March 23, 2015 - Great training by President Taggart's son (push back rejection)

Hey family,
The weather is warming up in the 40s! This last week we went to leadership conference and we were trained by President Taggart's son how to contact effectively. He is number one at Vivint in selling alarms in the whole company and gave us so many good tips.
That same night we went out contacting using the strategy we learned by pushing back rejection and talking with confidence and enthusiasm and we set 2 return appointment for the next day! It really works!
Saturday we received a call from a member that we visited a couple days ago and said that her 10 year grandson would like to be baptized. He just arrived from the Dominican Republic. We had our first lesson with him on the restoration. Yao understood it very well for a young boy. He is excited to be baptized and have set a baptism date of April 5th! We are excited for him!
Marciela: She is a less active but on her way to full activity. One thing that helped her come back to activity is the relief society asking if she could help them for their upcoming pioneer play and show. She is really into theater and has been helping them every since. She loves it! Right now we are helping her be consistent on her scripture study.
Miriam: She is still working on Sundays but is praying and reading her scriptures. She loves us a lot and never wants us to leave her house. She makes us so much good food and is so loving. She really takes care of us and makes sure we are fed and happy. She is great!
Chavez Family: They came to church again with all her 7 kids! 2 weeks in a row! I am so proud of them! With her crazy divorce she has decided to turn to the church for help and start trusting in the Lord. We are going to visit her this week!
Mierna: She is still listening to the mormon channel and loves it. We are trying to get her to listen to the scriptures. She looks over the pamphlets and prays but is really hard to get her to church. We are going to help her on that this week.
Elder Johnson is doing great! He is improving his Spanish little by little and is a good example of diligence. Here in West New York the members feed us so much! So, I think I gain and then lose weight as I walk! The food here is so good! I love it.
I love you all dearly! I am grateful to be a representative of the Lord and know he guides us every moment. I have gained a great love for the New Testament! I love the miracles and the stories the apostles report and have felt the spirit so strongly! Love you all!

Elder Plummer

Miriam from Peru, great faith!!

March 16, 2015 - Building relationships of trust

Querida familia!

How are you doing? We do have a different schedule with a trainee. We have an extra hour of comp study where we go through the First 12 weeks Program. It is such an amazing program where it goes very in depth in scriptures and doctrine. I am learning a lot as well. We try to do our language study together and it has been helping his Spanish. He is improving well. Thank you for the packet! I am excited to get it. Also give President Shaw my best and thank him for all he has done.
Elder Johnson has a great attitude about missionary work. He is excited and is a hard worker. We have been visiting many former investigators.

Hernando: We contacted him about three weeks ago and when we did, he said he has taken the missionary lessons before. We got down his information and we called him a week later to set up an appointment with him. We found out in the beginning of the lesson that he was baptized 15 years ago in Union City. He says he is still in communication with the missionary that baptized him. We invited him back to church and went over the restoration with him again. He remembered some parts but we needed to review some parts. He said that he is going to come back to church when he gets all his family from Mexico. We are going to try to keep constant communication with him. It was a great lesson.
Mirna: She is from Puerto Rico and she has been investigating for a couple months. She has a hard time keeping commitments especially reading the BOM. But we showed her the Mormon Channel and also the scriptures online. She loved the music that the Mormon Channel played. She has a good spirit about her, we are going to help her see the importance of church this next week
David: He was on date for baptism but did not pass the interview with the zone leader. The zone leaders feel he needs to have a stronger testimony. So, we have been helping him realize that he must read, study and pray to know if the BOM is true. Before he said that he believes the BOM and also believes that all church lead to God. David was not very happy with the baptismal interview and does not want to comply on what we are asking him. We may discontinue teaching him depending on our next lesson we have with him. Please pray for him.
Luis: We read with him 2 Nephi 31 about the doctrine of Christ. The spirit was very strong and invited him at the end of the lesson to pray about the BOM. He did so and we all felt a good spirit. He also has a hard time keeping commitments but said he will finish 2 nephi 31.
Chavez Family (LA): Sister Chavez is going through a very ugly divorce. We visited her Saturday night and finally said she needs to talk with the bishop tomorrow. She asked if we could walk over to the church with her and her six kids all under the age of 13. It was quite an experience as we walked over and making sure the kids did not run into the street. This was her first time attending church in the last 4 or 5 months and the members received back very warmly.
Basketball: One activity we started last transfer was Wednesday afternoon basketball time. It has gotten very big with about 25 to 30 people showing up. We share a scripture in the beginning and we get to know the people that come and hopefully get their contact information. It is so fun and we have many guys that are amazing and we also have some street ballers as well, that have crazy ball handling skills. It is pretty fun to watch.
This week we are going to work on gaining the members trust and finding less actives. So we can get some referrals.
Anyways, Tanner how is your mission prep going? Hope all is well. I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay so very much. Hope you have a great week!
Love Elder Plumer

My new companion is awesome!! So excited, this week in the low 40's in West New York

Hola Familia!

