Letter #73 2/27/12 New Companion!

FAMILY

its good to be writing you this week!    wow well there´s kind of a lot
to explain.  first-- sorry if the last weeks letter wasnt so good.
its  been a couple of difficult weeks.   things are much better now,
i´ve got a new companion!! his names Elder Clark!!

mostly,  since the first day that elder lopez arrived here in Cardenas
he said he didnt want to be here.   it was a real test for me the two weeks

 i was with him, but i learned
a lot actually.  - i learned so much more to put my
confidence in the lord.  there were moments when i felt super alone
because i didnt really have a companion, but i was reminded that we
are never truly alone, the spirit can be our constant companion.
every contact and lesson i taught i felt like the lord was
strengthening me.

I´m so happy now to be with elder clark.
when he got here we got right to work and in two days we found 14 new
investigators who look like they´re going to progress.   i´m super
happy for that.

elder clark is a really humble missionary,   he´s from idaho!   he´s
super super calm,  more calm than i am.   he´s got a year in the
mission, and this is his first transfer as a zone leader. but he´s got
a lot of desires to work hard and be the best he can.   so right now
we´re working really hard together to be able to have a great month in
march.  this week we had two investigators come to church which is
really good.

as for your questions -- the toes healing well, its looking good now.
i think it´ll be a long time before i have any problems with it!   i´m
hoping at least it´ll last me till i get home.  we´ll really have to
see how it grows to see if i´m going to have a probem but i´m hoping
that i wont.

i got the valentines package and am thoroughly enjoying the tape.   ha
so good to hear shelby´s voice  holy cow.  sounds like he´s adjusting
pretty well. the tape was super funny.   i loved hearing the
conversations at the tables  and in the car. and thanks for the tie.
the oatmeal tastes great.

thats cool about Be The Change.    ya they had that when i was there
but it wasnt as big, i know they´ve been making it something more and
more big every year.   the lady that was in charge of it was the same
lady that did Shields Of Honor i think!

the kitchen looks great.  i´m excited to see it all finished!!  the
darker wood looks so much better!!

well i gtg so i can write the pres.

love you all, tengan una buena semana!

elder lloyd


It looks better than it used to, but its still a lot like Grandpa Bingham's!!

The baptism of a man that Matt introduced to the gospel!!






Letter #72 2/20/12 Hey Hey Hey!

hey hey guys!

its good to be writing you this week,   its been quite the interesting
week here in Cardenas. tuesday i went to get my toe fixed!   actually we
went to the red cross!  they gave me two shots in the toe and then cut a
portion of the nail away.  a lot like the last time.  but i feel like its
healing better this time.  it looks pretty good and i´m already back wearing
shoes.    although for three days i wore a flip flop ha.    but its feels a
lot better, i dont have any pain.  sadly i didnt get to take a video of the
procedure but i have some pics of what it looks like now ha.

as for the zone, this week we had to go to comalcalco, paraiso, and
huimanguillo to do interviews.  if you look on a map they´re pretty
far apart, so that took some time. but the interviews were super good.
 i felt the spirit in all the ones i did. its easily my favorite part
of the mission -- interviews.   to be able to speak with and prepare
people who truly want to make covenants with the lord, and who´ve made
this decision in their lives.  i felt the spirit especially in an
interview with a sister who will be the first in her family.  she´s
having a lot of problems in her life with her husband.  but as she
prayed i felt strongly that the gospel would give her the strength she
needed to be able to raise her family.

we´ve been working really hard to complete our goals,  in the middle
of the week the assistants called us with an assignment for the zone,
that in this week we were going to do 200 contacts.  so this week the
whole zone worked super hard and we talked with everyone we could in
the street and knocking doors.  it was great to be able to testify 200
times of the restauration and the atonement.

well i gtg. sorry i dont have a ton of time this week.  i used a ton
writing to the president this week.  but i´ll write more next week!
love you all.  youre in my prayers.

-elder lloyd


-ah also.  the package i recieved last week was from grandma lloyd! i
still havent recieved the valentines one from the fam!  but tell
grandma thanks so much,  i seriously am loving everything she sent me!

Letter #71 2/13/12 New Companion- Elder Lopez

hey fam. sorry i´m writting you all so late,  but its been a pretty
crazy day.   we were a little slow getting out of the house this
morning, we left at 10 to go wash our clothes with a member, then
while we were washing the bishop of one of my companions old wards
called him to tell him that one of his converts was super sick and in
the emergency room in the hospital here in cardenas and was asking to
see him!!   so we went and visited him. it was pretty neat,  you could
tell that it meant so much that elder lopez was there,   the man
doesnt have any family, and he´s dying from a sickness that he´s had
for a long time. but we visited him and elder lopez sang him some
primary songs in spanish and we gave him a blessing.
later in the afternoon the zone had interviews with the mission
president so we had to be there since 3 until 7-30    so we´ve been
pretty busy today.     but its been really good.  i felt so good after
my interview with the president.   i felt the spiritual confermation
that the lord is pleased with the effort we´re giving -- and that he
has much more prepared for our zone.    i love the president,  i feel
like when he speaks to me its exaclty what i need in the moment.

my new companion is elder lopez.  he´s from northern mexico. i´m not
sure exactly where.  mostly we havent talked much about his past. he´s
not very open.  ha-  he´s a bit interesting actually.   i´ve never met
a missionary with so much scriptural knowledge.  he studied 4 hours a
day for two years before his mission---  and before that,  when he was
like 16 he was a Jehovas witness, (he decided to go on the mission
after he read the book of mormon for the first time)  in the lessons he
teaches almost completely using scriptures, especially the bible.  and
he´s so excited when he speaks. sometimes he´s almost yellling-- haha.
  he actually reminds me a lot of a preacher from some christian
church.    he and i are very different ha.  but i think
when we get used to each other were going to be able to get a lot done.
he´s got a lot of good ideas.  and when he wants to work he works
super hard.

