Sweet Home Alabama: Learning Patience

WOWWEEEE a lot of things happened this week and it was a roller coaster for sure!!!! I am going to start off with a poem that I have heard recently and LOVE.

"Master, where shall I work today? My love flowed warm and free. He pointed out a tiny spot and said, tend that for me. I answered quickly, oh no, not there. Not any one could see; no matter how well my work was done; not that little spot for me. When He spoke, He was not stern, but He answered me tenderly, little one, search that heart of thine. Are you working for them or for me? Nazareth was just a little place and so was Galilee."

I KNOW that I am supposed to be serving here and I know that it doesn't matter where you serve, but HOW you serve.

Okay, let's start at the very beginning. A very good place to start...

Monday morning during companionship study---We decided to pray for patience and humility as a trio. BAD IDEA.

Monday night--- The triple threat (we) had 20 extra minutes of our night left. We decided to randomly go into Petco and try to contact people there. As soon as we walked in, the roaring of the floor cleaner machine was making it hard to hear. They were about to close in 10 minutes and we felt like the idea of going in there was hopeless. We started to walk out and we saw one of the workers near the door on our way out. We started to talk with her as she asked us if we needed anything. We just said, "well. we are missionaries so we can't really own any animals at this time, but we thought we'd come in here to check out the awesome fish because we really miss being at home with pets." (yeah. sometimes we make stories up that are semi true so that they start asking us questions about missionary work hahha) Anyway, she talked to us a little and we gave her our card. The encounter with her didn't seem significant at all to me and I didn't even think about it the rest of the week.
THEN, 3 days later, we get a call from the elders from Athens, AL and they tell us that they have an AWESOME REFERRAL for us!!!! They give us this ladies name and number and find out that it was the lady we met at Petco (Her name is Jade)!!!!!!! CRAZY RIGHT?????? The elders from Athens met with her for the first lesson because a lady in their ward is best friends with Jade!! Anyway, we went over to Jade's home the next day and she kept telling us how she wants to be Mormon and that she thinks that God gave her a sign when she saw us at Petco. Apparently Jade was having a really bad day that day and we made it better for her by just having a conversation with her. GOD WORKS IN MYSTERIOUS WAYS. Anyway, back to the appointment we had with Jade: Her husband (Matt) was in the other room and didn't come out. We asked her if he would like to join us, but she told us that Matt had received a lot of bad information about the church from his mom and that he was scared to meet with us. We went through the Book of Mormon with her and she LOVED it. She kept telling us that she wants to be Mormon and how every Mormon she has met has been super nice!!!

2 days later, we had another lesson with her and MATT CAME AND JOINED IN on the lesson!!!! We cleared up A LOT of the questions he had and he loosened up a lot and really opened up to us. Matt is a really sweet and shy guy and told us that he usually felt uncomfortable talking to people, but he told us that he loves talking to us and that we were really nice. haha HE EVEN SAID THE CLOSING PRAYER. He was super scared/cautious to do it at first, but we gave him encouragement and he said an awesome prayer! He even brought his calender out and set the next day that we could see them :) BEST. THING. EVER. Heavenly Father is so good to us!!!!!

Okay. Now for the part about praying for patience....

Narcissus, Camala, and the Mitchell's ALL DROPPED us because some were anti-ed and some talked to their pastors the following Sunday and got chastened. UGH. Why? Why? Why? My first reaction to all of this was, "why did we pray for patience???" but then, I realized that God is preparing those ELECT people that we are going to find this week!! He just didn't want us to focus on those that are not ready for the gospel!!! I expect this next week to be FULL of miracles :) I CAN'T WAIT!!!

I went on exchanges this past week with Sister Kudlacek (sister training leader). We went around Huntsville. Huntsville=total opposite of cute little Madison. We went to contact this man Barry who is a former investigator. He was literally insane. He opened the door as he held a huge bag of coffee mix in his hand. The first thing he said to us was, "I can't get baptized into your church because I can't stop drinking tea and coffee." He said it in a really "frustrated" tone of voice. As we continued to talk to him, we just started to see how crazy he really was. He told us that he wants to be baptized and then give up coffee and tea. He kept arguing and saying that he doesn't understand why it matters so much. I just answered saying, "God's order". He then proceeded to quote a random scripture from the Bible that didn't even make sense and then started to cry and talk to himself. He then said, "I know something about this world and about God that no one else knows about and I can't tell you or anyone else because it would make you really sad." We kept telling him that he didn't have to tell us and then he kept mentioning it over AND over again!!!! He just kept talking and talking and talking. Yikes. It was really rough. Never a dull moment. Especially in Huntsville.

