28 Dec 2015

This week was fun. We wrapped and delivered gifts to a family on Wednesday. That was a lot of fun. On Thursday we only had an hour of proselyting. We had district meeting in the morning and then we had weekly planning after that. wWe got the night off so we went caroling as a zone. It was really fun. We went caroling to this guy that used to be a pastor somewhere so that was a little awkward. Christmas morning at like 6:15 we woke up to open presents. Then we went to our district breakfast. It was so good. We have an Elder in our district who can cook so good. We had a zone activity in the afternoon where we played basketball and climbed around the church building. Then that night we watched facing the giants and had a white elephant gift exchange. I got a box full of random stuff and it had a hair straightener in it. I won't have much use for that but I guess I can plastic wrap it to the Sister's car. This week wasn't very eventful. We had a guy go out teaching with us and he served part of his mission in Adams-Friendship. His name is Nathan Stephens. He said he has met Dad.

So that was really it. Have a great week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

P.S. I'm sending home a thumb drive with pictures on it. Please send me a email when you get it and please tell me if you can watch the videos on it. Thx 

 Wisconsin license plate

 Elder Pleshek & Elder Snowman

Don't believe this for a moment.

21 Dec 2015

Before I forget, I will actually be calling at 12 my time so 1 back home. We are having a district breakfast Christmas morning and we aren't sure when we will be done. So this week was average. We went bowling as a district, I sucked it up. Our zone leader Elder Shin blew us away. After that we went to our district leader's house and watched the Saratov Approach. It was really good. On Tuesday we got to teach the Nu'u sila family. They are a less active family who is working on coming back to church so they can get sealed. They are a Polynesian family and they are really fun. I see a lot of potential for them to be strong in the gospel. 

Nothing really happened on Wednesday, on Thursday we had weekly planning. We set one goal and that was to clean our apartment, because it was nasty. So we cleaned one room every night after planning. So our apartment now looks great. And you can feel the spirit more. 

That night we went on ward visits we went in a big group. It was us, Brother Joyce (ward mission leader), Villiami (ward missionary), Sister Singleton (ward missionary). Sister Singleton is a funny lady, she converted from the baptist church a few years ago. So she gets really excited/fiery  when she talks about the gospel. It was a good time. 

On Friday we had district meeting. It was alright. Lunch afterwards was good though. We ate sandwiches and sat around telling jokes. On Saturday we were eating with a less active family, we were having a good time, but the whole thing with the children of a same sex marriage came up. It was going okay but things were starting to get just a tiny bit heated between my companion and the wife. So the husband and I looked at each other and we could both tell this was starting to go down hill so he changed the conversation. It was a little awkward after that, but they said we could come back anytime so I guess they liked us. 

On Sunday we had two ladies come to church, different wards though. Anyways they both said they are interested in learning more so we have lessons with both of them this week. One of the ladies showed up to the Apple Farms ward which is where I have had most of my success in this area. So Brother Joyce took this lady on a tour of the church and explained the basics of the gospel to her. And she also has a 10 year old son who has not been baptized. So this next week should be good. We also had a musical fireside yesterday so that was cool. Talk to you on Friday.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

P.s. Did you send my Christmas package yet? And I still haven't gotten my license.

14 Dec 2015

This week was good. On Monday we went to a movie theater and watched a movie called War Room. It's an awesome movie! I think it would be something you guys would like. It's about this family who is struggling to stay together and it gets saved by the power of prayer. It's really powerful.

 

On Tuesday we had choir practice for our fireside thing we had yesterday. Then that night we played volleyball with some Polynesians. It was kinda scary. They are really good and they spike really hard. I do pretty good though, I can stay with them. It was really fun though. There is this old guy who usually plays on my team he is really funny.

 

Wednesday we had a few lessons, but the day was still kinda slow. We ate dinner with these two guys who took us out to eat. They were really funny. They are older and they remind me of the odd couple.

 

On Thursday I got to play church ball. I was so tired afterwards. We played full court and I'm old and fat so I was winded.

 

Friday was district meeting, that was good. I got to meet the rest of our district. After district meeting we went as a district to a place called Wingerz we got all you can eat wings. It was good and I was full.

 

On Saturday we went to 3 ward Christmas parties. At one of them they split the tables in to twelve groups and each group had an action they had to do for the Twelve Days of Christmas. Our group had a bunch of old people in it so we were the only ones that did it. We were six geese of laying. We kinda flapped our arms a little and the dude in charge of it told us we needed to do it better so I stood on my chair and kinda squatted and made a face like I was pooping.

Everyone loved it. So yeah that was my week.

 

As far as I know I can FaceTime home from my iPad. I probably will call 11 am my time so noon back home.

 

Love,

Elder Pleshek

7 Dec 2015

This week was great! Tim got baptized and I got to baptize him. I haven't had the opportunity to baptize anyone before. Tim is so awesome, the spirit is always so strong with him. I have never taught someone who is so excited to receive a calling.

