Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd LDS Mission to San Diego California.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
Aaron's email 1/29/2013
This email will be super short i apologize right now just because today is slammed haha but i'll give you some updates real quick!
Bro Kevin Jolly is doing really well, before church on sunday he came over to me and asked me if i would be willing to confer the aaronic priesthood upon him in Elders Quorum and i humbly accepted and i want to tell you, that was such a humbling and neat experience, my first time ever conferring and ordaining someone, to recieve the power of God, that's big stuff and there was a palpable spirit in that room as the ordinance was performed and what a special day and special person bro jolly is, he's really made an impact on my life and his example towards me is incredible, he's made a lot of changes and is continuing to change every day.
we had a really neat experience friday night on exchanges with Elder Higbee, it was about 745 in the evening and i started to have this feeling in my chest, it wasnt' bad, but i couldn't discern what it was. we pulled over to pray and as we prayed Linda came to my mind and that feeling seemed to get more intense, and we followed that and at that time drove to see Linda and we knocked on her door and were there for about ten seconds when guess who pulls around the corner? Linda and her fiance Shawn. she invited us in and we were able to have a really great lesson with her and during that she looked me straight in the eyes and said "you always show up at the right times! how do you do it??" looking back i now realize that i was being constrained by the spirit to go visit Linda and for our day, she was planned earlier to go stop by and see and i know had we not waited, had we not shown up right when we did, we would not have been able to have that lesson. I am so grateful for the gift of the Holy Ghost and I am so humbled to know that this is the Lord's work! Linda accepted the invitation to prepare for baptism on March 16th and which she answered "i'm surprised you didn't say the 17th, that's my parents anniversary" upon which finding out that would be the day she would recieve the gift of the Holy Ghost she became solemn and we then testified of the Spirit and she wants her family to be sealed in the Temple, she loves the church! we went by the next day to give shawn a blessing and she said to us "if i'm going to be ready by the 16th, we've got to set up a more regular schedule, so lets plan wednesdays at 530" how aweosme is that?? what an incredible experience, i love this work! every minute of it!
thank you for you love and prayers, i hope all is going well and i hope you know how much i love you! Happy Birthday to all!! I know that Christ lives! He is our Savior and Redeemer!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Tuesday, January 22, 2013
Aaron's email 1/22/13
Dear Family!
Thanks for sending the pictures!! it's great to see all of you!! and
Holy Smokes Nolie is huge!! i can't believe how different she looks !
i still just have the mental image of me holding her as a newborn. I
hope everything works out with applications and such for SUU, as for
housing, i would love to live off campus, honestly anywhere as long as
it's affordable. i would prefer not to live on campus this time,
that's my only request. you may have to do some searching there but
return and report on what you find around town:) love you!! thank you
so much for helping me with this! i will do my best to get a letter
off to grandma, i've been a slacker, it's tough on tuesdays, the day
flies by and we're cramming to get things done. but i will do it!
Elder Laxton worked as a personal
trainer before his mission and we're working out good in the mornings.
also dad, could i possibly get my line of Authority??
Updates!
Bro Jolly got confirmed this sunday and he asked that i be the one to
perform that ordinance and i have to tell you, what a humbling
experience that was, we had about 11 brethren in the circle and the
spirit was so strong in that meeting and during opening excersizes of
priesthood we came to find out (although we were still in
communication with him during the week, nonetheless) that his week had
been a rough one! He had some major darts thrown at him this week and
in his words "i know y'all said it was going to be tough this week,
but i didn't think this was coming" but he remained true and continued
to read and pray to withstand those firery darts and he said once he
recieved the Holy Ghost, everything that had happened and frustrated
him that week just melted away and he felt calm and peaceful. What a
guy he's seriously the man!
another cool experience was last night! we were called upon to go and
give some blessings to some sick children, we came to find out that
two had fevers of 103 and one was in bad shape and the sister told us,
i know you're here for a reason, you can heal my children, i have
faith in the power of the priesthood. so we along with a newly
ordained Elder proceeded to give her children blessings and each
blessing did contain that of healing and one her little ones, a 2 year
old had been down all day and did not want to walk around, he had been
carried around all day and when we blessed him, i could in reality
feel his head get cooler as we were blessing this child, it was an
amazing experience and after we had finished the blessing, this little
boy sat up, stood up and started walking around! His mother said, he
has not done that all day! to put the icing on the cake, one of the
sister's daughter's friends was there who was not a member of the
church but had been talking to them and wanted to see for himself what
a blessing is like. now Donavin explained to us that he's one that has
to see in order to believe things to see they are true, he said to us
"out of everything that i've learned and talked about with this
family, and seeing that, what just happened, that's my proof", so we
invited him to meet with the missionaries and connect what he already
knows within himself to be true with the teachings of the Restored
Gospel of Jesus Christ, it was an amazing experience!
