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


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

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