hey fam. hows it going in utah.
good to get your letters. sounds like its been another busy week.
homecoming, lacrosse, moms trip, dad taking care of all the boys
stuff. geez. glad everything went well though. i´m super
happy that slaters doing so well with goalie.
this week has been pretty good. we found and taught and invited to
baptism, 15 new investigators. sadly not one came to church. bah.
so frustrating. but the good thing is the lord blessed us with 5
new investigators that just arrived by themselves this week to church.
2 that said they´d always passed by the church and been interested in
knowing more about what we do. so we´re pretty pumped for them.
e and her family didnt come this week. they slept in-- bah.
frustrating. but we´re going with them tomorrow and hopefully we can
put a new baptismal date with t.
a wasnt baptized because she was still lacking some of the
necessary papers -- a birth certificate-- bah. she had to take a
trip back to where she was born to get a new copy-- so frustrating.
so basically we dont really know when she-ll be baptised. sometime
this month for sure. its just a question of when she gets everything
ready.
today we had a zone activity that was super fun. we played soccer
then watched the movie -Bolt- idk if you´ve seen it but it totally
applys to missionary work. ha basically it was super good because i
havent seen a movie in forever and the movie was super funny,
especially watching it with other elders.
Kind of a bummer that i didnt baptize again in september. i think i´m
just getting used to it now which sucks. we should be baptizing
every week. without fail. i´m super frustrated. but i´m hopeful that we can start baptizing. since my companion arrived we havent baptized. i know we have people that are really
good. its just hard sometimes to help them recieve a testimony
of the book of mormon. i really don't understand how they cant just
Know its true. everytime i read it i know its true. and there are
investigators we have that say they´ve read and prayed but havent felt
anything. which to me means they´re probably not praying with real
intent or with faith or with a sincere desire to know.
but we´re going to work hard this week as missionaries to give more
powerful testimony of the book of mormon. so that they can have more
desires to know that its true.
-anyway. i´m so pumped for general conference and to hear
the voice of the lord through his chosen servants here on the earth.
my companion and i are going to try and bring 10 new people to church
with us this week so that they can hear the voice of the lord and
recieve a testimony. i know that if we can get them there, they´re
going to feel the spirit and something that one of the speakers says
will touch their hearts!
i challenge you all that you can listen to conference prayfully, and
that this week in your personal prayers you can ask for answeres to
questions that you have in your heart. and that the lord can answer
them this weekend!
hope you all have a great week and that you have a great weekend
listening to conference!
-elder lloyd
Letter #50 9/19/11 Hey Familia!!
Here's Matt's email, and first, a quick "chat" with his gangsta brothers.
>>> Your bros say, "Yo yo yo, Homes! Wassup?"
>> not much dogs, just chillin. whats bin crakin in your hood?
>> jacksons got his first date all set up right ?? geez thats cool
> "Not much, G. The usual biz. Yeah - Homecoming this weekend."
woot woot, knucks up trickster- jacksons got game---
you{ll have to send mi a pic of the dance!
hey ya´ll
hows it going.
this week has been super great here in puerto real.
geez it was good to read your letters. so pumped for jackson
about his date. woot. Ill be excited to see how that goes. whens
homecoming?? should be pretty soon here right? homecoming was one of
my favorite dances i went to! i hope he has a ton of fun!!
and thats awesome that slaters thinking about being a goalie. if he
does we{ll basically have all the most important parts of a lacross
team. when i get back we{ll be able to have fun practicing, me trying
to score on jackson and slater ha.
well this week has been super super good. this sunday we had 5
investigators in church. and i was way pumped for all of them. i{m
not sure if i{ve told you about a lady we{re teaching named E.
we{re teaching her and her two daughters. they{re so good. we
found them contacting. i felt we should go and contact a colony that
i{d never been to and we went and the first door we knocked was
theirs. they{re great. they{ve been going through some rough times
as a family. especially between the husband and the wife. but they
came to church and really liked it. also we had a lady we found
named D. who has had some doubts about joseph smith, but she
decided to come to church and had a really great experience so i{m
pretty pumped for them. A was sick so she couldnt come to
church, but she has a baptism date for this next week. if she can
get married. holy cow getting people married is soooooo hard geez.
but we had 2 miracles happen yesterday with A. after church
A invited us to come to her house, she had invited one of her
friends to listen to us. we had a powerful lesson. A gave a
super super super strong testimony of the church and of the book of
mormon, and of baptism. and the friend she had invited felt the spirit
way strong. sadly she doesnt live in our area. but it was so
awesome to see one of the people who we{ve been teaching give her
testimony. and i know that when she gets baptized she{ll be a super
powerful member. for her whole life.
the next miracle is that later that night we went back to her house--
but this time we talked with her husband. we taught him and his heart
opened up. and we invited him to stop smoking and drinking. he{s
catholic. but really its just a tradition. he said he{s never
prayed. so we taught him to pray and invited him to do it at the end
of the lesson. he gave such a sincere prayer asking for the help of
the lord to quit smoking and to have the love of jesus christ more in
his house. it was great. we{re going by to see him tomorrow. and he
said he{s going to go get things out for the wedding today!!
super pumped for them. i hope so bad they can get married this week.
i{m going to do everything i can so that it happens.
also this week we had an awesome ward party - 15 de septiembre is like
mexican independence day. so that was intense. we had a "mexican
night" in the church, complete with mexican food, mexican music,
mexican dancing, and a piñata. we brought investigators. and
participated in the food, but not the dancing. =) ha.
well i{m going to leave this one short. so we can talk!
love ya all.
