Oh man it’s cold. Snow came down twice this week. The first snow came and melted before noon the same day. The second snow storm came and only dumped an inch on us at best, however it is so cold that the snow hasn't melted and it could be here to stay. The weather we are having right now is what we would normally expect in December. An early winter is not welcomed by anyone and now only begs the question: Spring comes early too, right? I'm hoping so, that would be a great way to end the mission with an early spring :)

Our week was one uncontrollable roller-coaster. Due to the lack of success we are seeing at the present moment the Zone Leaders decided to blitz our area. A blitz is like an exchange but where both companionship's stay in one proselyting area. So with four Elders in Oshkosh we set out to work hard and make miracles happen. They certainly did. We taught a lot of lessons, we met a lot of people and we set up 8 appointments. It was very exciting to see this much growth all in a time period of 24 hours. The Zone Leaders stayed the night at our place too so we cooked some brats and enjoyed a delicious meal and a buffet the next day for lunch. On Thursday Elder Stevenson and I worked hard to get as many members as possible to the lessons we had scheduled. By Thursday night we had 7 member present lessons planned. We were so excited, and thrilled that we would be able to conclude this amazing week with even more great stuff to happen. Friday came, then Saturday, then Sunday. All 7 of our member present lessons either were cancelled or dropped, and none of our backup plans worked either. Nobody was home. Tracting is always the backup’s back up, so we did a lot more tracting and after several hours of doing so and not being able to talk with anybody. I vocally asked the question: What! Is there a Badger game on or something and everybody is out watching it at the bars? Sure enough, at the very next house we approached I could see through the windows the Badger game playing. The gentleman answered the door and I asked him the score (with the full intention of trying to start a conversation that would lead into something related to Jesus Christ). He informed me that the Badgers were winning and that he was not interested in our religious message. It was a heartbreaking way to conclude a week.

We did service at the Humane Society on Thursday. This time we played with the kittens first. They are an energetic bunch who love to play and explore. They were a lot of fun. I have several great photos but I will have to save those for next week because I forgot my camera cord. Elder Stevenson is getting transferred to Neenah which is a small city just 15 minutes north of Oshkosh. It is also south of Appleton (If you want to know a little geography). I'm sad to see him go after only serving with him for one transfer. My new companion is someone I don't know anything about but I am certainly optimistic that he and I can change things around here in Oshkosh. Our ward is having a Turkey bowl on Thanksgiving morning, that's exciting!!!

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.

Love,

Elder Luymes

 

Guess what!!! I made waffles again on Sunday! This time we had milk, water, eggs, and everything else we needed. So no funny business and the waffles turned out perfect. Our Sunday lunch consisted of waffles, desert from a member that we got last week, and some carrots. The blessings have been poured out upon us, the blessings of food. Food blessings are great and much appreciated. Let me tell you what we have in our fridge right now and how we got some of these food items. On Tuesday a member gave us a whole rotisserie chicken and we currently have that thawing out for lunch. Then on Wednesday a member called us very unexpectedly and without giving away any details he said "meet me at the Virgin Mobil store" We pulled into the parking lot and found his truck. He climbs out and throws at us a two foot long frozen salmon. We starting gawking at it and he shared with us how this is the smallest fish that he caught and since we had been so persistent in asking for one he decided to share with us. So now our freezer has a huge fish in it. On Saturday we were asked to help clean the church building. Boring right? Wrong! We found in the freezer 25 brats and 10 hamburger patties. We asked the member if he thought if it was okay for us to take them. He said yes but we decided to wait till Sunday to see if anyone would take them. Sunday (Yesterday) came and nobody from church took them. So Sunday night we called another member and asked if he knew anything about them and he didn't. He also gave us permission to take them. So with the permission of two members we took home 25 brats and 10 hamburger patties. We estimate that we have about 30 pounds of meat in our fridge right now. Pretty sweet huh!

Waffles for Sunday Lunch!

