The Wounded and the Weary

June 16, 2014

Ha ha, I hate to laugh about this so much, but let's just say that my companion was struck down by God this last week for doing something stupid. It was his own fault. At the end of Pday last week he split open his shin on a chair in the church. He was running with such force that you could see all three layers of fat, muscle and shin bone in the big massive gash that ensued. So after that we spent 5 hours in the ER trying to get it all taken care of. I'm really glad that it was elder Peterson though, because if it had been any other one of my companions they would have been hooping and hollering and doing a pity party the entire way. Elder Peterson was a champ about the whole thing, and I think we all know who really is in charge now. He's had to ice it thoroughly and keep it elevated a lot, so it's been a damper on the work this last week. The mission president picked us up from the hospital at like 11 PM that night, and we got a picture with him. It was kind of fun, except for the parts where my stomach was flip flipping because of what the doctor was doing to my companion's leg. It was straight up nasty.

We had zone conferences this last week. They sort of lacked spiritual power and doctrine because it was more of Pres and Sister Morby saying goodbye to the entire mission, but it was still good. Pres assigned me and sister Berrett to perform "Consider the Lillies" for the conference, because it is his favorite song. Over the weekend we wrote a violin part for sis Berrett and practiced a  little bit. It went well. 

The Morris' came to visit on Wednesday night. It was good to see them again. I can't believe how much William, Matthew and Rachel have grown. Don't worry, it was approved by the mission president. we chatted for about an hour or so. I'm stoked to have Bethany as a partner in crime when I go back to BYU. I think we're going to have a blast.

After all that, we continued building houses.

Then this last weekend we participated in Dance Festival. It was pretty cool. The youth from about 6 different stakes got together and tried to share their testimonies through different forms of dance. It was pretty cool I must say. A little odd to be listening to so much music that I would normally listen to back home, but there was a lot of it that I didn't even recognize. The whole mission participated by coming on the floor and singing the Armies of Helaman. It was pretty sweet, but it took two days! To fill in the down time the mission president allowed us to watch the Saratov Approach. I cried a lot in that movie. I thought it was very well made, and it made the Atonement so much more real to me. I think more movies like that need to be made. I think it would be a fantastic way to share the gospel and get people interested in what missionaries do. I think one of my favorite lines was "There is no church policy that says you have to like the Utah Jazz!" ha ha, awesome!

It's going to be interesting to see what happens this next week. My last set of transfers is this weekend. I'm probably not getting moved. I'll probably get Elder Burge for a companion. right now he's one of our district leaders in our zone. That's just my guess. 

I love you all. I can't wait to get back to work after being down for another week. I did the math the other day and I think I've been down with sick companions or injured, or being sick myself for a combined total of 2 months and counting on my mission so far. gahhh. It's hard to restart from all of that again. 

BoM it up!

Ok business first. Yes mom I did fix my schedule 

May 9, 2014

So this last week has been amazing! We've been pumping out a new zone motto: Rally Up! We ask the missionaries every day what their up is: charge up, wake up, tract up. power up, spirit up, etc. It's awesome. As a part of it we've done a district vs district challenge to see which district could pas out the most Book of Mormons (BoMs) in 5 days. They set their goals high for 100 and 101. They worked their butts off. We more than doubled our tracting hours in a single week in the zone going from 40 to 94. We passed out 226 copies in 5 days in one stake!!!!!!!! That's unheard of! we had a pair of sisters that passed out 31 BoMs in 3 hours yesterday! And all of the other stats went up too. I couldn't believe it myself! Holy cow! This next week we're going to be doing another challenge to see who can set up the most return appointments with non-members. We're going to be doing a series of challenges to build up the work and help them to feel pumped about being a missionary. So far so good! We've seen some serious miracles as a result of it. One set of sisters stopped a house fire by calling 911 because they were trying to pass out more BoMs. It's been crazy fun.

