Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Vicky's Baptism was great!! "If the leaders are strong, the mission will be strong." Such a cool training by President Taggart


Vicky's Baptism was awesome!!!

Hello Family,
I cant believe that Dad has a short time left as bishop! I am glad the bishopric Christmas party went well. Vickys baptism went great. The night before she did not show up for her baptism interview because her dad forgot. We finally got a hold of her dad and said he could bring her in the morning. We did an emergency exchange with the zone leaders and they did the interview and she passed! The service went well and there was such a great spirit! Will not forget it. Tomorrow we are going to the Manhattan temple! I will let you know how it goes! Love you all!

Elder Plummer

Hola papi
Pues no ha nevado aqui tampoco. QuƩ chevere que Elder Perry vino a nuestra estaca! This is how our investigators are doing:
Natalia: We talked about her coffee addiction and really wants to give up coffee. She has been drinking coffee for over 50 years and is very dependent on it. We still are going to give her the coffee substitute and for now she is going to try to give it up. We got her for baptismal date for January 11th! She is really showing that she will prepare.
Andrea: We were contacting this complex building when we felt that we should try the basement. It looked old and beaten and we were a little scared to go in. But we knocked into this kind Salvadorian family. We asked if we could share a video called He is the Gift. They pulled it up on their smart phone and said it was beautiful. They invited us in and we introduced the BOM to them. They said they will read it. The video was perfect to bring in the spirit. We saw them a couple days later and we went into the lesson planning to teach the restoration. As we were having some small talk we both felt impressed to teach Plan of Salvation. They were all attentive. Andrea, Christian and his sister. We found out that Andrea was investigating our church down in El Salvador and has been wanting to keep investigating. The spirit is amazing!
Alejandro: We started reading 1 Nephi with him when he started to have an intense headache. He asked if we could come another time. We actually saw him today and gave him a blessing of healing. After he said he felt ok and explained to him that he needs to show his faith. We taught them the word of wisdom last time and we found out today that the wife and the children have stopped drinking coffee and Alejandro is slowing drinking less. It was great to hear!
Adriana: We had a good discussion on how we can know what is truth. We explained to her that the spirit plays a huge role along with study and prayer. We invited her for baptism on January 11 and said she is going to pray about it. Pray for her.
Yahoni: We read with her the whole introduction of the BOM with her. She really wanted to know what this book is about. The spirit just filled the room and asked how she felt. She responded that she felt peace. Such an amazing lesson.
Ramon: We went through the Word of Wisdom and Law of chastity with them. When we committed them to live the word of wisdom they said they would follow it without hesitation! Ramon though said he knows that this is right and said he is going to reduce his coffee drinking until he does not need it. This family is so ready to be baptized. They just need to attend church a couple more times and they are ready. We are excited for them.
Just want to share a quick story. The other night we went to this taco restaurant that a sister recommended. We went and as we were ordering the waitress stopped us and asked if we are Mormon missionaries. We said yes and said that she was meeting with missionaries back in El Salvador and was baptized and has been looking for the missionaries for a long time. She said that she has been feeling something is missing in her life. We found out she lives in New Jersey and gave the information to the missionaries down in Northern Jersey. It is so cool we found these two Salvadorians that were looking for us and how the Lord guided us to them.
It has been a humbling experience as District Leader. I have learned so much already. Last Friday I went to Leadership training and was such a great experience. President Taggart gave a great training on the importance of leadership. He said," if the leaders are strong, the mission will be strong." Such a cool training.
Well,  I love you all!
Elder Plummer
  

Tuesday, December 9, 2014

Grateful to be a simple tool in the Lords hands!



I'm going to miss Elder Leon from Peru (to my right) 




Emmanuel, he is the bomb, our 24/7 team 

David, another great helper

Alex, a wonderful new member 

Teaching Doctrine Class on Sunday 

Nelson, a faithful great member

Brother Perpingnand, our ward mission leader 

Our first counselor

The Vargas family, they are wonderful 

The Baldwins are a great support to the missionaries

Plainfield reunion in Newark with our investigator Efrain

We take our workouts very seriously 

Dear family,

Last night we got the transfer text and Elder Muro and I are staying together for six more weeks! I also received a call to be a district leader. I am really nervous but excited for the task.
 I am grateful to be in New City. We had a great week. Here is how our investigators are doing:
Alejandro: He is doing great! We taught him the word of wisdom and said that he does not drink or smoke but has a cup of coffee every morning. But when we taught him that he said that he will slowly give it up and we suggested trying Orca, a coffee substitute and said he is going to try it. We also visited him last Friday and we decided to read with him 1 Nephi 1 but we had to end early because of he got a migraine that he has had for years and doctors can not figure it out. We are going to give him a blessing this week.
Kaylee: We taught her the Plan of Salvation with her husband. They where both distracted with their smartphone and their children and at the end her husband said that they were Catholic and are already saved. We invited them to pray about the church and read the BOM sincerely. They said maybe. We are debating dropping them but we are going to pray about it.
Rosalino: He is reading everyday in the BOM but sometimes does not know what he reads. So we read a chapter with him. He got alot out of it and we are now going to read with our investigator the BOM. He is progressing slowly but surely.
Yahoni: We found this Dominican lady by contacting this apartment complex. We shared with her the restoration and responded well. We saw her two days later and we decided to reteach the restoration but was very distracted. She is reading the BOM and progressing.
Ramon: We went over the 10 commandments and encouraged to keep reading. He is just embracing the gospel and wants him and his kids to be very involved in the church. We are going to invite him to baptism soon.
Vicky: She is going to be baptized this Sunday. We went last week and sang some Christmas carols and had a good time.
Yanilsa: She is Adriana's daughter and has alot of interest. She is reading but sometimes does not understand what she reads. But we are now going to read with her.
Biombi: We met him at his Seventh Day Adventist Church which was all in French. We found him a couple months ago and turned him over to the sister but had to drop him because he was getting very attached to them. But decided to pick him up as an inv. We stayed for the first part of it and we felt a good spirit there. Knowing that they were trying to find God was really cool. Their pastor introduced to us this program to learn to be baptized in their church. It was interesting to be the investigator at their church. They gave us their vision of the Bible and a Spanish 7th day Adventist book. We shared with him James 1:5 about asking for truth. 

Last Saturday night we were with this member to help us teach this investigator. Ended up he was not there so we felt that we should visit Sister Mendez who has been fighting with terminal cancer. When we got there she was wondering if we received a call from Sister Pena to give her a blessing. We said no and was surprised because she asked her to call us. We gave her a blessing of healing and I had the opportunity to seal the blessing. The spirit was working through me and blessed her that she would be healed as the afflicted were healed by Christ. I could not believe what I said but the spirit was very strong. Grateful to be a simple tool in the Lords hands. Well, I love you all so very much! All of you have shaped me to the person I am today. The Lord truly is guiding our lives.
Love,
Elder Plummer

Thursday, December 4, 2014

Love being a missionary! This month the focus is on Consecration!!



Thanksgiving was amazing!!!

Surprise party for a ward member, keep calm and never give up 




Our own snowman

Elder Muro, Elder Plummer and our new investigator, Mr. Snowman

Supporting the great party!!




