What does "Wetumpka" mean?????

AH. SO HAPPY. 

CAN I PLEASE JUST SAY THAT I LOVE MY FAMILY??? I love y'all a lot. Thanks for always sending photos. It makes my day!!! Seriously, I'm so so blessed with the best family in the world. Why are we so lucky???? It is so crazy to see how messed up the families are here and it truly just makes you grateful. I'M GRATEFUL THAT WE ALL GET ALONG SO WELL. WE WORK LIKE A TEAM and love one another at the end of the day. I thank Heavenly Father every day for y'all. Keep being you. 

Leaving Gardendale was super weird after only being there for 6 weeks. I think one of the major reasons I was there was definitely to gain a stronger testimony of this gospel that we are so blessed to have by constantly having my beliefs challenged. Another reason was to meet the Bishops wife, Sister Bennett who totally reminds me of YOU mom!!!!! She is the most selfless person in Alabama and taught me so much through her example. I strive to be like her one day. She always made us yummy cookies and was always the first one to volunteer to pick someone up who needed a ride to church. She has been teaching seminary for the past 10 YEARS!!!! It's amazing to see what people Heavenly Father places in your life to learn from. 

Let's start off with talking about Transfer Meeting. I loved this past transfer meeting A LOT. President Hanks is so awesome. 

-Disciple: LOYAL to the Savior. Don't be a missionary. Be a disciple.

-How would you behave if you were alone on your mission?

-Love God by obedience Love people through service.

-Fast. REALLY FAST. Fast until your knees are weak. 

-Sometimes God blesses us in "x" while we work our guts out in "y"

-Involve the Savior in everything you do and you will be happy

-Don't count the days. Make the days count.

-Satan can't stop you. CRUSH HIS HEAD. If we could see Satan, we would see a wimpy guy. (2 Nephi 24: 12-16)

-Have self mastery. Gain control of your behavior, feelings, thoughts, and actions

-BE STEADFAST IN CHRIST. 

I always come out of transfer meeting feeling invigorated and ready to go. Ah. It is so refreshing every single time!!!!! 

I AM BACK IN A SMALL TOWN!!!!! :) <3.  I LITERALLY THRIVE OFF OF PLACES LIKE THIS :)))

The ward is great here! yes. It's a ward and it's huge!!! Everyone is related here which makes it fun and everyone is willing to help with team ups and dinners!!!! YES. ACTUAL DINNER APPOINTMENTS Y'ALL!!!!! 

On our way here, we totally drove through Clanton which is only 30 minutes away from here. So crazy. My heart ached as I wanted to visit everyone there so badly, but I had to keep driving. :( 

Okay. Let me just talk about my AWESOME companion for a sec. SISTER CALAMITY. She totally reminds me of Jeanette Broberg. She is quiet, but when you get her talking, she is absolutely hilarious. She is from Cedar City, Utah and has been out for 7 months. She is half navajo, quarter paiute, and quarter white! SO COOL. She is a very hard worker which is such a blessing. We work really hard together and I'm grateful for Heavenly Father and Him answering prayer. Ah. We have been working soooo hard this past week and have seen so many blessings :) AND while tracting the other day, a lady who we knew was home didn't answer the door and so I naturally/jokingly said in my miranda voice, "haters back off!" and Sister Calamity got really excited and said, "You sounded like Miranda!" UM YEAH. SHE KNOWS MIRANDA SO WE HAVE BEEN BASICALLY TALKING LIKE MIRANDA FOR THE PAST TWO DAYS. She and Sister Gustafson have been my only TWO companions who know who miranda is. (s/o to Sista G-U). 

