Happy New Year: Look Not Behind Thee

 

HAPPY NEW YEAR! HELLO EVERYONE!

 
I hope you had a great Christmas and you are just excited for this new year as I am. This week Sister Dunford and I came across a video on Mormon channel about the New Year and how we cannot look back. It is compared to Lot and his family, how Lot's wife looked back and became a pillar of salt. This past year has been amazing because I have been able to serve Jesus Christ and His people. I have made some mistakes but I know through repentance and goal setting, I can make this New Year even better than last year. I am so blessed to have spent a whole calendar year in the Lord's vineyard. I wouldn't trade it for anything! Look Not Behind Thee-- if the link doesn't work then type into the search engine "New Years"


This week President asked us to talk about our contacting, He was challenged us to, "  I am asking each of you to commit to contacting 25 people a day and to teach when you find and to find when you teach.  I want you to set a goal and be accountable to accomplish this goal.  Some of you will find you are able to find more, other will have to set their goal lower and work towards the goal of 25." So here is my reply to it: We have great desires to contact 25 people a day. We are becoming more aware of people and even riding our bikes more. I think to accomplish this goal, we need to be out more, not using the car as an excuse. We have set a goal to contact 10 people a day, which we have done two times but we are always looking to go over. What we count as a contact is talking to someone, telling them who we are and what we do (teaching a principle or so), and inviting them to listen more or blessing them. Not everyone says yes but we have a few return appointments. Overall our goal for the month of January is to contact a 100 people. We know with faith, prayer, and repentance that we can go beyond that goal.
Faith to find: I know the more people we talk to, the more we will find and the more we include Heavenly Father and the Spirit in the finding process we will be successful. It seems like a lot of time, we pray to be led to those that are prepared and we don't listen to the Spirit. I have a great example of finding, it comes from an email I got this past week from my step dad about my little brother, "Yesterday, Kai could not find his scriptures to go to church. Kai has a lot of faith you know. He prayed to heavenly father and then went right to his scriptures, brought them to me, and holding them out to me said "Heavenly Father works fast.'" A simple story but we know that, if like my brother, we pray and GO and not wait we will be led to people who are prepared, just how my brother was able to find his scriptures. It is amazing how we can understand things more clearly, when we trust Heavenly Father to lead us, Jesus Christ to enable us with His atonement, and the Holy Ghost to fill our mouths. The Godhead is a great team!
Overall, I need to get over my fear, something I am constantly working on, and really believe in my purpose and who I represent. I KNOW we can be lead to people who are prepared. I have seen it happen. In accounting this morning, we learned from Elder Finke if plans and back up plans don't work out then we need to repent and listen for the Spirit. He will guide us.

 

Our Christmas was good. Skyping everyone was so great! It was amazing to see how all my younger siblings are much bigger than me, well not Kai, at least not yet. (:

Christmas day we went to the Harris'. Opened stockings and ate a delicious breakfast. later we went out to dinner with Grandpa and the Elders to the Country Club, sounds classy but it isn't. Its like a Denny's haha but we loved being with Grandpa. We stopped by Gwen's, she gave us some Jamaican food which we ate for lunch last week. It was so good! Then we went caroling with the Elders and the Harris Family to some home bound members. It was so great! I loved it. It really helped me not miss home and think about all the family traditions but focus on the true meaning of Christ. To think we get all caught up with that stuff but we are here because of Jesus Christ and because of Him we can return to our Heavenly Father WITH OUR FAMILIES! So sweet!

 

Denie has set her baptism date for Feb 16th. We are excited. She is more confident. Our teaching pool is down but we have some good prospects. Guess we will be biking like mad men this week! The more we talk,  the more we find, the more we teach!

 

I hope yall have a great week! thanks for the cards and packages. i will send out thank yous, it will just be a little slow! hahaha

 

see ya in 2013!!

 

Love always,.

Sister Ploth.

 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Knowest thou the acondescension of God?I know that he loveth his children; nevertheless, I do not know the meaning of all things.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!! 

