Monday, October 24, 2011

St. Louis!


Mom!!

Way to slack on the emails hahaha. Dad has sent me letters and emails he is definitely winning lol. well first off my new address is:

Elder Phillips
1022-H Rue De La Banque
Creve Couere, MO 63141

I would appreciate it if you would put that on facebook for everybody so i can get lots of letters:) Thanks!!

OK, so here I am in St. Louis Missouri.  We arrived on Tuesday and from there drove around and went to the mission home. The mission home was so nice and it was a lot of fun. There were 22 of us coming in on Tuesday. We got to know the Mission President and he is a really cool guy, then the next day we had transfer meeting. That’s where I got my companion Elder Hardman. During the transfer meeting i met a lot of Elders from Vegas. you wouldnt know them but i met the Kimoto's cousin Elder Burley. He was super cool. (Thats more for the Vegas people that you forward this to) Anyway so my area is one area north of the mission home in a town called Maryland Heights. What part of St. Louis were you born in?? Maryland heights is so diverse from rich to poor, black to white, nice to seriously mean. haha But i already love it here and i have only been here for a week. So much crazy stuff has happened too.

In the first week, we got a Qu'ran, met a prophet, got screamed at about how Obama is a great president, a guy asked us to help him beat his nephew, and so much more it sure is crazy. The ward is so different too. There is one ward for an area that is way bigger than Ely and way more packed. People have to travel pretty far to get to church, There just isnt enough members anywhere to have a chapel that is close. It is crazy to me how different the West is.

Our ward is really good though and they really want to help all that they can as we try to get the work here going again. They haven’t had an investigator in like 6 months or something like that. My companion and I have a huge task in front of us but through working really hard we are already seeing progress. Work has an entirely new meaning to me. This is crazy every day we get up and exercise then shower and study, then we are about the door  tracking, and knocking doors, and just trying to find people. We drive all over the place trying to visit Part Member families and Less Actives. It is really crazy how rude people can be even though they claim to be good Christians. I have already learned to not take offense, because they really don’t know what they are rejecting.  But ya, basically this is a whole new world to me. and it is kind of dangerous haha. But i am doing ok and even though i miss home, this is where i am supposed to be.

So the prophet!
As my companion and i were tracking in a lower class area, we knocked on a door and out came "Prophet Duncan" hahaha he was wearing an apron that said so, and had a bible that literally looked like he feasted on the words of Christ it was extremely torn up. This was like my second day here so i was kind of in shock. Then began my first bible bash. As he proceeded to tell us everything that was wrong with our church, we calmly and politely answered. It was crazy and as it went on he got louder and louder and louder. Then his congregation came out which consisted of 2 other people... It was sad. But he knew his bible really well and I didn’t have answers for some of his questions, but in the end we had the spirit and he didn’t, so we were able to leave there before it go to out of hand.

I didn’t know that Islamic people believed in Christ at all?? They believe a lot of the same things as Jewish people, they just have Muhammad. It was really interesting as we visited with a lady about her religion and talked about ours. It was a lot of fun and she was really one of the nicest most Christ like people i have ever met. Weird right??

Anyway, as a missionary, I am always tired, always hungry, and always busy. Haha I go to bed as early as i can at night which is usually like 930 or 10 haha and i get up at 6 or 630 every single day. It’s great though. I always have so much fun and there are lots of cool things here in St. Louis. One day I hope to go to the arch, we are allowed to on P-day I just don’t know which one i will go on.

Well, the craziest thing that I have heard though, is a guy telling us about the 2nd Mormon war. When the Mormons declared war on Missouri. People despise Mormons here because they don’t know what really happened. It’s crazy hearing peoples thoughts and ideas about Joseph Smith. i will probably send the article home! Then you can be in shock too! lol

Anyway, That is all i really have time for I am sorry. Hopefully, by this time next week, I will be able to tell you guys about an investigator, but basically, we don’t have any right now. Just a few potentials that we have found.

I love you all! And I miss You!

Love Always,

Elder Phillips

No comments:

Post a Comment