Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! I am not leaving Oshkosh this transfer. Elder Merrill and I are stickin' together for another six weeks! This makes me happy, and I'm grateful because there is much to do here in Oshkosh. We are searching out less actives and we have a baptismal date set with a 10 year old who is part of a part member family. We are working towards February 7th with A____ and his family.

 

Merry Christmas Skype with Mom, Dad, Adrienne and Dixie.

My Christmas week was great. We were well fed by the members, and believe it or not but Santa found me all the way out here! And he must have known that I wasn't getting transferred because I'm still receiving gifts. We spent Christmas day with the Bishop and his family as well as some of the single members of the ward. In the Afternoon we went with the Sister missionaries to a senior center and sang Christmas songs to them. We had a grand old time. In the evening we spent dinner and skype with the Kakushcke family. They are a wonderful family with older kids our age; it was very enjoyable spending time with others my age. Dinner was great; skyping with my family was great too.

Christmas décor compliments of the Kukushcke Family

During the Christmas season the missionary work slows down a lot. We had few lessons, and we didn't see much success from tracting. Most of our service projects that we do each week were cancelled. However we did spend some time on Saturday with the cats at the Humane Society. We drove out to some of the small towns in the Oshkosh Ward boundaries. Our purpose was to visit less actives that don't get visited often or if ever, as we worked our way further and further from Oshkosh we eventually ended up at a member’s home who is active. They had signed up to feed us dinner. On the same drive to this same member, the Sister missionaries hit a deer with their car. Fortunately there was little damage to their car, however the deer did limp away with a broken leg says the Sisters.

I'm ready for the holidays to be over, the holiday season affects the work so much, I'm anxious to get going again and set up more appointments with people, see more success from tracting. Elder Merrill and I have spent some time since Saturday talking about our expectations for this second transfer that we have together. How are we going to start the year off with a bang? It is great being with a companion that works hard. Elder Merrill and I make up a great team. Things that I slack off on he does well to pick up while the vice- versa is true. I would venture to say that Elder Merrill and I make up the best and most dynamic companionship that I have had yet. It should be a productive and fast paced transfer.

Christmas antics! Still a team for another transfer.

I don't have a scripture this week but a question instead: How are you going to make the Book of Mormon the keystone of your 2015? See Book of Mormon Introduction

Thank you all for your well wishes and letters, thank you for your prayers, love, and support.

Have a Happy New Year - 2015!!!

Love,
Elder Luymes

Back by popular demand. Fat Squirrel -- still in the same spot we left him.

 

If you plan to send a holiday card to Elder Luymes please use the mission address as transfers take place on New Years Day and he thinks he's going to get transferred:

Wisconsin Milwaukee Mission                  

7111 W. Edgerton Ave. Ste 100
Greenfield, WI 53220
Oh yah, don't yah know, it’s Christmas week EH! This new week is going to be fantastic. We have many dinner appointments, we have Christmas, a Zone Training Meeting, we have Skype calls with the family and puppy on Thursday, and the weather won't be all that bad either. Actually the weather hasn't been too bad at all this December. We did have a few windy days that made things less desirable, but overall, in summary I could enjoy my last winter in Wisconsin if the temp stays where it is right now. Wisconsin still needs mountains though, what the locals call skiing I would call a bunny hill at most.

It was a great week in Oshkosh. On Tuesday we had District Meeting with the Oshkosh Sisters and the Elders/Sisters from the Fon Du Lac Ward. Having 8 missionaries in a District is a lot of fun. We had an entire DM on the Atonement, which is easily the best topic ever for a Pre-Christmas District Meeting. We shared our testimonies, talked about what we had been learning in the Book of Mormon recently on the Atonement, and we also listened to Bruce R. McConkie's talk on the Atonement: The Purifying Power of Gethsemane. The Spirit filled our hearts and we each expressed our gratitude for the Savior and His wonderful Atonement. It was an amazing District Meeting; I will never forget it, and those whom I was with. At the close of District Meeting I expressed my gratitude for each Elder and Sister, and then we had our white elephant gift exchange. This district gets better and better. There were some top of the line white elephant gifts, by that I mean the ones that make you belly laugh forever because the gift is so funny and the person who picked it just seem to fit the picture. I got a clay cat that stands 1ft tall, and is plastered with tacky mail stamps. The cat had beads for eyes and whisker hairs that looked more like an Adolf Hitler mustache. It was very comical. Some other highlight gifts were Elder Walley and his Pope John Paul II picture frame that also came with a scary looking clown that you could wind up and it would sway back and forth very slowly with eerie music playing. Another highlight was Sister Kilger and her Christmas lawn deer that has broken lights, and also Sister Cosgrove and her Santa Hot tub cookie jar. We had a great laugh; I took a district picture of everyone with their gifts. (My gift got stolen and so I ended up with brownies in a jar)

