Happy Day, All is well!

Can I just start off this email telling y'all how grateful I am for a LOVING Father in Heaven? He is so amazing and I am so grateful for Him AND Jesus Christ. I have been studying about them a lot this past week and every single day I am reminded of how GOOD they are to each of us. I have so many blessings in my life and I feel spoiled and don't know what I did to deserve so much.

 

I am so grateful for Sister Van Komen. Holy cow. We probably will only have one more week together because she has been in this area for 6 months. I can't believe this transfer is almost done. It has been the BEST. She is my best friend and I KNOW that we will be lifelong friends. She totally just gets me and my personality and it has been nothing but happiness with her!!! WE ARE PRAYING FOR ANOTHER TRANSFER TOGETHER. Just sayin'. haha yesterday, there was a 6 year old girl who walked up to us and asked us for gum, but we didn't have any so we gave her a picture of Jesus instead. I asked her if her and the girl she was with was her sister. She replied by saying, "No, but she is my BFF forever and ever." And then she said, "Are y'all Bff's or sisters?" We both quickly replied and said, "BFF's!!!!" haha it was great. Right before we said goodbye to this 6 year old girl, she looked at us very seriously and pointed her finger at us as she said, "Now remember, don't talk to any strangers!" Wise words from a 6 year old. #toobadwedoiteveryday.

I would like to apologize in advance, this email WILL be all over the place, but I'm keeping y'all on your toes!!!!!

 

Monday "She's a BIG GIRL NOW": The most exciting thing that happened on monday was that I convinced Sister VK to FINALLY GET HER EARS PIERCED. SHE DID IT! SHE DID IT!!! She is a big girl now! It was hilarious to see how scared she was as she sat on the chair. Oh man. Sister VK told me that she has tried 3 times before to get her ears pierced, but she had chickened out every time. Apparently, I was very convincing and she did it!!! She looks SO ADORABLE with earrings :)

 

Tuesday "Would you like tto be baptized?": We did a lot of tracting in trailer parks this day, but didn't find too much success. We had another lesson with Antrianna which was super duper good! We took Sister Edwards with us and we taught her the Restoration. SHE LOVED IT. She understood it all very very well and she is honestly one of the smartest teens I have ever taught. She understood a need for the priesthood and we invited her to be baptized and she said she would have to ask her mom. At the end, we asked her if she would like her own copy of the Book of Mormon and her eyes LIT UP. She had a HUGE smile on her face as we gave her the book. GAH. This gospel is a gospel of pure joy!!!!

hahah I have a funny story to tell y'all that happened today as well. We went with Sister Swift to visit teach a less active lady named Sister Scott. We talked with Sister Scott about coming to church and she gave us every excuse in the book. Finally, we testified of the Savior's love for her and of the Atonement. Then, Sister Swift invited her to be baptized!!!! she read a verse in The Book of Mormon that talks about "laying down every sin that doth easily beset you" and to show unto the Father that you are willing to follow HIm and be baptized. Sister Scott was so confused and I didn't know what to say and Sister VK saved the day by telling Sister Swift that she had already been baptized!!! haha classic!

Sister Edwards invited us over to teach Josh (her nieces bf who is 16). We went over to her apartment and Josh and his 2 other friends were there as well. We decided to do a "Book of Mormon" experience with them by inviting them to come up with a question in their minds and read a chapter from the Book of Mormon to get their answer. We read Alma 34 with them and THEY ALL GOT THEIR ANSWER. It was really really neat and another testimony builder for me to know that The Book of Mormon truly is the word of God and is inspired.

 

Wednesday "Do you want a better relationship with Jesus Christ?": This day was really really good! We met with our new investigator, Darmitrius who we contacted at the laundrymat. We taught her the Restoration and oh my, we are not sure if she is all there, but she was the sweetest person ever! She started to cry after the lesson and said, "Aw. y'all brought to life so many things for me. Now I know where the authority comes from that the Pope has and all the other preachers have. Thanks for bringing things into light for me and explaining Jesus's word to me." She was just a little confused, but it's fine.

 

We received a text from Sister Edwards that Josh wanted us to teach him more so we went over to her house again and taught him the Restoration. When we got there and sat down, Sister Edwards looked over at Josh and said, "So. Josh. The missionaries are here to teach you because I want you to go to the Celestial kingdom and I don't want to be the one to save you from Spirit Prison. You NEED to go to paradise. Is that what you want, Josh?" Oh my. I love Sister Edwards. She is so bold and funny. She was being COMPLETELY serious with him. She continued on and said, "Josh... How is your relationship with Jesus Christ?" Josh replied, "uh. GREAT!" She then said, "Well. It could be better. The sisters are going to make that relationship better today as they teach you." Then she looked at us and gave us the permisson to start teaching with a nod of her head. I LOVEHER. I wish every member of the church was like her!!! 

 Before we started, we asked him why he wanted to learn more from us. He shyly smiled and we said to him, "you can be totally honest. We don't mind!" He then said, "Well... I don't know. I guess because you guys are different and have a special light that I haven't seen in people your age before. Everyone at church is nice and it just feels like one big happy family." PRECIOUS. He understood everything really well about the Restoration and was even willing to pray about it at the end. He said, "Dear Heavenly Father. Thank you for sending uhhhh.. Sister Van Komen? and uhh... sister Platt? Yeah! Them! to teach me today. They have taught me a lot of good things and I pray that you lead me to the true church. In Jesus name I pray. Amen."  I LOVE hearing investigators pray!!!!!!! GAHHH. We invited him to be baptized and he has a date for August 16th!!!!!!!

We also saw Tammy and had an awesome lesson with her and went over the 15 step program to quit smoking!!!!!! She gave us the pack of cigarrettes she had!!! Jonathan was so excited for her and so was Brandon. They have been waiting YEARS for their mom to give up smoking :) SHE HASN'T SMOKED SINCE!!!!!!

We had another lesson with a lady named Britney and one thing that I learned during that lesson, is that I CAN be bold and CAN testify that this Church IS Christ's church and the ONLY church that has the fulness of the gospel of Jesus Christ. Britney asked a lot of questions and wanted to learn more and more about the Book of Mormon because Sister VK and I were bold with her :) yay!

