Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd LDS Mission to San Diego California.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Dear Family,
I hope all is well and everybody is happy and healthy. I take it as a good thing that everyone is
pretty busy, Dad with work and Mom with School, summer is quickly
approaching and i know that everyone is making every
necessary preparation for this season and i hope and pray that all goes
well and that this week brings joy and peace and wonderful experiences.
To begin, we've had some really neat experiences with those whom we
are working with this past week, I'll start with James, a 13 year old,
i'm fairly certain i've talked about him before but i will tell you what
happened this past week. We went over to
teach James and his mom was waiting for us out front and said that James
would be coming out in just a minute, a few moments later out comes
james in a white shirt and tie, shined shoes, and he made his own
"Elder" nametag (which was simply a black piece of
paper with white crayon written on it and put in his pocket), it was the
coolest thing ever! His mom took pictures and so we talked to james
about being a missionary and we had him teach us a lesson based off what
he has learned and experienced from coming
to church and from meeting with missionaries in the past. He taught us
about the Holy Ghost and about how important Faith is and then we taught
him a "hold to the rod" object lesson in which we tied a rope from one
tree in his back yard to the other end and
placed objects in his path of "growth in the gospel" that will
ultimately lead him to the savior. It was a really neat experience and
James knows and understands the gospel, we are just working with his mom
right now to reactivate and work towards some ordinances
with this family. Herbert has been coming to church and continues to
tell us the more he comes to church and reads and prays every day, the
more he enjoys it and it makes sense (hmmm Alma 32, the SEED??). We will
be following up with him this week and helping
them out in their yard as well this weekend. We also had a new-member
lesson with Samantha and Santiago this week as well, we taught the plan
of Salvation but gave everyone in attendance a portion of the lesson to
teach which turned out to be a really fun lesson
because everyone was able to bear witness of how they individually
learned and gained a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and Samantha is
nervous about her calling to the Relief Society enrichment board, but
she has the support of the whole pq1st ward family.
Phil came to gospel principles again this past week and asked some great
questions! The lesson was about the Lord's covenant people and the new
and everlasting covenant and amazingly Phil and Tom, are non-members in a
part-member family, that lesson was truly
inspired and both Phil and Tom were active and interested in the lesson,
it was incredible to see. We were able to have our first lesson with
the Forkas Family, the husband is a less-active member from the age of
14 and is now late 40's and has been wanting
to become active and his daughters were interested in learning about the
church and the gospel and his wife was also in attendance at the lesson
and actively participated as well, we were able to teach them the
Restoration of the Gospel and likened Prophets
like unto Coaches seeing as both daughters have coaches, in softball,
soccer, cheerleading, and many other sports. We are also currently
working with 3 individuals and helping them learn english; melissa,
sylvia and antonio, and i am quickly finding out how
much the spirit is involoved in those lessons as well, we are working on
teaching them through a program and through the Book of Mormon as well,
i'll keep you posted on how things go!
If you could keep the Narvaez family in your prayers i would
greatly appreciate it, they have recently had a tragedy in the family
and the husband of the Family is struggling with the loss, i know that
with the combined prayers we can call down the powers
of heaven in the life of this family and they can recieve peace and
comfort from the Lord.
I do apologize this week is a shorter one, but i want you to know
how much i love and care about each and every one of you and hope that
you all have a wonderful week and I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ
lives, that He loves us and that love is manifest
is so many different ways,. especially as we read from the scriptures,
and pray daily. i know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and will
help us through every hurdle and mountain to climb in this life. Until
next time,
love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Aaron's Email May 15, 2012
Dear Family,
It was great to hear from you as well this past week and Mom, your
comments are too kind, and i am certainly thankful for your kindness and
support and am truly grateful for all that you do for me. thank you for
being such an influence for good in my life.
Tell sean hello right back for me and that's great that he's going into
education, he is an incredible person, he is always so upbeat and happy
and always sees the silver lining in every situation possible. and yes
my neck size is a 17, it's not too tight,
but not too loose either so a 17 will work, thank you so much. oh and
before i forget, in zone conference the past week, we were instructed to
spend one hour each week on mormon,org and set up and update our
profile (which i do not have one so i will be creating
one-so this being the source of my request) and for those profiles
President Clayton has suggested that we put a picture on that is of
ourselves before our missions. so, if it would be possible, could you
send me a digital picture of me before the mission doing
something normal? haha so i can then put it onto my profile? Thank you
so much! by the way, Sister Leavitts number(s) is(are) 858-484-6409 and
858-243-6663. one is a home and the other a cell, i'm not sure which is
which so i apologize but i'll be making up
a box of sorts with things to be delivered and i'm sure that she would
love to talk to you as well!