Other than glorious food, our week was mainly occupied with tracting and service. We did a lot of tracting for many hours this week. The cold weather is certainly not ideal but we need to find somebody to teach. Our service projects consisted of EAA (Experimental Aircraft Association) which is an airport in Oshkosh where private planes are built and developed. So we often see some pretty nice birds flying in the air. At EAA we usually help out in the mail room moving heavy boxes for mailing and all of their many advertisements to EAA members. We also work the food line at Salvation Army. We had fewer people than normal show up to Salvation Army. But we get a great opportunity to talk to people of very different backgrounds. It’s fun when certain people come in that we know better because they know how to interact with us and goof off a little. We helped out with some of the members throughout the week too. We helped a senior sister move out of her apartment and put stuff in storage. She is very anxious to leave Wisconsin and get to Florida before winter really hits us hard. We helped another family with raking leaves. We spent a solid hour and a half raking and bringing the leaves to the curb for city pick up. The two dogs that this member has are very playful and I kept suggesting that we tie a rake to them and get them to help out too since they had so much energy, The last member that we helped was putting up their storm windows to help keep the warm air in. This project was a little interesting because the member kept hauling around this ladder to help us screw in the holds that prevent the windows from falling out of the frame. I found it funny because he would go through so much effort to haul this ladder everywhere from window to window. He didn't need to do this because I was easily able to climb up on something and reach the screws and put them in place. My 6ft 3inches was lot of help in this project. It also made things go by a lot faster because we didn’t need to place the ladder among all the plants and trees.

Lake Winnebago - bordering Appleton, Neenah, Oshkosh and Fon du Lac
districts.  We tract in this neighborhood and skip a rock or two.

The cold is creeping in. This week we are supposed to hit the teens and potentially some heavy snow fall today and tomorrow. Next week is transfer week. I doubt that I am moving but you never know.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 12:3

 3 And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths; for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem.

Thank you, much love,

Elder Luymes

Dear Santa -- please send me two new shirts for Christmas.
The spray starch is doing a number on my shirts.

Happy Halloween, Zone Conference last Thursday, playing with cats, a ridiculously long train, and someone backed into our car. Does it sound like a crazy week? It sure was.

Tuesday was perhaps not the best day for us. We had several appointments cancel and it was the only day that we had a lesson with a non-member for the entire week. On the plus side of Tuesday; we met with a returning less active named A___, he is awesome and lots of fun to be around. He has a strong interest with Family History work and so we have been sharing with each other success stories that we have had in finding people and adding memories to the family tree. A___  has a medical chair to help support him that was broken. His back was aching so we took a look at the chair and decided how we were going to fix it on Wednesday because we didn't have the right tools on hand.

Wednesday was the day of no proselyting. I promise that I'm not a lazy, disobedient Elder. We drove 30 minutes in the morning to contact 4 referrals at a mobile home park. We searched far and wide and never found the park. This is also when we got stuck waiting for a very long train that stopped, then backed up, then inched forward. We lost 30 minutes waiting for this train all the way out in the boonies of Oshkosh. When we got home we changed and went over to the Humane Society. The cats were a lot of fun. Since it was our first time we didn't have much of an idea of what to do in the very beginning but we started improvising and we figured out a basic idea. One thing that we learned in the third cat room is to not beat-box with the cats. Its gets them all riled up and then they start to fight with each other. It’s not entirely my fault; Elder Stevenson was doing it to. After the cats we fixed A___’s chair and now it works like a charm. For dinner we went to Domino's and this is where the car got hit. The guy backed up his car and says he never saw our car and so now we have a nice dent on the left side of our rear bumper. We exchanged info, called the police because the church says to do so and guess what we learned... The man has a suspended license. Cool, that took up two hours and it only left us with one more thing to do in our day that wasn't proselyting; basketball with the Young Men. 

Umm. I'm playing with a cat.  Really I am.



He climbed up on my lap.  Now what do I do?

We had zone conference in Appleton on Thursday. That was a great training meeting and I love President and Sister Cutler. After the meeting we had to spend two hours filling out our accident report so that made up our entire Thursday. Not much happened on Halloween too. Because of church policy we can't proselyte after 5pm so we spent much of our time with a member family, an older couple and of course, tracting.

Fender Bender #2. Do you see my name on the car? Twice.

 That really sums it all up for the week. The weeks go by fast and they get colder too. Mid 50’s is now considered very warm. Let’s all pray for a warm winter.

