LG offers a free program that allows you to sync your Outlook calendar and contacts. It's called "LG Outlook Sync." You can learn about it and download it here: http://www.lg.com/us/mobile-phones/mobile-support/mobile-lg-outlook-sync.jsp
I installed the program on Outlook 2007 and then created a new Contacts folder. I then transferred my phone's contacts into it, thereby creating a backup. You should be able to reverse the process to copy contacts from Outlook into your phone.
It takes a little work, and the program isn't very robust. That is, it doesn't copy all of the Outlook contact fields into the phone. But it should at least save you a bunch of button pushing on your phone.
