Monday, April 28, 2014

:)

I am so grateful for this gospel. It is amazing to see how it TRULY CHANGES peoples lives. AH. 
Okay. so I have interviews with President Hanks soon so I will try to type fast!!!!!! I am in Tupelo, Mississippi right now and we are doing a zone activity today! woot woot!

I will just name off some investigators and the stories that happened with them this past week...

Colleen: We met with Colleen and taught her the Plan of Salvation. She told us that she read through the pamphlet and said that it was all good, but the part about the three degrees of glory totally threw her off because she only believed in Heaven and Hell. She said, "If it's not in the Bible, I can't seem to believe it." I excitingly looked at her and said, "Colleen!!! It IS in the Bible!!!!" I then flipped to 1 Corinthians and started to read her the passage. After I finished reading, it was quiet in the room. 20 seconds later, Colleen spoke as she said, "that gave me chills." YEAH. CAUSE IT'S TRUE. We testified to her that it was the spirit that she was feeling. She then started to talk about how she wants to believe everything we tell her, but she doesn't want to believe that she has been wrong the past 58 years of her life as she has grown up in "The Church of Christ". She then started to talk about how she still feels like God isn't there for her and then we started to talk about the atonement. Colleen said, "Jesus doesn't know exactly what I've been through. He didn't have to lose his close sister or mom." MY HEART BROKE FOR HER. At that moment, I realized that people truly do not understand the fullness of the atonement!!!! We began to testify to her that He knows every physical, mental, and emotional pain she has ever been through. The spirit was so strong in that room. She started to cry and told us that we have brought her closer to God these past couple of weeks than she has ever been in her life. She calls us her "girls" and she is just so precious. She needs to be baptized and I think it will just take longer for her to realize that spirit that she has felt. 

Tom: Tom is our neighbor who we met while inspiration tracting when we had some extra time left over before our next appointment. Tom lost his wife a year ago and his only two kids 5 years ago to a drunk driver who ran into them. He is a very lonely guy, but he is reading his Book of Mormon that we gave him and he's OBSESSED with the indians. His whole house reminds me of Grandma Platt's home. He told us that he already knew that Jesus Christ came to the America's. haha We have taught him the first 3 lessons and he hasn't committed to baptism, but he said he would come to church. Unfortunately, he is going to his brothers house in Kentucky for a month this may :( BLAH. But he has read the first 25 pages of the Book of mormon!!! Not too sure if he is just wanting to learn or if he really is wanting to change. We shall see.

Ken: Ken is getting baptized this coming Sunday. We went over and talked to him about baptismal covenants. He really enjoyed it and I think it gave him that comfort that he needed to make this next step in his life. He told us, "I think I've always known that this was true, it has just taken me longer to realize it." YAY. 

Camisha: AH. Camisha is amazing!!! We were biking one day and we were going home to eat dinner. We were super hungry from a long day of biking and talking. As we were biking, we biked past this lady sitting out on her porch. We kept biking and then a thought came to my mind: "c'mon Sister Platt! You have been praying to find a family and I just gave you an opportunity to find one! Just bike back and talk to her." So we did just that. Her kids were out on their bikes and they are all so adorable!! Camisha has 4 kids. All under the age of 8. She is a single mom. We met with her and I noticed that her son had autism. HE WAS ADORABLE. I talked to her for a bit and SHE asked us if we could teach her. UM YEAH. WE CAN. We came back the next day. We taught her the restoration and she just started crying and crying. She told us that she has been through a lot these past couple of weeks. Her husband left her and she just feels like she has to wear a fake smile all the time. She told us that she felt like she could really trust us and not wear a fake smile around us. IT WAS AN AMAZING LESSON. We promised her that this gospel would bring her that comfort that she needed. She kept saying, "y'all are an answer to my prayers. for real." Then she asked us if she could come to church with us!!!!! AHHH She will come this upcoming Sunday and bring her cute kids as well :) 

"Brother Steve": We don't really know if this is his real name or not... Brother Steve is a 19 year old kid who is really lost. He doesn't live with his family and he has been involved in drugs. We taught him and his friend on the porch. His friend was making fun of the lesson the whole time as we were teaching and Brother Steve just kept a serious face the whole time and told us that he would read the Book of Mormon. I just kept telling both of them, "If you really take this message seriously, it will change your life if you let it." His friend just kept laughing, but Brother Steve totally took it all to heart and said he would read! YAY. 

