Letter #71 2/2/14 "Santificaos‏"

It's still raining.

Dear friends and family,

Where to begin?

I gave a talk in church last week about Zion. All four of us missionaries serving in this ward feel like that is the reason we are here: strengthen the members. They are truly amazing-- and the Lord allows the strong to be tested.

On Saturday we had an amazing lesson with our investigator, Gustavo Zipitría. When we called an hour before our appointment to confirm that he would be there, he told us that he had reached the decision to not be baptized. Fortunately, my companion and I are not the type to take "no" for an answer that easily, and we went with a member couple to his house to try and resolve his doubts. The problem is that we haven't been able to teach him very much, and the challenge of baptism weakens if not supplemented immediately by the good word of God. We were able to convince him not to close the door on something he does not fully understand yet.

This week at church the attendance dropped by over half. After calling and texting all our investigators about church, we ran the two blocks in the pouring rain to the chapel. The power was out, and only the emergency lighting was running. We held Relief Society in almost complete darkness as another black raincloud moved in and blocked out the sun. Our phone has a flashlight, which I gave to the teacher so she could read the manual. It was me and Hermana Peña, Hermana Norma (the teacher) and Hermana Rodao (the bishop's sister). 4 sisters.

There was a confirmation during the sacrament meeting, and a profound silence reigned over the chapel during the whole meeting; all the families with little kids had stayed at home because of the rain. During the sacrament, the Spirit comforted both me and my companion. Despite our efforts, the rain had turned out to be stronger than our investigators' faith, and none appeared. But faith is to believe that all things are possible, even when we see "the wind boisterous". The Spirit has given me a deep feeling of tranquility that we will reach our baptismal goal this month. The Lord is just testing our faith and the strength of our desire to bring sould unto Him. Seconds after the "amen" of the benediction, the lights came on in the church. As my wise companion keeps reminding me, "there is nothing physical that does not teach a spiritual principle."

The other sisters were frantically trying to find the baptismal clothing for their baptism to be held right after church. It had disappeared, but they found it in the house of a member who had offered to wash it after his son's baptism. Due to the fact that there had been no power in the building, the font was filled with icy water, but the little girl who was baptized showed great courage and pure faith as she stepped down and didn't say a word. The power of godliness is truly manifest in the plain and precious words and actions of gospel ordinances.

This week I am amazed at the Lord's ability to help me find strength in places I never would have looked.

I am grateful for my amazing companion. I am grateful for your prayers and please know that I pray for you every day. God has everything under control.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Pictures: Sisters in Zion

Letter #66 12/30/2013 "La Cucaracha‏"

Dear Friends and Family,

This morning my personal study was interrupted by shrieks of terror emenating from the bathroom. While Hermana West was in the shower, a cockroach creeped onto her loufa and from her loufa onto her body. This is life here in Sarandí del Yí. I've killed about 8 spiders in as many days. Don't worry though-- I got the biggest one and put it in a jar so I can show you when I get home. I know you wanted to see it...

Better news: BAUTISMO!!! María Gopar was baptized and confirmed on Sunday, right after the church meetings ended. The reason I haven't talked about her before is because I barely knew her. She is the good friend (almost "adopted" daughter) of our mission leader's family. She had already been taught everything and then went on vacation for a week the day after I got here. I only got to meet her for one lesson and at her baptismal interview. Fortunately I'll be here to teach her all the retention lessons, so we'll be best friends in no time. She's 19 and amazing. I sang "I Stand All Amazed" at her baptismal service.

IT IS SO HOT. Fortunately we have a fan, and the sacrament meeting room has air conditioning. It's the first chapel I've seen outside Montevideo that has controled temperatures.

I'll tell you a little about the animals here. We have a cat. Kind of. It's against the rules to have pets, but this tiny kitten appeared in our back yard one day and I feel too bad to throw it out into the street. It's too young to have any chance at all of survival. So we let it be in the back yard for now while we try and find someone to take it in. In case you were wondering--. no one wants cats. :(

There are frogs here. I very rarely have seen live frogs here. In my first area they were everywhere, but they only came out at night and got run over by cars. In the morning they would be dead all over the road (I know, it's disgusting). But here they're everywhere. Small ones. Big ones. Ugly ones. They get in our house and hide under the microwave, under the suitcases, and in the space in the ceiling above my desk. Frogs everywhere.

There is an insect here called Chicharra that sings when it gets really hot-- which is all the time. I say that they sing, but that's just what people say they do. It's a high-pitched trilling noise that gets louder the hotter it gets. Some days it's deafening.

My watch broke, which has been a huge annoyance. Not only do I not know the time, but now have a brilliant white tanline on my wrist where my watch used to live. It has found a temporary home in my bag until I can figure out how to fix it.

Sorry this letter hasn't been very spiritual thus far. We continue to both see success and challenges in inviting people to come unto Christ. I have learned a lot about patience and mercy already from being in this area. I have been working on a talk called "12 Keys to Building Faith unto Power." Ít suggests working on one of the 12 keys every week during the mission. Since I only have about that much left I thought I should get to work on it. The first three are 1 - Stop complaining and murmuring. 2 - Commit to 100% obedience and 3 - Prayer, which are the three I've been working on the past three weeks. It's not easy. Faith is a spiritual gift, and as such can only be obtained by asking our Father in Heaven. Today I read, "I have yet to discover a scripture that suggests that the Lord will give us what we desire even if we do not ask for it." Did you know that the phrase "Ask, and ye shall receive" is state 233 times in the standard works? It must be important.

