I'm grateful for the people in my life

AHHHH. I AM SO HAPPY. I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY Y'ALL!!!!!

So. Let's talk about transfer meeting for a sec.

President Hanks gave some amazing counsel (as always). Here are some things that stuck out to me:

-This mission has to be HAPPY. It's a time for happiness

-We represent the SAVIOR. Remember that. Put away childish things (1 cor. 13:11)

-Be a lifter. Not a catcher

-Tell people what is IN the Book of Mormon instead of just talking about it.

-YOU. ARE. SOMEBODY. You are bigger than your problems.

-"I am valuable! He died for me!"

-God don't make no junk

-obey, serve, teach=charity

-HE KNOWS. Everything you've ever been through!!!! (Hebrews 4:14-16) Christ knows our infirmities. He was tempted! Would we improve with others if we truly had the feeling of their infirmities?

-The Savior loves you and I should too. Why wait? LOVE NOW.

-When you're tired. WORK.

He then invited us to read The Book of Mormon as a mission :) He invited us to read all of it in one transfer!!!! SO EXCITED!!!!!

I am so grateful for him and all that he does for us missionaries. He is such a great leader and I love him so much! :)

 

NOW... FOR THE TRANSFER NEWS...

So. This is the way transfers go. Our picture pops up on the screen with our new companions picture and the area that we are going to serve at. I was waiting for what felt like FOREVER to see my picture on the screen. And then.. I saw it. I screamed and so did my new companion. I looked over at her and she was almost in tears. It was hilarious. Everyone was laughing at us because we were so excited. I AM WITH SISTER MADSEN!!!!!!!!!!! SO EXCITING. Sister Madsen is from Santa Cruz, California and we actually knew each other before our missions because she is best friends with Megan Bertha, Ty Holmes, Marie Santore, and Lauren Greenwood and they all hung out together in college. So fun. She is so crazy (in a good way) and is a hard worker. She has such a positive attitude about the work and we get along really REALLY well. I am serving in Leeds, Alabama which is 30 minutes outside of Birmingham. It is a smallish town with one main road that goes throughout the whole place.

GUESS WHAT???? THERE IS A CHICK FIL A HERE!!!!!!! DREAM=MADE. I AM SO HAPPY. We are living with a member in her adorable house in a cookie cutter neighborhood and I love it. Her name is Sister Fowler and she is an older single lady and she takes good care of us! There is a lot of work to do here and I'm so excited for all of it!!! Sister Madsen has only been here a transfer so we are both pretty fresh with everything. We are serving in a ward of about 120 people. Most of them are older couples and there are some cute families as well. I love it so much.

 

It was really hard for me to say goodbye to the people in West Point. Especially Tammy. Oh my goodness. The last lesson that I had with her was on enduring to the end. I just remember looking her straight in the eyes and saying, "This gospel is hard to live, but it's worth it. I hope and pray you stay strong and keep doing those things that bring you closer to our Savior." It was a very emotional experience for me because I felt like I was a parent leaving a child behind and letting them go. Ah. It was awful. I am so grateful for her and all that she has done for me. Heavenly Father is so good and knew I needed to be there for that short amount of time to learn a lot of life lessons.

Saying goodbye to Jalisa was hard as well. She gave me a cute make up bag and a card that she wrote in. She said, "The decision to learn about your church has been the best decision I have ever made in my life. God knew I needed you." SO PRECIOUS. I really hope that she progresses because she needs this gospel so much!!!! :)

 

Okay. Now back to the things that have happened this past week...

First off, I would like to say how grateful I am to be serving in this area. The people here are extremely nice, but they are also extremely set on the religion that they have. I honestly have gained such a strong testimony just in the past couple of days because we are CONSTANTLY getting questioned for our beliefs and I LOVE IT. It's so much different than West Point because people in West Point didn't know anything about mormons. I'm learning so much!

 

Wednesday:

I had to say goodbye to Sister Woomer who was going home and saying goodbye to her made me realize how amazing the people are here and how much I love and appreciate all of them. Sister Woomer was my first Sister Training Leader and she helped me out A LOT when I found out dad passed away. She was by my side every step of the way. LOVE HER.

