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

Aaron's email July 10, 2012

Dear Family,

First i want to say Happy Birthday to Adam!! 28! that's awesome! Thank you for your example to me over the years and especially while i have been on my mission, your influence and reach extends farther than you can imagine and you are affecting many of the lives of those here in San Diego as well brother, i love you. Congratulations to mom for making it back home safe, that truly is an answer to prayers and I am so grateful for jon owens and his help and grateful that mom is doing well and that she has full help and support from the family, Dad, your talk was absolutely incredible! i'm curious to know, how many of your ward stood up? and to answer your quesiton about social media, we are not allowed on facebook, but we spend one hour a week on mormon.org familiarizing ourselves with the site so we can help others navigate and i too have created my own mormon.org profile, i just checked yours out and i learned some things i didn't know about you dad, thank you for sharing your story for the world to see and i encourage our whole family to create their own profiles and invite others to see them and to explore mormon.org. i know that pretty soon, there will be pass-along cards with QR codes that will send our friends, colleagues and accquiantences directly to our profiles, what a wonderful tool technology is and how it truly is and can be a force for good in helping this the work of the Lord move forward.

 

As for the work here in PQ, things are going well, each and every day the Lord stretched out His hand and pours out blessings that we do not have room enough to recieve them. This past sunday, a semi-active member in PQ1, Carrie brought her friend Cassie to church, we spoke with Carrie and wanted to set up an appointment to teach her and her family (she has 3 little girls and her husband comes with her to church every so often and is nice, but isn't quite ready to accept the gospel yet), and she told us to give her a call on monday to work something out and we spoke again when she was walking into Relief Society, that's when we were introduced to Cassie. I'll fast-forward a bit to later that evening, we got a phone call from Carrie saying that Cassie was going to be at her home monday afternoon around 4:15 and she wanted us to be there because Cassie really enjoyed church and wanted to come back next week, so our lesson was going to be then. We went over yesterday to teach her and the lesson went well, Cassie truly did enjoy services and plans to come back next week, we were able to learn a little bit more about Cassie and teach briefly about the Restoration of the Gospel and she accepted a copy of the Book of Mormon and committed to read it and said "i'm excited to read it" what a miracle! and then in PQ3 i think i've mentioned Tom before, he is the husband of Melinda (a returned to activity member) and he just got out the army after serving in the Marines and the Army for over 12 years serving many deployments. Tom has been attending chruch with his wife Melinda since January (attending all 3 hours for the past 4 weeks as well) and we have had a couple of talks with Tom about how he feels about the church and his concerns, he said to us "i've got to work out a few things before i get baptized" and we were able to have a heart to heart with him a couple weeks ago with our ward mission leader Bro. Barnett and this week after Elders Quorum Tom approached me and said "i'd like to set up an appointment for next sunday, i know this may come as a shock, but i've been really thinking and praying and things have fell into place and i feel like i'm ready to take the next step", amazing!! we are looking forwar to getting together with Tom next sunday and i'll report of his progress next week. We also had a lesson scheduled with Jen and Todd ( a part-member family) at our EQ president's home and they were about to cancel when we picked up and took the lesson to them, we were able to read in 3 Nephi 27:19-20 and focus on "washing our garments in His blood" and what it takes, we talked about what it would be like and it's not easy, it's the old school way of washing and when we do everything that He invites us to do accept Him, we have the Holy Ghost as the ultimate "stain remover". Their goal is to work towards the Temple and they are taking the first steps that they need to take to get there.

I'm short on time but i want to comment on the Holy Ghost and how in so many cases we receive promptings NOT to do things for our protection, the Holy Ghost also prompts us to do things that we are not comfortable with doing but as we follow those promptings and get uncomfortable, we have the spirits full help in helping others recieve this gospel and come unto Christ-it can save lives. "the what informs, while the why transforms" may we each focus of the why of the gospel and apply it in our lives is my prayer. i know Christ lives and loves us and this is His work, we are His hands.

"Dare to be a Mormon

Dare to stand alone,

Dare to have a purpose firm,

Dare to make it known"

may we each dare to make it know this week in our interactions with others. I love you dearly, until next time!

