Chicken Enchiladas!

Hey guys,

Well, this week was one of the best. It went by really fast and was full of a lot of things, but it brought some of the greatest joys of my mission.  Man, they've got Toy Story 3 playing here in the internet place.  That's tempting.  Well, here we go. 

The week started out with a rushed trip to the capital to Zone Leader concilio.  When I was writing my short little letter to you guys last Monday and sent it, we had 10 minutes until our bus left.  We sprinted to the bus station and got there right as the bus was pulling out.  That would have been bad to miss.  It was a fun ride because we had all of the Zone leaders together from outside of the capital in the same bus going down at the same time.  I love those Elders.  They really are some great guys.  Then, concilio was really good as always.  I gave a talk with my companion for 15 minutes.  That was the second time I've had to talk as a zone leader in those meetings.  It turned out really well.  We spoke on how to put and hold baptismal dates with investigators and then help the zone to do the same.  Anyways, that was all good, but the important part of the day was that I got to eat mom's chicken enchiladas.  Oh my goo'ness, oh.... my goo'ness.  It was so good.  The only thing that Hna Watts couldn't find were the little canned green chilies, but it was great.  We also had a really good lemon cream dessert.  Those are good days.  I had thirds on everything.  Oh, by the way, the picture I sent of the Elder in the Brown suit is Elder Nelson, our Assistant to the President.  He was in Coban before I came here.  He has a special place in his heart for Coban because he knows how great it is. 

Anyways, that was a good day but we got on the bus at 5pm and headed for Coban.  Around 9pm and about an hour and a half away from Coban, the transmission of the bus se fregó and we were stuck in the middle of the wilderness.  We had 8 Elders on the bus and had to get out in our suits and with our suitcases and everything and hitchhike.  Luckily we had some really nice guy give us a ride to Salama, a completely different zone in our mission, and we stayed the night with the zone leaders there.  That was fun.  I wasn't expecting to get to know that part of Guatemala.  Plus it's also always fun to get a nighttime hitchhike through the jungle.  It was beautiful. 

As for the work, we didn't get too much headway with our baptisms and interviews and concilio.  We are still working with familia Gomez to try to put a baptismal date with them.  If you guys can include them in your prayers, that would help a lot.  They were almost ready to say yes, but in the moment, Satan one.  But, one thing I've learned is that nobody ever gets away from the truth.  They'll have a date this week. 

I had another great (not so great) Zone Leader responsibility to attend to this week.  We have 5 Hermanas in our zone and they are really awesome, but we had to change some of the companionships in our zone.  I had to interview all of them and try to resolve some issues.  I guess girls are different from boys.  The joys of the mission! 

The baptism was wonderful.  Because of work and other things, we did it at 8am on Sunday.  We didn't have too many members there to support because it was so early, but we did have the Spirit there.  They are such a strong family.  It was amazing to see the transformation of the family within a matter of hours as they were baptized, received the Holy Ghost, and became members of the Church.  It was great.  The only thing that was rough was that Edwin, the 8 year old son, kicked his foot up when my companion baptized him and did not want to do it again.  We finally talked him into it, but he spazzed and punched his hand out of the water as he went down.  So, he didn't want to do it again so we are going to have to do it this weekend and have him go swimming and stuff to take away his fear of the water.  I think he swallowed water or something.  Still though, it was an amazing baptism.

Today we went to Semuc Champey as our actividad de zona again.  It was awesome.  I love that place.  It's so beautiful.  The only not so cool thing about it is that there are a bunch of European women swimming around all over the place.  The cool part today was that Polochic zone and Salama zone also were able to go so we were about 70 missionaries over there.  Everybody came from all over the place and it was a pretty good reunion.  I didn't get many pictures because I lent my camera to another Elder that didn't have one. 

Anyways, I love you guys.  It's 9:15 so I got to get inside.  By the way my appointment was fantastic tonight and we have an engineer that we're teaching.  Edgar Hass is his name and he's really starting to get the gospel.  Have a great week.  Love you!

Elder Lloyd

Great Week!

Hey family,

Well, this week was a great one.  Hard work, but it payed off.  I have a bus that leaves to the capital in 20 minutes so this letter is going to be a little lame.  We have our monthly zone leader meeting with President Watts so we have to travel a lot.  When we do that we have to take a 6 hour bus ride, stay the night at the Assistants' house, go to the meeting, eat Hna Watts' food (this time it's mom's chicken enchilada casserole), and take the 6 hour bus back tomorrow night.  It's a long trip but it's really fun.  Anyways.