Update on the miracles!!
this past week has been full of them, one being that i was able to
plan and prepare and be able to have the privelege to teach in zone
conference this past week. as you know, Elder Hansen and i focused on
the Role of the Holy Ghost; in each of our lives,
in the lives of those we teach, in other's, and ultimately in our
conversion. It was incredible to be able to learn the lessons that i had
already learned earlier in life and be able to see how the gospel
relates to every single one of those experiences. For
example, following the Holy Ghost is somewhat like following that blue
line at the bottom of the pool. It's always there, as is the Holy Ghost,
we always much keep our eyes fixed on it, or be aware and searching for
the Spirit everyday. and there's also a T
at the end of the lane that tells you that you need to turn around soon!
When we follow the spirit and recognize those "T"s in our lives, the
spirit truly does direct us as to what to do and where we need to go and
be. there are countless lessons in the game
of golf that i have been taught, like when i started golfing, i had dad
to coach me, he was always there, helping me learn the fundamentals of
the game, we were with God before we came to earth, He helped us and
taught us things we needed to learn in order
to return to him. Dad knew that he would not always be with me when
golfing, so he did everything he could to prepared to be able to play on
my own, but he knew that those little phrases and reminders would be
with me as i played such as "bend your knees, keep
your head down, where are your shoulders pointed?" and many more. Our
loving Father in Heaven sent us to earth, but he did not send us alone,
he sent us the gift of the Holy Ghost that can be received after baptism
and by the laying of hands by those in authority
so that we too can have those "reminders" in our lives or in our game to
help us through and succesfully return to Him through obedience and
patience and perserverance. Thank you to both Mom and Dad for
encouraging me to participate in those sports which helped
me learn these life principles. and Dad, lately i've been reflecting
upon "the yurf-dog putt" experience, that was an incredible day, i put
everything that you had taught me about the game of golf into that putt
and when i made it i couldnt' believe it!! it
was incredible! It's like taking the step of faith and being baptized,
we put all that we've learned into action and show our willingness to
follow our Savior by being baptized and recieve the Holy Ghost and it's
an incredible experience! but there are many
more putts to come that we continue to act upon the things that we
continue to learn about the game of golf throughout our lives. Baptism
is not the end, we must continue to learn and apply and make and keep
covenants in our lives so that we can continue to
have these incredible soul soaring experineces.
Now after that tangent haha, Mondays are what i and many other
missionaries is San Diego like to call Miracle Monday's! why, i will
tell you why, because yesterday was an absolutely incredible day! Elder
Hansen and i had the opportunity to take Bro. Hargrave,
a recent move in to the 1st ward out with us in the evening. he is 25
and served in Honduras and he is incredible. We had the opportunity to
contact some individuals and set up appointments to teach them more
about the restored gospel, but the highlight of
the night was stopping by Tony. Now a little bit about Tony, he is a
neighbor to a Part-member family that we have been working with for a
while, the Youkels. Tony found out that Bro. Youkel was going on a
Father's and Son's camp out over the weekend and Tony
wanted to come too. Bro. Youkel gave him our number and he called us and
we were able to track down the number of the member heading up the camp
out and pass along that information. As he began telling us about his
experience, he was amazed! He was amazed at
the unity of the Father's looking out for their sons, and Tony's son has
autism and the Father's of PQ1 were watching out for little AJ the
whole time. He was shocked at the clean camp ( no alcohol), and many
other aspects he loved about the people and he asked
bro. youkel, "is this just the cream of the crop of the church or what's
the deal here?" and bro. youkel said "tony this is what the WHOLE
church is like" to wich Tony replied, "i like this". He expressed to us
his interest in the church and our beliefs and
what makes us do the things that we do and were able to testify of the
Savior and set an appointment for thursday at a member's home, the
Northcutts, who also have an autistic son. Tony is sincere in his
desires to learn and is an incredible person. We are
looking forward to thursday!