Anita: We met Anita at foodland this past week, she told us that we looked like sisters hahaha and so then we started talking about missionary work and set up an appointment with her. We went over 4 days later and had a lesson with her. She is the sweetest, humblest person ever. It was so great to teach her. We invited her to be baptized and she said that she has already been. (love that response). So we explained the priesthood again and then invited her to just focus on the Book of Mormon and pray about it. Hopefully she will :)

Beth: We met with Beth. The lady we found through specifically praying for her. Beth was super argumentative and ah, it was just rough, but I know that we were supposed to meet her. She told us that she would read and pray about the Book of Mormon and that she "might join our church one day." Not too sure about her at this point. Oh well. 

That is about it for our investigators! So fun. We have been helping this lady Gail clean her home. We found her just sitting on her porch one day. She wasn't interested in our message so we offered service for her and she accepted!!!!! We cleaned every corner of her house and whew, it was a lot of work. I really do love cleaning now. Her sister called her on the phone and she said, "yeah. My angels are cleaning my house for me." I guess her sister thought she was going crazy and was seeing angels. hahahha we laughed about that one for a while :) 

I am so grateful for this gospel. I'm grateful for the knowledge that we have of the atonement. It is REAL and so powerful!!! Heavenly Father is so good!!!! May we all strive to listen to the promptings and thoughts that come to us this week. I know I will. 

Well. I better get going. I'm so sorry this is shorter. I have to go to my interview now!!!!!!!!!! 


MYKY,
Sister Platt

Monday, April 21, 2014

Israel Israel God is calling!

I decided to make this the title of my email because I have literally had this song stuck in my head for the past 48 hours. 
HELLO EVERYONE. How are y'all doing? I am so happy. I say that every week. It is so true. Okay. The weather here is OBNOXIOUS. It was REALLY HOT yesterday. Like 80 degrees, but still. Humidity is awful haha. I know. I know. I haven't even experienced the worst of it yet. 
On the bright side, we bike around a lot and I have gotten lots of exercise and smell BBQ wherever I go. I LOVE THE SUMMER TIME IN ALABAMA. The stars are really pretty here as well. And everyone is on their porches. WOOT WOOT!!!! Don't worry, I wear my sunscreen EVERY DAY. 

So Colleen didn't come to church yesterday because she wasn't feeling well :( (she has really bad health/depression). But we did see her earlier last week and had a great experience with her. Colleen really opened up to us and told us how she hasn't been baptized yet because she is still mad at God for taking her mom and sister away. She explained to us how she doesn't think death is fair especially when we don't do anything to deserve it. I started to share my testimony to her and shared my experience with dad and I can't remember everything I said, but when I was talking, I kept thinking, "These are NOT my words. This is definitely the spirit helping me." I invited her to pray that night and just throw all of her burdens on Heavenly Father and that she needed to just let go of all of her frustrations. She started to cry and said that she would. I love Colleen so much. I feel so bad for her. She lives alone with her cute dog named penny. Her family never visits her and they only live 30 minutes away. She calls us her girls and she is just the most giving person in the world. She always wants to braid my hair when we come over to teach her. She has never had kids of her own and she is mad at God for that as well, but she is grateful for us because she considers us her kids and knows that God sent us to her. SO PRECIOUS. I want y'all to meet her!!!!!!! 