Well I am glad that y'all made it through the end of the world! We were defiantly anticipating when it would all happen but the work went onward. (:  We had our Christmas Devotional in Lake Mary this week which was amazing. We learned all about the condescension of Christ found in 1 Nephi 11 12-27 (which you can click on that and learn more). It was way powerful. What a blessing to be out in Lord's vineyard during this Christmas Season. Sometimes we get wrapped up in traditions and all the good things about Christmas like gift giving and being with our families but I have loved just focusing on the Savior. I have learned a lot about my Savior. I remember last year thinking how weird everything is and how next year would be closer to home and here it is, a blink of an eye! Life in the mission field is amazing. I am so grateful to be serving the people of Daytona, they don't always want it, but I have learned to look at people as Children of God, my Spiritual Brothers and Sisters. And to give everything for Christ at the same time? Man! I am the luckiest girl in the world! I learned a lot in accounting this morning to Elder Shelley and Elder Norman. I learned about sacrifice. When they were first talking about sacrifice I thought of physical things, like, "Sweet! I wont write any more letters, more nap time for me!" haha but they said, "No Sister. Attitudes and behaviors" They pointed out last transfer at week 5 we were very successful because we were URGENT. I must confess, I don't always have an attitude of urgency. I just want to get things done and count down the time where I can eat or go to bed. Unfortunately, that isn't how it works. I am here to work and I need to, work the hardest. So I plan to sacrifice my bad attitude and repent for my un-urgency. Its amazing what you can learn from other missionaries. One of my fears is coming home and being the same and everyone being like, "Wow, that's it?" haha. 

So we had a funny experience last night. We were asked by Bishop Crookston to check on some new move ins from this past year. There have been 71! wow! So we went to one last night. Our instructions were just to see if they lived there and if they needed anything. Here is how the experience went.

Sisters: knock knock

Lady: Yes?

Sisters: Is this the ____ residence?

Lady: Yes...?

Sisters: Hi! We are the Sisters from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and we just wanted to....

Lady: UM! We are ATHEISTS.....THANK YOU! slam. 

We didn't know whether to say Merry Christmas or not. We didn't want to offend her. also, they had a christmas tree. Hello lady, why the heck do you celebrate Christmas. We will pray for that family though. It was just so funny. 

Our biggest Christmas adventure will be....we are going to go with some members and the Elders and we are going to be SINGING TELEGRAMS for the homebound members that cant come to church. haha we are pretty excited. It will be cool. ALSO! Anyone remember Michael Rossi? Well he came to church on Sunday with his sister. She is home from BYU for Christmas. We are going to go teach him this week. Hopefully it will be good. The Elders just baptized this cool 19 year old kid, Mick, who is going to help us. He is going to be a legit friend for Michael. We hope we can see whats up. 

Denie is great. We just got done teaching her right before this. (attached pictures are of us and Denie and then us and Brother Staley. She got us some presents. Oh and her mom did too)

Her baptism date is for this Saturday but she is still praying about things. She is an amazing lady and we love her. Brother Staley got her scriptures for her birthday and she was excited for them. hahaha. So keep her in your prayers!! (:

Oh and last miracle! We met a guy named Bob a few weeks ago and we gave him a book of Mormon. He told us to give him 2 weeks. We went back and we never got into contact with him. Well we finally did and he had read the BOM TWICE!! It was amazing. He isn't converted t it but he has a lot of questions. We are going to try to bring the Singlers with us, the perfect members to see him this week. 

I hope yall have a very Merry Christmas!! I am excited to talk to the family! woot!!

love always, 

Sister Ploth. 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Fwd: Happy Christmas!

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Aisha Ploth <aisha.ploth@myldsmail.net>
Date: Mon, Dec 17, 2012 at 12:01 PM
Subject: Happy Christmas!
To: Dad <dploth@gmail.com>, Dad and Angela <Danang0504@comcast.net>, Jessica Guinan <jessguinan@gmail.com>, Mema <katc7750@comcast.net>, Mom <lilac_rain66@yahoo.com>, Karl <karlden@hotmail.com>, Papa <robert317@comcast.net>, kendal titus <kendaltitusreynolds@gmail.com>
Cc: Blog Info <amaaazingaish.floridaorlando@blogger.com>, Mission Email <aishaploth@gmail.com>


Hello All!!

I only have a few mintues. We are trying to figure out CHRISTMAS CALLING!! And we get to skype. What a blessing!!

First off check out this new mormon message!http://www.lds.org/pages/mormon-messages?lang=eng#an-unexpected-gift

POWERFUL!!

