I busted my ankle. I'll just get to the point. We were playing basketball on Friday and during the game I jumped for the ball and on the way down I rolled my ankle and partially tore a tendon on my left ankle. There is a doctor in the Kenosha ward who inspected it and he told me that I will need to wear a brace for 3 months, but overall he said that it isn't all too bad. So, President and Sister Cutler rebuked me and asked all the parental questions and I had to assure them that I was going to be fine. Which I am!

Final Ceremonial Tie Burning

Ssshhhh -- might be a tie that my  mom sent me.

My last week: It just doesn't even feel like the end of a mission. It doesn't feel like two years. It doesn't feel like I'm going home. It feels like I'm just getting transferred to a new area to be honest. Church was amazing; it was very sad saying goodbye to the members of the Kenosha ward. Thank goodness for Facebook.

I have loved my mission and I have loved serving under President and Sister Cutler. I love the mighty U.P, I love Sun Prairie, I love Appleton, I love Oshkosh, and I love Kenosha. Yes it was hard, but opposition has only blessed me with a living and prospering testimony. I am grateful for the people who I have had the privilege of serving and teaching the restored Gospel to. I know that our Father in Heaven loves us all, and He sent His son Jesus Christ to atone for us. It is his gospel that we teach and live, and through it we may gain salvation.

See you soon.

Love,
Elder Luymes

What a wanna-be; never gonna beat In-N-Out!

Have Usain Bolt T-shirt, will travel.
Compliments of a Kenosha member.

We biked more than 150 miles this week! Now I know that if you compare that to a bike race or somebody who does 50 milers every other day then 150 miles is nothing. However, when you take into consideration that our goal is to teach lessons, and talk to people and that we have to stay within a specified area of Kenosha, biking over 150 miles is pretty dang impressive.

Looking for Usain Bolt at Lake Michigan.

So without further delay, Elder Norton and I will be releasing an Album named: Miles to Ride

We will be featuring many wonderful songs such as:
"Bicycle" by Queen
"Pioneer Children Sang as They Biked and Biked and Biked" by the Kenosha Ward Primary
"I Biked So Long and Got So Far, But in the End" by Linkin Park
"I Can't Bike" by Lil Wayne
"I Hope They Call Me on a Bike" by the missionaries of the Milwaukee South Stake and
"Misty Bike" by the Hobbits, from The Hobbit
We will continue working on our music video, and it will shortly be released at bicycle stores near you.

In truth, I'm having fun. Biking has gotten my legs in great shape and it expels any extra energy that I might have at the end of the day. I have also been sleeping really well. We had many amazing lessons this week. We met a woman who is a professional figure skater and even competed in the U.S Olympic trials before she had an injury. This same woman has also performed for Disney on ice and Snoopy on ice. I jumped for joy when I told her that I was from LA and that my family faithfully watches the Snoopy on ice show every Christmas Eve. Sure enough, she has been performing for the company for many, many years. So there is no doubt that my entire Luymes family and I have seen this investigator perform. It was super cool. Her boyfriend is also getting drafted to the LA Clippers in the next season or two. Who knew famous people could come from Wisconsin—of course The Great Houdini was born and raised in Appleton WI, and my apartment was only one block away from where he lived. Sweet!

The weather has been decent, but the bugs have been unrelenting. A couple of times the humidity was unbearable and so I'm sure I sweated out all the weight that I might have gained here in Kenosha. The last time I weighed myself I came in at 177 lbs. This is simply not good enough. My goal was to finish my mission 10 pounds heavier than I started my mission that would mean coming home weighting 180. Why can't I gain weight, while others can't lose it? Life just isn't fair.

That's all folks. See yah in some 10 days.

Love,

Yours truly, Elder Norton (S Jordan, UT), Elder Muir (Springfield, UT)
Elder Santos (Phoenix, AZ), Sis Ormsby (UT), Sis Askerlund (UT)

Elder Luymes

Colonial Klink, I found Hogan, but I know nothing of the heroes!

 

The Book of Mormon Musical in Milwaukee

 

For the past 2 weeks, missionaries in the Milwaukee zones have been contacting theater-goers attending The Book of Mormon musical, offering them the real Book of Mormon. They were able to give out a total of 1,861 copies!  The following article about our missionaries was published in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel on May 28^th .

 

Theater-goers headed into the Marcus Center for the Performing Arts this week don't quite know what to make of the Mormons doling out copies of the Book of Mormon outside "The Book of Mormon."

