Week of Miracles!

Sister Bosco and I in front of the Oakland Temple

Just like the subject of this email said, we've been seeing SO many miracles here in Alameda! We added a lot of new investigators this week! And some of them are super solid! We also got some Golden referrals from the Sister Training Leaders when they were on exchanges with us here in Alameda!

Saturday was probably the funniest experience I've had on my mission so far. We were knocking doors on 5th Street and there was a Korean lady sitting on her porch eating KFC Chicken. Sister Bosco got excited and said "Hey! I'm from Kentucky!" The lady waved at us and told us to come over and eat with her and her friend Lane. So we went through the gate and ate cold spicy KFC chicken and homemade kimchi with them on her porch. Then her friend Lane (who is our new investigator!) knew a super small town in Kentucky that Sister Bosco was very familiar with.

He asked us if we had a copy of the Book of Mormon because he had gone to Temple Square in Salt Lake City and gotten a copy which he read a lot of. But he ended up giving his copy to a member friend who had lost his. But after he did that, he realized it was a silly mistake because he really liked reading it! So we gave him a copy and asked him if he would come to church on Sunday. He was super excited to come to church (he rode the bus all the way from Oakland to Alameda). AND get this - he was baptized Roman Catholic as a baby but absolutely doesn't agree with the religion. He said he really likes the Mormons and the only thing holding him back is that he likes to drink a beer every now and then. He literally said "can I be a Mormon in the closet". And then he came to church the next day and loved it! He really connected with our ward members!

We also set a baptism date with Aiden for July 16th!!! Also, one of the referrals the Sister Training Leaders gave us from exchanges was for a guy named Mohamed. He said he wants to become a Mormon and has been looking for the church for 10 years! So we're super excited to contact him!

Sunday night we ate dinner at a less active member’s house. She had an acquaintance she met in Jamaica who came to visit named Veniesha who was very interested in learning about the church and she made us Jamaican food! Then we went to visit a former investigator named Brandon. The missionaries met him back in 2013. When we contacted him, he was SO prepared! We sat down on his porch and read the Introduction to the Book of Mormon with him and he apologized for not coming to church and told us he wants to start coming again! So we set up an appointment to meet him again. We were also going to have a lesson with our miracle investigator David from a week or so ago but he called and said his fiancé just had her baby and she was being released from the hospital so we had to reschedule :)

Love you all!!! 

Aiden came to church again & Happy Father's Day!!

San Francisco-Oakland Visitors Center Missionaries

We talked to a guy Named Douglas who came into the Visitors Center and told us he was God and Jesus Christ. We talked to him for about an hour. He said that since he was little, he has been receiving and fulfilling prophecies.

We talked to a cute 13 year old named Charice who said she'd try to come to church. 

We had a miracle while on the phones at the Visitors Center! We set a goal to send 4 referrals to local missionaries at the teaching center. We only had 15 minutes left on the phones and we got 3 people!! One lady wanted us to mail her a copy of the Book of Mormon and told us that two of her friends wanted a copy of the Bible! So we were able to get their contact information and arrange for the local missionaries to deliver them. Then, while I was on the phones; a member gave me a referral for her son's best friend!!

Saying Goodbye to Sister Mikkelson.

My new companion - Sister Bosco

We found a new investigator! His name is David!! We also talked to this guy named Tom who was a Disciple of Christ and very into sharing the gospel with everyone! He didn't want to read the Book of Mormon but we finished our conversation with him with a good feeling that at the end of the day, he's still teaching others about Christ :) We also went to a less active members home (the Gomez's again) and were able to really gained their trust. We mentioned how missionaries sometimes play soccer on our p-days and when their 15 year old son was walking us out he asked us about soccer again. So we're going to try to use that to fellowship him and get him active!

We got invited to the Oakland 7th Ward's Chinese program with Mangoes!

As the title says, Aiden came to church again!!! He also went to the ward’s young men's activity on Wednesday. He ended up playing basketball in his suit because he didn't know you don't have to wear church clothes to the activities. He's also going on a hike with the young men next Wednesday through Saturday!!! 

My Yummy Dinner!

We also had an amazing dinner last night!

With ice cream for dessert!

We went to contact a family of 7 who are potential investigators. When we met with them, they said we could come back. While we were there, we saw a boy named Chris playing basketball so we stopped and shot some hoops with him. Sister Bosco challenged him that if she won he would agree to let us teach him and he said yes. Sister Bosco won so we taught him a quick lesson and hopefully we can come back :) Also, while we were talking with Chris there were several 7 or 8 year old boys who were riding their bikes and doing tricks. They rode past us several times and after we were done talking with Chris they stopped us and were asking us all sorts of questions about the afterlife, etc. So we answered their questions and committed them to not curse this week and to try to come to the Visitors' Center. We also wrote our phone number on some of the cards we gave them and told them to go to mormon.org if they have questions. It was SO cool to see how the Lord puts you in places to fulfill His work. Even if we never see those kids again; we will never know how big of an impact we may have had on them. I hope they will join the church later on in life and I'm glad I had the opportunity to share that message with them. 

