Well hello again, fancy writing you on a bright and beautiful Monday. It seems like only Tuesday that I last wrote you, but perhaps that's because it was last Tuesday that I wrote you, and I sent home many pictures. This week was amazing, terrific, fantastic, exciting, and everything good all rolled up into one. I am also being transferred on Wednesday June 4th. I will be moving to the Appleton first Ward. I'll write about that later, but now on why the week was so good.

Who can pass up a giant puddle?
After a rain storm we had a giant P-day Puddle Party.

We started our week off with exchanges with the Zone Leaders. Elder Gibbs and I were here in DeForest and Elder Pounds and Elder Thompson were in the Madison Second Ward area. Elder Gibbs and I started things off with a bang and it all just continued throughout the week. Elder Gibbs and I had some amazing lessons with a few investigators and while we were tracting we found two new families that we will be starting to teach. When we exchanged back on Thursday the miracles didn't stop. Elder Pounds and I continued to have amazing success in our teaching and finding. We dedicated our whole Friday to visiting an investigator and all the less-actives who live in the farther regions of our area. We visited Poynette, Wyocena, Rio and everything in between (farm land and forest) and we were blessed with the opportunity to meet with some of the less actives that had had zero contact with the church for years. It’s hard to meet with these people regularly because of our monthly limited miles and the lack of availability of the members to help us with the all-day excursions but we were able to meet with some of the less actives twice this month. On Saturday we helped out two member families in their spring projects. One project was organized by the Ward due to the family’s needs. We built them a hand rail to a door that they never ever use. I helped dig the holes, helped in the measuring and cutting and we got it all together. We were at this member’s house from 8am to about 1:30pm. The railing looks really nice and the Bishop was well pleased with how it turned out. We raced on over to the second members home and they fed us lunch. At 2:30 we were outside digging and digging and digging some more. They wanted to build a garden 20ftx20ft. And 16 inches deep so that the rocks and other debris could be removed. It was hard work from 2:30 to 5:30 just digging deep; using the pickax was really fun and helped out a ton to break up the compacted dirt. In the time that we were there we had dug up a pile of dirt that was half my height and 15ft wide. The total area where we had actually reached the 16inch mark was maybe 5ftx4ft. There is a lot more to do. By the end of the day we were extremely exhausted and dirty. They fed us spaghetti :) Sunday was a good day too; I bore my testimony and thanked the ward for all that they had done for me.



Dinner out with a member family at a Mexican restaurant.
Their 19 year old on orders a Burrito Grande and it came on a
cookie sheet.  Too bad I didn't order one for myself.

The transfer text came Saturday morning while we were at the first house building the hand rail. I am being transferred to the Appleton First Ward. I will be serving with an Elder Allen. I don't know him well but what I do know about him is that he came out into the field with Elder Pounds, so he has just finished being trained. I also know that Elder Allen played football in high school. That's about it. The Appleton area is about an hour west of Green Bay and maybe 2 hours north of Sun Prairie. Appleton is the fourth largest "city" in the state of Wisconsin so there will be a lot more people than what I am used to. I say that because Manistique, MI had a summer time population of maybe 5,000 people. DeForest, WI has a population of about 10,000 people. So now I will be in an area that has several thousands of people. I don't know anything about the Ward so I will have much to say next week about the Ward, the area, and my new companion. As for DeForest, the area is in good hands, my trainer - Elder Thompson will be coming here and Elder Pounds will stay here. It’s a multi-generation area with Grandpa and Grandson (missionary families) working together. I have full faith and confidence that these fine Elders will take great care of this area. The members will love them, and the investigators will progress well with them also. I'm ready and excited to serve the people of Appleton. Let us share the gospel with renewed energy and determination to find the Lord's hand and seek after the miracles. And let’s not even think about or talk about my upcoming year mark, I love my mission and I wish to serve with all my heart and passion.

Scripture/video for the week: https://www.lds.org/scriptures/heritage?lang=eng

The video is about 19 minutes long but please make the time and make the effort to watch the video. I know it’s easy to ignore it "just this one time" but please do watch it. The spirit can be felt and it made me have a much renewed passion to read the scriptures with great intensity and with a much greater purpose. Thanks <3

Thank you for your prayers, thank you for your love, and thank you for everything that you do. The Lord loves you for it.

Gospels true!

Elder Luymes

"M" the 9 year old we baptized last month.  He's kind of goofy.

Our most excellent Sun Prairie District.