I'm Back Home!

I’m back from my mission! It’s been some of the best two years I have had so far in my life and I wouldn’t trade anything for them. I would say the biggest thing I truly learned on my mission is that we all have a Heavenly Father who loves us all infinitely. He’s always there for us in all times of our lives from the best times to the worst. I know that as we seek out His guidance in ALL times of our lives then we will make the right choices and draw closer to Him. He’s there for us always and I’m so grateful for that.

Come and hear me talk more about my mission and the Gospel of Jesus Christ on Sunday September 8th @ 10:30 am @ 9800 Foothills Canyon Blvd

Highlands Ranch, CO 80129

Ohhhh Yaaaaa!

This week was super good! We had a baptism for Brooke Manning! And no she's not related to Peyton manning sadly. It was a super good baptism! She was super happy the whole time and bore her testimony at the end.

The rest of the week was very uneventful. We have interviews this week and soon I'll be going to the temple so I'm very excited for that! We might be able to go twice because our ward is having a ward temple trip and our mission President allows us to go if we have a recent convert going and Brooke and Selena both should be going!

Today was a super fun pday too! We played bow and arrow tag with these foam bow and arrows! It was super fun and tiring!

That's about it! Love you all! Have a great week!

I like it, I love it, I want some more of it!

Yellllloooooo! This last week has been super good! It's been super fun being with Elder Lamb and we've had a great time! This last week wasn't super eventful but it was still great! 

We had district council in Gainesville so it took us almost an hour to get there cuz we are banished out here in Interlachen but I ain't complaining! District council was pretty good but the best part was we went to buffalo wild wings for lunch! It's been too long since I've been there and oh man was it a sweet reunion with me and those cheese curds! 

More importantly we had 3 fantastic lessons with Brooke this week as well as her baptismal interview this last Saturday in which she passed! She is pretty much completely ready for baptism! We just have a few more things to teach her but she's had the discussions before so she knows quite a few things. She's supposed to be baptized this Saturday but they were talking to us about pushing it back a week so they can get her family to be there too. I honestly think the sooner the better but knowing her I think she would be fine if she does push it back a week. We'll see what they say.

We also had a trade off with the zone leaders because they probably just wanted to see if 2 "trunky" (homesick and ready to go home) missionaries like us in their last transfer were actually doing work lol! Which we are so no need to worry. We are finishing strong! Anyway it was a great tradeoff! I was with Elder Landon here in Interlachen and Elder Lamb went with Elder Thomas who we didn't know because he was from the Florida Tallahasse Mission before they merged into our mission but they had a good time on their trade off. I've known Elder Landon from my time in Orange Park so we had a really good time catching up and had a super fun trade off! So that was a good time! Only two more tradeoffs for the rest of my mission! Crazy stuff!

Anyway that's about all that happened this week! Oh ya! I also finally burnt my pants for my 18 month mark at a burn party some members in Palatka had but I sadly forgot to take pictures. Oh well! I love yall! Have a fantastic week!

Also here's some pics of a gator that got super close to us and walked right in front of us! And a video of Elder Landon and I throwing away a members coffee and cigarettes that they gave us because they are finally deciding to stop! And also some pics of me at the gators stadium!

The Walrus Screams at Midnight

Hello everybody! Sorry it's been a few weeks since I've written anything! These last few weeks have been so amazing and a lot has happened!

First off Selena got baptized! It was such a great baptism and she was smiling the whole time! It has been such a blessing to see the change that she went through. It has just been another testimony builder that the Gospel is true and it really does change lives for the better. I just feel so fortunate to have had this knowledge my whole life and to now have shared it with others who haven't really puts it in perspective.

Sadly I'm starting my last transfer of my mission so those experiences as a full time representative of the Lord is coming to an end but it won't be the last time in my life of seeing those miracles as missionary work continues on for the rest of my life and I'm excited for those experiences. It's definitely bitter sweet to be at this point in my mission but I'm definitely going to be focused on being a finisher and having no regrets in this last transfer.

I'm super excited for this transfer also because I'm with Elder Lamb who is one of my best friends that I've made since being out here! He goes home with me too so it's really crazy how we even got together! We both are excited and ready to finish strong together. It's definitely gonna be a good transfer!

This transfer started out great too! We had a fantastic lesson with a young woman named Brooke that we just started teaching. She has had the discussions before and has retained a lot of the knowledge that past missionaries have taught her. She told us that she really wants to be baptized especially before she goes back to school this fall. She definitely has a strong desire because she actually keeps all of her commitments! We set a date with her to be baptized on August 10th and she is super excited for it! It has definitely been a great start to this transfer!

I love you all! Keep on keepin on and know that you are loved! Have a great week!

Elder Plumb Update

Elder Plumb has been too busy to write an email lately but wanted me to send some pics of Selena who they were teaching and recently got baptized.  She is progressing well and enjoying having the spirit more abundantly in her life.  Elder Plumb currently is in his last transfer (still in Interlachen, Florida)and now companions with Elder Lamb who he came out on the mission with from the Missionary Training Center.  They are good friends and happy to spend these last 6 weeks together!  

Elder Plumb, Selena, and Elder Gibby Baptism day 7/13/2019

Elder Lamb's mom posted on Facebook of the good news these two friends are now companions and will die together or go home from their missions together!  They came out together and are now going home together.  Elder Lamb is the 1st one on the right with the hat.

