Monday, The south is random: It was just a typical p-day. Lots of letters to be written and it randomly started to thunder and rain at the end of the day. SO SO RANDOM. I really will never understand the south and its weather patterns. One minute, it will be just completely sunny and warm, and the next, it will just start to rain and STILL be warm. #lovethehumidity
Tuesday, Sometimes you get lost and then you get sick: This day was AWFUL. Sister Crandall and I started off the day just being super positive and singing happy hymns and even ate some toast to prepare us to Thrive On Awkward Situations that day. ha, but it just all went downhill after that. We had no more miles on our car and Sister Crandall's bike still isn't fixed so we walked to our appointment that we had with Amber and were planning on contacting people along the way. We decided to take a short cut to avoid the busy traffic and avoid us from getting hit by the crazy drivers in Alabama. Long story short, we ended up being lost for over an hour and we knocked on TONS of doors to ask people for directions and NO ONE WOULD EVEN ANSWER. Finally, we went to a door that was surprisingly wide open. We ring the doorbell and the man just looked at us from his couch and then quickly turned away. Out of panic and frustration, Sister Crandall and I say to this man on the couch, "ALL WE WANT ARE SOME DIRECTIONS TO HATCH BLVD." He jumped off the couch and proceeded to give us some directions which weren't very helpful, but that's okay because we ended up finding a family of hippies that were outside doing yard work without shoes on. They were legit hippies and it made us happy to talk to them. One of the guys had SUPER long, curly hair and spoke to us very softly and slowly. "Heeeeyyyy! cannn weee heeelllppp yyoouuu girrrllls ouuut???" Anyway, the hippies ended up showing us the right direction and all was well. Many blisters and sweat dripping down our face later, We FINALLY got to Ambers house. AND GUESS WHAT??? she was NOT home. WAHOOOOOOOooooOO!!! #classic
We then just tried to contact some potentials and had no luck and then I got a really bad headache (I drank lots of water, don't worry). I don't really remember what else happened this day, but yeah. So sorry this day was so pointless to write about, but moral of the story is: I'm grateful for hippies.
Wednesday, Thrift Singing: Today was a little better. We went store contacting and talked to lots of people. We went to all of the local churches by us and asked the pastors if we could do service for them at their church! We are going to help with a Youth Bible camp this week at the First Baptist Church!!!! WAHOOO! We are SO STOKED. We also went to a thrift store and had a lesson with the lady who owns it (Charlene) and her husband as well (earl). They are both Baptists and they go on "mission trips" to sing at different churches. They told us that they would LOVE to record our voices and make a CD for us because they own a music studio and apparently helped record some famous singers! bahhahahah can you imagine me singing a solo? Yeah right. Good thing Sister Crandall sounds like an angel when she sings. They asked us to sing them a song and we sang them, "How Great Thou Art" and they loved it and said we blended well together. They must have not heard my cracking voice during the high notes so that's good news. We helped them organize the thrift store. We made a good dent in cleaning so it was great to be able to help her out.
We went over to teach Tom about tithing which he totally agreed with and loved! He then expressed his concern about how he still desires to smoke and how he got some cigarettes from his neighbor. Sister Crandall and I asked him if he would like a priesthood blessing of strength to quit. He responded, "I'll do whatever it takes. That would be great if they could do that for me." The elders showed up 20 minutes later and they were able to give him that blessing. It was a BEAUTIFUL experience. After the blessing, Tom was completely quiet and started to tear up a little. He looked over at Sister Crandall and I and said, "I just wanted to express my thanks to you ladies. Thank you bringing such a strong sense of peace into my life." Then, he turned to the elders and said, "You men are welcome in my home whenever. My house is your house. I hope that all of you will come back and visit me when you visit after your mission is over." So precious.
Thursday, "What did I do???": We went over to Tom's and read some more scriptures with him. He was in the Isaiah chapters of the Book of Mormon and he was basically teaching us what the scriptures were saying because I honestly can't understand those chapters for the life of me. There was one point in the scriptures that said, "and the curse of baldness came upon them." Tom gasped after he read that verse and put his hand on his head and said, "WHAT DID I DO???" Sister Crandall and I just busted up laughing!! Tom is totally bald! hahahah best thing ever. I love how Tom is able to just joke around with us and still be spiritual as well. At the end of the lesson, Tom said to us, "You know what I just realized? I had a REALLY strong craving to have cigarettes before you ladies got here, but ever since you've been here, I don't have the craving at all!!" MIRACLE. Ah, you guys. I can't even explain to you how that made me feel when he said those words. Heavenly Father is SO REAL. He is totally looking out for us and the people we are teaching. He is SO aware of us individually and I'm grateful for the spirit that helps us move closer to Him.
Friday, "Jezebel!": FRIDAY WAS A REALLY GOOD DAY. It all started off grandly when Tom called us in the morning and said, "Sisters!!!! My desire to smoke is COMPLETELY GONE!!! I don't even want one at all! Just thinking about a cigarette makes me sick." Sister Crandall and I proceeded to shriek from excitement on the phone and told him how proud we were of him. GAH. The priesthood is real y'all!!! We had another lesson with Tom and had Becky come with us to the lesson. We read more from the Book of Mormon because we really want him to get done with it. As we were about to leave, Tom TOTALLY ASKED BECKY ON A DATE. #dailydoseofbeckyandtom Sister Crandall and I were silent and poor Becky just felt super awkward and politely told him that she was on a diet and couldn't go out to eat, but she invited him to FHE instead. Oh boy.
After that, Becky took us by the Tennessee river and she went contacting with us to find new people to teach! Becky is one of a kind. I love her so much. We talked to every fishermen there was and talked to some girls sitting in a car as well. We had a really good religious talk with one of the fishermen who used to be taught by missionaries. He told us how he used to be on a lot of drugs and how he found God through singing. We were able to give him a lesson and use the pamphlet to do so, but he just talked A LOT so we got a return appointment with him for this upcoming week :) Becky was hilarious when contacting because she would just approach people and say, "Hi there! I'm Becky Caldwell and I'm a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. This is Sister Crandall and she is from Washington and this is Sister Platt. She is a 'So Cal' Girl. We are just trying to find people to teach about the restored gospel because its true. We go to the church in Russellville." Becky was very talkative and wouldn't let us even speak, but it somehow worked and people weren't scared of us SO YAY!!!! haha We had coordination meeting with Becky that night to discuss our investigators (which we do every Friday night). We changed the name of the meeting from Coordination to "turbination" meeting because we put on turbans (Becky's idea). Don't even ask me why because I don't know. All I know is that night was exactly what Sister Crandall and I needed after going through a rough week. We laughed and laughed and laughed. Becky even did a dance for us as she talked about "Jezebel", a lady from the Bible. IT WAS HILARIOUS. No worries, I got it ALL on video and will try to send it to y'all! Oh my goodness. I was crying from laughter. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father and for putting her into my life. I seriously don't know how I have lived for 19 years without Becky in my life. Anyway, it was great and I am so happy here!!!!
Saturday, "FINALLY! I was waiting for y'all to give me one!": This day was a really grand one as well!!! We tried to contact Amber again, but had no luck :( So we biked and tried to contact some potential investigators that we found in our Area Book. We talked to a lot of people and met this man named Mark who we are going to teach this upcoming week as well. He told us that he is open to religious lessons and doesn't go to church as much as he should. He was a super nice guy and we are going to help him paint his jeep! woot woot! On the way back from Marks home, we saw Amber's husband (Nick) outside on her porch smoking and talked with him! He told us that Amber would be home any minute. So we sat on the porch and talked with him for a bit and then Amber gloriously showed up and she was so excited to see us! We taught both of them the Restoration lesson and Amber was more into it than Nick. Nick has had a rough past and has been to jail several times and may or may not still be on drugs. He referred EVERYTHING that we talked about back to drugs. For example, we asked him what he feels when he feels the Holy Ghost and he said, "It's better than any drug I've ever taken. It's indescribable how the spirit makes you feel." There were many other references that he made which I will not discuss hahah. At the end of the lesson, I reached out a Book of Mormon from my bag and Ambers face just lit up as she said, "FINALLY! I was waiting for y'all to give me one! Is it my own copy? How fast do y'all wanna bet that I can read this? I bet I can do it in a week." We then asked her how she could do it in a week with all of her work and she said, "I will just have to read it at work! And when people ask me about it, I can just give them your card!" We then proceeded to give her 20 mormon.org pass along cards hahahah #shesbasicallyalreadyamember
We contacted this lady who was in the area book named Roxie who lived right by our house. Her husband was in his garage and so we asked him if Roxie had lived there. He said, "yes! But I don't think she is interested in y'all stopping by. But my daughters need to talk to y'all." He went inside his home and then yelled for his daughters to come outside and talk with us. Two teenage daughters came outside and awkwardly stood there quietly as we excitingly introduced ourselves. Roxie (the mom) came outside and said, "What do you want? I am anti-religious". It was quiet for a moment and Sister Crandall said, "Do you mind if we ask you why?" She then said, "I just think that religion is a bunch of balogne. (this is the G-rated version of what she actually said). SO SAD. But Roxie told us that she lets her daughters choose what church they want to go to and if they wanted to come with us, they could. One of the teenage daughters said she was too busy to talk about religion, but the other one (Also named Amber) shyly said, "I'm interested! Please come teach me." So we are going to teach her this week!!! WAHOO.
