The focus of this week is to show love to others

Hola familia,

       How are you all doing?  Thank you mom for sending Geoffs Germanes contact info. I hope you and Mckay have a great time in Paris.  This last week was amazing.  We had our last all mission conference with the Jeppsons.  It was great. I will miss them.  I will send some pictures of the activity.  The Taggarts will be arriving on June 27th.  Yesterday Presidente Rojas asked me to give a talk last minute.  I decided to speak on the Gospel of Jesus Christ using one of the missionary pamphlets.  I felt that it seemed long and boring, but many said that it was good.

                         

  Last week we have been focusing on getting new investigators and visiting our investigators and less actives.  Raquel just got a job and her boyfriend that she is living with said he does not want us over to teach her anymore.  But Raquel wants to continue with the lessons and be baptized so we are going to meet with her probably at the park or a members house.  She is also working on moving out from her boyfriends house.  We are really proud of her and feel she is progressing well towards baptism.  Rebecca was in New York yesterday so we did not have a chance to see her.  We called her and told us she is still reading the Book of Mormon.  Effrain set his baptismal date for July 25!  He is also working on moving out from his girlfriend and is hoping to get joint custody of his two children.  During the lesson, he told us that he knows the church is true and wants the gospel in his life.  He is progressing great as well.

 

  We also picked up a new investigator named Elmer.  We think he is the father of michelle, who wants to serve a mission, but we are not sure.  He attended church last week and said it was too long, but enjoyed some of it.  He said he would continue going but said he is really shy.  We are working with him on that.  He is a very sincere and awesome guy.  We officially needed to drop Santos because he has not answered the phone or the door for a couple weeks and sometime he would answer and set up an appointment but would not be there.   It is sad but we need to spend our time wisely.  This month our zone focus is on love.  Every day we evaluate and do an activity about love.  It has really helped me to focus on loving the people I serve and my companion.  I love you Dad, Mom, Tanner and Mckay very much!  Thank you for your prayers and love.

 

Elder Plummer

June 9, 2014 - The work keeps moving forward!!

Hola familia,

Como estan? I am excited for Grandma and Grandpa! They are going to do great in DC. They will love the East coast. Thank you mom so much for the shirts and the protein and the bars! Really appreciate it. Did Dad get my birthday card in the mail? It should have arrived Saturday or Sunday. The work is progressing in Plainfield. We have two investigators on date for June 29th and July 6th. We are excited for Raquel who is from Costa Rica and Rebecca who is from El Salvador. Yesterday at church we had three investigators attend and four less actives. Raquel attended as well as Michelle's family. Michelle is a 17 year old girl that just moved from Guatamala who is very strong in the church. She is planning to go on a mission just like her cousins, aunts and uncles. Her mom is inactive and married a non member and had two kids. Michelle is a great example as she encourages her family to go to church, read and pray. We visited them last Saturday with our branch president and inspired them to go to church. We reminded them that they are always invited to church and the love we have them as well as the Savior has for them. They said they know they have to change and said they will change 'poco a poco'. They are a great family.

They other day we were visiting a less active named Jose Mercado. I was looking at a picture of the two missionaries that baptized him and noticed that one of the missionaries was Jeff Germane! Jeff actually baptized him and Jose has been trying to get in contact with him through social media for awhile. I told him he was in my ward and told them that I had worked with his parents. It was a great visit. He has been going through a rough time and really brightened his day. Dad or mom could you get me Jeff Germane's email and phone number? Jose would really appreciate that. He talks very highly of Jeff Germane. I feel that my Spanish is improving. Still working on conjugations. Every one is getting excited about the World Cup! They talk about it alot. Many are going for Argentina. This month we have a monthly focus on love. This week I have changed a lot and learned a great deal about love. This is President Jeppsons last month and we are going to miss him. Well, I love you all very much. Thank you for you love and prayers. I am so grateful to be a missionary in these last days.

Elder Plummer

PS. Let me know if Dad got the letter. :)

It's heating up in New Jersey! May 27 and June 2, 2014

It is heating up in New Jersey!

Querida familia,

How are you all doing? Thank you mom for helping out our investigator!

