"THIS IS EXACTLY WHAT I'M LOOKING FOR!" | 5.16.16

Hello Everyone!

This week has flown by! I am loving every second of it. Last week I talked a little bit about our investigator, Justin. We had a couple of great lessons with him this week. He was super sick, but still came to church! He loves it so much and he really wants to be baptized, he just has to work through some things first. But he is doing great! We asked him if there was anything that would hold him back from being baptized. He wants to be able to see the blessings that come from keeping the commandments. So as we teach the commandments, we are having him write down all of the blessings that come from keeping each one. He got really excited during the lesson when we were telling him all of the blessings that will come! I wish y'all could have seen him during those lessons. SO excited!! He said, "This is exactly what I'm looking for, what y'all are helping me with." Yayyy!!! I love him so much! Hopefully all goes well and he will be able to be baptized.

We had a lesson with another man named Steven. We asked him if he had read any of the Book of Mormon. He said yes!! We asked him how it went and how he felt. All he said was, "Peace, comfort, enlightened." What?!!! Haha NOBODY says that. He is amazing! Hopefully next time we will be able to meet his wife and kids. They have a lot of potential.

Sister Jones and I were able to teach mission prep yesterday and it was so much fun!!! I loved seeing all those kids getting ready to serve their missions. It is just so exciting and reminded me of all the reasons I decided to come. It is amazing work! The best decision I have ever made. 

I love y'all! Have an amazing week.

Xoxo

Sister Rachel Philpot

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY! | 5.9.16

Hello everyone!

First, Happy mothers day to all of the amazing women in my life! I love you all! It was so good to talk to the family yesterday! 

Things are going great here in Texas! We have an investigator named Justin who I think I may have mentioned before. He has been taking the missionary lessons for about a year now. He knows he needs to be baptized, he just has some things he needs to take care of first. He has had a few baptismal dates set, but so far none of them have gone through. The past few weeks, we had lost contact with him. He wasn't answering any of our calls or texts and he was never at home. This week we tried by his house because we needed to talk to his mom. And guess what?! Justin was there! He jumped up off the couch, and dusted himself off. He admitted that he had been hiding from us! We told him that we missed him and everyone missed him at church! He goes,'Yeah, I miss the services. Those are fun." We ended up teaching him and his mom and it was so exciting! We are helping him to see the blessings that come from keeping the commandments and coming to church. We asked if we could come back and he goes, "That's fine." When we went back a few days later, he was ready and waiting for us and in such a good mood! I said, "Justin, you seem really happy today!" and he said, "Thank you for noticing!" Haha how great:) We are working towards that goal of baptism and we are praying that he will be able to go through with it this time. At the end of the lesson he says, "This has been a great day! Including this." yay!!! And he came to church yesterday. We are so happy for him and hoping that all goes well and he continues to progress.

One more story for this week. We were walking in a neighborhood and there was this lady getting her mail. Naturally, we stopped and talked with her. We gave her a pass along card with a picture of Christ on it. And she just started crying! She said, "Jesus is my Lord and Savior. You make me cry. But these are happy tears."

 I feel so blessed to be here serving my Lord and Savior and spread the good news of his gospel. He truly does take away all of our sins and sorrows as we look to Him in faith. I love seeing the power His atonement has to change people.

I love y'all! Have an amazing week! And don't forget to write!

Xoxo

Sister Philpot

HELLO EVERYONE!! | 5.2.16

Hello Everyone!!

This week was amazing!!! Transfers are this week and Sister Jones and I will be staying here! Yay! We will be getting a new Sister in our apartment and we are so excited!! 

We had quite the adventure this week getting caught out in the hail! We were walking pretty far it was really hot and humid like it gets right before it rains. Were so excited when it started raining! But then we were completely soaked within 5 minutes. And then we started getting pelted with hail! I know I always rave about the weather here.. but I honestly have never experienced such crazy storms until Texas! Haha I will send pictures so y'all can see. :)

Remember Alexis who was baptized? She got her temple recommend yesterday! She is the sweetest. She cannot wait to go! She was telling us all about it and how she wanted to go so bad. she said, " I told the bishop I'll wait as long as it takes and do whatever steps I need to go in order to be worthy to go. And then he just printed it out for me!" She is so excited and just the cutest!!!! And Ray, her boyfriend, got the priesthood yesterday at church! It was such an amazing thing to see and Alexis was crying. Ray said he was missing out on something for a long time, and now he feels full. I just love them both so much! We are having FHE with their family tonight! Ah they are the best!

