Big things are changing!!

Last week I wrote about a guy named Joe I talked to on the phone line from Mormon.org and I said I would explain more about him next week… So to explain more about Joe, like I said, he's addicted to chewing tobacco and came on to chat on Mormon.org and asked me to call him. So I did and he said he's been to church lots of times and that he was taught by the missionaries and had a baptism date but got anxious about it and it fell through. The people in the ward he goes to and the missionaries he’s worked with all love him. He studies the Bible and the Book of Mormon and is fantastic! He'd be a great asset to the missionaries because he's so well versed in the Bible and knows where some of the stuff that correlates to the Book of Mormon is. So we'll see where that goes. Apparently he has a lot of online missionaries helping him including Sister Muench at one point back in July or August.

Monday: We had Zone Conference!! I loved Hearing Sister Frandsen's talk about humility and always remembering to submit to His will and that we can't do anything without the Lord's help. "We should pray like everything depends on the Lord and then go and work like everything depends on us." President Frandsen said we need to teach repentance better and that when we're inviting investigators to do something we're inviting them to repent. He also talked about how going to church is essential for investigators to develop a stronger desire for baptism. He delivered a "State of the Mission" message about how the California Oakland/San Francisco mission did for 2016 and what our goals for 2017 will be:

"Dear Elders and Sisters: Our 2016 Baptismal Goal was 400 individuals. We finished 2016 with 339 baptisms. This is just 4 fewer people baptized than in 2015, yet with approximately 22% fewer missionaries.  Although we did not achieve our goal in numbers, what a blessing this has been to our mission and to those missionaries who worked, prayed and exercised their faith to achieve this goal! Many missionaries have shared with us how they have come to understand better how faith works, how their faith has increased and how they saw specific miracles in their work as a result of their efforts to achieve this goal.  The issue, of course, is about individual people coming unto Jesus Christ and receiving His gospel with all the associated blessings, guidance and hope. Sister Frandsen and I want to thank all who have been praying with us this past year - missionaries who completed their missions and returned home, parents and many others. Given the blessings associated with this baptismal goal, we will be establishing another goal for our mission for 2017."

Our investigator Linda is SO cute!! She said that she posted on Facebook saying she loves the Book of Mormon and can't put it down!! Then we taught a lady named Flora who requested a Bible from Mormon.org and we were able to set a return appointment for her! YAY! Her little boy took my hand and walked us out the door and wanted to walk us to our car! He's so cute!! :D

Tuesday: So we had a worldwide missionary broadcast where our daily schedule as a missionary was changed to help missionaries be able to be more flexible and use our agency more. It also helps prepare us to keep the habits we learn on our missions when we go home. Our schedule allows us more freedom to choose. Our daily schedule is anytime between 6:30-10 we need to exercise for 30 minutes, have our daily planning for 30 minutes (Sister Muench and I are doing this in the morning now instead of at night), personal and companionship study 30-60 minutes and get ready/eat breakfast. Our lunch is now 30 minutes instead of 1 hour so no more member lunches. This new change is super nice because we can actually wake up at 6:30 instead of 6 or 6:15 and then we get home between 9 and 9:30 depending on lessons and appointments. So now we can go to bed any time between 9:30-10:30 :) Also, our P-day starts at 8 am instead of 10 am and we don't have to exercise that day :) Our key indicators for performance changed too. So now we only report on 4 key indicators and not the 9 we were doing before. The 4 we still report on are: Baptism and Confirmations, Baptism Date, if investigators attended sacrament meeting and new investigators. They also talked about how we need to teach repentance and baptize converts. These changes allows us to focus more on teaching and helping our investigators instead of trying to fulfill numbers. After the missionary broadcast we ate dinner at the Ralph's house. We had Russian Pasties and had an amazing discussion about Faith :) Then we met with our recent convert, Ben, and helped him overcome his feelings of inadequacy as he is preparing for the temple and he said "Thank you for inspiring me!" on our way out :) Then we went to the Sister Training Leader's apartment for exchanges.

