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!