Elder Lloyd has Returned with Honor!!!
Elder Lloyd arrived home from the Mexico Villahermosa Mission, at 6:00 pm on Tuesday, October 16th, exactly one day late!
Letter #105 10/8/12 My Last Email!!!!! Aaaahhhh!
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| The beautiful wedding!!! |
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| The wonderful baptism!!! |
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| Matt's last p-day in Mexico! A trip to ruins at Palenque! |
My Dear Family!
This has been a seriously incredible week! we´ve been busy this week
working with some investigators of the sister missionaries in our
ward. A couple named A and N, Weve been visiting them
along with the sister missionaries these past few weeks and days, and
they´ve been progressing a bunch. They´ve had some pretty big tests,
but their testimonies are so strong. they´ve been working super hard
and friday morning they had their wedding! so that friday in the
afternoon they could be baptized. its interesting because A
was 9 months pregnant. we were praying so much that she wouldnt have
her baby before her baptism or her wedding or conference. i´ll send
you some pics of their wedding, it was super cool. and the baptism
was super special. i was able to baptize N. he is so excited to
be a new member of the church. they both are really (him and his
wife). they came to the conference sessions, and just as the last
conference session finished they took A to the hospital to have
her baby! --talk about answers to prayers!
Conference was especially powerful this week for me. Its seems to be
that every general conference is just so exactly focused on what i
need to hear. i loved truly every talk. But one thing i noticed is
that the apostles in this conference seemed to be much more
bold/direct than normal. The times are so critical. The lord needs
valient, converted, faithful servants who love him and his work. I
feel a large need in my heart to work with the young men in the ward
when i get back. Help prepare the future missionaries that will be
heading out! and most of all Jackson. I hope he´s ready for a lot of
matt-jack mission prep time! that boy is going to leave super ready
for the mission. I loved that much of the talks were focused on
missionary work!
As for Today we had an awesome oportunity to go to Palenque with our
district. palenque is a huge city of mayan ruins. only 2% of the
ruins are uncovered, and its basically in the middle of the jungle.
but it was a sweet experience. we got to see some HUGE mayan temples
and palaces! we left at 4 in the morning and took a bus to palanque
and then spent the day there visiting the ruins and following our tour
guide. (btw i took out some money this morning for the trip and to
buy some stuff there) The tour guide was a bit intense for me, he
spent a lot of time explaining us about different mayan gods, and what
they worship and the mayan calander and stuff like that. but it was
cool because the ruins are seriously so big, and their are some that
you can enter and there are like tunnels and different rooms under
ground. i took a ton of pics i´ll show ya´ll in a week! but we´re
just getting back right now, thats why i havent read your letters. but
it was super fun. and i´m glad i got to go visit the ruins before i
left the mission. i´d never been to them before in my two years in
mexico!
Well Fam, i´m super excited to be seeing you soon! i still cant
believe this is the last email i´ll be sending, this email makes more
than 100 that i´ve sent home. i cant believe it. The time has gone
by so fast. I´m amazed by the way the Lord can work so many miracles,
and so many blessings and give us so many experiences. i will forever
be grateful for the time i´ve had. Grateful to God, and so very
grateful to you, my family and friends, who have been so great in
supporting me. i will never be able to repay the love that i´ve felt,
especially from my fam! grandparents, and aunts! Thank you! for
everything you´ve done for me. i am excited to be able to see you
all in a week and tell you thanks in person.
I´ll finish this email simply with my testimony.
For what i´ve experienced, i know that God lives! I know he knows
every one of his children. I know he loves us. I´ve experienced his
love in so many moments, towards me and towards the people that i´ve
served. I know he´s given us this life as a chance to learn and
become like him. We must focus every day to emulate the perfect
example of his Son Jesus Christ. I know that every day the lord
teaches us through our experiences. through tests and trials we learn
to trust in him. as we come unto him we learn to love his way, his
commandments, his teachings, and we have no desires to do anything
that would be against his will. i´m grateful because god is patient.
or has been with me. because i´m not perfect. but i have seen and
learned that as we keep our eye on the atonement, the lord will guide
us to become better every day. I know that faith always points
to the future. Many times we do not see what the lord has set before
us, but acting in faith we complete what he asks, and then the fog
clears and we see and recieve the confirmation of our faith. I know
that the lord answers prayers. The power of the spirit is real. he
can truly be a constant companion. a companion which will guide us to
all that is true and will inspire and impulse us to do good works. I
love the companionship of the Holy Ghost. I know the power of the
priesthood is real. I´m grateful to be able to hold it. i know that
its power is only available when we are worthy, and when we are full
of faith. I know that with its power the lord directs his work on
earth. i know that joseph smith was a prophet. This is gods
true church. he has restored it on earth, opening the windows of
heaven, to prepare the way for his second coming. I know that he
expects much from every one of us who has been so blessed to know his
gospel. i know the book of mormon is true. its has been a rock
for me, in the very hardest moments of my life and fountain of
revelation, truth and light as i have searched its pages. I know the
lord blesses those who look for his lost sheep. i know this is his
work that i´ve been doing for these past two years! And i will
continue in his cause until the end. He lives and love us. of this
i testify in the name of Jesus Christ Amen.
love you all. and im so very excited to see you soon.
much love
Elder Lloyd
Letter #104 10/1/12 Where did all the time go?
Hey family,
I cannot believe this is the second to last time i´ll be writing you.
Where did all the time go?
I write you this week with a heart full of gratitude for these past
two years. I have spent the past week thinking a lot of the blessings
the lord has let me experience these past two years and I am
overwelmed with everything that he has done for me, and for you all as
well in these past two years.
I had my last interview with the president this week. It was more
than an hour long. He had a lot of advice for me! He is truly an
inspired man. I feel grateful as well for his service. We talked
a lot about the mission and everything i´ve been able to do here, and
then a lot about the future. and how to apply what i´ve learned to the
rest of my life. I`m not 100% sure exactly what i want to do after
the mission -- what i´m going to study, or where to work. But I´m
confident the lord will help me in these decisions as I continue to
serve. In the interview the president helped me to see a greater
vision of everything i need to do after the mission, there are truly
great things to come.
This week we shared a talk by Elder Eyring with some of the members
of the ward in a mission activity, where he said, "whenever i
feel the temptation to sit down and take a rest, or whenever i feel
like i´ve completed some great task in the service of the lord and
deserve a break, i give myself this rallying cry -- Remember Him--- "
he then went on to explain that the savior even when he had finished
the greatest and hardest work the father had sent him to do, when he
had suffered for our sins and died in the cross, he still didnt take
time to rest, he then went to the spirit world and continued his
work preaching the gospel. As we watched the video i felt the
spirit testify again that even though i´ve been serving for two years,
there´s really not time to rest. and the president told me the same
in the interview, even when i leave the mission i´ll always be a
missionary, i´ll always have my duties as a priesthood holder, and the
lord will give me callings so i can continue in his service.
Also this week-- we had a baptism of a boy named G, all his
brothers and sisters are members but his mom and dad arent, he was
baptized saturday and the service was super special, there was a neat
spirit and the primary president shared a powerful testimony.
G´s dad came to the service and when it was over he was pretty
moved by everything, we´re hoping we can visit him this week and get
him to attend general conference this week. Yesterday in church i
had the chance to confirm G a member of the church. it was
pretty neat because it was only the second time that i´ve done that in
my mission.
This past week i´ve also been keeping in contact with the elders in
Gaviotas, and the investigators we had are progressing super well.
One got baptized this week! and two are getting married tomorrow!
hopefully they´ll give me permision to attend their baptism!
This week i´ve been a bit sick as well i went to the doctor and they
said i had a sinus infection that had entered into my throat and ears.
and i´m still battling a bit with that. but its not that big of a deal
ha. They did give me 3 shots though!
mostly i´m just happy to keep working as a missionary. Super pumped
for the conference this weekend and excited to see you all soon.
Thanks for all the emails.
loved the pics of jack and slate. they look great.
tell dad i hope he gets feeling better soon!
love you all A LOT =)
atte.
Elder Matthew Daniel Lloyd!
Letter #103 9/24/12 Transfer!!
Looks like Matt will finish his mission (maybe!) with 7 areas, and 21
companions. He's had 3-trios, and a lot of these little mid-transfer
transfers because of issues elsewhere in the mission. Glad he got to
return to see his investigator baptized though!
Elder Lloyd returns on Monday, October 15th, and his sacrament meeting
report will be on October 21st!
Have a great week!
- marci
Subject: ¿Pomoca?
hey fam!
well here i am writing you from Pomoca! yep- transfers! i{m no
longer with elder lope or elder flores. my new companion is elder
Valensuela. it all happened super fast. i think there was a problem
somewhere in the mission and a missionary got sent home and they had
to move a few elders around. But they called me i think it was
thursday morning at like 8 and told me i had to be in my new area at
10. and elder lope got transfered as well. so we packed up in two
hours and now i{m in a ward thats called Tierra Colorada. it was a
super big bummer because the baptism i had planned was for friday, and
i got moved thursday.--- i{ll be honest i wasnt super happy with the
transfers as well because i{ve been working so hard in Gaviotas to
help the investigatos progress, and in the week when all the problems
get resolved, they move me-- bah. the good news is that C
was baptised friday! and i asked special permision from the president
to be able to go back and attend the baptismal service. so i have
some pics i{ll send ya. also good news. the family i was working
so hard with to get them married in gaviotas, finally has everything
ready, the wedding is all set up and paid for. they{re going to get
married the 2nd of october! and baptized the 6th of october! woot!!
and another couple we were working with is also going to be married
and baptized the same week.
as for my new area--- its still in Villahermosa. kindof. its in
the other stake! and in our ward there are two companionships of
missionaries! so we divide the ward limits in two different areas.
the other companionship are sister missionaries! they{re in our
district. which is cool because i{ve never been in a district with
sister missionaries. our area is called pomoca. its a huge area of
pure apartments. all the houses are exactly the same. its like they
took the same model of house and copied it like 100,000 times. The
areas pretty big. but its super far away from the church, which makes
it hard to bring people to church. the other problem is that the
members here arent super helpful. its a bigger ward than gaviotas,
and they help less. only 1 family has let us eat in their house since
i got here. and none of the members let us borrow their washing
machine to wash our clothes. --- that is a first in my mission.
in gaviotas the members fought to feed us and there was a member that
washed our clothes for us. ---- am i whinning? woops. haha.
--- no but its a good area, and my companions chill. and mostly i{m
just happy to be a missionary. one thing i{ve learned in the past two
years is that it doesnt matter where you serve, if you just serve with
all your heart you find joy in what your doing. and i{m just happy to
be a missionary for these next three weeks. and i{m just happy to be
able to testify and to teach. the most important part of being a
missionary is trying hard every day to represent the savior.
well fam love ya a bunch. we{ll be seeing each other soon enough!
until next week
elder lloyd
ps. it was great to hear from kam this week! glad to hear he{s doing
well -- he already sounds like a missionary! i{m pumped to write
him when i get back!
companions. He's had 3-trios, and a lot of these little mid-transfer
transfers because of issues elsewhere in the mission. Glad he got to
return to see his investigator baptized though!
Elder Lloyd returns on Monday, October 15th, and his sacrament meeting
report will be on October 21st!
Have a great week!
- marci
Subject: ¿Pomoca?
hey fam!
well here i am writing you from Pomoca! yep- transfers! i{m no
longer with elder lope or elder flores. my new companion is elder
Valensuela. it all happened super fast. i think there was a problem
somewhere in the mission and a missionary got sent home and they had
to move a few elders around. But they called me i think it was
thursday morning at like 8 and told me i had to be in my new area at
10. and elder lope got transfered as well. so we packed up in two
hours and now i{m in a ward thats called Tierra Colorada. it was a
super big bummer because the baptism i had planned was for friday, and
i got moved thursday.--- i{ll be honest i wasnt super happy with the
transfers as well because i{ve been working so hard in Gaviotas to
help the investigatos progress, and in the week when all the problems
get resolved, they move me-- bah. the good news is that C
was baptised friday! and i asked special permision from the president
to be able to go back and attend the baptismal service. so i have
some pics i{ll send ya. also good news. the family i was working
so hard with to get them married in gaviotas, finally has everything
ready, the wedding is all set up and paid for. they{re going to get
married the 2nd of october! and baptized the 6th of october! woot!!
and another couple we were working with is also going to be married
and baptized the same week.
as for my new area--- its still in Villahermosa. kindof. its in
the other stake! and in our ward there are two companionships of
missionaries! so we divide the ward limits in two different areas.
the other companionship are sister missionaries! they{re in our
district. which is cool because i{ve never been in a district with
sister missionaries. our area is called pomoca. its a huge area of
pure apartments. all the houses are exactly the same. its like they
took the same model of house and copied it like 100,000 times. The
areas pretty big. but its super far away from the church, which makes
it hard to bring people to church. the other problem is that the
members here arent super helpful. its a bigger ward than gaviotas,
and they help less. only 1 family has let us eat in their house since
i got here. and none of the members let us borrow their washing
machine to wash our clothes. --- that is a first in my mission.
in gaviotas the members fought to feed us and there was a member that
washed our clothes for us. ---- am i whinning? woops. haha.
