hey family!
so great to talk with you yesterday! that was exciting! good to see
your faces and to be able to hear your voice. it almost felt as if we
were right there in the same room. i really did feel like i was
almost just sitting right there in the kitchen! jack and slate look
super grown up. geez. glad to see sasha{s still doing well. the
basement looks awesome. slater has some super legit skills on those
drums!!! it was so good to be albe to talk with you in christmas
--
good news, transfers are in! they called us like 2 min after i
finished the call and it turns out elder faisal is leaving, he{s going
to Coatza. as a district leader and he{ll be training a new elder.
my new companion will be elder quiñones. he{s been working in the
offices the last few months as secretary to the president- super
super good missionary from what i{ve heard. and this is going to be
his last transfer in the mission. so he{s got a ton of experience.
i talked with him on the phone yesterday and he sounds like he{s super
excited to work and like he wants to end his mission strong. so i{m
way excited for that. from talking to him i got the impression that
he{s a hard worker and he really knows what he{s doing. i{m excited
to get to meet him and work with him in these coming months. if
he{s coming and this is his last transfer that probably means i{m
going to be here for quite a bit of time. at least like another 3
months.
a lot of the elders in the zone got transfers as well. i think we{re
getting like 6 new elders here. so that{ll be good. hopefully some
fresh blood will get us going -- a lot of the elders that have been
here for a long time are getting transfered.
as for this week ---
it actually didnt even feel really christmasy -- the only christmasy
part was our mission conference when we had the devotional and watched
17 miracles. -- but even that was a little weird because of the
piñata! christmas is a lot different here. everyone has
parties, but not christmasy parties. its like loud music and dancing,
its super weird to me. i{ve always thought of christmas as more of a
calm, gather with your family and spend time together thing. here it
felt a lot like the fourth of july mixed with some holiday for the
virgin mary. seriously it was weird there were like parades and
stuff just for the virgin. --- ha, one of the funny things is that the
people here dont usually put up christmas lights on the house-- they
put christmas lights on their statues of the virgin --- it was a
different experience this year. not to mention its so hot here right
now. ----- it was even different than last year. maybe its just
this city, because last year in coatzacualcos i dont remember
christmas being so crazy.
the good thing is that christmas day i was able to feel more the
spirit. i felt the spirit when we went to church and elder faisal
and i gave a christmas message and sang. and i loved that in christmas
day we could have the chance to take the sacrament and renew our
covenants and at the same time remember his birth and his life.
well family. i{m super excited to be able to write you next week and
tell you about everything that elder quiñones and i have been able to
accomplish! i hope so much he{s ready to get working! ha
love elder lloyd
Letter #63 12/19/11 Christmas Skype!!
hey fam!
well its been another week here in Cardenas. things are going good
here. i didnt have a chance to read your letters before i wrote, its
been a long day, we had another zone activity today -- and we´ve been
running around the city since last night getting things ready for
that. also this week we`re going to have a meeting-party with the
whole mission so as a zone we´ve been preparing a choir for the
program. we´re going to sing away in a manger, and what child is
this, and another primary song, i cant remember what its called. ha.
we´re pretty excited about that.
as for the work in my area-- to be honest things still arent
progressing as i´d like. but we´ve had some successes, this week we
did divisions with the elders in the zone, i stayed in the area and
worked with some of the newer elders, we found some great
people. had some way powerful lessons. in fact, i think it was
thursday night i was with and elder hurst, he and i were contacting
and it was pretty late but i felt we should stop and knock a door, we
knocked and a lady answered, she seemed annoyed at first, like
something was bugging her, but she let us in. we sat down and
started talking with her and her grandma, turns out the grandma was
a member like 20 years ago. but was never active. she just got
baptized. elder hurst and i didnt know what to teach but we
started asking questions by the spirit. and it came to me that i
needed to share with the family how we can improve the enviroment in
the home and repair family relations through selfless service --
basically what i had learned in the conference a coulpe weeks ago--
it was super powerful. i felt the spirit as it helped me
and my companion teach the lesson. i could literally see a look of
shock in their eyes, they paid really close attention and were awed,
and i really didnt know why at first, but at the end of the lesson,
the lady looked at us and told us that was exactly what she had needed
to hear that night, -- aparently less than 5 min before we arrived at
the door the grandmother had asked for help from her granddaughter
with laundry and she had refused because they were in a fight.
they two ladies said that they knew we were representatives of the
lord and he had sent us to help their family. -- they said they would
be coming to church, and we visited them saturday and everything was
great -- but they didnt end up coming sunday. we´re going to work
with them again this week and see if we can get them to church.
elder faisal and i will only be together for this week. he´s leaving
next week for a new area. the president told him he´s goign to be
training --- ha.
i just want to have success here and work hard, because this area seriously
needs some help. i know we can have success here, there are so many
good people. but blesssings come when we´re obedient. when we´re
not obedient we dont have the promise.
----
anyway,
as for skype -- i´m super excited to be able to use skype. i think
you´ll need to make me an account for skype! and we´ll be calling
sunday but idk at what time, we have church from 12 to 3 here.
i´ll probably call you or send you an email during hte week when i
know more so we can set it up!
as for the packages, i havent opened any yet! i managed to fit them in
my luggage w-o opening them!, still dont have the pics-tape though
---
anyway i´m going to go and then maybe i´ll send you a bit more in a
min. but if not i´ll be in contact during the week to set up the
specifics of the phone call!!!
-elder lloyd
well its been another week here in Cardenas. things are going good
here. i didnt have a chance to read your letters before i wrote, its
been a long day, we had another zone activity today -- and we´ve been
running around the city since last night getting things ready for
that. also this week we`re going to have a meeting-party with the
whole mission so as a zone we´ve been preparing a choir for the
program. we´re going to sing away in a manger, and what child is
this, and another primary song, i cant remember what its called. ha.
we´re pretty excited about that.
as for the work in my area-- to be honest things still arent
progressing as i´d like. but we´ve had some successes, this week we
did divisions with the elders in the zone, i stayed in the area and
worked with some of the newer elders, we found some great
people. had some way powerful lessons. in fact, i think it was
thursday night i was with and elder hurst, he and i were contacting
and it was pretty late but i felt we should stop and knock a door, we
knocked and a lady answered, she seemed annoyed at first, like
something was bugging her, but she let us in. we sat down and
started talking with her and her grandma, turns out the grandma was
a member like 20 years ago. but was never active. she just got
baptized. elder hurst and i didnt know what to teach but we
started asking questions by the spirit. and it came to me that i
needed to share with the family how we can improve the enviroment in
the home and repair family relations through selfless service --
basically what i had learned in the conference a coulpe weeks ago--
it was super powerful. i felt the spirit as it helped me
and my companion teach the lesson. i could literally see a look of
shock in their eyes, they paid really close attention and were awed,
and i really didnt know why at first, but at the end of the lesson,
the lady looked at us and told us that was exactly what she had needed
to hear that night, -- aparently less than 5 min before we arrived at
the door the grandmother had asked for help from her granddaughter
with laundry and she had refused because they were in a fight.
they two ladies said that they knew we were representatives of the
lord and he had sent us to help their family. -- they said they would
be coming to church, and we visited them saturday and everything was
great -- but they didnt end up coming sunday. we´re going to work
with them again this week and see if we can get them to church.
elder faisal and i will only be together for this week. he´s leaving
next week for a new area. the president told him he´s goign to be
training --- ha.
i just want to have success here and work hard, because this area seriously
needs some help. i know we can have success here, there are so many
good people. but blesssings come when we´re obedient. when we´re
not obedient we dont have the promise.
----
anyway,
as for skype -- i´m super excited to be able to use skype. i think
you´ll need to make me an account for skype! and we´ll be calling
sunday but idk at what time, we have church from 12 to 3 here.
i´ll probably call you or send you an email during hte week when i
know more so we can set it up!
as for the packages, i havent opened any yet! i managed to fit them in
my luggage w-o opening them!, still dont have the pics-tape though
---
anyway i´m going to go and then maybe i´ll send you a bit more in a
min. but if not i´ll be in contact during the week to set up the
specifics of the phone call!!!
-elder lloyd
Letter #62 12/12/11 Hey Family!!
hey family!
how are you all doing! i loved the letters this week. especially
from jack! holy moly sounds like he{s had a pretty intense week! i
wrote him a letter and took pics of it so i{ll email that in minute!
this week has been pretty busy. we{ve been working really hard, we
did some divisions this week and went out and worked with different
elders in the zone. that went super well. i taught with an elder
named elder sanchez. we taught one of the most powerful lessons of
the restaurtion that i{ve taught in a long time. everything about the
lesson was perfect, the spirit was super strong and both the people we
taught understood the message and had sincere desires to know if it
was true.
also some other news you{ll be recieving soon a present from me, hand
delivered from someone who i met here in mexico. someone who works
for the church and just happens to have lived in our ward about year
ago. i dont know if you remember brother price and his family,
they{re from california. they live on the other side of the canal
now, but they lived in bridgestone. he was in the chapel the other
day and i started talking w- him in spanish and when i found out he
lives in american fork i just about died. but we spent a little bit
talking about some stuff that been going on there and he told me he{d
deliver you some stuff from me!! so you{ll be getting that soon!
also this week we had a stake conference here in cardenas. we got a
new stake presidency and one of the seventies came, it was pretty neat.
he was super powerful. one of the families we{re teaching came and it
was cool because he talked w- them for a little bit!
but the best part was that i felt like the confernece was especially
for me everything that the speakers said was exactly what i needed to
hear. my comp and i were having some problems and the seventy- elder
johnston -- spoke about how we cant judge others, and the reason we
judge is because of pride. so basiclly he pwned me. ha. and then
he talked about how we learn to love. and he said something that i
really loved, he said that pure and unconditional love, is born and
strengthend from selfless service. love is a product of service.
just another thought that i had while i read your letters. -- grandma
and grandpa are both in a hard spot, they{re going through some serious
trials, but one thing i{ve learned in the mission is that when we{re
in our trial, especially the ones that hurt -- spiritually or
temporally-- is when we most come to know the savior because we feel a
part of what he felt. and then i read moms letter, mom wrote of how
the family has had the chance to serve grandpa and grandma this past
week, and i thought of how in the moment when christ suffered, his
father couldnt help him, he couldnt take away the pain, but he did
send an angel to strengthen him. like wise sometimes we can not take
away the pain of others, but sometimes the lord sends us as angels to
strenghten those who are in moments of affliction.
anway--
love you all. dont have a ton of time but i look forward to hearing
your voice and see your faces christmas!!!
how are you all doing! i loved the letters this week. especially
from jack! holy moly sounds like he{s had a pretty intense week! i
wrote him a letter and took pics of it so i{ll email that in minute!
this week has been pretty busy. we{ve been working really hard, we
did some divisions this week and went out and worked with different
elders in the zone. that went super well. i taught with an elder
named elder sanchez. we taught one of the most powerful lessons of
the restaurtion that i{ve taught in a long time. everything about the
lesson was perfect, the spirit was super strong and both the people we
taught understood the message and had sincere desires to know if it
was true.
also some other news you{ll be recieving soon a present from me, hand
delivered from someone who i met here in mexico. someone who works
for the church and just happens to have lived in our ward about year
ago. i dont know if you remember brother price and his family,
they{re from california. they live on the other side of the canal
now, but they lived in bridgestone. he was in the chapel the other
day and i started talking w- him in spanish and when i found out he
lives in american fork i just about died. but we spent a little bit
talking about some stuff that been going on there and he told me he{d
deliver you some stuff from me!! so you{ll be getting that soon!
also this week we had a stake conference here in cardenas. we got a
new stake presidency and one of the seventies came, it was pretty neat.
he was super powerful. one of the families we{re teaching came and it
was cool because he talked w- them for a little bit!
but the best part was that i felt like the confernece was especially
for me everything that the speakers said was exactly what i needed to
hear. my comp and i were having some problems and the seventy- elder
johnston -- spoke about how we cant judge others, and the reason we
judge is because of pride. so basiclly he pwned me. ha. and then
he talked about how we learn to love. and he said something that i
really loved, he said that pure and unconditional love, is born and
strengthend from selfless service. love is a product of service.
just another thought that i had while i read your letters. -- grandma
and grandpa are both in a hard spot, they{re going through some serious
trials, but one thing i{ve learned in the mission is that when we{re
in our trial, especially the ones that hurt -- spiritually or
temporally-- is when we most come to know the savior because we feel a
part of what he felt. and then i read moms letter, mom wrote of how
the family has had the chance to serve grandpa and grandma this past
week, and i thought of how in the moment when christ suffered, his
father couldnt help him, he couldnt take away the pain, but he did
send an angel to strengthen him. like wise sometimes we can not take
away the pain of others, but sometimes the lord sends us as angels to
strenghten those who are in moments of affliction.
anway--
love you all. dont have a ton of time but i look forward to hearing
your voice and see your faces christmas!!!
Letter #61 12/05/11 Cardenas, Tabasco!
hey fam, so this week i{m writting you from Cardenas, Tabasco!
yep i got transfered. its been crzy this week. tuesdy we left
zapata and arrived in villahermosa para a Zone leaders council. it
was probably one of my favorite meetings tht i{ve attended here in the
mission. there was a powerful spirit there, there were 20 of us and
the assitnts and the president of hte mission. we spent the whole
two days tlking about what we{re going to be doing to focus more in
families in the coming months. i felt pretty overwhelmed to be there
actually, the elders there are some of the best in the mission. with
powerful testimonies, tht really know how to do missionary work.
elder tlachi was there, it ws nice to see him again, along with alot
of my past zone leaders.
tuesday night after the meeting the president told me where i ws going
to be going. he told me that i{d be serving in Cardenas con elder
Fiasal.
wednesday we had another meeting but wednesdy night we headed to the
area. the zone-city is called cardenas, my area is a ward called
petrolera, there are nine companionships in the zone. and one of
the companion ships is sister missionaries! so that{ll be intersting.
actually its been pretty fun these past few days, getting settled
into the zone leader asignments, in zapata, eldre picket kindof took care of
everything, but here i get to do everything. ha, elder fiasal is
interesting. he{s a convert to the church. i think he{s got like 3
or 4 years of being a member. he{s nice guy, we get along pretty well,
but anyway its ok, because i{m pretty organized and so i think we{ll
even each other out. i{m excited to be working with him, he has
alot of experience really, he{s been a zone leader for along time,
and he{s going to finish the mish in febuary.
the ward here is dead. we{ve had like 30 people or less there
sunday. the bishops nice, the leaders are good. but theres just
not enough active members and the whole wards pretty depressed. but
i{m going to focus lot this week in trying to get the leaders of the
organizations active and strt doing visits with them. also i think
we{re going to be looking for less active families that we can
activate, and praying to know who we should visit.
