Happy New Year!

Hey everyone!

 

Transfer calls came on Saturday. Elder Bergquist is headed to Ellensburg, and I'm getting a new companion, Elder Snow. He is going to be my 5th companion in 4 transfers. If I keep this up, I'll have more companions than transfers. We are also losing our car. :( We now have to share with Pasco 2nd ward. I'm not really sure how it's going to work, because we don't even live in our area. We live 28 blocks away... It's going to be interesting to say the least. But we'll make it work.

 

 We finally had investigators come to church this week! We had four of them come. It's so gratifying to see people there. That's one of the most difficult commitments to get investigators to follow through with. So it's exciting to see so many progressing. We have three people preparing for baptism in the next few weeks. It's really exciting.

 

I love you all, and have a great 2015!

Elder Plehn

Merry Christmas!!

Merry Christmas!

I'm having a great time here. Being a missionary is an awesome experience. I get to see a lot of miracles. We were supposed to have a baptism on the 27th, but she was sick and couldn't come to church. So we have to push the date back a week. Which stinks... But it's ok, because she's still being baptized. It's just gives her another week to prepare and strengthen her testimony. I've come to care so much more about others since I've been here. I care more about our investigators coming to church than about me getting to church, because I know how much it can help them progress.

I want everyone to know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only church of the earth that has the Priesthood authority of God. It is true, and Christ is at the head. I know that that is true. I know that the Book of Mormon is another testament of Jesus Christ. It is the key to knowing if Joseph Smith was a prophet, and if this Church is true. 

I love you all, and have a merry Christmas!

Love, Elder Plehn

He Is the Gift

Hey Everyone!

 

I know it's been a long time since I wrote a mass email like this. Sorry about that. I don't know how many of you have seen the 'He is the Gift' video, but I encourage you all to watch it, even if you've already seen it, and think about what that gift means to you. http://www.mormon.org/Christmas

 

This gospel is real and can change lives. I have loved my time here, and am so grateful that I have been given the chance to share what I know with so many other people. This experience has taught me so much, and has helped me grow as a person, and as a son of God. There have been hard moments, but those have just allowed me to realize the ways I can improve.

 

I invite everyone to take time this Christmas season, and share what you know about our Savior. Missionary work is not limited to knocking on doors. It can and should be a integral part of each one of our lives.

 

I love you all!

Elder Plehn

Hey Everyone!

Hi!

 

I've had an awesome week! I'm in a new area, and still adjusting to that, but it's been awesome. I have two new companions, Elder Bergquist and Elder Dowuona-Hammond. They are both awesome missionaries, and I'm glad I get the chance to serve with them. Elder Hammond goes home in three weeks (that's why there are three of us). He's from Accra, Ghana. Elder Bergquist is from Las Vegas.

 

We've had some amazing experiences this week. Elder Arnold of the Quorum of the Seventy came to our mission this week. He taught us a lot. He was so inspiring and confident. Especially when he was telling us we need to shape up and be better. We got to hear him speak twice, because he spoke in a special conference just for members and investigators who speak Spanish. The whole meeting was in Spanish. I learned a lot from him.

 

We had another incredible experience. On Saturday night, we decided to go tracting at 8:30 (normally not the best time to go tracting...). At about 8:45, we knocked on a door, and someone let us in. We taught the entire Restoration lesson, committed her to read the Book of Mormon, and challenged her to be baptized. And she accepted! It was an incredible experience to be a part of.

 

Being a missionary is great! :)

Love, Elder Plehn

Transfers!!

Hey Everyone!

I'm being transferred! I'm headed to Pasco. I'm not quite sure how to spell my new companions' (That's right. Tri-panionship) names, so I'll get them to you all next week. I'm excited to go, but I'm really, really going to miss my area. I've loved it here. I've met a lot of awesome ward members, and we've had some incredible investigators. It's going to be hard to adjust to a new ward. And I'm going to miss Elder Asplund. We've had a great time here. I'm also going to miss the milkshake place that's right across the street from our apartment...

What's the weather like in Utah? It's not too bad here. We were supposed to get some snow on Friday, but the storm went around us. I made a prediction a while ago for the 18th (tomorrow) but it's not looking good. ;) It's cold though. Knocking on doors in 18 degree weather is fun. :) And it's dark. Washington's further north than Utah, so it get's darker earlier. So it's completely dark by about 5:30. Which makes tracting hard. People answer the door and ask us why we're out so late when it's 6:30 at night. Maybe it will be better in Pasco where there are actually street lights. Pasco is going to be very different than Naches. There is a grand total of two traffic lights in my area. :) Pretty rural. Four towns, two traffic lights. And there's a lot more people in Pasco. :) 

Something cool I learned (relearned) this week: Everyone is a Child of God. Our Heavenly Father loves you just as much as he loves everyone else. Nothing that you could ever do will diminish His love for you. All that He wants is to live with His family again. That's pretty incredible. :)

I love you all! Thanks for everyone that has written me. It means a lot! 