Some eagerly accept. Others look away and laugh. Some offer a curt "no thank you," and keep on moving.

"A lot of people think we're part of the cast," said Elder Ryan Haueter, 20, of Utah, whose soft, boyish face defies the honorific bestowed on missionaries in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

They are not, in fact, part of the cast. Haueter and his white-shirted friends are Mormon missionaries who see the uproariously blasphemous Tony Award-winning musical as an opportunity to spark discussions about their faith.

"I think the play is great," said 21-year-old Zac Hadlock of New Mexico, as he handed out books, and cards with the LDS mobile apps, outside the Marcus Center on Wednesday night. "Whether it's accurate or inaccurate, people have questions. And it's a great chance for us to tell them what they want to know about the church and about us."

The touring production of "Book of Mormon," by the folks who brought us "South Park" and "Avenue Q," winds up a two-week engagement at the Marcus Center this weekend.

The missionaries have given out so many books — 1,300 in the first week alone, Hadlock said — that they were offering mostly app cards by Wednesday.

None of the young men owned up to seeing the show. They live a Spartan existence as missionaries — no movies, no concerts, no news media — during what is usually a two-year stint.

Except for the few hours set aside for prayer, study and meals, they are out until 9 most nights, knocking on doors in a quest for converts to Joseph Smith's uniquely American faith.

But they know enough about the show from snippets they've seen or heard, and the questions on the minds of theater-goers — "So, what's up with those 'magic' underwear and 'eternal marriage?'" — to know it's an outrageous, often vulgar sendup of Mormon theology and the angst and struggles of earnest young believers like them.

They don't appear to take offense. Though some theater-goers clearly do on their behalf.

"We hear it every day, so it's nothing new to us," said Haueter. "It's American to make parodies of things. And it's from the creators of 'South Park.' So, what do you expect?"

 

The Parable of the White Shirts

1. There once were seven white shirts. Collard, buttoned down, and long sleeved.

2. These white shirts embarked on a journey together along with two short sleeved, buttoned down, collared shirts.
3. These faithful shirts labored with all diligence, obeying the master and worked in the vineyard of da U.P and Wisconsin.
4. Their countenance once shined as white but the adversary and his filth came upon the white shirts.
5. In the 17th month of their journey there was one white shirt that passed, and moved to the waste bucket.
6. And the others wept.
7. And in the 18th month, three more white shirts passed, and moved to the waste bucket.
8. And the remaining long sleeved, buttoned down, collard white shirts that remained made a pact.
9. Their testimonies burned bright as they continued to labor with all diligence, obeying the master in the vineyard.
10. In the 21st month of their journey, another passed, and moved to the waste bucket.
11. And the two that remained wept.
12. In the 23rd month, one long sleeved, buttoned down, collared shirt gave up the ghost, and it too was moved to the waste bucket.
13. And one long sleeved, buttoned down, collared shirt remained, and it felt lonely.
14. And the short sleeve shirts remain and they have no problems.
15. Amen.
(Just in case anyone is curious these were Jos A. Banks, wrinkle resistant, trim fit, Travelers shirts. Apparently they don't hold up to the wear and tear of missionary work but Ted loves them for the office - go figure.)

The lesson to be learned from this most fantastic parable is that one of my shirts ripped yesterday after church. I only have one more long sleeved shirt (that started the mission) I do have 5 shirts, because I had to buy some replacements in Oshkosh. This shirt is the lone survivor and the winner of the White Shirt Hunger Games. Who thinks my last shirt will survive two and a half weeks? Its current condition is in good standings, I would give it a 75% survival rating. What are your guesses?

The only way I can describe this week is as follows: biking! We biked to the north, to the south, to the west and to the east. We biked all over tarnation. When the sun shined, we biked more and when it rained we biked less, but still biked.

The Book of Mormon musical came to Milwaukee. The Elders and Sisters in the city area have been proselyting near the theater for two straight weeks. Attached is an article of the Elders and Sisters doing WORK at the theater. I was not a part of this because Kenosha is too far from Milwaukee. I did however proselyte at the theater in Appleton when the musical came to town. That was very fun.

Looking forward to a reunion with my puppy!

Thank you all so much,

Elder Luymes

 

You know it’s bad when your fellow missionaries are emailing you and calling you by your first name and asking if you’re "trunky"? Trunky is a word we use for a missionary whose mind is at home and not on the Lords work. Am I trunky? Only when I have to plan my return trip home such as how am I going to get all my stuff home and what am I going to do for the summer, and saying goodbye to people. Essentially I am only trunky when I get bombarded with the question by my fellow missionaries. To some I tell them to ask my companion, because he is the one who would know best if my mind is here or there.

