Working-Working

Hey guys,

Well, another week in paradise.  Things went really well this week.  It was definitely a harder work week, but it turned out well at the end of everything.

The first highlight of the week was interviews with president Watts.  Poor man, he has to do soooo many interviews and he does a mission tour every 3 months to do them.  He does them all in about 3 weeks for about 200 missionaries in the mission.  When he did them for our zone he was in there without resting or eating from 8am to 6pm.  He is an amazing guy though.  He really receives revelation for every one of us here in the mission.  Everytime I go in to an interview with him, he knows exactly what I need to hear, even if I'm not even sure what I need to hear.  It really helped our zone as well.  Sometimes there is a lot of pressure as a zone leader because it's our job to make sure the elders and sisters are having success in their areas.  Even when we are doing so well in our own area it isn't enough.  Elder Proctor and I are really trying to see how we can encourage our zone to do better.  But, with lots of love and prayer it will happen.  It doesn't help when all the Sisters are angry and fighting with each other.  We had to go over and reprove with the scriptures this week in the house of some Sisters.  That was fun....  It's all part of a day's work though.  =)

Another highlight of the week was that I got a new man bag/purse that I had made in the Polochic a month ago.  =)  You can see my pictures to see it.  It may sound silly, but a good bag makes missionary work all the better.  I just hope you guys don't make too much fun of me for using a purse for 2 years straight.  It's comfy...

In other news for this coming week, we have more baptisms.  The Marroquin family that we found about a month and a half ago is more than ready for baptism.  They will be baptized this Saturday at 3pm and it is going to be awesome.  Everytime we go over there they always just thank us to death for sharing the gospel with them.  They understand everything and are receiving the blessings of heaven for their obedience to the commandments.  They have given up coffee and are even married, miracle of miracles.  Really though, this family is special to me.  The Lord has been preparing them for a long time and they are seeing the results of their love for God.  They asked for a small baptismal service so we are just going to have some family members and Church leaders there.  We hope it goes really well.  So their names are Carlos, Carla, and their 13 year old daughter Karin.  I can't wait to introduce you guys to them when you come down. Please pray for them.

Besides them we were able to put a baptismal date with a young man, Otto, for the 6th of October.  We are really hoping that he can attend church every Sunday to be able to get that date.  We've taught him a little and he loves the gospel.  He also loves the young women, but we'll make sure the testimony comes first.

We are really trying to look for new investigators now.  We have been so focussed on the investigators we have had that it has been difficult to find new people to teach.  Now we are really trying to pass by with all the members and ask for referrals.  There is great power in a sincere referral given from members to the missionaries.  I hope you guys can think in all your friends and give some referrals to the missionaries.  They are in great need of your help.

Anyways, times up.  Love you guys and hope everybody is healthy and happy.  I miss you guys but never enough to distract from the work.  I love it here and hope that in these last 2 weeks of this transfer, I can give every minute to the Lord.  Have a great week.  Bueeeeeeeeno.

Love,
Elder Lloyd

Baptisms!

Hey guys, 

Well, for some reason my time has gone by really fast.  I do know that my companion had a really good letter home so you can just look at his blog if you want to know more.  I am going to try to get it all in.  It just seems like when I send pictures it always takes a lot of time.  

Anyways, the first thing I want to tell you guys about is Jonny.  This investigator is probably the most golden investigator I've had in my entire mission.  We only taught him about 3 or 4 times but he told us he wanted to be baptized and he was ready.  Well, last week he informed us that he had a month long training in the capital for his new job he had found and that he would also be working every Sunday and would not be able to be baptized.  Really, it hurt soooo bad to know that he wouldn't be able to be baptized.  So we stayed like that.  Just kind of sad because he wouldn't be able to do it.  But, Tuesday morning we got a call from Jonny and he said, Elders, I have some great news.  I'm going to be baptized this week!  He got permission to come back to Coban for the baptism on Saturday and also permission in his new job to be able to have every other Sunday off to go to church.   He was so excited and so were we!  So, Saturday he got back and we reviewed the baptismal interview questions and he had the interview right after and passed with flying colors.  He also asked me to baptize him so that was really cool.  I just was so grateful that the Lord new his need to be baptized and provided the way.  That's 1 Nephi 3:7 in action!

We did a division with another area on Friday so that one of our District Leaders could do the interviews of the Gomez family while I was in the DLs area.  While I was in the other area, apparently things didn’t go too well on the interview.  Turns out that when the Elder asked if the grandma, Ana, had prayed to know if the Church was true, she had forgotten and said no.  So she didn't pass.  Also, the power went out and they weren't able to do the rest of the interviews.  Darn it.  We found out that Ana had a hit to the head a few years ago that makes her forget things easily.  We went Saturday morning and reviewed and asked if it was truly their desire to be baptized.  We even kneeled in prayer to know the will of the Father. After that prayer we knew that Ana was ready and that her grandson Harry was ready to be baptized and needed to do it.  So they did.  It was amazing and wonderful to see the difference the Spirit is making in their lives already.  

Well, I'm really sorry, but time's up.  I love you guys.  Just know how much I love you and appreciate your support.  The work is going super well and I am loving it!  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Rainy Season

Hey guys,

Good week.  Let me give you the rundown.  By the way, I am doing great.  

