Aaron's email 8/14/12

Dear Family,

 

First off, HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!!!  i do realize i'm a day late and a dollar short, but i had no way of telling you sooner so i hope you can accepts my apology and my congradulations as well:) it sounds like things are well with the family and that you had an enjoyable birthday and it definitely sounds like work is keeping you quite busy nowadays as well! that's great! i hope the parade of homes goes well for you too! How did the month of perfection go for you dad? i didn't hear how it turned out. i'm sorry things are slowing down in the work around your parts, it may be like you said "the dog days of summer" and i love what a member in PQ 1 said last sunday "you'll never get stronger if you only push against marshmallows"- in order to learn and become strongs we have to work and push against something that will push back right? something cool to think about, "a good plan executed violently right now is worth more than a hundred great plans put off until next week" food for thought:) and mom, that's great to hear that you are walking! great news! i hope school goes well and that you are continuing your therapy and following all of the great counsel you've recieved to help you in your recovery, LOVE YOU!

have you all created your mormon.org profiles yet? i know dad has! just following up!

UPDATES!
We had THE most awesome lesson last night with Cheyenne!! it was so cool and the spirit was super strong!! This week we were able to teach at our Young Women's president's house and Cheyenne has been reading and praying and is through 1 nephi 15, she reads about a chapter each day. As, for her baptism, she is praying for a specific day in the month of September but hasn't quite set the day, she has a few in mind, but she's going to keep praying. So! our lesson was the plan of salvation and we dove into the scriptures with that one, it was great! Our Young Women's pres, also brought a less-active yw with her to participate and be there for the lesson and her son, Taylor had some friends over and they were able to come right at the end of our lesson for the a story about the Atonement of Jesus Christ. You may recall the conference talk that mentioned Big Tom and little Jim, well that story was made into a story book called "He took the lickin' for me" - and during that story was when the spirit rushed in and was super powerful and our YW pres bore powerful testimony after we finished reading and Taylor's friends asked us questions and we were able to teach them as well! what an incredible night it was!

Kai is doing well! He's such a little stud! He's only 9 and he seems to soak every part of the Gospel up and remember almost everything! His baptism is coming up here next satruday the 25th!

and miracle! you may remember me mentioning Korena a few months ago? the super-fan of David Archuletta? Well she experienced a tradgedy in her family and we lost contact with her for quite some time, until we were at dinner with a member who lives near her and she said "elders i have something for you to take over to Korena, David's new CD is out, and i have a 20% off coupon to deseret book, so after dinner you can take it over to her, i've been emailing her this past week, she's expecting you" and we went right over and Korena is doing well, she seems to be in better spirits and we will be getting together with her next week, because she left town this week as the last week of summer vacation. We are looking forward to that!

Jen is doing well, she left town as well this past week for the weekend until today and we were able to give her the updated version of the Gospel Library app (it's so amazing that it reads to you now!) and she loved that aspect because they were going for a LONG drive and she said she would love to listen to the scriptures!

Did i tell you about Elder Ballard's fireside? i believe i did, but did i mention that i sang at it? haha not a solo but with 4 elders and 4 sisters we sang an arrangement of Joseph Smith's first prayer, it was really a great song and i enjoyed the opportunity to sing that wonderful song.

 

Well family i love you so much and hope you have an amazing week!! i'll continue to keep you in my thoughts and prayers! Thank you so much for all your support and love and know that i know that Christ lives! He is our Savior, that he did take our lickin' for us and he asks that all we do is accept him and love him forever and show the evidence of our love through living His Gospel. I know that as we do, it leads to eternal life in His presence. Until next time.

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

Pictures August 2012

Aarons email August 7, 2012

Dear Family,

 

It's great to hear from you as always!! thank you for sharing your thought on Patriarchal blessings mom, it's incredible as well because a Recent Convert in PQ and also Samantha, so 2 RC's and two members who were working with that will be getting sealed at the end of this month are recieving their patriarchal blessings this week! i do love mine and i definitely love reading it and the inspired words that it contains, it truly is chapters from the book that our life could be, if we keep the commandments and stay the course, and how incredible it is that it is eternal, just as life is eternal, we will have our blessings forever, what an amazing gift!! Ok, i may have forgot to mention in the craziness of last weeks email during interviews that the PQ zone has a phrase for the month of Aug, and the phrase is "Heat 'em up!"- now i understand that this may make absolutely no sense to you, but in PMG on p.176 there is a quote about the Spirit and the importance of the spirit in this work. My companion worked in stables amongst cows when he was back in Canada and he had to get cows from the "tub" into the truck and he couldn't do it without his "hot shot" or his cattle prod. So he was "heating them up" to get them to the truck. We as missionaries need the spirit, or else we cannot do a thing, we cannot help our investigators progress towards baptism if we are trying to push them, coerce them but if we are teaching by the spirit, "heating them up" because the spirit can also cause a "burning in the bosom" they will desire to progress because the spirit has made it manifest to them and to their hearts. We have a goal for the month of Aug of 6 baptisms and so far, we have 6 baptims scheduled for the month! we hope an pray that all goes well and that the spirit continues to work in the lives of these wonderful children of God and that they are abel to progress toward their baptisms.

