Aaron's final email from the mission field 6/7/13

Hi Family!!

Holy smokes!!! i hope this week has been super good for you!! i have really cool experiences to share with you but i'll get to those in a moment:) i'm glad that ash found the music and i'm very excited to sing! by the way the Read's are actually going to be in Sandy next weekend and they want to come to my homecoming! so, i'll make sure i have sis Read's info and i'll have to send her all the info so that she and her family can be there! Hey that's awesome that you have been called to serve as 1st counselor! you will do many great things and bless the lives of so many people and remember "those whom the Lord calls, He qualifies" and don't limit yourself by what you think you are capable of accomplishing, allow the Lord to expand your capacities (ability to achieve, to love, to serve, etc.) and He will!! i know He will! i've experienced it so many times out here in the field! i know if you turn to Him for help and guidance and strength, He will help you and direct you! and i think uppityness is totally a real word mom:) holy smokes that's so weird to think about, but i promise i'll make every moment count!!

alrighty so update time!!

We had an awesome lesson with Xavier this week!! yes he did lose his baptismal date and we're working on resetting that with him, BUT the lesson went really well! as soon as we got there he started telling us about a conversation that he had with his friend it went a little like this "xavier you're Mormon aren't you??" he responds "not yet" friends say "you don't drink coffee??" he responds "nor tea" and as soon as he said that he looks at us with this look of "oh no" on his face and then he looks down and he holds up his can of Arnold Palmer half and half and says "is this tea??" to which we respond "ya, it is" and he looks down and says "ah, but its so good...do you want me to throw it out?" to which we respond "yes we do" so he walks out of the room and throws it away and comes back and sits down with a sigh and says "alright, starting now no more tea" - how awesome is that?? and after our lesson of talking about the sabbath and the sacrament he offered the closing prayer. That prayer was so incredible! he says the most humble, sincere prayers, it's amazing! at the very end of his prayer he asked "please give me the strength to not drink tea..." i know that the Lord will bless him with that because he truly  has the faith that He can help! we'll be getting together with him tomorrow to talk some more about the plan of salvation so please keep him in your prayers that all will go well!

we also had a SUPER cool experience sunday night. we decided to contact some former investigators in the complex called "la mirage", we didn't know why but we hadn't been there in a while and we felt super prompted like we should go. so after talking to a few people and getting a couple of soft return appointments we were making our final round for the night and we looked at each other and said "we've got to add somebody, we set the goal, we've been trying, let's do it!" and as we round the corner there's a woman walking her new little pup and we start talking to her. her puppy made instant friends with Elder Zollinger and after talking for a moment- getting to know her, Tracey by the way- we invited her to learn more about the Restored Gospel and she said "ya, i mean i never really had a religion growing up, i wish i had though" so we talked a little more and introduced her to the Book of Mormon and prayer and she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and we taught her how to pray and we prayed right there with her and we'll be going back there tomorrow to talk some more about the Book of Mormon and the chapter we left her to read! Heavenly Father needed us there at that moment to talk to Tracey and to invite her to learn more of His gospel, what an incredible experience that was for me!

alrighty it's time to keep on sprinting to the finish, i love you all so much and can't thank you enough for your love and support! a couple of principles that i have come to learn and keep with me this past week have been:

-Do one more thing -dad's words have always been with me

-Leave it better than you found it the old boy scout motto totally applies to missionary work!!

i leave you with my testimony that i know that this is the Lord's work, not mine, i know He lives and that His gospel has been restored. His love is infinite and is real!! the Atonement is real!! i love being a missionary and i know that "the tag doesn't make you a missionary, it's your heart". 

love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd