"I'm Ready t'go!"

 President and Sister Watts July 2011-July 2014     President and Sister Torres July 2008-July 2011

Well hey there familia, 

How's everybody doing?  Sorry mom that my day for email is today so I didn’t get to see your letter.  I'm not sure if I'll get to use the internet for a couple minutes in the next couple of days to let you guys know where I'll be going or not.  Hopefully I will. 

Well, not much has happened in the past week.  Well nothing but, studying, eating, and praying.  I guess I can tell you what the next couple of days are going to be like.  Today all of the missionaries who left Guatemala flew out to their fields.  Tomorrow my mission president will be here at 8:00 a.m. to pick all 14 of us going to their mission up.  Then we'll have the whole day to do interviews, get to know them, get trained, and maybe even do a little proselyting.  After the day is through we come back to the CCM to sleep because there aren't too many beds at the mission home.  Wednesday morning we'll wake up and go to the transfer meeting and find out who our companion is and where we'll be for the next little while.  I think that's how it's going to go but it could change.  Either way, I'm really excited. 

It has been a really good experience in the MTC but I'm definitely ready to get out and do some work.  Studying has been good.  I've really been trying to help my companion get excited to do the work.  Sometimes it's hard when other elders are partying during study time but we go and try to get focused, and then we realize just how much worth it is when we get to teach and feel the guidance of the Spirit.  It's really cool, every lesson we teach, we spend time making a lesson plan and then totally change it and teach by what we think needs to be taught.  I just hope that follows me out into the field.  It's going to be a little bit different when we're teaching real investigators but I'm going to try really hard to not be scared and just open my mouth and share the gospel.  I hope I have a great companion.  If not though, I guess I can try to make him great.  It'll be interesting to see if I get assigned a gringo companion, a Latino who speaks a little English, a native Spanish speaker, or a Kekchi speaker that speaks a little Spanish on the side.  Whatever it is it'll be pretty exciting. 

I've really enjoyed the opportunity to be at the CCM.  Not only has it been a great spiritual experience, but it's been a tremendous help to my Spanish.  It's really cool when somebody will be speaking in English and switch into Spanish and I don't even know it happened.  I'm even having trouble speaking English.  Sometimes I go a whole day without saying anything in English.  Sometimes I'll go to the North American districts to tell them something and it takes forever to remember a word.  It's actually kind of funny when it happens.  So I'm definitely grateful that I'll be going out relatively comfortable with the language. 

We'll see, maybe I'll go straight into Kekchi.  =)  As far as my safety, I'll be cautious with everything.  The last thing I would want to do is hurt myself or get sick and not be able to work.  Oh yes, one cool thing is that most of our mission gets mamitas to cook for them 2 meals.  That should help so I don't get sick too often.  They really take good care of the missionaries here though and make sure they have everything to live "comfortably." 

Let's see what else?  I feel like this letter is a little boring cause not much has happened this week.  Oh, the other day in class i got assigned to teach an hour and a half long lesson in Spanish to the district with no preparation.  That was a growing experience.  It was actually one of the best lessons I've ever given.  It was cool because I received all sorts of revelation on what I should teach. 

Well, time's running out.  I'm sure my next letter will be a little more exciting, but just know I'm excited, ready to work, and I love you guys.  Thanks for all your support and prayers.  Have a great week and I'll talk to you soon.                      Elder Lloyd

Ready to Proselyte!

Hey Family!  

Let me just say how much I appreciate your letters, especially this week.  It just really makes me happy to hear about all the things you´re doing and know everybody´s keeping up their Lloyd ways, like getting tickets to the Mother Earth News convention for your anniversary.  =)  We're so nerdy, I love it. 