Our most promising investigators right now is an ADORABLE family!!! They live 30 minutes away from us so it's hard to see them a lot, but they came to church last week and loved it! They weren't able to come this sunday because they don't have a car and no members were available to give them a ride. SHAOOT. BUT we were able to teach them the Ten commandments, Word of Wisdom, and keeping the Sabbath day holy. It was awesome. The family consists of a single mom named Sonja and her 4 beautiful kids: Tatyana (14), Lorenzo (10), Tyasia (9), and Ja'kavion (3). Ah. I'm obsessed with them. They are so cute and were all so excited to try to live the word of wisdom and give up their sweet tea which was the only problem for them. So grand. :) 

We went on a team up with this cute 30 year old member who isn't married, but loves coming out with the missionaries. All of our appointments fell through, so we asked her if she would like to go tracting. SHE TOTALLY DID IT!!!! And guess what? She was our good luck charm because 3 out of 4 people let us inside!!! We would knock on the door and the people on the other side would just say, "come in" without even opening the door to see who it was. People are so trusting here! We taught this one older lady who was absolutely hilarious! She was showing us all of her Bibles and pictures of her family. We were talking with her about how great Heavenly Father is. The people here just make me smile and uplift me everyday. 

We were able to pray with lots of people while store contacting. It's just amazing to see how aware Heavenly Father is of all of His beautiful children. We met a lady in the thrift store who we felt like we needed to talk with. We asked her if she needed a prayer and she just started to break down and cry. She told us how she lost her daughter last year and how she is still going through the grieving process. We said a prayer with her and afterwards, she said, "God bless you angels" and then she gave us a huge hug. Man. This work is amazing. People here are wonderful. 

Yesterday, we visited with this less active lady named Dana. She is such a great example to the WORLD of strength. In 2011, she was in a tornado and her daughter and granddaughter passed away from it. Dana survived and her house was destroyed. Because of her brain being injured in the process, she went from having a deep southern accent to now having a BRITISH accent. It is the craziest thing!!!! She shared her testimony with us and it was simply very humbling. She told us, "I am a survivor and God is good to me and I want to let the whole world know about it. I'm not ashamed of my scars." She is the most giving person as well. She went through her closet and just started to throw clothes at us to take home.  :) SO PRECIOUS. 

There was a lady in our ward who passed away this past Friday named Sister Enselin. Her husband is the main judge in the town of Wetumpka and was a stake President for 8 years so basically the whole town and their dogs know who this lady is. There was a viewing last night at the church for her and we, as missionaries, were in charge of making sure everything ran smoothly and that people knew what way to enter and exit the church building. I am not exaggerating when I say this: There as a good 1,000 people who showed up. So yes. half of the town showed up. Looking at the photos of Sister Enselin gave me chills. You could just tell by looking at her photos that she was a beautiful woman inside and out. She was just SO classy!!!! It was amazing to see a whole community come together to celebrate her life. GUESS WHAT???? I SAW THE GRAYS AND QUINCY'S WHO CAME FROM CLANTON!!!!! AH THEY REMEMBERED ME THANK GOODNESS OR ELSE THAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SUPER AWKWARD. Brother Gray told me that I would have a place to stay whenever I wanted to come back to Clanton. Oh. The south is just wonderful. People are soooooooo nice here!!!!!!! 

This brings me to my next point: The topic of pride. I was reading in Alma 5 which is an awesome chapter in The Book of Mormon. Verse 28 really caught my eye and made me think... "Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God." WHOAH. Talk about a BOLD scripture!!! Well, are we stripped of pride? 

So I was studying the talk that my mom sent me a couple months ago via mail. The talk is entitled, "Beware of Pride" by Ezra Taft Benson. GO READ IT IF YOU HAVEN'T YET. 

It talks about how pride is a very misunderstood sin and how everyone basically sins in ignorance when it comes to pride. Pride is a result of comparing ourselves, not trusting God, wishing God would agree with you, etc. Humility is something that we need as missionaries every single day, but pride always tries to creep in. I have learned that true miracles come when we put everything on the table and show Heavenly Father our willingness to follow Him and DO HIS WILL. 