District white elephant gift exchange. My postage stamp
covered clay cat got stolen so I ended up with the brownies. Great Fun!

I went on exchanges with Elder Walley after District Meeting. He and I had a good time together; we found some people and made contact with a few Less Actives that hadn't been seen in a while.

We got a Church Headquarter Referral on Friday. The only problem is that the person lives in Oakland California and not Oakland Wisconsin (which doesn't exist). That made for an interesting phone call. She had typed in the area code wrong and that's why the referral was sent to us. That could have been my one shot for getting to California for the winter and also for Christmas (sorry family)

Our Ward Christmas program was on Sunday. It was very nice and I messed up in the choir, that's why I shouldn't sing. The speakers did a great job and the Bishop and his wife read Luke 2 along with a few other scriptures that go along with the nativity scene. I love this holiday season because as a missionary there is a whole different focus. It’s not about the gifts or the meals or skyping family. The season, the time, and really all of life, is all about Jesus Christ. He is our Lord and Redeemer. He is our Savior and He is filled with love and compassion. He has taught His gospel and has invited all of us to "come unto Him", I am grateful for these 18 months of service, I am grateful that He has let me serve these people, and to testify of Him.

* Merry Christmas *

Love,

Elder Luymes

FAT Squirrel that hangs out in a tree near our apartment.
He doesn't move too fast and probably has a secret loot
somewhere nearby to keep him in shape.

 

The week wasn't too cold; low-30's is alright. If only we could somehow convince Mother Nature to let it stay at low 30's for the whole winter. Right now its mid-40's, which feels really nice and all I have to wear is a sweater. We survived from not having a car for two days. Wednesday was a ton of walking.

Tuesday after District Meeting we took all the Elders and Sisters in the district to a members home who has recently been coming back to church (this is the same A___ who we helped fix the broken chair) We surprised him and came into his home and sung Christmas carols, and finished it off with Rudolph the red nose rain dear. It was bitter sweet because one of the Sisters from the Fon Du Lac Ward knew A___ from a previous area that she had served in and where A____ used to live. It was a sweet reunion and the two of them got to catch up and share stories. The Sister goes home in a month so it was really nice. After Christmas caroling we decided as a district that we would do a white elephant exchange for our upcoming district meeting which is tomorrow.

Wednesday morning we turned in the car, and got a ride home from the car dealership. From then on we walked all over town, trying to see as many promising people as we could so that we weren't walking all day long and tracting. It was a long day but we made it through. We met some people on the streets and talked with them about their Christmas plans. We finished off the night by playing basketball with the young men and some of their non-member friends. That was a great way to finish off the day.

Sittin' on Santa with Elder Merrill, Sis Peel, and Sis Woods.

The Ward Christmas party was on Saturday. Saturday was already a great day because we met a new family while tracting and they let us into their home. It was also a great day because of the anticipation of the party so we worked hard and with great motivation even though most doors we knocked on said "no". Saturday just felt good, and the party was fun. We had a lot of non-members come and enjoy; we had a lot of great food too. We got to take home half of a ham, a couple pounds of funeral potatoes, and some brownies. Taking home food is always fun, and keeps us happy because then we don't have to buy as much and worry about running out of money for the month. I got a picture with me and Santa along with the other missionaries in the Oshkosh Ward (Elder Merrill, Sister Peel, and Sister Woods). It’s great to relax with the members and enjoy an evening with them.

