met them for the first time and we are excited to go back and see them this week!

Friday: We spent time at the Visitors Center training to practice our songs. It was pouring rain outside! Then we gave a tour to an Ethiopian family and I think they filled out a referral card. I also talked with a guy on chat in the Philippines who was getting baptized in 30 min. It was super cool! I got a mission ring today!!

Saturday! Christmas Eve! I read "Becoming a consecrated Missionary" It's a must read!! Then we performed our Christmas program and ate pizza from Round Table Pizza! We heard about transfers (no change for me). Sister Flores and Sister Madsen straightened their manes!!!! We got to open our Christmas pj's!

Sunday: MERRY CHRISTMAS!!! I saw Elder Koehler's mom

Love,

Sister Phillips

More Christmas Blessings!!!

No sooner did we get the wonderful picture of Alyssa from Susie's friend Jill, then we received a pair of emails from a member who attended the Christmas Eve and Christmas Day programs at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center. He sent us a video of the Sister Missionaries for both nights (Dressed in Black for Christmas Eve and dressed in White for Christmas Day)

Christmas Eve program at the California Oakland/San Francisco Temple Visitors Center. (Alyssa is on the far right)

Christmas Day program at the California Oakland/San Francisco Temple Visitors Center. (Alyssa is to the right between the far right and middle microphone stands)

Our Christmas Blessing

Susie, Hadley and I got to Skype with Alyssa today. She is doing absolutely wonderful in the California Oakland/San Francisco mission. We had a great conversation.

Then we got a little Christmas miracle. We got a picture of Alyssa and her companion at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center from Susie's friend Jill. It turns out one of her childhood friends she grew up with lives in Arizona but was visiting family in Oakland, CA. They went to the temple today for Christmas where she took a picture with Alyssa & her companion. Susie's friend Jill recognized Alyssa and sent the picture to us. What a wonderfully small world we live in!

After talking with our sweet daughter and feeling the extreme love for her, I had a thought I wanted to share. Can you imagine what it must be like for our Father in Heaven today? For those of us who are away from loved ones and recognize how much we love them, think about how Heavenly Father is feeling about having to send all of his children to earth on a "mission". To watch us struggle, watch us succeed, miss us dearly, and realize the love he has for us. It's an overwhelming thought and made me want to work harder to make my Father in Heaven proud just like our daughter is making me proud!

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

LIGHTtheWORLD — Follow the example of Jesus Christ. Share His light and ...

"You're a mean one, Sister Muench!"

Sister Muench told me about how she and her brothers sing "you're a mean one, Mr. Grinch" to her dad but they would replace ‘Mr. Grinch’ with ‘Mr. Muench.’ So I've taken the liberty to randomly say "you're a mean one, Sister Muench" xD Yes, I think that I'm very funny :D Anyway, back to my weekly email...

Hello everyone!!! I love you!! Merry Christmas!!

I cannot wait to skype my family!!! 

Monday: Towards the end of the night I was stationed at the Christus at the front of the Visitor Center and I talked to this lady who was a non-member and gave her one of the stockings my mom made (she sent really cute little stockings for me to pass out that have a light the world card some candy and a testimony from some people in my ward in Draper) and she said that it meant so much to her especially because her husband had recently passed away etc. It was super nice to talk to her :) I love talking to people!!! It's so cool to see people come from all over to see the temple and the Christmas lights and to hear about their background and their life :) and I think we had a full moon today.. maybe it is tomorrow...