SO LET'S ALL GO OUT AND DO HIS WILL AND CRUSH SATAN'S HEAD. DO IT. OKAY? OKAY. PERFECT!

In other news...

-ANOTHER person told me I looked like one of the Duggars off of 19 kids and counting. 

-We saw a guy with a huge plate of Cheeto's puffs in his hands and stopped our car to talk with him. This is how the convo went:

us: "Hey! we know the guy who created the cheetah for cheeto's!!! (pres. hanks)

guy: (laughing awkwardly) "cool. what you girls doin?" 

us: "Sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. Do you know anyone that could use a prayer?" 

guy: "I could use a wife!"

us: "Great! We will look around for one! Do you know anyone that could use a prayer though?"

guy: "Is you married? We could talk about the gospel on a date."

us: "Have a GREAT day sir!!!" 

We then drove off. #lifeiswonderful.

-This past week, I made a personal goal to truly see people as Heavenly Father sees them. It has helped a lot!!!! For example, I looked at the old man who could barely speak in the assistant living home as an apostle. haha it sounds weird, but it helps so much to just see peoples full potential and love them no matter what. TRY IT. YOU'LL LIKE IT. 

-S/O to Sister Amelia Knuth. There are TWO ensign articles on potatoes this month. #servingamishinidaho

-MIKKI AND BRAYDON! We traced into photographers and I told them about y'all and even gave them y'alls website. wahoo. Y'ALL ARE FAMOUS. THEY LOVED Y'ALLS WORK. Y'ALL HAVE FANS IN WETUMPKA, ALABAMA!!!!!!!

-But really, what does the word "wetumpka" mean? I keep asking everyone and they all respond by saying, "I have no idea sweetheart." 

-We tracted into a teenager who told us we were weird because we smiled too much. :D :D :D :D IT'S OKAY TO BE HAPPY Y'ALL. JUST SMILE.

I cannot even believe that this is my last transfer. I really dislike it and it makes me want to throw up, but this mission is so grand and I'm grateful for the time I have left. Heavenly Father is so great! He loves each of us! He knows us! He REALLY REALLY DOES. Trust Him and you will see His hand in your life!!!!! 

Goodness, these emails never make sense. Just know we are happy missionaries and we are working hard! Love y'all and have a grand week ahead! Go watch a miranda sings video for me. 

ROLL TIDE ROOOOOOOLLLLLLL!!!!!!!!! 

MYKY,

Sister Platt

Happy MLK Day

Ah. Life is so beautiful. Heavenly Father is so grand and just wants us ALL to be happy. I am happy. Are you happy?

I have been reflecting a lot on happiness and how He just wants us to follow Him and keep His commandments. 

Seriously, I am obsessed with this mission. It has made me a lot happier. I know I was happy before the mission, but man oh man, this gospel is just life changing when you actually learn about it!!!!!

WELL GUESS WHAT? 

I am getting transferred AGAIN to a new area. This will be my 7th and last area. So weird/sad. Goodbye Gardendale! President Hanks called me to "release" me as a Sister Training Leader and he told me that I was going to go to a smaller town. #stoked. My guess is that I will be going to Wetumpka, AL because the assistants hinted that I would be going there. WE SHALL SEE. :)

Gardendale has taught me so much and I'm grateful for the opportunity I had to serve here for a short 6 weeks. I have never felt so frustrated and have never been on my knees as much before in my life. It's a beautiful thing. Heavenly Father truly did help me and so did our Savior, Jesus Christ and also the Holy Ghost. THEY ARE A GREAT TEAM!!!!!  

I just want to work work work and do some more work this last transfer. The Lord deserves everything we've got as missionaries. :) 

Let's see.. What happened this week? hmm. A lot of anti people. a lot of annoying dogs. And some good weather. yeeehaawww! 