Wanna hear the COOLEST experience that I have had so far on the mission????? Well, one of the coolest??? IT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK. 
Okay. So I have been hearing over and over again about the idea of finding people through the spirit and through inspiration. Wednesday morning, I said a prayer to Heavenly Father asking him to help me find the person I was about to describe to Him. I wanted to find someone who had Bleached blonde highlights with brown hair underneath. Her hair had to be semi-wet from just getting out of the shower. She had to be a little heavy set. She had to be wearing a baggy t-shirt with jeans. She also had to be in her 20's and have a super quirky personality. I really exercised my faith in Heavenly Father as I asked Him to help me find this person that I pictured in my mind. Sister Weekes and I went store contacting and I told Sister Weekes about who I was trying to look for. We both started talking to all these ladies in a clothing store that had highlights in their hair. We talked to maybe 5 of them that almost fit my description of who I was looking for, but none of them fit perfectly and none were interested anyway. Then, we go into the pet store. We head towards the back of the store and hear a voice behind us say, "Are y'all looking for snakes?" We turn our heads and my heart started to pound as I looked at the lady who just spoke to us. GUYS. IT WAS HER. LITERALLY THE EXACT PERSON I HAD BEEN PRAYING FOR. SHE WAS QUIRKY AND HAD HIGHLIGHTS AND HER HAIR WAS EVEN A LITTLE WET. SHE WORE A BAGGY T-SHIRT AND JEANS. It was honestly a little creepy how much she fit the person I was praying to find. UMMMMMM YEAH. HEAVENLY FATHER IS AMAZING. We started talking with her and she told us that her BEST FRIEND is Mormon and that she went to the temple open house with her. She called her husband over to meet us and her husband told us that he has a Book of Mormon and is super curious to know more about it!!!!!!!!!!!! We asked them if we could stop by to teach them and they said YES!!!! We are going to teach them this Wednesday!!!! Their names are Beth and Matt. I know that God is real and that He LISTENS and ANSWERS prayers because He cares about us and wants us to know that He is there. He cares about the little details in our lives and I know that if we exercise FAITH in Him and show our DESIRE to receive an answer, He will answer us EVERY TIME. Ah. 

So we were out biking one day after all of our appointments fell through. We decided to contact this former investigator named Ken who used to be taught by the previous sisters and got anti-ed by his brother right before he was about to be baptized. We visited with him and he said that he was SO happy that we stopped by and that he has missed our visits and has felt lost ever since the missionaries stopped contacting him. We shared with him the scripture Helaman 5:12 and promised him that if he came to church and was baptized, he would be built upon the rock of Christ that it speaks about in the scriptures. He said he would come to church and we honestly didn't think he would because I guess he is super wishy washy when it comes to keeping commitments... WELL. HE CAME. YES. HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!! HE LOVED IT! Our ward is really great at fellowshipping those that we bring and I am so grateful for that. He has a baptismal date set for May 4th!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please pray for him and pray that he will be able to get baptized then! 

Oh, wanna know something else great? There is a girl named Victoria who is a girlfriend of one of the members in our ward. She totally has come to church the past 4 weeks apparently and didn't really show an interest in learning more. WELL. Yesterday, I went up to her and introduced myself and then she was super nice and just talked and talked and she expressed how she thinks it's weird that we believe in 3 heavens. haha I asked her if we could stop by and give her the lessons to explain things better and she totally said YES. She is 16 years old and moved here from Venezuela 5 years ago with her mom and brother. She was going to a baptist church, but likes our church services more :) 

We had an FHE night last night at the Nebeker's home. Love them so much. Brother Nebeker has done every church calling and is a very knowledgable guy. They fed us chicken salad sandwiches and we then had a "devotional" that he gave. HE IS SO AMAZING. He talked about how we need to stand up for what we believe in and how Heavenly Father expects us to because of the covenants we have made with Him. SO EVERYONE. STICK UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. 

We had about an hour before the FHE yesterday and decided to go find people to teach. It was really hot and I was sweating a lot and I just kept telling myself, "Just ONE MORE door/person!!!" We met this guy who was about my age and just really bitter about the world. We asked if we could pray with him and he said no and was about to close the door. I then asked him if he would like a picture of Jesus because it was Easter and he said, "no thanks". I felt prompted to just ask him if he believed in Jesus and he said, "sometimes" and shut the door in our face. Sister Weekes and I just felt sad for this kid and really felt like we needed to leave a Book of Mormon for him. We left a note with our number inside and invited him to read it. He called us later that night and started to swear at us (not fun.) We hung up the phone and then he texted us with this HUGE apology and told us that he appreciated the thought of us giving him the Book of Mormon and that he is actually friends of people in our ward. He may not have been ready to receive the gospel then, but I have a testimony that if you get a spiritual prompting, YOU NEED TO FOLLOW IT. 

We taught our english class again this last week to the Kareni people which was great! I love them so much. They live in such humble circumstances and are the HAPPIEST people I know. They love it when we come over to help them learn English and they are learning FAST. 