-elder lloyd
>>> Your bros say, "Yo yo yo, Homes! Wassup?"
>> not much dogs, just chillin. whats bin crakin in your hood?
>> jacksons got his first date all set up right ?? geez thats cool
> "Not much, G. The usual biz. Yeah - Homecoming this weekend."
woot woot, knucks up trickster- jacksons got game---
you{ll have to send mi a pic of the dance!
hey ya´ll
hows it going.
this week has been super great here in puerto real.
geez it was good to read your letters. so pumped for jackson
about his date. woot. Ill be excited to see how that goes. whens
homecoming?? should be pretty soon here right? homecoming was one of
my favorite dances i went to! i hope he has a ton of fun!!
and thats awesome that slaters thinking about being a goalie. if he
does we{ll basically have all the most important parts of a lacross
team. when i get back we{ll be able to have fun practicing, me trying
to score on jackson and slater ha.
well this week has been super super good. this sunday we had 5
investigators in church. and i was way pumped for all of them. i{m
not sure if i{ve told you about a lady we{re teaching named E.
we{re teaching her and her two daughters. they{re so good. we
found them contacting. i felt we should go and contact a colony that
i{d never been to and we went and the first door we knocked was
theirs. they{re great. they{ve been going through some rough times
as a family. especially between the husband and the wife. but they
came to church and really liked it. also we had a lady we found
named D. who has had some doubts about joseph smith, but she
decided to come to church and had a really great experience so i{m
pretty pumped for them. A was sick so she couldnt come to
church, but she has a baptism date for this next week. if she can
get married. holy cow getting people married is soooooo hard geez.
but we had 2 miracles happen yesterday with A. after church
A invited us to come to her house, she had invited one of her
friends to listen to us. we had a powerful lesson. A gave a
super super super strong testimony of the church and of the book of
mormon, and of baptism. and the friend she had invited felt the spirit
way strong. sadly she doesnt live in our area. but it was so
awesome to see one of the people who we{ve been teaching give her
testimony. and i know that when she gets baptized she{ll be a super
powerful member. for her whole life.
the next miracle is that later that night we went back to her house--
but this time we talked with her husband. we taught him and his heart
opened up. and we invited him to stop smoking and drinking. he{s
catholic. but really its just a tradition. he said he{s never
prayed. so we taught him to pray and invited him to do it at the end
of the lesson. he gave such a sincere prayer asking for the help of
the lord to quit smoking and to have the love of jesus christ more in
his house. it was great. we{re going by to see him tomorrow. and he
said he{s going to go get things out for the wedding today!!
super pumped for them. i hope so bad they can get married this week.
i{m going to do everything i can so that it happens.
also this week we had an awesome ward party - 15 de septiembre is like
mexican independence day. so that was intense. we had a "mexican
night" in the church, complete with mexican food, mexican music,
mexican dancing, and a piñata. we brought investigators. and
participated in the food, but not the dancing. =) ha.
well i{m going to leave this one short. so we can talk!
love ya all.
-elder lloyd
Letter #49 09/12/11 cumpliaños increible
hey fam.
i dont even know where to start with the thanks -- oh my heavens.
i received 5 packages saturday night from the mission president.
and they were all stuffed! prettty sure i was one of the happiest
missionaries on the planet. give a huge thanks to the kilbournes for
all the supplies, the socks--- my old socks all had holes but now i
have new wool socks. and all the medical stuff for the blisters.
thanks so much. give a big thanks to ronette and grandma for their
packages. i{m pretty sure i have enough poptarts/granola bars/
oatmeal creampies and other goodies to last me for a very long time.
i{ve been sharing some with my zone because they all got a bit tiffed
when they saw that i received 5 packages. but they{re satisfied now
haha. also all the pens, gluesticks, tape, markers are going to be
perfect. i lost my last pen that i brought with me from the mtc
friday so it was perfect timing.
and most of all thanks for the boots, they{re awesome, those are
going to stay dry for sure. and they look super smooth. those
ties are perfect. who picked them out, the purple one is smooth.
and the blue one too. and i love the ring and the clip. ha. my
companion has the exact same ring so now we{re twinners-- i love
the pillowcase as well. ah everything i got was so great. -- you
guys werent suppose to send stuff this year. i{m on my mission--- =)
i loved the tape. super super good. thank you so much for
your support. i{m so grateful that i have a family that i know loves
me and i love you all so much. that tape was so full of love.
every person who spoke in it. chad, ben, all the neighbors, oh
my heavens, when all those little kids spoke into it. i was like --
no, tanner and tod are not talking already-- holy moly how did that
happen.
but seriously give ben a big hug for me. his testimony and jacksons
touched my heart. i love them so much. and give slater a big hug
too.
side note -- bens armenian sounds sick
as for my bday... this week was good. we ended up with only 2 in
church. but no problem. the one that most counts came! so thats good.
