Elder Pounds and I had another great week. The weather was on the colder side but that's okay. It was still 100 degrees warmer than what it was at the coldest point in the winter. Hurray, thank you Wisconsin! We didn't have anything exciting happen like last week with lightening, or lawn mowing <winky face>, but we did have some good old fashioned Missionary moments.

Last Monday after the lightning strike, and email time, we were out on the street walking to a potential investigator’s home. A woman pulls up in front of us and yells out the window "Are you Jesus people who talk about God and stuff?" We told her we were people of the sorts as she had just described. Then she replied "Oh cool, I love talking about God, why don't you meet me at my house and we can talk." She lived a block away so we followed her car on foot to her house. When we got to the house we met the woman's twin sister. They introduced themselves and then we proceeded to talk and we answered their many questions about God. At first they seemed synchronized in the way they talk and think. I thought for a moment that they were JW's who were trying to throw a fast one on us. But as the conversation unfolded and they told us more about their spiritual history is was obvious that they were not JW. They never once said Jehovah God!!! We exchanged information, gave them a Book of Mormon and a Restoration pamphlet and then prayed. Those are some very rare moments when people come up to us like that; it was only the third time and I wish it happened more often.

On Saturday, we were helping out a member replace sections of his wooden fence. We had worked with them the Saturday before but ran out of time to finish the work. So bright and early Saturday morning we headed out to dig holes, and place the wooden beams into the ground. It was a lot of work in the sun, trying to make the beams level, and flush with the rest of the fence. Some of the beams we had to re-dig because they were either too close or too far from the other post and so the fence section wouldn't be able to fit properly. Long story short, it was a lot of work. Just as we were finishing up, putting away the tools and stuff, we received a distress call from a family that is returning to activity. Elder Ferney and I had been working with them closely and now Elder Pounds and I are continuing to work closely with the family to help them keep coming to church, and to help the husband quit smoking. The mother called us and she was in tears, it seemed bad. We raced back to DeForest (the fence re building was in Sun Prairie) and arrived at the members house. There was a lot of crying, yelling, anger, frustration, and confusion. Elder Pounds and I (only 19 and 20 years old) have never known what it’s like to be 60 and financially upside down. We spent a lot of time listening, and then as time ticked away we began to calm the emotions, open up the scriptures, and help them gather themselves - physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. We spent two hours at their house and by the time we left they were back to working order and feeling 10,000 times better than how we found them. The reason why I'm sharing this is because missionary work is so much more than just finding, teaching, and baptizing. Bringing others unto Christ can take place in many forms, often they are outside of baptism. What a remarkable blessing to have the gospel of Jesus Christ in our lives. What a great and tremendous blessing to have a knowledge and an understanding of the atonement, that all wrong can be made right, that all sorrow, suffering of every kind can be comforted through the grace and love of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I know that He lives, and I know that He knows each and every one of us and our struggles and day to day activities. Un-measurable comfort and joy can be found in the restored gospel.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 28:1-3

 1 Now it came to pass that after the sons of Mosiah had done all these things, they took a small number with them and returned to their father, the king, and desired of him that he would grant unto them that they might, with these whom they had selected, go up to the land of Nephi that they might preach the things which they had heard, and that they might impart the word of God to their brethren, the Lamanites—

 2 That perhaps they might bring them to the knowledge of the Lord their God, and convince them of the iniquity of their fathers; and that perhaps they might cure them of their hatred towards the Nephites, that they might also be brought to rejoice in the Lord their God, that they might become friendly to one another, and that there should be no more contentions in all the land which the Lord their God had given them.

 3 Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish; yea, even the very thoughts that any soul should endure endless torment did cause them to quake and tremble.

Love,

Elder Luymes