Greetings from Kenosha Wisconsin! My first impression – it’s still cold and windy. We had the coldest week here in Kenosha. Of course the cold and windy weather wasn't only for us. It hit all of Wisconsin, and the wind chill was probably in the negative teens, or maybe -20 on the big gusts. But my stay in Kenosha has been great so far. The Ward is so much larger than any of the Wards that I have previously served in, especially the Germfask group, which only had 21 active members while I was serving there. My address for Kenosha is:

Elder Andrew Luymes

4013 39th Ave. #11
Kenosha, WI 53144

Wednesday is transfer day for our mission. What normally takes place on transfer day is all the missionaries gather at the stake centers for the stake they currently are serving in. Then from the stake center the members drive all the missionaries that are getting moved to the central point of the mission - Oshkosh. We gather in Oshkosh, have a short devotional, move all the luggage, and then climb in the car that will take you to the stake center of the new area you are getting moved to. You meet your new companion and go to your area. Normally transfers take about 5 hours, except for U.P missionaries where transfers take two days. What actually took place this past Wednesday was a complete and total disaster. Since I was getting moved to the Milwaukee south Zone, I was to take the Milwaukee south vehicle to get to my new area. But somebody in the mission office miscounted by 7 and forgot to factor in the missionaries that are going home. So the Milwaukee car coordinator was informed that he was only bringing back to Milwaukee 8 missionaries, but he had 15 standing outside the car all hoping for a spot. This delayed our departure from Oshkosh by an hour while President Cutler and the APs worked out logistics. They asked me if I knew any members in the Oshkosh Ward that could drive 7 missionaries, but sadly there were none that could. So the Milwaukee "fun bus" as we call it, took off from Oshkosh with all the departing missionaries (those going home). This left me and 6 others in Oshkosh to wait another 1.5 hours for a team of mission cars to come and pick us up. Due to this, the Appleton Zone leaders had to stay and the Oshkosh Elders (my former companion Elder Merrill and his new companion). So 11 missionaries went to lunch at a Chinese buffet. Eventually the car train arrived, but we had to make a special trip further north to Appleton because a Sister left her luggage in Green Bay. So another half hour north, then two hours south and we eventually made it to Milwaukee. I was supposed to arrive in Milwaukee around 3pm, but we got there at 5:30pm. My new companion - Elder Reynolds and I drove straight from the Stake Center to our dinner appointment in Kenosha.

My new companion - Elder Reynolds or "El Rey"
as they like to call him.  He's from SLC.

Elder Reynolds, or El Rey as he is often called, is from Salt Lake City, Utah. And by Salt Lake City I mean he is from Salt Lake City proper. He has lived in the same home his whole life, a 2013 high school graduate. He started his mission in April of 2014, so he has been out 10 months or so. Right now he is at the Chicago Temple. So I'm on exchanges with the other Elder that just got transferred to Kenosha. Elder Reynolds is a peculiar fellow, as one elder described him. "Elder Reynolds is like a hobbit, you can learn everything you need to know about him in five days. But, after 1000 years he will still surprise you." He loves video games, volleyball, and is a bit of a pyro. He carries with him at all times a flame thrower that he purchased at Menards. I'm pretty sure he is mentally sane, so we have no worries there. But this could be a very interesting transfer or two. Elder Reynolds is the second oldest in his family out of 6 kids. He has an older sister who is married, and three younger brothers and the youngest is a sister.

We ate a special Valentines dinner with the other Kenosha Elders.

Scripture for the week: Ether 12:11

Wherefore, by faith was the law of Moses given. But in the gift of his Son hath God prepared a more excellent way; and it is by faith that it hath been fulfilled.

Thank you for your love and prayers. Have a warm week - we won't,

Elder Luymes

Food, glorious food! Lunch at zone conference.

 

I have to apologize; this week’s update will be short because I have a lot to do and very little time to get it all done. I'm getting transferred on Wednesday the 11th. I forgot to tell you and remind you that transfers were coming up; hopefully you didn't send any letters or packages that will take more than two days to get to Oshkosh. I'm getting transferred to Kenosha Wisconsin!!! I will be serving there, and quite possibly finishing my mission in that area but we will have to wait and see. Kenosha is a special place for me and the Luymes family heritage. Kenosha is where the Luymes family settled after moving from the Netherlands in between the two world wars. My Grandpa - John Luymes was born in Kenosha and distant relatives still live there. Now I will have the great privilege and joy of serving the Lord in this special town, and labor among my brothers and sisters in helping them receive the Restored Gospel. In addition to moving to Kenosha, I will continue to be the district leader for the area, as of right now, I have been a DL for 16 months straight. I am so excited, and so grateful for this. The Kenosha ward is the biggest Ward in the whole mission, and has four companionships serving within it. One of those four is a senior couple.