--
we watched the christmas first presidency devotionl sunday, tht was
super neat. i was thinking all yesterday bout president monson, and
what an incredible man he is. he really is an inspiration and a
example for all of us. i admire so much the charity and the love he
shows towards everyone. i watched video that was alike summary of
things he{s done in his life this week and it really made me think of
how selfless he is, how much faith he puts in the lord, there was
a part in the video that shows when he was called as an apostle and he
talked in conference for the first time, idk exactly how he said it
but he said something along the lines of - if my life has any worth
or meaning, my only wish it to waste it out in the service of the
lord and to live worth of the holy calling which he hs given me!
--- i{ve was thinking alot about how it is that a person becomes
like him, and then this morning i read an articule in the october
conference of 2010, that talks about Faith and charcter, but it said
there tht we hve to be constantly, every day, the person we desire to
become -- not only in action but in thought, even our desires, and
if we do that, then with time we actually become that person. i
know this applies much to missionary work, and really to all of us.
my mish pres. said this week thta we dont have to wait to be a
bishop to act like one, we dont have to wait to be mish pres to act
like one, we dont have to wait to be a god, to act like one. i
know that if we give our best effort everyday to be come what the lord
wants us to be, living in the way that he taught, we will one day be
like unto him, nd full of his love.
hope you have a great week.
love elder lloyd
yep i got transfered. its been crzy this week. tuesdy we left
zapata and arrived in villahermosa para a Zone leaders council. it
was probably one of my favorite meetings tht i{ve attended here in the
mission. there was a powerful spirit there, there were 20 of us and
the assitnts and the president of hte mission. we spent the whole
two days tlking about what we{re going to be doing to focus more in
families in the coming months. i felt pretty overwhelmed to be there
actually, the elders there are some of the best in the mission. with
powerful testimonies, tht really know how to do missionary work.
elder tlachi was there, it ws nice to see him again, along with alot
of my past zone leaders.
tuesday night after the meeting the president told me where i ws going
to be going. he told me that i{d be serving in Cardenas con elder
Fiasal.
wednesday we had another meeting but wednesdy night we headed to the
area. the zone-city is called cardenas, my area is a ward called
petrolera, there are nine companionships in the zone. and one of
the companion ships is sister missionaries! so that{ll be intersting.
actually its been pretty fun these past few days, getting settled
into the zone leader asignments, in zapata, eldre picket kindof took care of
everything, but here i get to do everything. ha, elder fiasal is
interesting. he{s a convert to the church. i think he{s got like 3
or 4 years of being a member. he{s nice guy, we get along pretty well,
but anyway its ok, because i{m pretty organized and so i think we{ll
even each other out. i{m excited to be working with him, he has
alot of experience really, he{s been a zone leader for along time,
and he{s going to finish the mish in febuary.
the ward here is dead. we{ve had like 30 people or less there
sunday. the bishops nice, the leaders are good. but theres just
not enough active members and the whole wards pretty depressed. but
i{m going to focus lot this week in trying to get the leaders of the
organizations active and strt doing visits with them. also i think
we{re going to be looking for less active families that we can
activate, and praying to know who we should visit.
--
we watched the christmas first presidency devotionl sunday, tht was
super neat. i was thinking all yesterday bout president monson, and
what an incredible man he is. he really is an inspiration and a
example for all of us. i admire so much the charity and the love he
shows towards everyone. i watched video that was alike summary of
things he{s done in his life this week and it really made me think of
how selfless he is, how much faith he puts in the lord, there was
a part in the video that shows when he was called as an apostle and he
talked in conference for the first time, idk exactly how he said it
but he said something along the lines of - if my life has any worth
or meaning, my only wish it to waste it out in the service of the
lord and to live worth of the holy calling which he hs given me!
--- i{ve was thinking alot about how it is that a person becomes
like him, and then this morning i read an articule in the october
conference of 2010, that talks about Faith and charcter, but it said
there tht we hve to be constantly, every day, the person we desire to
become -- not only in action but in thought, even our desires, and
if we do that, then with time we actually become that person. i
know this applies much to missionary work, and really to all of us.
my mish pres. said this week thta we dont have to wait to be a
bishop to act like one, we dont have to wait to be mish pres to act
like one, we dont have to wait to be a god, to act like one. i
know that if we give our best effort everyday to be come what the lord
wants us to be, living in the way that he taught, we will one day be
like unto him, nd full of his love.
hope you have a great week.
love elder lloyd
Letter #60 11/28/11 Transfers- What???
 |
| Matt and Elder Piquet and Elder Luna |
hey fam!
so i´ve got some news! looks like i´m leaving zapata! they just
called me. i´m leaving tomorrow to villahermosa for a conference with
all the other zone leaders, and they told me and elder luna that we
need to bring our bags because we´re getting transfers. they didnt
tell me where or what i´m going to be doing, i might be zone leader
still or maybe i´ll be training again, idk. they havent told me
anything.
i´m a bit bummed because we´re looking at an awesome month. we have a
good 10 people that are going to baptized here this month of december.
that would have been more than in any other month of my mission.
but i know that the lord calls you to serve where he needs you. and
obviously i learned what i needed to here. honestly when he called
i just got this heavy feeling in my heart, but right now i´m feeling
a lot better. i learned a TON here in two weeks. this has easily been
the best companionship i´ve had. elder piquet and elder luna, both super
experienced super hard workers. but honestly right now i just have even
more desires to do even better than these past two weeks. i want to arrive
to the next area and be even more obedient, and consecrated.
yesterday the mission president and the temple president came to our
branch. it was a really spiritual meeting. i could feel the spirit
so strong in my heart. during sacrament meeting the president spoke
about being able to hear the voice of the spirit and letting it guide
us in our lives. which is intresting because i´ve been thinking
about that all this week. The mission president knows exactly what to
do and what to say and who to help and how to help them in every
minute. he doesnt rest he doesnt stop. he´s always doing something.
every moment. and i know its because the voice of the spirit is
guiding him and inspiring him to know what to do. i have felt that
way as well in moments of the mission but not in every moment, and i
think thats what i´ll be focusing more of in this next transfer.
learning to rely on the lord to know what to do.
in the afternoon yesterday the mission president spoke about his
childhood and i realized how he became the man he is. his mother
and him read the book of mormon together. she asigned 10 chapters a
week to each of her children and then in family night would ask them
questions ranking in difficulty 1-10 and with the years he grew to
love the book of mormon with all his heart. so much that at the
age of 10 he could activate his father, his father wasnt paying
tithing and because of that they werent sealed in the temple. but he
said that every week he and his brothers met together and made plans
of how they were going to help their father. and eventually after
like a year of working with his brothers, they had a famly night that
was so powerful that their dad committed to do whatever it takes so
they could be together forever and their family was sealed in the
temple soon after!!!
anyway. to answer your questions
-yes i´m eating. i dont feel like i´ve lost weight. i´m eating more
here than ever before. i eat oatmeal every morning!! and we always
eat a big lunch. idk. i´m going to start excercising better
though so maybe i´ll muscle up a bit and look a bit bigger =) haha.
-thanks so much for the christmas stuff!! the decorations are great.
and the tape is super super funny. i do have to say to jack and
slater though that my video gaming desires have almost completely
left. its weird. i dont even have any desires to pwn some newbs or
zergling rush some protoss bases..... --
-tell my grandmas that they are in my prayers and i love them so much.
how did grandma b fall?? i hope she´s doing alright! i love so
much getting her emails!
- also -- i received grma B-s package and ronettes, i´m going to
have to open them up though to fit them in my luggage -- i´ll do my
best not to look though!! ha
any way, gtg. have a great week!
-elder lloyd
Letter #59 11/21/11 Zapata!!
so i didnt have a chance to read your emails, i printed them
off and i´ll read them later in the day. but the way my new
companions like to do things is a bit different. they like to do all
the writing in the morning. in carmen i always printed off the
emails in the morning read them in the day and in the afternoon i
wrote you all. but here it´ll be a bit different. there are two
options, i can read your emails first and then send you a weekly
letter thats shorter. or i can send a letter without reading your
letters and it´ll be a bit more detailed. -- my guess is you´d like
one a bit more detailed. but you guys can decide.
ah! man being a zone leader is a lot different than i thought it would
be. ha. but i can honestly say these are easily the best two
companions i´ve had in my mission. we have no problems whatsoever,
we get along so well. we do our contacts, teach good lessons, we
have the spirit. and its just been super super great this past week.
everything has just gone really really well. its something that
i´ve never really experienced in the mission. elder luna and piquet
are sooo good. obedient, spiritual, and they really know how to do
missionary work. we´ve been working with members a lot this past week ---
something that I struggled with in past areas, and we´ve found some new
families that are progressing really well. elder luna has 23 months in the
mission and is about to end, and elder piquet has one more transfer than
me in the mission. but elder piquet is one of those elders that works
miracles, he´s divided 2 branches and the president always sends him
to the hardest areas. elder luna was my zone leader in carmen when i
first arrived there. i´m super pumped to learn from them. i feel
like i´m progressing a lot better here and learning a ton.
the zone is HUGE, it takes up a huge area of Tabasco, on a map,
i´m in a city thats called Emiliano Zapata, there are 5 elders here,
in 1 branch. the president loves this branch though and wants it
to grow fast. but the zone goes to cities like palenque,
tenosique, balacan, Trienfo, Candelaria. there are more than 20
elders in the zone. and its very spread out. the farthest
companionship is like 5 hours away, close to the boarder of guatamala
i think. i´m not sure, i havent seen a good map of the area.
mostly i´m just super super pumped to be a misionary right now. i´m
just trying really hard right now to be more and more obedient, and
stay humble so i can learn a lot from my companions and so that the
lord can help me. i feel really overwelmed, but i know the lord
will help me to be able to guide and inspire my zone. the zones in
pretty bad shape right now. they arent baptizing, but we´re working
with the elders and we´re excited to see baptisms in december!
also
- this week i saw elder tlachi!!! i about died. i gave him a big
hug. he´s such a great elder. he´s serving right now as zone leader
in villa.
- this week i ate that summer sausage you sent me -- that was super
good - thanks
-we had a baptism this week-, a guy named f! he´s so great.
he bore his testimony in the baptism, his families been giving him a
hard time but he´s working really hard and i know he´ll stay active!
anyway. i want to chat, so
ttyl
love ya´ll
-elder lloyd
CHAT:
no one celebrates thanksgiving here, actually i thought it was last
week -- ha
i´m doing good health wise i think i´ll probably lose weight here,
we do a lot more walking up and down hills, and a lot of running too.
its weird to not see the ocean, but theres a huge river by the city.
piquet is from idaho, luna from monterey
> I'll bet it will be fun living with a group! What's the area like? Is it
> hotter? More jungle-ish? How many active branch members?
ya its been good this past week. the elders are way fun. i´m working on
the whole social interaction with other elders thing ha. because i know
as a zone leader i have to be super super excited super friendly.
its hotter here, its a jungle, lots of hills, reminds me so much of what
I imagine when i think of the lamanites. this is definitely the land
bountiful!
there are 100 active members of the branch mas o menos (more or less)
>> What's your apartment like? Do you have a car?
the apartment is big, 1 super big room, and two others, and a kitchen.
but there are 5 elders living here.
haha, no we dont have a car, that would be sick though and really
helpful, sadly there are only two cars in the mission, one for the
president and one for the elderes in the offices!
bah, my times up. bah. love you all. talk to you next week.
just know, i´m healthy and happy.
you all be safe, happy and healthy as well!!
love you, bye
off and i´ll read them later in the day. but the way my new
companions like to do things is a bit different. they like to do all
the writing in the morning. in carmen i always printed off the
emails in the morning read them in the day and in the afternoon i
wrote you all. but here it´ll be a bit different. there are two
options, i can read your emails first and then send you a weekly
letter thats shorter. or i can send a letter without reading your
letters and it´ll be a bit more detailed. -- my guess is you´d like
one a bit more detailed. but you guys can decide.
ah! man being a zone leader is a lot different than i thought it would
be. ha. but i can honestly say these are easily the best two
companions i´ve had in my mission. we have no problems whatsoever,
we get along so well. we do our contacts, teach good lessons, we
have the spirit. and its just been super super great this past week.
everything has just gone really really well. its something that
i´ve never really experienced in the mission. elder luna and piquet
are sooo good. obedient, spiritual, and they really know how to do
missionary work. we´ve been working with members a lot this past week ---
something that I struggled with in past areas, and we´ve found some new
families that are progressing really well. elder luna has 23 months in the
mission and is about to end, and elder piquet has one more transfer than
me in the mission. but elder piquet is one of those elders that works
miracles, he´s divided 2 branches and the president always sends him
to the hardest areas. elder luna was my zone leader in carmen when i
first arrived there. i´m super pumped to learn from them. i feel
like i´m progressing a lot better here and learning a ton.
the zone is HUGE, it takes up a huge area of Tabasco, on a map,
i´m in a city thats called Emiliano Zapata, there are 5 elders here,
in 1 branch. the president loves this branch though and wants it
to grow fast. but the zone goes to cities like palenque,
tenosique, balacan, Trienfo, Candelaria. there are more than 20
elders in the zone. and its very spread out. the farthest
companionship is like 5 hours away, close to the boarder of guatamala
i think. i´m not sure, i havent seen a good map of the area.
mostly i´m just super super pumped to be a misionary right now. i´m
just trying really hard right now to be more and more obedient, and
stay humble so i can learn a lot from my companions and so that the
lord can help me. i feel really overwelmed, but i know the lord
will help me to be able to guide and inspire my zone. the zones in
pretty bad shape right now. they arent baptizing, but we´re working
with the elders and we´re excited to see baptisms in december!
also
- this week i saw elder tlachi!!! i about died. i gave him a big
hug. he´s such a great elder. he´s serving right now as zone leader
in villa.