Ritual burning of a tie on my 18 month mark.
Yup! That's one of my new ties that mom sent for my birthday.

Friday was my 18 month mark. Being 3/4 done with a mission is an interesting feeling. Not only does it go by quickly but you question whether or not the 18 months even happened. I remember the MTC, and my first day in the mission field with Elder Thompson in Manistique, Michigan. Everything in between seems to have somehow squished itself into a month’s time. That's enough of the 18 months. I burnt a tie as is customary. We went to the first counselor in the Bishopric's home. He has a portable fire pit that we opened up and put some gasoline and paper towels in. We lit it up, took a few pictures and I took off my tie and tossed it in. After the tie was burnt up we had fun tossing paper cups with some gasoline in them, into the fire. I should be specific that Elder Merrill and I watched from a distance while we cheered on Bro. Palmer as he filled up the cups and threw them into the fire. I have a video of the grand finally. Wisconsin natives are crazy; this same family prepares their deer in the living room while they watch TV. He got two kills this year while bow hunting.

Sunday was crazy. Every child in the chapel was yelling, screaming, running around. Sacrament meeting was loud and very distracting. So many parents were coming in and out with children that I had to help out with keeping some of the older kids (5-8) in line and quiet. It was so bad that a member of the Bishopric told me later in the day that it was a good thing that we didn't have any investigators at church because of how embarrassing it was during Sacrament meeting. Sunday was not relaxing at all.

Scripture for the week: Alma 25:15-16

 15 Yea, and they did keep the law of Moses; for it was expedient that they should keep the law of Moses as yet, for it was not all fulfilled. But notwithstanding the law of Moses, they did look forward to the coming of Christ, considering that the law of Moses was a type of his coming, and believing that they must keep those outward performances until the time that he should be revealed unto them.

 16 Now they did not suppose that salvation came by the law of Moses; but the law of Moses did serve to strengthen their faith in Christ; and thus they did retain a hope through faith, unto eternal salvation, relying upon the spirit of prophecy, which spake of those things to come.

Thank you all, have a wonderful Christmas and enjoy the wonderful season as we remember the birth of our Lord and Savior.

Elder Luymes

Lake Winnebago - totally frozen over. We are tempted to chat with the ice fishermen;  they're going anywhere. They'd be a captive audience.

 [Funny intro goes here], it was a pretty dang good week in Oshkosh and Appleton. I was able to go on exchanges with the Appleton Zone Leaders. So my good friend Elder Standifird and I went up to Appleton together and had a nice time catching up on stories. Elder Standifird was in my MTC district, so he and I go all the way back to day one - June 12th 2013. He and I have been able to catch up here and there throughout the mission, and now he is serving as my Zone Leader. We had a great time. We visited some of their investigators and tracted and were blessed to have had the opportunity to get into some homes and sit down. Anything beats standing out in the cold. The other Zone Leader is Elder Crandall who was in my U.P. District for a very long time. He and I have moved around to the same Zone for most of our missions so it is safe to say that I am very close with both the Zone Leaders, which has a lot of perks. J

My good buddy Elder Standifird from Pason, AZ.
I hope we serve near each other till the end.

On Tuesday evening we had an Elders Quorum pizza and game night. We greatly enjoyed the evening with some of the Elders in the ward; pizza (free food) and some soda and games. We mostly played Apples-to-Apples because of the size of the group. I got second place. I learned a quick fact from the game night too. Did you know that Apples-to-Apples was created by a Mormon here in the Appleton Stake. Pretty dang cool huh!?

Our mission is trying out a new door approach to tracting. It is a survey with 10 questions on it that are focused on the family. The purpose of the survey is to get people talking about specific feelings that they have towards family and its spirituality. We are seeing a lot of amazing things with this survey, people are opening right up to us and telling us a lot that can easily be used in teaching the Restoration, the Plan of salvation, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and also with introducing them to the Book of Mormon. One of the genius things about this specific survey approach is that it is also tailored towards getting us into people’s homes. Random strangers and we are getting let into their home. The simple thing about it is that all you have to do is ask, and have faith. Does it work? Yes, we got into a lot of homes this week, and some of them we were able to sit down and make a full transition from the survey into teaching the Restoration. I love not being in the cold as much, and I love being able to sit down and rest for a moment. With the survey we were blessed with 7 new investigators this week, and I am so happy to see days with at the very least one appointment on them instead of blank days in the coming week.

