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

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

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

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

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

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.

Saying Good-bye to Plainfield - Dunnellen Area, I am going to miss them...... August 4, 2014

Querida familia,

Well, I know for sure now that I will be transferred. I will know for sure where I will be tomorrow. I am going to miss Plainfield. I have made lifelong friends and will for sure visit. We picked up a new investigator last week named Walter. He was a referral from an investigator we helped move. Walter was studying to become a pastor but his wife left him with two little girls and one of the requirements is you need to be married. So he actually lost his job as well and our branch president brought him and his little girls food from the church warehouse. He is prepared and has many of the truths already.  We are excited for him.
Efrain: He still wants to be baptized but has not come to church for the last two Sundays. We were also bold with him and talked about what will be his next steps to either separate or get married. He said that he does not want to get married, or does he want to separate because of his two children. We committed him to pray about his next step.
Raquel: We taught about why bad things happen to good people and shared Alma 14 about the saints getting burned but received to heaven. She responded well to this scripture and said she will give the Book of Mormon a chance. She seemed more open this time.
Melvin: Did not go to church yesterday because he was playing soccer. That night we taught him about the 10 commandments with an emphasize on keeping the Sabbath day holy. He felt bad for skipping church and still wants to get baptized.
Jose Guaman: We taught him the BOM and said he will read it. He believes that religion is not God and that God and Christ are free. He is a good guy. He has some false ideas but still wants to learn more.
We hit 20 lessons this week which has been our goal for this last transfer. Glad we were able to hit it before I left. We visited many less actives that we taught every single week while I was here. I am going to miss them.  I am so grateful to be a missionary and have felt the Lord's hand in my life. I love you Mom, Dad, Tanner and Mckay.


Elder Plummer

My District

Efrain (Investigator) from the Dominican Republic

Raquel (middle) great investigator and Vilma (member)

La familia Manzano (an amazing recent convert family) - I am going to miss them

Juventino (awesome less active)

Dinner at the Branch President's house

Hernan (returning member) 

Franklin (menos activo)

Melvin, our great investigator

La familia Yaurivilca from Peru