On Monday when we were at Walmart I saw this fat guy with a big white beard walking towards us. I turned to Elder Wells and said "It's Santa." The guy came up to us and asked us if we were being good. We told him that we were, then he said "good" and walked away. But when he was walking away he said, "Ho Ho Ho." So yeah I met Santa.

On Tuesday we had our transfer meeting. It was really good. President Palmer shared a story with us that was really cool. Most of his stories include him almost dying. The Palmers are wonderful. I couldn't ask for a better mission president and wife.

On Friday we had a zone meeting. It was really good. It was all about following the spirit and consecrating ourselves. Our zone changed a little bit, we lost a companionship of Elders and gained both companionships of ASL sisters. So our zone got a little bigger. So that was my week.

P.s. I still haven't gotten my Drivers License and ponderize scripture is 3 Nephi 27:21

30 Nov 2015

This week was good. Monday was awesome! We had our meeting with all the Central missionaries. It was good to see everybody. The meeting was also really good.  Elder Wells and I will be staying together. I haven't stayed with a companion for two transfers in over a year. On Thursday we sat around the house all day and napped. Then we went to the stake patriarch's house for dinner. It was really good and I got to sit next to his pretty granddaughter. So yeah it was fun.

On Friday we had district meeting. Elder Wells and I gave a training on companionship unity. After the meeting we climbed the lighthouse.  The light house building is the name of the building we have district meeting in. It's a church with a big lighthouse on the top. So we had to go to the top floor of the church and then open a hatch in the ceiling. We put a chair on top of a table and went into the ceiling.  We ended up in a room that was about 40 feet tall and in the middle of the room was a big ladder that led to the light house. So we all climbed it and took a district picture, I was scared. So that was my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

P.S. I haven't got my license yet.

Since Erin is going to temple square tell her to drop some apple juice off at my apartment.

The MTC is going back to 3 weeks for people serving in there native tongue. So I'm getting extended another week so see you on August 16th.

Thanksgiving

Today I have an all day pday so can you send me pictures of thanksgiving back home?

Love,

Elder Pleshek

23 Nov 2015

This week was good. However we didn't get to teach Tim. That was sad, Tim is such an awesome guy. This week we went to the Spanish sisters baptism. They needed someone to play the piano. So we went and helped set up. We had a good time and the baptism was great too. After the baptism finished they couldn't pull the plug out of the font with the stick thing that they use. So I volunteered to go in and pull it out.

I will send you the video.

Yesterday we had another musical fireside in Tooele. It was really good. There were great testimonies and we probably sang the best we ever have. It was fun and I always love seeing people from the Central mission, because we got transferred all over the place and spread out.

All the Central missionaries have a meeting today with President Palmer. I'm not sure what it's for, but he says we're not in trouble so that's good. On Friday we will get our transfer calls so I will let you know what happens.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

17 Nov 2015

Sorry I didn't write yesterday; our p day was today because we got to go to the temple this morning. It was really awesome! This week was good. We taught Tim again. He is so solid. He is progressing very well. He is like a sponge he just soaks up everything we teach him. He is so excited to get baptized!

This week we talked to a lot of drunk, homeless people. Well, they talked to us; we didn't really do much talking. One dude told us that the church was a money sucking cult. Some people are so bitter.

Another homeless guy told us that God raised him from the dead and how God told him to spread the gospel. Then he went on about how drugs are bad. He was wasted. We talked to him for an hour. I also saw a car crash it was pretty intense.

It snowed a little bit but it all melted. I did build a snow man though. We also found this place to eat called Wienerschnitzel. It's really good. I got letters from the young women yesterday. I think everyone of them talked about me playing the violin. I also got a hair cut last week. Well that's all, not a very eventful week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

9 Nov 2015

This week was good. We taught a man named Tim Palmisano. He walked in to church last week and asked' "what do I have to do to be baptized."

So we met with him on Tuesday and taught him the restoration. He is getting baptized on December 5th!  He is so golden.

On Friday we gave a training in district meeting about obedience. It was about 10 minutes long and everyone participated. I think it was good and everyone else seemed to like it too.

On Thursday I finally got my retainer fixed. The best part about that is the dude did it for free. However after we left the office we were on the way home and I heard a snap in my mouth. I felt around and ironically the other side of my retainer broke. So I have to go get it fixed again this week.

Yesterday I ran into one of the people I use to teach when I was in the valley park stake. He showed up to church and informed me that he had moved to west valley. Sadly I don't think he lives in my area, I think he lives in the next stake over. Not a whole lot happened last week, but today we are going to play at an indoor soccer arena. So that should be fun. Have a nice week.

Yes I stand by the first presidency. I haven't really heard a lot about it though. It's the same policy with polygamists and I've worked with polygamist before so I already understand why they do it.

  

Love,

Elder Pleshek

2 Nov 2015

This week was good. On Tuesday I had my interview with President Palmer. It went really good, He is such a great man. It wasn't really an interview, it was more of a discussion. After I got out of my interview I had to wait for Elder Wells to do his interview. While I was waiting Elder Roybler called me over to his desk. (Elder Roybler and his wife are the head office couple.) He said, "Because your release date is in the middle of our transfer, instead of losing 3 weeks how would you like to extend 3 weeks?" I said yes. So instead of coming home on June 28th I will come home August 9th.