Service project with E. Norton (L) and E. Brand (R). We helped a member
clean out storage lockers that she rents to students.

Our Memorial Day included some fantastic weather. It rained in the morning but then the skies opened up to some warm sun and the humidity. Riding the bikes was wonderful until.... Elder Norton's new bike broke. Two weeks ago we had the tire get punctured, but yesterday his entire peddle decided to fall off. Once again, we were stranded in the furthest possible area from our apartment and not a member for miles around to help us. We did a jimmy rig fix so that Elder Norton could get his bike to the closest member’s home, but they weren't home. So we chilled on their lawn chairs while we called a bunch of members until one was able to come and help us. Hurray for Bro. Boston!!! Elder Norton rode 300 meters and it broke again!!! Does this make us sound pathetic now? The car gets taken away, buss stations closed, bikes get stolen, and then bikes break twice, all sorts of transportation troubles. I'm not convinced that we will ever have a smooth week of transportation ever. Something has to go wrong!

This week is packed for us fortunately. Monday was Memorial Day so we had regular proselyting. Today is P-Day. In the evening we will be disk golfing with the Priests in the Ward - Fun! Tomorrow is my last Zone Conference. That will take up nearly all of our day, and then we have three appointments in the evening to fill up our entire Wednesday. Thursday we have a service project and our weekly planning session. This week will go by quick.

Pday Lunch!

That's about all I have. Scripture for the week: Jacob 4:12

 12 And now, beloved, marvel not that I tell you these things; for why not speak of the atonement of Christ, and attain to a perfect knowledge of him, as to attain to the knowledge of a resurrection and the world to come?

Thank you, love,

Elder Luymes

Every week I write down the topic of my emails as "weekly update" but often times I find myself laughing as I have an image of Colonial Klink from Hogan’s Heroes coming out of his office yelling to Sargent Schultz "Report! Report!" Can you imagine Colonial Klink yelling at me asking for my weekly report of my mission. I can kind of picture my mom thinking "where is it, where is the report?" She's anxious kind of  like Klink is to get the report. LOL it’s a funny thought. Hogan’s Heroes is a great show, I'll need to watch more when I get home.

We had a couple great surprises this week. It was nothing like the disaster and chaos like the week before. On Tuesday I went on exchanges with Elder Santos. He is an Elder that just got transferred to the Ward. He is from Phoenix Arizona and has been out on his mission for 14 months. On Wednesday we were biking to an appointment that we had out East by the lake. On the ride out there [Pause: I should mention that Elder Norton got a new bike on Monday from a member] continuing with Wednesday, we were biking to the appointment and Elder Santos was behind me about 20-30 feet and all of a sudden I hear him yell out "is my tire flat?" I slowed down and to our misfortune his tire was very low. We checked it out and pulled out a small piece of wood that was no longer than an inch long. This tiny piece of wood hit the jackpot. It penetrated all the way through the tire tread (mountain bike tires) and it penetrated the air tube and blew out his tire in a second. What a lucky piece of wood. We walked to the closest bike shop and fixed the tire, then continued biking to our appointment. It worked out well; we weren't thrown off the schedule too much. It made for a good laugh actually.

Kenosha is the home of Americas oldest operating Velodrome (bike racing on a track). It is in our area, and Elder Norton and I pass by it all the time. So we took a quick minute and raced around the track. It is so much fun.

On Friday Elder Norton and I had the privilege of going on exchanges with President Cutler. He texted us a few days before and asked if he could come out with us on Friday. How could we ever say no! President drove us around in his car (which was a nice day of rest for our legs); we had an amazing time together. We had two appointments while we were with him and we talked to three other people who we met. One guy we helped put a fridge into his car, then we struck up a conversation about religion. He had met with LDS Missionaries in the past but it had been a very long time. His views of the Bible were a bit skewed; he was convinced that the Bible taught more about King David than it did about Jesus Christ. You could tell that President Cutler was "rolling with the punches" with this guy. We gave him a Book of Mormon and he gave us his phone number. It is always great being with President Cutler, his knowledge and testimony are such a great inspiration. At the end of our exchange, President Cutler was answering one of Elder Norton’s questions and President made a joke about me going home. Ha! He is such a great guy!

I would estimate that we biked ~60-70 miles this week.

