AHHHH THIS MISSION IS THE BEST THING IN THE WHOLE ENTIRE WORLD. I LOVE MY LIFE.
First off, sorry we are so late with emailing today! We helped an
ADORABLE family move into their new home for 2 hours!! We just tracted
into them last week and they just moved to Leeds from Kentucky!!! They
kept thanking us over and over again and told us that we were a VERY
specific answered prayer for them because they don't know anyone in
Leeds and they are looking for a church and nice people to
meet!!!!!!!! SO COOL. They then insisted on paying us each $50 bucks
for helping (yeah. really nice) but we declined the money and they
insisted even more with taking us out to lunch. we just got done
eating at a yummy mexican restaurant. Hopefully we will start teaching
them soon because they are basically mormon. They have 2 kids. They
have a big food storage. AND they LOVE chili. Chili cookoff anyone?
ANYWAY, this email won't even do it justice to everything that has
happened this past week. We are so busy here and I love it!!!!!! Have
I mentioned how GRATEFUL I am for Sister Madsen? yup. She's perfect.
We are best friends. I love her so much and we are PRAYING that we
stay together another transfer. We shall see. Knowing my streak of
luck, we won't be together :( BUT PRAYER WILL CHANGE THE NIGHT TO DAY.
Now onto the AMAZING EVENTS OF THIS WEEK!!!!!!!!
We went over to the Nicola's again to have another "new member"
lesson. Sister Nicola excitedly started to tell us how she stayed up
until 2:30 am doing family history!!!! WHAT? She is in her late 60's
and usually goes to bed at 8 pm!!! Sooo funny. Oh my. It was great.
Her and her husband are doing baptisms for the dead this upcoming
friday :) so excited for them!!!! They also went over the next day to
our family history consultant's home and spent 6 HOURS at their house
doing family history. They traced her lineage clear back to the
1200's! NUTS. #spiritofelijah
Had exchanges with the Anniston sisters and I was with Sister Horan
and stayed here in Leeds. This transfer is Sister Horan's first one.
She is SUPER shy and won't talk unless you ask her questions. One of
my goals for the day was to make her laugh. I accomplished the goal
y'all! It was so fun to be with her. Ah. I love her so much. She is
the sweetest sister ever and wants to be the best she can be. We were
able to see a lot of miracles that day and I'm grateful that Heavenly
Father made things work out so perfectly for the exchange. We ran into
this old lady who had just pulled into her carport. (No one has
garages here). The old lady had TONS of groceries in the back of her
car and we ran up and asked if she needed help. She said no, but we
refused. I just said, "Ma'am. We are here to be the Lord's hands for
people. Let us help!" She started crying as we carried the groceries
in. She then invited us to sit down and meet her husband. Her husband
was the sweetest man in the world. He was on an oxygen tank and was so
precious and old. We sat down and read some scriptures with them and
then talked about God and how good He is! Sister Horan spoke up and
was super brave as she asked them for a return appointment. I WAS SO
PROUD OF HER. THE OLD COUPLE TOLD US WE COULD COME BACK AND TEACH THEM
:) As we were leaving, the lady gave us each a hug and said, "well,
darlins' I love y'all and I barely know you, but I love you." So cute.
What a tender mercy.
We walked down and saw a guy dribbling a basketball. I asked him if he
played and he started to ask us who we were and wondered if we were
prophets. He thought there was a basketball hoop at the park,
but unfortunately there wasn't so we asked him if we could teach him a
lesson instead. (Heavenly Father is so great at making things
disappear ;)) So we went to a park bench and taught him the
restoration!!!! Sister Horan did so great and I learned so much from
the way she teaches. She is a wonderful teacher!!!!!!!
After teaching the man at the park, Sister Whitbeck (the relief
society president) picked us up for a team up and we went over to
Nicole's home. Nicole invited us in and about 10 minutes later, her
grandma kicked us out of the house because she apparently doesn't like
us. Super awkward. We were so grateful that Sister Whitbeck was there
because she handled the situation very well. Nicole was crying and it
was just really rough. We still haven't heard from Nicole since that
day. We think she ran away. :( so unfortunate.
Seriously, missions are so crazy! We just never know what's going to
happen every day, but I love the adventure :)
I also went on an exchange with Sister Bailey in Gadsden, AL. SO MUCH
FUN. Sister Bailey is new as well, but oh my, you'd think she has been
a missionary her whole life! She is so outgoing and so good at talking
with people!!!! We were able to find some solid new investigators and
have some good lessons as we tracted and street contacted. We had an
interesting experience with talking to this man who was muslim. He
basically tried to convert us the whole time and the conversation was
not going anywhere. haha he said, "I wish I could just shake you girls
and tell you what you are missing in life." We were thinking the same
thing for him. It was hilarious. It made me realize how BOLD we all
need to be in standing up for what we believe in. This man was super
bold and a little overbearing, but hey, he shared what he believed in!
MAY WE ALL DO THE SAME. OPEN Y'ALLS MOUTHS.
Sister Madsen and I helped Sister Fowler out with a baby shower she
was doing for her daughter. (Sister Fowler is the lady we are living
with). Oh mother, I felt like I was with you all morning as we made
crafts and as Sister Fowler organized everything. We helped make cake,
pigs in a blanket, jello, apple dip, and onion dip. It was a ball!!!!
Ah. It was really depressing though because Sister Fowler spent hours
preparing for the baby shower and only 6 people showed up :( We felt
so bad! But we just kept praising her and told her how much of a
success it was. SO PLEASE GO TO A BABY SHOWER WHEN YOU ARE INVITED TO
IT. OKAY?
Sister Madsen and I did our classic tracting game again where we come
up with a random word that we have to say during a conversation with
the person who opens the door. Oh. Here are some of our favorites....