Elder Plumb and Elder Richardson, another of Calvin's good missionary friends.

Land of the Free, Home of the Brave!

Hello! This week was pretty good! We did a lot of service for members of the ward this week and boy was one of them super freaky! The first one we did was just mowing a yard, the second one was sorting a hoarders house, and the third was clearing the food pantry for said hoarders house. The third one was the scary one. So we take a look at the walk in food pantry and there's just a ton of food and other random stuff everywhere and she points out all of the spider webs everywhere and said she can't move stuff off of the shelves with spider webs and spiders everywhere so of course I get volunteered to be the guy to vacuum out all of them spiders! It wasn't too bad at first with getting some webs but the once I started moving things around and getting behind some of the food there were spiders everywhere and some of them were way to big for me to look at without screaming like a little girl! Boy those things are a lot harder to suck into a vacuum hose than they look! By the time I was done I was shaking like a Chihuahua! No bites though so thankfully I'm still alive!

Anyway the rest of the week was great! We had a sweet lesson with Selena and talked with her about temples and the importance of them as well as family history and she is excited to get thay started so she can get her ancestors to the temple! We also had her baptismal interview which she passed! She is super excited for her baptism which is this Saturday! Oh boy it's gonna be a good week! 

We also had zone conference this last week which was the first one with President and Sister Wood! President and Sister Lee left 2 weeks ago now and it was super sad saying goodbye. They are such great people and have definitely taught me a bunch while I've served with them for the past 2 years. President and Sister Wood are amazing though! We haven't too much interaction with them but they definitely have the fire to further the work that was left from the Lees and they are definitely going to keep that bar high! I'm excited to serve with them for the next few months!

That's about all that happened this last week. All is well and good times are ahead! I hope y'all have a fantastic week! Love you!

Elder Plumb 

Breakfast

This week has been pretty great! We had our mission wide zone conference because it was President and sister Lee's last one. It was very emotional and they were pretty much crying the whole time but that just brought the spirit a whole lot stronger. It was super good and there were a ton of really good musical numbers that some missionaries performed. I'm definitely gonna miss those two though! I've learned so much from the both of them and they have done so much for this area these last 3 years. I'm excited though for President and sister Wood! I've heard really good things about them so it'll be a good few months with them! They come in on Thursday which is crazy! Less than a week with the Lees. 

Anyway we also had the temple trip this last Friday! I didn't go because it was only for the departing missionaries so Elder Gibby went so we had to drive all the way up to the mission office in Jacksonville which was a lot of miles! We only have so many miles we can use a month and that trip wrecked us! It was super fun though because since it was such a far drive we couldn't drive back down and then back up when they came back so me and 2 other missionaries from our district stayed up in Arlington for the day! I used to serve there and so did one of the other Elders I was with so we spent the day visiting past people we knew there and it was so awesome! We didn't get to see everyone we wanted to but we got to see quite a bit and it was sweet! It was nice just reminiscing about the good ole days in Arlington which was about a year and a half ago which is crazy to think about! We had a good day though.

Sadly this week we dropped Tyler's baptismal date because he's just not progressing as much as he needs to so we are just gonna try and teach him as much as we can and set a date with him when he's ready. But we did set a date with Selena for July 13th! The same day as Pats! We had 2 amazing lessons this week too with Selena! We taught her more about priesthood authority and the importance of being baptized with that authority and that really helped her have the desire to be baptized! We also had a lesson with her all about the atonement of Jesus Christ and repentance. She was really emotional during the whole lesson and the spirit was very strong. She really understands now that she is never alone no matter how down or lonely she feels and that Christ knows everything she feels, has felt, and will feel. It was very powerful and she was asking all the right questions. Then in church the next day both speakers talked about the Atonement and one of them sang I Stand All Amazed and that just reconfirmed to her the love that God has for her. She is doing fantastic!
I'm excited for another week out here in the Lord's vineyard! Interlachen is completely ready to harvest! I hope you all have a great week! Love you all!

Let the Good Times Roll!

Hello everyone! This week has been interesting to say the least. So transfers happened and I'm still in interlachen which is very interesting itself and now I'm with Elder Gibby who just makes everything even more interesting haha! He's by far different than the rest of my companions lol! We are having a good time though so far and I've had to help hi  here and there with some of the normal aspects of life like how to have good manners at the dinner table but other than that we are doing good! He loves his video games and will talk my ear off about Nintendo for pretty much the whole day haha! It's been entertaining! I've been playing silent games with myself like to see how many times he says Zelda in a day or how long he go in complete silence. Just stuff like that. It keeps me entertained and I'm also learning a lot about Zelda sort of.

Aside from that the work is going pretty well! It started off pretty slow and it seemed like everyone just wasn't interested until Saturday. We found 3 new people on Saturday which was a tone compared to the 0 we found the rest of the week lol! Since then everything has been picking up and the ward already loves Elder Gibby because he served here for 6 months already and had quite a few baptisms so it's been a good happy reunion.

We are still working with Pat and trying to get her ready for her baptismal date on July 13th. She just got back from being out of town for a week and I guess got a bit sick and her house also got trashed from her grandson while she was gone so she missed church yesterday but she said she really wants to meet with us this week and come to church next week! Also the relief society president in out ward said she's been in pretty constant contact with her! This ward may be small but they are very good at fellowshipping with the people we are teaching!