Sunday was testimony meeting at church which was great. There seemed to be a constant and even flow of people that came up to share their testimonies. I got up and shared my testimony of the Atonement as a Christmas present to the ward. We also had two people come to church who were not members and both were not investigators, and no member brought them either. They were students here at UW Oshkosh, they were taking a religious class and decided to come to our services for their project that they had. Many members approached them and talked with them, answering questions. By the time I had an opportunity to talk to them, all of their questions had been answered. They were not interested in any lessons but at the very least they felt good about what they saw and heard at Sundays meetings.

I greatly loved the Christmas devotional last night, it was inspiring and uplifting. We watched it with the Stake President and his family.

Scripture for the week: Alma 7:10

10 And behold, he shall be born of Mary, at Jerusalem which is the land of our forefathers, she being a virgin, a precious and chosen vessel, who shall be overshadowed and conceive by the power of the Holy Ghost, and bring forth a son, yea, even the Son of God.

Thank you all for your prayers. Have a great week! Love,

Elder Luymes

These are my puppy dog face pictures.  Which is your favorite?

Whimper

Sigh.

 

 

Happy Thanksgiving! I hope everyone got to enjoy a nice break from work, school, college apps, and other stressful things. The season of gratitude is a wonderful time of year. The attitude of gratitude is a blessing, a joy that when allowed to fill our hearts can bring peace and happiness deep within us all. I felt the presence of the Savior this week as I reflected on what I am grateful for and the people whom I have served with and why I am grateful for them.

Our Thanksgiving was a wonderful day. We played some early morning football with a small number of members from the ward. We were expecting a larger crowed to show up and play but I suppose the morning snow and cold got the best of them. We had three members of the ward, myself and my companion Elder Merrill, and the two Sister missionaries show up to play. The cold made things challenging but fortunately I bought $2 work gloves at the gas station that had rubber grips to help my hands stay both warm and "grippy". We played a simple game, didn't keep score and had fun running around in the snow and all of us having no traction. Later we played 500 which is a game similar to three flags up. The Sisters had left by then and the game of 500 became very competitive. There was a ton of pushing, shoving, climbing, tripping, and other "foul plays"; it was a lot of fun though. Later in the day we went to the Bishop's house and enjoyed a thanksgiving dinner with him and his family. Four of his five kids were there. They are all grown up, the dinner was excellent and I made sure to have a plate full. We enjoyed some laughter and a good dinner conversation. I have a video, but it's too big to send via email. After the Bishop's, the Sisters followed us for an hour to go eat dinner with the Elders Quorum President and his family. They live in a very small town of 1,200 named Princeton. We had a nice dinner there too and all four of us missionaries struggled a bit to eat a full plate. I did have enough room for a small second plate but no desert.

The week as a whole was very busy for us. We had four people moving this week, and that kept us very busy on Tuesday and Friday. We got Elder Merrill cat trained so we spent some time at the humane society Wednesday and Friday. We had few appointments, but a lot of things that needed to get done. We seemed to have a lot of people that wanted to be visited on thanksgiving week but not taught. We also had extra miles with it being the end of the month, so we drove to the small towns outside Oshkosh and talked to some less actives that don't get visited very often. There were days in our week where we were go, go go all day and we had no breaks until 9pm when it was time to come home and plan for the day. I love having these kind of days; I just wish they had more teaching in them.

