Letter #73 2/27/12 New Companion!

FAMILY

its good to be writing you this week!    wow well there´s kind of a lot
to explain.  first-- sorry if the last weeks letter wasnt so good.
its  been a couple of difficult weeks.   things are much better now,
i´ve got a new companion!! his names Elder Clark!!

mostly,  since the first day that elder lopez arrived here in Cardenas
he said he didnt want to be here.   it was a real test for me the two weeks
 i was with him, but i learned
a lot actually.  - i learned so much more to put my
confidence in the lord.  there were moments when i felt super alone
because i didnt really have a companion, but i was reminded that we
are never truly alone, the spirit can be our constant companion.
every contact and lesson i taught i felt like the lord was
strengthening me.

I´m so happy now to be with elder clark.
when he got here we got right to work and in two days we found 14 new
investigators who look like they´re going to progress.   i´m super
happy for that.

elder clark is a really humble missionary,   he´s from idaho!   he´s
super super calm,  more calm than i am.   he´s got a year in the
mission, and this is his first transfer as a zone leader. but he´s got
a lot of desires to work hard and be the best he can.   so right now
we´re working really hard together to be able to have a great month in
march.  this week we had two investigators come to church which is
really good.

as for your questions -- the toes healing well, its looking good now.
i think it´ll be a long time before i have any problems with it!   i´m
hoping at least it´ll last me till i get home.  we´ll really have to
see how it grows to see if i´m going to have a probem but i´m hoping
that i wont.

i got the valentines package and am thoroughly enjoying the tape.   ha
so good to hear shelby´s voice  holy cow.  sounds like he´s adjusting
pretty well. the tape was super funny.   i loved hearing the
conversations at the tables  and in the car. and thanks for the tie.
the oatmeal tastes great.

thats cool about Be The Change.    ya they had that when i was there
but it wasnt as big, i know they´ve been making it something more and
more big every year.   the lady that was in charge of it was the same
lady that did Shields Of Honor i think!

the kitchen looks great.  i´m excited to see it all finished!!  the
darker wood looks so much better!!

well i gtg so i can write the pres.

love you all, tengan una buena semana!

elder lloyd

It looks better than it used to, but its still a lot like Grandpa Bingham's!!

The baptism of a man that Matt introduced to the gospel!!

Letter #72 2/20/12 Hey Hey Hey!

hey hey guys!

its good to be writing you this week,   its been quite the interesting
week here in Cardenas. tuesday i went to get my toe fixed!   actually we
went to the red cross!  they gave me two shots in the toe and then cut a
portion of the nail away.  a lot like the last time.  but i feel like its
healing better this time.  it looks pretty good and i´m already back wearing
shoes.    although for three days i wore a flip flop ha.    but its feels a
lot better, i dont have any pain.  sadly i didnt get to take a video of the
procedure but i have some pics of what it looks like now ha.

as for the zone, this week we had to go to comalcalco, paraiso, and
huimanguillo to do interviews.  if you look on a map they´re pretty
far apart, so that took some time. but the interviews were super good.
 i felt the spirit in all the ones i did. its easily my favorite part
of the mission -- interviews.   to be able to speak with and prepare
people who truly want to make covenants with the lord, and who´ve made
this decision in their lives.  i felt the spirit especially in an
interview with a sister who will be the first in her family.  she´s
having a lot of problems in her life with her husband.  but as she
prayed i felt strongly that the gospel would give her the strength she
needed to be able to raise her family.

we´ve been working really hard to complete our goals,  in the middle
of the week the assistants called us with an assignment for the zone,
that in this week we were going to do 200 contacts.  so this week the
whole zone worked super hard and we talked with everyone we could in
the street and knocking doors.  it was great to be able to testify 200
times of the restauration and the atonement.

well i gtg. sorry i dont have a ton of time this week.  i used a ton
writing to the president this week.  but i´ll write more next week!
love you all.  youre in my prayers.