- this week i ate that summer sausage you sent me -- that was super
good - thanks
-we had a baptism this week-, a guy named f! he´s so great.
he bore his testimony in the baptism, his families been giving him a
hard time but he´s working really hard and i know he´ll stay active!
anyway. i want to chat, so
ttyl
love ya´ll
-elder lloyd
CHAT:
no one celebrates thanksgiving here, actually i thought it was last
week -- ha
i´m doing good health wise i think i´ll probably lose weight here,
we do a lot more walking up and down hills, and a lot of running too.
its weird to not see the ocean, but theres a huge river by the city.
piquet is from idaho, luna from monterey
> I'll bet it will be fun living with a group! What's the area like? Is it
> hotter? More jungle-ish? How many active branch members?
ya its been good this past week. the elders are way fun. i´m working on
the whole social interaction with other elders thing ha. because i know
as a zone leader i have to be super super excited super friendly.
its hotter here, its a jungle, lots of hills, reminds me so much of what
I imagine when i think of the lamanites. this is definitely the land
bountiful!
there are 100 active members of the branch mas o menos (more or less)
>> What's your apartment like? Do you have a car?
the apartment is big, 1 super big room, and two others, and a kitchen.
but there are 5 elders living here.
haha, no we dont have a car, that would be sick though and really
helpful, sadly there are only two cars in the mission, one for the
president and one for the elderes in the offices!
bah, my times up. bah. love you all. talk to you next week.
just know, i´m healthy and happy.
you all be safe, happy and healthy as well!!
love you, bye
Letter #58 11/14/11 Transfer! Zone Leader!!
Hola familia, como están!!!
Well i havent had a chance to read your emails today, but i´m printing them off so i can read them in the afternoon or tonight!!
Its been a super crazy day. We´ve been getting everything ready for me to go! sadly, it is finally my time to leave ciudad del carmen!
its been really an incredible time here. i love the people that i´ve
been able to meet and teach. i´ve taught soooo many people in the last 6 months here and its been wonderful to have had this chance to
share my testimony with the people of carmen. i love the members and
i love the people that i was able to teach and baptize. this week
we had a baptism -- PA. he´s 28 years old and married,
he says they already have plans to come be sealed in the salt lake utah temple, so i´m pretty pumped that i´ll be able to go with them a
year from now! P has a huge testimony and i know he´s going to
be a huge help to the church here.
this next week -- after i leave =( two more people are going to be baptized, R, and his cousin, his cousin we found thursday.. but get this, she has the coolest name i´ve ever heard in my life -- her
name is Light of Getsemani, can you believe that. i was in
divisions when my companion found her, but aparently the minute they met her they asked her her name and then when she said G they immidiately taught her the atonement and she accepted to be baptized
right there-- cool eh. pretty pumped for them!
but about the transfers--
i´m going to a new area -- its called Zapata! and i´m going to be
in a trio, with elder luna and elder picket. and -- i´m going to
be a zone leader!! when they called me this morning to tell me i was shocked. but i´m super pumped to go down there and get working. i´ll be working with elder luna and picket which are two excellent missionaries and i´m so excited to be able to learn from them and
progress as a missionary. not to mention that zapata is the zone
that is baptising the most people right now!! super excited to get
to work. every transfer is like another chance to start over and
to commit to be even better. and thats what i want to do, i´m excited to move to a new area and start fresh. work with all my heart and really love the people there. i think thats the key to missionary work. loving the people and being humble enough to do the lords will and not your own.
elder jepson will be staying here with his new companion elder Robison. i was in the mtc with elder robison, and he´s a great missionary, he and my companion will be able to do a lot of good work here. there are sooo many people soooo close to baptism here in carmen!
well i dont have a ton more to tell but next week will be like a novel so i can tell you all about everything!
love,
-- elder lloyd
Well i havent had a chance to read your emails today, but i´m printing them off so i can read them in the afternoon or tonight!!
Its been a super crazy day. We´ve been getting everything ready for me to go! sadly, it is finally my time to leave ciudad del carmen!
its been really an incredible time here. i love the people that i´ve
been able to meet and teach. i´ve taught soooo many people in the last 6 months here and its been wonderful to have had this chance to
share my testimony with the people of carmen. i love the members and
i love the people that i was able to teach and baptize. this week
we had a baptism -- PA. he´s 28 years old and married,
he says they already have plans to come be sealed in the salt lake utah temple, so i´m pretty pumped that i´ll be able to go with them a
year from now! P has a huge testimony and i know he´s going to
be a huge help to the church here.
this next week -- after i leave =( two more people are going to be baptized, R, and his cousin, his cousin we found thursday.. but get this, she has the coolest name i´ve ever heard in my life -- her
name is Light of Getsemani, can you believe that. i was in
divisions when my companion found her, but aparently the minute they met her they asked her her name and then when she said G they immidiately taught her the atonement and she accepted to be baptized
right there-- cool eh. pretty pumped for them!
but about the transfers--
i´m going to a new area -- its called Zapata! and i´m going to be
in a trio, with elder luna and elder picket. and -- i´m going to
be a zone leader!! when they called me this morning to tell me i was shocked. but i´m super pumped to go down there and get working. i´ll be working with elder luna and picket which are two excellent missionaries and i´m so excited to be able to learn from them and
progress as a missionary. not to mention that zapata is the zone
that is baptising the most people right now!! super excited to get
to work. every transfer is like another chance to start over and
to commit to be even better. and thats what i want to do, i´m excited to move to a new area and start fresh. work with all my heart and really love the people there. i think thats the key to missionary work. loving the people and being humble enough to do the lords will and not your own.
elder jepson will be staying here with his new companion elder Robison. i was in the mtc with elder robison, and he´s a great missionary, he and my companion will be able to do a lot of good work here. there are sooo many people soooo close to baptism here in carmen!
well i dont have a ton more to tell but next week will be like a novel so i can tell you all about everything!
love,
-- elder lloyd
Letter #57 11/07/11 An Impromptu Concert!!
Family,
its been a busy week here in puerto real. we´ve been working a lot to
get things prepared for the new elder who´s going to come here. we´re
not 100% sure about cambios, but i´ve been here for 4 transfers so my
guess is i´ll be going soon. transfers are next week. but this week
we´ve got two potencial baptisms, a man named pablo alejandro, who i
started teaching in august, didnt really teach in september at all
and not much in october but we went back with him a week ago and he´s
very excited now to be a member of the church. its pretty interesting
how the lord prepares his children. many times if someone isnt quite
ready if you just leave them for a week or two and come back things
have changed and their heart is more open. its just proof that the
lord does the greatest part of this work, not the missionaries. the
other baptism we´ll be having for this week is a boy named ricardo
thats related to some of the members of the ward. he´s super good,
he goes to seminary every day and wants to go to the church high school
they have here in mexico! we´re pretty pumped for the both of them.
this week we also had interviews with the presidente, that was a great
experience like always. i love talking with him. he always helps me
so much to see how i need to change and be better. he told me i
really need to help my comp to be prepared so by the end of the
transfer it´d be possible for him to be a companion mayor. idk if
he´ll actually be a senior companion this next transfer but my guess
is soon!!
my companion and i really want to give everything we´ve got with
this last bit of time we´ve got.
cool story-- yesterday when we got back to the house, one of the two
evangelical churches on our block (fuente de auga viva) was having a
party with music that was sooooooo loud. we could hear it from blocks
and blocks away. -- and we are like the house right next door
basically. so the music was super loud in our apartment. the
band that was playing had guitars and drums and piano, -- one of those
christian rock groups. and while we sat there we had the idea come to
our mind that we should go and sing to them--- so we left the
apartment and asked the guy in charge of the concert if we could sing
-- and he said yes, so me and my companion went on stage and sang "god
loved us so he sent his son" it was intense because there were a good
50 people there eating and partying and the atmosphere totally
changed. my companion and i felt the spirit as we testified reverently
of our testimony of the savior through song, we didnt have time to
talk to very many people after we sang but just went back to the
apartment, it was a pretty cool experience and i´m hoping that some
of the people who heard sometime when missionaries pass by their house
will at least be interested in knowing more about who we are and what
we believe in!
as for goods for the packages --
i´m good on the socks i believe, maybe a new shirt or two would be
good, fitted would be nice, music-- i would like the hymns in
spanish if they have them --- idk. or if they dont have them in
spanish you could send them in english but i really just want hymns.
or primary songs, i´d love primary songs -- and if they have them in
spanish itd be better!
as for food- what ever you send will be great. i dont know if i can
buy cake mixes here i havent checked. but that was super super good
the day i had it!
well i gtg.
much love
bye
its been a busy week here in puerto real. we´ve been working a lot to
get things prepared for the new elder who´s going to come here. we´re
not 100% sure about cambios, but i´ve been here for 4 transfers so my
guess is i´ll be going soon. transfers are next week. but this week
we´ve got two potencial baptisms, a man named pablo alejandro, who i
started teaching in august, didnt really teach in september at all
and not much in october but we went back with him a week ago and he´s
very excited now to be a member of the church. its pretty interesting
how the lord prepares his children. many times if someone isnt quite
ready if you just leave them for a week or two and come back things
have changed and their heart is more open. its just proof that the
lord does the greatest part of this work, not the missionaries. the
other baptism we´ll be having for this week is a boy named ricardo
thats related to some of the members of the ward. he´s super good,
he goes to seminary every day and wants to go to the church high school
they have here in mexico! we´re pretty pumped for the both of them.
this week we also had interviews with the presidente, that was a great
experience like always. i love talking with him. he always helps me
so much to see how i need to change and be better. he told me i
really need to help my comp to be prepared so by the end of the
transfer it´d be possible for him to be a companion mayor. idk if
he´ll actually be a senior companion this next transfer but my guess
is soon!!
my companion and i really want to give everything we´ve got with
this last bit of time we´ve got.
cool story-- yesterday when we got back to the house, one of the two
evangelical churches on our block (fuente de auga viva) was having a
party with music that was sooooooo loud. we could hear it from blocks
and blocks away. -- and we are like the house right next door
basically. so the music was super loud in our apartment. the
band that was playing had guitars and drums and piano, -- one of those
christian rock groups. and while we sat there we had the idea come to
our mind that we should go and sing to them--- so we left the
apartment and asked the guy in charge of the concert if we could sing
-- and he said yes, so me and my companion went on stage and sang "god
loved us so he sent his son" it was intense because there were a good
50 people there eating and partying and the atmosphere totally
changed. my companion and i felt the spirit as we testified reverently
of our testimony of the savior through song, we didnt have time to
talk to very many people after we sang but just went back to the
apartment, it was a pretty cool experience and i´m hoping that some
of the people who heard sometime when missionaries pass by their house
will at least be interested in knowing more about who we are and what
we believe in!
as for goods for the packages --
i´m good on the socks i believe, maybe a new shirt or two would be
good, fitted would be nice, music-- i would like the hymns in
spanish if they have them --- idk. or if they dont have them in
spanish you could send them in english but i really just want hymns.
or primary songs, i´d love primary songs -- and if they have them in
spanish itd be better!
as for food- what ever you send will be great. i dont know if i can
buy cake mixes here i havent checked. but that was super super good
the day i had it!
well i gtg.
much love
bye
Letter #56 10/31/11 Happy Halloween!
Hey Family,
i´m writing you a little bit earlier today, its been an interesting
p-day. we´ve been running all day. we woke up and washed the clothes
then went back to the house and made pancakes from a cake mix we found
in the house. it was super super good with that nutela that you guys
have sent me. then went to a lesson with a kid thats been going to
church and seminary for 2 months and hasnt been baptised yet! he
accepted to be baptized the 12th of november if his parents give him
permission. we´re pretty pumped for him! he´s got a big testimony.
only problem is he´ll be the only member in his family. his aunts and
uncles are members though so thats good.
thanks for the long letters this week! pretty intense week.
sounds like jack and slater got a little bit of a taste of what i went
through from 7-12 grade. yikes. i still feel stupid about that.
i wish i would have just done my homework. would have been 100 times
easier. the good thing is right now i seriously love studying and
learning. i´m hoping when i get back from the mish it´ll be the same.
so glad to hear things with moms buisness are going so well. thats
super exciting. glad to hear that jack and slater are going to the
temple plenty. we can all go together when i get back. the whole
family. bautismos por los muertos! woot.
this week we´ve been studying la Caridad. -- charity. --- as a
mission. as a mission we memorized corintians 13, that is an
incredible chapter, and i really didnt realize how incredible was
until i memorized it. you can learn something different from every
single line of that chapter. i think i´ve said it so many times that
its just getting more and more planted in my heart. it doesnt
matter how great of a teacher i am, it doesnt matter if i have all hte
knowledge or if i understand all the mysterys of god, or if my faith
is so great that i can move moutains -- if i dont have charity. i am
nothing.
as missionaries if we-re teaching lessons that are super powerful,
super beautiful, with perfect scriptures and we teach like a master,
it doesnt even matter. we have to teach with the love christ would.
i´ve been trying so hard with that this week. its not always easy to
love everyone, even the people you´ve never met. but it hit me hard
this week in a lesson with a less active family i´ve visited many
times. as we taught them i could feel a sincere amor for each of
them, and i invited them to repent and to come back to the fold of
god. the sister has been less active for more than 15 years and
honestly has lost almost all her testimony -- but she promised me that
when she went back to her home town this week she´s start attending
church again. along with her daughter.
really loving the people is the key to missionary work. when we teach
with love, we teach as the lord would. we listen to the spirit. the
spirit knows exactly what this person needs to hear to change their
heart and their life.
anyway. -- just so you know. i ´m doing well. this week we had a
baptism, jose got baptized woooooooot. my first complete family
that i´ve baptized.
anyway family i´m going to go so i can talk more with you!
