Granby Missouri!

July 24, 2017

This week has been so crazy and fast. But it has been so awesome!

Wednesday- On Wednesday We had P-Day so I spent the day doing everything I needed to do to be ready for Granby, Missouri. There wasn't a whole lot I had to to. That night we took a trip to Alec's work so that I could say goodbye, it was really sad but I am so grateful for the opportunity that I had to teach him. His example of sacrifice and discipleship. He bought me gluten free, chocolate, coconut snacks as a goodbye gift. That night Samuel, my other recent convert and his girlfiend Olivia came to say goodbye to me and it was so good. They are so sweet and we had a really good conversation about all of our lessons we had. As he was leaving he looked at me and said "Well Sister Lloyd, I'll never forget you." and walked away. I cried all the tears. 

 Thursday- On Thursday we had transfers. A member of the YSA, Amanda, (who I love dearly) drove us to transfer point and dropped us off. I said goodbye, hopped on the van and headed to Granby. My new comp, Sister Snyder picked me up and we headed home. It was a long day of meeting people and trying to retain as much information as I could about the area and the people. It was stressful. But before I came to Granby I bought stickers to hand out to the little kids and we were teaching a lesson to a mom and a little girl (teaching families is so different by the way) and I whipped out my unicorn stickers and gave her one and now she likes me! One point for Sister Lloyd! 

Friday- On Friday we had a lot of service and some weekly planning. A lot of the day was spent introducing myself to members in the area. It was awesome! The members are all so nice and happy to see the missionaries which is really nice. We had a lesson with out investigator, Sean. He is really cool and he wants to get baptized, he just has to quit smoking so we are working on that. That night we had dinner with the Alphins and they are so sweet. I love them dearly. Then we went and met the Lemons and I love the Lemons! They have three little girls and one little boy, William.. William is my BUDDY! I gave him a dinosaur sticker and now I'm basically his best friend. He loves me. 

Saturday- On Saturday we had a big ward activity or Pioneer Day which was stressful because there were a lot of people I didn't know but needed to meet. After that we went and did service for a couple who is moving and needed help packing. They also fed us dinner and it was so nice of them. That afternoon we got a text from our investigator,, Chelsea and she tried to drop us but we decided to just send her a text asking if we could just come and talk to her. She said yes so we went over and talked and she is having a hard time. She is really sad and depressed. We talked to her about how she is never alone and Christ loves her and fortunately she decided to keep meeting with us. I was so grateful for the decision we made to go and just listen. 

Sunday- On Sunday it was a long day! It is so stressful for me to have to try to meet and remember so many people. But we were sitting in Gospel Principles and at the very beginning we were talking about how hot it is and the investigator we had who was there was talking about how he has had heat stroke twice so the heat is hard for him and this member of the ward, who is a few french fries short of a happy meal, pipes up and says "I've had heat stroke twice too!" We said we were sorry and he said "Both of them happened while I was doing pot." My eyes just about bugged out of my head. He is just this old crazy guy with really long hair and he starts telling the missionaries and our investigator about these two times when he did pot and passed out because of heat stroke. It was really awkward for a minute and then out ward mission leader, who was teaching, just said "well, alright! Today we are talking about fasting!" and moves on. I was dying trying not to laugh. After church we went and taught two lessons and we visited a lot of less actives. It was a really good day! 

This week I have been thinking a lot about stretching. During my days as a cross country runner I did a lot of stretching. Before runs, after runs, whenever my muscles felt tight, whatever. Stretching is important because if you don't stretch it's bad for your muscles and you can hurt yourself. However, I feel like I am stretched mentally and spiritually way more often than I used to stretch physically. I loved my last area, the YSA and I was comfortable. I was really good at talking to and teaching YSA's. I knew how to relate to young people. I knew where to find and I knew that I was pretty good at it. Then I found out I was going to a family ward. It was a big stretching moment for me. I don't understand how to teach adults and children about the gospel, I don't know how to find, I don't know how to relate. I was sad and knew that it was going to be a stretching moment for me. But as I came to Grandby I saw how much joy comes from missionary work, from trusting God, from being stretched. If you don't stretch your muscles and you try to run you can seriously injure yourself and the same goes for spiritually stretching yourself. Had I not had this opportunity to be spiritually stretched then my mission would have been seriously injured. I am so grateful for a loving Father in Heaven who is willing to stretch me when I don't want to be stretched. He knows me and loves me enough to make me do things that are hard for me. So many blessings have happened to me because of this change and even though it was hard, it is so worth it. I love you all and I hope that any of you who are being stretched will be able to trust and look back and know that it is for your good. I love you all! Have a great week!