Scripture for the week: Alma 13:15

 15 And it was this same Melchizedek to whom Abraham paid tithes; yea, even our father Abraham paid tithes of one-tenth part of all he possessed.

Thank you, love,

Elder Luymes

Zone Conference 10-30-14

Zone Conference Lunch 10-30-14, love the pink striped tye from mom.

Mouthful smile.

No waffles this week. But that's okay because I went on a sweet exchange with Elder Walley to the Fon Du Lac Branch. On Tuesday and Wednesday I was with Elder Walley, he is a younger Elder who has been out for 5 months. He is from a small desert town in Washington State (I know it’s not what we all typically think when we hear Washington) Elder Walley is a nice kid, a BYU Idaho student. He and I started off the exchange by visiting a new investigator of theirs. They had never taught this guy so we both went in with a level of unknown. The man was really nice and I would describe him as casually religious. He has a testimony of God and had heard some but not much about the Book of Mormon. Elder Walley and I asked a few "get to know you questions" and then we began teaching the Restoration. Everything just clicked into place because we were teaching well, and the guy was listening and participating in the discussion. Then Elder Walley invited to guy to read the Book of Mormon and then invited him to be baptized. He said yes! That's a fantastic way to start off an exchange! Later in the evening we ate dinner with a super awesome family. Both husband and wife are converts to the church so it was great hearing their stories. We ate a great lasagna dinner with them and a salad. They had apples ready to be pressed to make homemade apple juice. I should mention that this family lives on a farm and have cows, goats, chickens, and lots of crops. The neighbor came over while we were preparing the apples and he walked in the garage with a super cool looking cross-bow! The man told the member "I just dropped one less than five minutes ago!" I got to see the deer, a nice one too with one clean shot to the neck from the guy’s cross-bow. It was a great day. On Wednesday we did service at the hospital and probably made contact with one hundred people who have Ebola...jk, that hasn't hit Wisconsin yet. The apple juice was the best thing ever and we got to take some home, we enjoyed a nice cup of juice when we exchanged back at the halfway point on Wednesday.

One clean shot to the neck from the cross-bow. The arrow
broke inside the neck and the guy had to wrestle to get it out.

Other things that happened in the week: The weather was warm, so people were outside. We spent most of the week tracting and park contacting. I also finished my cat training so now we can volunteer at the Oshkosh Humane society. The only reason why we are doing cats and not dogs is because the dogs require one on one, and that would separate Elder Stevenson and me so we couldn't do it. Cats! I'll have a few photos next week. The warm weather was great, it was enjoyably being outside and the fall colors are in full effect. I will say this though: The fall in da U.P was much better than it is here in Oshkosh.

On Friday we had the Oshkosh Ward Halloween party. It was simple with food, games for the kids, and trunk or treating at the end. Elder Stevenson didn't feel like dressing up and the Sisters didn't either. I wore a window light up jack-o-lantern around my neck because I was a gangsta missionary from LA. It was the best I had. The party was fun, and we just went around and talked with people.

My Gangsta Chain!

Here is a really great quote that one of my AP's sent us this week: “As a mission we have been putting an extra emphasis on becoming a consecrated mission. This past week I received a quote from one of my friends serving in Peru. It has helped me focus more on putting my life in the hands of the Lord. It says, ‘A basketball in my hands is worth about $20.99. A basketball in the hands of LeBron James is worth $19 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. A tennis racket in my hands is worth about $17.00. A tennis racket in the hands of Serena Williams is worth about $20 million per year; it depends in whose hands it's in. A baseball in my hands is worth about $3.00. A baseball in the hands of Derek Jeter is worth about $35 million per year; it depends on whose hands it's in. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in my hands would make a few fish sandwiches. Two fish and 5 loaves of bread in the Savior's hands will feed 5000 people until they're full, and still leave 12 baskets leftover; it depends on whose hands they're in. Some nails in my hands are worth about 5 cents. Some nails in the Savior's hands will provide eternal salvation for each person who has ever lived on this earth, and all of Heavenly Father's children. It depends on whose hands they're in. When we put our lives in the hands of the Savior, we can achieve infinitely more than we ever could on our own. It depends on whose hands they're in.’”

