Marietta-Week 10

Here is the latest from Justin......Well things are good here.  My clothes seem to be falling apart left and right, it must be all the hard work.  Marietta is very cold and wet.  No snow! Closest we got was a little bit of frost like Wednesday morning at like 6:00 am is when we saw it.  We were walking to the gym.  I am sorry that I did not attend the annual Aunt Patty celebration at home.  But I was out findin those lost sheep.  I'm glad to hear that Dad and Mike are teaching together.  Gives em a little taste of missionary work doesn't it?  Wait??!!  I'm talking to you on Tuesday??  Oh yeah!!  I might call home, but we will see how busy we get.  We have like 3 families that are having us over that day.  I am going to try my best to Skype with y'all but we will have to see what happens.  Well, the mission Christmas party is this week so that should be exciting.  It will be good to see my old companions if they are still in the mission.  My week has been pretty good, we are finally gettin that cold weather.  I'm doin fine.  Elder Ball is awesome, I love serving with him.  The work is picking up, the members are really getting involved in missionary work.  So this week there was a lot  of little miracles that have happened it has been pretty sweet.  One of which was we went to see a man who of course wasn't there.  So we decided to tract a little in the area and just as a side note our map in our apartment doesn't have every member on it.  It needs to be updated...we are working on it. :)  But anyway we were knocking doors and this man meets us at the door, he of course has no shirt on and says hold on a minute...and I'm thinking in my mind here we go....another great tracting story!  Yes!!  So he comes back, shirt on, and says come on in Elders.  Turns out he is a less active member, who is the only member in his family, we taught him the Plan of Salvation.  And at the end, he told us that about 2 weeks ago he was praying that God would send the missionaries to find him.  I know that God led us there for a reason...the Lord answers prayers, not always when WE want him to but he does answer.  I love the gospel and I love sharing the gospel with others.  This work is amazing.  I love my mission.  I love Georgia.  I love y'all, have a good one.
Elder Phillips

Marietta-Week 9

Here is the latest from Elder Phillips......I am going to do my best to call on Christmas in the morning.  I am excited to see the change in y'all.  We should be able to make that time work but I'll take to my companion.  So things are going great, the work is moving forward, my companion is awesome.  I love it.  The weather is rainy...it's a bummer.  The missionaries in our zone are doing great.  I love missionary work!!  So this week we had an awesome experience we went to see a less active, found out he moved so asked the man living there if there was anyone he knew who needed the gospel in their lives.  So he directed us to his neighbor and his neighbor was super open to hearing the gospel, he set a return appointment with us and took a Book of Mormon.  It was a very uplifting experience.  We are super busy this month, it is crazy, we have so many meetings and parties it is hard to keep track of it sometimes.  But that is all my new news not much else is going on.  I met a family in another ward who's son is serving spanish speaking in Magna, Utah.  Weird stuff and a small world.  I miss y'all.

Love ya bye
Elder Phillips

Marietta-Week 8

Here is the latest update from Elder Phillips.....Well it has been another week in the mission field, filled with tractin, teachin and preachin.  I love it!!  Funny side note, I watched the Christmas devotional from Salt Lake City and heard Elder Uchtdorf's talk but we had to report numbers to the assistants for the zone so we took off before anything else. But at the beginning it showed Temple Square...sigh I miss going to see the lights on those cold weeknights.  But I know that the lights will be there next year.  Anyway Elder Ball and I are doing fantastic.  We have had a pretty awesome week.  I love it.  It has been pretty mild as far as the weather goes here this week.  Y'all are skipping out on the sing along?  The one year I'm not there??  French Toast!!  It's okay I love singin now though...kinda.  Some more good news....this is the last college football season I will miss!!  YES!!  But it was totally worth it, seek ye first the kingdom of heaven.  I love this area alot.  I am lookin forward to the holidays this year.  I might call, I might Skype...not sure yet.  Depends on if we have a computer touse.  But if you could send me your Skype account so we can find ya that would be great.  I will let you know what is happening the Monday before Christmas so check the email..:) (He doesn't realize that I live for Monday emails from him) Our investigators are alright, just slowly moving forward, but we will get them.  So we had dinner with the bishop this week and we go to dinner a little early so we decided to not waste any time so we knocked on a couple of doors.  And we didn't have much luck, actually no one was really listening to us.  So we got to this door and this man answers and tells us that he just got home from church and that he is a Christian.  So I ask well what does it men to be Christian?  He answered well that I am saved and that God's lookin out for me.  So we dive right into the Book of Morman and how God is watching out for us, by giving us more scripture and a prophet on the earth today.  We talked with him for about 15 minutes.  And he wasn't too interested but I know that I felt the spirit witness to that man that what we taught was true.  He felt it and so did I.  I love this work. and I know that the Book of Mormon is true.  It still stands today as a testimony of Christ and of what Joseph Smith saw and did.  And I cannot deny that.  I have felt the spirit testify that it is true.  I love this time of year.  I love our Savior and I know that the holidays are centered around him.  He loves us all so much and wants the best for all of us.  Have a great week family.  Love ya!!

Elder Phillips

Marietta-Week 7

Here is the latest from Elder Phillips....We shared with him in our weekly email that we had fed the local missionaries in our area.....Well it is good to hear that some missionary somewhere is enjoying dad's burgers, too bad it isn't me.  I wish I had his burgers right now.  My week has been fantastic!!  My companion Elder Ball, he actually came into the mission field with me, so we will go home together.  He is awesome! I love it!  He is from South Jordan, Utah.  The work is great, my week has been the best.  The area is great, I love it.  The weather is weird, it is like sunny but cold.  Well not much has changed, I taught gospel principles yesterday.  It went pretty well.  Our toilets broke on Thanksgiving, yes you read it right, toilets both of em.  But its okay we fixed em.  We had a good Thanksgiving day, filled with members food and football....the turkey bowl in the morning.  So here is our little miracle for this week, we are trying hard to find new people to teach and find people who are ready for the gospel.  So we had a man and his daughter sitting on the back row yesterday, part member family.  And he just pulled us aside and say, Hey, Elders she need to be taught so she can get baptized, when can you come by to teach her?  It was so awesome.  It was for sure a miracle from the Lord.  So we are looking forward to teaching her.  So we have some good things happening here.  So everything is good, I'm doing good....and....I don't know what else to say.  Love ya bye!!
Love Elder Phillips