March 25, 2013

 Another great week in the cement jungle!!! 

This last week we were suppose to have had a Baptism with a guy name Carlos. I Love him he is awesome. Carlos is 20 and the uncle and lives with a member family in our ward. When I got here my companion and his old companion had wanted to teach him, but at the time he had a girl friend, whom he has a baby boy with. At the time his girl friend wanted nothing to do with The Church. The second night I was here they called us over to give Carlos's son a blessing because he was sick. We did and it was great. The next day the Mother of the member family told us in the street that Carlos was interested in the Church Because of what had happened the night before, She had told us that his girlfriend still wasn't, but he is breaking things off with her, And she wasn't going to live there anymore. We were stoked! We started teaching him the next day, and I struggled to get it out, In my broken Spanish, he accepted the invitation to be Baptized on the following Saturday. The whole rest of the week he was so ready. We went with him to the Chapel for his interview. He came out, and had some stuff he had to take care of with  his girlfriend. He has to get married. Which isn't a problem, we LOVE getting people married!! haha 

But in all seriousness... This was a huge lesson to me. That the choices we make today, can and WILL effect us later on in life. Whether for the good, or in this instance the bad. It is so sad to see someone that is ready to make the first covenant with our Heavenly Father, and the past came back to stop him. That being said it is never to late! He is ready and willing to take on this challenge and live a better life, And THAT is what life is all about! 

We have a lot of baptisms that we are expecting this week with some really GREAT people! Like a 19 year old kid that wrecked my in soccer today, who loves music and Travis Barker the drummer from Blink 182. He actually looks just like a Mexican version of him!

It is so incredible to see how the Lord is constantly preparing people to make these incredible decisions in their lives. He truly does live, love, and knows every single one of us.Love you all! 

Love Elder Lloyd

Always with Jesus :)

Mi and ma home gurl in da streets

Elder Laniez and I

With Preident and Sister Trevort and the newest Elders

Also even crazier, as I was reading that I was talking to my comp from Cali, and he asked me if I remembered a night, when we were going to our dinner appointment and the family was there yet, so i said to walk around and talk to people. I saw these three black kids in the road playing b ball, they all were high school age. I walked right over and started talking to them, I bore me testimony of how I know this Gospel is true, and how incredible it was. Handed them Mormon.org cards, and went to dinner. I didn't think much of it. Because that is what we did all day. BUT Elder flake had told me he saw one of the kids at church, and talked to him, he refereed himself to the english elders, through Mormon.org, and had a baptism date. You are SO right, you NEVER know who you are impacting! Im bugged! I forgot to but that in my letter!!!! but oh well. LOVE YOU Cort!! 

Called to Serve: Lone Peak Class 2012

We (as Elder Lloyds family) are proud to share this video of him, his closest friends, young men and young women from our community. All 277 of them are incredibly impressive and are going to do such a great job serving around the world.

His place in Mexico City - March 18, 2013

Editors note: Bennett's companion got word 3 weeks ago that his father had died. He is from Honduras! He went home for the funeral and came right back when Bennett arrived in Mexico City last Monday; that is when he and Bennett became comps.  (Bennett said he doesn't quite come to my shoulder.) He said that he is such an incredible man and he LOVES him.

 WOW! What an incredible week!! It feels like a weeks worth of things happen in one day.

This week I was more blessed than I can put into words. I had the chance to take part in SO many fruits of my companion and his old companions labors. 

I was more blessed than I can put into words, and on my 3rd day here got to baptize a little girl named Leslie, she is the cutest 10 year old girl. 

She is the daughter of 2 inactive members, they are both awesome people! I can not even begin to put into words what it means to know that she will be able to know have the gift of The Holy Ghost, and The Gospel in her life for the rest of her life and, the lives of her children. As we work to reactivate her and her family, in know they will receive SO many blessings! 

I also got to be a witness to the marriage of two incredible people, Jesus and Elizebeth. It was such an incredible experience!! And as we taught and prepared them Friday night, before the Baptism of them and their 9 year son Jesus junior,in the house of Jesus's sister, a strong member, the Spirit was SO strong! All I could think was WOW, this family is SO ready. Then the daughter of the member looked at me with tears in her eyes and said, We have been waiting for this forever! Right then The Spirit testified to me that this is why I am here in this beautiful country, with these incredible people. So many incredible families like this can live for ALL of eternity. Their baptism the next day was so great! 

