"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.

 

What a great week in Appleton! The weather was nice and warm, clear skies all week, no wind. I'm being serious; this was the best week for weather. Biking or walking was comfortable in this weather and perfect for fall service projects that need to be completed before the snow dumps on us and we begin to freeze. It might be our last week where we get some natural sun vitamins but whatever, the winter is out of my control and it has to come sooner or later.

Fall has begun -- it will be interesting to see how
fall here compares to "da UP"

A great week for weather and a great week for the Lords work. We had many appointments this week and few cancellations!!!!!!!!!!!!! We were booked pretty solid for the whole week with only an opening or two. We were blessed with the privilege of seeing many of our top investigators and having quality lessons with them. We currently have no baptismal dates but there are a few families and some individuals that we have high hopes for. It may take some time but it'll happen. Outside of planned lessons we had two really great experiences with people that we met on the street. One man owns a karate studio and has a brother who is a member of the church in New York. We talked with the man for a while and answered his questions about the Book of Mormon. We gave him an assignment to read and we set up an appointment for the end of this new week. As we were departing from this guy he gave us a little pep talk and told us that if we believe our message is this important then we should do better to reach out to more people. Fortunately this was the first person we saw that day and so we made extra effort for the rest of the day and we certainly saw miracles from it. Another person we talked to was someone that we had seen weeks previous but didn't have the time to stop and talk to him because we were anxious to catch the bus and not miss an appointment and he was in a rush to get home. We saw him again this week and he asked if we had time then to talk and share our message. Miraculously we did have some time and so we found a park bench and started talking. This man was adopted by an LDS family in Salt Lake City when he was a kid. The family wasn't very active in the church so he never got baptized but was surrounded by the church and the members left a good impression on him. He now lives here in Appleton with his girlfriend and their two year old son. He knew a lot about the church but still had some questions that we were able to straighten out and clear up any confusion. We taught him the Restoration and exchanged numbers and then left him with a prayer before he went home. Miracles happen, and great things are taking place here in Appleton. The next step is getting members involved and teaching towards baptism.

Outside of teaching we had some service opportunities this week. Service was something specific that I had been praying for as a way of getting into members’ homes more often and sharing a gospel message. A prayer answered. We had our two weekly service appointments at the Salvation Army and St. Vincent De Paul. In addition to those two we had one member family ask us to help them move a large pile of wood so that some workers could gain access to their basement windows. This family is lots of fun and they currently have one son on a mission and another that will leave summer 2015. They also fed us burgers. Another service project was helping out the High Priest Group leader at his farm. I had been to his farm before but the other three Elders had never been there before. This was the same farm that I mentioned in June that had the pigs. Yup! We did more poop duty. We separated a pig from its best friend in preparation for the slaughter house. BACON! Then we cleaned up the pig pen and all of their nasty waste. We collected wood and trash around the farm and had a roaring fire that was hair singeing from 20 feet away. Our last service project was helping out a non-member family remove rocks from their basement. They knocked down a wall that was not serving any and they wanted the wall down, so they did the demolition and we did the heavy back lifting and took out the rocks. They fed us pizza, and we also had a roaring hot fire at their place too. Service is good, service is fun.

Happy Birthday to ME! Thanks Dad, this was rather unexpected.

General Conference is coming up and I'm excited. I'm really hoping to get an opportunity to watch it with some investigators in their home or at the church with them.

Scripture for the week: Mosiah 4:10-12

10 And again, believe that ye must repent of your sins and forsake them, and humble yourselves before God; and ask in sincerity of heart that he would forgive you; and now, if you believe all these things see that ye do them.

 11 And again I say unto you as I have said before, that as ye have come to the knowledge of the glory of God, or if ye have known of his goodness and have tasted of his love, and have received a remission of your sins, which causeth such exceedingly great joy in your souls, even so I would that ye should remember, and always retain in remembrance, the greatness of God, and your own nothingness, and his goodness and long-suffering towards you, unworthy creatures, and humble yourselves even in the depths of humility, calling on the name of the Lord daily, and standing steadfastly in the faith of that which is to come, which was spoken by the mouth of the angel.

 12 And behold, I say unto you that if ye do this ye shall always rejoice, and be filled with the love of God, and always retain a remission of your sins; and ye shall grow in the knowledge of the glory of him that created you, or in the knowledge of that which is just and true.

Thank you all very much; your prayers are greatly appreciated.

Much Love,

Elder Luymes

The sun is out and I can feel its warmth, but the wind can be a bit nippy. This was a very good week for us here in Appleton. Elder McMoore and I had a few miracles as well as some fun moments with the Book of Mormon musical.

"The Musical is entertaining, but the book will change your life."

