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

 ps. i{m not registered to vote

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!

Letter #93 7/16/12!! 90 Days Left!!

Matt and members in Sabancuy

Matt and Elder Garcia in Sabancuy

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

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