Our investigators are doing very very well.  I think I told you about the Gomez family of about 12 people that we found last week.  Well, we went and talked to them a few times this week and they started reading the book of Mormon.  It was a miracle in church because 10 of them came to church and they loved it.  We had in total 15 investigators in church. 15!  It was amazing!!!  It's a little hard though when we get that many people in there because it's kind of like herding cattle around there are so many.  Luckily we had a very great principles of the gospel class that they all loved.  Also, Marin Lopez, our amazing investigator that's getting baptized, when he stood up to introduce himself he said, "Well, I'm Marvin and what can I say? the church is true.  This is what you need and I invite all of you to continue forward in the truth because it has changed our life."  Awesome.  The Gomez family said that they really loved church and as they left the building they were all saying goodbye to everyone and saying, "see you next week!"  It was one of the greatest Sunday's in my mission.  It's also cool because we have to hike up a big muddy hill/mountain to go take them to church.  

Another cool thing was that the attendance in church as a whole was really high.  We usually have about 140 people in sacrament meeting and the attendance yesterday rose to 172.  It helped that 20 of them were nonmembers.  

Familia Lopez is doing fantastic.  We are really feeling like they are ready for baptism.  They had originally been planning to be baptized on the 17th in the morning before church but we changed it to be sooner this Sunday the 10th at 8 in the morning.  So Mary, Marvin, and their son Edwin are going to be baptized this Sunday.  When we asked them what they thought about changing the date, Marvin said, we know the church is true and we made the decision a long time ago, so when you guys say we need to be baptized, we'll be there.  They really are that golden family that every missionary wants in their mission.  The ward is also doing really well supporting them and helping us out with the teachings.  Tonight, even though we'll be in the capital, they'll have a member family taking them to their house for a family home evening and dinner.  Awesome.  

Well, my bus is going to leave.  I love you guys and pray for your success daily.  Have a great week.  Let me know what I can do to help.

Elder Lloyd

Race Day!

Hey guys,

Well, another good week.  Things are going well here in Coban 3rd ward.  The work was a little bit hard, but we got to see some great things happen.  Let's see if I can sum it all up.  

We started out the week having to send a sister missionary home.  That was sad.  Her name was Hermana Portillo.  She was a super good missionary, but in Polochic she had some ankel troubles that she never took care of.  It cured a little bit, but never got completely better.  She was stepping out of a bus one day when she felt a rip in her leg. Turns out her calf muscle and tendons in her ankle ripped.  She couldn't even walk.  We had to buy tickets for her and her companion to go to the capital and get it checked out.  I guess it was so bad that they had to send her home.  We then had the task of going over to their house and packing all there bags and emptying their house.  That was fun... That took awhile and then we had to send all their suitcases down to the capital on the bus.  So that was sad, but hopefully she gets better at home.  It'll be a little hard because that closes an area in our zone.  

This week we had a lot of people come from the capital or Polochic to Coban.  That's fine but nobody told us about any of it.  Haha.  We would be in lessons and we would get a call, Hey, we're here, where do we go?  We had no idea they were coming so we would have to go and arrange things for them, including cooking food.  Haha.  Yesterday after church just as we were about to head out to work, 2 elders called us and said, Hey, we're here for our patriarchal blessings.  Did you call the Stake Patriarch?  We hadn't heard anything about that.  But we got it worked out, then did divisions with them, cooked them food, and they slept in our house last night.  That's part of the joy of being Zone Leader in Coban.  

We found a super awesome family this week.  They are the Gomez family, family members of the Paiz Gomez family I had mentioned last week.  We went up to their house after a really hard, disappointing day of work, full of rejection, and to our surprise, they let us in.  There were 10 people and they all loved the lesson.  They all said they were going to go to church and read to book of Mormon.  We were really excited.  The only problem was that this weekend in Coban there was a huuuuuuuge half marathon.  The whole city shut down to drink and party for 3 days.  It was horrible.  It was impossible to try to get new investigators to church.  We went to go get them yesterday and they were all ready to go.  We were super excited.  Well, there's a couple of words in Spanish that investigators say here, "fijense que",  that if said, it means, everything I am about to say is a lie.  Haha.  So they told us that they already had a commitment and would have to wait until next week.  We then saw them going down the hill from their house to go watch the race.  Oh well.  We still had a few investigators there.  The attendance in all of our wards in the zone of Coban went down about 40 to 50 percent.  Oh well, there's next week.  