-elder lloyd


-ah also.  the package i recieved last week was from grandma lloyd! i
still havent recieved the valentines one from the fam!  but tell
grandma thanks so much,  i seriously am loving everything she sent me!

Letter #71 2/13/12 New Companion- Elder Lopez

hey fam. sorry i´m writting you all so late,  but its been a pretty
crazy day.   we were a little slow getting out of the house this
morning, we left at 10 to go wash our clothes with a member, then
while we were washing the bishop of one of my companions old wards
called him to tell him that one of his converts was super sick and in
the emergency room in the hospital here in cardenas and was asking to
see him!!   so we went and visited him. it was pretty neat,  you could
tell that it meant so much that elder lopez was there,   the man
doesnt have any family, and he´s dying from a sickness that he´s had
for a long time. but we visited him and elder lopez sang him some
primary songs in spanish and we gave him a blessing.
later in the afternoon the zone had interviews with the mission
president so we had to be there since 3 until 7-30    so we´ve been
pretty busy today.     but its been really good.  i felt so good after
my interview with the president.   i felt the spiritual confermation
that the lord is pleased with the effort we´re giving -- and that he
has much more prepared for our zone.    i love the president,  i feel
like when he speaks to me its exaclty what i need in the moment.

my new companion is elder lopez.  he´s from northern mexico. i´m not
sure exactly where.  mostly we havent talked much about his past. he´s
not very open.  ha-  he´s a bit interesting actually.   i´ve never met
a missionary with so much scriptural knowledge.  he studied 4 hours a
day for two years before his mission---  and before that,  when he was
like 16 he was a Jehovas witness, (he decided to go on the mission
after he read the book of mormon for the first time)  in the lessons he
teaches almost completely using scriptures, especially the bible.  and
he´s so excited when he speaks. sometimes he´s almost yellling-- haha.
  he actually reminds me a lot of a preacher from some christian
church.    he and i are very different ha.  but i think
when we get used to each other were going to be able to get a lot done.
he´s got a lot of good ideas.  and when he wants to work he works
super hard.

this week we´ve done a ton of knocking doors to find new people to
teach.  we found a lot of new people but none of them could come to
church.    saturday in the night about 8-30  we were a bit depressed
because we didnt have anyone that was progressing. and no one to come
to church,  it had be raining a bit all day, but about 8 oclock it had
started to pour,  and then our appointment that we had for that hour
fell through and we didnt have anything.   we were tempted to go back
to the house,  but we decided to contact a little bit more,  and i
said to my companion, "we have to find a family of 5 before we go back
to the house" ha,   we did a few contacts and nothing,  we were
soaking wet and cold.  and we started to walk back to the house,  and
right in front of the house there was a guy sitting under a pavillion
and before we entered we contacted him,  turns our he heard the
missionaries like 20 years ago, and had a testimony of the church, he
expressed his testimony of hte book of mormon and started talking
about the tree of life and the iron rod-- haha,  he´s got a wife and 3
kids  --- family of 5---   they couldnt come to church because the
wife is sick but we´re excited to go visit them this week!  i know the
lord hears and answeres the prayers of our heart.  and he can do
miracles in the life of every one of us,  but the miracle wont come
until after the trial of our faith.   i´ve been studying ether12 this
week and i love how the lord blesses those who put their faith in him
and go about trying to do his will.

well i gtg. but i love you all so much, hope youre having a great week.
love elder lloyd

ps. i got your package today!

Letter #70 2/06/12 The Temple!!

Hi all -- hope you're all well.  Sounds like Matt's completely happy. He's
getting a new companion this week, and gets Napolean Dynamite as a comp for
a few days until then.  Ha!

