​Bonjour ma famille!

Well, hey howdy hey! I'm so glad that y'all got to meet my two favorite companions, Elders Hansen and Joseph. They're wonderful, and I'm so blessed to have worked with them. (:

From Monday to Wednesday, I was with Elder Hammons. He's been a little sick, so we just stayed in the apartment; cleaning and preparing the apartment for the coming of Elder Sahy. We ate some very, very good American food (macaroni & gravy, chips and bean dip...mm mm mmmmm). Elder Hammons is an awesome guy, and it was great to spend some time with him. There was a slight change in transfer, and he's now working in Benin as an office elder (for his second time).

Wednesday afternoon, because I couldn't be alone, I stayed with the Hedzranawoé elders, Elders Lath and Kayakez, and then Elders Adzagah and Eperonnier. It was fun to be with them, and to see just a bit of their sector.

Well, come Wednesday evening, the Assistants arrived with two new missionaries. I shook their hands, learned their names, and... neither of them were named Elder Sahy. So, that was a bit confusing, so I said "Well, they're telling me that I'm training one of you, who's that?" One of them said "That's me." So, my new companion is actually named Elder Angbo, from Cote d'Ivoire.

Elder Angbo's a stud. He's very enthusiastic for the work, humble, and ready to go! He's got a lot of faith. I think we're going to get along just fine. His favorite songs are "When I See You Again," and "Hello". His favorite films are the Marvel films, and his favorite Avenger is Iron Man. His hobbies are soccer and drawing, and he wants to be an architect.

Elder Angbo is really, really eager to learn English. He wants to speak English at the apartment, and he's constantly asking for translations and feedback on his English. He's awesome. So, I'm trying to teach him English and the little bits of Ewé that I know, and I'm also trying to learn more French and Ewé. Language, language, language! (;

Yesterday, we were able to learn the other sector better. We did a lot of walking, from one corner to the other, but it was worth it. We weren't able to visit a lot of people, but we know their houses. Pray that we will be able to remember where everyone lives!

Brigitte is still pretty sick (her family had a couple of cases of malaria), so she wasn't able to be baptized this past Saturday, but we were able to teach her a little bit on Thursday.

On Friday, we showed up to our first rendez-vous, and it was a ratez-vous, and so was most of our schedule! After a line of ratez-vous, I decided that it might be a good idea to try the first rendez-vous again, and she was there! Afterwards, Elder Angbo asked me "How did you know that she was going to be there?" and I was kind of like "Uh, I didn't. It just seemed like a good idea." It just goes to show, you never know when the Spirit might conduct you to do good, you just need to be trying your best to do the right thing.

We're working with a less active family, François and Alice, with the goal to help them go to the temple (this was the family involved in the crazy baptismal font story). You can tell that the family needs more of the Spirit in their lives, and it's very hectic to try and gather them in for a lesson, but once the lesson takes course, you can see the change in their faces, and they're much more receptive to the Spirit. I've got a good feeling about this family.

We showed up to help one of my favorite members, Soeur Anne, and we insisted on helping her wash the family's laundry load. It was lots of fun! One of her neighbors saw us, and immediately wanted to fix an appointment with us. Soeur Anne was super grateful, and at Church she was telling members all about what we did. Very embarassing.

We decided to pass by Sam's house Friday evening, and found him busy. He was boiling a whole bunch of different leaves, and said that he was feeling sick, so he was going to take some medicine. Since he's a rasta man, I kind of jumped the gun, put two and two together, etc, so we gave Sam an on-the-spot Word of Wisdom lesson. He said that he liked the principle, but because he has a lower income, he needs the boiling leaves in the pot for medicine. I got pretty passionate in my testimony, and then Elder Angbo was like "Oh, wait, I know what he's doing."  As it turns out, a native traditional medicine practice is to boil a special type of leaf, and then take a hot bath in the tea/water that is produced. So, what Sam was doing was not against the Word of Wisdom, and I was a wee bit culturally insensitive. Oopsie. (; After we all had a good laugh, Sam said that he occasionally has a bit of alcohol, but that he'll have no problem keeping the Word of Wisdom. Yay! (: We also gave him a blessing of health to help him out.

