Otra semana ha pasado

Hey family, Well. Things are going well. I'm really sorry if sometimes it seems like I am writing the same things over and over again every week, but that's what you get when I am in the oficina. Like I said in my last week's letter, this week was change week. There is a TON that goes into transfers in the mission. I hadn't ever realized it before, but the assistants have to do a lot to make sure everything goes really smoothly when everybody has to change areas. We started last week making all the preparations and finished up with transfers on Wednesday. We had to make sure that everybody had bus tickets and everything ready to travel. Also we had to make sure we had splits arranged for everybody who had their companions leaving the areas. One thing that was kind of my fault was that I forgot to tell a Sister missionary she had a change until an hour and a half before she had to get on a 10 hour bus ride to go to Peten. Whoops. She made it okay though. But we had a lot of long days and late nights in the office this last week. We also had to make sure everything went well to get the Elders finishing out their missions back home. Elder Allen left for Oregon so we were a little sad to see him go, but it was really cool to see just how relaxed he was going home because he knew he had done everything he possibly could in these past 2 years. It makes me really want to finish out my mission doing everything I possibly can to serve the Lord. It really is a great feeling when you know the Lord is happy with what you have done. One interesting experience in all the stress and things of the week was having to train the new Elders coming from the MTC and also training their trainers. We were doing so much to get changes ready to go that we really didn't have much time to prepare for their training. So, we had a 4 hour training with them completely guided by the Spirit. There were times when I talked for 30 minutes without knowing anything beforehand that I was going to say. I think the highlight of the week was learning how to drive a stick-shift. Haha. So we don't have a car, even though the assistants of this mission have always had a car. ( I guess the area office thought our car had gotten stolen a few to many times). Anyways, there is a senior couple here that has a pickup that they let us use anytime there is something where we need to transport (suitcases or furniture). So for the changes they let us borrow it for a couple of days. The problem was that Elder Allen had always driven and I had never had a time to learn to drive stick. Well, Tuesday night on the way home, we realized that Elder Allen and Elder Saavedra would be with president Watts all day so I would be alone with my companion Elder Willardson all day with the truck. So we stopped on the side of the road and switched places and I got a 20 minute lesson on driving a stick. Well, that was it. I then had the truck the whole day to drive all around Guatemala City. I was sweating like a mad man! I've never been so nervous in my life. As soon as I got out on the road after the change conference, it seemed like all the wrecks and traffic and construction started. It was actually really fun. I finally got the hang of it though. Luckily I had a lot of practice driving tractors (Thank you Brother Wilson for 5 years of peach and cherry harvest!) So, I learned how to drive a stick in 20 minutes! My new companion is Elder Willardson from California. He is a great guy. He is 100% surfer and his dad too. I still am in a threesome because Elder Saavedra has a month extension on his mission until the 19th of November. So we're really excited to be together. Elder Willardson is a really great guy. He has a great way with the Elders. He really can help them. He only has 4 months left in the mission so he'll be going home before me. I have really been enjoying being with Elder Saavedra. He is a really good Elder. He is having a rough time staying excited here in the office because he has been in the office for a total of 13 months of his mission. he was also finance Elder. He is really trying to learn as much English as he can before he goes home. His English is great, he just doesn't like to practice very much. But English means money. So for the whole extra month that he is here we are only speaking English to him. I've been really rough on him correcting his errors, but that's what he wants. He's come a long way just in the past week. Well, everything else is going great. Sounds like things are going well at home. Well, love you guys. Be good. Read your scriptures EVERY day. Have a great week! Love, Elder Lloyd

Hot, Hot, Hot

Hey guys, Well, here I am once again in Peten. Things are going great and I am loving it up here again. It truly is the home of the Mayas. Sounds like you guys had a super busy week. You guys are always traveling around the whole US. I guess if it was any other way it wouldn't be quite as exciting. The start of the week was concilio with all the ZLs and President. We were assigned two 1-hour presentations for the meeting. It went well, we talked about the importance of working with members and ward leadership and the importance of the Book of Mormon. That is a great book. It has so much power and is essential in our conversion. The meeting went well and we were all edified. Plus Sr. Watts made us chicken cordon bleu afterwards. Soo good. =) After concilio we packed up and headed to Peten. We were all excited because we had some awesome seats in a really nice bus at 9pm, but I forgot to buy one ticket, so we had to go on the 10:30 not so nice bus. After 10 hours in the bus we got on another bus to go 2 more hours and start splits in Sayaxche, a super-hot area. It was a rough day because we were all so tired, but it turned out good and we were able to help all the missionaries. We then traveled the next day and were able to go to my beloved San Andres. It was really nice to be back there and get to see everybody. We got to visit some of my recent converts. It was especially cool seeing Tony and Bertha because they have grown a ton in the gospel. They are reading through the Book of Mormon and are now in Helaman. They know all the hymns. Tony is the President of the Sunday School and Bertha is a teacher in Relief Society. They have been members for 9 months now and are making plans to be able to go to the temple in January to be sealed. They also should be able to go do baptisms for the dead with the ward in November or December. =) That was the good part of San Andres. The discouraging part was that the missionary work there has really slowed down. =( It was sad, but we are going to see what we can do with changes in a couple of weeks. Oh well, the Lord puts missionaries in all areas for a reason. The good thing was that most of my recent converts are doing really well. I think 13 or 14 of the 16 are completely active. It was suuuuuper fun to be there again though. The people are really special. We then traveled to a place called Poptun where we worked a day in splits and also spent Saturday for General Conference. That was an interesting experience. Poptun is super far into the jungle, but they have a whole District. The only thing is that the district building is still really old and not too up to date when it comes to electronics. We got everything ready to go for the conference and when it started up, we only had the conference in Portuguese! We were super worried, but luckily there was a maintenance man there that knew how to work the transmission box and got it switched to English. Had it not been for him, we would've seen it in Portuguese. We missed President Monson's first talk on the ages for missionary service, but after that we were able to see everything. We had to leave the second session on Saturday an hour early to make the 2 and a half hour trip back to Flores for the Priesthood session, which by the way, was awesome! We then spent Sunday and today here in Santa Elena (Flores). The conference was awesome and a huge boost spiritually for me. On the mission it is sometimes easy to get so busy that the simple spiritual aspects of the work can be overlooked. This work is definitely true and I am super grateful to be a part of it. Well, time's up and the chicharrones I ate this morning are starting to fight back. Love you all and Hope you have a great week! Tell Aunt Barbara I say hi and that I'm praying for her. Love, Elder Lloyd