Excited for General Conference

Hi, it's me again,

Well, sounds like everybody had another good week this week.  Everything is going very well here in the area.  We have actually had a lot of success lately.  We have been passing by the Lopez family quite a bit later to teach.  They are kind of struggling with coffee but there is this thing called morcaf that is made from burnt cereal that they are going to buy today.  Hopefully they will give it up quickly.  We had to push the dates back another week because they all need more time to progress and Carla still needs to get married.  One thing that really stinks is that Remberto, the dad, just got a new job 6 hours away in Kiche and is moving for a year.  He leaves this Thursday.  We could hurry up and try to baptize him but he wouldn't be able to go to church in Kiche for a year so there really would be no point.  Kind of stinks, but he was asking about all the information for the missionaries over there. The problem is that he will always be working.  Oh well, we'll see. It just means that we have to leave good paperwork in the Area Book.  But we will be having our baptism with them on the 8th of October.  I definitely think it will be better that way anyways.

Let's see, we had 9 investigators in church yesterday.  =)  That was pretty awesome.  We haven't gone a Sunday in 12 weeks  without investigators in Sacrament meeting.  I'm pretty excited about that.  We also have seen a significant rise in the attendance of the ward.  When I got here we were only having about 60 people in sacrament meeting but it has been creeping up every week.  This last week the attendance was 108.  It's pretty awesome to see the ward grow a little bit.  I really don't want them to turn into a branch.  It's really kind of lame though that there is no bishop.  There just isn't anybody that wants to be or that can.  There are a lot of people that go other places to work for months on end.  Also there are not too many families that are sealed.  But, we shall see.

There is one hermano that could be a possibility for bishop.  Their family just got sealed on Saturday and it was a pretty big moment for them.  They have been trying to get their kids ready for a long time and finally reached their goal.  Awesome!  It was pretty cool because they all got up and bore their testimonies in church on the temple and their family.  It made for a really great lesson with our investigators the next class.  We talked about temples and watched the movie Together Forever.  That sure is a powerful movie.  If you guys haven't seen it for a while, I would suggest watching it again.  It's pretty good. 

Manfredo and Olga were there on Sunday.  Manfredo isn't too interested in the church; He fell asleep during the movie in our class and started snoring.  Olga is really interested though.  She said she loved church and asked if we could come by Wednesday.  We are really hoping to put a baptismal date with her this week.  She's awesome

One of the families here just had their sister come home from her mission in Peru.  The very next Sunday, yesterday, she brought a new investigator to church.  Her name is Katherine and we are going to pass by on Thursday.  =)  Awesome Sister missionary.  We also had our acting bishop give a talk yesterday.  He pretty much taught lesson 3 from Preach my Gospel.  It was soooooo awesome.  Almost half of our investigators were there and it was an amazing talk.  I was so happy he did that.  He may not be bishop but he sure is doing a great job for the ward.  He's only about 25 years old, but he just worked hard on his mission and that's what prepared him.

My companion is great.  His parents are both originally from Guatemala so he is pretty much Latino, although he didn't know Spanish before the mission.  They are all members and he has 2 brothers, both of which served missions.  He is one of the best friends I've had and we're already making plans for BYU after the mission.

Well, ran outta time.  I love you guys so much.  I hope my voice recording isn't too boring.  I hope you guys are all doing super awesome.  Have a great time this week in conference.  I'll be listening at the same time.  Well, until next time.

Love,

Elder Lloyd

I Feel the Earth Move Under My Feet!

Hey Family,

Well, another week.  Things are going really well here in my lil area.  It's been a good p-day and it's nice to get to sit down and read some of your letters.  We felt 3 earthquakes this morning.  That was a little interesting.  But, don't worry.  They were super little and a long time ago so I don't think we're going to see any more soon.  Hopefully.  =) 

Well, this week has been very good.  To start out my letter I guess I'll answer a couple of questions.  First off, my blood pressure.  I monitor it about once every week and it has been great.  This morning I checked it and it was 114/64.  Not too bad if I do say so myself.  I stopped taking my blood pressure medication in the CCM and have never had any problems with it.  I definitely know that is a blessing from the Lord as I serve my mission.  I think it's a mix of that and the fact that we walk like dogs all day under the hot sun.  My health is doing very well.  I am definitely losing weight.  There isn't really anywhere to weigh myself but I can definitely see it.  But, I am getting some protein so I'm not getting too scrawny.