Scripture for the week: Moroni chapters 4 and 5

Thank you all for your love and prayers,

Elder Luymes

Fall leaves under a tree -- almost as good as da U.P.



"And in the mornin' I'm makin' waffles!" - Donkey (Shrek)

Let me tell you all about our little adventure making waffles Sunday morning. So, Saturday I was talking with Elder Stevenson about how we should make waffles. We didn't have any pancake mix so we would have to wait till Monday to buy some. Monday came and we bought some pancake mix. Because of how packed our morning schedule is we would have to wait till Sunday morning to make our waffles. The idea was that we would mix the ingredients and cook the waffles with our waffle iron during our Sunday morning exercise time. Since we never actually exercise Sunday morning, it would be fun to make a special Sunday breakfast instead. Sunday came and I popped right out of bed, said my prayers, did my thing and got ready for waffle makin' time. I put out all the ingredients and grabbed my bowl. Since two cups of mix just isn't enough to feed two Elders I doubled the recipe and put in four cups of powder. As of this point everything was going fine. The dilemma and the source of all our Sunday drama was a serious lack of milk! By doubling the recipe I needed 2 2/3 cups of milk. What we actually had was a disappointing 1 cup. I began to express sadness and heart break as the thoughts of no Sunday waffles began to sink in. I decided that this was not acceptable; I grabbed the phone and called the Sister missionaries. The Sisters were laughing at me for not having enough milk. They did however agree to give us some milk so long as they got some waffles. I grabbed Elder Stevenson from off the couch and we climbed in the car and drove the 2 blocks to the Sisters apartment. I finally got my milk! The rest of the ingredients we had (however I almost forgot to put in two eggs because I forgot I had doubled the recipe) Then, I made my waffles, and breakfast was a success. I had some, Elder Stevenson ate some, and the Sisters got some waffles too. Waffles made: 18, problems that occurred during the making of these waffles: 3

Other than waffles, I had a very good week. On Wednesday we watched the Church's Meet the Mormons movie with our mission president and his wife. The mission had a copy of the movie and so all the missionaries in the Appleton Zone gathered in Neenah to watch it. I absolutely loved that movie. It was fantastic and a great opportunity to feel the spirit in a relaxing way. Because it has been successful in the movie theaters they have extended its show time in Appleton. There were many things that I loved about the movie. I got a glimpse into my mom’s world as I watched the mother say goodbye to her son leaving on a mission. The candy bomber story was a touching story and motivator to serve selflessly and with true love from the heart.

Another great story from the week: On Tuesday we had a dinner with a member family. We were not informed however that the husband was out of town and the mother was misled by her mother-in-law that if the Sisters came to dinner too that it would be okay for us Elders to come in the home and enjoy dinner. Sadly this is not the case. So when we arrived we were forced to stand outside the screen door and talk to the mom as she finished preparing dinner. The Sisters arrived and they walked on in and took off their coats and shoes. Elder Stevenson jokingly said to the mom "we could make a fire in your fire pit in the back yard." The mom agreed and pointed us to where the fire wood was and gave us newspaper and some matches. The next question was "Elder Stevenson, are you an Eagle Scout?" He asked me if I was and we both said yes. Mentally we were in good spirits to know that we were both Eagle Scouts, the only issue was if our lack of practice was going to be humiliating in front of the Sisters and the member. But the Lord was on our side and with one match we made a fire to be proud of. It kept us two warm as we ate dinner outside and later when we shared our spiritual thought everybody came outside and we all enjoyed the warmth.

"Fall" -- for the benefit of those in California where
seasonal change doesn't exist.

As you can tell, we are both happy here in Oshkosh. The work is a little slow, but with diligent work we will get to where we need to be,

Scripture for the week: Alma 34: 18-27

 18 Yea, cry unto him for mercy; for he is mighty to save.
 19 Yea, humble yourselves, and continue in prayer unto him.
 20 Cry unto him when ye are in your fields, yea, over all your flocks.
 21 Cry unto him in your houses, yea, over all your household, both morning, mid-day, and evening.
 22 Yea, cry unto him against the power of your enemies.
 23 Yea, cry unto him against the devil, who is an enemy to all righteousness.
 24 Cry unto him over the crops of your fields, that ye may prosper in them.
 25 Cry over the flocks of your fields, that they may increase.
 26 But this is not all; ye must pour out your souls in your closets, and your secret places, and in your wilderness.
 27 Yea, and when you do not cry unto the Lord, let your hearts be full, drawn out in prayer unto him continually for your welfare, and also for the welfare of those who are around you.

