March 24

We had another monumental week in DeForest. We had several great lessons that have helped so many of our investigators to make big steps in progress, and so many of them are reading the Book of Mormon more regularly. This brings huge benefits and blessings because in a very simple way, the Book of Mormon brings the spirit into our life (1 Nephi 1:12) and once we begin to feel the influence of the Spirit... they will have a desire to enter into a covenant with their Lord (Mosiah 5:2-5). I have so greatly enjoyed this week and the quality of the lessons that we had. Another thing that has helped us out so much are the members stepping up to the plate to help us out with lessons. We had planned on 6 member present lessons, but only three of them actually happened. Half may not seem like a very good average, but three member present lessons is the best we have ever had here in DeForest.

To share more about the lessons we had this week: we went over the baptismal interview questions for an investigator that we have who gets released from parole this week, and gets baptized this Saturday! We are thrilled for this guy; he has made some big changes in his life and has come to follow the Savior step for step. He shared with us his testimony and his conversion story (which I filmed). He is a great person to be around and can truly uplift anyone through the power of the Spirit and the scriptures. This is the same investigator who is already doing missionary work by sharing the Book of Mormon with his parole officer and other people who live in his small town. Sadly we won’t be able to see his baptism because he is moving to Manitowoc, WI this same week.

Another investigator we had a lesson with this week is an interesting guy. He has a Catholic background but has denounced the church. We shared with him the January 2014 CES Devotional by Elder Tad R. Callister called "the Blue Print of Christ church". This lesson brought up many deeper questions about our church and its doctrine. What made it so special and the reason why I’m sharing this experience is because it greatly highlights the blessings of the influence of the spirit. His questions were smart, articulate, and deep. And two 20 year olds with little knowledge of the "real" world would have had a struggle answering his questions in a manner that would have satisfied him. I am so grateful for the guidance of the spirit during that lesson; it greatly helped us out and brought to memory key scriptures that highlighted the truth of what it is that we were teaching him.

The last lesson that I will be sharing is with a great guy who has a true love for his family and wants what is best for them. He has told us that he is soul searching and wants to find the true church. What I loved about this lesson was that he felt that the scripture texts that we had been sending out each night to him and 7 other people had been sent specifically to him. He felt the personal power of the Book of Mormon, he felt it touched him specifically and answered a lot of his questions. When we told him that the scriptures that we send out are for him and several other people he was shocked that the scriptures which were sent to a general audience could impact him in such a way. I loved the lesson that we had with him and it was really exciting to see our efforts in doing a scripture text every night have positive success.

Such great lessons, it brings a smile to my face and love to my heart. Our upcoming week should hold many more exciting things and were praying for more of our investigators to accept the invitation to be baptized.

Scripture for the week: Alma 1:30

30 And thus, in their prosperous circumstances, they did not send away any who were naked, or that were hungry, or that were athirst, or that were sick, or that had not been nourished; and they did not set their hearts upon riches; therefore they were liberal to all, both old and young, both bond and free, both male and female, whether out of the church or in the church, having no respect to persons as to those who stood in need.

Thank you all, enjoy your spring!

Elder Luymes

This is T---, he is getting baptized on March 29th at 10am. He is officially my first baptism of my mission even though I won't be able to see him get "dunked" He is still an awesome guy. He comes from a very rough past and so he and I have some good bonding over the "Thug Life". I have always said that LA has been good to me.

We found this 2009 news paper while we were doing service at the Sun Prairie Museum. As we were casually flipping through I spotted this and took full advantage of taking a picture. It has been the laugh of the week for the missionaries serving in the SP ward.