That brings me to the next question, the weather.  We are reaching the end of the rainy season here in the capital.  It rains about once or twice every day and then gets really hot right after.  The clouds are crazy here.  They move super-fast and a storm comes in in less than 10 minutes.  It is definitely important to have a good umbrella here.  It is a rule for our zone that we can't wear a jacket for umm.... safety reasons.  The people have to be able to see the white shirt and tie and know that we are missionaries so it's only umbrellas here.  The problem is that there are almost no sombrillas here, and the ones that are here have like buzz light-year and mickey on them and cost a dollar.  It is kind of frustrating.  But I did finally ask Hermna Lopez if she knew anywhere where we could find good umbrellas because she travels for work.  She said she knew just the place and would pick some up for us.  Well when we showed up for to bring them to church on Sunday they gave us these super nice umbrellas and told us they were a gift from the Lopez family to their favorite people.  I was so thankful.  That was one of the nicest things anybody has ever done for me.  These umbrellas were like 10 dollars apiece and this family could definitely not afford to do that.  But they were so excited to give them to us so we took them and were super happy.  Well, somebody stole it this morning.  Lame!  We went in to this store and somebody took it when I set my stuff down.  I'm kind of sad that I don't have an umbrella anymore, but even more upset that I have to tell the Lopez family that somebody stole the umbrella they gave me.  They only gave it to me yesterday.  Anyways, that  was a pretty long story to say that it rains a lot.  But, rainy season is almost over and then I won't need to use an umbrella much.  And hopefully in my next area there will be no problems with jackets.

Anyways, next question.  How is the Lopez family?  Great!  We were able to put another baptismal date with Remberto, the father.  We will now be having at least 4 baptisms in between the two Saturday sessions of General conference.  We might even be able to have Carla's wedding before the baptism too.  I'm pretty excited for that.  If all goes through it sounds like President and Sister Watts might show up for the baptism.  That would be a pretty awesome day for the Lopez family.  Violeta has gone to do baptisms for the dead at the temple 2 times in the past 2 weeks and might even go in this coming week.  Sweet!  There is nothing that makes us happier than seeing this family progress.  And they are definitely progressing.  They have been reading, praying and coming to church every week.  We are going by quite a bit and always love having us over to teach.  They gave us a churasco yesterday that was soooooooo good.  Holy cow!  They definitely couldn't afford that either.  We have told them time and time again that they don't have to do that.  Oh well, they're receiving blessings.  Anyways, I love that family.  It's been pretty awesome watching them over these last 3 changes and see the changes in their life and the happiness enter their family.

As for Soraida and Ismael, well, they didn’t show up to church this week and told us 1 hour before that they were going to show up but didn’t.  I'm pretty sure she just wants help and food from the church and knows that if she is baptized she can get lots.  The last time we talked to her she got all mad and said that she wasn't getting help from anybody, including us.  So, that's where we're at.  It gets kind of old having people ask us for money.  We're super poor too.  I heard this week that our mission receives less money per missionary than any other mission other than one.  We definitely learn to budget though.  And don't worry, we have enough. 

We have been putting some pretty intense goals as a companionship.  One of them is that we have to get 4 contacts to families every day, meaning a man, woman, and at least one kid.  We also made the goal of asking 12 references every day.  The other part to those goals is that if we don't reach them, we don't get to eat dinner when we get in at 9:30.  Needless to say, we've met the goal every day.  =)

Well, know that we are working hard and having a ton of fun.  Sometimes I hope it doesn't seem like I'm neglecting you guys.  There are really sometimes where I go a couple of days without even once thinking of home or life before the mission, but that sure does make the time go by fast.  I'm pretty sure that's a good thing though.  Either way you are always in my prayers and I have plenty of time to think about home when I get back. =)  I love you guys.  Have a great week.  Keep up your work for the Lord in all your callings and in raising your families.  I'm grateful I have a family so centered in the gospel.  Thanks for all the examples you've been for me growing up and still today. 

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Prep Day!

 

Hey family!

