hey fam! hows it going-- ah, those were some awesome pics you sent
of jack playing lacrosse. they look like they could be in a lacrosse
magazine! -- good to hear you beat lehi-- haha. i´m super jealous.
and i loved the pics of the family party. everyone looks like
they´re doing well. its interesting to see how everyones changed in
the past year and half-- you do look different! i´m pumped to
hear about jacks eleccions! and everything! woot.
its been a great week here in sabancuy, we´ve been working really hard.
Sabancuy is an interesting place. yes it is small! its not on
the island of carmen. and its not on the island after carmen thats
called isla aguada, itst right after the two islands, its a little
town in Campeche! its an old mexican fishing town, its right by
the ocean! almost everyone here is a fisherman or a field worker
(someone who works all day cutting grass with a machete) life in
sabancuy is super relaxed super super relaxed. its way easy to find
people in their house because theres not much to do ha. a lot of the
time when we go to our investigators houses we find them sleeping in
their hamocks haha. -- the people are pretty poor here though.
they barely have enough to feed their families. the branch members
provide lunch for us like in the other areas, but its usually eggs and
beans. but the members are super nice.
and its basically one big family, and i say that because
seriously they´re all pretty much related here haha. the president of
the relief society, the primary, the elders quorem and the branch
president are all the Reyes family -- cousins. but they help us a
ton. it seems like every day i´m in the house of one of them!
our investigators are super great as well. we´ve got an investigator
named G thats going to be baptised this week. shes the friend
of a member and i think she might be one of the best investigators
i´ve had here. she recieved her testimony of the book of mormon her
first time reading it! the second visit we taught the gospel of jesus
christ and she accepted to be baptised. -- and shes made some
seriously big changes in her life. she´s stopped drinking, smoking
and using bad language, all in the past week! ha shes been
completeing all the assignments we leave and she´s progressing really
well.
also we´ve got a couple that we´re teaching that wants to get baptised
but we have to get them married first. we tried to do it today but
we´re missing some papers that they need, they have to go to the
hospital to have a blood check-- but other than that we´ve got
everything ready. this week we´re going to get them married and maybe
we´ll have their baptism this friday! but we still have to check
elder hansen is my new companion-- he´s from minnesota, but went to
school in Utah state, turns out he knows a lot of people from lone
peak that went to utah state-- he served in the military driving
trucks ha, and he´s got a girlfriend thats waiting for him and writes
him without fail every week!! he´s got almost 10 months in the
mission and i´m like his third companion. this is his second area.
he´s a nice guy and he works pretty well. we get along well, the only
thing is that he gets us lost like seriously 3 or 4 times a day. seriously.
like just a half hour ago-- with the lunch appointment-- haha. but i´m
learning the area and i know pretty much where everything important is --
the house, the leaders of the different organizations, the church, the bus
station. the apartment is nice.
well thats all i´ve got time for i want to send you some pics!
love you all and talk to ya next week!
-elder lloyd
Letter #76 3/19/12 Cambios! Ciudad del Carmen!!
Cambios! Ciudad del Carmen
hey fam!
good to hear from you this week. tell grandma a big thanks for
writing me. it was great to read her letter! sounds like the family
is doing well. thats awesome that slater sang in the choir!, he
should join up and be an official member! and i´m super pumped for
jack and student council. i´m pumped to see his video when i get
back. make sure to be taking plenty of video with jackson and
lacrosse. i want to be able to watch when i get back! i hope his
knee is feeling better!
well, the big news this week is that its time for transfers again!!
and i´m going to back to Ciudad del Carmen, --kind of-- i´m going to
be in the zone, but-- i´m going to be in the area Sabancuy, its a
little pueblo in campeche. my new companion will be elder hansen.
i´ll be leaving for there tomorrow! i´m excited because i´m going
to be able to focus myself more in the area and in the people. i wont
be zone leader there, its a tiny little city with a small small
branch, i think the attendance is like 25 ha and they meet in the
house of a member i think-- but i´m excited to get working with the
members and see some progress there. the best thing about this change
is that i´ll be in the same zone as elder tlachi!! woot. super pumped
to be with him again. maybe we´ll do divisions and work together!
