Saying good bye to my mission by visiting Ellis Island and the Statue of Liberty - December 7, 2015

I am going to miss my mission so much!!

What a fun day!!

Lady Liberty!!

Manhattan in the background

On the ferry to Ellis Island

This is Cecilia, Elder Plummer's mom. Our family has also been on a mission these last two years and they have been wonderful with its up and downs, but very worth it.
This blog is becoming a book tomorrow and it is our hope that it will be a great testimony builder and inspiration to whoever reads it, especially our Plummer posterity.

What a great way to say good-bye to your mission by visiting the Statue of Liberty and the Manhattan Temple! I get to see my boy in 7 days from today.

🗽🗽❤❤

A Wonderful Thanksgiving Celebration, truly a feeling of gratitude - Visit to the Manhattan Temple- Turkey Bowl at Princeton- It came to pass that we lived in a manner of happiness!

Absolutely loved the Manhattan Temple 

My wonderful zone

Cruising NYC

Our nice study room in East Brunswick

Wonderful Thanksgiving with Carmen Ortiz

Elder Todd Christofferson grew up in East Brunswick and left on his mission from this ward

Turkeybowl at Princeton - Nov. 2015 

My wonderful Zone 6 - "And It came to pass that we lived in a manner of happiness"!

Hello family!
Thank you for sending the Thanksgiving pictures! I miss the
thanksgiving dinners in our basements! Always remembered how fun the
dinners were. Today I just sent home two boxes full of books and and
some other stuff I want to save. It should arrive at the house this
Friday!
I have a lot of mixed emotions. I am excited to come home but I
really going to miss the mission.
We had thanksgiving at the Bishops parents house, the Allongos. It
was sooooo good and we invited our investigators Angel and Edith to
join us for Thanksgiving and they came! Bishop also invited some of
his non member friends and at the end of dinner we shared the
restoration. We felt that the spirit was there. Bishops friends had a
lot of questions. We felt that he wanted to bible bash but was
respectful about it. After Angel told us that his family really
needed this dinner as they were struggling financially.
The next day we had a powerful gospel of Jesus Christ lesson with
Angel and Edith. They told us after that kneeling prayer we had with
them last time, they felt at peace. At the end of the lesson they asked
what they need to do to get baptized! They didn't want to set a date
yet but they are working towards it. We ended with a family kneeling
prayer. Super cool. I feel I was sent for them.

I love you so much!!
Elder Plummer

My last transfer is to the city of East Brunswick with Elder Cook

My old trainee, Elder Johnson

My new comp, Elder Cook

Goooood morning dear dad, mom, Tanner and Mckay!!
Mom and dad you look great in that temple photo! I am now in East Brunswick with Elder Cook! We served in the same Ward in Union city so I know him pretty well. He is from Seattle Washington. He is 26 years old and has been out for a year and almost a half. He is supper funny! This is my first time in a four man with two other English speaking elders. It is super crazy. It is crazy I am still a zone leader! Haha, this will be my fifth transfer. It has been good. Elder Cook and I have been doubled into the area which means we are both new to the area.
So we tried this investigator yesterday name Francis. He gladly let us in and we had a good restoration lesson with his wife. Patricia the wife, understood it very well. Elder Cook is very good at teaching very simply. We ended with a kneeling prayer and after we asked them how they felt. They said they felt peaceful and calm. We assigned them a chapter to read and said they will read it as a couple! We were so excited!
Last night we met with a less active named Alex. He expressed how he would like to go back to church. We got to know him and his interests and promised him that the blessing that he wants can be his. He then said he is going to talk to his boss tomorrow to get Sundays off. I felt that we really conveyed our love to him.
Also when is the latest I can turn in my MTC applicant video? I love you all dearly! Thank you for your support and love! I pray for you all!

Love, Elder Plummer

My last transfer, I am going to miss Union City and all the miracles we've been experiencing!! November 9, 2015

Celebrating birthdays!