ah i'm out of time for this week, i spent the bulk of my time looking
at the pictures! haha sorry it's so short but i love you all so much,
thank you for all that you do for me and for your love! i know this is
the Lord's work, He lives and the Priesthood is upon the earth once
more, that same power by which Christ worked miracles in the flesh,
miracles still happen today, of that i testify.
until next time,
love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Thanks for sending the pictures!! it's great to see all of you!! and
Holy Smokes Nolie is huge!! i can't believe how different she looks !
i still just have the mental image of me holding her as a newborn. I
hope everything works out with applications and such for SUU, as for
housing, i would love to live off campus, honestly anywhere as long as
it's affordable. i would prefer not to live on campus this time,
that's my only request. you may have to do some searching there but
return and report on what you find around town:) love you!! thank you
so much for helping me with this! i will do my best to get a letter
off to grandma, i've been a slacker, it's tough on tuesdays, the day
flies by and we're cramming to get things done. but i will do it!
Elder Laxton worked as a personal
trainer before his mission and we're working out good in the mornings.
also dad, could i possibly get my line of Authority??
Updates!
Bro Jolly got confirmed this sunday and he asked that i be the one to
perform that ordinance and i have to tell you, what a humbling
experience that was, we had about 11 brethren in the circle and the
spirit was so strong in that meeting and during opening excersizes of
priesthood we came to find out (although we were still in
communication with him during the week, nonetheless) that his week had
been a rough one! He had some major darts thrown at him this week and
in his words "i know y'all said it was going to be tough this week,
but i didn't think this was coming" but he remained true and continued
to read and pray to withstand those firery darts and he said once he
recieved the Holy Ghost, everything that had happened and frustrated
him that week just melted away and he felt calm and peaceful. What a
guy he's seriously the man!
another cool experience was last night! we were called upon to go and
give some blessings to some sick children, we came to find out that
two had fevers of 103 and one was in bad shape and the sister told us,
i know you're here for a reason, you can heal my children, i have
faith in the power of the priesthood. so we along with a newly
ordained Elder proceeded to give her children blessings and each
blessing did contain that of healing and one her little ones, a 2 year
old had been down all day and did not want to walk around, he had been
carried around all day and when we blessed him, i could in reality
feel his head get cooler as we were blessing this child, it was an
amazing experience and after we had finished the blessing, this little
boy sat up, stood up and started walking around! His mother said, he
has not done that all day! to put the icing on the cake, one of the
sister's daughter's friends was there who was not a member of the
church but had been talking to them and wanted to see for himself what
a blessing is like. now Donavin explained to us that he's one that has
to see in order to believe things to see they are true, he said to us
"out of everything that i've learned and talked about with this
family, and seeing that, what just happened, that's my proof", so we
invited him to meet with the missionaries and connect what he already
knows within himself to be true with the teachings of the Restored
Gospel of Jesus Christ, it was an amazing experience!
ah i'm out of time for this week, i spent the bulk of my time looking
at the pictures! haha sorry it's so short but i love you all so much,
thank you for all that you do for me and for your love! i know this is
the Lord's work, He lives and the Priesthood is upon the earth once
more, that same power by which Christ worked miracles in the flesh,
miracles still happen today, of that i testify.
until next time,
love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Sunday, January 20, 2013
Aaron's Email 1/8/13
Dear Family,
I totally understand the business of taking down Christmas and of
school getting back into session and work keeping you all busy as
well! that's wonderful! so good to hear! but i do hope that all is
well and that you have had and are having and will have a wonderful
week! Thank you for your love and support and encouragement, your
prayers are felt and i thank you sincerely. I have a new companion!
Transfers were on Wedensday and my new companion is Elder Laxton, he
is from Orem Utah and he played football and rugby before his mission
and believe it or not worked as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym for a
while too, he's ripped! he's going to help me get into shape!! and
he's a stud of a missionary too! what a great example he is to me! he
was originally called to the Phillippines and went through the MTC and
was in the Phillippines for about 2 weeks when he was doing a service
project and the ground gave out and he tore his maniscus and had to go
home for sugery and re submitted his papers and came out to san diego!
he seriously is the man! we've already found that we have a lot of
similarities and have made a bond so it's awesome and we're so excited
for the work that's ahead! He is helping my faith to grown and
increase so much, he's teaching me so much and i am just stoked! it's
the best!
alrighty, updates!
