Spaghetti Sauce and Bananas!

Yellooooo! This week I had no money so we only got bananas and spaghetti sauce so hopefully I lose some weight this week lol!

Not too much happened this week but we did have the ryals hang out with another family in our ward, the killebrews, twice! The first time we were there and it was really fun! They got along really well so now the ryals will be a lot more comfortable coming to church! The second time they hung out it went pretty well too except sister killebrew said that they have been looking up stuff about the church which always leads to anti-mormon sites so we will have to talk to them about that... but other than that everything is going great!

We couldn't get anyone to church because we had stake conference which is all the way in Kingsland which is almost 2 hours a way so the ryals said they will come next week. We talked to Franny for only a little bit because she is about to have a baby so she has been pretty busy with various things. She is still very interested in learning more and coming to church though!

At stake conference there was a member of the Area Seventy there, Elder Patrick. He gave a really good talk on faith. He talked about the Israelites right before they went to take over the city of Jericho and how they all looked to Joshua to tell them what they should do. Joshua told them they were going to circle the walls of the city once a day until the seventh day they would do it 3 times and then blow some trumpets and yell really loud and then the walls will come down. Imagine what the Israelites thought when he said that! Thats really crazy! But they should there faith and trust in the prophet and followed his word even though it seemed very crazy and impossible. He related that to our lives how we need to always follow the words of the prophets no matter how crazy it may sound and have faith that everything will work out in the end. We may always be going to church learning the same things over and over again but if we show our faith and diligently follow God's commandments by going to church then we will receive our reward whatever it may be. It was a super good talk and really helped me realize how powerful faith is.

I hope y'all have had a great summer! It's coming to an end! About one month left! I'm really excited for it to get a little cooler! I love y'all so much and hope everything is going great! 

Love,

Elder Plumb

JOHN CENAAAAA!

Hey everybody! It's been another great week down in da south! The Ryals family has made really good progress as well as Franny! Also the transfer call happened! I'm gonna be staying in Waycross with Elder Ivie! I didn't think I would be transferred so I wasn't worried. We also did some more service at Okeefenokee Swamp and saw a ton more gators! 

We had such an amazing lesson with the Ryals this week! So we went over and brought Bryce who just returned from his mission in Spokane, WA and also his mom as well. They were absolutely amazing during the whole lesson! We taught the Ryals part of the Plan of Salvation because they have had a ton of questions about the spirit world and life after death because they have had some crazy experiences in their life and a ton of struggles relating to the all of that. We really focused on the purpose of the Fall of Adam and Eve and the purpose of life and the Atonement. At the end of the lesson, we asked them how they felt about everything we have talked about and they thought about it for a little bit and then said we don't feel lost anymore. That was such a huge thing for them to say because they have really been struggling with feeling like they can't be forgiven because of past things they have done and now they understand that they always have Christ there to help them through everything. They also said that they have really felt a difference in their house ever since we've been coming by and their daughters really want to come to church and they have never wanted to for a long time because of things that have happened in the past. It's been such a blessing to see the Spirit work with them and slowly convert them to the Gospel.

Franny has been super busy so she hasn't been able to read the Book of Mormon. We stopped by and talked with her for a little bit and added her on Facebook so now we are just sending her scriptures through facebook messenger and she has really liked that. We've been doing the same thing with the Ryals as well and they have enjoyed that too! We invited both the Ryals and Franny to church but the Ryals are still trying to get Sundays off for work and Franny was sick because she is just about to have another baby. They are both still noticing the Spirit in their lives and the wonderful difference it has made with their families.

I have such a big testimony about the Book of Mormon and the Spirit it brings into our lives when we read it. Especially when we are busy and sacrifice any little time off that we have to read it, God blesses us greatly for showing our faith and diligence in keeping his commandments. I have been so blessed to see this happen first hand to many people and families out here. The Book of Mormon is truly the word of God and will change our lives for the better just by diligently reading and studying the teachings it contains. The time I feel the closest to God in a day is when I'm reading the Book of Mormon. It truly is another testament of Jesus Christ.

I'm very happy to be staying here in Waycross and I'm very excited to continue to help others receive the blessings of this glorious Gospel! I love you all so much! Please pray for the Ryals and Franny! Keep on keepin on!

Love,

Elder Plumb

Also the reason for my title is when we went and saw Franny, her little boys came out and started talking with us and one of them said that I look like John Cena! I was so flattered and also super confused!

Also my weekly title from last week was from a little clip that Elder Ivie has from the movie "The Best Two Years". It was a super funny clip so I just put it as my weekly title! I'll send the clip so yall can see!

It Came Out Of Verengay!

How's it going everybody! The title is just a quote that made me laugh this week lol! This week has been pretty good! We found some new people to teach and we are super excited to go back and teach them! We haven't been able to get people in church here yet but we had some really good contact with a few of the people we are teaching!

First we had a lesson with Franny who is a young mother of I think 4 kids so it gets super crazy when we go over! We have gone over a few times before and taught her about the Book of Mormon and a lot of other things that she had questions about. She has shown a lot of interest and has some really good questions. We taught the Restoration to her this week and she said she felt the Spirit so strong. She said that she almost started to cry when we talked about the vision that Joseph Smith had of Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ. She really loves learning about everything we teach her and has shown interest in coming to church but its been hard because she has some crazy boys and her mom lives with her too and she is super crzy as well! Her mom came out in the middle of the lesson with all of the screaming kids and  asked if we could give her a ride to the store! When we said no she asked if we could go buy some stuff for her at the store! It got super crazy so we left pretty quickly but we are going to go back and invite her to church and have hopefully multiple lessons with members this week with her!

We also were able to see the Ryals, Corey and Krystal, again this week but onlly for a little bit. We had an appointment set up but they were busy with something and said that they would let us know when we could come back. Yesterday we messaged Krystal on Facebook messenger and had a good conversation with her on there! So previously she was working at Walmart during the night shift from like 10 pm to 7 am or something like that so thats why they were always super busy. But she told us that she got a new job at KFC so she will be available a lot more now and is waaaayyyyy less stressed! So we also stopped by yesterday night with Bryce Bennett who just got home from his mission last monday and he gave them some cookies from his welcome home party and we were able to set up a time to teach them later on today! Last night she told us that her daughter really wants to come to church to make some friends so she said they will probably be coming next week! We are super excited about them!

Recently I watched the Mormon message called Flecks of Gold. Its about a young gold propector who was panning for gold in a river and he kept getting nothing but little tiny flecks of gold. He wasn't happy with the little flecks, he wanted gold nuggets. Then an old prospector came and told the young man that all the flecks of gold were very valuable and when collected over time would bring him great fortune. Thats how it is with life. Alma in the Book of Mormon taught that "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass". Doing the simple things that don't seem like big things at the time like showing appreciation for things or just saying I love you to someone can bring us a lot of blessings when we continually do them just like gathering a lot of flecks of gold will bring us great wealth.

It's been a great time here in Waycross, Georgia! I hope y'all are doing great! I always appreciate any little emails I receive so please email me! I love you all so much! Keep on keepin on and hoorah for Israel!

Love,
Elder Plumb

1. There are waaaayyyy too many trains here! I got a cool pic from it though!

2. SQUAD

3. My rapper name given by the one and only Afro Pat

4. Awesome dog licking my ear! He looked like scooby doo!

5-8. Waycross district 

9. Me and Afro Pat

10. Also I shaved my head.

Oh Boy!!!!

It's been another great week in Waycross! We have been working really hard and have seen some pretty great miracles this week! 

We got a referal for this lady named melissa and her family from a member in Washington and so we visited her this week. Turns out she is in a pretty tough situation and is very stressed about a lot of things including her health. She said her friend said that we could give her a blessing so we did and she said she felt a whole lot better afterwards. She said she has been looking for a new church for her and her kids to attend and that she really wanted to know more about ours. That made us so happy when she said that! We taught her about the Book of Mormon and gave her one and told her about all the blessings her and her family can receive just by reading it. We are super excited to talk to her again.

We also met the Ryals family! They have been taught in the past by missionaries and one of those missionaries told us to go visit them so we did and they are very elect! They stopped talking with missionaries because those missionaries were too pushy so we have to be careful on that. We talked to them about a lot of things but we basically just cleared up all questions and concerns they had and invvited them to read the Book of Mormon and they said they would give it another chance! They are super cool and are very into horror movies which I love so we talked a lot about that. They have a few setbacks and some concerns still so it might take a while for them to progress but we can definitley tell that they are ready for the Gospel. 

Also the sister missionaries in our ward had a baptism this week! Four actually! The Killebrew family got baptized on Saturday and it was amazing! They have been working with the sisters for a very long time and are now members of the church! They are a very amazing family and I'm super happy for them!

Latley I've been studying Elder Lynn G. Robbins talk from last General Conference called "Until 70 times 7". It is a super good talk and I love the quote he has by Thomas Edison, "I didn't fail 1,000 times. The light bulb was an invention with 1,000 steps." That can be compared to life. Failure is a good thing if we look at it in a positive way. We all fail or have big trials and problems in our lives that we let bring us down or we let them become burdens but if we look at everything that happens to us in a possitive way and as a learning experience then we will eventually succeed and be better people because of it. We can learn something from everything that happens to us and God made life that way to help us. Elder Robbins talked about repentance as well and how that is also a good thing that we need to continually do because we are always making mistakes. We need to learn and not dwell on those mistakes though and sincerely want to change for the better which is what true repentance is. I love studying conference talks!

So far Waycross has been amazing just like the rest of the areas I've served! I love it here! I love each and every one of you so much! Email me! Thank you all for being great examples in my life! Keep on keepin on!

Love,
Elder Plumb