On Wednesday we had a wonderful opportunity to meet all kinds of people from other faiths. Wednesday night was the Oshkosh interfaith festival. Each faith was given a few minutes to present something that would allow others to get a taste of what their religious beliefs and faith are about. Our ward choir (plus four missionaries) sung two songs for everyone and shared a short scripture from the Book of Mormon in between the two songs. The traditional faiths were there such as Catholic, Jewish, Muslim, Presbyterian. And there were also some other faiths that I had never heard of before. Those were: Baha'i, Zen River Sangha, and Eckankar. Each faith had very different and unique presentations. Some sang, played instruments, others got on stage and prayed. One man from the Zen River Sangha brought a meditation bell and asked that we meditate with him as he rang the bell and listened to the vibrations. Another group gave their stories of how they have experienced spirituality in their mundane day to day life, and then they closed their presentation with a prayer that required humming the word: HU. It was interesting, I really enjoyed it and I was able to talk with many different people about their faith and learn more from them.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 16:9
He is the light and the life of the world; yea, a light that is endless, that can never be darkened; yea, and also a life which is endless, that there can be no more death.

Thank you for your love, thank you for your prayers, thank you!

Elder Luymes

 

It warmed up to 50 last night!!! How amazing, we had snow melting and everything. It was some really enjoyable weather and I am really happy that it did. The sun never came out though. Gray clouds are depressing. Saturday and Sunday was Stake Conference. We went to Neenah on Saturday to watch the session there. The main focus of the meeting was sharing the gospel through social media. I was happy to see this but somewhat disappointed that we as missionaries won't be able to take part in the Stake Presidents vision. I guess we will have to wait. On Sunday there were several great talks given and wonderful stories shared. The talk that stuck out to me most however was of a younger woman in her early 20's. Her entire talk was on her testimony of the Atonement; it was beautiful and inspiring. The spirit filled the room and I was greatly appreciative that she shared with us that amazing and hope-filled message of the Atonement.

In other news, on Saturday I bought $2 gloves with rubber grips on them for the upcoming Oshkosh Ward Turkey Bowl game. They are work gloves meant for the winter so now I will have warm hands on Thursday and grip to catch the ball. I'm excited for football!

Appleton District at Stake Conference.
I'm the shutter guy so I made the most of jumping in.

Transfers were on Wednesday. Elder Stevenson has moved to the Neenah ward. I was able to see him at Stake Conference. My new companion is Elder Merrill. He is from Idaho Falls, Idaho. He has four older siblings, and none younger. He is a 2014 High School graduate and will be attending BYU-I after his mission. He has one nephew and two baby nieces (both were born after he entered the MTC; bummer). He played golf in high school. Elder Merrill has been out on his mission 5 months as of December 2^nd so he's still on the younger side at18. I was a little shocked when I made the connection that he was born in 1996, the same year as my sister Adrienne. I'm serving with someone just barley older than her!!! Crazy stuff! Elder Merrill is a pretty chill guy. He loves to have a positive attitude so I think with two optimists we are going to see great work get accomplished in this area. Already we have seen a small difference in the work, with a few new names for us to put on the board. He wants to spend some time with the former investigators and also the less actives. So we will be seeing more of that style of work get done. Where will all this take us and will we be seeing someone make the steps towards baptism? Who knows, but we will be working for it.

Mr. Chill, my new companion - Elder Merrill from Idaho Falls.
 

It was a good week. We had our service projects, lots of tracting, and a few appointments with people. A less active family that we are meeting with has agreed to take the missionary lessons in order to help get their two daughters baptized. This family is a lot of fun to have lessons with because the mom really makes sure that the kids pay attention instead of horsing around or monkeying around. I will make this comment though. The 4 year old boy is super funny when he talks. He still has this great innocent kid’s voice and he is full of spontaneous energy and he loves to talk your ear off about the wildest things. He shared with me a story once and I just about died of laughter because this kid is so darn cute. Maybe someday I will get a video of him and share it when I get home.

Elder Stevenson's last Animal Shelter day. 
The cat decided that his hair needed a cleaning.

Video of the week: http://www.mormon.org/christmas#d

Love you all,
Elder Luymes



This is the two foot salmon that Bro. Fisher gave us two weeks ago. This baby was a monster to prepare, cook, and clean up after. We never got sick and it fed us many wonderful meals

This was given to me at a luncheon at the airport where we do service on Thursdays. EAA is a bunch of great people, simple work and free food on Thursday.

