Letter from Jamie Phillips

Hello, my name is Jamie Phillips. My husband and i are ward missionaries for the Greenville Texas ward. I am sending you this to let you know that your son is a very uplifting spirit with a great love for the Lord. The Holy Spirit continues to work through him like a light in the dark, and we were fortunate to have  him here for a short while. I am sure that he has brought you many moments of Joy with such an uplifting spirit. He arrived a couple of days before my husbands baptism, and we will not ever forget all that he has brought to our lives. Proverbs tells us that it is okay to be proud in good works for the Lord! And you can be proud in your son, for his good works for the Lord! May our Heavenly Father keep you and bless you through our Lord

and Savior Jesus Christ!

                                          Jamie Phillips

Off To Some Plano City...

Dang there sure has been a whole lot going in these past few weeks, but I guess I'll start off with saying I'm going to miss the good ol' Greenville tons! It's crazy because it totally feels like yesterday that I said I was going to miss serving in the Cliff but from what I hear, I guess that's just how time goes. So I was recently called to serve in a Dallas suburb called Plano, which from what I hear is a pretty cash money area, but I'll be doing only Spanish work out there in a small branch, so we'll be handing all of our English contacts over to the English Elders, but I'm stoked to be so much closer to the city! It's also an area where a bunch of my mission homies including Elder Lee and Elder Henze have served so I've heard a lot of good things about it and I'm way stoked to get things started out there! We
also have the one Purple Fusion in the mission out in Plano...so time to be taking the Laker-mobile for a little contacting haha. 

And speaking of Fusion, that leads to the best story of the past week while we were up in the far outskirts of a Godforsaken town known as Celeste. We were out to visit some less active members that lived out there, and as we finished work within the "population 817" town, we headed on out to some County Road houses, until we hit CR 1100. So we stopped by the first house which had three huge dogs that went nuts as we came up to the fence, but we got them to calm down and then just chill with us as we tried to get ahold of the member, but the gates were locked, it was surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and his phone was out of service, so we took off. As we were making our way down to the next member's house, we began to notice that as we made our way down a darker road, the car started going a little slower, and slower, and slowerr.....until we realized what we'd gotten into. Being from the city and trusting what the GPS told us to do in order to save miles, we decided that we should just go a little farther to pass this mud spot and we'll find a clear patch on the way. But in order to keep the car moving at a moderate speed, I got out and decided to push, and as I was pushing the car on this (what looked like seemingly dry dirt), I noticed that my foot would gather about a half a pound of dirt for every step I took and it would continue to allocate until I was about 3 or 4 inches taller. We finally got to the turn that we were pushing to get to, and saw this same dirt for mile and miles, and decided that it was time to visit this member another day....or we would get stuck and miss one of our appointments. So we turned around and started to head back the other way....but lo and behold, we got stuck in the sticky clay of Texas.

 

This whole deal led to an adventure that lasted the whole day as we fought the earth to get that car out. So we had first gotten stuck at about 2, and had an appointment at 3:30 with the Cavenders contact, but we weren't worried, it was just a little mud...what's a little mud going to do. Well with a little advice from what we had heard about previous experiences, we tried to wedge stuff under our one moving tire that was caked with mud so that we could get some traction, but it just didn't seem to even help me budge the car. That led me to a search for something else, and I ended up finding a bunch of small concrete blocks from a burned down shed, so after that and an experience that involved me fighting a long loose strand of barbed wire, we were able to put some of our other findings under the wheels to help the tire catch. It moved, but not by much, maybe about 3 inches (give or take.) So we searched for more stuff, and did even more placing and so much pushing that I was completely exhausted, that we decided to find some help from some hicks that would know a thing or two about this deadly clay. We had prayed a bunch to get this car out and make it to our lessons, but again, we battled this deal for an hour and a half and could only get so far, and from what one of our buddies told us, the only way we're getting out is with a tractor, because nothing else would be able to get outta there. So we went on the farm right next to us with the burned down shed to knock on the mobile home that was nestled in what seemed like an endless patch of land, but found to our disappointment that nobody was home. We even tried the classy red bar that was right next to the house, but again we couldn't find a soul. So we continued down the road, a few hundred yards and started to go down to the next house we could find. This property was littered with faded "No Trespassing" signs, "Beware of Dog", and then "Forget Dog, Beware of Owner!" It was a pretty janky looking place, but he had a tractor, so we had to try him. He was a super nice guy, but he said that his tractor didn't work and that we chose "the wrong road to be on." Yeah, go figure, we learned that about two hours before. So he sent us on over to his neighbor's house and then the next one, but none of them were home, and before we knew it, we have knocked every house within a 3 mile radius of us. 