A was there. and everythings in order for her to get married
and baptized this week. with a little help from the lord. if her
husband goes and turns their papers in today we{ll be all good.
i{ve never seen someone so ready. she has a powerful testimony of the
gospel.
but the best part of this week was that we had a district conference
with all the members from all of Cd. Del Carmen. it was super neat.
thats why the president came. i dont think i{ve attended a better
stake/district conference in my life. super powerful. in the adult
session, the missionaries performed as a choir again. that was neat.
but the most powerful part was the mission president. he didnt plan
anything but did it all by the spirit. when he started he invited a
12 year old girl up from the audience to sing in front of everyone,
she had no idea before hand that he was going to do this, and she
almost didnt go up, but with a little help from her parents she sang a
solo in front of everyone. her voice was like an angel and the
spirit entered the room so powerful. and then the president
talked about the reason that we complete with our covenants and the
love that should exist between the different members. he gave stories
of incredible service, that people did in his home ward. i think it
was exactly what this island needed. there is a huge lack of love and
fellowship here. its like everyones in the church just for
themselves. but seriously the whole conference was incredible . i
was spiritually uplifted.
i{ve learned a lot this past week in my study of the scriptures and
from some splits we did with the zone leaders. i{ve almost been
here for a whole year and it really gets me thinking about what i{ve
really accomplished here. i know i{ve accomplished a lot and i{ve
grown a lot... but i{m just being an average missionary. nothing more.
and it makes me sad -- but in the past few days i{ve decided to
change.
in my study of the scriptures i was reading in 1 john 1:5-7 where it
talks about the need to leave the darkness and walk in the light,
christ is the light and how we walk in the light, is by doing things
like he would do them. by having the spirit. by being worthy, by
being willing to sacrifice ourselves, and our will to the lords, by
repentance -- in spanish in the bible dictionary it says repentance is
to have a new heart and a new mind. we have to leave our old heart
behind and our old mind for a new one. one more full of love and the
attributes of christ. so thats going to be my goal for the next few
weeks. i love what it says in ephesians 5:8 that at times we walked
in darkness -- but its time to become a child of light. i want to be
a missionary of light. so that people can see in me the light of
christ and have desires to follow him.
i love this gospel so much and i{m greatful for the chance i have to
share it with the people of mexico. i testify that this is the only
true church. and the only church with which the lord is well pleased
as it says in D&C 1:30. i know that this church has the authority of
god to perform the sacred ordinances necessary for salvation and
eternal life with our familes. i know joseph smith saw god, i know
he was a prophet, he sealed his testimony with a life time of works
and endurance through trials and eventually with his own blood. the
book of mormon is true. its the evidence of everything we hold dear
as members of the church. it the keystone of our religion. i love
that book with all my heart. it is the source to a pure testimony of
the restauracion. the spirit is real. the priesthood is real. the
covenants we make in the temple are real. the church of jesus christ
is the lords kingdom restaured on the earth in preparation for the
second coming. i know these things because i{ve felt the spirit of the
lord in my heart and in my mind, and i know they are true.
god is our father. he loves every one of his children.
of this i testify in the name of jesus christ amen.
love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
-it might be good for dad to study chapter 10 of preach my gospel.
its all about how to teach. also the chapter about compromisos.
and tell jack i felt the exact same way when i went to efy--
-elder lloyd
i dont even know where to start with the thanks -- oh my heavens.
i received 5 packages saturday night from the mission president.
and they were all stuffed! prettty sure i was one of the happiest
missionaries on the planet. give a huge thanks to the kilbournes for
all the supplies, the socks--- my old socks all had holes but now i
have new wool socks. and all the medical stuff for the blisters.
thanks so much. give a big thanks to ronette and grandma for their
packages. i{m pretty sure i have enough poptarts/granola bars/
oatmeal creampies and other goodies to last me for a very long time.
i{ve been sharing some with my zone because they all got a bit tiffed
when they saw that i received 5 packages. but they{re satisfied now
haha. also all the pens, gluesticks, tape, markers are going to be
perfect. i lost my last pen that i brought with me from the mtc
friday so it was perfect timing.
and most of all thanks for the boots, they{re awesome, those are
going to stay dry for sure. and they look super smooth. those
ties are perfect. who picked them out, the purple one is smooth.
and the blue one too. and i love the ring and the clip. ha. my
companion has the exact same ring so now we{re twinners-- i love
the pillowcase as well. ah everything i got was so great. -- you
guys werent suppose to send stuff this year. i{m on my mission--- =)
i loved the tape. super super good. thank you so much for
your support. i{m so grateful that i have a family that i know loves
me and i love you all so much. that tape was so full of love.
every person who spoke in it. chad, ben, all the neighbors, oh
my heavens, when all those little kids spoke into it. i was like --
no, tanner and tod are not talking already-- holy moly how did that
happen.
but seriously give ben a big hug for me. his testimony and jacksons
touched my heart. i love them so much. and give slater a big hug
too.
side note -- bens armenian sounds sick
as for my bday... this week was good. we ended up with only 2 in
church. but no problem. the one that most counts came! so thats good.
A was there. and everythings in order for her to get married
and baptized this week. with a little help from the lord. if her
husband goes and turns their papers in today we{ll be all good.
i{ve never seen someone so ready. she has a powerful testimony of the
gospel.
but the best part of this week was that we had a district conference
with all the members from all of Cd. Del Carmen. it was super neat.
thats why the president came. i dont think i{ve attended a better
stake/district conference in my life. super powerful. in the adult
session, the missionaries performed as a choir again. that was neat.
but the most powerful part was the mission president. he didnt plan
anything but did it all by the spirit. when he started he invited a
12 year old girl up from the audience to sing in front of everyone,
she had no idea before hand that he was going to do this, and she
almost didnt go up, but with a little help from her parents she sang a
solo in front of everyone. her voice was like an angel and the
spirit entered the room so powerful. and then the president
talked about the reason that we complete with our covenants and the
love that should exist between the different members. he gave stories
of incredible service, that people did in his home ward. i think it
was exactly what this island needed. there is a huge lack of love and
fellowship here. its like everyones in the church just for
themselves. but seriously the whole conference was incredible . i
was spiritually uplifted.
i{ve learned a lot this past week in my study of the scriptures and
from some splits we did with the zone leaders. i{ve almost been
here for a whole year and it really gets me thinking about what i{ve
really accomplished here. i know i{ve accomplished a lot and i{ve
grown a lot... but i{m just being an average missionary. nothing more.
and it makes me sad -- but in the past few days i{ve decided to
change.
in my study of the scriptures i was reading in 1 john 1:5-7 where it
talks about the need to leave the darkness and walk in the light,
christ is the light and how we walk in the light, is by doing things
like he would do them. by having the spirit. by being worthy, by
being willing to sacrifice ourselves, and our will to the lords, by
repentance -- in spanish in the bible dictionary it says repentance is
to have a new heart and a new mind. we have to leave our old heart
behind and our old mind for a new one. one more full of love and the
attributes of christ. so thats going to be my goal for the next few
weeks. i love what it says in ephesians 5:8 that at times we walked
in darkness -- but its time to become a child of light. i want to be
a missionary of light. so that people can see in me the light of
christ and have desires to follow him.
i love this gospel so much and i{m greatful for the chance i have to
share it with the people of mexico. i testify that this is the only
true church. and the only church with which the lord is well pleased
as it says in D&C 1:30. i know that this church has the authority of
god to perform the sacred ordinances necessary for salvation and
eternal life with our familes. i know joseph smith saw god, i know
he was a prophet, he sealed his testimony with a life time of works
and endurance through trials and eventually with his own blood. the
book of mormon is true. its the evidence of everything we hold dear
as members of the church. it the keystone of our religion. i love
that book with all my heart. it is the source to a pure testimony of
the restauracion. the spirit is real. the priesthood is real. the
covenants we make in the temple are real. the church of jesus christ
is the lords kingdom restaured on the earth in preparation for the
second coming. i know these things because i{ve felt the spirit of the
lord in my heart and in my mind, and i know they are true.
god is our father. he loves every one of his children.
of this i testify in the name of jesus christ amen.
love you all and hope you have a wonderful week.
-it might be good for dad to study chapter 10 of preach my gospel.
its all about how to teach. also the chapter about compromisos.
and tell jack i felt the exact same way when i went to efy--
-elder lloyd
Letter #48 9/05/11 Greetings from Puerto Real!
hey family.
thanks so much for your b-day emails. i feel loved!
this weeks been super good. we had 5 people in the church sunday. a
family of 3 and a guy named E and a lady named A.
it was super intense though, we thought that A wasnt going to
be able to come because her work told her she had to go on a trip
sunday morning. but we went and taught her a lesson about why we come
to church, the importance of sacrament, and what it really means to
take upon us the name of christ -- and then we asked her if she was
sure there wasnt anything that she could do to leave later in the day
so she could at least come to sacrament meeting. and she called up her
boss right then and told her that she wasnt going to leave till
sunday afternoon so she could go to church. ah it was awesome. i´m
hoping so much that the husband will soften his heart and that we can
get them married this week!!!
this week we´re focusing on the people that came to church to go with
them and put baptismal dates. our zone leaders are really wanting to
focus us on inviting the people to be baptised from the first visit.
sometimes it can be super dificult on the first visit. especially if
your talking about something else, but we´re going to work on that a
ton this week. we want to have at least 6 or more firm baptismal dates
by the end of the week. i think we can do more.
the hard thing right now is whats going on with my companion.
