Past, present, and future work

So being in a new area is always SUPER weird until you go to church for the first time. Unfortunately we get transfered on Mondays. Oh btw I will now be writing on Mondays. In this area the libraries are actually open on Monday which is P day. It's been good though. I've got to show Elder Udy the joys of tracting. I get the sense that he just does it because he doesn't know what else to do and he thinks that nothing can ever come of it. Bull Honkey! Tracting is the best thing in the world! I will say that the dynamic has changed. I went from serving in one of the most Ghetto areas ever to serving the richest in the world. There are pro basketball players in our ward, the drummer from Journey, and the Owner of Gap & CEO of Nike all in our district alone. There's nothing but rich people, and then a few random apartments that remind me of St Johns. That's it! It's crazy. people are way nicer here though. We were offered food, warmth, and a place to stay for a few nights by a non member while tracting in the pouring rain. It was kinda funny. She gave us a "snack" that could feed us for three days. Yesterday we got the leftovers from dinner which included 12 steaks of a large size. How the heck am I supposed to eat all of those? It's crazy.

So I got to call St Johns yesterday for a phone number in their phone and I got the update on a few different things. They taught 20 lessons last week. The troubled 16 year old girl that I talked to, R. D., asked to be taught 3 times last week and is now being baptized on the 19th of March, on her Birthday. She really loves the changes that are happening in her life. I'd think so too if I was thinking about studying satanism before the missionaries came along. Hopefully I can go back to that baptism. L. the Marine has a baptism date for the 16th of March and there are 2 or 3 other baptism dates that they plan on making this week. All of which are people that I worked my butt off on. When I heard all this I was so happy. I knew I had really done all that I was sent there to do. Now I have things that I am supposed to do in West Linn.

As for our area, we set a baptism date with a guy named B. He's only had the first 3 lessons, but his end goal is that he wants to be sealed to his ex wife who was the mayor of West Linn. I wish the temple was the end goal of all the people that I taught. Their conversion would be so much more complete! He's now married to a less active that is now active because of their marriage. They are a wonderful couple, and as Elder Udy would describe it, "He's one of those future bishops in the making." He's the nicest guy that I've ever met. That was is also set for March 16th. Looks like I may not be able to see Loren get baptized.

This last week has been interesting. Elder Udy is definitely still green. Hopefully I can get him to relax a bit and actually enjoy the calling of being a missionary. I love it with all the being of my heart. I don't want to go back to normal life, ever! Today I visited Wieden and Kennedy, the Ad Agency in Portland that I want to work for to try and see if I could talk to anybody. The people that walked past me just looked stressed and unhappy. I'm never going to go back until after I go to BYU. It just didn't feel right. I never want to have to think about that stuff again. I don't think anything else, except maybe fatherhood, could ever measure up to missionary work.  I don't know how to describe it, but I'm sure you RM's know exactly what I'm talking about.

Other than that, we met a guy in the grocery store today that thought I was a salesman. Talked to him for a bit. He's really into healings and feeling the Holy Ghost. He's kind of an eccentric guy, but we have a lesson with him tomorrow at the church. He said he's looking for something different. I have a feeling he's going to just soak up the first vision. Elder Udy said he's never seen street contacting actually work. That's just the stuff that I'm used to ha ha! That's how it all happened in St Johns, tracting and street contacting.

I love you all. I hope things are going well for you. I know what Josh and Steven are going through right now, the wall is about to hit next week and the week after that, but don't let it. Don't pay attention to it. Always keep your end goals in mind and work towards them. It's like our Heavenly Father's plan for us. With the vision of the Celestial Kingdom in the back of our minds at all times, we can stay motivated to make the right choice at all times. We can work actively to build up Zion for ourselves and our families. Christ says to come to Him. He didn't say look at me, he didn't say meander over, he said come. It takes consistent effort, but the end result it "... I will give you rest."

Love,

Your Elder Lloyd

I've been transferred to Tualatin!

