Ah. I seriously just can't express how HAPPY I AM. ALL THE TIME. This gospel is so true and Heavenly Father is real and SO aware of us!!!!!! I know I say that every week, but it's true and I want the whole world to know it!!! I am so grateful for prayer and for the spirit that is felt while we go about our day doing this wonderful work of Salvation.
It was definitely SCORCHING hot this week and very humid. There is simply no point to even wear make up because it just melts off of your face!!!! BLAH.
I will just bullet point some neat experiences that happened this week:
-We were walking and it was very hot outside. We decided to take a path that we have never gone before and see if we could contact people along the way to our appointment. We say hi to this girl sitting in her car with the car door open. She quickly glanced up and gave us a fake smile as she waved to us. I just thought to myself, "You need to go talk to that girl!" Sister Van Komen was thinking the same thing and we took no thought of "what if it will be awkward?" or "what if she doesn't like us?" We literally made a super sharp turn as we walked straight toward her and asked her if we could say a prayer. This lady (Heather) just started to sob and sob. With tears in her eyes, she said, "how did you know? I just got out of my doctors appointment like 2 minutes ago and I was praying for strength and y'all just showed up." Yup. It was a really neat experience and tender mercy. We were able to say a prayer with her and bore testimony to her that God was indeed aware of her situation. She is unfortunately living out of the state, but we were able to give her a mormon.org card! Sister VK and I just walked away smiling. Chills just kept rolling down my back and we both knew in that instant that we were instruments in the Hands of our LOVING Heavenly Father who is AWARE of each of us.
-We went tracting after running into Heather, we decided to go tracting. We saw this one car parked infront of a house that had a bumper sticker on it that said, "Do you follow Jesus this close?" HAHHAHA it was great. We decided to go to that house and oh my. It was the best decision we have made. A sassy and hilarious lady named Mary opened the door and let us right in. She talked and talked about how much she loves Jesus and kept telling us that she doesn't want to "go to the lake" (referring to hell). She started to cry as she told us that Jesus saves all of us. She went on and on and it was just a CLASSIC conversation of how you would picture a lady talking in a movie or something. She didn't want us to go and invited us over for dinner another day. Guess what day we decided to have dinner with her? Yup. My birthday. STOKED. We asked her if we could take a picture with her and she said, "OoooOOHh Ohhhhh! I gotta find ma teef." After looking for her teeth for a good 2 minutes, she looked down her shirt and said, "Ohhhhh THEY BE IN MY BOSSOM." hahahhahahahaha it was grand. We were laughing so hard. I just love the people here so much and I am so grateful that Heavenly Father placed me here in the South. I am entertained every day by the hilarious people here.
-We met with Tammy and Jonathan and had a REALLY good lesson with them on the Plan of Salvation and set a baptismal date for the both of them for July 26th!!!! They both accepted! Tammy is super excited about everything that we are teaching her and soaks it all up like a sponge. She opened up to us a lot more and asked really good questions! Can I just tell y'all how much I LOVE teaching with Sister Van Komen? We work REALLY well together. When I pause, she takes over. When she pauses, I take over. It's the most beautiful thing!!!! We are able to have the spirit more in our lessons because of it and I'm so grateful. Tammy wasn't able to come to church yesterday because she told us that she felt very angry about her work and super stressed (she works at McDonald's). She told us that she didn't want to "blow up" on anyone or just be mad the whole time and not be able to feel the spirit. She really does have a strong desire to come though. We are meeting with her and Jonathan again and we are going with our Branch President (Pres. Honsinger) to teach her!!! SO EXCITED.