Merrill and "My Mustache" (thanks Ally for the stick ons).
I'm really going to miss serving with Elder Merrill.

Highlights from the week: A busted tire. We didn't bother taking any pictures of the flat tire. It happened on Thursday, which was by far the coldest day of the week. We were driving to an appointment that wasn't too far from our apartment and I heard a grinding noise, the car didn't feel right and Elder Merrill noted that the car looked tilted. We pulled over and immediately recognized the issue. The driver’s side front tire was completely flat. We put on the hazard lights, and we quickly jacked up the car, and put on the spare. We were parked for less than five minutes. We had to go to two repair shops, but finally got the tire fixed two hours later. We had to cancel two appointments because of this.

Tres Mustachios!

Our second highlight, through the grace of God, we got 11 new investigators this week. And it felt as if we were barely even trying. Some we found through tracting, others were former investigators that Elders in the past had worked with and a few others were potential investigators that we already knew but had never been able to establish a return appointment with. We taught 15 other lessons and had two member present lessons. It really was a great week for us. I spent some time in Fon Du Lac on exchanges to help the Elders down there, and we saw some great success. They have a really great family in Fon Du Lac that the Elders are teaching. The family needs to solve one minor problem and they will be getting baptized shortly. They will someday make a great addition to the Fon Du Lac Ward.

Church on Sunday was very great; I started saying goodbye to some of the members. I will miss the Oshkosh Ward a lot. This was a great area to serve in, and the members were great fun. As for our baptismal date -- the 10 year old will continue to be taught by the Elders.  In ward council they talked about how the members can help him quit cussing. It isn't easy working with him, but someday he will get baptized.

Thank you for your love, and prayers. Next adventure will be in Kenosha. I will get the address next week.

PLEASE DO NOT SEND LETTERS OR PACKAGES TO THE MISSION OFFICE ANY MORE, ONLY TO MY APARTMENT, BUT NOT OSHKOSH

Elder Luymes

Distrito de Mustachio de Oshkosh!

 

This was such a great week, Elder Merrill and I worked hard, and we taught a lot of lessons, we saw and visited with a lot of people and we had some really great memorable experiences. This was a fun week, the weather wasn't too bad, and it was really funny to hear all the locals say "NO, I'm not watching the Super Bowl!" As you might assume the Wisconsinites are still a little hurt that the Packers lost, but I'm sure nearly all of them watched the game anyway. It provides an excuse for them to get drunk, their second favorite past time :)

Five week old puppies at one of the member's homes.
There are five puppies in this litter -- so cute!

So what happened this week? I'll work backwards, starting with Sunday. Sunday was a great day of church, snow, and heavy wind. We were small in numbers but we had a constant flow of members coming up to bear their testimonies. We also had a confirmation for someone that the Sisters had been teaching, she was baptized Saturday and Confirmed Sunday. After Church Elder Merrill and I put on the heavy boots and coats and drove to a less active member’s house. We were blessed that he was home and willing to let us in. We spent some time with him and we shared a message. Then we walked around the block to our investigator's house that has a baptismal date, the 10 year old and his family. We only spent a few minutes at their place and confirmed our Tuesday appointment with the mom. The family didn't come to church on Sunday :(  With the high winds and heavy snow fall Elder Merrill and I drove a few blocks, parked the car and tracted out 10 houses (because that is the Zone Leaders goal, to knock 10 doors every day minimum) So in the freezing wind and snow we knocked our 10 doors with no success and then drove home. While we were driving home we saw a car stuck in a snow drift. We parked our car behind his and hopped out to help him. This was so much fun, hard work too. The car was more stuck than we had anticipated. It took us 15 minutes and another person showed up to lend us her shovel. I'm grateful to have a companion from a cold part of the country because Elder Merrill certainly knows more than I do about getting cars unstuck from the snow. We pushed and shoved, tires spun, and eventually we were successful. The guy offered us a $10, but Elder Merrill had the quick draw on him and offered a pass-a-long card instead. What a great service opportunity!

Saturday was the baptism for the investigator that the Sisters had been teaching. It was a wonderful baptismal service. Nothing went wrong; there were plenty of emotions and happy smiles. It was great to see her get baptized, her husband has been a member his whole life, but fell away from the church at a very young age. He himself has made some dramatic changes in his life and was able to baptize his wife.

Blurry puppies - but at least you can see his face better.