this week we´ve done a ton of knocking doors to find new people to
teach.  we found a lot of new people but none of them could come to
church.    saturday in the night about 8-30  we were a bit depressed
because we didnt have anyone that was progressing. and no one to come
to church,  it had be raining a bit all day, but about 8 oclock it had
started to pour,  and then our appointment that we had for that hour
fell through and we didnt have anything.   we were tempted to go back
to the house,  but we decided to contact a little bit more,  and i
said to my companion, "we have to find a family of 5 before we go back
to the house" ha,   we did a few contacts and nothing,  we were
soaking wet and cold.  and we started to walk back to the house,  and
right in front of the house there was a guy sitting under a pavillion
and before we entered we contacted him,  turns our he heard the
missionaries like 20 years ago, and had a testimony of the church, he
expressed his testimony of hte book of mormon and started talking
about the tree of life and the iron rod-- haha,  he´s got a wife and 3
kids  --- family of 5---   they couldnt come to church because the
wife is sick but we´re excited to go visit them this week!  i know the
lord hears and answeres the prayers of our heart.  and he can do
miracles in the life of every one of us,  but the miracle wont come
until after the trial of our faith.   i´ve been studying ether12 this
week and i love how the lord blesses those who put their faith in him
and go about trying to do his will.

well i gtg. but i love you all so much, hope youre having a great week.
love elder lloyd

ps. i got your package today!

Letter #70 2/06/12 The Temple!!



Hi all -- hope you're all well.  Sounds like Matt's completely happy. He's
getting a new companion this week, and gets Napolean Dynamite as a comp for
a few days until then.  Ha!

Dan got to "chat" back and forth with him for a bit when he emailed on
Monday since I was out of town, and apparently Matt's having more toe issues
(same toe), and is having surgery again next week.  Dan had to fight just to
get that much out of him (grrrrr) so we have no more details than that.
Hopefully next Monday we'll hear more.  At least the word "surgery" sounds
like he's planning on going to the hospital rather than some rinky dink
Mexican nail shop again.  Anyway, please keep him in your prayers for the
next couple of weeks.  I'm going to try hard not to watch those toe surgery
videos this week.  Especially the one where his comp is filling syringes and
assisting.  Yikes.  Or where Matt's writhing in pain.  Oh dear.  This is
gonna be one of those weeks where we exercise our faith!  Anyway, thanks and
have a great week!     - marci



Subject: villahermosa!

hey guys!

its been good to read your emails today.  sounds like its been a great
week for all of you.  i´m super excited for slater! thats awesome that
he´s doing so well with the drums! geez. and jack with lacrosse, man,
you two are busy guys!

this weeks been super good here in Cardenas.  its been interesting
because we´ve been super busy all week long.   tuesday we went to villa
for Mission Council (the zone leader conference)   and it was super
super great. we reviewed the month of january. which ended up being
the second best month the mission has had, 193 converts!!! woot. and
almost all the companionships in the mission baptized which is pretty
neat!    and they sharred some miracles that had occured in the
mission. then we talked about what we´re going to do to make febrero
even better,  especially we focused on how to help the missionaries be
more constant.  constant in obedience, constant in service, constant
in everything we do as missionaries.   it was super powerful, we
talked about how important it its to have an eye single to the glory
of god, and have our mind and heart in the work. if we´re always
focused in our purpose it will be more easy to be constant in our service.
we talked about the need to give a report of our stewardship to the lord
every day, and every day repent,  and finally we talked about remembering
and honoring our covenants.   its was a great conference, i dont know why
but every time i go to these Mission Councils i leave with the most
incredible feeling, its hard to describe, its like being full, or satisfied
spiritually. i feel so much peace, but at the same time, desires to
get to work. i love it.

the conference took up all tuesday and wednesday.   thursday we did
divisions with some elders from the zone that were struggling.  friday
we went and did baptismal interviews in Comalcalco. and then stayed
there and helped the elders with an mission activity they were doing
-- they did an activity called mormon movie night, they had 3
different movies playing on projectors in the church,   the
testaments,  the joseph smith movie, and the emma smith movie,   and
all the members came and invited investigators,  they had popcorn and
drinks and everything, it was super great.

then saturday we went to the temple!!! ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    --
first time in more than a year.   i was dieing to go.  we seriously
dont understand how incredible it is to have a temple so close until
you live far away from one.  the members here only go once a month.
but seriously it was so great to go.  we did a session, and then did
initiatories for 2 hours. and watched baptisms.   it was interesting
doing it all in spanish! ha.   but the spirit is the same.  and the
promises are the same.   i felt the spirit as i remembered the
covenants i had made when i entered the temple for myself.     the
promises we make are incredible,  and like it says in mosiah 2-34  " I
say unto you, that there are not any among you, except it be your
little children that have not been taught concerning these things, but
what knoweth that ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father,
to render to him all that you have and are."   we truly owe it to him
to give all that we have and are to his eternal purposes-- to bring to
pass the imortality and eternal life of his children. how blessed we
are as youth in the church to be able to give him all our energies for
two years without distraction.  the work is incredible.

elder quiƱones left yesterday after church,  and right now i´m with
and elder beal from idaho-- he´s got 8 brothers lives on a farm in the
middle of no where and had a graduating class of 24,   he even looks a
little like napolean dynamite,  ha.     but i´m only with him till
tomorrow when my new companion arrives-- elder lopez.  i dont know
much about him but i´ll give ya more info next week!

anway its been a great week.
hope your doing well-- love ya´ll
-un abrazo
elder lloyd

PS -
the lady in the pic is a lady i intervied to be baptised, she´s like
73 years old