--- no but its a good area, and my companions chill. and mostly i{m
just happy to be a missionary. one thing i{ve learned in the past two
years is that it doesnt matter where you serve, if you just serve with
all your heart you find joy in what your doing. and i{m just happy to
be a missionary for these next three weeks. and i{m just happy to be
able to testify and to teach. the most important part of being a
missionary is trying hard every day to represent the savior.
well fam love ya a bunch. we{ll be seeing each other soon enough!
until next week
elder lloyd
ps. it was great to hear from kam this week! glad to hear he{s doing
well -- he already sounds like a missionary! i{m pumped to write
him when i get back!
Letter #102 9/17/12 Mexican Independence Day!
Hello Family!
Its good to be writing you all again this week!
First of all, Thanks a ton for the birthday envelope that you sent me!
i enjoyed the tape you sent! i felt like i was right there in the
kitchen. My bros are so funny in those tapes! They´ve changed a lot
though, even in their voices, next time i hear your voices it´ll be
in person!
As for my b-day, we went to a members house for breakfast and that
was nice! then in the afternoon an investgator gave me a cake! and
it was awesome! The mission president and his wife called and sang
happy birthday in english. they are such great examples of the pure
love of christ. everytime i talk with them i feel their love.
Also this week, I have a new companion!!! Transfers left and right
these days. only this time i didnt lose a companion, we just
received another, Now we´re a trio. Elder lope, Elder Flores, and
Elder lloyd! Elder flores is from my same generation, or in
other words he started the mission the same day i did, and he´ll be
going home the same day! he´s from Baja California South, a city
called Los Cabos, or in other words, the Mexico Culiacan mission,
he lives in the mission where landon is serving! Cool eh?
i dont know if you guys have the pics from my first area, but there´s
a pic where i´m with my district, and we´re all in a room in the
church wearing blue shirts with a white dragon thing, There are two
mexican elders in that pic, and the one that isnt elder tlachi is
Elder Flores. only in that pic he´s about 40 pounds heavier.
he´s lost a ton of weight in the last two years. haha.
not going to lie. i think he´s a bit more trunky than i am. but i´m
sure theres a reason why the lord wants us together, the three of us.
The good news is we´re going to baptize this week!!!!! yahoooo! una
hermana que se llama C! she´s living with some members and
has come to church the last three weeks and loves it! she´s been
passing for some pretty serious problems in her life. shes seperated
from her husband, and her husband kidnapped her baby. its crazy. but
she´s super prepared and excited for the friday!
also this past week we had a Noche Mexicana, in the church. its
basically just a huge ward party for mexican independence day. i have
some awesome pics i´ll show you when i get home! there was a lot of
traditional mexican dancing, and a lot of mexican food. we had a ton
of investigators there and all in all i think there were 220 people in
attendance, so that was great!
well fam. hope you have a great week. love ya´ll A TON.
-elder lloyd
Its good to be writing you all again this week!
First of all, Thanks a ton for the birthday envelope that you sent me!
i enjoyed the tape you sent! i felt like i was right there in the
kitchen. My bros are so funny in those tapes! They´ve changed a lot
though, even in their voices, next time i hear your voices it´ll be
in person!
As for my b-day, we went to a members house for breakfast and that
was nice! then in the afternoon an investgator gave me a cake! and
it was awesome! The mission president and his wife called and sang
happy birthday in english. they are such great examples of the pure
love of christ. everytime i talk with them i feel their love.
Also this week, I have a new companion!!! Transfers left and right
these days. only this time i didnt lose a companion, we just
received another, Now we´re a trio. Elder lope, Elder Flores, and
Elder lloyd! Elder flores is from my same generation, or in
other words he started the mission the same day i did, and he´ll be
going home the same day! he´s from Baja California South, a city
called Los Cabos, or in other words, the Mexico Culiacan mission,
he lives in the mission where landon is serving! Cool eh?
i dont know if you guys have the pics from my first area, but there´s
a pic where i´m with my district, and we´re all in a room in the
church wearing blue shirts with a white dragon thing, There are two
mexican elders in that pic, and the one that isnt elder tlachi is
Elder Flores. only in that pic he´s about 40 pounds heavier.
he´s lost a ton of weight in the last two years. haha.
not going to lie. i think he´s a bit more trunky than i am. but i´m
sure theres a reason why the lord wants us together, the three of us.
The good news is we´re going to baptize this week!!!!! yahoooo! una
hermana que se llama C! she´s living with some members and
has come to church the last three weeks and loves it! she´s been
passing for some pretty serious problems in her life. shes seperated
from her husband, and her husband kidnapped her baby. its crazy. but
she´s super prepared and excited for the friday!
also this past week we had a Noche Mexicana, in the church. its
basically just a huge ward party for mexican independence day. i have
some awesome pics i´ll show you when i get home! there was a lot of
traditional mexican dancing, and a lot of mexican food. we had a ton
of investigators there and all in all i think there were 220 people in
attendance, so that was great!
well fam. hope you have a great week. love ya´ll A TON.
-elder lloyd
Letter #101 9/10/12! Happy Birthday Elder Lloyd!!
Ok, Matt's emails are getting shorter and shorter every week. In 4 weeks,
it will be just a "See you next week". It's all good though! Have a great
week. - marci
Subject: hello from Gaviotas
My Family!
Thanks so much for all the emails you sent this week! honestly i had
forgotten that my birthday is tomorrow until i opened up my mail and
was wondering why i had like 3 times the amount of emails as normal
haha. but thats super weird to me that i{m going to be 21 tomorrow.
geez i{m old ha!
i havent received your envelope yet, but if it was in the mission
offices this past week i should receive it tomorrow!, we{ll see.
This past week has gone really well. My new companion elder lope is
super great. super positive, he is from southern peru, he comes
from a family of 10. he has 7 brothers and sisters. holy cow. he
is the last of the 8. and the first to serve a mission. so i think
his parents are super proud of him, his whole family is active
though, and all his brothers and sisters are married in the temple!
his parents are converts to the church. ---- we come from two
very different worlds i{m learning haha. because here in the last two
years i{ve been getting used to mexico, but i think mexico and peru
are super different as well.
all in all everythings went very well this week though. elder lope is
super socialable, he gets along super well with everyone. he teaches
well! we have a lot of people we{re working with, they{re just
progressing super super slowly. which can be frustrating, but we had
a lot of new investigators in church sunday and a lot of old
investigators as well.
This next week we{re going to focus a lot in helping our investigators
accept a baptismal date, because we have a lot that have come to church
2 or 3 times and still havent decided when they{re going to be
baptized. also this week we{re probably going to get a couple
married! ha. or maybe two couples ha. i hope everything works out
well so we can help our investigators to get past the tests they{ve
been having the past few weeks!
anyway,
It was good to see those pics of my bros, and of kams farewell. i{m
super excited to start getting his letters from the mtc. tell the
kilbournes i want to be on the list to get his letters!
well i gtg write the pres.
love ya{ll, y espero que tengan una buena semana
.elder lloyd.
it will be just a "See you next week". It's all good though! Have a great
week. - marci
Subject: hello from Gaviotas
My Family!
Thanks so much for all the emails you sent this week! honestly i had
forgotten that my birthday is tomorrow until i opened up my mail and
was wondering why i had like 3 times the amount of emails as normal
haha. but thats super weird to me that i{m going to be 21 tomorrow.
geez i{m old ha!
i havent received your envelope yet, but if it was in the mission
offices this past week i should receive it tomorrow!, we{ll see.
This past week has gone really well. My new companion elder lope is
super great. super positive, he is from southern peru, he comes
from a family of 10. he has 7 brothers and sisters. holy cow. he
is the last of the 8. and the first to serve a mission. so i think
his parents are super proud of him, his whole family is active
though, and all his brothers and sisters are married in the temple!
his parents are converts to the church. ---- we come from two
very different worlds i{m learning haha. because here in the last two
years i{ve been getting used to mexico, but i think mexico and peru
are super different as well.
all in all everythings went very well this week though. elder lope is
super socialable, he gets along super well with everyone. he teaches
well! we have a lot of people we{re working with, they{re just
progressing super super slowly. which can be frustrating, but we had
a lot of new investigators in church sunday and a lot of old
investigators as well.
This next week we{re going to focus a lot in helping our investigators
accept a baptismal date, because we have a lot that have come to church
2 or 3 times and still havent decided when they{re going to be
baptized. also this week we{re probably going to get a couple
married! ha. or maybe two couples ha. i hope everything works out
well so we can help our investigators to get past the tests they{ve
been having the past few weeks!
anyway,
It was good to see those pics of my bros, and of kams farewell. i{m
super excited to start getting his letters from the mtc. tell the
kilbournes i want to be on the list to get his letters!
well i gtg write the pres.
love ya{ll, y espero que tengan una buena semana
.elder lloyd.
Letter #100 9/3/12 New Companion!!
hey family!
This week has been a bit interesting, Elder Rodriguez finished up
his last week and went home yesterday, he seemed pretty excited i{ll
be honest haha. yesterday and today i{ve been with another elder
from the zone whose companion also went home this transfer. we{re
waiting for our new companions to come tomorrow. my new companion
will be elder lope, pronounced lopay. he{s from peru! i think he
has less than a year in the mission, about 9 months i think. i{ve
never met him but i{ll be sure to tell you more about him next week.
This week was a a little hard though because we got robbed. well, i
got robbed ha. it was a super big bummer, and i{ve been pretty
distracted with the loss all this week actually. what happened is
that my desk where i study is right by the window, and i left out on
my desk the other day the 300g hard drive in its box along with all
the memory cards and the flash drive. and when we came back to the
apartment at night it wasnt there. and our apartment is pretty
secure, its on the second floor and really the only people who have a
key to get to the second floor are other people in the apartment
complex. but someone, (probably one of our neighbors) broke the
screen and took the hard drive. so frustrating. i{m a bit bummed
because i know it was something expensive, but more than that i{m
super bummed about the pics i had there in the hard drive. i think
you guys have back ups of all the pics that i{ve sent, but i also had
all the pics that my companions had taken on the hard drive. -- and i
had a ton of music, and talks, and books in pdf format. frustrating
that in 22 months in the mission i dont get robbed and my last
transfer this happens. bah.
anyway, mostly theres nothing we can do about it now.
the rest of the week went pretty well. i loved the fast and testimony
meeting yesterday. a member of the quorem of the seventy came to the
meeting, idk why he was there actually ha. but it was a great
meeting, one of the investigators bore her testimony. she{s super
awesome, she the girlfriend of a member, and she just finished reading
the book of mormon like a week ago, and she wants to get baptized, but
her mom hasnt given her permission.
there are like 5 or 6 investigators that are attending church every
sunday but for one reason or another havent been able to get baptized.
-- frustrating. but i{m certain that these next 6 weeks are going to
be the best of my mission. we are going to work hard, and fast and
pray so that these families can be baptized in the coming weeks!
well i gtg. but i love ya{ll bunch. thanks for your emails,
i loved the pics btw.
-elder lloyd
This week has been a bit interesting, Elder Rodriguez finished up
his last week and went home yesterday, he seemed pretty excited i{ll
be honest haha. yesterday and today i{ve been with another elder
from the zone whose companion also went home this transfer. we{re
waiting for our new companions to come tomorrow. my new companion
will be elder lope, pronounced lopay. he{s from peru! i think he
has less than a year in the mission, about 9 months i think. i{ve
never met him but i{ll be sure to tell you more about him next week.