-The Sisters serving in Starkville gave us a referral to see this man named Darrell. His trailer was basically in the middle of nowhere, but it was worth the drive!!!! Darrell has been recently divorced and has a 1 year old that he isn't able to see that often. He works for pools and saw the sisters in Starkville and basically, Darrell asked if the sisters would teach him. HE IS GOLDEN. We taught him lesson one and he loved it all and said it all made sense. He told us that he has been searching for a church home, but none have felt right because they all seem confused about doctrine. BINGO. He loved the idea of having Christ's church back on the earth. After we talked with him about the Book of Mormon, we asked him if he had any questions and he said, "Yes. I have just one. Where can I get that Book?" As we pulled one out of our backpack, his eyes just lit up and he had a huge smile on his face! He was STOKED. We invited him to be baptized and he said YES. He told us that he would be gone for work the next few weeks because July is crazy busy when it comes to cleaning pools. We are going to learn a lot of patience!!!!!!! Sister VK and I were talking about the lesson afterwards and had a realization: You can tell if a person is Elect if they ask for a Book of Mormon after you talk to them about it. Sometimes, we feel like we are basically talking to a wall with some of the lessons we teach because people don't understand/see the importance of the Book of Mormon. I am so grateful for Darrell and his understanding of the importance of this message we have taught him!! He understands that it could literally CHANGE his life!!!!!! YAY.
-We went on exchanges with our STL's and I stayed in West Point with Sister Klein. She is a great missionary and loves to talk! It's fun to see the different ways people do missionary work and exchanges help me learn a lot of what I'm good at and also what I need to improve on. During the exchange, we were able to receive A LOT of potential investigators through tracting which was grand! As we were walking down this one street, I hear a little voice from behind us saying, "Sisters!! Hi!!!!!" I turn around and see cute little Asia waving at us. (We met her at the baseball park last sunday with her mom). She said to me, "I'm having my birthday party tomorrow! You should come!!! Wait... Where is Sister Van Komen?" Asia is 10 years old, "fixin'" to be 11 years old. She totally remembered Sister VK's name and I have no idea how. It was just a testimony builder for me to know that We ARE noticed. The next day, Sister VK and I were reunited and we totally went to her bday party and dropped off cupcakes.
-Another testimony builder of the idea that WE ARE NOTICED and BEING WATCHED is when we started to walk over to Sister Edwards to drop off some cookies. We see a lady out on the porch that we see a lot, but she didn't ever seem that friendly. We decided to offer her some cookies and she politely said no and then said to us, "Hold on. Let me get my husband! He has some questions to ask y'all!!!!" We both anxiously waited for him to come to the porch and then he and his wife just invited us in their home!~ (that never happens). They sat us down and her husband took a deep breath and said, "I just want to know what y'all do. I see y'all ALL OVER TOWN. One minute, you're over at the park talking to people and when I drive by again, y'all are gone and I see y'all knocking on doors!" We were able to talk to him about missionary work and about what we believed. It was so refreshing to hear encouragement from him and his wife. They just thought we were super heroes. NO EFFORT IS WASTED.
-About 4 people (Investigators) said that they were for sure coming to church and they didn't show up.... It can be so frustrating and discouraging, but I know that we are learning patience!!!!!!! PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO KEEP COMMITMENTS. OR JUST TELL US THAT YOU REALLY ARE NOT COMING TO CHURCH OKAY?
-Yesterday was one answered prayer after another. Holy cow. Heavenly Father HEARS US. After eating dinner, Sister Van Komen and I had no clue what we were going to do with the rest of our day because all of the things that we originally planned to do had fallen through. We decided to get on our knees and ask Heavenly Father what we needed to do. I just asked Him to help us know where we needed to go and if we needed to see a certain person, I asked if He would guide our thoughts to a certain name. After the prayer was over, we sat in silence. A less active family named the Copelands came to my mind which was SUPER weird and unexpected because we have been trying to get a hold of the Copeland's a lot and they never answer the door! Even when we saw them inside!!!!! I just looked at Sister Van Komen and said, "This is going to sound really weird, but I think we should go see the Copelands." She quickly responded saying, "Um. Yes. I was thinking the EXACT SAME THING." The Holy Ghost is real!!!! So, off to the Copeland's home we went!!! We knocked and they didn't answer.... So we knocked again.... and...... they...... ANSWERED. MIRACLE. And they totally let us inside and we had a nice conversation with them for 20 minutes :)))) YAYAYAYAYAYAYAY!!!!!!!! It was honestly a huge miracle because during branch council, our branch president told us that even HE couldn't get the Copeland's to answer the door. I have definitely grown a lot more closer to the spirit and I feel more confident in just following the promptings that I receive, even if it sounds crazy to me, it's not crazy to God.