Wednesday: MIRACLES!!!!!! Sister Chiang and I went to visit some potential investigators and then we went to Berkeley campus (yes, THE Berkeley College campus) to people contact. Because we spent time seeing those referrals first, even though they weren't home, we were able to meet these people!! The first person we talked to was a girl. We taught the story of the Restoration of the Gospel in 4 minutes and we got her contact info and set up a return appointment (she has no background in God or religion). Then we also were able to get 2 other people’s contact information. One was a Christian and looking for a church to go to and another I thought I'd try to talk to even though we were about to leave for a lesson and we got his info too! Then we taught a member about sharing the gospel on social media and I want all of you to do this as well. Get on one of your social media accounts (Facebook, Twitter, Instagram) and pull up your friends list and pray about who you should share your testimony and/or a church video with and do it! :D One of the lessons we taught tonight happened because a girl reached out to him even though she wasn't very good friends with him and invited him to church! He had just been to a Bible booth because he wanted to learn more about Christianity. He had no knowledge of Christianity and it was his first about lesson God and Jesus Christ that we taught and then the other lesson we taught was basically the same, no Christian background or knowledge and first lesson. I learned that I CAN teach people with no Christian background. Also, have you ever had an Indian burrito!?!?! It's amazing!! We had one for lunch here!

I'll have to tell you more next time :) Sorry!! Love you all!! Also, check out this amazing article about journaling!!

It's Great to be 8!!!!!

Hello everyone!! To explain the Subject line of this week’s email; we took our investigator, Linda, to a cute little girl's Baptism on Friday!! 

So, Friday the 13th, besides our car almost overheating, we had a couple people come into the Visitors Center. One was a lady who loved the atmosphere and how she felt while on the temple grounds (not a member) and she wanted to get married in the temple but can't because she's not a member. So we gave her info for the Stake center which is on the Temple grounds and told her she could have her wedding reception there. But, she was interested in learning more about the temple and getting any "brochures" we had. So we showed her the temple kiosk which plays several 2-3 minute videos about what happens in the temple like baptisms, endowments, sealing rooms and also the celestial room. Her reaction was SO funny!! She was like "What! Shut up! No way!" And said she was going to tell everyone what goes on in Mormon temples and to come and learn more at the Visitors Center. Another person who came was a member who was touring California on bike and the Oakland Temple was one of his last stops. He is a returned missionary (probably 5-10 years ago) and we showed him “God's Plan for His Family” and at the end he guessed that I had been on my mission for over a year and that Sister Muench (my trainer who's been out for 15 months) was 6 months! She didn't enjoy that but I thought it was hilarious! It made me feel good :) Something I've neglected to mention is we have TONS of girls celebrating their Quinceaneras here on the temple grounds. The girls are all wearing huge poofy dresses (I'd say all the ones I've seen are non-members) and they take pictures in front of the temple and the grounds. What's funny is one day it was super rainy outside so this family came inside and took pictures of their daughter next to pictures of Christ. Then they went into God's Plan and took pictures of her by the baby's room scene.... so next to a cradle... :) Oh yeah, our sink started to plug up and wouldn't drain in our kitchen...

Saturday: Go read "miracles" in the Bible Dictionary!! It's amazing!! Then we met with a potential investigator at the wrong Starbucks in the Target parking lot.. Because apparently there are two... haha. Our lesson didn't go so great.. So we'll see how our next lesson goes with Uta. We taught a recent convert, Tiffany, who's 14 and she asked us how to apply for a mission!! We went to see a potential investigator (Troy) and he was home this time! We were able to set a time to meet with him on Monday. What was cool though was walking back to our car we passed a guy who was working on cars in his front yard and gave him a restoration pamphlet and wrote our # on it in case he was interested :) What was funny is we also stopped by the Oliviera's again (the less active old couple because she has dementia) and Brother Oliviera answered and said his wife was asleep but all of a sudden she comes up right behind him to the door and says "Oh hi girls!". It was really funny :) On our way back to our apartment for lunch we knocked on doors on a street nearby and at one of the houses a lady answered the door and we gave her a Book of Mormon! Also, we looked through our area book and found someone named Joseph who we referred to the Young Single Adult Ward (YSA) Elders and we called them today to follow up on it and they hadn't been able to meet him but they had finally set up a day to meet because for the past 2 weeks he's been busy. 

Sunday: LINDA OUR INVESTIGATOR CAME TO CHURCH!!!!! But I talked about that last time :)

Monday: I forgot to tell you last time! I FINISHED ALMA!!!!!! And I was sad because I love Alma :) We went to Family Home Evening (FHE) at a member's house with some less active members!! :D and we also tried to see some other less actives afterward.

