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 17th):
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
18th 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!!!!
Sunday: MERRY
CHRISTMAS!!! I saw Elder Koehler's mom
Love,
Sister Phillips
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