-elder lloyd
i´m writing you a little bit earlier today, its been an interesting
p-day. we´ve been running all day. we woke up and washed the clothes
then went back to the house and made pancakes from a cake mix we found
in the house. it was super super good with that nutela that you guys
have sent me. then went to a lesson with a kid thats been going to
church and seminary for 2 months and hasnt been baptised yet! he
accepted to be baptized the 12th of november if his parents give him
permission. we´re pretty pumped for him! he´s got a big testimony.
only problem is he´ll be the only member in his family. his aunts and
uncles are members though so thats good.
thanks for the long letters this week! pretty intense week.
sounds like jack and slater got a little bit of a taste of what i went
through from 7-12 grade. yikes. i still feel stupid about that.
i wish i would have just done my homework. would have been 100 times
easier. the good thing is right now i seriously love studying and
learning. i´m hoping when i get back from the mish it´ll be the same.
so glad to hear things with moms buisness are going so well. thats
super exciting. glad to hear that jack and slater are going to the
temple plenty. we can all go together when i get back. the whole
family. bautismos por los muertos! woot.
this week we´ve been studying la Caridad. -- charity. --- as a
mission. as a mission we memorized corintians 13, that is an
incredible chapter, and i really didnt realize how incredible was
until i memorized it. you can learn something different from every
single line of that chapter. i think i´ve said it so many times that
its just getting more and more planted in my heart. it doesnt
matter how great of a teacher i am, it doesnt matter if i have all hte
knowledge or if i understand all the mysterys of god, or if my faith
is so great that i can move moutains -- if i dont have charity. i am
nothing.
as missionaries if we-re teaching lessons that are super powerful,
super beautiful, with perfect scriptures and we teach like a master,
it doesnt even matter. we have to teach with the love christ would.
i´ve been trying so hard with that this week. its not always easy to
love everyone, even the people you´ve never met. but it hit me hard
this week in a lesson with a less active family i´ve visited many
times. as we taught them i could feel a sincere amor for each of
them, and i invited them to repent and to come back to the fold of
god. the sister has been less active for more than 15 years and
honestly has lost almost all her testimony -- but she promised me that
when she went back to her home town this week she´s start attending
church again. along with her daughter.
really loving the people is the key to missionary work. when we teach
with love, we teach as the lord would. we listen to the spirit. the
spirit knows exactly what this person needs to hear to change their
heart and their life.
anyway. -- just so you know. i ´m doing well. this week we had a
baptism, jose got baptized woooooooot. my first complete family
that i´ve baptized.
anyway family i´m going to go so i can talk more with you!
-elder lloyd
Letter #55 10/24/11 Hey Fam
hey fam.
thanks for the emails and the pics. looks like you had a blast in DC!
seeing those pics made me remember of when i was there. that sure
was a fun trip. and thats super cool that you were able to go inside
the white house, and see Obama and go to that new martin luther site.
DC is a pretty legit place i´d say.
this week has been interesting. we werent able to have much success
this week numbers wise. we taught a ton of lessons and a ton of
people, but not very many accepted. we found 8 new families. i´m not
sure if any are going to progress sadly. and then because i´m a
district leader i spent all thursday and friday in the afternoon
interviewing people from other areas for baptism. that was fun. i
seriously love interviewing people for baptism. its the best part of
being a district leader. to be able to hear peoples stories, how
their lives have changed and how they´re sooo excited to be members of
the church. they have testimonies that are pure and such huge desires
to follow christ. it helps me to want to be a better missionary --
being able to hear their testimonies. sadly because i was
interviewing all thursday and friday we werent able to go to our most
important appointments in the night time. one of them being our own
baptism for the week -- j (esposo de e) we had
everything set up for his baptism. and we visited him saturday in the
morning and he said he would be there in the night time. --- but when
we got there in the night and when we had everything up-- he didnt end
up showwing up. he was working and his boss wouldnt let him leave
till 11. it was a real bummer because all the members were already
there in the baptism waiting when we found out that he wasnt going to
come.
we could have just told them all to go home, but instead we decided to
have a testimony meeting about baptism. it worked out really well.
several members gave their conversion stories, and elder jepson and i
sang a special number of parts from be still my soul mixed with
nearer my god to thee. i think all the people who came left edified.
elder jepson and i were still pretty bummed though. we were really
hoping he could be baptized and it would be a complete new family of
members. and then we might be able to go to the temple with them the
next year.
this week my companion and i are really going to focus in finding new
people to teach. and teaching with more power and authority.
this week we had one day that was especially hard. all our
appointments fell through, we couldnt find anyone to teach, and we sat
down to see who we could visit and we realized that we dont have many
investigators that are actually progressing right now. and seriously
we were super depressed. but we sat down and started taking turns
counting our blessings. and they started out super super vague --
like -- we`re alive, or we´re serving a mission. but they started
getting more and more sincere as we realized our gratitude for the
savior and for the book of mormon and the things we´ve been able to
read and learn. and the experience the lord is letting us have right
now. then we decided to share our favorites scriptures and it was
incredible how fast we were filled with strength. the spirit touched
our hearts and we were ready to work again.
i am so greatful for the peace and the comfort that comes through the
companionship of the holy ghost. he really can help us in any moment
and his presence is absolutely necessary in mision work. when he is
the senior companion -- we have so much more success. i feel at
sometimes like i forget that so easily, i just work work work but
forget that if that work is not guided by the spirit and in the way
the savior would do it -- we wont see success. success comes from
working in the way the savior would. with love, and with the spirit.
well family i´m going to cut it short.
-- i think i´ll be recieving your package later in the week at a zone
conference or tomorrow when my companion goes to villahermosa for the
day!
-much love
elder lloyd
thanks for the emails and the pics. looks like you had a blast in DC!
seeing those pics made me remember of when i was there. that sure
was a fun trip. and thats super cool that you were able to go inside
the white house, and see Obama and go to that new martin luther site.
DC is a pretty legit place i´d say.
this week has been interesting. we werent able to have much success
this week numbers wise. we taught a ton of lessons and a ton of
people, but not very many accepted. we found 8 new families. i´m not
sure if any are going to progress sadly. and then because i´m a
district leader i spent all thursday and friday in the afternoon
interviewing people from other areas for baptism. that was fun. i
seriously love interviewing people for baptism. its the best part of
being a district leader. to be able to hear peoples stories, how
their lives have changed and how they´re sooo excited to be members of
the church. they have testimonies that are pure and such huge desires
to follow christ. it helps me to want to be a better missionary --
being able to hear their testimonies. sadly because i was
interviewing all thursday and friday we werent able to go to our most
important appointments in the night time. one of them being our own
baptism for the week -- j (esposo de e) we had
everything set up for his baptism. and we visited him saturday in the
morning and he said he would be there in the night time. --- but when
we got there in the night and when we had everything up-- he didnt end
up showwing up. he was working and his boss wouldnt let him leave
till 11. it was a real bummer because all the members were already
there in the baptism waiting when we found out that he wasnt going to
come.
we could have just told them all to go home, but instead we decided to
have a testimony meeting about baptism. it worked out really well.
several members gave their conversion stories, and elder jepson and i
sang a special number of parts from be still my soul mixed with
nearer my god to thee. i think all the people who came left edified.
elder jepson and i were still pretty bummed though. we were really
hoping he could be baptized and it would be a complete new family of
members. and then we might be able to go to the temple with them the
next year.
this week my companion and i are really going to focus in finding new
people to teach. and teaching with more power and authority.
this week we had one day that was especially hard. all our
appointments fell through, we couldnt find anyone to teach, and we sat
down to see who we could visit and we realized that we dont have many
investigators that are actually progressing right now. and seriously
we were super depressed. but we sat down and started taking turns
counting our blessings. and they started out super super vague --
like -- we`re alive, or we´re serving a mission. but they started
getting more and more sincere as we realized our gratitude for the
savior and for the book of mormon and the things we´ve been able to
read and learn. and the experience the lord is letting us have right
now. then we decided to share our favorites scriptures and it was
incredible how fast we were filled with strength. the spirit touched
our hearts and we were ready to work again.
i am so greatful for the peace and the comfort that comes through the
companionship of the holy ghost. he really can help us in any moment
and his presence is absolutely necessary in mision work. when he is
the senior companion -- we have so much more success. i feel at
sometimes like i forget that so easily, i just work work work but
forget that if that work is not guided by the spirit and in the way
the savior would do it -- we wont see success. success comes from
working in the way the savior would. with love, and with the spirit.
well family i´m going to cut it short.
-- i think i´ll be recieving your package later in the week at a zone
conference or tomorrow when my companion goes to villahermosa for the
day!
-much love
elder lloyd
Letter #54 10/17/11 Hola Familia- Como estan???
hola familia.
como estan??
sounds like you{ve had a busy week. i{m pumped to hear about your
trip to DC i hope all goes well! my companion and I are doing
very well here in mexico.
to answer some of your questions,
we havent been able to teach a in a long time. her husband was
good for a while but when we started talking about baptism with him he
felt like it was too soon. and not something that he wanted to do.
yikes. and they havent been able to get married. i dont know why.
everytime we talk with them its a different excuse. which is a
bummmer. but i{m confidente that we helped her prepare more for
baptism and the lord will continue preparing her and make her
situacion more open for baptism soon. idk how but i{m hoping so much
one of these days we get a text or call from her telling us to come
visit her!
yes i bought a hammock. mostly just because i wanted one ha. this is
mexico and all the walls in the houses here have places that you can
hang hammocks up so since i arrived i{ve wanted one. its super
comfortable. my companion is way jealous haha. its a blue hammock
obviously. i{ll send you some pics soon.
j didnt end up getting baptized this week. he{s got some problems
from his past that he needs to fix up before he can be baptized.
a y d couldnt be baptized either because turns out her
husband doesnt believe in god, he believes in science.. ha. and he{s
super super control crazy and wont let them even attend church any
more.
but we{ve got a lot of new people we{re visiting that i think will be
good. we{re gearing up for november. we found a family this week
that i think is one of the poorest i{ve ever seen in my life.
family of four. the husband left them to die basically. the wife
doesnt have a job. they only eat eggs- and egg here costs 1 peso.
they dont even have enough money for rice and beans --- super super
super humble. we{re bringing her rice and beans tomorrow. and she
accepted to be baptized only she said she doesnt have a way to
get to the church --
the transfer will be mid november we want to baptize as many as we
can the first two weeks of november. i want to leave this area super
ready for the next missionary that comes!!
elder jepson is doing well. progressing well. teaching more. his
spanish is progressing. he{s a great missionary.
we{re excited to be here. i gave a talk in church this sunday on the
temple. they didnt tell me until after the meeting had started. it
was great the guy got up and was like --- and next we{ll have a talk
from elder lloyd about the temples. apparentely the person that was
going to speak didnt show up.
i love you all my family. i{m a bit tired but thats how it should
be!!! i hope i come home so tired i collapse in the airport =p that
will be a sign that i did the work well.
talk to you next week!
elder lloyd
como estan??
sounds like you{ve had a busy week. i{m pumped to hear about your
trip to DC i hope all goes well! my companion and I are doing
very well here in mexico.
to answer some of your questions,
we havent been able to teach a in a long time. her husband was
good for a while but when we started talking about baptism with him he
felt like it was too soon. and not something that he wanted to do.
yikes. and they havent been able to get married. i dont know why.
everytime we talk with them its a different excuse. which is a
bummmer. but i{m confidente that we helped her prepare more for
baptism and the lord will continue preparing her and make her
situacion more open for baptism soon. idk how but i{m hoping so much
one of these days we get a text or call from her telling us to come
visit her!
yes i bought a hammock. mostly just because i wanted one ha. this is
mexico and all the walls in the houses here have places that you can
hang hammocks up so since i arrived i{ve wanted one. its super
comfortable. my companion is way jealous haha. its a blue hammock
obviously. i{ll send you some pics soon.
j didnt end up getting baptized this week. he{s got some problems
from his past that he needs to fix up before he can be baptized.
a y d couldnt be baptized either because turns out her
husband doesnt believe in god, he believes in science.. ha. and he{s
super super control crazy and wont let them even attend church any
more.
but we{ve got a lot of new people we{re visiting that i think will be
good. we{re gearing up for november. we found a family this week
that i think is one of the poorest i{ve ever seen in my life.
family of four. the husband left them to die basically. the wife
doesnt have a job. they only eat eggs- and egg here costs 1 peso.
they dont even have enough money for rice and beans --- super super
super humble. we{re bringing her rice and beans tomorrow. and she
accepted to be baptized only she said she doesnt have a way to
get to the church --
the transfer will be mid november we want to baptize as many as we
can the first two weeks of november. i want to leave this area super
ready for the next missionary that comes!!
elder jepson is doing well. progressing well. teaching more. his
spanish is progressing. he{s a great missionary.
we{re excited to be here. i gave a talk in church this sunday on the
temple. they didnt tell me until after the meeting had started. it
was great the guy got up and was like --- and next we{ll have a talk
from elder lloyd about the temples. apparentely the person that was
going to speak didnt show up.
i love you all my family. i{m a bit tired but thats how it should
be!!! i hope i come home so tired i collapse in the airport =p that
will be a sign that i did the work well.
talk to you next week!
elder lloyd
Letter #53 One Year??? Where did that go??
 |
| Matt, his companion Elder Jepson,and the most recent converts! |
 |
| What a beautiful day!! |
BAUTISMO!!!
wahooooooooooooooooooooooooo
this week we finally had our baptismal service. woot. three
people were baptized. e and her daughter x, y una
hermana named r. we were so excited. early in the week
we werent sure if they were actually going to be baptized. but we
went and visited and we were able to help these three people realize
that this was the time. it was so great to be back in the water!
i baptized x, elder jepson baptized e and a brother from
the ward baptized r. it was neat because it was elder jepson´s
first baptism and he was so pumped. it was like christmas
day for him. ah you should have seen his face when he entered the
water. super super happy.
the baptismal service was great. super spiritual. a lot of
investigators and some recent converts from other branches came. the
primary sang a song and it was really pretty. i think everyone left
edified. especially e and x. and r.
e´s husband will be baptized the next week, with two more of our
investigators -- A y D.
other than the baptisms i´ve been super good. mi compañero y yo
estamos bien animados por tener un otro cinco semanas juntos.
we´re hoping to baptize everyweek if we can. there are so many good
people here. and he´s getting the hang of things better. he´s
speaking a lot better.
also---
i bought a hammock, super pumped about that.
i cant believe kims getting married--- what in the world????? geez.
thats so crazy. i´m so pumped for her. and the OLYMICS oh snap.
she´s got so many huge things happening for her in her life right now.
i hope so much she can accomplish everything she´s got planned and
that she´s really happy.
hard to believe i´ve been out a year -- i have a feeling sooooo
much stuff is happening in my other friends lives that i just dont
know about. its kind of scary actually. the world i left behind
isnt going to be around in a year when i get back. but thats ok.
the most important things will be there forever i´ve realized. my
family. the gospel. what more can someone ask for. life changes
everyday, the plan of salvation doesnt. the covenants we make in the
temple dont change. the atonement doesnt change. but it covers
everything. i love the lord. i love his mercy i love his
consistency. his work and glory is our eternal life, and he does
-nothing- unless it is for our good. as a missionary i try to
be as consistent as i can be. consistent in obedience, consistent in
prayer and in faith. i know that as we are consistent in doing the
correct things we will see a constant improvement in ourselves. i´ve
really seen that in the past few months. when i lose the consistency
is when we start having problems. when we´re half obedient- or we
doubt at times -- thats when the problems come. constant self
inspection to develop atributes like the savior brings a change of
heart and we start to become more like him.
great to hear you´re all well
glad slater and jack are doing so awesome in lax.
glad LP is numero uno en football. wooot. go tanner smith- /other
boys from the priests quorum
hope alls well with you all.
love you all lots. think of you daily. and youre in my prayers
-elder m.d. lloyd.
