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
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
Letter #43 08/01/11 New Mission Home Address!
hey family
ok well first, this is the new address of the mission. anyone who´s
going to send letters/packages should send them to this address!!
ELDER MATTHEW LLOYD
MISION MEXICO VILLAHERMOSA
AV. CIRCUITO CD. DEPORTIVA No. 206
COL. PRIMERO DE MAYO
VILLAHERMOSA, TABASCO, MEXICO CP 86190
so this week has been great! we had 5 investigators in church this
sunday! super super awesome. I was so happy to finally have some
people that we´re teaching come. and 3 of them werent even people
we were thinking were going to come so that was awesome. i´m
hoping that we´lll start to see some new success in this month of August.
i´m so pumped to get working and to start a new month.
i was a little bit bummed because we didnt end up baptizing in july--
but like i said its a new month and i´m ready to start over again. J
is going to be baptized this saturday-- he´s very ready. he understands the
whole joseph smith story and has a huge testimony of that. and i feel
like he´s really taking eveything way seriously which is the most
Important thing. i´m excited to see him get baptized. we´re teaching a
sister named C, who is in the process of separating from her spouse.
she´s already said she wants to be baptized and she´s super good friends
with a member and has a ton of suport from her family. also we´re teaching
another guy named E who´s also separating from his spouse. but this ones
more his fault. he was an alcoholic and it kind of destroyed his marriage,
but he´s in the repentance process and if we can get him to come to church
he´s going to be really good. we have a huge list of people who we´ve
found these past few weeks that i think we can easily prepare to be baptized
this month. pray for me and my companion that we can have the spirit with
us to teach these people. i´m trying so hard to have it with me. i know
if we bring the spirit into the house of the investigator it will start to
work changes in their hearts. thats what i´ve really seen in the
mission. and in life i guess. when we´re doing the things to invite
the spirit into our lives it starts to completely change us. little
by little, reading the scriptures, praying, fasting. the spirit makes
mighty changes in the individual.
i´m so pumped for landon. he´s about to have a big culture shock
=) haha. man i remember the first night in mexico. i slept on
the concrete floor. with like 8 other missionaries. cockroaches,
weird tasting milk, you cant understand anyone. and even with that
i was just soooo pumped to teach haha. that first week was
difficult. but super good too. i hope he can remember to keep with
him that same excitement that he has right now to teach and share the
gospel for the whole mission.
glad to hear alls well at home and sounds like that camp was a total
success. i wish i could have been there. pumped to go camping with my
brothers and dad when i get back, that´ll be so much fun.
anyway. i gtg. love ya
-elder lloyd
ok well first, this is the new address of the mission. anyone who´s
going to send letters/packages should send them to this address!!
ELDER MATTHEW LLOYD
MISION MEXICO VILLAHERMOSA
AV. CIRCUITO CD. DEPORTIVA No. 206
COL. PRIMERO DE MAYO
VILLAHERMOSA, TABASCO, MEXICO CP 86190
so this week has been great! we had 5 investigators in church this
sunday! super super awesome. I was so happy to finally have some
people that we´re teaching come. and 3 of them werent even people
we were thinking were going to come so that was awesome. i´m
hoping that we´lll start to see some new success in this month of August.
i´m so pumped to get working and to start a new month.
i was a little bit bummed because we didnt end up baptizing in july--
but like i said its a new month and i´m ready to start over again. J
is going to be baptized this saturday-- he´s very ready. he understands the
whole joseph smith story and has a huge testimony of that. and i feel
like he´s really taking eveything way seriously which is the most
Important thing. i´m excited to see him get baptized. we´re teaching a
sister named C, who is in the process of separating from her spouse.
she´s already said she wants to be baptized and she´s super good friends
with a member and has a ton of suport from her family. also we´re teaching
another guy named E who´s also separating from his spouse. but this ones
more his fault. he was an alcoholic and it kind of destroyed his marriage,
but he´s in the repentance process and if we can get him to come to church
he´s going to be really good. we have a huge list of people who we´ve
found these past few weeks that i think we can easily prepare to be baptized
this month. pray for me and my companion that we can have the spirit with
us to teach these people. i´m trying so hard to have it with me. i know
if we bring the spirit into the house of the investigator it will start to
work changes in their hearts. thats what i´ve really seen in the
mission. and in life i guess. when we´re doing the things to invite
the spirit into our lives it starts to completely change us. little
by little, reading the scriptures, praying, fasting. the spirit makes
mighty changes in the individual.
i´m so pumped for landon. he´s about to have a big culture shock
=) haha. man i remember the first night in mexico. i slept on
the concrete floor. with like 8 other missionaries. cockroaches,
weird tasting milk, you cant understand anyone. and even with that
i was just soooo pumped to teach haha. that first week was
difficult. but super good too. i hope he can remember to keep with
him that same excitement that he has right now to teach and share the
gospel for the whole mission.
glad to hear alls well at home and sounds like that camp was a total
success. i wish i could have been there. pumped to go camping with my
brothers and dad when i get back, that´ll be so much fun.
anyway. i gtg. love ya
-elder lloyd
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