Letter #57 10/28/2013 "Lunes Cerrado Para Mantenimiento‏"

Dear Family and Friends,

It's been almost another transfer here in San Carlos, and I love it! Tomorrow we have a meeting in Montevideo for the trainers and oros, and I can't believe that Hermana Linnell has already been my companion for an entire 6 weeks. She's really awesome.

We went to the zoo today, but when we got there, we discovered that it is only closed on Mondays (our PDAY) for maintenance. Hence the subject line of this email. Hermana Linnell loves zoos, so even though this one is quite small, especially compared to what she's used to in San Diego, she was pretty disappointed. So I made her a flower crown to make up for it-- Hermana Phillips in her natural habitat.

So... I haven't received any baby pictures yet of my new nephew. Not to be a complainer, but I need to meet him. Ever since I found out Luke was born I have wanted nothing but to hold him. But since I can't do that, I NEED PICTURES!!

In other news, Belén and Milagros will be baptized this week! We're obviously really excited. They're really sweet girls. Now we just need to work on their parents. What is with this place and not getting married? I'm fairly certain that more than half the families we meet have unmarried parents. It's alright. We just can't baptize them-- yet.

What else happened this week?

I almost got eaten by a pack of dogs a few days ago. Encounters with dogs are a daily occurence-- for example, Hermana Linnell almost got a chunk bitten off her arm on the way to the computer place today. But on this particular occasion, about thirty to forty dogs ran at me from behind this lady's house, thirsty for my blood. We were just walking by! I had nothing to defend myself but the trusty Libro de Mormón I always have in my hand and as I was running I made a few swipes at the closest one. Then, here's the best part: the owner runs out from behind her house yelling in Spanish, "Don't run! The don't do anything!" She says this as I'm facing her shaggy mutt of a dog with matted hair, snarling and trying to get my ankles. I thought I was going to die. Thankfully, the Lord protects His missionaries, and I'm fine.
While we were visiting a less-active couple, the Silveiros, Hermano Silveiro wanted to have me listen to a song he wrote on the piano. So we did, and it turned into a talent show. His wife played the piano. She's pretty incredible. She's a pianist, but while she was on her mission in Argentina, she got run over by a bus-- and lived, of course, but broke her left hand in seven places, among other things. She had the surgeon repair her hand in such a way that her fingertips were permanently curved as to be able to touch the piano keys. She completely re-learned, accomodating for her left hand, and now plays beautifully. I sang and she played, and her husband recorded us doing "I Know that My Redeemer Lives" (the one by President Hinckley).

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Letter #56 10/21/2013 "Pasen otro día, capaz..."‏

Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sending pictures!

We're pretty excited about some upcoming baptisms. I'll let you know about those when they happen-- I can't jynx it. But if you want to pray for my investigators, these are the ones who have baptismal dates in upcoming weeks:

2nd of November - Milagros (13)

9th of November - Belén (8)

9th of November - Tony (

Prayers on their behalf would be much appreciated. Our biggest challenge, as always, is getting people to church. We are also concerned about Milagros and Belén, because they are young girls and will have difficulty remaining active once we leave because their families are not members. We are having a lesson today with Belén and her mom so-- prayers for that!

There's not a lot to report today, so I'll talk about the ward. Our ward is pretty small-- the total attendance this week was 56. All of the auxiliary and priesthood quorum presidencies are shorthanded. There were no active young women when we got here, and there are 2 active young men. We had a fun Young Women's activity last Thursday and I taught them how to make origami flowers. Belén came, even though she's only 8. I never thought I'd have to be able to explain how to do origami in Spanish. Vocab like "crease" and "flatten" weren't things they taught us in the MTC. I found myself saying "hagalo así" (do it like this) a lot. It was small but it was the first activity that I have successfully thought of, organized, and pulled off by myself (with the support of my companion and other leaders of course). It gave me more confidence to do other activities.

I'm thinking of starting a ward choir. I've talked to a lot of our less-actives and even a lot of investigators that don't want much to do with us anymore, and I think there would be a fair turnout. If I can convince one of the less-actives who is a piano teacher to come be the pianist, we might sound fairly good, too. I'm nervous to try, but it looks like God wants this to happen, and as they said in conference, when you're on the Lord's errand, you CAN'T fail. So I hope to be reporting positive results on that.

