Happy Easter

Hello Everyone! 

For Preparation Day today, we hiked Badger Mountain (it's not really a mountain, everyone from Utah calls it Badger Bump) with our zone. You can basically see our whole mission except for the Hermiston and Walla Walla zones, and the areas out in the boonies. 

Happy lateEaster! We almost didn't have an Easter dinner because our dinner calendar coordinator has been in Ireland for the past week and a half, but our Ward Mission Leader came to the rescue and invited us over. :) We also had a really cool lesson with a less-active family. We were talking about Easter and the conversation led itself to baptism and the nine year old boy pipes up and says "I want to get baptized!" Needless to say, we had a pretty good night. :) 

We found another family to teach! Richland is just popping with families! The sisters in the next ward over gave us a referral for a woman named Rachel who was taught by elders previously, but stopped meeting with them because she felt that her questions weren't being answered. So we have our first lesson with Rachel, her husband Brad, and their 11 year old daughter, and they basically drown us with a fire-hose of questions until we tell them that we have 5 lessons that we teach people and that as they listen to those lessons, and keep the commitments we will extend, including coming to church and reading the Book of Mormon, that their questions would be answered. They loved that idea. :) So we're going back tonight to teach the Restoration. :) 

The work is hastening, and the work is true! I love my Savior, Jesus Christ, and am so grateful for the opportunity to serve him and to assist Him in fulfilling His and our Father's purpose for His children. This weekend will be General Conference, a wonderful time of the year when we can hear from God's authorized representatives and hear what God Himself would say to us. (Amos 3:7) Please make this General Conference weekend special by inviting someone you know who is not a member of the Church or who has not come for a while to watch it with you. It will make your experience so much more meaningful. And keep sharing #Hallelujah!

Love, Elder Plehn

Pictures: 

1. Elder Poulter (my companion) and I
2. Our district
3. Our district
4. The view from Badger Bump. That's Kennewick, Pasco is across the Colombia River, and Richland is to the left (out of the picture)
5. e

#Hallelujah

A good week this week. We had our temple trip today (thus the email on Wednesday). I love the temple. It's such a fantastic place. We are really blessed as a mission to have the Colombia River Temple in our boundaries. And it's only 20 minutes away from most of the mission too. That's nice. :)

We had a fantastic day yesterday. We had a member out with us from 6:00 to 9:30. We a super brief lesson to a new investigator, Steven, invited him to church and set up another lesson for today. We were also able to teach a lesson to a part-member family, the Smiths, who agreed to take the lessons and learn more about the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The member we brought shared his testimony and his re-conversion story. That above anything else we did brought the Spirit to the lesson. It is amazing what the testimony of someone who is simply living the gospel in their daily life can do. And coming from one of their peers, it really impacts an investigator, sometimes in a way that the full-time missionaries can't duplicate. 

We've been sharing the #Hallelujah video with anyone and everyone that we can. If you haven't seen it yet, please watch it and share it! You can find it at FollowHim.Mormon.org. It is a great way to share your testimony of Jesus Christ. As you share it, please remember to accompany the video with your testimony of Christ and a simple invitation to act. It will allow those you share it with to feel the Spirit and be drawn closer to Christ. 

Love, Elder Plehn

In Jesus Christ we can find new life

This has been another crazy week! Elder Poulter and I have seen a lot of great things happen, especially with the less-active members we are working with. We also found a family to teach! At 8:40 on Monday night, we were going to drop by a returning member, and we saw a lady sitting outside smoking. As we walked up to her, she started to say that she wasn't interested and that she didn't really believe in God. We kept talking to her about her experiences with religion, and eventually her husband Ryan came outside and started talking with us. After a few minutes, Jessica (the wife) asked us if we just wanted to come inside because it was kind of cold. After we went inside, they started asking all sorts of incredible questions about tithing, and church attendance, and what it was like to be a member of the Church. We were able to answer all of their questions and testify of the Restoration of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. We are excited to continue to visit them and share with them and their four children (2 sets of twins ages 8 and 9) more about the gospel! As we were leaving the lesson Jessica told us that as we were walking up, she was starting to tell us to get off her property and that she didn't want to talk with us, but the words couldn't come out. They literally choked in her throat. 

This Sunday the Church is beginning a 2016 Easter Initiative. At the center of the Initiative with be a two minute video that testifies that in Jesus Christ we can find new life. The Initiative is going to be focused on the hashtag #Hallelujah. When the video comes out on the 13th, please share it with everyone you can! As missionaries, we have access to it on our missionary portal early, so Elder Poulter and I have been sharing it with just about everyone we talk with. We were invited to teach the High Priests group yesterday. The topic was Chapter 4 from Preach My Gospel. We shared the video after promising them that they would be prompted to think of someone they could help as the watched it, and invited each of them to act on the prompting. It was a great experience.

ZLC and Zone Council were both great experiences as well. As Elder Poulter and I planned for them, we realized that we wanted the Spirit to be the teacher. Almost all of the time in both meetings was spent counseling about what we as leaders and what we as a zone could do to further the work with the members and with the Easter Initiative. As a zone, we came up with a lot of good ideas to build the member's respect. We committed the zone to spend time each day planning how they can use the #Hallelujah Initiative and how they can apply what we talked about in regards to member respect.

Today I got news that my Grandpa Dunford passed away. It was expected and only a matter of time until he passed on. I am grateful that the Plan of Salvation is taught in the Church as something that is absolutely real. I know that my family with be together forever again. I am grateful that I have a loving Father in Heaven who is aware of each of His children, and has called me and so many others to share the good news with those who don't have it in their lives. 

Love, Elder Plehn