Week 88... TRANSFERS!!!

Hello Everybody!  

 

This week was pretty good but sooo fast!   I am not really sure why, but me and Elder Nanto were both talking, and we both feel like half of the week just kinda blurred together, and we can't really remember...  but hey, it happens.

 

Ignacio was at church again!   However, this time, Trinidad did not come with him.  Not sure why, come tomorrow, we have a lesson to figure it out.   She is still kind of shakey, but Ignacio is progressing super well.   Once he gets baptized, I am confident his family will follow.  Trinidad for sure, and I am confident that  Trinidad will get baptized and they have a lot of family that lives there that currently wont listen to us.  Their 40ish year old son did thank us the other day for what we do because he has noticed a good change in Ignacio.   So the roots are definitely planted, but now isn't the harvest.  Once Ignacio gets the Gift of the Holy Ghost, things will start moving a lot in that house for sure.

 

We also had Hermana Torrez at church.   That made me very very happy.  When I first got to this area, she came with her daughters once, then hasn't come since.  Her daughters came one other time with out her.   Well, I watched their family pass through very very hard times, and I really don't like that to happen, well they stopped talking to us, then they finally started again like a month ago, and now she is at church. It feels sooo good to know that I was privileged enough to help them become active again.   I love my mission soo much! I am very grateful for my service.

 

Alma 37:37 reads "Counsel‍ with the Lord in all thy doings, and he will direct thee for good; yea, when thou liest down at night lie down unto the Lord, that he may watch over you in your sleep; and when thou risest in the morning‍ let thy heart be full of thanks unto God; and if ye do these things, ye shall be lifted up at the last day."  I like this a lot.  Daily prayer is a very strong tool that we have. Through prayer we can come closer to Christ and know God's will for us so that we may live according to His will.  I challenge you all to take the advice of Alma and to really counsel with the Lord at all times and for everything, and you will have His spirit with you more abundantly.

 

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Lloyd

Week 87!!!

Hello Everyone!

So its Columbus day again.   I'm not really sure why we like to shut down all the libraries on p-day, but ya know.  Whatever.

This week was good!   Highlight from this week: we went to Ignacio's house on Monday, I think, to talk a bit, review Conference and stuff.  We walk in and Trinidad, his wife, was being really friendly and stuff.  She has been not very willing to talk to us lately.   Back in the day they went to Oregon to see Ignacio's dying brother and he bore testimony of the Virgin Mary and Trinidad got re converted to the Catholics.  Well, on Monday we went in there and she is all hey, I have good news!  Then went away for awhile.  We talk to Ignacio for a bit, she walks by and I'm all hey, whats this good news??  Then she tells this story about how she was trying to get a passport and stuff all figured out, but accidentally left it in a shopping cart on the road.  It's really important cuz it costs like $700 to replace and someone could steal her identity.  She prayed really really hard for like a few hours, finally was able to retrieve her passport and stuff and it was kept safe.  Now she knows for fact that God lives and although she was being stubborn, and wouldn't talk to us or anything, now she realizes that this is God's will for her, then she apologized for being so rude to us and ignoring us.  Then, she said a closing prayer and in that prayer, pleaded for forgiveness and to be pardoned and promised she will take the church seriously again.  She was the only thing holding back Ignacio.  They both came to church as a couple yesterday, and the ward was very happy to see them.   Ignacio had no idea of her experience till she told us all that.  He was very happy.    We didn't get another lesson with them because they had family stuff, but we did get some homemade fish tacos which were super super good.  I love fish tacos :)   We look forward to finally getting them to accept baptism.  I really do know that God loves each of his children and He cares about what we care about.  The Supreme Governor of the Universe probably really wouldn't care too much about a passport.  In the eternal scheme of things, it really doesn't matter too much.  But being our Father, He really does care for us so he helped her out and now she is interested again.

Doctrine and Covenants 58:26-27 states "For behold, it is not meet that I should command in all things; for he that is compelled in all things, the same is a slothful and not a wise servant; wherefore he receiveth no reward. Verily I say, men should be anxiously engaged in a good cause, and do many things of their own free will, and bring to pass much righteousness;"  I like this a lot.  a lot of times we wait so long to act, really needing to be guided for everything and worrying to much about if its something we should do.   But as this scripture states, we should be always doing good things by our own accord, even if its not from the Spirit necessarily.  In doing so we will be very effective servants of the Lord.

I hope you have a good week!

Love,
Elder Lloyd

Week 86!!!

Hello!

This week was pretty good!     Turns out I have a new nephew now so that's pretty cool!

We actually spent a lot of time this week trying to work some stuff out.   Like a lot of house keeping stuff trying to keep every ones head on straight!   Like, for example, an Elder down in Hunting Beach went home.  Not really sure why.  Usually we aren't really affected by that but this time, they pulled an Elder from up here to go down and fill his spot because there is no Spanish ward down there so the Spanish Elders cover 4 white wards and translate, meanwhile there was 10 Spanish Elders in one ward up here!   So that was fun.  trying to get that all organized and stuff. It is always sad when your friends leave, but its all good!

This week at church we had a less active family there!  It was pretty cool.  She works a lot on Sunday's so it is pretty hard for her to come.   We really hope she can start coming regularly though!   She really is pretty converted to the gospel!  She reads and prays and doesn't hesitate to come to church if she isn't working, It's just she works a lot!!

Ignacio is doing well; we didn't have too in depth conversations this week.  One of our lessons was interrupted by his granddaughter that lives in river side who has a lot of very sincere desire to learn about God cuz you can tell the church she belongs too just isn't sitting right.  We had a good lesson with her and invited her to get the missionaries to her house.  She wouldn't give us her address, but I really do hope she invites them.  She will get baptized for sure.

I am super excited for conference this weekend!   Ezekiel  3:17 reads "Son of man, I have made thee a watchman unto the house of Israel: therefore hear the word at my mouth, and give them warning from me."  This talks about the calling of a prophet and why we have them.   This weekend, we have the opportunity to hear from the watchmen on the towers and to hear exactly what God wants us to hear.  I invite all of you to watch as much as conference as you can.  Go in with a question and pray and fast about it, and I promise you will receive and answer.

Have a good week!

Love,

Elder Lloyd