After transfer meeting, I discovered that my bike tire was COMPLETELY FLAT. So, we showed our faith and knew that Heavenly Father had a plan for us to be on foot instead of biking. We walked around Leeds and met so many people! I am learning so much from Sister Madsen. She is such a stud. I am learning how to teach lessons on the spot more and I thank her for that. We went tracting and met this lady who told us she couldn't meet with us because she is busy with her job (which is throwing newspapers). We then began to ask her questions about God and she said she doesn't really believe in Him. It was the saddest thing! We have met a good 4 people the past few days who don't believe in God, but believe in a "force that connects us all together". Isn't that God? Anyway, we continued on with our conversation and started to talk about The Book of Mormon. Halfway through the lesson, her countenance changed and she was a completely different person. Then. Her "partner" opened the door and we asked her if she would like to join us for the lesson. Her partner then said, "No thanks. I'm actually really sick of you two talking to her. BYE." She then grabbed her "partner" who we were talking to and they went inside and slammed the door. It was so great. I love being rejected because it makes this cause of sharing the gospel way more important!!! God is good:)

We had a lesson with this man named Greg and taught him the Restoration. When we got to the part of talking about the apostasy, I said, "Greg! What do you think the word apostasy means?" He then went on and on and would not stop talking about slavery and catholics and how religion was forced on him when he was younger because of the civil war. It was so random and he told us at the end that he didn't have much time to meet with us and that he would give us a call if he wanted to meet with us again. (He ended up calling us on Sunday and told us that he read through the pamphlet and has questions for us!!! YAY. we are seeing him tomorrow :))

 

Thursday:

I prayed Thursday morning and asked Heavenly Father what my purpose was for serving in Leeds and he answered in the neatest way!!!!! We were walking through this apartment complex just contacting people and we both said hello to a man that was walking past us. He didn't say anything back, but started to sign. I began signing back to him and he told me he was deaf and asked me how I learned ASL and who we were. I signed back telling him that we were missionaries and that I learned ASL in High school, but he would have to be patient with me because I have forgotten a lot of it. He laughed and then asked me if we would follow him to his house. His name is Jerry!  Before we stepped inside his home, I asked him if a female was in the home. He said yes and then we stepped inside. He then motioned for us to go to his back room of the house. We walked in the room and saw an older lady lying down in bed. I then said hello to her and then Jerry looked at me and signed to me and told me that the lady in the bed was his mother and that she was deaf as well. Jerry then started to clasp his hands together and looked at me. I then realized that he wanted me to pray for his mom. I said a prayer and the spirit was so strong. They obviously couldn't hear anything I said in the prayer, but I KNOW for a fact that they felt it. ah. It was so neat. We then set a return appointment with him for Saturday!

ANSWERED PRAYER.

We had a lesson with this man named Curtis who the sisters met before I got there. He is such a humble man and really wants to change his life around. We taught him the first lesson and the spirit was very very strong. We invited him to be baptized and he said yes! We set a date with him for October 18. We asked him how he felt after teaching him and he said, "My mind is very clear. I don't know how to explain it. All of the things that I had been worrying about before are just gone." THE HOLY GHOST IS REAL.

We had 10 minutes left of the night and didn't have any appointments. We had no clue what to do and decided to go to a random parking lot and talk to the guys who were sitting outside. The 2 guys were wearing jordans (shoes) and so I asked them if they played basketball. Sister Madsen then said, "OH COOL. SISTER PLATT OVER HERE CAN BEAT Y'ALL IN BASKETBALL. When is a good time for y'all to play?" hahahhaha it was great.  We ended up teaching them the restoration using the pamphlet and it was great. We asked them to come to church and they both totally denied us! hahaha so great. Planted seed!!!!

