Words from Sister Brittany Platt in Colorado

 

     "Hola everyone!!!! So, the reason for my title is it has not snowed here for the past two or three weeks! Apparently, this is supposed to be the wettest, coldest winter in the history of Colorado and we only had like one week of snow! Crazy crazy!!! I'm not complaining, because the weather here is beautiful, but it's just funny. This place reminds me so much of St. Johns!!! So I feel right at home.

 

     So, this week was a lot better than last week. We had many appointments and did a lot of finding. Yesterday at church we had several women come up to us and let us know that they had prayed us here. They've been wanting sisters in the ward so we can help re-activate the 100 less active women in the ward. We're starting to feel like that's our calling here! What a wonderful thing to do, to help bring people back to church who have strayed!

     Funny story for you all: our amazing Relief Society President took us around the area (the Strasburg ward covers the towns of Strasburg, Bennett, Buyers, Aggot, Dear Trail, and a few other really small communities) to try to contact less active women in the ward. When we were in Buyers, we couldn't find the address of one of the sisters we were wanting to contact. We spotted a cowboy over in a small complex of homes, so we asked him if he knew where the address was. Oh man, was he a rodeo cowboy! Cussin and spittin and talkin a million miles an hour, but at the same time being very respectful to us. He was hilarious!!! He didn't know where the address was, but he took us over to the car repair shop to ask but there was nobody there. Then he said, "Hey, let's go over to the bar and ask!" So he goes tromping over to the liquor store before we can say anything and goes inside. Our Relief Society president follows right behind him and turns around to make sure we're comin with her!!! We were both like, "Uh, we can't go in sorry!" So, we waited outside while the two of them asked the bartender. We kept praying that no members drove by and saw the two new sister missionaries hanging outside the local town bar!!! It was hilarious and our Relief Society president felt so bad, but thought it was so funny. What a wonderful time we had!! We also drove out of town about five miles to visit a sister and her neighbors built a train track around their yard complete with a water tower, a train station, a parts yard, and all sorts of other stuff. It was SUPER cool! I love this place!

     This last week we met with our investigator again, like we do every Tuesday, and really exhorted her to come to church. She said she would try this last week, but didn't think she could make it. Well, she didn't come and we were pretty disappointed. But, she did promise to come this week so hopefully she'll be here! That's the only thing that's keeping her from baptism. Hopefully she'll realize the importance of coming to church. This week we had two appointments cancel with investigators, but we went finding and made appointments with other potentials and formers so that was a miracle! We also got to go with a member around town to give out popcorn to residents at a rest home, the firefighters in Strasburg, and a few families who are having a hard time. This member has his own, legit popcorn machine! It was awesome! Because of our finding ours this last week, including finding less actives, we were able to set up about 12 appointments for this week! What a blessing and miracle! I also went to my first baptism. It wasn't mine, but it was wonderful!!!! The spirit was so strong!

     Another funny story for you, is my district leader is from snowflake! He showed up at district meeting with a lobos shirt that he gave to me as a gift (worst gift ever, right? :)) Anyhow, I told him I wouldn't wear it and I'd probably burn it. He thought I was joking but I totally burned it!!! It was my companion's year mark this last week and when you've been out a year, for elders you burn a white shirt and for sisters you burn a skirt. So, as we had our little burning party I burnt the Lobos shirt with pride. :) It was hilarious! For the record, I really have nothing against Snowflake and I love the people there; I just did it for rivalry's sake! :) Also, there's two families from Eager that are in my ward! One of them's a Hall and the other is a Davis. So cool!!!

    Another cool miracle this last week, was my companion and I were looking through our area book trying to figure out what formers we should go see and we felt strongly about two of them. So we show up at the address for one of them and a woman comes outside to greet us. It turns out that both the former investigators we wanted to contact lived at this address!! But the one former had moved away, and the other former that still lived there, his mother was the one that greeted us and she's a member but less active!!! She was so excited to see us and asked specifically for us to come back and teach her and try to teach her son and his wife who are not members. It was truly a miracle!!!

 

   There's so much more to tell, but that's the jist of it! Oh, one more thing. Sister Hoemann and I are doing a missionary competition with the youth in our ward for five weeks. We split them all into two teams, and they get points according to what missionary experiences they have during each week. The team with the most points at the end wins a dinner. We presented it to the youth yesterday and they loved it and all the auxiliaries in our ward love it and are so supportive. Our bishop is amazing as well! We absolutely love this ward and the people here!
    To leave you with one spiritual thought, we're sharing a Christmas message with the members in our ward about keeping Christ in Christmas. It's taken from a talk given by President Benson in the 90's. We're also having everyone watch the "He Is The Gift" video on christmas.mormon.org. If you haven't watched this video please do and share it with everyone! And please read this talk. It is amazing!!! President Benson challenges us to be as the wise men of old and always seek Christ. My goal this Christmas season is to memorize "The Living Christ" so that I can keep my thoughts on the Savior. Please, during this season, don't get caught up in the commercialized Christmas. Don't be too busy for Christ!! Instead of buying tons of presents, think of personal gifts you can give to others that mean so much more than a store bought gift. Give a Book of Mormon away as a gift! Wrap it in wrapping paper! That's what we're doing and it's awesome! On Christmas day, find someone or somewhere where you can give service. I promise that as you focus on Christ, your Christmas will be life-changing.

 

Thanks for all the support and prayers and love! I'll admit, I've been a bit discouraged from not having any baptisms yet, but I know that the work I am doing is so meaningful and there are so many blessings that I have received from serving and being very obedient. I love this work and I love this gospel! God bless you all!

God is good!"