Well, that is basically it for this week!!!!! 
Wanna know something cool? This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday their were these two guys that carry this HUGE cross across town and walk 60 miles across the county. The cross says, "all for you". I thought it was pretty amazing. They were just on the side of the road. They were walking FAST. It was a good reminder that we should all pause and think about what Christ did for us. I love the South so much. 
I talked to a drunk guy the other day. I didn't know he was drunk when we approached him, but I could definitely smell the alcohol on his breath. It was only 2 in the afternoon! He started to cry and tell us that he has been baptized 3 times. Once in the baptist church. Once in the pentecostal. Once in the Holiness church. I asked him if any of his baptisms felt complete and he said no. I told him that it would feel complete if he was baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority. He just started to cry and say that he can't be baptized because he is on the fence. Then he started to talk and talk and get closer and closer to sister weekes and I as we slowly backed away. We just gave him a mormon.org card and told him that it would change his life. Yikes. 
 I love this place and never want to leave.

I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are REAL. I really can't deny their existence. I feel them everyday. They are such a big part of this work!!!! I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 138:24-26. It talks about how Christ was preaching to those in the spirit world and how people were singing praises unto His holy name. It talks about how crazy it is to think that the Savior was terribly rejected while He was on the earth and how only few listened to Him. I know that I am walking side by side with the Savior. I know that this church is the only way to be fully happy. I know it can bring peace in this world and in the world to come. 

I just want to thank y'all for all y'alls support and prayers! LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!! I am so happy.
MYKY,
Sister Platt
P.S. thank you mere and gary for the beautiful package!!!!! Sister Weekes and I were super happy to get it!!!!!!! I have the best family in the world. AH. 
P.S.S. Not sure when I will email next week. I have a zone wax n' wash car activity that we are doing this upcoming monday and also interviews with president in TUPELO!!!

Monday, April 14, 2014

Hellooooo everyone!!!!! Ah, I have so much to say!!!!!!
GUESS WHAT I JUST FOUND OUT????? Helen Kellers house is like 10 minutes away from where I live!!! And a lady in my ward used to play with her when she was little!! So, basically I'm famous.
Okay. There was a lot that went on this past week and this email is going to be all over the place so I apologize...
One day, we were riding our bikes and we saw these 5 guys playing basketball. I stopped my bike and asked if I could play with them. They all looked at me with a really strange look on their face and just said, "uh. sure?" I then excitingly said "GREAT!! WE WILL RIDE HOME REALLY FAST AND CHANGE." So we did just that. We biked back to our house which was luckily only a block away. Changed. Then rode back. I started to play 3 on 3 with them. They expected me to be really bad and not know what I was doing... Needless to say, WE CREAMED THE OTHER TEAM and they were all really embarrassed. One of the guys was swearing a lot and then saw my badge and asked if I was Mormon. I told him yes and from then on, HE STOPPED SWEARING!!!!! We gave them all pass-along cards before we left. woot woot!
We had exchanges this past week and I went with Sister Wilson to TUPELO, MISSISSIPPI!!!!! GUYS!! My dream has seriously been to go to Mississippi ever since I've been on this mission and I finally got the chance to!! It looks exactly like Alabama haha but it was seriously so much fun!!! I love Sister Wilson! We did a lot of service that day and helped basically everyone in the Wal-Mart parking lot with their groceries and got some return appointments because of it! SERVICE SOFTENS STONEY SOULS. <----- What President Hanks says a lot. It really is true though. I love doing service because not only is it something that Christ would do, but it just makes you feel SO happy and makes those around you feel better.
Speaking of service, the Young Men of our ward and us went to help Colleen (investigator--58 years old) with her yard. She has leaves ALL AROUND her trailer and desperately needed some help. It was so much fun and a lot of work. I am seriously obsessed with doing yard work now. I think last summer trained me for it. haha. Colleen started to cry and was SO appreciative of all that we were able to do for us. She kept offering us sprite and water because she knows we won't drink caffeine. So precious. WANNA KNOW SOMETHING AMAZING???? Colleen totally came to church yesterday!!!!!!!!!! Rewind to this past Saturday, we went with a member to visit Colleen and Colleen ended up talking and talking and we didn't get to teach a lesson, but I asked her if she wanted to come to church and she motioned for us to come look at her sink. In the sink, there was a dress soaking in some detergent. She then told us, "I was expecting y'all to ask and I just want you to know that I have my dress soaking in here so that I can get the stains out." She is so great. She then told us to call her Sunday morning at 7 to wake her up. (Church starts @9). Sunday morning, we did just that. We called her and she told us on the phone that she has been up since 5am getting ready. haha oh boy. We then had Sister Stark pick us up and pick Colleen up. We made quite the grand entrance when we came in and luckily were able to sit in the 3rd row. COLLEEN LOVED CHURCH. Everyone was super super nice to her and truly wanted to be her friend. She participated in both Gospel Principles and Relief Society. Then, their was a baptism afterwards for a girl that just turned 8. COLLEEN ASKED US IF WE COULD STAY. uh. yeah we can!!! So we watched the girl get baptized and then get confirmed. Colleen started to cry when she was confirmed. One lady, Sister Stienke, is now Colleen's BFF. It's the cutest thing ever. They are perfect for each other and even exchanged phone numbers. Colleen kept telling us how happy and comfortable she felt at church and how she wants to come back next week!! AND she told us that she is so sorry for never letting us teach because of her big mouth. hahhaha I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!!! SHE IS GOLDEN. I am so happy!!
We are teaching another girl named Valerie who is super nice and has 2 crazy kids who are 4 and 5. We have taught her twice and are teaching her again today. 
We have A LOT of Less-actives in our ward and it is just so sad how many there are. We have been contacting this lady named Sister Smith who apparently used to be really hard to get a hold of. We have seen her a couple of times and the other night, she called us and asked us if we would help her with a yard sale she is having!!! She trusts us! She trusts us!!!!! I am so happy!!! I don't think she has been back to church in a really really long time. She didn't even know what General Conference was. I invited her to look up Ucthdorf's talk on being grateful and she totally did and felt like it was perfect for her!
As we were biking to try to contact another less active, we ran into (not literally) a cute girl named Stephanie who was putting together a yard sale. We stopped and asked her if she wanted help. She then replied saying, "REALLY?? Are you serious? Who are you girls?" We just started to help her right away and she started to ask us questions about the church. The first question she asked was if we were polygamists. AGH. Seriously. Everyone in the South thinks Mormons are crazy and that is a big reason I feel like I am here as a missionary; to clear up all of the misconceptions. We exchanged numbers with her and we are going to bring her cookies this week and hopefully have a lesson with her!
We dropped this former investigator named Cassandra this past Saturday night. She KNOWS IT'S ALL TRUE. Which is so frustrating. She knows the Bible forwards and backwards and believes that there should be baptisms for the dead and the priesthood and she can see how there could be the BOM. She just doesn't want to leave her church home and told us that the "holy spirit hasn't nudged her to come to our church" and that we didn't have to waste time on her. This was the first time I had met with her and I just started to cry. I don't know if it was because I was frustrated or because I just wanted the best for her. Probably a little bit of both. It's crazy how much you can just love the people that you serve and teach; even if you don't know them that well. Heavenly Father just gives us that HUGE blessing of being able to LOVE how He does.
We had an AWESOME District Meeting this past week. The stake President's wife, Sister Pettus, gave an awesome "silent lesson" on Jesus Christ visiting the America's. It focused on the idea that Christ knows us ONE BY ONE. When He came to the America's, He blessed and spoke to everyone one by one. In 3 Nephi 17:25, it states that 2,500 people were in attendance. AND YET CHRIST MADE TIME FOR EACH AND EVERY ONE OF THEM. He loves y'all personally. How beautiful is that? I think that knowledge will carry me throughout the hard times I experience on my mission and in life.
This morning, during my personal study, I was reading Alma 14. AH. This chapter just amazes me. Alma and Amulek are such strong examples to me. Despite the cords that bound them and the prison wall that they were in, they were able to exercise faith in Christ in order to break free from the cords and get set free. I loved reading Alma 14:26. I love how Alma is CRYING unto the Lord and asking Him to give Him strength according to His faith in Christ to deliver Him and Amulek out of the cords. Then, God performs the miracle through their faith and they are set free. I love how in verse 28, it talks about how they went STRAIGHTWAY out of prison and STRAIGHTWAY came forth into the city. It just makes me reflect on those "cords" in my life that may be tying me down and how I need to rely on the Lord and have faith that He will set me free. I need to also just GO AND DO and stay straight on the path. I have no clue if this is making sense to y'all, but it makes sense in my mind.
I am so grateful for this gospel. I know that prayer works and that if you want something bad enough, the Lord will provide a way for you to accomplish what you put your mind to.
May we all be a little kinder and a little more loving this upcoming week. Be your best self!!!!
MYKY,
Sister Platt

Monday, April 7, 2014

Believe and Expect

Hey y'all!!!!!

I'm in my new area of Russellville and I'm basically obsessed with it!!!!!!! 
I'm back to hearing the southern accents and dead animals on the road and I'm so happy. 

The title of this email, "Believe and Expect" comes from a new motto that I am trying to live. I want to BELIEVE In MIRACLES and good things to happen and just expect that they will happen. I invite y'all to believe and expect as well with whatever individual trials y'all may be going through.

Rewind to transfers...
 Sister Weekes is the SWEETEST person in the world and I am honestly learning more from her than she is from me. She has grown so much just these past couple of days and I just love seeing her become better every day!!!! 
She just got done being trained and is a little nervous about being without her trainer, but all is well :)
First off, I will explain my area where I am serving... Russellville area covers A LOT of miles and we mainly work in Sheffield, AL where we live and the Elders take over Russellville. There was a new church built in Russellville which is the one we meet at and it is BEAUTIFUL!!!!! It's the prettiest LDS church I have ever been to. It smells really new too. Anyway.. to give you an idea of how big our area is, we have to drive 40 minutes to get to church and so does everyone else who lives in the middle of nowhere!!!! haha The town is a little bigger than Clanton, but the people are exactly the same and I'm seriously in love with it. I never want to leave. We have a ward of about 100 active members and over 200 that are less active. There is so much work to be doing here!!!!! 

My first night here, there were severe Tornado warnings and in result, there was TONS of lightning and thundering. We didn't sleep for a good three hours which was really rough. Our Zone and District leaders kept calling us to see if we were safe. SO ROUGH. WE WERE FINE. I was a little cranky that night because all I wanted to do was sleep, but I kept getting woken up from the loud thunder. #lovethesouth

Oh, guess what? We only get 200 miles on our car for this month which is a really really small amount. We are used to getting 800 a month. haha so you know what that means? Sister Platt and Sister weekes went biking in the pouring rain last night!!!! WOOT WOOT. It was honestly really really fun and we just laughed the whole time. The members are really good about giving us rides which is great! We do team ups 3 times a week which is AWESOME!!! We don't get fed at all, but I would take rides over food. OH. We have this awesome ward missionary named Becky who takes us around a lot and LOVES her missionaries!!! I am going to start a #dailydoseofbecky because she is the funniest person in the world and is super southern and I'm just obsessed with her. Yesterday, during Conference, Becky sang "Lucky" by Britney Spears to her 1 month old niece. Becky also took us to KFC because she really wanted chicken before going to our coordination meeting on Friday night. #dailydoseofbecky. (Just wait... there will be MANY MORE in my next email.)

We were contacting people in the government housing area and met this lady named Regina who has met with the missionaries before. She told us that she couldn't talk because she was really sick. Regina then proceeded to talk to us for 40 minutes about her boyfriend named Pete who she is in love with, but Pete only wants to be friends. SHE DID NOT TAKE A BREATH FOR AIR. I kept trying to slide in gospel principles as we talked with her, but yikes, she told us her whole life story!!!!!! EVERYONE talks a lot in the South. It's just so funny. I love people so much :) 

Then, we started to walk back to our place for dinner, but I am the type of person who just wants to do AT LEAST one more house/person before going home. I saw this man just coming out of his house and sitting on his porch. I just yelled at him from across the street and said, "HEY! We are missionaries! Can we come pray with you?" He said we could and we did.   We then started to talk to him about the restoration and he interrupted us and asked us if we worshiped on Sunday or Saturday. We told him Sunday and his face got really serious as he said, "That is when the devil worships. Go read your bible and you will know it is on saturday." I then asked if he was 7th day adventist and he said he wasn't and that he has formed his own church online. Anyway, he kept talking and talking and told us that we are going to have the mark of the beast on us and blah blah blah. I just smiled and we gave him a Mormon.org card and told him to watch the videos on there!!! YIKES. 

