Elder Ashton Plummer, Morristown New Jersey : Birthday boy is 20 years old, feliz cumpleaños, 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