March 17, 2014

Warmer weather, a new missionary, great missionary work, funny stuff, and a great church service on Sunday. This was an awesome week. The weather is getting more comfortable and more favorable for street contacting and less winter clothing. We may even get into the 50's this week, if that's so and the sun is out, then I'm tracting with a short sleeve shirt.

My new companion is Elder Pounds. He is from Simi Valley California (he doesn't know the White family), and at age 15 he moved to Gilbert Arizona (he doesn't know the Toone family). Elder Pounds is my first non- Utah companion so this does change our dynamic and our companionship a little bit (in a good way). He is 19 years old and graduated in 2013. He didn't go to college but does plan on attending ASU; he worked at a deli market for a time to save up for a mission. Elder Pounds is a self-described "nerd to the word", he loves computers, and video games, and he is also a band geek. But that doesn't mean much. He is funny, energetic about the work, and ready for a great mission experience. Once he learns the natural flow of the mission work he will begin to make great strides in the work that is already making drastic improvements in DeForest. It's so exciting, and the members really stepped up their game this week and helped us fill up our appointments with member presents appointments. If all goes as planned, we will have more member present lessons this week than I have on any other week of my whole mission (I think). So far, training has gone well and the district is also doing well too. Happy days!!!



My new companion, Elder Pounds arrives from Gilbert, AZ & Simi Valley CA.

The funny stories: Elder Pounds is about 80% color blind. He can only see bright colors, but everything else is just a shade of grey. And for those who know me, I'm not the best at colors; I often say that I’m color lazy, which was "diagnosed" by a doctor. So, Elder Pounds and I were out tracting on Saturday and approached a door. I asked him what color the door was and he replied "blue?” I told him that I thought it was green. So essentially we are screwed if anybody asks us a color based question because we both know that we are going to get it wrong. During the same tracting adventure, we came across and Indian family who was in the process of cooking for a party. Indian food is good and smells really strong. So when Elder Pounds and I were on the far corner of the street that the Indian family lived on, we could still smell the food and began laughing for no reason other than we could smell the food. Then we saw a dead bunny that had been covered by the snow all winter, we joked that it was only sleeping, poor bunny.

A bit gross - but poor dead, frozen bunny.

Church was so great. The Sacrament talks were on developing Faith, and why we need to develop faith, the actions of how to develop faith, and the outcome of having stronger faith. It was a great sacrament meeting. Than for Gospel essentials, we watched some Bible videos on the life of Christ, it was a little different from a typical lesson, but amazing regardless. And for Elder Quorum we talked more about Faith, and how we can be an example of faith in our homes. It was a really inspiring Sunday, and we also got fed homemade pizza at a members home :)

Holy cupcake Batman! I've been here for 9 months already!!!!

Scripture for the week: Moroni 7:12-19

12 Wherefore, all things which are good cometh of God; and that which is evil cometh of the devil; for the devil is an enemy unto God, and fighteth against him continually, and inviteth and enticeth to sin, and to do that which is evil continually.

 13 But behold, that which is of God inviteth and enticeth to do good continually; wherefore, every thing which inviteth and enticeth to do good, and to love God, and to serve him, is inspired of God.

 14 Wherefore, take heed, my beloved brethren, that ye do not judge that which is evil to be of God, or that which is good and of God to be of the devil.

 15 For behold, my brethren, it is given unto you to judge, that ye may know good from evil; and the way to judge is as plain, that ye may know with a perfect knowledge, as the daylight is from the dark night.

 16 For behold, the Spirit of Christ is given to every man, that he may know good from evil; wherefore, I show unto you the way to judge; for every thing which inviteth to do good, and to persuade to believe in Christ, is sent forth by the power and gift of Christ; wherefore ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of God.

 17 But whatsoever thing persuadeth men to do evil, and believe not in Christ, and deny him, and serve not God, then ye may know with a perfect knowledge it is of the devil; for after this manner doth the devil work, for he persuadeth no man to do good, no, not one; neither do his angels; neither do they who subject themselves unto him.

