Sickness

Hey family,

Well, things are good in Coban.  I'm happy and healthy.  Sounds like Mom and Dad had the best 2 weeks ever!  I'm not going to lie, I found it quite funny that you two gringos got put as the witness couple in the middle of all the little Ecuadorians.  I'm jealous you got to go to them temple.  It's been 8 months since I've gone to the temple.  Awesome that you guys got to stay in that hotel looking over the temple as well.  Wow!  You guys have the best luck ever.  Have you ever stayed at a hotel and not gotten an upgrade to your room?  Awesome.  I also really enjoyed the sunsets in Montanita.  It brought back good memories. 

This week started out in the capital with concilio.  That was awesome.  I always enjoy going and being around some of the best Elders in the mission.  Also, President and Hermana Watts always make us feel like a million bucks.  By the way, Hna Watts makes some great food.  I also had my first chocolate chip cookie in a year.  It brought vanilla ice cream and caramel on top too.  MMMMMM!  Those meetings are always really good because we get to talk about the zones of the mission and how they can improve.  Also, President Watts always does a good job and getting us excited to go out and conquer the mission field.  I also like those days because I get to go on the bus rides with Elder Dillworth, the brother of Collin and Andre, two of the guys on the BYU moving crew.  He's an awesome Elder.  He's also been in Polochic his entire mission and is about to finish.  Overall, that was a great time.  Oh ya, I got to give a talk in concilio in front of everyone.  That was a little nerve racking, but it turned out fine.  I talked on how to raise the attendance of sacrament meetings in our zone. 

After we got back, my companion woke up Wednesday morning with "gripe."  Well that gripe made it so that we didn't work the entire week.  I felt bad for Elder Navas.  It was rough because we went another week without doing anything.  But, it did kind of give me some good thinking time.  I really had time to reevaluate how I am doing in the mission and things I can do better with.  I also enjoyed the extra time yesterday to study about Christ and his ministry and atonement.  I really was actually feeling a bit down yesterday after being in the house for 5 days, and I prayed to ask what I could do.  I felt like I should read a Liahona so I went over and grabbed one.  We have a stack of over 100 in the house.  I randomly got one that was the April 2009 copy.  Wow, what a great answer to my prayer.  And what a great Liahona.  I would highly recommend it.  In particular there was a talk by Cecil O Samuelson that talked about the atonement of Jesus Christ.  It was exactly the right talk in exactly the right time for me in my mission.  I know God was listening to me and that he loves me, because he knew exactly how to help me at that time.  But wow, did I study a lot this week.  I read just about the entire New Testament, over 10 Liahonas, a lot of Jesus the Christ, 1 Nephi and a lot of 2 Nephi, and learned a bit of Kekchi.  Oh well, things happen.

My companion started feeling better this morning and was even ready to play soccer with the zone.

Then we were able to go eat McDonalds and shop and use internet.  Oh ya, I also found 5 ties from Nordstrom and other brands for the equivalent of 50 cents each. That was a great find.  Now we are going to go home and see what visits we can make before the evening ends. 

Well, love you guys.  You're in my prayers every day.  Know that the church is true and that Jesus Christ is the very Savior of our souls.  I love Him.  He knows us and offers us all we need and want.  I challenge everyone to take some time to think of exactly what he has done in your life.  I promise that as you do, you'll feel him a bit closer in your life.  Love ya.

Elder Lloyd