Sunday, rough BOM scriptures: Sunday was a super grand day as well! Tom overslept because he had been fishing all day Saturday and was tired so he didn't come :( So yesterday was the first time being here in this area that we didn't have an investigator at church, but all is well! On the bright side, I was able to talk to the members more and get to know them all better! We had an awesome testimony meeting and two ladies from Mexico came up and shared their testimony. Sister Lawson, a lady from the Dominican Republic, was able to translate for them. They had the most simple, beautiful testimonies and their was not a dry eye in that chapel! I am so grateful for them! Ah, this ward that I'm serving in is simply THE BEST. Sister Crandall and I taught a Relief Society lesson on member missionary work and it went really really well! We gave them each their own "call letter" that said they were called to serve in the Russellville ward for the rest of their life. So fun! I think they have a new fire in them to continue helping us in this work which is so great!
We went over to Tom's and read with him again. As soon as we walked in, he said, "I hope you don't mind that I invited my friend to church with me next sunday." Um. No. Tom. We don't mind!!!!!! Tom also had two other friends over and they didn't seem too interested in our message, but we read the Book of Mormon with them and Tom and wanna know something funny? Out of all the chapters to read with his friends being over, Tom was on 2 Nephi 28. Y'all should go and read that chapter. The whole chapter just sounds awful haha. It is just super bold and blunt. Especially verse 23.... I had to stop myself from giggling at some of the reading because it was just super bold. The spirit was still there, obviously because we were reading from the Book of Mormon, but anyway, at the end, Tom asked us if we had an extra BOM to give to his friend that lives in Florence. #hesbasicallyalreadyamemberaswell.
Becky called us and said that she had someone for us to teach and that it was her neighbor!!! We drove over there and had a lesson with her neighbor, Jennifer. Jennifer doesn't really understand the Bible and doesn't go to church. She is very open and had lots of questions!!! Becky talked and talked so it was hard to have a focused lesson, but she wants to meet with us again! At the end, we asked her, "If there is one question that you could ask God right now about the message we just shared with you, what would you ask?" She then shyly just kept saying, "I don't know." Becky then said, "well. what if you asked about how the priesthood was restored?" Thoughts came into my mind as Becky told her to do that. I just kept thinking, "She just needs to ask God if He is even there." I then said to Jennifer, "What if you just asked Heavenly Father if He is even aware of you?" Jennifer then started to tear up as she said, "Yeah. I can do that." She is such a sweet lady and I have good feelings about her and her progression :)
Seriously. This mission is just too grand. I love the power of this gospel! I love how it molds people into better disciples of Jesus Christ. I have been thinking a lot about my vision of what I want to become when this mission is all done. I was reminded of a quote given by C.S. Lewis which says, "The Lord says: Give me all. I don't want so much of your time, so much of your talents and money, and so much of your work: I want You. All of you. I have not come to torment or frustrate the natural man, but to kill it. No half-measures will do. I don't want to only prune a branch here and another there; rather, I want the whole tree out. Hand it all over to me, the whole outfit, all of your desires, all of your wants and wishes and dreams. Turn them all over to me, give yourself to me and I will make of you a new self in my image. Give me yourself and in exchange I will give you Myself. My will, shall become your will. My heart, shall become your heart."
May we all just have our will in accordance with Heavenly Father's so that He can MOLD us into what HE wants us to become. Give everything over to Him. Just do it. I think we would be amazed to see what He will make of us. Where do y'all see yourselves in 10 years? How about 20 years? 40? CREATE YOUR VISION. My vision is this: To be a CHAMPION for the Lord. To bring my kids to the temple. I want to live within walking distance of the temple so that I can go there as often as I can. I want to be married and have children who have a strong desire to serve a mission. I want to tell my children that I served a full-time mission and never gave up. I want to tell my children that I love them every day and SHOW THEM. I want to have weekly Family Home Evening and scripture study. What do y'all want?
I love y'all so much and I am so grateful for this gospel!!! :) God is good.
MYKY,
Sister Platt
SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH EVERYONE. Luke 6:21-23
Classic phrase that EVERY missionary says either before hanging up the phone or before leaving an appointment: "Is there anything that we can do for you?" #theyalwayssayno
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