Thanks for the package!

I got my package!!!! It's awesome! Thank you guys so much!!! Um it was really weird driving on the other side of the road but I am really used to it now... Its weird thinking of driving on the right side...

Yes! I have seen so much of Uganda now!!! Everywhere but the West.. But our mission does not go into the west.  

In the North we would be driving back to  Kampala and we saw a ton of baboons as big as me on he road! Like 12 of them! So crazy! But it's so weird how just a few hundred km's away from each city, there is another COMPLETELY opposite city!

Um we went to 7 Zone Conferences! With at least 12 missionaries at EACH.  So a LOT of trainings I had to give but I think i have a knack for speaking.  I really enjoy it too... But yeah crazy week! This week we are going to Ethiopia and next we are going to Rwanda! Sweet! And we ALWAYS drive the Nissan Navara.  Its the personal truck for the APs.  I love it! The thing is a beast!  But we NEVER tract anymore which really stinks! No teaching:( But we get to, when we go on exchanges with other missionaries in the zone! Which I am going tomorrow! Sweet!

Dad, tell mom to stop sending so many packages! But I do love them very much. Just 1 a month or so:) Thank you!

I sit in the office so much and just do remedial stuff so I think I'm going to start getting fat! I work out every morning but still... I hope that's not the case..

Anywho.  I Love you so much! Thank you again for the Camera!!

Have a great week! 

Ooh! I'm going to get to call soon woo!!!

21 March 2013

Dear Brother & Sister Lloyd,

We are pleased to inform you that your son Elder Nathan Brent Lloyd has been assigned for a season to be an Assistant to the President, in the Uganda Kampala Mission.  He is working with two other Assistants, Elder Thabethe and Elder Facer.

This assignment is the highest leadership responsibility a Missionary can have in the Mission.  An elder who is called to be an assistant is one who has proven himself worthy by his diligence, ability to teach, willingness to serve and exactness in obeying mission rules, devotion to the Mission and to the Lord.  Elder Lloyd meets all these qualifications.  He has a wonderful spirit and is a great example to his fellow missionaries.

We express our deepest gratitude to you for helping to prepare Elder Lloyd for this calling.  You can be very proud of him and his efforts in the Uganda Kampala Mission.  This opportunity will bless his life and prepare him for future service in the church.

We send our respect and love to your family.

Sincerely,

  

President Eric C. Jackson

Uganda Kampala Mission President

Pictures from Feb and March

Sorry for not adding to the blog lately, I will do better. These are all the pictures from February and March.

Three Months Already

Hi All,


Tray months! Whoo...   Elder Asere from Kenya went home last week.  Elder Gotora went to Njeru.  So not a good week last week but whatever!  It's a new week.!  So Momma I have a son!  (I'm training!) His name is Elder Kole Halladay.  He is from St. George Utah. He just turned 19 and went to the provo MTC.  I got him super green on Thursday.

So the first day I tried to get him out and working so I took him to Mkenge.  A village, the farthest area away from home.  About an hour walk!  Sun was just burnin bright!  He was sure breathing hard!   He has a really pretty girl waiting for him (she is going to France on a mission in April, he has lots of pictures of them together..)  The first time I met him he was really excited and somehow arrogant (not in a bad way though..If ya get me).  Then i took him out and lets just say he was sufficiently humbled... The same way I was.  No one understood him and he didn't understand them. Just like me my first couple weeks... But he will get better, we all did.  But it is super different being with an American.  He talks of home a lot which makes me somehow trunky... But Its all good.  I love the kid.  He is here in Uganda, I respect him.  He looks to me for a lot of things.  He is amazed on how much Lusoga and Luganda I know.  But he will be fine! I know he will.  But being the DL and training is seriously hard.  Very stressful.  My first transfer I wanted to train and I got my wish answered!  We will do good together.  I have 3 more baptisms this next transfer lined up!

So I love you all so much! And am praying for you every time my head hits the pillow, and every time my head rises from the pillow.  Another couple cool spiritual experiences happened this week but i dont have time.. Remind me next week to talk about Mary and the chicken.  But Basically ALL the teaching is on me now.  LIKE ALL OF IT! So we shall see how it goes.  Three months and I'm DL and training.  70 missionaries will come in the next few transfers.. So eh I may be training a lot...

I gotta go! Everyone I love you soo much! Mission is awesome! All you perspective Elders! Join the army of God! 

