Good Week!

Man, the time went super-fast!  I only have 15 minutes left.  I'll try to type as quickly as I can.  We had a good week this week.  I am still working with my companion and trying to understand him a bit better.  He comes from a pretty rough background and I think he has made huge leaps and bounds coming on the mission.  He also has a really strong testimony.  Things are definitely going a lot better and we are starting to teach a lot better.  I hope that this week we can really have some good success and work hard.  

We have 4 baptisms this coming Saturday, the 12th.  Abraham, Mariana, and Sandra are brothers and sisters and their mom is already a member.  We have been working with them a really long time and they finally got a testimony.  It's been amazing seeing the great change in Abraham as he has gained faith and recognized his answer.  The other baptism is Devorly.  She's 18 and she has a ton of friends in the church.  She came to church a couple of times and we never got to talk to her until this last week.  She's awesome!  She knows everything about the church and already has a strong testimony.  We really haven't had to do anything except teach her.  She's definitely ready and excited for this Saturday.  We are really excited for this weekend and to see 4 people in white.  =)

We have been looking for some families to teach.  It seems that there are a lot of underage kids that are interested but the mission likes us to focus more on families.  It is really hard when a kid gets baptized for them to stay active as they grow up.  The other night we weren't having much success and were about to go in at 8:00 and start cooking dinner, but we felt like we should keep going.  We went and looked for a reference and they weren't there, but there was family right next to them that let us in and teach.  We put another appointment with them and they seem like great possibilities.  As we left, we noticed that the other reference just got there and we went to teach them a lesson also.  We put another appointment with them and found two new families to teach.  Awesome!  We're excited to start teaching some real families. Now we just got to see if they're married.  =)

We had a zone activity today that our district was in charge of.  All the elders and sisters from Peten came to our area and played soccer.  Afterwards we bbq'd 30 pounds of meat and ate like kings.  I haven't eaten that much meat since I left home.  It was amazing! =)  It was cool because I got to grill everything.  It was super tasty.

Well, we are super late because of the activity and I really need to get back to my area and work.  Hopefully we can get a hitchhike fast.  Love you guys.  Have a great week! Sorry for the extremely short letter.

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Chapiando My Leg!

Hey family!

How's it going?  Things sound like they're going well.  This week has been a doosy.  It seems like we didn't work at all.  It wasn't too bad, but it wasn't all that great either.  Anyway, I'll start out with all the positive stuff first and then I'll see if I have time to be negative.  ;)

Well, this is kind of negative but it was a little exciting.  This Friday we had service in the morning in San Jose.  Our branch is divided into two different proselyting areas with 4 missionaries.  We four are our own district also, so we do a lot together.  Anyway, they needed some help lending service to  an investigator family in their area so we went over there to help.  All that we had to do was mow their lawn with machetes, otherwise known as Chapiando.  Well, as I was whacking at the grass with the machete, I slipped and macheted my shin....   It wasn't too big, but it was definitely deep.  You could see the fat and muscle and even a little bit of the bone.  Yikes!  I was a little bit scared but it wasn't bleeding that much so things were ok, although my companion said that it was the first time he had seen me in Petén with my face white.  Things were ok but the only problem is that I am in the furthest area in the mission from the capital. Needless to say, the doctor's offices around here are not that great.  San Jose is 20 minutes from my area and a hitchhike from my area to San Benito where the mission aproved hospital is about 35 or 40 minutes away.  After a while I finally made it and I got stitched up.  It was definitely sketchy though.  They gave me an antibiotic shot in the pompis and as she tried to give it to me, she said "hmm, hold on, this needle is dull.  It's not breaking the skin.  Let me switch."  Hopefully I didn't get a disease.  Anyways, long story shorter, I'm fine and the wound is doing well.  I'll be a little more careful next time I'm chapiando.

We had two baptisms this Saturday.  Luis Angel and Juan Francisco were baptized and are going to be great members.  I've never  seen such awesome kids get baptized.  They sure know their stuff.  We couldn't get the mom married with her husband to baptize her. But little by little I think that the Dad will soften up.  

