Letter #69 1/21/2014 "Dormir, dormir...‏"

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry about having to write a day late. There are some parents of missionaries who call the mission office when their kids don't write exactly on time. I am so glad you don't do that. Anyway, the reason is because we had to go to Montevideo yesterday for a super-secret mission conference. They wouldn't tell us what was going on or why we had to go, but the good thing about being a missionary is that you develop an innate trust of what your leaders tell you to do. At first we thought it was just our zone, and that we would be going to the temple, but when we got on the bus we found out the whole mission was going to be there, and rumors began to fly. Are they splitting the mission? Is there a general authority coming? Is there a national emergency and we have to leave the country? President Monson is coming?!

Well, we got to Montevideo and started the conference. Then President Newsome got up and announced that he and his wife are being released. There is apparently legal trouble with President's company back in the States and he has to go and fix things. For now we don't know when they are leaving, nor who our new mission president will be. I am of course super sad about this, but I know that the Lord is in it, and that President Newsome was exactly what Uruguay needed to add more energy into the missionary program here.

At the end of the conference we got to say goodbye to them individually. As he shook my hand, President looked at me with those kind blue eyes and told me he loved me. Both Hermana and President Newsome have a special gift for helping people to feel the pure love of Christ through their words and their actions. I am so grateful to have had such great examples of great love and leadership so close. I will miss them so much.

So that's why I'm tired today. For the past week or so we've been traveling a lot and and working double to make up for it.

I love you all and hope you are well.

Hermana Phillips

Letter #47 08/14/2013

Dear Friends and Family,

I got transferred! My new area is San Carlos B, and it is near the coast, north of Montevideo. We leave tomorrow morning. I will miss La Paz; I realized yesterday how much I love my investigators here, even though none of them got baptized. Sometimes you reap, and sometimes you sow. I am grateful for the relationships that I have formed here. Yesterday when I was in a lesson with Lourdes (who I´ve been teaching since April and can´t bring myself to drop) I told her that I might be leaving. Here eyes filled with tears and I was so surprised when she suddenly got up from her chair and ran and hugged me. Such a fantastic lady; she is so sweet. I´ll miss her a lot and keep praying that someday she´ll be able to get baptized.

Our zone got together and played for our last Pday. They made me play fútbol. Latinos are crazy good at this sport. I told them that if we loose it´s their own fault for making me play. I am seriously the worst. However, serving a mission in South America I just kind of have to get over it.

I don't know what this new transfer will bring. My new companion´s name is Hermana Nelson. I sat behind her in my ASL class during my last semester at the U of U, so we already kind of know her. She was trained by my trainer, so we´re sisters! She´s blond and really likes talking to everybody. I wonder what the ward in San Carlos will be like. I doubt anything could beat Barrio La Paz, though. Our bishop promised to come bring us ice cream tonight to wish us luck. This transfer was kind of tough living in a house of four missionaries. It was fun, but after three transfers, it's enough.

A few days ago I accompanied my housemate, Hermana Peña to the doctor in Montevideo because she had to have surgery. We stayed in the mission home that night and we got to know our new mission president, Presidente Newsome, and his family. They came with their youngest son, Reed, who is thirteen. It was really weird to wake up and have breakfast with them. Presidente is apparently extremely wealthy, but you´d never be able to tell-- he´s so down-to-earth and humble. Hermana Newsome is so willing and anxious to learn Spanish. After dinner we asked her if there was anything we could do for her and she said, "Yes, you can give me a Spanish lesson!" Then she went and got a piece of paper and a pencil and we helped her write out her testimony and a simple prayer. She´s really awesome. Reed is a typical thirteen-year-old boy and eats a Cajun seasoning called "Slap Ya Mama" on everything. They have a teacup Yorkie named Lucy that is officially the first lap dog that I´ve ever liked.

My first companion in the field, Hermana Vargas, finished her mission last week. Crazy how time flies. My one-year mark is in 17 days.

I love the gospel!

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Letter #46 08/09/2013

Dear Family and Friends,

I am writing to you from President Newsome's office. My house companion is sitting in his big chair. I'll tell you how we got here:

We live in a house of four and one of the other Hermanas had to have surgery on her eye today. It's been a long and tiring process, having to go back and forth from the doctor's office four times in the past three weeks. It's an hour and a half bus ride one way. Fortunately, the Pugmires, who are the senior missionary couple here, have been helping us with transportation. (Hermana Pugmire is the mission nurse and Elder Pugmire is in charge of fixing things in the missionary's houses-- Mom and dad, you guys would be really awesome missionaries. Just saying...)

Anyway, I'm supposed to just say hi and let you all know that I'm alive. I didn't write on Monday because I was stuck in a waiting room at the eye clinic all Pday.

Love you forever! Thank you so much for all your support and words of comfort.

Love, Hermana Phillips

Letter # 38 06/03/2013

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been a great PDay, but I'll admit that I'm a little down while writing this letter. Tomorrow, my awesome trainee, Hermana Spradlin (Arkansas), will be leaving to go to her "real" mission. We've spent the day packing and getting the house in order because the past month has been the craziest of my life. I say that every month so I guess I should just be used to it by now.

I'm finding it really difficult to hold back tears at this moment because we've just received an email from our mission president and his wife, informing us that, due to the condition of Hermana Armstrong's health, they will be released from their assignment at the end of July. President Armstrong will continue his church service in Utah in the Church Legal Department, working on international legal matters. They will be replaced by President Gary Newsome and his wife.

I love President and Hermana Armstrong so much, and it's hard to let them go, even though I know it's completely out of my hands. It will be better for them and their family. I am so incredibly grateful and blessed to have had the privilege to serve under their watchful care. They know the Savior so well for the challenges that they have had to go through together, and from what I have observed they have done so admirably. I think about their incredible service and I want to be a better missionary and a more converted disciple of Christ.

The good news is that President Newsome served in the Uruguay, Montevideo mission as well, as did President Armstrong, and get this-- President Armstrong was President Newsome's trainer in the mission! There are no such things as coincidences in the work of the Lord :)

I never thought I needed the Lord so much as I have had to rely on Him in the mission. He really is in all things. In a world where things change and nothing is constant, Jesus Christ stands alone as the standard around which His disciples can rally, the rock upon which if we build we will never fall. He is the way, the truth and the life. When everything falls away, I hope that I will be found a true disciple of my Lord and Savior, and I hope more than anything to find the power to yield my own will completely to Him and become an instrument in His perfect, gentle hands.

I love you so much and hope you are well. I hope that we can all learn to "lay aside the things of this world, and seek for the things of a better." (D&C 25:10) My patriarchal blessing says that there are those around me who are very close to me who have been great examples of faith, of endurance, and of stability. So that's my challenge for this week (and for the rest of my life): increase my faith, strengthen my ability to endure, and seek balance and stability. Any suggestions? How do YOU do it?

Jesus Christ lives and He loves us. In the words of President Uchtdorf, "He is aware that we are not perfect. He is also aware that the people who we think are perfect are not."

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips