What are the Odds!

Oh man it was a great week this week! Of course there was Thanksgiving which was just amazing! We had so many left overs and I've been full for way too long! First this week though I went on a trade off with Elder Ballard who is a Spanish Elder and they also have a car that we got to use in our area so that was super nice! We visited as many people that we are teaching as we possibly could! We had some really great lessons! One was with Tamisha who is a mother of 5 and is really interested in our message. We taught her the Restoration and she was super into it and she said she was super excited to read the Book of Mormon! We also set up a church tour for her this last Saturday but she ended up getting called into work so she couldn't make it but we will be going back this week to teach her some more! We also talked to this lady in our ward who mainly speaks Spanish and very little English and she hasn't been to church in over 9 years! It was perfect to have Elder Ballard there to speak Spanish to her! I felt really useless the whole time because I can't speak Spanish but it was pretty entertaining trying to figure out what they were saying with the very little Spanish I knew. He told her that she would probably feel more comfortable in their Spanish ward in Timaquana and so he invited her to attend there and she said she would start going! 

Thursday was Thanksgiving and it was a super fun day! First we had the Turkey Bowl at 8 am where a lot of people in the stake and around the area go and play football! It was super fun and exhausting! Everyone was really sore afterwards! I'm still a little sore from it lol! After that we went with the Oak Leaf Elders to Mcdonald's for Thanksgiving breakfast mainly because it was pretty much the only place open! Then we went over to the Hills house from 2 to about 7! We played a lot of games with them like Uno and this cool card game called It Came To Pass which was pretty fun. They have 4 little kids so we played a lot of tag with them and we built a super cool train track around the whole house! We had a bunch of sweet bridges going around everywhere! It was so awesome! Then we ate dinner around 5 which was super yummy! We had ham, cheesy potatoes, jello with baby oranges in it, stuffing, and pretty much every other traditional Thanksgiving dishes! They also got cranberry sprite which is super good! After that we went to the Palmer's house for the rest of the night and hung out with them and ate some dessert. They had a whole bunch of different gooey slime things that they made which were super fun to play with and some magnetic sand which was super weird and fun too ha ha!

Friday Saturday and Sunday we had everyone's Thanksgiving leftovers so we pretty much had Thanksgiving for 4 days straight! It was so awesome! The Watchman's who are a young couple in our ward had to work on Thanksgiving so they had it Friday so we had lunch and dinner with them that day! The Watchman's are the funniest people I have ever met in my entire life! They are super crazy and fun! We had a good time with them!

We also went to the Smith's yesterday with a bunch of missionaries for dinner because he is the stake mission leader and we played what are the odds. So basically they asked me what are the odds I put ovaltine in my orange juice and drink it all and I said 1 out of 10 and so some counts down 3..2..1 and then we both shout out a number between 1 and 10 and if it is the same number then I have to do it and of course we both got the same number so I had to drink it and it was probably the nastiest thing I had ever had in my entire life ha ha! They made me pack it full of ovaltine! Never again!

Right now we have one person on baptismal date and his name is Milan. We don't now too much about him because he was referred to us by the sisters who were teaching him but we are going to see him this week and get to know him more. His baptismal date is on December 29 so please pray for him to be able to be baptized on that date.

That's about it for this week. I hope you all had an amazing Thanksgiving! I was especially thankful for my family this last Thanksgiving even though I wasn't with them it is because of them that I'm a missionary. I am very grateful for the things that my parents and siblings taught me and helped me through to help me be able to serve a mission and experience some of the most amazing things I will ever experience in my life. I'm am very grateful for the knowledge that I have been so blessed to have my entire life of this Gospel and the countless blessing I have received from it. I hope and pray that we will all continue to be grateful for everything in our lives and always thank God for all that he has given us. I love you all so much and am very grateful to have all of you in my life. Keep on keepin on! Hoorah for Israel!

Love,

Elder Plumb

1-4: We got some sweet Christmas sweaters and Elder Josse's mom sent him some decorations and cool glasses for each of us so we took some modeling pics

5: Elder Josse's desk and chair ha ha! What a guy!

6: The Watchman's baby with Elder Josse's teddy bear!

Milk in my cereal box

Hellllooooo! This week was pretty sweet in Orange Park! First I had to say good bye to a lot of people in Waycross which was super sad! I'm going to miss so many people from there! I'm moving on though and have so far enjoyed it here! 

Elder Josse and I are having a super fun time! We are in a bike area so we have NO CAR! It's fun biking but constantly and all the time starts to wear you out! I'm getting more used to it though. At least I thought I was until my pants ripped one day! I was lucky it was in an unnoticeable spot so I was able to continue throughout the day. I'm excited for what lays ahead though because there are always a lot of good stories and miracles that come from bikes! 

So far I've met a few of the people we are teaching. One of them is Tristan and he has a very good knowledge of the Bible so we had a pretty good discussion on the Bible and modern day prophets. Right now he seems like he just wants to learn more about what we believe and why we believe it so we are trying our best to explain it to him. Some things he is a little stubborn about but he is still pretty open to what we share and backup from the Bible. He has come to church a few times as well and said that he will commit to reading the Book of Mormon. We simply told him that all of the speculation that he has can all be answered if he comes to know that the Book of Mormon is the word of God. So we have just born our testimony about the truthfulness of it and how we can know and feel that it is the word of God. So we are excited to see him again and see how everything went.

