An eight-year-old Uruguayo boy told me that Shaq died and I don't know if I should belive him or not...

Dear Everyone!

 

What is the secret to missionary work?  That's just it.  WORK.  And that is what we did last week.  We take every opportunity to find and teach people.  It's the most busy I have ever been in my life.  Honorio told us that his Señora Ana had agreed to start talking to us again, and then he followed that with "and she wants to get baptized, too."  I didn't jump the gun, and I think he may have been exaggerating a little bit... or completely because when we met with them both, she was the same.  Her heart is still closed and she will not accept the idea that there is a life after this one.  For those of you just joining us, Ana lost her five-year-old son a little over a year ago and although she says she believes in God, it is evident that much of her hope has been lost, leaving her to be a very angry person.  Nevertheless, her and Honorio seem to be happy together, so the have finally gotten a date: the 7th of June!  So that is what we're helping him work toward.  He told us in church yesterday "if I could get baptized today, then I would definitely do it."  Too bad it takes loads of time and papers to get married in San Carlos.  But he is doing everything he can, so the Lord is blessing him.  Honorio has more faith than Elder Teran and I put together.  He is such and example to me.

 

We also restarted teaching a lady named Mirta again last week.  She was an old investigator from, like, six years ago, who couldn't get baptized because she worked every Sunday and wouldn't give it up.  Now she nurses an older member of the church.  We didn't really think that this member, named Juan, was completely there when it came to his mind.  All he ever did was say hi to us and sit in his wheel chair.  Elder Sevilla and I were teaching her a month and a little bit ago, but she had to prepare things on Sunday during church so Juan could come back and go about his routine, which still prevented her from coming to church.  Because she wouldn't progress, and on top of that she is a very pessimistic person, (not pessimistic like a mean pessimist who says no to everything; rather she is SUPER DUPER nice and smiley and friendly, but doesn't have too much hope that her life can be a happier one,) we stopped teaching her.  One Sunday, Juan came up to us in his wheel chair and said "I heard you were teaching Mirta, my nurse.  And she couldn't come to church because she had to take care of things for my return every Sunday.  I'm going to fix her schedule in order that she comes to church."  That was the first thing that Juan had ever said to us in the first three months that we knew him that was more than "Hola."  What a boss.  She started coming to church with Juan, so we have begun teaching her again.  But she is still pretty pessimistic.  So we're gonna have to find a way to open her heart.

 

We have been seeing so many more miracles of less-actives coming back to church after talking to them and teaching them.  One of them, named Brother Tort, we have been inviting to church for over three months (his wife and two children are active, but he isn't), and for the first week, after two well-prepared and spiritually-inspired meetings this week, we saw him in the chapel.  That was one of the biggest miracles ever.  I love this work and I testify that the work of the missionary is the most satisfying work that there is.  I wouldn't trade this life for the work, no matter how many times I have to walk through the pouring rain, or how many people yell at me, slam doors in my face, send their dogs after me, throw rocks at me, or how many dogs bite me, or whatever else this Uruguayo world throws at me.  I wouldn't trade it for anything.  Because this Gospel is true.  The church of God is restored.  We have a living prophet with the Priesthood authority of God.  And I am here to spread this gospel and find those who are ready to receive it.  I love Uruguay and I love this life!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

 

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

I am a Priesthood Holder, like my Father Before Me

Dear Everyone,

Sometimes I think that as a missionary, I worked as hard as humanly possible one week.  And then the next week comes and we work even harder.  The amount of labor that we do is nothing short of a miracle.  Missionaries are one of the greatest miracles of the restored church of God.  

Speaking of miracles!  I have another excellent story today!  It is about a sister named Ofelia.  A few weeks ago, Elder Sevilla (I still miss him) were having lunch with a family and we asked if they had any ideas for people we could visit.  Sister Zurma, the mother, said that there was a less-active sister named Ofelia that was offended by one of the members years and years ago and had since stopped coming to church.  So we tried to pass by her house the following week, but we were having difficulty finding it.  We knocked on one door and the lady that came out said "I don't have time right now!  Another day!"  By the by, that's usually a response of someone who isn't interested.  But we persisted a little bit, and tried to find another day that we could pass by.  "What's your name?" "Ofelia," she replied.  BINGO.  She gave us her number and told us to call her.  

