Hello friends and family!!!!!
I really love this work a little TOO MUCH. I have realized a lot of things about myself this past week and I'm SO GRATEFUL to be serving here in West Point!!!! It's a hard area, but I am learning what I need to learn and I'm so grateful for that.
---Ah, can y'all believe that I am 20?!!!? It's so crazy!!!
My birthday was really good! I woke up to decorations all over the house made by Sister Van Komen. She made me a grilled PB&J sandwich for lunch and then made me rice and chicken for dinner and also made a FUNFETTI cake for me with oreo icecream. It was perfect and I felt very spoiled!!!!! I also got a birthday card from SISTER LUTZ who is in Clanton. I have no idea how she knew or remembered it was my birthday, but it made my whole day!!! I love her so much and she will always have a place in my heart!!!!! Sister Stark from my last area wrote me a card as well and I just got an email from Becky today that made me smile :) I LOVE being a missionary and meeting these wonderful people that have changed my life for good.
IT RAINED ALL DAY ON MY BIRTHDAY. It was so weird because I can't remember ever having a birthday where it rained. We did the normal missionary work and it was great!!!!
-----We had the chance to see Tammy this week THREE TIMES which never happens because she is usually super busy with work. We had a super good lesson with her on Monday that ended shortly because someone from her work called her during the lesson and started swearing at her for whatever reason. It was really sad. She just cried and cried and thankfully, our branch President was there to give her a blessing of comfort. I'm so grateful for the Priesthood!!!! I don't know what I would do without it in my life! The next day, we went over to her home again and taught her and Jonathan about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Jonathan is a typical 9 year old and has trouble focusing because he is beating his brother up half of the time. Tammy always looks over at Jonathan during the lesson and says, "JONATHAN!!! You are going to be baptized with me soon and you better start acting like you want to follow Jesus! SIT UP." hahah it's hilarious. I love both of them so much!!!! We were also able to teach them about the word of wisdom on Saturday and they understood it really well. Tammy smokes and told us that she wants our help to quit!!!! WOOT WOOT. They are no longer getting baptized on the 26th of this month because Tammy hasn't been able to get to church because of work, but she is trying to find a new job that will be more suitable for her to start coming!!!!! ALL IS WELL. I know that they will get baptized in the LORD'S time and way. This work really isn't about us missionaries at all. It's about the people and the progress that they are making toward coming closer to Jesus Christ.
--------Wednesday was the best day of the week!!!!! Everything fell into place perfectly and we were able to teach 5 lessons which never usually happens here. We met this super cute 16 year old girl named Antrianna and she let us right into her home. She opened up to us a lot about how she is having a hard time of feeling God's love in her life and how she does so much for her family, but they never do anything in return for her. It was really sad. With tears in her eyes, she looked at us and said, "I just want someone to tell me that they love me." Sister VK and I told her how much we loved her and how much we felt Heavenly Father's love for her. The spirit was so strong in that room and I will never forget it. I truly did feel a PERFECT love for this sweet girl who I only knew for 30 minutes. I am so grateful that this mission has taught me about how to really love someone and how to look at people through the eyes of God. We didn't teach her anything, BUT Heavenly Father's love for her and that is all she needed at that time. Sometimes, as a missionary, you feel like you have to just spit out information to people, but as I've grown on my mission, I have realized the importance of just listening and loving the people. We really do need to teach according to THEIR needs and not our own. It was so funny because right as we were about to leave, we asked her for her # and then she asked us for ours. After putting our number into her phone, she looked at us with a huge smile on her face and said, "I'm going to save your number under 'besties' because y'all are my new best friends." yup. Precious.
After that lesson, we went tracting and found a lady named "nette" (her real name is Rochwanette). Right as Nette opened the door, she let us right in without us even saying anything. We said a prayer with her and her cute 5 year old and ended up teaching her the first lesson! She loved it and asked us to come back! We ended up settting an appointment with her for 2 days later, but she wasn't there :( We are not giving up on her just yet!!!!
We also met this lady named Sharon who is absolutely hilarious!!!! She has two kids and we were able to teach them as well. She understood the lesson pretty well and we have a return appointment with her for tomorrow!!!!
----There is a super cute girl named Kesha who is 20 who we left a prayer with one day. We felt inspired to go back and visit her. We knocked on the door and once she opened the door, her face was BEAMING. She told us how she had been waiting for us to come back and that she ended up having someone offer her a job the day after we said the prayer with her. She told us, "I KNOW that your prayer worked and that God listened and answered!!! Thank you so much for praying for me! Y'all can go home from your missions knowing that you AT LEAST helped me!" Then, she kept thanking us and thanking us. Ah, I got chills when she was going on and on about how we were able to help her. This mission is the best!!!! GAH! She isn't too interested in our message, but I did notice that she was wearing a basketball shirt and I asked her if she would like to play with me at the church someday. We are hopefully going to play this upcoming week :) !!!!!