Scripture for the week: Alma 22:13

13 And Aaron did expound unto him the scriptures from the creation of Adam, laying the fall of man before him, and their carnal state and also the plan of redemption, which was prepared from the foundation of the world, through Christ, for all whosoever would believe on his name.

Thank you all, have a fantastic week!

Elder Luymes

Directions -- U.P. Style

This was a week to remember in the worst of ways. In the thick of it all it seemed as though the weight of Satan was going to squash Elder Norton and I. So much opposition, so much going against us it was ridiculous. By Sunday, so much had happened and we were clearly on the downward slope that all we could do was laugh and joke about it. It was a good week, a testimony week and one that I won’t forget for a very long time.

On Monday as you are aware of, we didn't really have a P-Day. Of the normal 8 hours that are given to us for emailing and shopping and sports, and all the other fun stuff. Instead we only had two hours to do all that. Monday morning got occupied with a service project that went twice as long as it was supposed to. Then we had a lunch appointment with the Sister missionaries and the Elders as well as a member. Then we had a lesson with one of our investigators. We only had one hour for emailing, followed by dinner and then 10 more minutes of emailing and then an appointment with another member. It was crazy and stressful.

Tuesday started out on the wrong foot. We got a call during studies from the vehicle coordinator for our mission. He was informing us that the mission was taking away our car (not because of the accident) but because the car was need elsewhere and we would now be full time walking, busing, and biking Elders. Our area is small enough where it is kind of manageable without a car, but this was the worst week in the world to get a call saying "you’re losing your car". We had three, four, or even five appointments back to back every day this week. Those appointments are all over town, some of them are 15 minute car rides, it would be impossible to try and bike that same distance in a time frame that would also allow you to have a solid lesson. We racked up the miles on Tuesday and drove to all the people that we knew would be hardest to visit once the car was gone.

Wednesday, the car went bye-bye. We had to turn it in to the body shop. When the car is finished I will need to sign the check on behalf of the church and then the car goes to the Kenosha Spanish Elders for good. From then on we walked. The senior couple did help us out though; they drove us to several appointment on Wednesday and Thursday. We didn't make all of our appointments however but it was a whole lot better than walking to them all. I am very grateful for the senior couple. Thursday was the best day of the week.

Friday, was supposed to be even better. But somebody decided to steal Elder Norton's bike. This left us with only walking. I didn't have the money yet to buy the bus passes so we walked all day Friday, missed a few appointments and just kind of was in a daze at how this week was falling apart. It was unreal!

Saturday, I finally got the money to buy a bus pass, we prepared for the day, hopeful as can be that this day was going to be the turnaround. And then... the bus station was closed. We can't buy bus passes, we can't ride the bus, and our entire day’s plans went down the drain. We just kept on walking, mile after mile. Eventually we did figure out a way to buy bus passes on Saturday but it still messed up the schedule a whole lot.

Sunday, nothing bad happened. A member has agreed to give us his bike; we got to Skype our family and see their smiling faces. We had a great dinner with a member family. Sunday was great. This new week should be a lot better. Hopefully less opposition, less drama with the car and bikes being stolen and bus stations being closed. It should be a good week. We hope!

Wall of Inspiration - Jesus Christ, Coach Green (aka You a Pony),
Adrienne (post wisdom teeth still on drugs).

Happy Mother’s Day, love you all,

Elder Luymes

May the Fourth be with you!

Hamming it up with Kenosha B team!

 

This P-Day is not even a P-Day. We got a text early in the morning asking for some emergency help to help somebody from the Racine area move. We volunteered and didn't know what we were getting our self into. 4 hours later and we still need to go back tomorrow to help move the final load. Then we show up an hour late to our lunch appointment with the Sisters and one of the members. Then we had a 3pm lesson, and now we have a 5pm dinner and we are literally just now getting to our first P-Day activity. Our day is shot. Essentially, we have a 2 hour P-Day.

Today starts the first day of my last transfer. Yeah, that is all I really feel like saying about that.

Spring has come, the weather this week was absolutely the best. We had sunshine all week, and the temp was in our favor. We walked a lot and biked around a lot. The tulips are blooming, and the dandelions look really beautiful with their golden yellow flowers that show up everywhere.

Tulips = Spring!

The work in Kenosha is still going strong. We have two baptismal dates. One, a boy, had his birthday this past Saturday so we went to Wall-Mart and bought him the Meet the Mormons movie. Elder Norton and I are still together this transfer. This helps a lot because we both have an understanding of the area, and we have a vision of what needs to be done.