February 19, 2013

 

So I received a call on Saturday that said that I was going to be transferred. I'm now serving in the West Linn area. It's 15 minutes from the temple. The temple is actually in my district. I'm actually follow up training right now. Get this, the guy who trained him was Elder Manwill, Adam Price's cousin. I went to middle school and high school will Adam Manwill and he's going home today on a plane. Pretty sweet huh?

 

But wait, there's more. My new companion has been out one transfer less than I have, and I'm the senior companion, but he's only ever been in this area, so it's more like co senior because he knows what to do. His name is Elder Udy and he went to Skyline High School and actually knows Chelsea Millward. Apparently he bumped into one of Chelsea's relatives in this area just last week. Coincidence, I think not.

Other thing to mention, I'm pretty sure that W. F.s sister, who came to all of our lessons in St Johns, lives in my new area, I just don't know where.

Going back to St Johns though. This last week was incredible. We picked up 2 new investigators, one being R. D., daughter of one of our ward missionaries. She's 16 and was thinking about studying satanism, and was kind of getting into it. When we taught her the first lesson she felt the spirit hit her like a ton of bricks. She sent me a text later saying thank you because now she could live again. Life didn't stink as much. I felt like I had really made an impact. It made me think a lot of how Glade effected me a year and a half ago.

In other news, we had 7 investigators all come to church last week mostly to see me off as I sang in church, but that's more than triple our usual and it also meant that the F. family went to church for the first time and Wendy really enjoyed it. It was fantastic.

Sorry, my comp is bugging me to go

I love you, and I know that this work is true. There is no way that I would have been sent to two areas in a row where who I am mattered if this gospel weren't true. The Lord will always work through you if you are willing to listen to the promptings of the spirit.

I love you and can't wait to hear from you.

So we taught a lesson during the Superbowl, and they shut off the TV.

Februay 5, 2013

[If you want to read them in order, read this one, then go to the post under this one.  Mom blew it!]

So this last week was a very interesting one for us. We got back to work on Wednesday because Elder Roemmich was still contagious for all of Tuesday. This last week was full of canceled appointments and tracting. In fact the hardest day was Saturday. We drove around the area and tried to find a bunch of less actives and also tracted for about 5 hours that day. Our weekly goal is 10 hours, so as you could imagine, it was just one of those days. We let off the frustration by be making satirical comments about everything in the voice of Sean Connery and also Batman. Elder Roemmich never stopped laughing. It was awesome, but draining. That's life though. At one point we gave up and said a prayer to know where God wanted us to be. I felt particularly impressed to go to this one widows assisted living facility. So we did. We showed up a half an hour after she had just received a phone call saying that her son had just died. she told us that we were exactly the people that she wanted to see right then. The thing is, I had never met her before, only heard her name while talking to a member the day before. We talked to her for a while and tried to fix her dvd player. That was difficult seeing that the connecting cords were totally missing. But the whole thing was a testimony to me that not only was god aware of us and can give me answers to prayer still, but that God is also a loving God of all his children.

Later that night we got a text from a really sharp and very well progressing investigator R. saying that she didn't want to continue the lessons but that she wanted to meet up one last time to talk about it. It felt like being dumped by a girlfriend knowing that she had already had tons of witnesses that this is the true church. It was one of those,"why are you doing this, it doesn't make sense" moments. With that being the cherry on top of that very hard day I sat down on the toilet before dinner that night with our recent convert M. and friends and just cried. Then I realized that the only thing I could do is give it all up to the Lord. So I did. I sat there and prayed for like 10-15 minutes telling him everything. frustrations, groans of the heart, just everything. I was answered in the most beautiful way. I felt peace. I was told that I was doing exactly what I should be doing, and also that hope with certain investigators was not lost if I continued to look for opportunities to testify. I can tell you this much. I know that God fulfills his promises, all I have to do is be diligent and patient.

The next day we taught the F. family during the superbowl and they actually left their next door neighbor's just so that they could have dinner and lesson with us. It was amazing. We didn't have nearly enough time to talk about everything that we wanted to because they had actually read a lot of their assigned reading. But Elder Roemmich said that he was impressed with some of the answers that I gave to their questions. I had been preparing for like 4 days just for that one lesson. It was good. I can't wait for the next one.