Everyone else we are teaching is going through their struggles with sickness and business and laziness so please keep Tyler, Dave, Selena, and Pat in your prayers that they can overcome all of their setbacks. Also please pray for Pat that she can overcome her smoking addiction! Thank you all for all the prayers you have said so far!

Lately I've been studying a lot about the atonement of Jesus Christ because it's such an important topic for all of us to continually learn about. Recently I've read about how infinite the atonement is and how it's infinite in many different ways. One that really stuck out to me and has always really stuck out is how infinite the suffering Christ went through. It only takes someone with infinite godliness, invite power, and infinite love to take on such suffering as he did. There's a quote from the book the Infinite Atonement by Tad R. Callister that describes just part of the suffering our Savior went through. “What weight is thrown on the scales of pain when calculating the hurt of innumerable patients in countless hospitals? Now, add to that the loneliness of the elderly who are forgotten in the rest homes of society, desperately yearning for a card, a visit, a call—just some recognition from the outside world. Keep on adding the hurt of hungry children, the suffering caused by famine, drought, and pestilence. Pile on the heartache of parents who tearfully plead on a daily basis for a wayward son or daughter to come back home. Factor in the trauma of every divorce and the tragedy of every abortion. Add the remorse that comes with each child lost in the dawn of life, each spouse taken in the prime of marriage. Compound that with the misery of overflowing prisons, bulging halfway houses and institutions for the mentally disadvantaged. Multiply all this by century after century of history, and creation after creation without end. Such is but an awful glimpse of the Savior’s load. Who can bear such a burden or scale such a mountain as this? No one, absolutely no one, save Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of us all”. Having this knowledge is very useful in the times we feel like we can't get through by ourselves. The times we feel abandoned or forgotten or completely alone. I know I have felt like that many times but with the infinite love of Jesus Christ and knowing that He has felt everything that I've gone through and infinitely more I know that I'm not alone and that He has gone through all of that so that we won't need to feel alone so that we can always have Him to lean on when those times come because He is always there to lift us up because no one can fall farther than light of Christ shines. All we need to do is reach out to Him just like the prophet Alma teaches us in Alma 37:36-37, as we pray to God continually and counsel with the Lord in all our doings, we will be lifted up at the last day. And as promised to us in Hebrews 13:5, He will never forsake us.

I'm excited for this next week and for the good times ahead! Let the good times roll! I love you all! Have a fantastic week! Peace!

Also we took some sweet district pictures with the river and storm behind us!

Liberty Brew!

Wassup! Sorry I didn't write last week! We had zone pday and it was pretty busy! The past two weeks have been super good though!

First off. Last week we had zone conference where President Lee announced that we are all as a mission going to Orlando June 9th to hear President Nelson and Elder Utchdorf and their wives speak! It's gonna be such a good time! Being in the same spot as the Prophet of God! I'm super excited!

Some other sweet things that happened last week. We met Dave! His girlfriend is a member but has not come to church in a long time and wants to start coming back and Dave says he wants to come too and has shown a ton of interest! They came last week but we couldn't seem to get in contact with them this week because he's been working so much but really wants to meet with us and listen to the lessons. I'm super stoked for that!

We also met this lady named Selena at church who has been coming for a while now and Elder Bishop thought she was a member the whole time until her roommate who's a member came up to us at church and told us that she's not a member and really likes the church and is possibly thinking about joining but wants to take the lesson and see for herself! Our jaws were very much dropped after hearing that! On top of that we've been teaching this lady named Pat since I've gotten here and she expressed to us that she wants to get baptized and is now on date to be baptized on June 22nd! Miracles are raining everywhere! On top of that! That couple where the mother ran away with the baby is still crazy and she's still gone and they still have lawyers involved BUT! Tyler, the father, has been super duper humbled by it all and has turned to God like no one else I've seen and wants to come to church and has been coming now and is starting to read the Book of Mormon and wants even more to get baptized now! We are going to have to move his date back though but he's completely on board now! 

So ya these last two weeks have been very great and miracle filled and I am more excited than ever to be serving here in Interlachen! It's amazing to see the happiness that comes into people's lives when they find truth and work to get to know that truth and have it change them. That truth I know is the Restored Gospel of Jesus Christ. It truly is HIS gospel and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints truly is HIS church and He truly does speak to us today through HIS prophets and apostles. I feel so blessed to have that knowledge and beyond blessed to be able to share that with others and witness it change their lives. Hurrah for Israel!

I hope everyone has a fantastic week! Happy memorial day! I love you all! Keep on keepin on!

Love,
Elder Plumb

In the back of my truck in a farmer's field

Hello! These last two weeks have been really great and crazy! So far I'm loving Interlachen and my companion Elder Bishop! Both are great and interesting at the same time! We've had some great miracles and some weird and insane disasters at the same time these last two weeks.

First we got this couple on date for June 15th last week and one of them came to church! Then this last week the mother ran away with the baby and so there is a lot of drama going on and apparently, she has done it before so there's a while court case going on with them so we don't know how much longer we will be able to teach them. Please pray for them that whatever happens, they will be able to still be taught.