Dan got to "chat" back and forth with him for a bit when he emailed on
Monday since I was out of town, and apparently Matt's having more toe issues
(same toe), and is having surgery again next week.  Dan had to fight just to
get that much out of him (grrrrr) so we have no more details than that.
Hopefully next Monday we'll hear more.  At least the word "surgery" sounds
like he's planning on going to the hospital rather than some rinky dink
Mexican nail shop again.  Anyway, please keep him in your prayers for the
next couple of weeks.  I'm going to try hard not to watch those toe surgery
videos this week.  Especially the one where his comp is filling syringes and
assisting.  Yikes.  Or where Matt's writhing in pain.  Oh dear.  This is
gonna be one of those weeks where we exercise our faith!  Anyway, thanks and
have a great week!     - marci



Subject: villahermosa!

hey guys!

its been good to read your emails today.  sounds like its been a great
week for all of you.  i´m super excited for slater! thats awesome that
he´s doing so well with the drums! geez. and jack with lacrosse, man,
you two are busy guys!

this weeks been super good here in Cardenas.  its been interesting
because we´ve been super busy all week long.   tuesday we went to villa
for Mission Council (the zone leader conference)   and it was super
super great. we reviewed the month of january. which ended up being
the second best month the mission has had, 193 converts!!! woot. and
almost all the companionships in the mission baptized which is pretty
neat!    and they sharred some miracles that had occured in the
mission. then we talked about what we´re going to do to make febrero
even better,  especially we focused on how to help the missionaries be
more constant.  constant in obedience, constant in service, constant
in everything we do as missionaries.   it was super powerful, we
talked about how important it its to have an eye single to the glory
of god, and have our mind and heart in the work. if we´re always
focused in our purpose it will be more easy to be constant in our service.
we talked about the need to give a report of our stewardship to the lord
every day, and every day repent,  and finally we talked about remembering
and honoring our covenants.   its was a great conference, i dont know why
but every time i go to these Mission Councils i leave with the most
incredible feeling, its hard to describe, its like being full, or satisfied
spiritually. i feel so much peace, but at the same time, desires to
get to work. i love it.

the conference took up all tuesday and wednesday.   thursday we did
divisions with some elders from the zone that were struggling.  friday
we went and did baptismal interviews in Comalcalco. and then stayed
there and helped the elders with an mission activity they were doing
-- they did an activity called mormon movie night, they had 3
different movies playing on projectors in the church,   the
testaments,  the joseph smith movie, and the emma smith movie,   and
all the members came and invited investigators,  they had popcorn and
drinks and everything, it was super great.

then saturday we went to the temple!!! ah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!    --
first time in more than a year.   i was dieing to go.  we seriously
dont understand how incredible it is to have a temple so close until
you live far away from one.  the members here only go once a month.
but seriously it was so great to go.  we did a session, and then did
initiatories for 2 hours. and watched baptisms.   it was interesting
doing it all in spanish! ha.   but the spirit is the same.  and the
promises are the same.   i felt the spirit as i remembered the
covenants i had made when i entered the temple for myself.     the
promises we make are incredible,  and like it says in mosiah 2-34  " I
say unto you, that there are not any among you, except it be your
little children that have not been taught concerning these things, but
what knoweth that ye are eternally indebted to your heavenly Father,
to render to him all that you have and are."   we truly owe it to him
to give all that we have and are to his eternal purposes-- to bring to
pass the imortality and eternal life of his children. how blessed we
are as youth in the church to be able to give him all our energies for
two years without distraction.  the work is incredible.

elder quiñones left yesterday after church,  and right now i´m with
and elder beal from idaho-- he´s got 8 brothers lives on a farm in the
middle of no where and had a graduating class of 24,   he even looks a
little like napolean dynamite,  ha.     but i´m only with him till
tomorrow when my new companion arrives-- elder lopez.  i dont know
much about him but i´ll give ya more info next week!

anway its been a great week.
hope your doing well-- love ya´ll
-un abrazo
elder lloyd

PS -
the lady in the pic is a lady i intervied to be baptised, she´s like
73 years old

Letter #69 1/30/12 Tabasco!!

