Monday, June 30, 2014

This is where I'm supposed to be

Ah. I don't even know where to start!!! I will be completely honest, it was REALLY hard for me to leave Russellville. That place will always have a special piece of my heart. The ward members there amaze me and I'm so glad that I had the opportunity to serve there!!!!
Now onto transfers.... Transfer meeting was GREAT. I love President Hanks. I look up to that man so much. President always gives us awesome training that always just makes me excited to keep moving forward and improving!! He talked a lot about doing the Savior's works AND words. He talked about the idea of glorifying our Father in Heaven as we are on this mission. (Matthew 5:16) He said a quote that I just love: "You can count the seeds in an apple, but you can't count the apples in a seed!" SO TRUE. Which brings me to some exciting news that I found out at transfers... Do y'all remember the story of Sister Downs, Clark, and I in Madison and how we found Jade and Matt at Petco and started teaching them the first few lessons and then I got transferred??? WELL, MATT GOT BAPTIZED!!!!!!! AND THEY ARE BOTH SO EXCITED ABOUT BEING SEALED IN THE TEMPLE IN ONE YEAR :))) GAH. It is seriously a miracle!!!!! I am sooooo happy!!! I have just begun to realize how I am the planter on this mission and I'm totally fine with it. Our effort as missionaries does NOT go wasted :)
 
AHHHHhHHHhhh!!! I AM WITH SISTER VAN KOMEN!!!!!! I LOVE HER SO MUCH AND I'M SO HAPPY TO BE HERE WITH HER. She is from Utah and has been out for a year and is such a gorgeous human being. Basically, from the side, she looks like Taylor Swift and it freaks me out everytime I look at her side profile. bahahahh We have the same mindset when it comes to working hard and just getting out the door and I love it. She is super easy going and is hilarious. We teach really well together which is great also! We are perfect together and have super good talks in between appointments. She lost her mom during her senior year of high school to cancer so we can relate A LOT. It's such a comfort and I KNOW that President was inspired when he put us together!!!!
Ohhhh West Point, Mississippi... hahhha this place is so great, I'm obsessed!!!!!  I am really struggling with understanding some of the DEEP accents here. It's a whole different world here and I'm just in love with everything about it. It's a super small town, but I do think it's slightly bigger than Clanton. I have never gotten honked at so much in my life. Everyone apparently knows the missionaries here so it's super funny. We are the only missionaries serving here which is weird. There are no elders. There is this religion called "menonite" here and there are a lot of people who practice it. They are always at walmart and they won't look at us in the face. The ladies and men wear white or black hats to cover their hair and they don't cut their hair and the women have to wear dresses. It is SO INTERESTING. Can someone please search that religion for me and let me know what they believe? They won't talk to us at all.
 
My first official day in West Point was awesome!!! We taught a crowd of 6 men and 2 women sitting outside who may or may not have been really drunk. We didn't know it until we approached them and it was honestly super funny, but sad. There was one man who just kept talking to us about how good Job is. Another guy wanted me to look up Jeremiah 8:9 and he told me that was his favorite... I read it and afterwards, I said, "are you sure that's the one that's your favorite?" hahah it was a really random scripture and everyone just started laughing. We were so confused. We went tracting and had some super good lessons with people. People here in the South are so funny. Whenever we knock on a door, we hear a voice that says, "COME IN" um. I always just think to myself, "Are you sure you just want us to come in?" We do anyway and they don't seem surprised to see us! haha As we were walking back to our car, we saw a group of super cute little boys who yelled saying, "Hey y'all! What's yo digits? Y'all are some fine lookin' girls." The boy yelling that to us was like 5 years old. Don't know where he learned that from, but we couldn't stop laughing. He kept asking for our "digits" and we just kept walking away. He then started to yell out, "My number is.. 662-358...." OH MY. SO FUNNY. There is seriously entertainment every day here. It's the best.
 
We have a youth basketball night every Friday night and it is just so much fun to see the joy on the kids faces as they all play together in the small half court room full of carpet flooring. Friday morning, Sister Vankomen and I were out contacting and we saw a girl (Carmen) dribbling a basketball down the street. She was with her other friend who was a boy (Kaelon). We invited them to come play later on that night and GUESS WHAT? THEY TOTALLY SHOWED UP WITH ANOTHER FRIEND. There was about 20 kids there and they all had so much fun! There is a sweet Recent Convert named Sister Givens who bought little caesars pizza for all of them and Sister Van Komen and I shared a Mormon Message video with all of them while they ate. THEY LOVED IT. I sat down and talked with Carmen and Kaelon for a bit and asked them all about West Point and what they liked to do. It was hilarious because they were telling me ALL of the ins and outs of this place and what streets we shouldn't go down because we would be robbed if we did. haha it was grand! They thought I was so funny (I totally am not) but they thought I was because I didn't know what half of the words that they were saying meant. I asked them what the best restaurant is here and they mentioned a hole in the wall BBQ place and we are all totally going on Wednesday and we are going to teach them a lesson there!!! WOOT WOOT.
 
There is another Recent Convert lady in the church named Sister Edwards. SHE IS AWESOME. She loves to help us out and she basically wants us to convert everyone in her family which we are working on. We are currently teaching her nephew, Jonathan who is 9 years old. Jonathan's mom at first didn't want him to get baptized, but her heart has softened up and we are going to hopefully start teaching her as well!!!! Jonathan's brother, Brandon is already a member of the church and he is 14!!! Jonathan comes every sunday which is great! He wants to get baptized so badly. There is no other youth in the Branch so me and Sister Van Komen have a goal to get more youth in the branch so Brandon and Jonathan can have some friends!!!!
 
The craziest thing happened yesterday... So we have been trying to see this lady who is related to Sister Edwards as well and her name is Melisa (pronounced Melisha). She answered the door once out of the three times that we saw her and she was busy the one time that we did see her so we thought about possibly dropping her. I'm talking to one of the guys in the branch and Sister Van Komen taps me and says, "UM. IS THAT MELISA?" I glance over and see Melisa walking in with her FOUR kids AND HER HUSBAND. WHAT? It was nuts!!! Apparently her husband has never shown interest in the church until now. Crazy, right? They all sat in the back and I think they enjoyed themselves... They left after Sacrament meeting because her baby was hungry, but her husband said they would come back next week. MIRACLES HAPPEN. I also was called up to give my testimony in Sacrament meeting and I just loved it because Sister Edwards and Sister Givens just nodded their heads at everything I said and kept saying, "mmmhmmm. yes. AMEN" and then when I said Amen at the end, Sister Givens shouted, "yes. Jesus! Amen!!!!" They seriously made me feel like a million bucks. It was great. There was about 30 people at church yesterday which was good!
We found some new people to teach!!! We found a lady named Afrika (pronounced Afreekeeya) who was just sitting in a chair, waiting for her laundry to be done. We bonbarded her because she had no where else to go because she had to wait for her laundry. heheheh it was perfect. We have an appointment with her this week!!! We also met a girl who was delivering pizza and got her phone # and address to see her! She is super cute and our age and her name is Shayla!!! YAY FOR NEW PEOPLE!! We are continually trying to find and I know that people here are in desperate need for this gospel!!!!
 
