Hong Kong Temple
Dear Friends and Family,
Happy Thanksgiving! I hope you all eat a lot and have a great time. This Thanksgiving we will be celebrating as a zone by eating a meal together. It's going to be cool. Our responsibility is to bring dessert, so we decided to get ice cream.
The mission has proved to be hard in ways that I never thought possible, but it's all part of the plan. This Thanksgiving, I have chosen to be grateful for everything in my life. I want to thank God in the good times and the bad times.
Our investigator is doing very well. Hopefully she will be baptized in December! I will send some pictures if it happens. She has received the commandments so easily. As soon as she heard the Word of Wisdom she stopped drinking tea an coffee. Tea may seem like an easy thing to give up in America, but in China tea is a huge part of their diet and culture. They drink tea as if it is water. So it is no small feat when a person is able to turn away from that.
Every day is a new start for me. I am so far from perfect, yet I have confidence that the Lord is changing me. The holiday season will be very special for me. Though I am far from many of those I love, I will not forget who I am. Love you all. Have a great Thanksgiving!
Love,
Elder Phillips
Cookie Baking Activity
Dear Friends and Family,
This past week was pretty cool. The weather is cooling down a bit so that will be nice. We have two main investigators right now and they are doing very well. They are Eric and Grace. Grace is deaf, Eric is not. They are both very good! I will send you some pictures of them later.
This past week nothing too special has happened. But I think I understood one thing a bit more clearer in my life, and that is the will of God. On this Earth, I can't always have things my way. My ability and power is so weak. I've experienced true freedom in my mission as I've surrendered to God's will. Surrendering sounds like an easy action, but for me it is not. It requires a lot of faith in God, that he will carry me if I drop. It requires humility enough to realize I cannot do it all on my own. It takes a lot to truly give yourself to God, but it is the only way. Relying only on myself has led me to self-disappointment and discouragement. It can lead others to lose faith in what we work so hard to do, when we try to go it alone.
I want to be a reliable person. Although, I alone cannot satisfy the needs of others, I want people to be able to depend on me keeping my promises, and even to expect it. I hope I can get to a point where God has that same feeling towards me.
Love,
Elder Phillips