 

Updates!! We had THE most awesome lesson with Cheyenne last night! She's the young woman who went to girls camp, had an amazing time and came into church last sunday with a brand new cuad with her name on it and said "i want to get baptized", we were teaching Cheyenne about the Restoration of the Gospel at the Walton's home and incredibly enough, the Walton's have a son on a mission and his trainer, who just got back from his mission on wednesday was over for dinner and was able to help teach and testify of the restored gospel and while teaching, he shared a story of a young woman who he had taught who had also went to girls camp (mind you at this point in the lesson he had NO idea that Cheyenne had done the same) and how she felt the spirit and she wanted to get baptized and as she read from the Book of Mormon she felt really good about it and asked her mom and her mom said no to her, then she asked the missionaries and they told her to pray and to ask again. This young woman did and she began to read the Book of Mormon to her mother and she said yes. The spirit was so strong as he was telling this story becaue it is almost identical to Cheyenne's (save her mother is supporting her in this journey) and we were able to read from Joseph Smith History and how it was Joseph's first time ever praying vocally and how God does truly hear and answer our prayers, how powerful it was! We asked Cheyenne about how she felt about her baptism coming up, and she feels like Aug 25th is too soon, so we talked about it and what she feels would be appropriate and she said mid-september. so we invited her to pray specifically about the Book of Mormon and for a specific day when she feels she can be ready by in the month of September. We encouraged her to "obtain from God that knowledge which man cannot give" and we'll be seeing her on sunday! Brother Walton sealed the lesson with his testimony of the Restored Gospel and how much God loves her and how much he wants to answer our prayers, if we but ask, it was awesome!

Kai is also on track for the 25th of Aug, he's got grandpa and great grandpa flying out for his baptism and we were able to teach him about the law of tithing and we used candy as an example and he had ten peices and how when we pay our tithing, it's like giving one peice back and we asked "it's pretty easy isn't it kai?" and he replied "oh yea it is, look at how much i still have" amazing, this 9 year old is so great and he loves reading about Jesus Christ and the stories of his life. we also had a cool experience with Sis Cheung a RC in PQ3, we got a call from her requesting some pamphlets and such and we thought it was for her husband, phil, but when we arrived we heard her say "maricella, would you like to meet the Elders?" and her house keeper came around the corner and we were able to share our testimonies and testify of the gospel and how it can bless her and her family. Maricella had been asking Sister Cheung questions all day about the Church and when we asked where maricella lived she said the neighborhood and Elder Hansen said "i know exactly where that is, i served in your neighborhood for a little while, do you know. . ." and he started naming individuals and she knew them! He told her where the church building was and we gave her the number for the missionaries in her area and we got another call an hour after we left from sis cheung and she quoted maricella saying "this is wonderful, i've been looking for a church, and now there's one right by my home, my whole family needs to learn about this" how incredible is that?? Sister Cheung had been planning on going to the beach that day, and it didnt' work out, and maricella ended up coming later that day (which she normally doesn't do) and had she not, we would not have been able to meet her, miracles happen every day and sis cheugn had been praying for opportunities to share the Gospel, and she was certainly "ready to give and answer to those that ask for  a reason of the hope that is in [her]" 1 Peter 3:15. amazing things are happening up here in PQ and i am so honored and humbled to be able to participate in this the Lord's work, i know that it is His work, and we are all His children, He knows our needs. I know that Joseph Smith saw who he saw, that through him, the Church was restored and the priesthood back upon the earth to be able to perform the ordinances necessary for salvation. Christ lives! He is our Savior.

 

I hope that each and every one of you know how much i love you and i hope that you too are praying for opportunities to share the gospel, because as you've read, will be given to us if we ask and if we seek the spirit, we too can "heat 'em up" this month. i hope you all have an amazing week and that you all are staying happy and healthy!

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd