Well, first things first. Shout out to my cousin Kelsey who finished her mission in Argentina and is celebrating her birthday today! I imagine she is lying on the couch, eating a hamburger, and watching Adventure Time. And if that didn’t give me a dose of trunkie, right before writing this email, the mission office called me to ask me which airport I would like to fly into when I come home in September....
So moving back to the mission world...
Yesterday our recent convert received the Aaronic priesthood and next week our recently reactivated young man will also receive it. Yeah! Finally we will have people under the age of 40 passing the sacrament!
On Friday we went on an extremely uncomfortable bus ride to Antofagasta at 3 AM for training--the last one with our current president (he is going home at the end of the month.) One piece of advice he shared with us was how we should always focus on the vision our Heavenly Father has for us, not just our own vision. This applies not only to our mission, but to our lives as well. He offered an example from his own life.
Five years ago he prepared his papers for a mission with his wife. His stake president suggested contacting South American mission presidents to see if they needed help, and hopefully he would find an opening in South America—his dream mission. As he and his wife thought about it and prayed, they felt no inspiration about that choice. They decided to submit their papers and leave it up to the Lord. President Dalton was called as an area secretary—a completely different kind of mission. However, that mission gave him the necessary experience to be a mission president, which he was later called to be—in South America.
He explained that moment 5 years ago he could have been shortsighted and picked the mission he thought he wanted. He would have served the Lord in a good way for 18 months. But by listening to promptings and leaving it up to the Lord he was able to serve the Lord the way the Lord intended, and for five years. It was a powerful lesson.
I’m trying to do that in my mission even though the temptation is strong to do what I would like to accomplish--but my Heavenly Father always knows better. It’s humbling, but as Elder Bednar would say, "The mission isn’t about you!"
Everything is awesome,
Elder Phillips
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| I took the road less traveled |
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| Goodbye President and Sister Dalton! |
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| Morning call about my travel home |
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| Making Appointments |
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| Nice Sunny Day |
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| The carnival is in town |
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| See the two dogs? |
I see the two dogs! I also see what looks like a half done fence. What. I don't see is anything to fence in or out. Just very dry land, you and two dogs. Are any of the roads paved? I don't think I recall seeing any. It is very HOT here. Not one day in May was 100 or over. Here it is nearly the middle of June and we have had only one day under 100. Not any easing into the heat this year. Yuck. I love your blog and so look forward to it each week. I took your message today and applied it to myself and realized "Life is not about me". Long ago I heard: 'know the truth and the truth will set you free. . . but first it will tick you off'. I'm not going to say yet how excited I am to see you as I don't want you to get trunkie !but. . . . . . get busy fill every moment with amazing work and I will see you in September. Hugs and love
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