We had a great week! First it started off with on Tuesday there were some tornadoes down in New Smyrna Beach so we got with the Elders and cleaned up. Way fun and rewarding. Lots of damge but no one was hurt, so we have heard. We even made the paper!! Wednesday we got to go to GArrett and Brooke Denninghoff's Temple Sealing! So cool. It was so great to see and meet the Denninghoff Family. Unfortaunly I didnt take as many pictures like I should have. Shame on me. But I am sure Aunt Heidi took enough. haha. The rest of the week is a blurr. Denie is doing great. She is really searching things out. She is amazing. Andrae came to church. He is acting weird, we might be dropping him soon. Too bad but we are looking for the prepared. We also have been doing the 12 days of Christmas for the Elders. So fun. They said they got us something. hahaha we are very curious. 

This week we have Christmas Devotional. We are excited as well. I hope yall have a great christmas. Can you believe this is the last one?? I can't!!

love always,

Sister Ploth. 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Without change there would be no butterflies

Hello All!!

Today we are going to Target with Sister Button. We are excited. Walmart is getting lame. (: 

This week was good. We are definatly learning how to simplify and intensify. We taught Andrae a few times, he is still unsure but its more of his fear of changing. We are running into that a lot. People having a fear of change but we know the Gospel of Jesus Christ will transform us into men and women of the eternities. 

We are getting better at blessing homes. By understanding our purpose as representatives of Jesus Christ we can use the Priesthood Power and act as if Christ was there with those people. I feel like the more I understand the gospel, the more I understand my purpose, and understand Christ and His atonement. It is an amazing thing, but most importantly we need to let is heal us. 

Hmmmm. We had the most powerful baptism this weekend. The Elders had been teaching a Mexican man named Luis. He is here ona  work visa, he understands english he just isnt confident. He is a CPA at home where he has a daughter and a small child. Luis went through so much to be able to make that covenant. The service was in Spanish but the Spirit was so strong. Brother Staley and Denie came and Denie felt the spirit too. Way cool. She is an amazing lady. She is so Christlike and humble because she doesn't think she is. She has some concerns and fears BUT she is doing well. We love her. We are so blessed to have her in our life. 

This Wednesday we are going to the Denninghoff Sealing at the Orlando Florida Temple. We are excited!! (: 

I hope you all have a great week!!

love Sister Ploth. 

pic 1: i coordinated well this day. (:

pic 2: zone picture for the christmas. 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.

Its begining to look a lot like christmas!

Hello Everyone!

 

What a week! Happy Christmas Season! I hope y'all got to watch and enjoy the Christmas Devotional! If not go to lds.org and check it out!

 

Some things I learned from it::

 

Be a good gift receiver (I need to repent!)

Every gift received helps us strengthen our love with the other person

remember the gifts from our Heavenly Father--Jesus Christ, scriptures, repentance, ect.

find joy in giving to others

gifts can be used to unite families (wasn't that trunk cool that President Eyring made?!?!)

use Christ in your gift giving

true love is a reflection of Christ's love.

rededicate self to principles taught by Christ.

 

 

So our week was good. kind of weird. Denie had her wisdom teeth taken out and she has a real bad infection. ): So sad but we were able to see her with Sister Nichols. They have lots of fun things in common. Sister Nichols just lost her husband in April, she is in her 50's, and she is so strong. She is going through a lot of trials but she isnt letting that shake her testimony. We are having FHE with her and her son tonight.

 

Brittany got another job. She wont be getting baptized this weekend but she still wants to...sometime.

 

We recieved a lot of referrals! Tender Mercy. One was a head quarters one. A baptist man who told us we were going to hell. It was the saddest thing. We were trying not to contend, we didnt bash, we bore testimony and left. I think that was Sister Dunford's first expereince. I felt bad for the man more than anything. he has family members that our members of our LDS church, so we think he is bitter and took it out on us. Just to make things clear...he requested us to come! We didnt randomly knock on his door. Then we went to check on a less active member but we dont think he lives there because the guy who answered was also very rude. Started asking us all these random questions about the bible. We thought it was a joke at first. He also talked about how festuses arent real babies??? I am not sure.

 

Oh Gwen and Charles came to the christmas devotional! She is still reading and praying. She knows the church is true! She is so wonderful. We try to go see her once a week, to keep her spirit up and help her progress.

 

But yeah...thats about it.

 

I hope you all have a great week!!! Remeber what this season is really about!!

 

love always.

Sister Ploth.

 

NOTICE: This email message is for the sole use of the intended recipient(s) and may contain confidential and privileged information. Any unauthorized review, use, disclosure or distribution is prohibited. If you are not the intended recipient, please contact the sender by reply email and destroy all copies of the original message.