This week was a a little hard though because we got robbed. well, i
got robbed ha. it was a super big bummer, and i{ve been pretty
distracted with the loss all this week actually. what happened is
that my desk where i study is right by the window, and i left out on
my desk the other day the 300g hard drive in its box along with all
the memory cards and the flash drive. and when we came back to the
apartment at night it wasnt there. and our apartment is pretty
secure, its on the second floor and really the only people who have a
key to get to the second floor are other people in the apartment
complex. but someone, (probably one of our neighbors) broke the
screen and took the hard drive. so frustrating. i{m a bit bummed
because i know it was something expensive, but more than that i{m
super bummed about the pics i had there in the hard drive. i think
you guys have back ups of all the pics that i{ve sent, but i also had
all the pics that my companions had taken on the hard drive. -- and i
had a ton of music, and talks, and books in pdf format. frustrating
that in 22 months in the mission i dont get robbed and my last
transfer this happens. bah.
anyway, mostly theres nothing we can do about it now.
the rest of the week went pretty well. i loved the fast and testimony
meeting yesterday. a member of the quorem of the seventy came to the
meeting, idk why he was there actually ha. but it was a great
meeting, one of the investigators bore her testimony. she{s super
awesome, she the girlfriend of a member, and she just finished reading
the book of mormon like a week ago, and she wants to get baptized, but
her mom hasnt given her permission.
there are like 5 or 6 investigators that are attending church every
sunday but for one reason or another havent been able to get baptized.
-- frustrating. but i{m certain that these next 6 weeks are going to
be the best of my mission. we are going to work hard, and fast and
pray so that these families can be baptized in the coming weeks!
well i gtg. but i love ya{ll bunch. thanks for your emails,
i loved the pics btw.
-elder lloyd
Letter #99 8/27/12 Great Letter from Matt!
hey fam, how }s it going!
its been another good week here in Gaviotas.
i dont know if i told you last week but i got your package! and it was
soooooo good. ha. i seriously loved the tape you sent. especially
all the stuff jack and slater sang. super funny. and the treats have
been seriously great as well. and the pics! i loved the pics of
powell and the parade! it was all super great.
and i´m glad you chose not to send a package for my birthday. i was
going to tell you that. i{ll be home soon enough! and i{ll be able
to eat all the oatmeal creme pies and pop tarts i want haha.
i have been thinking a lot this week about something i read in Acts.
i love the example of the apostles of christ, even though they were
imprisoned, and whipped and beaten, and their lives were put in
danger, they said "For we cannot but speak the things which we have
seen and heard.", they really understood the gospel of jesus
christ and knew that sharing it with all the other sons and daughters
of god was more important than whatever else.
i finished the book of mormon this week and started again in the
introduction, and i really liked something that the three witnesses
said, -- "and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and
our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these
things are true. --And it is marvelous in our eyes.-- Nevertheless,
the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it;
wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear
testimony of these things "
i loved this part because as a missionary i have seriously felt the
same way, i cant express how grateful i am to the lord for the
things he has allowed me to see in the past two years, and i know
that it is only by his grace, and by his power that i could have these
experiences. and it is only by his power that i{ve arrived to this
point in my mission. and it truly has been Marvelous to my eyes.
and to be obedient to the commandments of the lord and like the
apostles of the primitive church, i cannot do more than speak and
testify of the things which i have seen and heard!
i love the gospel, and i love the atonement, i know that there is
only one way to be happy in this life and it is living the gospel of
christ and losing ourselves in his service. i have felt so much more
happiness as i{ve tried to lose myself and only think of others.
and i know i{m not perfect, but it is my goal to keep striving to be
like christ, not only for the next month and a half, but for all my
life.
everythings going well here. -- this is elder rodriguez{s last week
in the mission. crazy eh. i{m going to have to work hard so that
he doesnt stop working before his times up haha.
hope your all doing well- have a great week!
-elder lloyd
its been another good week here in Gaviotas.
i dont know if i told you last week but i got your package! and it was
soooooo good. ha. i seriously loved the tape you sent. especially
all the stuff jack and slater sang. super funny. and the treats have
been seriously great as well. and the pics! i loved the pics of
powell and the parade! it was all super great.
and i´m glad you chose not to send a package for my birthday. i was
going to tell you that. i{ll be home soon enough! and i{ll be able
to eat all the oatmeal creme pies and pop tarts i want haha.
i have been thinking a lot this week about something i read in Acts.
i love the example of the apostles of christ, even though they were
imprisoned, and whipped and beaten, and their lives were put in
danger, they said "For we cannot but speak the things which we have
seen and heard.", they really understood the gospel of jesus
christ and knew that sharing it with all the other sons and daughters
of god was more important than whatever else.
i finished the book of mormon this week and started again in the
introduction, and i really liked something that the three witnesses
said, -- "and we know that it is by the grace of God the Father, and
our Lord Jesus Christ, that we beheld and bear record that these
things are true. --And it is marvelous in our eyes.-- Nevertheless,
the voice of the Lord commanded us that we should bear record of it;
wherefore, to be obedient unto the commandments of God, we bear
testimony of these things "
i loved this part because as a missionary i have seriously felt the
same way, i cant express how grateful i am to the lord for the
things he has allowed me to see in the past two years, and i know
that it is only by his grace, and by his power that i could have these
experiences. and it is only by his power that i{ve arrived to this
point in my mission. and it truly has been Marvelous to my eyes.
and to be obedient to the commandments of the lord and like the
apostles of the primitive church, i cannot do more than speak and
testify of the things which i have seen and heard!
i love the gospel, and i love the atonement, i know that there is
only one way to be happy in this life and it is living the gospel of
christ and losing ourselves in his service. i have felt so much more
happiness as i{ve tried to lose myself and only think of others.
and i know i{m not perfect, but it is my goal to keep striving to be
like christ, not only for the next month and a half, but for all my
life.
everythings going well here. -- this is elder rodriguez{s last week
in the mission. crazy eh. i{m going to have to work hard so that
he doesnt stop working before his times up haha.
hope your all doing well- have a great week!
-elder lloyd
Letter #98 08/20/12 New Companion!
Hey family,
great to be writing again this week. good to get your emails today!
its been a pretty busy week, they called us wednesday and told us
that elder muñoz had transfers! which is wierd, aparrently there
were some problems in another zone in the mission and the president
had to move some elders around so elder muñoz went to Coatzacualcoz.
and now my new companion is elder Rodriguez. He`s a great guy.
lots of experience in the mission. in fact, he´s going home in two
weeks. ha. he has 23 and a half months in the mission! crazy eh?
i´m going to be his last companion. He´s from northern mexico, i
can remember what the state is called, its not very well known. but
we´ve been getting along super super well. but he actually didnt
arrive till friday afternoon, so i spent two days alone in my area!
it was interesting. i had a ward member work with me so i wouldnt
have to go work in a trio with the zone leaders, but for two days i was
without a real companion.
We´ve been working super hard. and we found an awesome investigator
named k, who´s husband is an inactive member, but she told us
from the contact that she wants to be baptized! that was so
awesome. ha. she should be baptized the 8th of september.
As for other investigadores, we had a ton in church this sunday, but
we´re struggling so that they can progress. a lot of them are working
on getting married, (birth certificates/drivers license problems),
and others have super dificult schedules to work around. but i´m
confident that in the next few weeks we´re going to see a lot of
results. our goal is to be able to baptize someone before elder
rodriguez goes home!
yesterday was nice because we got to go see the special program for
pres. monsons birthday! we brought some investigators and some
recent converts, and it was a little weird because all the music was in
english, but i think they liked it. i really enjoyed it haha.
today we played basketball and watched a movie with the zone leaders
in the morning and have been enjoying our preparation day. the
members here are super nice. theres a lady in our ward that offers to
wash our clothes for us! i feel super spoiled to be ending the
mission here. its a great area. the foods great, the members are
helpful, and there are many people to teach!
-- to answer your question, -- even though i had thought that they
were going to transfer me one more time before i finish my mission,
i´m almost 100% now that they arent going to transfer me, and i´ll be
finishing my mish here.
also-- glad to hear that bens getting everything ready for when i get back.
i´m super pumped for winter semester and to be back in school. to go
to institute and everything. we´re going to have a lot of fun!
well fam. i gtg.
love ya´ll and hope ya have a great week
-elder lloyd
great to be writing again this week. good to get your emails today!
its been a pretty busy week, they called us wednesday and told us
that elder muñoz had transfers! which is wierd, aparrently there
were some problems in another zone in the mission and the president
had to move some elders around so elder muñoz went to Coatzacualcoz.
and now my new companion is elder Rodriguez. He`s a great guy.
lots of experience in the mission. in fact, he´s going home in two
weeks. ha. he has 23 and a half months in the mission! crazy eh?
i´m going to be his last companion. He´s from northern mexico, i
can remember what the state is called, its not very well known. but
we´ve been getting along super super well. but he actually didnt
arrive till friday afternoon, so i spent two days alone in my area!
it was interesting. i had a ward member work with me so i wouldnt
have to go work in a trio with the zone leaders, but for two days i was
without a real companion.
We´ve been working super hard. and we found an awesome investigator
named k, who´s husband is an inactive member, but she told us
from the contact that she wants to be baptized! that was so
awesome. ha. she should be baptized the 8th of september.
As for other investigadores, we had a ton in church this sunday, but
we´re struggling so that they can progress. a lot of them are working
on getting married, (birth certificates/drivers license problems),
and others have super dificult schedules to work around. but i´m
confident that in the next few weeks we´re going to see a lot of
results. our goal is to be able to baptize someone before elder
rodriguez goes home!
yesterday was nice because we got to go see the special program for
pres. monsons birthday! we brought some investigators and some
recent converts, and it was a little weird because all the music was in
english, but i think they liked it. i really enjoyed it haha.
today we played basketball and watched a movie with the zone leaders
in the morning and have been enjoying our preparation day. the
members here are super nice. theres a lady in our ward that offers to
wash our clothes for us! i feel super spoiled to be ending the
mission here. its a great area. the foods great, the members are
helpful, and there are many people to teach!
-- to answer your question, -- even though i had thought that they
were going to transfer me one more time before i finish my mission,
i´m almost 100% now that they arent going to transfer me, and i´ll be
finishing my mish here.
also-- glad to hear that bens getting everything ready for when i get back.
i´m super pumped for winter semester and to be back in school. to go
to institute and everything. we´re going to have a lot of fun!
well fam. i gtg.
love ya´ll and hope ya have a great week
-elder lloyd
Letter #97 08/13/12! Olympics!
 |
| Zone Conference |
 |
| Trip to the Temple!! |
hey family! hows it going?
Thanks for the pics you sent. that back packing trip looked pretty
intense, i{m pumped to go camping this winter. and that hammock
looked super awesome! i was a bit worried actually thinking about
where i{m going to hang up my hammock but i think that i{ll be able to
hang it between jacksons room and my room when i get back using the
pull up bars! ha
as for what you wrote me in the letters, yeah its been pretty
intense here with the olympics. everyones been watching them all the
time. and even more the day of the soccer game! ha. we were walking
down the street and we knew exactly when mexico scored because it
sounded like the whole city erupted! ha. --- as for the friend that
added me on face, -- you dont know if she ended up getting baptized?
as for the toe- its all good dont worry about it. and as for the
package, i still havent received it, but in the next week or so i
imagine i{ll have it!
This week has been good. We had the zone class tuesday. it
was actually more weird than anything ha. i{ll be honest. i{ll have
to send you a pic. it was good, but it felt like it wasnt prepared
well. but it was good because i could see a lot of my friends from
the mission! there are like 20 something elders in the zone. its
pretty big, and i know a lot of them from when i was in Cardenas!
The good thing is that this week we had the chance to go to the temple!
woot.
one of the young men in the ward is getting ready to leave on his
mission and went to get endowed. it was cool because we got to go
with him and while i was there i saw another young man from Puerto Real
(my old area in Cd. Del Carmen) who also now has his mission call and
was there the same day same hour getting endowed!! super cool.
it was a neat experience because it was only the second time that i{ve
entered the temple since i got to mexico, and my second time going
through in spanish!! it was good to hear again all the promises we
make and be able to feel the spirit there as we sat in the temple!
it was interesting though because when i arrived they didnt let me in,
because my recommend expiried!!! that made me feel super old in the
mission. i had no idea it had already expired. luckily they just
called the mission pres and he let me pass.
other than that this weeks just been super normal. we had divisions
with the zone leaders, that went well. we have a lot of people
we{re teaching right now and i really hope that we can see them
progress before the transfers up. we seriously have a lot of super
good people, and some of them have had answers to their prayers about
the restoration, but they{re passing for a lot of challenges to attend
church. it seems like every sunday all the walls go up so that the
investigators cant make it to the church... frustrating. but we{ll
keep working strong till the end.
well hope you all have a great last week before school starts.