That following Sunday was General Conference and by some miracle, she came!  But that's not all.  She didn't come to church the following week, so we knew that someting still had to be done.  So we set up a day to go to her house and brought Oscar Baez.  To my everlasting shock, Oscar did not know Ofelia personally.  He only knew every single member of her family by name.  Parents and siblings alike.  So even though he didn't know her, I excused it because he still knew of her.  So we talked.  

Many people might not know this, but we as missionaries don't go into every lesson with a set idea of what we are going to teach, point for point.  This is especially true for first lessons for less-active members of the church.  We talked about a lot of things, about her baptism, the baptism of her children, that her husband died before hearing about the Gospel, but that they were still sealed together in the temple, and about the things she was hoping from life right now.  As missionaries, we really have to pay attention to the Spirit, because if we don't, then we won't say what God wants us to say.  It isn't difficult to have an ear for the Spirit, but we definitely have to pay attention to it. 

We were able to sing the hymn that was sung for her baptismal service decades ago.  The Spirit was very strong.  We talked about preparation for the life to come, that this time here is so very short, but has eternal consequences.  And so we must do every thing we can to choose Jesus Christ and follow his commandments, keeping our covenants.  As we testified about how much we loved our families and how important it is to return to Heavenly Father united as a family, we invited her to come back to church, to restart preparing herself for this event.  

"Will you come to church with us this Sunday?"  Then, two words that aren't usually spoken afterward were pronounced: "Por supuesto."  Which is interpreted to mean, "of course."  

She said that she had been waiting for years for this moment and that she was finally ready to come back.  The Spirit was so potent and I knew it was because she was finally accepting it back into her life as a guide and companion.  The bigger miracle after this was that she was there, that Sunday, sitting in the Sacrament room.  She told us that church was everything she had hoped for and more.  What a blessing it was to be a part of this lady's life.

Honorio is still going strong.  He really wants his family to get baptized, too, so we're thinking of ways to help them like us more so they'll start listening to us again.  He is super excited to be baptized and came to church this week with a white shirt and tie.  He is such a wonderful guy!  We have been teaching him about the temple and the work for ancestors and he is excited to be baptized vicariously for his father, who died twenty years ago.  

This week was fantastic.  The life of a missionary is not easy, but never have I felt more purpose or joy than I do now in the service of the Lord.  Everybody should be looking for people to be taught by the missionaries!  We should be filling their agendas, like it was said in General Conference!  The saving ordinance of baptism for the remission of sins is completely necessary to live with God again and must be performed by someone who holds the Priesthood authority of God.  So we must help those we love come unto Christ!  

I love this work and know that anybody's testimony can grow through helping the missionaries.  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

Me eating Flan in the house of my Ward Mission Leader.  I didn't like it at first...but when you eat something enough, it grows on you.  And now I'm a fan of flan.

 Me with my new companion Elder Teran from Mexico

Ciao Elder Sevilla. Hola Elder Teran!

Dear everyone,

We worked incredibly hard this week.  Like, we did a ton!  Of work.  Not like just work.  Like WORK-work.  Like the kind that makes your feet hurt and your brain tired.  And I feel spectacular!  We finally helped Honorio put a date on his baptism!  He is super solid.  Because of complicated marriage papers and stuff like that, the earliest he can receive a DATE for his fast wedding is the second week of May.  But he said "if I can get married on the 10th of May, then I'll be baptized on the 11th."  He is such a wonderful example to me of faith.  He wants his whole family to be baptized, but knows that as the father, he has to set the example.  We're gonna make sure that he always has support from the missionaries.

On Wednesday morning, I had to say goodbye to my trainer, Elder Sevilla.  There's a bus that specifically picks up the misisonaries on the day of changes, so we both rode the bus to Maldonado City, where I was dropped off to work for the day with another Elder, and I said goodbye to Elder Sevilla.  Don't worry, there were no tears.  That evening, I was greeted by my new companion!  Elder Teran from Mexico!  My companion is a Mexican!  I was super stoked to find out that I would be with another Latino, becuase my Spanish always has plenty room for improvement.  He speaks English, but we agreed at the beginning that we would never speak English with each other. He is a great, wonderful Elder and we went to work.  We started teaching a ton of people, but we are still searching for the elect and chosen of God who are ready to hear and accept this message of happiness.