(There's also a story within that story...It involved an experience with two donkeys, a lake, making Elder Downer jump multiple barbed wire fences, increasing his fear given his fence jumping history, and the three dogs earlier mentioned somehow escaping their barred tight property and becoming our dogs for the rest of the day. I named them Bleu, Rex, and Fluffy, and it even got to the point that they were always with us and would always respond to the names we gave them. But I'll save all the details due to time...)  

Well, after not finding a soul that could help us, we returned to the car to find out if we could get it out some how with our now recruited help of Bleu, Rex, and Fluffy. We found burned down storage house with some more materials and wood that we could use, but as we tried to employ that in the job of helping us escape, we were back to square one, moving back and forth only a couple inches. We had been fighting the mud for about 3 and a half hours now, and didn't know what to do....so I just took out everything we had placed to give the tire some grip....and miraculously, one of the greatest events in my life came to pass before my eyes. I don't know how many angels helped me push, or if God just hardened the ground under or what not, but I pulled everything out, and right before the count to three with me pleading that we could get outta there, we started to move 4 inches, then 6, then 10, then 3 feet, then before I knew it I was running behind the car pushing with all I could until it caught solid ground and took off! I was just on my knees absolutely shocked, so grateful, and especially thankful that we had gotten out of the horror of the Texan Clay. So now we know that all the missionaries before us obviously didn't pray for help when they got stuck and needed a tractor to come and get them haha....or maybe our situation was so bad that Heavenly Father had enough pity on us to help us out. Whatever it may be....Texas gives terrible Valentines day gifts! 

Well I miss you all tons and thanks so much for all the Valentines Day goodies! I was blown away by the present and can't tell y'all how grateful I am for it! Music! Finally!!! I was wondering what the stereo was for, but the next package answered the question! And I need to know who chose the pie because it was the last thing I opened for the day and the last thing I would've expected haha. Love yall and we also got a visit from Elder Audikitais, a member of the Seventy! He amped up our mission and things are going to just get better so I'll keep yall posted!!!

Love
Elder Justin Wilson

Obey The White Handbook!

Hey howdy hey! This has been such an exciting week where we have been able to be more obedient than ever! If you read in the white handbook, it stresses the importance of respecting other's religious and cultural beliefs....and in doing so we couldn't find a house yesterday that wasn't worshiping the religion of Football in this great state of Texas. Luckily we were going around with a three-pound bag of chips that was gifted to us by a member and we were welcomed warmly into every home! It gave us the idea that we should go tracting sometime with a Corona box full of copies of the Book Of Mormon, The Restoration Movies, and all sorts of other commissary haha. I can just see everyone beckoning us to come in their house and share our goods! 