I LOVE my comp Elder Lainez! As you already know, He is SUCH and incredibly strong person. Even though we cant talk a whole bunch I try! haha We talk so much, or try to communicate, and just laugh so hard! He is taking the death of his Father so strong, and taking his challenges as a reason to be better, and not an excuse to be bad. Even though he literally looks up to me. I look up to him SO much. He has such a love for these people! I love him.

The Church here is SO strong, the wards are as big and strong as at home. The members are SO incredible, and even though most of them are converts, they have SUCH strong testimonies of this Gospel. It is so incredible to see. 

It is lot different then California, We do not knock or tract or contact at all. We work souly off of references. When I first heard that I didn't know how it was going to work. But the Mexican people have such strong testimonies, and love one another so much, they are always telling us of people who are in need, and who would except this incredible message we share. Then the people we go to are so accepting. Everyone is feeding us, and talking to us like we have been friends for years. I found out that the stereotype that Mexicans eat beans and tortillas for every meal... is SO true!! I think I had double the amount of tortillas this week than in my whole life! haha, but I LOVE it, and love the food! 

This is such a crazy busy and alive city, and I love it! Like I said before I live on the side of a mountain, I would think bugs were invented here if i didn't know better haha, but there are tons of VW bugs at the bottom,, that are all pimped out it is so funny, and its 12 pesos anywhere on the mountain. The streets are SO small and so packed that these guys could be pro car racers in the US, seriously. The streets have so many hair pin turns and 90 degree turns and they drive so fast, there are guys on the corners that their job is to signal and wave if there is a car coming. haha SO funny! I almost get hit by like 4 cars a day. BUT no fear, I have The Gospel on my side!! haha Friday and Saturday nights are so crazy! This last Friday night our walls were shaking, and the DJ at a party down the street was killin the salsa music all night. I just laid in bed and laughed, it was so funny! Though I'm in the city, I AM in the jungle!  Everything here is so funny and different to me. I LOVE IT!  Even though I stick out like a sore thumb, I feel at home. 

I have really learned this week , if we do what the Lord wants us to do, and stick out through our trails with faith, and hope, that everything will get better. He will bless us with more than we could EVER imagine. 

I love you all so much, and hope everything is well! 

And Brody, WELCOME TO TEAM MEXICO!!! LOVE you bro! 

LOVE Elder Lloyd

Off to Mexico City

We are happy to announce Elder Lloyd has received his VISA and headed to Mexico City this morning. We are so excited for him and well get his new address posted asap!

March 4, 2013

This Week has been a good one. We got a hand full of new investigators. But the past couple of days, we have tracted our selves into the ground, and come up with nothing! Funny how the Lord does that to you. The Women that I talked about last week that we gave a blessing to, and has the 15 year old rebel child that never comes home and is getting into trouble. WE taught her last Wednesday day and set a baptism date for later this month for her and her 11 year old son. Miracles have started to happen with her and her family since we met her. The night that we gave her the blessing she went home, and the headache that she had been having for the past couple of days was gone. When she walked into her house that night, her son was in his bed asleep. 

I have been thinking a lot this week about how lucky we all are to have the gift of the priesthood in our lives, And how important it is that us men life worthily to act on that priesthood power. Because it truly is the power of God. 

Love Elder Lloyd   

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

Feb 15, 2013

Some pretty good news, Because no Visas are coming in. (Mine included) I have been reassigned to the San Fernando California mission! I will be leaving the MTC at 4 in the morning on Monday. (I feel like I'm escaping in the middle of the night) I am so excited and know that is where the Lord needs me to be. Even though I really want to be in the field in Mexico, I know that there is something in store for me in California. It will be such an awesome experience, and can't wait to get there.

As I have been here, my love and testimony for the Book of Mormon has grown more than I EVER thought was possible! That book is incredible. We can receive SO much personal revelation and insight by simply praying to be directed by the spirit and reading with a sincerity of heart, and really looking for an answer. They really are the words of God, and it is the keystone of our religion. It is not an accident or by luck that the Lord had Joseph Smith translate the book before he had him do anything else for the establishing of the Church. Elder Holland says, that if there is not a true strong testimony set upon the Book of Mormon, there is not TRUE conversion. Out here in the mission field the Book of Mormon, and the power of the Spirit are the strongest tools in conversion that we have. I know that this principle applies in our own lives as well. It is truly an incredible book. I know that when we read it with the right reasons in our heart, and make time to read it. We will draw so much closer to our Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ than we could ever imagine.

I hope all is well with everyone, and thank you for all the love, support, and prayers that come my way.

Read the book, and your testimony won't be shook.

Love Elder Lloyd