 

Thursday "She wouldn't shut up": We visited with Sister Moore who is less active and just lost her dad. We were both able to comfort her because both of us have lost a parent so that was super neat! I shared with her D&C 24:8 which is the scripture that I just happened to turn to after hearing of dad passing away. SHE LOVED IT. She shared this really neat analogy that I loved! She talked about a group of people who carried crosses (burdens) on their back. One guy in particular, just wanted the burden/cross to be lifted so he prayed to God to have his cross be shorter. So God did as he wished and made his cross a foot shorter than everyone elses. The people all reached a river and  used their crosses that they were carrying to get across the river. The guy who prayed for a shorter cross couldn't make it over the river using his cross because it was too small. Anyway, then Sister Moore started to explain that we all have burdens and crosses that we have to bear because it makes us stronger and helps us along life. IT IS SO TRUE!!!! (I hope this story made sense).  We helped her make chicken salad sandwiches and fruit salad and she LOVED our company and kept thanking us for coming over. She told us about all the ghost stories that have occurred in West Point. I love the people here so much :)

Another funny story: We went to visit teach a lady named Sister Ramsey in our branch and went with Sister Givens who is a recent convert of 2 months. Sister Ramsey talked basically the whole time which shocked all of us because she is VERY quiet at church. When we were done with the appointment, the first thing Sister Givens says is, "She wouldn't shut up!" oh my. It was hilarious!!!! LOVE HER.

 

Friday "Let the games begin": We had exchanges this day and we decided to do a competition for how many unplanned invites we got. I went with Sister Smith to Columbus which is 30 mins away from West Point. It was a fun exchange!!!! GUESS HOW MANY PEOPLE WE INVITED TO LEARN MORE???? 41. Yeah. It was a miracle and we won the competition :) We talked to everyone we saw and even chased people down!!! I saw a lady sitting in her car crying as she held a beer bottle in one hand and a cigarrette in another. We asked her if we could say a prayer with her and she  just wept and wept and told us about how she got kicked out and lots of other things that I couldn't really understand because she was slurring her words. After the prayer, I gave her a picture of when Christ comes to the America's. I said, "Here's a picture! This is of Jesus Christ and when he came and visited the people in the America's! He loved them so much that he wanted to visit them as well! He loves you too! He is aware of you and so is your Heavenly Father!" She loved the photo and just kept thanking us. Ah. I love this work so so so much :) We were walking to our next appt to see a less active girl named Tomeka who lived in a rough part of town. There was a man who rolled down his window and said, "You ladies realize you are in the hood, right?" we just exclaimed "YEAH!!!" and he just laughed and drove off. We played basketball with a bunch of little kids in the projects and asked them if they would like to say a prayer with us. At the end of the prayer, a little 8 year old boy said, "You know what's weird? I never thought I'd see 2 white girls in the projects before!!!" We laughed soooo hard. Oh my. It's just the best thing ever. We taught a lot of lessons and it was just a really good day full of miracles :)

 

Saturday "Are y'all lost?": We had an appointment to see a lady and as we drove up to the apartment complex, we saw 6 cop cars and one of the cops rolled down her window and asked us if we were lost. We told her that we had an appointment to see a lady named Kesha who lived there. She said, "Oh really? Kesha Bailey?" We said yes and she then told us to be careful. We decided that it wouldn't be worth it and turned the car around. It's never good when the cop knows the last name of someone you are trying to see... CLASSIC. Sister VK and I had no clue where we were supposed to go so we decided to pray about it. We both had the impression to go to a certain road and tract along that road. Door after door, no one was answering. It was extremely hot and we were very tired, but we kept going. We looked awful with sweat pouring off of our skin. It was not a pretty sight; no wonder no one answered their door! hhaha! BUT, we knocked on this one door and I just felt like we needed to straight up ask them if they would like to learn more about the restored gospel of Jesus Christ (usually we ask to say a prayer with them because it's more effective because everyone loves to pray!) Anyway, the lady answered the door and she accepted to learn right then and there!!!!! YAY!!! Her name was Rose and she brought her friend Jasmine out as well to learn. They are both moms and live together in a small cute bright blue house. After quoting the account of Joseph Smith's first vision, we asked them how they felt. With a huge smile on her face, Jasmine timidly said, "I just got little chills that went down my spine." We testified to her that it was the Holy Ghost and that the Holy Ghost was telling her that the message was true! THEY WERE SO EXCITED :)

Jasmine was way more into the lesson than Rose was, but they said we could come back whenever their car is in the yard! SWEET.

 

Sunday "Miracle day!": Ah. I just love sundays :) Tammy came to church!!!!! WAHOOOO FINALLY! SHE CAME!!! She could only stay for the first 45 minutes because she had to go to work, but she came!!!! Jonathan and Brandon were so excited to have her there and were sad to see her leave, but it's great to see the family all come together and love the gospel :) She told us last night that she had the best day at work that she has ever had. IT WAS BECAUSE SHE CAME TO CHURCH :) I HAVE A TESTIMONY OF CHURCH ATTENDANCE. It was so great!!! Tammy HATES going to work and dreads it every single day, but blessings came through doing what the Lord wanted her to do! GUESS WHO ELSE CAME???? JOSH. He loves coming now! (He came last week as well).

Things are falling into place and we are so happy about everything that is happening :) The Lord is hastening His work here and I know that I need to just be patient!

 

I would like to invite y'all to read the talk called, "Believing Christ: A Practical approach to the Atonement." by Stephen E. Robinson. IT IS AMAZING. It has brought a new light into my life and I am so grateful for my Savior Jesus Christ and for His atonement. It talks about how we not only need to believe in Jesus Christ, but we need to BELIEVE HIM. We need to believe that he will forgive us. We need to believe that he will heal us. We need to believe that he is right by us every day. Even though we are not celestial material, Jesus Christ can make us celestial material. We need to not try to save ourselves, but let Jesus Christ save us. That is why he is called our savior. I love 2 Nephi 4:17-19. Nephi, who is a great man and prophet still feels awful for the sins that he has committed, but he still says, "Nevertheless, I know in whom I have trusted." No matter what, we can rely upon Jesus Christ and realize that all will be okay in the end as we trust in him.