A big thing that I've been studying lately is personal revelation. This is a very important thing for us to be able to do because it's how we can truly learn and understand everything we study. On my mission I've gotten into the habit of writing down my thoughts of the things I study into a journal so that I can go back and read the personal revelation that I have received. I've seen that when I do that I understand things better and learn faster. Personal revelation is basically what we understand about the things we read and what we receive from the spirit about the things we read. We usually don't remember everything we read so if we write it down then we can go back and refresh our memories of the things we learned about. I know that if we prayfully study the scriptures and receive personal revelation from God then we will better help ourselves understand the Gospel and help ourselves become more converted to the Gospel. I've definitely seen a difference between reading the scriptures and feasting on the scriptures!

That's pretty much everything that happened this week. I'm definitely loving it here in Orange Park! The members a really amazing and we get fed every singe day! There are a ton of members in this ward too which is pretty sweet! I'm excited for this next transfer! I love you all so much! Keep on keepin on!

Love,
Elder Plumb

Rut Ro Raggy!

Transfer call was this last saturday and I'm sadly getting transferred! I'm going to Orange Park, FL which I'm excited to go to because I've heard so many great things about Orange Park and I'll be with Elder Josse who I know pretty well! I am sad to leave Waycross though! I haven't been in an area longer than here and I've developed so many great friendships it's really sad leaving. I just take comfort in that this is what the Lord wants to happen right now and I've done all that I need to do in Waycross and have learned a lot and now I get to go to a new place to see what else the Lord needs me to do and learn. It's always sad leaving areas but also exciting for the new opportunities ahead!

This last week though has been great! Last pday we went all the way to Brunswick, GA to spend my last time with Elder Kunde before he goes home on Tuesday. We had a lot of fun and I'm definitely gonna miss that guy! We also had interviews with President Lee on Tuesday which are always great! The rest of the week we didn't have much happen. We weren't able to meet with the Corbitt's again because they are still really sick but hopefully tomorrow we will be able to see them. 

Also some members took us to the fair for dinner which was probably the funnest dinner I've ever had on my mission! They got us this burger called the swamp thing which was super good! After that we went to the petting zoo there and got to see some really cool animals. There were monkeys, lemurs, camels, yaks, lamas, and a kangaroo and a lot of other animals! It was so much fun! We also just walked around a little bit and got to see how crazy some of the guys running the game booths were and how persistent they were with us. One guy tried to get us to play for a while and finally told us all of us could play for the price of one but then at that point we told him we had no money and he was like oh never mind then. Haha! We had a great time there though!

That's pretty much everything that happened this week. I will let yall know more about Orange Park next week! I love you all so much and hope everything is going well! Keep on keepin on!

Love,

Elder Plumb

1-6: Petting Zoo!

7: Me and Afro Pat switchin suits

8: Sister Bennett and Me and Patrick. Goodbye Waycross,GA

9: Cool pic that Patrick made!
               


       


       

Don't worry! Be Happy Now!

This week has been a good one with some ups and downs! We started off by going to Okeefenokee Swamp which was really fun again! We hung more Christmas lights and saw more gators!

The sad news about this week is we had a lesson on the law of chastity with Sara and we talked about her living with her boyfriend and she said that they are never going to get married or split up. We asked to her to pray to God and ask Him what she should do. Well we tried talking with her and sending scriptures to her the whole week until Saturday night we asked her if she needed a ride to church and she said that she doesn't want to go to church anymore or meet with us for reasons that she didn't want to discuss. She thanked us for everything and said she didn't want to hurt our feelings. We just told her if she needed help with anything to let us know and invited her to listen to future missionaries who might come knocking. It was sad but she wasn't quite ready. Hopefully in the future she will start talking with missionaries again.

On a brighter note though we found more new people to teach and are working with a guy named Chilly who was in awww about Joseph Smith. He is super excited to continue to learn more about the church and loves us coming over! We are excited for him!

We also helped move someone for a good 3 hours this week! They had quite a bit of stuff and we had to take a few trips back and forth from house to house. They were in dire need though and were very thankful to finally be done with the move. It always feels good when we can help people out and put smiles on their faces!
Lately I've been studying the talk "Character of Christ" by David A. Bednar and it is a very good talk. It talks a lot about how Christ was always turning outward towards people and not inward toward himself. He was always serving others even in times when He was the one that needed more service than those He served. That makes me reflect on all the times I've been tired or sad or mad about something and went around thinking about poor old me. If we follow Christ's example we will turn those sad and dull moments into happy and joyful moments as we serve those who may possibly be in more turmoil than us. That's what real Christ like love is.

I love you all so much! Transfer call is this saturday so I'll let y'all know what happens next p-day! Have a great week! Keep on keepin on!

Love,
Elder Plumb