So then on Wednesday I stayed in all day because I was sick. It's the first time I've really been sick on my mission. It really sucked, you can only watch church movies for so long. I was all better the next day though. This is the first time I have really gotten sick.

On Friday we had district meeting. This is the biggest district I've ever been in. There's three sets of Elders and one set of sisters, then we also have the Zone leaders and the STLs in our district. After district meeting we went to cafe rio. I have the Valley fair mall in my area so there are lots of good places to eat.

On Halloween our district got together and helped a family move. It was lots of fun. It took most of the day. After dinner we were told we had to be in. So we could stay in our apartment or we could go play basket ball with other missionaries. So we went and played basketball.

Yesterday after church I got to help give Junlong Li the Melchizedek priesthood. Li is a recent convert I taught a lot and got close to while I was in the YSA ward. It was a great experience. Well that was my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

26 Oct 2015

This week was good. Elder Wells and I are getting along good. He is a little odd, but he is a good kid. In terms of missionary work he reminds me a lot of myself. I feel like I will have a chance to grow a lot this transfer because I will be doing most of the talking. Elder Wells talks less than I do. I've never had a companion that talks less than me. So. I am going to get out of my shell even more this

transfer.

The last two weeks it has really hit me that I don't have a whole lot of time left. 8 months isn't really that long and I still have so much to learn and do. I think I am having a mid mission crisis.

Rosalyn got baptized this week. It was so awesome. She was so excited! I saw her an hour and a half before her baptism she had a big smile and she was all giddy. She is going to be an awesome member and an asset to her ward. Now that she is baptized we are back to the finding.

Last night we had our musical fireside. It was awesome.

Love,
Elder Pleshek

12 Oct 2015

This week was good. It could have been a lot better but it was still good. The two baptisms we had scheduled. Ryleigh got sick so we couldn't finish teaching her. So she is getting baptized this week.

Something came up with Rosalyn so she is going to get baptized on the 24th.

I got to go on exchanges this week. Elder Paukovic came to my area. He is from Serbia and he is 6'9". We had a fun time together. He actually now lives in Las Vegas and he has been a member for 2 1/2 years.

We had zone conference this week it was really good. I learned a lot.

President and sister Palmer are so inspired. They always say exactly what I need to here. Later that night I looked at my arm pit in the mirror and it was all read and puffy. So the next morning I went to see the mission nurse. She looked at it and told me I had an allergic reaction to my deodorant. So I can't use that deodorant any more which makes me sad because it smells really good.

Last night I ate some Indian food. It was really good. There was a few different kinds of curry. So I had some of that and then I tried some chicken hearts. The texture was chewy, but it was really good. I also got to go to primary it was so fun. We were there because they were learning about missionary work. It was so fun. So yeah that was my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

19 Oct 2015

My week was good. Ryleigh got baptized and it was awesome! We got transfer calls on Friday. I am staying and I will be Sr. Companion to Elder Wells. I've only met him once and people tell me he is a little odd. I've had odd companions before though. I'm always a little nervous at the beginning of each transfer because I'm unsure of how it will go. I'm sure it will all be ok though.

Elder Helgesen goes home tomorrow, and he has been talking about going home a lot. That's made me alittle trunky. Other than that it has been slow. Well have a great week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

5 Oct 2015

This was a good week. I got to attend 3 sessions of conference. The Saturday morning, Sunday morning and afternoon. It was pretty great. I spent my whole day at temple square. I saw a lot of my friends from the old mission. It was really good to see them. My favorite talk this year was Elder Uchtdorf's talk in priesthood session. It was a really good conference. During the Sunday afternoon session I sat next to a family from Cedar city. They were pretty cool. It was kinda hard staying around Temple Square the whole day because there were so many beautiful daughters of God running around. It was torture. 

Anyways this week I also got to play basketball with some poly's. That was fun. Last Monday a bunch of random people showed up to a church building and we played basketball for like 3 hours. There is a lot of good basketball players in our mission. Other than that this week was pretty uneventful.

The person we were bringing didn't show so we had tickets so we went. Everything is still looking good for next week.

Love ya,

Elder Pleshek

28 Sep 2015

This week was good. On Tuesday we took a Samoan family we are working with, to temple square. They want to get sealed so we are teaching them. They are a really cool family. We also had dinner with a Tongan couple. We walked into their kitchen and the table was full of food.

We sat down and they said, "Elders it's all for you." Oh boy that was a lot of food. We both ate until we were full and we hardly made a dent in the food that was on the table. They kept saying, "Don't be shy Elders it's all for you." Then they sent us home with huge plates of leftovers. It was crazy!

On Friday we were on our way to district meeting and a bus stopped 30 yards in front of us to let people off. This guy got off the bus and started walking towards us. When we got up to him to say hi, he made the L shape with his hand and started saying "Loser" over and over. We both thought it was funny and kept riding. I have never gotten that one before. 