Friday: Elder Merrill and I had a wonderful lesson with our Catholic investigator. This man used to be the pilot for the Wisconsin State Governor and Senators. Not only is he an experienced pilot but also a knowledgeable Catholic. He enjoys meeting with us for the purpose of learning and understanding, for now he is not searching or considering conversion. He likes to have our lessons on certain topics. Two weeks ago we taught an entire lesson on "Laying on of Hands", our lesson this past Friday was on baptism. As our lessons usually go, he teaches us first what the Catholics do and believe about baptism. He explained to us the classes that perspective converts go through and how they administer baptism to babies, on up to adults. He explained the service to us and it was all very interesting to learn about. Then he asked that we explain it to him the "Mormon way" as you might put it. We started by talking about missionary work and how someone would take lessons with the missionaries just as he is. Then we talked about the interview and the baptism by immersion as well as the confirmation which takes place the Sunday after the baptism (for converts). Instead of stopping there, Elder Merrill and I continued to teach about Family History work, and Temple work. We explained what proxy baptisms are and why we do them, then we taught him Temple marriage sealings and how it all connects back to baptism and family history work. I pulled out my family history chart and showed him what work has been done, what more needs to be done and we explained further the why. It was very powerful talking about all this with him. The spirit of Elijah is real, and all those who have a knowledge and understanding of the love of God can understand at the very least why we do this Temple work. This was a very enjoyable lesson to teach, and I bore my testimony on Sunday about the Spirit of Elijah and Family History work.

Skip Thursday and move on to Wednesday: Our Wednesday was almost completely tracting. And mornings are rarely successful for finding which is why we normally do service in the mornings. However, on Wednesday morning I had a once in a life time opportunity; a golden treat and hoopla of excitement. On Wednesday Elder Merrill and I walked into two people who had just come to America from mainland China on December 1st. Their English was very broken and communication between us and them was pretty dang hard. I'm not even sure they understood that we were Jesus people. But I snagged their attention with this spiritually powerful statement, “ Dalai Lama-de ge-ge shr wo-de pengyo”,* I don't really know how to type it, but the Hyer family will know what I'm talking about. "The Dalai Lama's older brother is my friend!" I used that and the Chinese couple was super thrilled with me and they even gave me their address! I was so ecstatic when it happened; I can't believe that the one and only phrase I know in Chinese actually got me somewhere. I felt as if my life was complete, I could have died Wednesday and been happy with it. I need some Chinese flash cards and some quick phrases that will help me to tell them that we are missionaries representing Jesus Christ, and something about the Book of Mormon. I am getting a simplified Chinese Book of Mormon next week and I'm hoping I will be able to introduce the book to them. Isn't this so cool!!!

Scripture for the week: Mormon 9:27

O then despise not, and wonder not, but hearken unto the words of the Lord, and ask the Father in the name of Jesus for what things soever ye shall stand in need. Doubt not, but be believing, and begin as in times of old, and come unto the Lord with all your heart, and work out your own salvation with fear and trembling before him.

Thank you very much, enjoy the week, Love,

Elder Luymes

*Andrew's Granddad travelled through Tibet in 1996 with 3 Hyer siblings and  he used that phrase often to get him into doors and other special places; the monks really loved it.  The truth is that the Dalai Lama's older brother really is a friend of Granddad's and would come to the Hyer family home when he was traveling through Provo UT.

The book with a promise,
The elder who is trying to share it.

Two handsome mugs -- compliments of Pres/Sis Cutler's blog;
Oshkosh/Appleton district conference.

I love having busy weeks! We had five appointments on Saturday and three on both Thursday and Friday. Couple those lessons with service projects, helping people move, lunch, studies, and some stop-offs to try and get in with people, we had little or no time for anything else. We haven't tracked for two weeks which is good in some ways but also hurting us in others. We haven't found any new people to teach for some time, so our teaching pool is small and a little shaky. We didn't call 911 this week, but the phone is still trying.

We had interviews with President Cutler on Tuesday after District Meeting. These interviews are always refreshing and supportive. My interview had to be cut short because I went last and President also needed to interview someone for baptism after me and then make it to the airport to take some missionaries there. If I think my schedule is packed on a good day, his schedule is over booked nearly every day. When you factor in driving time and what he does I'm not sure how he copes with the high demanding schedule - It must be the blessings of the Lord.

Our 10 year old baptismal date is going to most likely have his baptism rescheduled. Our lesson with him on Saturday was filled with anger, parent abuse, cuss words, and a few other things. And very unfortunately at church yesterday he cussed during primary. Elder Merrill and I knew that this kid was not going to be easy to work with; his reputation is well known among the members in the ward. There are several concerns surrounding him and his potential upcoming baptism. It is stressful because there are so many limiting factors for what we can do. Mission rules, the family’s personnel finances, and the members hesitation to help with him create so many obstacles for us to work around. I don't know what we will end up doing but there has been a lot of prayer and fasting for this kid, and Elder Merrill and I probably spend more time talking about him and the family than we do on any other topic, so companionship counseling is very high. It is comforting for me to know that whatever we decide to do, Elder Merrill wants to make a unified decision.

