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


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



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