What a great week this has
been! I have been asked so many questions this week that I never anticipated
being asked on my mission. Here are just a few: "Oh! I just made cookies!
Do you want one?" "Hey Sisters! Do you want some candy? I'd love to
buy you each a candy!" "Can't you read?" "Do you want this
picture of a homeless guy I took?"
Needless to say, this week had
it's surprises! Monday: Monday was Prep day! Per usual prep day was good! We took care of all of the things we needed to so that the rest of the week could be successful! It was really good! We played volleyball with the zone and, oh man, I'm not that great at volleyball it turns out. But that's okay because it was still fun! After Prep day ended we went tracting with one of our members and bumped into a girl who used to meet with missionaries. She said she just never felt like it was true. We asked her to meet with us again and she said she would! It was really neat to be able to run into her and be able to testify and set a return appointment to come back and talk to her. I am really excited she was willing to meet with us and I am hoping that maybe her heart has been softened since she met with them in high school!
Tuesday: On Tuesday we had
interviews with President Loveland. He is so awesome! He told us that on June
1st we are going to be taking a trip to the Kansas City Temple! I'M SO EXCITED!
It was so cool. President Loveland and I had a really good conversation about
life and my area and just serving a mission in general and he gave me a lot of
really good advice that I needed to hear. I'm so grateful for an awesome
mission president. After that I went on exchanges with Sister Montoya. She is
so awesome! She and I talked a lot and we got along really well! We talked
about some of the things that we are both struggling with and we had a few
appointments and so we taught a few people which was awesome. At the end of the
night we were both crawling into bed and she just said "hey! I just want
you to know, you don't need to worry about what you say when you're teaching.
As long as you're trying to do your best and you're worthy of the spirit he
will help you. Even if you say something wrong he will help it to make sense to
the person you're teaching. Goodnight Sister Lloyd!" I just laid there
kind of in shock and thought about that. What a wonderful blessing that she
just explained to me. I'm so grateful for awesome sisters who know what to say.
Wednesday: On Wednesday we did service in the morning and
then we went to the mall and talked to a lot of people. Talking to the people
at the mall is always a little intimidating because we aren't supposed to shop
unless it's prep day so we have to be in the stores but not pay attention to
what is in the stores which is not always the easiest, but we do it! We didn't
manage to get any investigators out of it but we planted a lot of seeds and
that's what counts! While we were walking out to the car to leave the mall we
passed by a member and she stopped us and said "Sisters! Do you want some
candy? I would love to buy both of you some candy!" We accepted and she
took us to this little candy store. She bought Sister Sanders and I both a
treat and then said "my family always said it was the biggest blessing
when members would just give them a treat or offer them some water and so I try
to be that blessing for missionaries I bump into. I hope this was a
blessing." It was so awesome because she was so right. I had the biggest
craving for chocolate all day. She was a blessing to me that day. On Wednesday
during companionship study Sister Sanders and I set a goal to talk to 37 people
a day. Not just saying "hi" in passing but actually have conversations
with people which has been an AWESOME experience. I am so much more aware of
the people around me and I try so much harder to talk to people. I don't think
I was lazy before, I talked to a lot of people, but I am definitely much more
aware of how many more people I could have been talking to. After the mall and
companion study we went to a lesson and Tiffany, who we were supposed to be
meeting with, wasn't home. So we went and tracted around her a little bit and
got into a very interesting conversation. We saw some YSA aged people outside
and we went to say hi to them. As we got closer I saw they were drinking (which
happens frequently) but they were also pointing at and talking about us. We
walked up and started talking to one of the guys and the other guy and two
girls were standing a little ways to the side of us, quite obviously making fun
of us. I just looked at them dead faced, making direct eye contact with the guy
for a solid minute, until they stopped. I smiled and looked back at the guy we
were talking to and the other three went inside. It was a little funny! :)Thursday: On Thursday we started the day with our lesson with the girl we tracted into on Monday, Bethany. It was a really good lesson. She had a lot of questions which was really good because they were sincere questions that were addressing a lot of her concerns about our church. We had a lot of good opportunities to testify of Joseph Smith and of the Book of Mormon. After that we went onto campus and talked to some people for a few hours. After that we had service, serving dinner at a dinner for the community homeless/needy people. It went really good but this one older gentleman kept talking to me and he didn't have any teeth so he was a bit hard to understand. He was very nice and he gave me a picture of a homeless man that he took, I'll never say I never got anything from serving a mission! ;) He is also a published author, he told me one of his poems:
The problem with dating the tallest girl
when you're the shortest guy
is that everytime you try to look into her eyes
all you see is her belly button.
Friday: On Friday we were on
exchanges again with the Grandby sisters, they both came here and we all stayed
in the Springfield area and we just worked doing separate things. I was with
Sister Baraza who was a HOOT. She was so funny. We went on campus and talked to
some people and chalked a little bit. Right in the middle of chalking all of
the tornado sirens kicked on and the people working at MSU all came out and
started saying that everyone needed to get in the storm shelter. I was a little
concerned and so was Sister Baraza so we went into the storm shelter and it
started pouring rain and the thunder and lightning were going and we stayed in
the shelter for close to an hour, until we realized we had a dinner appointment
to get to and we didn't have our phone to cancel with the member who was taking
us to dinner. After having a good talk Sister Baraza and I decided that the
tornado wasn't anywhere close and that it was just raining and thundering so we
were going to run across campus to the institute and go to our dinner
appointment. We made it to the doors and just sprinted as fast as we could go
in the pouring rain, the tornado sirens still blaring and we made it about
halfway across campus and it started hailing. When we finally made it to the
institute building where the car was we were absolutely drenched but we both
were laughing so hard. It was one of the most fun things I've done so far on my
mission. I loved it. We went to dinner soaking wet and it was a good night.