Yesterday we taught a 10 year old girl named Ryleigh. She is going to get baptized on October 10th. So we have 2 baptisms happening on the same day! I haven't had that happen since last November. So last night we had another mission musical fireside. It's a fireside put on by the missionaries in our mission. It's a finding method that we are trying out. We had a mission choir that I got to be a part of. It went really well. We have a lot of talented missionaries.

The last 2 weeks we have been at war with the Spanish sisters. Every time we see their car we mess with there mirrors and wind shield wipers. Then we cover their car in sticky notes that we have written things on. We have gotten them a lot, but they can't ever find our bikes so they can't get us back. It's really funny. Well that's my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

21 Sep 2015

Pocatello Idaho!!! That so cool! I had some people in my zone in the MTC that went there. 

So this week we had a baptism for an investigator we got from the sisters when we took over their area. His name is Jim and he was investigating the church for 29 years. He is a cool guy. We had lots of people cancel on us this week, but we were still busy with meetings this week. We are meeting with all of the auxiliaries from the other 4 wards we inherited. We went on a few splits this week. It's really the first time I have taught whole lessons by myself. This next week we should be better in terms of teaching non members. 

We got lots of rain this week. We really needed it. There is a lot of homeless people that live here. We always say hi to this one homeless guy and he always swears at us.  It's really funny.

We got some conference tickets so we are going to take one of our on date investigators. We are probably going to take Roslynn. She is getting baptized on October 10th, she called the Spanish sisters in our area a few weeks ago and asked when she could get baptized. She wanted to learn in English so we get to teach her. Well that's my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

14 Sep 2015

This week was crazy busy. So I got into the area on Tuesday and I found out that we would be taking over the other half of the stake as well as our own half. So we are taking over the whole stake. So I now cover 8 wards. That's a lot of names to remember. There is so much work to do in this stake, we have 3 people on date already and we could legitimately have somewhere around 8 on date. It's so crazy. The stake president is really cool. I had a chance to meet him my first day. He is a great man and very missionary minded. 

I live in an actual apartment instead of someone's basement. I do live in a basement apartment though. I live right underneath the AP's. This week we got yelled at by a homeless man. It was funny. There are a lot more homeless people in West Valley than in Taylorsville or Midvale. My area is big. It's not as big as the YSA, but it's a good size. I wish I still had my car because I remember how slow biking is. Well that was my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

My new mailing address is

3153w 3650s apt #2

West valley city, ut 84119

Hey mom,

Would u have a little room to take a few things home if I left them at a members house in Taylorsville?

Did Timmy get his call yet?

My companion is from Michigan, he used to live in the UP. He lives down by the Ohio border now. He goes home October 20th

7 Sep 2015

This week was fun. We went to temple square with a recent convert named Li. He wants to go on a mission so we role played missionary situations with some other sister missionaries. One of them was really cute. Anyways the teaching has been good. And I am loving my area, but sadly I have to leave. We got transfer calls on Friday night. I'm getting transferred to the Granger stake. My companion will be Elder Helgesen. I'm finally going to be a senior companion. My companion goes home at the end of this transfer. I'm going to temple square again tonight.

That was pretty much my week.

Love, Elder Pleshek

31 Aug 2015

Dear Everyone,

My week was good. We taught Richard (the guy from Sudan) this week and we put him on date for September 26th. Sadly he didn't come to church yesterday. Neither did Marisol. We had an awesome lesson this week, we taught her the 10 commandments and when we were going over the 4th commandment "keep the Sabbath day holy" I told her that anything that keeps her from coming to church breaks commandment number 2 "don't worship idols." 

We have been working with another guy named Dominic. He thinks he is a member, but no one is sure. We haven't found his records yet so we may have to re baptize him. He is already super active and a strong believer in the LDS church. He has a burning passion to follow God and he says he came to Utah because God told him to and he doesn't know why.

We went to temple square yesterday with a recent convert who is from China. It was really fun. I saw some people from my old area there. It was really nice. Nothing else really happened this week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

24 Aug 2015

This week was slow when it came to lessons. But next week is looking up. We had some random dude from Sudan walk into church. So we have a lesson with him this week. Marisol finally came to church this week! We are going to have a talk with her this week about her church attendance. She still wants to be baptized, but we need to see her come to church regularly before that happens. 

One day while we were jamming in the car to EFY music we stopped at a stop light. We were sitting and singing along and a girl pulled up next to us and caught us. It was funny and we caught it on camera.

I went on exchanges with the zone leaders this week. I went to their area with Elder Andersen. They have a Spanish area so I didn't know what was going on the whole time. I liked it though. Elder Andersen is really cool we had lots of fun.

I haven't scheduled a eye exam or an appointment with the orthodontist yet. The office gave me a card so I can log into a car when I drive, but I can't drive so it doesn't do me any good. I'm getting my hair cut tomorrow by sister Duke. I'm so excited, I love getting my hair cut. I love sister Duke. That's all.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

18 Aug 2015

My week was great. Atiba got baptized and it was awesome! He is so solid, he has already decided he is going to serve a mission next year. He is really funny, I have never bonded so much with any other
of my investigators. We also had interviews with President Palmer. It was really great. President Palmer is an inspired man. Sister Palmer is great as well. Every time she sees me she always tells me she loves me. It still kind of weirds me out, because I'm not used to hearing that and I never know what to say back. Anyway, they're great!