Letter #52 10/03/11
Hi all, Elder Lloyd is doing great! Here's a fun bit of our back-and-forth
emailing from yesterday, and then his main email. Have a great week!
- marci
some funny stuff thats happend this week-
yesterday my compañion and i ate something thats called -- mole,
pronounced mO - lee, its basically like dark brown mushed up
peppers, but it just looks like mud. and it tastes disgusting.
bleh. i think i´ve told you before that i really dont like it.
but my companion really really doesnt like it, haha it was super
funny we passed like an hour and a half trying to get it down.
> Ha!!!! That's HILARIOUS! Was it at a member's house?
yeah it was a members house. but in one of the poorer areas of the
island. its actually like a delicacy. but seriously i havent heard
of a single american that likes it ha...
(he asked about Landon)
>> Yeah, I think Landon is doing well. He takes everything in stride, you
>> know? But I can tell that he's wanting to get things going with his
>> investigators. He has the same struggles you do with them not coming to
>> church, etc. He sure LOVES mexico though!!!!! You and he will have to
>> vacation there together sometime. Start at Cabo and end in Cancun, eh?
i would love to do that with landon. that would be sooooooo fun. i
want to hear him speak spanish! i bet he´s doing so well
> Any good run-ins with spiders or rats?
> Or any dogs peed on you lately? We seriously tell that story to someone
> every day. It's the BEST story -- and it brought you A!!! The
> Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes ya gotta have a dog pee on ya to
> help you meet up with someone who's ready, right?
ha! yeah we have a cockroach infestation in our bathroom! thats been
interesting. because right when we sit down they start coming out the
walls. lots. like 10-15 at a time!
Subject: Conferencia General
hey family!
its good to be writing you again. its suprising how fast the weeks
are flying by. it actually is pretty scary. i cant believe a year ago
right now i was gearing up to enter the mtc. crazy crazy crazy.
but i´m super excited to get this next year started out well. this
week we should finally have a baptism so i´m super excited about that.
this last week has been so good. we put 6 baptismal dates this week
which is really good. we´ve got people getting ready for this week
and the coming week. the whole week was super exciting because
we spent the whole week trying to get people ready to come to general
conference! we worked really hard and we had lots of people who were
going to come to conference. and we taught them well and had a really
great week. friday night when we entered the house we had people who
were commited to come to every session which was so exciting. we
were sure that if we could just get these people to come to
conference they would be able to feel the spirit of the lord and
recieve a testimony.
saturday morning 6 investigators came E and her children, D and her child
and a boy named J who´s twenty one.
we were so excited. la hermana E was taking notes the whole
time and she learned a lot. D i dont think paid very good
attencion. which was a bummer but j liked it a lot.
no one ended up coming in the afternoon, but the husband of E came to priesthood and felt the spirit there. when we saw him
afterward he was visibly different and told us he would be coming with
his family sunday!!!! woot. also priesthood session we had an
inactive guy i´ve been working with since i got here. he hadnt come
to a meeting in years. but he came and i think he liked it a lot.
sunday morning we had j and e, and their kids, and a new
investigator named a and her daughter, and a man named
p and a girl named r. they all heard the prophet speak!
sunday morning was super powerful i loved all the talks! a came
up to me after and said -- i had some doubts about baptism --- but now
i dont. -- her and her son will be baptised this week. i´m so
excited for them. this conference was like the best think thats
happened it months =)
and i was able to learn a lot from the conference as well. we watched
it in english with all the other gringos. i watched 1 session in
spanish and its just not the same. i can understand everything but
its just not the same as being able to hear their actual voices.
they speak with such love. i loved all the talks about the book of
mormon. especially the one sunday morning, i cant remember who gave it
but it was super powerful. when he talked about "this book was either
written by the devil or by god and i´m going to find out which"
i also loved the talk by elder holland in the priesthood session.
lots of talks about missionary work, and the book of mormon. the
talks of boyd k packer and david a bednar to the youth were so good
as well.
anyway. i´m super pumped to be here. i´m happy and healthy. hearing
the voice of the prophet has helped my companion and i to have more
desires to re-dedicate ourselves to the work. i´m excited this week
to be able to testify to the people we contact of a living prophet.
that he indeed recieves revelation from god daily for us. he guides
christ church on earth. god has not stopped speaking with the children
of men. he loves us and is the same yesterday today and forever. i
know the scripture in D-C 1 is true, whether by mine own voice or by
the voice of my servants it is the same.
i´m grateful for the chance i have to serve the lord as a missionary
and to bring the joy of the gospel message into the homes of the
people of mexico
elder lloyd
emailing from yesterday, and then his main email. Have a great week!
- marci
some funny stuff thats happend this week-
yesterday my compañion and i ate something thats called -- mole,
pronounced mO - lee, its basically like dark brown mushed up
peppers, but it just looks like mud. and it tastes disgusting.
bleh. i think i´ve told you before that i really dont like it.
but my companion really really doesnt like it, haha it was super
funny we passed like an hour and a half trying to get it down.
> Ha!!!! That's HILARIOUS! Was it at a member's house?
yeah it was a members house. but in one of the poorer areas of the
island. its actually like a delicacy. but seriously i havent heard
of a single american that likes it ha...
(he asked about Landon)
>> Yeah, I think Landon is doing well. He takes everything in stride, you
>> know? But I can tell that he's wanting to get things going with his
>> investigators. He has the same struggles you do with them not coming to
>> church, etc. He sure LOVES mexico though!!!!! You and he will have to
>> vacation there together sometime. Start at Cabo and end in Cancun, eh?
i would love to do that with landon. that would be sooooooo fun. i
want to hear him speak spanish! i bet he´s doing so well
> Any good run-ins with spiders or rats?
> Or any dogs peed on you lately? We seriously tell that story to someone
> every day. It's the BEST story -- and it brought you A!!! The
> Lord works in mysterious ways. Sometimes ya gotta have a dog pee on ya to
> help you meet up with someone who's ready, right?
ha! yeah we have a cockroach infestation in our bathroom! thats been
interesting. because right when we sit down they start coming out the
walls. lots. like 10-15 at a time!
Subject: Conferencia General
hey family!
its good to be writing you again. its suprising how fast the weeks
are flying by. it actually is pretty scary. i cant believe a year ago
right now i was gearing up to enter the mtc. crazy crazy crazy.
but i´m super excited to get this next year started out well. this
week we should finally have a baptism so i´m super excited about that.
this last week has been so good. we put 6 baptismal dates this week
which is really good. we´ve got people getting ready for this week
and the coming week. the whole week was super exciting because
we spent the whole week trying to get people ready to come to general
conference! we worked really hard and we had lots of people who were
going to come to conference. and we taught them well and had a really
great week. friday night when we entered the house we had people who
were commited to come to every session which was so exciting. we
were sure that if we could just get these people to come to
conference they would be able to feel the spirit of the lord and
recieve a testimony.
saturday morning 6 investigators came E and her children, D and her child
and a boy named J who´s twenty one.
we were so excited. la hermana E was taking notes the whole
time and she learned a lot. D i dont think paid very good
attencion. which was a bummer but j liked it a lot.
no one ended up coming in the afternoon, but the husband of E came to priesthood and felt the spirit there. when we saw him
afterward he was visibly different and told us he would be coming with
his family sunday!!!! woot. also priesthood session we had an
inactive guy i´ve been working with since i got here. he hadnt come
to a meeting in years. but he came and i think he liked it a lot.
sunday morning we had j and e, and their kids, and a new
investigator named a and her daughter, and a man named
p and a girl named r. they all heard the prophet speak!
sunday morning was super powerful i loved all the talks! a came
up to me after and said -- i had some doubts about baptism --- but now
i dont. -- her and her son will be baptised this week. i´m so
excited for them. this conference was like the best think thats
happened it months =)
and i was able to learn a lot from the conference as well. we watched
it in english with all the other gringos. i watched 1 session in
spanish and its just not the same. i can understand everything but
its just not the same as being able to hear their actual voices.
they speak with such love. i loved all the talks about the book of
mormon. especially the one sunday morning, i cant remember who gave it
but it was super powerful. when he talked about "this book was either
written by the devil or by god and i´m going to find out which"
i also loved the talk by elder holland in the priesthood session.
lots of talks about missionary work, and the book of mormon. the
talks of boyd k packer and david a bednar to the youth were so good
as well.
anyway. i´m super pumped to be here. i´m happy and healthy. hearing
the voice of the prophet has helped my companion and i to have more
desires to re-dedicate ourselves to the work. i´m excited this week
to be able to testify to the people we contact of a living prophet.
that he indeed recieves revelation from god daily for us. he guides
christ church on earth. god has not stopped speaking with the children
of men. he loves us and is the same yesterday today and forever. i
know the scripture in D-C 1 is true, whether by mine own voice or by
the voice of my servants it is the same.
i´m grateful for the chance i have to serve the lord as a missionary
and to bring the joy of the gospel message into the homes of the
people of mexico
elder lloyd
Letter #51 9/26/11 Hey Hey Hey!!
hey fam. hows it going in utah.
good to get your letters. sounds like its been another busy week.
homecoming, lacrosse, moms trip, dad taking care of all the boys
stuff. geez. glad everything went well though. i´m super
happy that slaters doing so well with goalie.
this week has been pretty good. we found and taught and invited to
baptism, 15 new investigators. sadly not one came to church. bah.
so frustrating. but the good thing is the lord blessed us with 5
new investigators that just arrived by themselves this week to church.
2 that said they´d always passed by the church and been interested in
knowing more about what we do. so we´re pretty pumped for them.
e and her family didnt come this week. they slept in-- bah.
frustrating. but we´re going with them tomorrow and hopefully we can
put a new baptismal date with t.
a wasnt baptized because she was still lacking some of the
necessary papers -- a birth certificate-- bah. she had to take a
trip back to where she was born to get a new copy-- so frustrating.
so basically we dont really know when she-ll be baptised. sometime
this month for sure. its just a question of when she gets everything
ready.
today we had a zone activity that was super fun. we played soccer
then watched the movie -Bolt- idk if you´ve seen it but it totally
applys to missionary work. ha basically it was super good because i
havent seen a movie in forever and the movie was super funny,
especially watching it with other elders.
Kind of a bummer that i didnt baptize again in september. i think i´m
just getting used to it now which sucks. we should be baptizing
every week. without fail. i´m super frustrated. but i´m hopeful that we can start baptizing. since my companion arrived we havent baptized. i know we have people that are really
good. its just hard sometimes to help them recieve a testimony
of the book of mormon. i really don't understand how they cant just
Know its true. everytime i read it i know its true. and there are
investigators we have that say they´ve read and prayed but havent felt
anything. which to me means they´re probably not praying with real
intent or with faith or with a sincere desire to know.
but we´re going to work hard this week as missionaries to give more
powerful testimony of the book of mormon. so that they can have more
desires to know that its true.
-anyway. i´m so pumped for general conference and to hear
the voice of the lord through his chosen servants here on the earth.
my companion and i are going to try and bring 10 new people to church
with us this week so that they can hear the voice of the lord and
recieve a testimony. i know that if we can get them there, they´re
going to feel the spirit and something that one of the speakers says
will touch their hearts!
i challenge you all that you can listen to conference prayfully, and
that this week in your personal prayers you can ask for answeres to
questions that you have in your heart. and that the lord can answer
them this weekend!
hope you all have a great week and that you have a great weekend
listening to conference!
-elder lloyd
good to get your letters. sounds like its been another busy week.
homecoming, lacrosse, moms trip, dad taking care of all the boys
stuff. geez. glad everything went well though. i´m super
happy that slaters doing so well with goalie.
this week has been pretty good. we found and taught and invited to
baptism, 15 new investigators. sadly not one came to church. bah.
so frustrating. but the good thing is the lord blessed us with 5
new investigators that just arrived by themselves this week to church.
2 that said they´d always passed by the church and been interested in
knowing more about what we do. so we´re pretty pumped for them.
e and her family didnt come this week. they slept in-- bah.
frustrating. but we´re going with them tomorrow and hopefully we can
put a new baptismal date with t.
a wasnt baptized because she was still lacking some of the
necessary papers -- a birth certificate-- bah. she had to take a
trip back to where she was born to get a new copy-- so frustrating.
so basically we dont really know when she-ll be baptised. sometime
this month for sure. its just a question of when she gets everything
ready.
today we had a zone activity that was super fun. we played soccer
then watched the movie -Bolt- idk if you´ve seen it but it totally
applys to missionary work. ha basically it was super good because i
havent seen a movie in forever and the movie was super funny,
especially watching it with other elders.
Kind of a bummer that i didnt baptize again in september. i think i´m
just getting used to it now which sucks. we should be baptizing
every week. without fail. i´m super frustrated. but i´m hopeful that we can start baptizing. since my companion arrived we havent baptized. i know we have people that are really
good. its just hard sometimes to help them recieve a testimony
of the book of mormon. i really don't understand how they cant just
Know its true. everytime i read it i know its true. and there are
investigators we have that say they´ve read and prayed but havent felt
anything. which to me means they´re probably not praying with real
intent or with faith or with a sincere desire to know.
but we´re going to work hard this week as missionaries to give more
powerful testimony of the book of mormon. so that they can have more
desires to know that its true.
-anyway. i´m so pumped for general conference and to hear
the voice of the lord through his chosen servants here on the earth.
my companion and i are going to try and bring 10 new people to church
with us this week so that they can hear the voice of the lord and
recieve a testimony. i know that if we can get them there, they´re
going to feel the spirit and something that one of the speakers says
will touch their hearts!
i challenge you all that you can listen to conference prayfully, and
that this week in your personal prayers you can ask for answeres to
questions that you have in your heart. and that the lord can answer
them this weekend!
hope you all have a great week and that you have a great weekend
listening to conference!
-elder lloyd
Letter #50 9/19/11 Hey Familia!!
Here's Matt's email, and first, a quick "chat" with his gangsta brothers.
>>> Your bros say, "Yo yo yo, Homes! Wassup?"
>> not much dogs, just chillin. whats bin crakin in your hood?