 18 And now, my brethren, seeing that ye know the light by which ye may judge, which light is the light of Christ, see that ye do not judge wrongfully; for with that same judgment which ye judge ye shall also be judged.

 19 Wherefore, I beseech of you, brethren, that ye should search diligently in the Light of Christ that ye may know good from evil; and if ye will lay hold upon every good thing, and condemn it not, ye certainly will be a child of Christ.

Thank you all, have a fantastic week!!!

Elder Luymes

March 10

Another transfer gone and it’s almost my 9 month mark (Wednesday March 12th) It’s so amazing at how fast the time has flown by. And this amazing warm weather has brought a new spirit to the work here and probably mission wide. J

We have transfers this week on Wednesday. Elder Ferney will be moving up north to Neenah, WI. I'm staying here in DeForest and I'm going to be training again; a new missionary fresh off the plane! I don't know who he is yet because he's currently still in the MTC. So on Tuesday night I will be driving to Milwaukee to spend the night with some missionaries there. Then on Wednesday I will meet my new companion and begin the process of training and teaching, no greater calling!!! I really am looking forward to this; I loved training Elder Baird so I'm excited and very optimistic about this second training. Also, because I will be training, we can safely assume that I will stay in DeForest until June (my one year mark), so now I don't have to worry about getting transferred for a while, Woohoo! DeForest is a great place to train; the members are awesome and engaged in the work. We currently have several investigators who will/should/could have a baptismal date very soon. So much great stuff is happening right now, and a new missionary will bring a great spirit to the work and more unseen blessings are to come. I'm happy and excited for the next two transfers.

We have a new baptismal date set! His name is Stephen and he's 9. It's a part member less active family that hasn't been to church in years. We found them mostly by accident while on exchanges with the Zone Leaders. We started communication with the mother and the next thing we know she has been coming to church since without missing a single Sunday. The mom has a great testimony and only really needed an invitation to come back to church. Then Stephen came once and we asked him if he wanted to learn more. Teaching him has been an experience because I have never taught children before. So we do less talking and more engaging activities like play the Plan of Salvation game. The game is similar to the game of life, but it has a pre-earth life, spirit world, and a resurrection twist to it. Currently he is set to get baptized on April 26th, but that's the Madison stake conference (we didn't know) so were planning on moving the date to the 19th of April.

I forgot to write down a scripture for the week, ummm Moroni 6:4-6

 4 And after they had been received unto baptism, and were wrought upon and cleansed by the power of the Holy Ghost, they were numbered among the people of the church of Christ; and their names were taken, that they might be remembered and nourished by the good word of God, to keep them in the right way, to keep them continually watchful unto prayer, relying alone upon the merits of Christ, who was the author and the finisher of their faith.

 5 And the church did meet together oft, to fast and to pray, and to speak one with another concerning the welfare of their souls.

 6 And they did meet together oft to partake of bread and wine, in remembrance of the Lord Jesus.

Have a great week!!!

Elder Luymes

                                                                                      March 3

What an awesome week we had. I am so happy with how this area is starting to progress. Our efforts in tracting have paid us back with two new investigators who have great potential, lots of questions, and a sincere interest in reading the Book of Mormon and watching the DVDs that we have to offer. What's even better is that we have set up another great week ahead of us. I'm looking forward to it. Elder Ferney isn't supper happy though. He has been here for 6 months and next week (March 12) is transfer day, so most likely he (Elder Ferney) will be getting transferred. He feels cheated that all the success that is happening right before he likely leaves. He isn't really disappointed, he's fine, and the Lord will have great success for him in other areas of this mission.

I'm so happy it’s finally March! I'm going to pretend that this means warm weather and radiant sunshine. I know I always talk about the weather but let’s be honest, when its 10 degrees, seemingly forever, how can you not mention the freezing cold. My watch tan from my high school track and field days has gone - not cool! Bring on spring, we welcome you with all the open arms we can muster in this cold. At least I sleep warm (thank you for the blessings of heaters and electric blankets).

