Surprises From Areas Past

April 11, 2016

Hola familia y amigos!

It seems like whenever I move to a new area the germs take advantage of my weakened state and ATTACK. In other words, I got the flu this last week.  But I am thankfully feeling better.

In the small branch of 40 people we have almost 30 who are over 60 years old. We brought a less active boy to church and he was the only youth there!  So we’ve been thinking of ways to bring the young blood back to church.  We have a couple of ideas for activities: a fall carnival party in May, and game nights playing minute to win it and jeopardy (if you don’t know the answer you have to dance.) I would totally go back to church with that kind of line up! :P

We teach lots of lessons here, but usually after just one lesson they disappear or don’t open the door.  I asked my companion if something was wrong with my face or if I smelled bad.  Lol He said it is a cultural thing to be polite or nice when they aren’t truly interested.  So they reject us in a nice way.

On Wednesday we had interviews--which means the other elders in the little towns 2 hours away come on a bus to meet with us.  I talked with an elder who happened to be in my sector in Copiapo a year ago.  Asking him about the area, he told me about a baptism they had.  I didn’t recognize the name but as he began to describe the family’s house my mind went back to a hot sunny afternoon a year ago with Elder P. when we were out contacting less active members.  We knocked on a door and a woman opened the door and told us to come in.  We realized there wasn’t a man in the house so we had to leave (missionary rule), but as we left we talked briefly with her daughter who came down the stairs, invited her to church and left. I left the area the next week.  That daughter was the lady this elder was telling me about!  He showed me a picture of her at her baptism smiling from ear to ear.

"You never know the impact your mission can have on people", said our mission president. How true that is!

Everything is awesome,
Elder Phillips

Photos:  Pday lunch (completos) and a visit to a neighborhood zoo, etc.

Long Bus Rides and Trash Collecting

April 4, 2016

Hola,

Well it was a whirlwind week, first traveling for 17 hours in a bus, then going right back for another 8 hour ride at 2 am for training, then going back to our town for 8 hours in a bus that got to our apartment at 3 am the following day. Good thing we had general conference over the weekend to catch our breaths.

The town I’m in has about 12,000 people and is still being repaired from the huge mud flood that ravaged through the main part of downtown.  It happened about a year ago but it is still very fresh in their collective minds. I'll take more pics as the weeks go on. Most people walk around with sadness in their step and dirt in their teeth.

We have a couple of people to work with but I’ve noticed that many people are preoccupied about their jobs and therefore very unstable with our appointments. The church here is a small branch of 40 people--lots of older folks.  Only 5 people showed up to watch general conference on TV in the chapel, and there are no other missionary elders here so I watched it in Spanish--which was fine, except when I could see that Elder Holland was getting fierce and I could only hear the pretty laid back translator.  I’ll make sure to listen to it this week for sure!

A memorable event this week was knocking on doors asking for trash since the trash collectors are on strike.  With the help of a member we collected the trash from a whole block and gave them a pass along card to watch a church video with us later this week.  The people were very thankful because there are flies EVERYWHERE.  But when we got to the trash dump outside the city I almost threw up as the truck waded through black clouds of flies, vultures and the stench of death.  Now I understand what outer darkness could be like.

Here’s to a cleaner week #germafob4life

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

Hi from Chanaral with Elder S.

Running into old friends #1

Friends #2

Friends #3

Friends #4

Chapel in Chanaral

Scenic view of Chanaral

My New Companion Elder S.

Transfer Musings...A Time To Reflect

Hola a todos,

This week our ward had a baptism of a 15-year-old girl, a friend of a member family.  The young womens leader spoke about how every week the young women would pray for new girls to find the church to help them grow and how she was an answer to their prayers.  It helps when the ward is united in this great cause to help other people.

Drumroll please…..I’m getting transferred to Chañaral!  if you remember a year ago there was a huge flood here in northern Chile, and Chañaral was the city that was hit the hardest.  I hope they’ve been able to fix it up but I do know that they have no large supermarkets and I will also be traveling to some of the smallest branches (a small congregation) in the mission (like 12 people) for exchanges with other missionaries.  So today I went to the Chilean equivalent of Wal-Mart to buy peanut butter, ranch--anything that will be difficult to find down there. Gringo power!!!

My companion is staying here in Arica and he is going to train a newbie (which he is very nervous about).  We have some good people who are very close to making the covenant of baptism.

It’s hard saying goodbye to the people you put in your planner each day to visit, knowing that you will probably never see them again in this life.  It’s also hard to leave this area without having a baptism, but I don’t underestimate the power of growing seeds.  Some people just take longer to blossom.

As I shared my last testimony with the ward, my mind reflected on two themes of my mission experience beyond bringing others to Christ:  First, that the time during a mission isn’t a perfecting stage of your life but it is a great time to see what weaknesses you need to work on the rest of your life; and two, it is an opportunity to experience the stark reality of everything we teach in this gospel. The restored gospel is not just some idea for me anymore but an assuring reality.

Well, wish me luck in what some call the ugliest area of the mission!   Pero, sabe que? Es donde los milagros pasan. :P  (Translation:  But you know what?  It is where miracles happen ☺)

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

Pictures:  People I Will Miss

Our District

Proof that Missionaries Have Fun

Prayers Are Answered

The Good Bishop And His Family

Elder S. Will Be A Good Trainer

Our Apartment

Families

March 21, 2016

Hola personas que quizás entienden Castellano (o no),

This week has been refreshing in the sense that people are opening their hearts. This sector has been very dry with the amount of covenants God’s children have been willing to make with him, but we learned a powerful lesson this week from our mission president’s wife.