yikes. we get along really well. and he´s a super hard worker. he
really really wants to work hard and everything. he wants to contact,
he wants to teach. he wants to do it all. but--- the people dont
understand him and he doesnt understand them very well. and the only
way to fix it is to give him more chances to talk and to teach. but
sometimes its hard cuz it kind of kills the spirit when they cant
understand what hes trying to say. haha. but i´m going to work
harder with that this week and help him to have chances to bear
testimony, especially with the members.
i think the best way to do it in the lessons is like hand it off to
him like -- "now my companion will explain repentance..." but even
then its dificult. i had no idea training would be so dificult.
haha. i guess i forgot how i was when i arrived. the good thing is
he just got here so he´s like this perfect pure missionary -- he
wants to works super hard -- i think if i can just focus his energy
into learning the language, in a few weeks we´lll be super powerful.
no he really is progressing though. his spanish is soooooooo much
better right now. it amazes me. i can understand him and the
members get like 80% of what he´s saying. he just speaks really slow.
to answer your questions elder jepson is from mesa arizona, and we´re
having a great time together. i think we´re going to get along great =P
we had pizza last week. and i think i´ll probably order one saturday
night for my b-day- but the best b-day present for me would be 10
investigators in the church this sunday. i would be the happiest
missionary on the plannet. so i´m praying for that. ha
love you all.
-elder lloyd
thanks so much for your b-day emails. i feel loved!
this weeks been super good. we had 5 people in the church sunday. a
family of 3 and a guy named E and a lady named A.
it was super intense though, we thought that A wasnt going to
be able to come because her work told her she had to go on a trip
sunday morning. but we went and taught her a lesson about why we come
to church, the importance of sacrament, and what it really means to
take upon us the name of christ -- and then we asked her if she was
sure there wasnt anything that she could do to leave later in the day
so she could at least come to sacrament meeting. and she called up her
boss right then and told her that she wasnt going to leave till
sunday afternoon so she could go to church. ah it was awesome. i´m
hoping so much that the husband will soften his heart and that we can
get them married this week!!!
this week we´re focusing on the people that came to church to go with
them and put baptismal dates. our zone leaders are really wanting to
focus us on inviting the people to be baptised from the first visit.
sometimes it can be super dificult on the first visit. especially if
your talking about something else, but we´re going to work on that a
ton this week. we want to have at least 6 or more firm baptismal dates
by the end of the week. i think we can do more.
the hard thing right now is whats going on with my companion.
yikes. we get along really well. and he´s a super hard worker. he
really really wants to work hard and everything. he wants to contact,
he wants to teach. he wants to do it all. but--- the people dont
understand him and he doesnt understand them very well. and the only
way to fix it is to give him more chances to talk and to teach. but
sometimes its hard cuz it kind of kills the spirit when they cant
understand what hes trying to say. haha. but i´m going to work
harder with that this week and help him to have chances to bear
testimony, especially with the members.
i think the best way to do it in the lessons is like hand it off to
him like -- "now my companion will explain repentance..." but even
then its dificult. i had no idea training would be so dificult.
haha. i guess i forgot how i was when i arrived. the good thing is
he just got here so he´s like this perfect pure missionary -- he
wants to works super hard -- i think if i can just focus his energy
into learning the language, in a few weeks we´lll be super powerful.
no he really is progressing though. his spanish is soooooooo much
better right now. it amazes me. i can understand him and the
members get like 80% of what he´s saying. he just speaks really slow.
to answer your questions elder jepson is from mesa arizona, and we´re
having a great time together. i think we´re going to get along great =P
we had pizza last week. and i think i´ll probably order one saturday
night for my b-day- but the best b-day present for me would be 10
investigators in the church this sunday. i would be the happiest
missionary on the plannet. so i´m praying for that. ha
love you all.
-elder lloyd
Letter#47 8/29/11 Semena en puerto real
hey hey fam.
hows it going back in utah. it was good to get your emails. the
weeks when i hear from all of you are the best!! sounds like you
guys have had an awesome first week of school. that shirt looks
legit that jackson made. and i´m 100% jealous of the glasses. i
thought i was cool when i went to those dances but jack just took it
to a whole new level =) get me a pair of glasses like that if you
can--
i cant believe slaters in seventh grade. holy moly. thats super
wierd to me. he sounds so much older in his letters too. hey
slate-- is mr. koefed still teaching history there in mt. ridge? if
he is go see him and tell him i say hi. i doubt he remembers me but
that-d be cool
its wierd thinking dads just like 4 hours away if he wanted to get
here right now. geez. -- also dad you should check out a talk
in the october conference in 2010 by david mcConkie. i heard it
this morning and it talks all about what we need to do to be good
teachers and it was super powerful. ---- i think you might have
shared me a thought from that talk awhile back though, because it
seemed really familiar. haha
anyway--
NEW COMPANION woot.
elder Jepson. he just got here from the mtc. he´s from arizona.
