Holy cow. Heavenly Father is pretty amazing y'all! So many weird things have happened this week and I know that God was definitely looking out for us! There are some crazy people in this area guys. Shall we begin?
Monday, "I'd let Him paint my nails.": This day was a typical p-day of trying to write letters as the time just ticked down quickly. (SIDENOTE: sorry family. I can't physically write y'all every week, but I am doing my best. Just know I love each and every one of y'all). At 6 pm, we went over to Sister Utley's home. Sister Utley is less-active and has been since she was a teenager. She trusts very few people and we are humbly in that trust circle of hers which is good! Sister Utley is this super fun person who is super girly and just hilarious. We read a verse from Alma 26 with her and invited her to read the rest of the chapter with her 7 year old son later that night. She expressed to us that she hasn't read from the Book of Mormon in a really long time and was excited to start!!! She also showed us the rooms in her house that she still needed to paint and we offered to help. She quickly declined and said, "NO WAY! You guys are NOT going to help me! I can do it!" I then said, "Oh Sister Utley.. What if Jesus was here and wanted to wash your feet; would you let Him do that for you?" Sister Utley paused as she thought about it and then said, "No. I wouldn't let him do that! But I would totally let Him paint my nails!" hahahahah oh Sister Utley. I just love her so much and I just want to help her draw closer to the Savior. She has a husband who no longer goes to church (He is Church of Christ) and she also has an older daughter who is my age who is NEVER at home. Do y'all have any suggestions on how to help her out? We asked her if we could re-teach her the lessons and she hasn't really confirmed that she wants that right now in her life. Anyway, after that, we had a lesson with Marissa, Eric, and Eric's cousin Becky who isn't a member. Marissa and Eric are less active and a super cute couple! They have a 1 year old and are expecting a baby boy this October! We decided to have a "Book of Mormon" experience with them. We told each of them that we were about to receive inspiration from the scriptures and asked them to think of a question that they needed an answer to and that it could be ANYTHING. We each then took a couple minutes to think of a question. After that, we read from a chapter in the Book of Mormon (We chose Mosiah 24) and started to read. By the end of the chapter, I looked up at Becky and her face was just SHINING (Not because of humidity) as she had a huge grin on her face and she said, "I got my answer!!! I got it!!! Wow! That was really cool. I like this book." We then asked Eric if he received his answer and he humbly said, "Yeah. I did. I really need to get myself back to church. For real this time." Those are some of my favorite words to hear. I love seeing the CHANGE in people and having them recognize the spirit that is missing in their lives. Gah. Marissa agreed with Eric and told us that she received her answer as well. IT WORKS EVERY TIME. To end the night off right, we called Bobbie Jo and asked her if her daughter Aviya wanted to catch lightning bugs with us. SO MUCH FUN! Aviya was so excited and was cutely waiting by her front door with a mason jar in hand. UGH. I TOTALLY STEPPED ON A FROG. NO NO NO NO NO. NOT OKAY.
Tuesday, "Laundry Day": Oh boy. This day was really really really good. We helped some people in our ward paint their house. I got to use the rolling pin and paint the ceiling. Little specks of paint kept falling in my eyes. We had a lesson with Tom afterwards and asked him the baptismal questions just to see where he was at in his progression. He answered every question right except he told us that he couldn't quite tell us yet if Joseph Smith was a prophet without reading through the whole Book of Mormon. He is only in Enos and he is just taking FOREVER. I was getting a little frustrated because he knows it's all true. He can literally explain everything that has happened in the Book of Mormon so far. And he always says to us, "God never said in the Bible that He would stop calling prophets so it does make sense that there would be one here today." YES. EXACTLY TOM. JUST BE BAPTIZED OKAY?? ahhhhhhhhh The frustration is REAL. But I know that God's timing is better than my own so I will trust in Him.
Anyway, after that, we went over to have a lesson with this girl named Nykole, who we met the week before. We knocked on her door... She answers the door with nothing, but a shirt and underwear on. She quickly sees us and then says, "Oh shoot!" and then slammed the door. Sister Crandall and I just kept giving each other the "fearful look" as we waited for her to get dressed. Then, a minute later, her "roommate" opens the door and says, "Sorry. It's laundry day! Nykole is trying to find some pants." We nicely just kept saying, "Oh no worries! It's totally fine!" haha seriously, every day is just a new adventure here in the South. We ended up teaching a lesson to Nykole and 3 of her friends that worked with her at Waffle House!!!!!!!!!!! One of the girls just snickered throughout the whole lesson and just looked at us like we were dumb, but one of them (Shawn) was SUPER interested and understood everything really really well. We tried to see them again the next day, but no one would answer and they were CLEARLY home. #classic Planting seeds, right? RIGHT.