Saying good-bye to our dear brother

Teaching my cousins in Lima, Peru!

Family!
Well, I am getting transferred from Union city! This last week we
worked very hard. We had some cool miracles. First miracle was we
were contacting last Friday night and we contacted a family that were
super receptive and nice. They invited us on the spot to go have some
refreshments at their house! They told us that they just moved here to
UC and that missionaries visited them before for a couple years! They
both wanted to be baptized, but they were not married at the time. They
actually just got married a couple months ago. Gregorio is from Mexico
and Jessica is from Venazuela. We shared the restoration and after we
testified, they said they knew this is the true church! They said they
want to have their lives in order before they are baptized! Amazing
miracle!
We also contacted into this young girl named Eva from the Dominican Republic.
 She was very attentive to our lesson. Two days later we showed the
restoration video to her. It really touched her. She seemed very
motivated after to read the BOM!
We had a great lesson with Juan Antonio in Peru about the intro of the BOM
and the word of wisdom. He is funny. He says he would like the
missionaries to come by and visit! We also got to talk with Giuliana,
Adriano and Natalie! It was really fun!
Elliott is doing better with smoking. One thing we are doing is
reading the BOM with him everyday through FaceTime. It is
the first thing he does when he wakes up! Super cool.
We had a good gospel of Jesus Christ lesson with Natalie Valdez. She
is still praying about being baptized. We have been setting the right vision,
goals, plans and accountability with all our less actives. I am going
to miss a lot people and Union city so much.
Love you all dearly! Thank you for your prayers and support!

Elder Plummer

What a great week we had, I love this work!!! November 2, 2015

The city that never sleeps

P-Day

Fall is here

Hey family!
We had a busy week. Monday we played a lot of soccer with the zone
and then went to the noche de Hogar and the ward had a debate about if
we should celebrate Halloween. It was pretty funny. Ended up that we
should celebrate for the kids. Haha

Tuesday we had district meeting in Newark and after we had a fireside
with Danny Humphrey who wrote the Riccardi letter. It was super
spiritual as he expounded on the letter and how he and his comp would
wake up at 4:30am to do role plays. He said he hated it but how it
really helped him. He said his trainer Elder Riccardi after he got
home volunteered to keep an area open for 2 months as the ward mission
leader and even postponed his wedding day! That night we taught Isabel
the importance of reading. As we were teaching her we both felt a
strong impression to drop her. We were very bold with that she needed
to read but we didn't drop her. We are planning to drop her this week.

Wednesday we were in a trio with Elder Wagner while his comp went
to the temple. We had 5 solid lessons, one lesson that stood out is
the one with Denise Lopez. She really is not progressing but has been
inactive of 12 years. We decided to let elder Wagner share something
with little notice. He shared a great video about the guy that served
a mission but then left the church because he stopped doing the little
things. He came back and talked about the joy he feels within the gospel.
She said she needed to hear that. It really boosted Elder Wagners
confidence as a new missionary.

Thursday we visited some less actives and set some goals for them coming
back to church and introducing friends to the gospel. We ended the
night with the Aragons. They are the coolest family! I love them.
Hermano Aragon used to be less active and would drink a lot but he was
activated recently and is now the Elders quorum president. His wife is
the stake primary president. They love having us over for dinner.
They give us haircuts and whatever like we were their kids. They have
given us good referrals.
Friday we had Mission leader council with president. We talked about
the needs and improvements of the mission. Our focus this month is
living worthy of the spirit. We then filmed ourselves teaching the
intro to the BOM. And then evaluated on what we could do better. We
then went to a less actives house to use facebook to communicate with
Juan Antonio. Because of Halloween we went home by 6pm and we talked
with Juan Antonio for 15 min because he called late. He wants me to
come to Peru in two months haha. We talked a little bit about prayer.
This actually happened on Saturday. Sunday we set up to talk at
8:30pm but he didn't answer. We will set something for next week. I
am going to keep on staying focused. Anyways, I love you all dearly!
Excited to see you all soon!