We are teaching a lot of great people and I am so excited for this next transfer! Miracles happen every single day.

Love y'all!

Sister Rachel Philpot

WALK FOR 3 HOURS, EAT 7 SLICES OF PIZZA. | 4.25.16

Hello Family and Friends!

It has been another wonderful week here in the mighty TSAM!  Thank you so much for all of the emails and love and support. I love you all!

Not a whole lot to report other than a whole lot of walking. And yes, I do work up quite the appetite! Haha I really did eat pretty much a whole pizza... We ate at the Giffords and they made their own pizzas. They had all different kinds, including an "experiment" pizza which included strawberries and bacon. It was actually really good! Fruit and cheese go together really well. I just don't know about the bacon part... but it was still yummy.

Something else that happened this week... we woke up at 5am to the fire alarm! It was actually pretty scary for a minute! We got quite the start to our day! We were all so tired and we just sat outside in the car until the firetruck showed up. I'm not exactly sure what happened there but it was still quite the adventure!

This week was my first time going on exchanges. It was so great! I went with Sister Johnson into the Deerfield area. It is right next to Las Lomas and Stone Oak but it's crazy how much of a difference there is. In our area, we are right by the temple and it's really nice! WE are pretty spoiled... it is kind of the "rich area." Deerfield had lots of tiny apartments and stuff, but we did teach a lot more people. It's just interesting to see that. But I learned SO much from Sister Johnson. She goes home next week. She is an AMAZING missionary!!

We went and visited Myra this week. I don't remember what I've said about her but she is an older lady with a lot of health problems. She has no toes, she is blind in one eye, has anemia, and osteo-something, and some other problems. But she is just the sweetest. She jokes with us and she is just so cute! She was telling us about how she fell the other day. :( She said she had to call her daughter to get some help. We were listening to her like "Ohhh Myra we're sorry!" And she just goes. "I called my daughter and said, 'Help! I've fallen and I can't get up,' you know, like on that commercial?" Hahahahahahah we died laughing! She is so funny. She has really been through a lot in life and it's so fun to talk to her.

Love you all and hope you have an amazing week!! If you get the chance, look up "The power of Hope" its a mormon message with President Uchtdorf. We have been showing it at dinners all week! 

xoxo

Sister Rachel Philpot

I'M IN LOVE. | 4.18.16

Hello everyone!!

I am in love with Texas!! Wow this week was amazing. I am SO glad that I chose to serve a mission. I hear that it was rainy all week in Utah. It rained here too! You know the movie rain where it is just POURING and  it looks fake because there is no way that much water can fall from the sky? I had no idea that could be real!! We have a gym in our apartment complex where we workout in the mornings. We just have to walk a few feet outside to get there... and we were COMPLETELY soaked after being outside for less than 10 seconds. It was like standing under the shower. Haha I love it so much!!! Everything's bigger in Texas, including the thunder storms. I have never experienced rain like this. <3

Speaking of getting soaked, Alexis was baptized on Saturday! It was AMAZING. She is the cutest! She was so ready and she just absolutely glows with the spirit. The whole day was perfect. The spirit at her baptism just really builds my faith and testimony that Jesus Christ really is the Savior of the world and that baptism is the first step to follow Him. It's something I can't even explain... It's such a beautiful covenant with God that we will always remember Jesus Christ and strive to be like him. Alexis is such a great example to me of a true follower of Christ. She understands the promise she made at baptism and is determined to love and serve Him her whole life. She had everyone crying. It was such a great spirit that day.

I've said it before, but I can honestly see how this is the Lord's work. I know it's nothing that I do! I am just so blessed to be in the right place at the right time and having the privilege of working with people who are prepared and have a soft heart. We had a lesson with a man named Gilbert. He was so calm and open and sincere. I had no idea that people really wanted to listen to us! Haha it might sound dumb, but I always just pictured trying to convince people of the truth. But really, people who are prepared and long to know the truth are put into our path and I'm so glad we get to talk to people like that. When we were talking about Joseph Smith and how he wanted to know which church to join, Gilbert says, "That sounds a lot like me." What?! That was probably the best lesson I have ever been in. He was so interested to read the Book of Mormon. That was a great experience and I'll keep y'all updated with what happens with him.

