Sister Alyssa Phillips: Sunburned... but happy :) 7 months!!

Selfie in front of the Oakland Temple Visitors Center

Monday (5/15): like I mentioned in my last post (last Monday) we went on a hike/walk around Lake Chabot with some of the other sister missionaries in our district :) Then we washed the car, and got a referral :)

Tuesday (5/16): We had interviews with our mission president :) This transfer period our Christ-like attribute to focus on is Knowledge. So, during our district meeting we shared our favorite scripture about knowledge and how it helped us or someone. We also went out to lunch with our recent convert, Joaquin, to a fancy Italian restaurant :) And when we were on shift at the Oakland Temple Visitors Center the young men and young women from my last ward (San Lorenzo) came up for a missionary activity (which I totally forgot about even though I reserved the space for them xD). So it was a really nice and happy surprise for me because I got to see them and say hi! :D I also was able to talk to a girl online who was trying to decide if she should to go on a mission or not and I was able to put her at ease about it and give her some info about what a missionary's daily life is :) Also, something really cool happened while at the Visitors Center today!! A Chinese sister who works in the temple was waiting outside for her ride when she saw a group of Chinese people taking pictures of the temple and brought them inside. Luckily her ride was delayed and she was able to sit down and tell them a bit about our basic beliefs (because we only have 1 companionship of Chinese speaking sisters at the moment and they had already left for the day) and we were able to show them the 6 minute "special witness" movie on the restoration of the gospel and afterwards the Sister was able to tell them more about Prophets and Apostles and we gave them referral cards in Chinese and the Chinese sister's number and they said they would call.

Sister Ye

Wednesday (5/17): We had an awesome lesson with Lashaunda! She's a former investigator as of a few years ago and we set up an appointment for today and we committed her and her family to read the Book of Mormon and pray daily as a family. We also gave her kids a storybook version of the Book of Mormon as well. Then, when we stopped by a few days later, she said she and her family had read it!! So her family of 5 kids are potential investigators!! We also had another wonderful lesson with our investigator Jennifer! We were actually there for about 2 hours.... luckily it didn't interfere with any other appointments... She's a talker! But we have high hopes for her!! Then we had an awesome lesson with our less active sister Keh (kay) and she have us dehydrated banana chips :) yummm :) And she said yes to our invitation to come out to the Ward’s Relief Society chili cook off!! And she’s super excited!! We also saw a less active family who has some health issues. The family we found last week from our district finding activity told us they weren't interested, but thankfully we have 2 other potential families to teach instead! :) Blessings :) We had dinner with the Sherwoods (ward mission leader) and we had an AMAZING experience! We went to the chapel to do some preparation for our missionary fireside and we walked out and our member was with her co-worker who is interested in our church! We were able to introduce ourselves and give him a copy of the Book of Mormon!! Then we went to contact a referral and we saw him walking to his house but didn't realize it was him until he was walking in the front door while we were still in our car. After we parked and knocked on his door no one answered :(

I'm finding that you come across all kinds of unusual people while you serve on a mission.

Thursday (5/18): WE HAD AN AMAZING VISITORS CENTER TRAINING!!!

The San Francisco/Oakland Visitors Center Sister Missionaries

It was about what we do with investigators that we remove from our active teaching list because they are not ready to progress right now and what we can do to get them ready. The local ward members play a HUGE part in doing this because they are able to spend the time getting to know them, etc. when we aren't able to!! So please help the missionaries!! We also talked about other things as well which I don't have time to write. We had our Relief Society Chili cook off and sister Keh came!!!! And When I was online I got a Book of Mormon referral I called to verify his address and he said he already had one and had been taught by missionaries but went to jail and that's when he read the Book of Mormon and knows it's true and wants to meet with missionaries again!!! We also did our studies in the Young Woman’s room at the church building and it's decorated SO cute! (I guess you can do that when there's only your ward in the ward building :) ) And I had an AMAZING PERSONAL STUDY!!!

The cute Young Woman's Room in the church building

LOVE the seat cushions!

It's decorated SO CUTE - they even have curtains in the window!

Friday (5/19): At the Visitors Center we had a guy (member) come in and he was about to leave but I asked if we could give him a tour because he hadn't been back for 25 years (he used to work there). We showed him ‘God's Plan for His Family’ even though he made bad choices and lost his family/marriage and afterward we were able to talk and he said he was grateful for the trials he's been through because it brought him closer to God but was still sad about it and I told him something about how he can now help someone else because of his experiences. He said that that's what he'd been thinking about while watching the presentation and said we helped confirm what the Spirit was telling him. We committed him to pray on his knees and ask God what He thinks of him and to not get up until he gets his answer. (I suggest everyone do this regardless if they think they have problems or not)! :) Also, I had a really golden referral I sent to missionaries! He said he wasn't ready for baptism yet because of old habits and addictions and I was able to begin teaching him and he said thanks for supporting him. He's going to keep trying to overcome his addictions and prepare to be baptized later on :) Also! The 2 referrals we sent the Zone leaders are now investigators and are awesome!! And a really inspiring guy came on Mormon.org to chat. He's investigating the church and overcoming a drinking addiction and asked us for scriptures to help him because his missionaries were asleep.

Saturday (5/20): talked to someone investigating the church online who wants us to talk to a Catholic friend of hers who isn't happy with her church. She said that because of her friend's example she contacted the missionaries to have them teach her!! We had five large group tours all at 9:30 am!!!