We are pretty much rebuilding the area because they really wasn't anything to work with when I got here but we have found some very promising people so we are hoping to have a good teaching pool going! I'm also right next to Palatka so I've seen some old friends from the Palatka ward which has been awesome!

Another cool thing that's happened is our car is in the shop! That sounds bad but it turns out to have been great! So our new car is a Chevy Silverado and it has no tiwi which is the black box in all the cars that tells us to check our speed and is super annoying. And we have unlimited miles because the truck is technically not supposed to be a mission vehicle so our vehicle coordinator said he's pulling some strings allowing us to have this truck until our car gets fixed! We've had a great time with it so far and hope our other car just never gets fixed haha!

I hope everyone has a great week! Love you! Keep on keepin on!

I glory in plainness

Oh boy! This week was very bitter sweet. Transfer calls happened and I'm leaving Orange Park after 6 months. My new area is Interlachen which is right next to palatka so it's gonna be some familiar territory. I also know my new companion Elder Bishop really well so that's good! I'm definitely going to miss Orange Park a lot but it's also been a while so it's very bitter sweet. In excited for the new opportunity and experiences ahead! 

This week though was very good! We had 2 of our baptismal dates drop but we didn't let that discourage us! We found some great people who have definitely been prepared! Sadly I won't be able to teach then and help them progress but I'm excited to hear how everything goes with them. Our only baptismal date now is Toni and we had a fantastic lesson with her this week! We brought sister Watchman and she is such a great member missionary! Jer and Toni became best friends right away and she even gave her a ride to and from church and took her to relief society! Toni loved church and said she hasn't felt a spirit like she felt here at any of the other church she has gone to. She really loved it and is excited to come back!

We also had a ward chili cook off this week and we were the judges so that was really fun trying a bunch of different types of chili. They were all super good but one of them blew me away! Its was super good! It had some sliced sausage in it and some kick to it and oh man it was tasty!

That's pretty much everything that happened this week! I love you all and hope everyone has a great week! Keep on keepin on!

Hey everyone! This week has been an amazing week! Sorry I didn't write last week! Last week we set a baptismal date with a couple named Toni and Austin for May 18th! We are very excited for them! They are still in the process of moving over here so we haven't been able to se them in about a week but we will definitely see them this week.

This last week we went on exchanges with the Assistants to the Mission President and it was really good! It was just for a few hours but we saw a ton of miracles when we went out! Just on our bike ride to a complex 2 miles away we talked to a ton of people! There are never that many people to talk to when we bike down there but there were a ton that day and most of them were interested! One of them we even committed to be baptized but not on a specific date yet! It was a great miracle filled day!

We also had interviews with our mission president this week which were really good! It was my second to last interview with President Lee sadly. Next transfer is his last transfer. He's definitely going to be missed.

Easter was amazing as well! It was probably the most spiritual Easter of my entire life. There were some amazing talks given in church about the Atonement of course and some very touching stories and experiences shared. Then Sunday school was all about the atonement as well and was very spiritual. The whole day was very spiritual and very focused on and centered around our Savior Jesus Christ and His sacrifice for us. There was a quote that was in my head a good part of the day. It's by Tad R. Callister who is a former member of the Quorum of the Seventy and was the Sunday school General President. It's from his book called The Infinite Atonement and it really makes me think and really ponder Christ's sacrifice for us and how truly unfathomable it is. 

He says “What weight is thrown on the scales of pain when calculating the hurt of innumerable patients in countless hospitals? Now, add to that the loneliness of the elderly who are forgotten in the rest homes of society, desperately yearning for a card, a visit, a call—just some recognition from the outside world. Keep on adding the hurt of hungry children, the suffering caused by famine, drought, and pestilence. Pile on the heartache of parents who tearfully plead on a daily basis for a wayward son or daughter to come back home. Factor in the trauma of every divorce and the tragedy of every abortion. Add the remorse that comes with each child lost in the dawn of life, each spouse taken in the prime of marriage. Compound that with the misery of overflowing prisons, bulging halfway houses and institutions for the mentally disadvantaged. Multiply all this by century after century of history, and creation after creation without end. Such is but an awful glimpse of the Savior’s load. Who can bear such a burden or scale such a mountain as this? No one, absolutely no one, save Jesus Christ, the Redeemer of us all”

Jesus Christ is there for us even in the most lonely of times and whe  we feel most forgotten. He has felt it all from the smallest of pain the most excruciating. He is there to comfort us when we are alone and weak and build us up so we can move passed out trials and hardships and become the sons and daughters of God that we are destined to become. I'm always reminded of a scripture whenever I think if the Atoning sacrifice of our Savior Jesus Christ. John 15:13  Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.

I love you all so much and am grateful for all of the love and support from you all! Keep on keepin on!

Fluffy Cats!

Hello! This week had its ups and downs. Jeane has had a few problems arise this week. Her main problem right now is she is getting kicked out of her apartment because she is late on her payments because her daughter kept stealing money from her and she came to the church for money and we told her the church can't help with that stuff so she got a bit offended...so we are hoping she gets through it all and finds a way to pay it all off. Please pray for her!

