Brrrrr.

Hey fam,
 
Hey, sorry I don't have too much time to write because I had so much mail!  Things are going great here and I am going to really quick tell a little bit about what happened this week and today. 

The change in climate has made me a little sick.  Well, a lot sick with a cold and I think I might have sinus-itis (however you spell that).  But, I think I might be getting better.  It's just a little hard because our water heater on the shower broke and it makes me more sick every morning, but tomorrow we are going to buy a new one. 
 
We were able to put a date for baptism on the tenth of march with a couple and a little nine year old kid this week.  We also are trying to work with the members to be able to get some references and start working with them.  The members here are awesome.  People  have always told me that zone leaders always get the best and biggest areas and wards to work with.  Our ward is about 150 active people and we have a goal to get the attendance up to 200.  This week was a little rough as far as visits though because I was sick and my companion is a little chambón(lazy.)  But, this week is going to be good and we are going to work a lot harder. 
 
We have some awesome elders and sisters in our zone.  12 elders and 6 sisters.  Two of the areas in our zone were able to get over 20 new investigators each just in this week.  That's crazy good. They really know how to work.  As a zone leader it is a little crazy because we are in charge of everybody and out area is huge.  We are in the center and just to get to one of the areas in Tanchi it's 2 hours in a few different buses.  We are also in charge of recieving any of the elders or sisters that come from the capital to go to coban, polochic, or verapaz at the bus station and buy tickets for those going to the capital.  We also have to deal with fighting elders in the zone.  That is the worst part.  But, for the most part it's good. 
 
Tomorrow president watts is coming and doing conferences and interviews.  That should be really great.  We also are going to be doing divisions with the assistents to the president, one of which was just the zone leader here before we came so that will be really good for us.  That way he can show us around a little more. 
Well, times up.  I love you all and hope you are having a great winter.  =)  Weather is absolutely perfect here.  All the time.  Just a little cold at night.  Have a great day and eat some lasagna for me.  The church is true!!!!!!!!!
Love
Elder Lloyd

Coban

Hey guys,

Well, as you read, I am now in Coban.  It is amazing here.  I am the new Zone Leader here with my companion Elder Navas. He has 19 months in the mission and is a great guy.  He is really good with the other missionaries and it seems like it's going to be a great time here with him.  He was in the capital for all 19 months of his mission and this is the first time he has ever left the city so he is really excited.

I'll start from the begining and try to tell everything that has happened in the past week.  Monday night Elder Adams took off on the 10 hour bus ride to the capital and I stayed with Elder Miller and Elder Rodriguez in San Jose.  We spent all Tuesday saying goodbye to our investigators and the members and packing our bags.  Then on Wednesday morning we went to the Zone Leaders' house in Peten to be able to wait for the phone call from the Assistents with changes.  They then informed me of my change to Coban and that I would be Zone Leader and told us to go to the bus stop and get to Coban.

Well, we got to the bus terminal and waited for the 1 o clock bus to Coban but it didn't show up.  So, after stressing a little we figured that we could get there but we would have to go in 3 trips to get there.  So that's what we did.  I was with Elder Miller and a Sister missionary.  Interesting because we first went to Sayaxche, out in the middle of nowhere, and crossed a river in a little boat with all our luggage.   That was probably the coolest part.  Then we got on another microbus with 35 people and crossed through the narrow neck of land right on the border of mexico through the "coconut farms."  Ya, definitely drugs.  Then we got to a small town called Raxhuja, even more in the middle of nowhere.  Well, when we got there we found out that the next bus to Coban had gotten in a wreck the day before and would not be going to Coban that day.  Also, there were no buses headed back to Peten that night.  So it was a little bit sketchy but I was able to get a guy to take us in his microbus all the way.  It cost the mission a pretty penny, but we were able to make it back to Coban on time.  It was a weird ride because there was a french couple that were with us also and the lady kept getting really bothered when the driver turned up the music.  She was screaming a mixture of French, Spanish, and English.  Also, about and hour and a half into the trip they stopped off the side of the road and bathed themselves in a river.  The french lady was livid!  But, we got there ok.