hey familia

here i am again writing you from cardenas.

its a bit weird this time though because its my companions last p-day
of his mission!!! crazy eh?     this is the last time he´ll be writing
his family before he sees them! geez    i think that´d be a super
weird feeling.   today we went to the house of a member and ate
breakfast with them.  its a newly wedded couple, pues mas o menos,
theyve been married  for like 2 years i think,   and they just had a
baby  two or 3 months ago i think.   but they made us breakfast (eggs
and potatos) and we chilled their in there house, we washed the
clothes and everything there.

tomorrow we´re going to a conference of zone leaders in villa!   super
excited about that.  it´ll be good to be able to see some of my
friends in the mish, and to spend tuesday and wednesday with the pres.
     these conferences are always super powerful.  i feel like i learn
so much and always leave with more desires to dedicate everything i
have to the work.

this week in church we had the same family as last week come to
church! they sure are interested.  we didnt pass by bring them to
church or anything. they just showed up!  the dad of the family told
me that he felt something different in the  church and asked me where
he could buy himself his own copy of the book of mormon!    its a great
family,  sadly they´re going to have some struggles if they´re going
to progress. -- the parents arent married, they´re just living
together,   and normally thats something thats just common here and
its pretty easy to get people married,  but the problem is that both
of them are married to other people-- yikes.  ---  actually its super
common here in mexico because getting a divorce is expensive and takes
time, especially if you have kids.  so lots of couples dont end up
getting divorces they just break up and start new families.     -- but
the family we´re working with is so good.  the mom and dad (despite
the fact that they´re not legally married) have almost 10 years living
together and they have 3 kids.   they´re super super humble. they live
in one of the most humble houses i´ve ever seen. its sheet metal held
together with what looks like tree branches, the floor is dirt and
theres a swamp in their back yard so theres a ton of bugs,  but
they´re good people and they have so much faith.
we´ve talked with the bishop and i think the ward is going to help the
dad find work!

we´ve got some other families that we´re working with right now that
look like they could progress.  this month really could be one of the
best. i´m excited to start over again with a new month and start
working in the way that the lord requires.
i love the example of nephi in the scriptures when he says that he
didnt build the ship in the manner of men,   but that god showed him
how he should do it.  the lord truly guides missionary work because
its the work that involves the search and rescue of his children.

anyway.  i love you all hope youre having a great week.

love elder lloyd

the pics look great btw. --  lookin sharp in that tux jack!

Letter #68 1/23/12 Great Zone Activity!!

Matt's zone at today's activty!!

Yummy lunch!!

The ward "mini-mission"

Matt and Elder Quinones  at the ward "mini-mission"

hey fam.

its been another good week here in cardenas!  Today we had a zone
activity.   --  we got together with all the elders in the stake
center!    first we did a service project and cleaned the whole
building in and out,  then we played volleyball and cooked lunch.  it
ended up being really good.  i love the elders in the zone.  they´re
such good guys.  and its been fun to be able to get to know them
better.  as a zone leader you definitely get to spend a lot more time
with the elders from the zone.

in church this week we had 5 investigators- woot. 3 of them were from
a family that we found saturday, a mom and dad, their 3 kids and the
brother of the dad!  they seemed super receptive, we-re going to go
visit them later today. but i think they really enjoyed church.

a lady named E that we´ve been teaching showed up to church as
well.  she´s like 60 years old,  she´s got grandchildren and
everything, but she listened to the missionaries like 20 years ago in
villahermosa,  we´ve been working with her for a few weeks, she has a
strong testimony of the book of mormon and has seriously progressed so
much,      and she finally came to church -- but sadly she was a
little late, and the doors were closed for the sacrament-- and she
left!   --- bah--  my guess is she felt uncomfortable waiting outside
the door --      i felt so bad because we saw her through the window
waiting outside, but it was in the middle of the sacrament and i
thought she´d just wait till a min or two till the doors opend but she
didnt.  bah---         that was a real bummer this week.    because we
could have gotten up and left the sacrament.      bah.

