Hey Family, friends, and all others who are getting these emails.

This is been a wonderful week, filled with the spirit, learning, and lots of other things. Today I actually leave the MTC at 7pm, and then our plane takes off at 1am Tuesday morning. We arrive in Milwaukee at 9am, after a three hour lay-over in Atlanta. Also, we (all 29 Milwaukee Missionaries) are all on the same plane and we all met with our new mission President this past Saturday. He and his wife are a wonderful couple and I know that the Lords work will grow and prosper with him as our new President. They arrive in Wisconsin this coming Friday.

The World Wide Missionary Broadcast was yesterday and I got almost floor seating. I was about 40 ft. from the General Authorities and it was amazing to be so close to them and feel the spirit radiate from them. The two major topics were the introduction of modern technology into the mission field, items such as: iPads, texting, social media, and new rules on email. The other topic and the one that dominated most of the evening was the increased push for members to play a larger and more active role in missionary work. I’m excited to be able to work with the members and help strengthen their wards and their testimony.

Here at the MTC we have what is called a progressive investigator, my companion and I have two and they are very opposite from each other. Steve is Atheist and Gabriel is a Catholic who has a powerful testimony of God and Christ's Atonement. We have been working with both since we got here to the MTC and through the help of our teachers and the many things that we have learned here. Both investigators have agreed to a baptism. Sadly these are only role plays but everyone takes them very serious. Doing these role plays has helped me and my companion out a lot; we have grown to trust the Lord and to teach by the spirit.

Thank you all very much for your letters and packages. They have brought a smile to my face and I enjoy reading them during my short down time. Thank you for your love and support, this past week has been amazing and I’m ready to hit the field with a BANG!!!

Love:

Elder Luymes


MTC District at the Provo Temple





Hey everyone!!!

This is it, my first P-day. The MTC is awesome and they keep you on a tight shift all day, everyday. I got the reputation of being an hour late to the MTC and missing the opening party but when I did arrive and sat down I later learned that by random chance I had sat next to my companion: Elder Goodsell, from Alberta Canada. The rest of my district is Elders: Pobanz, Allen, Knight, and Standiford. I have been made District leader and the Zone Leaders are in my District as well. so I guess you could say that we have a very cool and special District.

 

Elder Goodsell is a BYU-I student and has completed one semester there, he plays some soccer but is known more for his singing. He describes himself as book smart which is good for me because he can find scriptures better than I can. We work well together and He and I are making good progress with our progressing investigator. As a district we have a lot of fun together and we never have a dull moment. district study is a lot of fun (we get to work and we share our thoughts, feelings, ideas, and other stuff) all-in-all, I love these Elders and I look forward to serving with these fine men.

 

Our schedule is very tight, like I said, we have class, then personal study, then companionship study, then lunch...or something like that. every minute of everyday is scheduled and we get very little time of no supervision. I'm at MTC west for those who didn't know, and I have only been to the main MTC twice. there are so many funny stories that i want to share with you but I'm already in the negative minutes so I'm sure something bad will happen soon.

 

My district did go to the temple this morning and we had a great time, we then went to the main MTC and proceeded to get kicked out of the gym because missionaries from the west MTC are apparently not allowed to be there (we didn't know, and we kept saying how this was discrimination :) anyway. all six of us crammed into a bathroom and changed from our suits from the temple into our gym clothes and it was kind of funny. My district has three 18 year olds, and three 19. I'm the oldest and the youngest has only been 18 for a month. The sisters in our zone are awesome too, along with the rest of the Elders in the Zone. (I'm sorry that my thoughts are all over the place, I hope you get what I'm saying)

 

Any way... our plain leaves for Atlanta at 1am, we then have a three hour layover and then we arrive in Milwaukee at 9am, we have already been told that we wont get any time to sleep next Tuesday. and all 35 of us Milwaukee missionaries are all on the same flights, so...convert everyone!!!

 

Please feel free to send me letters using DearElder, we check our mail everyday, and although I have no time to write you in return just know that I do get them and that I love all of them. I will send replies through email and letter once I'm in the field where I will have more time to do so, because here we have now free time, it just doesn't exist.

Love you: Elder Luymes



Arrived at the MTC West



My companion Elder Goodsell from Alberta Canada