Letter #38 06/27/11 Hey!

 hey family!!

ah holy cow i loved your letters this week.   so glad to hear from
ben! and to read the letters from my bros and from landon!  and from
grandma y grandpa!    i{m so pumped to hear where bens going! geez
thats so intense!  he{s going to be the best missionary.  glad to hear
about slater too and his trip to the temple!  thats something you{ll
never forget!  i wish i could go to the temple sooo bad.  if i could
go back and re{do high school thats probably the one thing i{d want to
fix the most.  i{d go every morning.  the spirit there is incredible
and it can be a force to help us throughout the whole day.   i think
living in utah we forget how incredible the temple is because we have
it so close.  the people here only have a chance once a month and it
can be pretty price-y for some people here.  because its like a 3 hour
bus ride! just to get there.

anyway!.

this week was much better than the last one!
we had a baptism!!
we met the guy tuesday and taught him everything in like 3 days and
then he got interviewed and we baptized him saturday!!!   he{s already
come to sacrament meeting como 3 times but had never listened to the
missionaries.   its something super weird.  i{d never baptized someone
that fast before.  but really he was super super super ready.   when
we asked him if he thought joseph smith was a prophet, and if the
church and gospel of jesus christ have been restored through him,
   he said "well ya, theres no other way it could be possible" and then
started teaching us the great apostasy, using the pamphlets that we
gave him.  he was like "its all really clear here..." and started
showing us scriptures and stuff. it was sick! ha.   i was so happy.
i{m going to send you the pics sometime this week. but seriously holy
cow he was so happy at the baptism. and we also baptized his 9 year
old son!  i have a picture and he{s pretty much glowing.    we{re
pretty pumped for him and his family!  his name is Fernando and his
son is Ivan.

also this week we{ve had some great experiences with the members.
we had family night with a family in the ward who have a daughter
thats struggling a bit right now. and her parents were very worried.
but we went to their house and we went with an object lesson that i
had and we taught them and the spirit was super strong. my companion
and i taught them about how they need to be more united as a family.
about how the time we have with the whole family living in the same
house is very limited.  we have to spend all the time together
possible,  we taught them about the power of family scripture study
and prayer.    and we invited them to pray and read together every
single night  and they accepted.     we checked up with them yesterday
and they said they havent missed a night.  it was pretty neat because
the difference in their family is visible.  you could see the happiness
as a family in their eyes.

we also taught some members that were having marriage problems and we
taught them for a while and things werent really progressing in the
lesson.  then it came to my mind to ask them if they were praying as a
couple every night.  they said no.   and we were able to use that to help
them.   i think that many marriage problems come from that! come from
not reading the scriptures or praying together.  how can parents hope
to be able to guide their families without the guidance of the spirit
and how can they have the guidance of the spirit without doing the
very basics. praying and reading.

on a lighter note =)
today i spent almost the whole day at the beach!!! =)   it was a zone
activity, we played beach volleyball and football. the beaches here in
cuidad del carmen are soooo pretty.   white sand.  and they have like
these pavilions that are just public owned and you can just use them
whenever.  it was super super nice.

its raining season here!  its rains almost every day. and the streets
fillll up with water.

well i gtg or i{m not going to be able to chatt!! =)
love you all
-elder lloyd



More from Matt's "Chat":

it was a super awesome baptism with a ton of people!   the speakers
were good. we sang a special musical number. with three companionships
of missionaries. it was pretty awesome!

yeah having fun is way important.  the days that arent good are the
days when we{re depressed or we{re walking a ton and not talking w-
people.
my companion and i have games that we play too.  like guess what
calling the people we contact are going to have in the church or when
we walk a ton we score goals by kicking pop cans or pebbles between
each others legs.  idk. stupid stuff ha. but we have fun!

Letter #37 06/20/11 hey family!!!

hey family!!!

ah well its good to be writting you all again.   pretty fast week eh?
 man i{m so excited for jackson and slater w- the priesthood and in
the priests quorem.  ah!   and sounds like landons doing
well in the mtc.  that makes me so happy. he sounds like he{s
progressing a ton.  tell him to not worry about the spanish too much.
it comes.  the teaching well is definitely the more important part!

tell slater to write me and tell me about his scout camp!!!

