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