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

July 2012 Pictures

Email from Aaron July 3, 2012

Dear Family,

 

It is comforting to know that you are doing well mom and i hope and pray that the rehab continues to go well and that is very exciting that you will be going home in just a couple of days, i will continue to pray for you, i know that the Lord is with you and will round about you to bear you up in times of need, the power of God is only a prayer away. All we have to do is ask. Thank you so much for the package as well, my companion and many other missioanries have enjoyed the treats, and i very much love the new shirts:) thank you so much. Keep doing everything that you are supposed to, in the Book of Mormon the Lord tells us that "inasmuch as ye shall keep the commandments ye shall prosper in the land", think of it in the context of the doctors as well, because He's given us these intelligent men that know how to help us heal and become well and inasmuch as ye shall give heed to their words and their counsels (do what they say rehab wise) ye shall prosper (become healthy and your recovery will come so much quicker than you could have every imagined) and you are definitely not alone in this mom, I know that our Savior will strengthen you daily, you are yoked with Christ through this (Matthew 11:28-30). as you continue to read from the words of Christ, you will be strengthened. I think back to my own experience of rehab when i had surgery on my thumb, the doctor gave me those rehabilitation excersizes to do every day and he promised that if i would do them every day, i might not get full motion back, but the loss of movement would decrease significantly if i did those excersizes. You know what? i didn't do them as often as i should have, they hurt, i couldn't ever "find the time" because it was my sophomore year and you've seen my range of motion, i've lost about 50 to 60% because i did not follow the doctors orders exactly as he perscribed. It's very much like unto the Gospel and even in times of trial, we have the promise that as we stay close to the spirit, as we read and pray daily and are able to partake of the sacrament and as we rely on the Atonement of our Savior we indeed can become perfect, even as He is perfect, only through His grace and mercy. as we do as the Lord has perscribed, it will lead to Eternal Life.

 

Quick miracles and update on the work here in PQ! Mary was able to attend church with us this weekend! her flight attendant schedule has been pretty busy, she's worked almost every weekend since we started teaching her, but this past sunday she had off and she was able to attend! It was fast and testimony meeting and she did say she enjoyed it and we were able to have a lesson with her yesterday as well! We were able to teach her about the Book of Mormon and give her the context and then teach, Mary said she liked that because it helped her when we "drew the outline first, and then went through and added all the color", she's very expressive and open and will tell us when she doesn't understand something so we are able to teach and help her understand. She has told us that she does enjoy reading the Book of Mormon and loves listening to it on her iphone (the gospel library app, amazing thing technology) and now that she understands the context of the Book of Mormon and how it can bring her her closer to Christ, she has a strong desire to read and pray. Helen is doing well, we were able to see her and get back in contact with her and will hopefully getting together with her this week. We took James and one of his friends to the Mormon Batallion this past week as well, what a great experience that was, i love the Mormon Batallion and the spirit that is there. Those men and women truly sacrificed so much for the Gospel and for the freedom of worship that we enjoy in this country.

 

Oh! two incredible miracles!! so, saturday we were able to help a less-active member move and were able to meet and get to them a little bit before they head off to Escondito, and later that day, we just happened to be in the right place at the right time pulling into our apartment complex and seeing a U-haul being unloaded. So. being in the moving-mode from earlier that day, we jumped out and started unloading (keep in mind we were in our white shirts and ties at this point in the day, it was awesome.) and just a few mintues into the move, the woman who was moving in asked "where do come from? Who do you represent?" to which we replied "the Church of Jesus-Christ of Latter-day Saints" and she looked at us with a puzzled look, and then we quickly said "or the Mormons". we still got the same puzzled look with a reply of "i have no idea about that church, but i'd like to learn more" Amazing, we were able to get to know Courtney (that's the woman who asked) and her husband Tim just a little bit better through the move and towards the end, a couple of members from the YSA branch saw us moving and jumped out also and started helping and Courtney later said "everyone in this community is so nice!" we offered to share our message with them and we will be going back this week, to begin sharing the Restored Gospel with them, MIRACLES!!! someone who has no idea who mormons are? the Lord truly does place people in our paths every day, sometimes we just have follow those gentle nudges to go and do something or say something. AND last night we got a call from a member who told us about her new neighbor that had just pulled in with his u-haul from Alabama and didn't have a work party to help him unload so this morning we jetted on over to see what we could do.(we also recruited our district leader and his companion to help out), it turned out that he needed some extra hands so we were able to help him get all unloaded in what seemed like no time at all, even though he had the biggest truck that you can rent from u-haul. His name is VU, and he told us "wow, you are really sent from above here" to which we offered to share our message to he and his family as well and he accepted so we will be stopping by his home as well! I know that when members of the church team up with the missioanries, miracles happen, when we pray daily for missionary experiences, the Lord places them in our paths and He is preparing people the recieve His Gospel, this is His work. He lives! this i know and of this i so testify.

guess what? i finally sent some pictures!! yahoo!! most are of Herbert's baptism just a while ago, and the other person that i am with there is Herbie, his son and Pam, his wife. What an incredible day that was and how strong the spirit was at that sacred ordinance.