well to answer some of your questions--

-i email from a "cyber" close to my apartment.  its like a block away
so thats nice.
- here on p-days i dont do very much.  we spend like 3 hours
washing clothes and then the rest of the time resting or studying.  i
dont have much time to rest.
-being a district leader is much more difficult than i thought.  and
honestly i havent done as well of a job as i had hoped. but i guess
its a process. i{m going to work really hard with my distict this week
to see if we cant see some better results.  bah =(
-here in carmen we eat a lot more fish and shrimp and stuff like that,
which is awesome.  i love sea food.       also more beans-- bleh.  ha.
 but thats ok i{m dealing with that.    theres a dominoes here!! so
thats good. i{ve eaten at it 3 times already.... ha
-yes we still eat at the houses of members.  but only lunch. the other
meals are up to us.     i usually eat pb and j
-yes i{m now receiving those emails about landon.  i just didnt get
the first one. and tell ronette that i have been receiving her monthly
emails as well!!


anyway.
this week has been pretty good.   we had a baptism!!!!! woot.   it was A!   she was super nervous. but she was baptized and
the service was really good. the members showed up and the talks were
great.  and then sunday she got confirmed. she{s way excited.  i
think she might serve a mission. but idk. that{d be so cool.

we had another 10ish people who told us that they were going to come
to church with us this week but  not one showed up.  so i think
that{ll probably be the focus of this next week. doing everything we
can to see some more investigators in church at the end of the week.

my companion and i are doing well.  idk.  after spending a few weeks
with someone every hour of every day  its bound that you find a few
things that start to bug you.   we havent argued even 1 time in these 3
weeks.

well. i gtg. but i{ll write more next week.
love ya all.
elder lloyd

Letter #36 06/13/11 Hey Family!

hey family!,

wow, sounds like this week has been pretty intense para ustedes.
glad to hear that trek went so well!  i still remember trek.  with
shelby and all the other boys from the ward!    how awesome that mom
and dad could go too.   sounds like jack had a great-spiritual time!
and thats the most important thing eh.   Slater has the
priesthood??   holy cow--    did he pass the sacrament last week or
will this next week be his first time?  ah thats so awesome. didnt you
say that slater has a new haircut too- you should send me a pic next
week of him!!   i loved the pics of trek btw.  tell jack i feel sorry
that he had to use the same clothes i did --- they were super
uncomfortable for me!!!


pues.   this week has been pretty intense!  the mission president came
and we had a zone conference!  and a member of the first quorum of the
seventy came as well.   basically it was 10 of us missionaries, the
mish pres. ,  and this member of the 70 and his wife   for like 6
hours.  it was awesome.    each of them spoke and it was super
poweful. my mission president is incredible.  he spoke on what brings
us true joy.  in the mission and in our lives.   then the wife of the
member of the 70  spoke about people who are willing to give all they
have for others. and what it really means to become like christ.  the
member of the quorum of the seventy spoke about miracles and praying
with specifics.  he shared like 4 examples from his life of when he
or people around him have received miracles by asking for them
specifically.   he talked about if you want specific answeres, ask
specifically!   i was humbled all the way through the conference.
   i felt the spirit as it testified to me of missionary work.  i{ve
spent the last few days thinking about all the blessings i{ve received
the past 8 months and they are so incredible.   people say that we
have to make sacrifices to go on the mission ---  its nothing at all
of a sacrifice when you look at everything you recieve.   i feel so
indebted to my father in heaven.   he provides me with exactly what
i need when i need it.  he gives me experiences that help me to learn
and become better.  even when i fail and dont do everything how i
should, he has provided the way to be forgiven.  i{m so grateful for
my savior.      i{m reminded of the scripture in mosiah 2 when it
talks about how the lord blesses us immediately when we obey him. and
its impossible to pay him back for everything he{s done for us.

in the middle of the conference. my mish pres. chose 2 missionaries to
do one of those -teaching practices-  in front of the whole zone and
the member of the seventy.  ha, he chose me and one of the other new
guys to the zone.  i was a little nervous to teach with a member of
the seventy literally like 3 feet behind me listening to what i said.
but it was actually a pretty awesome experience.  and it was alright
cuz we only taught like 15 min.


so to answer some of your questions
-cuidad del carmen
there are only 10 missionaries here in the whole island.  but one of
the elders is Elder Price- remember that guy i talked with before the
mission,  he was from orem!    and one of the guys from my district is
elder vasquez!!!! my first companion from the mtc!  haha.   so thats
pretty cool

my companion
he{s pretty cool.  we{re getting along really well.
ha.  but its alright. because really we havent had any problems.  we
havent argued about anything this whole time.
also a small prblem. we speak in english a ton.
 its all good. he really does teach well and he wants to be
here/have success so its all good

