Email from Aaron 9/27/2011

Dear Family,

Exciting news! Tomorrow is transfers and I found out today that I will be staying in Alpine, also that I will be picking up my new companion and I will train him as well. This definitely caught me off guard and is also pretty exciting. This is an amazing trust and responsibility given to me and also another opportunity; I am truly blessed to be able to train a new missionary.

Hopefully I get your package that you sent today, my Zone Leaders said that one came today so I am assuming that it's the one that you sent, I look forward to seeing what it is. I thank you for your support and prayers and I do love hearing from you. I am blessed to have your support and know that you are in my thoughts and prayers always.

It sounds like life is pretty busy for you all right now and that's wonderful that you got to tend Nolie for a while, I bet that she is getting big. Mom, I know that school is tough but I also know that you can do it, and finding time to set aside for the Lord will bless you immensely in your school work, I know that it may be tough but He will see your determination when you devote time to Him and He will bless you.

I heard great things about President Utchdorf's talk and he truly is amazing speaker, I would appreciate a copy of it and I would like to read it as well. I am truly excited for Conference this weekend and know that it is no ordinary blessing. I know that within the talks given there is a message in them for everyone and that we can receive guidance and direction as we listen with spiritual ears and hearken and heed. I thank you for your kind words and for your support and love and i can't thank you enough for everything that you have done for me, I am who I am today because of the things that you and dad have taught me throughout my life, I promise that I will continue to look forward with faith and to get to work!! every day. I love you dearly and hope that you are having and will continue to have a great week. Oh did you happen to get an email from a Connie Ruiz? she is the ward mission leader's wife and I gave her you and dad's email. You should look her up on Facebook if you like. I know that I am here doing the Lord's work and we had a really cool experience with advice that dad gave me one of my first weeks out on the mission to do "one more thing" Elder Perry and I were driving to our apartment and i had the thought that we needed to go see one more person before we called it a night. After we saw that person we were driving by our ward building and we saw someone in the parking lot so we decided to see who it was. His name is Devon and we ended up talking about the Book of Mormon and giving him a copy. It's interesting to see what people hear about the church and be able to help them understand what they heard. This experience reconfirmed in me that the Lord's hand is in this work and in everything that we do. That most of the thoughts that i have, are not my own, they are from the Spirit and by hearkening and heeding, we can be led to those who are seeking truth or who need the Atonement in their lives.

We were able to recommit Paige to Oct, 30th and we had a really great service project this past week as well, hauling some wood and doing some yard work for a less-active member who came to church this past week. Being able to serve and participating, i was able to feel the spirit so strongly; being in the service of our fellow beings is an amazing blessing.

I'm short on time but I will leave you with my thoughts, while I am here serving the Lord and getting to work, I want to do a $5 job each and every day, and it ties in with dad's thought on doing one more thing. A five dollar job takes work, and I am ready and willing to be able to do what it takes. My scripture for this week is Ecclesiastes 3:1. To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under the heaven:

Know that I love you dearly and I keep you in my thoughts and prayers. This is the Lord's work.

Love always,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

Mission Pictures

                      Mission President's Fireside   (Sept. 11, 2011)

El Cajon Zone with President Clayton at Mission President's Fireside (Sept 11 2011)

 El Cajon Zone with big smiles at Mission President's Fireside (Sept, 11 2011)

 El Cajon Zone having some fun at Mission President's Fireside  (Sept, 11 2011)

     Aaron and another Elder (Not sure if other Elder is Elder Perry, Aaron's companion) (Sept. 2011)

                      Mission Picture of Elder Lloyd (Sept 2011)

Email from Aaron on September 20, 2011

Hello,

I am definitely doing what I can in that area to make all feel welcome in the Alpine Ward, I sang with the ward choir this past week, I was one of 5 men so it was a great experience.

To answer your questions, things are going alright; a little slow to be honest. Paige lost her baptismal date because she was unable to attend church due to transportation issues, she lives pretty far from the ward and has no vehicle to get her anywhere, but we are meeting with her this week and going to recommit her to baptism and set a new date for her. She has a strong desire to receive the gospel into her life and enter into the covenant of baptism.

An awesome experience that we had this week was we were way out east contacting some people and we were basically knocking on empty doors, but as we were about to leave both of us had the thought to stop by a potential investigators home that we had not seen in a while, she had not been home previous times. So we went over there and she was home, we got to talking and she said that we were very lucky to have caught her, she's usually not home. I knew that this was not luck, we were sent there for a reason. The spirit had whispered and we had hearkened and we were able to talk about her religious background and teach her about our Savior and we set a return appointment for this week, her name is Kassandra and we hope that all goes well because our first meeting with her went well. We are having opportunities to serve others by and strengthen them, there are some good projects out here to be done, much yard work and it is a great experience. We are helping a less active member clear his property and he has been at church the past two weeks and has been feeling really good about being back. Elder Perry and I are doing a lot of rescuing it seems lately, it is so amazing to see the spirit work within the people we see and help them to return again to the fold and partake of the ordinance of the sacrament and allow the Atonement into their lives.

