Happy Thanksgiving Week!

Dear Friends and Family,

I have a pretty sweet story to tell.  It's simple but it's actually a postive Misionary story.

A family in our ward invited a long lost less active to come to church.  We ourselves had no record of the man because he moved at one point and a phone number was changed, thus a lost sheep.  But the family in our ward (the Au family who fed us steak the other night) invited this less active man to come to church.  Well, he came.  He also brought his wife and two kids!  The wife is not a member.  His two kids are only 2 years old and 8 months old.  He is a very nice guy.  The sister missionaries will teach his wife. 

This upcoming week is Thanksgiving!  We have a lot of activities this week.  I'm pretty excited to celebreate.  We have 5 solid investigators now.  We have:

 1) Uncle Fighter.  He likes to invite us to yam chah a lot.  It is not an ideal setting to teach.  It is always noisy at yam chah.  He has come to church a couple times now.  He thinks church is boring.  He is a funny guy, though. He is 50ish and he just loves to talk.

  2) Rose.  She is 50 something and she has a lot of knowledge about Christianity.  She likes listening to a lot of different preachers.  She has heard from a few preachers that our Church is a cult and evil church.  But she still meets with us, so she must not think so.  She is hard to get to come out to church. She's a very nice lady. 

 3) A-Fung.  He is 19 and he works.  He has come to church 5 times now.  He says he comes to feel the Spirit.  He has some great potential. 

4) Henry (Hin-jai).  He is 11 years old.  He is in a good position to join the church because he lives with his Grandma who is a less active member but just recently started coming back.  His aunt is also a member.  His parents seem okay if he joins the church, so that's good.  Usually parents freak out about their kids joining this church.  I think it is tithing that makes them freak out.  People in Hong Kong are very concerned about money.  There are some pretty hefty bills to pay here if you have kids.  Apartments are outrageously expensive.  Anyway. 

5) Aaron.  Aaron investigated before.  Elder Woodburn and I  found him.  He is a great kid, he really likes us.  But he dropped off for some reason.  Not totally sure why.  But now he's back.  We will see how things turn out. 

Love you all.

Love, Elder Phillips

Half Empty or Half Full???

Dear Friends and Family,

This week has been very good.  I have two  stories for you.  They aren't like miracle stories, but they are stories of us getting rejected. So prepare to have a laugh or two.  I'll throw in a couple of actually uplifting stories at the end.  

The first story is about us visiting a less active member.  I had never met him, and I heard he was trouble, but we decided to give him a surprise visit, anyway...

We show up to his apartment and knock on the door.  His wife answers.  She says he is taking a shower.  We ask if we can come in and wait.  She says okay.  So we get inside and talk to his wife and kids.  His kids were 18 and 20 years old, and they were very nice. His wife gave us some apple juice to drink.  Things were looking good!... 
...But then, Brother ____ comes out of the shower, in his towel, and puts a shirt on.  Then he stands by us and leans down and asks us if we can tell the church to never visit or contact him again. Awkward.  So my companion finished his apple juice right then and there.  I left my cup half full (I figured if I left it half full they would have a debate about whether it was half full or half empty for the rest of the night, plus they wouldn't want to waste it because it was a substantial amount of apple juice, but they wouldn't want to drink it because my germs were on it.  In this way, I got my revenge). But we left.  And we were standing at the elevator, still shocked from what just happen.  His son comes running out holding my Book of Mormon and folder I had forgotten..oops.  We told his son to call us if he has interest.  Anyway that's rejection #1. 

Story number 2.  We were on the street talking to a nice guy about our age.   He was a great contact.  At the end of our meeting with him, some guy rolled up in this expensive car and before he turns he rolls his window down, points as us and says: "Don't listen to them! They're Mormons!"  We were kind of already saying goodbye to the guy we were talking to, so we just kind of said yeah we don't know who this guy in the car is.  We parted company with the contact, then the guy who pointed and yelled was still waiting to turn.  We had to walk towards his car to get to the destination, so as we were walking towards him he says, in English this time: "In the name of Jesus Christ, I condemn you!"  It was pretty venomous! But after it I couldn't help but burst out laughing.  He was probably a pasteur or something. 

