February 24, 2014

Hello again, we had a pretty darn good week. On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Madison. It was very inspiring and it was great to see my entire MTC district all in one place. We had fun catching up and sharing stories and talking about other missionaries that we know or have served with.

After Zone Conference I went on exchanges with Elder Kanahele from New Zealand, but he also lived in Hawaii for 9 years. He has an accent and he's so much fun, and a very experienced Elder (he goes home in three weeks) and we had a great time in Madison.

My MTC Homies!

Another fun and interesting event that happened this past week was a heat wave. We actually got up to 44 degrees on Wednesday and the snow was melting like crazy. Elder Ferney and I went out tracting with nothing but a sweater on. It felt great to not have to have thermals and a beanie, or any gloves on. I could actually flip the pages of the pamphlet that I was using as I knocked doors. It felt great to have some warm sun, I soaked up the UV rays and felt myself just soak in the Love of God. What a great blessing to have warmth after months of Satan's darkness; although, it didn’t last long. By Friday we were having extreme wind and so all the melted snow has now turned into ice, FUN! It hasn't caused us any problems yet but we have seen a few people on the wrong side of the road. This week we have a frigid cold warning for Wednesday and Thursday. L I guess we'll have to work with what we've got for a few more weeks before spring really hits. Bring on the spring weather, I'm ready -- at least our heaters work!!!

I'll share a great story, but I have changed the name of the person. Today we received a text from Peter, one of our investigators. Peter is currently on parole and will be getting off parole at the end of March. If he wasn't on parole than he would have gotten baptized last year around early October, because his testimony is on fire!!! When Peter met the missionaries through his non-member son, he accepted the Book of Mormon and read it cover to cover. Peter is simply amazing and is very excited to get baptized. When we got a text from him this morning he told us that he had given his parole officer a copy of the Book of Mormon and a Mormon.org pass-along card. We asked him for more details and Peter shared that both he and his wife (who is also on parole and will be getting baptized in 2016 when she gets off) bore their testimonies to the parole officer and invited him to spend the time reading it because it was the book that changed their lives. Isn't it awesome that our investigator is doing missionary work before he's even baptized! My thoughts on this are: when we have a testimony of the restored gospel, then we should also have a testimony of sharing it. Our testimony should be a driving force in our life to share with all the world the great news. Let your testimony be heard far and wide.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 3:7

 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

Thank you for all that you do, have a good one!

Elder Luymes

Yup! 3 (Three) Oreo cookies in my big mouth all at once!

Wish I knew the story here but this really cool dragon
adorns the front of a home near the library. They shine
a light on it at night. Cool huh!

                                                                                                          2/17/14

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. We got something like 6 inches of snow on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. And today we have another fresh 4 inches of snow to shovel for the members and our investigators and anybody else that we see outside shoveling, we will go and help. It is a really great way of serving the people and finding new people to teach. Elder Ferney and I will walk around town with our snow shovels in hand and just start shoveling, some times without their permission. It also helps keep us warm, and it’s a great way of exercise. After we are finished with the library we will be doing exactly this. Fun!!!



Service at the Sun Prairie History  Museum
rendered a great find! A large replica bullet that
weighs a ton (well almost - I'm just really strong).

We had another great week. We had more success tracting again this week and we also had a couple of powerful lessons with a few of our less actives. On Sunday we had three less actives come to church, for all three hours. We were so thrilled and it was great to see them. I think the topic for sacrament meeting was also very inspired. The speakers talked about families and the Proclamation to the World. This hit home for one of the less actives who is in the middle of a struggling marriage and has a son who is not a member (we are working on beginning to teaching him the lessons). It was wonderful and the talks were well written and well delivered.

Chinglish exists even in Wisconsin (DVD instructions)!

A great experience I had this week on Saturday came from a prompting. Elder Ferney and I were tracting on Saturday night, we had planned on tracting from 6pm to 7pm and then heading over to a members home for a recent convert lesson and dinner with the family. Around 6:30pm I suddenly felt that we needed to stop tracting and find something else to do. Since we had already visited all the people we had wanted to for that day I thought "who else can we visit, what else are we supposed to do?" Regardless, without hesitation I told Elder Ferney that we are done tracting for the day and that we are heading to the car now, and not knocking on one more door. When we arrived at the car another prompting came to visit Jeff. Jeff is a potential investigator that has been on our potentials list for many months (before I arrived in DeForest). I have only met Jeff once and we have a recurring problem when we try and visit him, He is never home! We have tried nights, mornings, mid-day, weekends and weekdays, seemingly everything to try and talk with him and set up an appointment. So when the prompting came to go and visit Jeff, we were both confused because we assumed that he wouldn't be home. To our glorious surprise, Jeff was home and we had a great but short talk with him and we finally set up the appointment that we had been hoping for for many months. Hurray! We had a wonderful recent convert lesson that night, and a great dinner that made my belly happy.