Hey family!
I can just imagine Thanksgiving with all the Cooks, Ortizes, Tia Pilar y Tio Mike y las bellas. Sounds like fun! Send them my love as well! We also had fun playing Turkey Bowl in Paterson, NJ. We played with two other zones and some members. Our team was 1-5, haha it was fun. Thank you so much mom for the packages! I am excited to receive them! You are the best! I use the magic bullet daily for green smoothies. I put strawberries, spinach, honey, bananas, peanut butter, and a little bit of protein powder. I also do have a nearby JCpenny's. That is so nice of Grandma. I will make sure to thank her.
We had a great Thanksgiving with the McCarters! She is an amazing cook! She made amazing mashed potatoes with turkey, bread stuffing, cranberry jam and a lot of veggies. We also had so many pies to choose from. I will send a picture of them. We have not made the papa la huancaina yet, but we will!
This is how our investigators are doing:
Ramon: I was on exchange when Elder Muro and Leon visited them. He said that they taught the first half of the commandments and went very well. He had work yesterday so he could not come to church but he is going next Sunday!
Adriana: I was also on exchange but Elder Muro said they had a great plan of salvation lesson. She is still trying to find time for church and is making an effort.
Vicky: She will be baptized on December 14th by the first councilor Brother Wilson! We did a fun jeopardy game review all the five lessons. She is still reading and doing great and the next lesson we will go through the baptismal questions.
Jose T. we saw him last Friday and had a good lesson on reading the scriptures based of the simple scripture 1 Nephi 1 12, about how Lehi was filled with the Holy Ghost when he read the scriptures. The spirit was very present. He then gave us some yam dish from El Salvador. It was really good.
Filadelfo: It was a great lesson. We taught them the word of Wisdom and law of chastity. It went very well. We are helping him work on the simple things like reading, praying and going to church. Such a loving family.
Andrea: We found her contacting in the streets. She is from Haiti and we had a great restoration lesson! She actually had been taught by the missionaries before and had a huge bible that we give out for the visually impaired. She is so golden but we have to pass her off to the sisters.
Dora: She has been struggling in paying rent and has not been able to come to church. We showed her the new Christmas video and she absolutely loved it. She is still reading and praying and progressing well. She is planing to get baptized in January.
This months focus is on consecration. It is when we remove all distraction and try to be exactly obedient. I was reading in personal study in Jacob and read a scripture that perfectly highlights our purpose. It is found in Jacob 1:7 and it says, "Wherefore we labored diligently among our people, that we might persuade them to come unto Christ, and partake of the goodness of God, that they might enter into his rest, lest by any means he should swear in his wrath they should not enter in, as in the provocation in the days of temptation while the children of Israel were in the wilderness." This is way we labor diligently to bring salvation and eternal life to man. Being a missionary is seriously the best thing! I love each and every one of you so very much. You are all the best!
Love,
Elder Plummer

Monday, November 10, 2014

"He will make weak things be strong unto us....."


Dear Family,
Thanks for the pictures of your Dallas trip mom and dad. Looked like you had a lot of fun. We are going to try to make the papa a la huancaina sometime this week. I will let you know how it goes. We will try the tallarin verde as well. Members feed us once every two weeks which is a good amount. I am going to try to eat healthier. I have felt we have been doing good eating good but we will improve. I have just been maintaining weight as well. Looks like for Thanksgiving we will be eating with the McCarter family who are amazing cooks. They are an awesome family; both RM and super funny. Thank you for sending a package! I think just a lot of protein bars and snacks will do. Thank you.
This is how our investigators are doing:
Alejandro: He is progressing very well and wants to be baptized. We will have to move his baptismal date November 16th to a couple weeks back because of his lack of attendance at church. He has been having a hard time getting work off on Sundays because of his boss. We decided that we would do a fast and asked if they would like to join. They accepted and designated a day that we would fast which was last Thursday. We met with them last Saturday and taught them the 10 commandments which went very well. He said that he is going to ask his boss on Sunday so we are still waiting for his bosses response.
Ana: She is a new investigator we picked up from Ecuador. We introduced the BOM to her and was not to sure if she will have time to read it. The next time she said she did not read the intro so we read with her. This time she was more attentive and asked the right questions. We have an appointment with her this week.
Victoria: She is the daughter of a less active that is coming back to church. She is nine years old and we have asked to teach her. They are from Haiti and are so awesome. We have taught her the restoration and the plan of salvation and understood it. We gave her a childrens BOM and has read almost half of it already in one day! She is progressing well.
Daniella: She is a new investigator that we picked up from Ecuador with two girls. She said she has not had time to go to church because she works all the time. But said that this is the push she needs to go. We had a great first lesson with her about the BOM and invited us back for next Thursday.
Mario Jr. He came to church yesterday! He really enjoyed priesthood but not really sacrament meeting. We also taught him law of chastity last week and said that he just got married to his girlfriend that he has been living with for eight years six months ago! We were so happy for him. We invited him for baptism but said he needs a little more time.
Rosalino: Taught him the 10 commandments which went very well. He has been progressing well. We are still working with him to understand that there is only one true church. He is great and has a strong testimony of Christ.
Filadelfo: We taught him 10 commandments as well after a couple weeks not seeing him. He is still reading in the BOM and his reading ability is also still improving. He is so awesome still trying to help him understand that keeping the Sabbath day holy is important.
Ruben: This is our investigator we have not seen in a little while. He welcomed us back warmly and we had a great restoration lesson. We committed him to read 2 Nephi 31. He gave us a great summary of the introduction as well. He is awesome!
We are going to start focusing on less actives such as Paul, Glendy and Hermano Chinchilla. My Spanish is getting a little bit better with the help of Elder Muro. Grateful to be a missionary. I really like the scripture in Ether 12: 27. I know it is true as the Lord has strengthened my weaknesses. I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay very much!
Elder Plummer

Monday, November 3, 2014

My new companion is my high school buddy, Elder Muro originally from Peru via Orem, Utah!! By small and simple things, are great things brought to pass!

Elder Leon, Elder Stretch, my companion and I.

My wonderful trainer, Elder Jeffries

Ok, this is so cool to have my high school buddy, Elder Muro as companion

We are working hard and also having a great time!!! 
Gorgeous New York State



Dear Family,

What a great week! I now know the basics of French like introducing myself. It has come very handy. So my new companion is....ELDER MURO!!!!! We cannot believe it!! We were put as companions last Tuesday. It has been dropping into the 40s but we are staying warm. This is how our investigators are doing:
Rosalino: This was Elder Muro's first lesson in New City and they hit it off very well. We taught him the importance of scripture study, church attendance and praying. We then invited him to church but said he has work. We promised him as he made an effort to put church first he will be blessed economically and spiritually. He said that he will make the effort and will come next Sunday. Such an humble and awesome guy.
Glendy: She is less active but is planning to come back to church. Last week we taught her the plan of salvation which answered some questions about were her grandmother is going to go after this life. It was a very good lesson. We are planning to visit her weekly to clear up some questions she has about the church.
Adriana: We found her after a month and a half. She has been in the Dominican Republic for a couple weeks. But we had a good lesson on the importance of being baptized by someone with the authority of God. She said that she was baptized and does not want to keep getting baptized. We asked why do you think Jesus went to John who was far away in Galilee? We then explained the importance of correct authority. We felt like more of the problem was her testimony of Joseph Smith. We invited her to pray about the church and Joseph Smith. Great lesson.
Mario: He has been busy with work this week. We have set up an appointment this week though. Alejandro: Has been very busy with his family but we will see him this week.