We started out the week with concilio in the capital.  It was the best concilio I've had since being in the mission.  They talked about a lot of things but one of the things that was greatest was president's talk.  He talked about how, as a mission, we have improved a lot.  But the goals we have are still way over what we are getting.  He told us that his revelation was that we need to become 100 percent obedient and only in that way will we receive the success the Lord has promised us.  He then invited each one of the Zone Leaders in to his office to be interviewed one by one, asking us to confess every rule we had broken in the mission.  It was such a great time for reflection and it really helped me tighten up the loose bolts.  We came back from the capital and talked very sincerely and honestly about obedience with our zone.  I know that we are going to see huge improvements in the work here soon if we strengthen our obedience here in Coban.  It was a very impactful day for me and my mission.  And we've seen the results because of our better obedience.  

We will have 6 baptisms this week.  The Gomez family is finally getting baptized!!!!!!!!  We also have a young man named Willy that will be getting baptized.  We are going to try to make the baptism a huge event so that the whole ward gets excited about it.  Hermana Claudia Gomez has had some problems with the Law of Chastity but she finally took a stand and told her man to move out.  We are getting super excited because they've finally allowed the spirit to move in and control their life.  I know that if we have lots of faith in this week, the Lord will work miracles in that family.  Willy is just super awesome.  He will have no problems.  I was very impressed the other day because we went and had a lesson with him and 4 other jovenes, all of which are preparing to leave on their missions.  There were no adults nor parents there but they all were very serious and loved to be sharing the gospel with one of their friends.  That is very rare to find in this world, 4 young men so centered on God's purpose for them.  

Familia Marroquin has been having some serious problems with their family this week.  They are so ready to be baptized, but we have found out that the trial of faith is real.  Every investigator, before baptism, has to have a trial that tests them and their belief in what we're teaching.  For them, there have been no trals in the doctrines of the Gospel, so the Lord knew they would needed to be tested in some other way.  All of the family of Hermana Carla is catholic and hate the Mormons.  Her own mother said that she would rather die than see her child become a Mormon.  Well, her mother tried to overdose on 38 pills to kill herself this week.  Luckily she lived but her whole family is blaming Carla for the problem and saying that the Mom did it because she is listening to the missionaries and going to church with her family.  They also said that they were going to run them out of the house they were in to get them to stop.  We were able to visit them yesterday and they said that it doesn't matter what happens, they know they need to be baptized and will follow through with the commitment they have made with God.  Long story short, they are amazing!  They said even though it had been raining all day long, they had waited with the door open to be able to recieve us because they knew we would come.  They're awesome. 

Anyways, times up.  I love you guys and hope you have a great week.  By the way mom, it rains every day here now.  We are in the rainy season.  I basically just go out without a jacket now because I'm used to getting so wet.  I just have to always remember to put my stuff in a bag.  Anyways,

Love you guys.

Elder Lloyd

Good and Tired!

Hey guys,

This week went well.  Things were really tiring with the transfers.  After the 6th time doing it, it gets a little old.  Oh well, it's over and we have some great new Elders here in the zone.  We are headed off to the capital again this morning for zone leader concilio with President.  Should be fun.  I'll try to cover everything that we did this week.  I'm kind of sad, I did a half hour recording of my voice so that I wouldn't have to write much but it didn't work.  So, here we go.

We did not have too much time to work with all of the transfers.  Our job is to pretty much entertain the Elders and give them a hotel and pay for all their taxis and buses.  It wears you down.  On Wednesday night we had over 40 missionaries in front of our house and about 100 suitcases that got dropped off from the bus.  It was insane.  We handled it well though.  We finally got everybody out of the house Thursday afternoon and got some time to work.  It seemed though that most of our appointments fell through.  Oh well, it's only once every 6 weeks. 

The crowning event of the week was Church yesterday.  We had 14 investigators in sacrament meeting and in our classes!  That included a really awesome new family we have.  They are the Marroquin family.  They were a referral from a member family here in the ward.  When we contacted them, they had already been to 4 Family Home Evenings with the family without us knowing.  It was awesome.  After two appointments we were able to put a baptismal date with them for the 8th of September with a possibility of moving it up to the 1st.  They are really awesome.  Golden investigators.  There names are Carlos and Carla with 3 kids.  We love visiting them because they understand and love everything we teach.  So they are 3 people planning for baptism.

We have another fellow named Johnny that will be baptised.  He lives a little far away but he is awesome.  He is planning on being baptized on the 18th of August. 

There is another kid named Willy.  He's 17 and will be baptized on the 18th as well.  He has been staying with a member family and they have already taught him most of the lessons. 

The Gomez family is doing really well.  Ana, Claudia, Evilyn, Ricardo, and Harry are all sure baptisms for the 18th as well.  They have been so wishy washy for 3 months about baptism but they finally found their answer.  Each one knows it's what they need to do.  Yesterday Ana and Claudia were anouncing their baptism to everybody at church.  They're all super excited. 

Marina, another daughter of Ana Gomez, came to church with her husband for the first time yesterday.  She told us that when everybody was bearing their testimony and saying that they knew the church is true, she felt this huge calm power in her chest and knew what they were saying was true.  So last night we went over to the Gomez family and were able to challenge Hendrin and his wife Marina to be baptized and they both accepted happily.  It was a wonderful day. 

So in total we have 12 people that are waiting for their baptism.  The work is great and we are loving it.  I am tired.  So tired.  I'm hoping to get some sleep tonight in the AP's house.  These trips and transfers kill me.  Oh yes, today I have 16 months in the mission.  I'm getting old!  Haha.  I'm celebrating by drinking an A&W Rootbeer.  Delicious!  Haha.  I gotta go.  Everybody's presuring me that they want to go play soccer so I better go so we can get on our bus on time.  I love you guys.  Sorry my letters are kind of lame sometimes.  We're just working.   It's a wonderful thing.  Have a great week! 
Love,
Elder Lloyd

P.S. I got ringworm from all the elders that passed through our house this week.  Nasty.