One day, it was SUPER DUPER hot and the clouds started to get super dark. We decided to go contacting at the Kroger down the street. We talked to everyone in that store and no one really seemed too interested. We had to get at least one more contact to reach our goal. We saw a lady picking out cases of beer and Sister Van Komen and I looked at each other and said, "yup. She's the one!!!" The lady's name was Susan and she ended up talking to us about balogne and egg sandwiches for a good 20 minutes straight. We mentioned to her how we were mormon and she totally acted all nervous after that and we just left her with our card. We dashed out of that store super quick after that. Good times. Oh susan..
 
I have been studying a lot about Charity this past week in Preach My Gospel. SOO GOOD!!! I love the scripture in Moroni 7:48 that talks about praying for charity and being filled with HIS LOVE. I want to have the same type of love that Christ shows in 1 Nephi 19:9. He suffered everything so that we wouldn't have to. I want to let people know that I am striving to be a disciple of Jesus Christ because of the charity I am trying to develop. "By this shall men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another." How do we get to that point of fully loving someone who has offended us? I think the first step is DESIRE; then we have to pray for help to do so. Now, let us all let our hearts EXPAND and show charity towards EVERYONE. See everyone with a potential of becoming like God and you will never be the same because of it. I know that is true. I have seen it so much on my mission! God has definitely given all of us the power to love everyone~!! Everything in life is in favor for us to become more like Jesus Christ. We just have to apply everything to our lives and it takes lots of practice. I'm so happy that I have this mission to work on these Christ-like attributes.
 
Well, that is about it for this past week!!!!! We are working hard and I'm excited to see what will happen this transfer!!!! I am so so so blessed to be a part of this work :) I AM OBSESSED WITH BEING HERE IN MISSISSIPPI. I HAVE WANTED TO SERVE HERE MY WHOLE MISSION. YAYAYYAYA :) hahha it really isn't that different from Alabama, but still. It's so much cooler to say that I have served in MS. haha
 
I hope y'all have a great week ahead! God is good and LOVES all of us so so so much!!! This area is perfect for me and I received an undeniable spiritual confirmation as we drove into West Point. It was a really neat experience for me. People are super nice and friendly here and I just love it.
 
MYKY,
Sister Platt

Steinke's Family

Cute Sister Utley :)
Sister Bryant

Sister White


Cute Brandon and Jonathan being silly as always.


Finally got a picture at Helen Keller's house!

Basketball

Scary weather

Monday, June 23, 2014

Maybe one day I'll stay in an area longer than 3 months

Hello everyone!!!!! Yup. I am getting transferred AGAIN. WHAT THE HECK. Good thing I trust in President Hanks and know that he is inspired and that I am supposed to be somewhere else at this time in my life. Other missionaries keep saying I am going to be an STL, but there is NO WAY. I don't know anything as a missionary yet!!!!!!
 I am really going to miss this area and the people in it. Holy cow. I feel like I have been here my whole life because of the love I have for these people!!! I have learned so many things from serving here and I have learned how EASILY it is for us missionaries to just get attached to such wonderful people that we serve with. MY GOODNESS. When we received the call on Saturday telling me that I was leaving, Sister Crandall and I just screamed, "WHAT??? ARE YOU KIDDING ME???" We both thought we would be together for at least another transfer because everyone thinks Sister Crandall and I are basically twins; which we totally are!!!!! We get along SO WELL. Mah. I'm going to miss her!!! But no worries... we have decided to be roommates in College!! haha we will have to live in a huge house in order to fit all of the companions that I want to live with in college. Shoot. haha Seriously though, I have been so blessed with such great missionaries here. I could go on and on about the topic of me leaving, but it would take me a good hour to express my love for the people here. Wow. 
I really am going to miss Sister Crandall. She is absolutely hilarious and such a fun person to be around. She has taught me a lot about how to teach simply and how to make missionary work fun! 

I don't really know how to organize this email because I have honestly been super tired every night and haven't been writing in my journal as much. I guess I will just write about the highlights of this week!!!! :)
***Tom is progressing a lot! He is almost done with reading Alma and he excitingly told us that he has LDS.org and Mormon.org on his "favorites" list on his computer!!! Yesterday, he excitingly told us that he got a new cable service and it has BYU TV on it!!! He told us that he watched a special on Abinadi and thought it was super interesting. hahah We told him I was leaving yesterday and his response was, "Oh no!! YOU CAN'T LEAVE! Who do I need to talk to so that you can stay? That is just cruel!!! You have to convert me and see me be baptized before you leave!!!!" Oh Tom. I am going to miss him so much. I know that I was supposed to be in this area for him!!!!! It has been great to see the change that has occurred from him learning more of this beautiful gospel. His whole countenance is different now. Hopefully, I will be able to come back for his baptism!!!!
***We are teaching our 16 year old neighbor named Amber. (This isn't the same Amber who y'all saw in the photo I sent last week). Her mom is anti-religious and lets us come over anyway. We have taught Amber half of the lessons and we have felt like she didn't grasp a lot of them so we decided to show her the Restoration video. She told us that her mom said we could watch it as long as her mom couldn't hear it from the other room. So we ended up watching it and barely hearing it. Amber LOVED it and just kept saying, "Yeah. that's a really good video! I wish I could watch that over and over again." We then shared a video on mormon.orgabout a lady who is in the band "Neon trees" and is a mormon. She LOVES neon trees and thought it was the coolest thing ever. Before we left, I excitingly asked, "Are you coming to church with us tomorrow????" She shyly replied saying, "My mom says I can't come to your church, but please come back and teach me more!" SO SAD. Sister Crandall and I were so upset as we walked away from her house. We went back home and ate dinner and just as we were about to leave for a team up, we hear this loud knock on our door. It was Amber!!!!! She look super flustered as she told us how her mom was arguing with her after we left. Amber said that her mom told her that she looked up the mormon religion on-line and found a lot of information about us... ANTI STUFF IS THE WORST. Amber then said, "I know that what my mom was saying about your religion is NOT true. I know that is not what y'all have taught me." We then confirmed Amber's testimony and basically bore our own testimony.  Amber told us that her mom said she could come to church with us (next sunday) as long as her dad came with her to make sure that we weren't crazy. I am grateful that Amber has built up a strong testimony of this gospel without me even knowing it. I seriously thought that she wasn't really listening when we taught her, but she totally was and is!!!! YAY.
***The other Amber has completely fallen off the face of this earth. She is never home and won't respond to our texts/calls. ugh.
***Sister Heirtzler, our ward mission leader's wife, brought her friend Lesha over to Sheffield to have lunch with us!! I LOVE LESHA!!! Lesha has been taught by missionaries for over 8 months, but she can't join the church because of her family. She goes to a pentecostal church and she hates it. She told us that she wishes she could go to ours because she really feels the spirit there. Lesha is in her 40's and has an ADORABLE 6 year old daughter named Kayla. Kayla came along with us and was being absolutely hilarious. We were planning to go to the park by the river to have a lesson with Lesha, but there were BUGS everywhere. They were creepy bugs too. So annoying. So... it ended up not working out and Lesha ended up having to go home. mah. We did share with her a scripture (1 Nephi 7:12) in the car on the way home and she LOVED it. She told us that it was exactly what she needed to hear :) I love when that happens!!!
***Sister Stark took us to visit with her best friends who are members of the Church of Christ. We enjoyed a really good lunch with them (BBQ) and visited with a lot of members of that church. THEY WERE SO NICE. They apparently don't believe in the Holy Ghost and just think that the Holy Ghost is not needed anymore and that "the word" is more important. HOW SAD IS THAT? Seriously, I am gaining such a strong testimony of this church every day. It just makes sense. 