Elder Muro has helped me with my Spanish already. I have learned so much. This week we have been working with many less actives and helping Elder Muro know the area. It has been a great week. One of my favorite scriptures is in Alma 37 which says, "that by small and simple things are great things brought to pass; and small means in many instances doth confound the wise." I have seen on my mission that truly the small things like reading scriptures and praying bring a power that is great. I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay so very much. Grateful to be a missionary!!
Love,
Elder Plummer

October 27, 2014 - "If God be with us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31


The languages spoken in our district
Our awesome funny district


Hermana Montero makes the best Dominican food around:)

Emmanuel (our Haitian member) best team ever!

CĆ³mo estĆ”n?
Another terrific week and many miracles!
I had a great experience last Thursday night. We were at a ward activity when suddenly I had the impression to call a potential member that we contacted a week ago. When I called her she was  happy to hear from us and was more than willing to set up an appointment with us for this weekend. We went that Friday and ended up that she was not there but her husband was and invited us in. He is from Ecuador and speaks quechua! I told him that I knew a couple vocab words from my dad and grandmother and was very surprised. He then explained that there are many types of dialects of quechua,  it was a fun conversation. We then introduced the BOM and explained that the record could be of his ancestors. That really perked his attention and said that he will read the introduction. Great lesson! His name is Ruben and can not pick him up as an investigator until the second lesson to see if he has more commitment, but sure we will pick him up soon.
This is how our investigators are doing:
Rosalino: I taught Rosalino when I was on exchange with our district leader Elder Leon who is from Lima, Peru! We finished the Plan of Salvation and responded very well. We invited him to be baptized again but said he needs more time. Then, Elder Leon taught him how to pray but we are working with him to say his prayers vocally. He is so awesome.
Glendy: She is an less active that we finally found her after two and half months of not seeing her. She said that she has had some doubts about the church and the organization. We reminded her that it is ok to sometimes have doubts but to go to the source of all truth which is ask of God. We shared James 1:5 and encouraged her to not listen to the lies that her sister tells her about the church but to ask God with real intent. She said she will and we have an return appointment next week.
Iris: We taught her the first half of the plan of salvation and said that this is a beautiful plan and has always wondered where she came from. We had to stop half way due to time but she really wanted to know where we go after we die? We left her with that question and some homework in the plan of salvation pamphlet. She responded well to the lesson and we will see her next week. We are working with her to read the BOM and pray, but says she is always taking care of her kids and has some opposition from her husband. But she is trying.
Alejandro/Rosa: We taught them the importance of church attendance, praying and reading scriptures by using an object lesson with pennies to direct our life's towards Christ. They really like the object lesson and had some friends of Rosa and Alejandro that listen very intensively. Great lesson. Alejandro found out that his boss said that he can not go in early to work on Sunday so he could be able to go to church at 10am. He said though that is not going to stop him and is going to talk to someone higher up in rank. He is so awesome and is excited for his baptism on November 16th. We just got to get him to attend church three times before he is baptized. I know the Lord will provide a way!!!
Mario: We taught him as well the importance of scripture reading, church attendance and praying by using the object lesson the pennies. He liked it as well. He said that he has not been reading in the BOM due to a lot of work but really wants to go to church. He has been trying as well to get work off but his boss is very harsh but said he will be passively persistent. It was a great lesson.
Bishop: We had dinner with bishop last Saturday night and we had pork, potatoes and salad which was very good. Bishop Weiss is so funny! He grew up in Europe and knows Italian, German and a little bit of Spanish. He has a fun accent and has some dry fun humor. He told us his conversion story in New York City through his wife who was a model in Manhattan. He was amazed by the peace and selflessness of his wife at the time that he wanted so badly to get that peace. It was a really cool story. They are a very service oriented family. They are awesome.
Moses: We taught him the importance of tithing and shared the scripture in Malachi about the promised blessings for paying. He understood it very well and said that he will pay when he is baptized. We also talked to his mom who is a very devoted Catholic about him going to church and mutual and that she will be able to meet the adult that will be picking him up. That was her primary concern that adults she did not know picking up her son. She said that is ok and said we will bring our member next week. Our member is also Dominican so we think they will hit it off great!
Evia: She is from Mexico and is a referral that the sisters gave us like a month and a half ago. She just had a baby and was recovering these past couple weeks which is why we could not see her. She started off saying that she only believes the bible and that she will not change from being Catholic. We introduced the Book of Mormon in a way that she could experiment to see if the book is not true. She responded well to our approach and said she will give the book a try and pray about it. She said that she will call us when she has read the chapters we assigned her to read and prayed about it.

So, for Halloween we have to go home in early on the 30th and the 31st at 6pm due to a lot of pranks that happens on those two nights. So we will be most likely planning, cooking or watching 17 Miracles. We will see. I love my mission and I have grown so much spiritually. Just want to share Romans 8: 31 which reads, "What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?" I know that is scripture is true that with God on our side all things are possible and that there is nothing that we can not overcome. Love you all.
Elder Plummer

October 20, 2014 - Pressing forward!!!!!



Hello Family,
What a great week. The temperature is now dropping below sixty but actually bought a sweater a couple weeks ago and have many warm jackets. Thank you for checking mom. :) I just bought some protein as well and looks like it will last me a while. This is how our investigators are doing:
Alejandro: We taught him last Wednesday the Plan of Salvation with four or five of his friends that were there. It went very well and the spirit was strong and after we taught the kingdoms of glories Rosa turned to her husband and said,"this all makes sense." It was so cool. Alejandro is still set to be baptized November 16th! Rosa asked the question why we do not pray to the virgin Mary and explained the scripture that we pray to the father in the name of the son. We then felt prompted to go over the steps to pray. After we explained it, one of Alejandro's friends said that he has always wondered the step to prayer. It was really cool! The others that were present were very attentive and understood everything we taught. There were some that showed interest but most of them said that they are Evangelists. He said he is in the process of able to go in to work earlier so he can attend church. It was a great lesson.
Rosalino: Taught him the first half of the Plan of Salvation and was very attentive. He really enjoyed it. We are working with him to try to get work off on Sundays. He is so awesome and works almost 14 to 15 hours a day of manual labor and is trying to get his kids over from Peru. He also still finds time to read the BOM a couple times a week.
Justin: He was very busy this week and said we can come back next and teach him a lesson. He lives with his Aunt and a lot of the time is not home.
Natalia: We taught her a short lesson at her door about the Word of Wisdom. She said that she has tried everything to get off coffee. We then felt prompted to ask if she has every tired Orca, a substitute for coffee with out the coffee bean. She said she has not and we are going to get her some this next week. She was excited to try something new to stop her addiction.
Bicente & Dora: We did not see them this last week due to over time at work but said they are going to try to go to English class tonight!
We have been mostly working with our less actives this past week such as Paul who has not attended church for three weeks. He has been working so much and has been sick as well. He wants us to teach his daughter to get her ready for baptism. We had a great time with him this last week. He has been teaching us some French which helped him to open up a lot to us. Also we have worked a lot with Hermano Chinchilla helping him to find the desire to come back to church. He has had a hard life back in El Salvador. He is great guy. Last Saturday we helped the first councilor in the elders quorum finally move in to his new house after six months living in a rental. They are from New Mexico and are an awesome kind family. We moved all day Saturday and cleaned a lot of his house as he finalized the deal with the realtor agent. This might be my last week with Elder Pearson but we will know for sure this Sunday. Well I love Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay all so very much.
Love,
Elder Plummer