Bro Jolly is getting baptized this weekend! we had a lesson with him
this week and shared his testimony with us and is just so solid! he's
the man too! he's got family flying in from texas for his baptism and
from northern California (all not members but totally supportive) and
i'll be singing at his baptism too, there is going to be a lot of
people there haha. But what a humbling experience that it's been to be
a part of his life at this time and he has truly gained a testimony
and understands what enduring to the end means.
the whittakers!
I want to share with you a most amazing experience that Elder Laxton
and i had this past week that pertains to our adding 3 new
investigators. First i am so humbled and grateful to be Elder Laxton's
companion, he is a great example to me and my faith has increased so
much the past few days just being with him, he is an incredible
missionary. Our faith is in the standard of excellence, these goals
were inspired by the Lord through you as our mission President and the
goal of 20 lessons a week set by an apostle of the Lord. We excersized
our faith in these goals and we set the goal to find 3 new
investigators, now we were working and seeing people and come sunday
night at 7:30 that faith was on trial. We continued to excersize that
faith in inspired planning and we went to visit the individuals whom
we had planned, by this time it was 8:00 and there was one more person
to see, the last possible time we visited the Whittakers and Nick, her
17 year old came to the door and let us in we were able to share a
message of faith and invited her and her boys (she's less active with
4 boys, one of which is autistic) and they all accepted the invitation
to learn. amazing! and our return appointment was last night which we
taught the Plan of Salvation and invited them to be baptized, now
interestingly enough sis whittaker excued her children and we had a
one on one with her and she filled us in on the details of what's
going on in her family. turns out the night we showed up, was the same
day Nick had gotten baptized baptist. Imagine that "coincidence" when
the elders show up on the very night. Inspired. there are other things
and we found her concern: she didn't feel loved in the ward. so she
invtied her kids back and (by the way her oldest is 21 just so you
aren't worried haha) and they all again accepted the invitation to
learn. the previous night we were able to give Josh a blessing who was
struggling with Physics homeword is ADHD and he needed help, we found
out last night that he was able to buckle down and power through it,
when on a normal night there's no way that would have been able to
happen, sis whittaker knew and knows there is power in blessings and
she also asked for one and we were able to give her one. what an
amazing , humbling experience. I love this work!
Jordan is doing well too! we taught her the plan of salvation and she
already knew it from sunday school! everything down to the degrees of
glory and what they mean! she's awesome! we are still praying the her
mother's heart will be softened enough to allow us to share the
message of the gospel with her family, i would invite you to join in
those prayers please.
we also had a lesson with Corrina, one of our other invesitgators that
has been off and on and hot and cold for a couple months, but we had
an aweosme lesson with her and sis mcdermott, her
neighbor/fellowshipper and we invited her to church and she brought
her 3 daughters to church as well! more updates to come as she
progresses.
ah i love you but i am out of time! thank you so much for all that you
do and i know this work is true! it is His work! These are His
children! Christ Lives!!
until next time
love
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
I totally understand the business of taking down Christmas and of
school getting back into session and work keeping you all busy as
well! that's wonderful! so good to hear! but i do hope that all is
well and that you have had and are having and will have a wonderful
week! Thank you for your love and support and encouragement, your
prayers are felt and i thank you sincerely. I have a new companion!
Transfers were on Wedensday and my new companion is Elder Laxton, he
is from Orem Utah and he played football and rugby before his mission
and believe it or not worked as a personal trainer at Gold's Gym for a
while too, he's ripped! he's going to help me get into shape!! and
he's a stud of a missionary too! what a great example he is to me! he
was originally called to the Phillippines and went through the MTC and
was in the Phillippines for about 2 weeks when he was doing a service
project and the ground gave out and he tore his maniscus and had to go
home for sugery and re submitted his papers and came out to san diego!
he seriously is the man! we've already found that we have a lot of
similarities and have made a bond so it's awesome and we're so excited
for the work that's ahead! He is helping my faith to grown and
increase so much, he's teaching me so much and i am just stoked! it's
the best!
alrighty, updates!
Bro Jolly is getting baptized this weekend! we had a lesson with him
this week and shared his testimony with us and is just so solid! he's
the man too! he's got family flying in from texas for his baptism and
from northern California (all not members but totally supportive) and
i'll be singing at his baptism too, there is going to be a lot of
people there haha. But what a humbling experience that it's been to be
a part of his life at this time and he has truly gained a testimony
and understands what enduring to the end means.
the whittakers!
