In Honor of Mother's Day

Hola,

Not a usual week in the land of shifting dirt.  On Wednesday morning, Elder S. received a surprise call from the leaders for a special transfer that night.  We went around to all the people he knew so he could say goodbye and off he went.  My new companion, Elder P., arrived at 3 am on Thursday morning with the zone leaders.  They knocked on the door; I fell out of bed, opened the door, mumbled something, went back to bed, and woke up with a new companion on the bunk above me. It was a surreal arrival, but he´s great.  This will be his last area before he goes home.

Since I am still new to this area, we have done a lot of walking the last few days mapping things out and even got a little lost.  We went to one of the old investigators Elder S. taught and his sister´s boyfriend was there.  He’s a big guy from Columbia who had secretly been listening to the conversations whenever the old missionaries came over.  We taught him about baptism and he accepted.  He and his girlfriend came to church the next day and we have another appointment with him.  Awesome!

Well, I have to admit the food here is pretty repetitive--beans, noodles, boiled hotdogs, soup with rice, and bread.  I’m not complaining that I don’t have to eat eyeballs and such, but on Saturday the member feeding us lunch made a GIANT meat pizza!!!!  It was such a monumental event in our food situation that we all took selfies with it haha

As for the Mother´s Day call, it was great!  You kind of forget what your family’s voices sound like after 5 months.  It doesn’t feel like much time has passed since we talked at Christmas, but so much has happened.  It was bittersweet to hang up.  But I know we are sealed as a family for all eternity because of the blessings of the temple, so they never feel too far away :)

In honor of Mother’s Day, thank you to all of you who have been a mother in some way or another for me in my lifetime.  And thank you mom for your kindness and your ability to reach into my heart like no one else can.

The love of my family and friends makes every tear shed worth the price.  At least for me, it’s not easy being a missionary sometimes.  There are moments when it feels like you are the only one in the world--that the night will never end.  There´s stress, disappointment, constant exhaustion, and the occasional leaky eye.

But it was rarely easy for our Savior. He really knows what its like to be utterly abandoned and chewed out by people.  He was somehow able to find joy everyday despite opposition, so we can too.  Being a missionary has also shown me how to find the greatest joys in life, even when sometimes it takes some digging around to find them.

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

Happy Mother's Day!

Giant Pizza=Happy Missionaries!

Teach the Children How to Clean the Kitchen, or This is What Happens :)