HELLO EVERYONE. How are y'all doing? I am so happy. I say that every week. It is so true. Okay. The weather here is OBNOXIOUS. It was REALLY HOT yesterday. Like 80 degrees, but still. Humidity is awful haha. I know. I know. I haven't even experienced the worst of it yet.
On the bright side, we bike around a lot and I have gotten lots of exercise and smell BBQ wherever I go. I LOVE THE SUMMER TIME IN ALABAMA. The stars are really pretty here as well. And everyone is on their porches. WOOT WOOT!!!! Don't worry, I wear my sunscreen EVERY DAY.
So Colleen didn't come to church yesterday because she wasn't feeling well :( (she has really bad health/depression). But we did see her earlier last week and had a great experience with her. Colleen really opened up to us and told us how she hasn't been baptized yet because she is still mad at God for taking her mom and sister away. She explained to us how she doesn't think death is fair especially when we don't do anything to deserve it. I started to share my testimony to her and shared my experience with dad and I can't remember everything I said, but when I was talking, I kept thinking, "These are NOT my words. This is definitely the spirit helping me." I invited her to pray that night and just throw all of her burdens on Heavenly Father and that she needed to just let go of all of her frustrations. She started to cry and said that she would. I love Colleen so much. I feel so bad for her. She lives alone with her cute dog named penny. Her family never visits her and they only live 30 minutes away. She calls us her girls and she is just the most giving person in the world. She always wants to braid my hair when we come over to teach her. She has never had kids of her own and she is mad at God for that as well, but she is grateful for us because she considers us her kids and knows that God sent us to her. SO PRECIOUS. I want y'all to meet her!!!!!!!
Wanna hear the COOLEST experience that I have had so far on the mission????? Well, one of the coolest??? IT HAPPENED THIS PAST WEEK.
Okay. So I have been hearing over and over again about the idea of finding people through the spirit and through inspiration. Wednesday morning, I said a prayer to Heavenly Father asking him to help me find the person I was about to describe to Him. I wanted to find someone who had Bleached blonde highlights with brown hair underneath. Her hair had to be semi-wet from just getting out of the shower. She had to be a little heavy set. She had to be wearing a baggy t-shirt with jeans. She also had to be in her 20's and have a super quirky personality. I really exercised my faith in Heavenly Father as I asked Him to help me find this person that I pictured in my mind. Sister Weekes and I went store contacting and I told Sister Weekes about who I was trying to look for. We both started talking to all these ladies in a clothing store that had highlights in their hair. We talked to maybe 5 of them that almost fit my description of who I was looking for, but none of them fit perfectly and none were interested anyway. Then, we go into the pet store. We head towards the back of the store and hear a voice behind us say, "Are y'all looking for snakes?" We turn our heads and my heart started to pound as I looked at the lady who just spoke to us. GUYS. IT WAS HER. LITERALLY THE EXACT PERSON I HAD BEEN PRAYING FOR. SHE WAS QUIRKY AND HAD HIGHLIGHTS AND HER HAIR WAS EVEN A LITTLE WET. SHE WORE A BAGGY T-SHIRT AND JEANS. It was honestly a little creepy how much she fit the person I was praying to find. UMMMMMM YEAH. HEAVENLY FATHER IS AMAZING. We started talking with her and she told us that her BEST FRIEND is Mormon and that she went to the temple open house with her. She called her husband over to meet us and her husband told us that he has a Book of Mormon and is super curious to know more about it!!!!!!!!!!!! We asked them if we could stop by to teach them and they said YES!!!! We are going to teach them this Wednesday!!!! Their names are Beth and Matt. I know that God is real and that He LISTENS and ANSWERS prayers because He cares about us and wants us to know that He is there. He cares about the little details in our lives and I know that if we exercise FAITH in Him and show our DESIRE to receive an answer, He will answer us EVERY TIME. Ah.
So we were out biking one day after all of our appointments fell through. We decided to contact this former investigator named Ken who used to be taught by the previous sisters and got anti-ed by his brother right before he was about to be baptized. We visited with him and he said that he was SO happy that we stopped by and that he has missed our visits and has felt lost ever since the missionaries stopped contacting him. We shared with him the scripture Helaman 5:12 and promised him that if he came to church and was baptized, he would be built upon the rock of Christ that it speaks about in the scriptures. He said he would come to church and we honestly didn't think he would because I guess he is super wishy washy when it comes to keeping commitments... WELL. HE CAME. YES. HE CAME TO CHURCH!!!!!!!!!! HE LOVED IT! Our ward is really great at fellowshipping those that we bring and I am so grateful for that. He has a baptismal date set for May 4th!!!!!!!!!!!!! Please pray for him and pray that he will be able to get baptized then!