TANNER! I am so excited for you! Ventura California is lucky to have you. You could serve in Lompoc! That would be awesome! You are going to do great! Grateful I was able to talk to all of you. Also grateful I was able to talk with Abuelita and Abuelito. Give them my love and best to them. I will pray for them.
I have had a good time with Elder Johnson. He is teachable and ready to work hard. We have been practicing contacting and teaching lessons in Spanish. Andrea: She came to church yesterday! She enjoyed it. We had a good lesson with her last week on church attendance and the restoration. We invited her for baptism and she is going to pray about it. We are excited for her.
Luis is doing good. We taught him the importance of prophets. He has not been reading because he has been very busy but he is praying.
David: We had a great lesson with him about the sacrament and the atonement. He wants to be baptized but still needs to get his interview before he does so. We are going to meet with him and see what else we need to go over.
Miriam is doing well. We visited her last Tuesday and made us some carapulcra! It was so good, it is a mix of chicken, rice and veggies with this hot sauce. Thursday her apartment flooded so we helped dry it up. She just came home from a long day of work and then her faucet just bursted. Glad we were able to help her out.
It was a slow week but we found many potential investigators so we will try them this week. Should be a good week. We are excited! It is also going to be a warmer week in the low 40s. 

 
I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay dearly!

My new trainee, Elder Johnson, he is awesome!!!

An investigator made this bonnets for us, we couldn't help but wear them. She was very sweet, and of course Inca Cola, sabor nacional in the background

Love Elder Plummer

I am going to be a mission (father), so excited to train

My fun zone

My zone again

Elder Perez and I, I will be getting a new companion tomorrow. I am so excited to be a good trainer.

Hello amazing family!
Last week President called me and extended the calling to be a trainer. I accepted and I am very excited! I will be getting the new missionary this Tuesday! That is great Mckay got a cat! Hope he has fun with it. Tanner congratulations on making it to BYU! I am so excited for you!
Yesterday it snowed a lot about a couple inches of snow. It is supposed warm up next week! Mom, could you send some protein bars? and some alfajores? whatever is easy for you to send! Thank you! Tu eres la mejor!
Last week was kind of slow, but we picked up a new investigator named David.

He has met with the sister missionaries for a couple months but they gave him to us because of some problems. He is a very smart and sincere guy from El Salvador. He grew up on the streets of New York City in a tough neighborhood. He said that he has always rejected religion but now he wants to embrace it and raise a family in a gospel centered home when he gets married. He has overcome a lot of anger mangement and other health problems.

We have taught him twice the BOM and the importance of Baptism. He has read a lot of the BOM and loves the doctrine and the story. He feels though that all churches lead to God and that all religion has truth. We told him he is correct that many religions have some truth and went through the apostasy and the restoration. He said he is going to pray about it. He also said that he wants to be baptized on March 8th. We are going to meet with him a couple more times this week and go through the baptismal questions and get a feel on how prepared he is. We are excited for him!

Andrea: We had a good lesson on the gospel of JC. She said she would come to church yesterday but woke up sick Sunday morning so she did not attend. She is praying and is progressing.

Sergio: We met with him last Tuesday. We met him from contacting. He is from Guatemala and arrived in the states about two months ago. The spirit was very was strong as we discussed the restoration. He is very sincere. We are excited for him!

Marcela: She came to church yesterday! She is still preparing for the temple. She wil probably be interviewed for a temple recommend this week!

We have been trying a lot of potentials and former investigators. We have also been going through the ward list as well. I am excited for this week with my trainee! We are going to work hard and have fun. Well,  I love you dearly Dad, Mom, Tanner, Mckay!

Elder Plummer

Getting chilly in West New York - 2.23.15

Hey Dad!  

   Yes, it is freezing!  Sometimes with the wind chill the temperature gets in the single digits.  But I am staying warm.

 Also President gave me a permission to call in for Tanners Mission call opening! He said to not go longer than 10 minutes on the phone. I am so excited! 