And now I am here.  The area, amazing.  The house, amazing. And the missionaries serving in my zone, really good.  I think more than anything I like the temperature.  During the day when you are in the sun, it is still pretty strong, but there is always a good breeze.  And at night, it gets sooo cold.  =)  It got down below 70 degrees in our house last night.  Sooooo rico.  The house is also a mansion.  It's super big because anytime there are changes in our zone, baja verapaz, or polochik, the Elders come and stay in our house for a night.  The night I got there we had 32 missionaries for the night.  It was pretty fun because we ordered 15 dominos pizzas.  Oh and I have a queen sized bed.  Again, rico.

The members here are really good.  We have a couple of young men that are preparing for their missions that have gone out with us and shown us the area.  It is really a large area and we have everything.  We have city, stick houses, and everything in between.  We were out proselyting the other day and we had an appointment at the church in 10 minutes and I asked one of the kids how far we were away from the church.  He told me, well, here we're about 8 Kilometers from the chapel.  What?!  That was a surprise.

There is one story from this week that I did really want to share.  We were out meeting some of the members in our ward and were walking back the main area when a man came running and shouting after us, Hermanos!  Hermanos!  He was crying and told us he wanted us to come back with him and pray for his son.  We went with him and followed him to his house.  He actually lived on the very top of this really big hill in a stick house.  We went in and his son was horrible.  He was laying on the ground and just shaking and his eyes were all rolled back.  I have never seen anybody that sick.  Well, we gave him a blessing.  Then we gave a quick spiritual thought.  The man said that he knew his son would be healed and he wanted us to come back the next day to see him.  Now, this was after a month of his son already being practically unconcious.  Well, we went the next day and his son wasn't there.  We were surprised because he wasn't there and asked what happened.  Apparently he had healed and walked to the hospital to be able to get help because he was so malnourished.  He was healed!  What a strong testimony to me and the others who were able to participate in that experience that the priesthood is real.  I know it is.  I know it works by faith.  I know that by faith, the Lord can give us all that we ask.  I know this gospel is true and that our Father loves us.

Well, time's up.  Ask me questions in my next letters.  I'll try to answer them all.  It's going to be interesting figuring things out in the next week. By the way, the Doctor over all of Central America is coming to Coban tomorrow and wants my companion and I to give him a tour of the zone.  Haha.  Who knows how we're going to do that.  Oh well, he's buying us McDonalds.  =)  I love you all.  Talk to yous later.
Love,
Elder Lloyd

Transfers

Hey fam,

Well, I have a transfer this Wednesday.  I still don't know exactly where I am going or who my companion is, but I do know I'm not going to the capitol, so I'll be in either Coban, Baja Verapaz, Peten, or Polochik.  Oh ya, my companion is going to be training here in San Andres.  Crazy!

Well, sounds like things are going really well with everybody.  Thanks for the letters.  Now I am going to try and pound out this letter so that maybe I can send some pictures afterward.  

The first thing I wanted to write about was the wedding.  It was great!  You would not believe how ridiculously late people come to weddings here!  The bride and groom were 1 hour late and the lawyer, which does the actual ceremony, was 2 hours late!  I couldn't believe it!  The we had to leave the church and run over to the lawyer's house 15 minutes away to be able to wake him up from a nap and get him there!  Oh well, it happened.  We were able to work with all the branch members to get them fancy clothes and also make food for afterward.  Being so poor they had nothing to wear, but they were looking super nice with the help of the members.  