***We had a team up with the lovely Sister Adams one day and we helped her with visiting teaching. We visited with a less active lady named Sister Maddox. Sister Adams was being AWESOME and super bold/funny as she kept saying, "You know, Sister Maddox, we would love to see you at church!" ... "Sister Maddox, when we see you at church, people will just love you!" "Remember that one time that you were supposed to take me to church, but you never showed up Sister Maddox?" hahahhaha it was great. Sister Maddox then responded saying, "Yeah. I have no excuse for not being there. I really don't." After our visit, When we all got back into the car, Sister Adam's started laughing hard as she said, "Yeah. She's not ever coming back to church" BAHAHHAHAHAH. I love her so much. 
We visited with a less active man named Brother Young. Brother Young was baptized not too long ago, but goes to the Church of Christ now. He makes dentures for living in his shed in the backyard and it's actually REALLY COOL. His cousin was with him and we introduced ourselves to him. He asked us about our missions and all that good stuff. After talking to him about how great Jesus is for 20 minutes, we asked if we could share a scripture with him and he said, "Oh no thanks." Then I said, "Not even a scripture out of the Bible???" And he quickly replied saying, "No way! Don't y'all believe in a different Bible than me?" We then explained that we believed in the KJV of the Bible and also told him all about the Book of Mormon. He then said the classic line that I hear ALL THE TIME from people here in the south: "Well. As long as you accept Jesus Christ in your heart than you are saved. Have you accepted Jesus into your heart?" YES. I HAVE. I took out my mini bible that I got to share a scripture and he snatched it out of my hand and put it into his shirt!! super awkward. Apparently he thought I was giving it to him, but it's all good! Sister Crandall was cracking up. Then, as we were about to leave, Brother Young says to his cousin, "See? Wouldn't these Sister Missionaries make the best wives when they get home?" uh. Thank you? hahahaha People are so funny.
We also visited with Sister Evans who is less active as well. She is a recent convert and her husband has been a member all his life, but hasn't been to church in a while. She was really struggling while we were there because she has this tube in her stomach and apparently the doctors didn't give her the right supplies that she needed and she just started crying and told us that it felt like acid was being poured in her stomach. We said a prayer with her as she was crying and we just felt so bad for her. It was so sad. I asked her what her favorite hymn was and we ended up singing, "How Great Thou Art" with her. With tears in her eyes, she started to faintly sing along. The spirit was so strong in the room! I have gained a new testimony of the power of music for sure!!! This is what the gospel is ALL ABOUT. It's about helping others feel the spirit and know that God is aware of them.
***Yesterday at church, I looked around for Brother and Sister Evans and didn't see them anywhere! I was getting a bit discouraged. After Sacrament meeting, I went around shaking peoples hands and then I SAW BROTHER EVANS. I had to do a "double take". Brother Evans is a truck driver and the only outfit that I usually see him in is a white tank top with tattered jeans. He looked great!!! He looked so happy there!!!!! SISTER EVANS WAS THERE AS WELL. It made my week to see them at church! Gah!!!!!! :) When we told Bishop that they were planning on coming to church, he said to us, "Sisters. I want you to know that the Evans have been known for saying they will come and then they end up not coming so don't be discouraged if they don't come." WAHOO. THEY CAME!!!!!!
***Our refrigerator hasn't been working for the past week and a half so we have been using Sister Adams' fridge. We have been eating noodles like every night. It has been so rough haha No worries, we have the BEST members in the world here and Sister and Brother Woodward came to the rescue last night and brought us a mini fridge. It's so cute! NOW I CAN HAVE MY HONEY NUT CHEERIOS IN THE MORNING. (Some things never change).
***It is SUPER hot here and I don't even know what to do with myself. People keep telling me, "Just wait until August". NO. NO. NO. Humidity is really rough guys. Sometimes, I lose all focus when I am trying to teach a lesson because I am just looking at the sweat dripping down the peoples faces who we are teaching.
***Becky just invited me over for breakfast tomorrow morning. She told me that she would make me grits and sausage!
***Heavenly Father is so amazing and is so aware of each of His children. I see it every day. He knows us all so well! It is amazing how fast He allows me to LOVE these people and know their needs. This gospel is so simple and if people would just read the Book of Mormon, they would know it is TRUE. Gah.
You know you're in Alabama when...
-the bugs are the same size as the birds
-Your neighbor next door is randomly shooting his rifle up in the air
-People tell YOU that YOU have the accent, not them.
-The weather is perfectly sunny and then it randomly starts to thunder and pour for 20 minutes 
-People give you directions such as, "When you reach the tractor, turn left and then go until you see the baptist church on your right and then make another left until you reach the Methodist church."
-Mosquito spray and Duck Dynasty gear is the only thing people buy at wal-mart
-lightning bugs is a form of entertainment for you.