He is the BEST and I have grown such a deep love and devotion to Him on my mission.

"Dearly, dearly has he loved! And we must love him too, and trust in his redeeming blood, and try his works to do." Jesus Christ went through all that he went through so that we WOULD trust Him and so when we repent, we will be cleansed. So when we make mistakes, we can start over again. So when we are lost, we WILL be found through Him. He wants us to come unto Him and use His atonement so that our burdens may be light.

 

I love y'all and I love this work so much :) We have interviews with President Hanks this week on Wednesday! STOKED.

 

MYKY,

Sister Platt

Getting her ears pierced!

The Fields are white all ready to harvest.

Notice the huge bug to my right.

Philippians 4:13

Hello friends and family!!!!!

I really love this work a little TOO MUCH. I have realized a lot of things about myself this past week and I'm SO GRATEFUL to be serving here in West Point!!!! It's a hard area, but I am learning what I need to learn and I'm so grateful for that.

 

---Ah, can y'all believe that I am 20?!!!? It's so crazy!!!

My birthday was really good! I woke up to decorations all over the house made by Sister Van Komen. She made me a grilled PB&J sandwich for lunch and then made me rice and chicken for dinner and also made a FUNFETTI cake for me with oreo icecream. It was perfect and I felt very spoiled!!!!! I also got a birthday card from SISTER LUTZ who is in Clanton. I have no idea how she knew or remembered it was my birthday, but it made my whole day!!! I love her so much and she will always have a place in my heart!!!!! Sister Stark from my last area wrote me a card as well and I just got an email from Becky today that made me smile :) I LOVE being a missionary and meeting these wonderful people that have changed my life for good.

IT RAINED ALL DAY ON MY BIRTHDAY. It was so weird because I can't remember ever having a birthday where it rained. We did the normal missionary work and it was great!!!!

 

-----We had the chance to see Tammy this week THREE TIMES which never happens because she is usually super busy with work. We had a super good lesson with her on Monday that ended shortly because someone from her work called her during the lesson and started swearing at her for whatever reason. It was really sad. She just cried and cried and thankfully, our branch President was there to give her a blessing of comfort. I'm so grateful for the Priesthood!!!! I don't know what I would do without it in my life! The next day, we went over to her home again and taught her and Jonathan about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jonathan is a typical 9 year old and has trouble focusing because he is beating his brother up half of the time. Tammy always looks over at Jonathan during the lesson and says, "JONATHAN!!! You are going to be baptized with me soon and you better start acting like you want to follow Jesus! SIT UP." hahah it's hilarious. I love both of them so much!!!! We were also able to teach them about the word of wisdom on Saturday and they understood it really well. Tammy smokes and told us that she wants our help to quit!!!! WOOT WOOT. They are no longer getting baptized on the 26th of this month because Tammy hasn't been able to get to church because of work, but she is trying to find a new job that will be more suitable for her to start coming!!!!! ALL IS WELL. I know that they will get baptized in the LORD'S time and way. This work really isn't about us missionaries at all. It's about the people and the progress that they are making toward coming closer to Jesus Christ.

 

--------Wednesday was the best day of the week!!!!! Everything fell into place perfectly and we were able to teach 5 lessons which never usually happens here. We met this super cute 16 year old girl named Antrianna and she let us right into her home. She opened up to us a lot about how she is having a hard time of feeling God's love in her life and how she does so much for her family, but they never do anything in return for her. It was really sad. With tears in her eyes, she looked at us and said, "I just want someone to tell me that they love me." Sister VK and I told her how much we loved her and how much we felt Heavenly Father's love for her. The spirit was so strong in that room and I will never forget it. I truly did feel a PERFECT love for this sweet girl who I only knew for 30 minutes. I am so grateful that this mission has taught me about how to really love someone and how to look at people through the eyes of God. We didn't teach her anything, BUT Heavenly Father's love for her and that is all she needed at that time. Sometimes, as a missionary, you feel like you have to just spit out information to people, but as I've grown on my mission, I have realized the importance of just listening and loving the people. We really do need to teach according to THEIR needs and not our own. It was so funny because right as we were about to leave, we asked her for her # and then she asked us for ours. After putting our number into her phone, she looked at us with a huge smile on her face and said, "I'm going to save your number under 'besties' because y'all are my new best friends." yup. Precious.

 

After that lesson, we went tracting and found a lady named "nette" (her real name is Rochwanette). Right as Nette opened the door, she let us right in without us even saying anything. We said a prayer with her and her cute 5 year old and ended up teaching her the first lesson! She loved it and asked us to come back! We ended up settting an appointment with her for 2 days later, but she wasn't there :( We are not giving up on her just yet!!!!

We also met this lady named Sharon who is absolutely hilarious!!!! She has two kids and we were able to teach them as well. She understood the lesson pretty well and we have a return appointment with her for tomorrow!!!!

 

----There is a super cute girl named Kesha who is 20 who we left a prayer with one day. We felt inspired to go back and visit her. We knocked on the door and once she opened the door, her face was BEAMING. She told us how she had been waiting for us to come back and that she ended up having someone offer her a job the day after we said the prayer with her. She told us, "I KNOW that your prayer worked and that God listened and answered!!! Thank you so much for praying for me! Y'all can go home from your missions knowing that you AT LEAST helped me!" Then, she kept thanking us and thanking us. Ah, I got chills when she was going on and on about how we were able to help her. This mission is the best!!!! GAH! She isn't too interested in our message, but I did notice that she was wearing a basketball shirt and I asked her if she would like to play with me at the church someday. We are hopefully going to play this upcoming week :) !!!!!

 

-----Friday was possibly THE WORST day on my mission. No joke. THE WORST. It rained ALL DAY LONG AND DIDN'T STOP. We walked around everywhere and no one was answering their doors. Every appointment that we had set got cancelled and no one was really at any stores. We had no lessons and the only person who let us in was this Jehovah Witness lady who welcomed us in her home by saying, "Did y'all know that Jesus ISN'T Jehovah? It's actually God. And did you also know........" She went ON AND ON about how Jesus was actually hung on a tree and not a cross and how we are not going to be saved during the second coming and she wouldn't stop!!!! She showed all of these random scriptures to support herself and I honestly just wanted to scream! It was awful. I just smiled throughout the whole thing and Sister VK and I just replied by saying, "uh huh. yeah. okay. yeah. sure." But guess what??? hehehehheeh as we left, I sneakily put a restoration pamphlet on her desk. Is that bad? oops. She told us that we could come back whenever we wanted. I have really been trying to pray for forgiveness of how I felt during that whole time spent with her.