The Lopez family is doing absolutely great.  They are loving the church and definitely know that it is true.  They are sure for baptism and have no problems with the commandments.  Tonight we are going over to a family home evening with a family in the ward that invited the Lopez family over for dinner and an activity.  That's definitely the first time that has happened in my mission.  I'm excited.  They'll be good for the 10th of June for their baptism.  The ward is really helping them out.  They are all visiting them and doing their part.  Awesome!

We have interviews with President Watts and some training by the Assistants tomorrow.  That should be fun.  It's always nice to be able to have a good talk with President.  He does a really good job of helping you see the vission of the mission and helping you succeed.  It should be a good thing for the zone.

Well, I love you guys.  Here is a picture of my zone, Zona Coban.  They are a bunch of great missionaries.  Also my comp with me on the teeter totter.  The work is great here and we love it!  Have a great week.  Love you all.  Letters are welcome.

Elder Lloyd

Baptism

¿Que ondas muchá? Well, things are going very well in my neck of the woods.  Sounds like things are going ok over there. I hope Mom and Dad are doing well in Ecuador.  Sounds like the house was a bit of a disappointment... mwat.  Oh well.  I guess sometimes it takes a wake up call to get us thinking strait again.   Well, I will start out with the big news of the week.  We baptised!  Guadalupe Herrera Coc is officially a new member of the church.  It was such a great baptismal service.  Everything worked out so well.  I think it was one of the best baptismal services ever done in the history of baptisms in Guatemala.  Usually baptisms start 2 hours late, there's usually people playing soccer, and there never seems to be water to fill up the font.  Well, this time things all worked out and it came together really nicely.  Our ward is the stake center so it has been really nice having really responsible members to help us out.  On Friday we were actually really worried because we didn't have any dessert for the service, so we called the Relief Society President and asked what we could do.  She just told us not to worry about it because she had already made a couple cakes and a punch.  Amazing!  That never happens in Guatemala.  They really support us.  The baptism was so great because Guadalupe, 57 years old, was the last of 3 sisters to get baptised and prepare to be sealed to the family.  Her 80 year old mother has prayed for 40 years that this day would come and it finally had come true.  They were all crying, including Guadalupe, and the Spirit was incredible.  She's going to be a great member of the church.  1 year she'll be able to go to the temple.  Exciting. On Tuesday night we went to the Lopez family, the poor family that we had been teaching.  We hadn't been able to pass by due to trunkiness of my last companion, but we thought we really needed to go past.  When we went back, they almost didn't want anything.  They were completely opposite to what they were like before.  It was a tense lesson because I felt at the beginnning of the lesson that they were going to tell us to leave and never come back.  They just had question after question, ridicule after ridicule about the church.  One of their main concerns was that they felt so bad at church because of how poor they are and their clothes.  It was a long lesson and after all of it, we were able to testify to them and we all felt the Spirit.  When we ended the lesson, Marvin told us that they needed 4 days.  At the end of 4 days of reading and praying, they would have their answer.  Well, we invited them to an activity the following day and told them we would be passing by Saturday night.  Well, we showed up late to the activity on Wednesday because of an important appointment we went to, and right in the middle of the cultural hall was the Lopez family, laughing and having a great time talking to friends.  It was great.  They also enjoyed the baked chicken which was a huge plus because they never have food.   So we knew that we needed a miracle if they were going to get their answer.  We knew we weren't going to be able to do it alone, so we started praying and fasting like I never have before for them.  We showed up on Saturday night for the appointment and the family was there waiting for us.  The first thing Marvin and Mary said was, "Oh we're so glad you're here, we thought you weren't going to come."  They invited us in, we sang and said the prayer.  After the prayer we asked how they were doing.  Marvin said, great.  We couldn't be better.  We asked if they had been reading the book of mormon.  They had read from 1 Nephi 5 to 2 Nephi 1 and had been praying in those days.  He said he wasn't sure about their answer until right at the end of reading.  In the begining of 2 Nephi 1 it talks about the covenant the Lord made with Lehi and his family that they would recieve the promised land as long as they kept his commandments.  Marvin asked, "Do you think you could recieve a promised land spiritually?  I think that the Lord, if we follow him and are baptised, he will give us that promised land in our life."  We asked him what he thought he and his family should do then.  He said, "I think we need to make that covenant."  It was amazing!  They're so good to go and we put the goal for the 17th of June for their baptism right before sacrament meeting.  That way we can really prepare them and make sure they are ready.  If they are ready before then, we will baptise them the 12th of June.  It's so exciting.  They're so strong, and the Lord has worked miracles with that family.   We also were contacting and I felt like we should go back to a family that we had contacted a couple months back, familia Paiz Gomez.  They were the ones that had a book of mormon and didn't know where it had come from.  We went back and say the Mom out front.  We asked if we could talk out front with her and her kids.  Her name is Maria.  We sang and prayed, and started asking her questions.  After about 5 minutes she told us that she wanted to change.  We explained to her that that change is called repentance and that that was what she wanted.  We then read her Moroni 8:25, which talks about the first fruits of repentance being baptism.  We talked about it for 5 minutes and challenged her and her two kids, Otto and Cindy, to be baptised on the 16th of June, and they all accepted.  The Spirit was strong and she knew exactly what she had to do.  We went back and taught them last night and it was great.  At the end of the lesson she told us that she just asked her mom how she could know which church was true, and knows that this is the church she has been waiting for.  Amazing.   So all and all we were able to put baptismal dates with 6 investigators this week.  As a zone we were able to put 18 baptismal dates.  That is a tremendous growth here and we are feeling the Spirit of the work.  We are hoping to find and put dates with 4 more investigators this week.  It's just going to be amazing.   I am loving being with Elder Proctor.  He's great and has a love for the work that I admire.  I know that we are going to be able to do great work here in Coban if we are willing to trust in the Lord.  Well, I had to do a survey for the mission so I have kinda run out of time.  I love you guys and pray for you everyday.  It's super exciting to hear about Jenny's new job.  Hope Mom and Dad are doing well in Ecuador.  I am great and loving the work.  The church is true, the sky is blue.  Love you guys. Elder Lloyd

