Appleton Zone w/ Elder Martino of the Quorum of Seventy.

It rained, it got humid and we sweat a lot. That's the summary for the week. Too add to it, most of our investigators and many of the members are out of town. Perhaps for a last minute summer vacation before school starts in early September and to escape the humidity. This was certainly a tough week. As we come to a close of the transfer, Elder Allen will be transferred to Milwaukee, and I will be serving with Elder McMoor. I don't know much about him.

On Tuesday we held a District Testimony meeting, It was absolutely wonderful and a fantastic way to end the transfer. These Elders and Sisters are amazing, and their love for God and the effort that they give to His service is astounding. After district meeting I went on exchanges with Elder Lor. He is one of the Hmong missionaries and is actually getting transferred out to Green Bay on Wednesday. We had a great time, taught a few good lessons with what investigators we had in town and visited a few other people that we didn't know all that well.

I'm not trying to be boring, but that really is the whole week. Nobody was home, it was super humid. We had fun, Elder Allen and I had many great conversations along the way and we did what we could to keep each other going and with bright smiles on our faces. This is a gospel of optimism -- at least that is how I feel.

In September, the Book of Mormon Musical is coming to Appleton. The Stake Presidency has invited everyone to a challenge: To read the whole Book of Mormon in the month of September and even share your thoughts and feelings about the Book of Mormon on social media. The missionaries are joining in and I invite you all to do the same :)

Elders Allen, Cook, Lor, and me.  Sisters Green and Kealer.

Scripture for the week: John 3:16

 16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Love,

Elder Luymes

This week went by fast. A lot of amazing things happened and we had a lot of fun. The Sisters in our ward had a convert baptism on Saturday so we had a wonderful time helping out with that, including arriving at the church at 7am to turn on the water. Two hours later at 9am the water was not even close to where it needed to be, so us four elders set up the fire brigade and hauled gallons of water from the kitchen to the baptismal font. The baptism was scheduled for 10am and it was amazing to see how much faster the water line went up once we started hauling buckets and pitchers and even a giant barrel that held about 8-10 gallons, Elder Allen used his big football strength to move that one from the kitchen to the font. I was placed in charge of the smaller bucket that held about 5 gallons. It was certainly a group effort though to maximize our efficiency and water usage. As we approached the 10am mark and more members started to show up, many of them commented on why we were filling up the font this way. All we could do was tell them to get out of the way so that we could have enough water to do the baptism in. It was super funny. But all went well with the baptism. The water was warm, the spirit was felt and on Sunday I was asked to participate in the confirmation because I interviewed the person for baptism.

Mission Tour on Wednesday was awesome! Elder and Sister Martino were great speakers and delivered powerful messages coupled with great testimonies. The overall focus of the meeting was: Diligence in using the members more for finding , teaching, and baptizing investigators. They spent a lot of time talking about what diligence is and how it applies to missionary work. This was a favorite part of mine because diligence has played such a huge role in my missionary style. At the beginning of my mission, President Cutler asked my trainer and me to recite the Diligence quote found on pg.121 of Preach My Gospel. He asked us recite it every day during our companionship studies, and he asked us to recite it for the rest of our mission. This is something that I have kept true to, and I have been blessed in amazing ways as I have sought to be a more diligent missionary. When Sister Martino was giving the training on being diligent she referenced the quote on pg.121 several times. During those minutes while she was, President Cutler and I made eye contact from across the chapel, he knew what I was thinking and he knew I knew the quote well. Elder Martino gave an excellent training on how we can better use the members in each phase of the work: find, teach, and baptize. He taught us how to ask for "smart referrals" and why it is essential for members to be involved in the teaching phase of the work. Everybody needs a friend and members offer a greater testimony to the truthfulness of the Restored Gospel better than missionaries do. It is going to require a lot of hard work to get the members involved the way that Elder Martino has described them to. Hopefully with the concentrated effort of all six missionaries we will be able to deliver powerful messages that will get the members involved like this.