A family made us a 16 inch pizza so we cut it in
half and had a feast!

 

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 1:6-7

 6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.

 7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

Thank you all for your prayers and have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Luymes

                                                                                      Feb 10, 2014

We had a very successful week here in DeForest. A lot was accomplished and the spirit has truly been poured out on the residents of this nice town.

The official Groundhog Day staff at the Sun Prairie
Historical Museum on service day. Maybe I can work some
mojo and make the spring come sooner.

We got three new investigators this week. In many ways this may not seem like a lot, but to put things in perspective, there have only been four new investigators found in this area in the past 6 months. With 3 more this week it puts us at 7 new investigators in 6 months. In my opinion this has been the single biggest struggle since being moved to DeForest. Reasons why this has been a struggle are not quit clear, perhaps it was us tracting the wrong streets, or not tracting enough, or us not using the right tactic. The Spirit never prompted us to do anything different or to change our plans. We do pray very sincerely for guidance, inspiration, and promptings to lead us to the right people or the right street. Either way, we have learned one lesson, diligence. Never give up! The cold is definitely an obstacle but if you bundle up right you can always knock one more door. Make sure you are always giving your all in a very real and genuine sense. Work, Work, Work!!!

A funny story while tracting: We were knocking doors and near the end of the street on a very cold day (we later learned that with the wind factor it was about -15 that day). We rang the doorbell and a woman answered. After introducing ourselves to her, talking about the restoration and testifying of a living prophet and the blessings that this will bring into her life. She told us that she wasn't interested. So we asked if she knew anybody who would be interested in a message about Jesus Christ. Her reply: (rough quote) "I don't, but if I did, I would refer them to the real Jesus, the one that died on the cross for our sins, and was resurrected; the one that healed the sick and called Apostles, etc. Not your false reincarnated Jesus named Smith, and your fake book." I showed her a picture of Jesus Christ (found on the front cover of a Restoration pamphlet) and told her that we don't believe in a reincarnated Jesus, and that we believe in the same Christ that she had just described herself. That's when she slammed the door on us. We finished the street, went back to the car to warm up. Then let out a nice long laugh. I will never understand where people come up with these ideas. Horns on our head, really? Reincarnated Jesus, really? What a good laugh that was. At least we tried to tell her the truth.

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.

Thank you all J

Elder Luymes

Thank You Pasadena Stake Seminary Students
for my new pillow case.

Improvisational name search at the home of our
mission leader.  Can you find Silcox, Iongi, Pike,
Ferney, Packer, and Luymes?  We got creative.

                                                                             February 3, 2014

This was an eventful week for us here in Deforest. Lots of stuff happened, and we did not watch the Super Bowl. But I am excited for the Seahawk win! (sorry Brandts)

Super Bowl Party - stir fry and Church videos!

We started our week of with a very literal BANG! On Monday we got stuck in some snow and had to get pushed out, so our Sun Prairie compadres (The other Elders serving in our ward) came to the rescue and in one hit our Tongan Elder dented the trunk and cracked a panel as well as chipped the paint on part of the lid. This Tongan Elder is a Visa waiter for Brazil and played both Rugby and Football in high school. So we spent Monday, more than half our Tuesday, and parts of Wednesday getting estimates, submitting paperwork for the church, working with the body shop, and calling the mission office a boat load of times to make sure that they were happy with our pictures and paper work. All in all, the car will get fixed middle of next week, for now we are driving around with a nice dent in our trunk. BTW, the dent will cost somewhere between $1,350 and $1,575 to fix. Fortunately because it was an accident and there was no neglect on our part, the church will be paying it and not us -- sorry tithe payers. Please forgive us. L

Big OOPS!

Another awesome thing happened for us this week. We were out visiting some of our less-actives who live in the far regions of our ward boundaries. But on our way back home we stopped at a little convenience store in Rio Wisconsin (pronounced R-eye-o, not like the Brazilian Rio).  The owner of the store is a potential investigator, who in my description is: very humble, very down to earth, very in-tune with his relationship with God, and is probably a dry water Mormon despite a minor word of wisdom problem (no biggie, we can fix that). We had a wonderful conversation with him while he prepared a donation of burger patties for the local high school. As we were concluding our conversation and preparing to buy what we needed and head out, He gave us a bag and says "enjoy, on the house." Inside was a full chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and gravy. It was to die for good! And we got two meals out of the whole thing, what a wonderful surprise. On a slight side note, a couple weeks ago when I first met this man in Rio, we talked about setting up a 2016 Rio Wisconsin Olympics. It was so funny to see that he was very serious and really wanted to do it, I would love to come back after my mission and help him accomplish this goal. Any takers on helping out?

Aloha! Happy Chinese New Year! (yes, I'm confused)

Scripture for the week: Jarom 1:11

Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.

Thank you all, have a wonderful week

Elder Luymes