Monday, October 13, 2014

Splits with Elder Ayres from Canada - October 13, 2014

BBQ with our zone by the Hudson River

Hola Familia,
What a week! This week my companion had leadership training because he is a newer missionary for two days and I stayed in anEnglish area with Elder Ayres from Canada in Emerson, New Jersey. Emerson is a very wealthy area and what they have to resort to is a lot of door contacting. Elder Ayres just has a way with connecting with people especially with the elderly. We knocked doors for a good two hours and contacted many prepared people. We contacted a lot of Catholic teachers but met one that was investigating the Jehovah's Witness church. She said she is open to all religion and gladly accepted a Book of Mormon to study. She was really nice and said they could come back. We then went to visit a less active at a rest home and ended up contacting an elderly lady named Betty who said she has not been to a church for a couple years because she has no transportation. She said that her daughter is a Mormon but is less active. She said she just wants to attend a church does not matter what kind. She got excited when we told her that someone can come and pick her up. We ended up singing "I am a child of God" and she absolutely loved it.
On Thursday we had the opportunity to watch "Meet the Mormons." I loved it! My favorite was of course the Navy coach and the Candy bomber. They were all really good especially the missionary mom. This is how our investigators are doing:
Iris: We retaught the restoration in a more spiritually conducive environment. It went very well and really liked the first vision and said she believes it. She had some very good questions and she had been reading the BOM consistently everyday. Her husband does not like our church for some reason so she has asked us to come early afternoons when he is not there.
Alejandro: He is the husband of Rosa and we taught him the restoration last Tuesday. The spirit was present and strong and was very attentive to our message. We invited him to be baptized and he accepted! We then taught him again last Saturday the Gospel of Jesus Christ and had another great lesson. He was less attentive but understood and felt the truthfulness of our message. We invited him to be baptized on November 16th and he accepted! He committed him to pray about it first and also with his wife so they can be baptized together.
Kaylee: We had a quick door lesson with her because she was in a hurry but said she has been reading only a little bit in the BOM and has been very busy with her children. We will see her this week.
Justin: He has been reading the BOM every day but only a little bit. We taught him the restoration and tried to ask him some questions to get him to participate but just gave couple word answers. He was very attentive and sincere. He is a great guy that is a little shy but wants to do what is right.
Filadelfo: We taught him the commandment to read the scriptures, say his prayers and attend church by using an object lesson with pennies. We made a triangle out of 10 pennies pointing the opposite direction of a picture of Jesus Christ. We asked them to move the triangle pointing at Christ by only moving three pennies. It took them a while to figure it out but turned out a member that accompanied us figured it out. He just moved the three outer pennies to have it point at Christ. We related this object lesson by saying if you do the three simple things of reading, praying and attending church you will be following Christ and does not matter what crazy, busy things we have to do as long as we put those three things first. They really like the lesson and felt a great spirit.
Rosalino: We taught him the gospel of Jesus Christ and went very well. He had a lot of great insights about following Christ. We had our Haitian member present and shared some great insights on the holy ghost as well. We invited him to be baptized again but said he still needs to prepare and get his life in more in order. We explained to him that to be baptized is only a goal and that we would help him get to the level of preparation. He is so awesome and loving.
Natalia: We visited her last Saturday and told us she has been having a lot of pain in her chest. We offered her a blessing of comfort and accepted. The spirit was strong after we gave it and shared Alma 7: 11-12 about Christ suffering for us. We have decided to drop her because she is not keeping commitments and has lost interest as well. We will still visit her periodically to see how she is doing.
Mario: He just recover from a chemical exposure and has been doing better. We taught him the Plan of Salvation with a great diagram that my companion had. He said that it all made sense to him and feels like he has a better direction on where he is going. He said that he is going to read more in the BOM. He was also talking with us about how he likes our standards of no smoking and drinking and that we follow them and really wants to follow them as well. He is awesome.
Moses: Went over law of chastity and talked about mutual with him and his mom. He responded well to the law of chastity lesson and would like to attend mutual. We told him and his mom and that we could get a brother to come and take him to mutual. She said she first wants to meet him and she will think about it as well. So we are going to set up an appointment with her and Hermano Pena. Moses is progressing well. So awesome!
Bicente & Dora: We taught Bicente the restoration and the gospel of Jesus Christ yesterday without Dora because she was on her way out the door to Queens. He said that he has been taught by missionaries before in the DR and remembered a lot about the restoration and the gospel of Jesus Christ. He said he still wants to be baptized and we committed him to pray with Dora for a date to get baptized. They have been reading a lot and have been sharing the BOM with all there family members that have come to her house. They are an awesome couple.
Last night we visited Sister Mendez who came to church yesterday for the first time in a while due to breast cancer. She has not been getting better but had a great positive attitude and read the Beattitudes in Mathew with her with Hermano Pena. It was a great visit with her and could feel her awesome spirit with her four little kids.
We also visited the Vargus family. We first taught Sister Vargus right outside her door and she was telling us the hard time she is having with her husband. She is very active in the church and served a mission but Hermano Vargus is not. She started to cry and we tried to comfort her. Her husband came back and we had a great lesson on Helamen 5:12 with a object lesson. We had a can and asked them what would they think would happen if someone throw a can at my fingers. They said that it would break them. But them asked what would happen if I smashed my fingers on a table with a can. They said the damage would be worse. I them smashed my fingers with the can and nothing happened because there is a little air in the can that conforms to the shape of your fingers. We related that by saying we need to be build upon the rock of Christ so when the trials come, the blow will not be drastic. They really liked the lesson and we had a great chat with them after. They are a great family. I really love them. I am so grateful to be a missionary and see how the gospel changes lives. Well, I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay all so much! Thank you for your unfailing love and prayers in my behalf.
Love,
Elder Plummer

General Conference was amazing!!!! October 6, 2014


Dear Family!
What an amazing general conference. I am glad you had a great Happy Birthday Mom! How do you like the shirt? President Taggart has been pushing all missionaries to request "Meet the Mormons" in New Jersey but we have not received enough requests yet. We have seen the trailers and they look great. Hope it does well! I loved the talk by Elder Holland about assisting the poor. Also the talk by Elder Robins about not lowering our standards to the worlds. Really put it in perspective. Elder Scotts talk on the importance of Scripture study and FHE really hit home to me. The brother that gave the talk about the young mother who turned off the TV so that they could have more time to study reminded me of you mom! Grateful for you constant reminder to put education first. I have really seen the fruits. We have been contacting Haitians in French and only know how to say the basics but I am learning. It is really great! This is how are investigators are doing:
Kaylee: She is a former that we only visit periodically because she usually does not keep commitments. But this time when we visited her last Tuesday she told us the real reason why she does not read the BOM. She said that she tried reading it with her boyfriend but would always end up arguing. She also does not have time to read it as well. We said that if she listened to the BOM every day for 10 minutes she will find the peace she is looking for. She then whipped out her iPhone and started to download the LDS app. She has really shown a desire and we are excited to see how it goes.
Filadelfo: He is progressing well. We gave him a promise that if he reads everyday from the BOM for three months he will overcome his struggle to read and improve his reading ability drastically. He has really taken our promise to heart and is reading everyday and it has been a month and a half already. He said that his reading ability has improved! We taught the five points of the gospel and had a great spirit there. He is still looking for his answer to know if the BOM is true.
Justin: He is a English referral from the sisters. They said it started to get a little weird for them and decided that they wanted us to teach him. He is in his early 20s and is very shy and quiet. We introduced to BOM to him and invited him for baptism and he has accepted! Very humble and sincere guy. He is going to go far!
Naomi: she is back in Guatemala but had a great lesson with her on prayer. We said good bye to her and said she will look up the missionaries in her area. We are excited for her and looking forward to teach her children who are still here in New City.
Juan(Less active): He is from Puerto Rico and is about 70 years old. He was baptized 10 years ago in the church but lost contact right after that. He ran into the sister the other day and they wrote down his contact information. He has had some brain damage but is still able to hold a job and carry out the routine of life. He wants to come out and help us preach the gospel and be a member missionary. He also came to general conference and absolutely loved it! Such a great guy!