Two days before that we had actually dropped by the F.'s and they gave us a Journey Gym. Check it out online. The father works for the company so he has a ton of them. He actually told us that the next time that we come by he'll give us another one so that both of us can have one. It's a gym that folds up into a brief case! It's going to revolutionize my morning workouts from pushups to actual stuff that I can do even if my companion doesn't want to leave the apt like Elder Belo because of his hernia.

Other than that, life is good. It's progressing, and miracles are still happening everyday. I only hope that I can learn to recognize them all. They are part of God's hand in our lives. Someone paying for our meals, someone giving us a gym that we can use to stay in shape for when we come back from a mission, missionaries showing up in a time of need, reading a scripture that you thought was useless but that someone else actually really needed, a phone call to a friend, a smile, a wave, everything that is good. It all comes from God. We are his tools in His hands. Don't forget that. You have great power in testimony and spirit. Without the members, nobody would be converted to the gospel. So keep looking for not just missionary experiences, but good experiences. You have no idea how many things in this life that seem no big deal to you are actually the world of difference to someone in need. If you feel a prompting to do something, even if it feels silly, do it! You WILL be blessed.

Love,

Your Elder Lloyd

The week of finding

February 12, 2013

 

There were a ton of things that happened this last week. It was awesome. At dinner last Tuesday, we had an elderly couple tell us four names of people that were less active that we could go visit, and we've been able to contact all but one of them. It's fantastic. The best part is being able to call the people back that referred us to them and say, hey we did it and this was the result! It's builds sooooo much trust with the ward, which is really good for Elder Roemmich since all the ward really knows about him is that he went to the hospital. Because of different varying circumstances he hasn't been able to get up in front of the ward before sacrament in saying hello to everyone. It stinks. But he'll get the hang of the ward very soon. He's a great missionary.

Last Friday we spent all day (about 6 1/2 hours) in the car driving out to the nether regions of our ginormous area (we cover two islands and also a mountain side) and contacting all the less actives on the ward list. there were some people that lived 2 miles from a paved road. If it snowed even a half an inch they wouldn't be able to leave home. It was an adventure, but we found a handful of people that we can go back and visit, which is good because some of them have leadership potential which this ward needs more of. Most presidencies aren't even full in this ward, and we only have one ward missionary. So, we've got work to do! That night we went to Mama P.'s fiance's (S.) birthday party. I talked to his daughter for like the third time and she was saying how she was a teenager and life sucked and it's always going to suck. I told her that I've been in a lot of her shoes before, not knowing that God existed, working my butt off, feeling like nobody quite understands what I was going through because nobody ever asked. I could relate to her really easy. But then I bore her my testimony of how I came to know that not only that God existed, but that He loves me and why the Atonement matters. I then asked her if she'd like to hear what the missionaries have to say, but what we do is all based around those principles. Stan had always been afraid of us talking to her because she's always been really anti church in general, but the next day she texted us and said that she would do it. Only problem is that she has a super crush on me. Like worse than any girl you've ever seen. Fortunately, it's pretty much guaranteed that I'm going to be moving to my 2nd area after this week. I really hope that she comes to the same understanding of God's love after I leave. Because it's true. We're here on earth because he loves us enough to help us to grow. He loves the world so much that he gave up His only child in the flesh to the torments of this life and of those who hated Him so that we all could have the chance to make it back to our Heavenly Father and rejoice.

Other than that, we got a mormon.org referral for a guy that we can see from our front window. It sounds like he referred himself. It's super weird to be able to see this guy at night through his window as we drive in at night. I really hope he doesn't actually realize that we live right behind him. ha ha

Other than that, I finished a drawing that I'm giving to Mama P. and S. for their wedding present. I'm sending a photo of it to you guys. I'm really happy with how this one turned out.

I Love all Y'all!

 

Your Elder Lloyd