 

Oh man it’s cold. Snow came down twice this week. The first snow came and melted before noon the same day. The second snow storm came and only dumped an inch on us at best, however it is so cold that the snow hasn't melted and it could be here to stay. The weather we are having right now is what we would normally expect in December. An early winter is not welcomed by anyone and now only begs the question: Spring comes early too, right? I'm hoping so, that would be a great way to end the mission with an early spring :)

Our week was one uncontrollable roller-coaster. Due to the lack of success we are seeing at the present moment the Zone Leaders decided to blitz our area. A blitz is like an exchange but where both companionship's stay in one proselyting area. So with four Elders in Oshkosh we set out to work hard and make miracles happen. They certainly did. We taught a lot of lessons, we met a lot of people and we set up 8 appointments. It was very exciting to see this much growth all in a time period of 24 hours. The Zone Leaders stayed the night at our place too so we cooked some brats and enjoyed a delicious meal and a buffet the next day for lunch. On Thursday Elder Stevenson and I worked hard to get as many members as possible to the lessons we had scheduled. By Thursday night we had 7 member present lessons planned. We were so excited, and thrilled that we would be able to conclude this amazing week with even more great stuff to happen. Friday came, then Saturday, then Sunday. All 7 of our member present lessons either were cancelled or dropped, and none of our backup plans worked either. Nobody was home. Tracting is always the backup’s back up, so we did a lot more tracting and after several hours of doing so and not being able to talk with anybody. I vocally asked the question: What! Is there a Badger game on or something and everybody is out watching it at the bars? Sure enough, at the very next house we approached I could see through the windows the Badger game playing. The gentleman answered the door and I asked him the score (with the full intention of trying to start a conversation that would lead into something related to Jesus Christ). He informed me that the Badgers were winning and that he was not interested in our religious message. It was a heartbreaking way to conclude a week.

We did service at the Humane Society on Thursday. This time we played with the kittens first. They are an energetic bunch who love to play and explore. They were a lot of fun. I have several great photos but I will have to save those for next week because I forgot my camera cord. Elder Stevenson is getting transferred to Neenah which is a small city just 15 minutes north of Oshkosh. It is also south of Appleton (If you want to know a little geography). I'm sad to see him go after only serving with him for one transfer. My new companion is someone I don't know anything about but I am certainly optimistic that he and I can change things around here in Oshkosh. Our ward is having a Turkey bowl on Thanksgiving morning, that's exciting!!!

Scripture for the week: Omni 1:26

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

Love,

Elder Luymes

 

Guess what!!! I made waffles again on Sunday! This time we had milk, water, eggs, and everything else we needed. So no funny business and the waffles turned out perfect. Our Sunday lunch consisted of waffles, desert from a member that we got last week, and some carrots. The blessings have been poured out upon us, the blessings of food. Food blessings are great and much appreciated. Let me tell you what we have in our fridge right now and how we got some of these food items. On Tuesday a member gave us a whole rotisserie chicken and we currently have that thawing out for lunch. Then on Wednesday a member called us very unexpectedly and without giving away any details he said "meet me at the Virgin Mobil store" We pulled into the parking lot and found his truck. He climbs out and throws at us a two foot long frozen salmon. We starting gawking at it and he shared with us how this is the smallest fish that he caught and since we had been so persistent in asking for one he decided to share with us. So now our freezer has a huge fish in it. On Saturday we were asked to help clean the church building. Boring right? Wrong! We found in the freezer 25 brats and 10 hamburger patties. We asked the member if he thought if it was okay for us to take them. He said yes but we decided to wait till Sunday to see if anyone would take them. Sunday (Yesterday) came and nobody from church took them. So Sunday night we called another member and asked if he knew anything about them and he didn't. He also gave us permission to take them. So with the permission of two members we took home 25 brats and 10 hamburger patties. We estimate that we have about 30 pounds of meat in our fridge right now. Pretty sweet huh!

Waffles for Sunday Lunch!