Southern Dictionary word for the week:
Fixin': When someone is about to do something. Example: "I'm fixin' to go to the store." OR "I was fixin' to call y'all" 

I love it here!!! My new motto: If baptisms were everything that mattered on a mission, everyone would be sent to Brazil.
I am so grateful for the specific trials that I am going through here to make me into the person that God intends for me to be. I know that I am supposed to be here. I love how easily it is for us as missionaries to bring up the church here. EVERYONE loves talking about church!!! I honestly love how challenging it is to be here. It makes things interesting for sure.  I know that God watches out for each of His children. He loves us. He NEEDS us to return unto Him!!!!
You is kind. You is good. You is important.
Have a grand week!!!!!!! :) LOVE y'all!!! Thanks for everything :))) 
Show the Lord all the LOVE in your heart for Him this week!!! Make Him proud! Stretch yourself! Go out of your comfort zone every day!!!!! 

MYKY,
Sister Platt :)

Having fun in the storm shelter



Miami ice slushies, the best!

Sister Evans

Cute Sister Causy, an angel!

Sister Hernandez & Martinez

Sister Vandiver and Nebeker!

brother Heirtzler! our ward mission leader! he always brought us blueberries from his garden 

Sister Haddock and her son Earl!

Sister Stark, she took us to church every Sunday.

cute Woodward family that gave us the mini fridge!

Jesus graffiti

Ken, we dropped him but had to get a photo with him.

Amanda

Sister Adams

Tom 

Monday, June 16, 2014

Best Time of My Life

Hey y'all!!!! Ah. Okay. I just love being a missionary SO SO SO MUCH!!!!! I am obsessed with this area and I am just so happy every single day!  
I have been thinking a lot this week about how much Heavenly Father is AWARE of us and KNOWS where to put us on our missions. Seriously, I couldn't see myself anywhere else. Hearing people talk here with their southern accents is so soothing to me and I'm so used to it now! haha we were sitting in the back of the car one day while Becky and her mom got super super "southern" as they talked back and forth and I was just obsessed with their voices! haha I really just never want to leave! God is good. 
This week was pretty grand! Full of ups and downs like usual, but I honestly can only remember the GOOD most of the time. 

Monday, "Singin' in the Rain": GUESS WHAT??? WE TOTALLY JOINED A METHODIST/PRESBYTERIAN/BAPTIST CHOIR!!!!! SO SO SO FUN!!!! All three churches (including 2 mormon missionaries) are going to perform one night in July for some special presentation. Not sure about the details. We met this lady (Brooke) at the river who invited us to it and she ended up living super close to us so she picked us up and took us down to the local Episcopal church where all the cute old ladies practiced. The church looked super pretty inside and reminded me of a small cathedral in europe. I sat next to this baptist lady named Jan who started asking me lots of questions about my mission. Turns out, her son is LIVING IN CARLSBAD RIGHT NOW and is teaching high school there!!! I asked her what school and she couldn't remember. Small world, eh? Everyone was super welcoming to us and they were so excited to see young people in their choir. hahhaha We sang songs that involved some clapping and one of the songs, we had to sing, "dee do dibbidy dee do" really really fast. I WAS AWFUL. I couldn't wipe the smile off of my face though. I just kept thinking to myself, "yup. I just love this place. I love the south. I wish my family could experience this with me." After we were done practicing, Brooke asked us a lot of questions about the church and said, "OH! I LOVE the Mormon Tabernacle Choir! I want to become a mormon just so I can join it!!! ...but, I don't want to move to utah. I could never do that." hahahhaha I just thought, "hm. we could help you." We ended up inviting her to our church, but she can't go because she is the choir director in her methodist church. Oh well. Now everyone there knows that we are NORMAL and believe in Jesus Christ! Woot Woot! After that, we had a lesson with Tom and started to read the scriptures with him. We had to sit outside because we didn't have a member with us. We sat on his doorstep and the cool air started to blow as we all looked up at the DARK BLACK sky. Tom looked at us with a serious look on his face and said, "Uh. Laaadddiiiesss. It is about to rain in about one minute. How far away do you live? How fast can you run?" Sure enough, it started to POUR. IT WAS NUTS. I couldn't even see in front of me as we were running home. No, it wasn't even a run, it was a sprint home. Luckily we live down the street. It was hilarious. I have never laughed so hard in my life. Sister Crandall and I looked ridiculous as our clothes were drenched and had make  up running down our faces. I LOVE IT HERE. 

Tuesday, "Temple Tuesday!!!": AHHHH. We got to go to the temple this day!!!!!!!! I am obsessed with that place so much. It is so grand because all of my worries/stresses were completely gone and I just had time to focus on the eternal things of life and just meditate for a little while. I was able to receive some answers to prayer and I am so glad for a loving Heavenly Father who has given us these temples to worship. I also loved how HAPPY everyone looked there. It was truly peaceful and much needed. We went to Chick Fil A afterwards so basically it was the best day ever. 

Wednesday, "Tender Mercies": Remember how in my last email, I stated my concern about Amber maybe getting anti-ed? Well, SHE ISN'T!!! She has just been super busy and overwhelmed with everything going on in her life. We decided to just check up on her and went over to the gas station where she was working. She was so excited to see us and she told us that she has read the first 7 chapters of the Book of Mormon!!!! WOOT WOOT!!!!! We set an appt up to see her the next day! Sister Vandiver (the relief society president) took us on a team up and we tried to visit with the less active women in the ward. Sister Crandall and I have been trying to focus on the less actives here because there are SO MANY!!!! More than half of the ward is less active, so we have a lot of work to do! Anyway, we visited with this one lady named Sister Maddox. She never lets us into her home, so we talked with her outside. (SIDENOTE: 80% of the lessons that I teach here are outside. Porches are the best thing ever invented. Mosquitoes are NOT.) Anyway, she basically talked and talked to us about all of her problems and family drama going on and I felt so bad for her and all three of us just kept thinking, "Well. Going to church can solve most of this problems and if it doesn't solve these problems, it will AT LEAST solve your attitude!!!" So we just listened and listened and shared a scripture with her. 
We visited with Samuel!!! The less active man who we found at Aldi!!! He was finally home!!!! He kept expressing his desire to come back to church and was just sobbing. He is so precious. I shared the scripture in Alma 7:11 with him and tried to relate everything he was going through back to the Atonement of Jesus Christ. A fountain of tears just started to pour out as he said, "Thank you. Leaving this church has been the worst decision I have ever made in my life. I need all of your help to get me back. Please. I stay inside all day to avoid the people that I used to be friends with. I feel so lost. I need Heavenly Father back in my life." The spirit was so strong in that humble home that he lived in. I KNOW God is aware of each of His children; no matter how far away they have strayed. Jesus Christ always beckons us to come unto Him. How beautiful is that? This truth is CRITICAL. I have learned so much from Samuel. He has brought me strength. He has taught me that you can get through ANYTHING in life as long as you rely on Heavenly Father and humbly pray for help. 
Later on this day, we went on another team up with Meagan! I LOVE MEAGAN!!!! She is in her 20's and loves to take us out on team ups to meet all of her friends. She is that member in the ward that every missionary dreams of having. haha She took us to see her friend Stacey who is this super cute girl who lives by herself in a trailer in the middle of nowhere. Meagan had already given her a Book of Mormon and Stacey has even come to church once before!!!! Stacey was raised Catholic, but doesn't really go to church anymore because of work. We had a really good lesson with her on the Restoration. I have been trying to focus a lot on the spirit more in the lessons that we teach. I testified to her that I was feeling the spirit after we read the account of Joseph Smith's first vision. Stacey then replied saying, "That is so neat that you are feeling it. I feel it too." We then invited her to pray at the end. We all knelt down as Stacey prayed and asked Heavenly Father if the message was true. She was so nervous to pray aloud, but she did it and told us that she felt super happy afterwards!!!! Like I said, she is super busy with working an hour away at a construction job so she is never usually at home. I hope we will be able to see her soon :) 

Thursday, "Two prayers are better than one": This day was super hectic, but full of miracles and tender mercies. I love being an instrument in the hands of the Lord. I am grateful for the trust that He has in me and I hope that His trust will continually be there as I go throughout my life. We were just about to start Weekly Planning (which is a 3 hour planning session that we do every Thursday morning to help us focus on/discuss the needs of our investigators and also set personal/companionship goals). Just as we were about to start, Bobbie Jo texts us and asks us if we could help her move. UH YES WE CAN. I DON'T THINK Y'ALL REALIZE THIS, BUT I'M OBSESSED WITH HELPING PEOPLE MOVE FURNITURE. I'm not being sarcastic, I really am. It is so much fun :)) So we spent the next 2 hours of our morning helping her move her couch, bed, dresser, and clothes to a different apartment. Aviya, Bobbie Jo's 9 year old daughter was trying to give me all of her random toys in the room that I was cleaning up. So funny. We made a "trash" pile and all of the things that she still needed went into another bag. Aviya wanted to keep everything! It was hilarious and totally reminded me of how I was when I was little. I picked up this bottle of dried up nail polish and said, "Aviya. You don't need this." She then replied saying, "Sister Platt! I do need it! What if I wanted to use it for Halloween or something?" hahahaha Little kids are my favorite. 
After helping them move, we ran back to our home to quickly change and eat and then went to Amber's home for a lesson with her. She grabbed a cigarette out of her box and she said, "I promised God that this would be the last pack I would smoke. I have been reading the Book of Mormon and I don't think I should be smoking." UM. WHAT. GUYS!!! We haven't even taught her about the word of wisdom and she wants to quit smoking :))))))))) AND her "husband/ex-husband" called her and she kept interrupting him and said, "stop swearing!!!" Then, when she hung up the phone she said to us, "Oh yeah. And I'm trying to stop cussing." MIRACLES HAPPEN. We then taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it and said it made sense! We had to explain the 3 kingdoms of glory to her like 3 times, but she eventually understood it and told us that God helped her understand it better. YEAH HE DID. 

We then went back home to do our weekly planning and I just felt like I was going to explode because planning is honestly the hardest thing for me to do because I just want to be outside talking to people, but I know that weekly planning is important. I was feeling discouraged for some reason after that and just said a little personal prayer and asked Heavenly Father to help me understand my purpose. We went to contact a less active in Sheffield whom I have never met. We knocked on the door of her home. A lady answered the door after the first knock and asked us who we were. We told her that we were missionaries and asked her if she was Sister Prattus. She told us that she didn't know who that was and that she had just moved into that home. We started to then talk to her (her name was Debra). We found out that she was part of the Holiness church which is basically like the Pentecostal church. Debra started to cry as she avoided eye contact with us and said, "I'm sorry. I can't look at either of you in the face. Y'all are just SHINING with God's light and I feel uncomfortable looking at y'all in the eyes. Your spirits are so strong. How did you know that I needed you? It's so crazy because I have been really depressed today because I just found out that I am getting kicked out of my house and I just prayed to God that people would come to me today. Then, I saw you ladies walking down the street and I could literally feel your spirit through the door and I KNEW that you were going to knock on my door before y'all even approached my house." WHOA. Crazy, right? It was definitely an "Emmaus" Experience for me. We asked her if we could say a prayer with her and she asked me to say it. I started to say the prayer and Debra started to say her own prayer vocally at the same time that I was praying. She got louder and louder as she prayed and I honestly could not focus for the life of me and stumbled through the prayer as I said, "please bless debra that she will... be good." yeah. It was literally like that and was the most awkward prayer I have ever said. Oh well. I love it here. We asked her if we could share our message with her and she declined, but she said we could stop by whenever and pray with her!!! YAY. Two prayers are better than one? 

Friday, "cops": We tried to contact more less actives this day in Tuscumbia. We had zero luck as most of them had moved or wanted their records removed. It felt nice to clear up the ward roster though!! WAHOO. We went over to Tom's, but saw that their was a police car at his house. We just thought to ourselves, "Uhhhh.. what the heck could Tom even do?" The answer is: NOTHING. Tom a very righteous person. We called him and he explained to us that the people who were living with him left and stole his $750 guitar! He was SO MAD and told us that he didn't want any company. :*( Some people are just plain cruel. Anyway, we then visited a less active man named Brother Hasha. We found out that his 12 year old daughter is NOT baptized so we will hopefully be working with her soon!!!! :) He is a super nice guy and we invited him to come to church and he said he would! (He didn't show up). He explained to us that he was honestly just lazy and didn't have an excuse for not coming to church. I love it when people are honest like that. It makes things so much easier! 
We also visited with this old lady named Bonnie in a nursing home who I have never met. She is less active as well, but I think it's just because of her health. She was hilarious!!! I don't know if she's all there, but she told us how to make biscuits and wants us to bring her some the next time we come over! YAY for a new biscuit recipe!!!!! :) We met 3 old ladies who were Jehovah's witnesses. We asked them what they believed in and they quickly got out their bibles and showed us a random scripture in psalms that they interpreted completely wrong about how God is actually called Jehovah, not Jesus. baha and then they gave us a bunch of pamphlets and asked us to join them at church. They were such adorable old ladies and just kept smiling at us. I just thought to myself, "well. This is how it feels to be attacked by us missionaries huh?" I got a taste of my own medicine. So fun. :) 