On Tuesday, Elder Allen and I had a very interesting experience. We were in the library headed towards the computers to send a referral off to some missionaries in Texas because one of our investigators moved down there. As we were approaching the computers a shorter man approached us from behind and asked if he could speak with us. He asked us if we knew a Harper-Smith. I said that I don't, assuming that the man was asking about a member of the church. But Elder Allen recognized that he was referring to a missionary named Elder Harper-Smith, who had served in Appleton three months earlier. The man whose name we later learned was G____ and neither of us had ever seen this guy before. G_____ begins to tell us that Elder Harper-Smith owes a second guy (D___) $120 because he took advantage of a mentally disabled person and took his electronic cigarettes. G___ continues to tell us that either Harper-Smith or The Church needs to get the $120 together or else G____ was going to call the cops, take us to court, and "get the media involved". He reminded us that "we don't want to get the media involved because that would be a bad public image". I began to ask G___ for more specifics of the story, and I come to find out that the guy who owned the e-cigs surrendered them to the missionaries and has never once asked the missionaries for them or the money back. This apparently took place over 4 months ago . I tried to tell G___ that his story might not fly with the authorities or a judge because of a few flaws. But G___ insisted that he was going to call the cops on us and take us to court. He gave us his contact information, but he never asked for ours – weird! We told G___ that we were going to talk to the missionaries and find out more. Then G___ decided to bash on the church by calling us a cult. So I asked him to stop talking and I offered my hand as a farewell. G___ backed away slowly and never shook my hand. We called the Zone Leaders, the Assistants, and the next day at Mission Tour we talked to President Cutler. We got the full story and President gave us a rough plan of action for if we see the man ever again. Pretty weird huh!?

Things are going well for us in Appleton, next Wednesday 8/27/14 is Transfers for us. I'm not expecting to get moved but crazier things have happened. Elder Allen will most likely be leaving. Thank you for your prayers!

Scripture for the week: 3 Nephi 11:6-14

6 And behold, the third time they did understand the voice which they heard; and it said unto them:

 7 Behold my Beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased, in whom I have glorified my name—hear ye him.

 8 And it came to pass, as they understood they cast their eyes up again towards heaven; and behold, they saw a Man descending out of heaven; and he was clothed in a white robe; and he came down and stood in the midst of them; and the eyes of the whole multitude were turned upon him, and they durst not open their mouths, even one to another, and wist not what it meant, for they thought it was an angel that had appeared unto them.

 9 And it came to pass that he stretched forth his hand and spake unto the people, saying:

 10 Behold, I am Jesus Christ, whom the prophets testified shall come into the world.

 11 And behold, I am the light and the life of the world; and I have drunk out of that bitter cup which the Father hath given me, and have glorified the Father in taking upon me the sins of the world, in the which I have suffered the will of the Father in all things from the beginning.

 12 And it came to pass that when Jesus had spoken these words the whole multitude fell to the earth; for they remembered that it had been prophesied among them that Christ should show himself unto them after his ascension into heaven.

 13 And it came to pass that the Lord spake unto them saying:

 14 Arise and come forth unto me, that ye may thrust your hands into my side, and also that ye may feel the prints of the nails in my hands and in my feet, that ye may know that I am the God of Israel, and the God of the whole earth, and have been slain for the sins of the world.

Love,

Elder Luymes

Bum, Bum, Bum, another week bites the dust. I'm not getting home sick, and I don't really want to come home, so thank goodness that I still have 10 more months because this is the greatest work that I have ever done. Being a Missionary is absolutely fantastically awesome!!! It’s so cool that I’m almost done with a second journal and I have the third journal ready to go for more writing and more revelation and more cool beans stories. I found out yesterday that for Mission Tour that the Marquette Sisters (U.P) will be staying the night at the Appleton 1 Sisters place. When I heard this I replied "All hail the mighty Yoopers!" In reply to that outburst, I got five missionaries rolling their eyes at me, which I'm fine with. J

Elder Allen and I just learned that we are sixth cousins. Cool! We had a member this week teach us how to use Familysearch.org, the church's free genealogy website, we had a lot of fun as he showed us a few of the ins and outs of the website. I am very happy to see that the vast majority of my family’s Temple work has been done on both sides. Go Team!!! Speaking of team, the Packers played their first pre-season game. They lost (which the people here are not happy about) but it is as official as it gets, the Packers are out, and this will affect the missionary work one way or another.

Hamming it up with my 6th cousin - Elder Allen!!!!