Well, another week and another chance to tell you about what's going on here in Zona Alameda.  Sounds like everybody is doing really well back at home.  Sounds like James' job assessment went really well also.  That's exciting.  I sure hope that turns into a job for him.  Also sounds like your stake conference went really well.  The best news I have gotten in a long time was that Cody received the Priesthood.  You have no idea how happy that makes me.  I have prayed pretty hard that he would be able to make that step.  It's awesome to see everybody from our quorum getting things in order to serve the Lord.  By the way, do you think you could get me Scott's address?  I would really like to write him. 

We had a fantastic week.  It was a little weird because we had hardly any lessons with investigators, only 8, but we found 11 new investigators.  I'll try and get everything about the week in this one letter. 

First of all, I want to answer some questions.  First of all, Mom asked me a little bit about P-day.  We don't really get to go see the sites of Guatemala very much because in the Zone that we are at, there aren't really any sights, just poorness.  But We did get to go to the temple once and also went bowling another time.  I'll let you know how today was like so you can know how it usually is.  We studied until 11 and then left to go look in the Pacas, God's gift to man.  They're these suuuuuuuper cheap thrift stores of clothes from the states.  Usually you can find stores that are on sale for everything at 3 quetz, or the equivalent of 37 cents in US coinage.  Ties for 37 cents!  Amazing!  My find of the day was a suit with pants and everything that fit me perfectly for 50 quetz, or about $6.25.  Yes!  I have been pretty happy throughout the day because of that find.  Then at 12:30 we went to a tienda and I bought about 5 quetz of chips and stuff for lunch.  Then we met up as a zone in the stake center and played basketball and soccer.  I am so horrible at soccer and don't like it too much but I play anyways.  Then at 2:30 we went to go buy our groceries at the supermarket for an hour.  I bought all of my food for the week with 10 dollars.  Then we came back and started internet at 4:15.  We'll finish and have about 30 minutes before going out to work.  We don't have too much free time but it is really nice to get things done one day of the week. 

Another question was how is my companion.  He is awesome.  He is still working like a bestia and we are having a ton of fun.  Since we haven’t had too much success getting in with investigators, we have been doing a lot of tracking, about 3 hours every day.  It's hard but we really are focusing on finding some new people to teach so that we can always have  a cycle of progressing investigators in this area.  That way we will be baptizing more than just once every 4 months.  The Lopez family, family of Violeta that just got baptized is doing really well.  We had an amazing lesson with them on the 7th and again on the 10th and were able to put two more baptismal dates with her sister Sylvia and her niece Sharon.  We also pushed Carla's date back to the 1st of October and those 3 should be getting baptized on the same day.  Their dad is getting interested too.  Before, he had no interest whatsoever.  It's pretty cool to see the Spirit working on him and the rest of the family.  Yesterday the whole family was in church.

Soraida has been really busy these last two weeks working for the elections so hasn’t had any time for us.  She says she is still definitely interested in being baptized, but we shall see.  We have to call her tonight and try to set up and appointment with her again.  The elections were yesterday so we didn’t get to work and had to stay in the house the whole day.  I guess missionaries have gotten attacked before.  Oh ya, we are working until 9:00 again.  That has really improved the work here. 

We had a family ask a member in the ward to tell us that they wanted us to pass by and teach them.  So we went by on Thursday and taught them a lesson.  Their names are Manfredo and Olga Villatoro de Castillo.  They are pretty awesome and seem to be really interested.  We have another appointment with them tomorrow.  Hopefully they are there and we get to teach them.  If things go well, we can invite them to baptism. 

We also found Raul and Carmen Gonzalez and started teaching them.  They're kind of a similar story except they didn’t ask us to come and teach.  We found them through their daughter who's a member. 

Also, we passed by the Soveranes family for the first time in about 2 months because we thought they weren't interested but they were actually there and we got to teach them a lesson.  They seem super awesome and like they might be able to progress.  We also have an appointment with them tomorrow night. 

Well, I better get going.  We have a movie night watching the Testaments with the Lopez family at 6:00.  It should be really good.  Our last lesson was on the Book of Mormon and they should really like the movie.  Hopefully it will give them that extra little desire to read and learn more.  I really feel great about this family.  I love them so much and it is such a joy to get to see them change and accept the Gospel in their lives.  Oh ya!  Violeta went to the temple this last week and did baptisms for the dead!  ¡Pilisimas!  Man, that made me so happy, and her too.  Anyways, my companion and I are working super hard and will definitely see some major success in the next couple of months.  I hope you are all doing well.  It's great to hear from you!