 Last week we received a media referral.  We went to his apartment which is right by the Hudson on the 10th floor looking over New York City.  Such a incredible view!  His name is Andres from Colombia and met some missionaries over in Austria and was very impressed with them.  So he requested a visit from us and we had a great How to begin teaching and a restoration lesson with the pamphlet.  At the beginning of the lesson he seemed a little uncomfortable but as we were teaching the spirit just flooded the room and we all felt very good and comfortable.  We committed him to read the BOM and the rest of the Restoration pamphlet!  We also invited him for baptism when he knew that our message is true.  He accepted  and we set an return appointment. 

    Another miracle I experienced was I was on exchange with my zone leader in my area and I felt impressed to go visit a less active. On our way over there we contacted this lady that was super nice to us.  It turned out to be the zone leaders long lost investigator that they have not seen for months that wanted to be baptized but just lost contact!  Elder Aspinal got all of her information and set an appointment.  It turned out the less active was not home but we found there an investigator. So grateful for the spirit and that we can be instruments in the Lord's hands.  

Also, I have an suggestion for Tanner's mission preparation.  If he can get a hold of the Restoration, Gospel of JC, Plan of Salvation, Word of Wisdom, Tithing and Fasting, and Chastity missionary pamphlets and practice teaching simply and clearly with them.  He will have a big advantage and be a very effective teacher. Anyways, love you Dad! Thank you for your love, prayers and support!

Love, Elder Plummer

  

Loving it here by New York City!!! February 17, 2015

Lower Manhattan at night

New York City and I 

My comp, Elder Perez and NYC

NYC - daytime

Hey Family!
So I asked President if I could skype or call for Tanner's mission call opening and now I am just waiting for his response. I think he may say no because the rule of only talking twice a year but we will see:) Last week we found 3 new investigators. One was a referral from our investigator Meirna. Her name is Isabel and wants us to teach her 18 yr old son. We taught her the first part of the restoration and asked a lot of good questions. We then found Juan and Maria from the area book. We felt prompted to try them and when they answered the door they invited us and made us some hot chocolate not asking any questions about who we are. They are from Argentina and are very humble people. Juan is 29 years old and lives with his mom, Maria. They are very strong Catholics and made sure that we knew they are going to stay firm in the Catholic religion. We talked about the Bible and the BOM and said they will listen to all we have to say in the next coming weeks! They will take some time but we will help them feel the spirit and the truthfulness of our message.
Luis is still praying for a baptismal date. He did not come to church last sunday and we need to visit him again. He is reading the pamphlets we gave. We think he would like to be baptized this Sunday. He has been investigating for about four months.
We met with Andrea and went through the Plan of Salvation with her. She was a little on edge because her mother was very angry with her. But as we taught the lesson she felt the spirit and more at peace. She accepted to be baptized. She is awesome! We need to get her to church.
We have been working a lot with our less actives also. Ilda may have her leg amputated due to diabetes. We have been visiting her and giving her the sacrament. She is from Portugal and I was surprised how much I could understand Portugeese . Last week was crazy with my district. They are going through a lot right now, but they are such an amazing district that I know they will be fine. Grateful I am able to serve around them! Well, I hope family you have a great week!
Love you all so dearly!!


Love, Elder Plummer

This week got really cold, but the work keeps moving forward!!

The West New York gang!!

Querida familia!
I will ask President if I can skype for Tanners mission call opening! That would be great! I have not yet received the Wardens package. I will check today though. Last week we got a new investigator! (our reactivated less active) Her name is Andrea from Ecuador. She is 21 years old and is going to get her teaching certificate. We had a great intro using the Restoration pamphlets. We are going to see her this Wednesday. She is very interested!
It has been very cold here. Every day last week has been under 30 degrees. The coldest we got is 5 degrees with the wind chill factor. But we are staying warm. :) But this week they say it will get warmer up to 35 to 40 degrees. My back is feeling better. At time when I sit for a long time it hurts but the fact that I am walking a lot really helps. That is what the doctor recommended. I may go to a chiropractor if it gets worse but right now I am doing good. We are still playing soccer and some of our investigators are showing up too! It has been fun.
I bought some protein last week. I miss you all so much! I pray for all of you often. We are going to work hard this week to find new investigators . We are still working with less actives. Luis is our most progressing inv. We visited him last week and gave him the invite to pray about 15th of Feb for his baptism. We are excited! Well, I love you all!

Elder Plummer

My bed at our new area in West New York.

Our progress board, this reminds me of dad's white board. 

A member in New City gave me this guitar as a gift. I couldn't believe it! 

Looking down at lower Manhattan

Some awesome design!

Baptismal interview with zone leaders' candidate 

At Stake Conference