Christmas Temple Lights with Richard

Christmas

I promised myself and others that this email was going to be better

than last weeks, which will be easy to fulfill since I am not going to

copy and paste my companions..... boy not worth the heat lol. I'm

kidding I love you all.

Oh boy I loved this week. It was like everything I could ask for and

more. So we met back with Jose on Monday with sister catherman and she

bore him a beautiful testimony about prayer and how we receive

answers. Jose has a lot to figure out in his life still, which is ok.

We told him that he is still welcome to skateboard in our parking lot.

On Tuesday we went to the temple! Finally! Finally, because it took us

forever to get there! Don't ask me why, twas a frustrating experience

BUT we got there and it was worth it :) we got to see the temple

lights and performance and build Richards testimony in prophets from

the wonderful sister missionaries at the temple. And what's even

better is that Richard has decided to go to the singles ward now! So

we are sad we won't be there for his baptism but we are excited for

him to meet new people ;)

We taught Black every night this week in preparation for his baptism

Christmas Eve! Oh my goodness y'all that was spectacular. I don't

think I could've asked for a bigger blessing than seeing someone who

I've taught be baptized and confirmed on Christmas Eve and Christmas.

What makes it better you ask? Neil Liu. I think I've mentioned Neil

only a couple hundred times to y'all. Neil is a recent convert as of

October and he is classmates with Black. Neil lives with our member

Sister Davis who is everything I want to be when I'm older. She asked

black one day if he would like to be baptized like Neil, and Black

said yes! So we have been teaching and Neil has been translating and

Sister Davis has been pushing us along. So this Saturday Neil baptized

his friend black :) they both were so happy and that was just one of

my many favorite gifts.

Oh ya cool side experience! We had asked Jessamyn, one of our recent

converts as of March to speak in Chinese at blacks baptism on Friday!

And she was freaking out just a little because she works night shifts

and she was working that night, but she still said she would do it!

She then told us that as soon as she accepted to speak, her boss

called her and said she didn't have to come in for another week! So

she had time to prepare her talk! Heavenly Father definitely watches

out for us once we apply our faith.

Now to what happens Christmas Day. We woke at our usual time and made

Sister Martin (the member we live with) French toast breakfast :). We

went to church, which I especially loved because our Ward showed off

its musical capability... it's funny though because as a congregation

we always sound a bit off.... BUT the last song we sang (angels we

have heard on high) we were all on key and sounded literally like

angels. I was so proud :') after church Sister Zollinger and I played

santa with Sister Martin and we dilivered Christmas cards and gifts.

THEN I SAW MY FAMILY AND YOU GUYS GUESS WHAT???? THEY ARE ALMOST ALL THAN ME. WHAT IS UP WITH THAT? WHY DID IT HAPPEN? Hahaha no no

worries, I love my family so much, it was so good to see them all

despite the heights. My mom and dad are the most loving and inspiring

people ever and I'm so grateful to have them as parents. After that

nice skype session with them, we went to the Regazzi's for dinner and

had delicious steak and potatoes.

So Sister Zollinger and I woke up this morning and we were super

disappointed because.... no more Christmas. What do we count down to

now? What do we look forward to? How else are we going to be able to

continually bring the Christmas spirit into our lives now after that

great Sha-bang? Well guess what! It's not over. Something that I'm

going to be doing to keep the light of Christ still continually

burning is using the light of the world challenge throughout the rest

of this year and the next. Picking one to do each day will increase my

faith, help me develop Christlike attributes, and help me lift others

even more. Really all it is is using the atonement. Christ's

atonement, his pure love for all of us is what can help us through

anything :)

Happy Christmas,

Sister Plumb

Christmas Caroling with the Youth in Rowland Heights - Emailed to Mama Plumb from a Member of the Ward!

Merry Christmas!

Today y'all get a lovely email from my companion sister Zollinger because I was too lazy to write one and I do not have as good of eloquence as she does. So enjoy this week from my companions point of view :)

... also I'm out of time. Merry Christmas 

Sister Plumb

Hello from California, which from what I hear is much warmer then

where y'all are.

This week... lots of biking, but that's not new!

Tuesday we had our Relief Society Christmas party and that was nice. The theme was angels among us and we got an angel ornament at the end. Wednesday we biked our legs off again and burned every calorie we'd ever eaten. I would tell you where

we biked but since y'all aren't here it wouldn't be as impressive. We

biked up all of the hills and then back to the bottom, then back

to the top, then halfway down, then back to the top, then to the

bottom where we live. And we hiked up the Wall again. Why someone

would live up there....well, it has an amazing view but other

than that.... it is a frightening road.

Thursday we helped a slightly crazy former investigator tract for his

phone. Apparently he had accidentally thrown it on the roof, and he

needed our help to figure out which house it was and ask them to get

it down. So we helped! It took us a couple house but we found it. Then

we biked  to the stake center and practiced singing away in a manger

for our zone conference the next day. Then we did some weekly

planning.