>> jacksons got his first date all set up right ?? geez thats cool
> "Not much, G. The usual biz. Yeah - Homecoming this weekend."
woot woot, knucks up trickster- jacksons got game---
you{ll have to send mi a pic of the dance!
hey ya´ll
hows it going.
this week has been super great here in puerto real.
geez it was good to read your letters. so pumped for jackson
about his date. woot. Ill be excited to see how that goes. whens
homecoming?? should be pretty soon here right? homecoming was one of
my favorite dances i went to! i hope he has a ton of fun!!
and thats awesome that slaters thinking about being a goalie. if he
does we{ll basically have all the most important parts of a lacross
team. when i get back we{ll be able to have fun practicing, me trying
to score on jackson and slater ha.
well this week has been super super good. this sunday we had 5
investigators in church. and i was way pumped for all of them. i{m
not sure if i{ve told you about a lady we{re teaching named E.
we{re teaching her and her two daughters. they{re so good. we
found them contacting. i felt we should go and contact a colony that
i{d never been to and we went and the first door we knocked was
theirs. they{re great. they{ve been going through some rough times
as a family. especially between the husband and the wife. but they
came to church and really liked it. also we had a lady we found
named D. who has had some doubts about joseph smith, but she
decided to come to church and had a really great experience so i{m
pretty pumped for them. A was sick so she couldnt come to
church, but she has a baptism date for this next week. if she can
get married. holy cow getting people married is soooooo hard geez.
but we had 2 miracles happen yesterday with A. after church
A invited us to come to her house, she had invited one of her
friends to listen to us. we had a powerful lesson. A gave a
super super super strong testimony of the church and of the book of
mormon, and of baptism. and the friend she had invited felt the spirit
way strong. sadly she doesnt live in our area. but it was so
awesome to see one of the people who we{ve been teaching give her
testimony. and i know that when she gets baptized she{ll be a super
powerful member. for her whole life.
the next miracle is that later that night we went back to her house--
but this time we talked with her husband. we taught him and his heart
opened up. and we invited him to stop smoking and drinking. he{s
catholic. but really its just a tradition. he said he{s never
prayed. so we taught him to pray and invited him to do it at the end
of the lesson. he gave such a sincere prayer asking for the help of
the lord to quit smoking and to have the love of jesus christ more in
his house. it was great. we{re going by to see him tomorrow. and he
said he{s going to go get things out for the wedding today!!
super pumped for them. i hope so bad they can get married this week.
i{m going to do everything i can so that it happens.
also this week we had an awesome ward party - 15 de septiembre is like
mexican independence day. so that was intense. we had a "mexican
night" in the church, complete with mexican food, mexican music,
mexican dancing, and a piñata. we brought investigators. and
participated in the food, but not the dancing. =) ha.
well i{m going to leave this one short. so we can talk!
love ya all.
-elder lloyd
>>> Your bros say, "Yo yo yo, Homes! Wassup?"
>> not much dogs, just chillin. whats bin crakin in your hood?
>> jacksons got his first date all set up right ?? geez thats cool
> "Not much, G. The usual biz. Yeah - Homecoming this weekend."
woot woot, knucks up trickster- jacksons got game---
you{ll have to send mi a pic of the dance!
hey ya´ll
hows it going.
this week has been super great here in puerto real.
geez it was good to read your letters. so pumped for jackson
about his date. woot. Ill be excited to see how that goes. whens
homecoming?? should be pretty soon here right? homecoming was one of
my favorite dances i went to! i hope he has a ton of fun!!
and thats awesome that slaters thinking about being a goalie. if he
does we{ll basically have all the most important parts of a lacross
team. when i get back we{ll be able to have fun practicing, me trying
to score on jackson and slater ha.
well this week has been super super good. this sunday we had 5
investigators in church. and i was way pumped for all of them. i{m
not sure if i{ve told you about a lady we{re teaching named E.
we{re teaching her and her two daughters. they{re so good. we
found them contacting. i felt we should go and contact a colony that
i{d never been to and we went and the first door we knocked was
theirs. they{re great. they{ve been going through some rough times
as a family. especially between the husband and the wife. but they
came to church and really liked it. also we had a lady we found
named D. who has had some doubts about joseph smith, but she
decided to come to church and had a really great experience so i{m
pretty pumped for them. A was sick so she couldnt come to
church, but she has a baptism date for this next week. if she can
get married. holy cow getting people married is soooooo hard geez.
but we had 2 miracles happen yesterday with A. after church
A invited us to come to her house, she had invited one of her
friends to listen to us. we had a powerful lesson. A gave a
super super super strong testimony of the church and of the book of
mormon, and of baptism. and the friend she had invited felt the spirit
way strong. sadly she doesnt live in our area. but it was so
awesome to see one of the people who we{ve been teaching give her
testimony. and i know that when she gets baptized she{ll be a super
powerful member. for her whole life.
the next miracle is that later that night we went back to her house--
but this time we talked with her husband. we taught him and his heart
opened up. and we invited him to stop smoking and drinking. he{s
catholic. but really its just a tradition. he said he{s never
prayed. so we taught him to pray and invited him to do it at the end
of the lesson. he gave such a sincere prayer asking for the help of
the lord to quit smoking and to have the love of jesus christ more in
his house. it was great. we{re going by to see him tomorrow. and he
said he{s going to go get things out for the wedding today!!
super pumped for them. i hope so bad they can get married this week.
i{m going to do everything i can so that it happens.
also this week we had an awesome ward party - 15 de septiembre is like
mexican independence day. so that was intense. we had a "mexican
night" in the church, complete with mexican food, mexican music,
mexican dancing, and a piñata. we brought investigators. and
participated in the food, but not the dancing. =) ha.
well i{m going to leave this one short. so we can talk!
love ya all.
-elder lloyd
Letter #49 09/12/11 cumpliaños increible
hey fam.
i dont even know where to start with the thanks -- oh my heavens.
i received 5 packages saturday night from the mission president.
and they were all stuffed! prettty sure i was one of the happiest
missionaries on the planet. give a huge thanks to the kilbournes for
all the supplies, the socks--- my old socks all had holes but now i
have new wool socks. and all the medical stuff for the blisters.
thanks so much. give a big thanks to ronette and grandma for their
packages. i{m pretty sure i have enough poptarts/granola bars/
oatmeal creampies and other goodies to last me for a very long time.
i{ve been sharing some with my zone because they all got a bit tiffed
when they saw that i received 5 packages. but they{re satisfied now
haha. also all the pens, gluesticks, tape, markers are going to be
perfect. i lost my last pen that i brought with me from the mtc
friday so it was perfect timing.
and most of all thanks for the boots, they{re awesome, those are
going to stay dry for sure. and they look super smooth. those
ties are perfect. who picked them out, the purple one is smooth.
and the blue one too. and i love the ring and the clip. ha. my
companion has the exact same ring so now we{re twinners-- i love
the pillowcase as well. ah everything i got was so great. -- you
guys werent suppose to send stuff this year. i{m on my mission--- =)
i loved the tape. super super good. thank you so much for
your support. i{m so grateful that i have a family that i know loves
me and i love you all so much. that tape was so full of love.
every person who spoke in it. chad, ben, all the neighbors, oh
my heavens, when all those little kids spoke into it. i was like --
no, tanner and tod are not talking already-- holy moly how did that
happen.
but seriously give ben a big hug for me. his testimony and jacksons
touched my heart. i love them so much. and give slater a big hug
too.
side note -- bens armenian sounds sick
as for my bday... this week was good. we ended up with only 2 in
church. but no problem. the one that most counts came! so thats good.
A was there. and everythings in order for her to get married
and baptized this week. with a little help from the lord. if her
husband goes and turns their papers in today we{ll be all good.
i{ve never seen someone so ready. she has a powerful testimony of the
gospel.
but the best part of this week was that we had a district conference
with all the members from all of Cd. Del Carmen. it was super neat.
thats why the president came. i dont think i{ve attended a better
stake/district conference in my life. super powerful. in the adult
session, the missionaries performed as a choir again. that was neat.
but the most powerful part was the mission president. he didnt plan
anything but did it all by the spirit. when he started he invited a
12 year old girl up from the audience to sing in front of everyone,
she had no idea before hand that he was going to do this, and she
almost didnt go up, but with a little help from her parents she sang a
solo in front of everyone. her voice was like an angel and the
spirit entered the room so powerful. and then the president
talked about the reason that we complete with our covenants and the
love that should exist between the different members. he gave stories
of incredible service, that people did in his home ward. i think it
was exactly what this island needed. there is a huge lack of love and
fellowship here. its like everyones in the church just for
themselves. but seriously the whole conference was incredible . i
was spiritually uplifted.
i{ve learned a lot this past week in my study of the scriptures and
from some splits we did with the zone leaders. i{ve almost been
here for a whole year and it really gets me thinking about what i{ve
really accomplished here. i know i{ve accomplished a lot and i{ve
grown a lot... but i{m just being an average missionary. nothing more.
and it makes me sad -- but in the past few days i{ve decided to
change.
in my study of the scriptures i was reading in 1 john 1:5-7 where it
talks about the need to leave the darkness and walk in the light,
christ is the light and how we walk in the light, is by doing things
like he would do them. by having the spirit. by being worthy, by
being willing to sacrifice ourselves, and our will to the lords, by
repentance -- in spanish in the bible dictionary it says repentance is
to have a new heart and a new mind. we have to leave our old heart
behind and our old mind for a new one. one more full of love and the
attributes of christ. so thats going to be my goal for the next few
weeks. i love what it says in ephesians 5:8 that at times we walked
in darkness -- but its time to become a child of light. i want to be
a missionary of light. so that people can see in me the light of
christ and have desires to follow him.
i love this gospel so much and i{m greatful for the chance i have to
share it with the people of mexico. i testify that this is the only
true church. and the only church with which the lord is well pleased
as it says in D&C 1:30. i know that this church has the authority of
god to perform the sacred ordinances necessary for salvation and
eternal life with our familes. i know joseph smith saw god, i know
he was a prophet, he sealed his testimony with a life time of works
and endurance through trials and eventually with his own blood. the
book of mormon is true. its the evidence of everything we hold dear
as members of the church. it the keystone of our religion. i love
that book with all my heart. it is the source to a pure testimony of
the restauracion. the spirit is real. the priesthood is real. the
covenants we make in the temple are real. the church of jesus christ
is the lords kingdom restaured on the earth in preparation for the
second coming. i know these things because i{ve felt the spirit of the
lord in my heart and in my mind, and i know they are true.
god is our father. he loves every one of his children.
of this i testify in the name of jesus christ amen.
love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
-it might be good for dad to study chapter 10 of preach my gospel.
its all about how to teach. also the chapter about compromisos.
and tell jack i felt the exact same way when i went to efy--
-elder lloyd
i dont even know where to start with the thanks -- oh my heavens.
i received 5 packages saturday night from the mission president.
and they were all stuffed! prettty sure i was one of the happiest
missionaries on the planet. give a huge thanks to the kilbournes for
all the supplies, the socks--- my old socks all had holes but now i
have new wool socks. and all the medical stuff for the blisters.
thanks so much. give a big thanks to ronette and grandma for their
packages. i{m pretty sure i have enough poptarts/granola bars/
oatmeal creampies and other goodies to last me for a very long time.
i{ve been sharing some with my zone because they all got a bit tiffed
when they saw that i received 5 packages. but they{re satisfied now
haha. also all the pens, gluesticks, tape, markers are going to be
perfect. i lost my last pen that i brought with me from the mtc
friday so it was perfect timing.
and most of all thanks for the boots, they{re awesome, those are
going to stay dry for sure. and they look super smooth. those
ties are perfect. who picked them out, the purple one is smooth.
and the blue one too. and i love the ring and the clip. ha. my
companion has the exact same ring so now we{re twinners-- i love
the pillowcase as well. ah everything i got was so great. -- you
guys werent suppose to send stuff this year. i{m on my mission--- =)
i loved the tape. super super good. thank you so much for
your support. i{m so grateful that i have a family that i know loves
me and i love you all so much. that tape was so full of love.
every person who spoke in it. chad, ben, all the neighbors, oh
my heavens, when all those little kids spoke into it. i was like --
no, tanner and tod are not talking already-- holy moly how did that
happen.
but seriously give ben a big hug for me. his testimony and jacksons
touched my heart. i love them so much. and give slater a big hug
too.
side note -- bens armenian sounds sick
as for my bday... this week was good. we ended up with only 2 in
church. but no problem. the one that most counts came! so thats good.
A was there. and everythings in order for her to get married
and baptized this week. with a little help from the lord. if her
husband goes and turns their papers in today we{ll be all good.
i{ve never seen someone so ready. she has a powerful testimony of the
gospel.
but the best part of this week was that we had a district conference
with all the members from all of Cd. Del Carmen. it was super neat.
thats why the president came. i dont think i{ve attended a better
stake/district conference in my life. super powerful. in the adult
session, the missionaries performed as a choir again. that was neat.
but the most powerful part was the mission president. he didnt plan
anything but did it all by the spirit. when he started he invited a
12 year old girl up from the audience to sing in front of everyone,
she had no idea before hand that he was going to do this, and she
almost didnt go up, but with a little help from her parents she sang a
solo in front of everyone. her voice was like an angel and the
spirit entered the room so powerful. and then the president
talked about the reason that we complete with our covenants and the
love that should exist between the different members. he gave stories
of incredible service, that people did in his home ward. i think it
was exactly what this island needed. there is a huge lack of love and
fellowship here. its like everyones in the church just for
themselves. but seriously the whole conference was incredible . i
was spiritually uplifted.
i{ve learned a lot this past week in my study of the scriptures and
from some splits we did with the zone leaders. i{ve almost been
here for a whole year and it really gets me thinking about what i{ve
really accomplished here. i know i{ve accomplished a lot and i{ve
grown a lot... but i{m just being an average missionary. nothing more.
and it makes me sad -- but in the past few days i{ve decided to
change.
in my study of the scriptures i was reading in 1 john 1:5-7 where it
talks about the need to leave the darkness and walk in the light,
christ is the light and how we walk in the light, is by doing things
like he would do them. by having the spirit. by being worthy, by
being willing to sacrifice ourselves, and our will to the lords, by
repentance -- in spanish in the bible dictionary it says repentance is
to have a new heart and a new mind. we have to leave our old heart
behind and our old mind for a new one. one more full of love and the
attributes of christ. so thats going to be my goal for the next few
weeks. i love what it says in ephesians 5:8 that at times we walked
in darkness -- but its time to become a child of light. i want to be
a missionary of light. so that people can see in me the light of
christ and have desires to follow him.