I want you to know how much i love the Savior, i know that He
lives, i know that this is His work, and I know with every fiber of my
being that He loves each and every one of us and wants for each of us so
badly to turn to Him and accept and allow the
Atonement to take effect in our lives. The Atonement is real, it's never
"too late" for Christ, for His arms of mercy are ALWAYS extended
towards us. This church's head is the Savior and we have a living
prophet upon the earth today that if we follow his counsel,
we can draw nearer to Christ. the simple daily things, those small and
simple things that we do, especially for others, help us to feel our
Savior's love and help them experience the power of His love as well. It
is my hope and prayer that we may all seek to
"lift the hands which hang down" and comfort those that stand in need of
comfort and invite them into our lives to partake of the wonderful gift
of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
I love each of you so much and hope that you all have an incredible
week full of miracles!! i keep you all in my thoughts and prayers.
until next time,
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Dear Family,
It's great to hear from you! it sounds like things are going well.
as for the phone call this Sunday i will call around 4:00-4:30pm our
time here, so i assume it's 5, 530 your time. I am greatly looking
forward to it, I'll do my best to have questions at the ready for all of
you, and i will be sending pictures very soon, hopefully this week. As
for my email this week, it will be pretty much devote to mom, seeing as
it's mother's day come this Sunday and i know that mom would probably
like me to add to her memory book, this will be my "memory" this week.
Dear Mom,
What a blessing it is to be your son, and to be able to have
you as a mother, as my mother that i have been sealed to and we are a
part of a forever family. I just wanted to take a minute and reflect
back upon one of the many memories that i have of us together, upon
reflecting on events especially while on my mission and our time
together i have been impressed upon one particular experience. This
experience pertains to laundry, now i know that you may think "great my
son remembers that i made him do laundry all the time", not so. in fact,
the times in my youth when we would fold laundry together are those
moments that i remember most and I've prepared a few thoughts on this
word:
L- laughter, in that special time we had together i always recall
sharing a funny story, having a laugh and relieving the stress of the
day with a moment to laugh.
A- acceptance, we always were able to talk openly and honestly, and
no matter how ridiculous my problems seemed to be at the time, you
listened and accepted me and my worries
U- unselfish love, i know that this time you took out of your life
to spend with me, to teach me life lessons, and help me through anything
that i was going through, i know that you really did do it for me and
for my spiritual growth
N- nice, plain and simple. You taught me the principle of putting
others above myself, service with a smile and doing so with a willing
heart
D- dedication, you always had the time to be a full-time mom among
many other callings and responsibilities. i hope you know that i truly
look up to you, i noticed everything that you did for every single one
of us and for the many others in your stewardship
R- relate, this is where you would tie whatever we were talking
about to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there truly is a lesson in
everything, you have taught me that mom.
Y- yourself, your testimony, your love for the family and the
gospel changed me and helped me along the path, i am so grateful for everything that you have done for me and i know with all my heart that
you love me and that you also love everyone that you interact with.
Now i could take this one step further and talk about my
responsibility when it came to doing laundry, my job was Socks. I could
go through and make another list of attributes, though i will save that
for another memory:), and though my words may not make complete sense, i
hope that you are able to decipher the message among my mess of words.
Know that i love you, know that i care and have learned so much from
your example. You truly emanate Christlike love and you are an example of
what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want you to know that
I know of myself that He lives, the Atonement is real, He loves each
and every one of us and i know that He loves you. I learned these things
through hearing your testimony and through watching and learning from
you every day. I am so grateful for you and i love you so very much. I
know that we will be together forever.
As for an update on the work, Elder Hansen and i were able to teach
Christie, who has been longing for change in her life, she has felt a
need for something and we were able to testify of the Restored Gospel. Korean is doing well, we were unable to meet with her the past week due
to her Father-in-law having a stoke and is now in rehab. We will
continue to keep her in our prayers. Herbert is doing well, we will
meeting with him and his family this week as well as calling from their
home this Sunday, Elder Hansen will be Skype-ing his family due to
long-distance call charges haha lucky dog. Again i love you and i will
keep you and the grandparents and Ash in my prayers. i hope that your
week brings happiness and joy, i know that joy truly comes from the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and by following His example we enter in and
follow the way that leads back to Him and the Father for eternal life.