~Sister Madisen Lloyd

THAT'S IT! I'M MOVIN' OUT!

July 19, 2017

Once upon a time there was a Sister missionary who spent her first few transfers going on exchanges in Grandby, Missouri. While she was there she met a sweet little boy named Hyrum who wanted her to get transferred there. She told him to pray really hard for that to happen and that God would decide. Well... God hears prayers and answers them too and so Sister Lloyd is getting transferred to Grandby, Missouri. I leave tomorrow morning. My heart is really heavy as I have spent the last few days saying goodbye and packing up. I have dearly loved my time in the Springfield YSA and I hope that I have had as much of an impact on the area as the area has had on me. I love the people and the work I do for them but I am excited to start my new adventure in a town that is quite the opposite from where I'm at now. Grandby, Missouri is a TEENY little town that have a number of cows that rivals the number of people there. It is very country and it is going to be a great adventure! My new companion's name is Sister Snyder and if you have read my emails you may recognize her name because we have been on several exchanges together and are very good friends. I am so excited to see why the Lord is sending me to Grandby! 

Monday- Prep Day! Nothing too super exciting! Just a lot of preparing. Go figure! 

Tuesday- On Tuesday we had service with my dear friend Rose, after that we exchanged companions for the day! I was with Sister Pierce who is brand new! This is her first transfer and she is already a power house missionary. We had a really good lesson with our investigator, Brad. We taught the Plan of Salvation. It was really awesome! He has done a lot of... research and so while we were teaching he casually asks "so is outer darkness like with this or is it somewhere else?" I was surprised to say the least and then we had a really good conversation about outer darkness. Haha! We were waiting for our next appointment when we got a phone call that said Charles, the guy we were waiting to meet with (he is a less active member), got in a car wreck on Sunday and wouldn't be able to make it because he was in the hospital! He did NOT want us to come visit because, in his words, "I'm not dressed decent". So we went on campus and talked to people instead. After that we went home and had dinner and then went tracting. While we were biking we came across a car that had the keys in the outside key hole of the car door. We didn't want to just leave it so we, through a long series of events, got a hold of the campus patrol so that they could get the keys to the right people. When we biked by the next day the car was gone... hopefully to the right people! Tuesday night Sister Moser and I were back together and we got a text from our District Leader asking us to instruct on the role of prayer in conversion the next morning. THAT'S NOT ENOUGH TIME TO PREPARE.

Wednesday- Wednesday morning we went to District Meeting and Sister Moser and I instructed. The Lord definitely blessed us for trying to be obedient and do things that we are asked to do because we both gave decent instructions! It was so good! After that we went on campus and rode the campus bus and talked to people on there. It was so fun! That night we had a lesson with our investigator Justin and he is always good to talk with. We just can't seem to get him to keep commitments. We finished the night by biking home and trying to talk  to people as we went. 

Thursday- On Thursday we went to visit a new investigator that we just found and we had an awesome conversation with him about Christ and the Book of Mormon. It was so awesome. the rest of the day we were weekly planning and that is always pretty boring. That night we had a lesson with Samuel about the ten commandments. Samuel is so awesome and he shared really cool thoughts about how the commandments are protectors for us and not restrictions. How they allow us to use our agency to make wise choices and after that we can continue to us our agency to choose! It was a great lesson. 

Friday- On Friday we started the day with Service at the Food Pantry and that is always fun. They always like us to warn them when one of us might be leaving and I had a feeling I would be and so I let them know and they were really sad. One oldish guy named Tim was like "You can't leave! We all like you so much! You're sweet face needs to stay here for at least six more months!" It felt good to know that I was so dearly loved by the people in the area. I dearly love them too. After that we spent most of the rest of the day tracting. We knocked so many doors in the heat it was a little ridiculous. That night we went to visit Charles, our member, in the hospital. He is doing well and the car wreck may have fractured his back but it didn't fracture his sense of humor! He is doing well. He can stand and walk a little so he is doing well.  That night we had ice cream with another less active member who told us that she is improving! She has been working so hard to overcome her path and she is almost done! We were so excited! She told us that she is moving to Oregon to be with her mom who is an AWESOME lady and we were so excited for her. 