he´s 19 years old. he´s got 1 brother and 3 sisters, he´s the third
oldest in his family and the first child to serve a mission. super
awesome guy. he´s tall. really tall. like 6-3 , he reminds me a lot
of landon ha. just the way he acts. he´s super funny and way
excited to be here.
he´s so excited to speak with the people and bear his testimony,
even though his spanish is lacking... haha. the people dont
understand a lot of what he says, sometimes i dont understand him. ha,
and he doesnt understand anything of what the people say because they
talk so fast. but i´ve seen some big progress with him the last
few days!!! this week we´re going to work with him more on that. we
have 2 hours of companionship study in the mornings and 1 hour of
language study. so in no time he´ll be teaching up a storm. its
been a bit difficult though for me to find chances for him to teach.
because he doesnt understnad whats happening in the lesson. so if i
want him to talk i have to look at him and say. Elder Jepson will
now explain to you the fall of adam. ha. but i was thinking today
a lot about what mom said in her email about elder tlachi. and how
much i appreciate everything he taught me and the example that he gave
me. i hope so much that i can be the kind of missionary that he can
look up to. that i cant teach in a way that he can learn from what
i´m doing.
i know that every missionary has the right to personal revelation.
and i know that i have a right to recive revelation from the lord for
my district and for what i need to do to help my companion and my
investigators.
as for investigators -- the three furniture movers moved away. they
dont even live in this state!!! yikes.
but thats ok because we´ve got some other people that are sooooooo
ready for baptism.
the most ready is a lady whos name is A. oh my gosh. i´ve
never seen a more golden investigator in my life. i met her with
elder romero. we were standing in the street outside her house
trying to decide what to do and this dog comes out of no where and
starts peeing on my leg -- and hna Anamaria was sitting in her house
looking out the window and saw it happen and started laughing -- so we
contacted her and it turns out she´s known the church from the time she
was little. shes had a ton of friends that are mormon, she´s talked
with missionaries before but they never invited her to be baptized.
she knows everything!!!! everything--- holy cow. joseph smith,
temples, priesthood, prophets, and she has a massive testimony of the
book of mormon. she told us that the missionaries gave her a book of
mormon and at times in her life when she´s most needed help from the
lord, she´s turned to the book of mormon and found answers to her
prayers ------- oh my heavens i´ve never seen someone soooooo
prepared. its crazy.
problem is-- she´s not married to her husband --- and he doesnt want
her to be baptized.
anyway.
also we´re teaching a guy named P A who´s wife was a
member as a teenager but hasnt been active. she wants to get active
again and he wants to be baptized. when we told him his family can be
together forever if they get married in the temple, he said that is the
goal he wants for his family. he´s awesome. he-s studying
for a phd and works al ot so its hard to find him in his house. but he
already has a baptism date for the 17. so we´re pretty pumped for him
as well.
also we´re teaching a guy named J and his family who are in the
same situation. the wife is a member but inactive. we´re hoping to
activate the mom and bring the dad and his kids to church. J has
prayed about joseph smith but hasnt had an aswer to his prayer.
but he really just needs to come to church so he can see how it all
is. if he comes to church and prays after -- his prayer will be more
sincere and he´ll have an answer
anyway. thats basically the best people we´re working with. there´s
a list of 20ish ha
but pray for them all. they need a lot of help.
gtg so i can chat with you =) love ya all
bye
hows it going back in utah. it was good to get your emails. the
weeks when i hear from all of you are the best!! sounds like you
guys have had an awesome first week of school. that shirt looks
legit that jackson made. and i´m 100% jealous of the glasses. i
thought i was cool when i went to those dances but jack just took it
to a whole new level =) get me a pair of glasses like that if you
can--
i cant believe slaters in seventh grade. holy moly. thats super
wierd to me. he sounds so much older in his letters too. hey
slate-- is mr. koefed still teaching history there in mt. ridge? if
he is go see him and tell him i say hi. i doubt he remembers me but
that-d be cool
its wierd thinking dads just like 4 hours away if he wanted to get
here right now. geez. -- also dad you should check out a talk
in the october conference in 2010 by david mcConkie. i heard it
this morning and it talks all about what we need to do to be good
teachers and it was super powerful. ---- i think you might have
shared me a thought from that talk awhile back though, because it
seemed really familiar. haha
anyway--
NEW COMPANION woot.
elder Jepson. he just got here from the mtc. he´s from arizona.
he´s 19 years old. he´s got 1 brother and 3 sisters, he´s the third
oldest in his family and the first child to serve a mission. super
awesome guy. he´s tall. really tall. like 6-3 , he reminds me a lot
of landon ha. just the way he acts. he´s super funny and way
excited to be here.
he´s so excited to speak with the people and bear his testimony,
even though his spanish is lacking... haha. the people dont
understand a lot of what he says, sometimes i dont understand him. ha,
and he doesnt understand anything of what the people say because they
talk so fast. but i´ve seen some big progress with him the last
few days!!! this week we´re going to work with him more on that. we
have 2 hours of companionship study in the mornings and 1 hour of
language study. so in no time he´ll be teaching up a storm. its
been a bit difficult though for me to find chances for him to teach.
because he doesnt understnad whats happening in the lesson. so if i
want him to talk i have to look at him and say. Elder Jepson will
now explain to you the fall of adam. ha. but i was thinking today
a lot about what mom said in her email about elder tlachi. and how
much i appreciate everything he taught me and the example that he gave
me. i hope so much that i can be the kind of missionary that he can
look up to. that i cant teach in a way that he can learn from what
i´m doing.
i know that every missionary has the right to personal revelation.
and i know that i have a right to recive revelation from the lord for
my district and for what i need to do to help my companion and my
investigators.
as for investigators -- the three furniture movers moved away. they
dont even live in this state!!! yikes.
but thats ok because we´ve got some other people that are sooooooo
ready for baptism.
the most ready is a lady whos name is A. oh my gosh. i´ve
never seen a more golden investigator in my life. i met her with
elder romero. we were standing in the street outside her house
trying to decide what to do and this dog comes out of no where and
starts peeing on my leg -- and hna Anamaria was sitting in her house
looking out the window and saw it happen and started laughing -- so we
contacted her and it turns out she´s known the church from the time she
was little. shes had a ton of friends that are mormon, she´s talked
with missionaries before but they never invited her to be baptized.
she knows everything!!!! everything--- holy cow. joseph smith,
temples, priesthood, prophets, and she has a massive testimony of the
book of mormon. she told us that the missionaries gave her a book of
mormon and at times in her life when she´s most needed help from the
lord, she´s turned to the book of mormon and found answers to her
prayers ------- oh my heavens i´ve never seen someone soooooo
prepared. its crazy.
problem is-- she´s not married to her husband --- and he doesnt want
her to be baptized.
anyway.
also we´re teaching a guy named P A who´s wife was a
member as a teenager but hasnt been active. she wants to get active
again and he wants to be baptized. when we told him his family can be
together forever if they get married in the temple, he said that is the
goal he wants for his family. he´s awesome. he-s studying
for a phd and works al ot so its hard to find him in his house. but he
already has a baptism date for the 17. so we´re pretty pumped for him
as well.
also we´re teaching a guy named J and his family who are in the
same situation. the wife is a member but inactive. we´re hoping to
activate the mom and bring the dad and his kids to church. J has
prayed about joseph smith but hasnt had an aswer to his prayer.
but he really just needs to come to church so he can see how it all
is. if he comes to church and prays after -- his prayer will be more
sincere and he´ll have an answer
anyway. thats basically the best people we´re working with. there´s
a list of 20ish ha
but pray for them all. they need a lot of help.
gtg so i can chat with you =) love ya all
bye
Letter # 46 Hola Familia!
hola familia
thanks so much for sending me the 4x4 plan. i´m super pumped to start
using it with the families in my ward. they need some serious help.
this week we brought 3 people to church. david, israel y isaic. and
we got there 10 min before the meeting was supposed to start. the
church was locked and no one was there. no one... so frustrating.
we opened it up. put up chairs in the chapel, got the sacrament
ready and they started to arrive like at 8. so frustrating.
basically its at the point where i´m almost embarrassed to bring people
to the church. so i´m really going to work this transfer on helping
the members here to start getting more excited and to understand their
responsiblities as members of the church.
and transfers are here! woot. elder romero is leaving to a
zone called Minatitlan. as for me, i´m staying here in carmen with my new
companion. Only thing is i dont know his name yet -- because he hasnt
arrived yet from the mtc!! i´m going to be Training!!!! wahooo. a greeny
straight out of the mtc. he´s going to arrive here wednesday. so pumped to
work with him. i´lll fill you in on him next week when i have more
information.
anyway. also this week, we had that concert. it was sweet! there
were almost 400 people there and me and 9 other missionaries sang.
haha. so that was pretty intense. also we had soloists and a grand
piano and microphones everywhere. it was in the auditorium of a
university. so that was cool. a lot of investigators came and felt
the spirit. so that was great. so funny because it was completely
different than the concerts when i was in high school. like it was
just 10 of us singing not 120 and i was not even nervous and i sang
super strong. it was great. i love being a missionary. we have
so many neat opportunities to share the gospel. i´m beginning
to realize that i think i´ve changed a lot since i left in some ways.
in others i´m still the same. but i feel like i´ve changed a lot.
anyway. i wanna chat with you so i´ll leave it at that.
love you all lots.