I also was able to attend the temple today, what an incredible experience!!!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Wednesday, May 2, 2012
Aarons email May 1, 2012
dear family,
It's great to hear from you! i'm glad all is well and it's good to
hear that everyone is happy and healthy(for the most part), mom i hope
you get feeling better and i know that your presentation will go well:)
as for the shirts, i'll send the one's that
dont' fit back probably next week with some other goodies for the
family(sorry i'm terrible at mailing things, it's been forever, and
Ashley's late late late birthday present will be in there as well), and i
heard and received mail from a lot of the family
for my birthday it was great to hear from everyone. i hope that both
grandma's and grandpa's are doing well too, i will conitnue to keep them
in my prayers and Ashley as well, it's wonderful to hear that she is
liking her new jobs.
This past wednesday i picked up my new companion, Elder Hansen. He
is from Alberta, Canada and a little town called Tabur. He loves texas
and he grew up working on an alfalfa farm, he is a wonderful missionary
and i am learning a lot from him already.
he is a hard worker and he's got a great attitude and is excited about
the work. I know that he will help me to become better and more fully
who the Lord needs me to be and it is great to have him in the PQ 1st
and 3rd wards.
Awesome April update!
I know that it is no longer awesome april, but i will give the
update for May (i'll find an m-word to go with it next week haha). This
past week has been one whirlwind of preparation for Samantha's baptism
and we had a few lessons with her and one that
we had with her on monday went well, the spirit just beat us to it every
time we had a lesson with her and Santiago. we taught her the Word of
Wisdom and they both explained to us that as soon as they began meeting
with us they took those things out of their
lives and began to eat healthier. so after our very first lesson they
were already living the word of wisdom, not partaking of any substance
that would hinder the spirit of the Lord from entering into their lives
and feeling that peace and joy that comes from
the gospel. Our next lesson was with Elder Hansen, and they were both
very sad to see Elder Saager go, but they warmed up to Elder Hansen
quickly with his personality and incredible stories. We were able to
each share experiences and get her excited for her
baptism, and Bro. Navarro, one of her fellowshippers, who used to be
Catholic was able to share his memories and his experiences with
learning and it was a neat experience. Her baptismal service was
ablsolutely incredible! the spirit was so strong and she gave
the closing prayer (which she tied in her testimony into her prayer) and
it was incredible, just the way that she spoke with our Father in
Heaven was truly a humbling thing to witness. Much of the ward was able
to attend and Santiago's family drove in from
Texas that night and was able to attend as well! Another humbling
experience was that because of the Transfer, Elder Saager was no longer
able to perform the ordinance of receiving the Holy Ghost so she asked
if we could swap, so i was able to perform the ordinance
and wow, what an absolutely incredible ordinance, it truly strengthened
my testimony of this gospel and of the priesthood restored through the
Prophet Joseph Smith. But that's not the coolest part, after she shook
hands she stood up and pumped her fists like
"yes!" that was the most amazing part of this whole experience, having
her grab hold of the gospel and run with it, i know that was a
confirmation to me that we as missionaries didn't do a whole lot. we
just simply provided the environment in which the spirit
could enter into her heart and be present, the spirit was the teacher,
not us. it was that gesture of "yes!" that signified to me that she "got
it" that she understood the gospel, she was so incredibly excited to
recieve the Holy Ghost that there was a palpable
feeling when her confirmation took place. I am so blessed and humbled to
be on a mission, what a blessing it is to invite others to come unto
Christ and help them recieve the restored gospel through faith in Jesus
Christ and His atonement, repentance, baptism,
reveiving the gift of the Holy Ghost and Enduring to the End. Samantha
is now in the Endurance steps of this journey and as she and we all
continue to live close to the spirit and repeat those steps throughout
our lives, we will be prepared to enter into the
presence of our Father in Heaven, i know that this Gospel is true with
all my heart and i love it.
