Words from Sister Brittany Platt in Colorado

Olo everybody!!!

So, to start off this e-mail I want to share a funny experience. Last Tuesday Chick-Fil-A was giving away free food if you came in dressed as a cow.....I've never done anything like that before.....until Tuesday!!! We got a call from a member asking if we wanted to go with them and she'd provide the cow get-up. So, we met her at the restaurant and as we pulled up, we saw her mini van decked out in cow spots. Awesome! She gave us cow tunic thingy's to wear and signs that read "Eat more chiken" and she and her daughter were decked out as well (and her baby stroller). We proudly put our nametags on our tunics and walked in to get some free chicken! It was SO fun! We got some weird looks and we had others tell us they liked our costumes! Who said missionaries can't have fun on their missions? #creativefinding #freefood 

 

We had some awesome miracles this week! We finally put Jade on bap date for August 1st!! Woo hoo! She didn't fast last Sunday, :( but we're praying she gets some answer soon that will solidify her desire to be baptized. We're also trying to help her recognize that she has received answers already. Sadly, her dad won't let her go to Girl's Camp. :( But, we're praying for a miracle! I know if it doesn't happen August 1st, it will happen. Funny story about Jade: when we asked her about one of the scriptures we had assigned her to read, she told us at first she was SUPER confused and a little worried. But then she realized later she had read the wrong verse! You hear stories of this happening on missions......well it happened to me! Haha. I had assigned her to read my favorite scripture which is 1 Nephi 13:37 which reads: "And blessed are they who shall seek to bring forth my Zion at that day, for they shall have the gift and the power of the Holy Ghost; and if they endure unto the end they shall be lifted up at the last day, and shall be saved in the everlasting kingdom of the Lamb; and whoso shall publish peace, yea, tidings of great joy, how beautiful upon the mountains shall they be." But this is what she read instead: 1 Nephi 13:27: "And all this have they done that they might pervert the right ways of the Lord, that they might blind the eyes and harden the hearts of the children of men." We laughed SO hard! I'm glad she figured out the right verse in the end. Disaster averted! Whew!

 

Also, we finally met with one of our investigators Faith this week (she's cancelled on us the last 3 weeks) and we had a really good lesson with her. Her progression is SUPER slow, but I'm confident that she will be baptized one day. Also, she's semi-Catholic and we asked if we could go to mass with her and she accepted! So, we're going on Saturday. I'm excited! I love mass and it will be a really cool experience. We did a ton of service for non-members this week and it was great! We had a part-member family, the Conrads, move into the ward and we went and helped unload and unpack and we're going back this week. AND, we will hopefully start teaching the daughter. The grandmother was actually taught and baptized by one of my former favorite Sister Training Leaders. Shout out to Sister Hunter!! So, I'm excited to see how that goes. We did service for Jeanie and had a wonderful time with her! Her progression is SUPER slow as well, but she's progressing none-the-less!

 

Another semi-funny story: we got invited by a member to go help shovel rocks for his non-member friend. When we showed up, there were several members from the elder's quorum there, but we were the only females. We had a good time and talked to the non-member's wife quite a bit. We found out after church on Sunday that they had discussed in Elder's Quorum about how we had pretty much out-worked all of them there and they were shocked! #smalltowngirlsknowhowtowork  #poweroftheskirt.  #araphoecowgirls (sorry, our mission does a lot of hash tags and I've picked up the habit. ~sigh~ gotta love the mission culture!)

 

One more miracle: we kicked-off a primary missionary competition on Sunday with the Primary kids and they were super excited! We got a phone call from one young girl this morning informing us that she had written her testimony in a Book of Mormon and had given it to her neighbors, and they told her they would read it!!! Miracles miracles!! Sometimes I think we should send children out to share the gospel because they are fearless and full of love! How I love children and am grateful for the missionaries they are!

 

So my spiritual thought for the week: we had a ton of meetings this week (2 zone meetings and 1 mission meeting, plus a few mini meetings). We talked quite a bit about personal integrity and I realized how important our integrity is. We always hear the story of Job, but one of our zone leaders pointed out something very interesting to me: he said that after Job had lost everything, all he had were the clothes on his back and the hair on his head. But, he rent his clothes and shaved his head and then praised the Lord. How incredible is that? The last two things he had on this earth he gave up, and then gave himself to God. He praised God when he literally had nothing! I keep asking myself the question: Would I praise God if I literally had nothing? If everything was taken away and all I had was myself? I love what Job says: "Till I die I will not remove mine integrity from me.” (Job 27:5) I had one man we'd tracted into ask me that if my head was on the chopping block and my life was about to be taken from me, would I deny the Savior? I boldly told him I would never do so, but then he kept challenging me and said I wouldn't know that until my life was really on the line. As I've pondered on that, I've determined that if I live for the Savior now, if I give my life to Him NOW, then if that time ever does come for me there won't be a question in my mind about boldly declaring that Jesus Christ lives and He is my Savior. A lot of us are willing to die for the Savior, but are we willing to live for Him? If we don't live for Him, how will we know (when the time comes) that we are willing to give our life for Him? Who we are as a whole, right now, is personal integrity. To quote Elder Worthlin "....to me, integrity means always doing what is right and good, regardless of the immediate consequences. It means being righteous from the very depth of our soul, not only in our actions but, more importantly, in our thoughts and in our hearts. Personal integrity implies such trustworthiness and incorruptibility that we are incapable of being false to a trust or covenant." Please remember that this life is a time for men to prepare to meet God, not a time to watch 6 hours of T.V. every day, or go boating every day all day, or get so busy that we don't read our scriptures or pray. Yes, there is a time and a place for all of that. But if it is replacing or taking away from our purpose in this life, then we need to change and we need to change now! If we keep putting off change to tomorrow, then we'll have a bunch of empty today's.

 

Well, I hope you all have a wonderful week filled with missionary opportunities and a greater love for and conversion to the gospel of Jesus Christ! Thank you all for who you are and what you do!

Love, Sister Platt

#1,001

#Godisgood