HAPPY MARTIN LUTHER KING JR DAY!!!! SOOOO GRATEFUL TO BE HERE IN THE SOUTH WHERE IT ALL TOOK PLACE. THERE IS SO MUCH HISTORY HERE AND I JUST ADMIRE IT ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!! So grateful for people who are willing to STAND UP for what they believe in!!!!!!! Martin Luther King Jr is such an amazing example of DESIRE, PATIENCE, AND LOVE. Let's talk about each of these today, okay?

Let's talk about DESIRE right quick. 

Mosiah 28:1-9 The sons of Mosiah had a DESIRE to preach the gospel to the wicked Lamanites. We, as missionaries here in the south have a strong desire to teach the baptists. (I am not saying that the baptists are wicked; just roll with me on this one). 

Anyway, the sons of Mosiah had SO MUCH LOVE for the Lamanites that they "might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become FRIENDLY to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them." (verse 2). 

I think this story basically sums up our time here in Gardendale, Alabama. Heavenly Father has taught us a very valuable lesson: we will be blessed if we put forth our desires to help those who are so hateful towards our religion. We have had the capacity to love them anyway and I'm grateful for that. 

 "Now they were DESIROUS that salvation should be declared to EVERY creature." (Verse 4). 

Do we have that desire within each of us? 

My desire has become stronger over the course of my mission. 

Now, let's all turn to Alma 26 aka one of my FAVORITE CHAPTERS!!!! 

At the end of verse 23, it reads, "we go up to the land of Nephi (Gardendale), to preach unto our brethren, the Lamanites (the baptists), and they laughed us to scorn" Then verse 24, "For they said unto us: Do ye suppose that ye can bring the Lamanites to the knowledge of the truth? Do ye suppose that ye can convince the Lamanites (baptists) of the incorrectness of the traditions of their fathers, as stiffnecked a people as they are...." 

In these verses, Ammon is saying that people were laughing at him and his brethren for thinking that they could go teach the Lamanites, but he did anyway and found MUCH SUCCESS because he had a strong desire!!!! 

This past week while on exchanges with Sister Canniff, we went tracting. The first door we knocked on was an old man who yelled at us and told us that we were brainwashed. He then proceeded to give us some pamphlets. While he was yelling at us, the spirit was obviously not there. It felt awful. While he was going off on random tangents about untrue things about the church, the thought just came to me that I just needed to bear my testimony. I started to bear it and he kept interrupting me, but I just kept bearing it and told him that I KNEW The Book of Mormon was the word of God and that it contained the fulness of the gospel and that he shouldn't put limitations on God by saying that God didn't appear to Joseph Smith. We walked away from his home knowing that we fulfilled our purpose. yes. He was a very stiffnecked man, but at least now he knows that Mormons aren't worshiping Joseph Smith. 

"Now when our hearts were depressed, and we were about to turn back, behold, the Lord comforted us, and said: Go amongst thy brethren, the Lamanites, and bear with patience thine afflictions, and I will give unto you success." (Alma 26:27). 

Do we truly know what the word "patience" means? In Preach My Gospel, it states that patience is: The capacity to endure delay, trouble, opposition, or suffering WITHOUT becoming angry, frustrated, or anxious. I always thought of patience as just enduring, but no. We have to make sure that we do not become frustrated and angry. 

Doctrine and Covenants 6:34 is one of the best scriptures ever!!! "Therefore, fear not, little flock; do good; let earth and hell combine against you, for if ye are built upon my rock, they cannot prevail."