Saturday- On Saturday we did service for Jina at her store. After that we had a lesson with a guy named Kavon. Kavon was someone that other missionaries handed off to us because he is YSA and he is so awesome! He has a baptismal date for the 29th! (I'm so sad I'm going to miss it!) The rest of the day we did some tracting! 

Sunday- On Sunday we went to church and it was awesome! After church we had a lesson with an investigator named Antwain. Antwain is awesome, he used to meet with missionaries and his life got really busy so he stopped. We just recently picked him back up again and we read from the Book of Mormon with him and invited him to read from it daily. After that a member drove us 45 minutes to Bolivar to meet with an investigator who some other missionaries passed off to us because she is YSA. We taught the Restoration and it was a really good lesson! By the time we got to know her, taught her, and drove home it was time for us to go home! 

Monday- The Monday that isn't Prep Day is always incredibly long. We started the day by going on campus and there really weren't that many people there so we went and did some service at the Food Pantry again. We went home and watched an AWESOME missionary broadcast by Elder Neil L Anderson where he talked about finding. Something that stuck out to me was that he said that there are people EVERYWHERE who are ready and willing to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I think that that is such an AMAZING promise. If I am willing to work to find and open my mouth then there will be someone ready to hear it no matter where in the world I am at. After we watched the broadcast we went and rode the campus bus and talked to people. We got off in the town square to try to talk to people and there was SO MANY PEOPLE and live music. We were nervous and didn't know what was going on and then we asked someone. It turns out there was a Christian Rally! All of these Christians from so many different faiths got together to sing together and worship God! It was amazing! I got a little teary that there were so many good people there. This one guy came up to Sister Moser and I and started talking to us about how hard his life has been we reassured him that God loved him. After that he walked away but a little later he came up to me while Sister Moser was talking to someone else and asked me to "pray over him" I always get uncomfy when people ask me to pray OVER them. I just always think how hard that would be because I'm so short ;) But I prayed with him that he would be able to feel God's love and peace and be able to feel joy. He thanked me! I offered to send missionaries to meet with him and help him feel of that love and peace and he said "mmmm, no thanks. I'll stick with my denomination." *face palm* That's okay. Jesus still loves him. That night we had dinner with the SWEETEST lady! Her name is Barb. We met Barb when we were lost and looking for an address and she loves us! She wanted to feed us so we had dinner with her and it was so good! She made us beef stroganoff on rice, which is my FAVORITE FOOD EVER. It was such a good night. We finished the night be catching the very end of FHE. That night we had transfer calls. It was one of the hardest nights of my mission to find out that I would be leaving my home for the last 5 months and the people I've come to love. I cried and cried and didn't get a lot of sleep. Just tossing and turning and worrying. 

Tuesday- Tuesday I woke up and was SO tired. crying and four hours of sleep don't help a person to function. But I got up and did studies. I've been reading in Jesus the Christ and I read this story about "a nobleman" who comes to Jesus and asks Jesus to heal his son. This nobleman did not have faith yet but he wanted his son to be healed. Jesus told him that he could not build his faith on miracles. The man again asked Christ to come see his son or else he would die. Christ told him to go home, his son would live. In faith the man turned and went away. The book explained that this man did not run home immediatley to see if Christ had been truthful, despite his son being on the verge of death. Instead he took his time. The next day the man was walking home and his servants met him on the road. They had been sent to tell him that his son was miraculously doing better. When the man asked when the improvement had begun it was the very hour when Jesus had assured him that his son would live. This hit me hard. I hope that I can trust God enough that as they tell me to go to Grandby that I can have the same reaction this man had. That I will be able to act in faith and trust Christ. The rest of the day was good. We had service in the morning with Rose and she cried when she found out I was leaving and asked me to please write them letters sometimes. The other lady, Lee, who we volunteer with bought me a cute dress as a going away gift (we volunteer at a thrift store) that afternoon we had a lesson with out new investigator Kavon. We taught him and his two friends. That night we had institute and it was so good. The lesson was awesome and I had a chance to say goodbye to a lot of the YSA. It was sad but I am so blessed to have such wonderful people who I love and who love me. 