It was a super good wedding.  I felt a little bad because Amalia speaks Kekchi and only a little Spanish and her parents speak absolutely zero Spanish, so they were a little overwhelmed.  I think she was a little embarrassed being the center of attention.  We got some good pictures.  The funniest one is of the kiss.  Haha.  It was so awkward looking.  I'll attach the picture. The food was also delicious.  My chicken that I bought turned out amazing.  We were able to use a bakery's huge oven to cook it really cheap and deliciously.  After the wedding it started poring down rain so everybody stayed in the church to not get wet.  We had to stay and clean up so not much work other than the wedding got done that day.  But, who cares, they're married and definitely both excited for their baptism this Saturday.  

Another thing that I really wanted to tell about was that I made lasagna for district meeting on Wednesday.  /=^)  That was amazing.  I have gone way to long without it and it was about time since it's the month of my birthday.  I figured it would be a good opportunity to make it in our last meeting together.  It was super tasty and actually not to expensive to make.  It was funny because we used a bunch of little personal packages of spaghetti sauce to do it. 

I think one of the greatest miracles that has happened to me happened this week.  I learned alot about putting goals, fasting and prayer.  I don't know if I told you guys about it, but we put a goal this week of finding somebody new, teaching them and then putting a specific baptismal date for the 10th of March with them.  Well, last Sunday we really fasted and prayed to be able to meet that goal.  I have to admit, sometimes in my mission it has been easy to put goals and then never think about them again, and just not really strive to get them, but this one was different.  I really wanted to see what would happen.  So we went through the week working and trying to find them, but it just wasn't happening.  Honestly, this week has been kinda hard compared to some of the last weeks.  A lot of our appointments were falling through and we weren't having much luck finding new investigators.  Well, we had had a referral for a couple of weeks that we had never been able to contact because the member never was willing to go with us.  But we decided to try and contact it.  Well, when we got there, the lady was there.  She said that she had talked to 4 or 5 sets of missionaries before and had never been too interested, but lately she has been feeling the need to talk again.  Well, within 20 minutes, she had asked us when she could be baptized and we all agreed on the 10th of March.  She came to church yesterday and seems to really be progressing.  She has 3 or 4 kids that are members.  It was a miracle.  

Well, transfers.  My companion is super afligido!  Haha.  You should have seen the size of his eyes when the Zone Leaders called and told me he would be training.  What's even harder is that the 2 other Elders in our district have changes also and Elder Adams will be the only one staying to show the others about the areas.  It's probably my fault, I may have told president in a letter that my companion was fluent in the language, great with the people, and ready for any assignment needed.  Whoops... =)  He'll be great though.  

Now I am just anxiously waiting to here about my change.  Tonight Elder Adams goes to the capital at 9pm and I stay with the other 2 elders in my district.  Tomorrow night Elder Rodriguez goes to the capitol for his change, and Wednesday Elder Miller and I will find out our changes.  I send pictures next week.  I'm super excited!  These last 3 changes have flown by though!

Well, picture time.  Love you all.  Have a great week and stay well and happy.  

Love,

Elder Lloyd

¡5 Tarantulas in our house this week!

Hey Family,

Well, let’s see if I can write a lot in this letter.  This was an amazing week!   The baptisms were wonderful.  You could really see their testimonies grow through all of the excitement of preparing for and performing the baptism.  It was awesome.  

Well, Mom had a ton of questions so I am going to try and answer all of them.  One was how our member involvement is in the Branch.  We are trying to work really hard with referrals rather than doing much contacting.  That is a new goal of the mission, to not tract too much but to be involved and using the members.  They are pretty good at giving referrals if we make sure and show them we love them and are there to serve.  As for going out and visiting with us, they aren't the greatest.  Lots of people say they'll go but when it comes time to go, they kind of flake.  Oh well, we can walk faster without them.  ;)  There are a few that work with us every once and awhile.  We do really try to take the members with us as we contact the referrals they have given us. 

Tracting here definitely does not work.  Guatemala is so weird.  If you get in on a tract here, you have no idea where the lesson is going to take you.  Yesterday we were tracting and got nicely invited in to give a lesson.  After singing and introducing ourselves, the man introduced himself and then started screaming at us that we were liars and that we were going to “heck”.  Weird.  He started calling us angels of Jose Smith and all sorts of other things.  The great thing is that I never feel scared in those situations.  The Lord always protects us.  He gives us the safety to quietly but powerfully bare testimony of the truth and invite the person to listen, and then always allows us to leave unharmed.  