Elder Plehn

3 Months!!

Hello everyone!

 

As of this Wednesday, I will have been on my mission for three months! Serving a mission is an amazing opportunity. I have the privilage of seeing lives change, and am in the ideal enviornment to develop my own desires and figure out who I am. One of the best parts of being on a mission is seeing the Gospel touch people's lives. We've been teaching a less-active member who is trying to return to activity. The lessons we have had with her have been amazing. I admire her a lot. She sought us out because she didn't feel that she knew enough about the gospel and didn't feel that she had a testimony. But as we've been able to study with her, we've seen her progress and feel the Spirit. It's amazing to see the progression she is making.

Daily prayer and scripture study are the keys to having a better day. If you start your day with those things, you will have the Spirit in greater measure. That influence will make it easier to deal with the challenges and struggles of daily life. I can promise that! Read/Listen to Richard G. Scott's talk from this last conference. It gives four simple steps to finding peace in your life. Check it out. It's good.

 

I love you all! Thanks for everyone that has written me. Sorry if I havn't responded yet. I'm getting to it.

Love, Elder Plehn

Baptism #1

You know, it's so easy to run out of time at a public library. This will be short.

We had our first baptism on Saturday! It was an awesome experience. The church is definitely true. That's all. 

I love you all! And I'll write more next week.

Love, Elder Plehn

Funny Tracting Experience

Hello everyone! 

How's it going? So, that baptism that was supposed to happen two weeks ago is going to happen this Saturday. And, unfortunately, it will only be a single baptism. The second one had to be canceled because Faye has some pretty serious medical issues that are going to prevent her from being baptized for the next little while. 

Funny tracting experience:

Us: Hello, we're missionaries from the Church of Jesus---

Guy at the door: I can see that. I'm a republican, and I own guns. *slams door*

It was by far the funniest tracting experience I've had so far. It was pretty great. :)

Being a missionary is the best. That's all. We have a great time here. Some days are hard, but those are hard to remember. The great experiences all stick out. Our message is so, so cool. It makes so much sense, and it can improve people's lives. It also has the benefit of being true. 

I love you all!

Elder Plehn

Finally some photos

Hey Everyone!

We almost had a baptism on Saturday! We actually chose to delay it so that we could have two baptisms on the same day. So now we have a double baptism for the 25th. I'm excited. 

I have a new companion now. His name is Elder Asplund, and he's awesome. I'm excited to learn from him. 

I have pictures! Finally. 

This is our apartment and our car. Missionaries are so spoiled when it comes to cars.... We get a 2014 Subaru Legacy.

​Picture of Elder Schoenberger.

A funny missionary picture that's applicable... Just kidding. Kind of. ;)

​

This is my family tree. I'm going to have to find out the other half now that I have a step-dad (2nd trainer)

​
​I love you all! The church is true! Don't forget to write! (See above picture :) )

Love, Elder Plehn

General Conference is Awesome!

General Conference was so cool. It is a way different experience watching it as a missionary. I learned a lot. Some of my favorite talks were Elder Christoffersen's, Elder Bednar's, Elder Robbin's, and the two about the sacrament.

This week, we had set a goal to have 100% member present lessons. That means having a member with us whenever we taught any lesson to an investigator. And we did it! 17 member-present lessons, and 0 other lessons. It was hard to coordinate it all and get it arranged, but we got it done. 

I'm getting a new companion! Elder Schoenberger is being made a Zone Leader in Walla-Walla, and I'm going to finish training with Elder Asplund. I get to meet him on Wednesday. I'm excited to get to learn from somebody else. 

I love you all! The Church is true! Don't forget to write me! ;)

Love, Elder Plehn

General Conference is this week!

General Conference is this week! Everyone should watch it! It's pretty important. A prophet of God is going to be speaking. So pay attention. That's all. 