I also hope to be seeing some beautiful baby and wedding photos pretty soon too!

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Letter #55 10/14/2013 "Herviendo el Chancho‏"

Dear Family and Friends,

I am currently on an English Fast (I'm not allowed to speak English for the rest of the transfer cycle) but I'll make an exception for those who'd find it hard to understand
Castellano.

This week has been really good. We had an intercambio (division) with the Hermana Trainers this week, and we saw a lot of miracles-- literally. I think we met two people named Milagros (Spanish for "miracles") and one of them has a baptismal date. Usually people who are named Milagros have an interesting story behind their name: they either almost died as children and were miraculously saved, or were an unplanned pregnancy. The girl we taught actually was declared dead as a baby before she miraculously came back to life. Hence the name.

The work is really starting to pick up. I won't go too into detail because I don't want to jynx it. I love being a missionary, even with all it's many ups and downs. I love it with all my heart. We have been guided by the Spirit this week-- yesterday we got lost and it turned out really well. We "by chance" ran into about three people that had dropped off the radar and we'd been looking for for weeks. Then we found a fantastic lady named Cristina :) who has a baptismal date. I love that moment right after a miracle happens: as my companion and I walk away we look at each other, and we don't even have to say anthing but "WOW."

Also I looked out the window yester day, and what did I see? The bishop's family was boiling an entire pig's head. See the photo below. I talked to the grandma and she said that they are going to make cheese inside it. Gross. Uruguay's weirdness will never cease to amaze me.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Letter #54 10/07/2013 "¡Pon tu hombro a la lid!‏"

Dear Friends and Family,

The weather is getting really hot again. The thing I'm mostly excited about is the prospect of having dry clothing. During the winter it takes days for clothes to dry (we don't have dryers) and I usually just gave up for lack of clean clothing and was wearing it damp. Gross. But now it's time for the sunscreen to come out because I don't want to look the same way I did last summer (red) or get skin cancer. Luckily, the Zone Leaders approved my hat. It's darling.

A quick update on our investigators:

The ones we couldn't find came back. Maria Pia was actually in the countryside with her grandma, so my companion was right-- I really do need to have more faith in people.

The ones we went to look for in the hospital (Yeni, pronounced "Sheni", and Javier) were actually having to travel back and forth from Maldonado (the big city closest) and working a lot. I hope we can start teaching them again, but it's complicated.

My favorite family is really struggling. The mom, Inès is a member and is my age, and has a 2 year old boy, Tiago. The dad, Darwin, is an investigator. They are having many difficulties. If everyone could *please* remember them in their prayers, I know that they would really appreciate it. As would I.

There is a ward member here named Elena Figueredo who is one of my favorite people in the world now. She served a mission in Argentina with very little family support. When she came home she began taking care of a little baby named Daniela full time. That little baby was (is) super special. When people say "special" here they mean disability or handicap. Elena has taken care of Daniela for over fifteen years, almost all of her life. Although Elena has never married, she finds so much joy in Daniela as the center of her universe, and is an inseperable part of their family. Recently, Daniela's father died suddenly of cancer, and their family is dealing with a lot of grief.

Elena loves being a missionary and comes with us almost every sunday, her only day off. She is a huge support to me, she's like my senior companion, which I really have needed recently. I don`t know why they keep giving me new missionaries to be my companions (although I'm not complaining because every companion I have had has blessed my life and opened my perspective and expanded my capacity to love deeply) because I have never been a very good leader. Anyway, this weekend I have been especially grateful to have a senior companion at least some of the time to rely on.

I haven't even started talking about General Conference yet. There were so many answers to prayer and I have two minutes to finish this email. I thought of so many people during the talks. I agree with mom, six months is NOT enough time to apply even a small fraction of what was taught.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips

Letter #53 09/24/2013

My Dear Family and Friends,

I'm sorry that I don't have very much time. I have to do some other really important things during my already limited time on the computer, so I'll start uploading some photos for you instead. I love you and continue to pray for you.