Thank you all and much love,

Elder Luymes

Packing again.  Where did I get so much stuff?

Greetings from Oshkosh!!! The land of cheese, beer, Packer fans, and no hills or mountains. Truthfully, those five descriptive words define all of Wisconsin. Oshkosh has about 66,000 people and it sits on the south west end of Lake Winnebago (which is not part of the great lakes). The Oshkosh ward has about 100 active members and a list full of odd last names so I feel as if I fit right in because everyone in this ward is a one of a kind. I love it! The members are very friendly, I got a lot of warm welcomes from many of the members and the Bishop announced that he is the opposite of me: He is from Wisconsin and served his mission in California and he ran hurdles in High School and he attended one year of college before going on a mission. Sounds like he and I are going to become pretty tight with each other!!! The ward has one missionary out in the field right now, another recently returned Elder from South Korea and another Sister who just recently got her call to Fresno California. So this ward knows missionaries really well. Elders have been serving in this ward for a very long time; it was one of the original areas of the mission when the mission opened in 1978. The apartment is a very nice size and has weights and an ab roller so I can work out in the morning. We have a car here and bikes so I'm going to be able to stay warm (not really but kinda) in the winter.

My new companion, Elder Stevenson from Las Vegas, NV.

My companion: Elder Stevenson. He is from Las Vegas Nevada and has been out on his mission for 19 months. He recently turned 20 on September 29th. It’s so funny because I think that's my birthday too. We are one year apart. Elder Stevenson graduated in 2012 and attended one semester at UNLV with an undeclared major. He started his mission in March of 2013 and I started in June of 2013. He and I are the two most experienced missionaries in our district so there will be some example setting that we will be doing. He played some soccer, played some video games, he loves paintballing and likes going on adventures. He stands 6ft, and weighs in at a whopping 150 pounds when he's soaking wet with a towel (jk, not really. but he does weight 150) He and I are stick and bone and we both have one goal in common as Elders: Gain Weight!!! Elder Stevenson is a focused Elder. Not a dud that doesn't have fun, but a focused Elder that is here to serve the Lord. He teaches very well and knows the scriptures very well too. He is obedient, clean, and organized. This will be a fantastic transfer or hopefully two with him.

Goodbye Elder McMoore

We had an amazing miracle on Sunday. Between all of the Sunday calls that I have to do as a district leader and studies, and lunch and dinner. We only had one hour of proselyting time. We wanted to use our one hour as best as possible. What we decided would be worth our time was to visit two potentials. While we were visiting one potential we met another woman who we were not expecting to meet. She asked who we were and we began to get to know her. She expressed some difficulty in quitting drinking, and we mentioned how the Savior can help her. From there the conversation turned to the atonement and how He bled from every pore of His body for us. The woman asked us why He would do that for her. We taught her that Christ and our Father in Heaven see within her a greater potential than any of us can see. We taught her that she is a daughter of God whom He loves and that she is worth every drop. We offered her a Book of Mormon and suggested that she read Mosiah 3. We exchanged numbers and got her address and then set up a return appointment. As we were saying goodbye to her and the potential that we initially came to visit the woman said to us "I will cherish every word that I read from this book." Boo-to-the-yeah!!!

Found a hoodie in my new apartment -- it fits great!

Thank you for the prayers and letters

My new address is:

Elder Andrew Luymes

1800 Robin Ave. S207

Oshkosh, WI 54902

Scripture for the week: Mormon 8:16

 16 And blessed be he that shall bring this thing to light; for it shall be brought out of darkness unto light, according to the word of God; yea, it shall be brought out of the earth, and it shall shine forth out of darkness, and come unto the knowledge of the people; and it shall be done by the power of God.