-After seeing the Copelands, we felt inspired to visit another less active lady named Sister Moore. She wasn't home :( BUT obviously Heavenly Father knows better than we do because He just let us to the next house over and we found a man who said he "used to be Mormon". His name is Vaughn and he has an adorable family!! He told us that he broke away from the church when he was 18 because every bishop he has ever had has been abusive to him in many different forms. It was so sad to hear all of the CRAZY experiences that he has had and it just broke our hearts. He told us that he believes in everything and loves mormons, but he told us that the leadership is corrupt. He has just had really really bad luck. He isn't even on our roster so I'm happy we were able to contact him and let the branch know of his situation so we can help him out!!!!! :)
-President Hanks called us on Friday night and said, "Hey sisters! I'm coming to West Point! Be at your apartment at 9:00!!!!" UM WHAT? We were freaking out. hahahaha I love how spontaneous he is. We hurried home from our basketball night at the church and he and Sister Hanks showed up 5 minutes later. They told us that they had just come back from giving talks at a Youth Conference in Starkville and just wanted to visit. I LOVE THEM SO MUCH. They are such amazing people. They visited with us for 15 minutes and even sneakily left us 20 dollars to go out to lunch the next day. UM OKAY. I love them so so so much!!!!!!!!!!! President asked me how I liked West Point and I said, "I'm OBSESSED with it!!!"
Well, that is about it for this past week! It was grand!!!!!!!! I love this work and I never want to stop.
***Taylor Swift "You Belong With Me" was blaring from a car this morning.... #tendermercy #itwasn'trap #miracle
****We contacted a referral that we got from church headquarters... They said on mormon.org that they wanted a missionary visit. We knock on the door. 6 kids are running around the house as the mom opens the door and confusingly looks at us and asks us what we wanted. We explain that we saw she went on mormon.org and requested a visit. She said, "This is the 3rd time that missionaries have come to my door! I have mormon friends, but I don't want anything to do with the church. We are JEWISH." It's safe to say that one of her mormon friends went on mormon.org and referred her to us. haha #whyaretheirsomanyjewshere?
***We went to the nursing home and played bingo with all the old ladies. 3 rambunctious ladies work there and after someone got a BINGO, they would cheer really loud. The old lady next to me kept putting her hands over her ears as she swore under her breath. She also kept saying, "OH MERCY!"
****There are more cop cars than there are normal cars here. #I'mserious
***Our apartment is located right infront of the police station and also right next to the jail. #wefeelsafe?
********A drunk old man asked us to find him a girlfriend and then about 5 seconds later, he asked us to be his girlfriend and that he would pay us. #no #k
****Sister VK is more excited about my birthday than I am. Pretty sure. It's hilarious. She reminded me every day of how close I was to being 20 and would tell everyone that it was my birthday. hahahah #nolongerateenager #weird #howdoesitfeelmom?
*****UPDATE ON TOM FROM SHEFFIELD: He is in Helaman.....Apparently Brother Mitchell bore his testimony in church and told Tom that he loved him and that he couldn't wait until tom got baptized. Tom gave him a thumbs up in the air and just smiled!!! I WILL GO BACK TO SEE HIS BAPTISM.
****A little boy asked us if we wanted to ride on the back of his bike with him. #preciousmoment
***I pray every morning to just find someone to teach who is sober. #isthattoomuchtoask?
********We asked these people as they had their car windows down and were at a stop sign to check mormon.org out. They replied saying, "We are not into Jesus! We are into Rasta (drugs)" SO SAD. They then drove away and yelled out, "but y'all are pretty so we will look it up for y'all." #okaythanks
I love this work and I love my Savior, Jesus Christ. He has done so much for us! What are we doing for HIM?
Have a grand week ahead!!!!!!! SHARE THE GOSPEL WITH EVERYONE. FOLLOW THE PROMPTINGS YOU RECEIVE AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS. LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!
MYKY,
Sister Platt aka the not so teenager anymore!!!!!!! HELLO 20!!! ew. that sounds so weird to say!!!!!
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