Tuesday: We got a referral! He had gone to the Visitors Center and had a tour and filled out a referral card! We taught Linda the Word of Wisdom today and she was totally fine with living it! Yay!! Then we got In-N-Out for lunch after our district meeting. Then a member brought her non-member friend into the Visitors Center for a tour to tell her more about the temple since she was curious and they had some time before their volleyball game :) 

Wednesday: We got another referral!! But it turns out he wasn't interested though. That's okay :) But hopefully he reads the Book of Mormon the San Jose Missionaries gave him :) We had dinner with Sister Usher who took us to a Chinese restaurant called "Peking Garden" It was super good! Including their war won ton soup!! The rain was so bad we could hardly see!! And then after our meeting with our ward mission leader we got ANOTHER referral!! The man had gone to the YSA ward on Sunday and the YSA Elders taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel. Unfortunately he didn't show up to our lesson we scheduled with him. When we got in touch with him, he told us he wanted to stay Catholic. 

Thursday: We GOT ANOTHER REFERRAL!!!  4 referrals in one week is unheard of!!!! We are truly blessed by the Lord!! One man who is a convert to the church came into the Visitors Center today and told us about his conversion story and said he and his wife are going to get sealed in the Oakland Temple tomorrow!! Then we went to deliver a Bible to one of our referrals since that's what they requested but she wasn't home when we got there. But her husband told us the best time to get in contact with her.

Friday: My dad sent me an awesome talk titled "Missionary Work and the Atonement" by Elder Holland!! So awesome!! Then we went to dinner later on with the Hales at a Mexican restaurant and he said that one of the Elders who had served in the area a couple years ago was from Russia. They would ask him if he liked something he ate and he would say "too much!" Then we went to the baptism with Linda tonight!!

Saturday: I talked to a guy named Joe on the phone line from Mormon.org and he is trying to quit chewing tobacco. I'll explain more next week.

Sunday: Linda came to church again and she started to tear up during Sacrament meeting!! She loves church and she wants to read the Pearl of Great Price and the Doctrine and Covenants so we're going to give her one!!

Love you all!!!

Sister Phillips

2 Months in the Mission Field!!

So before I forget again…, last week I forgot to explain the title of my last email which was "Taco Soup" So, a member had previously sent my mom some pictures of me here in the mission and she told my mom I was coming over for dinner and my mom told her one of my favorite things to eat is taco soup :) So, the member made us taco soup!! Then my dad told me he had made taco soup that same day as well but he made 2 pots of taco soup because he and I usually eat a lot of it xD He forgot I wasn't home to help him eat it :)

Recapping for Sunday 1/8/17 since I didn't get the chance to write about it last week:

It was fast Sunday and we met a new sister in our ward. She was super outgoing and wanted to know where the sign ups were to have us over to eat. Then after church we met with a recent convert and had a lesson about baptism and confirmation and finally finished his new member lessons. Then we went to the Sorensen's for dinner. I was so sad I didn't get to this part in my letter last week! I had homemade Pho! Which is Vietnamese noodles/soup and we had really yummy sauce for the meat which is hoisin sauce! Sister Sorensen made us cookies too! Then we had another lesson with a recent convert. After that, we went to our referral's house again to see if she was home and she wasn't. But when we were walking back to our car she pulled up and got out with her son! So we were able to set up a time to meet with her!! Yay!! Then we saw and older couple who is less active because the wife is in the early stages of dementia (so sad! but she's SO cute!!). When we got to our apartment we couldn’t get in through the main gate because someone had gotten into a car accident and blocked the gate. So we drove down the street to the side entrance and parked but the gate doors wouldn't open with our key because it was after a certain time; so we had to walk all the way down the street and by the time we got to our apartment the cars had left. Haha just our luck :) Something I learned today was what bearing a true testimony was. It isn't for show and it doesn't have to be elegant or have a huge story behind it. It's just simply stating what you know to be true. So remember that when you think you don't have something to share that's "big" :) 

Monday the 9th:

I studied the section in preach my gospel on how to develop Christlike attributes and I studied a little on the Faith attribute because we are studying the Christlike attributes this year as a mission :)

I also read from the book of Alma. Then I bought stuff to make Indian food!! Then we went to the mall with 2 other companionships of sisters to eat at panda express. Then we did our emailing for the week and afterward we met with the less active older couple again. We taught them the restoration and stopped by a less active sister's house to teach her (she had 7 cats apparently but she only has 5 since I've been here) and we found out she had to put 2 of her cats down because they were sick and she was sad and we made her night by coming over. 

Tuesday: BLESSINGS!! We got our new investigator Linda on a date to be baptized!! I read about the fall in Genesis 3 and thought it was cool to compare it to the knowledge I have. Sister Palmer had us over for lunch and made us breakfast for lunch! Yummy! Then we went to the Oakland Temple Visitors Center and it was a slow night besides talking to a girl who was Mormon and is now atheist. Sister Neves (a senior couple) used a famous Christ painting to look at and drew it in colored pencil!