We are having some luck with Mariana and Abraán.  She is 12 and he is 17.  Their mom is a member and they are really progressing. Their mom was inactive for a really long time but now has come back to church with them.  Abraan is expecting to big of an answer to know that this church is true, but  I think he is starting to  understand.  We kind of put a baptismal date with them for the 12th.

Also Deby seems like a really strong possibility.  She basically just needs to be taught and she'll be baptized.

This week we aren't having church or working on Sunday because of the elections.  That will be the longest day in the house of my life!  

Wow, the time is gone.  It seems like I wrote nothing.  We had an awesome P-day trip today and hiked a mountain next to the lake to take pictures.  I'll get you the pictures next week.  It was an awesome hike through the jungle.  Luckily no jaguars got us. =)

Anyways, love you guys.  Have a great week.  Keep writing, I appreciate them a lot.  =)  

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Another Week in San Andres

Hey guys,

Well, another week in San Andres.  Things are going well.  I am really enjoying it here and hoping we get some good success soon.  Let's see what I can tell you for this week.

We have two baptisms this weekend.  Francisco and Angel.  Their Mom Rosa was going to be baptized this weekend also, but there was a secret man partner she had that we didn't know about.  It's really sad that she won't be able to get baptized because she's definitely ready, but I guess that's how it goes sometimes.  All she would have to do is talk to him and get married for free in the municipalidad, but she's too scared and doesn't even want to talk to him about it.  Oh well, she'll be baptized someday.  

We are working with another family, familia Mendez that seem to be doing well.  The wife is a member but the husband and the two kids are not.  The husband isn't really too interested but the two kids are.  They have been coming to the church for the last couple of months but just don't really want to commit.  Last time we went over there it was pretty funny because their dad who doesn't want to be baptized was scolding the kids saying, what are you thinking?! you want to serve God and follow his church, the first step to doing that is baptism.  Bauticense!  It was pretty nice to get that kind of help.  Usually it works the other way around with nonmember fathers.  We'll see.  I think they'll get baptized in the next couple of weeks.  

Other than that we are just looking for new investigators.  We have a couple of other leads but they aren't extremely strong.  I am really impressed with this ward though.  They are extremely awesome at giving us referrals.  They really live the every member a missionary motto of the church.  Not only do they give super awesome referrals, but they also commit to go out and visit them with us.  They are a little crazy though.  We live on the beach of a lake so everybody's always in party mode.  All the teenagers have super awesome motorcycles that they ride around on all day.  They're all definitely a lot more social than my last ward.  I'm having to get used to that cause I'm not the most social guy in the world.  That's ok though.  I think that's one of the reasons the Lord has sent me here.  

Things are going ok with my companion....   I have definitely figured out that although I do need to be obedient, but I also have to give my companion some space and let him do his own thing.  All that is important is that we get some good lessons in everyday and that we have the Spirit in those lessons. This whole week has kind of been a blur, but we did have some good success.  

This coming week, we are going with a guy in our ward as a district to Tikal.  I am SUPER excited for that.  The best part about it is that it's a free ride and we don't have to pay to get in because he has connections.   That should be super awesome.  

I found out that our area actually goes all the way from Lake Flores up to the Mexico border.  It just kind of never ends.  Kind of cool but we can't really go to any of it.  It would just be a waste of time because the farther you go away from our area; the more impossible it becomes to get people to church.  There's also the problem that it would take 5 days to get to the other side.  We also have the Mirador pyramids in our area.  They're bigger than Tikal but they're just all still covered in dirt.  They're working on uncovering it though.  Maybe it'll be ready for you guys in a year and a half.  Just joking, it takes 3 days on horseback to get there.  

Anyways, putting pictures on really took away from my letter writing time.  I love you guys.  I hope you are all doing well.  Thanks for the letters.  Have a great week!

Love,

Elder Lloyd

In the Jungle . . . .