Love, Elder Plummer

I love being a messenger of good news (the gospel) October 26, 2015

Learning how to cook breakfast

My new companion, Elder Bennett (the Union City gang)

Hi family!

     Mom, thank you so much for the packet!  I really appreciate it.

The bars and beef jerky was just what I needed, thank you! The festival

looked so fun at the conference center! Send my love to abuelito and

abuelita! This last week we focused on finding new investigators so we

contacted a lot of people.  We found this very prepared lady from the

Dominican Republic.  She has been reading in the BOM and said she is

interested and said when she is committed to something, she is

committed. Tender mercy of the Lord that we found her.

    We also found some former investigators from less active families.

They seem they have some interested.  We found this Peruvian

couple named William.  He lightened up as he and I talked about Peru,

it was fun.  We had a good restoration lesson. We taught simply and

they interacted.  As a mission, we have been trying to focus on being

good teachers and teaching simply.  My comp and I gave a training in

zone conference with a couple of zones about unity.  I was nervous but

it went well.  President gave a powerful training on how he got his

testimony on his mission.  He talked about how people were surprised

that he went on a mission and didn't believe him until he got on the

plane.  It was probably the best training he has ever given. He was

personal and it was powerful.

   My Canadian comp is super cool.  He speaks Spanish very well.

Well, the zone is doing well too.  We are working on getting people on

baptismal date and making sure we teach the importance of the Book of

Mormon.  We have been doing the 90 day challenge in the BOM and has

changed my perceptive and increased my conviction to the gospel.

Everyday I am making it the best I can, and I am giving everything I got.

   I love you all dearly!

Elder Plummer

Latin America all unified in one cultural hall!!!

Beautiful October morning overlooking NYC

Semana de la hispanidad

So fun, trying different foods!

Of course, Inca Kola, sabor nacional

A combined dish from different Latin American countries

Hola mamá! Qué tal?
Yo tuve una buena semana! No puedo creer que Mckay mide 6'2"! Estoy comiendo bien. Estoy tratando de hacer una dieta, voy a eliminar todas los carbohidratos y solo comer proteína, frutas y vegetales. También estoy levantado pesas cada mañana y me ayuda bastante par bajar de peso.
Tengo un nuevo compañero y se llama Elder Bennett de Alberta, Canadá! Mi otro compañero se fue porque chocó el van. Y nosotros dos no podemos manejar. Es por eso que mandaron a Elder Bennett aquí. Él es bien amigable y bien trabajador.
Well, we had a good week. It was weird getting a new companion in the middle of the transfer but just because my last comp wrecked the van, they had to switch him. Like I said, Elder Bennett is a funny guy. He is a hard worker. Excited for this transfer! We saw Isabel last night. She has been ready for a while now. She does want to get baptized but does not know when. Keep praying for her. Honnesimo is doing well. He has not been reading but he recommitted that he is going to take our visits more seriously. We saw him more committed than ever before so we will see next week. We are excited for him. We have been working a lot with less actives but we are going to try to get the ward more involved in the reactivation of less actives. So we can focus on investigators.
We had a cool miracle. We were contacting and this guy comes up to us and says he just was praying for help and he felt we were his answer. He was originally born in Ecuador but grew up in Germany and was taught by the elders over there. We invited him to church and he came! It was the primary program, so I don't know how excited he was to be there but he said he felt good throughout the meeting. We set something to see him this week. Super cool. The Lord is blessing us. I love you so much, mom! Thank you for all you do for me!
Tu hijo -  Elder Plummer.

Sent from my iPad

The Lord continues to bless me with peace and surety....