Another thing that happened on exchanges was that we met these really sweet ladies sitting outside on their porch. We asked them if we could share a quick message with them and they said yes!!! One of the ladies, Dominique, told us about how she has been scared to go to church the past 4 years because the Pastors always would flirt with her or be mean to her. The other lady, Danielle, wasn't as interested and would randomly start yelling at her kids during the lesson. We went through the whole restoration pamphlet with them and by the end, we had Dominique pray and then asked if we could have 30 seconds of silence after the prayer. During the silence, I kept praying "Please let them know this is true. Please." Then, I looked at Dominique's face as tears started to flow from her face. She knew it was true and she wants to be baptized!!! She and Danielle told us that they wanted to come to church!!!! woot woot!! miracles happen :) Dominique also told us that she was talking to her mom right before she showed up about going back to church. She also told us how usually missionaries she saw would pass her on the street and she was so glad that we actually took the time to talk with her. IT COMES TO SHOW THAT TALKING WITH EVERYONE IS KEY TO MISSIONARY WORK.

Yesterday, was AN AWFUL MORNING. We had 2 and a half hours before church started and we decided to go tract because we can't go store hopping on Sunday. (obviously). The first door we knocked on was this huge man who didn't have a shirt on and his name was Barry. He had half of a belly button and the only reason I know that is because my eyes reached his stomach part of his body. Anyway, he talked and talked and talked to us for a good half hour. Ranging from the topics of his chest hair to the government to his yoda figure in the background. He then started to tell us that he used to be a member of the church and that he now doesn't believe in God because too many people in his family are messed up and that a loving God wouldn't let this happen to his children. He went on and on and my heart just started to break more and more for this poor man standing right in front of me. He wouldn't even let us speak and before we left, we all just blurted out a simple testimony of how we know God lives and that Jesus is the Christ. After he shut the door, I started to cry as I thought about that man and how sad his life must be. I JUST WANT HIM TO COME BACK TO THE FOLD.

Then, on our way to church, this train was blocking the way and there was a long line of cars that ended up waiting for a good 30 minutes because the train had issues. We decided to get out of our cars and talk to the people in the cars behind and in front of us. We gave them each mormon.org/Jesus cards and most were friendly which made the day better!!!!

We had another lesson with Michelle and she accepted a baptismal date for April 12 and she even wanted to get baptized earlier, but she hasn't come to church yet :/ She will hopefully get custody of her son at the beginning of April and we offered to help her decorate her son's room to look presentable to the people who will be checking to see if her house is livable for her son to come back!!! We will help her this Tuesday and I'm so excited :) I love Michelle so much! She just needs to find time out of her busy school/work schedule to come to church and I know that she can!!!!

Well, in other news, it is officially bug season here and I currently have 3 new bug bites on my legs. WAHOO. YEAH. ALABAMA. BUGS. YEAH.

Okay, now is the time to say some "you know you're a missionary when" quotes that I have made up....

You know you're a missionary when:

---When you push kids off of you because you follow the white handbook. (hardest rule ever)

----When you have dog/cat hair ALL over your clothes at the end of the day.

-----When you tell everyone that their dog is cute even if it's hideous just so you can talk with them.

------When you are on your bike at a stoplight and you see a lady at the intersection taking photos of you with her i-phone as she snickers... and then you awkwardly wave at her.

I love missionary work. I'm so grateful for this gospel and the chance that I have to share it with those here in this amazing part of the country. God has a perfect plan for all of His imperfect people and I know that to be true. We need to do all that is in our power every day and then let God take care of the rest. (D&C 123:17)

I am so happy!!!! Going to the temple this Thursday and we are teaching seminary tomorrow morning!! WOOT WOOT.

MYKY,

Sister Platt