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
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