We also tried to contact this lady named Cassandra, but she wasn't home. Her neighbor across the street started walking over to us and told us that she wasn't home because her daughter just had a baby. ANYWAY. I asked the man if he would be interested in our message and asked him if he had 10 minutes for us to share!!!! He said yes!!! I saw that he was wearing a Braves hat and asked him if he was a big fan. I started talking to him about how they choked this past season and he was impressed that I knew what I was talking about. haha (Props to dad and mom!!!!) We started to give him the lesson and right as we got to the Joseph Smith part, a homeless man walked up to us and asked us for food and then started to swear under his breath. DAH. AND THEN the guy that we were teaching had to leave because his son was calling for him. BLAHHHH. BUT. that's okay. We will meet with him again soon!!!!!!!!!

We are currently teaching an english class to some really really adorable people from Thailand! They are refugees from there and work on farms here. We teach them english twice a week and some of them have even gotten baptized! It is so much fun and I wish I could just hold all of the cute babies/kids that run around the trailer park where they live. GAH. We taught them how to say: mother, father, children, daughter, son. We have them repeat the words to each other and then show them pictures. It's so great. They all just laugh and giggle whenever they hear themselves talking in english. :) 

Okay. Now for the spiritual stuff...
We met with this adorable lady named Terra who we met at Walmart and had the first lesson with her. She told us that she felt good and at peace when we taught the lesson to her. She wants to change and become better which is awesome! She is totally married and she has a cute son named Anthony who is 9. 
We also met with this lady named Colleen who has taken the discussions from Elders a LONG time ago and She found the Sisters about a month ago and has been meeting with us since. She told us how she had prayed about the Book of Mormon and had a dream that it was true. She has a lot of health problems and so it's hard for her to make it to church, BUT she told us that having us coming over has helped her feel better and that her legs have swelled down because of it. WAHOO!! YAY FOR THE HOLY GHOST. I'm so grateful for it. It is the KEY to this work!!!! 

We just got back from teaching this lady named Cindy! The sisters met her at wal-mart (where all the golden investigators are located) and we gave her a lesson at Burger King.  She is married, and has 2 boys. We gave her the first lesson and then at the end, we asked her, "If God was in the room right now, what would you ask him based on what we have taught you?" She then said that she would ask about Joseph Smith. We then asked her to pray about it right there and she quietly said a prayer to herself. After she was finished, tears strolled down her face. We then asked her how she felt and she said she felt at peace and that she was praying for her cousin who just went to jail. Not too sure if she prayed about Joseph Smith or not, so I just invited her to pray about him before we met with her again. ha, people are so funny. We invited her to be baptized and she said she has already been baptized. She had to leave for work, but we are going to meet with her again soon! She told us that she thinks this is the right path for her which is awesome!!!!! PEOPLE ARE BEING PREPARED LEFT AND RIGHT. 

Did y'all enjoy conference? Oh my. It was SO GOOD. I loved how simple the messages were and yet, they were each so profound. I loved how they emphasized a great deal on the basic beliefs of our church and on the Savior. I loved what Russell M. Nelson said about religion. Religion literally means to tie back to God. I LOVE THAT. What will we do this week to tie ourselves closer to God? How will we make a difference in the lives around us? How will we show our faith to those who we meet? I challenge y'all to make it known to EVERYONE that you believe in a loving Heavenly Father and His Beloved son, Jesus Christ. 

Ephesians 6:18-20 is a great scripture that President Hanks mentioned in transfer meeting and is one of my new favorites. 

In my personal study, I was reading Mosiah 29:10. It talks about bringing peace to people and that is what I want to do. I want people to feel that undeniable peace and joy that comes from living the gospel of Jesus Christ. 
I am so grateful for the chance that I have to be serving here in such a beautiful part of Alabama full of beautiful people who are trying to do what's right. 

I LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!!!!! 
This week...
# of dead squirrels I have seen on the road: 2
# of dead possums: 4
# of dead dogs.... :( : 1 (I biked right past it.. saddest thing ever)
# of slices of apple pie I ate during conference: 1 (Love me some southern baking) 
# of snakes I've held: 1 (Don't worry. I took a picture)
# of times I've smiled because I'm really really happy: 832974819743891738917 times. God is good. Y'all are grand. Keep doing what y'all are doing and God will bless each of y'all so much!! HE WANTS TO BLESS US!!!!

MYKY,
Sister Platt

CUTE EFFINGER FAMILY!! gah i will miss them so much!!! madison 2nd ward!!!  
cute Mary  
The people from Thailand that we teach English.

Sister Weekes and I love to bike in the rain!

Matt & Jade