This past week was hard diligent work. Elder Allen and I did a lot of walking, tracting, visiting people we knew, and contacting. We started the week with zero appointments and finished the week with only one scheduled appointment. This can be really hard for missionaries because it means that we are filling our entire day with people that may or may not be home. Good things we did happen though, we taught some very powerful lessons, and extended three invitations to baptisms. One said yes, M_____, he is a great guy. He found us on the street a couple weeks ago. M____ was crossing the street and he asked us if we were salesmen out to sell vacuums. We had a great chuckle with him as we told him who we really were. We proceeded to ask some question about whether or not he had had any past interaction with the church and he told us he hadn't. So we started to teach a little about the Restoration and we pulled out the Book of Mormon and he said "can I have that?" I gave him a copy and a book mark, than he asked for the pamphlet in my hand. We were both really surprised so we quickly gave him the pamphlet and we continued to teach and answer a few questions that he had. Then M___ kind of stopped us mid-sentence and asked for our contact info, so we traded numbers and we got his address. Then we set up an appointment with him and said a prayer with him on the corner of a busy intersection. It was a great first lesson with him. Our scheduled lesson was on Monday evening. We got to his house and he told us that he had to step out for 10 minutes and that he would be back. We told him we would house sit until he got back. And that's what we did. A small side note: I don't understand why people would let two strangers house sit, but M____ is the second person that Elder Allen and I have done this for. It's only a little weird snooping around someone’s house that you have only met one time previous and we barely even know the guy. Back to the main story; our lesson was super fantastic with M___, he had read the introduction to the Book of Mormon and he had a few questions that we were able to answer as we went through the Restoration more in detail. As the lesson built up we invited M___ to be baptized on September 13th! It made for a great P-Day. As we rode our bikes back home, Elder Allen and I sang Lion King songs, church hymns, and a few other appropriate songs.  We sang them as loud as we possible could all the way home like two happy little pigs.

Short story: On Tuesday we four Elders were asked to help a family move into a new home. We were tight on schedule so my companion Elder Cook and I (we were on exchanges) couldn't stay the whole time. We moved some of the bigger stuff out first and waited for the truck to come. In the time we waited, Elder Cook laid down on the couch. I backed up an appropriate distance and then ran and hurdled over the couch. It was fun, and Elder Cook said that he was convinced that I was going to hit him in the face. Please! I am confident in my hurdling skills. We also got a video of the event.

Scripture for the Week: Moroni 10:31-33

 31 And awake, and arise from the dust, O Jerusalem; yea, and put on thy beautiful garments, O daughter of Zion; and strengthen thy stakes and enlarge thy borders forever, that thou mayest no more be confounded, that the covenants of the Eternal Father which he hath made unto thee, O house of Israel, may be fulfilled.

 32 Yea, come unto Christ, and be perfected in him, and deny yourselves of all ungodliness; and if ye shall deny yourselves of all ungodliness, and love God with all your might, mind and strength, then is his grace sufficient for you, that by his grace ye may be perfect in Christ; and if by the grace of God ye are perfect in Christ, ye can in nowise deny the power of God.

 33 And again, if ye by the grace of God are perfect in Christ, and deny not his power, then are ye sanctified in Christ by the grace of God, through the shedding of the blood of Christ, which is in the covenant of the Father unto the remission of your sins, that ye become holy, without spot.

Thank you, enjoy your week!

Elder Luymes

Wow, cool!!! I'm sitting here at the computer and we just got a media referral from someone that has requested to meet with us through Mormon.org. That is my second Media Referral my whole mission! Sweet! In other news, Elder Allen and I had a pretty great week, we taught 23 "other lessons" which is 12 lessons above our goal, so we are pretty happy with that. We are also seeing the members become more involved in the work as we have been inviting more of them to join with us in prayer to accomplish the mission vision. We are also inviting them to act by reaching out to one person whom they know are interested in the church and are prepared to meet with us. J August should be a very good month for us. And mission tour is next week, hurray!

Aren't we handsome! We got caught in the pouring rain and had
to find a public bathroom to dry off.

Hey that's me!

On Thursday, we had a lesson with a man that we had found a week earlier by tracting. On this Thursday lesson the man recalled some of his past interactions with the church. One of them being that his best friend while he was a Marine serving in the Vietnam War was a Mormon. He told us about a few other interactions he had from the church and how he owns a 1916 copy of the Book of Mormon. Then he kind of got excited and said "but the most important and the one that I remember the best is when I helped design and build your churches Washington DC Temple!" Elder Allen and I kind of had a "what the?" moment. B___ then tells the story of how he was an engineer and he was hired by the church to be the main engineer for all the concrete of the Washington DC Temple. How cool is that!?!? B___ told us that of all the projects that he ever worked on, the Temple was the highlight of his career. He said it was more fun, more advanced, and much more rewarding (in terms of personal accomplishment not money). He told us all about some of the engineering feats and miracles that he witnessed as he was working on the project. He complimented the church on their respect for sacredness and the demand for high quality work. Isn't that cool, B___'s whole life he has had close Mormon friends and he was also able to work on a temple. When we taught him on Thursday we gave him a new copy of the Book of Mormon and we invited him to read a chapter a day. There are few better spiritual experiences than the blessing of being in a Temple. B___ told us that before the Temple was dedicated he was able to go inside and see the rooms and the artwork and many of the other main features of the Washington DC Temple.