Love,

Elder Luymes

Hurdle Man - daily work out includes 5 high kicks, stretching
and a hurdle over the cliff bar.

Park tracting -- got a little artsy fartsy with my nametag.

 

 

I'M GETTING TRANSFERRED!!! I will leave the tiny apartment of Appleton 1 and go down south to Oshkosh. Oshkosh is arguably the fifth "largest city" in Wisconsin. My new companion is named Elder Stephens and once again I know nothing about him coming into this new companionship. I will remain as District Leader which was contrary to the entire missions guess. By the end of this October-November transfer I will have been a District Leader for an entire year - 8 straight transfers! That is a very long time. I know almost nothing about the Oshkosh ward, but I have been to the building many times because that is where many of the mission training meetings take place. The chapel is very small in that building so it might be a branch, I guess I will find out on Sunday.

The Great Appleton District

General Conference was great and we had a very good week building up to the weekend. We had some more service opportunities with the members. One project was filling in a hole that was dug for some water pipes. That project was back breaking to put it lightly. I was in a lot of pain for many days afterward. The two service projects that we had Wednesday were Salvation Army and filling in this hole. Both required heavy lifting, fast paced work and fun. But I was hurting. The other service that we were able to provide for a member was a Sister that works at one of the hospitals. She was preparing for a run for awareness fundraiser that is coming up in a couple weeks and they needed the t-shirts folded beforehand. So 4 Sisters and 8 Elders lined up and made easy work of it. Our time at St. Vincent de Paul on Friday was also some more productive work.

For the Lord’s service, Elder McMoore and I worked hard to get as many people as we could to watch General Conference with us. Along with this goal we had some very great lessons, had a very good first lesson with a new investigator family and sadly I had to start saying good bye to people. We watched General Conference at an investigators home who has 5 kids. This family is awesome and will someday be baptized, it was really sad to say goodbye to them. But they really enjoyed the Sunday afternoon session and they had some questions for us. My personal thoughts on General Conference: I loved it a lot; I had some questions for the Lord and received many answers to those questions; something that I will be working on between now and next General Conference will be to serve with greater love. I feel that this is something that my ministry has been lacking in for the past couple months. Service to the Lord or service through physical action is what missionaries do best. With love the spirit will be able to guide me better because I will be listening better. Putting those two together will be a big blessing to me and to those who I serve. A common theme that I noticed from General Conference was the “basics”. The Primary answers are the fundamentals to gaining a testimony and this too was a common topic from General Conference. The primary answers are often known as 1) read the scriptures daily 2) pray daily 3) go to church. With General Conference In mind I will add two more to this simple list. 4) pay tithing/fast offerings 5) attend the Temple as often as circumstances permit. These five activities are essential to gaining a testimony of the Restoration, of the Prophet Joseph Smith, of the Book of Mormon. To gain a testimony of the Priesthood, or the Prophet Thomas S. Monson, or any other doctrinal point, one must start with the five basics. Over the past 16 months as a missionary I have come to know from personal experience, and from the experiences of others that these five things are more than fundamentally true. Rather these five things are universally and eternally true. Meaning that it will never change and they are true for everyone - All of His children. I remember back to an experience I had only a couple months ago where I was searching for a greater testimony of these fundamentals. The experience was amazing and simply cannot be shared through written words. The Spirit that I felt that morning was clear and penetrating. I know that if we read, pray, attend church, pay our tithes and offering, and attend the Temple that over time and dedication we will gain a deep and eternal testimony of the Restoration, and all of the fullness of the Gospel as restored through the prophet Joseph Smith.

Only Elders are stupid enough to pull a stunt like this.

Thank you all so much for your prayers and birthday wishes. Enjoy your warm weather J

Scripture for the week: 1 Nephi 10:18-19

18 For he is the same yesterday, today, and forever; and the way is prepared for all men from the foundation of the world, if it so be that they repent and come unto him.

 19 For he that diligently seeketh shall find; and the mysteries of God shall be unfolded unto them, by the power of the Holy Ghost, as well in these times as in times of old, and as well in times of old as in times to come; wherefore, the course of the Lord is one eternal round.

Love,

Elder Luymes

Beautiful Fall leaves in Appleton -- enjoy your warm weather at home.