The most exciting part about Friday? We had 20 minutes left before we had to go inside for the night. We both felt like we needed to go to the gas station. We show up and once we got out of the car, this man walked out of the gas station holding a pack of beer in his hands. He then exclaimed, "WHERE IS MY TRUCK???" Um. Yeah. Someone totally stole his truck and drove away just in that small amount of time of him being in the gas station!!! Isn't that awful?

 Sister VK and I just waited around the gas station because we were being super nosey and wanted to know what happened. We sneakily listened to his whole conversation with him and the cops. Apparently he left his car running because he was only going to be in the gas station for a little bit. Don't worry... The cops found this man's truck in less than 20 minutes! You wanna know how? Because the cops already had an idea of who the victim was because they have a list of people that they keep who are criminals. OH West Point...

I think Heavenly Father wanted us to experience at least SOMETHING exciting that day. He definitely has a sense of humor!!!!

 

-----We taught Sister Edwards niece, Kenya about the Plan of Salvation because she has been having lots of questions about it! Kenya is one of my favorite people in this town. She is 14 years old and is absolutely HILARIOUS. It's especially funny when she gets all excited and talks super fast because we can't understand a word she says. After explaining the three degrees of glory, we asked her where she would want to go. She replied saying, "OH! I LOVE the moon! Moons are my favorite and they are just so pretty! The sun is way too bright for me and blinds ma eyes!" We were laughing so hard. It was definitely a "you just had to be there" moment. Don't worry y'all. She want's to go to the Celestial kingdom :) She asked us for a Book of Mormon after the lesson and she is super excited to read it! woot woot!

 

---------Ready for a sketchy story? I thought so. We had an appointment with this lady named Lakisha. We knock on her door. A random man (we assume her BF) answered the door with blood shot eyes and says, "OH! I thought y'all were the cops! I'm glad you're not!!!!!" We then awkwardly and fakely laugh and ask him if Lakisha was home. He then yells for her and says, "Kisha!!! Miley Cyrus and Katy Parry are at the door!!!!!" Sister VK and I just look at each other and whisper, "Let's leave". We started to walk away and Lakisha then came outside and we explained to her that we actually couldn't meet with her and that we would have to see her another time. (We aren't really going back). She then responded, "Okay. Y'all don't forget about me ya hear?" Her eyes were super red as well. SO SAD. DRUGS ARE BAD. ONE DAY WE WILL FIND SOMEONE WHO IS ELECT WHO DOESN'T DO DRUGS. I PROMISE. We really do need A LOT of prayers for this area. It's so sad.

 

----We helped clean Sara's (A recent convert who just moved inside our area) home that she moved in! It's a super cute southern home and I'm obsessed with it. We bleached both bathrooms and made them look super duper good!!!!!! Sara invited her friends over to help as well and they were all so hilarious together. They bought us Nerd flavored slushies from SONIC and insisted that we would try it. It was soooooo good!!!!!! Anyway, moral of this story, Sister VK and I are PRO at cleaning bathrooms. I love service projects so so so so so so much!!!

 

-----------We met with a less active lady named Sister Rodriguez and her son Greg. We went over to their house and they were outside and yelled at us to meet them at McDonald's.

We had an awesome conversation with them and they are both hilarious!!!!! Greg looks like he could be off of Duck Dynasty and it makes me super happy. He told us that we were his new friends and that we could call him "Cheeseburger" because that is what his other friends call him. hahaha it was so grand. We talked to them about faith and shared the scripture in the bible that talks about the mustard seed. They both sighed as they said, "yeah. We need to get back to church." I then said, "yes. We would LOVE to see you there and I know everyone else would as well!!!" Sister Rodriguez then came up with a million reasons of why she can't go anymore. Gah. I care about less actives so much. I LOVE visiting with them. It's so interesting to me to see WHY they are no longer coming. We will keep working with them and serving them the best we can and one day they WILL come back!!!!!

 

 

You know you are in West Point when...

-You kick bottle caps instead of rocks while you are walking.

-Random people honk at you because they have seen you 4,565,434,677 times and you don't even know them at all.

-Everyone in town goes to a funeral.

 

 

That is about it for this week! I have learned the importance of just keeping the faith and TRUSTING in the Lord each and every day. I love the verse in 1 Nephi 7:12. It is so simple, but makes me so happy!!!! LET US BE FAITHFUL TO HIM. TRUST THAT PEOPLE CAN AND WILL CHANGE. I also love the scripture in 2 Nephi 4:29; especially the last sentence that says, "Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions." Let us each not slacken our strength because of the bad days that happen. STAY STRONG. "Be still and know that I am God."

Have a great next week and KNOW that the Lord is mindful of you. He loves us and gives us challenges so that we can grow!!!!!!

 

MYKY,

Sister Platt :

The blessing come greater than the heat

Ah. I seriously just can't express how HAPPY I AM. ALL THE TIME. This gospel is so true and Heavenly Father is real and SO aware of us!!!!!! I know I say that every week, but it's true and I want the whole world to know it!!! I am so grateful for prayer and for the spirit that is felt while we go about our day doing this wonderful work of Salvation.

It was definitely SCORCHING hot this week and very humid. There is simply no point to even wear make up because it just melts off of your face!!!! BLAH.

I will just bullet point some neat experiences that happened this week:

-We were walking and it was very hot outside. We decided to take a path that we have never gone before and see if we could contact people along the way to our appointment. We say hi to this girl sitting in her car with the car door open. She quickly glanced up and gave us a fake smile as she waved to us. I just thought to myself, "You need to go talk to that girl!" Sister Van Komen was thinking the same thing and we took no thought of "what if it will be awkward?" or "what if she doesn't like us?" We literally made a super sharp turn as we walked straight toward her and asked her if we could say a prayer. This lady (Heather) just started to sob and sob. With tears in her eyes, she said, "how did you know? I just got out of my doctors appointment like 2 minutes ago and I was praying for strength and y'all just showed up." Yup. It was a really neat experience and tender mercy. We were able to say a prayer with her and bore testimony to her that God was indeed aware of her situation. She is unfortunately living out of the state, but we were able to give her a mormon.org card! Sister VK and I just walked away smiling. Chills just kept rolling down my back and we both knew in that instant that we were instruments in the Hands of our LOVING Heavenly Father who is AWARE of each of us.