Getting Cheesy with cheesecake at district conference.
Picture compliments of Pres/Sis Cutlser's blog.

Other highlights from the week: We had a second investigator come to church this week. He is our Latino investigator. He is doing very well, and we are glad that he comes to church on his own accord. We introduced him to some members this Sunday and we were delighted to hear that he already knew a few of them. He refs soccer for many of the members kids and adult leagues that the members participate in. Talk about great fellowship. The members can interact with him on the court and then we can bring them to the lessons. With this investigator there is little drama for us to worry about. In our last lesson he told us that he believes the Book of Mormon and the Prophet Joseph Smith to both be true, but he still thinks the Catholic Church us true too. We will work on this; hopefully the members who converted from Catholicism can help him.

Scripture for the week: 3 Nephi 18:24

Therefore, hold up your light that it may shine unto the world. Behold I am the light which ye shall hold up—that which ye have seen me do. Behold ye see that I have prayed unto the Father, and ye all have witnessed.

Thank you for the letters and prayers, love,

Elder Luymes

 

Selfie in the car on the drive to Princeton to help a family move.
We saw a bald eagle eating breakfast - the eagle was beautiful.

It is so hot out here that the swim suits have already come out on the shelves at Walmart and Target, and the snow and the ice are melting! It isn't actually hot, but it was a very warm week. Elder Merrill and I went on a late night walk around a neighborhood to go visit some people just last night and I only had on a jacket, no gloves, and no beanie. It is so much more enjoyable having a normal winter as compared to last winter where we seemed to never be higher than 0. I'm grateful for the milder winter, and I am grateful that we have investigators to keep us busy with lessons. Sadly the Packers lost. We were told that the bars were packed until the game finished.

In other news, we accidentally called 911 twice this week. The supposed lock on our phone that is meant to prevent these kinds of things is so far proving otherwise. The first instance was while we were moving a family in the ward to a new home. The cops showed up and asked for the people with our number. Elder Merrill (who has the phone) had to talk with the officer about it being an accident. The second occasion was while we were saying our morning companionship prayer. Somehow in the few seconds that I had my elbow on the phone I called 911. When the prayer was finished they called us back asking if there was an emergency, I told them no. That pesky lock is really annoying for us humans to unlock, but the pockets and elbows don't seem to have any problems at all unlocking the phone and calling the same number. Nearly every time Elder Merrill pulls the phone out of his pocket we usually will find a 9 dialed.

It was a good week of missionary work. We met with our baptismal date twice this week. He is doing okay for a 10 year old. We have begun dropping off note cards with reading assignments for him and his parents to read together. Although this is only showing minimal success it is a whole lot better than him not reading anything. A few of our other investigators, we are working with a Latino man from Costa Rica. He speaks great English, and since the Spanish Elders don't have the miles to come and teach him we are working with him. This guy reads a lot, sadly he isn't reading the Book of Mormon though, instead he spends about an hour each day reading the Teachings of the Living Prophets books, or the Ensign, or the Gospel Principles book, or the pamphlets. He is so sincere and he really wants to know if the church is true, his only set back is his family and Catholic heritage. He refs soccer too, so he and I spend some time talking about FIFA World Cup. Another one of our investigators is Hmong...we are a culturally diverse companionship - didn't you know that? Elder Merrill loves to teach the Latino investigator because he spent one transfer in a Spanish area and he is learning Spanish. While I on the other hand have an Asian background thanks to my mom’s side of the family, I also served closely with the Hmong Elders while I was the District Leader in Appleton. This Hmong guy is sweet. He has 10 kids, he loves soccer, and he has really taken to the Plan of Salvation. Our African American investigators are doing super well now too. They are starting to read the Book of Mormon more consistently, and they should be coming to church next Sunday after they get the car fixed. I'm being serious, we are teaching all kinds here in Oshkosh.

Our new tracting buddy. He came up to us and begged for a tummy rub
then moseyed on home when he wanted to go inside. Sweet Doggie. 

Scripture for the week: 3 Nephi 17:6

And he said unto them: Behold, my bowels are filled with compassion towards you.

Thank you all, enjoy the week, Love,

Elder Luymes

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

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2015/01/an-hour-to-watch-with-him?lang=eng

Thank you, have a fantastic week!

Elder Luymes

Drinking mild from a Chocolate Santa.
Not quite chocolate milk but still pretty tasty.

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