Also the past couple of days i have been reading in Alma in chapter
47 and that is Lehonti and Amalickiah and the "come down just a little
bit" chapter. Its is so incredible to me to read how Lehonti was fixed
in his mind with a determined resolution no
to go down to battle, but Amalickiah (or the adversary) is cunning, not
giving up and providing an enticing deal of- come down just a little bit
just to talk- then- go and surround my army and we'll surrender, just
make me second in command. that's how the
adversary works, constantly, he doesn't give up, he tries to lure us and
get us to come down just a little bit and entices into peril, into
"poison by degrees" as Amalickiah's servant did to Lehonti. May we all
stay "fixed in our minds with a determined resolution"
to follow the Savior and live this gospel and never go down "just a
little bit" for if we stand steadfast, the powers of heaven will protect
and strengthen us and help us to endure and continue on the straight
and narrow.
Know that i love each and every one of you and hope you all have an
amazing week, though they may be busy as life seems to be, may we
continue to focus and diligently do those things that bring us closer to
the Savior, i'm so thankful for each and every
one of who and the examples that you've provided for me throughout my
life and will continue to keep each of you in my prayers. I know that
Christ lives and He is the Savior and Redeemer of the world.
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Aarons email April 17, 2012
Dear Family,
My apologies for the shortened letter the past week, hopefully this
week will be a tad bit better. I thank you for all of your support and
kindness and wonderful letters of love and encouragement and i just have
to say mom, i know with all my heart that you are extremely close to
the spirit because that quote of small and simple things, from Alma
teaching his son Helaman, has been on my mind for the past little while
and i have been studying that recently, i know that is an answer to my
prayers and i thank you for always living close to the spirit. i will
certainly keep Ashley in my prayers, she has been on my mind lately as
well, and i will be sending the memory card hopefully soon, if not by
next week that will have a video of a musical number that Elder Perry
and i performed at a Spanish fireside on her birthday. The video is not
the actual performance, but our practice a few days before, i was
thinking about her a lot on that day and i hope and pray that all is
well. Never give up, it's never too late or we are never too far off for
the Savior's arms of mercy are and always will be extended to all of
us. The party sounds like it was a blast! and i will be sending a
package hopefully soon as well with the shirts and some other gifts for
ashley's birthday and mother's day combined haha.
AWESOME APRIL update! so i already gave you the update with what
happened this past sunday, it was an incredible fireside and completely
in spanish and Elder Perry played the guitar and i backed him up singing
"soy un hijo de Dios" en espanol. it was an incredible experience and
Santiago and Samantha (whom we are teaching and also speak spanish) were
able to make it as well and they said it was incredible, they loved it!
Santiago and Samantha had us over for dinner on my birthday and they
got me a cake! don't worry pictures will come, and we were able to have a
lesson with them that evening as well. It is absolutely an incredible
experience to be able to witness such changes in a person's life when
they take hold and grasp the Gospel, when they "hold to the rod" and
press forward with a perfect brightness of hope and taste of the love of
God. The Gospel is so simple, as we shared last night for Elder
Saager's birthday dinner with a recent convert family in the 1st ward:
it's like a recipe. Now let me explain, you all know that i enjoy
desserts, i enjoy even more the baking process and cooking in general,
with a recipe, in order to achieve the desired results, we must follow
what the recipe tells us and if we do, we can have confidence that we
will end up with a delicious end result. There are certain steps we have
to take in preparation and throughout the baking process that lead to a
tasty treat. seeing that picture of the product causes us to work hard
and focus diligently to make our food look like that picture. As it is
with the Gospel, in order to achieve the desired end result, or the
celestial kingdom, we must follow the recipe, or the live the first
principles and ordinances of the Gospel. As we make the necessary
preparations and excersize faith in our Savior, make necessary
corrections in our lives through daily repentance, make the covenant of
baptism and recieve the Holy Ghost and continue on the path to endure to
the end, we are promised by the Father in 2 Nephi 31:20 that we "shall
have eternal life"- the sweetest and most desirable end result there is.