Something else crazy that happened this week... We went to teach Shelly, but she wasn't there. So we were walking around the apartments to visit some other people. I've talked a lot before about how well Sister Jones and I get along and how much fun we have. We laugh SO much, it's the best. Anyway, we were walking along on the road just having a good old time and I take a sip of my water... And she made me laugh. And I spit my water out everywhere! But I choked on it.. and I was trying to cough and get it out. I remembered all those times when my mom and dad would say, "put your arms above your head!" Haha you know? So I'm trying to stop choking and... the next thing I remember is waking up dizzy and disoriented on the ground! I really choked and passed out!! I really scared Sister Jones, I feel bad. Can you imagine? She thought she killed me by making me laugh. Hahaha. I woke up to this voice, "Ma'am can you drink some water? You're dehydrated. I'm a medic." I could not remember what was going on at all... Then I finally remembered choking... haha. Oh my. So there we were sitting on the cement in the parking lot of an apartment complex. This lady named Tori, who is an army medic, happened to pull up right as I passed out and came over to help. What a blessing. Well, we ended up teaching her the restoration and giving her a Book of Mormon! She was very open and kind and talked about how she has Christian beliefs but it's hard for her to go to church because she moves around a lot for the army. We showed her the hallelujah video (y'all have probably seen it, but if not go watch it!) and talked about how Joseph Smith restored the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We talked about the Book of Mormon and she said she would love to have a copy! We also talked about how our church is worldwide and she could find the same church wherever she moves to. It ended up being such a great lesson! If that's what I have to go through to find the people we need to talk to, I guess I will. God works in mysterious ways. The timing of all of it was just crazy. What a blessing that she was there to help me when I needed it and that we were able to share our message with her. Afterwards, we decided to check back at Shelly's and she was home! So we ended up having two great lessons right in a row! What a weird miracle.

That's all for this week. Send me an email and let me know how you're doing. Love you all! Thanks for all the love and support.

xoxo

Sister Rachel Philpot

HELLO EVERYONE! | 4.11.16

Hello everyone!

Its been another amazing week here! I am just loving it every day. I've never been so exhausted, but I've never been so happy! I can truly see the Lord's hand in the lives of the people I meet and it's such an amazing thing to see! I am so grateful for the chance I have to be here. It is so beautiful! Wow I just love it!

The main thing that has been going on this week has been preparing for Alexis's baptism this Saturday! I wish you could all meet her, she is the cutest! We got to go to the temple and talk about family history and enduring to the end. She is so excited and even though I haven't know her for very long, I can see a difference in her already. I'm so lucky that I just got to come right in and be a part of this. She is so ready and so sweet. I will try to send a picture so y'all can see. :) When we teach her, we always teach Ray too who is her boyfriend. He had been less active for a long time, but they are both coming to church now and doing so great! Sister Jones and I just love meeting with both of them. They just tell us everything and it's so cool to see that trust they have in us because they know who we are. Ray said that he appreciates everything we say because right when it comes out of our mouth, it sounds like we are just messengers from God. He says he is really impressed with how quickly we follow the spirit and just say what he needs to hear. I know that it's nothing we are doing though, they are just great and very receptive to the truth! It's so cool to hear them say things like that because we do get rejected a lot haha. So wow, to hear something like that means a lot! I just love them so much!! It's really fun teaching them too because they are 19 and 20. So they are our favorites, but don't tell anyone.;)

We also have a new investigator, Shelly, who we asked to be baptized and she said she would pray and think about it! We are meeting with her tonight so I will update you more on that next week. She has had a really rough life and has been through a lot. She just talks our ear off and really loves meeting with us. She is in her late 40's and she is just the cutest! Wow I just love her.

For all my friends on missions or anyone who has seen The District 1, it was filmed here in San Antonio. I've met the Amar's who are on the district and they are in the MTC booklet. And they were talking to us all about getting filmed and stuff. They showed us a picture of their baptism day and Laura from the District was in the picture! It was so crazy haha. Idk if you all remember but Laura is the blonde lady with the bangs and glasses who was taught by sisters and got baptized. So there's something that's kinda fun!
Well that's all for now! I love you all and hope you are all doing amazing! 

Xoxo
Sister Rachel Philpot