So yesterday did have its ups and its downs, because we had two baptismal interviews for Carlos & Brittany Riveroll, a Spanish family that we have been working with since my first week out here in Greenville! I'm seriously way stoked for them, but as always, Satan is starting to amp things on up again. After being out here a while and seeing the pattern that he works in, it just gets super super annoying and I just can't help but wonder if he's ever going to give up! He's just ridiculously predictable and is that constant speed bump that we have to jump again and again. But I also am thankful that I get to be a part of the work that he's constantly attacking and am super blessed to see the success that he's trying to stop. The problem with this Family is that their Dad is...well to put it mildly would be to say he's an alcoholic. We had been working with him a ton back in November and December to get him over this daily drinking problem of his, and at the beginning of December....he was finally able to just give up! He had been keeping our commitments and even fasted with us for a day! I remember we passed by while he was fasting just to check up on him and see how he was doing, and we found him just trembling as he had gone 24 hours without drinking. He was shaking really bad so we made sure that he ate something and we kept his spirits up. Whenever we would talk about it, he would always start crying and would end up stuttering out in Spanish, "I want to stop so bad! But I don't think I can do it!" Well after crossing that bridge back in December and going without for about 2 months, we found him drunk and completely passed out on his bed. It's a test of faith for Carlos and Brittany as we try to continue to unite their family (where the mother and older sister are very very inactive members). They were still able to do the interviews and the little super bowl party that they had planned, but the mood was dampened a little as we saw that Hermano Riveroll had fallen back into previous temptations. So as always, the battle continues, and as always, we know who's going to win and just have to trudge through whatever trial is put in our path while helping lift others on the way. I just hope that I can keep going without letting all the stress get to me. For example, It's a mission norm, especially out here in Texas, that the missionaries gain an unbelievable amount of weight on the mission (like Elder Downer whose gained 40 pounds since he left haha crazy!) But one of our members told me I looked like I'm getting skinnier and skinnier, which as y'all know aint good, so I just have to get over all the stress and whatever else is going on out here. The good news though is that the Spanish Group is continuing to feed us fruitful referrals and the stake is finally seeing through all the schedule changes that we've pushed for...so what we've been doing these past few transfers is finally working! I'm seriously super super super stoked for this area that is continuing to grow and progress! Yall are in my prayers and I want to thank you for yours! They seriously work and have blessed me tons out here! I hope everything's going great back home and that yall had fun for Natle's birthday! Good luck for school Shane and Brett! You've got this week! Even if your teachers do want to kill you haha.

Love
Elder Justin Wilson

The Lord Has Smiled Upon Greenville

Yay for starting my fourth Journal. it's the biggest pain in the behind and is so tough to keep up with but I hope that you know I'm doing it because you asked me to Mom! Well this past week has been fantastic and we've been able to see some serious growth, especially with the work that all the members from the Spanish Group are putting in! It seemed like its taken forever, but all these moves that we've been making to change things around here are really having some pretty drastic effects and it is seriously the greatest feeling ever to see that all the things that we're doing aren't just helping the Group and Ward, but they're helping the Members help themselves and shoulder more responsibilities to help them accomplish their goals! It's seriously almost as great as listening to "In The Ghetto" by Elvis right before we go knock out some of the projects. And I just remembered a super random question, but if anyone knows anything about it, gimme an update because I couldn't believe this when I heard it. So apparently the Mormon football player for Notre Dame had this crazy online relationship with some random girl that turns out that she doesn't exist? Apparently they had a bunch of phone calls and the crazy part was when they told me that it was to a 661 number in Southern California?!?! Out of all the area codes...it would be the Palmdale/Santa Clarita one haha so I figured that must be a big deal going on back home hunting down the person that did all this media hype. So keep me updated on what good old Canyon Country is doing to get its name on the map! 

Okay...so now to the best story of the week for sure ...and I'm expecting only good things to come from this story! So this past Monday, we were getting our weekly grocery shopping done, and as we drove back, I finally convinced Elder Downer to go pull into Cavenders Boot Shop so that we could go for a little real Texas Shopping. So I finally got the opportunity I had been looking for my whole Mission to go in a western wear store! So I cruised in and the situation was way good as I could smell the fresh leather and hear the country music in the back ground. Then the situation went to great as I started walking down the boot isle looking at all the Larry Mahans, Luccheses, and Justins. Then I kid you not, I was only in the store for about 25 seconds and the situation became amazing...and on came Brad Paisley singing "Old Alabama" and it was only a matter of seconds until I was singing along with every line. Then everything just became miraculous as one of the employees came up to us and asked us, "So who exactly are y'all?" So we were able to introduce ourselves and found out that he had a couple distant family members that were serving missions and then we starting talking about other things about his life and it turned into an hour long contact as he just about spilled out just everything from his past and life. And thanks to Mom and Dad for equipping me with their western wear knowledge,  we also talked about everything from skins, to ways to condition the boots, to lemon-wood pegs and different quality stuff that I'm sure no other missionary in this mission is aware of. So now we have a new investigator from Cavenders and I am so stoked for him! Because this one has got to go through! The Lord had me all too much in the zone and prepared this to go down, so I can only expect the best! But for reals, I'll keep y'all updated on it and am super stoked! Well I miss y'all and hope that things are going well back home! Happy 12th birthday Natles because I know you can't be turning 15! Dios da valor Marky! Way stoked to hear how things turn out in Puerto Rico! And good luck with school Shane! You got this one! Just tell your teacher "no entendí." And then you'll get put with the kids that can't speak english and a different teacher haha.