Love you all!! 

Sister Phillips

Transfers!!!!

Picking up supplies at the Mission Home

Hi everyone!! 

So as you can tell from the subject of my email, transfers are tomorrow. Thankfully I'm staying in Alameda but my companion Sister Mikkelson is leaving :( But I'm super excited for my new companion; Sister Bosco! She's from Louisville, Kentucky and she's just what our ward/area needs! 

Monday: I was able to talk about the gospel while checking out at the grocery store :) We also went to help the Ravello's pack and ended up "helping" her make dinner (more so, we just talked while Sister Revello did the work) and then we taught her and her kids (they're members) the Plan of Salvation. At the end, I felt the spirit when Sister Ravello testified of the simple truths of the Plan of Salvation to her children. It reminded me just how simple and amazing the Gospel and the Plan of Salvation is and how happy I am that I have the knowledge of it. We also had a great lesson with our investigator Kam and she said she might come to church this Sunday!

Tuesday: LUNCH WAS SOOO GOOD!!!! We went to lunch at a place called "India Palace" and their Indian food was SO GOOD!!!!! And then we had an amazing District meeting with tons of miracles for our area!! The San Lorenzo Sisters were finally able to contact a potential investigator named Vincent that we met a few months ago but couldn't ever get in contact with him after our initial contact. The Samoan Sisters told us that a RM (Returned Missionary) helped them finally talk to his family. They've tried for a few months to get in to talk to his family. They taught them about the Restoration of the Gospel and the father said he wanted the Sisters to teach all of his kids and family all they knew about Jesus Christ!! They have like 8 kids and last time I heard it'll be about 15 people or more that they'll be teaching and potentially baptizing!!!! AND… when the Sisters tried committing the family to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it; the mom and daughter said they didn't have to because they have already read the whole thing and they know it's true!! We also had an amazing and busy night at the Oakland Visitors Center!! We took SO many tours!! And got 2 non-members to fill out referral cards!! One was Tameka; she had always wanted to learn more. The other was a guy named Kao who had always wanted to come to the Visitors Center and wanted to learn more about Christianity and was VERY interested!! We taught him about the Plan of Salvation while he was there. We were able to put his mind at ease about his father who had passed away and let him know that his father can learn about and accept the gospel and repent if he wants to in the spirit world :) And, here's one of the greatest miracles of all!! We had a lady from Provo, Utah come into the Visitor Center asking for a copy of the Book of Mormon that she could give to her non-member nephew who was walking the grounds with them. They came in later and toured around the Visitors Center and the nephew was given a copy of the Book of Mormon and said he'd read it but he didn't want to give us his contact information. So we gave him the church info for the Sunday meeting schedule. (REMEMBER HIM HIS NAME IS AIDEN). Then we also talked to this awesome older lady who was on her way to the family history center. We caught her interest and showed her “Days of Harmony.” Afterwards we found out that she's a less-active member who is trying to return to church and rebuild her testimony. She was married to a member passed away. After his passing, she fell away and got remarried a non-member who recently passed away. Before he was about to pass, he randomly said they needed to go to church (he's Catholic). That kind of confused her, so she said "Ok, Well what church?" and he said "The Mormon church of course!" Her daughter who fell away is also coming back as well :) Also the Tongan Elders came in to the Visitors Center for a tour with their investigator, Moana. We took her around while they were waiting for their ward member to show up and we talked about the Book of Mormon and showed her Elder Christofferson's special witness of Christ and how he came to know the church was true by praying and reading the Book of Mormon. She said people keep telling her she's not ready, but she knows it's true and is prepared to get baptized! The elders were surprised by her countenance after we were done and asked what we showed her and talked about. 

I’m almost out of time but a few other neat things: We have a member who looks like Ryan Gosling ;) 

Friday: we had a family from Nepal who lives in El Cerrito come in. The son is the only one who spoke English but he was so open, knowledgeable and interested and filled out a referral card to have us send him a Book of Mormon and have the local missionaries visit. He said he wants to come back to learn more so he can go home and teach his family!! 

Sunday: OK, remember Aiden? HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!! 

Gotta go, but I love you all!!!!

BYE!!! 

Sister Alyssa Phillips

Baptism Miracles!!!