Experience to share: If anyone does not know what an Area Book is, it is a binder with all the information on all current, former, and potential investigators in the area. It is incredibly important to missionaries. Anyway, a couple of weeks ago, we lost our Area Book. That is probably one of the worst things that can happen to missionaries. We must have left it on top of the car as we drove away. So we had to, from memory, recreate as much as we could. Which was not very much. We had been using that for the last few weeks. Then, we were knocking on a Less-Active member's door, and she gives us the usual spiel about how she's about to leave, and doesn't have time. But then she tells us she has some books for us. She goes inside for a minute, and then comes out with our Area Book! She said that a friend had pick it up off the side of the road and given it to her. It was an incredible miracle for us. We now have all the information we need about our area again. God actually cares about us, and cares about what we care about. God is aware of us.

I love you all!

Elder Plehn

P.S. Write me! Thanks!

Back to normal

Hey everyone!

I'm back to my normal P-day. Being a missionary is awesome. I get to see a lot of cool miracles and I get a lot of really interesting experiences. We are teaching a lot of people. We only have one person on date, but were pretty close to getting a second one. We took three of our investigators to a baptism in Selah on Saturday, just so they could see what goes on at a baptism. All three of them liked it, and all of them felt the Spirit. 

We're working on getting more investigators to church. When an investigator comes to church, it shows a lot about their willingness to learn more. And it gives them opportunities to feel the Spirit and develop relationships with members. 

I am surprised by the progress I feel that I'm making. It's becoming easier to share what I'm thinking, and to share my testimony. I still have a very long way to go, but I'm feeling more confident about what I'm doing. 

As always, I love hearing from you! 

Love, Elder Plehn

Sorry this is late...

Hello Everyone!

Sorry this is coming on Wednesday instead of Monday. We had our quarterly temple trip today, which means our P-day was moved to today. 

We've had a pretty cool week. This weekend was Sportsman Days in Naches, which is the biggest event all year. It's pretty much a fair. Our ward had a family history booth and we got to be in the parade. We met some solid people that we're working on contacting.

We had exchanges for the first time. I got to go with Elder Doman, one of our Zone Leaders. He's a Spanish missionary, so I got to use some of my very limited Spanish. It was actually easier than I thought it would be. I just didn't talk very much. But I learned a lot. It was interesting to see different styles of missionary work. I had a great conversation with Elder Doman about deciding what kind of missionary I want to become. I would suggest that you all take a few minutes to decide what kind of person you want to become, and then WRITE IT DOWN! That's important. It won't do you any good unless you can remember it.

As always, I love hearing from you all! This Gospel is true! Romans 1:16 "For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth" 

Love, Elder Plehn

Hello!

Hey everyone!

 

Washington is great. I'm really glad that I'm here. I think that I've adjusted well to missionary life. We've been having a great week. We still don't know everyone, but we're doing our best. Our ward is great. We get great meals everyday, and everyone is so friendly.

 

Being a missionary can be difficult, but there are definitly a lot of benefits. I'm learning so much about the Gospel and how to apply it in my life. In Sunday School yesterday, we had a great lesson on the Holy Ghost. We discussed how the Holy Ghost is just as kind and loving as the rest of the Godhead. He wants to be with us all the time, because he loves us just as much as Heavenly Father and Jesus love us. When we're not feeling the Spirit it isn't because the Spirit has left us, it's because we've left the Spirit.

 

I'm recognizing more and more opportunities to share the Gospel. Lately, we've been having trouble finding something to do after 8:00ish because the sun goes down, and people are not too receptive. But we've been walking around everyday, hoping to find somebody. Yesterday, we were about to call it a night and head home, but decided to take one more lap around town. While we were walking, we came across a group of people hanging out in their garage. We stopped to talk to them, and they invited us in, fed us some amazing tacos, and invited us to come back. We're really excited to go back and see them again.

 

Something I've really been enjoying is having multiple hours in the morning dedicated to studying and preparing for the day. I've learned so much, and most of what I've learned, I've learned during either personal or companion study. Studying the scriptures daily is something that I've always struggled with, but having that time set aside really makes a difference. Now I'm regretting that I didn't put all the effort I could into morning study before I left, simply because it would have helped me throughout my day.

 

Anyway, being a missionary is pretty cool. I love hearing from everyone. I love you all!

 

Elder Andrew Plehn

Hey everyone! I'm actually here now!

I'm actually here now. It's so strange. For everyone who still thinks that because I'm in Washington, I'll see a lot of rain, you are completely wrong. The weather here is actually exactly like Utah. I'm serving in the Selah zone, in the Naches ward. My companion (Elder Schoenberger) and I got doubled in, replacing two sisters. Life seems normal already. There's nothing that I haven't gotten used to yet. My area is basically four different towns: Naches, Tieton, Cowiche, and Gleed. The ward here is awesome. The ward mission leader is a recently returned missionary, and he is super dedicated to missionary work. There are apple orchards everywhere. And apples are in season. They are delicious. My mom should be posting my address where ever she posts these emails. It's the mission office's address. They forward mail to me. Anyway, send me mail! I love hearing from you all! I'll have pictures next week!