Sunday afternoon, like I said, we had a couple of members accompany us to show us all of the investigators that they know of, which was very helpful. The others left a lot of people ready for baptism, so hopefully we can keep these investigators and see them off to baptism.

We were teaching a wonderful partial member family about baptisms for the dead. It was a very sweet lesson. I know that the work of salvation is available to all, and that because of our Heavenly Father's mercy and love for us, His children, all will have the opportunity to hear the Gospel.

Well, I've been thinking a lot about training my new companion this week, and I ended up thinking a lot about being a dad. From what I can see, training is just practice for being a dad and raising children. I studied some general conference talks about fathers, and I really loved "In Praise of Those Who Save," by President Uchtdorf, especially this quote:

"We may share the same gene pool, but we are not the same. We have unique spirits. We are influenced in different ways by our experiences. And each of us ends up different as a result. Rather than attempting to force everyone into a mold of our own making, we can choose to celebrate these differences and appreciate them for adding richness and constant surprises to our lives... Whatever problems your family is facing, whatever you must do to solve them, the beginning and the end of the solution is charity, the pure love of Christ. Without this love, even seemingly perfect families struggle. With it, even families with great challenges succeed. 'Charity never faileth.' ... As we emulate the Savior’s love, He will surely bless and prosper our righteous efforts to save our marriages and strengthen our families."

I feel that I'm meant, not necessarily to force Elder Angbo into my imagined mold of what a perfect missionary is, but to help him discover his potential as a missionary in the Lord's kingdom, and as a disciple of Jesus Christ. I'm so grateful for how humble and willing to learn he is, and I know that the Lord will help us accomplish wonders in Attiegou.

I hope you all have a great week! I know that as we seek charity, the Lord will help us to do wonderful things in our lives!

Love,
Elder Phillips

Bonjour ma famille,

You know, there are days when everything goes perfectly, and you follow your schedule perfectly. Then there are days when you eat lunch, your head starts to nod, and then the next thing you know, you're waking up on the couch at 17h00, and you've missed a lot of your rendez-vous.
​
Movin' right along...

Well, this week was a lot of ups and downs. I'm going to try to express how this week went in giving a "The Week in Quotes" montage:

Zone meeting: "Well, I gave my testimony in zone conference last week, and my testimony hasn't changed since then, but I'll give it anyways."-Elder Joseph
...
"Questions are an inspired way to teach our investigators."-Elder Joseph

Teaching Louise: "What does it mean to repent?"-Elder Joseph
"It means to wake up on time, do all of your chores, not complain, and be a good person."-Louise

Elder Olela and Elder Whitt did a split together: "Do you want to light this mattress on fire?"-Elder Whitt

Mangez-vous chez Président Attiogbé (2nd counselor in the mission presidency): "The last time I ate at Président Attiogbé's, we ate so much that my companion threw up, even after skipping breakfast and lunch."-Elder Joseph

Last phone call with Elder Hansen: "Do you want any special meals when you get home?"-Elder Phillips
"Nah, I told my family that I'm good with anything. Except popcorn, because apparently the first thing that Elder Walls ate when he got home was popcorn, and that sounds really disappointing."-Elder Hansen
...
"Do you feel like you did your best?"-Elder Phillips
"You know, I don't thing that anyone can say that they did their absolute best 100 percent of the time, but I can say that I did my best at doing my best, and that's good enough."-Elder Hansen
...
"You and Elder Hansen win for favorite companions ever."-Elder Phillips
"Yeah, you, Hanks, and Hansen are my favorites too."-Elder Joseph

Baptisms: "Brigitte is sick. Can we move the baptism to next week?"-Frère Akakpo
"Yeah, no problem."-Elder Phillips

