Monday, October 29, 2012

Aaron's email 10/23/12

Dear Family,
 
I hope all is going well for you, i didn't hear from you this morning so i am assuming you all are super busy and that's great!! a little side note for dad, Elder Tueller, Dehlin, and Hill and I will be playing 18 holes today at Mission Trails Golf Course :) first 18, and i'm looking forward to it! that's why you'll see a withdrawl on my account, it's for today, and we are very excited!! We had interviews with our mission president this week and that went well! Hope things at home are well and that the project is going well, and oh, a sister in my district is from Midway, so she was wondering where abouts your project is out there? and i hope your class is behaving today as well! I guess i'll just get right into updates for the week! By the way Elder Tueller is feeling much better!! Oh dad! i wanted to follow up with you and your goals, any cool experiences you would like to share, and are you praying daily for those opportunities? and your baptism as well, how were they found? how are they doing now? are you in charge of the New Member Lessons? and for all, does anyone else have their date they would like to share?
 
I will start with Noah,
Holy smokes family! It is such an incredible, humbling experience to teach and be a part of Noah's life! He is such an amazing person! When we followed up with his reading in the Book of Mormon he had read just about 10 chapters! and he said "i was a little distracted when i was reading so i'm not sure if i got fully what the Lord wanted to teach me, so i plan on going back over those and really focusing on them" wow!! and he testified to us of the changes and the power that the Book of Mormon has brought into his life, in his own words he said to us "if you would have asked me 3 months ago if there was a God, i'd tell you no way, about a month ago, i'd tell you there was a chance, but since meeting with you and reading the Book of Mormon, i'll tell you i know without a doubt that God is real" what an incredibly humbling thing to hear, and to know that truly is the power that is in the Book of Mormon. That did not come from Elder Tueller nor myself, it came from the Spirit to Noah, by his desires and his acting on those desires. We had a really good conversation with Noah about the Word of Wisdom and some of his concerns and my companion testified of the Temple and testified to that conference talk of "would you sell your soul for a nickel?" but in different terms. Noah's family has seriously noticed a difference in his life, his brother Miley called his wife Allie (a less-active member) and asked her "what's with this Nephi stuff? is he really serious about the church?" Miley being a convert himself is now speaking to his brother everyday about the church. Noah has started to post passages of scripture that stand out to him on facebook and he is helping his friend in Oklahoma back to the Gospel, back to the path that leads to eternal life, what an incredible man! and Allie also testified that we came into their lives at "just the right time" and we know that there are no such thing as coincidences, and they know that as well and what an amazing family they are! We'll be seeing them again this wednesday and so i'll keep you posted!
 
On to Tom!
Tom was taught by missionaries over a year and a half ago, and Elder Brown and i stopped by to see how he was doing to start teaching him the gospel once again, we had our first lesson with him, then transferrs happened, and Elder Tueller and I went by with Bro Coleman from the ward for our next appointment and when we began Tom said "i know i had a reading assignment and i've got to tell you, i looked everywhere for that Book of Mormon that i said i had in the house but i couldn't find it! so wednesday i went to the church building a knocked but no one was there, so i tried again today a little before you came and no one was there either, so i wasn't able to read that passage you left me" we all looked at one another in shock and asked "Tom, you went to the church building looking for a Book of Mormon??" to which he replied "well yes, i thought that would be the place to get one, if any" and i pulled a copy out of my backpack and said "well, Tom, here ya go" and he looked at me and smiled and said "why thank you" and after our lesson we invited him to church and he accepted and we promised there would be people there this time haha and there were and he made it to church this week! what an incredible experience!! Miracles have happened this week!
 
last night was a cool experience too, a reaffirmation to "follow a prompting without delay" as we learn from Pres Monson. it was later in the evening and i had the thought to drive by a part-member family's home to see if there were any signs of life, when i parked off on the side of the road i looked at the clock and said within myself "it's 8:30, is it too late?" to which i received the strongest feeling of "go to that door!" and i said "Elder, we gotta go" haha so we went and were able to speak with Mike, he is not a member of our church but he has met with missionaries before and he said life just got busy and after getting to know him and talking a little bit, we set an appointment for this friday at 7, i'll follow up! what a blessing the gift of the Holy Ghost is, i know that Heavenly Father knows his children and He will let us know! of this i so testify!
 
I love you all and hope you have a wonderful week!!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

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