Letter #102 9/17/12 Mexican Independence Day!

Hello Family!

Its good to be writing you all again this week!

First of all, Thanks a ton for the birthday envelope that you sent me!
 i enjoyed the tape you sent!  i felt like i was right there in the
kitchen. My bros are so funny in those tapes!  They´ve changed a lot
though,  even in their voices,  next time i hear your voices it´ll be
in person!

As for my b-day,   we went to a members house for breakfast and that
was nice!   then in the afternoon an investgator gave me a cake!  and
it was awesome!    The mission president and his wife called and sang
happy birthday in english.  they are such great examples of the pure
love of christ.  everytime i talk with them i feel their love.

 Also this week,   I have a new companion!!!  Transfers left and right
these days.   only this time i didnt lose a companion, we just
received another,   Now we´re  a trio.   Elder lope, Elder Flores, and
Elder lloyd!      Elder flores is from my same generation,  or in
other words he started the mission the same day i did, and he´ll be
going home the same day!    he´s from Baja California South,  a city
called Los Cabos,   or in other words,  the Mexico Culiacan mission,
he lives in the mission where landon is serving!   Cool eh?

i dont know if you guys have the pics from my first area,  but there´s
a pic where i´m with my district,  and we´re all in a room in the
church wearing blue shirts with a white dragon thing,    There are two
mexican elders in that pic, and the one that isnt elder tlachi is
Elder Flores.     only in that pic he´s about 40 pounds heavier.
he´s lost a ton of weight in the last two years.  haha.

not going to lie.  i think he´s a bit more trunky than i am.   but i´m
sure theres a reason why the lord wants us together, the three of us.

The good news is we´re going to baptize this week!!!!! yahoooo!    una
hermana que se llama C!   she´s living with some members and
has come to church the last three weeks and loves it!  she´s been
passing for some pretty serious problems in her life.  shes seperated
from her husband, and her husband kidnapped her baby.  its crazy.   but
she´s super prepared and excited for the friday!

also this past week we had a Noche Mexicana, in the church.  its
basically just a huge ward party for mexican independence day.  i have
some awesome pics i´ll show you when i get home!  there was a lot of
traditional mexican dancing, and a lot of mexican food.  we had a ton
of investigators there and all in all i think there were 220 people in
attendance, so that was great!

well fam.  hope you have a great  week.  love ya´ll A TON.

-elder lloyd

Letter #101 9/10/12! Happy Birthday Elder Lloyd!!

Ok, Matt's emails are getting shorter and shorter every week.  In 4 weeks,
it will be just a "See you next week".  It's all good though!  Have a great
week.       - marci


Subject: hello from Gaviotas

My Family!

Thanks so much for all the emails you sent this week!   honestly i had
forgotten that my birthday is tomorrow until i opened up my mail and
was wondering why i had like 3 times the amount of emails as normal
haha.  but thats super weird to me that i{m going to be 21 tomorrow.
geez i{m old ha!

i havent received your envelope yet, but if it was in the mission
offices this past week i should receive it tomorrow!, we{ll see.

This past week has gone really well.  My new companion elder lope is
super great.  super positive,  he is from southern peru,  he comes
from a family of 10.  he has 7 brothers and sisters.  holy cow.   he
is the last of the 8. and the first to serve a mission.  so i think
his parents are super proud of him,   his whole family is active
though, and all his brothers and sisters are married in the temple!
his parents are converts to the church.   ----     we come from two
very different worlds i{m learning haha.  because here in the last two
years i{ve been getting used to mexico, but i think mexico and peru
are super different as well.

all in all everythings went very well this week though.  elder lope is
super socialable, he gets along super well with everyone.   he teaches
well!  we have a lot of people we{re working with,  they{re just
progressing super super slowly.  which can be frustrating, but we had
a lot of new investigators in church sunday and a lot of old
investigators as well.

This next week we{re going to focus a lot in helping our investigators
accept a baptismal date, because we have a lot that have come to church
2 or 3 times and still havent decided when they{re going to be
baptized.  also this week we{re probably going to get a couple
married! ha.  or maybe two couples ha.  i hope everything works out
well so we can help our investigators to get past the tests they{ve
been having the past few weeks!
anyway,
It was good to see those pics of my bros, and of kams farewell.   i{m
super excited to start getting his letters from the mtc.  tell the
kilbournes i want to be on the list to get his letters!

well i gtg write the pres.

love ya{ll, y espero que tengan una buena semana

.elder lloyd.

Letter #100 9/3/12 New Companion!!

hey family!

This week has been a bit interesting,   Elder Rodriguez finished up
his last week and went home yesterday, he seemed pretty excited i{ll
be honest haha.   yesterday and today i{ve been with another elder
from the zone whose companion also went home this transfer.   we{re
waiting for our new companions to come tomorrow.  my new companion
will be elder lope, pronounced lopay.   he{s from peru!  i think he
has less than a year in the mission, about 9 months i think.   i{ve
never met him but i{ll be sure to tell you more about him next week.

This week was a a little hard though because we got robbed.  well, i
got robbed ha.  it was a super big bummer, and i{ve been pretty
distracted with the loss all this week actually.    what happened is
that my desk where i study is right by the window,  and i left out on
my desk the other day the 300g hard drive in its box along with all
the memory cards and the flash drive.  and when we came back to the
apartment at night it wasnt there.     and our apartment is pretty
secure,  its on the second floor and really the only people who have a
key to get to the second floor are other people in the apartment
complex.   but someone, (probably one of our neighbors)  broke the
screen and took the hard drive.   so frustrating.    i{m a bit bummed
because i know it was something expensive,  but more than that i{m
super bummed about the pics i had there in the hard drive.  i think
you guys have back ups of all the pics that i{ve sent,  but i also had
all the pics that my companions had taken on the hard drive. -- and i
had a ton of music, and talks, and books in pdf format.    frustrating
that in 22 months in the mission i dont get robbed and my last
transfer this happens.  bah.

anyway,  mostly theres nothing we can do about it now.

the rest of the week went pretty well.  i loved the fast and testimony
meeting yesterday.   a member of the quorem of the seventy came to the
meeting,  idk why he was there actually ha. but it was a great
meeting,  one of the investigators bore her testimony.  she{s super
awesome, she the girlfriend of a member, and she just finished reading
the book of mormon like a week ago, and she wants to get baptized, but
her mom hasnt given her permission.

there are like 5 or 6 investigators that are attending church every
sunday but for one reason or another havent been able to get baptized.
-- frustrating.  but i{m certain that these next 6 weeks are going to
be the best of my mission.  we are going to work hard, and fast and
pray so that these families can be baptized in the coming weeks!

well i gtg. but i love ya{ll bunch.  thanks for your emails,
i loved the pics btw.

-elder lloyd

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