Happy New Year! It has been a really fantastic start to the new year but also a very sad one. The missionary work went fantastic this week despite all of the parties, football games, and other typical new year stuff, we taught a lot of lessons, we met some new people, and we met almost all of our goals or fell short by only one or two (typically we fall short by a lot) So we were very busy, and I was very happy to see us go place to place and hoping not too tract and we ended up in a lot of homes. On the flip side, the sad start to the new year is that our recent convert had a 27 year old daughter pass away Thursday morning. This was her second daughter to die and also her last biological child. Then Friday afternoon one of our members who helps us out a lot with the missionary work had a stroke on the left side of his face and was hospitalized. We visited him Saturday morning and he wasn't in the mood for visitors. I am very grateful that we were welcomed into the homes of many people and they allowed us to warm up. We have appointments every night this week!!!

New Year’s isn't a holiday in the missionary world. We still wake up at 6:30am and we come home at 9pm and were off to bed at 10:30. We still tract, we still visit investigators, and we still get rejected at the door in both nice and rude ways. The week was solid though, on Tuesday we got a call from a nonmember that likes attending our church services and he asked for a blessing. We joyfully accepted because this meant that he had to give us his address (which he had denied giving us on two previous occasions) That was a very sweet experience and we were also able to sit and talk about him and his interest in coming to church and why he had not made the decision to be baptized yet. Later on Tuesday we taught our 10 year old baptismal date. A___ is doing alright, he understands the lesson material well thanks to a lot or repetition. He isn't reading the Book of Mormon yet and the part member family is struggling at coming to church. Our goal is to get him baptized on Sunday February 8th.

Our new year’s eve was pretty simple. We gave a blessing to a Sister missionary here in Oshkosh and also talked to some of the missionaries at transfer point (I got to say hi to my trainer and a few other missionaries that I probably will not see again because they go home in the coming transfer or two). Then we played a few rounds of UNO with a returning less active and also taught a short lesson to his medical staff. In the evening we enjoyed a great dinner with the Orr family. They are great members of the Oshkosh Ward, they have three kids, and we celebrated New Year’s Eve with them until it was time to go home.

Bowling for Buzzards!

Friday and Saturday were more miracles and great lessons with those whom we were able to catch and sit down with. Today, we played two games of bowling with the Sister Missionaries. I scored a 108 on the first game and a 116 on the second game. 

Scripture for the week: Helaman 8:23, focus on the redeemed part.

 23 And behold, he is God, and he is with them, and he did manifest himself unto them, that they were redeemed by him; and they gave unto him glory, because of that which is to come.

Thank you all so very much, this is going to be a very cold week in Oshkosh. Love,

Elder Luymes