God is love and This is His Work!! Awesome week with many miracles!!

Enjoying our van ride

Pumping iron on Preparation Day

Hey Dad, Mom, McKay and Tanner!

Man, these 5 years as a bishop have gone by fast. I thank you dad for your great example to us. This last week we saw some incredible miracles. We put Marcos on baptismal date for September 27th. He reads the BOM and he loves it so much. Cool to see the conversion power of the BOM. He works a lot and is taking a rigorous course to become a state inspector which will take 2 weeks, so he will not be able to attend until after. Also, thank you so much for the package mom! I have almost eaten all the bars. I love the jerky!
I have learned investigators have more powerful spiritual experiences when we leave and they read, pray and exercise there faith.
Another miracle happened! There is this 19 year old guy who was praying to know what God wanted him to do. He felt prompted to look up where the closest Mormon church. He and his Mom decided to walk down and check out the chapel. Cool part of this story is they said as they were walking down some one just came up to them and said they were on the right path and to keep going and then he just left! Of the other Elders said it's one of the 3 nephites! Haha, it could be! They got there and one of the members was there and started talking about their experience. Then the other elders happened to pass by and asked if they would like a tour of the chapel. They showed them the whole chapel and when they got to the baptismal font they asked if they could be baptized! The elders then went through the restoration and they liked the message. We found out that they live in our area and he came to church yesterday! He liked it and we have a set appointment with him for next Wednesday. The Lord is so merciful and this just was a testimony builder of the love God really has for us. He really guides this work. His name is Steve and is a cool guy, he loves ping pong and reads the Bible a lot. We are excited.
We have been trying to work with the members more and getting referrals and simply loving and serving them. Elder Sullivan works very well with the members. We make a good team.

We have zone meeting tomorrow and the theme of this month is being converted and then help others to be converted. At mission leader council we had Elder Smith of the Seventy come from DC to train us. He is a prestigious man. He has served as a Senator representing Oregon in the US senate and is the CEO of all public broadcast in the US!
He is such a wise and humble guy and talked about the importance of studying the scriptures and how through the small and simple things great things can come to pass.

He told a touching story about 2 temple square sister missionaries. You will like this story, mom. He told a story of when President Uchtdorf called him telling him they had some problems getting our church recognized in Italy and asked if he could set up an appointment with the Italian Ambassador. He called him and the ambassador set an appointment with the Italian religious department chair. Elder Smith and E. Uchtdorf go over there and they are picked up by the U.S. Embassy since it is a diplomatic visit. They explain their problem being recognized in Italy which impeded the church to build temples and chapels. Elder Uchtdorf talked about how the church has been present in Italy with many members. The religious chair looks at his religious scholar to look for his approval and his knowledge about our church. He then talked about the visit he had when he went to Temple Square and how Impressed he was with 2 Italian sister missionaries and how well mannered and educated they were. He said he had never met such great wonderful young women from his country.

He then turned to the head chair and said," if they can produce young people like that, we ought to help them." He then turned to President Uchtdorf and asked how soon can you build a Temple Square in our country? As Elder Smith and President Uchtdorf finished the meeting they commented, " who ever those sister missionaries were, I wish I could thank them." Elder Smith then said,"it took a US senator to get in the meeting, an apostle to present the dilemma, and 2 sister missionaries to close the case!
Couple years later the Italy Rome temple was announced and as President Monson announced it, Elder Smith looked at President Uchtdorf with tears in his eyes.
We will never know the influence we have on people until the next life.

Anyways Isabel is progressing and is reading. We invited her to baptism because she knows this church is true. She accepted and felt the excitement in changing her life. The next step is getting her to church. We are finding many people that are willing to listen and many that are reading. The Lord has really blessed us and is putting people in our path. I love you all dearly! I love my mission so much! I am learning and seeing things I will never forget. It is the best thing I can be doing.


Love,  Elder Plummer