With all my Love,
Elder Lloyd

 

 

 

Hi All,

That picture of my muddy feet, I printed it out and put it above my desk.  Awesome!  Thank you!    Anyways...It has been a good week.  But with some bad things.  So we have bed bugs.  And I mean BED BUGS! Like terrible bed bugs.  We are in the process of getting another apartment! I'm looking for them with Elder Ballsteadt (First councilor to President Jackson).  So hopefully we find one.  I'm not sure how much longer I can stay awake at night just freaking out.  But My feet have been torn apart by the little ninjas!!!

So a weird thing happened.  As the District leader I have to interview the other Elder's investigators before baptism.  I interviewed A guy named I..  And He is a fantastic investigator! Really wants to be baptized.  Understands the doctrine well, and is just perfect! I found out he had some things concerning chastity issues.  He wanted ME to baptize him too.  It was definitely tough to call PJ and get the news that I.. has to wait 6-8 more weeks to be baptized..  And it was tougher to tell I.. he had to wait. But he has to understand that you must use the repentance process properly.  Not just pray and say you are forgiven but be chastened. You must fully give your sins to Jesus Christ. The way I look at it and use it in teaching Ugandans is when you sin you spit in a bucket.  You keep sinning and keep spitting.  When you have sinned a lot you repent.  And when you repent you pour the disgusting bucket on the head of Jesus Christ.  You don't want to but he has already atoned for our sins so you must use it!! If you don't then you have wasted the atonement SO REPENT YE SINNER!!!! He is 24 by the way. 

So this Pastor came to Mpumudde market and is singing and dancing and preaching.  He had a bunch of followers with him.  But while he was preaching I had the prompting to use it to our advantage.  To start contacting in the crowd!  So we start.. Pow! Doctrine of Christ! One new Investigator! Pow another, and another and another! It was pretty funny/powerful at the same time. In the crowd we met this born again.  He said "are you saved"  oh yeah here we go!  I responded "are you?".  "Of course I am because I repented of my sins and Jesus Christs loves me!"  Me-  So what if  you go kill those children over there and come back, can you still tell me your saved.." He thought about it and said"Of course I will be saved still, I have been baptized..."  It was a great teaching opportunity. 

I have been studying in Jacob.  The most impressive parable in my opinion, is found in Jacob Ch. 5! I will send a pic next week of my study journal and my thoughts on Jacob chapter 5. Dad Randy Matt Megan mom! Give me your thoughts on it!

I'm going to head out and go to the Keep for lunch! I love you all and thank you to all my friends who have been writing me! Katie, Cam, Sam, and Allie! Also my cousins! thank you!!! I love you all and God bless all of you!
Family I love you all so much! Megan! I have not heard from you in a while! Whats up???

Til next time,
Elder LLoyd

I Love the Children here

More Baptisms

 

Some scenes from Jinja Uganda

Happy New Years!!!

We received this letter on Monday Dec. 31.

Mom & Dad,

To answer your question Dad, No I do not have the Christmas blues :)  I bombed my tummy.  So I don't think I have a problem anymore.  Everything is really good here.  I'm not trunky at all.  Ever since our phone call I have been doing great.  Just working a ton.  Pretty hard work but very very fulfilling.  3 weeks in the field and already have 1 baptism.  I'm sending you a picture of her.  Her name is L.  She has a huge desire to learn more about the gospel.  Doesn't speak very good English but oh well..  I baptized her yesterday.  Powerful..  The guy in the picture is her brother J.   J was given the go ahead to be baptized!! And his mother R! They will be baptized next week!  We were watching a movie at their home last week and J's background for his computer was a VERY inappropriate picture.  People here do not understand that that kind of stuff is bad!!  I just blasted him! I mean BLASTED him!!  He was very quiet after.  But now understands what that means. And that he should not look at that anymore..

So the wife to the second counselor to the branch presidents was boiling a big 55 gallon barrel full of water, not sure why..  But It was an old drum and it broke open when she was standing next to it and it just burned off her skin on her legs and back.  We have been seeing her the past couple weeks and man, this ja ja (grandmother) is tough.  They have grafted new skin onto her legs but one leg is not taking the skin. Wow, it is quite the sight..I don't know the moral of the story other than God knew she could take it. 

