March 26, 2012 Miracles in Paraguay

Hi mom, dad, and family,

I got the package mom! it came this morning all safe and sound. thanks so much. I'm sorry the office can't get me a Brazilian visa.  We'll just have to see if we can still see the falls?  did you get your Paraguay visas? I hope it all works out.  I don't even know what people do there at the falls. or how to get there. do people spend a few days there? did you ask sis sargent´s mom what they did? I am not sure when to go to coronel oviedo. we don't need to spend a lot of time there because I don't think the members remember me much. I would like to pass by the area and show you and dad a few things and pass by one or two families, but that is it. I will ask people here what else we can do. thanks for doing the classes. pd bio and physics would be first priority for sure. labs fill up fast too though. you would be surprised. then d & c and shakespeare. I don't remember what student development class I wanted and for what credit, but you can sign up for that one you found, and we will see. it is good to have most classes on tue and thurs so I could have other days to work. I don't remember much how I had my schedule the other years. ha. it is a distant memory. I don't know who to say to add names to what you are going to bring? do you need the names, or can I just give you a number and then decided? hna little still has a few of the skirts. I think she his given a few to people who don't have a skirt. everything sounds great. thanks for thinking of others and wanting to help the people here. one thing we could do is take things to the branch president´s house in coronel oviedo or something. that is where skirts and shirts are more needed. 

as for the work here, we have some awesome investigators right now, but they are the only ones we have. we couldn't find anyone new to teach this week hardly, but M finally came to church. she is so cute! she doesn't understand everything about the restoration and everything, but she feels that it is true. she said that so many missionaries from other churches have come by and nothing really had any effect on her. she didn't feel anything. but when we came it was different. she feels that it is true, and is so excited to be baptized. we cracked up laughing yesterday in the lesson because some drunk who lives a few houses down was saying to her, why are you going with the mormons? and stuff like that. he said the mormons are the worst. she said, before I realized it I said, ¨no you are the worst¨. it was so funny because she is the sweetest, soft spoken little lady. we got a laugh out of that one. we also had an awesome lesson with a family that lives one street from us. we contacted them and made an appt to pass by in a few days. but when we got to the appt. their futbol club was playing, so we fixed another appt. this time we took our ward mission leader with us who is a returned missionary. it was the best to have him there. the investigators are so much more relaxed when there is another one like them there. another paraguayo. the mom is a bit more interested than the dad, but she loved it. we passed by 2 days later and she said all excited that she has been reading in the book of mormon. also, turns out that the dad knows the bishop really well and just happened to run into him. the next visit we are going to have in the bishop´s house. pray for them! they are so golden. I hope they keep progressing. that was our miracle of the week. well, I have to go back out into the rain. all the streets are flooded and my shoes and skirt are wet. oh well. it is all worth it. 