Happy Mother's Day

Hey family,

¿Que tal les va la onda por allí?  =)  Things are great here in Coban.  I sure loved talking to you guys last night.  Sometimes it's nice to talk to some normal people in English.  Talking to other gringo missionaries is hard sometimes because half of our vocabulary is Spanish now and we just speak in what we think is "normal English."  Really though, it was a delight talking to you.  Although the homesickness is inevitable after you have talked to your family.  That's ok though, I just washed it down with some pudding and A and W Rootbeer that I had in the fridge.  =) 

Sounds like everybody is doing really well.  I have been blessed throughout my mission to have my family stay safe and in fairly good help (even though we could all afford to lose a few pounds.)  ;)  There are some elders in the mission that really have to worry about what's going on home. Some even worry about how active their parents and siblings are.  I have been blessed.  I have also seen the blessings that have come to you guys as I have been serving.  The Lord has been answering my prayers.  I feel that as I am serving here, you have all grown spiritually.  I hope you guys keep it up.  I'm not going to lie, I'm pretty proud when I tell people that my parents are temple workers. 

Things are good here.  Today was a great, calm p-day.  We were able to play some soccer.  I honestly haven't liked soccer my whole mission but today was actually the first time I have liked it.  I haven't been playing for the past 2 months but today played for the first time.  Not to brag or anything, but I did make 5 goals.  I think I'm Messi's long lost twin.  We then were able to go eat a triple bacon burguesa from McDonald's.  That was awesome because they gave me a large drink and fries without even charging me.  Then we went and bought cereal and now we're using internet.  Pretty exciting.  Elder Proctor was able to find some Ecco shoes in a paca for 50 quetz, so that was awesome.  His shoes were getting worn out so we had to find some new ones today.  We prayed before we went out that we might be able to find some good ones.  What do you know, just his size in a paca for 6 dollars.  It's just like all the car windshields say here in Guatemala, "Regalito de Dios." 

We are getting excited for this weekend for the baptism of Guadalupe.  She is for sure going to be baptized.  Yesterday we were able to plan all the details with her and she was really excited.  She's going to be baptized Saturday at 6pm.  We'll send you the pictures. 

As for that, we are just looking for new investigators like crazy.  Sometimes you look and can't find.  That's hard but we know they're there.  We just gotta work hard and the Lord will provide.  We have been fasting a lot too.  We shall see what this next week brings. 

We have a conference with President Watts this Thursday.  We are pretty exited for that.  We have 9 new Elders in the zone out of the 20, so it will be really good to get everybody settled and excited to work.  Our zone has been struggling with the work.  We only have 7 baptismal dates placed in the entire zone so we are putting a goal of having 2 new dates in each area this week with a totally of 18 new baptismal dates in the zone.  With faith, we know it's possible.  Talking a lot with my companion, we have figured out what the problem is with the zone.  We were wondering why we aren't having success.  We figured out that sometimes missionaries are sometimes so busy being missionaries that they forget the purpose of being a missionary, inviting to come unto Christ through baptism.  Baptism is the gate of the path to eternal life.  Without inviting people to be baptized, we are just standing in front of the gate being a cool distraction.  If we present the Book of Mormon, testify, and invite, people will get baptized.  It's gonna happen.