Dora: She has been extremely busy and we have not been able to visit her. We are hoping next week. Still wants to be baptized.

We could not visit all of our investigators due to conference. Our English class has been struggling but I think this week it is going to increase the attendance. I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner, Mckay!

Elder Plummer


Our wonderful hungarian grandmother non-member neighbor, Ann, she always shares her food with us

George Washington Bridge and Harlem in the background

Doing service at the famous Rockland bakery, yummy!!!

Friday, October 10, 2014

Birthday boy is 20 years old, feliz cumpleaƱos, Elder Plummer!!!!


Dear amazing family,
I absolutely loved the package I received! I love the patterns on the ties and the colors. So excited to eat the alfajores! The belt is perfect! My companion has the exact same belt but has had some problems with it (leather was kind of shredded off) but thinks he has been too rough on his belt. But I will keep an eye on it. Thank you for the pen and notepads and the bars! I am going to read the French book as well. Thank you for the 17 Miracles DVD. Excited to watch it one of these P-days!
Yesterday we had zone conference with a seventy which is why we have a p-day today. It was an amazing conference. Elder Anderson from the first quorum of the seventy came and spoke to us yesterday about the our purpose as missionaries. He talked about why a lot of investigators do not keep commitments and talked about the difference between head, heart and soul knowledge. Head knowledge is like memorizing and heart knowledge is when it sparks a desire by the Holy Ghost or other motives. Soul knowledge is when they act on there desire and where the true testimony in acquired. It was an amazing training. We also heard from Sister Anderson who addressed us on patterns which make us happy. Some the patterns she mentioned were scripture study, prayer, disciplined schedule, etc. And talked about maintaining those patterns that make one happy after you mission. She also did a comparison with her family as a zone, saying her husband is the zone leader and she is his companion. Her children and grandchildren are there investigators. She reported the number of her children that were baptized, received the priesthood and endowed and sealed in the temple. It was a really cool comparison. Life is just like the mission. She referred the mission as a spiritual boot camp to help us to have a spiritual foundation for the rest of our lives and for eternities. Amazing training. Alot of the focus by the Taggarts was loving ourselves by recognizing God's love for others. Amazing training. The assistants presented a plan to do better effective contacts with the Introduce, feel, felt, question approach. It is very inspired and are going to implement it. Excited to use it.
Investigators are doing great!
Mario: We taught him last Tuesday about the Plan of Salvation. He just told us about his brother who was just killed in Guatemala before we taught him. He really took the news hard and was really struggling. We prayed for him and felt impressed to teach the Plan of Salvation. He was in a lot of pain for his surgery on his shoulder and had a hard time focusing on the lesson. We tried to go through the lesson as quick as possible because of how much pain he was in. He said he will keep reading the BOM and we can come back latter on next week.
Walter: He is not a new investigator but is a referral the sisters gave us. We felt inspired to go find them. We first met with his 15 year old daughter and taught her a short lesson and said we could come back to teach her dad latter on that same day. He is heavily involved in his Christian church and just told us that all churches lead to heaven. We explained about the primitive church and explained more about the BOM and the necessity of it. He had some misconceptions that we cleared up with like if we worshiped Joseph Smith and other concerns like that. He really is curious about the BOM and said he will make some time to read and said he will actually read at work. We have been trying to set up a return appointment but says he is very busy.
Naomi: We went very slowly with the restoration when we taught her last Wednesday and cleared up some principles she was confused on. We focus a lot on the Great Apostasy and the importance of a restoration. She said that she is "Bien metido" in her Evangelical church in Guatemala but is open to still listen to us. She leaves back to Guatemala in a week but we committed her to just experiment on the BOM and ask sincerely if the BOM is true or not. She agreed to read it. We also met with her last Saturday and went over the faith and repentance. She asked us some questions concerning the second coming of Christ and asked if we could address those questions next time. It was a good lesson.
Rosalino: Did the same thing we did with Naomi with going through the restoration slowly. We used the analogy of if a teacher left the room with a bunch of 5 year olds what will happen? We compared that to the Great Apostasy and how there was disorder after God took away the authority and keys from off the earth. It really helped him to understand the importance for a restoration. We also taught him last Sunday as well about faith and repentance. Went very well.
Maria: She was there with her almost whole family and taught her brother, friend and son. We went over the BOM and the importance of it and were all very attentive throughout the whole lesson. They had some good questions about our church and committed each one of them to read and pray about the BOM. Awesome lesson.
Dora: She is on date for baptism for October 12th and is more than excited. We went through the restoration with a member. She was telling us that she has invited some of her friends to be baptized in our church! We were taken back and very excited for her, it was cool as she encouraged our member to share the Gospel. She is very ready to be baptized!
We have also started a English class which will be held Mondays at 7pm. We had our member and recent convert come and had a great lesson on offering prayers in English. I also taught Jimi the Word of Wisdom and Law of Chastity. Great night!


I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay very much.


Elder Plummer

I loved all the ties, belt, socks, candy and more. Thanks so much!!!

Our wonderful zone

We saw a car with Utah plates, it made our day!!

Our humble study room

Our beautiful church building 

Again, thanks for all the gifts, specially the French dictionary.

