Latest Letter

April 12, 2011

Hello mi familia!

How's everything going.  I got your letters and they were great.  It sounds like a lot of things are happening without me there.  Life must go on I guess.  It sounds like your trip home from Utah was interesting.  Sorry about the flat tire but I'm glad you made it home safe.  Sounds like James's apartment is coming along and he's doing well in his job assessment and all the other things along with it.  It's great to hear about Travis and his farewell.  A mission will be great for him.  So mom and dad, it's great to hear that you're already doing the Lord's work even before I am out in the field.  Hopefully Antonio stays enthusiastic about the Book of Mormon and reads a bit of it. 

Now, I'll tell you a bit about the MTC.  It is so great here.  Already I have changed as a person.  A lot that I used to hold as pretty important has been replaced by other things of much greater importance.  The program that they have in the MTC truely is inspired and I feel like I grow tremendously every day.  I'm in the intermediate Spanish class so we started into the Spanish pretty heavy from the very beginning.  It's still kind of hard to speak the language but as far as understanding it, I'm getting pretty good.  My teachers only teach in Spanish now and I can understand everything they say.  I can tell that the Spirit really does help you learn, but I'm also learning that in order for the Spirit to work, you must put in great amounts of effort in the work.  My teachers are so great.  One of them is Josh's freshman roommate and the other is a guy that just got off his mission in Peru 6 months ago.  They both love us and are fantastic teachers. 

Our district is so great.  We have Elder Perry going to Dallas, Elder Dolan going to Honduras, Elder Rodgers going to Chicago, Hermana Anderson going to Santa Rosa CA, Hermana Moody to South Salt Lake, and My companion Elder Keyes going to the Guatemala Retahulu mission.  My companion and I will be going to the Guatemala MTC 2 weeks from today.  Our district is so fantastic.  Everybody has a strong desire to share the gospel and each has a testimony deeply rooted in the doctrine of Christ.  Oh ya, i'm the district leader.  Hopefully I'm doing a good job.  I love all of them. They're great!  Elder Keyes is the perfect companion for me.  We both discussed the other night that the night before we headed into the MTC, we were both praying to have a companion who was enthusiastic to learn and who had a strong testimony of the gospel.  Prayers are answered.  We've grown together a ton and I'm so glad we're going to Guatemala together also.

The food here is... interesting.  I think they put fiber in it or something.  It takes some getting used to.  I've been eating oatmeal for breakfast, Salad for lunch, and then either salad or something else for dinner.  As long as i keep to that things go well.  I've lost about 8 pounds already.  Gym time is great to have and you'd be proud, not wanting to boast or anything, but i'm gettin pretty good at foursquare.  :)  Thanks for the packages mom.  I'm pretty sure I won't need to ever use the suit.  But it will be nice to have when I have to dryclean my other suit.  It's suits on all the time here.  I'm getting used to it though. 

We haven't started using the computer too much for our language learning but we will start soon I think.  they give us 30 minutes every Tuesday for email.  Today is our p-day so it's going to be really nice.  We have a temple session at 10:00 which is going to be saweet!  Tonight we have a devotional.  Perhaps it will be President Monson.  We shall see. :)

I'm so excited to be on my mission.  I'm almost crying here in the computer lab just thinking about being in Guatemala.  It's amazing that I can begin to feel so much love for people I have never even met.  The Lord's work changes lives.  It's such a simple message that we have to share but it's so essential for the happiness of others.  I love this gospel and I love the Lord.  I am begining to have a greater appreciation for the atonement of Jesus Christ and the power it has to bring not only forgiveness to men, but also peace and comfort whenever we need it.  I love all of you so much and appreciate the way I was raised.  I'm so glad I can be here and feel the Spirit so strongly each and every day.  I hope I can be a powerful tool in the hands of the Lord for the next two years and never lose track of what is important.  I also hope everything is going well at home.  And don't worry, I won't get homesick too much.  This is the most exciting thing I've ever done.  Well, time's up. Have a great week! I'll be praying for you.  Love,  Elder Lloyd