Tuesday: oh goodness... it was a very eventful day... so I started making minestrone soup last night but didn't have enough time to finish cooking it (the veggies weren't cooked all the way) before I went to the Visitors Center so I put it in the fridge. This morning I took out the pot and put it on the stove to finish cooking while I got ready and yes, I did stir it... but the food at the bottom still got burned and then I found out the next day when I tried a bite to see if it was salvageable. It wasn't. It was super bad because the whole thing tasted burned. So I had to throw a whole pot of soup away :'( and it made our apartment stink like smoke too.. and our clothes. and I didn't notice the smell on the clothes until half way to the Visitors Center. Luckily we weren't busy that day and my clothes mostly aired out by the end of the shift. Then we visited a less active who is the only member in her home (the mom) and we read 1st Nephi Chapter 1 and she really opened up to us. She said it was really hard to go to church alone and she said she'd try to come to church on Sunday (which she didn't :/) Then we went to see Helen Devore a really old lady who is very sick and finally got baptized after years and years. (Her children all are LDS and went on missions) and we're teaching her the lessons so she can go to the temple but we don't know if/when she'll be able to go :/ but we talked about keeping the Sabbath day holy (which was the theme for yesterday for the light the world calendar - I hope you all are participating ;)) Then we had dinner at the Brober's (Brother Broberg is the ward mission leader) and after we helped him and his family take treats to their neighbors and we got to talk to a Christian family who are non-members and gave them a light the world calendar and told them about the Christmas initiative.  Then we had a lesson with Tracy a recent convert who spoke with us on Sunday DEC 11. We taught her about the principles of Tithing and Fast Offerings. She is SO cute!! She's from Scotland so she has a Scottish accent :) and then we taught Tori another recent convert the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I also got my 12 days of Christmas package from my Phillips Grandparents with a story and present each day :) they are super cute!

Wednesday: So today wasn't necessarily as eventful as yesterday :) but while we were on our shift at the Visitors Center it got busy around 5:30 when our Christmas shift starts. We met a white lady from Zambia Africa and gave her a tour :) she filled out a referral for one of her co-workers! Oh yeah; actually as I'm going back through my journal to write this email it actually was eventful because I was boiling water to cook noodles and when I tried putting my shell noodles in 3 fell beneath the burner and Sister Muench said they'd be fine... but then they slowly turned black and burned and set of the smoke alarm.. so yeah... sister Muench must think I'm a terrible cook. At the Visitors Center we gave a tour to a group of Young Women and a group of primary kids and then a member girl and her non-member boyfriend. 

Thursday: ZONE CONFERENCE!!!! It was amazing! we talked about how to hear the Lord's voice, come unto Christ (and how) through 9 points: pray daily, scripture study, have faith in Christ, attend church to worship him, give service, be kind to others, forgive others, make and keep covenants and repent :) I challenge you all to think about what you can improve to hear the Lord's voice :) Then we talked about inspired questions, etc. and ate a wonderful lunch!! I finally got to experience being fed by Polynesians and they wanted to keep giving me more and more food... 0.0  But then we grabbed Chinese food for dinner before our shift at the Visitors Center and it was pouring rain when we got out of zone conference! Then we talked to this lady after the 8 pm performance and she is a non-member and filled out a referral card for her sister. I had an amazing experience chatting with a guy online who had fallen away from the church but now wanted to come back and was afraid to and I told him to not let fear hold him back from being happy and how through the Savior’s atonement we can be forgiven and helped him get info to go back to church :) 

Friday: Happy 1 month in the mission field!! We had Visitors Center training where we practiced our songs for our Christmas performance. We had cinnamon rolls and lots of yummy food! And I talked to this guy on the phone who sent in a referral to be taught by missionaries and he was so GOLDEN!!! So excited for him to be taught by missionaries :) he already wanted to be baptized into our church :) 

Saturday: Sister Muench fell off the treadmill this morning xD she's ok. Today was crazy!! We had over 2200 people today! I have to go but I love you!! Keep doing light the world!!! MERRY Christmas!!!

HELLOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, some people have been confused about the title of my last email. I was in a hurry and forgot to explain about the "Veniece one question please" thing. Sister Muench's first name is Veniece and when we were online chatting with people on Mormon.org; there is a guy who frequents Mormon.org chats and Sister Muench has talked to him before and apparently he always types in all caps and kept saying "VENIECE ONE QUESTION PLEASE" etc. LOL. So now that's a joke that I say sometimes to Sister Muench.