This week and especially the past few days I have thought so much about trusting. Trusting friends, trusting companions, trusting parents, trusting leaders, trusting God. What an awesome privilege it is to hold someone's trust and be able to keep it. It's a blessing! What a blessing it is to know that God trusts us. He sent us to Earth with the ability to choose, he trusted us with bodies and trusted us to take care of them. He trusted us to take care of the Earth and he trusted us to choose to follow him. I often find myself doing what God has asked me to do and saying "Fine, BUT I'm trusting you." How silly of me! Trusting God should not be a condition. I should always trust God and know that it is a privilege to have a Heavenly Father who loves me enough to be aware of and have a plan for me. He trusted me, the least I can do is trust Him. I hope that I will be able to keep God's trust and that he will be able to know that Sister Maddie Lloyd is someone that He can rely on. I hope you all think that Sister Maddie Lloyd is someone that you can rely on. I love you all so much! You are amazing. Trust God and he will direct thy paths. 

~Sister Madisen Lloyd

 P.S. my new address is 

13258 Racoon Rd.

Grandby, MO 64844

 

Pictures: 

Picture 1: Sister Moser and I found Drury Lane (do you know the muffin man) Picture 2:My Sister Friends! Picture 3: Kyle and Courtney (the two members who threw me a surprise birthday dinner last week) 

This week has been awesome!

July 10, 2017

This week has been so awesome! I feel so blessed to be where I am at and doing so many wonderful missionary things! Missouri is amazing! Missionary work is amazing! I love it! 

Monday- On Monday we had Preparation Day. We did everything we needed to do and had an awesome dinner with one of our members. After that we went out and did some tracting and tried to find some new investigators.

Tuesday- On Tuesday it was the fourth of July! We had some appointments fall through so we did a lot of tracting. In fact, we tracted almost all day long! Which normally wouldn't be too bad other than no one was home, because it was the fourth of July. So we knocked a lot of doors and didn't talk to a lot of people. Fortunately, the people who did answer were very kind and we had some good conversations. We found one new investigator who we will meet with later this week! His name is Avesh and he was really cool! Tuesday night we went to the bishop's house for a fourth of July barbecue and we managed to get two non members to come! We were so excited! Sister Moser and I bought matching fourth of July headbands and wore them. It was super fun and we got to have some awesome interactions with the non members and get them some friends in the ward who can fellowship them. 

Wednesday- On Wednesday we had district meeting which was good as always! We had some awesome conversations about studying for our investigators. It was really good and I have a better understanding of how crucial it is that we study for the needs of our investigators. Heavenly Father blesses us from our efforts and the Holy Ghost brings things to our remembrance, but Heavenly Father can't bless us if we aren't putting forth effort and the Holy Ghost can't bring things to our remembrance if we didn't learn it to begin with. After District Meeting we had a meeting with our investigator, Brad. Brad is awesome but he has been "researching" things. Meaning he googled the church and read through a bunch of different websites which is a bummer because now he is really confused about some things and has a lot of concerns he didn't have before simply because of misconstrued information. We were really sad but he was really genuine. After that we had an awesome dinner/ lesson with our investigator Justin and we talked about how important it is to go to church, pray and read. It was a really good lesson. After that we biked home! 

Thursday- On Thursday we had weekly planning (yes I know, it's usually on Saturday, President changed it) it was a long day of planning out the week but I always feel so much better and organized after we do it because we are better able to function through the rest of the week and we are so much more prepared. That night we were supposed to have a lesson but it fell through so we had a lesson with the members who came for it and asked them to pick a date and have as many spiritual/missionary experiences as they could between now and then and try to get someone to meet with the missionaries (hey! that's me!) by their date they picked. It was a really cool experience to be able to talk with them. They were both really excited and willing to set a date. 