Thank you, I'll email longer next week, today we have essentially no P-Day so this email is short. Love,

Elder Luymes

Sweet ride, nice grill. We found this along the way.

 

We found another cell phone! No joke, we really did. Although this one was not smart and it had no minutes left on it so we couldn't call the people on the contacts list in an effort to return the phone to the owner. This phone was also different, I'm not sure if I would want to return it to its owner because we’re pretty sure that whoever the owner was, he was drug dealing with the locals. There were some really suspicious texts on that phone. I'm glad we eventually got rid of it. In other news...we got in a car crash this week.

I'll explain the car crash. It was a long and cloudy day. Elder Norton and I had been riding our bikes all day because we were so severally low on miles. After biking all day and getting caught in the rain while riding our bikes home we finally climbed in the car and headed off to our dinner appointment. The dinner appointment was pretty far away so I told Elder Norton to put in a CD, get comfortable and let’s enjoy the ride. We pulled out of the parking lot to our complex and headed south on 39th Ave. After a street light I saw a kid trying to cross the street. Since it was raining I decided to be nice and slow down to let him cross. I did slow down and eventually came to a complete stop. BAM!!! My head nearly hit the steering wheel and we are so fortunate that the air bags did not go off. A woman in a Ford F-150 hit us from behind. She too was slowing down to let the kid cross the street but with the slippery conditions she was unable to slow down in time and unfortunately hit us. We were stuck on 39th which is one of the main roads in Kenosha. We approached the woman to see if she was okay and she was! Then we moved the cars off the main road and onto a side road. I'm skipping the boring part of taking pictures and calling the cops and filling out the church paperwork with all the insurance info and stuff. We ended up having to cancel dinner and we were at the scene for over an hour in the rain. The bumper to the car doesn't look that bad surprisingly. It has a few cracks but nothing obvious. The trunk lid got shifted out of position by about half an inch. That night we checked the inside of the trunk to see if it still opened (which it does) inside the trunk is where the serious problem is. You can see that the metal frame behind the bumper is bent and the framework surrounding the trunk doesn't look in good shape. For my third time now I have to file a big report on the church website. This report did lead to a very cool miracle though. We ended up doing the report at a less active family's home. They fed us dinner and we got to meet the mother who I had not met before. So some good has come from this accident. It is still a hassle though. We are both feeling fine. Our necks were a little stiff the night of the crash but were feeling youthful and fine now.

Another fender bender -- #3. Glad we're safe.

With regards to the work; we set two baptismal dates this week. The first is with a 12 year old who turns 13 on May 2nd. His baptismal date is set for May 9th. He is part of a part member family. This kid is awesome; he is fluent in Spanish and has translated hundreds of pages from the English KJV Old Testament into Spanish. This kid is so smart, and he deserves the very best in life. He comes to church every week with his mom who was converted and baptized almost two years ago. The dad is going to be able to baptize him and it is so exciting for this family. The other baptismal date is a 20 year old who is married to a member. They have a kid together and another on the way. I tease him all the time that he is younger than me. He has been meeting with the missionaries for almost 10 years now but has somehow never gotten baptized. We have plans however to change that. We bought a poster today that we are going to write his baptismal date on and tape it above the family TV. This will remind him and the whole family (he lives with his in-laws) that he needs to be working on getting baptized. The work is fun, and bikes are great now that it’s warmer!

Yay! Spring.

Scripture for the week: Moroni 7:32

32 And by so doing, the Lord God prepareth the way that the residue of men may have faith in Christ, that the Holy Ghost may have place in their hearts, according to the power thereof; and after this manner bringeth to pass the Father, the covenants which he hath made unto the children of men.

Thanks for your prayers, transfers are next week, but I'm not going anywhere, teeheee. J

Elder Luymes

All Mission Picture from March.
I'm on the back row, just left of center by 3.
You can see my eyebrows.

It all started in a bar, the drinkers were giving us the funniest look and there were three people at the slots in the corner near the door. As I approached the bar itself and waited for the bar tender to come I leaned over to Elder Norton and informed him that he wasn't 21 and therefor was illegally inside the building. So the week didn't start inside a bar but we did go into a bar on Friday. Elder Norton and I were out tracting and we found a Samsung smart phone in the grass. We picked it up, turned it on and were shocked and disappointed that there were only four contacts saved in the phone. We took the phone home and during our lunch break we started going through it till we found a contact that seemed to be a close relative of the owner. Sure enough it was the sister, and they asked us to drop the phone off at a bar. I'll admit this wasn't the first time I had been in a bar on my mission; it might be the last though. We gave the phone to the owner and they tried to pay us but we both refused and then turned away and walked out the door. Smooth move for the Elders, we were teasing each other that we should download the LDS Gospel Library App onto the phone. That was Friday.