Sister Canniff and I did just that. We kept walking and we kept knocking despite the hardness of the peoples hearts here. The Lord truly did comfort us and helped us bear with patience our afflictions. We were able to talk to a man who really needed us that day. A man who was worried for his daughter. We were able to share a scripture with him and pray. We also ran into a man who was struggling with a pipe in his front yard. We walked up to him and asked him if he needed help. He looked up at us and said, "Did y'all not hear me?" At first, we were scared because we thought he said something bad about us, but then he said, "I was swearing because I was frustrated. Please forgive me." We then asked him if we could say a prayer that the pipe would work and he kinda laughed and said, "go for it darlin'. Say your prayer". After the prayer, we walked away and the PIPE TOTALLY WAS FIXED. UM YEAH. SO COOL. Once he saw it was fixed, he gave us a list of names of people to pray for. hahaha 

After a long day of tracting, Sister Canniff and I were unsure of what to do next, so we said a prayer. We needed to have a lesson with a less active to make our goals for the day, but no less actives were within biking distance. After the prayer, Sister Canniff looked at me and said, I think we need to go up the street and turn right. She jokingly told me that we might just find a random less active on the road. We got on our bikes and did just that. We biked to the near by gas station and saw a man filling up his car. We rode up to him and said, "Hey sir! Do you know anyone around here that is in need of a prayer?" He looked at us all confused and said, "Do you not know who I am? I'm a member of y'alls church!" SO CRAZY. This man that we met was totally less active and Sister Cooper and I had been trying to contact him for the LONGEST time, but he was never home. MIRACLE. He told us his conversion story and gave him a Bible because he had lost his. It was truly amazing. Heavenly Father really is aware of where each of us are at any given time and it just blows my mind. Sister Canniff is just a brand new missionary, but boy, is she powerful!!!!! She has taught me so much about following the spirit. So grateful for the missionaries in this mission!!!! 

"Now my bretheren, 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." (Alma 26:37)

Heavenly Father really is so mindful of each of us. He knows us. He is cheering us on. He weeps with us. He smiles with us. He is the best dad we can think of. He sent HIS ONLY BEGOTTEN SON FOR US. What a selfless man!!!!!! Ah. So grateful. 

In other news....

-Sister Cooper and I went tracting in Bham this past week which is always very entertaining.... We found a couple that recently just had a baby girl. The father (willy) of the baby is 61 years old and the mother (Sharida) is 28 years old... We taught them the restoration. Oh my. So hilarious. Willy said, "I'm a daddy. A grand daddy. A great grand daddy. And now I'm a daddy again." YIKES. And get this, willy's oldest daughter is 43 YEARS OLD. 

-We met an ADORABLE 16 year old girl who is from Afghanistan and taught her the gospel!!! SHE WAS SO OPEN and told us that she has started to read the Bible. Crazy huh? She was so excited to learn and told us afterwards in her broken english, "Thank you so much for coming here! It made me smile!"

-We were talking to a man in the bookstore about the Bible and he got super excited that we knew what he was talking about. He then asked us what church we went to and when we told him, his face got REALLY serious and he ran away from us!!! WE ARE FULL OF SICKNESS. RUN AWAY!!!!!!

-There is a cute recent convert in the ward that we see once a week, she is very lonely. She is so excited about the gospel and reads for hours and hours every day out of the scriptures, ensign, and gospel principles book. She told us, "I just read and read all morning and all afternoon and then I reward myself with TV at night!!!!" #precious. She calls the "Doctrine and covenants" "Doctrine and commandments". I love her so much and she has taught us A LOT about truly putting God first in everything we do!!!!! 

-We had interviews with President Hanks this past Friday!!! oh. I love that man so much!!!!! It was great to talk with him and he brought a lot of needed peace into my life and gave me great advice!!!!! He and Sister Hanks took us all out to BURGER KING (out of all places haha) for lunch. It was the best thing ever. He was telling us about all the times he would get a parking ticket in Italy for not placing the pass the right side up in his car. It reminded me sooooo much of dad!! It was hilarious. I have him convinced on wanting to go to Turkey!!! 

I love y'all so much and hope that everything is going well!!!! Be PATIENT. CREATE A DESIRE. STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. LOVE EVERYONE AND SEE THE GOOD IN THEM. AND JUST BE HAPPY. 

I'm grateful for my family and love each of you SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO MUCH! Gah. All the pictures that you send me ARE ADORBS!!!!! <--some things never change. 

