Week 17- TRANSFERS!!

Hey guys!!

This week was hectic... I am super super busy right now trying to balance Average day missionary work, zone conference, and helping a few people with the Government, and getting Elder Kasen ready to go home in a week!

We had zone conference this week! I loved it allot! I learned so much from missionaries who have allot more experience then me. It was kind of long, it took up almost an entire day. But, Its okay. It really helped me to know how to be better. It was almost overwhelming to think of how to apply all that went on!

We had a super good lesson with the Estrada family that I talked about a few weeks ago. They dropped us then fell off the radar for awhile and moved. Well, just out of luck, we found them. Turns out Hermano Estrada lost his job. Right after they moved into a bigger, and therefore more expensive, apartment and signed a year contract. We had a lesson on church. They haven't been in a long time. I shared my Dad's story of losing his job not to long ago. I'm glad my Spanish is finally getting good enough to do stuff like that on the fly (with the Spirit of coarse) instead of botch a memorized "script". It was really spiritual. I cried a little bit :) so did the Hermana. I thought it went awesome and they committed to be at church for sure!! They didn't come though... It was really sad.

This week, we helped out allot with trying to get illegal immigrants sorted out with the government. It was interesting. We helped one guy get all the stuff gathered together to send in his application to become a student/worker here, we helped another guy apply for state and federal aide for college, and I helped one guy who got fined a lot of money for having unpermitted structures on his house that the previous owner put up. It was a lot of back and forth translating from the government officials and the fellars we were helping :)

I really like this scripture. Its Jacob 2:8. it reads "and it supposeth me that they have come up hither to hear the pleasing word of God, yea, the word which healeth the wounded soul" That's a pretty good one saying how if we go to church, our wounded soul will be healed. We all have wounded souls. That's just part of life. So, go to church and it will make your life smoother. simple as that.

So it being transfers this week, which is completely crazy how fast time is going, no mail to my apartment this week or i may never see it... Then next week I'll give out my new address if i was transferred.

I love you all!! Do good things!!

Elder Lloyd

WEEK 16!!

Man, time is really starting to FLY by!! It is crazy!! I guess this week was a day shorter because of the temple trip last week... but still! So many good things happened this week it was unreal!

The Alvarez family was at church again this week! Thank goodness for that! We finally got the Hermano to come to Elders Quorum with us instead of just go to primary with his little boy! Last Tuesday, we had a super super good lesson with them. We went in there and read out of 3 Nephi. We read about the destruction of everything when Jesus died. Then we watched it on The Testaments. Then we read about when he came, then watched the film, then read what he did and the effect it had on people then watched the film. It was longer then most lessons we have had but it was sooo good. The Spirit was present unbelievably strong. I silently prayed my heart out that the Spirit would testify to them about these things and their truth and for help with a testimony. We finished the film and Sonya was crying and I bore my little testimony. The Spirit was so strong it was unbelievable. It was one of the strongest times i have felt the Spirit in my life.

We had a ward party last Friday for Mother's Day. They had a really loud sound system and i couldn't hear anything... My poor drummer ears don't quite work the best anymore. Especially trying to figure out Spanish at the same time! lol. They made the missionaries sing a Spanish song. They gave us the lyrics as we walked on the stage and played some song that we have never heard. It was horrible lol. We almost did good on the last chorus. Lol. The crowd loved it though!!

A quick scripture for you all. 3 Nephi 13:24 "No man can serve two masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or else he will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and Mammon" Now is the time to choose a side. We cannot be fence sitters. If you are not progressing for good, you are digressing for the worst. Choose now who you will serve and do it the best you can!

I love you all!!

Elder Lloyd

Week 15!!!

Hey guys!

 

Sorry I am a day late this week. We went on a temple trip this morning so we had to switch our P-Day to today. 

 

This week was kinda long. It was HOT!! 95 degrees yesterday!   Far to hot to be out knocking doors!! lol.

So, I really have no time this week.  My P-Day was really abbreviated today so I can't go in depth at all. Sorry!! I'll do better next week!!
 

The Alvarez family wasn't at church this week. It was really lame. We ran into them on the street. They said they had a mother's day party Saturday night and slept in. We have a lesson today to check up and see if they are still interested. I'll let you know how it goes!!

 

I hope you all had a good mother's day!! Mine was good :) It was nice to talk to my family :)

A quick scripture for you all. Helamen 3:27 "Thus we may see that the Lord is merciful unto all who will, in the sincerity of their hearts, call upon him" I know this to be true. That through a sincere and faithful prayer, God will help us out with whatever we need. I have seen this so much in the past few months. I invite you all to try it this week and I know that as you do, you will truly be blessed.

I love you all allot!! sorry I am short on time!

Love

Elder Lloyd

Week 14!!!!

Hey guys!!

So this week was kinda slow. Not a whole lot happened. Not sure why, sometimes that just happens. But that's okay, there is always this week :)

This week we had a lesson with the Alvares Family about the Armour of God. It was good. We brought in pictures of a guy to draw the Armour of God on so the kids enjoyed it a lot while the parents got something spiritual. The brother had work yesterday, but the sister still came to church and brought their kids.

On Thursday, we had a mini exchanges (I went with one of the zone leaders for about two hours while our companions were at a meeting)  We taught a girl named Angie the first lesson. It went really well up until her 15 month old boys diaper kinda exploded. But she came to church anyway so its all good :)

On Friday, we were talking with the Luna Family. A part member family. The mom said she is from Honduras and has 22 brothers and sisters. Elder Kasen is all really?  She's all yeah   and shows us a family picture and says "they didn't have t.v. in Honduras in those days" it was pretty funny.

 

 

Elder Kasen shared this scripture in a lesson with the Luna Family and I really liked it so here it is :)

Mosiah 2:41 "And moreover, I would desire that ye should consider on the blessed and happy state of those that keep the commandments of God. For behold, they are blessed in all things, both temporal and spiritual; and if they hold out faithful to the end they are received into heaven, that thereby they may dwell with God in a state of never ending happiness. O remember, remember that these things are true; for the Lord God hath spoken it." I like that because it is true. The commandments may seem like they tie you down, but if you follow what God says, you will be happy beyond belief.

I love you all so much!

 

Until next week,

Elder Lloyd

 

WEEK 13!!!

Hey guys!!!

Man... I just don't know where to start this week! So much happened!!

The Alvares family and Hermano Lopez were at church again :) That makes it 4 Sundays in a row!!

Yesterday we went up to the Estrada's house to see if they really dropped us or not. Well, we walk up to the door and the wood door is off the hinges and we see through the metal grate door that they cleaned out the whole apartment. They said that they were moving the end of may. So we were pretty bummed. We had the general location where they moved so we were going to scrap our plans (we had no set appointments, we were contacting on the street while walking to different members homes). We turned right to go to find the Estradas, then i thought hey, lets just go check on Hno Lopez while we are here. So, i suggest it and we turn around to his house. Then, Hno Estrada runs out from behind a car and tells us how they moved this morning and we came at the perfect time. He gave us his address and told us to stop by. It was great!! So, we got them back :)

We have 17 elders in the LB 16 ward this transfer. That is a CRAZY amount. half of us is in one zone, the other half is in another zone. It is tearing the Elders, and therefore the ward, apart! So, Elder Kasen and I had the idea to make it all one zone. So, we both spend hours in lunch and companion study planning this all out. We had this whole presentation all set up. Then, we called up President Bubert and set up a lunch with him. We sat and talked for two hours about the problems with our ward and how our own zone will fix it. At first he wasn't to fond of the idea but towards the end, he really got thinking. Then we looked at the transfer board and planned it out a bit. A day later, President Bubert said he is 95% sure it is going to happen. It will improve the ward exponentially!! It will be great!!

The scripture this week is Malachi 3:10. It reads "Bring ye all the Tithes into the storehouse... and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of Hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough for you to receive it" This is pretty cool. All through the scriptures we hear don't tempt the Lord. But here He is saying "try Me. See if I wont bless you!" So, what do we have to lose? I know that tithing is a blessing. When I broke my arm right before I left, and I lost a bit of pay check, I couldn't afford to finish paying for school, and my tithing and stuff I needed to buy so i could leave. I didn't know what to do. So, I thought whatever. I have to pay my tithing. The rest will work out. So I did. And I'm still not sure how it all worked out but my school is paid in full, and I have all the things I need to be here. So, follow the Lord's council. Try it. It works :)

I love you all so much!!

Elder Lloyd

 

Also, I forgot to send this last week. It is part of my last zone. I guess my camera sat too long and turned off the timed flash. But, I am still in it and that is what is important, right? ;)

 

 

Week 12!!

Hello world!!!

   So this week was kinda slow... There was the annual Grand Prix of Long Beach this weekend so everyone was over there and not home. That's all good though!! Saturday dinner got cancelled so we went to taco bell and watched the race for about 20 minutes. I wish it was on a P-Day so we could have gone to the real race!! People tell me i am kind of a redneck, It may or may not be true. Especially now that I have been introduced to the Indy races!! :) It was pretty cool.