Yesterday we had a mission tour with Elder Ringwood and Elder Keetch of the Seventy. I learned a lot and what they were saying applied a lot to me. This transfer I was feeling a little bummed out because I've been out for almost 13 months and I'm still a jr. companion. They went on for like 20 minutes about how "you are where you are supposed to be." So I'm not going to worry about it anymore. They also talked about using doctrine in everything you teach or say during church. He
gave an example of how during Elders quorum you should never say, "Hey we have two weeks left in the month so make sure you get your home teaching done." They said there is no doctrine in that so therefore it's not going to happen. It was some great training and I loved it.

Marisol didn't come to church so we are going to have to push her baptism back... Again. All of are other investigators are just kind of there, not progressing. So we are in the find for those who we came teach and give the savings ordinance of baptism. Elder Fakatou and I are getting along great. Have a great week.
I love you all,
Elder Pleshek

10 Aug 2015

(The email was a week late due to a problem with the internet)
This week was good. We had zone conference and I met the rest of my zone. We took Atiba to temple square to watch Meet the Mormons. We went to talk to some sisters about seeing the movie while Atiba and his fellowshippers went to see the Christus statue. When he saw the statue of Christ he started crying. It was a great trip. Atiba is so funny we just laughed the whole way home because he was cracking jokes.

This morning we went to the Jordan river Temple. It was really good and very refreshing. People in Utah are so lucky to have all these temples close by. On Wednesday the metal retainer on the back of my teeth broke so I have to go and get that fixed. So that was my week.
Love,
Elder Pleshek

Atiba came to church, but not Marisol.

3 Aug 2015

This week was eventful, on Tuesday we had our transfer meeting. It was weird seeing the whole mission. Lots of new faces. I got to meet Elder McCarty's parents, that was kind of cool. After the meeting I found Elder Fakatou and we came back to the apartment. When we got there we got a phone call from the mission office. They asked us why we didn't pick up our car before we left. We looked at each other and said, " we got a car?" So we got a ride back to the mission office to pick up our car. It's a silver 2013 Ford Fusion. It's pretty sweet. I can't drive because I don't have a valid license and Elder Fakatou doesn't like driving in Utah. 

So I found out Elder Fakatou isn't foreign, he is from Hawaii. He is Tongan though. We are having lots of fun together and learning lots from each other. Atiba came to church yesterday and bore his testimony. It was awesome. He is a really cool guy and I'm glad I get to work with him. Marisol didn't come to church so that was sad. 

Today at the zone activity I will make some new friends. I briefly met some elders at a meeting we had this week. One of them was Elder Paukovic from Serbia, he is 6'9" so we are going to play basketball today. Well that was my week.

Love
Elder Pleshek

27 Jul 2015

Hello World!

On Saturday I got my transfer call. I will be staying, which isn't a big surprise. My new companion will be Elder Fakatou, He could be my first foreign companion, but I'm not sure yet. He will be the district leader so that means I will be jr companion again. I talked to the assistants yesterday and they told me that Elder Fakatou needs help. That's all.  They left it at that. They didn't tell me what he needed help with or anything. My roommate Elder Semu is moving out and that makes me really sad because we were like BFF's. The Taylorsville zone is getting sliced up into different zones.

Atiba fell of date again because he went out of town. So next time we teach him we are going to ask him if he will be baptized on August 15th. Marisol is still on date for the 15th and she came to church again this week. We have a new investigator named Clyde he also came to church on Sunday we are also going to extend the 15th to him as well. So there is a potential 3 baptisms on August 15th.

My roommates saw Erin when she dropped off my food. I drank all of the apple juice I got in the first day. Apple juice is a treat because I can't fit it in my budget. Especially since they cut us $10 a month. Tomorrow we have a mission wide transfer meeting where everyone goes to the mission office to meet their companions. It's a lot easier this way because if you get transferred to Windover you don't have to find a ride to drive you 2 hours away. Well that was my week.

Love

Elder Pleshek

20 Jul 2015

This week was good. Marisol finally came to church, and she loved it.

It was so amazing, we walked in the door with her and the ward members swarmed to her. She got a huge welcome to church. Sadly Atiba didn't come this week. Our teaching pool is starting to get bigger again. I'm not sure if I have mentioned this or not, I am killing off Elder McCarty at the end of this week. So I will have a new companion next week. this will be only my second area that I have stayed in for more than one transfer. Transfers are on the 28th and I hit my year mark on the 23rd. So yesterday we met this guy from India, he is staying with a member that we know and we were told he was interested. So we went and talked to him last night and he told us all about how he found Jesus. So we taught him the restoration and extended a baptismal date for August 15th. He told us that he is going to extend his stay so that he can be baptized. The only sad thing about this story is that he is not a young single adult, so we have to give him to the sisters.