So we also had an awesome lesson with the Berniers. I haven't felt the spirit like that in a lesson since I was teaching C. or D. It went amazing. They had questions about what happens to aborted babies, and where Jesus went for the three days he was buried. It was amazing. At the end we asked them if they would be willing to be baptized. The wife was quick to say yes, the husband was more contemplative, but he said that he would have to pray about it. We asked him how he felt about the Atonement of Christ and he bore some of the most amazing and spiritual testimony that I have ever heard. While we were teaching about the spirit world right after the wife was crying. It was amazing to see people catching on to what this gospel could potentially mean to complete the picture of what they already believe. I love it. I feel so thankful to simply be the messenger that God can speak to them through.

I'm not sure what else really happened this week. Most of it was spent giving out supplies to all of the missionaries so that they were fully stocked, and then teaching the most we ever had since I've been here to the area.

We also asked a member to create the photo at the bottom to be our lock screens on the whole zone's iPads. It's so cool to see them all together.

I love you all, and I love this gospel more than anything. I am so thankful for how a mission has changed my weaknesses into strengths. How I could take the things that I didn't like about myself from before the mission and work on them day by day in an atmosphere that is conducive to feeling the spirit and coming closer to God. I love being here with these missionaries. I love serving God, because I feel of his love every day now. I have a testimony that God takes us through the high points and the low points of our lives and that he always has a plan for us to become something better than we could ever try to make of ourselves. I need that help. I yearn for that help. I am thankful for that grace that comes through Christ's Atonement.

Weakness into Strengths

June 2 2014

Holy cow another week gone by. I'm not sure what to do with myself
these days. Time keeps on slipping, slipping, slipping into the
future. Ha ha

 Shoot I've got stories to tell, but I can't. No time.

I had a massive allergy attack during a lesson this last week. I got a
spark of genius while I was in the bathroom to ask the father for a
blessing as a part of the lesson. We went in thinking that we would
teach the plan of salvation, but we switched it to the priesthood. It
was awesome. The teenage boys were paying super close attention and
for the first time so was the dad. He gave me a blessing and instantly
my nose dried up. It was nothing short of a miracle. It wasn't huge,
but it allowed me to teach. I know that God is looking over that
family. I love teaching them every week. The lessons there never seem
to be short of awesome.

Well sorry for the short letter. We went to my hood today and rode the
ski lift. It took a lot of our time today. Love you!

SERVICE!!!

May 27, 2014

Holy cow, I've never done so much service in one week before. Surprisingly enough, We actually used the machetes that I bought for birthday multiple times for service. They were a God-send this week. We continued building a house, mowing lawns, shoveling mulch weed eating, chopping a burning black berry bushes, moving tables, moving families, and much more. It's cool because most of the service is for the less active members or nonmembers. It helps us get to know the people a little bit more so that they know that we're not just missionary robots. It's been good. Sweating a lot, showering a lot, eating a lot.

We're going to have a burger eating competition with the priests in the ward for mutual this week. It should be good to develop some trust with the Priests. We want to take them out with us as much as we can to go teaching to prep them for their missions. Not very many missionaries have taken them out in the past and they love coming with us. 

There was another night this week that I couldn't fall asleep till like 3 AM so I got up and was reading in my mission journal. I read the whole thing in one go, and that's over 250 pages in the most recent one. As I reflected back I could see the hand of God in my life over the course of my mission. I gave me great confidence in my future and the things that God is preparing me for even now. There were hard times that tore me down and built me up. There was one particular entry that helped me to learn something about relationships and how to resolve conflict. Often times people will voice their concerns and then the two parties will change their behavior to adjust to the needs of the other. But in a lot of cases sometimes merely changing the behavior is not enough. what is truly needed is repentance. it needs to come with a change in heart because of the love of the other person, not just stemming from the desire to keep the peace. When you love the person for who they truly are and desire their progression you can knit your hearts together. It also takes a lot of love not to have your pride to stand in the way of the desire to be right. The more you love them, the more you are willing to take responsibility of yourself, the other person and the space in which you life. Also, a positive and non stressful attitude always helps.

I'm trying to dig deeper in my studies about the nature of God and his attributes and how it all ties together with the Atonement. I'm fascinated.  

I love you guys. I hope you all are doing well

What Happened to the Time?

May 20, 2014

I'm honestly left wondering what happened to the time this week. Last week went by so stinking fast I can't believe it. It was a pretty fun week.