Other than glorious food, our week was mainly occupied with tracting and service. We did a lot of tracting for many hours this week. The cold weather is certainly not ideal but we need to find somebody to teach. Our service projects consisted of EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) which is an airport in Oshkosh where private planes are built and developed. So we often see some pretty nice birds flying in the air. At EAA we usually help out in the mail room moving heavy boxes for mailing and all of their many advertisements to EAA members. We also work the food line at Salvation Army. We had fewer people than normal show up to Salvation Army. But we get a great opportunity to talk to people of very different backgrounds. It’s fun when certain people come in that we know better because they know how to interact with us and goof off a little. We helped out with some of the members throughout the week too. We helped a senior sister move out of her apartment and put stuff in storage. She is very anxious to leave Wisconsin and get to Florida before winter really hits us hard. We helped another family with raking leaves. We spent a solid hour and a half raking and bringing the leaves to the curb for city pick up. The two dogs that this member has are very playful and I kept suggesting that we tie a rake to them and get them to help out too since they had so much energy, The last member that we helped was putting up their storm windows to help keep the warm air in. This project was a little interesting because the member kept hauling around this ladder to help us screw in the holds that prevent the windows from falling out of the frame. I found it funny because he would go through so much effort to haul this ladder everywhere from window to window. He didn't need to do this because I was easily able to climb up on something and reach the screws and put them in place. My 6ft 3inches was lot of help in this project. It also made things go by a lot faster because we didn’t need to place the ladder among all the plants and trees.

Lake Winnebago - bordering Appleton, Neenah, Oshkosh and Fon du Lac
districts.  We tract in this neighborhood and skip a rock or two.

The cold is creeping in. This week we are supposed to hit the teens and potentially some heavy snow fall today and tomorrow. Next week is transfer week. I doubt that I am moving but you never know.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 12:3

 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Thank you, much love,

Elder Luymes

Dear Santa -- please send me two new shirts for Christmas.
The spray starch is doing a number on my shirts.

Happy Halloween, Zone Conference last Thursday, playing with cats, a ridiculously long train, and someone backed into our car. Does it sound like a crazy week? It sure was.

Tuesday was perhaps not the best day for us. We had several appointments cancel and it was the only day that we had a lesson with a non-member for the entire week. On the plus side of Tuesday; we met with a returning less active named A___, he is awesome and lots of fun to be around. He has a strong interest with Family History work and so we have been sharing with each other success stories that we have had in finding people and adding memories to the family tree. A___  has a medical chair to help support him that was broken. His back was aching so we took a look at the chair and decided how we were going to fix it on Wednesday because we didn't have the right tools on hand.

Wednesday was the day of no proselyting. I promise that I'm not a lazy, disobedient Elder. We drove 30 minutes in the morning to contact 4 referrals at a mobile home park. We searched far and wide and never found the park. This is also when we got stuck waiting for a very long train that stopped, then backed up, then inched forward. We lost 30 minutes waiting for this train all the way out in the boonies of Oshkosh. When we got home we changed and went over to the Humane Society. The cats were a lot of fun. Since it was our first time we didn't have much of an idea of what to do in the very beginning but we started improvising and we figured out a basic idea. One thing that we learned in the third cat room is to not beat-box with the cats. Its gets them all riled up and then they start to fight with each other. It’s not entirely my fault; Elder Stevenson was doing it to. After the cats we fixed A___’s chair and now it works like a charm. For dinner we went to Domino's and this is where the car got hit. The guy backed up his car and says he never saw our car and so now we have a nice dent on the left side of our rear bumper. We exchanged info, called the police because the church says to do so and guess what we learned... The man has a suspended license. Cool, that took up two hours and it only left us with one more thing to do in our day that wasn't proselyting; basketball with the Young Men. 

Umm. I'm playing with a cat.  Really I am.



He climbed up on my lap.  Now what do I do?

We had zone conference in Appleton on Thursday. That was a great training meeting and I love President and Sister Cutler. After the meeting we had to spend two hours filling out our accident report so that made up our entire Thursday. Not much happened on Halloween too. Because of church policy we can't proselyte after 5pm so we spent much of our time with a member family, an older couple and of course, tracting.

Fender Bender #2. Do you see my name on the car? Twice.

 That really sums it all up for the week. The weeks go by fast and they get colder too. Mid 50’s is now considered very warm. Let’s all pray for a warm winter.