Transfers (went to King Burger to wait for our calls): "Elder Joseph, thank you for your service in the mission. You have been transferred."-Elder Digbeu
"Which sector?"-Elder Joseph
"Any sector you want, your choice."-Elder Digbeu
(everyone laughs)
"Elder Whitt, thank you for the service given in the mission. You're transferred to a sector where there is no companionship study, where you can sleep in, where you can kiss girls, where you can do whatever you want."-Elder Digbeu
"Thanks, I think I'll like it there."-Elder Whitt
(everyone laughs)
"Elder Phillips, you're going to be training a new missionary. He's from Cote d'Ivoire. His name is Elder Sahy."-Elder Digbeu
...
"What's the transfer news, Elder Hammons?"-Elder Whitt
"I'm going to Kégué to work with Elder Mayani. Elder Oléla is going to Bénin to work with Elder Gnakouri."-Elder Hammons
"What?"-Elder Adzagah (calls Elder Digbeu) "Who is working in Hammons's sector?"
"Elder Phillips is going to take over the two Attiegou sectors as district leader."-Elder Digbeu
...
"And you said you weren't going to train."-Elder Joseph

Thoughts and counsel on training: "The missionary that you train is the person that you should love the most on the mission. If you don't love him, you've failed as a missionary."-Elder Seka
"Love him. Leaving home's the same for everyone, he's gonna need a friend."-Elder Roundy
"Just be his best friend. That's what he needs."-Elder Whitt

Elder Joseph going home: 
Today: "They're usually late when picking up missionaries going home."-Elder Joseph
"Watch, this'll be the one time that they're on time."-Elder Phillips
...
"(over the phone) They just showed up, two minutes early."-Elder Whitt
"Wow"-Elder Joseph
"See? What'd I tell you?"-Elder Phillips
...
"You did it guys, you did it!"-Elder Phillips
"Thanks man. We'll catch you later."-Elder Joseph
...
"There are so many investigators that are progressing, it's way too hard for a missionary to whitewash."-Elder Oléla
"Nah, Elder Phillips is strong, he can do it. And train, while he's at it."-Elder Digbeu
...
"So, how're you feeling?"-Elder Hammons
"Physically relieved, because I just took a leak. Mentally, stressed at the idea of training and working two sectors; Emotionally, sad at the fact that everyone is leaving; Spiritually, I feel like I can do this."-Elder Phillips


Well everyone, I hope that this email is as interesting as this week has been. It's been quite the week, and I'm feeling really weird about the fact that everyone is leaving me. I've made a lot of good friends over the past couple of months, and now they're all going away.

I'm really going to miss Elder Joseph. He has been an outstanding companion, definitely, hands down, one of my favorites. He's had such a good influence on me, I've learned a lot for him, and I'm proud of his devoted service.

Likewise, I'm going to miss Elder Hansen. He's been the best influence on my mission, and the best trainer I could've possibly had. I'm really, really going to miss my mission dad, he helped me through so much of my mission, and now, I have the opportunity to follow in his footsteps. His influence will be immeasurable.

I'll also miss Elder Whitt, who's been the best zone leader I've ever had. I'll also miss Elders Miller and Archer, equally good friends. I'll miss Elder Olela, who's been my favorite Congolais to live with, and definitely the nicest. He's got a long road ahead of him, but I know that he'll come out on top. I'll really miss Elder Hammons. He's been my favorite district leader, and I want to be like him. 

Well, I feel like an era of my mission has come to an end. This is a definite change of scenery, and it will be interesting to see the stories that come. It's a new chapter in my life, and I'm excited to start it! To apply the wisdom of my mission father, "Do your best at doing your best, and all will work out."

That's the Gospel, isn't it? We aren't perfect, but the Lord augments our efforts when we try. "Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? there is no searching of his understanding. He giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength. Even the youths shall faint and be weary, and the young men shall utterly fall: But they that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings as eagles; they shall run, and not be weary; and they shall walk, and not faint," (Isaiah 40:28-31).

So, no matter how difficult the perspective may seem, I encourage y'all to do your best, walk down life's roads with curiosity and eagerness for the surprises and blessings that the Lord has in store for us.

Have a great week, and good luck going back to school! Y'all will do wonderfully!