Saturday, "Oh. I know it's true.": We contacted and found most of this day and it was super super hot outside. We went to a flea market to contact and we found a new investigator there and ended up sharing a scripture with her!!! WOOT WOOT! We are going to see her today!!! We helped the Stienke's paint their house more and we actually got to paint a TAN color on the wall!!! Yay for color!!!!! I almost fell into the bath tub a million times as I leaned over it to paint the wall. Painting is so relaxing to me. LOVE IT. Okay. Now I just want to talk about the amazing lesson that we had with Tom!!!!! Sister Crandall and I both had inspired studies that morning and both felt the prompting to just "lay the hammer" down on Tom and truly see where he was at. Sister Stevens took us to see him and we started off with showing him a mormon message that involved a man's testimony of the Book of Mormon. It was completely silent by the end of the video and we asked Tom if he knew the Book of Mormon was true. He then said, "Yes. I KNOW it's true. It goes along perfectly with my Bible!" Then, we asked him if he knew that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. He paused and then said, "YES. I know he is a prophet. I know he couldn't of written this book." We then asked him if he would be baptized and he said, "Yes. I will, but I want to finish the whole Book of Mormon before I do. That way, if my neighbor asks me why I'm getting baptized into your church, I will be able to tell him all about the Book of Mormon. I don't want to only read half of it." I told him how proud I was of him for his desires and a thought ran through my mind to ask him if he would want to "compete" with us to get the Book of Mormon read all the way through. He agreed and then said, "You know the show Jeopardy? We should create questions to ask each other about what we have been reading!!!" GENIUS TOM. GENIUS. So we told him that we would read the next two chapters if he would do it as well by the next day. He agreed!!! AHHHH! Guys, I feel like Tom is the reason I am on this mission. He is so ready and he is going to STAY in the church after he is baptized. Wanna know something crazy? There have been over 10 convert baptisms in this area and NONE of them have come back to church since they got baptized. How sad is that? So the ward is really starting to trust us because we are trying to find the elect who will STAY ACTIVE. Tom is one of them. 

Sunday, "If I only had a heart": TOM CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN. wahoooooo!!!!!!! Sister Crandall beautifully sang in Sacrament meeting. A 16 year old boy gave a talk about his dad and he just cried and cried through the whole thing. It was so great. Of course, I cried. I miss my dad so much, but during that sacrament meeting, I felt his presence SO strongly. I felt like he was sitting right next to me. Tom loved church and just walked in and started to go around and talk with everyone. He wasn't attached at our hip like some investigators are when they come to church. Tom is basically a mormon, he just isn't one. hahaha :) He participated in Gospel principles and loved it!!!!! After Relief Society was over, I didn't see tom anywhere, but I wasn't even worried about getting him because I knew he was just off socializing with everyone. YAY. 
We had a rough team up with Sister Stark after church because no one was home/answering their door. We did have one appointment with a lady named Donna. We knocked on her door and her mom answered the door and told us that Donna was a couple houses down, visiting the neighbors. Turns out, she was visiting with Abel and Abels son, Ricardo. Do y'all remember the story I told about Abel? He was the man who could barely speak any english and was crying for help because he wanted to quit drinking. Anyway, Abel ended up being super drunk and we taught Donna, her boyfriend, and Ricardo. Mosquitoes ATE THE LIFE OUT OF ME. I forgot to put on the "terra shield" mom!!! BUT, I put it on the rest of the week and had no bites!!! Anyway, as we were teaching, Ricardo was the only one who was answering the questions and Donna was shaking like crazy and I think has some anxiety issues or something. She and her bf ended up randomly leaving during the lesson and Ricardo stayed the whole time and was super interested!!!!! He was so excited to get the Book of Mormon and he prayed about it right in front of us :) He kept telling us thank you and said that he had no idea that we believed in the Bible and that he had heard about  the Book of Mormon, but didn't know that it was another testament of Jesus Christ. :) He unfortunately is going back to N. Carolina for the army, but we will hopefully contact the missionaries there!!!! 
Sunday night, we were planning on heart attacking the Vandiver family's door. We made cookies and cut out a bunch of cute hearts with good quotes on them. We got lost trying to find her house and we were just really stressed and tired. We got their home and I got out the tape and scissors and said, "Please tell me we brought the hearts with us." Um. No. We didn't. We left them at the house!!! UGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHH. It was very frustrating, but we ended up laughing about it the whole drive home. Sometimes, as a missionary, you get really tired and just can't think straight anymore. 

Well. This week was amazing and this gospel is amazing!!!!!! I am grateful for Jesus Christ and His atonement that enables us to become more like Him. I am grateful for a loving Heavenly Father. Yesterday, as I was reflecting on Fathers day, I thought to myself, "Heavenly Father should be thought of as well on this day." Think about how He felt when He had to watch His only Begotten Son suffer. He is such a perfect dad! He sent Him down here because He LOVES all of us so much!! How neat is that? It is such a simple thing, but when you really think about it, it's amazing!!!!!

Mom, I gave Becky the book mark and SHE LOVED IT! She wanted me to tell you "Thank you" :) 

I love my family so much. Seriously, I have the best family in the world and I am reminded of it every day :) 
THANKS FOR EVERYTHING!!!!!!!!


MYKY,
Sister Platt or Sister Pratt. EVERYONE seems to call me that here. 

When it rains, it pours.


Temple Trip!


My cute Sister Training Leaders!




Cute Amber, LOVE her!

Gross bug found in our house.

Ssiter Adams Notes on her door.


River Selfies

People at church LOVE to give us food.

Monday, June 9, 2014

One of the CRAZIEST weeks of my life

Holy cow. Heavenly Father is pretty amazing y'all! So many weird things have happened this week and I know that God was definitely looking out for us! There are some crazy people in this area guys. Shall we begin?