love,

hermana plummer

March 19, 2012

hi mom dad and family, sorry dad that you are still not feeling 100%. but that makes me so happy that you and mom were able to go to the temple together after so long. I just love the temple. mom, I haven't gotten the 2nd package yet. I got the first one a few weeks ago and ate all the red vines in one day. haha. my favorites. thanks so much. lambaré is a very big city. yes it is an upscale community. I am not sure you need to bring a lot of white shirts and skirts. well, a few. I will see. at least here in lambaré very few lack those things. skin is ok. as for the brazilian visa. he said that I need one.   I will call again, because you just need to coordinate it with the office elder in charge of travel stuff. I don't know what the law is and stuff. I haven't heard from kate lately. I got a letter from mrs wallace. she is so great and sends me letters, which I love. anyways, I hope the package comes soon. I need it. hna jones gave me a deodorant from the states that i am using thank goodness, but I just really miss MY deodorant. I have absolutely no makeup right now. it is a sad sight.
well I hope you all had a good week. I am sure mike is loving having the whole house to himself. this week here wasn’t as hot, so that was a blessing. I learned a new word. caracola - seashell. I also just bought something to take back to the states. it is super cute and something that all the paraguayos have in their house. I am excited to have it in my house too to always remember paraguay. I realized that I haven't boughten anything. we had a super awesome thing happen, shabanna´s mom said YES! she is way excited for her baptism. at the temple we bought her a personal progress book to start. oh as for the couple, umm. we went to an appointment the other week and she said that they talked and decided they don’t want to meet with us anymore because she is scared of what people will say if they have mormons coming to their house. ya. it was rough. but when one door closes another one opens. I don’t know if I talked about moura. she is 70 years old, and can’t really walk, but is the sweetest ever. she wants to come to church so much and is preparing for her baptism. she always remembers the exact hour that we said we would come, and is waiting for us with her Book of Mormon having read total. she is understanding the concept of the restoration little by little, and has such a faith in Christ and wants to be baptized to follow Him. I will have to take a picture with her to send. this week went by a bit slow because we just couldn't seem to find anyone to teach. we try to do everything, but then everything just falls through. I have a hard time accepting when that happens. I tell myself that it has to be my fault because I must not have done somthing right, but i am learning that it isn’t quite that way. yes there is always something i can do better, but as I read about hope today in preach my gospel, i realized that hope is having calm confidence that the trials we have will be for our benefit in the long run. maybe my mission has had a few more bumps in the road than I would have liked, or maybe it just didn’t go the way I had planned. But I just need to trust in Heavenly Father's will that if i did my part, my mission has been what he knew would teach me what I need for my life. we all have the same objective, but we all also have different things to learn. hope is patiently trusting in the will of God and obediently pressing on. Don’t think that I immediately came up with that. it has been a struggle to feel what I have said, but I am getting there thanks to a lot of help from the Lord and my companion. it is ultimately how one can just be happy. well, I got to go. I love you all so much.
love,
hermana plummer

March 13, 2012 Life in Lambare and living in the city.

They were able to attend the temple today, so their pday and emails were a day late.  Take a look at these pictures that were of the short lived trio companionship in Nemby.  

hi mom dad and family. mom before i forget, did the secretary from the mission contact you about my visa for brazil? I gave him your email. also, I think you have to sign me up for classes soon. not sure when, but it would be good to check on it. it is always at midnight. yenny is the daughter of the couple who we live behind from the ward. familia samaniego. she knows english really well, so I asked her to contact you. she is such an exemplary woman. you would get along. I thought that you might already know from other moms, but just to make sure so that you didnt have a let down. I am glad you are doing better. maybe you should do a fast before you come on the trip so you can make it through the plane ride. but you have been on longer before. also, I forgot to tell you to tell elder richards' mom that her son is doing great. he is my zone leader. also, I talked to elder allphin today and he too is doing well. so you can tell their moms that. I guess elder allphin is in my zone because I saw him today at the TEMPLE! last night I got your dear elder about what aunt kris's  sister's son wrote about his experience in the temple the day of doug's passing. (Elder W is serving in Mexico and had attended the temple the day Doug died, not knowing of his passing.  It was a very sweet experience, feeling his relatives on the other side.) it was 9 months ago for me, since I went to the temple. I just feel so good right now. last week I was still struggling a bit with the changes and a few things, but I am doing better, especially after the temple. there is not other place like it. it truly is like being in heaven but while still being here on earth. everyone is so nice to us, which is refreshing. jk. people are nice here. but I just sat and felt the calmness of the spirit in the last part. one feels such a special connection with our world and the spirit world, knowing that our loved ones are so close. it is like the primary song a child's prayer when the child says, " heavenly father, are you really there? and do you hear and answer every child's prayer. some say that heaven is far away. but I feel it close around me as I pray.´´ I am ready to press forward now. a lot has given me a good shake recently, but there are always those tender mercies that come in different ways.

this week, I was completely blown away by the maturity of the 14 year old we are teaching S. she is so excited for her baptism on april 1st. all we need is the signature of her mom on the record, and we are good to go. she has shared with us how much she is changing and has changed since hna little and her other companion found her (on christmas eve). she feels that it is true and describes to us so sincerely how she feels that someone is there with her listening to here when she prays and that someone being Heavenly Father. she reads a chapter or more in the Book of Mormon every day, and basically I am just in awe of her. please pray for her and her mom especially. it is great too because there a bunch of great young women here that are good support for her and good examples. 