People have asked about how it works for me to be at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center and have an area that we teach in. So regarding my apartment, it's in my proselyting area (San Lorenzo) and we drive to the Visitors Center in Oakland. We have our own car (it's super nice). Our apartment is pretty big. It has 2 rooms. One where we sleep and the other has a big dresser and a huge closet that I get all to myself since Sister Muench uses the one in our room. We're mostly booked with appointments every week so we don't do a lot of tracting or knocking on doors. But we have done some; usually when when we show up for dinner at a member’s house and we’re early, we go down the street and knock on doors.

Anyway, now that we got that out of the way, on to the weekly email!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY TANNER!! I can't believe you're 15!!

The San Francisco/Oakland Mission is so close to our goal of 400 baptisms for the year!! Last I heard it was 306/400 and we had 69 people on date for the ninth of December, but we just had 11 baptisms last week!! So exciting!!

Monday was super fun because we had a district activity and ate pizza and played apples to apples and I tried pupusas for the first time! And I finally met a less active lady names Sister Campbell! She has 4 cats but I couldn't pet them because I found out that Sister Muench is allergic to cats.

So on Wednesday we FINALLY got to teach our potential Investigator Deiny (the family we're teaching) and add her as an investigator! And we met with Tori (a recent convert) on Monday and re-taught her the plan of salvation. Then we had a lesson with Michael Angelo (a recent convert) and re-taught him about the importance of keeping the Sabbath day holy. Then we had dinner at the Chilton's Wednesday night and they have 6 kids! It was so fun and the food was really good :) 

I had to speak in sacrament this past Sunday on the importance of member missionary work and then we taught the lesson for the Gospel Principles class right after. But I cannot stress the importance of members being full time finders and the missionaries being full time teachers! Just imagine how many more people we could teach! And I went to Chillie Padi with a member and 2 other sister missionary companions. It was delicious!!

By the way, here’s a really amazing story! So this first grader and her dad came into the visitor center because she wondered why she couldn't go into the temple (they're non-members) so the dad took her in to learn! (How cool is that!) And Sister Madsen showed them the temple kiosk and then showed them "God's plan for the family" and she asked me and my companion to end it when the video got over. It was so cool to see how the video touched him! At the end of the Video it talked about how families are central to God's plan and he said that he moved from California because everyone is always so centered on their career and not their family and so he really loved that. We gave him a referral card to fill out and he said it's not a “no” but that he'd have to "chew" on the information that we gave him and come back with his wife!!!

That's all I have time for. Have a wonderful week!! Don't forget to #LightTheWorld!!!!

My Christmas Wish

For my Christmas wish, I want everyone to share the light of Jesus Christ, who is the "light of the world" (John 8:12). Please watch the Church's new Christmas Video 'Light the World.' There is an advent calendar you can download and print out that gives you ideas on ways we can serve others like the Savior and brighten people's day!! It starts December 1 and goes through December 25th - 25 ways over 25 days. SHARE IT!!!!! Share the video with everyone! Post it on social media and share your stories using the hashtag #LIGHTtheWORLD

A few pictures from my mission so far...

We got to stop by the Ghiradelli Chocolate Factory Store! (MMMM)

Fun Mexican restaurant near our apartment

District FUN!

Oakland Temple

Cheese!

Decorating the Oakland Temple Visitors Center for Chirstmas

Incentives to decorate for Christmas

Sister Muench setting up refreshments for the art exhibit at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center

View from top of the Oakland Temple

With Sister Muench in front of the Oakland Temple

Welcome to San Francisco!

My first time seeing the Golden Gate Bridge

Another view of the Golden Gate Bridge from the airplane

Sister Shamo and I at the airport

The California San Francisco/Oakland Mission Home

View of the San Francisco bay and skyline from the Mission Home

With my first companion, Sister Muench

Here are pictures of my apartment:

Our desks with a map of the mission on the wall

Our advent stocking counting down the days until Christmas!