Ooh, this lady came up to us and said: "Oh messengers from God! Pray for me!  I panic at times in my home! I can smell  the spirit of death lingering over me!!!" haha that lady was very strange!!  Her leg was messed up! She did not step onto the bottom of her foot but on her ankle! Ugh! its weird looking!!! But we are going there on Wednesday.  We shall see.

My ankle is almost completely better,  Thank you for the prayers!!  I did not go to get an x ray.  Aha don't worry about me so much guys! I'm fine! Completely! I promise.  I love it here.  Its super hard but I'm fine.  I have been keeping mission rules.  I promise.  But the language I am getting  little by little.  Not once this week did anyone look at me funny or say "pardon?" when I talked. Ha so a good week!! For New Years Eve we will stay up til 12! And play a star wars board game!! Hah, so pretty fun tonight.

A nybo (nn-ya-bo) in the ward made us sweet big shirts with v necks! Matching!  I will send pics next week.  Sorry I'm not sending many pictures..  It takes forever!!  But after tomorrow guess what i can say!?  I'm coming home next year!! ha ha I love you all! And all of my friends!!

I Love everyone! Have a Happy New Year!

"E L phone home!!!"

Well, we didn't get much in the form of letters this week, because Elder Lloyd was able to phone home on Christmas!!!  It was awesome hearing from him.  But I have to tell you that when Tammy picked up the phone I heard her say several times, "Who is this!"  She thought it was her brother pranking her in one of his weird voices.  But nope, It was Nate!

You see, Nate has had to change the way he talks now.  It turns out that Ugandans can't understand him when he talks too fast.    He was asked to give a talk in their Branch when he first got there.  He said he only had 10 minutes to prepare but that it was the best talk he ever gave.  The only sad part was that people couldn't understand a word he said.  Pretty funny.  So he has to slow down and pronounce every syllable.  I have attached a small sound clip so you can hear the way he has changed!!

Almost One Month

This is the first letter from Elder Lloyd in Uganda.  We received it on Monday Dec 10th at about 2:30am.  Nate's P-days are now on Mondays.

The letter is prefaced by Tammy talking about her Sunday School class where she was teaching about Alma and Moroni.   Here is his reply.

Mom,

Speaking of Alma, look up Teancum! You can find him in Alma 42 and 51??? I think.  He is my favorite guy ever! He fought for liberty and freedom! Have a FHE about him ok?  So I'm just going to write this one big letter to everyone, so please Mom and Dad put it on the blog.  I can't get on it till I get more settled in the mission so please put on the pictures I will send and put my letters in please. Thank you.

So! I'M IN FREAKING AFRICA!!!! Haha I can't believe I am here! The MTC was good. We got on the flight for a couple hours and when I got off the plane, Bam!! Like a demon from heck slapped me in the face! So humid!! And hot. I was in a suit too! ( I dont like suits here...) But we got off the plane and went into the airport (what they call an airport) and a ton of elders and sister were there to greet us.  We then went back to the Assistant to President's home, they have washing machines!!! Not fair.. Anyway we stayed there then went to the Presidents home and had traing ALL day! Then I met my
companion Elder Chisor, pretty cool guy.  We then went to our house really late and the power was out.. Great! But the next day when I got settled it was a TON better.  We went teaching and one thing that annoys me is that everyone can't understand me..  And they talk so quiet!  But I'm kinda getting it. There are so many languages here! I know a couple words already though, so that's good.  We stay in our house with 2 other elders.  One from Utah, Elder hull.  Anyways we go tracting all day on little tiny dirt paths through the bush (forest).  It's like in the movies!! It's so insane! We tract like ALL day! One second, I have to switch computers.

Ok so now I can send you pictures. Back to my stories! We tract at LEAST 10 miles a day.  Tough, I'm not gonna lie.  But we get lots of new investigators.  They eat the Gospel up! In the short 4 days I have been here we have had 14 baptismal dates set and 8 people show up at church!!! The church is a little house and 101 people were there yesterday.  Momma I'm sorry but we buy off the streets... potatoes, peppers, fruit...! Yum! They have these things called a rolex.. mmmm so good! I have not received your packages yet.  I will not get them till somone goes to Kampala.. I may be able to use skype here.. MAYBE if I can do it at this cafe but probly not. Probably just going to call home.  Have everyone you can there! And in that next package send a couple more small preach my gospels, they are very nice.