On Wednesday afternoon we got a call from President Palmer. Elder McCarty answered the phone and he asked to talk to me. As soon as I heard President ask for me I knew what had happened. President Palmer is a great man. I can tell that he loves me and I can tell that he has the gift of prophecy because I heard everything I needed to hear in that phone call.

We were at an apartment complex the other day and we started playing soccer with a bunch of Hispanic kids. And then two more elders showed up so we played everyone vs the Elders. We lost 5-4. I was the goalie.

Those kids were really good. Well that's my week

Love,

Elder Pleshek

13 Jul 2015

This was a good week. I got to meet president Palmer for a few seconds after the meeting. He is like the opposite of president Moffat. He gives people hugs and tells them how much he loves them. We also have a lot more freedom. I feel like I went from living the law of Moses to living Christ's law. All the west missionaries are strange. There really huggy too. I think there will be a little bit of a struggle at first because our missions piloted the opposite of what ours did. We were focused on baptism and they are focused on re activation. But it will all work out.

I went on an exchange with my roommate Elder Dahlke this week because he sprained his ankle pretty good and he was ordered to stay in for a day. So I stayed with him while the other two went out and worked. It was the longest day ever. We played cards for 5 hours straight because there was nothing better to do.

Clare brought me cake bites and a Ross gift card. I doesn't bother me that everyone is close. I remember seeing Clare's van but I didn't know it was her.

We taught Atiba again this week. He is so solid, He is so excited for his baptism that he posted his baptismal date on Facebook. He missed church this week because the was in Midvale and he had pink eye, but we got special permission to baptize him on his scheduled date instead of pushing it back a week. So that was my week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

P.s. Can you send me some fudge when you go to Nauvoo and maybe some more socks, mine are starting to wear out.

6 Jul 2015

This week went by so slow. All of the schedule changes threw me off. P-day is Monday instead of Tuesday, weekly planning is Thursday instead of Friday, and district meeting is on Friday instead of Wednesday. The only other major thing that has changed so far is nightly call ins. We don't micro manage anymore. The person you got the picture from was brother Peisley. He is one of the counselors in the valley park second ward. He's in the same bishopric as Diane Jensen's dad. So we go over there if we need water or something. It was raining so we went to their house and the Valley Park Elders were there so they ordered pizza and fed us.

Marisol didn't come to church again. But we have a new investigator with a baptismal date for July 25. His name is Atiba and he is solid. He came to church this week and he told one of the ward members that he was definitely going to be at church again next week.

There aren't very many changes yet, but there probably will be on the 28th when we have transfers. It will be interesting because the west and the central piloted different things. We were all about baptizing and they were all about re activation. I can't wait to meet president Palmer on Thursday. That's it for this week.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

29 Jun 2015

Hello world!

This was a good week. A little slow, but a good week. We taught a few lessons to Marisol this week, but sadly she didn't come to church so she is off date. Yesterday during sacrament meeting I looked through the congregation only to see every 3 out of 5 people on their phones. That made me sad. But there was this one guy sitting in front of me who was on his phone the whole time. He was even playing on it during the sacrament. That made me mad. I seriously considered winding up, smacking him in the bake of the head, and taking his phone and throwing it across the chapel. But I thought that would have been disruptive so I didn't. I think that was a similar experience to when Jesus chased people out of the temple.

So last night we had a Goodbye Fireside. President and Sister Moffat and the rest of the mission presidency gave their departing testimonies. It was a cool experience. I will miss president Moffat a little. He has taught me a lot. The sad part was saying goodbye to all of my friends that are going to the East mission. The two people I will miss the most are Elder Trey Forrester and Sister Rachel Escolopio. Elder Forrester is the best friend I've made on my mission.

And Sister Escolopio is really cool/funny. So my P-days will now be on Mondays.

Love Elder Pleshek

Mom write me back when you finish reading this thx :)

23 Jun 2015

This week was good. We have a new investigator. I'm not sure how to spell it but the pronunciation is "Mary soul." She is the only investigator we have to work with because ether we dropped our investigators or they dropped us.  President Palmer will be a stay at home mission president. I'm excited for the change! I get to meet new people and make more friends. 

One more month until my year mark. I'm glad Elder Dahlke is living with me because we are going to celebrate it together by burning a shirt. I got my ankle weights today and I will be playing volleyball in them today. So this week we have been playing spoons, it's pretty intense. I'm having a blast and I thank God every day for the opportunity I have to serve a mission. Well that's it for this week, Oh wait I also fell off my bike in the church parking lot but I'm ok. I hope Brock is ok.

Love ya

Elder Pleshek

P.S. Tell day happy Father's Day and tell Tom that his Brazza says happy birthday.

16 Jun 2015

 This week was awesome! Last Tuesday we had our mission Olympics. Each zone got a color and we competed zone on zone. Unfortunately Taylorsville got last. But I did good. I got third in flag tag. Flag tag is where you tuck a piece of cloth in your pants and everyone tries to rip the cloth out of your pants. That was fun. Then I went on exchanges with Elder Semu, That was a lot of fun. 