We had a fantastic week for finding new people this week though! We received a referral for a family of five from the timaquana Elders so we are excited about that. So far we have not been able to have too much contact with them because they are a bit busy but we are very focused on meeting with them this week. We also found some other wonderful people this week and had a great last minute miracle Sunday night! We found a young couple in this apartment complex and taught them the Restoration. The spirit was very strong and she was getting a bit emotional during it so we know they were definitely feeling the spirit. We asked them what it would mean to them to have Christ's original church on the Earth again and they said it would mean a lot to them a would really help them in their lives. They are super excited to have us come back this week and teach them more!

I love you all and hope you all enjoyed General Conference I don't know which one was my favorite but as always Elder Holland and Elder Bednar stood out to me! President Nelson gave a very good one in priesthood session too! Conference is too good! Love y'all! 

BANG!

Oh boy! This week has been great! Mainly with Elder Stevens and I working out in the mornings! We've been going super hard! We get up and take some pre-workout then we go to the gym and get huge! Its been fun and this morning we did it with the other elders. They came over in the morning and we had a good gym time. I also tried this energy drink called bang thats why my title is that. Its super good but I aint a fan of energy drinks so probably my last time trying it.

This week though we found a lot of new people to teach so hopefully we can be able to get some of them in church and on date for baptism this week! I'm super excited for general conference as well! Our mission made some flyers so we've been handing them out to people and a lot of people are very interested in watching! General Conference is always exciting especially with President Nelson because hes always got something up his sleeve! Im excited to see what new thing there is this year!

We had some great lessons this week with Terry. He's still searching for an answer but he's been really happy and upbeat every time we come over so something's going well. He finally got his tooth out too so that's good! We also had a few lessons with Jeane this week and we will habe to push her baptismal date back a few weeks because she wasn't able to come to church for some reason. She also has a smoking habit that she is trying to stop so hopefully she can. She didn't come to church but still fasted with us so we are hoping that will help her. She still has a strong desire to get baptized but now she knows it's not going to be as easy as she thought. The adversary is always doing his best to make sure great things like baptism don't happen. She knows that and is doing her best to prepare herself. Please pray for her and Terry!

That's pretty much all that happened this week! Have a great week everybody! Love you!

Can a hog see it's behind in 6ft. of muddy water with dark shades on?

Well hello everyone! This week has been a bit crazy! So as a zone we are really really really focusing on baptism and trying to get a lot of baptisms this transfer so there has already been some crazy things happening with baptism this week so it's really been great!

First Terry had his baptismal interview on Saturday which we were so excited about! Then he showed up looking a bit uneasy so we got a bit nervous. It turns out he isn't 100% sure this is what he wants to do. He expressed that he's been at his other church for over 40 years and his friends and family are all there. So he said he wants to keep looking for a sure answer a few more weeks. At first, I was a bit saddened by it because he has told us over and over this is what he wants to do but then I thought it's really important that he's fully converted before he's baptized and this was probably the spirit telling him that he's not fully converted yet. We told him that we understand and told him again he can find a sure witness through reading the Book of Mormon, praying about it, and coming to church and he said he would definitely do that. We also told him that being baptized in this church doesn't mean he can't still go to events and socials or even be around those people in his other church. He understood that and is now looking for a sure answer so please pray for him!

A HUGE miracle that happened this week was we talked with this lady named Jeane we taught one other time and she has gone though a whole lot in her life and said she really needs God more in her life. So we invited her to be baptized on May 11 and she accepted. Then we came over again with some members and had an amazing lesson with her and afterwards invited her to be baptized on April 27th because we felt she could be baptized earlier. Then she said she wants to be baptized on April 13th because that's her birthday and she wants to be baptized before she turns 41! We looked at the calendar and saw that it's definitely possible if she is really committed to be baptized then and so now she's on date for April 13th! We are super excited for her! She really wants to be baptized and said she knows that Satan is going to work harder than ever and she won't let him stop her from being baptized! She is definitely ready! 

That's pretty much all that happened this week! It's been a good one and I hope you all have a great week! Love you! These pics are from the recent zone conference and District Leader training.

Gone Fishin'

Helloooooo! This last week was pretty wet! It rained a ton! And it's supposed to do that this week too! We got soaked on Saturday but fortunately were able to dodge it the other days it rained. We can't go swimming so I guess getting soaked by rain is a good alternative lol!

This week I had another trade off this time with Elder Sherman and we had a great time! He's in his second transfer so he's really working on a lot of things so he can get the hang of missionary work. We biked the whole day in their area because they didn't have a lot of miles left to drive because they only get a certain amount of miles a month for their car. So we biked and got wet from the rain so it was pretty fun! He's a huge guy and loves working out so he gabe me some of his crazy pre-workout stuff and oh man that got me going! There was A TON of caffeine in that stuff! My ears were tingling and I felt like I could run like 20 miles! It was insane! So that helped us a lot in the rain! 

Elder Stevens and Elder Carter were able to have a great lesson with Terry while I was with Elder Sherman! They brought a member that we've have been trying to bring to our lessons with Terry because we thought they would be great friends and it turns out that we weren't wrong! Brother Ross and Terry hit it off great and are pretty tight now! From what I heard the lesson went super well and I guess brother Ross really helped Terry know that he's getting baptized into Christ's church and just another church and so now Terry is getting closer and closer to being baptized! We also had another lesson with him this week on the Law of Chastity so we could get that one out of the way and make sure that he is keeping it and he is and said he will continue too! We are so excited for him!