By the way, I wanted to let you know my companion has a blog.  His name is Kyle Brady Proctor.  You should look him up.  Last night his parents found my blog and were looking at my pictures.  Haha. 

Well, don't have much to say this week because of the phone call.  Thanks again for all the love and support.  Hope you have a good week.  Just wanted to share this last scripture

2 Nephi 28:24.  Think about it.

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Changes!

Hey guys,

Well, it's transfer week and things are just as crazy as the last time.  We had 8 Elders and Sisters in our zone that had changes out of the zone and 4 that our going to be training and have to go to the capital to pick up their kids. So I have the same routine with the bus tickets, waking up at 2am and huge amounts of Elders sleeping in the house this week.  As crazy as it is, I really like it.  It might be the most exciting part of being zone leader in Coban (except for chasing the Elder through the streets and having to lock him in the house).  =)  All in all things are good. 

Our investigators are doing well.  Marvin and Mari were not able to go to church yesterday because their children were really sick.  They have a little 2 year old that was so malnourished that his belly was swelling up like those kids you see from Africa.  They were able to take him to the hospital and he seems to be doing better.  Now it just seems like their kids have all got the flu. Because of that, they didn't have too much time to listen this week either, but I'm not giving up hope.  They are still completing with reading assignments and praying.  Also, whenever we go over there they seem really glad to see us.  They said that for this Sunday they will definitely go to church.  We're just going to keep visiting with them and see how things go.  I definitely think they'll be good for the 26th though.

Guadalupe is as great as ever.  She went to church this Sunday without us even reminding her that morning.  We were in a lesson with her and she had one of her daughters there.  She interrupted what I was saying and said, Sorry, but I don't think my daughter knows I'm getting baptized the 26th.  I just wanted to make sure she knew.  She's awesome.  She's telling everybody about it and she's super excited.  The other day she and all her neighbors had their water cut because of not paying the bill so we went over and pulled water from a well with a rope and a bucket.  That was pretty fun, but man were my arms sore afterwards!  It was also cool to see that there is actually clean water naturally in at least one place in Guatemala.  =)  She's good for the 19th.

Densil, not so great.  He got a job at a carwash and he's been working from 7am to 7pm and it seems like he doesn't want to listen too much in the night time.  He also works on Sundays now so he can't go to church.  But, we're not giving up and will always keep passing by.  We're going to see if we can get him another job.  He's only making about 60 dollars a month as well which is very little.  We'll see. 

We have a lady named Alma Tigueros, the wife of our ward mission leader, that we started teaching more seriously this week.  She has actually gone to church a lot already but it has been hard because they live so far away in another area.  But we finally started going over and teaching her and were able to put a baptismal date with her as well.  She put the goal for the 19th as well and we'll be working hard this week. 

My companion has a change to the capital.  He is really bummed because he spent 18 months out of the capital and only had 3 months out of the capital before having to go back.  That place really is horrible.  It's like Soddom and Gomorrah down there.  Every Elder hopes and prays that he won't get sent back.  But, I really think it will be good for him.  With all the baptismal interviews we’ve had to do, we only had about 5 lessons with investigators.  Translated into layman’s terms, that's not a lot.  But I am trying to stay positive and hoping for the best. 

There is an Elder Ware from Polochic that has a change to Coban.  That's a really weird transfer because he is speaking all Kekchi in his area right now and would go to mostly Spanish with some Kekchi, unless he is going to be Zone Leader.  So I have a feeling he is going to be my companion.  If so, I am really excited.  He is one of the best Elders I have met in the mission.  He's awesome and one of my best buds in the mission.  He's got one transfer less than me in the mission but he's super chispas.  He also knows kekchi and would be able to teach me so I am pretty stoked to find out.  It's between him or Elder Dilworth, brother of Andre and Collin, two of the guys I worked with on the moving crew.  Slim chances to get him as my companion but that would be cool as well.  De todos modos, I know the Lord will send who this area needs.  I'm excited to get working again. 

Things in Coban are ridiculously hot!  I've never felt this kind of heat in Coban.  It's starting to feel like Peten.  =)  Any time I start to mentally whine, I remind myself that it was about 15 degrees hotter in Peten all the time.  It makes me laugh a little bit.  Rain or shine, Coban is still amazing.  I love it here.  Hope I can stay for a long while longer.  We shall see.  Love you all.  Have a great week. 

Love,

Elder Lloyd