-----Friday was possibly THE WORST day on my mission. No joke. THE WORST. It rained ALL DAY LONG AND DIDN'T STOP. We walked around everywhere and no one was answering their doors. Every appointment that we had set got cancelled and no one was really at any stores. We had no lessons and the only person who let us in was this Jehovah Witness lady who welcomed us in her home by saying, "Did y'all know that Jesus ISN'T Jehovah? It's actually God. And did you also know........" She went ON AND ON about how Jesus was actually hung on a tree and not a cross and how we are not going to be saved during the second coming and she wouldn't stop!!!! She showed all of these random scriptures to support herself and I honestly just wanted to scream! It was awful. I just smiled throughout the whole thing and Sister VK and I just replied by saying, "uh huh. yeah. okay. yeah. sure." But guess what??? hehehehheeh as we left, I sneakily put a restoration pamphlet on her desk. Is that bad? oops. She told us that we could come back whenever we wanted. I have really been trying to pray for forgiveness of how I felt during that whole time spent with her.
The most exciting part about Friday? We had 20 minutes left before we had to go inside for the night. We both felt like we needed to go to the gas station. We show up and once we got out of the car, this man walked out of the gas station holding a pack of beer in his hands. He then exclaimed, "WHERE IS MY TRUCK???" Um. Yeah. Someone totally stole his truck and drove away just in that small amount of time of him being in the gas station!!! Isn't that awful?
Sister VK and I just waited around the gas station because we were being super nosey and wanted to know what happened. We sneakily listened to his whole conversation with him and the cops. Apparently he left his car running because he was only going to be in the gas station for a little bit. Don't worry... The cops found this man's truck in less than 20 minutes! You wanna know how? Because the cops already had an idea of who the victim was because they have a list of people that they keep who are criminals. OH West Point...
I think Heavenly Father wanted us to experience at least SOMETHING exciting that day. He definitely has a sense of humor!!!!
-----We taught Sister Edwards niece, Kenya about the Plan of Salvation because she has been having lots of questions about it! Kenya is one of my favorite people in this town. She is 14 years old and is absolutely HILARIOUS. It's especially funny when she gets all excited and talks super fast because we can't understand a word she says. After explaining the three degrees of glory, we asked her where she would want to go. She replied saying, "OH! I LOVE the moon! Moons are my favorite and they are just so pretty! The sun is way too bright for me and blinds ma eyes!" We were laughing so hard. It was definitely a "you just had to be there" moment. Don't worry y'all. She want's to go to the Celestial kingdom :) She asked us for a Book of Mormon after the lesson and she is super excited to read it! woot woot!
---------Ready for a sketchy story? I thought so. We had an appointment with this lady named Lakisha. We knock on her door. A random man (we assume her BF) answered the door with blood shot eyes and says, "OH! I thought y'all were the cops! I'm glad you're not!!!!!" We then awkwardly and fakely laugh and ask him if Lakisha was home. He then yells for her and says, "Kisha!!! Miley Cyrus and Katy Parry are at the door!!!!!" Sister VK and I just look at each other and whisper, "Let's leave". We started to walk away and Lakisha then came outside and we explained to her that we actually couldn't meet with her and that we would have to see her another time. (We aren't really going back). She then responded, "Okay. Y'all don't forget about me ya hear?" Her eyes were super red as well. SO SAD. DRUGS ARE BAD. ONE DAY WE WILL FIND SOMEONE WHO IS ELECT WHO DOESN'T DO DRUGS. I PROMISE. We really do need A LOT of prayers for this area. It's so sad.
----We helped clean Sara's (A recent convert who just moved inside our area) home that she moved in! It's a super cute southern home and I'm obsessed with it. We bleached both bathrooms and made them look super duper good!!!!!! Sara invited her friends over to help as well and they were all so hilarious together. They bought us Nerd flavored slushies from SONIC and insisted that we would try it. It was soooooo good!!!!!! Anyway, moral of this story, Sister VK and I are PRO at cleaning bathrooms. I love service projects so so so so so so much!!!
-----------We met with a less active lady named Sister Rodriguez and her son Greg. We went over to their house and they were outside and yelled at us to meet them at McDonald's.
We had an awesome conversation with them and they are both hilarious!!!!! Greg looks like he could be off of Duck Dynasty and it makes me super happy. He told us that we were his new friends and that we could call him "Cheeseburger" because that is what his other friends call him. hahaha it was so grand. We talked to them about faith and shared the scripture in the bible that talks about the mustard seed. They both sighed as they said, "yeah. We need to get back to church." I then said, "yes. We would LOVE to see you there and I know everyone else would as well!!!" Sister Rodriguez then came up with a million reasons of why she can't go anymore. Gah. I care about less actives so much. I LOVE visiting with them. It's so interesting to me to see WHY they are no longer coming. We will keep working with them and serving them the best we can and one day they WILL come back!!!!!
You know you are in West Point when...
-You kick bottle caps instead of rocks while you are walking.
-Random people honk at you because they have seen you 4,565,434,677 times and you don't even know them at all.
-Everyone in town goes to a funeral.
That is about it for this week! I have learned the importance of just keeping the faith and TRUSTING in the Lord each and every day. I love the verse in 1 Nephi 7:12. It is so simple, but makes me so happy!!!! LET US BE FAITHFUL TO HIM. TRUST THAT PEOPLE CAN AND WILL CHANGE. I also love the scripture in 2 Nephi 4:29; especially the last sentence that says, "Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions." Let us each not slacken our strength because of the bad days that happen. STAY STRONG. "Be still and know that I am God."
Have a great next week and KNOW that the Lord is mindful of you. He loves us and gives us challenges so that we can grow!!!!!!
MYKY,
Sister Platt :
No comments:
Post a Comment