Monday, "I'd let Him paint my nails.": This day was a typical p-day of trying to write letters as the time just ticked down quickly. (SIDENOTE: sorry family. I can't physically write y'all every week, but I am doing my best. Just know I love each and every one of y'all). At 6 pm, we went over to Sister Utley's home. Sister Utley is less-active and has been since she was a teenager. She trusts very few people and we are humbly in that trust circle of hers which is good! Sister Utley is this super fun person who is super girly and just hilarious. We read a verse from Alma 26 with her and invited her to read the rest of the chapter with her 7 year old son later that night. She expressed to us that she hasn't read from the Book of Mormon in a really long time and was excited to start!!! She also showed us the rooms in her house that she still needed to paint and we offered to help. She quickly declined and said, "NO WAY! You guys are NOT going to help me! I can do it!" I then said, "Oh Sister Utley.. What if Jesus was here and wanted to wash your feet; would you let Him do that for you?" Sister Utley paused as she thought about it and then said, "No. I wouldn't let him do that! But I would totally let Him paint my nails!" hahahahah oh Sister Utley. I just love her so much and I just want to help her draw closer to the Savior. She has a husband who no longer goes to church (He is Church of Christ) and she also has an older daughter who is my age who is NEVER at home. Do y'all have any suggestions on how to help her out? We asked her if we could re-teach her the lessons and she hasn't really confirmed that she wants that right now in her life. Anyway, after that, we had a lesson with Marissa, Eric, and Eric's cousin Becky who isn't a member. Marissa and Eric are less active and a super cute couple! They have a 1 year old and are expecting a baby boy this October! We decided to have a "Book of Mormon" experience with them. We told each of them that we were about to receive inspiration from the scriptures and asked them to think of a question that they needed an answer to and that it could be ANYTHING. We each then took a couple minutes to think of a question. After that, we read from a chapter in the Book of Mormon (We chose Mosiah 24) and started to read. By the end of the chapter, I looked up at Becky and her face was just SHINING (Not because of humidity) as she had a huge grin on her face and she said, "I got my answer!!! I got it!!! Wow! That was really cool. I like this book." We then asked Eric if he received his answer and he humbly said, "Yeah. I did. I really need to get myself back to church. For real this time." Those are some of my favorite words to hear. I love seeing the CHANGE in people and having them recognize the spirit that is missing in their lives. Gah. Marissa agreed with Eric and told us that she received her answer as well. IT WORKS EVERY TIME. To end the night off right, we called Bobbie Jo and asked her if her daughter Aviya wanted to catch lightning bugs with us. SO MUCH FUN! Aviya was so excited and was cutely waiting by her front door with a mason jar in hand. UGH. I TOTALLY STEPPED ON A FROG. NO NO NO NO NO. NOT OKAY.

Tuesday, "Laundry Day": Oh boy. This day was really really really good. We helped some people in our ward paint their house. I got to use the rolling pin and paint the ceiling. Little specks of paint kept falling in my eyes. We had a lesson with Tom afterwards and asked him the baptismal questions just to see where he was at in his progression. He answered every question right except he told us that he couldn't quite tell us yet if Joseph Smith was a prophet without reading through the whole Book of Mormon. He is only in Enos and he is just taking FOREVER. I was getting a little frustrated because he knows it's all true. He can literally explain everything that has happened in the Book of Mormon so far. And he always says to us, "God never said in the Bible that He would stop calling prophets so it does make sense that there would be one here today." YES. EXACTLY TOM. JUST BE BAPTIZED OKAY?? ahhhhhhhhh The frustration is REAL. But I know that God's timing is better than my own so I will trust in Him.
Anyway, after that, we went over to have a lesson with this girl named Nykole, who we met the week before. We knocked on her door... She answers the door with nothing, but a shirt and underwear on. She quickly sees us and then says, "Oh shoot!" and then slammed the door. Sister Crandall and I just kept giving each other the "fearful look" as we waited for her to get dressed. Then, a minute later, her "roommate" opens the door and says, "Sorry. It's laundry day! Nykole is trying to find some pants." We nicely just kept saying, "Oh no worries! It's totally fine!" haha seriously, every day is just a new adventure here in the South. We ended up teaching a lesson to Nykole and 3 of her friends that worked with her at Waffle House!!!!!!!!!!! One of the girls just snickered throughout the whole lesson and just looked at us like we were dumb, but one of them (Shawn) was SUPER interested and understood everything really really well. We tried to see them again the next day, but no one would answer and they were CLEARLY home. #classic Planting seeds, right? RIGHT.
After that, we had a lesson with Amber, the lady we met at the gas station. She was so excited for us to read with her from the Book of Mormon and she just kept saying, "I NEED encouragement right now!" We read 3 Nephi 11 with her about when Christ comes to the America's and SHE LOVED IT. We talked about how Christ visited everyone one by one and how He knows her individually. She just loved it and kept skimming through the whole Book of Mormon. She flipped to the book of Moroni and said, "Who is this Macaroni guy?" WE STARTED TO LAUGH SO HARD. Seriously, my humor has changed so much. I just laugh at the lamest things and just think that everything is funny. Oh Amber. She is hilarious and I just adore her so much. She told us that she found a skirt to wear to church! We set a baptismal date with her for June 29th and asked her to pray about it. She prayed right in front of us and it was such a simple prayer and yet, so powerful. I love hearing investigators pray!!!! As we were about to leave, Amber said, "Hold on! I have something to give you and I feel like God told me to give it to you." She then handed me a piece of paper with a "prayer" that she wrote to God. It was simply beautiful and as I read through it, I just kept thinking, "Yup. The gospel can solve everything that she is struggling with right now." ISN'T THE GOSPEL JUST SO PERFECT?
Wednesday, "War of the skeeters": We had a team up with our precious member/angel Sister Causey. I love that woman. We saw an investigator named Nikki with her and also visited some less actives. Sister Causey noticed Sister Crandall and I scratching our legs because of all the bug bites on us and insisted that we went to wal-mart with her to get some spray. She bought us the following: bug repellant, itch creme, itch spray, bug spray to kill the bugs, and roach spray. It was hilarious. She just kept saying, "We have to beat these skeeters up! They can't just bite you like that!" So precious. We went to the OPENING EVENT of the grocery store called "Aldi" which is the best store in the world. It has some cheap cheap cheap food. It's kind of like a "winco". Anyway, we decided to go contact people there because there was a large crowd there. We ended up meeting a man from a different ward and he asked us to come meet this man out by the front of the store who just moved to Sheffield and is less active. We hurried over to meet this man and his name is Samuel. He started to cry as he expressed his desire to come back to church and get rid of the life he was living. He is on a lot of drugs and just needs serious help. It's amazing how God places people in our path who are in need. Gah. It was a very amazing experience for me. We have been trying to see Samuel, but he is NEVER home. MAH. We will keep trying!

Thursday, "Let there be lightning": Okay. The south is pretty crazy. This day was not very good because of the dumb thunder and lightning. The rain was CRAZY as well. We were trying to contact some potentials when the storm randomly started. It was sunny all day until about 4 pm. A man on the street yelled at us and said, "Where is your car??? Get in it right now and go home!!!!!" We looked up at the sky as a dark cloud formed above us. The wind was nuts! Tree branches were falling all around us as we were driving and I skillfully moved around all of it; thank goodness. We had an appointment with Amber and decided to quickly stop by. She was in the gas station and we stayed in there for a while until the storm calmed down a little bit. We then went back home for dinner and listened to the weather radio. At this point, it was just raining and wasn't as bad so we went store contacting/less active hunting for the rest of the night. That was about it. Good times.
Friday, "The Yarn Rod": We had zone training in Tupelo this day! woot woot! We did a neat activity where we were blindfolded using ties and we held to this piece of yarn and walked. As I walked and held onto the yarn, I heard voices from different people saying both positive and negative things. At the very end of the yarn, was a tree which had fruit snacks attached to it. hahah it was such a cute activity and it hit home for me of how much the people NEED to taste of the fruit of this gospel as explained in 1 Nephi. SO GOOD. It rained the whole time driving home which wasn't pleasant because I had to drive. WAHOO.