Hey Fam,

Hey, well, I got my change this week.  I'm here in the northern part of Peten in San Andres near Lake Flores.  It's pretty much a really awesome area.  It is probably one of the most beautiful places on earth.  I'm doing well.  It is definitely a lot hotter here in the north though.  Although, it's been really rainy lately and everybody keeps telling me to wait for the wrath of Peten when the clouds leave.  All I know is that it hasn't gotten below 90 degrees inside our house according to my thermometer on my alarm clock.  We shall see how the wrath is.  Our area has one paved road through the center of it but other than that everything is just dirt.  We are in charge of working San Andres and the Haldea of Ixhuacut.  That's the really cool place.  Everybody lives in stick and mud houses.  Over closer to the paved road there are nicer cement houses.  So, it's got just about everything.

Our area borders the lake so we have a really cool view from the house we stay in.  That's cool and everything, but the hills going down to the beachfront are bestias!  Between the heat and the hills I'm going to lose some serious weight.  I've never sweat so much before in my life.  My area's pretty massive.  Walking about as fast as you can, it takes about an hour and a half to 2 hours to walk all the way across.  I really wanted to be able to send you guys some pictures, but I didn't remember to bring my card adapter for the computer.  Sorry, you'll have to wait until next week.

It was a pretty long day coming to my new area.  We had change conference in the capitol at 8 in the morning on Wednesday.  Then all of the elders going to Coban, Polochic, and Peten left for the bus station.  The bus to Peten left the capitol at 2pm and we pulled up at the bus stop at 12am midnight.  Man, I was tired.  Then we stayed the night at the Zone Leaders house and met our companions the next morning to go to our new areas.  Long, weird couple of days. 

My companion is a really good teacher and great with the people.  I think I am going to learn a lot this change.  Things were a little rough this first little bit but we were able to talk last night and things seem to be going well.  I think the machete will probably be going back into the suitcase though.  But, like I said, he's a great teacher and a really good guy.  I'm just really going to spend this change seeing how I can help and hopefully we can have some good success.

Our branch is pretty awesome.  There are 4 elders in total that are in charge of it.  We have about 80 people that attend.  The best part is how many ward missionaries we have and how much they help.  One of them, Carlitos, is a returned missionary that was assistant to the President on his mission.  This Sunday he got up in sacrament meeting and told the branch to give us referrals and then passed out papers to everyone to write a name now.  It was kind of weird, but it was kind of cool.  The only thing we have to do is figure out where 30 random names on papers live.  =)  The only hard thing about our ward missionaries is that the only time they can do our coordination meeting at 5 am on Tuesday morning.  Man, it's hard to get up at 4:30.

Right now we are about an hour away from my area in Flores where the Zone Leaders live.  It's weird here.  They have a full sized super market and a burger king that we just ate at.  I definitely wasn't expecting that.  But, it was definitely one of the best things everrrrrrrr.  By the way, if you haven't tried a whopper from burger king with battered and fried cheese on it, do it.  It was definitely unhealthy, but tasty.  =)  We came after coordination to come and play soccer with half of the zone for 3 hours this morning.  To get to Flores, we have to ask for a jalon, or in other words, hitchhike.  It's kind of fun.  That's how all the Elders get around here.  The scenery is pretty cool from my area to here. 

Well, that's my area.  I've still got a lot of learning to do.  We have divisions with the Zone Leaders tomorrow.  That's going to be interesting because I'm staying in my area and my companion is going to the area of the Zone Leaders.  I'm not going to know anything!  Oh well, I know the limits.  At least we'll be able to work hard. 

Sounds like everything's going well back home.  I'm an uncle again!  Thanks a lot for the pictures of Henry.  I like the name.  He looks awesome.  You guys are pretty lucky to be able to take your trip over the DC and New York and be able to see him when you're there.  I'm actually a little jealous.  I'll have to wait another year and a half to see him.  Oh well.  Tell him I said Hi.  =)

I am SUPER excited to hear that Cody has his mission papers in!  That is fantastic!  Man, I am so glad!  That will be super awesome for him.  Tell him good luck and let me know as soon as you find out where he is going.  Maybe he'll join me down here in Guatemala.  =)  Also cool that Eli is leaving soon.  It's cool to see that everything is working out for all my friends to get out. 