Wednesday, September 17, 2014

The Gospel of Jesus Christ truly changes lives


Querida Familia,

I looks like I will be staying for six more weeks in New City with my companion! Very excited to stay! I have not received grandmas and grandpas package yet but received a card from them. I have not taken a lot of pictures but I will start to. This week we taught 21 lesson with four new investigators! It was a great way to finish off the transfer. Thank you for sending the birthday package! Excited to receive it! This is how our investigators are doing:
Dora: She came to church yesterday with her husband and absolutely loved it. We visited him right after and tried to teach the restoration but would get distracted by our member which they connected very well which is good. We got her and her husband on a baptismal date for October 12th! We are beyond happy. So we picked up her husband as a new investigator. It was a great Birthday gift for my companion yesterday.
Freddy: We had a good discussion on the restoration pamphlet he just read. He has also read a little of the BOM and had some misconceptions we cleared up. He still had his mentality that all church are of God, but we promised him as he read and prayed about the BOM, he will receive a sure answer. The spirit was very strong and we committed him to do it.
Rosalino: Found him by a street contact a couple weeks ago. He is from Peru and has been here in the states for about three years. We had a great "How to begin teaching" and a restoration lesson. We found out that he has been reading every day when he comes back from work and has felt a good feeling as he has read the BOM. We invited him to be baptized and said he wants to keep searching and preparing before he does so. He is so humble and Golden. Very excited for him.
Milton and Family: We found Milton a couple weeks ago by a street contact. We met with him for the first time last Wednesday. We met his mom named Naomi who has recently arrived from Guatemala who is really nice. We also met his sister Wendy who has shown a little interest but wants to keep listening. They are very new to the US and Milton and Wendy are going to stay while their mother will be going back this October. We taught them twice this week and first introduced the BOM and the next time taught the restoration. They are very receptive and humble and Naomi said that when she goes back to Guatemala she would like to keep receiving the lessons! We invited Milton and Wendy to be baptized right after we had a very spiritual lesson on the BOM. They accepted and we are now working with Naomi. They are an awesome family.
Sulma: We taught her Wednesday night about Eternal Marriage and my companion taught her while I taught her son Luis. She also said that she does not know if she wants to go to church or be baptized because she does not want to separate from her boyfriend. She still wants to keep reading and praying about the BOM.
Natalia: We had a good discussion about what she wants out of life and said she wants to live in peace. We transitioned that to how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can bring that to her. She said she did not know and asked her what is stopping her from progressing? She said she does not have time to read a pray because she needs to take care of her five grandchildren everyday almost all day and it is hard for her to read because of her bad eye. We promised her as she set some time to pray and read what she can, she will receive the peace and the strength to give up coffee. She said she will try.
We had set some appointments with Mario, Adriana and Rosa. For this week. They were very busy but we try to stay in frequent contact.
It is cooling off here in New York mostly in the lower 70s which has felt really nice. I will keep an eye out for Elder Walker. Grateful to be a missionary and have learned a great deal so far! The Gospel is so real life and truly changes lives.
I love you Dad, Mom and Tanner and Mckay. Sure appreciate each one of you!


Elder Plummer

Monday, September 8, 2014

Tender Mercies of The Lord - September 8, 2014




Hola familia?
Como les ha ido? I am very glad you all had a great time at the family reunion! Congratulations Dad on getting your Woodbage! Excited to visit that lake when I come back. I did not get abuelitas email yet. I decided to keep the Costco GPS because it has this great feature where it programs your route to avoid traffic and has a traffic and weather receiver. It is really cool and has helped us alot. It was the more expensive one but felt we could utilize very well, but what do you think? I can't believe my birthday is coming up! One thing I have seen on the mission that I have really liked is this belt that adjusts to any size of your waist. I sometimes feel that my waist gets thinner and then my pants start falling down because my belt will only go to a certain length. My companion has it and said he bought his adjustable belt at Mr. Mac. If you could check that out that would be great! You could send anything if you can send some fun colored ties like light blue, yellow, orange or red. We can have a broader style of ties while proselyting but what ever style or color you think looks good. :) It also has been approved that we can watch "17 Miracle" and "Ephraims Rescue" if you want to send those but not sure when I would have time to watch them but I could watch it on a p-day or something. But whatever you want to send I will be happy with anything! Thank you mom for all you do for me!
Also do you know by any chance Grandmas and Grandpas new address in Washington DC? I would like to write them a letter. This last week was great! We earned three new investigators! Here are the progress of our investigators:
Natalia: We had a great conversation with her last Friday. We asked her what was her vision for herself? When we asked that she really opened up and talked about her very serious blood/heart disease and how she feels like she is not getting better. We told her that she can find the peace she is looking for in Christ and in the scriptures. We promised her as representatives of Jesus Christ that her health will improve if she gave up coffee. She said she does not know and after we offered her a substitute called Ozro that has the same jumpstart as coffee but without the coffee bean. She said she has tried it and has not really worked. She knows she needs to be baptized but does not want to give up coffee and go to church. We really love her and are praying what to do next.
Cesar: He is one of our new investigators that we picked up Saturday from Guatemala. We found while we were street contacting last week and said we could come back. He said he would like to start attending a church again and really enjoyed our lesson. We introduced the BOM and was very curious about and was excited to find out more. He struggles with reading so we are going to bring by the BOM on CD. We told he that this is a history of his ancestors and started to get more curious about it. He said he will try to read it and is going to pray about it. He had great questions like why are there so many churches on the earth? He is very prepared and had a spiritual lesson. We have a return appointment with him next Saturday.
Mario: His wife was giving birth at the hospital the night we visited and had a short lesson with Marios father about scripture reading. They are both interested to learn more and we are excited to see them progress more in the gospel.
Moses: When we visited him yesterday, he had two of his friends were over and had a great lesson about mutual. They are all under the age of 14 and were really good boys with good Catholic values. We explained some of the fun activities that they do and also brought our 18 year old Haitian member to help explain more about it. They said they would like to go! We got the information of the two boys and said that we could come over and talk more about the gospel with their parents.
Adriana: We visited her for the first time yesterday and told us she was visited by missionaries back in December. We started talking about the BOM and told us that she has read and prayed about the BOM and knows that it is true! We then invited her to be baptized and said she feels she needs more time to prepare herself and gain a stronger testimony of the church. We urged her to continue her strengthening of her testimony. We set a returned appointment. It was a great spiritual lesson.
We had a cool experience last night, we just got out of a lesson found out that we were at 18 lessons for the week and wanted to meet our goal of 20 lessons. I said a quick prayer asking if we could found someone to teach. The first house I saw and told my companion we should try it. We knocked and this fifteen year old Guatemalan boy opens the door smiling named Ivan. We introduced ourselves and asked if we could share a quick scripture. We shared 1 Nephi 1:12 about reading the scriptures and being filled with the spirit. He really liked it and as we were teaching him his mom came down and joined us for the closing prayer and we asked if we could come back and they said of course. It was a great miracle! Our last lesson that night turned out to be with this minister that really likes how the Mormon church operates but did not agree on a lot of our doctrine. We talked about the spirit word and spirit prison and how the bible is the only word of God. We testified that we knew the Book of Mormon is true and invited him to read it. He said he will try and wanted to speak with us another time. Grateful to be a missionary and to see all the tender mercies of the Lord. I love you Dad, Mom and Tanner and Mckay so very much! Thank you for your continuing support and prayers.
Love,
Elder Plummer