 

I will definitely keep Ash in my prayers and hopefully i will have some time today to get a letter off to her. I love you all so very much, thank you for your support and  kind words and i hope and pray that you all have an incredible week! Mom, be carefull and rely on His strength to make it through.

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd

Email from Aaron June 6, 2012

Dear Family,

 

It's great to hear from you! it sounds like great things are happening in your life and in the lives of those whom you associate with! I know that sometimes in life we are in circumstances taht we cannot control, for this i would recommend reading Elder Bednar's article in the Ensign about "the enabling power of the atonement". We may not be able to change our circumstances, but we can pray for ourselves to be able to adapt, to call down the powers of heaven in our own lives and be able to access that power that can truly change us. Just like i once heard "when you change the way you look at things, then things around you change" :) that was told to me by a very wise mother, and sometimes i know that it's hard to change the way we see our circumstances, but He can help us to be able to do more than simply "grin and bear it". Dad, it was so wonderful to hear about your experience at your meeting the other day, it sounds like to me that your testimony of the Rescue was strengthened an hundred fold, and that you understand the wide impact of a friendly hand outstretched to others. It also sounds like you have an incredible ward mission organization and a solid team of missionaries and i know that they each have their individual talents to contribute and you will see miracles, i can promise you that. I look forward to hearing about all the wonderful things that begin to happen in the Midvale ward! and Steve sounds like an incredible person, all of these individuals will be able to help the ward mission and help the kingdom to be built in your ward. I'm glad you also got to meet the Leavitt's and i did get the package, and thank you very much! it was all a treat and my companion thanks you as well:) sis, Leavitt showed me a picture that she took in st.george and you two are in incredible shape! Holy smokes, going to the gym every day at 5 looks like great things are happening! I have got to catch up to you two:) will i be getting those shirts anytime soon? haha no rush, i'm just curious.

 

This past week has been one of incredible learning and personal realization and (hopefully) growth. We have seen incredible things happen within the wards and OH! today we found out about transfers and Elder Hansen and i will be sticking around in PQ for 6 more weeks:) what an incredible blessing it is to be here and to serve among these people. We feel that big things are coming, that change is happening, and that we must too change ourselves if we are to excellerate and keep the momentum going here in PQ. I have learned much from hearing the story of Peter told by President Clayton and he showed us a clip of Elder Holland as well. i may touch on this but know that the reference is John 21-and the lesson learned was we must never go back, we must feed His sheep. This past sunday we were able to see both Phil and Tom at all 3 hours of church again and this week in Gospel Principles, Sister Griffin, one of our ward missionaries, invited both Phil and Tom to help teach a portion of the lesson of the "church of Jesus Christ in former times" and the sections that they were given were perfect for them! they taught the exact portion of the lesson that was needed for them, Phil taught us about Revelation and Tom taught us the first principles and ordinances of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. What a miracle! We are keeping Phil and Tom in our prayers that their hearts will be softened and they will recieve answers that they seek. We also had an incredible experience just last night actually, we had a lesson with Ryan McGirr, we have been unable to meet with him for a while but recently have reconnected with one another. Ryan had his laptop open and we invited him to go to mormon.org to watch a profile video about basketball, because he is a huge fan. We were able to teach Ryan using this amazing tool, the Gospel of Jesus Christ, he asked us questions about the Gospel and about the Holy Ghost, to which we went directly to that section and used scriptures to expound a little more about the Holy Ghost. We were also able to direct him to the chat bar which is incredible and we invited him to read through the page on the Restoration of the Gospel and we'll follow up with him next week. He even had questions about Latter-day Saint services, and there's a page for that, even a worship with us video that the church has created, what an amazing tool that we have right at our fingertips! truly the gospel is reaching every kindred, tongue and people and "millions shall know brother Joseph again". This week we also were able to have a lesson with Mary, we were on exchanges so i was with Elder Smith, our District Leader here in PQ. Mary's schedule is such right now that she works every single weekend on call as a flight attendant so we never know when she'll be able to attend church, we continue to keep her in our prayers as well. This morning Elder Smith, departed from San Diego at about 8:30, after two years of faithful service, this incredible missionary has gone home, he has made a profound impact upon my life, he has provided an incredible example towards me as a missionary and as a person. Elder Smith exudes Christlike Love to everyone he comes in contact with and is the most humble person i have ever met in my life, he taught me many lessons, and many through his example, the words unspoken had a great impact. He will be missed, but his service is not over, he will always be a missionary.

 

Well family i love you all so dearly and hope this week brings amazing miracles and wonderful experiences! thank you all so much for your love and support and know that i love each and every one of you and know that i know that Christ lives, He loves us, and if we love Him, we will feed His sheep. Of this i testify.

 

Love,

Elder Aaron Jordan Lloyd