Well, I'm trying to think if there is anything else to say.  We didn't have a toilet seat when I got into the house.  That was lame...  I am not leaving this city without first buying a toilet seat and taking it home.  Nasty!  Also, toilet paper has been a concern.  Lined paper for writing is not cutting it.  Anyways... I think I should just end the letter.  I love you guys.  Hope you have a great week.  I'm praying for you and hoping that all goes well on your trip. Until next week!
Love,
Elder Lloyd

Baptisms and a Transfer

Well, I don't have a ton of time after doing all of those photos and stuff.  I will tell you all of the important stuff though.  This week was fantastic.  I think this week I learned what it means to be a missionary.  We worked soooooo hard and I loved it.  The baptism was wonderful.  We had 41 people show up to support.  One of them was Olga Villatoro, our investigator that will be baptized this Saturday.  I have a change though so I won't be able to see it.  Dang.  Oh well.  Remberto and Sylvia were so happy after their baptism.  We found Remberto some ties and a suit coat and white shirt that he was able to wear this weekend.  That was awesome and he looked really nice.

I have a transfer this week.  I’m kind of excited and kind of nervous at the same time.  I really have no idea where I'll be going.  We will have our change conference on Wednesday morning.  There I'll know where I'm going and who my new companion will be.  I really hope I get to go to Polochic and learn Kek'chi'.  That would be my dream.  I would also get to hike all day every day.  We'll see.  This area is pretty well set for baptisms this next change.  We are hoping for 8 or 9 in the next 6 weeks.  We have Olga this week and then the next week we have 3 more.  AWESOME!  We are seeing the fruits of our labors, and sore bruised feet.  I honestly am happier now than I've ever been just because we are serving the Lord with all our might.  That really is the best way to find happiness in this life. 

Mom asked me how I am being fed by members here.  The first two changes we got fed every once in a while because we would just hang out at members houses and my companion would ask them for food, but this change is the opposite.  About once every two weeks the Lopez family has fed us but that's it.  Other than that we cook.  As for the protein, We actually have been good about trying to eat some type of meat every day just to get a little bit.  We just went to Wal-Mart and I didn't even think to look for protein.  That would have been awesome.  We'll see where I get my transfer to.  If it's in the capital I'll definitely make sure to get some protein powder at Wal-Mart.  That place is amazing and it definitely has everything a Wal-Mart in the States would have. 

Sounds like the family is doing well.  It’s kind of a bummer that Rebecca hasn't had her baby yet.  I bet she's getting about ready to get it over with.  I'm super excited to hear the news next week when we have internet.  Sounds like you guys are gearing up for a super awesome trip to New York.  I like that place.  It definitely is a little different from here.  =)  I really hope you guys have a great trip.  You need to make sure and eat one of those fried potato things for me.  Those are good. 

Let's see, there wasn't much else this week besides just a bunch of awesome lessons.  I'm super excited for Wednesday.  We'll see what happens.  Make sure to keep me in your prayers as I make adjustments to areas and companions.  I love you guys a whole bunch.  I know this gospel is true.  I am so happy to be a part of spreading it across the earth.  Be bold with friends and family.  Share what you know is true.  Something that gives me comfort is how short this life is and really how much time eternity is.  Whatever we can do now to prepare ourselves for that time will surely help.  Trust in the Lord.  Faith in Him and desires to do good will get us far in this life.  I love you guys.  Have a great week.

Elder Lloyd

Don't Play Angry Birds

Hey family,

Happy conference week.  I hope that you all had a very great weekend and really enjoyed the sessions as did I.  I especially, like you guys, enjoyed the talk by Jeffrey R Holland.  That was awesome!  I love his talks because he doesn't ever beat around the bush, he just goes all out for it.  I really benefitted a lot from the talks during the last two days.  Also our 9 investigators that showed up to the meetings loved them.  The work is going well in this area and we are seeing lots of success.  