There is a nick name for the mormon church that is pretty unfortunate.  The pinyin is something like: "Mo-meun-gaau."  It is a transliteration, but Mo also comes from the word Mogwai which means devil.  Gaau means a church or religious sect.  So this nickname means Devil's Church.  Very unfortunate.  So usually people have heard this nickname, and it's not like in the States where we can just embrace the nickname Mormon.  

Anyway those are the two funny stories of the week.  Here is a nice story.  Last night we had dinner with a less active lady.  She is very nice.  Her grandson lives with her.  He is 11 and we are just starting to teach him.  He could have a ton of potential.  

Missionary work is doing better in Butterfly with sisters here.  We can cover more ground.  Less active work is better because we can focus on guys and they can focus on girls.  It gives us less ground to cover and more ability to focus our efforts where it counts most!

So things are good.  I'm happy out here.  I'm lucky to have such great support back home form all of you.  I love you all!

Love, Elder Phillips

P.S.  I loved Dad's Capture the Flag story, so funny! Dad is such a trickster:)
Yeah the steak was delicious!  I will venture to try more authemtic foods once I can read more characters.  Otherwise I'll just be pointing at a menu saying I want this, and I might end up with some pig fetus on my plate.  The worst rumor here foodwise has to do with monkeys.  It never happens in Hong Kong, but apparently in Mainland China some people will take a live monkey, split its head open and poor some boiling water on the brain.  And then eat the brain with the monkeys body still there...Yikes!

Christmas Goal

Dear Friends and Family,

I am going to attempt to summarize the last two weeks.  I apologize for missing last week.  We had to change our schedule for our temple trip.  Speaking of which, the temple trip was great!

I found out the Hong Kong temple covers 15 different languages.  I'm glad I got called out here to serve. The East is a completely different world.  Different philosophy, different way of thinking, it's really crazy.  Hong Kong is pretty special because it has huge Western influence as well as its Eastern traditions.  Pretty cool.

Here is a funny story.  My companion and I went into a Common Shop to buy an ink refill for my companion's pen.  He looked at some other pens while we were there.  He found the very pen that he owned, and showed me.

Then, like a kleptomaniac (jk) he slips the store's pen into his shirt pocket not realizing that it wasn't his pen.  I did not see him do this, so we walk out of that store with stolen merchandise.

Later at night, my companion pulls the pen out of his pocket, but he sees his real pen sitting on his desk. They are the same pen, but his pen has a white tip at the end, while the stolen one had a blue tip.  He compared the two, and when he realized what happened we rushed back to the store to pay for the pen, but it was closed.  My companion  says he did not sleep well that night.  We were able to return in though, the next day.

Here is my companion's own words on the events that transpired: "I've never stolen anything in my life, but apparently I have subconscious thief tendencies, so who knows what I've stolen so far in my life?" Funny story.

Right now, our ward has a goal to have 2 baptisms before Christmas.  Speaking honestly, there are some naysayers in our ward whose names will not be recorded, but I am not one of them.  Our ward has not seen a baptism in almost 2 years, but it's about to change.  I am sure of it.

We also got to eat dinner with a family in our ward this past week.  They made us steak!  It was the most delicious thing I've tasted in a long time.  What a blast.  The people in our ward are amazing people.  Surely their faith towards missionary work and in God will be rewarded in no time.  I still don't totally understand why this area is weak for missionary work.  I think it is our geography, our area is extremely small.  But I know we can accomplish the goal here.  We need it, the people deserve it.

There was no storm here!  We had a level 1 typhoon warning only, which is really weak.  Just some gusts of wind and nothing more.  Hopefully James is okay over there in the Philippines. Hope to hear more from him and that area soon.

Mom, thanks a lot for finding those books for me.   JP helped me pick one out. I will tell you which one it is.  JP has given me some awesome advice for learning Chinese so I'm really grateful he did this before me.

Anyway I love you all. Thanks for praying for us! I've added some pictures

Love,
Elder Phillips

My old Zone Leader named Elder Lee.  He is from Hong Kong. I took some pictures with him before he left.