Scripture for the week: Alma 13:15

 15 And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed.

Thank you, love,

Elder Luymes

Zone Conference 10-30-14

Zone Conference Lunch 10-30-14, love the pink striped tye from mom.

Mouthful smile.

No waffles this week. But that's okay because I went on a sweet exchange with Elder Walley to the Fon Du Lac Branch. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was with Elder Walley, he is a younger Elder who has been out for 5 months. He is from a small desert town in Washington State (I know it’s not what we all typically think when we hear Washington) Elder Walley is a nice kid, a BYU Idaho student. He and I started off the exchange by visiting a new investigator of theirs. They had never taught this guy so we both went in with a level of unknown. The man was really nice and I would describe him as casually religious. He has a testimony of God and had heard some but not much about the Book of Mormon. Elder Walley and I asked a few "get to know you questions" and then we began teaching the Restoration. Everything just clicked into place because we were teaching well, and the guy was listening and participating in the discussion. Then Elder Walley invited to guy to read the Book of Mormon and then invited him to be baptized. He said yes! That's a fantastic way to start off an exchange! Later in the evening we ate dinner with a super awesome family. Both husband and wife are converts to the church so it was great hearing their stories. We ate a great lasagna dinner with them and a salad. They had apples ready to be pressed to make homemade apple juice. I should mention that this family lives on a farm and have cows, goats, chickens, and lots of crops. The neighbor came over while we were preparing the apples and he walked in the garage with a super cool looking cross-bow! The man told the member "I just dropped one less than five minutes ago!" I got to see the deer, a nice one too with one clean shot to the neck from the guy’s cross-bow. It was a great day. On Wednesday we did service at the hospital and probably made contact with one hundred people who have Ebola...jk, that hasn't hit Wisconsin yet. The apple juice was the best thing ever and we got to take some home, we enjoyed a nice cup of juice when we exchanged back at the halfway point on Wednesday.

One clean shot to the neck from the cross-bow. The arrow
broke inside the neck and the guy had to wrestle to get it out.

Other things that happened in the week: The weather was warm, so people were outside. We spent most of the week tracting and park contacting. I also finished my cat training so now we can volunteer at the Oshkosh Humane society. The only reason why we are doing cats and not dogs is because the dogs require one on one, and that would separate Elder Stevenson and me so we couldn't do it. Cats! I'll have a few photos next week. The warm weather was great, it was enjoyably being outside and the fall colors are in full effect. I will say this though: The fall in da U.P was much better than it is here in Oshkosh.

On Friday we had the Oshkosh Ward Halloween party. It was simple with food, games for the kids, and trunk or treating at the end. Elder Stevenson didn't feel like dressing up and the Sisters didn't either. I wore a window light up jack-o-lantern around my neck because I was a gangsta missionary from LA. It was the best I had. The party was fun, and we just went around and talked with people.

My Gangsta Chain!

Here is a really great quote that one of my AP's sent us this week: “As a mission we have been putting an extra emphasis on becoming a consecrated mission. This past week I received a quote from one of my friends serving in Peru. It has helped me focus more on putting my life in the hands of the Lord. It says, ‘A basketball in my hands is worth about $20.99. A basketball in the hands of LeBron James is worth $19 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. A tennis racket in my hands is worth about $17.00. A tennis racket in the hands of Serena Williams is worth about $20 million per year; it depends in whose hands it's in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $3.00. A baseball in the hands of Derek Jeter is worth about $35 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands would make a few fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in the Savior's hands will feed 5000 people until they're full, and still leave 12 baskets leftover; it depends on whose hands they're in. Some nails in my hands are worth about 5 cents. Some nails in the Savior's hands will provide eternal salvation for each person who has ever lived on this earth, and all of Heavenly Father's children. It depends on whose hands they're in. When we put our lives in the hands of the Savior, we can achieve infinitely more than we ever could on our own. It depends on whose hands they're in.’”

Scripture for the week: Moroni chapters 4 and 5

Thank you all for your love and prayers,

Elder Luymes

Fall leaves under a tree -- almost as good as da U.P.