The rest of the week was amazing. We had so much success and we finally are starting to see the results that we had been hoping for; slowly but surely is the Lords way. We had our two top investigators come to church on Sunday. We tracted a street that yielded a perfect 100% on Saturday. We taught a lesson to every single resident on the street, set up a few return appointments and gave every home a Book of Mormon. I have never seen so much success on a single street. The street was short too, maybe 10 homes. If nobody was home then 10 homes would take us 10 minutes at most. But this short street filled two hours.

On Sunday as the Aaronic priesthood was passing the sacrament a thought came to my mind. A very simple thought, as simple as this: The Savior knows... The Savior knows all things. He knows why we are worried or scared or excited. He knows what we are worrying about or what we are excited about. He knows our thoughts, and He know when were sad. He knows our weakness and our mistakes, and he knows our strengths and our skills. He knows our prayers and our hopes. He is so perfectly aware of us and our surroundings. I guess what I got out of this is that since he knows perfectly, he can give perfectly too. Of course he won’t give that which is not beneficial to our spiritual progression. And he knows so much better than us that sometimes things are or are not given but we don't know why. Life really is in his hands.

Thank you for your prayers. Have an excellent week, good luck on finals!!!

Elder Luymes

The weekly Update from Kenosha B Inc.

President: Elder Luymes sc
Secretary: Elder Norton jc

This week at Kenosha B Inc we outdid ourselves. However none of the glory goes to us because this week was for certain in the hands of God. We had a very humbling experience this week. A week where we both learned that even though what we thought we were doing was right (and it was to a certain degree) We just were not doing it all the way with the Lord by our side. We were stepping out of line. The week started out very normal. Normal as in: nobody was home, we were maybe teaching one or two lessons a day, and our plans were mainly tracting because nobody was home. However on Thursday we had our weekly planning session. Elder Norton and I discussed back and forth the many struggles we were having for our area. We talked about what was frustrating us, what wasn't happening that should. As we talked I could feel the direction of our conversation move more and more to the realm of "We don't know what to do, and we don't know what God wants us to do." We did, after an hour or so of talking finally admit that we had no direction for our area. Elder Norton suggested that we pray about it, which we did, and my experience during this prayer was that of peace. I felt reassured that God was well aware of the lack of progression that we were having/seeing. I felt comforted to know that God was very aware of our frustrations and struggles, He was aware of my many prayers both specific and general for the people and families that we are working with. From this prayer Elder Norton and I came up with some specific goals, and got some major organization projects completed. Then the whole atmosphere of the work changed. We went from one maybe two lessons a day to four. We went from seeing nobody that we had hoped to, too seeing every person on the list in three days’ time. We had an investigator at church, taught two member present lessons Sunday night, and 21 "other lessons" by the end of the week (we average 10 a week). Humbling? Absolutely! This was a great learning and growing experience to show that we absolutely need God in this work and life in general. We accomplished two weeks’ worth of work in three days.

I got my flight information on Saturday. I'm flying home with another Elder, a Hmong Elder. I kind of know him. It will be fun to have someone to talk with during the whole flight time. He'll help me keep my mind of the weird thought of "I'm going home, now what do I do"! 

Scripture for the week: Ether 8:26

 26 Wherefore, I, Moroni, am commanded to write these things that evil may be done away, and that the time may come that Satan may have no power upon the hearts of the children of men, but that they may be persuaded to do good continually, that they may come unto the fountain of all righteousness and be saved.

Thank you, have an awesome week! Love,

Elder Luymes

Oh snap, what a fantastic week! General Conference was great! The work is going, slow like the hour hand on a clock but still moving forward. On the drive to the Library today we were listening to one of my BYU Men’s choir CD's. The song had the lyrics "I feel the work reviving!" This captured my attention and my thoughts immediately went to the question that the Zone Leaders asked us last night during weekly follow up calls. Their question was: How are you and your companion going to keep the momentum now that we have had a new transfer, an all mission gathering with a visiting general authority, and now general conference? What a great question, Elder Norton and I have had little time to counsel together yet on an unified answer, but my answer would probably be: to feel and listen to the spirit of revival. We have to believe that the work is not only being hastened, but that for our area specifically there is also a revival of spiritual energy and interest in the Restored Gospel. Faith, Hope, and diligent work will make the work go forward, but by the will and power of God we know that the work will truly become hastened and revived.