Love,
Elder Phillips

​Bonjour ma famille!

I hope all is well back home! I'm glad that Mom's birthday was a success, and that the Olympics are on, and lots of other great things!

This week was pretty great!

Tuesday morning, we stopped by a member's parcel, and we saw her little daughter and another little boy washing dishes. To summarize what followed, let's just say the little boy saw us, went flying to the other end of the parcel and out the side door screaming "MOMMY!". We felt super terrible, calmed him down, and gave him a brochure. Even eight year old kids can get scared senseless by yovos. (:

On Wednesday, I went on a split with Elder Olela. He's such a great missionary, and I love spending time with him. He lives in a village very far away from Kinshasa (capital of DRC), and so in 2011 he moved to Kinshasa to start college. He found the Church, became converted, and decided to serve a mission. Since his parents live so far away, he hasn't had the chance to see them since the day he left for university. By the time he finishes his mission, he will have gone six or seven years without seeing his parents' faces, but they love him and support him so much.

We had a rendez-vous that went pretty well, and then the rest of the day was a great big ratez-vous. To bump the day up, I did street contacting with at least 8 people in a row, and they all said no! Seriously, I talked to at least eight people in a row, one after another, and they either said "No, sorry, I'm busy, I have to go," or "I don't speak French". Oh well, no biggie.

The stake is hosting a drama club, and they practice every Wednesday, so if we're ever waiting for our amis to show up, sometimes we sit in the back and cheer on the youth.

After coordination meeting, we went to King Burger. Good stuff. (:

We have one investigator, Felicité, who's preparing for baptism. We left her the Word of Wisdom brochure to study, and when we came back Thursday for our lesson, she turned to the back page ("Supplemental Study") and said she couldn't find some of the scriptures. We did a double-take and asked "Wait, you read the scriptures in the back?" and she said yes. That got us super pumped. That rarely happens (amis reading scriptures in the brochures), and so we got pumped. Elder Joseph said that every investigator he's ever taught who reads the scriptures in the brochures gets baptized, so that's got us excited. Now she just needs to come to church! (;

Sam is doing pretty well. He was busy for most of the week, but on Tuesday we got to talk to him, which was great.

We have a less-active family we're working with, and they came to Church on Sunday for the third (I think) time we've been working with them! That makes us so happy.

Eli and Louise missed out on our weekly rendez-vous, but they still came to Church on Sunday. Same thing with Frère Akakpo and Brigitte, so we're still on track to baptize the latter before the transfer ends.

During the week, I focused not just on studying the doctrine, but studying it well. Studying it in its purity, seeing if there are any scriptures or traditions that could confuse investigators, and then finding the scriptures that could respond to objections or concerns. It's like Spirit-filled Bible-bash preparation, but for teaching, not for fighting. I don't know if that makes sense. As a missionary, I don't like Bible-bashing (it just chases the Spirit away), but I would recommend that every missionary learn how to do it defensively, to gain a sound understanding of the doctrine.

Both Elders Joseph and Whitt served in a sector called Adidogomé, so we all (Elders Joseph, Whitt, Adzagah, and I) piled into a kolomoto taxi Sunday afternoon for a bumpy, exciting ride to Adidogomé. We stopped by the Church building and said "hi" to the branch presidency and other Church leaders, got to meet a super zélé member, and his new family, that would always accompany the missionaries. Elder Joseph and I spent the rest of the afternoon with a family that he converted, the Bandiraruta family. They're refugees from Rwanda, and they WALKED to Togo. On their FEET. They found the missionaries, were taught and baptized little by little, and then their stubborn father was finally won over by Elder Joseph's testimony (the dad calls him "Elder Témoignage". (: ). It was such a sweet experience to spend the afternoon at their house, talking and playing with them, and I could feel the Spirit. They were such a cool family, and I feel super privileged to have met them. I could really tell how much they loved Elder Joseph.