Friday- On Friday we went on exchanges in Bolivar, Missouri. I spent the day with Sister Hadley. She is so cute! She goes home at the end of this transfer and I'm really sad about it, to be honest. We had an awesome day and were able to talk to a lot of really awesome people. We talked to these two ladies, Betty and Brenda and they were really awesome. They had awesome faith and were so willing to testify of Jesus Christ. I loved it! That night Sister Moser and I spent the night at their house. 

Saturday- On Saturday we had a really busy day. We drove home from Bolivar and went straight to the farmers market to talk to people. We talked to one lady who has a brother who is a member. It was awesome! After that we did service for a few hours and then had three back to back lessons. The first was with Alec and we talked about the gospel of Jesus Christ. The next was with Tobias and it was about the Book of Mormon but we ended up dropping him because he isn't progressing, sometimes people just aren't ready yet. The third one was with Justin. We had a good lesson about the ten commandments. We taught him the hand signs to help him remember each of the ten commandments and we talked about why God gives us commandments and the good things that come from keeping them (peace, joy and you stay out of jail a lot of times.) It was a really good lesson! That night we had dinner with some members, Courtney Clarkson and her fiancé Kyle Guison. Courtney picked us up and drove us to her house and I walk in and she goes "Sister Lloyd! guess what!" and I said "What?" and she said "Welcome to your surprise birthday party!" I started crying because this sweet member and my companion had planned a special surprise birthday dinner. Courtney made gluten free chocolate Bundt cakes (my favorite ever) and grilled hamburgers and invited a few of the members over. It was so nice! We had a great dinner and then she dropped us off at home. We went out and knocked a few doors and then ended our night. 

Sunday- On Sunday we had a great day of church! After church one of the bishopric members, Brother Illum, their family fed us! But the power was out so they were freaking out. We ended up having fruit, vegetables and a room temperature rotisserie chicken which they were bummed about but I loved! After that we came home and had a meeting with a new investigator we found this week and we ended the night by having a lesson with a less active member who just had surgery this past week!

This week I have had a lot of thoughts but the main thing that I have been thinking about is time. We measure everything in time, days, weeks, months, missions, life, classes, vacations, whatever it may be. However, it doesn't matter how much time we have if we choose not to use it wisely. I have eighteen months to serve the Lord non stop, but if I choose to waste it then it is all in vain. We all have a certain amount of time that we are allotted to be on Earth, however, if we choose to waste it or not to use it for the purposes the Lord has for us then we have spent 70+ years of our life searching and wandering for nothing. God has given us such a wonderful opportunity to have this lifetime on Earth to be able to do what he would have us do and allow us to show Him that we are willing to rely on him and do what he would have us do. Why waste a second of that precious time doing something that would not bring us lasting joy? As we follow Jesus Christ we are able to find true happiness. We are able to find joy! We can find fulfillment and purpose. God has given us this time and we should use it wisely. I am so grateful for the five months I've been on a mission and I could not be more grateful for the months I have still to go. I would encourage every one of you to devote yourselves to a good cause worthy of the small amount of time that we have to spend here. I love you all so much! Have a great week! 

~Sister Maddie Lloyd

One year older! Wiser too?

July 3, 2017

Hello! What a great week it has been! Thank you to everyone who was so kind to me this week. I love you all so much and I felt so loved as I looked at my emails, letters and packages that I received. I don't know why I'm so blessed but I'm grateful for it!

Monday- P-Day! Just a long day of doing everything that needs to be done to be successful for the rest of the week! We emailed, grocery shopped, did laundary and then ended the day by going to FHE! We a couple of non members there so it was awesome to be able to see them coming to activities. 

Tuesday- On Tuesday we had Sister Johnson with us again so we were in a trio again which was fun! We started the day with service and then we had a lesson with a less active member who is working on coming back and receiving the priesthood! It was a really awesome lesson! After that we had a lesson with one of Sister Johnson's investigators which was also good! We showed her a mormon message called the shiny bicycle and talked about repentance which was awesome! That night we went to go see Justin and see how he's doing and then we biked and checked some addresses. It was a good, busy day!

