Hello Lomas de Solymar

Dear Everyone,

We really didn't expect that changes call last week, but here I am in Canelones, Uruguay, right next to Montevideo!  The ward I have moved into is amazing.  I am in the Lomas de Solymar ward in the zone La Costa.  We're right on the beach, although I haven't seen it yet.  The members are wonderful.  They are super excited to work with us in missionary work and even the young men want to leave with the missionaries to see what the mission experience is like.  This is going to be a fantastic change.  My companion is named Elder Green.  Which state is he from?  Trick question!  He is from Peru!  His grandfather is American and so the very american name that he has continues until his generation, even though he doesn't know any English and his accent is super Peruvian.  He is a super old missionary.  Like, super old.  Like, tomorrow he completes two whole months on his mission.  He is actually still an oro, as in I am completing his training and he couldn't be happier.  Evidently, he and his trainer didn't get along in any sort of way.  So he refuses to call his trainer his father and instists that I am his real trainer.  So, I adopted him.  And now I am a father.  Would you look at that!  Elder Sevilla is a grandfather!  I am super stoked because this area has amazing potential.  Elder Green is a hard worker and so far we have gotten along excellently.

Last Thursday, we went to a recent convert's house.  Her name is Zoe and she is eight years old.  Her mother is named Yessy.  Yessy was going to get baptized a while back, but she could never give up smoking, so she kind of gave up and stopped talking to the missionaries.  But this past Thursday we buckled down and testified like there was no tomorrow that God is a God of miracles (Mormon 9:19-21) and that He could heal her.  We gave her blessing on Saturday and she hasn't been smoking since.  We set the baptismal date for this Saturday and everything is going swimmingly.  I am a huge fan of miracles and have learned that the Lord really does provide miracles if we choose not to doubt even a little bit.  So I have given up on doubting.  It no longer exists for me. And I have seen amazing miracles so far from it.  We are gonna baptize!  Yessi is super excited to finally get there after already having given up.  But her faith has been renewed and now she is repenting.  Next stop: baptism.

Being a district leader is super fun, but all I have in my district are sisters. And after having spent such a good amount of time trying to have little to no communication with sisters, the Lord saw it fit to bless me with the opportunity to talk to them every single night over the phone.  They are an amazing district, though, so we're working really hard.  It's a whole new step of service and a completely different realm of missionary work.  Instead of just motivating people to get baptize, I now also get to motviate people to baptize.  I am having an excellent time working with them and our zone is full of wonderful people.  Being in a new area is always so exciting and gives a missionary the abilitly to leave any sort of bad habit aside that he used to take part in.  It always brings such energy! I am super jazzed!  We're gonna baptize!  I really love being here in Uruguay.  It is my home now.  I love everything about my life and am so glad thatI have so much time to continue to grow and learn.  The Lord is really blessing me.  I will continue to give my all.  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

Wasn't I Just Emailing You Guys?

Dear Everyone,

Have you ever tried to type on a English keyboard that has Spanish programming? It's a game of guessing sometimes and I am not a good guesser... We always seems to take it one step further every week when it comes to how hard we work and how much we give of ourselves. We need to improve our charity toward the people of Florida. I am in dire need of some charity. And humility. And basically every Christlike attribute. It is a work in progress. I wish I could say that I remember what happened this week... Let me think...

We have been meeting with several people that are progressing in several aspects of the Gospel, but have yet to take a leap of faith and come to church. This is difficult for several because most the people that we teach live in the very humble part of Florida and the chapel is wayyyy on the other side of the city. None of them have cars. Few of them even have bikes. So they have to walk. And in the cold Sunday morning it is Uruguay custom to sleep. And then eat and then drink some mate (pronounced mah-tey), which is the herbal tea that everyone drinks down here. And then go back to sleep. Sounds fun, right?

We do see several miracles. We met a guy on the street who stopped believing in God after his daughter of 12 years died in an accident, but after letting the Spirit guide our conversation, I testified about the Book of Mormon, how it was the keystone of my belief in God. "I have to reach that whole thing? Is there a movie or something?" No, there isn't. But we agreed to watch the Finding Faith in Christ movie the next day. He was really jazzed and we could see the flicker of hope gleaming in his eye. Unfortunately, in between that time, his family convinced him not to let us in the next day. When we arrived, he was back to being bitter, which really made me sad. He had read the pamphlet we gave him about the Plan of Salvation, but never prayer to know it was true. That's like watching three quarters of a movie. Of course you won't be satisfied. Seeds need to be planted as well as reaped, so we knew we did our part. He'll get there one day. I hope that all are having excellent weeks. After August is over, the cold will go away! I love you all and ask for your prayers for me and my family. I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,
Elder Plautz

Didn't I Just Write You Guys, Like, Two Seconds Ago?

