"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