Zone Conference

Ok a few things that happened last week that I forgot to mention due to time and my memory! Last Monday, May 29^th (so weird to think we're already in June.. where has this year gone??) we did service for a member by weeding/hoeing her garden and in return she gave us fresh eggs from her chickens! Did you know that Chickens can lay green eggs!?!?! Not me! But we got some!! Although I neglected to take a picture of them before emailing. We also tried to contact a potential investigator some Sister Missionaries had passed along to us. This was our 3rd and final try with her and she wasn't home. Though her mom's care taker said she would be home after 5 pm. (We tried earlier in the afternoon) so we went on with our plans and around 5 o’clock, Sister Mikkelson said; “Let's go try Barbara again.” I didn't think anything of it. It wasn't until we were walking to Barbara's house that Sister Mikkelson said she forgot we had already tried visiting her today but since it was a little after 5 pm we decided to still try and lo and behold there was Barbara walking up the steps with her two dogs! So we were able to get her phone number! :D Then a member took us to a Chinese restaurant called ‘Chef's Wok’ for Sister Mikkelson's Birthday dinner. :) I love the member; Brother Aliling! He's Filipino and he sang for us and told us why his wife chose him out off all of the other guys :) Part of it was because he sang songs to her :) I really want my future husband to take notes from him... Also! After we spent time at the Oakland Temple Visitor Center emailing potential investigators; we met a guy on the street who was really quiet and we taught him a brief version of the Restoration of the Gospel. He asked if we had a church nearby, so we gave him the church info and a lesson one pamphlet and added him as a new investigator! 

Ok now for this week!! 

Thursday, June 1^st: President and Sister Frandsen came to our weekly Visitors Center training meeting this morning and talked about the doctrine behind modesty. They also told us that we need to remember the little things; that we sometimes just teach the main big things and gloss over everything else. President Frandsen also shared a story of when he went out with the missionaries recently and at the end he said "Elders, our purpose as missionaries is to invite other to come unto Christ, have we done that today?" He was reminding us that even if we aren't seeing any "success" we are still fulfilling our purpose. Also, a guy I'm talking to online at the teaching center who has met with missionaries in the past. But he got put in jail and ended up reading the Book of Mormon while in there, told me that he knows it’s true and that he wants to meet with the missionaries again. So we set up a time for him to meet with the missionaries in his area!! Brent Swan is another cool guy that I’ve met online from the teaching center. He was supposed to get baptized last month but ended up not following through. He had a stroke and it humbled him so he started looking for religion and reached out to the church. I found out today that he is still getting baptized!! He just needs a little longer to overcome his smoking addiction :) 

Friday, June 2^nd: A cute family from England came into the Oakland Temple Visitors Center today! We get a lot of non-members who like to visit to take pictures up here on the temple grounds. Another lady and her friend came into the Visitors Center and one of the ladies said that she was alive in 1963 when the Oakland temple was having its open house right before it was dedicated and she got to go through it! We also got a member referral for a Russian lady who recently lost her husband! We’re super excited to go and contact her! Member referrals are the BEST! Also, the Samoan speaking Sister missionaries found a new investigator for us. His name is Herbert! We're having a pass off lesson this week :) Also! We were finally able to find a former investigators address! This former investigator is a grandma and went back home to Jamaica but the previous sister missionaries told us that her grandchildren seemed really open to being taught the Gospel they just didn't ever think to teach them while they were working with the grandmother. When we talked to them, the oldest sister said she would be interested in letting us teach them but she'd have to ask her mom, who wasn't home at the time. So there's a potential family for us to teach!!

Saturday, June 3^rd: I had an amazing personal study session today!! I read John 15: 1-16! Also, a guy came onto a mormon.org chat and he's an Uber driver and apologized for the stereotype or the way he thought about Mormons before because he gave a ride to some members and said that they were some of the nicest and coolest ladies he's ever met! And he lives by an LDS temple!! 

I'm running out of time, sorry!! But to explain my blog title, we had a lesson with our investigator Kam and she accepted an invitation to be baptized on July 29th!! Then, on Sunday night (June 4^th) we went to the Visitors Center with our potential investigator, Susi. Before we left, we checked the teaching center and a lady I had contacted to follow up for a Book of Mormon request called and left a voicemail for me saying she wanted to be baptized and didn't know who to talk to about doing it!! :D She said she was a former member of the church but had her records removed. She said she finally decided to find out for herself what the Book of Mormon was about and she's been reading it almost every day and now she has a testimony and tells me that she knows it's true and has a hunger to read it! She now understands what it feels like to go a day without reading it! Your day just doesn't go well! 

Also! Yesterday (Sunday) when I was online at the teaching center, I've been talking to this guy named Abdul who is planning on getting baptized (he's Muslim) and I've been helping him through his doubts and the hard trials he's endured. He shared with me that he didn't want to be baptized anymore because he just heard some bad personal news. He told me about how the girl, who he's been engaged to since November, dumped him because he's getting baptized and I was able to help him through it and use what I’ve learned in my studies to do it.

San Leandro Zone Picnic

Love you all!!! 

Sister Alyssa Phillips