I love you all very much
-elder lloyd
Letter #96 8/06/12! Hey Fam!
Hey fam!
Thanks for the pics! wow slater looks suuuper different! man i think
i{m going to be suprised when i get back to see how everyones changed.
This weeks went well. lots of work as usual. its been a pretty
normal week actually. we had a lot of lessons this week. we did
divisions a couple of days with the ward missionaries and the mission
leader. they{re great guys. we have like 4 or 5 ward kids that are
preparing to leave on a mission soon. actually one of them is going to
the temple wednesday and we might go with him!! that would be so
neat. i havent been to the temple since february or march.
As for the work-- almost all our investigators are passing for some
serious problems, i dont know why but this week it seems like a lot of
problems have come out of no where-- the investigators arent
progressing like we{d like them to. and it been a bit frustrating
this week. Its hard when youve been a member your whole life and
you know all the blessing that are going to come to the lives of these
people, but as much as you try to help them theres always opposition!
the good news is we{ve got a lot of investigators to work with and i
know that if we put our confidence in the lord and teach the
investigators to do it too, he{ll be able to help them resolve their
problems.
the good thing is that tomorrow we have a zone conference, and i{m
excited to go and learn more things we can apply with our
investigators this week. I{m almost certain the conference is going
to focus on helping our investigators reach conversion, inspired
questions, and strong commitments.
we{ve got one family thats been progressing really well, but they{re
just waiting for a birth certificate to arrive from another state so
that they can get married, and then baptized! their names are Jand M,
and they have two little girls and a 1 year old boy, and
another baby on the way! they{re super great. they{ve changed a lot
from when they first met the missionaries and they seem super excited
to continue in the church.
also this week a ward member lent us a keyboard for the apartment!
so i{ve been trying to learn a bit of the piano! we have a hymn book
with simplified hymns and my goal is to be able to learn a few before
i get back! hopefully in the next few weeks i{ll be able to practice
and learn a bit! because when i get back i really would like to get
good at playing the piano. -- at least to be able to play the hymns.
its something i regret not doing before the mish!
well fam. hope youre all doing well and that youre enjoying these last
few days-weeks before school starts! love ya{ll a bunch! have a
great week
elder lloyd
Thanks for the pics! wow slater looks suuuper different! man i think
i{m going to be suprised when i get back to see how everyones changed.
This weeks went well. lots of work as usual. its been a pretty
normal week actually. we had a lot of lessons this week. we did
divisions a couple of days with the ward missionaries and the mission
leader. they{re great guys. we have like 4 or 5 ward kids that are
preparing to leave on a mission soon. actually one of them is going to
the temple wednesday and we might go with him!! that would be so
neat. i havent been to the temple since february or march.
As for the work-- almost all our investigators are passing for some
serious problems, i dont know why but this week it seems like a lot of
problems have come out of no where-- the investigators arent
progressing like we{d like them to. and it been a bit frustrating
this week. Its hard when youve been a member your whole life and
you know all the blessing that are going to come to the lives of these
people, but as much as you try to help them theres always opposition!
the good news is we{ve got a lot of investigators to work with and i
know that if we put our confidence in the lord and teach the
investigators to do it too, he{ll be able to help them resolve their
problems.
the good thing is that tomorrow we have a zone conference, and i{m
excited to go and learn more things we can apply with our
investigators this week. I{m almost certain the conference is going
to focus on helping our investigators reach conversion, inspired
questions, and strong commitments.
we{ve got one family thats been progressing really well, but they{re
just waiting for a birth certificate to arrive from another state so
that they can get married, and then baptized! their names are Jand M,
and they have two little girls and a 1 year old boy, and
another baby on the way! they{re super great. they{ve changed a lot
from when they first met the missionaries and they seem super excited
to continue in the church.
also this week a ward member lent us a keyboard for the apartment!
so i{ve been trying to learn a bit of the piano! we have a hymn book
with simplified hymns and my goal is to be able to learn a few before
i get back! hopefully in the next few weeks i{ll be able to practice
and learn a bit! because when i get back i really would like to get
good at playing the piano. -- at least to be able to play the hymns.
its something i regret not doing before the mish!
well fam. hope youre all doing well and that youre enjoying these last
few days-weeks before school starts! love ya{ll a bunch! have a
great week
elder lloyd
Letter #95 7/30/12 Villahermosa!
 |
| Matt and Elder Garcia |
 |
| Matt's super clean house!! |
 |
| And his super clean desk! |
hey family,
its good to be writing you this week.
Here i am in Gaviotas Villahermosa. Its been an awesome week. I have
to say that once again my testimony that our mission president is
inspired in the transfers has been strengthened. The lord knew
exactly where i needed to come. I had been praying for the past
week to be able to go to an area where i could work with all my heart
in these last weeks and this is definitely the place.
Gaviotas is a part of Villahermosa. There are two stakes here in
villa. -- Villahermosa stake and the Gaviotas Stake. its right in
the middle of the city! its lots of buisnesses lots of apartments
lots of houses. And the areas still pretty big. There are plenty of
people to teach. Theres a ton of traffic though. lots of cars and
lots of taxis. we are pretty close to the temple and i imagine if
we ask theyd give us permision to go on a P{Day! super pumped about
that. The apartment is very nice. very clean. we have a toaster,
and a blender WOOT.
My companion is elder muñoz. He{s from Misouri! his parents are from
south america but he lived in the US all his life. so he speaks
english and spanish. He has 1 brother and 1 sister. he has 1 year in
the mish. He{s a hard worker which i{m enjoying i dont have to be
telling him what to do, he{s one of my first companions that walks
faster than i do haha. We{ve been working super hard this week and i
already know my area pretty well. actually 2 days after i got here we
did divisions with some young men in the ward and i didnt have a map
or anything. luckily the city is pretty organized and i could find all
the appointments. We{ve got a ton of investigators that are
progressing! some of them have some pretty big problems though---
But i have no doubt that we{re going to see some success in this
month. we had like 8 investigators in church--- i was so happy ha.
The ward is big. 116 attended sunday so that was nice. its the
biggest ward i{ve served in on my mission. the members seem super
willing to help in the work and thats exciting.
as for me and my comp--- haha. well he{s a bit different than my other
comps. ha He{s super super clean. super clean. there are rules
written on notes all around the house about how to keep things clean.
he has a rule that we have to take our shoes off every time we enter
and leave--- and i{m not going to lie, the house is SUPER clean, it
was clean before we cleaned for an hour this morning. so now its
spotless. i could eat off that floor. -- but he{s super nice. and
ALWAYS positive. always happy. laughs a lot. i know the lord sent me with
him because i have a lot to learn from him. i{ve been thinking a lot in
the talk from the general conference entitled -- special lessons. and i
truly think the lord has many lessons that he wants me to learn right now.
-- i needed to be more humble. more happy, more clean =) but i{m having
fun every day learning from my companion, and from the area, and the
experiences we{re having.
in other news-- my alligator scripture case arrived-- its awesome.
dont worry about it. and Elder Jepson gave me a new wallet made of
tiger and otter fur-- cool eh?
also- i live in the colony Gaviotas Sur, in the intersection of
oceanologos and mechanicos! so you can look it up.
well gtg write the pres but hopefully we can chat in a min!
love ya all a bunch
have a great week
-elder lloyd
Letter #94 7/23/12 Transfer!
i have transfers tomorrow!
my new area is Centro in the zone Acayucan, veracruz
my new comp is named Elder Gonzales
i´ll write more in the afternoon.
love ya
-elder lloyd
hey fam!
well theres been a change of transfer! ha. the offices called us and
said that the president has been praying this morning and felt like he
should change some of the transfers--
my new transfer is
Gaviotas, Villahermosa
and my new companion will be elder muñoz
i{m pretty excited about this because its the first time i{ll be
serving in Villahermosa! and Gaviotas is one of the biggest zones
in the mission. there are two zones in villa. lots of wards lots of
chapels. i{m pretty pumped to see exactly where i{ll be at!
--------- elder muñoz i{ve heard is a good missionary, he has like a year
i think. really i{m not 100% sure but i{ll tell you lots more
info about everything next week when i meet him! i{m almost 100%
sure though that i{m not going to finish my mission in Villa. we{ll see how
long the president has me there in gaviotas.
my companion elder garcia is going to Ciudad del Carmen! and he{s going as
a district leader so he{s pretty pumped about that! this is his last
transfer! his companion is elder andrade who is an excelent elder.
This week we hardly spent much time in our area. tuesday we went to Cd. del
carmen and spent the day there with the zone leaders, wednesday we went to
villahermosa and spent the night there for a Conference with one of the
General Authorities, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, that we had Thursday. The
conference was excellent. Elder Benjamin de hoyos gave a powerful message.
He and his wife are super great. they both gave such great messages. Sister
de Hoyos talked longer than the mission president and longer than her
husband, but she was seriously powerful, i think i have double the notes
from her talk than from anyone else. she spoke of the importance of
deepening our compresion of the atonement to be able to complete our purpose
as missionaries. and reminded us to focus everything we do as
missionaries to the atonement of jesus christ. as missionaries
sometimes we think the most important principle and ordinance of the gospel
is Baptism. but we forget that all of our teaching efforts should be
focused on and relate back to the atonement of christ.
our purpose as missionaries is first and formost, help all to come unto
christ, by helping them to strengthen their faith in Christ and
HIS ATONEMENT. if we fullfill this first purpose, the investigator
will much more easily take the steps of repentance that lead them to baptism
and true conversion. Sister de hoyos invited us to deepen our compresion of
the atonement by dedicated study of the doctrine and afterwards-- living the
atonement in our lives.
after she spoke the Mision president spoke about the importance of
strengthening our faith. and afterward elder benjamin de hoyos spoke again
of the atonement and the scriptures. it was seriously a great conference.
three zones of the mission were there!
friday we were back in our area, and we{ve just been working these last few
days getting the area ready for the next elders.
i}m really excited to start again in a new area. i{m excited to meet my new
companion and to work with him in the next few weeks. i{ve been thinking a
lot the last few weeks of what i want to do different and i{m super excited
to be in a bigger ward and to be able to work a bit more with the members!
well fam. i gtg. write the pres.
love ya much and hope ya have a great week -elder lloyd
ps. i did recieve ronettes package! tell her a big thanks! i{m loving the
Cliff bars and pop tarts!
also-- elder tlachi is leaving for his home tomorrow!!!!! AH! i{m
going to see him tonight for the last time!
my new area is Centro in the zone Acayucan, veracruz
my new comp is named Elder Gonzales
i´ll write more in the afternoon.
love ya
-elder lloyd
hey fam!
well theres been a change of transfer! ha. the offices called us and
said that the president has been praying this morning and felt like he
should change some of the transfers--
my new transfer is
Gaviotas, Villahermosa
and my new companion will be elder muñoz
i{m pretty excited about this because its the first time i{ll be
serving in Villahermosa! and Gaviotas is one of the biggest zones
in the mission. there are two zones in villa. lots of wards lots of
chapels. i{m pretty pumped to see exactly where i{ll be at!
--------- elder muñoz i{ve heard is a good missionary, he has like a year
i think. really i{m not 100% sure but i{ll tell you lots more
info about everything next week when i meet him! i{m almost 100%
sure though that i{m not going to finish my mission in Villa. we{ll see how
long the president has me there in gaviotas.
my companion elder garcia is going to Ciudad del Carmen! and he{s going as
a district leader so he{s pretty pumped about that! this is his last
transfer! his companion is elder andrade who is an excelent elder.
This week we hardly spent much time in our area. tuesday we went to Cd. del
carmen and spent the day there with the zone leaders, wednesday we went to
villahermosa and spent the night there for a Conference with one of the
General Authorities, Elder Benjamin De Hoyos, that we had Thursday. The
conference was excellent. Elder Benjamin de hoyos gave a powerful message.