Well, this week has been great!  I have learned so much.  With respect to Spanish, I'm really growing. I’m growing spiritually as well.  It's really awesome to be able to have so much of my time centered on the gospel of Christ. On Monday we got to go out to the central plaza again and proselyte.  That was such a great experience.  My companion and I were on fire.  We got 12 references in 1 hour.  It was pretty cool this time because I could really feel our conversations guided by the Spirit to meet the needs of those that we were contacting.  That's one thing I didn't really realize before my mission, just how powerful the Spirit can be in your life.  I've been able to feel things in the past two months that have changed me as a person.  Speaking of which, 2 months!  Santa vaca!  Time really is flying.  Oh well, at least it's to the point where I'll be in the field soon.  I'm definitely ready. 

This experience has been nice but I'm ready to talk to real people, bear my testimony, and just plain work.  The whole classroom thing for 12 hours a day has gotten a little old.  Funny that I'm saying this cause I might feel a little different in the field.  =)  The next week is going to have some pretty exciting experiences.  We'll see where I end up. 

Let's see, what else has happened this week...  We had Elder Falabella of the Quorum of the Seventy speak to us last night.  I was in charge of conducting in Spanish and it was a little nerve-racking with a General Authority sitting right behind me.  Oh well, I made it through it.  And that actually wasn’t nearly as bad as the primary visit that I was in charge of.  About 200 primary kids came on Saturday to tour the CCM and I was told about 1 hour before that I would be in charge!  Thanks to Benj and Melinda, I had a little bit of experience with kids, otherwise that would have been the longest hour of my life!  =)  It was fun though.  A pocket of candy does wonders.  They really play up going on a mission here.  The ward in Benton City could learn a lot about missionary enthusiasm from those primary kids.  They make sure from 3 years old that kids know they'll be going on a mission.  Speaking of missionary work in Benton City, that's really cool to hear about Eli and Isaac getting their call.  It's so great to hear that everybody is doing what they can to get out.  They'll find that there's nothing better that they could be doing right now.  That really is the truth for me. 

I had no idea how much of a blessing this would be in my life.  I'm happy all of the time.  Things that would have usually made me sad or tired or any other thing in the past really don't do anything to affect my happiness.  I kind of feel like Ammon in Alma 26, who more than us has greater cause to rejoice, because we're in the service of the Lord.  I love it. Last night we had a lesson about how the Book of Mormon answers questions to the soul.  Our teacher asked us for a question of the soul that we had before coming on our missions.  I thought long about what mine was and found that before I really was trying to figure out what would make me happy in life.  Now I know exactly how.  It's simple, serve the Lord, keep your covenants, repent of your sins, and enjoy life.  The Lord wants us to be happy and happiness is found in this gospel.  Who more has cause to rejoice than me?  I love it. 

Well, times running out, I love you guys.  I'll let you know what happens this week and I'm sure the next letter should be pretty awesome.  =)  I hope things are going great and am really grateful for everything you've done for me.  Keep happy and have a great week.  Love you!      Elder Lloyd

New Companion!

Hey family!  Well thanks for the letter about all the fun I'm missing out on.  Oh well.  I am having plenty of fun here.  Hey mom, your letters might make a little more sense if you didn’t dictate them... Sorry, there's some things I didn’t understand. 

Well this week was intense!  Spanish is my life now.  It's been pretty hard but I've already learned a lot.  Our district is pretty awesome.  My companion is awesome.  His name is Elder Orellana from Honduras and he really reminds me a lot of Andy Campbell.  Out of all of the Elders that came in this week, I couldn’t have chosen a better companion.  He came prepared.  We've been teaching and he really knows his stuff.  More importantly, he knows how to listen, wait, and then teach with the Spirit.  He´s going to the El Salvador East mission.  It´s pretty awesome that we´re all going to be out in the field in 2 weeks.  Even more crazy is that I´ve been a missionary for over 7 weeks!  I really feel like a missionary now.  I think back to before my mission and how timid I was when I had to answer a question about the Gospel, and that was in English.  Now, I feel confident to bare my testimony.  Of course I am still in the MTC.  It might be a bit different when I get out into the real world.  I really am feeling ready to hit the ground running. 