A funny moment: yesterday as us four Elders were driving to church in the morning. We drove by a local fast food restaurant called Taco John. To our wonderful surprise we saw a woman driving her red medical scooter through the drive-in. We instantly busted into laughter. I begged the driver to turn around so that we could all get a picture but unfortunate that didn't happen. It was very funny and the four of us walked into church with large smiles on our face. We shared the moment with some of the youth and it just made for a great start to our Sunday services.

Scripture for the week: Alma 5: 26-35

 26 And now behold, I say unto you, my brethren, if ye have experienced a change of heart, and if ye have felt to sing the song of redeeming love, I would ask, can ye feel so now?

 27 Have ye walked, keeping yourselves blameless before God? Could ye say, if ye were called to die at this time, within yourselves, that ye have been sufficiently humble? That your garments have been cleansed and made white through the blood of Christ, who will come to redeem his people from their sins?

 28 Behold, are ye stripped of pride? I say unto you, if ye are not ye are not prepared to meet God. Behold ye must prepare quickly; for the kingdom of heaven is soon at hand, and such an one hath not eternal life.

 29 Behold, I say, is there one among you who is not stripped of envy? I say unto you that such an one is not prepared; and I would that he should prepare quickly, for the hour is close at hand, and he knoweth not when the time shall come; for such an one is not found guiltless.

 30 And again I say unto you, is there one among you that doth make a mock of his brother, or that heapeth upon him persecutions?

 31 Wo unto such an one, for he is not prepared, and the time is at hand that he must repent or he cannot be saved!

 32 Yea, even wo unto all ye workers of iniquity; repent, repent, for the Lord God hath spoken it!

 33 Behold, he sendeth an invitation unto all men, for the arms of mercy are extended towards them, and he saith: Repent, and I will receive you.

 34 Yea, he saith: Come unto me and ye shall partake of the fruit of the tree of life; yea, ye shall eat and drink of the bread and the waters of life freely;

 35 Yea, come unto me and bring forth works of righteousness, and ye shall not be hewn down and cast into the fire—

Thank you all for your prayers and your contribution to building the Kingdom of God.

Love,

Elder Luymes

As many of you are aware from last week’s email, two weeks ago was very tough for Elder Allen and I. Thankfully, the Lord knows our physical and mental efforts to share the gospel and so He has blessed us with a Miracle week. We were blessed to have met two new families that were former investigators and also many other individuals that asked for a copy of the Book of Mormon and asked us when we could come back to share more. It seemed like we were handing out Book of Mormons left and right all week. We even ran out of copies and had to give a woman a pass-a-long card with an "IOU a Book of Mormon" (that was a first for me and it was while we were on exchanges with the Zone Leaders - awesome!)

In August we will be having a mission tour. This is similar to a Zone Conference but instead, two zones get together and an Area Authority comes to the mission to give training. Elder James Martino will be coming to tour our mission this year. He has asked us to study diligence in the Christ-like attributes section of Preach My Gospel and to come prepared to the meeting ready to give a three minute talk on how we have applied diligence into our ministry. In preparation for this I have set apart some time in our weekly district meeting to talk and give some training and teaching on diligence. This past week I talked about how diligence takes discipline. I shared some scriptures from Alma of the great missionary stories there and what discipline they showed. I concluded the teaching with a comment about the Wisconsin state flag. It has the word "Forward" on it. I invited the district to "diligently press forward" this week, for the sake of Wisconsin. I am greatly appreciative of the Elders and Sisters in my district. I am proud of their hard work and diligence, and I’m looking forward to this upcoming mission tour and what more we get to learn about diligence.

Due to the lack of success we had two weeks ago, both Elder Allen and I emailed our Mission President about it. Our emails were similar enough where we got similar suggestions from him, but they were also different enough where the advice was focused on two parts of the same overall message. Essentially, we need to use the members better. During our weekly planning session on Thursday, Elder Allen and I spent a lot of time focusing on how we were going to accomplish this. We came up with an idea, fine-tuned it so that it would better match our ultimate goal and focus. And now we get to put that plan into action. We have asked the members to join with us in prayer for the mission wide vision - "to have a convert baptism in every area of the mission before the October General Conference". Our plan of action is to visit as many members as we can in their home and share with them a powerful message of missionary work. We are inviting them to do something specific with someone they know that they could share the gospel with. A "who, what, when" as they sometimes call it. We write down with the members who they are going to invite and what sort of invitation they will be leaving with them. Then Elder Allen and I follow up with them on a later date to see how the experience went. We know that as we use the members more and as they join with us in mighty prayer that the powers of Heaven will be opened up and we will see more miracles as the Spirit is poured out upon the Appletonians.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 4:24-30

24 And by day have I waxed bold in mighty prayer before him; yea, my voice have I sent up on high; and angels came down and ministered unto me.