I had my last interview with president Morby this last week. He gave me some going home advice since he's going home on July 1st. It was a bit odd knowing that I still have a little while left to serve. I've got more than enough time to find people and teach them and baptize them. 

I also went on an exchange with Elder Boehm in the Cooper Mountain ward. That night I got to have dinner with an old friend from the set of the Bible Videos, Corbin Allred. It was cool to catch up and to see his daughter Lilly for the first time out of the womb. 

The rest of the week was filled with service and what not. We mowed a lady's lawn on Thursday. It took us 4 1/2 hours to do it. The grass was up to my waist or higher in places and all we had was me on the weedwacker and Elder Peterson on the regular sized lawn mower. There were many times that we had to refill the gas on the machines because her yard was easily 3 acres of just grass. It was fun nonetheless though. We got a good sweat on that day for sure.

On Saturday we had kind of  miracle day. We just had visits planned other than basketball with the Elders Quorum that morning. We had 3 non-members there that morning and there were a lot of instant good impressions made. We had some big boys there too. I would dare say that 75% of them are over 6 foot and close to 200 lbs or more, and they are good too! Some of the members who brought them said that they've seen them open up a ton more to the gospel lately and think that they want to invite them to hear from the missionaries soon. It's so cool to see members of the church doing that with the people that they love. They are usually scared out of their minds to do it, because they are afraid that they will lose their friends if they invite them to hear from the missionaries, but they do it because they know that the gospel of Jesus Christ is a gospel of healing and peace. It can bring families closer together than anything else that I've ever seen. They do it because they've seen themselves become happier as they live the principles that Jesus Christ taught and they want others to have that same level of happiness. I give those members of the church as much encouragement as possible because I know how nerve racking that invitation can be.

After that we went to go make a visit to the B.s to see how they were doing. They were playing soccer out in the street with their kids so we joined. They ended up inviting us over for dinner on the fly and then invited over some of their neighbors who are also Mormon. The mom went to go shopping and we hung out with the dad a little bit. They had just had a garage sale earlier that day and he was trying to get rid of some stuff. Since he likes us so much he kept chopping down the garage sale prices that were already a steal of a deal. So I bought myself a birthday present. I got $170 worth of Kershaw knives for $60. They are sweet. I got 2 machetes and a pocket knife. Elder Peterson bought a pocket knife to match mine. That's what they call companionship unity my friends. I'm super happy with them too. I got to cut a cheese cake with one of my machetes the other night. It was kinda cool. :D Then dinner started and we had a lesson afterward. The B.s love the messages that we share. They are super ready to hear more. I can't wait until we do because every time gets better and better.

I want to thank everyone for the birthday cards, packages, door attacks, and posts on facebook. Yesterday was pretty sweet. We had a  missionary round up with a Arizonan cowboy missionary who brought his lasso with him on the mission, and a couple other games. It was a lot of fun. I also got to have some Thai food and marshmallow war with my companion. It was fun. Can't wait to see what happens tonight. My companion has a surprise set up with a less active that we teach. I can only imagine what they have in store...

I love you all. Keep doing what you need to do. Keep dancing, singing, b-balling, and striving to live the commandments. I can promise that when you live the commandments to the best of your ability you will find greater levels of peace in your life. The rest of the hobbies help us to find that joy talked about in 2 Nephi 2:25 and also help us to do missionary work that's talked about in Mosiah 2:41. Keep on trucking!

love your Elder Lloyd

Do the CAT-Daddy

May 12, 2014

Dang! This week was crazy busy. We had a meeting every single day of the week and tons of getting people out of tough spots. On Tuesday, the Hazeldale Sisters called us in distress. They told us that they were doing some service and the guy that was building his house in our area had gotten his tractor stuck in a ditch. So we went as fast as our Hemi powered mini van could take us and still obey the Tiwi system to help them out. What the sisters failed to mention was that it wasn't just a tractor. It was a CAT- back-hoe. And it wasn't just stuck in a ditch, but the track had fallen off the gears on one side. You know the wheel track that a tank has?? Yeah, that thing! It weighed over 800 pounds. So we got some 2x4's and we put it back on. It took us an hour and a half, but we got her done! It was an adventure for sure.

