Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd LDS Mission to San Diego California.
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Dear Family,
I hope all is well and everybody is happy and healthy. I take it as a good thing that everyone is
pretty busy, Dad with work and Mom with School, summer is quickly
approaching and i know that everyone is making every
necessary preparation for this season and i hope and pray that all goes
well and that this week brings joy and peace and wonderful experiences.
To begin, we've had some really neat experiences with those whom we
are working with this past week, I'll start with James, a 13 year old,
i'm fairly certain i've talked about him before but i will tell you what
happened this past week. We went over to
teach James and his mom was waiting for us out front and said that James
would be coming out in just a minute, a few moments later out comes
james in a white shirt and tie, shined shoes, and he made his own
"Elder" nametag (which was simply a black piece of
paper with white crayon written on it and put in his pocket), it was the
coolest thing ever! His mom took pictures and so we talked to james
about being a missionary and we had him teach us a lesson based off what
he has learned and experienced from coming
to church and from meeting with missionaries in the past. He taught us
about the Holy Ghost and about how important Faith is and then we taught
him a "hold to the rod" object lesson in which we tied a rope from one
tree in his back yard to the other end and
placed objects in his path of "growth in the gospel" that will
ultimately lead him to the savior. It was a really neat experience and
James knows and understands the gospel, we are just working with his mom
right now to reactivate and work towards some ordinances
with this family. Herbert has been coming to church and continues to
tell us the more he comes to church and reads and prays every day, the
more he enjoys it and it makes sense (hmmm Alma 32, the SEED??). We will
be following up with him this week and helping
them out in their yard as well this weekend. We also had a new-member
lesson with Samantha and Santiago this week as well, we taught the plan
of Salvation but gave everyone in attendance a portion of the lesson to
teach which turned out to be a really fun lesson
because everyone was able to bear witness of how they individually
learned and gained a testimony of the Plan of Salvation and Samantha is
nervous about her calling to the Relief Society enrichment board, but
she has the support of the whole pq1st ward family.
Phil came to gospel principles again this past week and asked some great
questions! The lesson was about the Lord's covenant people and the new
and everlasting covenant and amazingly Phil and Tom, are non-members in a
part-member family, that lesson was truly
inspired and both Phil and Tom were active and interested in the lesson,
it was incredible to see. We were able to have our first lesson with
the Forkas Family, the husband is a less-active member from the age of
14 and is now late 40's and has been wanting
to become active and his daughters were interested in learning about the
church and the gospel and his wife was also in attendance at the lesson
and actively participated as well, we were able to teach them the
Restoration of the Gospel and likened Prophets
like unto Coaches seeing as both daughters have coaches, in softball,
soccer, cheerleading, and many other sports. We are also currently
working with 3 individuals and helping them learn english; melissa,
sylvia and antonio, and i am quickly finding out how
much the spirit is involoved in those lessons as well, we are working on
teaching them through a program and through the Book of Mormon as well,
i'll keep you posted on how things go!
If you could keep the Narvaez family in your prayers i would
greatly appreciate it, they have recently had a tragedy in the family
and the husband of the Family is struggling with the loss, i know that
with the combined prayers we can call down the powers
of heaven in the life of this family and they can recieve peace and
comfort from the Lord.
I do apologize this week is a shorter one, but i want you to know
how much i love and care about each and every one of you and hope that
you all have a wonderful week and I know that our Savior, Jesus Christ
lives, that He loves us and that love is manifest
is so many different ways,. especially as we read from the scriptures,
and pray daily. i know the Book of Mormon is the word of God and will
help us through every hurdle and mountain to climb in this life. Until
next time,
love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Aaron's Email May 15, 2012
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
Tuesday, May 8, 2012
Dear Family,
It's great to hear from you! it sounds like things are going well.
as for the phone call this Sunday i will call around 4:00-4:30pm our
time here, so i assume it's 5, 530 your time. I am greatly looking
forward to it, I'll do my best to have questions at the ready for all of
you, and i will be sending pictures very soon, hopefully this week. As
for my email this week, it will be pretty much devote to mom, seeing as
it's mother's day come this Sunday and i know that mom would probably
like me to add to her memory book, this will be my "memory" this week.
Dear Mom,
What a blessing it is to be your son, and to be able to have
you as a mother, as my mother that i have been sealed to and we are a
part of a forever family. I just wanted to take a minute and reflect
back upon one of the many memories that i have of us together, upon
reflecting on events especially while on my mission and our time
together i have been impressed upon one particular experience. This
experience pertains to laundry, now i know that you may think "great my
son remembers that i made him do laundry all the time", not so. in fact,
the times in my youth when we would fold laundry together are those
moments that i remember most and I've prepared a few thoughts on this
word:
L- laughter, in that special time we had together i always recall
sharing a funny story, having a laugh and relieving the stress of the
day with a moment to laugh.
A- acceptance, we always were able to talk openly and honestly, and
no matter how ridiculous my problems seemed to be at the time, you
listened and accepted me and my worries
U- unselfish love, i know that this time you took out of your life
to spend with me, to teach me life lessons, and help me through anything
that i was going through, i know that you really did do it for me and
for my spiritual growth
N- nice, plain and simple. You taught me the principle of putting
others above myself, service with a smile and doing so with a willing
heart
D- dedication, you always had the time to be a full-time mom among
many other callings and responsibilities. i hope you know that i truly
look up to you, i noticed everything that you did for every single one
of us and for the many others in your stewardship
R- relate, this is where you would tie whatever we were talking
about to the Gospel of Jesus Christ, there truly is a lesson in
everything, you have taught me that mom.
Y- yourself, your testimony, your love for the family and the
gospel changed me and helped me along the path, i am so grateful for everything that you have done for me and i know with all my heart that
you love me and that you also love everyone that you interact with.
Now i could take this one step further and talk about my
responsibility when it came to doing laundry, my job was Socks. I could
go through and make another list of attributes, though i will save that
for another memory:), and though my words may not make complete sense, i
hope that you are able to decipher the message among my mess of words.
Know that i love you, know that i care and have learned so much from
your example. You truly emanate Christlike love and you are an example of
what it means to be a disciple of Jesus Christ. I want you to know that
I know of myself that He lives, the Atonement is real, He loves each
and every one of us and i know that He loves you. I learned these things
through hearing your testimony and through watching and learning from
you every day. I am so grateful for you and i love you so very much. I
know that we will be together forever.
As for an update on the work, Elder Hansen and i were able to teach
Christie, who has been longing for change in her life, she has felt a
need for something and we were able to testify of the Restored Gospel. Korean is doing well, we were unable to meet with her the past week due
to her Father-in-law having a stoke and is now in rehab. We will
continue to keep her in our prayers. Herbert is doing well, we will
meeting with him and his family this week as well as calling from their
home this Sunday, Elder Hansen will be Skype-ing his family due to
long-distance call charges haha lucky dog. Again i love you and i will
keep you and the grandparents and Ash in my prayers. i hope that your
week brings happiness and joy, i know that joy truly comes from the
Gospel of Jesus Christ and by following His example we enter in and
follow the way that leads back to Him and the Father for eternal life.
I also was able to attend the temple today, what an incredible experience!!!
Love,
Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd
Thursday, May 3, 2012
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)