Do you want to know what is
depressing? When your P-Day starts and you log onto your missionary email and
see that most of your emails are about college and not about the Lord's work.
What a sad day, I still have 5 months left. We hit -30 on Wednesday, and the
wind was brutal, freezing my nose hairs. We still had to tract though. We had
exhausted all of our other plans and were left with knocking doors for 1 1/2
hours during the day time. On Tuesday night Elder Merrill was teasing me that
we should man up and go tracting at night when the temperatures really drop. I
got a good laugh out of it because when Tuesday night actually came Elder
Merrill was the one to shout out first "I'm not tracting!" I admire
his greenie fire but sometimes neither of us want to knock on doors at late
hours and freeze our B-hinds. It was a fun week, and we did have appointments
and several service projects that kept us out of the wind and cold.
On Tuesday we had a Zone Training Meeting
here in Oshkosh. What a short drive for us. The meeting was very good and
focused on developing Christ-like attributes, as well as using the Book of
Mormon better with our investigators. After the meeting we enjoyed a nice
buffet at Golden Coral with some of the Elders in the Zone. Can you picture 20
Elders at a buffet? Can you picture the mountain of plates that we used? Can
you picture how much food we ate? What a wonderful lunch, our bellies were full
and we got a couple good laughs. I had a customer approach me at the restaurant
asking who we were and what sort of business we were involved with (we all had
suits on) I got to explain to him that we were Mormon Missionaries and that we
are all from different states or countries and how we are sent her to teach the
Gospel of Jesus Christ. I answered a few of his questions and offered him a
Book of Mormon which he declined. When I regrouped with the Elders they asked
if I had extended a baptismal invitation, it was a disappointing no.
 |
| 20 elders Chillin' like Villains and going all out on the buffet |
The rest of the week was pretty
typical; teaching lessons to our investigators or less actives. Tracting and
teaching lessons to people that we had only met just moments earlier. We did
our regular service at the Oshkosh Humane Society - playing with the cats,
serving at EAA our local Experimental Aircraft Association, and The Salvation
Army lunch line. On Saturday we helped a ward family move to a new home. It
wasn't too cold for that so everybody was in good spirits and happy that we had
no major road bumps to prolong the move. We met a Hmong family on Saturday and
we taught the father the entire Plan of Salvation. We don't typically teach
Hmong people because some don't speak any English. But this nice Hmong man
speaks great English and also loves soccer. We are keeping him as our
investigator because the Hmong missionaries live in Appleton and they don't
have the miles to come down to Oshkosh and teach him. The Hmong culture is very
different from anything I'm used to. Many Hmong people practice what they call "old
culture" which has a creation story, and an Adam and Eve equivalent;
however they have no God and no higher power. Old Culture is a form of
ancestral worship. The best part about Old Culture is that when a person dies,
Hmong funerals can last up to six months, and they burn real money that has
been origami-ed into boats. They believe that the money is used in the spirit
world as a form of wealth and status by the deceased spirits, but they don't
spend the money in the spirit world. Gotta love the foreign cultures that you
can find in America.
The Packers won yesterday! Most
people are too drunk to remember that here. And the Oregon Ducks will win
today! J
Article for the week: An hour to
watch with Him, Ensign January, 2015
Thank you, have a fantastic week!
Elder Luymes
 |
| Drinking mild from a Chocolate Santa. Not quite chocolate milk but still pretty tasty. |
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