I hope this email makes sense. Sorry if it doesn't. Have a wonderful week!!! 

MYKY,

Sister Platt

I never said it was going to be easy, I only said it would be worth it.

HOly cow. This mission is teaching me soooo much!!!! Ah. This work is so hard, but SO GOOD!!!!!!

This transfer is coming to a close; can y'all believe it??? IT FLEW BY!!!!!!! TRANSFER CALLS ARE THIS SATURDAY.

This past week was wonderful. The people here amaze me and I am humbled by their examples.

There have been some ups and downs, but that is where growth begins. Right?

Here are some of the experiences that I will just jot down because I'm terrible at organizing my emails:

-Brother Dean: We met with a less active man named Brother Dean who is the sweetest man I have ever met!!! He takes care of foster children for a living Brother Dean is also an inspiration to me. We could just tell from the way the house looked that he just adores the foster kids he takes care of and is really selfless!

-Brother Perry: Brother Perry hasn't been to church in a while because he is taking care of his wife. We met him for the first time last week and oh my goodness, he is an inspiration!!!! His wife is in her 60's and recently had a stroke and also has a severe case of dementia. He simply adores her and expressed to us how much he loves her and knows that God has a plan for them. ETERNAL PERSPECTIVE!!!! We sang her the song, "I stand all amazed" and wow, the spirit was very strong. I know she could hear us and I know that she was aware of us at that moment. It was precious. Heavenly Father is so aware of her and I could just feel the love that He has for her.

-Our mission has created this AMAZING/GENIUS idea that has literally changed our mission as a whole. Wanna hear it? It's called "HOUR OF POWER". Every day, at 5 pm, we have been invited to INVITE people to baptism for a whole hour!!!! ITS SO MUCH FUN!!!!!! Sister Cooper and I have been able to invite 53 people to baptism just by tracting!!!!! AND 2 HAVE ACCEPTED. The two that accepted are very sweet people who we are handing over to the Elders because they are single men living at home. WAHOO. We had a really neat experience one of the nights. We had 2 minutes left of the hour of power and were literally running from house to house, waiting for people to answer their doors. We saw house number 216 and felt really good about knocking there for the last 2 minutes we had left. Before knocking, Sister Cooper and I both agreed that the person on the other side really needed the gospel. A guy named Nathan answered the door and warmly welcomed us with a handshake and acted like he knew us. He explained to us that he had met with missionaries before, but lost contact because his work schedule got crazy. AND THAT HE HADN'T SEEN ANY MISSIONARIES IN 8 MONTHS. SO COOL. He then said, "Can y'all come see me on Monday?" (um. yeah we can.) No one ever sets their own times to see us so it was definitely a miracle!!! He also said, "Here's my number! Just text me and remind me and I will be home." CARAZY. We are seeing him tonight y'all!!!!!!!

Average number of baptismal invites as a mission per week: 214

Number we had this past week because of hour of power: 1,530!!!!!! Isn't that CRAZY???? A vision makes us way more motivated!!!!!!!!!!!!

-A less active man who we have been working with CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY FOR THE FIRST TIME IN 9 MONTHS. It was AWESOME and everyone welcomed him with open arms. Ah. It was beautiful and I just wanted to give him a big hug, but no. That doesn't work in missionary work.