My companion and I with a recently re-activated man.

The Au Familie's son named Jing Jing or Jacob.  Jacob has really gotten to like me because I've been to their house three times now.  He's a great kid!

I sent some pictures of our steak dinner at the Au house, it was just such a special and rare moment.  I could not pass it up.

Another picture is of a Catching Fire poster.  So sad I have to miss the opening of it.  The poster was inside a movie theater that we could see from Mcdonalds.

An Investigator!

One is our Halloween special.  Elder Lee actually looks like he is wearing a costume, the rest of us just look like goons.

One is with the Poon Family.  I might have already sent it, if so my bad.  We ate with them a while ago they were super nice.  Great family.

The rest are various pictures we took at Star Avenue.  It is a big tourist attraction in Hong Kong, but I've never been so we went.  There's a statue of Bruce Lee in a couple of the pictures.  While we were there a lot of mainlanders wanted to take pictures with the foreigners.  They kicked Elder Lee out of the photo because he was Asian.  Poor elder Lee.

 Anyway that's all for now. Bye!

Busy Week!

Hey Mom & Dad,

I don't have much time to write this week.  I'm out of time I am sorry.  Tell everyone sorry.  I have temple day next week so my P day will not be until Thursday.  So no need to worry! I've included some pictures.


I have taught a lot of people here in Hong Kong.  We run into a lot of eccentric ones, they have the best stories   It is pretty interesting. We found a potential investigator this week for another mission area.  She believes her house to be haunted, she wanted us to "cleanse" her house of it.  She is not in my area so I'm going to leave the cleansing to the missionaries in her area :) Meanwhile most of the rest of Hong Kong is too busy working from sun up until sun down, very truly working themselves to death. 

Dad's Duck hunt has turned him... he sounds like such a hick right now, ha.  That's so cool that Amanda Poppe was called to Mesa, AZ. Tell our friends there to feed her dinner! The picture of all of you on your friend trip looks beautiful! 


Anyway that is all, next week will be longer:) 
Love Elder Phillips

                         

                                     
                                       
 

Trip to the Island!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week was the first full week I've had with Elder Falk.  It has been good.  Yes Mom,  I'm very happy, and yes the sister missionaries definitely like it here because they got our two best investigators!  And we did another turnover with them from a lady we just found recently.   Anyway when Elder Falk came into the area he told me that among mission areas Butterfly (Wuh Dihp) is one of the hardest, if not the hardest, areas in Hong Kong.  No area in Hong Kong is easy, but apparently it's super hard here.  That's fine by me, I've never experienced anything different.  The rest of my mission will be a piece of cake compared to Butterfly :)

We had general conference last week and yesterday we had stake conference, Elder Falk hasn't been to our ward's regular sacrament meeting yet.  Oh well, he will get a chance next week!  

Today we went to Hong Kong island for P Day.  The island is much different from my area.  This is the first time I've been to the island on my mission, it's crazy.  I feel like everyone speaks English on the island. That's just an exaggeration but definitely more here than in the New Territories. 

Our Stake President in the New Territories is named President Chan.  I met his son in the MTC, so when I talked to him we got a picture together.  He is such an awesome guy.  

This week we went out finding a bit.  We met a guy named A-Tai.  He doesn't believe in God, he believes in himself.  Usually believing in yourself has a positive connotation, but when we hear it as missionaries it just means they're atheist.  But we met him on two different occasions, and he still wouldn't give us his number. It's okay, we told him if we run into him a third time he has to meet with us because it's definitely divine providence.  They just don't think they need us, but it's ironic because they probably need it more.  But despite failures, we continue on.  Any missionary effort is not really a failure :)

Happy Birthday Mom!  you are getting so old!  Just kidding.  Love ya!

Love, 
Elder Phillips

Butterfly Theory :) New Pictures Too!

Dear Friends and Family,

 It has been a good week.  Lot's of changes.  I got a new companion and he was in the same MTC group as my last companion.  So he's still pretty young.  I thought up a theory of why they send young missionaries to butterfly.  This place is called butterfly right?  So it's like all these new missionaries come here in their cocoons, but by the end of their time here they have hatched into a beautiful butterfly...Pretty foofy theory right?  I thought so, too.