As for the missionary work, we have spent a lot of time in the cold, knocking doors. This week I went on exchanges with the Beaver Dam Elders. While we were out visiting a few potential investigators and freezing because it was something like 0 degrees, we decided to go to the house of a man that we had tracted into a few weeks earlier. He had accepted a Restoration pamphlet, but closed the door before we ever could get his name. When we knocked on the door during our exchange this past week we were thrilled that he was willing to let us in. We ended up talking with him for 45 minutes answering all the questions he had from the pamphlet (he had read it cover to cover and had gone online to try and learn more). I was so happy to see that our previous efforts in tracting had brought forth good fruit. J Another happy story is that of an investigator who told us recently that he spent three hours on Sunday reading the Book of Mormon. That's kind of crazy; he is reading more that we do in a single day.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 4:15

But ye will teach them to walk in the ways of truth and soberness; ye will teach them to love one another, and to serve one another.

Thank you all for your prayers, your thoughts, and all your letters and packages. Have a wonderful week.

Elder Luymes

Sun Prairie Historical Museum - we volunteer twice a week.

Our fabulous Sun Prairie District!
 

                                                                                      February 24, 2014

Hello again, we had a pretty darn good week. On Thursday we had Zone Conference in Madison. It was very inspiring and it was great to see my entire MTC district all in one place. We had fun catching up and sharing stories and talking about other missionaries that we know or have served with.

After Zone Conference I went on exchanges with Elder Kanahele from New Zealand, but he also lived in Hawaii for 9 years. He has an accent and he's so much fun, and a very experienced Elder (he goes home in three weeks) and we had a great time in Madison.

My MTC Homies!

Another fun and interesting event that happened this past week was a heat wave. We actually got up to 44 degrees on Wednesday and the snow was melting like crazy. Elder Ferney and I went out tracting with nothing but a sweater on. It felt great to not have to have thermals and a beanie, or any gloves on. I could actually flip the pages of the pamphlet that I was using as I knocked doors. It felt great to have some warm sun, I soaked up the UV rays and felt myself just soak in the Love of God. What a great blessing to have warmth after months of Satan's darkness; although, it didn’t last long. By Friday we were having extreme wind and so all the melted snow has now turned into ice, FUN! It hasn't caused us any problems yet but we have seen a few people on the wrong side of the road. This week we have a frigid cold warning for Wednesday and Thursday. L I guess we'll have to work with what we've got for a few more weeks before spring really hits. Bring on the spring weather, I'm ready -- at least our heaters work!!!

I'll share a great story, but I have changed the name of the person. Today we received a text from Peter, one of our investigators. Peter is currently on parole and will be getting off parole at the end of March. If he wasn't on parole than he would have gotten baptized last year around early October, because his testimony is on fire!!! When Peter met the missionaries through his non-member son, he accepted the Book of Mormon and read it cover to cover. Peter is simply amazing and is very excited to get baptized. When we got a text from him this morning he told us that he had given his parole officer a copy of the Book of Mormon and a Mormon.org pass-along card. We asked him for more details and Peter shared that both he and his wife (who is also on parole and will be getting baptized in 2016 when she gets off) bore their testimonies to the parole officer and invited him to spend the time reading it because it was the book that changed their lives. Isn't it awesome that our investigator is doing missionary work before he's even baptized! My thoughts on this are: when we have a testimony of the restored gospel, then we should also have a testimony of sharing it. Our testimony should be a driving force in our life to share with all the world the great news. Let your testimony be heard far and wide.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 3:7

 7 And lo, he shall suffer temptations, and pain of body, hunger, thirst, and fatigue, even more than man can suffer, except it be unto death; for behold, blood cometh from every pore, so great shall be his anguish for the wickedness and the abominations of his people.

Thank you for all that you do, have a good one!

Elder Luymes

Yup! 3 (Three) Oreo cookies in my big mouth all at once!

Wish I knew the story here but this really cool dragon
adorns the front of a home near the library. They shine
a light on it at night. Cool huh!