I made a little mini-commitment to serve my mission in such a way that I could have the same experiences in 11 months (wow, that's crazy. Time is going way too fast, someone make it stop!). Earlier in the week, I was a little discouraged, so I began playing with my camera a little bit, and I found the photos of the day I said goodbye to everyone in Akpakpa. I got pretty emotional, and the Spirit told me, in effect, "Don't worry, you're doing just fine, Elder, you're making a difference, and you will continue to do so."

Last night, I was having back pain (Soeur Morin gave me a prescription that I'll start taking this week, so I'm expecting it to get better soon). Elder Joseph gave me a blessing. It really helped, and I felt the Spirit.

So, if there was a takeaway from this week, I'd say that the most important part of missionary work is...the people! When a missionary's focused on the people, becoming their friends, serving them, and helping them accept the Restored Gospel, then he/she is destined to succeed! We're given a very short time to influence as many people as possible for good. When guided by the Spirit, we can see peoples' lives changed before our eyes. It's an irreplaceable experience.

Throughout my mission, I've been motivated by the desire to stand before the Lord at the end of my life and tell Him that I served with all I've got and made the most of my mission experience, and the desire to reunite with my family at the end of two years and tell them the same thing. But as I spend more time in the field, I'm also gaining another motivational desire: to be able to have served in such a way that the people around me would be grateful for, not necessarily me, but the Gospel, and how it's changed their lives. Conversion is the most beautiful thing to watch, and I'm so excited for every person, no matter who they are or where they are, who accepts the Gospel and comes to know Jesus Christ at a more personal level. I know that this Gospel is true, and I know that it can and does change lives!

I hope y'all have a fantastic week!

Love,
Elder Phillips

Bonjour ma famille!

Have you ever had natural honey that was so natural that bee legs were floating in it? Well, maybe I had some this week... Moving on...  (;

On the opposite end of the spectrum, today Elder Joseph took me on a tour of real American food that can be found in Lomé. We went to a supermarket named Ramco, where they have (among other things) Oreos! I got some of those. We shopped around the big marché for our monthly groceries (tomatoes, onions, etc), and then we joined multiple missionaries for a group lunch at a pizzeria called San Marco's. It's suuuuuuper nice. I had a medium BBQ Chicken Pizza, a medium Calzone, Ben & Jerry's Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches, and some sparkling mineral water. I'm stuffed to the brim, and I think it'll be another year before I eat American food again. Haha, just kidding, but seriously I'm feeling super-chub.

We found a member that is willing to make sauce for our meals if we buy the ingredients and pay her a little money, which is super nice! If all goes well, we'll only have to pop rice in the rice cooker for our meals, which will save us a lot of time and energy.

A lot of people find it hard to believe that Elder Joseph is from the United States. This week, a lady called us over and asked where Elder Joseph is from. He said the United States, and the lady called over her friend, saying "See? I told you so!" Her friend didn't believe it, asking if Elder Joseph's parents were also American (yes). Haha, it was another one of those "Haha" moments. (:

On Tuesday, we had a zone meeting. That went super well. My lesson was on Fixing Baptismal Dates. It went pretty well, nothing too spectacular or special, but I felt like I did okay. Elder Adzagah gave a killer lesson on Fixing Goals, and that was very inspiring. One of those lessons where you stand up and shout "Yeah! Let's DO THIS THING!!!" *bursts into the restaurant, then becomes super shy and sneaks his way awkwardly to his table*-Ratatouille

That afternoon, we helped one of our investigators "charge water". In each neighborhood, you can usually find at least one water pump, where you can pay for water, and then, under a pump, you hold a big basin on your head as they fill it to the brim with water. Then you walk, with delicate balance and poise and a heavy water bucket on your head, back home. Well, it was quite the adventure! I don't recommend it for the weary-of-back, but it was great anywho. We spilled a little water on ourselves, but that's okay. Apparently, for most of the people on the street, I was the first white man they've ever seen to charge water. Making history, folks! (;

Speaking of my back, I finally got a new mattress! It's super firm, and I love it. On top of that, I switched back to my small hand sack. My back isn't 100 percent again, but it got a lot better. I'm hoping it improves even more this week! (:

We were planning on doing a ward activity this week. The ward had reserved Wednesday to Friday to go out street contacting with us during the mornings to invite people to a pre-ward-conference missionary activity. Well, guess who showed up? Just the missionaries, the Ward Mission Leader, Frère Bakana, and another member. So, that kind of fell through. We're hoping to reschedule the activity for another week.