He and his wife are super great. they both gave such great messages. Sister
de Hoyos talked longer than the mission president and longer than her
husband, but she was seriously powerful, i think i have double the notes
from her talk than from anyone else. she spoke of the importance of
deepening our compresion of the atonement to be able to complete our purpose
as missionaries. and reminded us to focus everything we do as
missionaries to the atonement of jesus christ. as missionaries
sometimes we think the most important principle and ordinance of the gospel
is Baptism. but we forget that all of our teaching efforts should be
focused on and relate back to the atonement of christ.
our purpose as missionaries is first and formost, help all to come unto
christ, by helping them to strengthen their faith in Christ and
HIS ATONEMENT. if we fullfill this first purpose, the investigator
will much more easily take the steps of repentance that lead them to baptism
and true conversion. Sister de hoyos invited us to deepen our compresion of
the atonement by dedicated study of the doctrine and afterwards-- living the
atonement in our lives.
after she spoke the Mision president spoke about the importance of
strengthening our faith. and afterward elder benjamin de hoyos spoke again
of the atonement and the scriptures. it was seriously a great conference.
three zones of the mission were there!
friday we were back in our area, and we{ve just been working these last few
days getting the area ready for the next elders.
i}m really excited to start again in a new area. i{m excited to meet my new
companion and to work with him in the next few weeks. i{ve been thinking a
lot the last few weeks of what i want to do different and i{m super excited
to be in a bigger ward and to be able to work a bit more with the members!
well fam. i gtg. write the pres.
love ya much and hope ya have a great week -elder lloyd
ps. i did recieve ronettes package! tell her a big thanks! i{m loving the
Cliff bars and pop tarts!
also-- elder tlachi is leaving for his home tomorrow!!!!! AH! i{m
going to see him tonight for the last time!
Letter #93 7/16/12!! 90 Days Left!!
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| Matt and members in Sabancuy |
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| Matt and Elder Garcia in Sabancuy |
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| Baptism!! |
Fam.!
its good to be writing you again. its remarkable how fast the weeks
are flying by.
i loved the pics of powel that you sent! not gunna lie, i´m pretty
jealous, i cant believe its been almost two years since the last time
i went swimming! and the pics of powell look so great. i cant wait
to be able to go boating! -- how was the water? was it higher or
lower than last year?
glad to hear you all had fun and everyone was safe!
This week went very well. We had a baptism! woot. we visited one of
our investigators A tuesday and had a super spiritual
lesson. she´s living right now with her aunt, who is a
member and so she´s been coming to church with her aunt the last few
weeks, and we´ve been teaching her. we invited her to be baptized
this saturday and she accepted.
she was baptized sunday morning before church and it was an awesome
service. her aunt gave a talk and it was super powerful and then the
stake president confirmed her a member of the church! it was great.
and she´s super excited.
she´s going to be such a great memeber. she´s got an awesome
testimony of the restoration and sunday after her baptism and the
church meetings, - she paid her tithing! which is one of the best
indicators of someone with a testimony!
i´m really grateful that the lord let me witness a part of her
conversion. that after so much time of working here in sabancuy we
could see someone accept the message! and i´m excited because i
think her baptism is going to open the door for other members of her
family to accpet the gospel
- as for transfers, we wont know where i´m going till sunday, and i´ll
be changing areas tuesday morning of the next week! this´ll be my
last week in sabancuy
elder garcia is doing well. a bit more excited now, but still isnt
really working at 100%. hés headed home in 6
weeks! one foot in the plane one foot in the mission. its been
a bit rough keeping him active these past few weeks, but the
day of redemption is coming soon!
haha.
i´m pumped for the next transfer, to see where i´ll be going, and to
keep working. every new area is a chance to start over, and i´m
excited to be the most dedicated most effective i can be in my next
area.
hope you all have a great week and i´ll write more next week!
ps. i havent gotten ronettes package but i´m guessing i´ll recieve it this
week
- as for the package you´re sending if you can send me peanut butter
and jelly it´d be great. and whatever else you send will be awesome.
i dont need anything to finish the mish supplies wise. i bought an
awesome case for my scriptures this week made of alligator skin-- so i
might take out a bit of money cuz i´m pretty much broke now haha.
also if you could send me weekly election updates that would be nice
much love
Elder lloyd
Letter #92 7/9/12 Hey fam!
Hey Family!
i hope youre all enjoying your trip to lake powell! i was looking at
the pics of you guys there in powell last year and i am super excited
to be there with ya´ll next year! i hope youre having a great trpi
and enjoying the sun. hope the boat is working well! and i hope that
the water has risen, but from what you´ve said of the lack of water
my guess is that the water level went down this year!
this weeks been good.
tuesday morning at 2 in the morning i got up to drink some water and
when i went back to my bed i looked out the window and there were
three men crossing back and forth in the back yard! as i watched them
i realized they were robbing the neighbor! they had broken into his
house and they were taking out TVs, gas tanks, tires, tools, chairs,
tables and other stuff! it was pretty intense, i woke up my companion
and we called the police, they said they´d send help but after 15 min
they hadnt shown up, so we called again and they said they´d send a
truck, but no one ever showed up haha. so my companion and i waited
for the police and watched them for like 45 min rob the house and then
take everything and put it in a truck and leave!
turns out the neighbor had gone on vacation for a week and there wasnt
anyone in the house! crazy eh. my companion had to go and testify
this week!
as for missionary work this week was good, we had an investigator
show up to church! a family member of a member we´ve been teaching!
and this week we had more people in sacrament meeting than in the last
4 weeks so that was good. i think the investigators enjoyed the
classes. hopefully we can work a lot these coming two weeks and be
able to baptize before we get transfered.
i´ve really been enjoying my personal study this last week. we´ve
been in 3 nephi. i love reading the words of the savior to his
apostles and when he blesses the children, when he introduces the
sacrament. before the mission i found alma and helamen more
interesting but i have seriously come to love 3 nephi. one of my fav.
scriptures i read this week is in 3 nephi 15:9 Behold, I am the law,
and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live;
for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.
i love how the savior gives us the invitation to look unto him! he
truly is the light and when we find ourselves in darkness we can look
unto him and he will fill our lives with his light. those that endure
to the end recieve the gift of eternal life!
this past week i´ve decided to start a list of things that i want to
accomplish in the last few months of my mission! and as i´ve sat down
to look for the personal revelation for what i need to do with the
next few months my vision of what i need to accomplish has expanded
again. i have so many things that i need to get done. and so much
that i want to do in my next area! i hope so much i have a companion
thats excited to work and sacrifice everything for the next few
months!
anyway. gtg write the president
have a great week!
-elder lloyd
i hope youre all enjoying your trip to lake powell! i was looking at
the pics of you guys there in powell last year and i am super excited
to be there with ya´ll next year! i hope youre having a great trpi
and enjoying the sun. hope the boat is working well! and i hope that
the water has risen, but from what you´ve said of the lack of water
my guess is that the water level went down this year!
this weeks been good.
tuesday morning at 2 in the morning i got up to drink some water and
when i went back to my bed i looked out the window and there were
three men crossing back and forth in the back yard! as i watched them
i realized they were robbing the neighbor! they had broken into his
house and they were taking out TVs, gas tanks, tires, tools, chairs,
tables and other stuff! it was pretty intense, i woke up my companion
and we called the police, they said they´d send help but after 15 min
they hadnt shown up, so we called again and they said they´d send a
truck, but no one ever showed up haha. so my companion and i waited
for the police and watched them for like 45 min rob the house and then
take everything and put it in a truck and leave!
turns out the neighbor had gone on vacation for a week and there wasnt
anyone in the house! crazy eh. my companion had to go and testify
this week!
as for missionary work this week was good, we had an investigator
show up to church! a family member of a member we´ve been teaching!
and this week we had more people in sacrament meeting than in the last
4 weeks so that was good. i think the investigators enjoyed the
classes. hopefully we can work a lot these coming two weeks and be
able to baptize before we get transfered.
i´ve really been enjoying my personal study this last week. we´ve
been in 3 nephi. i love reading the words of the savior to his
apostles and when he blesses the children, when he introduces the
sacrament. before the mission i found alma and helamen more
interesting but i have seriously come to love 3 nephi. one of my fav.
scriptures i read this week is in 3 nephi 15:9 Behold, I am the law,
and the light. Look unto me, and endure to the end, and ye shall live;
for unto him that endureth to the end will I give eternal life.
i love how the savior gives us the invitation to look unto him! he
truly is the light and when we find ourselves in darkness we can look
unto him and he will fill our lives with his light. those that endure
to the end recieve the gift of eternal life!
this past week i´ve decided to start a list of things that i want to
accomplish in the last few months of my mission! and as i´ve sat down
to look for the personal revelation for what i need to do with the
next few months my vision of what i need to accomplish has expanded
again. i have so many things that i need to get done. and so much
that i want to do in my next area! i hope so much i have a companion
thats excited to work and sacrifice everything for the next few
months!
anyway. gtg write the president
have a great week!
-elder lloyd
Letter #91 7/2/12 Elecciones!
Hey Family!
JULY!!! holy cow. i cant believe its already july. june went by so
fast for me.
Thanks for the letters you wrote! and tell grandma a big thanks for
the package! i got it like two weeks ago, but i always forget to tell
you when they arrive! i´ve been enjoying much all the granola bars
and goodys she sent!
This weeks been pretty good. theres been a lot of big news here in
mexico with the eleccions! politics is huge here. its actually been a
pretty big deal this whole month really. all the campaigning of all
the canidates. lots of rallys. there are like 4 different big
political parties in mexico not just 2, and they get dirty -- they
have cars with big sound systems that pass all day in the street
slamming the opponents, its all super corrupt though, the canidates
pretty much try and buy the votes of the people. they come around
giving away food and materials to build your house. and the night
before the campaigns there were people trying to buy other peoples
votes. it was crazy. they say Enrique Peña Nieto won for
president, but its been a pretty big debate today about if he really
should have won! its been pretty heated here this week haha. there
have even been fights in the streets! its all between like 3 of the
biggest parties, PRI, PAN, and PRD. its been pretty interesting.
lets just say i´m glad to be an american!
this week we got sick again, -- something that we ate i think and that
affected us a bit monday tuesday and wednesday. and then today i got
sick again, but now with some sort of allergy-- i´ve been sneezing and
itching my eyes alll day. frustrating.
wednesday we had our branch home evening which my companion and i are
officially in charge of and that ended up being super great. i was
a little worried because last week the activity was so awesome when
E. Tlachi was here, but this week was just me and e. Garcia. But it
ended up being much more spiritual than the week before. we talked
about sacrifice. and how important it is that we are all willing to
make sacrifices for hte lord. he already took upon himself the
grandest sacrifice of all, now its our turn to show our willingness to
follow him by our daily sacrifices of a broken heart and a contrite
spirit.
- after the lesson we played some games and it ended up being super
good. not as many people came but everyone who came left edified.
and elder garcia and i were both super satisfied with it.
I called the mission president this week to talk with him about some
things in the area and he really got me excited about the rest of
the mission. he told us that we need to get the area ready because in
three weeks he´s going to take both my companion and I out of the
area. There are going to be some big changes in the mission-- 25
elders are going home this transfer-- that means they´ll need
trainers, district leaders and zone leaders! so i´ve got 3 more
weeks here and we´ll see where i´m going next!
yesterday i watched one of the guys in the branch open his mission
call! he´s going to Mexico City. but I was thinking a ton in the
day i opened my mission call -- that was over two years ago. I
remember how excited i was to find out where i was going and to get
out there into the field. and now its almost over. just three short
months can you believe it. i dont know where all the time went. I
just want to use the rest of the time i have the best i can. i´ve
already learned so much i just what to be in a position where i can
apply everything i´ve learned and see some success finishing up my
mish.
well love ya´ll a bunch.
alls well here in sabancuy
write ya more next week
STAY SAFE!!!! i get worried every time you guys go to powell!
have fun though.
love- elder lloyd
Letter #90 6/25/12 Splits with Elder Tlachi!