this week went well-- we worked really hard and we had 5 investigators
in church and 3 others that couldnt come but are super excited to come
next week. elder clarks going to have a ton of success here in april!
seriously, we´ve found a ton of good people. little bit bumbed that
i´ll be leaving before i get to see these families baptized but i know
the lord knows where i should be. and my desire is to help others come
to a knowledge of the restored gospel. wherever i´m at. i loved what mom
shared about lifting others around you and leaving them better than you
found them. i´m going to apply that in the next few days. my goal is to
arrive in sabancuy with a good attitude and faith to be able to do the lords
work.
you guys should check out the lds.org site and look at the bible
videos! they are soooooo powerful. watch the ones about christs
sufffering, the last supper, the intercessory prayer. -- actually
you should watch all of them-- sooo good. they´re quiet. but if you
listen and watch prayerfully the spirit will touch your hearts i
promise.
as for questions
-i really think the shoes will keep me well till i get home, dont you
worry about sending new ones. save those till i get home.
-my health is good. i´m feeling well!
-in the mission we dont have bikes or cars, the mission has 1 car and
1 van, the car for the president and the van for the offices. so the
rest of us walk =) i would seriously love a bike though
anyway. gtg!
i´ll send some pics next week of the area!
love matt
hey fam!
good to hear from you this week. tell grandma a big thanks for
writing me. it was great to read her letter! sounds like the family
is doing well. thats awesome that slater sang in the choir!, he
should join up and be an official member! and i´m super pumped for
jack and student council. i´m pumped to see his video when i get
back. make sure to be taking plenty of video with jackson and
lacrosse. i want to be able to watch when i get back! i hope his
knee is feeling better!
well, the big news this week is that its time for transfers again!!
and i´m going to back to Ciudad del Carmen, --kind of-- i´m going to
be in the zone, but-- i´m going to be in the area Sabancuy, its a
little pueblo in campeche. my new companion will be elder hansen.
i´ll be leaving for there tomorrow! i´m excited because i´m going
to be able to focus myself more in the area and in the people. i wont
be zone leader there, its a tiny little city with a small small
branch, i think the attendance is like 25 ha and they meet in the
house of a member i think-- but i´m excited to get working with the
members and see some progress there. the best thing about this change
is that i´ll be in the same zone as elder tlachi!! woot. super pumped
to be with him again. maybe we´ll do divisions and work together!
this week went well-- we worked really hard and we had 5 investigators
in church and 3 others that couldnt come but are super excited to come
next week. elder clarks going to have a ton of success here in april!
seriously, we´ve found a ton of good people. little bit bumbed that
i´ll be leaving before i get to see these families baptized but i know
the lord knows where i should be. and my desire is to help others come
to a knowledge of the restored gospel. wherever i´m at. i loved what mom
shared about lifting others around you and leaving them better than you
found them. i´m going to apply that in the next few days. my goal is to
arrive in sabancuy with a good attitude and faith to be able to do the lords
work.
you guys should check out the lds.org site and look at the bible
videos! they are soooooo powerful. watch the ones about christs
sufffering, the last supper, the intercessory prayer. -- actually
you should watch all of them-- sooo good. they´re quiet. but if you
listen and watch prayerfully the spirit will touch your hearts i
promise.
as for questions
-i really think the shoes will keep me well till i get home, dont you
worry about sending new ones. save those till i get home.
-my health is good. i´m feeling well!
-in the mission we dont have bikes or cars, the mission has 1 car and
1 van, the car for the president and the van for the offices. so the
rest of us walk =) i would seriously love a bike though
anyway. gtg!
i´ll send some pics next week of the area!
love matt
Letter #75 3/12/12 Hello Utah!!
 |
| Matt's awesome zone!! |
 |
| Anyone know a cobbler? |
 |
| This is what seventeen months of tracting looks like. No wonder Matt has toe issues! |
Hey family hows it going!