From Wednesday evening to Thursday evening, I went on a split with Elder Whitt, our zone leader. He's such a great guy, and we had a lot of spiritual fun together. Our companionship study was by far the most spiritual comp study I've ever had in the mission. We had a lot of fun teaching together, and he showed me where some less active members lived (he used to work in a neighboring secteur, Kégué, when the ward boundaries weren't super fixed). It was a really successful split, and I learned a lot.

Eli and Louise weren't showing up to Church for two weeks, nor their rendez-vous, so during the split we walked out to Zogbedji to check up on them. As it turns out, they've been having malaria in the household, so that naturally kept them from coming, but their health is much better now, so we saw them at Church on Sunday. Super great.

We had ratez-vous all of Saturday evening, so that was a wee bit depressing, but so did Elders Whitt and Adzagah, so at the end of the day we met up and went to King Burger. A good way to end the day, I guess.

Sunday afternoon, we had lots of rendez-vous in opposite ends of our sector, so we went on splits with the members: Elder Joseph went with Frère Bakana, and I went with Frère Matthias (the first counselor in the bishopric). It was super weird to be so separated from my companion, even when we were doing something completely legal and in-the-rules. It'll be interesting to see how I react to being completely alone back at home.  To add to the weirdness, Frère Matthias has a car, so just driving to our rendez-vous was a really strange adjustment. We had some interesting moments, but at the end of the day, the split was a success.

One of our amis that we're teaching right now is named Sam. He's a Rasta-man, with dreadlocks and a beanie. He likes making public art in his spare time. He's super cool. We passed by him one day, and I thought "You know, it'd be super cool if he got converted," so we contacted him, and yesterday we had our first lesson together. He asked questions that covered both the Restoration and the Plan of Salvation, and he loved all of it. I hope he'll be able to progress well.

Throughout the week, we taught a lot of lessons about the Plan of Salvation, and we ended up focusing mostly on the Fall of Adam and Eve. The Fall is a harder doctrine to understand, but I've learned so much about it on my mission. In addition, each time we taught someone about the Fall, I gained a new insight.

The Fall of Adam and Eve was a positive event for the children of God. Adam and Eve were commanded to be fruitful and multiply, giving the opportunity for their children to come down to the earth and gain a physical body. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve were innocent and lacked the knowledge to start a family, knowledge that could come only from eating the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Our Heavenly Father knew that Satan would tempt mankind against His will, so God commanded that Adam and Eve not partake of the fruit. Adam and Eve were tempted and partook of the fruit, and by consequence, gained the knowledge necessary to start a family, and introduced physical death and sin into the world. We owe our existence on earth to our First Parents, and the effects of the Fall can be overcome, thanks to the Atonement of Jesus Christ.
​
As a missionary, we are expected to be exactly obedient to the missionary rules. It's been a goal I've had throughout my entire mission, and it's been very hard. And no, I have not been perfectly obedient, and chances are I probably never will be. Earlier in my mission, I was constantly stressed about my shortcomings and weaknesses and mistakes, and it was making things hard. Now, it'd be nice to say that I've finally learned how to overcome that stress and deal with imperfections (mine and those of other people), but I haven't. I'm still learning though, and it's a continuous learning process. I'm still imperfect, and so is everyone else in the world, and I still stress out about that, but the Lord is always there to comfort me, and I'm learning how to rely more and more on the Atonement of Jesus Christ. Daily exercises in faith, daily repentance, and a weekly partaking of the sacrament are how we can improve ourselves, little by little, and become more and more comfortable with unnoticeable progression.
Little by little, one travels far. (:
Alma 37:6-7

I love y'all! Have a great week!

Love,
Elder Phillips