Wednesday: The Neves are going home in April and the new senior couple replacing them came in today to say hi and visit before coming. I prayed either last night or the night before for the Visitors Center sisters to find someone today who would be an investigator or a potential investigator and it happened!! There was a guy who came in who had previously been taught by elders and he had lost his cell phone so he lost contact with the missionaries. He filled out a referral at the Visitors Center!! YAY!! Then we had dinner at the Chilton’s and shared the scripture "Be thou an example of the believers." in Timothy and shared a message with them about being good examples :) Then we went to our investigator Deiny's house with a senior couple and we ended up giving her to the Spanish sisters so that her whole family could be taught.

Thursday: our Visitors Center referral goal we set for this year is 4,600. This is up from the 3,800 last year because the Visitors Center was closed for 11 weeks for renovations. One of the referrals Sister Heatha and I got during Christmas time on an outside tour now has a baptismal date with the Spanish sisters!!  

BTW You should go check out these 3 awesome songs on the YouTube Mormon channel! They are "HaveI Done Any Good in the World Today" by Alex Boye; "I Am Here” by the Bonner Family (based on the Hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour.” The last one is "See You on the Other Side" by Shaun Canon. I made Indian food tonight!! 

FRIDAY THE 13th!!!!!

So today we had car problems… we ran out of coolant and our car beeped at us saying it was overheating. Thankfully we put water in it and it's doing well :) which is good because they didn't have any spare cars at the moment at the mission home. 

Before I go, Lind our investigator who is on date to be baptized came to church today!! She loved it!! She got both the Gospel Principles and the Relief Society handbooks and said she felt content. Which is what she has been looking for in the other churches she’s gone to but hadn't felt it!! She said she's definitely coming back next week and she saw a baptism announcement for a cute little girl and said she was going to it and asked if we were going to go with her! We were like "Heck yes!!" 

Sorry I don't have more time... Love you all!! 

Taco Soup :)

Hi!! So sorry I didn't have a lot of time to write my weekly email last week. Today I have 40 minutes left so that'll hopefully give me enough time :)

So in my last email I stopped on Thursday of the week before... So I'll start from Friday :) 

Friday: I met the 2 new Visitor Center sisters that came this transfer! Sister Bosco Is so cute! She's from Kentucky and Sister Foni is from Tooele, Utah. I also talked to a guy from Pakistan today on a Mormon.org chat and he wanted to go to church and meet with the missionaries but they don't have any chapels or missionaries in Pakistan unfortunately :/ The closest would be India or Saudi Arabia. 

Saturday: HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! We were at the Visitor Center from 9-1 then we went to see if a potential investigator was home and he wasn't, so we went tracting in that area and I met my first "Born Again Christian." Do they wear clothes that look like the pioneers? Because that's what her clothes looked like when she answered the door... and then we got Subway sandwiches and Chinese food and headed over to the chapel to watch those previously said movies for New Years Eve :)

Sunday: Officially 2017!!!! And my last page in my journal that I started at the MTC. And my first journal I've ever completed ever!!! Sorta sad right? Haha. But Goal accomplished!! *and thus is the end of my first journal* or *and now I make an end of my writings in my first journal* :) I also read some of "Our Search for Happiness" by Elder Ballard! It's really good!!

*one sec.. gotta change journals now.... Ok ready!*

Monday: I studied about prophets! Go read about them in Preach My Gospel!! Found out my friend Sister Harley from home is the follow up trainer for Sister Mudrow!! (she’s a Visitor Center sister at the Independence Missouri Visitor Center who was in my district at the MTC). SO cool!! We tried to go to lunch in Alameda but we couldn't find the address for this one restaurant called "The Habit" that some of the other Visitor Center sisters invited us to.  We went to see a few less active members because some of our appointments fell through. We got an appointment with one on Wednesday!!  Then we visited a sister based on a request from our ward mission leader and the lady told us she didn't want to have anything to do with the church because she had gotten offended... so sad... 

Tuesday: So we went to Linda's house today and she is now our new investigator!!! We gave her the Book of Mormon she requested from Mormon.org and we asked her to read the introduction. When we met with her today to teach her about the Book of Mormon and read the intro with her she had already read the intro, the testimony of the three witnesses, the testimony of the seven witnesses, the Joseph Smith accounts and all the way up until 1 Nephi 3! And she asked really good questions too! We had Sister Brown there and Sister Brown did an awesome job explaining the book of Mormon!! and we're giving her a church tour on Saturday!!