After that we went home and changed and then went to a YSA Fireside. Our stake
had stake conference this weekend and the area seventy, Elder C Dale Willis
came. When he found out there was a YSA in the stake he decided to fly in a day
early and have a fireside with them. It was really neat! I got to shake his
hand and talk to him for a minute which was a cool experience.
Saturday: On Saturday I had a
really good day! We started the day by doing a few hours of service for the
friend of our recent convert, Alec. We did the service for this lady named
Jina, who is actually the one that got Alec interested in the church! She has a
shop where she sells vintage clothes and she is liquidating all of her
inventory so we got to go help her start organizing her inventory so she knows
what she has to sell. It was really fun to get to rummage through all of the
vintage clothes that she has! We even found a bird that was living behind this
old mattress in the attic of her store. It was an adventure for sure! After
that we did weekly planning for a few hours. That night we had Stake
Conference, Sister Sanders and I had to sing with the YSA choir for the musical
number because there are only about 15 people in the choir, including the
bishopric and the bishop's wife. So they threw the two tone deaf missionaries
in the choir to add bodies! Haha! It actually didn't end up sounding that bad
which was a huge blessing from Heavenly Father! That night was really good
though. During stake conference I had the urge to do something I haven't done
in a while. I wrote done a prayer. I told Heavenly Father what a lot of my
concerns were and what I was struggling with. I told Him I didn't feel like I
was good enough to be on a mission. I told Him that I didn't feel like I was
the soft spoken, touchy feely sister missionary who talks in a whispery voice
to bring the spirit. I told Him I wanted to feel more fully of His love. I
waited a minute and then I just started writing the words that came to my mind,
Heavenly Father's response to me. It was a really neat experience. He told me
He loves me and that He is proud of me. He told me I'm where I need to be. He
told me I need to be more patient with myself as I learn and that I am good
enough to accomlish the purposes he has for me, that's why he called me. We had
a really good talk and I got a lot of peace. After Stake Conference President
Loveland told all the missionaries to go to Braums. We all went and he bought
us all ice cream! It was a good night.
Sunday: On Sunday we had part
two of stake conference and it was really good! The YSA's recent convert,
Marlowe, spoke and she was so awesome. She got baptized right before I got here
but she is so amazing. She has such a strong testimony and it inspires me all
the time. After stake conference we went looking for less active members,
unbaptized members and tracting. It was a really fun afternoon, actually. While
we were tracting we knocked on a door and it was a young couple, they invited
us in and we talked for a minute. They are very religous and devout to their
church but they were happy we were out talking to people about Christ. The wife
looked at us and said "I actually just made cookies! Do you girls want
one?" I can't have them, but Sister Sanders can so we both took one and
thanked her. After that her husband prayed for us and it was a really positive
interaction. They were really awesome and it was such a blessing to meet people
who weren't grumpy we were knocking on their door. On our way home we were
driving behind a bus and we got to a redlight and it was next to a mail car.
All of a sudden we see a little arm reach out of the bus and then suddenly a
little boy is half hanging out of this bus. All of a sudden we see the mail man
reach a bag of chips up towards this arm and the little boy grabs a handful of
chips
This week, as you can see, was full of tender mercies and
miracles. It was really such an awesome week. I honestly feel so blessed. This
week I have been thinking a lot about mercy and a lot about grace. I have been
studying grace a lot and how that correlates with Christ's Atonement. As I've
read talks and scriptures about this I have seen my testimony grow so much. The
biggest thing that I've learned is that Christ does ask us to do our best,
absolutely. But it's not because he atoned for everything, EXCEPT for what he
knew we could do. I always thought I was supposed to do my best because that's
what Christ didn't need to do, that was my job. Christ atoned for EVERYTHING.
He covered EVERYTHING. The reason he asks us to do our best is not because it
makes or breaks whether or not we are fully covered. It's because as we do
everything we can to become better people it improves us. We become better and
rely more fully on the Lord for everything. We recognize our inadequacies and
instead of throwing our hands up and saying "I just can't do this anymore,
I'm done." We take them to him and say "I don't know how this is
going to work, but I know you can help me." and he does. I'm so grateful
that I have gone from being the person who gives up because there's too much to
be done, to being someone who takes it to the Lord and asks him to help. I'm
definitely not perfect, I have a VERY long way to go, but I know that when we
simply choose to rely on the Lord, he strengthens us. He never throws his hands
up and says "there's too much to be done, they aren't worth it." He
sees us as everything that we could ever possibly be. All that we could ever
possibly do. I am so grateful for a Heavenly Father and Savior who see me as so
much more than I see myself. I love you all so much and I am so grateful for
your love and support. Keep on keepin on and know that they Lord loves you!
~Sister Lloyd
P.S. Sorry I don't have pictures this week! I left my camera at home today! That's okay! There will just be more next week! :)
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