Sweet Home Alabama: Curveball

Ah. You guys. Missionary work is SO CRAZY and Heavenly Father really likes to make me stretch and sometimes throws curve balls at me. So... Transfer calls were this past Saturday and GUESS WHAT? I will just lay out what the phone conversation was....

Us: "Hello! this is Sister Platt and Sister Sheffer"

Assistants to the President: "Hello!!! How are y'all doing?.... Sister Sheffer, you are leaving!..... and Sister Platt... you are transferring over to Madison 3rd ward and you will be with Sister Clark and ANOTHER companion serving as a trio."

Ummm. What???? I WILL BE IN A TRIO GUYS. THIS IS GOING TO BE SO WEIRD. hahahahah Sister Clark is my roommate so I already know her which is a comfort. Ah, we were joking around about how we are going to do door approaches and we have decided to just sing and be like the 3 amigos. It will definitely be interesting and I'm excited for the challenge. hahaha Everytime I told a ward member that I was moving over to 3rd ward and that I was going to be in a trio, their response was, "Oh. that's going to be hard." Psh. It will definitely be fun!!!!!!! mah. I am so sad that I will be leaving the Madison 2nd ward though. :/ I seriously JUST got finished with learning everyone's names and now, Heavenly Father just thinks that I need to expand my mind even more! The Madison 3rd ward is HUGE. Wish me luck!!!!!! It's a completely different area as well which will be really weird :( ah, we have to pass all of our investigators down to the other sisters. Goodbye Thor and mary :'(

Anyway, this week was really weird. Sister Sheffer and I were both sick for two days. Ah, I HATE being sick; especially as a missionary. It felt really weird to go from constantly moving and talking to just becoming a couch potato. It was my first time being sick this whole mission which is a blessing!!!!! Being sick really made me miss my mom because she wasn't there to give me some random essential oils that strangely would have helped. hehe

IT SNOWED A LOT here!!!! We weren't allowed to go outside for 5 hours one night which really made the work slow this past week. Our neighbor, Chris, knocked on our door and told us to come outside and have a snowball fight with his kids. We took the challenge and totally defeated him and his children. They kept wanting to aim at me which was REALLY RUDE. haha It brought me back to the days of Rexburg which made me happy! Sister Clark and I tried to make a snow angel and it was a complete FAIL because the snow wasn't compacted so we ended up getting mud on our jeans. The next day after the snow had stopped was lots of fun!!! Everyone was outside making snowmen and the whole town just slowed down for a day!!!

We met this super cute girl named Paris as we were biking home from the store. She was getting gas for her car and we just complimented her on her shirt. She started to talk to us for a good 20 minutes and we all instantly just became really good friends!! She is 23 and goes to this non-denominational church because she doesn't agree with her 7th day Adventist church that she used to go to because she really enjoys eating pork! haha There are A LOT of 7th day Adventist's here. Anyway, we gave her a restoration pamphlet and told her that she would LOVE coming to our church. She got really excited and we exchanged numbers. We called her last night and she is super busy with work this week, but we are going to have icecream with her next week! woot woot!

It was randomly 65 degrees on Friday which was a complete shock! ah, I love warm weather; especially as a missionary because people just seem happier. We were trying to find a man who recently moved into the ward and knocked on the door of the house we thought he lived in. A super precious black Baptist preacher answered the door. We asked her if the man lived there and she replied with a no and then said, "but you sisters can come in and pray with me." We all held hands in a circle and she wanted me to pray. I said the prayer, I'm seriously OBSESSED with the south!! People are SO faithful and really pray with every fiber of their being. Then, she said, "Now, I want to pray for you sisters." She continued: "Dear Jesus God. I just love you God and I thank you for these sisters. Please Protect them Jesus. They are doing your work Jesus. Jesus we know that through you, we can be strengthened as you tell us in the bible. Please strengthen them.... Amen."

SHE IS SO PRECIOUS. Oh my goodness. That experience of praying with her just made me see the power that prayer can have and how we really do need to pray to our Heavenly Father with power and focus like this sweet lady that we met. I will never forget her. She gave us a hug and kiss on the cheek as we left. :) Seriously, I NEVER want to leave the south!!!!!

We went with Sister Bernabei (Relief society teacher) to deliver flowers and cookies to the single ladies in our ward. (Mainly the less-active ones). It was SO MUCH FUN!!!! Guess what happened yesterday? ALL OF THOSE LADIES CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!! It brought a huge smile to my face. It just comes to show that all people really need is LOVE. People need to feel loved and needed. It is so critical! It was such a simple thing that we did for them and yet, it made all the difference. God is good! Sister Effinger and her daughters came to church AGAIN yesterday. SHE IS OFFICIALLY AN ACTIVE MEMBER OF THE CHURCH :) Gah. It will be REALLY hard to leave that sweet family. I really do feel like I had a special connection with them and that I was there for them specifically.

I am almost done with reading the Book of Mormon for the first time on my mission!! I am seriously in love with this book. It is so funny how excited I get to read it every morning. I have been reading in the last few chapters of Mormon and I just LOVE chapter 8. In the beginning of this chapter, Moroni, the son of Mormon, starts to explain how he is all alone and how he is going to hide up the records and that it is wisdom in God that he should hide them. He explains how the Book of Mormon shows that the eternal purposes of God shall always roll on until all of God's promises are fulfilled. Verses 14-16 are very powerful to me. I have heard from so many people here about the idea of "if God really did want the BOM here on this earth, why can't we see the actual plates?" These verses basically answer that question which is SO NEAT. Moroni explains that the records should not be for someone to get gain, but the purpose of the records is for man to get closer to God. At the end of the chapter, Moroni begins to talk about the many churches that will be built up to get gain and how the power of God will be denied. (TOTALLY see that here!!!) Verse 35 is pretty cool to me. Moroni says, "Behold, I speak unto you as if ye were present, and yet ye are not. But behold, Jesus Christ hath shown you unto me, and I know your doing." WHOA. Isn't that neat to think about? Moroni saw the days that we live in now and he knew that we would need the Book of Mormon in these last days!!!! I would encourage y'all to read Mormon chapter 9! It has TONS of really deep/amazing verses in it! God is good and His purposes shall always move onward!!!!!!!

I'm really sorry this email is all over the place, but I just love this gospel so much. The more I read and pray, the stronger my testimony grows. This gospel is so real. I was reading some missionary themed quotes on lds.org and one that I really like was by Uchtdorf. He says, "The Lord doesn't expect us to convert everyone. He simply expects us to OPEN OUR MOUTHS." Amen. I am trying every day to be more bold and open my mouth. Heavenly Father will always back us up if we will just try to open our mouth and share the truths that we are so blessed to have. We need to bring the message of HEAVEN to others on this earth.

I love being a missionary! God is good and is on our side! Through Jesus Christ, we can be lifted up. Even as he was lifted up by the cross, we can be.

Well, I'm finally going to the NASA space and rocket museum today with 4 other sisters!! Our investigator, Mally is taking us for free!!! WOOT WOOT!! I'M SO EXCITED!!!!!!!

I am so happy. There is just so much GOOD IN THIS WORLD!!!!! Everyday, I'm seriously BLOWN AWAY at how great of a family I have. I know I say that in every email, but it's so true. Never forget that.

MYKY,

Sister Platt