-We went tracting after running into Heather, we decided to go tracting. We saw this one car parked infront of a house that had a bumper sticker on it that said, "Do you follow Jesus this close?" HAHHAHA it was great. We decided to go to that house and oh my. It was the best decision we have made. A sassy and hilarious lady named Mary opened the door and let us right in. She talked and talked about how much she loves Jesus and kept telling us that she doesn't want to "go to the lake" (referring to hell). She started to cry as she told us that Jesus saves all of us. She went on and on and it was just a CLASSIC conversation of how you would picture a lady talking in a movie or something. She didn't want us to go and invited us over for dinner another day. Guess what day we decided to have dinner with her? Yup. My birthday. STOKED. We asked her if we could take a picture with her and she said, "OoooOOHh Ohhhhh! I gotta find ma teef." After looking for her teeth for a good 2 minutes, she looked down her shirt and said, "Ohhhhh THEY BE IN MY BOSSOM." hahahhahahahaha it was grand. We were laughing so hard. I just love the people here so much and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father placed me here in the South. I am entertained every day by the hilarious people here.

-We met with Tammy and Jonathan and had a REALLY good lesson with them on the Plan of Salvation and set a baptismal date for the both of them for July 26th!!!! They both accepted! Tammy is super excited about everything that we are teaching her and soaks it all up like a sponge. She opened up to us a lot more and asked really good questions! Can I just tell y'all how much I LOVE teaching with Sister Van Komen? We work REALLY well together. When I pause, she takes over. When she pauses, I take over. It's the most beautiful thing!!!! We are able to have the spirit more in our lessons because of it and I'm so grateful. Tammy wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she told us that she felt very angry about her work and super stressed (she works at McDonald's). She told us that she didn't want to "blow up" on anyone or just be mad the whole time and not be able to feel the spirit. She really does have a strong desire to come though. We are meeting with her and Jonathan again and we are going with our Branch President (Pres. Honsinger) to teach her!!! SO EXCITED.

-The Sisters serving in Starkville gave us a referral to see this man named Darrell. His trailer was basically in the middle of nowhere, but it was worth the drive!!!! Darrell has been recently divorced and has a 1 year old that he isn't able to see that often. He works for pools and saw the sisters in Starkville and basically, Darrell asked if the sisters would teach him. HE IS GOLDEN. We taught him lesson one and he loved it all and said it all made sense. He told us that he has been searching for a church home, but none have felt right because they all seem confused about doctrine. BINGO. He loved the idea of having Christ's church back on the earth. After we talked with him about the Book of Mormon, we asked him if he had any questions and he said, "Yes. I have just one. Where can I get that Book?" As we pulled one out of our backpack, his eyes just lit up and he had a huge smile on his face! He was STOKED. We invited him to be baptized and he said YES. He told us that he would be gone for work the next few weeks because July is crazy busy when it comes to cleaning pools. We are going to learn a lot of patience!!!!!!! Sister VK and I were talking about the lesson afterwards and had a realization: You can tell if a person is Elect if they ask for a Book of Mormon after you talk to them about it. Sometimes, we feel like we are basically talking to a wall with some of the lessons we teach because people don't understand/see the importance of the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for Darrell and his understanding of the importance of this message we have taught him!! He understands that it could literally CHANGE his life!!!!!! YAY.

-We went on exchanges with our STL's and I stayed in West Point with Sister Klein. She is a great missionary and loves to talk! It's fun to see the different ways people do missionary work and exchanges help me learn a lot of what I'm good at and also what I need to improve on. During the exchange, we were able to receive A LOT of potential investigators through tracting which was grand! As we were walking down this one street, I hear a little voice from behind us saying, "Sisters!! Hi!!!!!" I turn around and see cute little Asia waving at us. (We met her at the baseball park last sunday with her mom). She said to me, "I'm having my birthday party tomorrow! You should come!!! Wait... Where is Sister Van Komen?" Asia is 10 years old, "fixin'" to be 11 years old. She totally remembered Sister VK's name and I have no idea how. It was just a testimony builder for me to know that We ARE noticed. The next day, Sister VK and I were reunited and we totally went to her bday party and dropped off cupcakes. 

-Another testimony builder of the idea that WE ARE NOTICED and BEING WATCHED is when we started to walk over to Sister Edwards to drop off some cookies. We see a lady out on the porch that we see a lot, but she didn't ever seem that friendly. We decided to offer her some cookies and she politely said no and then said to us, "Hold on. Let me get my husband! He has some questions to ask y'all!!!!" We both anxiously waited for him to come to the porch and then he and his wife just invited us in their home!~ (that never happens). They sat us down and her husband took a deep breath and said, "I just want to know what y'all do. I see y'all ALL OVER TOWN. One minute, you're over at the park talking to people and when I drive by again, y'all are gone and I see y'all knocking on doors!" We were able to talk to him about missionary work and about what we believed. It was so refreshing to hear encouragement from him and his wife. They just thought we were super heroes. NO EFFORT IS WASTED.

-About 4 people (Investigators) said that they were for sure coming to church and they didn't show up.... It can be so frustrating and discouraging, but I know that we are learning patience!!!!!!! PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO KEEP COMMITMENTS. OR JUST TELL US THAT YOU REALLY ARE NOT COMING TO CHURCH OKAY?