First off, the Book of Mormon musical was in town from September 16th - 21st. Elder McMoore and I stood outside the P.A.C (Performance Art Center) for three of the 6 showings. We were there with both the Elders from our ward, and the two sets of Elders from the Appleton second ward. The AP's came up from Milwaukee to be with us on opening night. At one time we have 5 companionships of Elders preaching repentance at the front doors of the Theater. It was a lot of fun in my personal opinion. I would venture to guess that it wasn't all that different; we got to talk to some very nice people as well as some rude folk that complained to management and wanted us kicked off the corner. They couldn't kick us out because we were specifically standing on city property not theater property. Most people however were just having a fun time and thought it was funny to see us here. They typically would say, “Hi” and then walk into the theater. A few took the time to take pictures with us, so keep an eye out, I might be famous on social media. Because of how late the play started we were only able to talk to people as they were entering the play. Sadly the play ended after our curfew so we were not able to talk to anyone after the play had ended. All together, we handed out a few Book of Mormons and several pass-a-long cards with our phone number. Now all we can do is wait and find out if there is anybody in Appleton that would like to meet with the real Mormon missionaries.

On Wednesday we had interviews with our mission President. President Cutler is the greatest. He is very loving and patient, humble, and he is a great teacher and uses the scriptures well. My interview with him was just what it needed to be. He and I talked about my personal needs and the districts. Unfortunately we had to end a little early because of an appointment that we had. President drove us to the lesson. Later on at night as he was driving home to Milwaukee he and I continued our interview by phone. That same day we had a lesson with a less active member of our ward that had not been in contact with the church for a long time. We had a fantastic lesson with him and we got to hear on his iPhone a voice mail that was a personal phone call from Peyton Manning. Our less active member operates a company that makes football gloves, and they make the custom football gloves for Peyton Manning. It was sweet! After our lesson with the less active we rode our bikes home, and got pulled over by the cops. She climbed out of the car and answered the question that was on both of our minds: is she really pulling us over? She explained what was wrong - which I'm not going to say because I don't want my lawyer knowing. J Let’s just say that we pulled the "We’re not from around here" card and we got away with a warning. She gave us a nice souvenir of this memorable moment and we were off, headed home.

Not the reason we were pulled over by the police. But---
it matches my red tie so I had to indulge.

Throughout the week we had some quality lessons and we had a youth come out with us on Saturday. The youth is from New Zealand so Elder McMoore loves him and his family. Because he has a car we were able to go visit some key people that we normally have a hard time visiting because of the limitation to buses. While he was with us we saw another miracle where we were able to finally sit down with another less active that I personally have been spending the past 4 months trying to contact. She was super nice and we had a great lesson. She even gave us dinner to take home.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 1:15

15 But behold, the Lord hath redeemed my soul from hell; I have beheld his glory, and I am encircled about eternally in the arms of his love.

Thank you very much for your love and prayers. Enjoy!

Love,

Elder Luymes

Dinner - Large spaghetti and pile 'o cheese bread, BABY!
I slept really good that night.

 

Cheesehead --
One of the Appleton Ward members sent
this picture of Andrew to us via text.

I think winter came early... really early. This week was in the low 50's and high 40's, and it changed all over night. A really bad cold front came through and just caught us all off guard. We were pulling out jackets, sweaters, beanies and gloves, and just about everything else we could to stay warm. Sadly we were pushed out in the cold for most of the week. We had very few appointments so we walked and froze, took the bus then froze some more. Yes, I'm starting to complain about the winter that came early. I had fun in the sun!

Our week was alright; we visited some investigators and set up appointments for this new week. We tracted streets, and spent a lot of time trying to find all the less active members that we are starting to learn about. Our ward counsel is working on this really big project of reaching out to every less active person that we either don't really know anything about or we have lost contact with. The result is we now have updated information on the ward and where people live and other information about them. Then the missionaries and the members are to reach out to all of them and find out if they want further contact from the ward, or if they should be labeled a DNC - Do not contact. This is a great project for the missionaries because it gives us a lot of new people to meet and potentially work with. So far though we have only been used by the less active members as messengers saying that they want no further contact or they want their named removed. It’s a work in progress. We still have a large list of names and families that we still have not seen yet so there is hope for at least one person to agree to meet with us and start coming back to church. All we need to hope for is for one person to start reading the Book of Mormon.

My Appleton Homies - (L-R) Elder Cook (Utah), Elder Ochoa (Guatemala)
my beautiful self, Elder McMoore (New Zealand/Hawaii).

Appleton Homies just hangin' - (L-R) Me! Elder Ochoa, Elder McMoore, Elder Cook.

The Book of Mormon musical starts playing in Appleton tomorrow, this should be interesting.

Short story: on Friday we were at St Vincent for our weekly service project. One of the ladies who also volunteers there asked if all four of us elders were available Saturday to help her out with a project that she and her husband would need help with. She said that if we came and helped out that she would feed us dinner. We set up a time and exchanged numbers. Saturday came and after a Hmong party that we were invited too, we changed into service clothes and headed out to the woman's house... not knowing what we would be doing for service. When we got there we were amused to hear that the project was cleaning out the chicken pen and moving all the poop to another location for composting. It smelled nasty, and the goats were just as bad. It was thick too like a 7 layer dip that had been sitting there for a long time. They worked us hard though and we got most of the project completed. When dinner time came, we enjoyed some really excellent homemade burritos. We set up another appointment to help them with their next project (home demolition!!!), and we will begin to teach them about the Restoration and the Book of Mormon when we come back.

Scripture for the week: 2 Nephi 4:21

21 He hath filled me with his love, even unto the consuming of my flesh.

Have a fantastic week

Love,

Elder Luymes

Just messing with the settings on my new camera.
This one makes my lips look big.