She called and told me you were very nice and she was so grateful for your help with the immigration question. Yes, I will need two short sleeve white shirts. Thank you so much! Last week was a all time high on lessons with 17. Yesterday we taught Clotilde and Ricardo about prayer and the Book of Mormon. They have a strong testimony on prayer but feel like nothing can be added to the bible. We will be working with them on that. They are a great couple! We then taught Raul about the doctrine of Christ and he received it well. He has some questions on baptism which we are going to address next visit. Raul's friend was also there and is interested to learn more about the church. He is very knowledgeable in the bible and has a strong belief in Christ. He is from Honduras and we set an appointment with him next week. We then taught Giovanni and Yecenia about the Book of Mormon. We were going to go through the restoration but they wanted to read the testimonies of the three witnesses and of Joseph Smith's. As we read it they started to get interested and when we ended they were curious to read the book. The spirit was so strong and were amazed by Joseph Smith's story. I felt that it was one of our better lessons as a companionship. Last Saturday we taught our most progressing investigator the restoration and invited her for baptism for June 29th. She accepted! She is so ready and are very excited for her. The other day we were walking to an appointment and ran into this English speaking lady. She said that she has been looking for a church to fill something she feels is missing in her life. As we told her about the Book of Mormon and the worship services she got interested and wanted to come to church and have the English speaking missionaries come teach her. She said that God must have made us cross paths because she said she never walks this street. We probably would not have contacted her because she was English speaking, but I am glad Elder King did. Yesterday we only had four less actives come, but have many that are committed to come next Sunday. This was our first Sunday at the Scotch Plains church which will be a little bit further for our member, but still got a good turn out yesterday. It has been a great week and I am learning so much every day. I have a strong testimony of fasting. I felt that our four lessons went very smoothly and we invited the spirit. I love you all so much!!

Love, Elder Plummer

Our wonderful branch mission leader

One of the main streets in Dunellen!

In front of our beautiful apartment, it's very green and humid

   Thank you for that article!  We actually have been trying to get 11 contacts a day!  And have seen a difference in our teaching pool.  Tell Kris and Katherine congratulations!  I am happy for them!  I am so happy mom you liked my card!  I love you very much!  Yes!  I would love to have the chocolate protein powder.  This last week we have been visiting our new investigators from our new area that we just received.  We have three investigator that could possibly be baptized this month!  We have Effrian who has a testimony of the church and wants to be baptized.  He is unfortunately living with his girlfriend and have two kids together.  He is figuring that out with some senior couples.  We also have Raquel who is from Costa Rica and never have met anybody with so much of the truth.  She told us of an spiritual experience where she wanted to kill herself when she was 15.  She then said that she felt and heard a voice saying that God loved her. She said that since that time she has devoted herself to God by reading the Bible everyday.  When we explained that we pray to God in the name of Christ she said that made sense to her.  She also came to church last Sunday and is committed to keep coming.  The moment we gave the Book of Mormon  to her she started reading it and said that she feels good about it.  We committed her to pray about it tonight!  We also have Stanley from the Dominican Republic who is in the new area we recently received from the last Elders.  He has a strong testimony and wants to be baptized but works at a hotel every Sunday.  We are working with him to get Sundays off.  Last Sunday was the last day in our building.  Because the building is considered unsafe they are moving us from Plainfield to the Scotch Plains chapel.  It will be harder for less actives and investigators that live in our area to get to church so we are figuring out carpools to get there.  We had the same six less actives attend church last Sunday.  We are so proud of them.  Grateful to be a missionary.  It is hard.  But worth it.  I love you all so very much!   

Love,  Elder Plummer

Mi querido hijo:

Como te ha ido? If you have time, please read this amazing article about the 10 things a missionary should know from a mission president.

http://lets-get-together.com/2014/04/23/10-things-every-missionary-should-know-a-letter-from-a-mission-president/

I will briefly summarize it: 1) Expect an adjustment period - "Gordon, I have but one bit of advice to give you, forget yourself and go to work"  

2) Develop a positive attitude, be optimistic.

3) Smiling will increase success (show those beautiful teeth (retainers at night please).  Pdt. Kimball: a smile goes a long way, you will increase your success, if you are monotone, give your voice inflection, be enthusiastic, studies show that if you smile when trying to sell something, you will sell 30 to 50% more. You are sharing the gospel of Christ. those who smile come across more believable.

4) don't be afraid to be bold- open your mouth

5) learn to be flexible

6) make 10 contacts a day

7) study and pray faithfully daily during and after your mission

8) be grateful you have a companion

9) be absolutely obedient

10) be grateful for the supreme privilege which is yours and remember whose work this is. 

bonus: use hymns when you are teaching. play the piano, even if it is the only song you know. the power of music is stronger sometimes than the power of the word.