As we follow the recipe that has been laid out before us, as easy or
difficult that it may seem to us at times, it will be worth the work in
the end. That scripture i quoted also directs to do many other things,
but we must also contnue to "feast upon the words of chirst. . .for the
words of Christ will tell [us] all things what [we] should do" also
32:3. That book contains the recipe for our eternal happiness and as we
read it and live by it's precepts, we will come closer to our Savior and
be prepared to enter into His presence. Samantha is also preparing for
her baptism on the 28th of this month! it's coming quick but she shared
some incredible experiences with us she said "on my first day coming to
church, i felt really good, i felt like it just fit, like it was a good
fit" to this we inquired to her prayers and she knows that God has
answered her prayers and she feels that she is on the right path. What
an incredible blessing it is to be able to help these two come closer to
our Savior all while i am doing the same along the way. We also had a
lesson with Korena and Jay and her family, the family we started
teaching because of David Archuletta. it went well, Korena certainly has
a sincere heart and she began reading from the Book of Mormon and read
the pamphlet we left and watched a portion of General conference as
well, she truly desires to learn and come closer to Jesus Christ and we
taught her more about the Book of Mormon and as she reads to focus on
the feelings that she has as she reads and pray to our Heavenly Father.
She expressed to us that she feels lost at times, in life, and has been
praying for a while, and she also said that ever since we came by we've
been on her mind, that she has been wanting someone to knock on her door
to tell her "hey this is the way!" she said us being there was an anwer
to her prayers as well, how humbling this past week has been! We are
also working with Herbert to prepare him for baptism and an eternal
marriage to his wife, who is a member, he has been through many
missionaries and we know that he is close to the spirit and simply needs
to live the gospel, to "experiment upon the word" and put it to the
test for himself to recieve his answer. what an incredible experience it
is to be on a mission! This is the Lord's work and this is His Gospel!
He Lives!
This past week in sacrament meeting we recieved "the formula for
success" now we learn this from the scriptures that this pattern and
equation truly brings success in our lives, are you ready for the
formula? it is D+D+D+D+D+D=S, now let me explain, it all begins with
Desire-when we desire something, like desire to follow the Savior it
become Determination and we are resolved in our desires and we then
accquire Diligence in our efforst and seek the Savior and never give up,
we have Dedication to follow Him and become like Him and have
Dispcipline to put off the natural man and become a saint through the
Atonement of Christ, ultimately this leads to succes, it leads to
eternal life. This formula, when applied in every aspect of our lives
will bring success to each and every one of us.
Dad-how is the man you have been working with on reactivating and
bringing back to partake of the Atonement? Also how is the
recent-convert family doing? I hope and pray that all is going well in
the work and with your work in Midway as well.
Mom-how is school? are your children behaving? again thank you so
very much for your thoughts and prayers on my behalf, and again for
being so close to the spirit
Send Ashley my love and let her know that she has some presents
coming her way in the next little while! she is amazing and i hope all
is going well with her job!
Adam and Anna- Thank you so much for the wonderful gift, the card
is the cherry on top! i hope and all is well with Linkin and and Nolie
and school and work and i hope and pray that all are happy and healthy
and know that i love and care about you and keep you in my prayers
i combined some questions and thoughs for sake of time, i hope
that's ok for this week! Well family i love you dearly and i hope and
pray that you all have a wonderful week and i know i have been slacking
but, has anyone had any spiritual/missionary experiences they would like
to share? Thank you for all that you do and for your exceptional love
and kindness, i will continue to keep you in my thoughts and prayers.
Know that i love this gospel with all my heart and i know that it is
true with all my heart as well. Christ lives and loves us, he is never
far from each and every one of us, the power of God is only a prayer
away.
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Aarons email April 24, 2012
Dear Family,
i didn't receive an email from anyone in the fam this week. . . i
hope all is well and that everyone is still happy and healthy and
enjoying life and work and school and life in general:) We got word
today about transfers, and i will be picking up my new
companion tomorrow morning at transfer meeting, Elder Saager has been
here in PQ for about 7 months, and it's been such a blessing to be his
companion during a portion of that time. He will certainly be missed and
i learned so much from him. He is an incredible
missionary, he exemplifies charity, kindness and diligence, he is an
extremely hard worker and we have had some incredible experiences
together while serving in the 1st and 3rd wards here together. There are
many emotions that i feel about receiving a new companion
and taking over an area, but one of peace and confirmation from the
spirit that this transfer has been prayed about and pondered about and
has been confirmed upon President Clayton's mind and heart about how
right this is. I hope school is going well and i
want to thank everyone once more for the birthday wishes, they were
incredible and i will hopefully be sending that package sometime within
the near future, i do apologize i am terrible at getting to the post
office haha.