We had a great week.  We were able to find 10 new investigators.  In those 10 investigators there seem to be a couple of new ones that seem as though they could really progress.  We have definitely been blessed this change with investigators.  The first week we got none. But then after that week we have gotten around 10 every one of the 4 weeks after.  There honestly hasn't been a day where we've had to invent something to do.  There are always lessons.  I feel super blessed about that.  Now we are just really hoping to be able to put some baptismal dates with some of them.  We are asking, but sometimes it can take awhile.  

We had an amazing experience this Saturday night.  After the conference session we were trying to find somebody to teach with that extra hour of time that we had.  But after a little while, we really felt like we should go back to the house and end the night, make a little dinner.  Weird, cause we never go in early.  But we did and started putting water on to boil when the doorbell rang.  We went to answer and a guy was there.  He said, "Hey, my name's Arin.  I was wondering if you could teach me a little bit more about your church.  I've been searching and searching for you guys but never been able to find you.  It just so happened that as I was driving past I saw you heading into this house.  When can we talk?"  Haaaaalelujah!  We said, "Well, probably not tonight but we do have something really special tomorrow in the church."  We then told him about conference, took down his info, and invited him to come in the morning.  Well, guess who was in General conference the next morning.  Yup, our new investigator Arin.  And again in the afternoon session.  He said he loved it and wants to know more as soon as possible.  We have an appointment with him tomorrow and are even going to invite him to baptism if it feels right.  He honestly has desires to learn about Christ's church and do anything possible to do it.  I learned a valuable lesson about heeding to the promptings of the Holy Ghost.  Had we not listened and gone into the house immediately, we would not have been there and he would definitely not have seen us going into the house.  I'm so grateful that the Lord has given us that gift.  I hope I can always listen and follow His guidance.  

We have been working a lot with the Lopez family.  We are actually passing by about every other night, sometimes every night, just to make sure they are ready for their baptism.  They were having a bit of trouble with coffee but we fixed that.  =)  We actually went to the market this week and bought something called Morcaf.  It's this coffee substitute made from burnt cereal grains that all the members drink here.  It's kinda lame and basically the same thing, but it has been approved by local general authorities as ok to drink.  Well we showed up a few nights ago with this gift of Morcaf for the Lopez family.  We told them we had brought a gift for them, but they were only going to receive it if they first gave us all their coffee.  The obliged and we left the house with all the coffee in the house.  They were actually really happy and thanked us a bunch for it.  I know that deep down they knew the Word of Wisdom was important, but just needed a little bit of help to kick the habit.  Well, now there's no problem.  =)

We are really trying to help Carla get married so that she can get baptized this weekend.  Remberto and Sylvia are on track and have nothing holding them back now.  Carla's "husband" has some issues with his last names on his birth certificate so they are running into problems having a legal marriage.  I don't know, we're just gonna have some faith and hopefully by the end of the week everything will be ready to go.  That family is so special to me.  I am beginning to feel a strong love for them.  I hope that one day they can all make it to the temple and do their ordinances.  I've really enjoyed seeing them progress.  

We received a huuuuuuuge blessing this week from President and Sister Watts.  They added an extra 50 dollars to our monthly food allotment!  I am sooooo grateful they did that.  My quality of life just went up a lot.  Now I can something else besides plain cornflakes, beans, and eggs everyday.  =)  I actually was able to buy frosted flakes this week.  Although there was one blessing from eating poorly.  I weighed myself today and I've lost 30 pounds since I entered the MTC.  I haven't really noticed it but the scale doesn't lie.  Just in these 3 months I've lost 20.  I'll try not to keep up the pattern.

We were able to go to the mall today as a zone and bowl and shop at Walmart.  That was pretty fun.  Once again, it's a little weird to be in a mall as a missionary, but it was still nice to just have a good day with the zone.  Also, Walmart was awesome.  It's a completely functioning, american Walmart.  It's amazing!  And it still has beans and platanos so it's even better.  I definitely bought some chicken nuggets.  =)

We have one week left in the change and will know this sunday if we will be changed.  I definitely like this area and we are having a ton of success, but I also definitely would love a change.  I would really like to know some other area other than where I am at.  But, like I said, we are going to see a ton of baptisms in this area next change, so I wouldn't mind staying.  Who knows.  We shall see.  All I know is that I have at least one more week to work my hardest in this area and do what I can.  We'll see.