Tracting also brings other strange things, such as fleas, scorpions, dogs, pigs, parrots, poisonous caterpillars on your arms, or even witchcraft.  That's the weird one here.  There are a lot of people in our area that believe in and practice witchcraft.  It's just not that great to tract.  

We didn't have a ward mission leader here so it was a bit difficult.  Our branch president is a little weird and does things his own way instead of following church protocol.  I went up to him last Sunday and suggested a person that might be good to be our mission leader and within 30 seconds he had entered quorum meeting and was setting that person apart to be ward mission leader.  Definitely not how it should be.  Man...  Oh well.  We are working hard with our ward mission leader now and he really is doing well.  He organized everything for the baptism and we didn't have to worry about anything.  It was soooooo nice.  First time that has happened. He's cool.  He's 19 and he's just about got his papers in for his mission.  It'll be cool to hear where he goes.  

There is one family that I am really getting close to here.  They are the Soza Monterroso family.  They are the first family that joined the Church here in San Andres.  They are really supportive of us and always want to help in the work.  We are trying to teach as many of the referrals as they give us and we are seeing some success.  

As for my shoes, they are doing ok.  I had one pair of rockports that got a hole in the sole that were getting quite uncomfortable, but I had a guy try and find a new sole and resole them for me.  Well, that didn't go too well.  He got a really tiny sole and the shoes don't fit at all.  Not to mention they make me look like Mickey Mouse.  Oh well, I have my other pair of Eccos and my Ecco boots.  They're slower to wear down, but I think they'll hold through the rest of my mission.  

It's almost time for transfers again.  I am thinking I might be training again because there are a large amount of new missionaries coming in.  We'll see.  

The great news of the week is that the young family that lives in the 8' by 8' house has a baptismal date for the 18th of February.  They all came to church this last week and are super excited.  We just need to marry them and make sure they keep coming to church.  We are really excited for them and as long as we stay on top of things, they will definitely be baptized.  Also, if they come to church these next two weeks we will be able to move their baptismal date for the 11th before our transfers on the 14th.  It's going to be great.  

The bad thing about that family is that they fed us on Friday...  Oh....  Not good.....  The water they used for everything, including the more or less liter and a half of juice we drank, was collected in a bucket from the rain water that falls from their tin roof.  Needless to say I have really bad diarrhea.  I have never had food affect me so bad in my life.  It even gave me a fever that Friday night.  I've never had such bad diarrhea in my life.  Last night was crazy.  It got so bad that I took out the prescribed diarrhea pills from my first aid kit.  The only thing is I was reading it and it said, 'May cause some severe side effects, including in some cases death.'  Well, no thanks.  Not going to die to stop diarrhea.  Anyways, if it doesn't stop tonight I'll call the nurse and see what I have to do. It's not been too cool.  Oh well, as long as I just drink 7up it seems to be ok.  Don't worry, I'll get over it.  Good thing is they're getting baptized.  I am never eating there again though.  

Well, on that note, I have to go.  The last question was if kids in Guatemala have Seminary.  They do.  Here it is at 5am every morning before school.  I thought 6:30 was bad!  Have a great week.  The church is true.  Christ lives.  He helps me in every moment of my life.  Until next week!

Love,

Elder Lloyd

P.S.  ¡5 Tarantulas in our house this week!

Baptisms

Hey,

Well, a great week.  Things went really well.  We had 3 baptisms!!!!!!!!!!  Well, 4, but one was 8 so it was a ward baptism.  Who cares, it was a super happy weekend!  We also had brownies, which were super good.  

The baptism was great.  It was a little intense because our District Leader is pretty new so he hasn't done too many baptismal interviews.  Well... he didn't pass one of our investigators so he said they wouldn't be able to be baptized this weekend.  But, after calling the Zone Leaders, he found out that there was no problem and he went back and told the family that he actually did pass.  Meanwhile, I was in the other area of San Jose and didn't know any of this was happening.  I guess Elder Adams was super stressed out thinking the baptism wasn't going to happen.  Oh well, everything worked out and they were all baptized.  

Marcelo, Mileimi, and Evelyn were baptized, completing their family of members.  Also, Alex was baptized.  They are all awesome and are going to be great members.  

I'm running out of time, so I am going to have to make this short.  It's always hard to load pictures and write an email at the same time.  Things are going great in the work here in San Andres.  We are working hard with Toni and Bertha.  They have completely given up drinking coffee and are ready to be baptized as well this weekend the 21st.  It was quite a miracle that they gave up coffee.  They were drinking 6 yo 10 cups of coffee every single day and just gave it up because of a lot of prayer on their part and fasting on ours.  It was so fast!  There's also this thing called Morcaf that a lot of members drink here that is a coffee made of burnt cereals that is approved by President Watts to drink, but we didn't even have to give them that.  They just dropped it.  So, they'll be baptized this week too.  

We are also working with a younger lady Thania that just got married to a returned missionary in our ward.  She knows that everything in the church is true and that she needs to be baptized, but she really just is scared to put a date.  I know she'll have a date for baptism this week.  We'll see.  Anyways, I got to go.  Have a great week everybody.  Keep the letters coming.  They're nice to get. =)  Sorry for the super short email.  Love you.

Elder Lloyd

Smokin' Hot

Hola familia mia,

¿Como les va?  Ojala que todo esté bién.  Todo está bien calidad aquí in San Andrés y esperamos que todo salga bién esta semana que viene.  Pero ¡que calor!  Ok, not going to write in Spanish.  Things are going really well.  We had a busy, hard, fun, good week.  Really things are going awesome and we are having great success.  I'm really tired right now though and I am really having a hard time typing.  Oh well.  

Not a lot happened this week.  We have been working and teaching like dogs this week.  We've just been trying to get things ready for the 3 baptisms we are going to have this week and the 2 next week.  Alex Colindres, Marcelo Gioveldo, and Merli Mileimi are going to be baptised this week and then the following week will be Toni and Bertha Cano.  We're soooooooooo excited!  We just picked up the baptismal clothes this morning and are going to buy some things for refreshments.  We are really hoping all of them come through.  

We got a new promising investigator this week.  Her name is Dania.  She just got married to one of the return missionaries in our ward and seems pretty interested in what we have to teach.  We have only been able to pass by twice, but we are really thinking that she will progress in a short amount of time.  

We got to go do service this Saturday morning with a recent convert from the other Elders' area in San Jose.  We all took our machetes and went over to clear out weeds in a garden.  It's called chapiar, and it's the worst idea ever.  It's pretty much weed-eating without the luxury of a weed-eater.  Luckily this time I walked away without chopping into my leg.  This was actually the first time I have used a machete since I cut myself in the last transfer.  It went well and then we were able to go to the guy's house to eat chicken head soup with tortillas.   Mmmmmm, yummy.  It wasn't too bad.  

I'm really liking jello here.  One thing about here is that sometimes it's so hot that you don't really even feel like eating.  But jello is like a mix between food and water, so it's become a regular item for me.  

This week has been a really good one with respect to the work and all the baptisms we're having, but there is one thing that has come as a surprise.  I don't know what it was about this week, but it seems like a lot of houses that we showed up to, there were people out showering in their front lawn.  It's so weird!  The weird thing is that when you walk up to greet the family and notice it, they don't think anything of it.  It's just weird.  It kinda makes me scared to visit them again.  

Well, I'm struggling with things to think of and it's almost time to go.  Not much happened as far as crazy stories or anything this week, but the work is going so well.  Have a good week.   You're always in my prayers.  

Love,

Elder Lloyd