Hello Mom & Dad and Everyone :)

Sorry that I can't write two separate letters but I have too much to say in a short time.  When I arrived I wasn't too tired but the last few days have been more tiring.  Our apartment only has A/C when we sleep so it's very hot in the day.  

 My first area is the outermost area of Hong Kong.  It is called the New Territories.  My area is Wuh Dihp, which means Butterfly.  It has a reputation as the hardest area, and my trainer has only been out here for four months. He still doesn't understand all of what they say.  And we are the only two missionaries in Wuh Dihp.  Either God has forsaken Wuh Dihp, or he has a lot of faith in the two of us :) My companion  is a great guy, his name is Elder Woodburn.  Today I got separated from him because he got on the subway and somebody got between us and I ended up stuck at the station until the next stop.  Sad, but he just waited for me at the next stop. 

 Right now I am at the apple store.  We have taught a couple people so far.  One of them is an old guy who wants to get baptized so badly but he doesn't follow the word of wisdom totally yet.  We do a lot of less active work in Wuh Dihp so our other lesson was with a less active teenage guy named Victor.  He is super nice.  I found out that a lot of people in Hong Kong can be pretty mean.  But there is a rumour that people from mainland China are all really nice and all super open to learning about the church.  I didn't believe it until yesterday when we were out finding.  We were rejected so many times by the citizens of Hong Kong, but we met two ladies from Shen Zin which is a city in mainland very close to Hong Kong.  They were lost and needed a bus to Shen Zin. Luckily I understood their Mandarin because of the class I took in 9th grade.  They asked where the bus stop is. They also spoke a little bit of English so we could communicate.  We gave them locations to our church building and a restoration pamphlet.  They have our phone number but calling from mainland to Hong Kong is a long distance call so it's pretty pointless.  But they were the nicest people I've met since I've been here. 

I have some pretty big mood swings.  Sometimes I feel like I'm not a good missionary.  Sometimes I feel like I can communicate with the people perfectly.   My companion is very impressed with my Cantonese.  Our apartment is on the 31st floor of a building.  It's small but pretty nice.  The new territories are a lot less crowded.

 I went to church and understood quite a bit so it was nice.  It's great to be here though.  Hopefully soon I can eat some real Chinese food.  There is a McDonalds close to the church so if I ever miss home I'll just go there.  They play taylor swift and justin bieber there so it's pretty much the same as the U.S. there.  Anyway love you!  You are probably asleep when you get this but I'm doing great.  

Elder Phillips

                      Elder Phillips with President and Sister Hawks on the day he arrived in Hong Kong.