Feb 25, 2013

Wow, first full week in the field in the books! So I very remember last week getting rid of my long sleeve shirts, and celebrating with my roommates in the MTC, because we were leaving the cold. We were so pumped. We got off the plane in Burbank and started tracting right when we got off. It was pretty warm and in the city, I loved it. We stayed at APs house that night and then got our our areas and our comps the next day. 
 My companion is named Elder Flake, he is from Kaysville, Utah. He's a good guy. We were assigned to serve in Palmdale California. In my mind I'm thinking, sounds like sort of Beach region, warm..... Could not have been more wrong. haha. We got in a members car and headed out. We keep driving and driving until we're in the desert, I'm thinking, what the heck.. Where are we going. Then I see this little town in the middle of no where, sure enough, that's were I'm serving. It is cold here! haha.The first night it snowed which was crazy! But it is a good place, we get taken care of well by the ward. It is definitely not what I thought it would be. In a small, cold desert town. haha

This week we have been having a lot of great experiences with following the Spirit and letting it guide us to were we need to go. One night we were going to a couple potentials houses with the ward leader, We went from house to house that we had planned on going to, but kept getting turned down. I felt bad because it was FREEZING, and dark. I felt like we were leading the mission leader on, and came out maybe to just plant some seeds. We had prayed over the area book to find out who we should visit earlier that day. We had been impressed to visit a less active member, so that was our last stop. We went there and they let us in.
 There was the less active member who is an older women, her daughter and two kids, 12 and 5. We just got talking, she really seemed sort of psshhh, towards us. Then she started to open up. She broke down and told us how scared she is of one her sons that's 15 and wasn't there. She said he's going down the wrong path and never comes home, and disrespecting the family. We promised her that if she would take the discussions and follow the example of Christ, her son would come back and follow also. We set up an appointment for this next week, and begin to teach her and her family. We gave her son and daughters english Books of Mormons, and with out even asking, they promised us to read them every night. She asked us for a blessing, and we administered one. By the end she was bawling and the Spirit was so strong. I later came to find that she has been there when they had stopped by before, and she was against it, but now was her time. I have come to find that Missionary work is filled, with SO much failure! But if you continue to fight, and work hard, praying constantly, he will guide you to where you need to be. It happens time after time, This is just one instant out of MANY. 
Hope you are all doing great! Love you all!

Elder Lloyd