 

Also, neither me or Elder Kasen were transferred We are still in the same apartment with the same address (so you can send me mail again :) ) I'm glad! We get along great and I love the people in our area!! It was slow at first, but we have found a few people to teach so it's okay :)

So, this week we were in church. It was about five minutes into the meeting and the Alvares Family wasn't there. Elder Kasen was getting super bummed because last week they were there like 15 minutes early. I told him that maybe they are just running a bit late and that they will be here. I mean stuff happens right? And they acted really excited to come again when we talked on Thursday last week!! So, we just sat and waited and they walked into the meeting right before the Sacrament. It made me happy :) and, the talk was really good to!! they were all on temples and the blessings we get from them! It was just what they need!! I'm not sure how much they got though. It was two youth speakers and a high council man. The high councilor speaks English (which is good for me :) ) but the translator was really quiet so i don't know how much the Alvarez family caught because they don't speak a lick of English.

So I was thinking a lot about temples. I haven't been in 6 weeks now which was different because I went regularly before my mission. So, I was thinking about it and I miss it a lot!! In Doctrine and Covenants Section 138:48 "the great work to be done in the temples of the Lord in the dispensation of the fullness of times, for the redemption of the dead, and the sealing of the children to their parents" This scripture is AWESOME!!! I mean, think about that... We are the only church on the planet that have the sealing power on earth that can allow us to be sealed to our parents for time and all eternity!! Its super neat! I really have noticed I kinda like my family and I wouldn't mind spending time with them for a little bit ;)

I love you all!!!

Elder Lloyd

Week 11- TRANSFERS!!!

Hey ya'll!!

I hope you all have a fantastic week this week! First things first, it is transfers this week. So, don't send any mail to my apartment this week. If I transferred, I may never see the mail that comes. Other missionaries aren't the most reliable mail carriers :) so feel free to send any letters to the mission offices, but not to my apartment. Next week I will let you know my apartment address. I really hope I don't get transferred. Yeah, It may be slow right now, but that is okay. It is giving me time to get used to mission life.

We may not have a ton of investigators right now, but the people we are talking to, I am growing ever close too. I LOVE the people in the Long Beach 16 ward! I can honestly say I LOVE it here. At times I have been kind of down about knocking door after door after door with no results. I have knocked a fair amount and I have yet to get into a single house. But we are out of options. But, a few weeks back, we stopped by the Estrada family right before they dropped us. They gave us three referrals. A feller that we can't find, A feller, Hermano Lopez, who was a bishop back in Guatemala 16 years ago but is inactive now, and the Familia Alvares, who are mid 20's with a little boy and a little girl ( It's always a boost to the self esteem when you say Hola, Como estas to a little feller who then says bien and rattles off something at a million miles an hour and looks at you waiting for a response and I have no idea what he says lol).

So we finally got into the familia Alvares home and we are talking. The parents have both been baptized but they have been inactive since then. We talked a few times and nothing. The Hermano likes to play soccer on Sundays. Finally we went in on Thursday and pretty much said look, what is better, soccer, or losing your kids to drugs and alcohol when they aren't raised up with good friends and standards. It was kind of a gutsy move on the part of Elder Kasen. Well, I do my role of baring my testimony about how the Gospel has blessed me and my family, and how coming from a loving family has blessed my life. I do this in my little broken Spanish in mostly English Grammar, then I let Elder Kasen clean up my mess and say it in proper grammar so they understand. Then we pray and leave. They enjoyed our message like they do. We ask if we can come back. This time was different though but I wasn't sure why.

Before church on Sunday we had to make copies so we weren't there to greet people. We walked in to the chapel five minutes early and see the cute little Alvares family sitting quietly on the back bench, and I just hit a wave of The Spirit testifying to me of the importance of the work I am doing and how I am touching lives. It is definitely one of the most happiest moments of my life to know I am sharing the source of my happiness with others.

So, this week I was reading in the Book of Mormon and I come across this verse, which my mother always says is her favorite. (now she is thinking "oh great... what did i say?" :) ) it is Jacob 6:12 and reads "Oh be wise, what can I say more?" This verse is shortly profound. There really isn't much you can say to that. Just be wise. Before you make your every day decisions, take a minute to think and decide if it is a good idea. Use the wisdom you have gained from your life experiences and from the Gospel.

I love you all so much! Thank you for all your support!

Love,
Elder Andrew B. Lloyd