Saturday, "Crazy. Crazy. And more crazy": Okay. This day was CRAZY. We taught our neighbor the Restoration which was awesome! She told us that she has always talked with the other Sister Missionaries in the past, but none of them have actually taught her. She says she is a spiritual person, but is a realist as well. She has two cute little boys who are one and two. Her husband always helps us by mowing our lawn whenever we need it. They are great! She thought it was all very interesting and said we could come back whenever! After that, we went with Becky to contact people at the river because it was a really nice day outside and people were there. We taught some lessons to people who ended up not wanting another visit, BUT ALL IS WELL. It started to get REALLY HOT and HUMID so Becky took us to Wal-mart to contact there. We ended up talking to this lady at the food stand for a good 20 minutes about our church. She is a member of the Church of Christ and was surprisingly really nice to us!  Anyway, after that, Becky dropped us off back home and we started to head over to a potential investigators' home. As we walked across the street, a guy in his car rolled down his window and said in a slurred tone of voice, "What's yo name?" My nerves started to kick in as we didn't tell him our names and just told him that we were missionaries. Sister Crandall didn't say a word and just started to walk away. I followed after her. Then the guy drove down the street and we continued on our way. Sister Crandall then proceeded to tell me that the man was ONLY wearing a white tank top with NOTHING else on. I was shocked. I had no idea and was just staring at his face while he was talking. SUPER CREEPY. We continued walking and saw the same guy in his car flip around and head towards us AGAIN. We saw a cute old lady carrying in her groceries and ran over to her. It was the fastest I have ever run. We just started to ask her how her day was and offered to help. The old lady had no clue what was going on. Then, the guy that was in the car started to lightly honk his horn at us and stayed there for a little. We no longer made any eye contact with him and by the time we were done talking with the old lady, the guy in the car was parked further down the street. THANKFULLY, a member of the church (Becky's mom) lived across the street from where we were at and we ran over there and asked her to walk us to our car. The guy was completely gone at that point. Goodness gracious. 
I didn't want to scare y'all by this story and I debated whether or not to even share it, but I just wanted to share it with y'all so that y'all know that God is real and that He placed that old lady in our path so that we could start talking to her. HE IS SO AWARE OF US. 
Anyway, after that awful experience, Sister Crandall and I were feeling a little down and just felt overwhelmed and scared out of our minds. We said a prayer and decided to go tract in a completely different neighborhood. We knocked on this one door that was decked out in Auburn decorations. An old man answered the door and politely told us that he went to the First Baptist Church. He then started to ask us the typical questions that everyone asks us (Where are you from? How long have you been here? Do you like Alabama?). Then, out of no where, the sirens went off and we were under a Tornado warning. The wind started to build up and the man's wife came over to us and said, "GET IN OUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW! COME IN COME IN. THERE IS A TORNADO." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We went inside as they started to frantically watch the news. They told us that if anything were to happen, we came to the right place because their house is the only one in the neighborhood with a basement. Tender Mercy? yes. We ended up sharing some scriptures with us and we were able to enjoy a pleasing conversation with them. Oh. Guess what their cat's name is??? JEZEBEL. They were so precious!!!! Everyone that I have met that has gone to the First Baptist church have been AWESOME. We then drove home and stayed there for the rest of the night because our Zone Leaders told us that we had to. It was a pretty rough storm. We couldn't fall asleep because of the loud thunder that literally shook our dainty little house. The lighting was crazy and I seriously think one struck down the street from us. Sister Crandall and I were shaking because it was so scary. UGH. All is well though. Oh. And we also found a HUGE cockroach in our kitchen and started screaming. No worries. Sister Crandall is a stud and totally killed it with the roach spray that Sister Causey got us. #thankyousistercausey I can't even express to y'all how grateful I am that I have only one summer here.
Sunday, "OoOdles of NoOdles": Ugh. None of our investigators came to church yesterday :( Tom called and told us that he promised to help his friend out who lived in Florence... and Amber never returned our calls or texts. We have a feeling that she may have gotten anti-ed at work and I am going to be SO SAD if that is the case. Anyway, it was still a super good sunday! We had a lesson with our Pentecostal neighbor Amber and taught a lesson with her. She is going to her pentecostal girls camp that she is super excited about this week. We aren't too sure about her. She most likely isn't elect; at least not now. Sister Adams invited us over for dinner and we enjoyed spaghetti and cornbread with her. She is so cute and just talked and talked and talked and didn't finish her dinner because she was talking so much. Typical south, I tell ya. They can never finish eating!!!! We then went over to the YSA Family home evening and it was Sister Nebeker's bday!!! Guess what we had??? Spaghetti!!! woot woot! It was pretty funny. We obviously didn't tell her that we just ate, but ate some more! Sister Crandall was able to practice singing for sacrament meeting next Sunday with Sister Nebeker. They will be singing/playing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" aka my favorite hymn in the world. Yes. I will probably start crying especially because it will be on Father's day.
Becky lost 5 pounds this past week! Becky started to play the song that goes, "I went down to the river to pray. I went down to the river to pray. C'mon sisters. Let's go down. Let's go down. C'mon down." as she drove down to the river and COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. She thought she was hilarious. #dailydoseofbecky

I am so grateful for this gospel. I am truly trying my best out here and we are working hard. I really don't like to waste time because I know that I am on the Lord's errand. I know that I am here to help people come unto Christ and I am improving each and every day. The south is such a beautiful place and I'm obsessed with everything it has to offer. From the crazy storms to the crazy people, I am just so happy at the end of the day! 
May we all strive to focus on the tender mercies of the Lord. There are so many around us. Do we recognize them? Alma 26:37... "We see that God is mindful of every people, whatsoever land they may be in; yea, he numbereth his people, and his bowels of mercy are over all the earth. Now this is my joy, and my great thanksgiving; yea, and I will give thanks unto my God forever. Amen." 
I have grown such a STRONG LOVE for the Book of Mormon. I don't know how I went a day without reading from it before my mission. It is truly an amazing book that can apply to everyone. Share it with people you see! JUST DO IT. We are on this earth at this special time to share this gift with others :) 
Love y'all so much!!!!!! God is so good! TRUST IN HIM.
MYKY, 
Sister Platt