Sister Dalton is a convert to the LDS faith, who at 14 years of age had been attending church for 2 years. The missionaries found out she wasn’t a member, and within a week she had all the lessons and was baptized.  A successful story from my perspective, but as she shared the story with us no grin crossed her face.

"I am so grateful for the missionaries who taught me, but they never asked me if my family would have been interested to hear as well. I didn’t think about it either, I was an investigator!  38 years have passed and I’m the only member in my family. I think back to my baptism and during that time my sister had been in a search for a church, but I don’t think I even invited her to my baptism!" she exclaimed with tears rolling down her face.

"92% of children who are baptized without their parents never make it to the temple. I’m the exception, but none of my family are members. You missionaries need to work with the whole family, not just the one. At least try or your convert will spend their whole life dwelling on the lost opportunity...just like I do."

Her words made a big impact on us, so we looked at all of the people we are teaching and made goals to know everyone in the family and the results have been great.

Our investigator was having lots of difficulties with the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith, so much that there wasn’t anything we could do.  But this week he called us to have a lesson, and accepted baptism.  This work is real--I don’t do it, God changes people. There is no way I have the capacity to change their hearts.

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

A preparation day visit to a museum

 

Museum grounds

Selfie!

A very old mummy

Ancient life and death

Teach the Gospel Anywhere, Como Sea

March 14, 2016

Hola,

A much better week walking wise :) My feet are thankful for that.

We found out that the lady at the bread place we go to sometimes is a less active member, so we passed by on Monday to meet her husband. "Yes of course you can share with us, but the backroom is filled with flour and dough so we can’t." One minute later we were holding rags amidst clouds of white powder scrubbing away.  Twenty minutes later we were talking about Christ.

A young man from our ward who is serving his mission in Argentina has a 17-year-old brother who isn’t a member. His family is extremely Catholic--saints and all.  We showed him the restoration video in his garage on a TV that right next to it had a 5 foot statue of a local saint I’ve never even heard of.  During the video my eyes kept shifting from the TV to the statue just waiting for them to turn to life and battle it out.  The restored gospel won!  He accepted to be baptized :)

As I will be home in 6 months--yikes, it was fitting that the ward invited us to the homecoming of another missionary who just returned from his mission this week.  I had a great fear it would give me a trunkee attack, but it surprisingly did the opposite.  It made me realize how little time I have left to spend my days making a difference in people’s life for eternity.

Sunday we enjoyed a transmission via satellite from Elder Nelson (president of our church’s quorum of 12 apostles) to all of Chile.  The biggest surprise was that he spoke to us in Spanish. What?  I had no idea he knew Spanish.  His talk was something we heard at the last conference--keep the commandments. It must be important :P

Have a great week, because you all know…

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

The District

Fell asleep waiting to leave for the day--haha

Brainwashed--A Fool For Christ's Sake (I Corinthians 4:10)

March 7, 2016

Hola Familia y amigos!

Stake conference (a large church meeting) in another country is always interesting. It started at 9:00 am and there were barely enough people to fill the chapel.  We sang the first hymn, I looked back and it was all full.  Mormon standard time breaks through cultural barriers. haha

I think this sector has been the toughest I’ve had with people rejecting us.  They must be paranoid about the world because if they find one thing bad on the computer about the church they don’t want to speak with us, disregarding everything good we’ve taught.  It could be an effect of the political repression they experienced a few decades ago.

People tell me we are just brainwashed people trying to brainwash the rest of them.  I took a minute to think about it and that doesn’t make any sense.  Would it be logical for a church that wants to keep a grasp on its young members to send them out all over the world with the goal to exchange ideas with every type of person--educated, poor, radical, convincing, etc. and not be convinced by them? If our doctrine and the church that contains it couldn’t stand on its own it would have crumbled into the pit of ideological ruins long ago.  But here I am in Chile 2016 helping to grow the most important organization that exists in the world. So, if I’m brainwashed with the truth, so be it.

We talked with our young man investigator who also studies with the Jehovah Witnesses. We watched Elder Holland’s testimony about the Book of Mormon and the sacrifices that it took to bring it forth.  "That man speaks with such authority," he commented. "That's because he’s an apostle of Jesus Christ with the same priesthood power as Peter, James, and John. " I said.  Our message sure is bold—and I love it!

Have a wonderful week!

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips

A Completo--Hot Dog, Bun, Guacamole, Tomato Sauce, Mayo--Yum!

Reminds me of the river in Lehi's Tree of Life dream

My comp and another elder enjoying pday with me :)

A Hot Day In The Vineyard

February 29, 2016

Hola,

Well, I wish I could say this week went better, but that wouldn’t be all that honest.  A lot of our investigators came home from their vacations and must have had a little too much fun, because they told us they don’t want to listen to us anymore.

It can hurt hearing that from people you know have felt something and have even told you that they feel the gospel is true, and then reject it.  But listening to lots of different convert’s stories, very few accepted the restored gospel at first glance, which gives me hope.  The Lord is mindful of them.

We were able to watch a conference via satellite from Elder Bednar, one of our apostles, who surprised me with his wittiness and his ability to connect with us despite being of the older generation.  He mentioned how we shouldn’t be waiting on an angel to come visit us and tell us what to do. "Think of the people who had angel visitations--Lamen and Lemuel, Saul, Alma the younger. They were messed up! It speaks well of you not to have those experiences, you don’t need them" haha.

I love the gospel because it makes everything click in my head. I’ve spent time thinking about how I would answer my life questions without this knowledge of God’s plan for us, and it leaves me with a giant disconnect in my heart and mind. I really just do believe all of this!  Maybe it is that knowledge that intensifies my heartache when people reject God in their lives.

Thankfully we are having success working with the members of the ward—there is always a silver lining and good things just around the river bend.

Everything is awesome,

Elder Phillips