Elder Platt Unplugged: Vincy, Mon

Rob had a good week in St. Vincent. By way of explanation, several of his comments are in response to emails or letters he received. When relevant, I've included the pictures he referenced below. Here are his notes from this week: "It was cool to have 3 investigators at church last week. This week we were SUPPOSED to have 6 people at church: 2 of our investigators and 4 of Jevoni's friends that are potentially interested, so that was exciting... until no one showed up. Haha. Poor Jevoni, man. We picked him up at 7:30 to go get an investigator who lived up a huge hill. We had to travel through a steep slick muddy trail and then it rained on us -_____- and on top of all that, as you could've guessed, he wasn't even home. LOL. Jevoni got done cleaning off his shoes and sat next to me and says 'he better come to church.' I told him that he's now a true missionary because he gets to be all muddy and tired and wet and face nothing but disappointment. Bahahaha. He knows it was a joke tho... I hope >.> Good news for the week tho! Casley! I don't know if you remember him, he's Miss V's ex boyfriend who finally moved out and went to the sisters' area. They contacted him and taught him a couple times. But now he's living with his parents in Campden Park! So we are teaching him now and he has a baptismal date AND last time we checked he had quit smoking for 3 days! Pretty cool, right? Gotta hold onto those little things sometimes. Haha. But all in all a pretty good week here in Vincy. [In response to my note about hearing John Welch say he had memorized Matthew 5-7 in German on his mission, Rob wrote:] That actually sounds like it'd be a good idea to memorize the Sermon on the Mount, I might do that. Got enough time on my hands. haha. I'm still upset I never went to Hebrew school... -_____- really wouldve been a great idea... You shouldnt' have given in to peer pressure. Haha. This guy a couple weeks ago gave me a packet of "100 questions to ask your bishop." O boy... some of the stuff in there is really dumb but then again other stuff that you can understand why people are against the church. Lol. But one of the questions was 'Why don't they let Mormons study Hebrew? *face palm* Lol. After I read it I was like, 'what Christian church is adamant about studying Hebrew?' Lol. Anyways, that's been my week. LOL. I got your letters and the picture of my dead zika body from Lyla [see illustration below]. Bahahahaha. I was laughing so hard! The other elders were looking at me like, 'dude, you have a messed up family.' LOL. Loved it. Thanks for the letters. That was interesting to hear about your trip to the Old Testament temple remake thing! That guy sounds really smart! Wish I could just sit down with someone like that and talk for hours, ya know? We get fed like kings out here in Vincy, mon! The T-shirts are Vincy shirts. Sometimes I rep them on P-days. The dog is a little poodle puppy at the member's house that fed us. [See photos below.] Haha. Even poodles in the Caribbean are black ;). Poor Bax! Tell him the poodle was just so I could remember him! I feel like most days happen so unexpectedly out here that I've kinda learned to just go with the flow. :P I like your explanation about the whole rationalize vs. repentance thing. I think all of us are in some way or another guilty of that. But a constant course correction is good for us to become perfect like the Savior. The road is simple but not always easy to follow, as they say. But I sent a picture that Elder Jackson took of us (yes that's a sling shot). Haha. We have dogs chase us a lot and I'm sick of having them bite my foot, so I bought a slingshot in town for like 7 EC (2 dollars American, something like that) and of course the thing broke. So I cut up one of my lighter workout bands and made a new sling for it and now it shoots faster than ever! Bahaha. #missionlife. I modified my backpack as well and sowed 2 pouches on the sides, one for the slingshot and one for the rocks. ;) No more dogs. Haha. Doing my own kind of pest control out here. lol. Raised by the best, ya know? Thanks for the encouragement as always. It always builds me up for the week. I don't know how people do it without loved ones sending them support from home, really does mean a lot so thank you. Tell Pres. Fisler and Brother Quinn I said hello and miss them both, and thank them for being awesome leaders! Anyways, I g2g. One love! Bless up. Thanks for the support. Love you guys!"

Some of Rob's nieces and nephews call him "Uncle Stinky." This is the lovely picture Lyla (age 6) drew and sent to Rob. The caption she wrote was, "I hope Zika virus doesn't kill you because you would stink worse if you were dead."