its been a good week here in Cardenas. This week we also had stake
conference! our stake conference was held in our stake center, but
our stake center isnt very big. over 600 people showed up and it was
packed! there werent enough seats in the building for people to be
able to sit, but they squished in as many seats as they could into the
chapel. it was stuffed. and after stuffing in as many as they could
there were still like 30 people who had to just stand in the hall and
listen ha. but it was a good conference. the mission president
came, and the temple president. they´re both powerful speakers.
the family that was going to attend with us sunday couldnt come, but
we had two investigators that came to priesthood session saturday
night. it was pretty sweet. one of them was an old man, 70 years old
actually, who sells cheese in villahermosa. -- he doesnt have a cell
phone so its hard to communicate with him, but he told us thursday
night that he was going to come, and that we should meet him in the
bus station and we´d go together to the church. -- because he didnt
know where it was at. we arrived saturday at 5 at the bus stop,
and he didnt show up, we waited and waited. and he didnt come. so we
went to the church and about 5 minutes into the meeting he showed up.
he had arrived late to the bus stop, but said he didnt want to let us
down, so he asked directions from people in the street of how to get
to the mormon church and he found it! and he loved the meeting.
this was his first time in the church and we´re going to keep working
with him this week.
also this week, we had an awesome zone meeting, we got the whole zone
together and talked about what we had learned in the conference. it
was super powerful. the spirit was so strong there. each of the
district leaders talked about diffferent topics that we asigned them,
-- how constant prayer sanctifies us, how love for the savior
sanctifies us, how our covenants help us to purify our hearts. we
focused the whole conference on being sanctified as a missionary. i
think every elder left with more desires to be pure and dedicated to
the work. and to try to become more like christ- whom we represent.
also-- kind of scary. a companionship of missionaries in the zone got
robbed in the street! they took their phone, money, belts,
everything. yikes. but the good thing is they didnt hurt them. but
he president felt the impression to take missionaries out of the area.
so now there arent missionaries in one of the wards. yikes. but
hopefully in the next week he´ll send us some new missionaries!
as for your letters,
looks like jack had a blast in his day date. those pictures look like
he had a good time. i´m pretty jealous. i would have loved to go to
a dance with a group of the girls-boys lacrosse teams.
tell grandpa and grandma that i love them and hope they´re doing well.
grandpa Bingham will be in my prayers especially this week!
well i gtg so i can write the pres.
have a great week-
¡elder lloyd!
Letter #74 3/5/12 Marzo!
Hi all, here's Matt's email. When we "chatted" he said that he loves his
new comp, Elder Clark. Apparently he's "way chill" and they have a great
time together, and are working super hard. He sent this shout out to his
cousins:
"tell my cousins i love them. especially parker!
i´ve been thinking about him a lot this week -- tell him i love him a
bunch and hope he´s doing well. tell him he should write me!"
Subject: marzo
hey fam.
good to be writting you all again. thanks for your letters of
encouragement this week. big thanks to rachel and aunt ronette. i
always love to get emails from my cousins and from my aunts and uncles
and grandparents! i love hearing how you´re all doing. i´m so
grateful for my family. i wish i could write you each a letter but
just know that the letters that i write every week are truly for
everyone in the fam.
this week we worked especially hard with two families. a and
y, who came to church with us last week -- and a man named
r. a and y are seventh day advents -- i think
thats what it is in english -- not sure-- they believe the sabath day
is saturday! we´re working with them on that haha -- but they´re
reading the book of mormon and are pretty interested. they were going
to come to church this week -- but the member that promised to pass by
and pick them up didnt even come to church. so they were waiting and
everything but their ride didnt show up-- yikes. but i know they´ll
come next week. the other man is named r, he´s a guy who´s
had some problems recently and we visited him and he´s taking steps in
his life to change. his family is super supportive because they want
him to change some of his vices and start coming to christ. we´re
visiting him, his wife and his mom. they´re all pretty receptive and
r is preparing to be baptized. but we´re not sure when-- he
needs to come to church first ha.
elder clark and i are doing well. we seriously get along great.