Then we totally transformed J-dog's back yard for a birthday party this Saturday. We cleaned moss off of tables, benches, and grills. We mowed the lawn, set up a fire pit, and a couple of patio sets, it was fun.

Then we put in plumbing in a house at the edge of our area on the south side.

Then we pulled off 4 moves on Saturday. 1 family moved out. 1 Family moved within the ward. 1 family moved into the ward. 1 family moved all of their belongings within their house for painting and renovation. I was exhausted! I ate like a bear that just woke up from 3 years of hibernation. I had 7 slices of pizza, 2 ice cream bars, 2 thick homemade burgers (comparable D.'s homemade burger's) a plate of cake and ice cream, a cake pop, and like 6 or 7 bottles of water. I think that may have made up for all the energy I used that day. I'm not quite sure though...

It was really good to talk to some of you over skype just yesterday. It was odd for me, but it was good. Hope, y'all had a great Mother's day.

I got to go to the temple and do the work for G.'s (a recent convert from West Linn) father. It was a pretty neat experience. I love going to the temple. There are things there that I feel are placed there just for me. I found a lot of peace in the Celestial room, just pondering and praying about life and things to come. I wish I could go to the temple more often, because that peace doesn't come as strong in many other times and places as it does there. I won't get to go back to the temple until the end of my mission.

So it was way cool this last week. The B.s came to church this last week and the husband was contributing like crazy in class as we were talking about the purpose of the Atonement. He was very insightful. I learned a thing or two from him about the life of Jesus Christ. It was pretty sweet. The Spirit was strong during that class. I know they were feeling it. They were saying just how logical it was how we believed in the different aspects of the Creation, Fall, and Atonement. They were getting pretty excited about it. I can't wait to see how are lesson goes this week with them.

One of our investigators this week had her boyfriend brake up with her the day before prom. I felt kind of bad for her, but from what she had been telling us about the guy it sounded like a really good thing. I do feel for her pain though. Brake ups are almost never easy. I really hope she turns to the Savior about it like we taught her, but she has an aversion to praying sincerely. I think it's a defense mechanism. I think she's really afraid of just getting an answer since she's never known that there was a God before. Sometimes in life you just have to give things a leap of faith to see if things really can get better. We can't just hope that things will fix themselves, we have to turn outward. When it comes to turning to Christ for healing, I can promise he will NEVER let you down. He is the most caring and encouraging person that ever existed, and he truly brings peace to the soul and confidence to out countenances. It happens 100% of the time, all the time.

I love y'all! Have a fantastic day and week. We're gonna go play some broom hockey today.

Love,

Your Elder Lloyd.

Mother's Day Surprise!

May 5, 2014

Wow, this last week has been incredible. We picked up two new investigators from a member referral at dinner. We had dinner at the non-member's house with the member family there as well. These guys have been having dinner with the missionaries for about 4 months now, but they've been asked for about 4 years now every now and again if they'd like to take the missionary lessons. For some reason it just seemed to click totally naturally this time and they were super interested for the first time! They are super cool. T. is a marine. He works for Intel and really knows his beliefs in the Bible really well, but wants to get educated on a bunch of different religions. His wife L. is super cool too. They've got a bunch of kids. I'm excited to teach them. I'll tell you what though. I was sweating a TON in our last lesson. It was stinkin' hot in their place. It was kind of hard to identify the spirit because everyone was hot and tired. But then the member stepped in right at the end and bore a super powerful and concise testimony of Joseph Smith being called to restore Christ's church to the Earth and the Spirit bowled everyone over. It was awesome!

Things are changing mission wise. My mission president mentioned that at his last seminar with Elder Cook this last month, he was notified about how the work is going to change. Pretty much we are completely going to slowly reverse everything that I know about how to be a missionary. Instead of giving 4 hours of service a week, we're going to  be doing service everyday from 10-4 and then tracting from 5-7. Normally I try to tract before 12-4. from 5-7 people usually get mad because you are interrupting their dinner whether or not they are actually cooking or eating to begin with. It's going to be an interesting switch to see phase slowly in. 

I don't know why the Apostles want us to do it this way, but I know I'm going to follow it. Prayer will always help you feel calm about the new things that come into your life.

Love yall!

Your Elder Lloyd