-elder lloyd
thanks so much for sending me the 4x4 plan. i´m super pumped to start
using it with the families in my ward. they need some serious help.
this week we brought 3 people to church. david, israel y isaic. and
we got there 10 min before the meeting was supposed to start. the
church was locked and no one was there. no one... so frustrating.
we opened it up. put up chairs in the chapel, got the sacrament
ready and they started to arrive like at 8. so frustrating.
basically its at the point where i´m almost embarrassed to bring people
to the church. so i´m really going to work this transfer on helping
the members here to start getting more excited and to understand their
responsiblities as members of the church.
and transfers are here! woot. elder romero is leaving to a
zone called Minatitlan. as for me, i´m staying here in carmen with my new
companion. Only thing is i dont know his name yet -- because he hasnt
arrived yet from the mtc!! i´m going to be Training!!!! wahooo. a greeny
straight out of the mtc. he´s going to arrive here wednesday. so pumped to
work with him. i´lll fill you in on him next week when i have more
information.
anyway. also this week, we had that concert. it was sweet! there
were almost 400 people there and me and 9 other missionaries sang.
haha. so that was pretty intense. also we had soloists and a grand
piano and microphones everywhere. it was in the auditorium of a
university. so that was cool. a lot of investigators came and felt
the spirit. so that was great. so funny because it was completely
different than the concerts when i was in high school. like it was
just 10 of us singing not 120 and i was not even nervous and i sang
super strong. it was great. i love being a missionary. we have
so many neat opportunities to share the gospel. i´m beginning
to realize that i think i´ve changed a lot since i left in some ways.
in others i´m still the same. but i feel like i´ve changed a lot.
anyway. i wanna chat with you so i´ll leave it at that.
love you all lots.
-elder lloyd
Letter #45 8/15/11 Oh No! A bloody big toe!!
 |
| Hmmm.... why is he wearing that flip flop? |
 |
| Matt did the confirmation in Sacrament Meeting.. and then spoke! |
 |
| A golden (or green) investigator flew in for a visit! |
 |
| Matt says he's almost ready for baptism! |
 |
| Could this be the reason for the flip flop? Gross! |
 |
| At least it looks pretty sterile! |
Hi all! Apparently Matt has had a major toe /nail issue from not long after
he left 10 months ago, and hid it from us so we wouldn't worry. He had toe
surgery a week or two ago (again, without telling us) and we only found out
about it when his memory cards arrived in the mail today, full of pics with
him wearing one flip flop and one shoe for the past several months, lots of
disgusting pics and several videos of various bloody toe procedures in
Mexican clinics. The real kicker -- before he actually decided to get
medical attention a couple weeks ago, he'd been dropping into "nail" shops
(seriously???) to have them dig/chip/whack away at his toe in an effort to
relieve his pain. We're feeling pretty lucky he didn't die of blood
poisoning. Yikes!--Marci
hey fam!
this week has been much much better!
finally broke that non baptizing streak. baptisamos a un hombre se
llama O. ah it was so good. i was so happy to finally baptize
again. the president of the mission came to the baptism because he
was in there area. the program was so great. we had some girls
from the ward sing a special musical number. a ton of people showed
up. His family came, mom dad brothers. and they arent members
and have never listened to the missionaries. after the baptism
service his dad came up to me and told me a huge thank you, that
it had been a spiritual experience. that was super awesome.
we{re going to go teach his family later in the week. there are
three of them that could be baptized,
then sunday i had the awesome opportunity to be able to confirm him a
member of the church!! i had never confirmed anyone before so that
was cool. i was shaking though. ha. because they do the
confirmations right there in sacrament meeting in front of everyone
ha. but it ended up being super good. i felt the spirit, and it
was a great chance to be able to use my priesthood. then in sacrament
meeting i got to give another talk. thats two times i{ve spoken here
in Puerto Real. only problem this time was that i was the only
speaker that showed up. ha..... so they had two other people bear
testimonies and i talked the rest of the time. but it was easy
because the topic that they gave me was missionary work. ha.
then later in the day after church we did somethign super super
awesome. we had a concert that we{d been practicing for the past
few weeks. forgot to tell ya about that -- all the missionaries
in the island (12) have been meeting together like 3 times a week to
practice for this concert we were going to give. and it ended up
being sweet. we read parts of jesus the christ and sang songs that
go along with the words. it ended up being so good. about 150
people came. we{re going to do another concert this week in an
auditorium in a university .. and there should be about 500 people
there ------- ahhhhhh. so we{re pretty excited about that right
now.
investigators wise. we had 5 baptismal dates for this month before
sunday.-- none of them came. bah. so frustrating. but i{ve been
thinking of some things we can do to get them a little more excited.
and to help them to understand the importance of coming to church.
we{re teaching these three guys. they{re
awesome. and they found us. it was so cool. one of the people
we were teaching like a month ago moved away, but left one of the
pamphlets that he had with our number in his house. these three guys
found our phone number and sent us a text message wondering if we
could help them change their lives and learn how to follow the
lord..... ---
yeah we were pretty pumped. they had to work this sunday or they
would have come to church. but i{m super pumped for all the people
we{re teaching right now!!}
as for my companion. he{s getting transferred - not this tuesday
but the next. the mission president told me i might be training one of the
new missionaries that comes in this week. but its not a sure thing--- he
said he hasnt prayed about it yet but he said we{ll see. either
way. i{m excited for a new comp and to get to work again here in
carmen.
well i didnt get a chance to read your letters yet-- because we had
a zone activity today-- we played soccer and raquet ball. but i{ll
print them off and read them this week.
love you all so much.
-elder lloyd
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