Dear Everyone,
 

I was a fan of this week. Elder Gila and I have been trying to be the missionaries that Heavenly Father wants us to be and as we give more and more of ourselves, we see greater and greater blessings. We are still have trouble helping our investigators progress. We have still been teaching Fabricio Costábile, a non-member in a family of two other members who are reactivating. Fabricio is gaining a testimony of the Book of Mormón, but he is still having trouble getting to church and agreeing to be baptized on a specific date. We'll continue to teach inspired lessons and I know that he will come unto Christ more fully as he is willing to make decisions. Many people don't think that they're ready to be baptized because they don't know enough. The truth is that all you have to have is a broken heart and a contrite Spirit, you ust be willing to keep God's commandments and stand as a witness of Christ at all times and in all places. The learning will come with time. No one is ever done learning.

Last Monday night we were knocking on doors and we approached a house whose architecture echoed of that from decades ago. Florida is anciente, and the older buldings are made of intricately-carved and designed concrete and have towering, old, wooden doors. (The entrances are composed of two tall wooden doors, like french doors, with large elegant knobs for show.) The night was quiet and the streets were vacant, just like most cold nights in Florida. Uruguayans go to sleep early in conditions such as these. We approached the door and knocked three times, hearing the echoes of our knocks from inside. Standing in front of the house, we felt a weird presence. I knocked three times again, and the doors began to open, leaving us to believe that someone would be there to greet us, but we found not a soul. The doors opened on their own, simultaneously, all the way, revealing a dark hallway that led to another set of old wooden doors. No light emitted from inside. We just saw darkness. "¿Hola?" I questioned, which echoed in the hallway. No answer. I took a step inside, curious as to whether someone had heard us-----NOT. I have seen enough movies to know that the house was haunted. If we had stepped inside, the doors would have closed on their own and no one would have ever heard from us again. As soon as those doors opened, I urgently said "We're going," and we high-tailed it outta there. I'm not about to die on my mission by the hands of ghosts.

We saw great success this week and I really love my mission. It has been nothing easy, but it is turning me into the person that the Lord wants me to be afterward. Thank you for all of your prayers. I love you all! I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

It's Always Chilly in Floridelphia

Dear Everyone,

Once upon a time there was an Elder.  He worked hard in Uruguay during the winter, but forgot what it was like to be warm.  It didn't seem to matter how many sweaters or jackets he put on, the cold still penetrated.  He even looked like that kid from "A Christmas Story" because of how many clothes he had to put on.  The winter almost destroyed him.  (Back to first person.)  They are calling for snow in Uruguay this week.  Do you know how long it has been since it has snowed in Uruguay? There's a man in our ward of 82 years who has never seen snow in his life.  That's how long.  It probably won't snow here in Florida because of how low it is in altitude; we'll just get the fierce winds and the rain: oh, joy...  I broke down and bought gloves and an umbrella.  I am not as strong as I thought I was.  Even though the gloves don't really keep my hands warm, I think that it's a mental thing.

The cold doesn't help the Uruguayans want to listen to us in the street or even in their houses.  Uruguayan culture calls for two things when it is cold, dark, and wet.  Tortas fritas (which is just fried dough, sometimes with dulce de leche) and sleep.  If there is one thing that Uruguayans like more than (anything to do with) fútbol, it is sleeping.  At any time of the day (but especially after lunch, when they take their siesta, which is the optional nap that most of them enjoy after a nice meal).  So what do we do as missionaries in these circumstances that don't seem in our favor?  We have faith and keep working!  Don't think that there is ever an excuse not to work (unless it's too dangerous, but that rarely ever happens).  We need to find, teach, and baptize!  This week was incredibly fast and we worked harder than ever, bringing us a lot of success.  People came to church and the branch is growing.  We are working to help the members get jazzed about firstly, going out with us to teach, and next, find people for us to teach.  We need more faith right now so we can see greater miracles.

We're teaching several people right now, but they are still having trouble progressing.  We want them to progress, but we cannot force them.  Our job is to carry the Spirit unto their hearts; they have their decision let it into their hearts.  We find with faith, we teach with testimony, and we baptize with water. That's the way to do it.  We are teaching an older lady named Olga (and she's not German--I had always been under the impression that women with the name of either Helga or Olga were born about eighty years old with muscles like a Roman soldier and a thick German accent; I was wrong).  She is the grandma of a family of members and we're all trying to help her realize that religion is not a position of status.  That's the reason that many people don't want to change.  We'll keep praying about the way we can help her grow a testimony of the restoration.  I love you all.  Thanks for your support!  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz 

Oren por mí y los hijos de Dios que sirvo.  Precisamos las oraciones suyas.

I have less than zero time today.

Pday ends in two minutes.  I love you all.  Keep the prayers coming.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

I Am So Cold. And I Lost My Gloves.

Dear Everyone,

We are working toward the middle of winter now and I think I seriously underestimated how much I would suffer from the low temperature when I was packing last year right after summer was over.  Two sweaters will be fine, I thought to myself, and if it's cold, then I'll just deal with it.  Wrong.  Wrong, wrong wrong.  So wrong.  Did I mention that I was wrong?  I eventually got to the point where I would ask for sweaters from the members (who were more than happy to donate to a poor missionary).  So now I am a bit warmer and like an Ogre, I now have layers.  But my hands...  Yes, my hands continue to suffer.  My trainer had given me an excellent pair of gloves on the onset of my mission, which I lost after he left.  Elder Gila then gave me a pair, but I lost those, too.  I guess my hands were just meant to be cold.  Don't expect me to find time during to day to get gloves or have money to buy them!  I am a poor missionary who has to work!  Do you know how much time I would lose if I took time to buy gloves?  Too much!  We must work!