Well, the time has run short once again.  I love all you guys.  Sounds like you're still keeping up the crazy pace of life in the casa de Lloyd.  Keep up trying to learn Spanish.  One thing you should do Mom and Dad is see if you can get a Spanish for Missionaries book.  It's a pretty good book and pretty simple.  Like it says in D and C 4, if you have desires to serve God, you are called to the work.  If you wanna learn Spanish for a mission, you can do it.  

I love you guys.  Have a great week.  I love hearing from you.  Que les vaya bien!

Love,
Elder Lloyd

Excited for General Conference

Hi, it's me again,

Well, sounds like everybody had another good week this week.  Everything is going very well here in the area.  We have actually had a lot of success lately.  We have been passing by the Lopez family quite a bit later to teach.  They are kind of struggling with coffee but there is this thing called morcaf that is made from burnt cereal that they are going to buy today.  Hopefully they will give it up quickly.  We had to push the dates back another week because they all need more time to progress and Carla still needs to get married.  One thing that really stinks is that Remberto, the dad, just got a new job 6 hours away in Kiche and is moving for a year.  He leaves this Thursday.  We could hurry up and try to baptize him but he wouldn't be able to go to church in Kiche for a year so there really would be no point.  Kind of stinks, but he was asking about all the information for the missionaries over there. The problem is that he will always be working.  Oh well, we'll see. It just means that we have to leave good paperwork in the Area Book.  But we will be having our baptism with them on the 8th of October.  I definitely think it will be better that way anyways.

Let's see, we had 9 investigators in church yesterday.  =)  That was pretty awesome.  We haven't gone a Sunday in 12 weeks  without investigators in Sacrament meeting.  I'm pretty excited about that.  We also have seen a significant rise in the attendance of the ward.  When I got here we were only having about 60 people in sacrament meeting but it has been creeping up every week.  This last week the attendance was 108.  It's pretty awesome to see the ward grow a little bit.  I really don't want them to turn into a branch.  It's really kind of lame though that there is no bishop.  There just isn't anybody that wants to be or that can.  There are a lot of people that go other places to work for months on end.  Also there are not too many families that are sealed.  But, we shall see.

There is one hermano that could be a possibility for bishop.  Their family just got sealed on Saturday and it was a pretty big moment for them.  They have been trying to get their kids ready for a long time and finally reached their goal.  Awesome!  It was pretty cool because they all got up and bore their testimonies in church on the temple and their family.  It made for a really great lesson with our investigators the next class.  We talked about temples and watched the movie Together Forever.  That sure is a powerful movie.  If you guys haven't seen it for a while, I would suggest watching it again.  It's pretty good. 

Manfredo and Olga were there on Sunday.  Manfredo isn't too interested in the church; He fell asleep during the movie in our class and started snoring.  Olga is really interested though.  She said she loved church and asked if we could come by Wednesday.  We are really hoping to put a baptismal date with her this week.  She's awesome

One of the families here just had their sister come home from her mission in Peru.  The very next Sunday, yesterday, she brought a new investigator to church.  Her name is Katherine and we are going to pass by on Thursday.  =)  Awesome Sister missionary.  We also had our acting bishop give a talk yesterday.  He pretty much taught lesson 3 from Preach my Gospel.  It was soooooo awesome.  Almost half of our investigators were there and it was an amazing talk.  I was so happy he did that.  He may not be bishop but he sure is doing a great job for the ward.  He's only about 25 years old, but he just worked hard on his mission and that's what prepared him.

My companion is great.  His parents are both originally from Guatemala so he is pretty much Latino, although he didn't know Spanish before the mission.  They are all members and he has 2 brothers, both of which served missions.  He is one of the best friends I've had and we're already making plans for BYU after the mission.

Well, ran outta time.  I love you guys so much.  I hope my voice recording isn't too boring.  I hope you guys are all doing super awesome.  Have a great time this week in conference.  I'll be listening at the same time.  Well, until next time.

Love,

Elder Lloyd