Family!
a su mecha! this week went by soooo fast! last preparation day we
just cleaned the house and washed the clothes superfast and then went
to Ciudad del Carmen and spent the whole day working with the zone
leaders! it was awesome, we found some great families that are super
prepared for the gospel there in their area! then tuesday we started
the divisions, elder tlachi and i came back here to Sabancuy and
Elder Garcia stayed there in Carmen.
holy moly elder tlachi is a good worker! i loved every minute of the
three days we spent working here. last week the whole focus of the
mission was to feel "fire in the bones" like it says in jeremiah 20:9
or in other words really feel the inner desire to share and preach
the gospel. the president told us that if we really feel this fire
for the lords work nothing would stop us from inviting all to come
unto christ. so the goal was to contact everyone who crossed our
path! and it was an awesome couple of days. we worked really hard.
the first day we fasted and ended up finding a ton of great
people! some new families to teach, some in active members that
havent went in years, and some part member familes! it was super
great. we also prepared a ward activity super fast and informed all
the members about it and then we got together with all the members
wednesday and had devotional and played some games. it was super fun
and more than 30 people came. -- thats amazing because our normal
branch asistance in sacrament meeting is 30!
we ended up teaching almost 25 lessons in 3 days! i felt so great,
we had almost 60 people commited to come to church. sadly the
people who had commited to come to church, didnt come. some
frustrating setbacks. but atleast we have a lot of new people to
teach. and we can help them progress of the next week!
as for the pics you sent! when i saw that pic with elder utchdorf i
about died! i cant believe you got to talk with him. i wish i could
have heard your conversation! what did he say to you guys? i want to
know more about this!
-anyway. gtg.
have a great week
-elder lloyd
a su mecha! this week went by soooo fast! last preparation day we
just cleaned the house and washed the clothes superfast and then went
to Ciudad del Carmen and spent the whole day working with the zone
leaders! it was awesome, we found some great families that are super
prepared for the gospel there in their area! then tuesday we started
the divisions, elder tlachi and i came back here to Sabancuy and
Elder Garcia stayed there in Carmen.
holy moly elder tlachi is a good worker! i loved every minute of the
three days we spent working here. last week the whole focus of the
mission was to feel "fire in the bones" like it says in jeremiah 20:9
or in other words really feel the inner desire to share and preach
the gospel. the president told us that if we really feel this fire
for the lords work nothing would stop us from inviting all to come
unto christ. so the goal was to contact everyone who crossed our
path! and it was an awesome couple of days. we worked really hard.
the first day we fasted and ended up finding a ton of great
people! some new families to teach, some in active members that
havent went in years, and some part member familes! it was super
great. we also prepared a ward activity super fast and informed all
the members about it and then we got together with all the members
wednesday and had devotional and played some games. it was super fun
and more than 30 people came. -- thats amazing because our normal
branch asistance in sacrament meeting is 30!
we ended up teaching almost 25 lessons in 3 days! i felt so great,
we had almost 60 people commited to come to church. sadly the
people who had commited to come to church, didnt come. some
frustrating setbacks. but atleast we have a lot of new people to
teach. and we can help them progress of the next week!
as for the pics you sent! when i saw that pic with elder utchdorf i
about died! i cant believe you got to talk with him. i wish i could
have heard your conversation! what did he say to you guys? i want to
know more about this!
-anyway. gtg.
have a great week
-elder lloyd
Letter #89 6/18/12 Enfermos!
hey fam!
¿¡¿hows it going in Utah!?! sounds like youth conference was
awesome! seems like you guys did a ton of stuff in those three days!
that must have taken some seriously good planning! i would love to
see some pics! and sounds like slater and dad also had a good week
as well--- I hope dad had a great fathers day this week!
its been a good week here in sabancuy. its been raining a ton. and
the water is freezing cold ha. my companion got sick monday. he had
stomach problems, and then his bones started hurting him and fever and
the whole week was prettttty slow. and then things got worse friday
and we had to go to the doctor and he had to have shots and he couldnt
work saturday or sunday--- the doctor thinks he had salmanila--
who knows-, we have been eating a TON of eggs recently so that might
have something to do with it.
friday the president came to carmen and we had a Conference about the
importance of teaching the members how to share the gospel! it was a
great conference as always.
i feel super tired. and i think its because we couldnt work as much
this week-- i honestly think its more tiring not doing the work,
because you start to feel desperate to get out of the house and go
teach someone. it was rough not going out and teaching saturday and
sunday. and the hard thing is that my companion is like an anchor
right now. he doesnt really want to work, he´s still depressed. which
means i have to do double the work and be double excited right-- haha.
but its rough. luckily for me this week is going to be SUPER
AWESOME -- we´re going to do divisions tuesday wednesday and
thursday-- i´ll be with elder tlachi for 3 days straight! WOOT! and
we´ll be working here in sabancuy. super excited about that.
hopefully we´ll be able to put a good foundation so that when my
companion comes back he´ll be a bit more excited to work. pray for
me- that i can have the spirit and strength this week! and that the
lord can help us to see miracles!
this week we did find a new family. its a reference from our branch
president. they´re really good. only problem is that the wife is from
one those protestant churches where they feel the spirit and fall to the
floor and speak in tongues--- yikes. but we already taught the
restoration and it was a spiritual lesson and i think we´ll see some
serious progress this week with elder tlachi.
anyway. gtg write the president!
love ya´ll a bunch.
telll jack Happy Birthday this week! 17. holy smokes youre getting
old! =) i love ya so much jack! (also tell slater sorry i forgot to
tell him happy B-day, but i was thinking about him on is actual
birthday i just forgot to write him!)
until next week!
-elder lloyd
¿¡¿hows it going in Utah!?! sounds like youth conference was
awesome! seems like you guys did a ton of stuff in those three days!
that must have taken some seriously good planning! i would love to
see some pics! and sounds like slater and dad also had a good week
as well--- I hope dad had a great fathers day this week!
its been a good week here in sabancuy. its been raining a ton. and
the water is freezing cold ha. my companion got sick monday. he had
stomach problems, and then his bones started hurting him and fever and
the whole week was prettttty slow. and then things got worse friday
and we had to go to the doctor and he had to have shots and he couldnt
work saturday or sunday--- the doctor thinks he had salmanila--
who knows-, we have been eating a TON of eggs recently so that might
have something to do with it.
friday the president came to carmen and we had a Conference about the
importance of teaching the members how to share the gospel! it was a
great conference as always.
i feel super tired. and i think its because we couldnt work as much
this week-- i honestly think its more tiring not doing the work,
because you start to feel desperate to get out of the house and go
teach someone. it was rough not going out and teaching saturday and
sunday. and the hard thing is that my companion is like an anchor
right now. he doesnt really want to work, he´s still depressed. which
means i have to do double the work and be double excited right-- haha.
but its rough. luckily for me this week is going to be SUPER
AWESOME -- we´re going to do divisions tuesday wednesday and
thursday-- i´ll be with elder tlachi for 3 days straight! WOOT! and
we´ll be working here in sabancuy. super excited about that.
hopefully we´ll be able to put a good foundation so that when my
companion comes back he´ll be a bit more excited to work. pray for
me- that i can have the spirit and strength this week! and that the
lord can help us to see miracles!
this week we did find a new family. its a reference from our branch
president. they´re really good. only problem is that the wife is from
one those protestant churches where they feel the spirit and fall to the
floor and speak in tongues--- yikes. but we already taught the
restoration and it was a spiritual lesson and i think we´ll see some
serious progress this week with elder tlachi.
anyway. gtg write the president!
love ya´ll a bunch.
telll jack Happy Birthday this week! 17. holy smokes youre getting
old! =) i love ya so much jack! (also tell slater sorry i forgot to
tell him happy B-day, but i was thinking about him on is actual
birthday i just forgot to write him!)
until next week!
-elder lloyd
Letter #88 6/11/12 Another Week Here in Sabancuy!
hey fam!
hows it going? It was good to get those pics of you all this week!
you all look so great!, glad to hear that slaters scout camp and
jack´s lacrosse camp went well! And thats so awesome about kam´s
call! thats cool that he´s going stateside!, it´ll be a different
experience! i imagine he´ll have a car! and i imagine his wards will
be bigger and more well formed. he´ll be able to do lots of work with
the members! i´ve always imagined what it would be like to serve in
the states! every mission is different, and every call is inspired,
and the lord knows exactly where kam needs to go! that is going to be
a ton of time that we dont see each other though!! 4 years!! yikes!
This week was rough here in Sabancuy! We´re struggling to find people
to teach. we´ve been diligent in contacting this week but its
seriously just been worse and worse with the contacts. we´ve seen
a lot of opposition this week. friday and saturday the people we
contacted didnt even let us present ourselves. -- it was like "hey,
how are you doing today?"--- "no no no, we´re not interested"!
lots of slammed doors.
p and y didnt get baptised. they
faced some pretty big opposition this week! their family started
attacking them for listening to us! and then it turns out that since
last week other churchs have been visiting them almost everyday... all
telling them that there are no such things as visions, and in these
times there arent such things as prophets. and everything we need is in
the bible and the book of mormon is from the devil! basically they
were just bombarded, and then more family came in from out of town and
said the same thing. Basically the doubt started to enter into their
hearts. not as much with p but y said that she doesnt want
to be baptized! p is super because he wants an eternal family and
he knows he cant have it without his wife. -- and even he´s been
doubting. we did everything we could this week, we planned spiritual
lessons, we brought members, the president of the mission even called
us one day of the week and said he had been thinking of p and
y, and we went to their house and he talked with them on the
phone! and then they didnt get baptized, and yesterday they didnt
come to church for the first time in like a month. basically it was a
rough week--
my companion got desperate by the end of th week! and we were both
pretty anxious to see what would happen with the transfers. yesterday
the zone leaders called and said that there wont be any changes in the
whole zone!! my comp is pretty sad. i think he wanted to get out of
here!
but i know the transfers are inspired and if we havent been transfered
its because there´s still work to do here, and the lord needs us where
we´re at. so even though its been a rough couple of weeks we´re just
going to work harder, and try harder to recieve the inspiration of the
spirit to find new investigators and hopefully resolve the doubts of
y.
on a more positive note--
the sacrament meeting sunday was one of the best i´ve had in my
mission. it was testimony meeting! and theres this old lady in the
ward that got up to bear her testimony, she´s a recent convert. she
was baptized about a year ago. she can barely walk, she cant hear
anything, but she is seriously the most faithful member. and one of
the sweetest old ladies i´ve met in the mission. last month she gave
her testimony but had a hard time expressing herself. but this month
she came prepared with her testimony written on a piece of paper.
she got up and gave one of the sweetest testimonies i´ve heard in my
life. it wasnt more than maybe 5 or 6 sentances but the spirit entered
the room so powerfully. it was like a wave, and you could tell that
everyone in the room had felt it, and awoke in each of our hearts the
desire to bear our testimonies -- almost everyone in the room gave
their testimony, i´ve never heard such humble but powerful
testimonies. the members here have so much desires to see the church
progress. it was a seriously special meeting.
well i love ya all a bunch. hope you have a great week! be well! be
good jack and slate!
-elder lloyd
hows it going? It was good to get those pics of you all this week!
you all look so great!, glad to hear that slaters scout camp and
jack´s lacrosse camp went well! And thats so awesome about kam´s
call! thats cool that he´s going stateside!, it´ll be a different
experience! i imagine he´ll have a car! and i imagine his wards will
be bigger and more well formed. he´ll be able to do lots of work with
the members! i´ve always imagined what it would be like to serve in
the states! every mission is different, and every call is inspired,
and the lord knows exactly where kam needs to go! that is going to be
a ton of time that we dont see each other though!! 4 years!! yikes!
This week was rough here in Sabancuy! We´re struggling to find people
to teach. we´ve been diligent in contacting this week but its
seriously just been worse and worse with the contacts. we´ve seen
a lot of opposition this week. friday and saturday the people we
contacted didnt even let us present ourselves. -- it was like "hey,
how are you doing today?"--- "no no no, we´re not interested"!
lots of slammed doors.
p and y didnt get baptised. they
faced some pretty big opposition this week! their family started
attacking them for listening to us! and then it turns out that since
last week other churchs have been visiting them almost everyday... all
telling them that there are no such things as visions, and in these
times there arent such things as prophets. and everything we need is in
the bible and the book of mormon is from the devil! basically they
were just bombarded, and then more family came in from out of town and
said the same thing. Basically the doubt started to enter into their
hearts. not as much with p but y said that she doesnt want
to be baptized! p is super because he wants an eternal family and
he knows he cant have it without his wife. -- and even he´s been
doubting. we did everything we could this week, we planned spiritual
lessons, we brought members, the president of the mission even called
us one day of the week and said he had been thinking of p and
y, and we went to their house and he talked with them on the
phone! and then they didnt get baptized, and yesterday they didnt
come to church for the first time in like a month. basically it was a
rough week--
my companion got desperate by the end of th week! and we were both
pretty anxious to see what would happen with the transfers. yesterday
the zone leaders called and said that there wont be any changes in the
whole zone!! my comp is pretty sad. i think he wanted to get out of
here!
but i know the transfers are inspired and if we havent been transfered
its because there´s still work to do here, and the lord needs us where
we´re at. so even though its been a rough couple of weeks we´re just
going to work harder, and try harder to recieve the inspiration of the
spirit to find new investigators and hopefully resolve the doubts of
y.
on a more positive note--
the sacrament meeting sunday was one of the best i´ve had in my
mission. it was testimony meeting! and theres this old lady in the
ward that got up to bear her testimony, she´s a recent convert. she
was baptized about a year ago. she can barely walk, she cant hear
anything, but she is seriously the most faithful member. and one of
the sweetest old ladies i´ve met in the mission. last month she gave
her testimony but had a hard time expressing herself. but this month
she came prepared with her testimony written on a piece of paper.
she got up and gave one of the sweetest testimonies i´ve heard in my
life. it wasnt more than maybe 5 or 6 sentances but the spirit entered
the room so powerfully. it was like a wave, and you could tell that
everyone in the room had felt it, and awoke in each of our hearts the
desire to bear our testimonies -- almost everyone in the room gave
their testimony, i´ve never heard such humble but powerful
testimonies. the members here have so much desires to see the church
progress. it was a seriously special meeting.
well i love ya all a bunch. hope you have a great week! be well! be
good jack and slate!