-Our car had some major problems so we went in to get it fixed. The man told us that the car wouldn't be ready for another 2 days. So. We were on foot. AND it was 20-30 degrees outside. The coldness here is worse than out west. The humidity makes it so that the coldness literally reaches your bones. It was awful. We went tracting around the surrounding areas and no one let us in/people told us to go home because it was too cold to be out. NO. WE WON'T GO HOME. After many attempts, we decided to go store contacting instead. On our way to the local grocery store (NOT WALMART. THANK GOODNESS), we saw the less active lady that I mentioned in my last email Sister H!!!! She saw us and asked us why our faces were all red and why we were out in the cold. We explained to her our situation and then she said, "Oh my goodness!!! Do y'all wanna come over to my place for some chili? I'm fixin' to make it as soon as I get home!" MIRACLE. AH. SO. GRAND. Without hesitation, we agreed and she drove us over to her home. While eating dinner, she said something I will never forget, "ah. If I wasn't working tomorrow, I would drive you girls over to whatever appointments you had!" UM WHAT. Her heart has softened soooooo much and it's the best thing ever. She told us all about how she used to attend early morning seminary and how she had missionaries over when she was little. It was great to hear her stories because she had a big smile on her face as she was reminiscing. Even though she has decided to go to the Catholic church, it was cool to see that she still has good feelings toward the church and will always defend it :)

-Because of our car being in the shop, we decided to turn the situation into a positive one and make sure that all the members in the ward knew so that they would help us with our missionary efforts. haha. Sister Bennett (aka my favorite person ever/she acts just like my mom and even uses a wheat grinder) came out with us on a team up. We saw our investigator Amber and her mom Alice.  It was a tender mercy that we were able to be there for them. We also had a lesson with this kid named Jaylin and the spirit was really strong. At the end of the lesson as we were walking out, Sister Bennett looked at us and exclaimed, "man. Y'all are great at teaching! You just act like everything about the Restoration is normal and exciting! You don't let them doubt any of it!" Her comment made me think. It is so true. We teach some pretty bold doctrine about how Joseph Smith SAW Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. We teach that Peter, James, and John came as resurrected beings to Joseph Smith and gave him the Priesthood keys. We teach that there is ANOTHER set of scripture that is a helpmeet to the Bible. It does sound a little crazy huh? BUT IT'S TRUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

-We were invited over to dinner at Juan and Maritza's home. The other sisters are teaching them. They attend a Spanish branch in Birmingham and have been investigating the church for over 6 months. At the end of dinner, Juan bore his testimony to us in Spanish and I was the only one in the room who didn't know Spanish. Tears started to form from his eyes and I looked over at the sisters who had a HUGE smile on their faces. Sister Latu looked at me and mouthed, "He wants to be baptized!" Ah. The spirit was so strong!!!! The missionaries have been trying to get Juan into the waters of baptism for a long time!!! SO COOL. He is so ready and the sweetest man ever. He and his wife are both getting baptized this Saturday!!!!! His reason for finally wanting to get baptized??? He wants his kids to go on a mission and be mature and educated like all of the missionaries who he has seen come over to his home. SO EXCITING!!!!!

-Yesterday was amazing! We taught these cute teenagers named Kyla and DJ. They were step siblings. We asked them what they had a strong testimony of and they both shared inspiring stories of strength and faith. DJ explained to us how he has been bullied his whole life and how God has strengthened him. The scripture found in Jacob 3:1 came to my mind and so we read it to them. It was quiet for a bit after we read it and both of their eyes got really big as they said, "WHOA! That is such a cool scripture!!!!! Do you have any other cool ones?" haha it was awesome! The Book of Mormon can apply to us today y'all!!!!! We set a return appointment with them for this upcoming week and we are getting frozen yogurt with them! STOKED.

In other news...

-Only in the south AND Utah are roads completely empty on Sunday

-Little kid to his mom: "Mom! what are those girls doing knocking on the doors?"

Mom: "Honey. They are saving people by teaching them about Jesus" #precious

I love y'all and I love the work going on here in Alabama. We are continuing to preach the gospel to everyone that will listen! It's hard, but it's so worth it. Not everyone will listen to us and a lot won't even look at us as we wave or say hello, but Jesus Christ knows what we go through. We are constantly trying our hardest to find people and everyone gets anti-ed, but hey, I'm grateful that this mission isn't easy. We are learning SO MUCH!!!!!! Have a fabulous week ahead and know that life is supposed to be hard or else we wouldn't progress.

MYKY,

Sister Platt