Happy Easter -- by the way. Having General Conference on Easter Sunday was a real treat. The members took great care of us on Sunday. We enjoyed both sessions on Sunday at two different member’s homes. We were fed excellent meals, and we were able to have a great memorable time with them. I (and the rest of the missionaries in the Kenosha and Racine areas) was totally caught off guard by the amount of emphasis on eternal marriage and having an eternal family. It seemed as though we were being bombarded with an eternal marriage ray gun on Saturday. That was all they talked about. Of the 12 missionaries serving in the above mentioned cities, 10 of them go home this year. One of my favorite quotes from conference was from Elder Joseph Sitati of the quorum of the 70; he spoke second to last during the Sunday afternoon session. I loosely quote him, he said "set goals appropriate to who you can become" I really liked this because President Cutler has asked that I start thinking about goals for when I return home that are specific to my first full year home from my mission. This insight from Elder Sitati gives me some relevant direction as I ponder over what my goals might be.

Aunt Joanell, Uncle Mike, cousin Krista Rawlins made a side
trip from Chicago to visit me in Kenosha. HUGE surprise!!!

I had some really amazing family experiences this week. One of which was so shocking that it took me forever to write it down in my journal. It was Monday night and Elder Norton and I had just finished our nightly planning. The buzzer to the door rang and for a moment I thought we were going to have another experience like the one I had described last week with the crazy guy buzzing us on Friday morning. I cautiously buzzed back a hello, and listened as the voice specifically asked for me. My reply to that was that we would be down in a moment. I grabbed the essentials and put them in my pockets, then we walked down stairs and I had the biggest surprise of my whole mission. There before me were my Aunt, Uncle and cousin from Sacramento California. What on earth were they doing at my apartment! I burst through the door and gave each of them a big hug. They explained why they were in Kenosha, and they figured they would give my apartment a try and see what happens. We talked about the Luymes family and what the area is like; it was so great to see them -- I love my family, both Hyer and Luymes. They are the bestest! On Wednesday Elder Norton and I were coming from an appointment when we started driving by a cemetery. I asked him if he could tell what cemetery it was. We saw that it was Green Ridge and I quickly pulled off the main road and found the entrance to the cemetery. We spoke with the guy in the office who politely showed me to the location and burial of my Great Great Grandfather and Grandmother. Theodore and Cornelia Luymes, they are my relatives that moved from the Netherlands in between the two world wars and settled in Kenosha where they raised their family and eventually my grandfather was born in Kenosha before the Luymes family moved to sunny Southern California. Good move if you ask me. It was a beautiful sunny day in Kenosha so I was able to get some great pictures.

Gravesides of my great-great grandparents who immigrated
from Holland to Kenosha. My grandfather would later be born here.

Even though he didn't know about the Gospel of Jesus Christ
I'm sure Papa Theodore is proud of me now. There is a
good feeling here at this place.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 33:10-12
 10 And now, my beloved brethren, and also Jew, and all ye ends of the earth, hearken unto these words and believe in Christ; and if ye believe not in these words believe in Christ. And if ye shall believe in Christ ye will believe in these words, for they are the words of Christ, and he hath given them unto me; and they teach all men that they should do good.
 11 And if they are not the words of Christ, judge ye—for Christ will show unto you, with power and great glory, that they are his words, at the last day; and you and I shall stand face to face before his bar; and ye shall know that I have been commanded of him to write these things, notwithstanding my weakness.
 12 And I pray the Father in the name of Christ that many of us, if not all, may be saved in his kingdom at that great and last day.

It was a great week, and I do look forward to this week and the many unexpected adventures that it will hold. Thank you for your prayers and love, love,

Elder Luymes

We got a surprise text message from our cousin Krista Rawlins last night that was fun to get. The Rawlins family was in Chicago visiting the new baby grandson/nephew, Kaje.  They realized it was only an hour to drive to Kenosha and hoped to find Andrew. SUCCESS!!!!
He was super happy to see them and the gas station cookies and sweet rolls that they brought.  How cool is that!!!!!

Transfers came and went really fast. I had no more than 20 minutes to say hi to people at the Milwaukee transfer point, and also say goodbye to some of the missionaries that were heading home (one of which was my trainer, another was a former companion, and a third was a missionary that had been in my district way back in the beginning of my mission who I have become close friends with.) It was really sad to see my trainer leave; I can't believe that he and I served together over 21 months ago. It has been so much fun seeing him every once and a while and be able to catch up on some good old U.P stories. Thank goodness for Facebook and being able to reconnect with mission friends and members that I meet and serve with here in Wisconsin/Michigan. Then they kicked me out of the building and said go back to Kenosha, transfers was fast.