This new assignment has really kept me busy and I´m glad for it.  It´s preparing me just a little bit better for the field because I know it’s going to be really hard.  I´m so excited to just work a ton and teach real people. 

Let´s see, what else this week?  We went to the temple this morning and my companion was there for the first time getting his own endowments.  That was really cool.  14 other missionaries got their endowments today also. 

Other news, I´ve been really sick for about 3 weeks.  All of the North Americans got a parasite and it was pretty bad, but we all took these 4 huge pills like La Bomba and it cleaned us out.  I seem to be doing a lot better now.  I did lose 8 pounds in 3 days though.  I figure I better get used to it cause it´s going to be like that my whole mission.  But it´s ok, they have boxes and boxes of those pills that they distribute pretty regularly.  Don´t worry too much mom.  Let´s see, I´m trying to remember what all I did this week.  Pretty much just a bunch of Spanish and meetings.  We have meetings like crazy here and I have to conduct every one.  At least it gives me some practice in case I have a calling in the mission.  Sorry I can´t send any pictures, they don´t let us here.  I´ll do it as soon as I can in the field. 

Well, they´re telling me I need to get off of here.  I´m doing great, really excited, and learning every day.  I love you so much!  This week is the last week that anybody can send me letters of dearelders to the CCM.  After that this is the address of the mission home.  I´ll let you know after that what is the best way.  BYE!                                  

Mail  please send ALL mail and packages to:
Elder Adam Lloyd
Mision Guatemala Ciudad Norte
Apartado Numero 951A
Guatemala, Guatemala CA
(this is a post box. We pick up and deliver to your missionary)
You may also try using www.dearElder.com to send mail. It's free!

Three weeks to go!

Hey family!    I hope everything is going great.  Things in Guatemala are fantastic.  Sounds like you guys are also doing great.  Congratulations James on the SSI.  That will be a great help.  It stinks that little Noah has to get surgery.  I´ll be praying for him and hope everything goes well.  So when are you guys headed off to Hawaii?  I might be jealous if it werent for the fact thar there are palm trees everywhere here and its blisteringly hot.  And we´re at 5000 feet.  Its gonna be really hot in the Petén Jungle.  Oh well, I´m excited.  =)  Well, lots has happened this week.  The old group of North Americans and all the Latinos left for the feild so right now there are only 10 missionaries coming.  That's ok though because we´re getting about 50 more tomorrow.  Oh ya, I´m one of the new assistants to the President of the CCM.  My companion isn't here yet but his name is Elder Ramirez from Guatemala.  Hopefullly I can do well in this assignment.  I´m grateful for the oppurtunity to serve.  I´m really excited to be in an all Latino district for the next three weeks.  These last three weeks havent been as fast in the language as I may have liked.  Oh well, I´ve learned a lot from the experience.  But now I'll be the only gringo in a 12 person district.  Pretty exciting!  I´m getting really excited to go out into the field.  Today we took a field trip to the Market, to this cool relief map of Guatemala, and then to the mall.  Not a big fan of the mall but I did get a whopper out of it.  I was pretty sad though when I saw dominos and I had already eaten.  I love dominos.  Oh well, the whopper was good.  =) The market was pretty fun.  Didn't buy too much but it was fun to barter a few things.  I got myself a nice man purse, a soccer jersey, and a cheapy decoy wallet, all for around 15 bucks, well, 125 quetz.  Things are all lined up for Elder Carr to bring me a credit card from the MTC tomorrow.  Thank you so much for getting all that taken care of for me so I didn´t even have to worry about it.  Other missionaries aren´t quite so lucky to have parents that are as on the ball as you.  Thanks a bunch for all you do for me.  I´ve really enjoyed this time in the CCM.  I think this time has really prepared me for the field.  I feel so much more confidence teaching now because of the amount of oppurtunities to teach that we have.  We usually teach about twice a day here where as in Provo it was about twice a week.  My companion Elder Horned has grown so much in the past 3 weeks.  I´m really glad I could be a part in helping him out with his learning.  He came to the CCM and couldnt speak at all.  Now he can teach a lesson with great power in Spanish.  The Lord does great things if you trust in Him.  I love being so close to the Lord and feel so much closer to Him than I ever have before.  I love having so much time to study the scriptures and other gospel materials.  One of our teachers challenged us to finish the Book of Mormon by the time we left here.  I´m about half way through and really loving it.  One thing I particularly love is how simple the gospel is while at the same time being so powerful.  One thing I´m really excited for is to bring that simplicity into the lives of my investigators.  Oh by the way mom, I leave 3 weeks from today.  Three weeks I´ll know where I´ll be staying in Guatemala.  It´s so awesome here.  I´m so glad I can be serving these two years.  There´s nothing I´d rather be doing.  I love you all.  Have a good week.  If youre going to hawaii, have fun!  Talk to you later.   -Elder Lloyd