On Saturday was Amy's baptism! It was by far the best baptism I have ever been to. I said the closing prayer and then Elder McCarty confirmed her. I am excited to join the west mission. I'm going from the second smallest mission in Utah to the second biggest. I am sad for two reasons though. Midvale and Murray won't be in the same mission. I will also be losing three weeks of my mission due to the way transfers fall.

Well until next week.

Love

Elder Pleshek

9 Jun 2015

This was another great week from the mission field. This week we dropped two of our investigators because they weren't keeping commitments. However we did pick up a new investigator named Salma. She was on date for June 27th but she missed church so we will have to extend a new date tomorrow.

Amy passed her interview and she will be baptized on Saturday! I'm so excited for Saturday, baptisms are my favorite part of being a missionary. This is the first step they must
take to return to there Father in Heaven. We also took Amy on a temple square tour. That was really cool, I need to start taking all of my investigators to temple square. I had sister Leas as my tour guide
again and she remembered me, she must think I'm cute or something. JK.

This week while we were riding down 5400w I had someone spit at me. Lucky it missed, except I did get a little drop on my shoe. I thought that was funny. The insults don't get to me any more. In fact I kind of like when they happen because I always get a good laugh out of it.

On a happier note I am getting in good with the west AP's. We share the same building with them on Sunday. When ever they see me they come and shake my hand and give me a hug and say I love you Elder. They say "I love you" a lot in that mission. Elder McCarty says they do that because they are scared of us, because we are the best mission in the valley.  That is why they are dissolving our mission into 3 other ones because they want us to train other missionaries on how to do the work
like we do, or that's what president Moffat makes it seem like.

I loved the shirt it was awesome. There is an eye place at Walmart.
We'll anyways that's all for this week
Love,
Elder Pleshek
P.S. Lava Lava's

2 Jun 2015

This week was a lot of fun. Elder McCarty and I are living with two other Elders. They are Elder Dahlke and Elder Semu who is from New Zealand.

We are working with a girl named Amy. She is so excited to be baptized on the 13th. She is the definition of golden. We are working with another girl named Ali. She doesn't have a date yet, but I think she will soon. I also crashed my bike this week, But I'm still ok.

I saw the AP's from the west mission on Sunday and I got them to believe I was a zone leader. Speaking of the west mission that's where I will most likely end up. Anyways I've had a great week and I'm loving the YSA stake. Talk to you next week.

26 May 2015

This was an interesting week. We talked to some guy and he told us that he was the brother of Jesus and he can see the spirits protecting us. He was really weird. A few days later there was a guy who approached us and asked for a blessing, When he said blessing he meant prayer. So we asked him if he wanted a blessing by the laying on of hands. But when we said "laying on of hands" he thought we said "take off your pants." He then said never mind and walked away really fast.

I gave a talk in church this last Sunday and while I was studying for it I realized something. If Ammon wouldn't have gone on his mission we wouldn't have had the 2000 stripling warriors, And if there were no stripling warriors the strongest army of the Lamanites would not have been destroyed, And if they were not destroyed it would have possibly changed the outcome of the Book of Mormon. So because Ammon went on his mission, he saved a lot of people from destruction. It makes me wonder how my mission will affect generations to come. 

Transfers are tomorrow and I'm getting sent to the Taylorsville young single adult stake. So I cover a whole singles ward stake. My new address is 1946w Quailstone Dr. Taylorsville Utah 84129. I get to go to the frat house so I will be living with another set of Elders. My new companion is Elder McCarty who is a former zone leader. My old companion Elder Lyon just got made a zone leader in my zone. Well that's all this week. 

Love, Elder Pleshek

19 May 2015

This week was alright, a little frustrating at times because Reggie fell off date.

Last week there was a thunderstorm and lightning struck like a block away from us.

It's crazy that this transfer is almost over. It has gone by really fast. I heard some rumors this week that Midvale will be part of the South mission, but we won't know for sure until July 1st.

We went on exchanges this week with the zone leaders. I went with Elder Simmons who was a former AP. He said I am doing well and I will be a great missionary. I am having a great time here and I get to go to the salt lake temple tomorrow. I am so excited I had a great time there last time.

Elder Craig got a new bike this week too. It's a really bright green mountain bike. The teaching has been slow so we are back to tracting. That's all I got for this week.
Love,
Elder Pleshek

P.S. What happened to the car?

12 May 2015

This week was really good. We put our investigator Reggie on date for May 30th.  I hope we can get him to stay on track for that day.  I thought of something you can get me. If I could get a new case for my iPad mini, that would be great.  Mine is really bulky and I have to unzip it every time I use it. It gets really annoying.

I am so glad I chose to come on a mission it has opened my eyes to things I never
thought of before. I understand the bigger picture in life and I now feel like I have more purpose and direction. I wouldn't trade the experiences I've had and the things that I've learned for anything. 

It was so nice to see everybody on Sunday. Everyone is getting so old, it's crazy. Oh and could I also get some ankle weights. That's all I got for this week.