It was so good to see the family at Christmas. I hope you know how much I love you and pray for you.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Pictures: Christmas and Baptism

 The baptism photo is with Elda, our recent convert. <3

We were in a mall this week that was all decorated for Christmas, and they had a bunch of christmas trees decorated with-- Ladybugs. What?

Letter # 61 11/25/2013 Tres Cruces‏

Dear Friends and Family,

I write to you from Montevideo. Today Hermana Linnell had to sign her residency so we're in the terminal waiting for our bus. Two hours here, two hours back. Tomorrow we have a conference here, so we'll have to return-- two hours there, two hours back. So I'll at least have some time to catch up on my journal. I'll need the time, because a lot has happened.

Elda Ricardi got baptized on Saturday!!!!!! I love her so much! Like Hermana Linnell keeps saying, the angels did a really good job preparing her, because we feel like we didn't really do anything. That's how it is when you're teaching someone prepared. When people open their hearts to let the Spirit in there's really not much else to do. Keeping commitments becomes no problem. Now we'll be working to retain her in the church and help her daughter come back to church as well. (If you want to pray for her too, her name is Eva Cardozo)

We are currently teaching a golden family: Federico, Cecilia, Nicolas Federico, and Belén. Amazing little family. I am so thankful for the opportunity to have found a family to teach. The only obstacle seems to be finding them all together. They work a lot.

Yesterday it was SO HOT. You'll probably read that phrase a lot in the next couple of months. I need to start wearing my hat again, even though I look a little funny; it's better to look a little funny than to pass out of heat exhaustion. Mom-- every time I put sunscreen on my ears I remember you, because at home when we would go on hikes I always forgot. Almost without warning you would grab me and put sunscreen on my ears. I guess that's a weird thing to remember, but it's the little things that make me think of home.

We have talked to an unusually large number of people who are devout members of other churches, in recent days. Not that that's bad-- I'm happy to talk to people of other religions. It's just frustrating when the conversation turns into them inviting me to their church. That must be how they feel, I imagine. We stopped some ladies in the street the other day, and I wanted to give them one of our pass-along cards with Jesus on it. The first one took it, but the second one practically leaped back and said-- very offended-- "No, I don't accept images of God. Jesus asked us not to worship graven images." I felt bad for offending her, and even though I explained that it wasn't to worship, but to remember our message, she refused. So I gave her the pass-along card with the nice-looking family on it instead. Later that day we passed by an evangelical church that was holding its worship service with all the doors open: there were the three ladies, preaching into microphones. Awkward.

I love you so much and hope you are doing well.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Picture: Florida Baptisms

Letter #23 02/18/13

Querida Familia,

We finally had another baptism! Ramon was baptized and confirmed this weekend! I'm really happy for him. I never imagined that the conversion process could be so drastic nor so visible as it was with him. He was found, taught, and baptized in 3 weeks. He's devouring the Book of Mormon, and is willing to live all the commandments. His prayers are incredibly beautiful and humble. And most importantly, he's happy and he knows why.

Before the baptism our branch mission leader was working so it fell on us to get everything ready. There were crickets in the font so we decided to scrub it out. The water heater is broken, so the water was cold. It's a good thing it's only for a few seconds...

At his baptism I sang "If the Savior Stood Beside Me" and one of our other recent converts, Gabriela, gave one of the talks. She also gave one of the talks in Sacrament meeting yesterday, and she said that from this experience, she was able to see her own baptism in a new light and committed to attending every baptism possible in our ward from then on to help welcome the new member. She is the best! Another recent convert, Pablo, baptized Ramon (he was so nervous he kept messing up the prayer, and we had to do the ordinance twice.) My companion and I really wanted the recent converts to be involved in baptisms of new converts, because it helps with fellowshipping.

I have a hard time thinking of things to tell you about while I'm sitting at the computer, so I make a list during the week of things that happen. This week, the only thing on my list was "basket trees." Let me explain:

For some reason, Uruguayos seem to really love lawn ornaments. Everyone has ceramic frogs and turtles in their little front gardens, and many have these giant lawn gnomes that appear to be drinking matte. These aside, what seems to be the stranger tradition to me is cutting hedges and bushes into the shape of baskets. Is this common? I don't ever remember seeing this in the States.

Also, could you send some money? One of my pairs of shoes died this week. The information about the weather in my call packet was a little misleading. Thus, I have a lot of clothes for temperate weather (Uruguay is not temperate.) I don't know how to coordinate money sent to me from home, though, which I will investigate more.

Pictures: Florida

Pictures: Florida Baptisms

Letter #14 12/17/12

Dear Family,

Sounds like it's been an exciting week! Sorry this email has to be short, but there have been some technical difficulties this PDay and I have less time than usual.

I'm not sure what to report that would be interesting to you guys-- I can't get my head out of the key indicators. I've been asked to sing in our Rama's primary program and as part of the program for the District Christmas activity. Also our zone is in charge of the musical number for our mission Christmas activity. Our zone got together today to practice and afterward we had an asado (barbeque). We have a great zone!

One of the things that surprised me most coming on the mission is how awkward missionaries are. It seems to be just the nature of being a missionary-- you get to witness awesome miracles and be an instrument in the hands of the Lord, and also you get to endure some of the longest awkward moments of your life. I could list examples, but I'll spare you. It's difficult to explain awkwardness here, because there's simply no word for it in Spanish.

I have to go, but I love you so much! The baptisms last Saturday were amazing, see the pictures.