I've learned not to doubt what God can do.

February 9th, 
Dear Friends and Family,

I hope you are all doing swell.  This past week was pretty awesome for us.  We encountered 6 or so different deaf people this week.  It was a miracle!  A few of them were pretty interested in our message and we actually will meet one this Wednesday.  It is pretty amazing what can happen in missionary work.  I've learned not to doubt what God can do. 

We had zone conference this past week and there were so many things that impacted me that day.  I think one thing is that maybe as people we look at ourselves too harshly.  Some people are prideful, thinking they are the best, and maybe they should look at themselves more harshly, but I feel like for the most part people aren't like that.  Many people see themselves as failures.  Whether that is true or not, God does not see us that way.  He sees us as most parents would see a downtrodden child.  Not with harshness, not happy that this wayward child finally got what's coming to him, and not with any ado in beginning to heal us.  Love you all. 

Love,
Elder Phillips

February 16th,
Dear Friends and Family,

It has been a good week.  This past week we met with a deaf investigator named Mr Lee.  He also introduced his wife, who is hard of hearing, to us.  They were both very kind and interested in the gospel.  Mr Lee was able to come to church yesterday.

Chinese New Year is coming up.  It is by far the biggest holiday in China.  There are a lot of cool traditions that have to do with this holiday.  One of them is "red packet money." I'm sure you have all heard of it!  It is where older (usually married) people give red packets filled with money to some of the younger (usually non-married) people.  It's a pretty cool tradition if you ask me, I mean who doesn't like some extra money?

Other than that, the two most important things that are a part of the New Year are family and food.  Family visits are expected around the New Year and are very important.  In fact in Chinese there is an extensive set of vocabulary used to address specific relatives.  It gets very specific.  In English you might just say grandma, grandpa, cousin, aunt, or uncle.  But in Chinese it is much more specific. For example, rather than calling your aunt "aunt" you could call them a-yi, gu-ma, gu-je, yi-ma, kau-mou, and more.  They all mean aunt, but they give insight into whether or not the aunt is paternal or maternal.  It also tells how old they are in relation to your parents, and more.  So you never call them by their full names, you just call them aunt, uncle, grandma or whatever.  There is no confusion since there are so many specific terms for each person. 

Anyway love you all.  Wish you the best!

Love,
Elder Phillips