Oh, wanna know something else great? There is a girl named Victoria who is a girlfriend of one of the members in our ward. She totally has come to church the past 4 weeks apparently and didn't really show an interest in learning more. WELL. Yesterday, I went up to her and introduced myself and then she was super nice and just talked and talked and she expressed how she thinks it's weird that we believe in 3 heavens. haha I asked her if we could stop by and give her the lessons to explain things better and she totally said YES. She is 16 years old and moved here from Venezuela 5 years ago with her mom and brother. She was going to a baptist church, but likes our church services more :)
We had an FHE night last night at the Nebeker's home. Love them so much. Brother Nebeker has done every church calling and is a very knowledgable guy. They fed us chicken salad sandwiches and we then had a "devotional" that he gave. HE IS SO AMAZING. He talked about how we need to stand up for what we believe in and how Heavenly Father expects us to because of the covenants we have made with Him. SO EVERYONE. STICK UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN.
We had about an hour before the FHE yesterday and decided to go find people to teach. It was really hot and I was sweating a lot and I just kept telling myself, "Just ONE MORE door/person!!!" We met this guy who was about my age and just really bitter about the world. We asked if we could pray with him and he said no and was about to close the door. I then asked him if he would like a picture of Jesus because it was Easter and he said, "no thanks". I felt prompted to just ask him if he believed in Jesus and he said, "sometimes" and shut the door in our face. Sister Weekes and I just felt sad for this kid and really felt like we needed to leave a Book of Mormon for him. We left a note with our number inside and invited him to read it. He called us later that night and started to swear at us (not fun.) We hung up the phone and then he texted us with this HUGE apology and told us that he appreciated the thought of us giving him the Book of Mormon and that he is actually friends of people in our ward. He may not have been ready to receive the gospel then, but I have a testimony that if you get a spiritual prompting, YOU NEED TO FOLLOW IT.
We taught our english class again this last week to the Kareni people which was great! I love them so much. They live in such humble circumstances and are the HAPPIEST people I know. They love it when we come over to help them learn English and they are learning FAST.
Well, that is basically it for this week!!!!!
Wanna know something cool? This past Friday, Saturday, and Sunday their were these two guys that carry this HUGE cross across town and walk 60 miles across the county. The cross says, "all for you". I thought it was pretty amazing. They were just on the side of the road. They were walking FAST. It was a good reminder that we should all pause and think about what Christ did for us. I love the South so much.
I talked to a drunk guy the other day. I didn't know he was drunk when we approached him, but I could definitely smell the alcohol on his breath. It was only 2 in the afternoon! He started to cry and tell us that he has been baptized 3 times. Once in the baptist church. Once in the pentecostal. Once in the Holiness church. I asked him if any of his baptisms felt complete and he said no. I told him that it would feel complete if he was baptized by someone holding the priesthood authority. He just started to cry and say that he can't be baptized because he is on the fence. Then he started to talk and talk and get closer and closer to sister weekes and I as we slowly backed away. We just gave him a mormon.org card and told him that it would change his life. Yikes.
I love this place and never want to leave.
I know that Heavenly Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are REAL. I really can't deny their existence. I feel them everyday. They are such a big part of this work!!!! I was reading in Doctrine and Covenants 138:24-26. It talks about how Christ was preaching to those in the spirit world and how people were singing praises unto His holy name. It talks about how crazy it is to think that the Savior was terribly rejected while He was on the earth and how only few listened to Him. I know that I am walking side by side with the Savior. I know that this church is the only way to be fully happy. I know it can bring peace in this world and in the world to come.
I just want to thank y'all for all y'alls support and prayers! LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!! I am so happy.
MYKY,
Sister Platt
P.S. thank you mere and gary for the beautiful package!!!!! Sister Weekes and I were super happy to get it!!!!!!! I have the best family in the world. AH.
P.S.S. Not sure when I will email next week. I have a zone wax n' wash car activity that we are doing this upcoming monday and also interviews with president in TUPELO!!!
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