-Yesterday was one answered prayer after another. Holy cow. Heavenly Father HEARS US. After eating dinner, Sister Van Komen and I had no clue what we were going to do with the rest of our day because all of the things that we originally planned to do had fallen through. We decided to get on our knees and ask Heavenly Father what we needed to do. I just asked Him to help us know where we needed to go and if we needed to see a certain person, I asked if He would guide our thoughts to a certain name. After the prayer was over, we sat in silence. A less active family named the Copelands came to my mind which was SUPER weird and unexpected because we have been trying to get a hold of the Copeland's a lot and they never answer the door! Even when we saw them inside!!!!! I just looked at Sister Van Komen and said, "This is going to sound really weird, but I think we should go see the Copelands." She quickly responded saying, "Um. Yes. I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING." The Holy Ghost is real!!!! So, off to the Copeland's home we went!!! We knocked and they didn't answer.... So we knocked again.... and...... they...... ANSWERED. MIRACLE. And they totally let us inside and we had a nice conversation with them for 20 minutes :)))) YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!! It was honestly a huge miracle because during branch council, our branch president told us that even HE couldn't get the Copeland's to answer the door. I have definitely grown a lot more closer to the spirit and I feel more confident in just following the promptings that I receive, even if it sounds crazy to me, it's not crazy to God.

-After seeing the Copelands, we felt inspired to visit another less active lady named Sister Moore. She wasn't home :( BUT obviously Heavenly Father knows better than we do because He just let us to the next house over and we found a man who said he "used to be Mormon". His name is Vaughn and he has an adorable family!! He told us that he broke away from the church when he was 18 because every bishop he has ever had has been abusive to him in many different forms. It was so sad to hear all of the CRAZY experiences that he has had and it just broke our hearts. He told us that he believes in everything and loves mormons, but he told us that the leadership is corrupt. He has just had really really bad luck. He isn't even on our roster so I'm happy we were able to contact him and let the branch know of his situation so we can help him out!!!!! :)

-President Hanks called us on Friday night and said, "Hey sisters! I'm coming to West Point! Be at your apartment at 9:00!!!!" UM WHAT? We were freaking out. hahahaha I love how spontaneous he is. We hurried home from our basketball night at the church and he and Sister Hanks showed up 5 minutes later. They told us that they had just come back from giving talks at a Youth Conference in Starkville and just wanted to visit. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. They are such amazing people. They visited with us for 15 minutes and even sneakily left us 20 dollars to go out to lunch the next day. UM OKAY. I love them so so so much!!!!!!!!!!! President asked me how I liked West Point and I said, "I'm OBSESSED with it!!!"

Well, that is about it for this past week! It was grand!!!!!!!! I love this work and I never want to stop.

***Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me" was blaring from a car this morning.... #tendermercy #itwasn'trap #miracle

****We contacted a referral that we got from church headquarters... They said on mormon.org that they wanted a missionary visit. We knock on the door. 6 kids are running around the house as the mom opens the door and confusingly looks at us and asks us what we wanted. We explain that we saw she went on mormon.org and requested a visit. She said, "This is the 3rd time that missionaries have come to my door! I have mormon friends, but I don't want anything to do with the church. We are JEWISH." It's safe to say that one of her mormon friends went on mormon.org and referred her to us. haha #whyaretheirsomanyjewshere?

***We went to the nursing home and played bingo with all the old ladies. 3 rambunctious ladies work there and after someone got a BINGO, they would cheer really loud. The old lady next to me kept putting her hands over her ears as she swore under her breath. She also kept saying, "OH MERCY!"

****There are more cop cars than there are normal cars here. #I'mserious

***Our apartment is located right infront of the police station and also right next to the jail. #wefeelsafe?

********A drunk old man asked us to find him a girlfriend and then about 5 seconds later, he asked us to be his girlfriend and that he would pay us. #no #k

****Sister VK is more excited about my birthday than I am. Pretty sure. It's hilarious. She reminded me every day of how close I was to being 20 and would tell everyone that it was my birthday. hahahah #nolongerateenager #weird #howdoesitfeelmom?

*****UPDATE ON TOM FROM SHEFFIELD: He is in Helaman.....Apparently Brother Mitchell bore his testimony in church and told Tom that he loved him and that he couldn't wait until tom got baptized. Tom gave him a thumbs up in the air and just smiled!!! I WILL GO BACK TO SEE HIS BAPTISM.

****A little boy asked us if we wanted to ride on the back of his bike with him. #preciousmoment

***I pray every morning to just find someone to teach who is sober. #isthattoomuchtoask?

********We asked these people as they had their car windows down and were at a stop sign to check mormon.org out. They replied saying, "We are not into Jesus! We are into Rasta (drugs)" SO SAD. They then drove away and yelled out, "but y'all are pretty so we will look it up for y'all." #okaythanks

I love this work and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He has done so much for us! What are we doing for HIM?

Have a grand week ahead!!!!!!! SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH EVERYONE. FOLLOW THE PROMPTINGS YOU RECEIVE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!

MYKY,

Sister Platt aka the not so teenager anymore!!!!!!! HELLO 20!!! ew. that sounds so weird to say!!!!!

This area is about to explode!

I just love this work so much and I'm obsessed with this mission and never want to leave. It's the best. This past week was FULL of tender mercies from the Lord and I KNOW that He is looking out for each of us and places certain people in our path for a reason. God is so incredible!!!!!

 

Monday "Church is better together": We had a lesson with Tammy and Jonathan. Sister Givens (a recent convert) came to the lesson with us and we taught them about the Restoration of the gospel. The lesson went really well and Tammy really started to open up to us. Towards the end, Sister Givens bore her testimony and told Tammy that she NEEDED to come join her kids at church. (Jonathan and his brother brandon go to church every sunday). Then, in the middle of the day, we got a phone call from Sister Edwards (Tammy's sister) and she told us that Tammy was really upset with what Sister Givens said and that she didn't want us to come over anymore :( IT BROKE OUR HEARTS. Ah. We were really upset. Then, about 4 hours later, Sister Edwards called us back again and told us that Tammy and her talked about the whole situation and now Tammy is PUMPED about this gospel and has been reading from the Book of Mormon!!!! Apparently she even fell asleep with it in her hands!!!! AHHHH!!!! SHE HAS A HUGE CHANGE OF HEART!!!! I am so grateful for Sister Edwards and her desire to bring her family into this glorious gospel. Member missionary work is the BEST. We are going back to teach Tammy today!! We are super duper excited because we haven't been able to see her since because she has really odd hours and works at McDonald's.