Investigators
we have a list of like 8 that are progressing and like 5 or 6 others
but the our best investigators are
F- she{s 17 years old i think,  and she looks like lady gaga i
swear haha.  she accepted to be baptized. i
think it{ll probably be one of the last days in june. 

the other best investigator is A.  she{s awesome.  she{s 19 years
old and the first time we spoke with her and her family was super
super powerful.  only her moms never at home and her sister left
for vacation for a month.  so we{re just teaching her.    she
came to church these past 2 weeks and loves it.   we taught her to
pray after the first lesson and invited her to pray after we left.
when we asked about her prayer the next visit she said she{d never
prayed like that before. never been so sincere and she said  that she
felt like god listened and answered her prayer.     we{re going to
work really hard with her this week and i think she can be baptized
this saturday! but we{lll see.



anyway.  i gtg.
love ya{ll
have a great week
-elder lloyd

Letter #35 06/06/11 District Leader!

hey family!

hows it going?  it was good to hear from you all this week.  i loved
your emails.  sounds like things are going well now that schools out!

so this week has been very very good.  it took 6 hours in a bus to get
here but when i arrived i was ready to get working!!!   and pretty
much i´m sooo happy here where i´m at.  the branch is called puerto
real!!!   but the funny thing is, its wayyyyyyy stronger than the ward
i was in.  there are usually 110 people ish in sacrament meeting!
thats like two or three of my old ward at times.   soo i´m pumped
about that.  the area is super super big.  super big.   which i´m fine
with because my last one was super small and i felt a bit locked in.
in my old area i had every street memorized. thats not going to happen
here ha.  there are like seriously 20 of my old area inside my new
area.  the members here arent as helpful as in the old ward but
thats fine.
my new companero elder romero is cool!  he´s from tennesse, in the US.
and he lives on an island on a lake there.  but ya. so he speaks english.  and we´ve
been speaking a lot in english actually.  i´d rather speak in spanish all
the time but its cool.   he´s got 5 months in the mission. and he spent
the first transfer in idaho with visa problems so this is only his 3rd
transfer in mexico.  he teaches well and we get along really well so
thats good.   when i arrived we didnt have any real investigators
which was frustrating.  but its ok because we found like 8 this week.
3 came to church with us.  i´m pumped to get working and baptizing =)

you were right,  its less hot here.  we´re right by the ocean. the
beach is super nice.  its white sand all the way around the island,
so thats pretty cool.   the apartment is nice, we have AC but we dont
use it much because we really dont need it.  the apartment is pretty
dang big. or at least it feels like it ha. i´d say its two of my other
apartment.  but i´m sleeping on the floor  and my comp gets the bed.

so --- responsibilities of a district leader--
well i´m still not 100% sure what they all are.  but i do know that
i have to interview the investigators in the district before they get
baptized to check if they´re worthy and meet with the requirements.
and usually those are pretty intense i hear. its like an hour and a
half interview with questions about their understanding of the gospel
and the commandments and testimony.   i havent had to give one yet
but i think i´ll be giving an interview this week.
there´s only one other companionship in my district so thats good. i´m
still getting used to all the stuff i have to do.
mostly i have to call the other companionship every night and sometimes
during the day to check how things are going with them and get them
more excited. i have to check and make sure that they´re following
the rules of the mission, and make sure they´re contacting and
teaching enough lessons.  stuff like that.  and then every tuesday i
give a district class about some topic.  this weeks theme is going to
be the role of the spirit in the conversion-- with specific focus in
how missionaries can improve their relationship with the spirit.

AAAAHHHHH!!! wahooooooooo!   ah i was so glad to hear about Ben!
Ah he´s going to love that patriarical blessing and i´m soo happy that
he´s filling out those papers!  i´m so pumped for him.   I hope so much
he gets called here haha. that would be too cool.  i´d give the president
a call and ask that he can be my companion for sure!  and me and
the president get along pretty well so i think we could work it out ha.
but wherever he goes that will be so great.   he´ll probably be getting his
call in the next month or two then ya? woot woot woot

also good to hear that landons doing well!! i didnt get an email this
week from him. dunno if thats because he hasnt written one yet or if
ronette doesnt have my email right idk.  send me his emails for sure.
 and yes definitely everyone feels unprepared.  but in a week or two
he´ll be all settled in!

jackson and slater sound great.  holy cow. jackson sounds so grown up
idk why but its like something changed in that last letter idk. it
seemed super grown up.  idk.  and i loved that part about his
virtual plants ha.    i´m glad that jack and slate are practicing
that lacrosse!

well i gtg write my president. but i love ya all a bunch!
-elder lloyd