i love this gospel so much and i{m greatful for the chance i have to
share it with the people of mexico. i testify that this is the only
true church. and the only church with which the lord is well pleased
as it says in D&C 1:30. i know that this church has the authority of
god to perform the sacred ordinances necessary for salvation and
eternal life with our familes. i know joseph smith saw god, i know
he was a prophet, he sealed his testimony with a life time of works
and endurance through trials and eventually with his own blood. the
book of mormon is true. its the evidence of everything we hold dear
as members of the church. it the keystone of our religion. i love
that book with all my heart. it is the source to a pure testimony of
the restauracion. the spirit is real. the priesthood is real. the
covenants we make in the temple are real. the church of jesus christ
is the lords kingdom restaured on the earth in preparation for the
second coming. i know these things because i{ve felt the spirit of the
lord in my heart and in my mind, and i know they are true.
god is our father. he loves every one of his children.
of this i testify in the name of jesus christ amen.
love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
-it might be good for dad to study chapter 10 of preach my gospel.
its all about how to teach. also the chapter about compromisos.
and tell jack i felt the exact same way when i went to efy--
-elder lloyd
Letter #48 9/05/11 Greetings from Puerto Real!
hey family.
thanks so much for your b-day emails. i feel loved!
this weeks been super good. we had 5 people in the church sunday. a
family of 3 and a guy named E and a lady named A.
it was super intense though, we thought that A wasnt going to
be able to come because her work told her she had to go on a trip
sunday morning. but we went and taught her a lesson about why we come
to church, the importance of sacrament, and what it really means to
take upon us the name of christ -- and then we asked her if she was
sure there wasnt anything that she could do to leave later in the day
so she could at least come to sacrament meeting. and she called up her
boss right then and told her that she wasnt going to leave till
sunday afternoon so she could go to church. ah it was awesome. i´m
hoping so much that the husband will soften his heart and that we can
get them married this week!!!
this week we´re focusing on the people that came to church to go with
them and put baptismal dates. our zone leaders are really wanting to
focus us on inviting the people to be baptised from the first visit.
sometimes it can be super dificult on the first visit. especially if
your talking about something else, but we´re going to work on that a
ton this week. we want to have at least 6 or more firm baptismal dates
by the end of the week. i think we can do more.
the hard thing right now is whats going on with my companion.
yikes. we get along really well. and he´s a super hard worker. he
really really wants to work hard and everything. he wants to contact,
he wants to teach. he wants to do it all. but--- the people dont
understand him and he doesnt understand them very well. and the only
way to fix it is to give him more chances to talk and to teach. but
sometimes its hard cuz it kind of kills the spirit when they cant
understand what hes trying to say. haha. but i´m going to work
harder with that this week and help him to have chances to bear
testimony, especially with the members.
i think the best way to do it in the lessons is like hand it off to
him like -- "now my companion will explain repentance..." but even
then its dificult. i had no idea training would be so dificult.
haha. i guess i forgot how i was when i arrived. the good thing is
he just got here so he´s like this perfect pure missionary -- he
wants to works super hard -- i think if i can just focus his energy
into learning the language, in a few weeks we´lll be super powerful.
no he really is progressing though. his spanish is soooooooo much
better right now. it amazes me. i can understand him and the
members get like 80% of what he´s saying. he just speaks really slow.
to answer your questions elder jepson is from mesa arizona, and we´re
having a great time together. i think we´re going to get along great =P
we had pizza last week. and i think i´ll probably order one saturday
night for my b-day- but the best b-day present for me would be 10
investigators in the church this sunday. i would be the happiest
missionary on the plannet. so i´m praying for that. ha
love you all.
-elder lloyd
thanks so much for your b-day emails. i feel loved!
this weeks been super good. we had 5 people in the church sunday. a
family of 3 and a guy named E and a lady named A.
it was super intense though, we thought that A wasnt going to
be able to come because her work told her she had to go on a trip
sunday morning. but we went and taught her a lesson about why we come
to church, the importance of sacrament, and what it really means to
take upon us the name of christ -- and then we asked her if she was
sure there wasnt anything that she could do to leave later in the day
so she could at least come to sacrament meeting. and she called up her
boss right then and told her that she wasnt going to leave till
sunday afternoon so she could go to church. ah it was awesome. i´m
hoping so much that the husband will soften his heart and that we can
get them married this week!!!
this week we´re focusing on the people that came to church to go with
them and put baptismal dates. our zone leaders are really wanting to
focus us on inviting the people to be baptised from the first visit.
sometimes it can be super dificult on the first visit. especially if
your talking about something else, but we´re going to work on that a
ton this week. we want to have at least 6 or more firm baptismal dates
by the end of the week. i think we can do more.
the hard thing right now is whats going on with my companion.
yikes. we get along really well. and he´s a super hard worker. he
really really wants to work hard and everything. he wants to contact,
he wants to teach. he wants to do it all. but--- the people dont
understand him and he doesnt understand them very well. and the only
way to fix it is to give him more chances to talk and to teach. but
sometimes its hard cuz it kind of kills the spirit when they cant
understand what hes trying to say. haha. but i´m going to work
harder with that this week and help him to have chances to bear
testimony, especially with the members.
i think the best way to do it in the lessons is like hand it off to
him like -- "now my companion will explain repentance..." but even
then its dificult. i had no idea training would be so dificult.
haha. i guess i forgot how i was when i arrived. the good thing is
he just got here so he´s like this perfect pure missionary -- he
wants to works super hard -- i think if i can just focus his energy
into learning the language, in a few weeks we´lll be super powerful.
no he really is progressing though. his spanish is soooooooo much
better right now. it amazes me. i can understand him and the
members get like 80% of what he´s saying. he just speaks really slow.
to answer your questions elder jepson is from mesa arizona, and we´re
having a great time together. i think we´re going to get along great =P
we had pizza last week. and i think i´ll probably order one saturday
night for my b-day- but the best b-day present for me would be 10
investigators in the church this sunday. i would be the happiest
missionary on the plannet. so i´m praying for that. ha
love you all.
-elder lloyd
Letter#47 8/29/11 Semena en puerto real
hey hey fam.
hows it going back in utah. it was good to get your emails. the
weeks when i hear from all of you are the best!! sounds like you
guys have had an awesome first week of school. that shirt looks
legit that jackson made. and i´m 100% jealous of the glasses. i
thought i was cool when i went to those dances but jack just took it
to a whole new level =) get me a pair of glasses like that if you
can--
i cant believe slaters in seventh grade. holy moly. thats super
wierd to me. he sounds so much older in his letters too. hey
slate-- is mr. koefed still teaching history there in mt. ridge? if
he is go see him and tell him i say hi. i doubt he remembers me but
that-d be cool
its wierd thinking dads just like 4 hours away if he wanted to get
here right now. geez. -- also dad you should check out a talk
in the october conference in 2010 by david mcConkie. i heard it
this morning and it talks all about what we need to do to be good
teachers and it was super powerful. ---- i think you might have
shared me a thought from that talk awhile back though, because it
seemed really familiar. haha
anyway--
NEW COMPANION woot.
elder Jepson. he just got here from the mtc. he´s from arizona.
he´s 19 years old. he´s got 1 brother and 3 sisters, he´s the third
oldest in his family and the first child to serve a mission. super
awesome guy. he´s tall. really tall. like 6-3 , he reminds me a lot
of landon ha. just the way he acts. he´s super funny and way
excited to be here.
he´s so excited to speak with the people and bear his testimony,
even though his spanish is lacking... haha. the people dont
understand a lot of what he says, sometimes i dont understand him. ha,
and he doesnt understand anything of what the people say because they
talk so fast. but i´ve seen some big progress with him the last
few days!!! this week we´re going to work with him more on that. we
have 2 hours of companionship study in the mornings and 1 hour of
language study. so in no time he´ll be teaching up a storm. its
been a bit difficult though for me to find chances for him to teach.
because he doesnt understnad whats happening in the lesson. so if i
want him to talk i have to look at him and say. Elder Jepson will
now explain to you the fall of adam. ha. but i was thinking today
a lot about what mom said in her email about elder tlachi. and how
much i appreciate everything he taught me and the example that he gave
me. i hope so much that i can be the kind of missionary that he can
look up to. that i cant teach in a way that he can learn from what
i´m doing.
i know that every missionary has the right to personal revelation.
and i know that i have a right to recive revelation from the lord for
my district and for what i need to do to help my companion and my
investigators.
as for investigators -- the three furniture movers moved away. they
dont even live in this state!!! yikes.
but thats ok because we´ve got some other people that are sooooooo
ready for baptism.
the most ready is a lady whos name is A. oh my gosh. i´ve
never seen a more golden investigator in my life. i met her with
elder romero. we were standing in the street outside her house
trying to decide what to do and this dog comes out of no where and
starts peeing on my leg -- and hna Anamaria was sitting in her house
looking out the window and saw it happen and started laughing -- so we
contacted her and it turns out she´s known the church from the time she
was little. shes had a ton of friends that are mormon, she´s talked
with missionaries before but they never invited her to be baptized.
she knows everything!!!! everything--- holy cow. joseph smith,
temples, priesthood, prophets, and she has a massive testimony of the
book of mormon. she told us that the missionaries gave her a book of
mormon and at times in her life when she´s most needed help from the
lord, she´s turned to the book of mormon and found answers to her
prayers ------- oh my heavens i´ve never seen someone soooooo
prepared. its crazy.
problem is-- she´s not married to her husband --- and he doesnt want
her to be baptized.
anyway.
also we´re teaching a guy named P A who´s wife was a
member as a teenager but hasnt been active. she wants to get active
again and he wants to be baptized. when we told him his family can be
together forever if they get married in the temple, he said that is the
goal he wants for his family. he´s awesome. he-s studying
for a phd and works al ot so its hard to find him in his house. but he
already has a baptism date for the 17. so we´re pretty pumped for him
as well.
also we´re teaching a guy named J and his family who are in the
same situation. the wife is a member but inactive. we´re hoping to
activate the mom and bring the dad and his kids to church. J has
prayed about joseph smith but hasnt had an aswer to his prayer.
but he really just needs to come to church so he can see how it all
is. if he comes to church and prays after -- his prayer will be more
sincere and he´ll have an answer
anyway. thats basically the best people we´re working with. there´s
a list of 20ish ha
but pray for them all. they need a lot of help.
gtg so i can chat with you =) love ya all
bye
hows it going back in utah. it was good to get your emails. the
weeks when i hear from all of you are the best!! sounds like you
guys have had an awesome first week of school. that shirt looks
legit that jackson made. and i´m 100% jealous of the glasses. i
thought i was cool when i went to those dances but jack just took it
to a whole new level =) get me a pair of glasses like that if you
can--
i cant believe slaters in seventh grade. holy moly. thats super
wierd to me. he sounds so much older in his letters too. hey
slate-- is mr. koefed still teaching history there in mt. ridge? if
he is go see him and tell him i say hi. i doubt he remembers me but
that-d be cool
its wierd thinking dads just like 4 hours away if he wanted to get
here right now. geez. -- also dad you should check out a talk
in the october conference in 2010 by david mcConkie. i heard it
this morning and it talks all about what we need to do to be good
teachers and it was super powerful. ---- i think you might have
shared me a thought from that talk awhile back though, because it
seemed really familiar. haha
anyway--
NEW COMPANION woot.
elder Jepson. he just got here from the mtc. he´s from arizona.
he´s 19 years old. he´s got 1 brother and 3 sisters, he´s the third
oldest in his family and the first child to serve a mission. super
awesome guy. he´s tall. really tall. like 6-3 , he reminds me a lot
of landon ha. just the way he acts. he´s super funny and way
excited to be here.
he´s so excited to speak with the people and bear his testimony,
even though his spanish is lacking... haha. the people dont
understand a lot of what he says, sometimes i dont understand him. ha,
and he doesnt understand anything of what the people say because they
talk so fast. but i´ve seen some big progress with him the last
few days!!! this week we´re going to work with him more on that. we
have 2 hours of companionship study in the mornings and 1 hour of
language study. so in no time he´ll be teaching up a storm. its
been a bit difficult though for me to find chances for him to teach.
because he doesnt understnad whats happening in the lesson. so if i
want him to talk i have to look at him and say. Elder Jepson will
now explain to you the fall of adam. ha. but i was thinking today
a lot about what mom said in her email about elder tlachi. and how
much i appreciate everything he taught me and the example that he gave
me. i hope so much that i can be the kind of missionary that he can
look up to. that i cant teach in a way that he can learn from what
i´m doing.
i know that every missionary has the right to personal revelation.
and i know that i have a right to recive revelation from the lord for
my district and for what i need to do to help my companion and my
investigators.
as for investigators -- the three furniture movers moved away. they
dont even live in this state!!! yikes.
but thats ok because we´ve got some other people that are sooooooo
ready for baptism.
the most ready is a lady whos name is A. oh my gosh. i´ve
never seen a more golden investigator in my life. i met her with
elder romero. we were standing in the street outside her house
trying to decide what to do and this dog comes out of no where and
starts peeing on my leg -- and hna Anamaria was sitting in her house
looking out the window and saw it happen and started laughing -- so we
contacted her and it turns out she´s known the church from the time she
was little. shes had a ton of friends that are mormon, she´s talked
with missionaries before but they never invited her to be baptized.
she knows everything!!!! everything--- holy cow. joseph smith,
temples, priesthood, prophets, and she has a massive testimony of the
book of mormon. she told us that the missionaries gave her a book of
mormon and at times in her life when she´s most needed help from the
lord, she´s turned to the book of mormon and found answers to her
prayers ------- oh my heavens i´ve never seen someone soooooo
prepared. its crazy.
problem is-- she´s not married to her husband --- and he doesnt want
her to be baptized.
anyway.
also we´re teaching a guy named P A who´s wife was a
member as a teenager but hasnt been active. she wants to get active
again and he wants to be baptized. when we told him his family can be
together forever if they get married in the temple, he said that is the
goal he wants for his family. he´s awesome. he-s studying
for a phd and works al ot so its hard to find him in his house. but he
already has a baptism date for the 17. so we´re pretty pumped for him
as well.
also we´re teaching a guy named J and his family who are in the
same situation. the wife is a member but inactive. we´re hoping to
activate the mom and bring the dad and his kids to church. J has
prayed about joseph smith but hasnt had an aswer to his prayer.
but he really just needs to come to church so he can see how it all
is. if he comes to church and prays after -- his prayer will be more
sincere and he´ll have an answer
anyway. thats basically the best people we´re working with. there´s
a list of 20ish ha
but pray for them all. they need a lot of help.
gtg so i can chat with you =) love ya all
bye
Letter # 46 Hola Familia!
hola familia
thanks so much for sending me the 4x4 plan. i´m super pumped to start
using it with the families in my ward. they need some serious help.
this week we brought 3 people to church. david, israel y isaic. and
we got there 10 min before the meeting was supposed to start. the
church was locked and no one was there. no one... so frustrating.
we opened it up. put up chairs in the chapel, got the sacrament
ready and they started to arrive like at 8. so frustrating.
basically its at the point where i´m almost embarrassed to bring people
to the church. so i´m really going to work this transfer on helping
the members here to start getting more excited and to understand their
responsiblities as members of the church.
and transfers are here! woot. elder romero is leaving to a
zone called Minatitlan. as for me, i´m staying here in carmen with my new
companion. Only thing is i dont know his name yet -- because he hasnt
arrived yet from the mtc!! i´m going to be Training!!!! wahooo. a greeny
straight out of the mtc. he´s going to arrive here wednesday. so pumped to
work with him. i´lll fill you in on him next week when i have more
information.
anyway. also this week, we had that concert. it was sweet! there
were almost 400 people there and me and 9 other missionaries sang.
haha. so that was pretty intense. also we had soloists and a grand
piano and microphones everywhere. it was in the auditorium of a
university. so that was cool. a lot of investigators came and felt
the spirit. so that was great. so funny because it was completely
different than the concerts when i was in high school. like it was
just 10 of us singing not 120 and i was not even nervous and i sang
super strong. it was great. i love being a missionary. we have
so many neat opportunities to share the gospel. i´m beginning
to realize that i think i´ve changed a lot since i left in some ways.
in others i´m still the same. but i feel like i´ve changed a lot.
anyway. i wanna chat with you so i´ll leave it at that.
love you all lots.