 

Tuesday "We found our quarters": Okay. Today was one huge miracle. Seriously, Sister Van Komen and I were elated by the end of it. We started off our morning with Personal Study (like every morning) and I was reading a talk in the Ensign called, "The Privilege of Prayer" by Elder J. Devn Cornish. Y'all should read it. Anyway, Elder Cornish tells a story of when he was biking home from work and was super duper hungry and saw the fried chicken shop across the street. He only had 4 cents and the chicken was 29 cents each. He explained how he said a prayer and asked God to help him and then he found a shiny quarter across the street from where he prayed. He said, "In His mercy, the God of heaven, the Creator and Ruler of all things everywhere, had heard a prayer about a very minor thing... I believe that our Heavenly Father loves us so much that the things that are important to us become important to Him." I thought about this story throughout this whole day and we were able to find our own personal "quarters". The first "quarter" that we found was in the morning as soon as we headed out the door. We took about 5 steps outside until we realized that we had forgotten our phone inside the apartment. We ran back in to grab it and as soon as we walked back outside, we saw a 17 year old girl walking along the sidewalk near our apartment. We started talking with her and she told us how she was going over to the school to see if she could start going to school again next year. She told us about how her mom forced her to drop out of high school and how she missed 3 whole years. It was really sad. We were able to encourage her and let her know that she was doing the right thing. We ended up walking with her all the way and taught her the first lesson!!! She told us we could come see her on Saturday!!!! Her name is Liz! AH. Seriously. God is good. Just think about it: if we wouldn't have forgotten our phone, we would have never met her!!!!

THEN, as soon as we say goodbye to Liz, we walk over to our next appointment which was with Melisa. We heard a voice from behind us saying, "Hey Sisters!! I have been trying to get a hold of you for the LONGEST time!!!!! I'm so glad I found you!!!!!" We turn around and we see this super cute lady named LaTasha whom the sisters used to teach. (OUR SECOND QUARTER) She told us that she really needed someone to listen to her and she needed advice. So, we walked over to the park and started to listen as she started to cry and tell us about how she was kicked out of her house and has no money and how her and her sister no longer get along. It was really sad. The whole time, I was thinking, "LaTasha will get her answer through the Book of Mormon". Finally, when there was a space of time between us listening and replying, I said to her, "I know that you're going through a hard time and we can tell that you just need comfort at this time. Would it be alright if we read from the Book of Mormon? We KNOW that you will feel that comfort that you need." She happily agreed and got so excited about reading. We first read Alma 7 which applied perfectly to her. She just cried and cried through the whole thing. Sister Van Komen was totally inspired as well and asked if we could also read the account of Nephi getting wrapped in cords by Laman and Lemuel. IT WAS JUST AMAZING HOW PERFECT EACH SCRIPTURE WAS FOR HER!!! I felt the spirit so strongly while reading those scriptures. It was the strongest I have ever felt through reading. It was a really neat experience for me and I'm so grateful for the Holy Ghost. Ah. LaTasha then gave us each a big hug and just kept saying thank you. She told us that she KNEW that God had put us in her path. GAH. I just love the tender mercies that happen in missionary work. It's the grandest feeling in the world and something that I will never forget.

We then went over to Melisa's home and had a lesson with her. We read from the Book of Mormon with her because she told us it was hard for her to understand. Afterwards, her three ADORABLE little kids asked us to play a game with them. We played telephone and oh my, it was the cutest thing of my life. They kept whispering the same thing like, "I love cookies. I love pizza. I love riding my bike." I just love little kids so much and all of them remind me of my sweet nieces and nephews.

 

Wednesday "You can give her a dollar": This day was a really really really weird day. I feel like we always have an "off day" in missionary work at least once a week and this was the day. We went to the local "Hole-in-the-wall" BBQ place with Jonathan, Brandon, and Sister Edwards. We were able to teach them a lesson about the Tree of Life and showed them a picture and they loved it!!! haha funny story: As Sister Van Komen and I were paying for our BBQ Sandwiches, the lady charged me 4 dollars for mine and 5 for Sister Van Komens. (She should've charged me an extra dollar). I started to tell the lady that she only charged me 4 dollars and she just couldn't figure out the math of what to do, so she just said, "Don't worry about it." then, she pointed to Sister Van Komen and said, "You can just give her one of your dollars." hahahahhaha WHAT? It didn't make sense at all and we just laughed about it afterwards. Anyway, the rest of the day, we spent in a small town called Aberdeen that is also in our area. We tried to contact some referrals and tracted/contacted a few people there, but none were really interested. We had dinner with a super cute girl named Sarah who attends the Tupelo Ward because they have a YSA there. Sarah is 27 years old and loves to feed us! She told us that we helped her a lot by letting her serve us food. So precious. It started to randomly storm (surprise surprise) and we luckily were inside. hahah do y'all wanna hear a funny joke that I heard from someone in our branch? He said, "If you don't like the weather in Mississippi, just drive a mile down the road." BAHAHAHHAHA SO TRUE.

 

Thursday "Grilled PB&J": This day was another weird day, but it was good and I learned a lot from it. We went on a Blitz with some sisters from Haleyville, AL. They are both going home by the end of this transfer and one of the Sisters is suffering from a really bad form of depression. We had weekly planning this day and so we planned for 3 hours. The one sister who was having problems ended up sleeping in until 10 and then took another nap at 3. I was companions with her for the day and I was able to learn patience and compassion. Sister Van Komen made me the best thing I have ever tasted in my life. A GRILLED PEANUT BUTTER AND JELLY SANDWICH. OH MY GOODNESS. I AM NEVER TURNING BACK. So: here's how to make it... Mix pb&j in a bowl and then lather it on some bread. Put both pieces together and then put butter on the outside of each slice of bread and then grill it!!!! holy cow. EVERYONE. GO AND TRY IT NOW. PLEASE. Anyway, after the sister finally woke up from her sleep, we went out and visited a less active lady named Sister Scott. Sister Scott is really sweet and needs a lot of support. We were able to help her and even sang her the song, "teach me to walk in the light". Sister Scott closed her eyes as we sang and then when we were done, she said, "Sisters. Y'all have beautiful voices. " hahahah it was great. I love it here. I then took the sister out to get icecream and we were able to contact people at the Baskin Robbins and we were able to talk with one another and we were able to just open up with each other and it was perfect. I learned a lot from this sister. She is so strong and just wants to finish out her mission strong!