we´re working hard. this week we had Zone Leader council in
Villahermosa, that was neat, always the best part of the mes. we
spent the whole conference talking about sanctifying ourselves for the
work. we talked of how a miracle is a manifestation of the power of
god, and that one of the greatest miracles god can do is the change
he can make in someones heart. to be able to see miracles in the
mission field we first must be completely converted to the gospel and
to this work. so the goal of this coming month will be that all the
elders in the zone can become more pure and more consecrated to the
work. we´re studying the atonement, memorizing the Living Christ, and
focusing on repenting constantly to become pure instruments in gods
hands. i know that as we become pure we qualify for the
companionship of the spirit, which is so critical for this work, as
it says in D&C if you have not the spirit, you shall not teach.
also in the conference i got to see elder tlachi. i had a special
spiritual experience with him there in the conference, i truly love
and respect him. he is a true representative of jesus christ. he has
helped me a ton in the mission--
i´m super excited for this coming month. the ward here needs some
help, the assistance is weak. and the ward isnt having the activities
that it needs to have. what makes a ward great is the participation
of its members. and if there arent activities there arent chances for
the members to grow and develop their testimonies. that was evident
this week in sacrament meeting. this ward needs a spiritual boost.
my companion and i are going to start visiting more less actives and
start visiting as well the bishop to get him more excited about hte
work.
well thats it for this week.
hope youre all doing well
-love
elder m.d. lloyd
new comp, Elder Clark. Apparently he's "way chill" and they have a great
time together, and are working super hard. He sent this shout out to his
cousins:
"tell my cousins i love them. especially parker!
i´ve been thinking about him a lot this week -- tell him i love him a
bunch and hope he´s doing well. tell him he should write me!"
Subject: marzo
hey fam.
good to be writting you all again. thanks for your letters of
encouragement this week. big thanks to rachel and aunt ronette. i
always love to get emails from my cousins and from my aunts and uncles
and grandparents! i love hearing how you´re all doing. i´m so
grateful for my family. i wish i could write you each a letter but
just know that the letters that i write every week are truly for
everyone in the fam.
this week we worked especially hard with two families. a and
y, who came to church with us last week -- and a man named
r. a and y are seventh day advents -- i think
thats what it is in english -- not sure-- they believe the sabath day
is saturday! we´re working with them on that haha -- but they´re
reading the book of mormon and are pretty interested. they were going
to come to church this week -- but the member that promised to pass by
and pick them up didnt even come to church. so they were waiting and
everything but their ride didnt show up-- yikes. but i know they´ll
come next week. the other man is named r, he´s a guy who´s
had some problems recently and we visited him and he´s taking steps in
his life to change. his family is super supportive because they want
him to change some of his vices and start coming to christ. we´re
visiting him, his wife and his mom. they´re all pretty receptive and
r is preparing to be baptized. but we´re not sure when-- he
needs to come to church first ha.
elder clark and i are doing well. we seriously get along great.
we´re working hard. this week we had Zone Leader council in
Villahermosa, that was neat, always the best part of the mes. we
spent the whole conference talking about sanctifying ourselves for the
work. we talked of how a miracle is a manifestation of the power of
god, and that one of the greatest miracles god can do is the change
he can make in someones heart. to be able to see miracles in the
mission field we first must be completely converted to the gospel and
to this work. so the goal of this coming month will be that all the
elders in the zone can become more pure and more consecrated to the
work. we´re studying the atonement, memorizing the Living Christ, and
focusing on repenting constantly to become pure instruments in gods
hands. i know that as we become pure we qualify for the
companionship of the spirit, which is so critical for this work, as
it says in D&C if you have not the spirit, you shall not teach.
also in the conference i got to see elder tlachi. i had a special
spiritual experience with him there in the conference, i truly love
and respect him. he is a true representative of jesus christ. he has
helped me a ton in the mission--
i´m super excited for this coming month. the ward here needs some
help, the assistance is weak. and the ward isnt having the activities
that it needs to have. what makes a ward great is the participation
of its members. and if there arent activities there arent chances for
the members to grow and develop their testimonies. that was evident
this week in sacrament meeting. this ward needs a spiritual boost.
my companion and i are going to start visiting more less actives and
start visiting as well the bishop to get him more excited about hte
work.
well thats it for this week.
hope youre all doing well
-love
elder m.d. lloyd
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