Friday was zone conference! And our sort of Christmas party. That was

fun. For the first 2 hours President Villanueva and his wife talked to

us, as well as our stake president. Then we had lunch. Then we read

luke 2 and each district took turns singing Christmas songs between

the verses in the languages of each district. Mine speaks Spanish and

english. There was one who had people who spake Armenian, English,

Korean, and Spanish.

Saturday...we had a lesson with Black, one of Neil's friends, who's

getting baptized on Saturday! He's doing super awesome and his English

is getting a lot better. As is my Chinese. I learned how to say merry

Christmas this week! shèngdàn kuàilè！圣诞快乐！then we met this guy named

José in our parking lot, and we taught him a bit and got his number.

Then we did some more planning. Taught a few lessons. Then we went to

dinner and helped them decorate their tree. Then we went back to the

church and met with José again. He seems super cool! Except he says

he's always really busy on Sunday's. We'll have to work on that.

Sunday was great. We went caroling that night with the youth and

stopped by a lot of less actives. The. Cool things. So, we have been

trying to contact this less active but that hasn't been working, but

we got a hold of a less active member's son and last week he had invited us to come back.

We showed up last night and he was super awesome! We taught the

restoration and he gave us presents! Who does that? They were in gift

bags and there was one for each of us and the member that came with

us. They were selfie sticks:P then he gave us each a pastry. It was a

good day.

And today, I'm talking to y'all, so all in all a good day.

I love y'all and hope you are doing well! I know that this is the

season of miracles and as we open our mouths the Lord will fill them

and we will be able to be his tools in bringing the children of God

closer to His love. This week, we were just going to leave José to his

skateboarding, but we stopped and talked to him instead. Because of

that, we are now teaching him the gospel. We wouldn't have found

Joseph if the name Joseph hadn't been stuck in Sister Plumb's head. We

wouldn't be teaching him if we hadn't shared our message despite the

fact that we had been looking for someone else. I know that in our

lives as we have the faith that God has placed people in our path so

that we can touch their lives, we will find those who are being

prepared to receive the gospel. Every member a missionary!

Sister Zollinger and Sister Plumb

Strive                                                                12/12/16

Hello, hello, hello!

Well this week was amazing! Of course, because how can you not have a

good time when you're on the Lord’s time? Course there's those hard

times that come, they come to everyone in different ways, but there

are always two things we can do about that. And I choose to smile

through :)

So getting to this lovely weekly email......

I'm just super pumped for the next month and a half because

1.Christmas

2. Sister Zollinger and I are staying together

3. I get to be in Rowland Heights

4. Christmas

5. Black is getting baptized on Christmas Eve

6. Christmas

7. Richard lakers is getting more and more pumped for his baptism each day

8. Christmas

9. Oh New Years I guess,

and

10. Christmas, of course.

You just can never be too grateful for such a wonderful time of year.

It was a great week this week. Mainly because we went to two Christmas

parties. Last Monday we went to one that was special for the more

seasoned members of our Ward, and we had a good time hearing Christmas traditions, having laughs, and downing sugar free crystal lite.

We biked. Surprise. Then we had OUR Ward Christmas party! It was, in a

word, legendary. Brother Dushane in our Ward made all the food, and it

was some of the best roast I've ever had. Sorry Dad. And Black, Siv,

Black’s sister, Amanda, Richard, Dukes and Demarcus came! And it was so weird because they all knew each other! I sat by Demarcus and Sister Z

sat by Black, Siv, and Amanda.  Then Richard came over and gave a bro-

hug to Demarcus. Sister Z and I were so confused. And then Dukes walks

in and sits across from us and Demarcus and Richard knew Dukes too! It

was like a get together for them through the church! The gospel unites

people, I'm tellin’ ya.

So with all the hustlin’ and bustlin’ that comes with the season, I just

want to take a few minutes of y'alls time, and share my testimony. A

word that has really stood out to me this past couple of weeks is the

word, Strive. I really like this word because it means more than

trying but yet it's not quite doing. A lot of the times I get

overwhelmed by all the things we have to do and accomplish, and the

people we have to help. I know that I can't do it on my own, and I

know that I can't just hopelessly rely on someone to do it for me. So

instead I have been striving to do my best in all the aspects on my

mission and knowing the parts that I lack in, and my weaknesses are

taken care of through the help of my Savior, Jesus Christ. It's so

fulfilling to be working side by side with Him, though he has carried

me a lot. It's a joy in learning and improving each day. And it's been

a Joy in Striving.

Love y'all :) have a good week.

Sister Plumb

Oh ya! It was President Villanueva’s birthday this week! Here's a

picture of my zone. It's a small zone.