After that, we had a lesson with Amber, the lady we met at the gas station. She was so excited for us to read with her from the Book of Mormon and she just kept saying, "I NEED encouragement right now!" We read 3 Nephi 11 with her about when Christ comes to the America's and SHE LOVED IT. We talked about how Christ visited everyone one by one and how He knows her individually. She just loved it and kept skimming through the whole Book of Mormon. She flipped to the book of Moroni and said, "Who is this Macaroni guy?" WE STARTED TO LAUGH SO HARD. Seriously, my humor has changed so much. I just laugh at the lamest things and just think that everything is funny. Oh Amber. She is hilarious and I just adore her so much. She told us that she found a skirt to wear to church! We set a baptismal date with her for June 29th and asked her to pray about it. She prayed right in front of us and it was such a simple prayer and yet, so powerful. I love hearing investigators pray!!!! As we were about to leave, Amber said, "Hold on! I have something to give you and I feel like God told me to give it to you." She then handed me a piece of paper with a "prayer" that she wrote to God. It was simply beautiful and as I read through it, I just kept thinking, "Yup. The gospel can solve everything that she is struggling with right now." ISN'T THE GOSPEL JUST SO PERFECT?
Wednesday, "War of the skeeters": We had a team up with our precious member/angel Sister Causey. I love that woman. We saw an investigator named Nikki with her and also visited some less actives. Sister Causey noticed Sister Crandall and I scratching our legs because of all the bug bites on us and insisted that we went to wal-mart with her to get some spray. She bought us the following: bug repellant, itch creme, itch spray, bug spray to kill the bugs, and roach spray. It was hilarious. She just kept saying, "We have to beat these skeeters up! They can't just bite you like that!" So precious. We went to the OPENING EVENT of the grocery store called "Aldi" which is the best store in the world. It has some cheap cheap cheap food. It's kind of like a "winco". Anyway, we decided to go contact people there because there was a large crowd there. We ended up meeting a man from a different ward and he asked us to come meet this man out by the front of the store who just moved to Sheffield and is less active. We hurried over to meet this man and his name is Samuel. He started to cry as he expressed his desire to come back to church and get rid of the life he was living. He is on a lot of drugs and just needs serious help. It's amazing how God places people in our path who are in need. Gah. It was a very amazing experience for me. We have been trying to see Samuel, but he is NEVER home. MAH. We will keep trying!
Thursday, "Let there be lightning": Okay. The south is pretty crazy. This day was not very good because of the dumb thunder and lightning. The rain was CRAZY as well. We were trying to contact some potentials when the storm randomly started. It was sunny all day until about 4 pm. A man on the street yelled at us and said, "Where is your car??? Get in it right now and go home!!!!!" We looked up at the sky as a
dark cloud formed above us. The wind was nuts! Tree branches were falling all around us as we were driving and I skillfully moved around all of it; thank goodness. We had an appointment with Amber and decided to quickly stop by. She was in the gas station and we stayed in there for a while until the storm calmed down a little bit. We then went back home for dinner and listened to the weather radio. At this point, it was just raining and wasn't as bad so we went store contacting/less active hunting for the rest of the night. That was about it. Good times.
Friday, "The Yarn Rod": We had zone training in Tupelo this day! woot woot! We did a neat activity where we were blindfolded using ties and we held to this piece of yarn and walked. As I walked and held onto the yarn, I heard voices from different people saying both positive and negative things. At the very end of the yarn, was a tree which had fruit snacks attached to it. hahah it was such a cute activity and it hit home for me of how much the people NEED to taste of the fruit of this gospel as explained in 1 Nephi. SO GOOD. It rained the whole time driving home which wasn't pleasant because I had to drive. WAHOO.
Saturday, "Crazy. Crazy. And more crazy": Okay. This day was CRAZY. We taught our neighbor the Restoration which was awesome! She told us that she has always talked with the other Sister Missionaries in the past, but none of them have actually taught her. She says she is a spiritual person, but is a realist as well. She has two cute little boys who are one and two. Her husband always helps us by mowing our lawn whenever we need it. They are great! She thought it was all very interesting and said we could come back whenever! After that, we went with Becky to contact people at the river because it was a really nice day outside and people were there. We taught some lessons to people who ended up not wanting another visit, BUT ALL IS WELL. It started to get REALLY HOT and HUMID so Becky took us to Wal-mart to contact there. We ended up talking to this lady at the food stand for a good 20 minutes about our church. She is a member of the Church of Christ and was surprisingly really nice to us! Anyway, after that, Becky dropped us off back home and we started to head over to a potential investigators' home. As we walked across the street, a guy in his car rolled down his window and said in a slurred tone of voice, "What's yo name?" My nerves started to kick in as we didn't tell him our names and just told him that we were missionaries. Sister Crandall didn't say a word and just started to walk away. I followed after her. Then the guy drove down the street and we continued on our way. Sister Crandall then proceeded to tell me that the man was ONLY wearing a white tank top with NOTHING else on. I was shocked. I had no idea and was just staring at his face while he was talking. SUPER CREEPY. We continued walking and saw the same guy in his car flip around and head towards us AGAIN. We saw a cute old lady carrying in her groceries and ran over to her. It was the fastest I have ever run. We just started to ask her how her day was and offered to help. The old lady had no clue what was going on. Then, the guy that was in the car started to lightly honk his horn at us and stayed there for a little. We no longer made any eye contact with him and by the time we were done talking with the old lady, the guy in the car was parked further down the street. THANKFULLY, a member of the church (Becky's mom) lived across the street from where we were at and we ran over there and asked her to walk us to our car. The guy was completely gone at that point. Goodness gracious.