but we´ve got plans to go visit her today with the bishop and i know
that one of her neighbors thats a member is also going to visit her
this week.

we´re working a lot with the elders in the zone. we did a lot of
divisions this week with the elders to get to know their
investigators.   we had 5 baptismal services planned for this past
week in the zone, but we ended up with 2---    we´re hoping and
praying that this next week will be a lot better so that the elders in
the zone can see the fruits of their work and to get to have the joy
that comes from seeing your investigators enter the waters of baptism.

well i love you alll, hope your doing well.  i didnt get to read your
letters again, but i´m printing them off to read in a few min.
hope youre all doing well.
-elder lloyd

Letter #67 01/16/12 A new house & a great week!

hey hey fam.

its truly been a good week!   yesterday my companion and i spoke in
church,  i spoke about the plan of salvation, and my companion spoke
on the importance of teaching in the church.  it went really well. i
felt the spirit as i prepared the talk this week, and i remember some
things that i really liked from the conference.  i studied the talk of
elder utchdorf from this last conference where he spoke about how
important we are as children of god.   i loved what he shares at the
beginning of his talk about how as we learn more about the universe we
realize how small and insignificant we really are, but really what we
need to understand is that god created everything in the universe for
us.  we are his most important creation, we´re his children.

  -- our bishop has decided that every third sunday the missionaries
are going to give talks. so that should be good!   -- our attendance
in the ward was still really good this week -- 73.  and we had 3
investigators come to church.  2 arrived late.  but they came alone
(withour any help), and we didnt even remind them so i was pretty
happy about that.     we´ve found a ton of new people to teach this
week.  they´re super good. alot of people that truly truly need the
gospel.  we´ve found two families of single moms w- children that
really need the gospel in their lives.   actually one of the stories
was pretty neat. my companion and i had been contacting the whole
morning and we hadnt had any success, all our appointments had fallen
through, and no one wanted to listen.  and just when we were going to
leave the colony where we were working and go eat my companion and i
decided to instead knock 3 more houses in the street but we promised
the lord that we would do it with faith that the people who we
contacted would listen.    when we knocked the first door we found
Hna. Alicia, and her two kids -- we taught a lesson, she accepted to
be baptised and when she prayed at the end of the lesson it was one of
the most sincere prayers i´ve heard here in cardenas!   its
interesting how the lord tests our faith before he lets us see the
fruits!

today we´ve been super busy.  we moved houses today! that was pretty
intense -- the missionaries here have lived in the same house for more
than a year, i think several years actually.   but the house is super
far from where we´ve been spending most of our time -- so we´ve
decided to change houses.    the new house is nice -- it has two rooms
a kitchen and a bathroom,  but the nice thing is its on the second
floor so it´ll never flood -- and its got two balconys -- so thats
neat!      my companion and i are super excited about it because we´ll
be able to work alot more effectivily for the next few weeks.     i´ll
send you the direction so you can look at the house next week.   its
on a main road so i´m pretty sure you´ll be able to see it pretty
well.   after moving all our things, we went and played soccer again
w- the elders --- my companion likes playing sports alot on p-day and
i do to but man sometimes we get playing and we´re so into the game
that we spend waaaaay to much time playing and dont have time to do
anything else in the day ha.      but atleast it was fun -- ha.

things in the zone are going well.  we´ve had 7 baptisms in the zone
this month. and we have another 9 fechas for this next week. the
elders are very excited. we´ve got some really good district leaders
in the zone that are excited and are doing a super good job.

super excited to here that shelbys home.   AH!     cant wait to hear
his voice on that tape.     man i cant believe his back.   crazyness.
  i dont even want to think about how fast time is flying.

well i gtg fam.
hope alls going well for you all, hope all goes well in moms business
trip and hope jack and slate finished the term well!
stay safe!

love elder lloyd