Sweet Home Alabama: Happy! Happy! Happy! Missions are the best!

(Sorry the email is late. We had a zone activity and so I was playing bball, four square, and roller hockey all morning. SO FUN! I love the missionaries here. We are just like our own little family.)

Can I just tell y'all how much I love my mission???? I LOVE IT SO MUCH!!! I'm obsessed with the South and ah, I love the people!!!!!!!!

The weather is really starting to heat up and it is super humid, but Heavenly Father is SO loving and always sends a 10 minute thunderstorm right when we need it! :) I'm obsessed with the storms here.

It was really really really hard for me to leave Sister VK. GAH. I love that girl so much!!! She is now serving in Pontotoc which is only an hour away from here so that is happy news!

I am now serving with Sister Drummond!!!!!!! We were in the same zone when I was serving in Russellville and already knew each other fairly well. I LOVE HER SO MUCH!!!! She is super cute and we teach really well together. She is from St. George, UT and we even have some mutual friends from when we lived there!!! CRAZY.

Transfer meeting was SUPER DUPER good!!!!! One thing that I love that President Hanks said was about his and Sister Hanks's vision for us. They want to run into us one day when we are all grown up and have kids. They want to hear our kid say, "Hey Mr. Hanks! We are a family who is STEADFAST IN CHRIST." I love that. I love how President Hanks is making us into Disciples of Jesus Christ, not missionaries. He is preparing us for the rest of our life and I find comfort in everything he tells us! His goal for each of us missionaries is to see our children go through the temple. SO COOL.

This last week was full of crazy events. More crazy than spiritual, but still very good things are happening here! THIS PLACE HAS OFFICIALLY EXPLODED!!!!

-Tammy and Jonathan got baptized this past Saturday!!! It was so great. Tammy had to be baptized 3 times because President Honsinger kept getting the wording wrong, but she came out of the font BEAMING with happiness. Ah, and then Jonathan got baptized and he was smiling from ear to ear and kept saying to himself, "I feel so clean!!!" Ah. I love them both so much!!! Brandon, Tammy's son who is already a member, gave a heartwarming talk on baptism and he told everyone how proud he is of his mom and brothers decision of joining the church so they could be one happy family. AHHHH I'M OBSESSED WITH THEM.

-We had really good lessons with our investigator, Jalisa this past week!!!! Her sister Bri joined in on one of the lessons and was soaking everything in. Jalisa really wants to be baptized and change her life around. She told us that her and her sister have had long talks about how they need to get closer to God and how meeting with us will help them :) Gah, they are the best!!!!!

-We weren't able to meet with Antrianna this past week because she got her phone stolen and we lost communication with her, BUT we didn't know it at the time so we kept bugging her and texting her until she FINALLY answered us on Saturday night and told us that she wanted to come to church!!!!!

-Sister Drummond and I were out tracting one day and this man in a beat up truck rolled down his window, slowed down, and stopped right by us as we were walking.

In a slurred voice, he said:

"Are y'all menonites?"

Us: "No. We are missionaries from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Da..."

Him: "OH! Y'ALL ARE THE MORMONS. WHAT DO YOU THINK ABOUT JOE THEN?"

Us: "Joseph Smith? We believe that he was a prophet of God!!!!!!!!"

Him: "What do you think about Jesus then?"

Us: "He is Our Savior and Redeemer of the wor..."

Him: "NO YOU DON'T! Y'ALL DON'T BELIEVE IN JESUS."

(At this point, I started walking away and then he just kept driving his car next to us. Eventually, another car was behind him and he STILL wouldn't move.)

Me: "Uh. Sir. You should probably keep driving. There is a car behind you."

Him: "Y'all should move."

Us: "Okay! Have a nice day!!!! Here! Take a Mormon.org card!"

He then grabbed the card, looked at it, and threw it on his dashboard as he said, "NO! I don't want it!!!!! I WANT TO BE SAVED. CAN Y'ALL SAVE ME?"

Me: (In frustration) Have a good day Sir. BYE!!!!!!!

We then proceeded to a sketchy house and knocked on the door because there was no other option. GUESS WHAT? We ended up teaching a sit down lesson to the family of sisters/friends,-Culieka, Starianna, Garianna, Roshondra. They are all sisters and Roshondra was a friend. They let us in and they let us do their laundry!!!!!! PEOPLE USUALLY NEVER LET US SERVE THEM, BUT THEY DID!!!!! I WAS SO HAPPY. So basically, what I am trying to say is that Satan tries to make us mad by putting creepy people in our path, but Heavenly Father always wins in the end :) We have a return appt with them tonight!!! SO EXCITED!!!!

-JALISA AND ANTRIANNA CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY!!!!!! BEST DAY EVER. THEY BOTH STAYED ALL THREE HOURS!!!!!! They both ended up LOVING it and Sister Drummond and I were shocked to hear how much they loved it because the following happened at church....

-Sacrament meeting was a MESS. There are 2 toddlers in the branch who always run up and down the chapel. Well, one of the toddlers hit his head really hard on the chair and started SCREAMING as soon as the Sacrament was being blessed. We couldn't hear them bless the sacrament at all!!! THEN, the other toddler is on an i-pad (curse the ipad) and the music from the game that he was playing starts to fill the room. It was very stressful for us. And to top it all off, no one even said hi to them as they walked in. It was just super weird!!!!!!!!

-Gospel Principles class... the topic was on Heavenly Families. One of the members started to talk about how he doesn't want to burn his child in hell. I quickly ended the discussion that he started by bearing my testimony, but he kept going back to that topic! hahahaha The south is the best y'all!!!!

-And to put the icing on the cake, we had a lesson on Celestial marriage in Relief Society.

It's okay though, Jalisa and Antrianna both told us that they LOVED it and that they were coming back next week!!!! TENDER MERCY. I'm grateful for the spirit. I am grateful for them. Ah. They are the sweetest girls in the world!!!!

-We had a lesson with Sister Moore (LA) and her husband who isn't a member. We taught them the Restoration and the spirit was SO STRONG. It was a very powerful lesson and I could just tell by looking into Brother Moore's eyes that he KNOWS it's true. At the end, we invited him to read and pray about The Book of Mormon and he said, "I will do it, but I have to be honest... I used to attend the LDS church all the time, but I felt an even better spirit when I went to the Baptist church..." MY HEART SANK. We promised him that he would get his answer as he read and as he came to church with his wife. He agreed that he would at least read so we shall see!!!!!!

You know what's frustrating to me about being here in the South??? SOOOOOOOO many GREAT people here who literally could be Mormon and they just don't understand the importance of this gospel and how it can bless their life!!!!

We are finding lots more people to teach and the Lord is blessing us every day :) People ARE prepared here and it's a beautiful thing to see!!!! I am so grateful for our Savior, Jesus Christ. He has done so much for us. May we all be STEADFAST IN CHRIST. 2 Nephi 31:20. Steadfast=commitment, dedication, perserverance, walking with God. Show your commitment to the Lord EVERY DAY. Dedicate your life to HIM. Perservere through anything that comes your way. Last, but not least, WALK with God. I love how it doesn't mention walking behind or infront of Him, but walk right beside HIm!!!!!! How neat is that? To know that Our Loving Father in Heaven wants us, imperfect beings, to walk right next to Him. :)

LOVE Y'ALL SO MUCH!!!!!!!!!!! I AM SOOOOO HAPPY!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sorry, I can't remember anything else that happened because I came to the library unprepared, but this past week has been grand! Miracles still happen every day!!!!! :)

MYKY,

Sister Platt