Being in a tri-companionship with two other missionaries was pretty interesting.  We were covering two areas so there were some scheduling conflicts, but I survived.  I'm just glad to be back with one other companion again.  My new companion's name is Elder Falk.  He is district leader so I think he will stay here for a long time.  We will see.  

We have sister missionaries in Butterfly now.  They stole all our good investigators!  Just kidding, I'm not mad.  But really it's a lot easier to find girls to teach than guys. They're just nicer.  

Mom I don't care what you think about my stylish clothes.  You're probably just jealous.  I was going to send you a pair, but now consider it undone.  (he is talking about goofy red pants he bought in Hong Kong :) 
  
We also got to watch general conference.  That was a great experience.  It's so much better as a missionary.  I was actually really enjoying it.  We got a new shipment of elders in who got to see it twice.  Once in the MTC and once in the field because they show it one week late here!  Pretty lucky.

I am going to send you a few pictures. 

One is with a family we ate dinner with last night.  The new sister missionaries as well as my new companion are in this one.




One of them is with a previous less active who is now again active in the church.  He's such a cool guy.  I'm not sure why he stopped going to church, because he has such a great testimony.  Hopefully he get's a calling soon.  He is awesome. 




 When I was in a tri panionship with this younger kid named Peter, who is an investigator.

  

One is new comp. Elder Falk and I.



Another is a pic of some old buses in Hong Kong.  We went to a museum about buses.  I know it sounds boring, but let me assure you just the opposite is true.  You would be shocked at the rich heritage of buses and their cultural significance in Hong Kong.

  

One is with my old MTC companion.  My new companion actually trained my old MTC companion.  And furthermore, my trainer was MTC companions with my new companion Elder Falk.  Pretty crazy.  He has had every companion I've had.  



Another is with a member named Tony.  He is wearing a red Cardigan.  He is another awesome dude.  He is in Tuen Muhn Ward but he really liked me for some reason.



Another is a picture of some steak.  This was two P days ago, I believe.  The guy in our apartment named Elder McCleary was going home so we celebrated his last P Day with steak.  Pretty awesome. 




There should be another picture with a youth in my ward.  He gave me his sweater and I gave him my suit and we took a picture.  His name is Timothy Chan.  Pretty awesome!



Got to go. Love you all!

Elder Phillips

Crazy Week!!

Dear Friends and Family,

This week has been insane.  I will tell you first off, that my companion is no longer with me.  He got a special call to be a DBC elder who take care of missionary housing and distribution, so he left early to do extra training.  It's good for him because of his knee problem.  He will get to drive now.  Right now I am in charge of the Wuh Dihp area.  It's pretty scary.
  
 I am in a tri-panionship with my Zone leaders, so the three of us cover two areas.  It's pretty strange.  There's a lot more stress on me, but if anyone can handle it, it's God, and he is on my side.

I will be getting a new companion this Thursday.  I am pretty sure I am staying in Wuh Dihp because my companion already left, and it's pretty rare to white wash an area. We will see.

We are getting sister missionaries in our area this Thursday, and we have to turn over all of our good investigators.  So sad.  But I'm happy for those sisters because they will have a jump start in this area.  We will just have to start from square one
.
One of my new companions is leaving this Thursday.  We had a pretty funny scare the other day.  He bought an airsoft gun and he was carrying it in his bag to give it to someone to send home, but he left it on the train! He freaked out  and ran as fast as he could after the train but on the way he dropped his other bag and some of his personal belongings went flying. Poor guy.  But luckily he found out his airsoft gun was actually in the bag he had on him.   Anyway it all turned out okay.

We haven't watched General Conference yet.  They don't stream it live to us we just watch it a week late. I'm hoping they have some inspiring words for us!

Mom, I haven't got your package yet, but I got the pictures and everything of Corey's family visit!  They were fun to see!

The mission area I'm in is really young so a lot of change is happening,  So it's going to be interesting.
I have to go!  Love you!

Elder Phillips