Many things have been on my mind lately about the work and the slowness of it at the moment and the recurring word that I keep hearing from others every day, even multiple times each day and in lessons and church is the message of hope. That as I continue to work hard and give this work everything I can give every day, I can have hope that the Lord is with us every step of the way. A scripture that I came across is really great and speaks of hope, it is found in Romans 15:13 and it says "Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost" and that word abound means that we can always have it with us, we can retain that hope through the power of the Holy Ghost. My testimony has also been strengthened in the meaning of the scripture, "by small and simple things are great things brought to pass" in 1 Nephi 16:20- it speaks of Lehi obtaining the Liahona and how Nephi noticed that it worked according to the faith and diligence which they gave unto it and that by small means the Lord can bring about great things. This led me to read in 2 Kings about Naaman, who had leprosy and went to Elisha to be healed and he was told to go to river Jordan 7 times and he would be clean, Naaman was angered but his servant reminded him and said "My father, if the prophet had bid thee do some great thing, wouldest thou not have done it? how much rather then when he saith to thee, Wash, and be clean?" If the Lord asks us to do some great thing would we not do it? He does ask us to do small and simple things which do lead to great things, to us becoming clean. Back to Lehi and his family-by the simple Liahona pointing the way that they should go, Nephi was able to obtain food to sustain his family in their journey across the wilderness and to the Promised land to the fulfilling of the Lord's promises which also exemplifies 1 Nephi 3:7.

That's exciting to hear about Lindsay, I hope and pray for her and her newborns continued health and safety, and Shai is doing well, she is taking care of her little sister, who recently broke her arm and had to have surgery on it. She is keeping busy with school and work as well. I hope that school is going well for you too and I know that you do your reading endorsement, you can accomplish great things. I love you and thank you for your support and love, and I hope that you and the family have a wonderful week.

TOTW Mosiah 23:21-22 "Nevertheless the Lord seeth fit to chasten his people; yea he trieth their patience and their faith. Nevertheless--whosoever putteth his trust in him the same shall be lifted up at the last day."

Love always,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

September 13, 2011 Email from Elder Aaron Lloyd

Hello,

This past week I had the blessing and opportunity to take part in MTE, which is Missionary Training Exchange, and I learned a lot. One of the Assistant's to the President came with Elder Perry and I for a day and was our coach on the exchange, it was a truly great experience and I learned so much from MTE. Part of what we talked about in it pertained to the principle of obedience; it is the first law of everything. Also pertaining to obedience that yes, we know that we are being obedient to the Lord when we feel the spirit, but how can we feel and partake of that spirit more? We can give the little things, I may have shared this before but its truth is undeniable that "we can't give a crust to the Lord without receiving a whole loaf in return" or as one Elder says it, "you can't give a crumb without receiving the whole bakery in return" and that is also so very true. When we give ourselves, when we sacrifice the little things to the Lord, and show Him that we are willing to follow Him and constantly better ourselves, He truly does give us the whole bakery in return.

I've also been studying the principle and doctrine of Hope and there is much to be learned from it and we have so much to hope for in this life. Preach My Gospel says that "hope is an abiding" I'll stop right there, what does abiding mean? It is defined as "firm and immovable, without change, continues permanently" now just consider that meaning as I write the quote. "Hope is an abiding trust that the Lord will fulfill His promises to us". A firm and immovable trust, continuing permanently that the Lord will bless us. There is nothing flaky of iffy about it, Hope is amazing don't you think? It goes on to say that " it is believing and expecting that something will occur" that the Lord will answer us, He will direct us, in His way, maybe not in the way that we want, but the Lord does have a way and He will direct us. Faith and Hope are inseparably connected and as to finish that, Charity is the third leg, they are all connected and in those three things, there is power; the power of the Lord. Elder Neal A Maxwell taught that "being blessed with hope, let us as disciples, reach out to all. . . that as Col 1:23 says let us 'lift the hands which hang hopelessly down'" I know that we can all have hope, hope in our Savior, He can help us, we can be given strength, He can heal us. I know that He lives, I know that through His Atonement, that hope is available for each of us.

I forgot to mention that one of our investigators, Paige, has committed to be baptized and she is truly an amazing individual. She has a thirst for knowledge and truly has the desire, the spirit is there so strong when we teach that I know that my utterances are not my own, it is such an incredible experience seeing the spirit work through me and work within her.

My TOTW comes from Genesis 19:17, It is pertaining to Lot, and the scripture says "And it came to pass, when they brought them forth abroad, that he said, Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain, lest thou be consumed" and there is so much that we can take from this scripture but what I want to share is contained within the phrase "look not behind thee" and something that is so true to go along with it, it's impossible to move forward if we are looking back. We can all look forward with faith, having hope, there is no need to dwell on the past or what we left behind, what's important is what's to come and when we look forward to it, with hope and with faith, we can learn and grow and develop into those individuals that our Heavenly Father knows that we can be.

I love you all very dearly and thank you for your support, it means everything to me, it's great to hear from you and I hope that the move continues to go well and that you stay safe. I know that I am doing the Lord's work and I am exactly where He needs me to be. He has entrusted me with His children, I must get to work and labor with all my heart might mind and strength. I love you and keep you in my thoughts and prayers.

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd