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