 

Friday:

Oh man. This day was CRAZY. Holy cow. It started off with going to wal-mart to fix my bike tire and it was a 2 hour ordeal because the new tube that I bought from Wal-mart had a hole already in it! 2 nice southerners helped us fix it and spent a good hour with us figuring out what was wrong. We thought it was the tire and we were going crazy with trying to fix it. I love the South. I am so grateful for the people here. They are such good christian people. Oh. And wanna know a tender mercy that happened in Walmart? We got a call from a random number and answered the phone. The lady on the other line said, "hello! I am interpreting a phone call for Jerry. He was wondering if you could bring him a Book of Mormon?" SO EXCITING. WE WERE FREAKING OUT. We told her to tell him yes!!!!! God is so good. Anyway, we ended up getting it all figured out and focused our efforts of finding Less active members to see. We met this less active lady named Juanita who is the sweetest mexican lady in the world! She is so great. We asked her why she hasn't come to church and she explained the things she was going through and told us that she didn't feel comfortable coming to church. We felt inspired to share the mormon message called, "courage" and she loved it! The spirit was strong and we definitely were able to break through the wall that she had built up. So grateful for the spirit. We couldn't do this work without it. SHE CAME TO CHURCH YESTERDAY. :))

I am so grateful for Sister Madsen and all I am learning from her. She is so bold and I love it! We talked to these two teenage boys who didn't want anything to do with us because they were in a hurry to go to Sonic because it was happy hour. (I don't blame them. I love sonic happy hour). Anyway, Sister Madsen is so great because she just kept bugging them and asking to teach them. So great. hahah they gave us the dirtiest looks and went away. We kept biking and saw a yard sale going on. We met a lady named April who is super cute who was working at the yard sale! She was sitting outside with her 10 year old son Rio and her 19 year old daughter, corey. We started to ask her questions about her religious background and she really opened up to us and told us about her husband who died 2 years ago from a heart attack and how she is still grieving over it. I felt like I could really connect with this woman and I'm so glad I could! We taught all of them the Plan of Salvation right on the spot and they loved it!!!!!! They told us that we could come back this week!! YAY. 

We then biked over to this trailer park that people in the ward told us to go visit. hahaha love the south so much and man, I have missed Alabama. There is something different between here and Mississippi and I don't know why. Anyway, we met a less active lady there and her husband who isn't a member. We talked to both of them and they both said they didn't really believe in God. It was so sad. Her husband wouldn't even participate in our discussion, but was very nice. It was just the saddest thing in the world. agh. Honestly, why don't people believe in God? THERE IS EVIDENCE ALL AROUND US OF HIM. Look at something simple like a flower and you will know that God exists. K. I'm done with my rant. 

WE BIKED UP this HUGE hill going to have a new member lesson with this lady named Loretta who got baptized a week ago. It was hilarious. Sister Madsen is such a spaz and was singing the whole way going up the hill and I thought I was going to pass out. We didn't get off our bikes and it was quite the accomplishment. LET GOD EXPAND YOUR CAPACITY Y'ALL. 

Anyway, we had a new member lesson with Loretta and oh my, she is the sweetest lady ever. Love her so much. Her husband was less active, but has started to come to church ever since she started investigating. This gospel changes people. yay. 

In conclusion of this day, we definitely worked REALLY hard and biked 20 miles total. Oh. And we run 2 miles every morning so basically I am going to lose all the weight I gained on my mission. SO HAPPY. YAY FOR BEING HEALTHY AND LIVING THE WORD OF WISDOM. It feels great. I'm so grateful for Sister Madsen and  that she is a hard worker. It's so refreshing! 

 

Saturday:

We had a lesson with Jerry and watched The Restoration video which has a video of a man signing everything that happens. HE LOVED IT AND THE SPIRIT WAS STRONG. He kept signing, "wow" during the video. It was so cute. We showed him The Book of Mormon and told him about how Christ came to the America's. I used the pictures at the beginning of The BOM  to teach and signed asSister Madsen pointed. We invited him to read it and he said he would! We also invited him to church and he said he couldn't leave his mom this sunday, but he would be able to come next sunday!!! Not sure how it's going to work, but he will feel the spirit!!!!

Oh. It was hilarious because he looked at Sister Madsen and signed to her saying, "you are shy! You need to learn ASL please." hahhahah I just started laughing and told Sister Madsen what he was saying to her and she started cracking up and said, "man! That is the only time I have ever been called shy." hahahah so great. Jerry is the sweetest man ever. Love him!

