Sister Alyssa Phillips: Pioneer Day, 1/2 Way Mark, Transfers!

Hello Everyone,

Monday: 7/17 After our P-day emailing; we did some family history and I found some more of my Great Grandma Phillips' journal entries typed up (one was her mission journal while serving a senior mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission). It was really cool to see how we had some of the same worries and or struggles and reading them has helped me on my mission! :) It's so cool how family history is!

Tuesday: 7/18 Mahamoud's new baptism date is... *drum roll please*... AUGUST 6th!! (aka my birthday!!). At the Oakland Visitors Center today we met a guy named Andy. He's from Russia and he got baptized 3 months ago there!! He’s here for a conference in San Francisco and some members had met him at church on Sunday and took him out to dinner and showed him the Visitors Center today! What's really cool is he has a white eyebrow (and white eyelashes) that he dyes because people keep asking him why he doesn’t dye it white xD.

Wednesday: 7/19 9 Months!! HALF WAY!!!! At the Visitors Center we took a really cool tour! It was a group of 6 Chinese people who are from Mainland China and are here on vacation. At the very beginning of the tour, one of the ladies asked if she could have a copy of the Book of Mormon in Chinese! We talked to all of them about the significance of temples and showed them at the temple kiosk the location of all of the temples around the world. By the end of the tour, all but one filled out referral cards!!!! We also received some awesome news when we had a lesson with our investigator Aidan at the Visitors Center! He told us that his mom (who wanted nothing to do with our church and said she wouldn't go to his baptism) Is coming to his baptism (so we had to push it back again to August 5th) AND!!!!! Said she would support him and help him pay to go on a mission!!! Aidan is so golden... Sister Bosco says he's going high places in the church :) Even before we got to officially teach him, he wanted to get the priesthood and serve a mission :) And since he's going to a year of college before he goes on his mission Sister Bosco was teasing him by telling him if he finds the right woman; to marry her. He told her that he's not getting married until after he goes on a mission :) For my Halfway mark (Hump Day) My mom sent me beautiful flowers. My Grandma sent me a cute outfit and my Dad, Susie and Hadley sent me an awesome package!! My Grandma was teaching a primary class and they drew pictures of the temples. One little girl drew the Oakland Temple! So my Grandma sent it to me :) Then I was silly and let the water boil over on accident when I was boiling noodles for dinner and because of the type of stove it is we were afraid it would explode! At least my noodles were cooked! *whew* xD

I got a lot of neat stuff to celebrate my mission "Hump Day."

It's almost like my birthday! (Oh yeah, that's coming up on August 6th! *wink wink*)

I got a cool Deseret (Honey Bee) Charm and a necklace with the State of Utah and a heart with a charm that says "Home."

I got some awesome pictures and letters!

The picture of the Oakland Temple the cute primary girl from my Grandma's class drew.

I got a fun letter from my little sister, Hadley.

My Grandma sent me this pretty new outfit.

Thursday: 7/20 Andy, the Russian convert, came into the Visitors Center again and we showed him the two part movie about the translation process of the Book of Mormon. Then a random Russian guy walked into the Visitors Center and we got so excited so we grabbed Andy to talk to him! He wasn't interested in learning about the Gospel at all and he had a very weird thinking about God; in fact, he believed he was God (not another one), but I don't believe in coincidences. :) He had no idea why he was prompted to come into the Visitors Center but he was and it happened exactly when Andy was there even though they both spoke English very well. It was tonight that I learned that Andy had investigated the church for 20 years! I had a really yummy pot pie lunch w/ Sister Albee, a member of our local ward. When we left, a stray cat trying relentlessly to get into her house xD

Friday: 7/21 We had an LDS couple from England come into the Visitors Center today! They quit their jobs and have been traveling around the world for five months before they’ll go home, save up some more money, and move to South Africa where the wife is originally from and where the husband served his mission (they met in England, before his mission). I couldn't tell until he pointed it out, but apparently he was shaving with an electric shaver and the battery ran out, so half his face was shaved but the other half wasn’t! So he didn't want to be in any pictures xD We finally contacted our Visitors Center referral for an Indian lady named Dimple Jennifer and she gave us this pink drink they drink in India to reduce your body heat. It was yummy! Then we had an awesome dinner with the Given family and an awesome meeting with Ken a 10 year convert we're helping to get to attend the Temple. Then we had a Visitors Center lesson with an investigator the Samoan Sisters found for us but she wasn't really all that willing to read the Book of Mormon. But, by the end of our lesson, she agreed to read the Book of Mormon, so we'll see where it goes :)

Here's a picture of the English couple who's going to move to South Africa.

Saturday: 7/22 TRANSFERS!!!!!!!!!! I'm getting transferred to the Oakland 9^th Ward which covers down town Oakland and my companion is sister Fiu! (So maybe I’ll need some mace as a birthday present j/k)! :) I'm sad that I'm transferring out of Alameda because I won't be able to attend the 4 baptisms we have set. But in the Oakland 9^th Ward they have 4 people on date for baptism too! And one of the baptisms is scheduled for this Sunday July 30^th. So that'll be cool, especially because it's the lady that Sister Bosco found and taught on Mormon.org!! Aidan had his baptism interview today and passed! We had an awesome lesson with a less active member, Julio, and he said he'd stop surfing on Sundays so he can go to church! His 19 year old daughter is looking for a church and she's not a member :) We had an awesome weekly planning day at Jack-in-the-box (I tried it for the first time). Then we had SUCH a spiritual experience with a less active Tongan family who is returning to activity now. We're trying to work on the husband who is a convert of 1 year and help him strengthen his testimony and help them prepare to go to the Temple as a family and be sealed! We had the Tongan Elders there at the Visitors Center when we had the lesson and the spirit was SO strong!

Sunday: 7/23 We had an awesome Zone testimony meeting! We had 2 less active members come to church today too! Julio and Lori Lawson!! We went over to Lori's house and woke her up before church (per her request) because calling her on the phone doesn't work xD. We taught the Plan of Salvation in the Gospel Principles class. Then Sister Albee gave an awesome Relief Society Lesson on Sister McConkie's Holiness talk from the April 2017 General Conference. We had an awesome time at the Holloways after church where they talked about country music with Sister Bosco because Sister Holloway is from Kentucky. They gave us RC Cola! At the Visitors Center we took an awesome tour with 2 recent converts and a member.