May 11, 2011

Plaza Mayor de la Constitucion

Hey, how´s everything going? It was so great to talk to you on Sunday.  Even if it wasn’t very long it did the trick.  I can see now why they don´t let missionaries call more than twice a year.  Things were pretty distracting in a room of 10 missionaries who had just talked to their families.  Oh well, it was exciting. 

It sounds like everything is going well at home.  Mom, haha, dictating a letter and driving is not the greatest thing.  It kind of made sense and I really appreciated getting a letter. 

Well, things are going very well here in the CCM.  One thing I do have to apologize for is not replying to somebody if they email me.  I only get 30 minutes to read emails and then type my email back.  Maybe in the field it will be a little easier to reply to everyone.  Anyways, Guatemala is wonderful.  I really, really love it here.  The food, fantastic!  The people, even better!  We got to go out and proselyte in the main plaza of Guatemala City.  How awesome is that?  Real missionary work was being done by all 40 of us.  My companion and I only got 2 referrals but we did get to talk to a lot of people about the church and handed out a lot of pamphlets.  One thing that´s really nice about the people here in Guatemala is that they all already love God and Jesus Christ.  One of the other really cool things is that a lot of people haven’t heard of the Book of Mormon and so when we tell them about another book about Christ, they get really excited.  Everything in the Book of Mormon about the Lamanites receiving the Book of Mormon in the latter days is true.  The Book of Mormon was written for the Lamanites and it’s really cool to see them as things just kind of click. 

There was one guy on the bus ride over that we talked to that was probably my best experience so far in the mission.  We got on the bus and all the missionaries were just sitting there.  I thought, well, I'm a missionary on the bus too.  So I started talking to him.  It was wonderful.  I talked to him about the gospel of Christ for like 15 minutes and he had never heard of us.  He was really excited so I hope he accepts some missionaries out in the field.  It was awesome to finally do something real. 

This next Tuesday we get to go to the market all day.  I´m really excited for that.  It should be a good experience.  I love being outside and seeing the real parts of Guatemala.  Let´s see, before I forget to tell you, this week the Latinos are all leaving for the field so we get a new batch in.  One thing I've been forgetting to tell you is that they're moving me up to an all Latino district with a Latino companion.  Excited!  It should be a great experience.  I was a little frustrated these first couple of weeks because I was with a beginner district and had a beginner companion.  I felt that I had kind of taken a step backwards in Spanish.  But now I've definitely seen that there was a purpose for me being Elder Horne's companion.  He's learned so much in the past two weeks.  He went from not knowing how to say anything to yesterday teaching a full 45 minute lesson in Spanish with no notes whatsoever.  That was huge for him and it's awesome to see the blessings of the Lord in our lives. 