We biked over to a festival that was happening on the "main street" of Leeds. People were cleaning up their booths and we went around asking if people needed help. Everyone refused except for one sweet couple who gave us BBQ sandwiches for a dollar instead of 5 dollars just because we asked them for help. They were so shocked that we were wanting to help. The lady kept saying, "no one has asked us for help this whole time. Bless you girls!" ah. It was the BEST BBQ sandwich of my life. It was a huge blessing because we didn't even have time to go home and eat dinner because of the appintment we had later that night so God blessed us with a BBQ sandwich.  #tendermercyfromthelord

 

Sunday:

This day was crazy!!!! Church was great. Love the ward. It was the primary program. Such precious children :) Our building is VERY small. Smaller than West Points church. We had to drive an hour away to give sleeping mats to the sisters in sylacagga and it's a long story, but it was just a crazy day. Anyway, We went to a single adult missionary fireside and helped do some roleplays. Ah. They were all so cute and excited to share the gospel! I love helping members understand the importance of this work!!!!! We ate dinner at a less active mans home named Jack. He is awesome. He and his step daughter named Courtney who is not a member was there. They made ribs, mac n' cheese, potato salad, beans, and biscuits. It was a classic southern meal. We washed it down with some yummy pecan pie!!! SO SO GOOD. We then talked to them about the importance of church attendance and Jack doesn't want to come until he gives up smoking because he doesn't feel comfortable coming if he doesn't partake of the Sacrament. We shared the story of Lehi having a vision of the tree of life and invited both of them to have a desire to change and realize that God's approval is way more important than others. They loved it! Courtney told us that she has met with missionaries and had the discussions a good 5 times, but she doesn't want to give up her sweet tea and doesn't understand why she has to. (She drinks a gallon a day). We testified to her the importance of putting faith into action and relying on Christ's atonement for help. I loved it! I love them!

Then, we had 30 minutes left of the night and decided to do a "drive thru" lesson. Now, what a drive thru lesson is is this: You literally go to a parking lot and drive up to random people outside walking/sitting in their car and just start teaching them. GUESS WHAT THE GUYS NAME WAS THAT WE DROVE UP TO???? HIS NAME WAS JOSEPH SMITH!!!!!!!!!!!!! TOTALLY MEANT TO BE. IT WAS SO FUNNY. WE WERE CRACKING UP SO MUCH. Joseph was a very awkward man and told us that he was catholic and never heard of our church. We then said, "well. we've got a great story for you about another man named Joseph Smith..." and then we taught him lesson 1!! So great. He wasn't interested afterwards, but he gave us 4 different people to go see! He gave us directions to where they lived and said, "Yeah. When you hit the 2nd dirt road. you will make a left and go all the way down until you hit the barn on your right." Oh the south. I love you so much :)

 

I am so grateful to be here. I'm grateful for the sisters in this zone that we will be working with!!!! GUESS WHAT??? SISTER CASPERSON AND SISTER CLARK ARE IN MY ZONE. Sister Casperson goes home after this transfer and she was the one that trained me and now we get to experience exchanges together! SO FUN. And Sister Clark is the one that I served with in a trio. LOVE her so much. She is one of my best friends. Heavenly Father knows exactly what we need. He is incredible.

I have so much to work on and I am grateful for God and His ability to shape us if we will only let him. We are working hard and I am loving every second of it!

 

This is a sweet email that I just received from President Hanks. Love this man so much. It was exactly what I needed to hear:

"Bless you.

What a GREAT LEADER you are going to be, Sister Platt.

If you don’t mind, I’d like to ask you to stop and breathe for a minute. Lean back, maybe put your hands behind your head. Smile, and pretend you hear my voice in your ears saying, “Thank you.” “Thank you for deciding to come on a mission. Thank you for striving to be obedient. Thank you for honoring the trust that I have in you.” Missions are difficult at times, and you are succeeding!

I just wanted you to know how I feel.

Be well. Be wise. Be obedient.

With love and hope,

President Hanks
STEADFAST IN CHRIST"

 

He is the man!!!!!!

I am in good hands here.

Love y'alll so much and hope y'all have a great week! Be steadfast! Expand your capacity!!! LOVE EVERYONE!!!!!! BE BOLD!!!! INVITE PEOPLE TO LEARN MORE!!!!!!

 

Here's my new address :)

8400 Kirkby Circle

Leeds, AL 35094

 

MYKY,

Sister Platt