We also played some basketball with a bunch of people on Saturday and it was so much fun! We were aloud to go because there were a lot of non members but we have some people we are teaching that want to go too! They usually play every week so I'm super excited for that! We are also going fishing in Saint Augustine today because a member wants to take us so I'm so excited for that! 

Love you all! Have a great week!

We are on our way to fish!

Pork Chop Pot Roast tho!

This week was pretty good! We biked a lot like usual. We talked to a lot of people while we biked. We are now teaching a lot of those people we talked to also! So that's pretty good! We had a great lesson with Terry this week too! I wasn't there cuz I was on a trade off with another missionary but Elder Stevens said it was really good! They talked to him about the Book of Mormon and how it can draw anyone who reads it nearer to God than by any other book. He really felt the Spirit as they taught him because he said he would read the Book of Mormon everyday! He's getting closer and closer to his baptismal date so we are very excited for him! 

We also finished our 2000 piece puzzle this week! Its super big and sweet! It took us a good 3 weeks to complete it but we did it! I also got sick this week so that wasn't very fun. I tried to push through because I could just hear my dad calling me a wimp in my head so I decided to push through haha! Also we had some lessons that I really didn't want to miss so we went to those which ended up going pretty well! One was with this guy named Pastor Chris and obviously he's a pastor for a church but he accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and has been reading it! He said he's been asking God for the full truth of His Gospel for a while and so we told him we are the answer to his prayer and we taught him about the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and how we know this church is Christ's church found in the New Testament once again on the earth. We told that by reading the Book of Mormon he could know that what we taught him is true and he said he would keep reading and pray to God and find out! He said he loves the Book of Mormon so far though and wants to preach out of it to his congregation! He's so awesome! We are excited to continue teaching him! He is definitely seeking for truth.

Something else that helped me push through the sickness was something I've been studying lately. I read a BYU devotional by Jefferey R. Holland called "Lesson from Liberty Jail" and it is a very good talk! It talks about Jospeh Smith's experience in Liberty Jail and all of the things he and those with him went through. It was definitely a very hard experience he had but he talks about how it was the trial in his life that made him the prophet that he was. He went on to talk about how we all go through very hard and tough trials in life that cause us to feel like God has forgotten us. But just like Joseph's experience if we turn to God and continue to have faith in him and endure then those experiences can turn out to be the most revelatory, influential, and life changing experiences of our lives. God gives us trials to help us learn and grow in this life because that is what life is all about, learning by experience. As long as we turn to God and trust that he knows what's best for us then we can endure through the hard times and really grow in this life. 

I love you all and hope you all have a great week!

Florida is so bipolar!

Wassup! Its been a very great 2 weeks! Transfers happened and I'm staying in Orange Park! I'm so happy to be staying! This is one of my favorite areas for sure! Sadly Elder Josse got transferred though so I'll miss him a lot! My new companion though is Elder Stevens and of course he's from Utah! He's pretty cool though. A lot different than my other companions but we'll have a good time! He's a super hard worker so we will definitely have a great transfer! Also now I'm the district leader here so that's going to be different! So far everything has been pretty good and I haven't destroyed the district yet haha! I'm excited for the new experience though!

Something amazing that happened this week was we had a lesson with Terry, one of the people we are teaching, and we invited him to be baptized on March 9th and he accepted! His faith has been getting stronger and stronger in the Gospel and he definitely knows that he needs to be baptized! He said he loves it when we come over and teach him because he feels super good when we do. We told him that's the spirit testifying to him that our message we are sharing with him is true and from God. We have another lesson with him today and I'm super excited for it!

We also have been teaching Lilly a lot. She is 9 and is supposed to get baptized this Saturday! We are super excited for her! Its gonna be a great week! We had a very successful week this week too. There is a whole family that came to church this Sunday that a family in our ward invited and they loved it and are coming again next week! We are super excited for them to come next week!

Florida weather is crazy! It was super hot on day this week and I got a bit sun burned and the next day was freezing cold! Its insane!

I hope everything is going great with everyone! I love you all and hope everyone has a great week! 

Love,

Elder Plumb

Here's mine and elder Josse's album cover for our band haha!

Conversation Email between Mom and Calvin

To Elder Plumb:

Hi there - did you get the pizza?! I didn't get a phone call saying they couldn't deliver so I am assuming all went well.  Hope it was satisfying!  As you can see all your bros wrote you and your dad so I will keep this short this week so you can write them back.  Well, I know you got your transfer call on Sat. too but I don't know the outcome so you may even have a very busy day if you are leaving.  We understand if you can't write everyone til next week.  

The Patriots won - ugh!  The score was the 2nd lowest scoring 1st half in super bowl history with 3-0 Patriots up.  Then the Rams came and scored 3 in the 3rd quarter, so going into the 4th quarter it was 3-3.  Weird huh?  Than the Patriots scored a touchdown - boo!  And then with 2 mins. left in the game the Patriots scored a field goal to seal the win.  Ugh Ugh Ugh.  Oh well...such is life.  Broncos have a new head coach is Vic Fangio who was the DC of the Chicago Bears.  So cheers to next season!