Tuesday, September 2, 2014

I have felt the Lord in the details of our lives- September 1, 2014


Family,

How has school been so far for you Tanner and Mckay? I am excited for you! Thank you mom so much for the package! I got it last Monday. The granola and the bars were great! We actually had a great experience with a Haitian man that contacted us.
We were walking to visit a former investigator when this Haitian man beckoned us to speak with him. He looked as if he was in his early 30s and had just gotten out of church. He asked if we had anything for him to read. We gave him a BOM and a Bible in English and also wanted a BOM in French as well. He saw my companion had pamphlets and asked if he could have one from every topic. We gave it to him and took down his information and referred him to the sisters. The sisters had a great lesson with him and invited him to church and he showed up yesterday! Our ward did a great job making him feel welcomed and explaining the services to him. He really enjoyed church and wants to try to come back next Sunday! We found out from the sisters that he had read all of the pamphlets we gave him and is currently reading the BOM. He even underlined a lot of what he read in the pamphlets. Our mission president promised us as that if we are obedient, faithful and doing the things we are supposed to be doing we will see miracles and even people contacting us. It is very true! it was a very spiritual experience. I also gave a talk yesterday on "preparing for the second coming" and shared scriptures from Doctrine and Covenants and Timothy explaining about the prophecies of the last days. I also shared if "if we are prepared we shall not fear" and explained by doing the small and simple thing, great thing will come to pass and staying true to our covenants. I felt good about the talk. Our ward just got a new councilor who is actually from Haiti. He gave an amazing talk about the parable of the 10 virgins and of his conversion story. We are excited for him to be joining the bishopric. This is how our investigators our doing:
Sulma: We visited her yesterday and my companion had a great lesson on counseling with the Lord from Alma 37. She wants to come back to church. She has a seven year old son that is very distracting, so while one teaches Sulma, my companion reads BOM stories with him. So this week I distracted Luis and then the next week I will be teaching the lesson. It is a fun system and Luis is awesome.
Mario: I was actually on exchange when my companion and our district leader taught him. They had a great lesson on the Word of Wisdom and taught him how to pray correctly. He has been reading and is progressing very well. The father who we gave the blessing to my first week is now more interested to listen because he has been in less pain. We are excited for them!
Natalia: We taught her last week about priesthood authority and the validity of the BOM. We were going to connect it to coffee how if the BOM is true that means that Joseph Smith was a prophet and had the key for this dispensation and that the revelation he received regarding the Word of Wisdom is true. She said she will think about but did not seem very invested.
Maria: She is a referral the sisters gave us. We visited her last Friday. She is from Ecuador and we had a great lesson about the BOM. They also had good questions like "why do we need religion?" or "how worthy do we need to be to partake of the sacrament?" We gave her a BOM and said that she will read the intro. We also invited her to church which is very easy for her because she lives across the street from the chapel! She ended up not coming but we are going to visit her next week.
Rosa: She was very busy this last week and did not get to see her. Her daughter has been progressing very well though.
Filadelfo: We taught him the importance of baptism and having faith. We invited him to baptism but said he needs some more time to pray and think about it. He is a great example and has gone through many trials in his life. He has a hard time reading but we promised him if he reads the BOM every day for three months he will have no problem reading and will read almost perfectly. We are excited for him.
Nancy: We shared a mormon message called "Hope in God's light" which is a great video and highly recommend it! We talked about how the Lord has blessed our lifes and how by doing the small things such as reading and praying brings us closer to Him. There was a great spirit and we got to get all of Nancy's family to listen. It was a great lesson.
I love my area and loved the members and their willingness to serve the Lord. I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay so very much! I have felt the Lord in the details of our lives.
Love,
Elder Plummer

Tuesday, August 26, 2014

Spectacular week here in New City, NY - August 25, 2014




Buenos Dias Familia!


Este semana fue de lo mas bien! Tuvimos 25 lecciones con 13 miembros presentes con investigadores este semana! Tambien hemos conseguido 4 nuevos investigadores!

Thank you so much mom for sending those pictures! The banner is really cool, Tanner! I am excited for you! I am glad Mckay is enjoying Timpanogos. I like you red hair mom, it looks good! I also did not receive the package yet, my companion said it sometimes takes three days to send them here. Should be coming today. Thank you for sending that! Yesterday we had stake conference and the topic was on missionary and temple work! Our stake president spoke as well as a newly called bishop that was converted 5 years ago. It was a great conference. We drove with our amazing 1st councilor of the elder quorum to the conference. They recently moved from New Mexico. Brother Baldwin served a mission in Korea and was a doctor in LA for 10 years but decided to to pursue business with his wife. He has so many Ph.d's and is really humble. They are huge BYU fans which is so cool. We are going to sit down this Wednesday with him and have a plan of attack to find all the inactives in our ward.
This is how our new investigators and investigators are doing:
Freddy: We found Freddy through our investigator Rosa when she invited his kids to sit in and listen to us. We had a great conversation about faith and sit up a next appointment and gave him the BOM and committed him to read the introduction . We met with him the next week and taught about the BOM. To our surprise he read the introduction and said he believes it is true! We explained more about the background of the BOM and had a great lesson on scripture reading. We met with him again that same week and taught the restoration. The spirit was strong and at the end we invited him to be baptized. He said that he was baptized by the Evangelists and told us that all churches are of God. We re explained the apostosy and told him that if he believes the BOM is true then this is the only true church. He then said again that all we need to do is accept Christ in our hearts. We then invited him to read and pray to know if our message is true! He said he will. It was a great lesson!

Eli: Elder Pearson and his last companion have been trying this guy that they contacted on the street for awhile. We went last Saturday and right when we approached his door he drove in from work and said that he had some time to listen to us. We did a how to began teaching and explained more about the BOM. We read alittle of the introduction and committed him to ask God if the BOM and our message is true. There was a strong spirit and we could see his desire to follow God. He said he will do it.
Mario Jr.: We visited him last Friday and taught him the first lesson of the restoration. He had so many great questions about the church and even went on mormon.org to chat with some missionaries but were not available. He then asked his questions to his relative who is actually serving a mission in Colombia via facebook! He said he was going to call us but thought that 8:30 was too late for us. We reassured him that we will try to answer any questions he has at any time. One question he had is if we worshiped Joseph Smith and quickly cleared that up through the restoration lesson. He asked us as well about the Word of Wisdom and we are going to teach him that next week. We committed him to read and pray about the BOM and our message and to attend church. He said he really wants to go and will come this week to church. He has been very prepared for our message by his relatives.

Moises: He is from the DR and is 14 years old. He is mature for his age and has been reading and praying about the BOM. He wants to come to church but his mom will not let him. She like when we teach him but is very Catholic. We had a good lesson about the 10 commandments and committed him to keep reading and praying.
Natalia: she is the one with the coffee problem and we decided to have a lesson about the truthfulness of the BOM and Joseph Smith. We started asking her questions like if she knew the BOM is true? She said she has read it cover to cover and knew that it is true. We then asked if she knew Joseph Smith was a prophet? We then found the problem that she did not know. We then committed her to pray to know if Joseph Smith was a prophet and said she would. We them shared to story of King Lamoni's father and how he was willing to give away all his kingdom and sings to know God. We then applied it to her and asked what are you willing to abandon to know God and feel this redeeming joy? She said she did not know and is going to pray about it. We committed her to come to church this Sunday which at first she was hesitant because of all the grandchildren she has to take care of but assured her that there are willing member to help her take care of them when they come to church. Great lesson.

Rosa: We had a great lesson on faith with her and her daughter Helida. It felt more like a conversation and we were all contributing to the lesson. We then switched gears and talked about baptism and taught about why Christ was baptized. We then invited her to be baptized, it got all of sudden quite and said she was not sure and said she will need to think about it and talk with her husband. We invited her to pray about it as well. She did commit to come to church which we are very excited!
We had a great experience last Wednesday where we were walking down a street trying to find people to contact when we saw this African American man with his daughter sitting in front of there house. We said hello and kept walking. A couple seconds later and yells out to us asking if we wanted some water. We accepted and next thing we knew he was asking all kinds of amazing questions about the church. He was very impressed about what we did and was truly touched. He is a guard at the local juvenile center were he sees the worse of young teenagers. He is a very strong Christian and said that he listens to the bible every night on his phone before he goes to bed. My companion felt inspired to show him the Because of Him video on his phone. We watched it and he was really moved by the video. He said that we brought a lot of hope to him for the rising generation and said that if we needed anything to just call him. We got all his contact information and asked him if we could send the sisters that teach in English and said he would love it. It was a great spiritual experience. The sisters met with him on Saturday and was very receptive to the message and committed him to read the BOM. We are excited for him! New city is the city were the chapel is and where the majority of the members live. We live in Nanuet which is right next to New city. It is a very green area. I love you all so very much! Thank you for your continual prayers and love for me! Hope you all have a spectacular week.