So story time! Yesterday my companion and I are walking down this mountain on a tiny dirt path passing villages (mud huts with straw roofs! yeah, Im in africa!) and this old man starts screaming at us! He says he wants us to come back to him and he is the Savior Jesus Christ and he forgives us!!!?  Ha, so we start to walk back to him when a young man (24) stops us and says "He is a drunk man, don't go back. He will just waste your time".  He seemed very hesitant like he wanted to say something.  But we thanked him and parted ways and walked back to this old man.  When we did this I immediately felt wrong. We said hello and goodbye. He was right.  He wasted our time.  When we were walking for a couple seconds my companion said we "made a mistake, we had a chance to meet with a drunken distraction or a promising member of the church".  Right after my companion said this I started booking it! I was running as fast as I could, Looking for this guy. I was praying so hard to find this guy. Well, we passed several roads going different ways, ways he could have went, but I
ran down this one I felt strongly about, and there he was a quarter of a mile down this hill! I ran down and he saw us coming! I was wasting my companion by now.  But the biggest smile came across his face.  We were breathing VERY hard when we got to him.  The first thing he said was "I know you are men sent from God to teach me, I wanted to speak with you yesterday and today but it never happened.  When I walked away from you today I asked God if he would send them again.  And there you were, running down this hill as fast as you could."  I was amazed we got a second chance. He ate everything up and wanted more.  He said he was going to village for Christmas but would stay home to be baptized and hear our message. WOW!? So really cool guy. I can't believe it happened. After that we were tracting again and a guy gave me a smile but seemed very sad.  I got these words in my head that said, "I wont give you a second chance again."  I immediately did what? Turned around and started to run.  Same thing with this guy. 

Ha, I also had a 30 minute talk in church yesterday. BEST talk I have ever given.  And I prepared it in 10 min.  But guess what! They didn't understand me. Haha, that's for sure humbling.  Something funny they do here is mumble and kinda groan like, "mmm,  mmm, mmmhmmm.  Haha, it's its own language. I'll tell you more when I get to call home.  Please everyone keep emailing. I look forward to it a ton!!

I wake up in sweat, I sleep in sweat, I walk in sweat and I live in sweat here. Also have to cook ALL of my food! But don't worry the food I buy from the street are thoroughly cooked first. Oh and Mom you will love this! I had to HAND WASH ALL OF MY CLOTHES TODAY! Took 2 hours! Ha DAD! I need you to ALWAYS keep looking into my iccu bank account to keep my checking account at 100 dollars always PLEASE!  I love all of you soo much. I miss you and this is very different.  I just need to get used to it.  Matt look up D&C 24:18. I think... Megan, Gavin! I love you both immensely! I love you Matt. I have been thinking about you a TON! Not sure why. I think I just miss you so much. Tell Grandma and Grandpa I love them very much and tell Grandpa Happy Birthday! And to read his Bible! But I prefer the Book of Mormon;)  Randy and Dani and Lil Ainslie I love you so much. Momma Bear! mm I want to cry when I think of you.  The love I have for you is hotter than the Sun.  I dream of the time I get to hug you again and say, "Thank you, and I LOVE YOU" But til next time;)  Dad, you have wisdom ya know?? I look back on my life and remember all the things you have told me when I was growing up.  And I remember a couple months ago you said, "I feel like I need to say something, something wise for you to live by." Dad, you already have. Your example exceeds your words so much. I love you thank you for everything. 
 
So this Christmas I will be away from family for the first time.  It will be sad but Elder Holland gave a talk about it in the December Liahona.  Its powerful.  Keep in touch with Katieboo.  And please in the next packege SEND FAMILY PICTURES!!! Of everyone!  I NEED them! Oh I made a typo.  My companion's name is Elder Chisoro.  From Zimbabwe.  I will send some pictures. I love ALL of you sooo much. Please continue to give me support. I desperately need it. This is a VERY hard mission.  This will be the hardest thing I will ever do. The best 2 years FOR my life.  We are going to go shopping for food in the SAFE market Momma! Right now, and go look for my new bag. LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE LOVE my family. It can not be said enough. 

Til next time,
Elder Lloyd

P.S. Please have ALL the family write on email. There is a chance it won't get here if you send normal mail.  And Mom send as many emails as you can!! I love em!  dont listen to Matt and Dad ;)

P.P.S The kids here are adorable..."Mazungoo Mazungoo Mazungoo!!!!" They all run and jump on me and shake my hand they are adorable! And they have beautiful singing voices. It is beautiful!