Many people wonder what I eat for food here, or even if I eat.  I do, in fact, eat.  If I didn't then I would probably die, I think.  You'd have to ask a doctor about that.  And the members here are amazing.  They feed us almost every day.  (The key to a good missionary-member relationship is returning the tupperware.  That is the truth.)  

I eat a lot of rice with tomatoes, peas, and mayonase.  The Uruguayos LOVE mayonase.  They put it on everything.  Because Elder Sevilla was leaving, a ton of members made us Azado with Churizo.  Azado is the huge chunk of beef that is fused with a lot of fat, but really expensive azado doesn't have as much fat (and Honorio got really expensive azado).  Churizo is sausage.  And it's super good.  

Other than this, we eat a lot of Milonesa, which is like a filet, whether it be of fish, or much more common, of chicken.  I love the food they eat here.  And also!  We eat a lot of Guiso, which is stew.  But they don't have problems with leaving bones, or bits of bones in their food, so I gotta watch out!  Dessert is usually fruit, like peaches or bananas.  But sometimes, they bring out DULCE DE LECHE!  Seriously, I don't know why there isn't dulce de leche in America.  It's a really sweet spread that is a little bit like caramel.  And it's amazing.  I am going to sell it when I come back and be a millionaire.
(editors note:  I told Elder Plautz that we most certainly have Dulce de Leche in the US.)

I love the work!  And I love these people.  The Latin culture is super different, but it's a good different.  I am in love with my life as a missionary.  I'll continue to work as hard as humanly possible to complete the will of God.  That is the easiest way to be happy, in or outside of the mission.   I love you all!  Be missionaries!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God!

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

I had blood sausage for the first time this week and it was gross!

Dear everyone,

 

What a conference it was, right!?!  Can I tell you what makes conference EVEN better?  Watching Honorio intentively listening, building his testimony of modern-day prophets.  Yeah, that's what makes it better.  Unfortunately,  his marriage doubts are slowing things down a bit and we are still trying to put a date on his baptism.  We're gonna try to place a date tonight.  I really hope that it works!  We witnessed TONS of miracles today and seriously, after watching some other people witness miracles, too, and then a few days later rejecting them, it broke my heart.

 

For example,  we found a man named Feliciano last week, who, when we clapped his house, immediately began telling us that it was becoming more and more difficult for him to believe in God because of how many different churches there were.  Well, we told him that we had the answer to why this was and he invited us in.  

The Spirit felt in that lesson was powerful, and Feliciano could feel it.  He began to describe it.  "I'm an alcoholic and a smoker, but now I feel like I can get over it," he said, "my brother died a year ago, but knowing I can see him again makes me so much happier," he said.  

(side note, we went with Oscar Baez, who told us that he didn't recognize the name Feliciano de Leon, but when they saw each other, they both started shouting for joy because they used to work together and were good friend a long time ago.  Yeah, he knows everybody.  It makes me laugh every time) 

We went back to his house a different day and when Elder Sevilla began to testify of the plan of Salvation, Feliciano, this fifty-eight year old man, began to tear up, saying that he wanted to do whatever it took to get over this life and become a new person.  It was SUCH a miracle that we found this guy!  

But we returned for a third time, and he literally didn't want anything to do with us.  It was like a completely different person.  It broke my heart.  

I pondered about miracles and what they are for me, and I think that there are two types of miracles.  There are the miracles that God has control of, like moving mountains, or guiding His missionaries to the people that need Him, and then there are the much, much bigger miracles:  the miracles that we have control of, or our actions.  

Everything that we have, God has given to us.  And no matter what we give back to him, whether it be our time, our money, or our talents, we will only be giving back a small portion of what he has already given us.  What he doesn't have control of is our heart and our mind.  Those are the only things that we can give to God that he doesn't already have.  And the biggest miracles that there are is when someone chooses to change something about himself or herself out of there own free will.  Especially when the odds are against them.  I suppose that this would be a miracle by God's standards.  Maybe moving mountains is pretty cool, but He could do that any time he wants.  Somebody changing him or herself, though.  That's a huge miracle.  That's why Honorio is such a miracle.  He is changing himself.