-elder lloyd
Letter #87 New Stake Organization!! 6/4/12
Fam! its good to be writing you again. -- is it just me or are the
weeks ZOOMING by! holy cow. i feel like i just wrote you guys.
it was good to read your letters. i loved the pics! that looked
like one legit concert! awesome lax pic of slate. i loved the pic of
grandpa! good to see him riding his bike!! -- and the kitchen looks so
great! geez. i´m pumped to see the whole house when i get back.
this week has been g r e a t! p and y are officially
married! FINALLY! it all went down thursday! we got them a ride
set up to go to that town (sayva playa) about an hour and a half away.
we got their witnesses and everything set up and they both took a
day off from work! not gunna lie, its taken a ton of work to get it
to happen but it was definitely worth it. they´re doing so great!
and afterward they looked so happy!, i´ve seen a visable change in
their relationship this past week since they got married.
Sunday was Stake Conference! and it was soooo cool because it was the
forming of the stake! Ciudad del Carmen has been a district for
almost 30 years-- and they´re finally a stake! it was so great
because i´ve spent so much of my mission here in this zone! june july
august september october november of last year, and part of march,
april may and part of june of this year. i was so happy to be able to
be a part of this huge step here in Cd. del Carmen.
ok mostly i didnt understand how important it is to have a stake! a
stake is much different from a district -- a district doest have
bishops, doesnt have a patriarch so almost no one has patriarcle
blessings, almost no one has an active temple recommentd because they
have to wait for the mission president to come all the way from
villahermosa to interview them and sign their temple recommends, there
arent any high priests ordained, missionaries have to go to villa to
pic up their mission calls and be set apart, basically a district
doesnt have a ton of the the privleges a Stake has. and it was cool
this week to see them establish the first stake here in the city.
Elder Benjamin de Hoyos of the first quorem of the seventy came and
another seventy as well but i cant remember his name. and it was
super powerful. most of the conference was centered on raising
the standard, that as a stake the people here should incline their
hearts to the lord, be more faithful, more giving of their time in
service to the lord. benjamin de hoyos talked of the need to go look
for the lost sheep. he said "what father is there that in the night
time asks his wife, -- honey, its getting late, how many of our kids
have came back home? and when she answeres 4 of the 5, he says 4 of
the 5, thats about 80%, i think we´re good to shut and lock the doors
and go to sleep! no parent would do that, he said that we
cannot rest until all our brothers and sisters are safely back at
home. he called the members of the stake to be more diligent in
retention of new converts. 35000 people were converted last year
alone in mexico thats enough for about 30 more stakes here in mexico.
p and y came to the conference and loved it. also in the
conference i got to see my converts again. and that was great, i sat
by J and E and their family in the conference. i love them so
much. i´m so excited for them to be sealed in the temple in 6 months!
woot!
As for the next week we should have the baptism of p and y!
hopefully they´ll be baptised friday or saturday, and maybe it´ll be on the beach!!
that´d be pretty cool
eh?
anyway. hope you´re all doing well. love ya a bunch. i´ll be
praying for slate this week! and i hope you all stay safe and well
-much love
elder lloyd
weeks ZOOMING by! holy cow. i feel like i just wrote you guys.
it was good to read your letters. i loved the pics! that looked
like one legit concert! awesome lax pic of slate. i loved the pic of
grandpa! good to see him riding his bike!! -- and the kitchen looks so
great! geez. i´m pumped to see the whole house when i get back.
this week has been g r e a t! p and y are officially
married! FINALLY! it all went down thursday! we got them a ride
set up to go to that town (sayva playa) about an hour and a half away.
we got their witnesses and everything set up and they both took a
day off from work! not gunna lie, its taken a ton of work to get it
to happen but it was definitely worth it. they´re doing so great!
and afterward they looked so happy!, i´ve seen a visable change in
their relationship this past week since they got married.
Sunday was Stake Conference! and it was soooo cool because it was the
forming of the stake! Ciudad del Carmen has been a district for
almost 30 years-- and they´re finally a stake! it was so great
because i´ve spent so much of my mission here in this zone! june july
august september october november of last year, and part of march,
april may and part of june of this year. i was so happy to be able to
be a part of this huge step here in Cd. del Carmen.
ok mostly i didnt understand how important it is to have a stake! a
stake is much different from a district -- a district doest have
bishops, doesnt have a patriarch so almost no one has patriarcle
blessings, almost no one has an active temple recommentd because they
have to wait for the mission president to come all the way from
villahermosa to interview them and sign their temple recommends, there
arent any high priests ordained, missionaries have to go to villa to
pic up their mission calls and be set apart, basically a district
doesnt have a ton of the the privleges a Stake has. and it was cool
this week to see them establish the first stake here in the city.
Elder Benjamin de Hoyos of the first quorem of the seventy came and
another seventy as well but i cant remember his name. and it was
super powerful. most of the conference was centered on raising
the standard, that as a stake the people here should incline their
hearts to the lord, be more faithful, more giving of their time in
service to the lord. benjamin de hoyos talked of the need to go look
for the lost sheep. he said "what father is there that in the night
time asks his wife, -- honey, its getting late, how many of our kids
have came back home? and when she answeres 4 of the 5, he says 4 of
the 5, thats about 80%, i think we´re good to shut and lock the doors
and go to sleep! no parent would do that, he said that we
cannot rest until all our brothers and sisters are safely back at
home. he called the members of the stake to be more diligent in
retention of new converts. 35000 people were converted last year
alone in mexico thats enough for about 30 more stakes here in mexico.
p and y came to the conference and loved it. also in the
conference i got to see my converts again. and that was great, i sat
by J and E and their family in the conference. i love them so
much. i´m so excited for them to be sealed in the temple in 6 months!
woot!
As for the next week we should have the baptism of p and y!
hopefully they´ll be baptised friday or saturday, and maybe it´ll be on the beach!!
that´d be pretty cool
eh?
anyway. hope you´re all doing well. love ya a bunch. i´ll be
praying for slate this week! and i hope you all stay safe and well
-much love
elder lloyd
Letter #86 5/28/12 Bug Bite!
hey fam! whats up!
its been another great week here in sabancuy! working with elder
Garcia! This week we got our first hit of the rainy season--
apparently its going to be raining a lot more often now! it rained
super hard yesterday, and during the week it rained a lot in the
afternoons and at night. We only reallly got super super soaked
saturday because the other days we were in lessons during the rain!
there have been some awesome thunder and lightning though! also-
you´d think because its raining it would be colder-- its not. just
more humid! the sun is super strong, i´m turning into a mexican!
my tan lines are lookin super great haha, i even have a tan line from
where the sun has burned me through my shirt, and you can see the
mark of my tie!
Also this week i got bit by some bug, i´m not sure what it was, i
think it must have been a spider! the first day it was fine, it just
itched and hurt a ton, but after 2 days it wasnt getting better and my
hand was going purple!! so we went to the hospital and they gave me a
shot and some medicine to take! and it took about 2 days but my hands
back to normal now! ha yikes. we also sprayed the house with a bug
spray thats supposed to keep the bugs away for at least a month!
this week has also been interesting with the food, we ate shark one
day, yesterday day we had pig skin, and today they gave us oysters!
yum
On the spiritual side, we had interviews with the president this week!
it was a great experience. he always seems to know exactly what i
need to hear. i expressed to him some doubts about whether all the
work i had done in Cardenas (my last area) had been a success, and we
talked about how to know if we´ve had a successful mission. if we
feel that the spirit has worked through us on a day to day basis we
can know that the lord is using us as an instrument. its not as
important whether or not the people you teach accept-- abinadi
testified against wicked king noah, and they killed him. abinadi
never saw alma converted. moses lead his people for 40 years in the
desert and then the lord told him that they would break the covenant
and go and worship false gods-- and that doesnt mean moses and
abinadi were failures. at the end of the interview the president
told me that cardenas hasnt hearkened unto the voice of the servants
of the lord and my testimony and the testimony of the other elders
that have served in cardenas will stand as a testimony against them in
the last day-- it was pretty intense, and i felt better because i
seriously did work so hard there in Cardenas with my companions to
help the people and raise up the ward there.
also he told me i wont be finishing my mish here in sabancuy, that
he´s going to send me to another area to finish my mision!
As for jack and slate, i was just thinking this last week and i wanted
to know how you two are doing in your Duty to God?? my companion and
i are working with the young men in the ward so that they can finish
it! and as i´ve been reading the pamphlet this week í´ve seriously
felt the spirit. i know that it is an inspired program, and its so
much better than the program that i had when i did it! i dont know
how much you´ve done but i invite the both of you to sit down and put
some goals to finish it! its something that will strenghten your
testimony and help to you better understand the duties you have as a
holder of the priesthood!
As for the investigators! p and y still arent married---
but they´re way more excited. thursday is the wedding day! the wards
going to help us more this week. the branch president and his family
are going to visit them this week to keep them excited! and then
this next sunday they should be getting baptized!
well i love ya´ll a bunch!
hope you have a great week
-elder lloyd
its been another great week here in sabancuy! working with elder
Garcia! This week we got our first hit of the rainy season--
apparently its going to be raining a lot more often now! it rained
super hard yesterday, and during the week it rained a lot in the
afternoons and at night. We only reallly got super super soaked
saturday because the other days we were in lessons during the rain!
there have been some awesome thunder and lightning though! also-
you´d think because its raining it would be colder-- its not. just
more humid! the sun is super strong, i´m turning into a mexican!
my tan lines are lookin super great haha, i even have a tan line from
where the sun has burned me through my shirt, and you can see the
mark of my tie!
Also this week i got bit by some bug, i´m not sure what it was, i
think it must have been a spider! the first day it was fine, it just
itched and hurt a ton, but after 2 days it wasnt getting better and my
hand was going purple!! so we went to the hospital and they gave me a
shot and some medicine to take! and it took about 2 days but my hands
back to normal now! ha yikes. we also sprayed the house with a bug
spray thats supposed to keep the bugs away for at least a month!
this week has also been interesting with the food, we ate shark one
day, yesterday day we had pig skin, and today they gave us oysters!
yum
On the spiritual side, we had interviews with the president this week!
it was a great experience. he always seems to know exactly what i
need to hear. i expressed to him some doubts about whether all the
work i had done in Cardenas (my last area) had been a success, and we
talked about how to know if we´ve had a successful mission. if we
feel that the spirit has worked through us on a day to day basis we
can know that the lord is using us as an instrument. its not as
important whether or not the people you teach accept-- abinadi
testified against wicked king noah, and they killed him. abinadi
never saw alma converted. moses lead his people for 40 years in the
desert and then the lord told him that they would break the covenant
and go and worship false gods-- and that doesnt mean moses and
abinadi were failures. at the end of the interview the president
told me that cardenas hasnt hearkened unto the voice of the servants
of the lord and my testimony and the testimony of the other elders
that have served in cardenas will stand as a testimony against them in
the last day-- it was pretty intense, and i felt better because i
seriously did work so hard there in Cardenas with my companions to
help the people and raise up the ward there.
also he told me i wont be finishing my mish here in sabancuy, that
he´s going to send me to another area to finish my mision!