Love you and hope all is well!  All is well here!  Marcus's bday is on Sat, Feb. 9th.  He wants a lds friend sleepover friday night and then his school dance is sat. night.  He also wants a new phone. His came from his friend so he is due for an upgrade.  We have Stake Conference this weekend too and a general authority is coming so there is a youth session at 8am on Sunday.  Wish us luck getting your bros there! ha ha!

-Mom

To Mom:  

Yes we got the pizza! It was so awesome! Thank you so much! We had the other elders over at our apartment for the call so we had a good time! You're the best!

Ya we had the transfer call and I'm staying in OP! I'm so happy I'm staying! Elder Josse got transferred though so I'll be getting a new companion named Elder Stevens and I don't know anything about him. Also I'm the new district leader so that's gonna be weird. We'll see how it goes! 

Ya I heard about the patriots winning! Another trash year! That sounds like it was a very lame super bowl! I'm glad I missed it lol! I'm glad the Broncos got a new coach too! Hopefully he does good!

Oh man tell Marcus happy birthday for me! That spoiled child haha! Which General authority is going to be at stake conference? Haha ya good luck getting them there on time! I hope y'all have a great week and stake conference! I love you mom! Thanks again for the pizza! You're the best!

Love, Calvin

To Elder Plumb: 

That is great you are staying in OP! And getting a new companion will hopefully be refreshing and helpful as District Leader. What a great opportunity for you to lead! I am sure you have a lot of missionaries who admire and look up to you so they will respect you in this role. Good work! Proud of you! Are you the only DL or is your new companion also a DL?

Glad the pizza was perfect and fun for you all! Whew! I'll have to do it again sometime huh?! ;)

I love you-

Mom

To Mom:

Ya I'm glad I'm staying too! I've heard my new companion is obedient and a hard worker so that will be good. I'm the only DL he's the "buddy" lol! Thats what DL companions are called. Yes we would love pizza again another time! Thanks again! Love you!

Love, Calvin

Fauset Tapestry

Helloooooo! I hope everyone has had a fantastic week! This week was pretty sweet for us! We found a lot more people to teach and our teaching pool is progressing more and more and getting bigger and bigger!

Right now we are teaching a little 9 year old girl named Lilly. I was on a tradeoff when they taught her so I haven't met her yet but we are pretty much just going to teach her all of the lessons and then she will get baptized on Feb 16! We are very excited for her and from what I've heard she is really excited as well.

Milan also finally came to church for the first time this year and his little brother imantha who is super shy and would never talk to us finally opened up to us and had a great time and promised that he would go to primary next week! We are super excited for them! We are going to have to push back Milans baptismal date but he's still progressing and will get baptized eventually. 

Sadly we lost another person we are teaching to anti stuff online. His name is Eddie and we invited him to read the Book of Mormon and pray about it and that's how he can truly know the truth because the internet has a lot of false information and God is the one with all the answers. So we are hoping he accepts are invite and has a change of heart. 

Well that's been pretty much all that's been going on this week! Elder Josse and I created a band with each other called Fauset Tapestry so we've been making some pretty weird music haha! We listen to the efy songs with no lyrics and then we just make up our own lyrics and see what happens...it's pretty terrible but funny too haha! Life of a missionary lol! 

I love you all! Have a great week! Keep on keeping on! 

Love, 

Elder Plumb

Sack of Clothes in August Fire

Hello everybody! This week has been great! Also sorry for the random title lol! I asked Elder Josse what I should title this and that's what he said so I went with it haha! 

This week we really focused on trying to get people to church and sadly were not as successful as we thought we would be for this Sunday. We had one person come but were planning on having a lot more people come. The good thing that came out of it though is we were able to get a whole family we are teaching to come next week because they were a little bit busy this week so we definitely are going to be seeing the fruit of our labors next week and are expecting even more people to come as well!

We have been using the Book of Mormon as the main focus in our finding and have had some great miracles from it! One day we were knocking around in an apartment complex and felt inspired to knock on these certain three doors and all three doors accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and said they would read it! We've been getting away from asking people if they are interested and just going straight into teaching them how amazing and inspiring the Book of Mormon is and it's been working really well!

We also had stake conference which was super good! We had Elder Costa from the Quorum of the Seventy come and he gave some really good talks! There was also an Elder from the area of seventy there too and he gave some really good talks! President and Sister Lee gave some talks as well and the Orlando Temple President and his wife spoke too! There was so much that went on. We got a new stake president too which was pretty crazy. In the Saturday night session they talked a lot about preparing and studying at home and they compared it to when Christ told the Nephites to go home and ponder His words in their homes and I was like holy cow! I thought that was super cool and it helped strengthe  my testimony of in home church. Christ told the Nephites to ponder on His words so they could really understand on a spiritual level what he was teaching them and so they could receive some personal revelation as they really thought and prayed about His teachings. That's why it's so important to study at home and as a family so that we can receive revelation for ourselves and families so that the teaching of the Gospel can sink into our hearts and not just be heard. It was definitely a very good stake conference and one of the few where I was really paying attention haha!

That's about it for this week! I hope everyone has a wonderful week and I love you all! Keep on keepin on!

Love, 

Elder Plumb

I also got a sweet new star wars puzzle!