 25 And upon the wings of his Spirit hath my body been carried away upon exceedingly high mountains. And mine eyes have beheld great things, yea, even too great for man; therefore I was bidden that I should not write them.

 26 O then, if I have seen so great things, if the Lord in his condescension unto the children of men hath visited men in so much mercy, why should my heart weep and my soul linger in the valley of sorrow, and my flesh waste away, and my strength slacken, because of mine afflictions?

 27 And why should I yield to sin, because of my flesh? Yea, why should I give way to temptations, that the evil one have place in my heart to destroy my peace and afflict my soul? Why am I angry because of mine enemy?

 28 Awake, my soul! No longer droop in sin. Rejoice, O my heart, and give place no more for the enemy of my soul.

 29 Do not anger again because of mine enemies. Do not slacken my strength because of mine afflictions.

 30 Rejoice, O my heart, and cry unto the Lord, and say: O Lord, I will praise thee forever; yea, my soul will rejoice in thee, my God, and the rock of my salvation.

Thank you so much for your love and support. I am grateful for all that you do. Enjoy your week!

Love,

Elder Luymes

This guy attached himself to my shirt and took a 3 mile ride
with me on my bike.  He as in tune with the spirit but
made a very unexpected exit when I hit a speed bump.

 

Service at the Salvation Army: they needed a specific box that was smack in the middle
so I burrowed in and dug it out creating myself a "Fort of Boxes".

Thanks Emily Aranda for the cool masks! Servants of the Lord
come in all sizes, shapes, and super-powers!

Hello again. The weeks go by fast, and the month is almost over with. Before we know it August will be here, and school will start again. This week for Elder Allen and I was tough; very physically tough. We did a lot of biking, a lot of walking, and we tracted hours and hours.

That really does sum up the week though. Tuesday was filled with biking to visit people because 3 of our 5 appointments canceled. So we were left to fill our time visiting people that we had found in the area book. Wednesday only had one appointment, so the rest was filled with tracting. I think your starting to get the idea. Our investigator T___ called us this morning and told us that he doesn't want anything to do with religion and asked that we stop coming over to his house. This heart breaking news puts our teaching pool at 1. Our 11 year old named G___ who is dependent on his less active father. Right now we have an uphill battle, it’s a struggle. Thankfully the Lord knows our struggles, and he matches our efforts to preach the gospel.

The blessings, or at the very least the Tender Mercies of the Lord were that a random stranger paid for our dinner on Saturday night. The man isn't a member, his only connection to the church was a high school friend who served a mission in California, got shot, and thankfully he lived. The man asked that we not offer a Book of Mormon or anything but he was completely happy to pay for our meal. Another blessing came on Sunday when our dinner appointment fell through because of a power outage. Thankfully the Relief Society President stepped up and fed all six of us missionaries with only a 2 1/2 hour notice. And she gave all four of us Elders 2 ties each because their son comes home from his mission in 9 days. He is serving in the Philippines.

There isn't much more I can say. We knock doors, we bike, we are trying our best and something good will happen. 

Scripture for the week: Alma 7:11-16

11 And he shall go forth, suffering pains and afflictions and temptations of every kind; and this that the word might be fulfilled which saith he will take upon him the pains and the sicknesses of his people.

 12 And he will take upon him death, that he may loose the bands of death which bind his people; and he will take upon him their infirmities, that his bowels may be filled with mercy, according to the flesh, that he may know according to the flesh how to succor his people according to their infirmities.

 13 Now the Spirit knoweth all things; nevertheless the Son of God suffereth according to the flesh that he might take upon him the sins of his people, that he might blot out their transgressions according to the power of his deliverance; and now behold, this is the testimony which is in me.

 14 Now I say unto you that ye must repent, and be born again; for the Spirit saith if ye are not born again ye cannot inherit the kingdom of heaven; therefore come and be baptized unto repentance, that ye may be washed from your sins, that ye may have faith on the Lamb of God, who taketh away the sins of the world, who is mighty to save and to cleanse from all unrighteousness.

 15 Yea, I say unto you come and fear not, and lay aside every sin, which easily doth beset you, which doth bind you down to destruction, yea, come and go forth, and show unto your God that ye are willing to repent of your sins and enter into a covenant with him to keep his commandments, and witness it unto him this day by going into the waters of baptism.

 16 And whosoever doeth this, and keepeth the commandments of God from thenceforth, the same will remember that I say unto him, yea, he will remember that I have said unto him, he shall have eternal life, according to the testimony of the Holy Spirit, which testifieth in me.

Love,

Elder Luymes