Elder Shields in Carlsbad, CA

First week in Escondido Hills ward. My new comp is Elder Bonds for those who don't know. Elder Bonds is from Gulfport Mississippi and he absolutely loves basketball. I love the ward already. The members here and really involved with the work and willing to help out. I am excited for what lies ahead in this ward.  Our only investigator with any potential is a lady named Joan. Bonds and his last comp, Elder Jensen, tracted into her about a month ago. She has a baptismal date for August 4th, but she has a few things that need resolving...she doesn't really understand the priesthood and that we are the only true church (this is just what Elder Bonds told me, I haven't met her yet).  We spent most of the week working with members and getting me introduced to members of the ward, mostly members of the ward council. We did find a new investigator named Josie while we were contacting in an apartment complex she seems way solid!  I also got to go down to Oceanside for Tammy ...

Happy Fathers Day Everyone!!  Want to give a shoutout to Pablo for being an awesome dad and being so loving and supportive of me throughout my whole life! Love you dad!!  So this week I got some news with transfers. I will be getting transferred to Escondido! I will be in the Escondido Hills ward and my new comp will be Elder Bonds! I will also be the District Leader over there. I am super sad to be leaving the ward when there is so much going on, but I am so excited for the new opportunities that await me in my new ward!!  This week was awesome though!! We spent some time doing baptismal interviews with the Seols and Rashida and the Yabuts and planning their baptisms, getting programs ready, etc.  We also had the chance to go to the temple with Don and Kathy to do baptisms for the dead with them!! That was so amazing! I got the chance to baptize Don and then Don baptized Kathy for her mom, it was such a spiritual experience! Kathy and Don loved it too! Kathy...

This week was another great week! We had some good lessons with the Yabuts and Rashida. They are now both done with the lessons and just need the interview and they will be ready. Both their interviews are next week!   Brian Seol had his baptismal interview this week and he passed with flying colors. Elder Meyer said he was just so happy during the whole interview! Tammy's will be next week. They had to he on different says because of Brian and Tammy being out of town and different times.   Warren came to church again this week which was awesome!   Had some super fun exchanges this week, one with Elder Meyer and the other with Elder Hadfield, who is one of the traveling trainers.   We did have Luisa one of our investigators cuss us out over text. We still have no idea why. We had a lesson with her and we invited her to church and she was all excited to go, and then the day before church she texted us just swearing a ton and told us never t...

What is up everybody!?   Another solid week in paradise out here. Probably the best thing that happened this week is that Don got ordained to the Aaronic priesthood and to the office of a priest! He will now get to pass the sacrament and bless the sacrament which is so exciting for us! Me and Elder Phillips have been working with Don for a while to get him here. He feels a little inadequate as far as his knowledge in the church which makes him hesitant to do certain things. But he really is so much farther along than he even realizes. He's awesome!   Other than the Seols, all of our investigators have been pretty flakey. Either they just aren't responsive and they don't want to meet, or when we do meet with them they are becoming more hesitant to keep their commitments. The Yabuts were sick this week and so was Rashida. Just one of those weeks. We were able to find some new investigators, but we will be passing them off to the Spanish Elders because their familie...

Hey guys what is upp?  This week was pretty legendary if I do say so myself.  We had zone conference this week which was super awesome! It was mostly focused on working with the members of our wards and contacting everyone we see. I had a really good time! It was super inspired and really productive.  We had a good lessons with the Yabuts this week. They told us that they don't want to rush into the baptism but they still do want to do it. We are almost done with the lessons so we'll see how long not rushing is haha.  Funny story: we were stopping by one of our investigators, Luisa. And right when she opened the door she said this "oh my gosh we were literally just about to drop some acid." You could probably imagine how me a Phillips reacted. The funnier part is that she still let us in and we got a chance to talk to her about changing from her ways and following the ways of God. We'll see how sincere she is but we are hoping the best.  We got togethe...

Helloo.   This week was a pretty good week! It started out really well. We had a lesson with the Seols and they have decided to get baptized!! The date will be June 23rd. We have been working with them for a while now and the fact that they have decided to make the commitment to be baptized is such a miracle for me and Elder Phillips.   We picked up some really cool investigators this week. The one we are the most excited about is named Omega. He was a former investigator who just called out to us out of nowhere and told us to come talk to him. He told us that he used to investigate and isn't done with his journey, so we will start teachi g yin again! The others are Steve and Eric. Eric isn't too solid, we are pretty sure he was high when we contacted him but he is pretty open. Steve has some good potential. I don't know if I've already mentioned him because we've been trying to pick him up for a while now, but he finally let us in! He's a super awesome guy ...

Hey Everyone Happy Mothers Day!   Make sure you are extra nice to your mommies this week!  This week was pretty dang good! The Seols, the Yabuts and Rashida all came to church and are all progressing really well! Rashida is on date for June 30th and the Yabuts will get baptized in the next two or three weeks!  We had a good talk with Brian Seol on Sunday at church. He told us that he is ready to get baptized and is done being in the in-between state. He just wants to put a date to the baptism so he knows what they are working for so they can get it done! He is such a blessing to their family with the amount of faith he shows! So they will probably be on date as well by the end of this week.  Went on a hike and mountain biking this Pday and it was awesome!  Love you all hope you have an awesome week!  Love you Elder Shields From the Bike Ride From the Hike