Love
Elder Justin Wilson

Oh! Think Twice...It's Just Another Day For You And Me In Paradise

What up what up what up family!!! So I just figured I'd kinda wing it this week and give yall an idea of whats going on up here. I also
wanted to ask a favor of yall...I was wondering if yall could send me
a Laker or Dodger (or both) calendar for 2013 like the one that Brett
and Jessicah got me last year because I seriously used them ALL the
time! I would always have them handy and ready above our desks
anytime we did planning and it helped out a lot (and I would also cut
out some of stuff from them to decorate my planner!) 

But yeah this past week one of the most epic events ever happened. So the deal is that if your area has a car, each month you are allotted a certain amount of miles that you can go. Currently, we are super low on miles because of all the work that we've been doing out in Commerce. So this past Friday, we had to plan our day around biking and all that jazz, but one of the lessons that we were going to was going to be with a
recent convert that literally lives right across the fence from our apartment. So instead of having to go all the way around the block and
waste all those miles and energy, I told Elder Downer that we're just
going to have to jump the fence. He agreed that it was a good idea, and so I was able to see that learning Spanish somehow enhanced my fence-hopping skills, and I was on the other side in a couple seconds. I turned around and saw Elder Downer start breathing a little bit more deeply, just staring at the fence. I asked him if he was alright, and he told me that he was fine...just that he has a fear of heights. Well I'm sorry that I make such light of this but it was one of the funniest things I've ever seen as he took 5 minutes to get to the other side while I tried to help him out, and he finally made it to the ground. Then as we finished our lesson, I took into consideration his fear of heights and asked him if he'd like to walk around the block and call it a night, or jump the fence and have time to spare to make it to another lesson. After three minutes and he still didn't have a decision made, I decided that we were wasting time and I told him I'm hopping the fence. So after a few seconds I was on the other side and turned around to see him, and we were in the same situation as before. This time he went to other areas of the fence to see if it would be easier in any other way, but sadly, he came back to square 1. So he decided to just try and jump over, and with so many failed attempts, I tried to give him advice and he would get more and more frustrated and said that he knew what he was doing, so I refrained
from my comments. It was apparently too tough with his shoes, so after
a few minutes he took them off and hurled them to the other side,
determined that he was going to get over that fence, and after a few
minutes, he was finally up on the top rail, just completely straddling
it and holding on for dear life. Then he said, "Alright all I have to
do is swing over one foot and then I'll be..." "CLINK!", and down he
went. The top rod unlatched from the the other fence post, and then
gravity loving enveloped his body as he...well lets put it this way...we won't have to go as high to jump the fence anymore. For the whole time he was jumping the fence, I was thinking about taking a video and looking like the biggest jerk for a couple minutes and cherish the video forever, but I decided to be the good and supportive companion and refrained from the temptation and went to help him out as he fell. This was the moment that I learned that missionaries aren't perfect and heard a few choice words leave my comp's mouth haha. Then he winced in pain putting his hand in his jacket and made it sound like he got a finger chopped off. Luckily, I got to see that he just has a pain tolerance of zero and that he came out of that fun experience with only a scratch on his finger. Oh the goodness of companions! He finally admitted that it wasn't a big deal and was able to laugh it off with me for the rest of the night. 

Well this past week has been crazy as I'm catching onto the idea that whenever I'm in a tough spot, I would normally look back to the great memories and times I cherished back home, but I've been out so long that I just automatically look back to good memories from Oak Cliff which is super weird and my pre mish life is feeling more and more like a dream. I miss yall so much and I want you guys to give me updates on how school is going (especially from Shane and Brett given it's a new experience for them!) Things are still getting super stressful out here, but due to the changes we've been making the members have been taking action and involving themselves in the work a lot more! We actually got a member referral a couple weeks ago and the Ramirez family is getting closer and closer to the baptismal font so everyone is praying that the Lord will continue to bless them and show them the truth in this Church! I was able to speak in Sacrament meeting and directed my whole talk towards them and can only see the best coming from their situation. 