Love
Elder Pleshek

5 May 2015

This last week was crazy. We talked to so many people this week that didn't believe that baptism is essential for salvation. It's crazy sometimes and makes me really frustrated. They try to preach to me and while doing so they always contradict themselves. We also had an all mission meeting this week where we got the AreaBook app. So now all of our information about our investigators goes to our iPads. 

We also got the cops called on us that same day because the night before we locked up our bikes and left them there for the night. So in the morning the lady couldn't mow her lawn because our bikes were tied to a light pole so she called the cops.  We didn't get in trouble though. We went and moved our bikes and tried to go apologize but she wasn't home. So we left her a note and tried to apologize a different day.

Yesterday we saw a snake that got flattened by a car and dried out.  It's kind of like really long potato chip. And today I got my new bike and it's pretty sweet. It's the nicest bike I have ever owned and it rides really fast. I also got a really good lock so no one steals it. Well that's all I have this week I will see you on Mother's Day.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

28 Apr 2015

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21 Apr 2015

Today is my first day using my iPad for all of my emails so we'll see how it goes. This was a long week, but I had lots of fun with Elder Craig. This week involved lots of tracting which was fun...not. It's really nice to be back in Midvale. We also had a district meeting this week and I got to meet my district. I love my district! They are great!

We haven't found anyone to teach yet, but we are getting close to finding someone. The leadership in our area is really young. One of our bishops is 30 another one is 35, and our stake president is 35!

They are all great they have given us lots of referrals this week and they are always willing to help us. One of the things I forgot about serving in Midvale is that lots of people want to give you money. We have already gotten $40. It's really weird. I also ripped the pants on my blue suit, there is a big hole just below the butt. The weather yesterday was nice and sunny, I got a nice tan line from my watch and Elder Craig got a nice burn line from his watch. I didn't actually switch bikes. The parts I needed for the other frame were over $100 and I'm too cheap for that. So I'm going to look at the DI or somewhere for a bike that is better than mine because mine is slowly falling apart,  Maybe I'll find a 10 speed for cheap. Well that's all I got.

Love,

Elder Pleshek

By the way my mailing address is 381 Acoma Dr.

                                                        Midvale, UT 84047

14 Apr 2015

Dear Everyone,

This was a slow week. The investigators we are teaching are dodging us. On a better note we got transfer news last night. Elder Stiner and I are getting pink washed. That means that we are both leaving and sisters are coming to our area. So I m going to the Midvale Union Fort Stake, and I will be white washing that stake which is the same as pink washing just with Elders instead of Sisters.  I will be Jr. companion to Elder Craig who was my MTC companion. I am so excited for this transfer. My new area borders a big part of my greenie area and I will have the longest transfer in the mission. Since my area is on the east most side I will probably end up in the East mission when our mission is consolidated. I will miss the people in this area, I have meet some really great people. I'm glad to be getting a new companion too, Elder Stiner is a great guy and I love him, but I'm ready to get someone new. I will try to FaceTime again on Mother's Day. That's all for this week.

7 Apr 2015

This conference weekend was great! Besides the fact that we have no investigators to watch it with. I really enjoyed Elder Gibson's talk from the priesthood session. I also loved Elder Peirson's talk. This past week I hurt my arm playing dodge ball. I couldn't really lift anything heavy for a few days. It's crazy to think that in 3 months my mission will be half over. The time has really flown by. Last night I heard that Wisconsin lost and I was actually a little depressed. I really wish they would have beat Duke, Then I could have rubbed it in Christian's face, Now I can't. I can't really remember what I did this week, All of the days kinda blend together. I also gained 3 more pounds. I hit my goal weight for my mission and its not even half over. I'm going to get fat. That's all I got this week.

31 Mar 2015

This week we got our iPads. So that's cool. Now all I carry around is my iPad and a few spare copies of The Book of Mormon. We found a new investigator this week. Her name is Phillipa. We put her on date for baptism, but she fell off because she didn't come to church. She didn't come because on Saturday night she got into some anti material. She was all upset and wouldn't talk to us in person. So we had this big long battle over text where she called us liars, She also thinks we are all sworn to secrecy about something. So that was the big event this week. Last week I forgot to mention that I bought a 5lb bag of shredded cheese. I haven't even made a dent in it yet. I was so happy when I found out Wisconsin made it to the final four again. They are going to beat Kentucky this year. I so wish I could watch it. I guess I will have to watch it when I get back. Today for zone activity we are playing dodge ball. Last time I played I threw my arm out. Well that's all for this week.

24 Mar 2015

This week was good, I went on exchanges with my district leader Elder Oliveros. He was in my district when I was being trained.  We had lots of fun, He is a great guy. Last week after we got done emailing we went to our zone activity. We played dodge ball. I have gotten pretty good at it. We play with this guy who plays in a dodge ball league with the surrounding states. He told me to look him up after I get home because he wants me on his team. I guess I got recruited to play minor league dodge ball. 

Tomorrow we get our I-pads. Most everyone is excited to get them. I'm not excited. I could really care less if I got one. I like doing the stuff on paper and its going to make my bag heavier. I have come to love my paper scriptures. I don't think I will spend more time than I will have to on it. Well that's all folks, Until next week.

Love Elder Pleshek