We knock on a trailer door. Sister Madsen tells me the word "crock
pot" The guy answers as I say, "Oh! Your house smells like a crock pot
dinner!" The smell of weed starts to come over us as we start talking
to him. He wasn't interested at all...
We knock on another door. I give Sister Madsen the word "calculator"
An old man answers the door and immediately invites us to come in.
Sister Madsen then says, "Is there a female in the home? Sorry. We are
just trying to calculate if we are allowed to come inside or not." TOO
GOOD.
Then. We knock on another door. Sister Madsen gives me the word
"peanut butter". The man tells us to come back later. I say, "Okay!
sounds good! We are just going to go and make some peanut butter
sandwiches and then we will come back."
TRACTING IS SO MUCH FUN Y'ALL. hahaha we have way too much fun together.
Now... are y'all ready for the most EXCITING miracle that happened
this past week?!?
We had a lesson with good ole' brother mack who is getting baptized
this Saturday the 25th!!!!! We went over with the Martins and had a
lesson with him on temples and family history. Brother Mack has lost
his wife and son and as we talked about the temple and how we can be
as a family forever, his face lit up and the spirit in that room was
REALLY THICK. Brother Martin shared a very personal experience with
losing his son to a car accident. He started crying and told us that
he heard a voice say to him at that time, "I need him on the other
side to help with missionary work here." I, of course, started to bawl
and the spirit in that room was UNDENIABLE. At the end, we asked
brother Mack if he would prepare himself to go to the temple after he
is baptized. He gave the sweetest answer as he said, "I want to go
NOW!" He is such a stud and I'm so grateful for Heavenly Father for
preparing him for this gospel :)
Let us fast forward to the day after this lesson. We head over to
Brother Mack's house and he isn't there. We were so bummed, but
literally 2 minutes later, Brother Mack shows up as he drives his car
into the garage. He gets out of the car and he has his camera hanging
on his neck and a magazine in his hands. He then says to us with a
huge smile on his face, "Hey ladies! Guess where I've been?" Oh, if
y'all could've seen the look on Sister Madsen and I's face. It was
priceless. Our jaw was dropped for a good minute. HE HAD JUST GOTTEN
BACK FROM THE TEMPLE. WHAT? WHO DOES THAT??? ELECT PEOPLE DO
THAT!!!!!!!!!!! He then proceeded to show us the magazine on temples
he got from the visitors center and also showed us all the beautiful
photos he took of his daughter in front of the Birmingham Temple.
Writing an email about this experience is stressing me out because I
can't put into words how we felt at that moment. AH. We then asked him
how he felt and all the questions we could think of. Brother Mack said
the following during our conversation (so precious) :
"It was so peaceful there! NO ONE. Not ANYONE can deny the peace that is there."
"All the worldly things that I worry about just erased when I went
inside" (He got inside to the visitors part of the temple)
"Y'all didn't tell me about Angel Moroni! Did y'all know he always
faces east because of the second coming?"
"Yeah. I stayed inside for 2 hours. I couldn't get myself to leave!"
"Everyone was so nice and kept coming up to me. I like when people do that."
"The man at the front desk asked me if I was meeting with missionaries
and I told him that I was and that y'all were changing me. Man. Y'all
ARE changing me!"
So basically, Sister Madsen and I are still on cloud 9 from this
experience. I have never heard of anyone just going to the temple on
their own like that. So unexpected, but such a happy thing! GOD IS
GOOD. :)))
Brother Mack also came to church yesterday and wanna know something
precious? Brother Gause (who is less active) CAME TO CHURCH AGAIN. DO
Y'ALL KNOW WHAT THIS MEANS??? HE IS NO LONGER CONSIDERED LESS
ACTIVE!!!!!! Brother Gause went up to Brother Mack after Sacrament
meeting and invited him over for dinner!!!!!!! SUCH A HAPPY MOMENT. I
remember when I first met Brother Gause... He told us that he would
NEVER come back to church for at least another year. Heavenly Father
is able to soften sooooo many hearts!!!!!!!
Brother Simmons who is less active also came to church and WALKED to
church AGAIN. :)
SO GRATEFUL FOR THIS AREA. I'M OBSESSED.
I love the people here so much and I'm grateful for how challenging it
is to serve in the South. It's the best place ever because we can walk
up to anyone and ask them about Jesus Christ and it's just a normal
thing/conversation. We can drive up to someone walking along the
street and ask them if we can share a scripture with them. What a
wonderful place to be serving!!!
I love how fast we can sift through people here and really know who
the elect are by their ability to keep commitments. People aren't
afraid here to just flat out tell us that they are not interested and
I love that!!!! It helps us not waste our time on those who aren't
ready for this gospel.
I strangely even love getting put down for our beliefs; it makes my
testimony EVEN STRONGER to know that Satan is working so hard on this
gospel because even he knows it's true. Truth will always be opposed.
We have had a lot of experiences like that this past week that have
shaped my testimony...
We ran into a man who basically told us we were going to hell. We
knocked on a door and a guy started telling us that prophets aren't
necessary. A lady told us that we didn't believe in the same Jesus
Christ that she did. Another person told us that we weren't
Christians.
Always remember that, y'all. Truth WILL ALWAYS BE OPPOSED.
One of my new favorite scriptures is Romans 8:31. "If God be for us,
who can be against us?" AMEN TO THAT.
In other news...
-Good quote I saw on a wall the other day: "Attitudes are
contagious... Is yours worth catching?"
I love y'all so much and I love my life so so so so so much! Heavenly
Father is so grand and so aware of us :) I love being an Alabama
Birmingham missionary and I KNOW that this is EXACTLY where I need to
be. How grand is Heavenly Father and His plans? SO INSPIRED.
MYKY,
Sister Platt
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