The transfer cycle just ended, and my beloved companion is leaving... for my first area, Ferroviario! I'm so excited for her. I'm very sad she's leaving.

I will be staying in San Carlos. I will be training. Here's to new adventures!

Love,

Hermana Phillips

LDS Church in Uruguay

The Church has many country specific websites. You can access the site for Uruguay here.

Letter #52 09/16/13

Dear Family and Friends,

Last week I wrote about the "Santa Rosa" (tropical storm) that happened last week. Apparently Saint Rose heard me and decided to show her true colors. It's been raining for four days straight, and is forecasted to last for a few more days, with strong winds. My umbrella broke yesterday from the wind so I am mostly using it as a polka-dotted shield in front of me, because the rain here falls sideways. I finally heard the story about why it's called Santa Rosa: In the early days of the colonies in Uruguay, the Dutch or the English or French (the member lady who told me couldn't remember which, but it's one of the three) came to invade. The inhabitants along the coast prayed to Saint Rose to protect them. In response, she sent a huge storm that prevented the Dutch/English/French ships from landing. I understand-- in a storm like this I'd give up trying to invade Uruguay too. Fortunately, I'm preaching the gospel instead, and God is more powerful than any storm.

Saint Rose also seems to be against investigators coming to church. We have been teaching a great young couple who in our last lesson invited themselves to church without us even bringing up the subject. We passed by on Saturday night to see if they were still coming and Javier came out and greeted us with a broken wrist. We went inside the house to find Yeni, his girlfriend, lying in bed looking weak and yellowish. Apparently she had passed out shortly before we got there and were about to leave for the hospital. We said a prayer with them so everything would go well at the hospital, and that she would recuperate soon. I told them that if they felt better they were still welcome at church the next day, and Javier responded enthusiastically that they would do everything possible to come, which surprised me. They must have had something happen because they didn't show. We're going to visit them today to find out.

One of our strongest investigators (the one we found last week that was the miracle) dropped us on Sunday morning when we called to remind her about church.

I hate Satan.

Like my wonderful companion keeps saying, "Everything happens for a reason." I believe that too, it's just a little frustrating when we feel like we've done everything we can and we don't immediately see the results. I understand a little bit more about how Heavenly Father and Jesus must feel when I do something I should, or don't do something I know I should. I imagine Christ thinking to Himself, "I suffered and died and gave everything for you, so you could be preaching My gospel. Please start Personal Study at 8:00 instead of 8:02. It's the least you could do." I'm not saying that I'm a disobedient missionary; there will always be things to improve, but the experiences this week have made me see with more clarity the great love that God has for every one of His precious children, and how sad he feels when they disobey or don't understand the consequences of their actions.

Anyway, a little about the ward:

Our bishop is really cool. He has one eye and works in construction. He has three kids, and they just got another dog: a German shepherd. Since they live right behind us and we share the same yard, I feel like we just got a new dog too! I also feel safer than ever to have two worthy Melchizedek priesthood holders in front and behind us.

There is a great brother in the ward named Leo, who teaches Sunday school every other week. He is wheelchair-bound and has trouble speaking, but I have never met anyone before with a testimony of Jesus Christ that seems to radiate so powerfully out of every part of his being.

The sister who coordinates our lunches every day is named Maruja, and she's like another grandma to me-- mi abuelita. She's one of the oldest members in the ward and is hard of hearing, and I think that about 75% of the time she just guesses what we're saying, because some of her responses are really out of context. Love her to death, though.

Speaking of old ladies, Bishop Machado's mother lives with them, and I am now convinced that she's no longer completely sane. She gave my  companion quite the scare our second week. At first we didn't have curtains, but we used to get dressed in the back room of our house that just has one window that looks out onto the bishop's patio, but it's placed in such a way that you don't naturally look into it as you pass by. My companion was changing and I was in the kitchen when I suddenly hear a loud gasp, followed by "Oh! Hola!" followed by old-woman laughter. Luckily, the bishop's mom had just popped her head in the window at exactly the moment my comp finished changing. Don't worry, we have curtains now.

Anyway, Love you all, hope all is well.

Love you forever,

Hermana Phillips