I didn't want to scare y'all by this story and I debated whether or not to even share it, but I just wanted to share it with y'all so that y'all know that God is real and that He placed that old lady in our path so that we could start talking to her. HE IS SO AWARE OF US.
Anyway, after that awful experience, Sister Crandall and I were feeling a little down and just felt overwhelmed and scared out of our minds. We said a prayer and decided to go tract in a completely different neighborhood. We knocked on this one door that was decked out in Auburn decorations. An old man answered the door and politely told us that he went to the First Baptist Church. He then started to ask us the typical questions that everyone asks us (Where are you from? How long have you been here? Do you like Alabama?). Then, out of no where, the sirens went off and we were under a Tornado warning. The wind started to build up and the man's wife came over to us and said, "GET IN OUR HOUSE RIGHT NOW! COME IN COME IN. THERE IS A TORNADO." AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. We went inside as they started to frantically watch the news. They told us that if anything were to happen, we came to the right place because their house is the only one in the neighborhood with a basement. Tender Mercy? yes. We ended up sharing some scriptures with us and we were able to enjoy a pleasing conversation with them. Oh. Guess what their cat's name is??? JEZEBEL. They were so precious!!!! Everyone that I have met that has gone to the First Baptist church have been AWESOME. We then drove home and stayed there for the rest of the night because our Zone Leaders told us that we had to. It was a pretty rough storm. We couldn't fall asleep because of the loud thunder that literally shook our dainty little house. The lighting was crazy and I seriously think one struck down the street from us. Sister Crandall and I were shaking because it was so scary. UGH. All is well though. Oh. And we also found a HUGE cockroach in our kitchen and started screaming. No worries. Sister Crandall is a stud and totally killed it with the roach spray that Sister Causey got us. #thankyousistercausey I can't even express to y'all how grateful I am that I have only one summer here.
Sunday, "OoOdles of NoOdles": Ugh. None of our investigators came to church yesterday :( Tom called and told us that he promised to help his friend out who lived in Florence... and Amber never returned our calls or texts. We have a feeling that she may have gotten anti-ed at work and I am going to be SO SAD if that is the case. Anyway, it was still a super good sunday! We had a lesson with our Pentecostal neighbor Amber and taught a lesson with her. She is going to her pentecostal girls camp that she is super excited about this week. We aren't too sure about her. She most likely isn't elect; at least not now. Sister Adams invited us over for dinner and we enjoyed spaghetti and cornbread with her. She is so cute and just talked and talked and talked and didn't finish her dinner because she was talking so much. Typical south, I tell ya. They can never finish eating!!!! We then went over to the YSA Family home evening and it was Sister Nebeker's bday!!! Guess what we had??? Spaghetti!!! woot woot! It was pretty funny. We obviously didn't tell her that we just ate, but ate some more! Sister Crandall was able to practice singing for sacrament meeting next Sunday with Sister Nebeker. They will be singing/playing "Savior, Redeemer of My Soul" aka my favorite hymn in the world. Yes. I will probably start crying especially because it will be on Father's day.
Becky lost 5 pounds this past week! Becky started to play the song that goes, "I went down to the river to pray. I went down to the river to pray. C'mon sisters. Let's go down. Let's go down. C'mon down." as she drove down to the river and COULD NOT STOP LAUGHING. She thought she was hilarious. #dailydoseofbecky
I am so grateful for this gospel. I am truly trying my best out here and we are working hard. I really don't like to waste time because I know that I am on the Lord's errand. I know that I am here to help people come unto Christ and I am improving each and every day. The south is such a beautiful place and I'm obsessed with everything it has to offer. From the crazy storms to the crazy people, I am just so happy at the end of the day!
May we all strive to focus on the tender mercies of the Lord. There are so many around us. Do we recognize them? Alma 26:37... "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."
I have grown such a STRONG LOVE for the Book of Mormon. I don't know how I went a day without reading from it before my mission. It is truly an amazing book that can apply to everyone. Share it with people you see! JUST DO IT. We are on this earth at this special time to share this gift with others :)
Love y'all so much!!!!!! God is so good! TRUST IN HIM.
MYKY, Sister Platt
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