Oh yes, and one last note, about fasting and miracles, we were able to find that our Mission had a calculation problem in 2012, and when all the records were compiled, we found that we had 671 baptisms total, surpassing our original goal by one baptism. So when you think all hope is lost...you may be making your judgments a little too soon ...way too many people were fasting and praying for this mission to complete it's goal, and with the faith of hundreds, we were able to reach it! So ALWAYS REMEMBER, when we do our part for a righteous purpose, the Lord will never fail on his. I love and miss yall!
From the Mission of Miracles,
Elder Justin Wilson

Starting Another Transfer?!?!

Hey y'all! Don't have much time to update everyone on the happenings out here in Northeast Texas, so I figured I would just give a story for the week. In case you were wondering, it is freezing up here! I can honestly say the only time I have ever felt it get this cold was up on the top of the mountains at the Canyons Ski Resort. This Texas wind and humidity will for reals just cut you right to the bone and send chills up and down your spine ...and I don't mean the good chills...but ones that just make you cringe! Like we had to book it inside on Saturday because my hands were starting to get purple enough that they'd match Kobe's jersey, but I hope that sets the tone for what the weather is like out here. And last Sunday, all of North Texas fasted that it would rain for the crops and end this drought season. To put it simply, we got what we were fasting for, and in bucket amounts that normally froze over or just turned to sleet and give us an ice storm, but for the most part of it, we got TONS of rain! But for some reason, we seemed to be getting the most this last Wednesday as we went to an appointment out in a town called Commerce Texas (famous for the Texas A&M Commerce school and the second biggest town in Hunt County area that we cover.) To our disappointment, the appointment ended up falling through, and we went to go find other work or people to find/old investigators in the small town of Commerce. As we got to teach only a few less active members, we got a text message from the Assistants warning us to stay close to home due to the flash flood warnings that were coming in for that particular day. Since we were about 20 miles away from home, we decided it was sadly time to wrap it up in Commerce and head back. It was a bummer because the night before, Elder Downer said that he really felt that we should be knocking random doors instead of ones by member families and such, but the weather was getting worse and worse by the minute, and I wasn't feeling any inspiration on the subject, so we headed back down to Greenville. As we made our way out of Commerce, we passed by a trailer park and It made me think of the success I had in Oak Cliff with trailer parks, and just out of the blue said, "Hey check it out, a trailer park. We definitely need to go there sometime." Then right after I said it, I felt this warm sensation in my stomach, and as I reluctantly thought about it more and more, according to the scriptures...it was definitely the spirit, and I felt it stronger than I had in a long time. As a missionary, you feel the spirit all the time and are pretty used to it, but when it has a shockingly strong force like it did back then, you know something big is up. So I started to feel the Spirit stronger and stronger, but kept thinking "you can't be serious, if we go knocking now we'll get super wet and then nobody will come close to letting us in their house." But the more I kept trying to think about something else, the stronger I felt the need to go, but what fueled it most, was the the promise I remembered I had made to heed all the promptings I get. I kept looking at Elder Downer to see if he had any expressions that he was feeling the same, but he didn't. So I started asking him about his impression to knock doors, and then he started to see that something was troubling me. After a short conversation, we came to the conclusion that his impression plus mine, meant that we needed to turn around and head to the trailer park, in the pouring rain. As we made our way back up to Commerce, the rain came down so much harder than before that it seemed like we were driving through pools at Hurricane Harbor with those huge buckets constantly falling on us. We finally made it to the trailer park, and instead of getting my backpack out to get soaked again (I learned that lesson back in the Cliff), I got my little pair of scriptures (thanks Bryce!!!) and was able to fit them in my jacket pocket as we went off to start knocking. At the first door to answer, we got to meet a couple named Jose and Kristina, and as we started chatting with them, they had a confused look on their faces (probably wondering what we were doing in the rain), and as we started to introduce ourselves, Kristina bit her lip and reluctantly said, "....You know what....go ahead and come on in so y'all don't have to stay out in the cold rain." We graciously thanked her and went on inside the house. We got to learn a little about them and how they were a couple that was trying to meet each other's beliefs, and in doing so, started to attend the "Cowboy Church" as a "happy medium." Jose being grown Catholic, and Kristina, being grown Baptist, still had contrasting beliefs and let us know that it was a part of their lives that they had been constantly working on to improve. With that being said, we were prompted to go straight into the Joseph Smith story explaining all of the confusion and contrasting beliefs back in the year 1820, and just like that, things seemed to click and principles applied, and the spirit lead us around the whole time to what would not be a scripted lesson in 'Preach My Gospel', but it sure did accomplish the goal that is printed on the cover; D&C 50:14 which reads "To preach my gospel by the Spirit, even the Comforter which was sent forth to teach the truth." After they agreed to pray to know of the truth of these things and seeing things click in their understanding of what the message of this Church really could mean, we closed with a prayer and headed out with the Spirit still impacting their home. Once we walked out the door, we had a feeling of satisfaction that beats no other, confirming that the Lord knew he could trust in us to follow his direction and guidance. We kept knocking and to say the least, it was the best street I've knocked with the most accepted invitations and all sorts of other hidden jewels, but to keep it short, the best experience was being able to teach in the first door and gaining a stronger testimony that we are instruments in the Lord's hands...and more than that....TEXAS INSTRUMENTS haha new Texas Dallas Mission Logo.