Love, Elder Plehn

In Washington

Week 2 (the day before I leave)

Hello World! (Get it?)

I leave the MTC tomorrow.... It has gone so fast. There's only two people left from my zone. That's Elder Clark and I. Everybody else left for Hawaii this morning. It's so strange to be the only two left. Our district has become really close over the last two weeks, so it was sad to see them all leave. I've been getting these moments all the time where I realize that I will be in Washington extremely soon. It's scary, but at the same time, I feel ready to go. I have been prepared very well. Our two teachers, Brother Godfrey and Sister Madrid, have been the best teachers I could have hoped for. They are so confident and invite the Spirit every time they teach. 

Speaking of teaching, both the investigators I have been teaching agreed to be baptized! It's a pretty great feeling to hear that, even if one of them is my teacher, and the other one is being paid to be an investigator. Teaching has become easier and easier every day. As we practice and learn how to let the Spirit guide the lesson, I can feel the investigators and myself coming closer to Christ.

Elder Clark and I went through the temple again today. I'm going to miss not having the opportunity to go every week. I'll still be able to go while I'm on my mission, probably just not as much.

I want to hear how everyone is doing! Write me letters, send me email. I'll try to get back to everyone individually. I wish everyone the best!

Love, Elder Plehn

Washington Kennewick Mission address

Andrew leaves for Washington tomorrow! The mission president prefers that extended family and friends send snail mail as opposed to email. They only have one hour on P-Day to read emails and write home and to the mission president. But they love to get snail mail during the week!

Elder Andrew Plehn
Washington Kennewick Mission
8202 W Quinault Ave #D
Kennewick WA 99336

First long letter

Hey guys!

The last few days have been incredible. It's interesting how time is different here. I have only been here six days. But it feels so much longer than that, and at the same time so much shorter. We are kept busy all the time. It hasn't really been that bad of a schedule. Every morning we wake up by 6:30, and have personal or companion study for about an hour before we head to breakfast. The food here is really good, and there is a ton of it, but I can see how it will get old really fast. 

I have the best district ever. Five of us are going to Hawai'i, and three of us, including me, are going to Washington. My companion's name is Elder Zollinger. I know that he will be an amazing missionary. I was assigned as the senior companion, but we're going to switch next week. Elder Zollinger and I are the sacrament coordinators for our branch. Everyone in our district has amazing insights and testimonies. We are all turning into really good friends. 

Elder Zollinger and I have been teaching our first investigator. His name is Joe. It's fascinating to see our "investigators," who are are teachers pretending to not know anything, progress and feel the Spirit. It can be frustrating sometimes, but I keep reminding myself of my purpose, which is to invite others to come unto Christ. I have realized many times that this is not my mission. It is the Lord's. This is his work and his glory, and I have been called and set apart to help Him in bring others to Christ. We just got back from going to the temple. It was great. The temple is such a great place to feel close to God, and know that your prayers are being heard. I know that I have been indivudually called to my specific mission. We listened to a lesson given by Elder Bednar last night. It was by far, the most inspiriational and powerful message I have ever heard. It was about the character of Christ, and how we need to be converted unto the Lord. Elder Bednar had great insight about how the natural man is an enemy to God, and the way to rid ourselves of the natural man is too turn outwards, to others, like the Savior did, and never inward. I have been feeling the Spirit constantly here. It has been wonderful. The MTC is a great place, but none of us can wait. We all want to be in Washington or Hawai'i right now. I know that what I am sharing is the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, and that it can bless other's lives, just as it has blessed mine.

I love getting your email and letters. They are great. Keep them coming. Dear Elder is a great resource, because we don't have to wait until P-day to get letters. We all love getting mail. For the first few days, nobody in our district got any mail, but that was just because Elder Va'enuku was checking the wrong mail box. I never really got how much missionaries want mail until I didn't have any. Thank you so much for all your love and support!

Love, Elder Plehn

MTC address

Elder Andrew D. Plehn
Unit 150 Aug 26 Wa-Kenn
2005 North 900 East
Provo, UT 84604-1793

First letter home!

Hello! This is going to be short, because I only have about 5 minutes to write. I'll write more on P-day. 

The MTC is awesome. It is so easy to feel the spirit here. I have to go now, but I'm just letting you know that I'm here, and ok.

Love, Elder Plehn.

PS: The food is really good.