-elder lloyd
thanks so much for sending me the 4x4 plan. i´m super pumped to start
using it with the families in my ward. they need some serious help.
this week we brought 3 people to church. david, israel y isaic. and
we got there 10 min before the meeting was supposed to start. the
church was locked and no one was there. no one... so frustrating.
we opened it up. put up chairs in the chapel, got the sacrament
ready and they started to arrive like at 8. so frustrating.
basically its at the point where i´m almost embarrassed to bring people
to the church. so i´m really going to work this transfer on helping
the members here to start getting more excited and to understand their
responsiblities as members of the church.
and transfers are here! woot. elder romero is leaving to a
zone called Minatitlan. as for me, i´m staying here in carmen with my new
companion. Only thing is i dont know his name yet -- because he hasnt
arrived yet from the mtc!! i´m going to be Training!!!! wahooo. a greeny
straight out of the mtc. he´s going to arrive here wednesday. so pumped to
work with him. i´lll fill you in on him next week when i have more
information.
anyway. also this week, we had that concert. it was sweet! there
were almost 400 people there and me and 9 other missionaries sang.
haha. so that was pretty intense. also we had soloists and a grand
piano and microphones everywhere. it was in the auditorium of a
university. so that was cool. a lot of investigators came and felt
the spirit. so that was great. so funny because it was completely
different than the concerts when i was in high school. like it was
just 10 of us singing not 120 and i was not even nervous and i sang
super strong. it was great. i love being a missionary. we have
so many neat opportunities to share the gospel. i´m beginning
to realize that i think i´ve changed a lot since i left in some ways.
in others i´m still the same. but i feel like i´ve changed a lot.
anyway. i wanna chat with you so i´ll leave it at that.
love you all lots.
-elder lloyd
Letter #45 8/15/11 Oh No! A bloody big toe!!
 |
| Hmmm.... why is he wearing that flip flop? |
 |
| Matt did the confirmation in Sacrament Meeting.. and then spoke! |
 |
| A golden (or green) investigator flew in for a visit! |
 |
| Matt says he's almost ready for baptism! |
 |
| Could this be the reason for the flip flop? Gross! |
 |
| At least it looks pretty sterile! |
Hi all! Apparently Matt has had a major toe /nail issue from not long after
he left 10 months ago, and hid it from us so we wouldn't worry. He had toe
surgery a week or two ago (again, without telling us) and we only found out
about it when his memory cards arrived in the mail today, full of pics with
him wearing one flip flop and one shoe for the past several months, lots of
disgusting pics and several videos of various bloody toe procedures in
Mexican clinics. The real kicker -- before he actually decided to get
medical attention a couple weeks ago, he'd been dropping into "nail" shops
(seriously???) to have them dig/chip/whack away at his toe in an effort to
relieve his pain. We're feeling pretty lucky he didn't die of blood
poisoning. Yikes!--Marci
hey fam!
this week has been much much better!
finally broke that non baptizing streak. baptisamos a un hombre se
llama O. ah it was so good. i was so happy to finally baptize
again. the president of the mission came to the baptism because he
was in there area. the program was so great. we had some girls
from the ward sing a special musical number. a ton of people showed
up. His family came, mom dad brothers. and they arent members
and have never listened to the missionaries. after the baptism
service his dad came up to me and told me a huge thank you, that
it had been a spiritual experience. that was super awesome.
we{re going to go teach his family later in the week. there are
three of them that could be baptized,
then sunday i had the awesome opportunity to be able to confirm him a
member of the church!! i had never confirmed anyone before so that
was cool. i was shaking though. ha. because they do the
confirmations right there in sacrament meeting in front of everyone
ha. but it ended up being super good. i felt the spirit, and it
was a great chance to be able to use my priesthood. then in sacrament
meeting i got to give another talk. thats two times i{ve spoken here
in Puerto Real. only problem this time was that i was the only
speaker that showed up. ha..... so they had two other people bear
testimonies and i talked the rest of the time. but it was easy
because the topic that they gave me was missionary work. ha.
then later in the day after church we did somethign super super
awesome. we had a concert that we{d been practicing for the past
few weeks. forgot to tell ya about that -- all the missionaries
in the island (12) have been meeting together like 3 times a week to
practice for this concert we were going to give. and it ended up
being sweet. we read parts of jesus the christ and sang songs that
go along with the words. it ended up being so good. about 150
people came. we{re going to do another concert this week in an
auditorium in a university .. and there should be about 500 people
there ------- ahhhhhh. so we{re pretty excited about that right
now.
investigators wise. we had 5 baptismal dates for this month before
sunday.-- none of them came. bah. so frustrating. but i{ve been
thinking of some things we can do to get them a little more excited.
and to help them to understand the importance of coming to church.
we{re teaching these three guys. they{re
awesome. and they found us. it was so cool. one of the people
we were teaching like a month ago moved away, but left one of the
pamphlets that he had with our number in his house. these three guys
found our phone number and sent us a text message wondering if we
could help them change their lives and learn how to follow the
lord..... ---
yeah we were pretty pumped. they had to work this sunday or they
would have come to church. but i{m super pumped for all the people
we{re teaching right now!!}
as for my companion. he{s getting transferred - not this tuesday
but the next. the mission president told me i might be training one of the
new missionaries that comes in this week. but its not a sure thing--- he
said he hasnt prayed about it yet but he said we{ll see. either
way. i{m excited for a new comp and to get to work again here in
carmen.
well i didnt get a chance to read your letters yet-- because we had
a zone activity today-- we played soccer and raquet ball. but i{ll
print them off and read them this week.
love you all so much.
-elder lloyd
Letter #44 08/08/11 Hey Hey Hey!!
Av. Circuito CD. Deportiva No. 206
Colonia Atasta
Villahermosa, Tabasco
C.P. 86100
here´s the address of the mission again..... they changed the
colonia i think. idk. i´m super annoyed that they didnt tell us about
this change before hand!
i did get the package from grandma though!!!!! give her a huge thanks
from me! its going to be a challenge keeping myself from eating it
all =) its only been three days that i´ve had it and already i´ve
eaten one whole symphony bar. 2 poptarts and 2 granola bars. and i
loved the nutella. tell grandma a huge thanks for that and also the
letters that she sends me. i love reading them and hearing how her
and grandpa are doing. and even though i dont have a ton of time to
write back, the letters mean a lot. same with aunt ronette. give
her a big thanks for all the letters she´s forwarded from landon and
the ones she´s sent to me. i love hearing how things are going!
also a huge thanks to her for doing the whole blog. geez. i just cant
get over how awesome that is =)
so this week. the mission president told every companionship in the
mission that we had to bring 10 investigators to church with us this
week. so we worked super super hard this week trying to get as many
people to church as we could. we had tons of families that were
going to come. almost 17 people i think. it was crazy. we were
way pumped. sadly when we passed by to pick them up.. they
werent there. so we ended up with 3 in church. ha. but the
good thing is that one is going to be baptized this next week. his name
is O. one of the best investigators that i´ve had. he
understands everything we teach w-o us having to spend tons of time
explaining everything. we had a pretty sick lesson with the plan de
salvacion which was awesome and we´re going to teach him the
commandments this week. he´ll be baptized this weekend. which is
really exciting.
j didnt end up getting baptized. he just doesnt feel ready. he
thinks he has to have a huge knowledge to be baptized. or that after
he gets baptized if he ever commits another error hes going to be
doomed or something. its a problem. i´ve shared with him soooo many
scriptures and stories from the scriptures trying to get him ready.
but nope.... frustrating. and he´s about to leave to work again.
--- here in cd. del carmen. a ton of people work in oil platforms.
so basically they work 14 days and rest 14. then work 14 the rest 14
but j works 28 then rests 28. so basically he´ll be gone for
like a month.... bah.
a big dissappointment but the work goes on.
we´ve got plenty of people to teach, although getting them to church
has turned out to be one major dificulty... especially because of the
hour. its at 8 in the morning. pretty early for someone who´s not
used to getting up that early.
this week has been better. i was pretty excited most of the week
trying to invite lots of people to come to church and i think if we go
and put the same amount of effort in again this week we´ll see even
more results.
this week i spent a lot of time thinking about nephi and his
willingness to always obey the commandments of god. he was obedient
with exactness. i was reading in nephi 17 where it talks about him
building his ark and i love his attitude when his brothers are telling
him there´s no way he´s going to be able to build the boat. -- idk
exactly what it says in english, but in spanish it just like -- if the
lord told me to i could convert water into dirt, -- if god has such
great power, wouldnt he be able to teach me to build a boat. i
know its the same with missionary work. if the lord has such great
power -- and we know he does -- he must be able to help us to
complete the work which he has asked us to do here in the mission
field. i love being a missionary and having the chance everyday to
invite others to come unto christ. even when they dont always accept.
its been a hard month. i havent baptized since june and its killing
me. but with any hope we´ll see some results this week. i just keep
remembering that if the only soul i convert during this two years is
myself that would be enough. --- and there is seriously one thing
i do know. --i love the lord and i´ll serve him every day of my life,
and forever after. -- the mission isnt two years, its forever.
-- but we´re going to start seeing results i´m feeling it. they´re
going to come soon! i pray to have the spirt of the lord to guide my
work here so that i can be an effective tool in his hands.
love you all.
-elder lloyd
Colonia Atasta
Villahermosa, Tabasco
C.P. 86100
here´s the address of the mission again..... they changed the
colonia i think. idk. i´m super annoyed that they didnt tell us about
this change before hand!
i did get the package from grandma though!!!!! give her a huge thanks
from me! its going to be a challenge keeping myself from eating it
all =) its only been three days that i´ve had it and already i´ve
eaten one whole symphony bar. 2 poptarts and 2 granola bars. and i
loved the nutella. tell grandma a huge thanks for that and also the
letters that she sends me. i love reading them and hearing how her
and grandpa are doing. and even though i dont have a ton of time to
write back, the letters mean a lot. same with aunt ronette. give
her a big thanks for all the letters she´s forwarded from landon and
the ones she´s sent to me. i love hearing how things are going!
also a huge thanks to her for doing the whole blog. geez. i just cant
get over how awesome that is =)
so this week. the mission president told every companionship in the
mission that we had to bring 10 investigators to church with us this
week. so we worked super super hard this week trying to get as many
people to church as we could. we had tons of families that were
going to come. almost 17 people i think. it was crazy. we were
way pumped. sadly when we passed by to pick them up.. they
werent there. so we ended up with 3 in church. ha. but the
good thing is that one is going to be baptized this next week. his name
is O. one of the best investigators that i´ve had. he
understands everything we teach w-o us having to spend tons of time
explaining everything. we had a pretty sick lesson with the plan de
salvacion which was awesome and we´re going to teach him the
commandments this week. he´ll be baptized this weekend. which is
really exciting.
j didnt end up getting baptized. he just doesnt feel ready. he
thinks he has to have a huge knowledge to be baptized. or that after
he gets baptized if he ever commits another error hes going to be
doomed or something. its a problem. i´ve shared with him soooo many
scriptures and stories from the scriptures trying to get him ready.
but nope.... frustrating. and he´s about to leave to work again.
--- here in cd. del carmen. a ton of people work in oil platforms.
so basically they work 14 days and rest 14. then work 14 the rest 14
but j works 28 then rests 28. so basically he´ll be gone for
like a month.... bah.
a big dissappointment but the work goes on.
we´ve got plenty of people to teach, although getting them to church
has turned out to be one major dificulty... especially because of the
hour. its at 8 in the morning. pretty early for someone who´s not
used to getting up that early.
this week has been better. i was pretty excited most of the week
trying to invite lots of people to come to church and i think if we go
and put the same amount of effort in again this week we´ll see even
more results.
this week i spent a lot of time thinking about nephi and his
willingness to always obey the commandments of god. he was obedient
with exactness. i was reading in nephi 17 where it talks about him
building his ark and i love his attitude when his brothers are telling
him there´s no way he´s going to be able to build the boat. -- idk
exactly what it says in english, but in spanish it just like -- if the
lord told me to i could convert water into dirt, -- if god has such
great power, wouldnt he be able to teach me to build a boat. i
know its the same with missionary work. if the lord has such great
power -- and we know he does -- he must be able to help us to
complete the work which he has asked us to do here in the mission
field. i love being a missionary and having the chance everyday to
invite others to come unto christ. even when they dont always accept.
its been a hard month. i havent baptized since june and its killing
me. but with any hope we´ll see some results this week. i just keep
remembering that if the only soul i convert during this two years is
myself that would be enough. --- and there is seriously one thing
i do know. --i love the lord and i´ll serve him every day of my life,
and forever after. -- the mission isnt two years, its forever.
-- but we´re going to start seeing results i´m feeling it. they´re
going to come soon! i pray to have the spirt of the lord to guide my
work here so that i can be an effective tool in his hands.
love you all.
-elder lloyd
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