people say that the investigators feel more comfortable with the sister missionaries, but I think they feel a bit too comfortable with us. every single person went on for about half an hour or more telling us all of their problems. I have everyone's problems running through my head. we want to be here to help people, but this week was overload for us. I have so many people I have to pray for it is overwhelming. thank goodness we are sharing what will help them with everything, they just have to let us teach it. well, I am out of time. I love you all so much. please pray that I don't come home a fatling because everyone here wants to feed and feed us and think that when we say no more that it is just because we are embarrassed to say yes, but I really dont want more. haha. we are running every day. thank goodness. well, until next week. 

con mucho amor, 

hermana plummer

March 5, 2012 Unexpected change to Lambare

Hi mom, dad, and family. mom first i am going to answer your question.
What makes me happy? a lot of things make me happy. if I were to write it all, i could go on all day, but one thing here in the mission that makes me happy is when i see how the gospel changes the lives of those with the faith to act on what we teach them. like with G. she is the perfect example. 
Did the elders put in a 3rd bed?  yes the elders put a 3rd bed and a third everything in the house. 
Did you ever watch Amazing Race - a reality show.  They were in Asuncion last week. no I never watched the amazing race.
Did the youth talk about going to EFY? yes, about 10 youth from ñemby went to efy and loved it. the sunday after they all took a bit of time to talk about their experience. it is so great to have it here to strengthen the youth of the church. they are the future.
our trio companionship was awesome and had a lot of fun together that first week. but right now, they will be having fun without me because I am not there anymore. I got a call tuesday night at about 10pm from pres callan. he told me that the hermana that hna little was training was going back home to guatemala and that the next morning I would be going to barrio lambaré. ya. so i am with hna little again in lambaré. I am happy to work with her again because she is way awesome and we got along super bien the last time, but I did not want to leave ñemby. i didnt get to say goodbye to practically anyone. I called three people, the last being gloria, and I was so distraught that I couldn't call anyone else, besides it was way late. lets just say that I cried a lot. we were finding so many people and i was so excited for the people we were teaching and loving our companionship and the ward. we passed through some really rough times and were finally coming out of it, and then I am gone. I felt badly because I wasn’t too excited to come to lambaré. hna little is grateful to have me here to help here because the last week with this companion was really really rough for her. I am excited to work here, the ward is smaller, but the members seem really great, really good, quality people, I have just been missing everyone from ñemby a lot. G made me promise to never forget her, which i could never do. (this was one of Whitney's baptisms) she was crying a lot. especially now that I didn't get to say goodbye to everyone, I really hope it works out for mom and dad to come. it was all really sudden, and I find myself thinking how our investigators are progressing, but I am trying to go with it and dive into the work here. we are teaching a joven shabanna, who had been a bit scared to set a date for her baptism, but the hermanas had invited her to pray, and she put april 1, the sunday of conference for a baptism. we are really excited. hna little said that it has been a challenge to work with the members here, but we fasted with the bishop and the elders in the ward too for their help, and the bishop spoke in sacrament meeting about how much we need their help if we want to grow as a ward. the success of missionary work is minimal without the help of the members. the members here are great, so I know we will be able to get them excited to work with us. so that is the news of the week.
I am grateful for the help i am receiving from Heavenly Father these past few weeks. this change was hard for me, and I didnt want it, but I am trying really hard to be humble and to try and learn what Heavenly Father wants me to learn. sometimes it comes bit by bit and is too hard.  I want to learn it all right now because I can’t take any more surprises. I hope you all are doing okay. you are all always in my prayers. I know you are all busy, but I would really love to hear from someone as to how you are doing or something. it doesn’t need to be long, just a quick email. I really miss you all.
love,
hermana plummer

Trio Companionship for only 1 week. But what fun for that week.

Hna Plummer, Arnell and Jones

The Three Amigos