Wednesday- On Wednesday we had interviews with our mission president and his wife! It was so awesome! I had a really cool experience. I have been struggling to know how to find in this area 

and when I went to my interview Sister Loveland prayed and in her prayer she promised that I would know how to find and I would be led by the spirit. I took that promise to heart and trusted her and moved on with my week. Then in my interview with President Loveland we talked a lot about the different ways and areas that we could find so I got my biggest question answered which was a huge answer to prayers. I suddenly felt a lot more comfortable with tracting, which I was little bummed about but, if it will find the people I need to find then I'm happy. That night we had one of the most powerful Plan of Salvation lessons I've had so far on my mission with our recent convert Samuel. It was awesome! We watched the Hallelujah Mormon Message from a few Easters ago and then just centered the whole thing on Christ (which is how every lesson should be) and it was seriously SO POWERFUL. 

Thursday- On Thursday we had a good day! We started our day by going on campus and talking to people which is always interesting because you never quite know what you're going to get. We talked to a really nice Catholic lady who's daughter is going to start coming to MSU which was awesome! We went and tracted for about an hour and a half and after that we biked about three miles to our next lesson who wasn't home, we were a little bummed. After that we went to our next lesson and on the way one of our members saw us biking and gave us a water bottle! It was such a tender mercy! Our lesson was really good! We taught the Plan of Salvation to our other recent convert, Alec and he has such a strong testimony of it that it was amazing! He also updated me on where he is in Mosiah and, just for everyone's information, I'm winning the great Mosiah race so far. We quickly biked home and changed into service clothes and then went and helped a less active member clean his house. he is getting ready to move. We had a really good conversation with him. He is trying to come back to church he just stays up late and then it's hard to wake up for church. We all shared our favorite scriptures and then talked about his mission. He loved talking about his mission and we are hoping that it helped him to feel the spirit and remember the importance of  being actively involved in the gospel. After that we had an active member lesson with a girl named Payton and then we had a lesson with our investigator Justin. We invited Justin to pray with us about a baptismal date. He said a really sincere prayer asking and then at the end his mom said "You CAN'T get baptized." and then looks at us and said "His girlfriend, Amanda, lives here with us and we love her. I hope they get married someday but right now the living situation is that she lives here which is against the law of chastity." (His mom is a member) I was a little frustrated because we knew she lived there, we just knew we could find a solution to that problem. I was just disappointed because he looked so discouraged. We invited him to pick a date later that night. 

Friday- Friday was my birthday! I turned twenty years old and became an old lady, apparently. We were talking to some elders and mentioned I was twenty and this eighteen year old elder squints at me and with pain and anguish on his face and horror in his voice he says "you're so OLD". If that doesn't boost my confidence I don't know what will. :) That's okay, he's just a baby. We went on campus to have a lesson with a girl named Rachel who works at the Starbucks on campus and when we got there she saw us and went into the back room. We waited for a while and she never came back out and her co workers kept looking at us like we were Satan so we walked around. When we came back she was back out, saw us and went back in the room. We realized she was avoiding us and left. We had a lesson with one of our investigators about the Plan of Salvation and he basically told us he wasn't going to listen to any of it because he didn't think it matched what the Bible said. (spoiler alert IT DOES!) We had a conversation with him but he ended up just telling me I was too lazy to seek out the truth. So we left. We then had a law of Chastity lesson with Justin and talked about his circumstances and reassured him that we could find a solution. It was a good lesson! We spent the rest of the night tracting and life was good! 

Saturday- We started the morning by going to a farmers market and talking to people and then we did service for a less active member. After that it was a long day of weekly planning. 

Sunday-  On Sunday we had a great day at church! All the Relief Society piano players were gone so I ended up having to play, which was stressful but that talent of mine has actually increased on my mission so I did pretty good! After church we spent most of the afternoon tracting and then we had dinner at the Maughan's house and had a good dinner message with them. The rest of the night we called people to set up appointments. It was a really good day!

This week I have been really scatter brained and have lacked focus so I haven't had anything that I have repeatedly pondered this week. However. I have felt an insane amount of God's love this week. I have such a strong testimony that he loves each of us and that he blesses us with tender mercies all of the time. We just need to take the time to see and appreciate them. I know God loves all of you. I know that this gospel is true and that this is the only church that contains the fullness of it. Thomas S. Monson is a prophet and Christ is my Redeemer and my Savior, he is yours too. I love y'all so much! Have a great week!

~Sister Madisen Lloyd