Wednesday: All of our appointments fell through one by one.. So we tried to visit some less active members in the ward.

Thursday: Today was so sad!! We had Visitor Center training where we heard the new sisters share their testimonies and then the Senior Couple Elder and Sister Nielsen bore their testimonies because they're leaving (Tuesday morning). 

Friday: We had our meeting with the mission president to discuss our mission goals for 2017. We are renewing our baptism goal of 400 baptisms for the mission this year. I found out that one of my old boss' is a ward mission leader in one of the sister missionary's parent’s ward.

Saturday: So exciting!! I talked to a girl on chat in November and sent missionaries to her and we've emailed back and forth during that time and she emailed me a few days ago saying she got a very distinct answer from Heavenly Father and she told her missionaries she's going to be baptized!!! 

I gotta go, but I love you all!! Something I love that my mission president said was "We're all the Lord's got" so we all need to be missionaries!! And home and visiting teacher, don't take your callings lightly. I've seen how it changed a sister from wanting nothing to do with the church and wanting to go back to her Jewish religion and then now she is wanting to become active again and help the missionaries and participate in church activities and meetings again!!

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

So I don't have a lot of time today, but I'll try to fit everything in :) 

Monday the 26th: I washed the car barefoot because I was wearing my boots and I hadn't waterproofed them yet. My feet were cold! xD Then we ate dinner at the Ward's home because 2 missionaries were going home: Sister Harper and Sister Ricks. They shared their testimonies and we sang "I Am A Child of God" and "This Child This King". Then the Wards gave everyone cute gift bags with socks and other things :) Then we went to the Visitor Center for our Shift. Hermana Heath and I rocked it on outside tour! She got 1 referral before even going out and then, by braving the cold weather outside, we got 3 more referrals!! The Lord does bless us if we try our best and don't give up!! Then I took a Chat from a future missionary who is going to France in April. She was trying to get the missionaries info for a random girl she met on Instagram who lives in France!! 

Tuesday: We had power problems all day so almost none of our resources worked. Oh well! We taught a few less active members the Plan of Salvation and had very meaningful conversations :) We also went to see a potential investigator but he wasn't home so we went tracting (knocking on doors) in the circle where he lives and found out where one of our ward members who is becoming reactivated lives! So cool!! She lives in the back of someone’s house and they answered and asked if we were there for Kathy and we said "yes!" figuring Kathy was a common name, and it turned out to be her!! 

Wednesday: We went to the Visitor Center for our morning shift and hadn't seen the text to not come in until later because the heat wasn't on. So we went home and studied and then went to District Meeting. Elder Tung is now our new District Leader. He is from Hong Kong so he has a British accent :) Then we stopped by a referrals house to see if she was home. She was, so we taught her about the Restoration and she said she would be baptized if she knew it was true!! So yay!! We're meeting with her twice more this week so we're hoping to do a church tour and get her to come to church!! So excited!! Then we set up an appointment with another potential investigator too :) Then we had a really cool experience; our lesson had canceled so we were trying to figure out who to go see and both of us thought of Sister Brown! So we went over there and shared a message with her family about scriptures that give us strength. 

Thursday: I memorized the 42 Doctrinal points and the First Vision completely :) Then we were going to see an older lady in our ward who is a recent convert. She asked us to come later in the day then called us back and told us not to come because she was going to the hospital :/ She's home now but has bad health problems. We did have a really cool experience today. One idea that is given as a “finding activity” is to go to a hospital or funeral home and put your name down on a clergy list. This way people who have had someone pass away and who may be having a hard time can reach out to us :) When we went to the funeral home, the lady who was working there had an awesome conversation with us. She said that she had seen a few people from our church who were dead and said she got chills (in a good way) because they were dressed in their temple clothes etc. Totally thought about teaching that lady the plan of salvation right then and there! 

Anyway, that's all I have time for... but we got to wach StarWars, The Force Awakens and Zootopia as a zone for our new year’s activity. :) 

Love you all! Bye!!
Sister Phillips

P.S. - Here are some pictures of the San Francisco Bay I took from the Visitors Center

12 Days of Christmas

My Grandpa and Grandma Phillips gave me and my companion, Sister Muench, gifts for the 12 days of Christmas. Each day had a small present and a spiritual message that we both really enjoyed. We even had a couple of people ask us for copies of the spiritual messages because they loved them too!
Thank you Grandpa and Grandma Phillips!