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.