So long to my trainer, Elder Thompson, who returned home.

My new companion is Elder Norton from South Jordan Utah. He has been on his mission for a little over 18 months. He came out with Elder Baird (who I trained). Elder Norton is a 2013 High School graduate; he did one year of football and three years of marching band. He has not done any college but he plans on attending LDS Business College after his mission ends in September of this year. Elder Norton is the second oldest in his family of four siblings. His older brother returned from a mission in Missouri just a few months after Elder Norton started his mission. Elder Norton and I have served around or with some of the same people. I know, or have served with most of his companions. It sounds really odd to say, but Elder Norton will probably be my last companion. Unless President Cutler pulls some big stunt, both Elder Norton and I will both finish our missions here in the Kenosha B area. (I already know I'm finishing here in Kenosha, the question is whether or not we will serve together two transfers, but President seemed to imply that we will.)

We had interviews with President Cutler on Friday. He is such a wonderful man. He can also be really funny when he isn't trying to be. During the opening prayer to our interviews President made mention "to bless Elder Luymes' future family". This caught me way off guard. He exerts so much effort into helping missionaries stay focused on their missions and not about home, yet he is the one making mention of home and post mission stuff. Later in the interview President said to me "Elder Luymes, I am so excited for you to start having kids." AARRGGGHH! President Cutler, why? In truth, he is such a great Mission President, an inspired leader, and a fantastic example. Eternal Life is Family Life.

Elder Norton and I had a once in a mission life experience. It was Friday morning, early Friday morning. The alarm went off at 6:30am and like a good boy I climbed out of bed, and knelt down to say my morning prayers at exactly 6:30am. Obviously I'm still tired and I'm pretty sure humans don't think clearly when they wake up that early, but just as I'm bowing my head to pray, the door buzzer rings. I was ticked off as I thought it was the other Kenosha Elders buzzing us so that we would hurry up and come down for morning exercise. I thought to myself, “how dare they buzz us this early in the morning”, they know we will come down as soon as were ready to play basketball. Buzzing us right as the alarm goes off, that's just wrong! It buzzed again, and Elder Norton climbed out of bed and answered it. A voice came through the intercom and it was not the Elders. Some guy was panting and telling us he was lost, he was cold, he needs our cell phone to call for help, he asked us to call 911, etc. Is this a joke, or was he being serious? We couldn't tell. I listened (still on my knees) while Elder Norton talked to the guy over the intercom system. Finally I got up and put on my sweats. We went down stairs and sure enough there was a man who showed the outward signs of distress and being cold. We approached him cautiously and begun talking with him. This guy was maybe 26 and was born and raised his entire life in Kenosha, yet he had no idea where he was. He explained his story to us about how he had been up all night drinking with his girlfriend, then he insulted her and she dropped him off at the side of the road and left him with no cell phone. He told us that he had been walking for over an hour and was lost, and wanted us to call 911. Clearly the alcohol was messing with his brain (we later got his address and we discovered that he was only a mile away from home.) The other Elders showed up at the door and we continued to talk with this guy to calm him down. We called his brother who eventually picked up and came to the rescue. This guy asked us if we could come over to his house and begin teaching him the missionary lessons, and we also found out that he is the son of a less active. A pretty crazy way to start off the morning, the story continued on Saturday when we actually met him at the house and we taught him and his friend, and brother the Restoration. Sweet!

Scripture for the week: Mormon 9:11-13

11 But behold, I will show unto you a God of miracles, even the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob; and it is that same God who created the heavens and the earth, and all things that in them are.

 12 Behold, he created Adam, and by Adam came the fall of man. And because of the fall of man came Jesus Christ, even the Father and the Son; and because of Jesus Christ came the redemption of man.

 13 And because of the redemption of man, which came by Jesus Christ, they are brought back into the presence of the Lord; yea, this is wherein all men are redeemed, because the death of Christ bringeth to pass the resurrection, which bringeth to pass a redemption from an endless sleep, from which sleep all men shall be awakened by the power of God when the trump shall sound; and they shall come forth, both small and great, and all shall stand before his bar, being redeemed and loosed from this eternal band of death, which death is a temporal death.

Thank you all so much!

Elder Luymes

Of my many talents, taking hot pans out of the oven is not one of them.