 

On Saturday before General Conference, Elder Sevilla and I traveled to the Stake Center in Maldonado (about 40 minutes away).  Before the session, we went to a nearby supermarket to get some snacks and a man on crutches began to yell at us from across the street, saying anything and everything that one wouldn't want their children to hear.  And the threats!  Oh yes, there were threats.  But since he was on crutches, he couldn't walk toward us very quickly.  So he just screamed.  We didn't pay much attention to him.  

Well, fast-forward to the nighttime.  Elder Sevilla and I decided to proselyte a little bit in between the second session of conference and the priesthood session.  As we were walking, we saw the man again.  "¿De donde consigió una bicicleta?"  I though to myself.  Or, "Where did he get a bicycle from?"  He was now screaming, and a lot more mobile.  And he began to ride toward us. We didn't really think much of it until we saw that he still had his crutches and was holding one in the way that a knight would hold his 'thingy' to go jousting.  And he was coming straight for us.  

He came up behind us and Elder Sevilla urgently said to me "We might have to run.  Yep.  We have to run.  RUN, Elder."  

This crazy guy began trying to joust me!  It wasn't even a fair match!  We booked it to the nearest supermarket.  He left.  

Satan, right?  He will use any which way to frustrate this work!  But the work will continue.  If you can think about what you were doing in between those sessions of conference, just know that I was being chased by a crazy guy on bike.  

Anyway, the work continues!  I had a magnificent week.  I hope you all did, too!  Have ANOTHER great week, now!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

 

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

Me in the beach of Punta del Este enjoying myself. The Elders of the zone and I went to Punta del Este last Pday.  It was sandy. 

Me going back to my roots and doing chimney with "los dedos,"  which are the fingers that stick out of the beach in Punta del Este.

I am from San Carlos!

Elder Sevilla and I with the Herrera family  I love them so much.

There Would Be No Christmas Without Easter.

Dear everyone,

 

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter (or "Pascua" as they say here down south) this weekend.  Uruguay celebrates the whole week, calling it "la semana santa," or the holy week, and everybody stops working and going to school and leaves San Carlos.....so, needless to say, although the week didn't feel slow, there was a lot less going on and a lot more trying to contact people and door-clapping (yes, we still do that, too).  

Honorio is doing wonderfully.  We found out through casual conversation that everybody in his family is against him talking to us, but also everyone that he works with and many of his friends.  But he never even told us!  He just would keep telling us how excited he was to get baptized!  He and Ana are using a marriage service that works with quick(er) marriages, so today they are going to find out which day of April they are getting married!  Although Ana isn't too happy with Honorio meeting with us (because all of her friends have told her that Mormons are crazy and she believed them), she has wanted to get married for a while, so she doesn't have a problem with the fact that his wanting to be baptized sped up the process.  Honorio told us a few days ago that "more and more I am convinced that this is the true church."  That was music to our ears.  He keeps telling us how his life is changing for the better and honestly I love being a part of this conversion process.

 

We had a wonderful weekend, but it ended with one of those moments that I have felt a few times before in my life:  in a period of just five minutes, I went from feeling perfectly fine, to feeling terrible in the stomach-region of my body.  We went to meet with Honorio and after a few minutes in his house, I had to excuse myself to go to the bathroom.  Then, after returning, just a few minutes later I had to go again.  I threw up as quietly as I could as to not disrupt the lesson that Elder Sevilla basically had to teach solo.  Then I had to go back one more time. 

The night the followed wasn't filled with much sleep...I felt like dying a little bit, actually.  My body was just getting rid of everything.  Sunday was spent in bedrest after church because I was in no shape to work, but after the evening hit, I felt good enough to get out and start preaching the gospel!  And that is just what we did.  And we saw great success.  We dropped the Tabeira family (a family I talked about last week).  Some poeple just aren't ready to change.  That was their case.  We are teaching other people, and I would report more names if they showed excellent potential, but we'll see how this week goes.

 

I loved this week.  It was a nice reminder of the Atonement of Jesus Christ.  I am so grateful for what he did for me.  I know that most people's favorite Holiday is Christmas, but had there been no Easter, none of it would have been for anything.  I love this work.  I love it all!  And, unlike Elder Sevilla, who goes home next week, back to Honduras (I will miss him.  He is my father--my trainer--and I love him dearly), I have plenty of time!!  Next week, though, I will be emailing on Tuesday because of changes.  I love you all!!  You are in my prayers!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

 

LOVE,

Elder Plautz