I can't even express how blessed I feel to be out here.  Ok, let's see, Dad wanted to know what a typical day is like.  We wake up at 6:15 and get ready for gym at 6:30.  The gym's really nice and has been really helping me stay in ok shape.  Then at 7:30 we shower and get ready for the day.  Breakfast is at 8:00 and then Personal study at 8:30.  Then Companionship study at 9:30.  Then we have 2 hours of language study.  At 11:30 we get an hour of teaching a lesson in Spanish to a Latino companionship.  Then lunch.  Then class until dinner at 5:00.  Then class after that until bed.  We of course have meetings and teaching progress lessons with the teachers every once and a while.  Tuesday nights we teach a lesson in this fake house thing and get recorded on camera.  That´s the worst.  haha.  But that’s the schedule.  Every Saturday we get to do service cleaning around the temple and in the streets instead of gym.  I really like those mornings. 

Well, my time is almost over.  I know this is the true gospel of Jesus Christ on this Earth.  It is the same church that was on the earth when Christ was here.  I know that this life is the time for men to prepare to meet their God and we must do everything we can to become like Christ.  He is our Savior and through him we can do anything.  Love you! 

Elder Lloyd

First week in Guatemala

Hey!  Everything is going great here in the CCM.  I can´t believe it´s already been a week since I got here.  It is absolutely wonderful here.  I am so glad that i have this opportunity to learn so much here in this culture.  The CCM facility itself is fantastic.  Seriously, for a third world country this place is like a 5 star hotel.  Everything´s really clean and they take really good care of us. 

It is hot here!  it probably gets up to about 80 or 85 degrees everyday and its super muggy.  Pero, está bien.  The food, wow.  Soooo good.  They have a staff of about 3 or 4 women that cook us authentic Guatemalan meals every meal.  I´m thinking I might be gaining a bit of weight, not sure.  haha.  I´ll work on that, but the food´s just been super good. 

Oh by the way, for some reason this keyboard doesn't let you enter so its going to have to be one huge paragraph. 

Anyways, back to the weather.  It´s not too bad during the day because our classroom has great air conditioning, but at night I fry.  Haha.  I just lay on my sheets and sweat myself to sleep - but for some reason, I love it.  The really cool thing about this place is the Latino Elders and Hermanas.  In total there are only 39 missionaries here.  Isn´t that awesome? Everything is so personalized.  But most of these elders have been members for only 2 or 3 years.  All were baptized and just decided to make whatever sacrifice they would have to to be able to come.  Needless to say they all have really strong testimonies.  When they teach and bare testimony it´s so powerful. 

One of the things that they do here that helps us with our Spanish is that they have us do a Latino exchange for every meal and meeting so we have to sit and speak with our Latino companion.  It´s pretty nice and really fun to talk to them.  I think Latino people are just all way more fun to be around than Americans.  They just know how to have fun.  My Spanish is coming along very well.  I can understand all the natives, even when they´re speaking super fast.  Things have been a little hard teaching because my companion knows hardly any Spanish so I´ve been speaking English too much.  But we're working on that.  My companion is Elder Horne from Show Low, AZ.  He´s got a pretty good testimony and wants to work hard.  He´s great. 

Let´s see, what else?  I think that the best thing about being here so far was that we were able to go over to the Temple for an hour and talk to the people there.  They were mostly all from El Salvador and were there for a sealing of a couple who had waited about 10 years saving up.  It´s so amazing to see the faith of these members here.  Nobody is a second generation member so they´re all pretty fresh.  Most of the Elders and Sisters haven't even been endowed yet and will enter the temple for the first time today when we do a session.  So awesome!  There is one Sister who told us a story of her family in testimony meeting.  Her family came from Honduras 15 years ago to be sealed.  They came and did the ordinance and then drove home.  On the way home their family got in a car crash and her sister died.  She bore testimony of the truthfulness of the sealing ordinance of the temple and how she knew she would see her sister again.  I´m crying right now just typing this.  Today will be the first time she enters the temple in 15 years to receive her endowment.  That´s how everybody is here.  I love it. 

I love you all.  I have to go - times up on the internet.  Have a great week.  Tell anybody that wants to write me that they just need to use dearelder.com. For family, email is best. 

bye,

Elder Lloyd