By the way, Nanuet is in the Town of Clarkstown Rockland County, New York, located north of Pearl River; south of New City; east of Spring Valley and west of West Nyack. It is 19 miles north of Manhattan, and 2 miles north of the New Jersey border.


Elder Plummer

Tuesday, August 19, 2014

New Beginnings, new area and new school year for the Plummers - August 19, 2014



Querida Familia,

Tanner, are you excited for you senior year!? I am excited for your job at Subway and I am also excited for Mckay as well for his first year in high school. We had a spectacular week! Yesterday I translated the sacrament meeting which went ok. There were many speakers that would talk fast but I was able to sum up the idea, so it went well. There was one speaker who was using a lot of scientific terms and I did not know how to translate but was able to somewhat keep up. It was a very spiritual meeting. We just had a couple move ins, one of them is a couple, both went to BYU and served full time missions. The wife is from Laos and the husband is from Pakistan and his father was a Muslim. He gave a great talk last week on how he and his mom tried to attend church in Saudi Arabia but the many difficulties they had and also how the church is growing in the country. It was a great story. He was just called as 1st counselor in the elders quorum presidency and we are excited to get him involved in missionary work. We also taught the Spanish doctrine class about charity and also taught Eternal Marriage in Priesthood. I will send some pictures of the apartment next week.
Thank you so much. The GPS works great but I think I am going to return it because it cost $180 and I can get a cheaper one, like at walmart. All we need is just the basic functions. But we will see. We do our laundry in the basement of the apartment complex which is really nice.
These are the following investigators we have been teaching:
Rosa: We taught Rosa last week about repentance with her daughter Heldia who is 9 or 10. We first started off the lesson by having Heldia read the story about when Nephi and his brothers went back to Jerusalem to get the plates from the simplified picture book. After she finished Rosa said that she felt very peaceful while her daughter was reading that. We then started talking about the repentance process and she really received it well and opened up to us on some grudges she has had toward other people and how she wants to forgive them. While we were conversing, a father came in to pick up his kids that Rosa looks after and she invited him to come listen to us and he accepted. His name is Freddie and as we were talking he expressed his faith on how repentance has changed him. We had a good conversation and got his contact information and we are going to set up a time to meet with him. After he left, Rosa said she wanted to go to church and we talked about getting her a ride. We were very excited. It ended up that her boss called her in for work that Sunday but said she will come next Sunday.
Sulma: We did not see her this last week because she had a lot of work, but we tried to call her every other day and said she has been reading and praying. We are excited for her!
Mario and Mario Jr. We also did not see them last week due to his work schedule and we have been trying to set up another appointment with him. We are going to stop by next week and check up on Mario's shoulder as well.
Natalia: She was busy this last week as well, but we have been planning lessons to get her on a baptismal date. She knows that the church is true but has a hard time committing to give up coffee. She has been investigating for six years so we are going to be lovingly bold. :) I am excited
Saturday night the bishop invited us over for dinner. We had a great time and had hamburgers and played some Book of Mormon Jeopardy. It was a very fun and spiritual night with their family. Later that night the sisters received a call from a Haitian member whose mother had just passed away and was really having a hard time. She asked for a priesthood blessing but said that we could come tomorrow because it was almost nine. But we felt prompted to go right away, so we did and when we got there she was just crying and could not find peace. My companion shared how Christ was perfect and knew that everything will work out and when his friend Lazerus died he cried and told her it is ok to cry. We gave her the blessing and after, she said she was more at peace and feels that she will be able to sleep now. It was a great spiritual experience. We felt a great peace after that.
One strategy to contact that I have found very effective is starting with a question. We have had many spiritual street lessons which President Taggart has been pushing on the spiritually connecting. We also have set up appointments with promising potentials this next week as well. We have also been trying former investigators which we have found success. We have two that we are going to see next week and we also got a referral from a former sister who was there cleaning. She said she is open to listen but is very Catholic, but said to come back and teach her sister and maybe her if she has time. 

 I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay all so much. Good luck this year at school Tanner and Mckay! I am so excited for you.


Love, Elder Plummer

Tuesday, August 12, 2014

New Transfer, I am in New York State now- August 11, 2014



Familia!
I am in a new city, in the New York State area! It's called Nanuet in NY. The only area in the mission that is in New York. My new companion is name Elder Pearson from Vernal, Utah. He has only been out for only four months! He is a great Elder and I have been learning a lot this week. My apartment address is 249 N. Middletown Rd. #7A, Nanuet, NY 10954. We cover one of the largest areas in the mission covering almost all of Rockland County. We have a white Toyota Corolla and takes about 10 to 15 minutes to go visit anyone in the area. It is a very spread area with pockets of a metropolis. It is also very green. Our ward is English speaking but one of us translates into Spanish in a micro phone set. I will be translating next Sunday. There are a lot of Haitians, Dominicans and Guatemalans in our area. I will be picking up a little French from our Haitian less actives. We teach 60% of the time in Spanish and the rest will be English. Last Thursday we received a headquarter referral for a man that wanted a blessing before he went in for his surgery the next day. We went over and found out his daughter was baptized in Guatemala and was still there. His wife is also investigating over there as well. His name is Mario and explained how the blessing worked and gave it to him. We gave him the blessing and said he will remember what we said in his blessing. He said that he was interested to learn more about our church another time, but found out his son, Mario Jr. is interested. We came back the next day to meet with the son and see how the surgery went on his father's arm. The surgery went well and we taught them the importance of the Book of Mormon. We also invited him to church that Sunday and he said he wants to go but has work and is afraid to get it off because his boss is Jewish. He said his boss does not look kindly on other religions. We prayed for him that he could get Sunday off. We could not get a hold of him Sunday morning, but we are going to visit him next Friday.
   The next investigators we visited is Sulma from Guatemala. She has been investigating for a couple months and actually my companion told me they have been trying to get a hold of her for the past month. She used to go very regularly to church and found out she has not been going because she feels ashamed and that all the members are perfect and clean. We explained that we all need the grace and mercy of Jesus Christ and shared Alma 7:11-12. She did not commit to church but said she will read in the BOM.
Natalia: She is in her early 70s from Guatemala and has investigated the church since 2008 and her only obstacle to getting baptized is coffee. We visited and shared 1 Nephi 3:7 and taught her that there is a way to keep this commandment. We committed her to eat an apple and cold water in substitute for her coffee to have the energy she needs in the morning. She said she will try it and we are going to follow up next Wednesday.
We are currently still finding new investigators. Most of our English lessons are to members or less actives. Last week we did service twice moving marble for a member and her husband. Her husband is Jewish but absolutely loves us. He is an architect and an environmentalist. He is originally from Israel and makes amazing food. They made us breakfast and we had a great time. The Lord has really poured out many miracles upon us. We have a vision transfer to "Leave the area better than we found it". We are going to update the area book every night, have daily contact with investigators and get one baptism. We are excited. I love you dad, mom, Tanner and Mckay. I miss you guys alot!


Love,


Elder Plummer


Nanuet, New York State. It's very green and nice.

My new companion, Elder Pearson from Vernal, Utah.