Monday, November 27, 2017

"Half way there, Whoah! Living on a prayer!"

November 20, 2017


Well Friends, this week I hit my 9 month mark. And you know what that means, I'm half way there. So that's kind of gross. I don't feel like it could possible have been 9 months yet, but I have done the math and checked calendars about 20 times and it is, in fact, true. Another thing is that this week was transfer week and we found out that nothing will be changing in our area. Sister Fife and I will both be staying in Mountain Home for 6 more weeks! 

Well, this week has been an adventure. I'll just share some of the highlights because, per usual, I'm running out of time rather quickly. 

This week we put our ten year old investigator on date for baptism! His name is John and he is scheduled to be baptized on either the 22nd or 23rd of December which we are SO excited about. He's a sweetheart. 

We did service at the Retirement home we usually go to and I LOVE doing service there. As I was walking around helping them and getting them the food and drink they wanted I was walking past a table and I smiled at some of the older ladies and as I walked away I heard one of them say "she is a happy little girl, isn't she!" and the other said "and a sweet one too. I like her!" and that just made my day!  It was so sweet to hear that. Later I was doing something else and this little old man, Mikey, came up to me and said "Sister Lloyd, I wanted to give you this. I won it playing Bingo and I just wanted to say thank you for being so nice to me." and he gave me a little angel magnet. It was so sweet! It just melted my heart. After lunch Sister Fife and I took turns playing the piano for them and this one older gentleman, Bill, kept on just saying how much he loved it and thanking us. When we were about to leave he asked for one more song so Sister Fife played one more and I looked over and he was crying. We said goodbye to him as we were leaving and he said he was so grateful for us coming and helping them and for the beautiful music. He now asks us to play the piano every time we go. 

This week we also got to help our recent convert, Ethan, write his talk for stake conference. He spoke on Sunday and gave a great talk about the Sacrament and how important it is. He did a great job! It was such a cool experience to be able to start teaching him right after his baptism and then work with him and see him get all the way to where he is now, speaking in stake conference. While I was at stake conference I was sitting there, taking notes and someone sat down a couple chairs down from me. I looked to see who it was and it was Samuel! My recent convert from the YSA! I just looked at him making sure I wasn't wrong and then he looked at me and we both realized who the other actually was and we were so excited! He slid down and sat next to me and updated me on his life. It turns out, he is from West Plains which is where our stake conference was and he was visiting home for the weekend. It was such a tender mercy to see him and get to catch up. I'm so grateful I got to help teach him. 

Another cool experience I had this week was that Sister Fife and I were looking through our area book trying to find ideas on people who we could go see for a spare hour we had. We flipped through and found a few ideas, but none that really stood out to us. So we closed the area book and Sister Fife, at some point, has written down one of the couples that we talked about in that space. so we just went with it and went to visit them and they were so awesome! We went to see them and they told us that they want to come to church and that we are welcome back to talk with them anytime. It was so cool to watch the Lord direct us.

Well, this week something I've been thinking a lot about is making sacrifices. We have some talks on CD that we play in our apartment and a theme that I've been noticing in these talks is that when we make sacrifices for the Lord we are blessed. This has been on my mind for a couple reasons. The first is that when I left on my mission, I thought I was making a sacrifice for the Lord, and in a way I did, but I have received more from my mission than I ever could have imagined. I have grown and learned and improved. I'm a better person than I was when I got on that plane 9 months ago. My "sacrifice" was actually me doing what God wanted me to do so that he could bless me and make me better than I was. Another reason I have thought about this is because I have been pondering something that our mission president asked us to ponder. What are the "little things" that we aren't doing that we should be? Little things that don't seem like a big deal so we don't do them but that we should be doing. How much more blessed would you or I be, if we chose to make what now appears to be a sacrifice so that the Lord can give us back WAY more than we anticipate? I would invite each of you to look at your lives and pick on thing that you can "sacrifice" and I know that as you make an effort to sacrifice that thing that you will be strengthened and you will be blessed. I love y'all and I hope you have a great week! Happy Thanksgiving! 

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~Sister Madisen Lloyd

Picture 1: Me burning a skirt in honor of my 9 month mark

Picture 2: Me at the Flippin Church of God

Picture 3: Me and Mikey :)

Picture 4: Me filling our car up with gas (picture credit, sister fife)




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