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Hey Mom,

I was wondering if you could give me the recipe for your sweet and sour sauce that goes with meatballs.  I'm definitely having a hankering.  =) 

Thanks!

Elder Jjjjaaaadam Lloyd

Hard Work!

Well,

Another week.  Drum roll, I have a new companion.  His name is Elder Lopez.  He is from Peoria Arizona and has about a year in the mission.  He is awesome!  He works so hard.  I haven’t worked a hard day like this in a long time.  It’s actually been wearing me out a bit.  But that is a very good thing.  His parents are actually from Guatemala but he was born and grew up his whole life in the US.  He actually didn’t know any Spanish when he entered into the MTC.  He really is pretty good.  At the change conference, President Watts took me aside and said, well, we thought that putting you two together would bring countless miracles to the area of Colombia.  Whoa, we got to work hard.  Hopefully that will be true.  One thing that is cool about my companion is that we fall really well together, but, he never speaks English to me.  It has really helped my Spanish because we talk all day in Spanish.  Sometimes for like 5 minutes at the end of the day we will switch in to English just because we are tired.  But, I don’t feel too bad about that.

It’s been a lot of work being the man in charge.  I have had to really step out of my comfort zone a bit to be the one to talk the most in lessons and also go and find people.  Pretty much this past week I have been in charge of our 8 or 9 hours of proselyting.  Man, tough, especially since the whole week before we only had 3 hours of proselyting a day.  But, it has been awesome.  We have been spending about 3 hours a day just tracking trying to find some new investigators.  Needless to say, my skin is a little bit red.  Oh well, it just feels good to work.  

Regardless of our efforts, we didn’t have too much success this week.  We are seeing a lot of possibilities in this area.  I have definitely been learning that God has a plan for us and that it is always on his own timeline.  Sometimes its easy to get frustrated when an appointment falls, but all of a sudden, we find this super awesome family just randomly in a contact.  We are also trying to ask a lot of referrals from the members of our ward.  We have been pretty blessed with a full agenda.  I know that in very few days, we will find somebody awesome.

Carla, our baptismal date for the seventeenth was having some serious problems with her heart.  The problem is that the hospitals here stink.  She was having heart palpitations and her throat hurt really bad.  I have a feeling that she is having problems with her thyroid like Charlene was having.  It just really stinks because there was nothing that can be done.  There is no way anybody can pay to take care of that here.  But, my faith in the priesthood was strengthened a little this week.  We arrived at the house one day after she had come back from the hospital with no results and still in horrible pain.  She hadn’t eaten in 4 days and was just writhing and screaming on the bed.  We quickly gave her a blessing, praying so hard that it would work.  After the blessing, she had calmed down a little bit and we had to go.  The next day when we came back, she was the one to answer the door and was wayyyyy better.  She still had some pain, but now she is almost 100 percent feeling better.  Man, I know that I hold such a great power.  It’s such a gift that we have to be able to use that power and authority that our Father has given us and bless the lives of others.  Now we just have to prepare her for baptism and hopefully get her there.  

Soraida and her son Ismael were supposed to get baptized the tenth but they didn’t come to church because of work.  she did say however that after the elections are over in 2 weeks she will be able to come.  We went ahead and moved their baptismal date to the 24th.  I really hope she is ready by then.  That would bless their lives so much.  

Well, time has about run out.  I hope that in this coming week, we can do as Alma says in the Book of Mormon, be the means whereby souls can come unto Christ.  This work is so worth it.  What a blessing we have to be able to see the feelings of love and happiness that come into the lives of these people as they receive this gospel.  Alma was such a good example of what a true missionary should be like.  Both he and the sons of Mosiah were power tools in the hands of the Lord.  Como dice Ammon en Alma 26, ningun hombre ha tenido tan gran razon para regocijarse como hemos tenido nosotros.  Porque estamos en el servicio de nuestro Senor.  I am so grateful to be out here and pray every day that I can be a better shaft in the Lords quiver, ready to help any person who needs this gospel.  I love you guys and hope you have a very, very great week.  Know that I am always praying for you.

Kulaj' chik'

Elder Lloyd