So, today was my last P day... Last email home...

Yeah, so I'm counting down too. Still working hard, just excited.

This week was good.  Really busy with extra stuff. We had my last Zone Leaders Council, the Mission Christmas Devotional, the First Presidency Christmas Devotional, and a ton of baptismal interviews. Busy busy busy.

But it was still a good week. Great successes. We were able to share with a less active family, the mom is a member, her (second) husband and daughter are not. We have only met the husband, but the daughter is way prepared. She really wants to learn more and excited to read from the BoM. They were not able to come to church this week though, we'll follow up on that. We were also able to have the elders quorum president take us to a less active member near his house. Just the mom and one daughter live there now, and again the daughter is not yet a member. Just the mom was there when we visited. We just talked for a bit and then shared a small message. It was rather unsure if they would be able to make it to church because the mom said that the daughter (15) likes to just sleep all Sunday morning. While we were waiting outside the church Sunday morning the EQ Pres came up and said they had stopped by their house and that they were coming! Just still finishing breakfast. And they did come! It was pretty cool. We had several non-members attend church this week, but we couldn't count some as investigators yet because we haven't actually taught them yet.

Another surprise at church, we had a very unexpected visitor. Michael Tilanas and his mom. Again, we were waiting for the church to be unlocked and I see two people walk in the gate that look familiar but I wasn't sure who they were. When they got close enough I realized that it was Michael. He had told me that he wanted to come and visit some Sunday before I went home. I was nice to talk with them again. It was great to see how much Michael has grown, not literally of course. But his knowledge and understanding of the church and the gospel has grown. He is really good in the classes because even though it wasn't his home unit, he was not shy at all to share his insights and answer questions.

So, today was my last P day... Last email home... I'll get to tell you about this upcoming week in person. We will have a baptism on Friday and the Ward Christmas party on Saturday. Should be good.

Love you all!

Elder Phelps

All Are Invited!

Jordan comes home on the 20th of December after leaving the Philippines on the other side of the world on the 19th. His flight (Delta #2004) is scheduled to arrive at the SLC International Airport at 7:05 PM. Anyone who would like to come and be among the first to welcome him home is certainly invited.

Lyle

The Time is Ticking, and it Just Seems to be Getting Faster

Our week was pretty good. We'll start with Tuesday. Tuesday was district meeting.  As zone leaders we go and visit the other districts in our zone. So this Tuesday was my last at the Alijis District meeting.  So we had to move our normal tradition of eating at Greenoz Pizza to this week. We normally eat there on the last Tuesday before transfers.  Greenoz makes huge pizzas, like as big as the tables. And it's just down the street from the church here in Alijis.  Elder Eastin and I are planning to order one the Saturday before I come home.  Might be hard to finish with just the two of us.

Wednesday we had leadership training for all the district leaders and zone leaders. It was way good. Learned a ton.  Elder Eastin and I have been striving to apply what we learned there and we are seeing success from it.

The rest of the week was pretty normal. We worked hard and things just happened.  One really cool thing that happened was that we taught an investigator for pretty much the first time and invited her and her member husband to come to church. We also invited her to be baptized.  She said yes! That's not the cool thing though. She did come to church! It was way cool watching her walk in. Her husband however did not come; he's gonna take just a bit more work.

Mom asked: "We will have a good coat at the airport for you to wear home. ok?"  Yes OK!! Bring my nice formal black one or that orange and tan colored one. Those are both really warm. I will certainly need it.

Ok, so I like that you tell me about your preparations for my return, because it makes it feel real. Sometimes it just feels like a dream that December is actually here and that this all has to come to an end. But then also it makes it a bit harder to focus, but usually by Tuesday (tomorrow) I'm totally focused again.

Still staying pretty focused, but some days it is pretty hard. Last week there must have been four or five days in a row that I had dreams about coming home.  I had dreams like that back at like my six month mark, but they were more like nightmares.  Because in them i would be freaking out inside thinking, "I shouldn't be home yet!  I've still got 18 months!"  But now it's not like that, it's just like, "yeah, I'm going home.  It's time.  Mission is over."  I guess that's a good sign that I have been successful and gotten done what I needed to get done.

It also doesn't help that when we attend leadership councils and trainings that people ask what it feels like to be this close to going home. Like Sister Bevans. The Bevans couple and I are friends because we were in the same district back in La Carlota. They are way cool and fun to talk to. Gonna try and make my way up to Canada when they get home... Attend their homecoming.

The time is ticking, and it just seems to be getting faster. The 18/19 th is just getting closer and closer. The 18th will be the last real day because we will go to church and then go pretty much straight to the mission office. And that's the end. Yup...

Elder Phelps