The changes this week brought four new missionaries in our zone.  Like they are called greenies in the United States as new missionaries, they are called golden in South America (at least Uruguay), or "oro."  So we got four new oros and they have brought an excellent new zeal and energy to our group of hard workers.  I feel as if the quality of missionaries has greatly improved since the age changed.  Maybe that's just me.  Maybe it's just my mission.  But the missionaries that we receive are fantastic!  And they come in by the truck-load now, so the mission is really going upward.

We are still working with our investigators and helping them realize the importance of coming to church.  We can only bear so much testimony until we realize that they just won't progress, though. Sometimes it's difficult for a missionary to extend a commitment (such as a baptismal commitment) because they know that the person will say no.  The missionary might refrain and just wait a while, thinking that the person has to be more prepared to receive the invitiation.  The truth is that if a missionary bears sincere and faithful testimony to his or her investigator, then the Spirit will be present.  If the Spirit is present, then the commitment should be extended.  There is no question.  The Spirit will testify to the person that what they are being invited to do is true.  The person may reject the testimony, though, and reject the invitation.  This simply means that they are not ready to hear the Gospel.  The reason the missionary might not extend the invitation is because he knows that if and when they reject it, then he'll have to drop his investigator.  And if he has to drop his investigator, then he'll have to find new people to teach.  And finding new people to teach is the most difficult and exhausting thing to do.  But that's the work of a missionary.  So we as missionaries have to learn to be bold and loving.  And we have to be willing to keep searching no matter what the circumstances are.  And we have to be willing to extend commitments when the Spirit is present.  So Elder Gila and I continue to work!  And we love working together.  He is the best.  We will do what it takes to invite others to come unto Christ.  We love these people and desire their salvation and blessings.  Todos se tienen que bautizar.  Sí o sí.  I love this work!  And I am having the best time of my life in the service of others.  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz

The fotos:

the first is a pensive Elder Plautz in Florida, next to Piedra Alta

second is me with Elder Gila. But a witch used a spell on us. We got better.

I'm just jazzed to be a part of the show!

Dear Everyone,

I know that you were all holding your breath, wondering what would come to us these changes, but to my everlasting happiness I get to stay with Elder Gila for another six weeks!  And you know what we're gonna do? We're gonna BAPTIZE! I really love this guy; he's my favorite companion.  We are really helping each other be the best that we can be and the Lord is seriously blessing us.  We have been teaching this guy named Fabricio (aren't Latino names the best?) for a while and he is finally understanding the role and the importance of the Book of Mormon, which is the keystone of our religion.  Elder Gila and I have learned that the best way to teach is through testimony and not through knowledge, through love and not through selfish desire.  It is amazing to see the change in people's faces as the Spirit begins a process of enlightenment and they begin to understand their purpose and potential.  I am so blessed to see this with Fabricio.  He is coming along well; he is about thrity-five years old and he and his thirty-year-old sister live with and take care of their mother, who, in her late sixties, is coming under some mental disease where she hears things like voices and stuff.  They tell me that it can get pretty hectic.  Nonetheless, Fabricio's sister Viviana and his mother Elisabeth are both less active members and we're trying to help them all come to church and partake in the sweetness of the fruit of the restored gospel of Jesus Christ.

One miracle we saw this week was simple and powerful.  We all know that knocking doors isn't very effective, but if we don't have anything else to do, then we have no choice.  As we walk along the streets of Florida, it's amazing to see the Spirit work through us as we feel the impressions to go to a house that we see and find out that the person or people that live there really need to hear from us.  (Even if they don't accept us.)  Such a miracle happened this past Wednesday when we knocked the door of a lady named Teresa, who had recently lost her son, who was a father and a husband, to a terminal disease.  This is why I know that our church is true:  because the moment that she opened her door, she said that she was busy and that she didn't have time, that she didn't want to talk to us.  All we said next was that we were missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.  Many times we just say "we're missionaries from the church of Jesus Christ" or "we're representatives of Jesus Christ," but in this specific moment, Elder Gila named the title of the true church of God.  And even when we do something as small as that, the Spirit testifies to others of truth.  Call the name long, if you will, but behind it there is the power of God, which is eternal.  After that, she stopped for a second and literally said "I think I need this." She then explained her situation and her loss.  And after testifying of the Plan of Salvation, she began to feel peace.  This peace comes from truth; it is a peace that is long-lasting.  It endures through trial because it is accompanied with hope and faith.  Anybody who has the ability to go on a mission and decides not to is making a huge mistake, because moments like these really fortify me for the rest of my life.  These were just a few of the miracles we saw this week.  Not even a hundredth part of what we actually saw could even be written.  I love this work.  I must now go and serve the beloved children of God.

LOVE,

Elder Plautz