Big Stuff Goin' On... Big Stuff

Yello! So the big stuff is pretty much that our mission is going to expand in July when we get a new mission president! We are gonna be huge! Our mission is gonna go all the way down the pan handle to Tallahassee and farther into Georgia to Tifton, GA! Also there will be like 100 more missionaries coming into our mission so that will be weird! I'll only have 1 month left though when it happens so it will pretty much be like I'm in a new mission for the last bit of my mission.

Something else that happened this week was we had a great lesson with someone we are teaching named Terry! We have taught him once before but we had a great lesson with him about prayer and he was asking all of the right questions and the spirit was just super strong and we could tell that he really has a desire to find out the truth! 

We have been teaching some other people that have quite a bit of potential so hopefully all goes well for them! Nesha and Milan have been doing really well! Thanks for all of the prayers! Nesha still has a lot of work so we are still working for her and are planning on teaching her the importance of fasting and doing a fast for her to get a new job and so that she will be able to come to church.

I love y'all so much! Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Plumb

Also I finished a puzzle and I'm gonna be working on a cool Pokemon one! These were some really funny things we saw in someone's yard!

Grandpa Plumb's Passing - 1/7/2019

Calvin and Zhenya- I just found out that Grandpa died this morning. He went to the emergency because he wasn't well. Dad picked him up for church earlier and he collapsed walking to the car and dad caught him and took him back. They said he had been so weak lately. We feel awful we didnt go back after church to give him the sacrament. We are saddened by this news but comforted that he is with grandma again and what a joyous reunion that must have been!  I love this gospel! The knowledge we have from the restored gospel makes times like this more peaceful and hopeful. I am sorry this had to happened while you are away Calvin. I copied Zhenya on this email because she lost Grandma on her mission. Zhenya, maybe you can share how you dealt with that loss away from our family. Grandpa was a great man and will be missed. We will always have fun wonderful memories and stories of him and Grandma. I am so grateful for their legacy of faith they have left for us.

I love you both and will tell u when the funeral is Zhenya. 

Love, Mom

CALVIN'S RESPONSE:

Awwww man! I honestly thought he was going to live another few years. I'm really surprised. That's definitely sad and joyful at the same time. He probably wasn't having the best time spending the rest of his life in a retirement home and now he's with grandma again so I'm sure he is super happy. How's dad doing with it? That's gotta be hard losing your last parent. I'll keep everyone in my prayers. I'll definitely miss grandpa and I'm sad I won't be at the funeral but as long as he's happy in the spirit world and resting than that's all that matters to me. I'm definitely grateful for them both as well and everything they did as parents and grandparents. Till we meet again grandpa! 

Post Holiday Blues

Wassup! It's been a long time since I've written everybody! I had an amazing Christmas and New Year's! We spent pretty much the whole time bother holidays at members houses just hanging out. Mainly the Watchman's and the Smith's! They are both really awesome and fun families! Thanks to everyone who sent me something for Christmas! I really appreciate the love and support from everyone! Thanks!

This week was a pretty good week! It started with new years which was really fun! Like I said we spent the whole time with members so it was really fun! Then when the holidays were over we went right back into working hard and I had a trade off with elder Peterson who has only been out for a few weeks so it was a pretty fun trade off! We went proselyting pretty much the whole day and it reminded me about how scared I was when I first came out and talked to people! It was pretty funny making him talk to some people and then patting him on the back when he was done and seeing him smile with relief about being done talking to someone haha! We had a good time though! He actually had lived in Orange Park in the past when he was really young so he recognized some of the places we drove by. He's also on a test mission too so he is from Florida. He said he will serve for 2 transfers and then see if he can continue from there so hopefully he continues! 

Other than that it was a pretty normal week. The main people we are teaching are Milan and Nesha who both have baptismal dates and there are a few other people too who are progressing pretty well. Milan is Buddhist but wants to be Christian so he doesn't know pretty much anything about God and Jesus so we've been teaching him the really basic principles of the Gosepl but he is learning pretty quick the only problem is his parents want him focusing on school during the week and he works on Saturdays so we can only meet with him on Sundays after church. So please pray for him to continue coming to church so we can keep teaching him.

Nesha is super awesome! She really wants to get baptised she is just insanely busy with work and her kids and her mom trying to get rid of us because she doesn't like the church and she wants Nesha to be Catholic like her so its been hard meeting with her and she can never come to church cuz she always works on Sundays. So please fast and pray for her that she can somehow get work off on Sundays and not feel so overwhelmed with everything. Thank you all so much for all you do!

This week I've been studying a talk by Elder Holland called the Miracle of a Mission. He gave it at the MTC in 2000. It is an amazing talk! It's pretty much a pep talk for missionaries to be 100% missionaries and how important our calling is. It really reemphasized to me that 2 years is not long at all and that God is asking me to go all out and give him 100% for 2 years and help serve His children and bring them back into His fold. It made me feel so much more grateful to be able to serve God and be apart of His work. I can either have these two years be a few good year of my life that made me a better person or I can have these 2 years be the best two years that changed me into the person I want to be and God wants me to be. I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is God's kingdom on the Earth and I have been called of Him to declare His word among His people that they might have everlasting life. (3 Nephi 5:13)  I'm so happy to be a missionary!

I love you all so much! I hope you all habe a fantastic week and continue to remember your Savior and His perfect example thoughout this week!

Love, 

Elder Plumb