 

Friday "Happy B-day USA. Let us hum for you": We had Zone training this day!!!! It was lots of fun and our ZL's and STL's decorated the church gym in red white and blue. All the Sisters in the zone had to sing this super cheesy song and we also hummed along to it and it was super duper awkward. That's all I will say. We also got popsicles and did a three legged race! I tied the piece of cloth on way too tight and Sister Van Komen and I were struggling to even walk. It was hilarious. After Zone Training, we went contacting and found this super cute family sitting outside enjoying some ribs. Four cute toddlers were all playing in this small plastic pool. We walked up to the couple sitting on the porch and started talking to them. (Phillip and Jackie). We asked them if we could teach them a quick lesson and they agreed! Half way through the lesson, Jackie randomly got up and left, but Phillip stayed the whole time and was super interested. He said he would read the Book of Mormon and give us a call if he wanted us to come back. I really hope he read it! Seriously, if people would JUST read the BOM, they would KNOW it is true!!!! You just can't deny it because it all speaks of Jesus Christ. Anyway, after that, we went over to Brother and Sister Shields house for dinner and we had some ribs. I will be completely honest, ribs are probably my LEAST favorite thing to eat because it is just so messy and I feel like I eat more fat than the actual meat that is on the rib, but they were good!!!! On our way out the door, there were 5 toads hopping along the driveway. I shrieked and ran back inside as Sister Van Komen and Brother Shields laughed at me. It was AWFUL. AGH. Then, on our way home, there was a HUGE bug in our car that WOULD NOT get out. Sister Van Komen is terrified of bugs and she was the one that was driving. I tried so many times to get the dumb bug out of our car with no luck. Sister VK was freaking out and all I could do was just laugh and laugh. To make the situation even better, there were cop cars along the road that were checking eveyone's license as people drove through (they were really checking for drunk drivers). Don't worry, we were prepared!!! haha such good times on the mission. Goodness gracious.

Saturday "Huh. Ya don't say": We went to visit Liz and couldn't find her house for the life of us. 20 minutes later, we found her with her dad as they were both just standing outside looking at their bibles. I just thought to myself, "uh oh. This can't be good." Sister VK and I just gave each other "the look" and we prepared for the worst. Her dad ended up talking to us for the longest time about how he and his daughter are Jewish and how Jesus really has dark skin and how the picture on the pamphlet is completely wrong. He would not let us speak at all. It was so annoying to be honest. hahah what's really ridiculous is that they said they were Jewish, but that they loved reading from the old and new testament and totally believed in it. We were really confused and I think they were as well. Oh well, I still know that we were supposed to meet Liz and that we planted that seed!!!! We then ran over to help Sister Swift mow her lawn. Oh my, her grass reached as high as my knee. It took a really long time, but we got it finished and I totally used the lawn mower!! (Throwback to the day when mom took a picture of me mowing the lawn at braydons haha). I only made the lawn mower stop 3 times on accident. Then, we had another lesson with Melisa and decided to just drop her for now because she is not keeping her commitments and won't read/pray.

 

Sunday "Take me out to the ball game": Okay. Heavenly Father is just really amazing. It's cool to think how He works when it comes to missionary work. After a week of working super hard and not finding any "golden" investigators, Heavenly Father just hands them to us because He notices how hard we are working. We got a referral from Brother Shields to see one of his patients in the hospital. After church, we went straight over to see her and it turned out to be an amazing lesson. Her name is Debra and her husband was there as well and his name is Ricky. Debra explained to us that she has been looking for a church to go to and none of them have seemed right to her. We taught her and Ricky lesson 1 and when we asked Debra about Jesus Christ, She started to cry and said, "They nailed his hands n' feet to the cross." She just sobbed and sobbed. She is just the sweetest lady and we could tell that she has a strong relationship with Jesus Christ. Oh, and wanna know something funny? haha one of the nurses came in right after she got done crying to take her blood pressure and it went up a lot. Whoops. Anyway, at the end, Debra looked at Sister VK and I and said, "How do you feel?" We both said, "Happy". She then started to cry and said, "Good. That's what I want to feel like. I just want to be happy for once." We invited both of them to be baptized and they both said yes!!!!!! They said they would both come to church once Debra got out of the hospital. Ah. It was so grand!!!!! AND WANNA KNOW SOMETHING ELSE GREAT? They live literally across the street from the church and have never been :)

As missionaries, we set goals every week for different "Key indicators". One of our goals is "unplanned Invites" which means that we have to invite a certain amount of people to learn more of this gospel. Sister VK and I set a weekly goal of inviting 70 people. Sunday night, we had 58 and still needed to find 12 more people. No one was outside and it was really starting to stress us out because we can only invite people who are outside and it doesn't count if you tract. We said a little prayer and BOOM. It was answered. We look over to the left of us and see a BASEBALL GAME going on through the field that we were standing by. We quickly ran over there and found a good 60 people there watching and playing baseball. GAH!!! GOD ANSWERS PRAYERS Y'ALL!!!  We ended up having 73 unplanned invites by the end of the night!!!! We were so happy!!!!!!!

 

You know you're in West Point when...

-People do fireworks the whole weekend during the day time.

-You know the cops by name because they stop you so many times while you are walking around and tell you not to go in certain areas.

-People have a special seat for their dog to sit at the dinner table.

 

FAQ from people here:

-"Are ya'll pentecostals?

-"Do y'all walk everywhere?"

-"Why would you want to come on your mission here?"

-"Why aren't you in Africa or something?"

 

ATTENTION EVERYONE: Sister Van Komen and I go running every single morning of the week and I have lost 5 pounds. We are also learning how to cook and have cooked a lot of good meals. We are doing well and we are just so happy all the time. I love her so much and I'm learning a lot from her! She is an amazing companion and I'm so GRATEFUL that I am with her :)

 

God is aware of us and He is real. This gospel is amazing :) Heavenly Father answers prayers and wants us all to each succeed!!!!

 

MYKY,

Sister Platt