I want to share with you a most amazing experience that Elder Laxton
and i had this past week that pertains to our adding 3 new
investigators. First i am so humbled and grateful to be Elder Laxton's
companion, he is a great example to me and my faith has increased so
much the past few days just being with him, he is an incredible
missionary. Our faith is in the standard of excellence, these goals
were inspired by the Lord through you as our mission President and the
goal of 20 lessons a week set by an apostle of the Lord. We excersized
our faith in these goals and we set the goal to find 3 new
investigators, now we were working and seeing people and come sunday
night at 7:30 that faith was on trial. We continued to excersize that
faith in inspired planning and we went to visit the individuals whom
we had planned, by this time it was 8:00 and there was one more person
to see, the last possible time we visited the Whittakers and Nick, her
17 year old came to the door and let us in we were able to share a
message of faith and invited her and her boys (she's less active with
4 boys, one of which is autistic) and they all accepted the invitation
to learn. amazing! and our return appointment was last night which we
taught the Plan of Salvation and invited them to be baptized, now
interestingly enough sis whittaker excued her children and we had a
one on one with her and she filled us in on the details of what's
going on in her family. turns out the night we showed up, was the same
day Nick had gotten baptized baptist. Imagine that "coincidence" when
the elders show up on the very night. Inspired. there are other things
and we found her concern: she didn't feel loved in the ward. so she
invtied her kids back and (by the way her oldest is 21 just so you
aren't worried haha) and they all again accepted the invitation to
learn. the previous night we were able to give Josh a blessing who was
struggling with Physics homeword is ADHD and he needed help, we found
out last night that he was able to buckle down and power through it,
when on a normal night there's no way that would have been able to
happen, sis whittaker knew and knows there is power in blessings and
she also asked for one and we were able to give her one. what an
amazing , humbling experience. I love this work!
Jordan is doing well too! we taught her the plan of salvation and she
already knew it from sunday school! everything down to the degrees of
glory and what they mean! she's awesome! we are still praying the her
mother's heart will be softened enough to allow us to share the
message of the gospel with her family, i would invite you to join in
those prayers please.
we also had a lesson with Corrina, one of our other invesitgators that
has been off and on and hot and cold for a couple months, but we had
an aweosme lesson with her and sis mcdermott, her
neighbor/fellowshipper and we invited her to church and she brought
her 3 daughters to church as well! more updates to come as she
progresses.
ah i love you but i am out of time! thank you so much for all that you
do and i know this work is true! it is His work! These are His
children! Christ Lives!!
until next time
love
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Aaron's email 1/15/13
Dear Family,
It's great to hear from you! I can't believe Nate's homecoming is
this sunday! send him my love and give him a bear hug for me and tell
him i'll write him, sorry it's taking me forever haha.
updates real quick!
Bro Kevin Jolly was baptized saturday jan 12, 2013 and that service
was incredible! I had the opportunity to sing a special musical number
for his baptism and there was a great turn out from the ward as well!
he will be confirmed this coming sunday and he asked if i would be
willing to perform the confirmation, wow super humbling! he was given
the opportunity to bear his testimony after his baptism, and i have to
tell you, it was amazing! President Clayton attended his baptism and
he sent us a text that night that read "keep baptizing people like
Kevin!" to which we responded "yessir!" haha but in all reality his
testimony was stake conference worthy, he gave an amazing talk for
about 15 minutes and his testimony of the restored gospel is so solid!
what an amazing man he is and example to me! i will send pictures next
week, please remind me to as well!
Jordan is doing so great! we had a lesson with her this week at our YW
pres' house and we had her read 2 nephi 31 and had planned to teach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ and before we started the lesson we felt
prompted just to ask some simple checking for understanding questions
to see where she was at and guess what?? she already totally
understands everything about the first principles and ordinances of
the Gospel! so our discussion then became a more detailed, testimony
driven discussion with Jordan and she expounded on faith, repentance,
baptism and the holy ghost and what each meant to her and how it's
helped her in her life, and she knows what she has to do to endure to
the end as well! she's incredible and she's 12 years old! so close to
the spirit! she knows exactly what is and what is not from our
Heavenly Father and she seeks after those things that are! What a
humbling experience!
quick question, dad, could you send me my line of authority please?
oh! we mixed things up a bit and as a zone we're trying to keep things
fresh and exciting and we are always working to find people to teach,
so as a district Elder Laxton, Elder Roestenburg (who's from Sandy too
and went to Jordan) his companion Elder Delos Santos (from syracuse)
and Sister Brown (from Midway) and Sister Patterson (Logan) we
gathered together and busted out the sidewalk chalk and all together
drew the plan of salvation out on the sidewalk, it was awesome! all
the while talking to everyone that we possibly could who was walking
through the park! the sisters even started jogging with a guy who was
there and talked to him about the Plan, it was such a fun day! Elder
Laxton and i are working on coordinating some songs to sing at the
park and while we're walking around (he plays the guitar and ukulele
and sings too) so this week should be a blast!
Thanks for all that you do and Dad, i'm sure i will forgive you
someday for that text:) haha but thank you for understanding and
helping to keep me obedient out here, because we as mission need all
the blessings we can get, we've got to prepare for these new
missionaries that will be coming out, by the end of march we'll go
from about 170 to 190 misionaries and by the end of the summer should
reach our compliment of 250 missionaries! the Lord is hastening His
work! and i am so grateful to be a part of it i love every minute of
it and i know it is His work! Christ lives and loves us, His atonement
is real and can help through anything, even to simply become better
today than we were yesterday, of that i testify. I send my birthday
wishes to Grandma, Anna and Jeff!! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
It's great to hear from you! I can't believe Nate's homecoming is
this sunday! send him my love and give him a bear hug for me and tell
him i'll write him, sorry it's taking me forever haha.
updates real quick!
Bro Kevin Jolly was baptized saturday jan 12, 2013 and that service
was incredible! I had the opportunity to sing a special musical number
for his baptism and there was a great turn out from the ward as well!
he will be confirmed this coming sunday and he asked if i would be
willing to perform the confirmation, wow super humbling! he was given
the opportunity to bear his testimony after his baptism, and i have to
tell you, it was amazing! President Clayton attended his baptism and
he sent us a text that night that read "keep baptizing people like
Kevin!" to which we responded "yessir!" haha but in all reality his
testimony was stake conference worthy, he gave an amazing talk for
about 15 minutes and his testimony of the restored gospel is so solid!
what an amazing man he is and example to me! i will send pictures next
week, please remind me to as well!
Jordan is doing so great! we had a lesson with her this week at our YW
pres' house and we had her read 2 nephi 31 and had planned to teach
the Gospel of Jesus Christ and before we started the lesson we felt
prompted just to ask some simple checking for understanding questions
to see where she was at and guess what?? she already totally
understands everything about the first principles and ordinances of
the Gospel! so our discussion then became a more detailed, testimony
driven discussion with Jordan and she expounded on faith, repentance,
baptism and the holy ghost and what each meant to her and how it's
helped her in her life, and she knows what she has to do to endure to
the end as well! she's incredible and she's 12 years old! so close to
the spirit! she knows exactly what is and what is not from our
Heavenly Father and she seeks after those things that are! What a
humbling experience!
quick question, dad, could you send me my line of authority please?
oh! we mixed things up a bit and as a zone we're trying to keep things
fresh and exciting and we are always working to find people to teach,
so as a district Elder Laxton, Elder Roestenburg (who's from Sandy too
and went to Jordan) his companion Elder Delos Santos (from syracuse)
and Sister Brown (from Midway) and Sister Patterson (Logan) we
gathered together and busted out the sidewalk chalk and all together
drew the plan of salvation out on the sidewalk, it was awesome! all
the while talking to everyone that we possibly could who was walking
through the park! the sisters even started jogging with a guy who was
there and talked to him about the Plan, it was such a fun day! Elder
Laxton and i are working on coordinating some songs to sing at the
park and while we're walking around (he plays the guitar and ukulele
and sings too) so this week should be a blast!
Thanks for all that you do and Dad, i'm sure i will forgive you
someday for that text:) haha but thank you for understanding and
helping to keep me obedient out here, because we as mission need all
the blessings we can get, we've got to prepare for these new
missionaries that will be coming out, by the end of march we'll go
from about 170 to 190 misionaries and by the end of the summer should
reach our compliment of 250 missionaries! the Lord is hastening His
work! and i am so grateful to be a part of it i love every minute of
it and i know it is His work! Christ lives and loves us, His atonement
is real and can help through anything, even to simply become better
today than we were yesterday, of that i testify. I send my birthday
wishes to Grandma, Anna and Jeff!! I love you all!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
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