                                                                                                          2/17/14

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. We got something like 6 inches of snow on Tuesday night and Wednesday morning. And today we have another fresh 4 inches of snow to shovel for the members and our investigators and anybody else that we see outside shoveling, we will go and help. It is a really great way of serving the people and finding new people to teach. Elder Ferney and I will walk around town with our snow shovels in hand and just start shoveling, some times without their permission. It also helps keep us warm, and it’s a great way of exercise. After we are finished with the library we will be doing exactly this. Fun!!!



Service at the Sun Prairie History  Museum
rendered a great find! A large replica bullet that
weighs a ton (well almost - I'm just really strong).

We had another great week. We had more success tracting again this week and we also had a couple of powerful lessons with a few of our less actives. On Sunday we had three less actives come to church, for all three hours. We were so thrilled and it was great to see them. I think the topic for sacrament meeting was also very inspired. The speakers talked about families and the Proclamation to the World. This hit home for one of the less actives who is in the middle of a struggling marriage and has a son who is not a member (we are working on beginning to teaching him the lessons). It was wonderful and the talks were well written and well delivered.

Chinglish exists even in Wisconsin (DVD instructions)!

A great experience I had this week on Saturday came from a prompting. Elder Ferney and I were tracting on Saturday night, we had planned on tracting from 6pm to 7pm and then heading over to a members home for a recent convert lesson and dinner with the family. Around 6:30pm I suddenly felt that we needed to stop tracting and find something else to do. Since we had already visited all the people we had wanted to for that day I thought "who else can we visit, what else are we supposed to do?" Regardless, without hesitation I told Elder Ferney that we are done tracting for the day and that we are heading to the car now, and not knocking on one more door. When we arrived at the car another prompting came to visit Jeff. Jeff is a potential investigator that has been on our potentials list for many months (before I arrived in DeForest). I have only met Jeff once and we have a recurring problem when we try and visit him, He is never home! We have tried nights, mornings, mid-day, weekends and weekdays, seemingly everything to try and talk with him and set up an appointment. So when the prompting came to go and visit Jeff, we were both confused because we assumed that he wouldn't be home. To our glorious surprise, Jeff was home and we had a great but short talk with him and we finally set up the appointment that we had been hoping for for many months. Hurray! We had a wonderful recent convert lesson that night, and a great dinner that made my belly happy.

A family made us a 16 inch pizza so we cut it in
half and had a feast!

 

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 1:6-7

 6 O my sons, I would that ye should remember that these sayings are true, and also that these records are true. And behold, also the plates of Nephi, which contain the records and the sayings of our fathers from the time they left Jerusalem until now, and they are true; and we can know of their surety because we have them before our eyes.

 7 And now, my sons, I would that ye should remember to search them diligently, that ye may profit thereby; and I would that ye should keep the commandments of God, that ye may prosper in the land according to the promises which the Lord made unto our fathers.

Thank you all for your prayers and have a wonderful week.

Love,

Elder Luymes

                                                                                      Feb 10, 2014

We had a very successful week here in DeForest. A lot was accomplished and the spirit has truly been poured out on the residents of this nice town.

The official Groundhog Day staff at the Sun Prairie
Historical Museum on service day. Maybe I can work some
mojo and make the spring come sooner.

We got three new investigators this week. In many ways this may not seem like a lot, but to put things in perspective, there have only been four new investigators found in this area in the past 6 months. With 3 more this week it puts us at 7 new investigators in 6 months. In my opinion this has been the single biggest struggle since being moved to DeForest. Reasons why this has been a struggle are not quit clear, perhaps it was us tracting the wrong streets, or not tracting enough, or us not using the right tactic. The Spirit never prompted us to do anything different or to change our plans. We do pray very sincerely for guidance, inspiration, and promptings to lead us to the right people or the right street. Either way, we have learned one lesson, diligence. Never give up! The cold is definitely an obstacle but if you bundle up right you can always knock one more door. Make sure you are always giving your all in a very real and genuine sense. Work, Work, Work!!!

A funny story while tracting: We were knocking doors and near the end of the street on a very cold day (we later learned that with the wind factor it was about -15 that day). We rang the doorbell and a woman answered. After introducing ourselves to her, talking about the restoration and testifying of a living prophet and the blessings that this will bring into her life. She told us that she wasn't interested. So we asked if she knew anybody who would be interested in a message about Jesus Christ. Her reply: (rough quote) "I don't, but if I did, I would refer them to the real Jesus, the one that died on the cross for our sins, and was resurrected; the one that healed the sick and called Apostles, etc. Not your false reincarnated Jesus named Smith, and your fake book." I showed her a picture of Jesus Christ (found on the front cover of a Restoration pamphlet) and told her that we don't believe in a reincarnated Jesus, and that we believe in the same Christ that she had just described herself. That's when she slammed the door on us. We finished the street, went back to the car to warm up. Then let out a nice long laugh. I will never understand where people come up with these ideas. Horns on our head, really? Reincarnated Jesus, really? What a good laugh that was. At least we tried to tell her the truth.

Scripture for the week: Omni 1:26

And now, my beloved brethren, I would that ye should come unto Christ, who is the Holy One of Israel, and partake of his salvation, and the power of his redemption. Yea, come unto him, and offer your whole souls as an offering unto him, and continue in fasting and praying, and endure to the end; and as the Lord liveth ye will be saved.

Thank you all J

Elder Luymes

Thank You Pasadena Stake Seminary Students
for my new pillow case.

Improvisational name search at the home of our
mission leader.  Can you find Silcox, Iongi, Pike,
Ferney, Packer, and Luymes?  We got creative.

                                                                             February 3, 2014

This was an eventful week for us here in Deforest. Lots of stuff happened, and we did not watch the Super Bowl. But I am excited for the Seahawk win! (sorry Brandts)

Super Bowl Party - stir fry and Church videos!

We started our week of with a very literal BANG! On Monday we got stuck in some snow and had to get pushed out, so our Sun Prairie compadres (The other Elders serving in our ward) came to the rescue and in one hit our Tongan Elder dented the trunk and cracked a panel as well as chipped the paint on part of the lid. This Tongan Elder is a Visa waiter for Brazil and played both Rugby and Football in high school. So we spent Monday, more than half our Tuesday, and parts of Wednesday getting estimates, submitting paperwork for the church, working with the body shop, and calling the mission office a boat load of times to make sure that they were happy with our pictures and paper work. All in all, the car will get fixed middle of next week, for now we are driving around with a nice dent in our trunk. BTW, the dent will cost somewhere between $1,350 and $1,575 to fix. Fortunately because it was an accident and there was no neglect on our part, the church will be paying it and not us -- sorry tithe payers. Please forgive us. L

Big OOPS!

Another awesome thing happened for us this week. We were out visiting some of our less-actives who live in the far regions of our ward boundaries. But on our way back home we stopped at a little convenience store in Rio Wisconsin (pronounced R-eye-o, not like the Brazilian Rio).  The owner of the store is a potential investigator, who in my description is: very humble, very down to earth, very in-tune with his relationship with God, and is probably a dry water Mormon despite a minor word of wisdom problem (no biggie, we can fix that). We had a wonderful conversation with him while he prepared a donation of burger patties for the local high school. As we were concluding our conversation and preparing to buy what we needed and head out, He gave us a bag and says "enjoy, on the house." Inside was a full chicken, mashed potatoes, macaroni and cheese, and gravy. It was to die for good! And we got two meals out of the whole thing, what a wonderful surprise. On a slight side note, a couple weeks ago when I first met this man in Rio, we talked about setting up a 2016 Rio Wisconsin Olympics. It was so funny to see that he was very serious and really wanted to do it, I would love to come back after my mission and help him accomplish this goal. Any takers on helping out?

Aloha! Happy Chinese New Year! (yes, I'm confused)

Scripture for the week: Jarom 1:11

Wherefore, the prophets, and the priests, and the teachers, did labor diligently, exhorting with all long-suffering the people to diligence; teaching the law of Moses, and the intent for which it was given; persuading them to look forward unto the Messiah, and believe in him to come as though he already was. And after this manner did they teach them.

Thank you all, have a wonderful week

Elder Luymes