AWESOME APRIL update!!
the past seven days once again have been filled with miracles and
incredibly awesome experiences. I'll start off with Samantha and
Santiago, we have i believe 3 lessons with them in the past week to
update you with one of which we reviewed the restoration
of the gospel and about President Monson and upon asking her if she will
follow the prophet she replied, "i figured that was a give since i've
decided to get baptized" haha she is incredible and i probably already
updated you all on that one but another lesson
we were able to teach at the Temple and we taught the law of tithing and
she said that while she was in there, in the silent moments, she felt
like she was "on a cloud", she couldn't explain how she was feeling, we
immediately identified the spirit and bore
witness to her and the temple president then stopped by our lesson and
taught a little bit about the Temple and she received a lot of
information about the church that day, but she expressed to us that she
feels really good about it, she "gets" the law of tithing
and the law of the fast and paying fast offerings, it just "fits" wow
how humbling and incredible it is to be able to share the gospel with
such an individual. Yesterday we were able to have a lesson with her
about the Word of Wisdom and to be honest, the spirit
beat us to it again, both she and Santiago expressed to us that after
the first time they met with us they started living the word of wisdom,
staying away from and keeping those substances in their lives and they
have already felt the truthfullness and the
promise of the word of wisdom, they testified that they indeed have been
able to feel the spirit more, they have been able to "run and not be
weary, to walk and not faint. . . and recieve great treasures of
knowlege. . ." Samantha expressed to us that since
she started meeting with us, since she accepted her baptismal date,
things have just "fell into place" and what a miracle it has been to see
both her and Santiago grow in the gospel and begin to truly experience
the true JOY that comes from living the Gospel
of Jesus Christ. Her baptism is this saturday and she has asked me if i
would be the one to perform the baptism, i was speechless again, it's
truly a humbling experience and i know that this is the Lord's work and
He is in each and every one of our lives, looking
out for us and leading us all along the way. I have learned so much when
teaching, countless times i have said things i didnt' know i could say,
related things and i know it was all from the spirit, he is the driving
force of this work, not me, not us as missionaries,
but the Holy Ghost. We also had a really cool experience. We were also
able to meet with Herbert this past week, and he has been meeting with
missionaries for 7 years and upon watching a mormon message about the
word of wisdom and testifying he asked "what
do i have to do, give up coffee? done!" Herbert committed right then and
there to live the word of wisdom and he expressed to us that he enjoys
the gospel, he is liking church more and more as he comes more often.
just yesterday we left a member's home and
began talking to his neighbor who was out doing yard work and he is from
the Phillipinnes and he met with missioanries a long time ago and he
remembered how they taught him how to pray and he still to this day
"prays like mormons do", because he feels better,
he feels more peacefull when he prays as he was taught and we asked if
he read the book of mormon and he replied that he did, but when moved to
the US he lost his copy and we were able to provide him with another
copy and the Restoration DVD. This morning,
we got permission from our mission president to go and help teach
seminary early morning. what an incredible experience that was! we were
talking about Jeremiah 16:16 and how all are and that we are all
"fishers and hunters", we were able to share experiences
and our testimonies of this restored gospel, what an incredible bunch of
youth are in the church today, they are going through a lot more than
even i went through at their age and they are standing steadfast in the
gospel. This work is and will continue to
move forward and i know that this is His work that He lives and love
each and every one of us.
Also! we were having dinner with some members in the 3rd ward and
their son, who is the deacon's quorum president shared with us his
incredible missioanry experience of a few days ago. he was sitting in
class learning about world religions and about Moses
and the 10 commandments and his teacher just breifly mentioned the
church and Thomas's classmate (that's his name) leaned over to him and
asked him about the church, now Thomas sits in the back corner of his
class and he -always being ready keeps a copy of
the Book of Mormon in his backpack pulled it out and - started talking
to and teaching his friend about the church, explaining that we teach
the same things that Christ taught when he was on the earth. How
amazing!! AWESOME APRIL
Also, i would like to know if anyone has had any experiences they would like to share? please feel free:)
Well family i am out of time and i want you to know that i love you
all and i know that this is Christ's church once again upon the earth
with the gospel, the way, prepared that if we follow and live it, we
have the promise of returning to live with our
father in heaven.
love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
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