Dear family,
We had an ok week. We found a couple of promising new investigators.
Ana, Tito and Cecilia told us they are not interested and Ana moved to
New York. They had a baptismal date for the 25th of October. That was
super hard for us. Isabel didn't come to church yesterday and is not
reading. We are going to be more persistent with her. A lot of people
cancelled with us last week. But I am going to keep being diligent and
working hard.
It just hit me that I am going home in 2 months. I will be
honest, I do not want to go home, I love New Jersey a lot. I would not
live here but I am going to miss the people. I am so grateful the
Lord continues to bless me with peace and a surety with all my
problems.
We found this Peruvian guy named William and we had a great
restoration lesson. Super spiritual and we taught such in unity he
responded well to it and was super surprised to hear my mom is from
Peru but it broke the ice. We are going to visit him today. We are
also going to see Marcos! We are excited. We have not seen him in over
a month. We also helped an inactive with her sons birthday party. It
was fun and also found a new investigator Katherine. She is from the
DR and is in college. Elder Sullivan used a little flirt to convert to start
talking to us but after that we talked about the church and how this
message can bless her life. She then said she will listen to our
message if I made her papa la huancaina because her sister tried it
and she loved it when I made it for them. So as of now that is the motive
 but when we teach her we hope she will listen to the message.
So that was fun. I love you all so deeply and miss you all. Excited
to see you all before Christmas!
Elder Plummer

Getting to church 

Waiting for our investigators

General Conference and a wonderful service project in Passaic, NJ with Matt Lauer and The Today Show!

Matt Lauer from the Today show and our wonderful zone in Passaic, NJ helping build a park for dear children

Great things happen when Microsoft, Carmax and the LDS missionaries work together - October 5, 2015

A picture of all of us at the end, with the finished project - a beautiful new park in Passaic, NJ

Hey family,
This last week we found some people willing to listen to our
message. We met this lady named Ana from the DR by knocking doors.
That day we learned in MLC to teach the restoration in 4 minutes. So
we tried with her. The spirit was very strong and she accepted to come
to general conference the next day. The next day we reminded her to
come and got her a ride. At the last minute the guy that was going to
pick her up said his car was not turning on. I hung up the phone and
said a prayer. Next couple of minutes the brother calls back and says he
will take his dad's car. Prayer answered! Ana came and was very
attentive in all the talks and was fellowshipped very well. She liked
her experience there and we went by her house that night. We had a
another powerful lesson of the restoration but this time with her mom
and dad. We went more in depth about the importance of baptism and the
need to be baptized by authority. They understood this as well and
when we invited them for baptism for the October 25th, they accepted.
We assigned them to read the intro of the BOM. So cool! The Lord is
assisting us in His work.
I loved the talk by E. Holland about the role of mothers. It made
me think a lot of you mom and everything you have done for me. I
liked E. Uchtdorfs talk on faith. Super good.
Well, I love you all! It is back up in the 70s now.
Love you all,

Elder Plummer

I am staying in Union City of another 6 weeks!!

Good morning family!
So,  I am staying another 6 weeks in Union city with Elder Sullivan!
I am excited. We are going to work hard and have fun! This last week
was crazy! We had a couple of baptisms in our zone which meant we gave a
couple baptismal interviews which took a lot of time Also, we tried to
update our iPads but it froze and then erased everything! We fixed
them by talking with apple support for a long time and got most of our
photos back.
We did not get a lot time to proselyte just because everything was
happening this last week. We did teach Isabel the word of wisdom and
committed her to live it. She did not come to church yesterday and is
still praying on a date. Marcos has been very busy. We were late to
an appointment with him due to helping the sisters so we couldn't see
him. He is still reading but we just need to meet with him. We are
also working with Denise, sapo, and contreras family who are our less
actives.
I am still zone leader which I am very excited to work hard and
keeping learning. I love you all dearly!

Love,  Elder Plummer

I can't believe I am turning 21 years old! Elder Christopherson came to reorganize a stake!

It was great to hear Elder Christopherson speak!!

all the September birthdays!

P-day and celebrating birthdays by the bay

Thanks for the Doterra oils, they are wonderful!

Good morning mom!
Thank you so much for the package! I am sending a thank you card in
the mail. The oils have been helping! The cake is super good! And
thank you for the money as well! It made my day. Thank you, I love you!
So I was wondering if you could do me a favor. Some members want me to
make them papa la huancaina and I was wondering if abuelito is feeling
well if he could tell you the recipe and send it to me today. I am
going to buy the ingredients today. I want to try to make it like
abuelitos!

    I can't believe I am turning 21! Thanks again for the package! I
will start taking the vitamins this week. I also got the card from
grandma and grandpa as well. This week was kind of slow but towards
the weekend it picked up. Give my best to Bishop Olsen and his
counselors! I know they will do great. Elder Christoferson came to
our mission to add a new stake and realign some of the boundaries.
They called a new stake president and released some as well. Union
city is now part of the Liberty park stake and we now have a new stake
president. Cool experience they talked about how they felt a good
spirit during this whole experience. Elder Christoferson talked about
his childhood here in Somerset, New Jersey and his time that he spend
at the Hill Cumorah Pageant. He evoked a special blessing on all of
that as we live the gospel there will be enough food on our tables
and then said no matter the economic struggles of our time. I left
with such peace and a reassurance that this is the Lords church and
guides it through prophets.
This last week we visited a lot of less actives. We are working a
lot with Denise Lopez from Honduras. She has not come to church in 8
years. She is slowly but surely praying and reading again.
We saw Marcos on the the street the other day and set up an
appointment with him. We don't know how sincere he is but we are going
to gage it tonight.
Isabel is on and off, she reads and then she doesn't but is
progressing. She is still praying about baptism and said she would
like to go to church a couple more times.
Cool miracle happened on Friday night. We were out with a member
visiting our investigators when a lot of them cancelled the
appointment all of a sudden. It continued to happen until the end the
night and felt disappointed because we couldn't teach with the member.
When this guy this comes up to us and asks if he can have a BOM in
English. We said we didn't but asked if we could come by another time.
He then asked if we could tell him more about the book. This is a
missionaries dream. So we started teaching him until we had to get
going. Next day he actually juked out the appointment, but we are going to
try this week though. It was a tender mercy of the Lord. Well, love
you all so much. Thank you for your support and love.

Love, Elder Plummer

The spirit was present - September 14, 2015

Baptismal Interview in Dover, the spirit was present

Hermano Amado from Peru, sharing their delicious Peruvian food, frijoles con pescado

Good morning!
How is every one? Man, we have had a good week. I realized my diet
is getting bad, we eat a lot of quesadillas and fast food. My comp and
I are thinking of doing the Palio diet were we avoid all carbs and
only eat veggies, fruits and protein. We will see if it actually happens
haha. For my birthday I am fine with what ever. Money would be good.
:)
We hear BYU is doing good in football! We are excited! But I am
going to stay focused.
It is getting down into the high 60s with the wind chill. It feels great!
So we have lost all contact with Steven and his mom and when we went
by there house they came to the door and looked through the peep hole
and walked away:( that was hard. Marcos did not come to church so we
are not for sure if he will be on track for baptism but we will see.
We will see him tonight. Isabel is progressing well she is reading.
She is cool we have a lot of fun with her.
We finally got this less active activated named Valarde. He came
to church yesterday and paid tithing! We are excited for him his next
goal is to work on the word of wisdom and then go the temple.
We are finding a lot of people and at first they are excited and
then they do not progress. So, we are going to go back to how we can
teach more simply and make the people more involved. One of my comps
suggested bringing a small white board around and writing the words they
don't know. We will see. Also dad, I like the schedule for BYU looks
good for now. Also, this member gave me some Doterra oils and helped
me a lot, so I would love some oils! Anyways, I love you
all so very much. Dad, thank you for your devotion as a bishop and
having time to spend with us. Great example for me. I love you!

Elder Plummer