Well I love and miss you guys and hope that this winter isn't as brutal as it is out here...and in case you were wondering...it is currently snowing
outside. So yeah...second time of a snowy winter in Texas of all places. Love yall!
Elder Justin Wilson

2013!!!

10....9....8....7....6....5....4....3....2....1......ZZZZZZZZZ. Normally at the end of the countdown, since I was about seven years old, we would all scream "HAPPYYY NEW YEARRRR!", but this last one I was lucky enough to follow the pattern of my early childhood and sleep right through it. But on the real this has seriously been the most stressful week of my whole mission. To lay it out simply, what we have is a Spanish Group and an English ward that meet together at the same time. What is going on is that this Spanish group wants to become a Branch, but aren't doing the work to get this thing going. So this past week we had a planning deal with them and put out a few ideas that they loved and want to put into action to help four more of our members get the Melk. Priesthood and a Temple Recommend for their endowments (which is what the Stake President wants from them). We are also just pushing them farther and farther away from the Ward to help them become more independent, and we're trying to get the Stake President to authorize a change in the hours so that they don't have the same schedule as the Ward. It is just super stressful right now because we are trying to get all the Spanish members excited and get some work done...to "lift where they stand", and help get the less-active families back, cleanse their group, come together, get some organization done, and stop getting offended! This area is crazy because as a result of the Spanish group and English ward, we have two groups that think that we're 100% their missionaries, which makes it really difficult to make both of them happy. It turns into us Micro-Managing the Spanish group to get them on their feet and become a branch, get 6 members through the Temple Endowment preparation, create a new mission plan for the English Ward and potential Spanish Branch with all of the auxiliaries, find new investigators, and keep the baptisms coming for both groups, along with re-activating....a lot of people. It's super super busy, and more stressful than ever...but I LOVE IT!!!! 

It truly is a hate/love relationship because we are always super busy, have a ton of responsibility, and can make some serious changes in an area with a lot of potential. It is giving us tons of preparation in leadership callings and is sooooo much fun to be driving the boat on all of these projects. We always end up with a fat headache at the end of the day, and it isn't quite the same as being sore from biking in a Texas summer. I could go on forever explaining our Agenda, but I guess I should just wrap it up saying that I am much happier with the way things are working out here in Greenville than I am with the rumors I hear about my beloved Los Angeles Lakers. But yeah this week has been way awesome full of just peachy experiences knocking doors in the projects of Commerce Texas and finding that about 40% of the houses in that town have either been abandoned, or overtaken by a gripload of druggies. And something that felt way weird was that my awesome trainer Elder Lee went home this past friday, finishing his two years serving the Lord!

I'm gunna miss that guy tons, but I'm stoked to see how life will go for him and am especially excited to see how he will do on the Boise State football team! So keep an eye out for number 44 playing linebacker on the smurf turf! It was a reality check and just confirmed with me that I am no longer a greenie haha. Well I love and miss yall and hope you're taking advantage of this time to set some more goals...and also go to the beach.  And also remember, reading your scriptures, going to church, and praying aren't default answers for any random reason. Learned a pretty cool lesson on that this past week but due to time I'm going to have to make a wrap on that. Love yall!!!

Elder Justin Wilson