Our cute little Christmas Tree

Our bedroom

Our Kitchen

The apartment clubhouse/rec area

Outside the apartment clubhouse/rec area

Another view of our kitchen

VENIECE ONE QUESTION PLEASE!

Hello everyone!

This week has been a week of miracles and the best week since I've been on my mission!!!

So after I was done emailing everyone, I got a Christmas tree and decorated it :) THEN!!!!! TUESDAY!!!!!! Ok, so as a Visitor Center Sister, we get to answer people's questions online from Mormon.org and there was a guy I was chatting with November 15th the day before I left the MTC. He was wanting to know where he could go to learn more about our beliefs. He said he was from Nepal (where we can't talk about the church because of government stuff) but it turns out that he was living in California, in Richmond, IN MY MISSION!!!!!!!!! Except he's not in my area. Anyway, I get his number and email and he said he'd come to the Oakland Visitor Center on the 29th but I wasn't supposed to be there until later than when he was going to show up. All I'm going to say is God does miracles. Turns out he did go to the Visitors Center but had to go across the street for an interview to get a job. Turns out they weren't there so he CAME BACK to the Visitors Center and I was there and got to actually MEET him!!!!!!!! He asked if we had any church videos we could show him so we showed him the restoration video and talked to him and really got to know him and gave him a restoration pamphlet. We were going to have him fill out a referral card but he told us he already had. Here's the cool part; he had been at the Visitors Center in the Family History Center with his friend who is LDS when we were chatting on Mormon.org the night before I left the MTC to go there. So we gave the Mission President his info to send the missionaries over :) Super cool!!

That same day (Tuesday) I was chatting with this girl and she was wanting to know more about our church because her boyfriend is LDS. After I clarified a few things, I gave her my Mormon.org info and we emailed each other the next day and she said once she had a taste of the gospel she doesn't want to stop!! So I sent the missionaries over with a copy of the Book of Mormon! So hopefully she takes my advice to have the missionaries in her area teach her. :) Later that same day I was studying Romans Chapter 8 and it talks about how we are foreordained by God and that God knew us before we came to earth etc. Go study it!! I love Verse 31! "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?"

Another miracle!! On November 30^th (Wednesday) we went out to try and contact some potential and former investigators. We have 2 new potential investigators!! A guy who disappeared a week before his baptism date, and a family who came to the Visitors Center in April and they haven't been able to contact them since. The guy was supposed to go to church this week and didn't and we were supposed to meet with the family today but they rescheduled for tomorrow. So hopefully we get to meet with the family tomorrow and the guy on Wednesday, December 7th. I absolutely loved studying about prayer on this day!!

December 1^st (Thursday), we practiced our Visitors Center songs for the interfaith Christmas concert at the Visitors Center.

December 2^nd (Friday) the Mailaus took us to dinner at a Vietnamese restaurant.

December 3^rd (Saturday) HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!! We went to the Relief Society brunch. I was able to usher for the first hour letting people in to the Scrooge performance.

December 4^th (Sunday) I was asked to pray at least 3 times at church today. Once in Ward council, the second time I was asked to give the opening prayer in Sacrament meeting and then I gave the prayer in the Gospel Principles class. But that wasn’t all, I was asked to give the prayer at a family's house when we went and visited them that afternoon. Then we went to dinner at a member’s house before going to the Visitors Center. We’re now on the Christmas schedule so every hour we switch spots and get a  new companion. Sister Xiao and I had a very powerful experience showing God's plan to a non-member lady and her daughter who were there with some member friends. We testified of families being sealed together forever and being able to see our family and friends again after death. Sister Xiao and the member husband shared very powerful testimonies and experiences. I love seeing all of the little kids!!! 

P.S. - Don't forget to watch Light the World and do a daily act of kindness in the Savior’s name!!

Sister Alyssa Phillips

Sister Missionary Clothing over the years.

The power of testimony!