As for jack and slate, i was just thinking this last week and i wanted
to know how you two are doing in your Duty to God?? my companion and
i are working with the young men in the ward so that they can finish
it! and as i´ve been reading the pamphlet this week í´ve seriously
felt the spirit. i know that it is an inspired program, and its so
much better than the program that i had when i did it! i dont know
how much you´ve done but i invite the both of you to sit down and put
some goals to finish it! its something that will strenghten your
testimony and help to you better understand the duties you have as a
holder of the priesthood!
As for the investigators! p and y still arent married---
but they´re way more excited. thursday is the wedding day! the wards
going to help us more this week. the branch president and his family
are going to visit them this week to keep them excited! and then
this next sunday they should be getting baptized!
well i love ya´ll a bunch!
hope you have a great week
-elder lloyd
Letter #85 5/21/12
hey family!!!
good to hear alls well with the fam. sounds like it should be a
pretty busy week this week with school winding down! i hope all goes
well with jack and slate and they can wrap up the school year well.
this week has been really good. we´ve been working hard with our
investigators! Thursday we did divisions with the zone leaders.
which means i spent half the day working with elder tlachi! that was
an awesome experience. it was like a wierd trip back in time, because
this time because it was like 11 months ago that we were working
together. he´s such an awesome elder, i was very lucky to have him
for a trainer.
we´re still struggling a bit to find people and have them progress.
we´ve been walking a ton this past week. its disappointing when you
have a day full of appointments and then they all fall through. so
frustrating. but the good news is that we do have some people that
are progressing even if it is slowly ha. p and y are
doing super great. we had an awesome lesson with them, we brought
pics of our familys and talked to them of the worth of eternal
families and how we have to be willing to make sacrifices to recieve
the promised blessings. they both accepted to get married this week
and get ready for baptism. and they both came to church sunday.
only frustrating thing is that htey have to go a bit far to get
married. to a city thats like an hour from here where they marry
people for 500 pesos. which is super super cheap. hear its gunna
cost them like 3000 pesos. but we told them we could find them a
ride with a member that has a car. but we went and talked with the
member and he´s not willing to help us. sooo frustrating. he´s going
to be here, he´s got a job where it doesnt really matter if he misses
a few hours because he´s self employed, but he´s just super lazy-- so
frustrating. there isnt very much help from the ward here right now.
i hope so much we can find a way to get pablo and his wife married
this week!!!!
we´re going to be working with the leaders of hte different
organizations this week to see if we can get them excited to work!
right now they´re a little bit depressed. our branch president wants
to see the branch progess to be a ward, but he´s really the only one
in the whole branch thats visiting less actives and trying to get
things done.
i still dont know anything about when will be the day that i get
released -- my companion that leaves the end of august still hasnt
received information about what day he´s headed home-- so i´m not sure
when they´ll tell us! but i´ll try to check this week and see if
they´ll tell me
as for tranfers, they still havent told us anything, i dont think
anything will be happening until june actually!
well i love ya´ll a bunch. hope you have a great week!
--elder lloyd
good to hear alls well with the fam. sounds like it should be a
pretty busy week this week with school winding down! i hope all goes
well with jack and slate and they can wrap up the school year well.
this week has been really good. we´ve been working hard with our
investigators! Thursday we did divisions with the zone leaders.
which means i spent half the day working with elder tlachi! that was
an awesome experience. it was like a wierd trip back in time, because
this time because it was like 11 months ago that we were working
together. he´s such an awesome elder, i was very lucky to have him
for a trainer.
we´re still struggling a bit to find people and have them progress.
we´ve been walking a ton this past week. its disappointing when you
have a day full of appointments and then they all fall through. so
frustrating. but the good news is that we do have some people that
are progressing even if it is slowly ha. p and y are
doing super great. we had an awesome lesson with them, we brought
pics of our familys and talked to them of the worth of eternal
families and how we have to be willing to make sacrifices to recieve
the promised blessings. they both accepted to get married this week
and get ready for baptism. and they both came to church sunday.
only frustrating thing is that htey have to go a bit far to get
married. to a city thats like an hour from here where they marry
people for 500 pesos. which is super super cheap. hear its gunna
cost them like 3000 pesos. but we told them we could find them a
ride with a member that has a car. but we went and talked with the
member and he´s not willing to help us. sooo frustrating. he´s going
to be here, he´s got a job where it doesnt really matter if he misses
a few hours because he´s self employed, but he´s just super lazy-- so
frustrating. there isnt very much help from the ward here right now.
i hope so much we can find a way to get pablo and his wife married
this week!!!!
we´re going to be working with the leaders of hte different
organizations this week to see if we can get them excited to work!
right now they´re a little bit depressed. our branch president wants
to see the branch progess to be a ward, but he´s really the only one
in the whole branch thats visiting less actives and trying to get
things done.
i still dont know anything about when will be the day that i get
released -- my companion that leaves the end of august still hasnt
received information about what day he´s headed home-- so i´m not sure
when they´ll tell us! but i´ll try to check this week and see if
they´ll tell me
as for tranfers, they still havent told us anything, i dont think
anything will be happening until june actually!
well i love ya´ll a bunch. hope you have a great week!
--elder lloyd
Letter #84 5/14/12 Hey Fam!
We talked with Matt yesterday for an hour and forty five minutes, and he
sounded GREAT! It was by far the best conversation we've ever had with
him. We were all so relaxed and spent a lot of the time just laughing. He
is loving his mission and is excited to work hard for the next five months!
Have a great week! - marci
Subject: hey fam.
Well this week is going to be a bit short. i used my time writing the
pres. and some other emails!
But i´m so glad we could talk this week! i loved hearing your voices!
you all sounded great. i almost felt like i was there with you in
the room. and only 5 months more and we´ll be together again!
But as for right now we´re working diligently here in Sabancuy. my
companion and i are excited for a new week. new chance to start!
this week we didnt have any investigators in the church! that was my
first time not having investigators in the church in a long time! it
was rough. but we´re going to go look for new people this week and i´m
excited to start working to reach our goals in june!
after i talked with you guys yesterday it rained super hard! and
everyone says we´re going into the rainy season here in jun and july!
i´m excited because yesterday was the first time the temperature was
actually enjoyable. ha.
well i´m excited to write you all next week and tell ya how things go.
have a wonderful week
-elder lloyd
sounded GREAT! It was by far the best conversation we've ever had with
him. We were all so relaxed and spent a lot of the time just laughing. He
is loving his mission and is excited to work hard for the next five months!
Have a great week! - marci
Subject: hey fam.
Well this week is going to be a bit short. i used my time writing the
pres. and some other emails!
But i´m so glad we could talk this week! i loved hearing your voices!
you all sounded great. i almost felt like i was there with you in
the room. and only 5 months more and we´ll be together again!
But as for right now we´re working diligently here in Sabancuy. my
companion and i are excited for a new week. new chance to start!
this week we didnt have any investigators in the church! that was my
first time not having investigators in the church in a long time! it
was rough. but we´re going to go look for new people this week and i´m
excited to start working to reach our goals in june!
after i talked with you guys yesterday it rained super hard! and
everyone says we´re going into the rainy season here in jun and july!
i´m excited because yesterday was the first time the temperature was
actually enjoyable. ha.
well i´m excited to write you all next week and tell ya how things go.
have a wonderful week
-elder lloyd
Letter #83 5/07/12 My Letter to you all from Sabancuy!
family! it was good to hear from you all this week! thanks a bunch
for your letters jack and slate, and thanks to ronette tambien!
i love to hear about the lacrosse. i think i´ve been day dreaming
about it all day while i was washing my clothes and cleaning the
house! bah i´m one jealous missionary.
this week i got my new companion. elder Garcia. he has 20 months in
the mission! he goes home in september. hes only got more more
cambio than me. cool eh. he´s from Cd. de mexico! and he´s a
nice guy. we´ve been working really well together! we dont have
any problems. he knows how to cook pretty well and so we´ve been
eating more than the normal oatmeal in the mornings. we´ve had eggs
and toast and quesadillas. its actually super super nice to be
with someone who has experience. i dont have to worry about what
he´s going to say. we teach well together. we´ve had some awesome
lessons this past week.
we found a lady who doesnt go to any church because her whole life
she´s hasnt been able to find the right one! she´s awesome, her
names olga, and she sells cheese. ha she´s like 60 years old, but
shes still 100% there. she understands everything really well and
reads everything we leave with her. she couldnt come to church sunday
because she had to work but we´re hoping for the next week she´ll be
there!
also we went to El arca again this week but it was bad this time ha.
we got there and we couldnt find a ride from the bus stop to El arca
which is like 10 miles away. bah. so we started walking, and some
guy gave us a ride in the back of his truck but only like half the
way. and we walked the other half, when we got there the
investigators werent in their house..... bah. and the same thing
happened on the way back to sabancuy. we walked like 3 miles and then
some one gave us a ride the rest of the way. i think i´m going to
wait until our friend Fredy gomez gets back from working in cd del
carmen to go back to el arca so that he can help us. because when
he´s here he can take us everywhere in his car!
as for the call we´ll be making for mothers day i´m still not 100%
sure how its going to be. they say we can use skype! but there isnt
internet that works well here in Sabancuy. so i´m going to try and get
permision to call in Cd. del carmen this wednesday or not this tuesday
but the next tuesday. or if they dont give me permision i´ll be
calling sunday from the church phone and we wont be able to skype.
basically dont worry about it, i´ll be calling you this week
sometime just super briefly to tell you when and where and how we´re
going to do the phone call! =)
well love you a bunch. have a grand week. and i´m super excited to
at least be able to hear your voices this week!
much love
elder lloyd
Letter #82 4/30/12 Hey Hey Hey!!
 |
| Matt en El Arca! Beautiful and remote!! |
 |
| Matt and Elder Hansen in El Arca. No electricity there! |
hey hey hey! family!
its been a good week here in Sabancuy. actually pretty average ha.
but some pretty random stuff happened. in the middle of the week they cut
our electricity. apparently the elders here havent paid in 7
months -- awesome. so they cut off our electricity, we talked to a
neighbor and they hooked us back on again. so we´re fine now, but for like
3 days we had to plan and study in the night by candle light. ha.
elder hansen said our house was looking more like a catholic cathedral than
an apartment of mormon missionaries cuz we had a lot of candles going. --
then in the night it was super hot and there were a
ton of mosquitos because we couldnt plug in the fans--- but
we´re all good now. the electricity is back! it is getting
pretty hot here though! may will be the hottest. my companion got a
pretty sick sun burn. and we´re both looking pretty tan now. im
definitely happy that we´re by the ocean though so that i can feel that
breeze in the afternoon!
also this week we had a conference with the pres. de la mision! it was good
to see him again. always a spiritual experience when he comes.
little bit of a bummer this week though with the investigators-- fg left town to work on an oil platform for the next few weeks. which
makes it super difficult to visit our friends in el arca!
we went once during the week and we couldnt find hardly anyone because they
were working. if we want to go we would have to go late in the afternoon,
and thats hard because its hard to find a ride back
to sabancuy that late. el arca is half an hour walk from a pueblo
called ignacio -- ignacio is like 15 min drive from where we can get
the bus and the last bus pases at 5 in the night. when freddys here
he just drives us where we need to go. but its a bit rough to do it all with
out him.
so we couldnt work there this week. it made me sad because we couldnt
teach all those people we found last week. and we had to let go a lot
of our investigators in sabancuy this week as well because they werent
progressing. thats one of the hardest parts of missionary work-
when you find a family sooo good, and you start teaching them and they
accept what you´ve taught and accept to be baptized-- and then for one
reason or another they recieve the test of faith and they dont
progress-- this week we had to leave behind A and his wife, because
even though he wants to stop smoking -- he doesnt have the
will power to do what it takes to receive help from the lord.
it made me sad to lose him and his
family. and another 3 or 4 families we´ve been teaching. its
just another proof though of the inspired vision of lehi. those who
give heed to the call of those in the great and spacious building, or those
who dont hold on tight enough to the iron rode, lose the path and dont
arrive to the tree.
also i´m getting a new comp tomorrow. elder hansen is going to
Minatitlan, and i´m going to be with an elder Garcia. i dont
know much about him. i think he might have already served here in sabancuy.
but we´ll see! i´ll tell ya more about him next week!
anyway--
hope you have a great week!
stay safe, play hard in those lax games jack and slate
-elder lloyd
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