G.R.I.T.S.

Well, another great week for Sister Lloyd. She only uses the word bawl twice, beautiful three times and love, well, I stopped counting at 10! Oh, we love this girl!

Hello Wonderful Family!

Can you believe another week has passed? This week I am coming up on two months... wow! So here we go again, and yes, in just one short week, so much has happened ...

Baton Rouge Temple with Youth

One of the members of our ward, Miss B, is my absolute favorite lady! Something that I love about the south is that people tell you things straight up; they do not beat around the bush! She is a sassy, fiery lady and I love her to death. We were visiting with her this week and she just threw in how she had one of Johnny Cash's guitar strings, yep!!! She said, oh yeah! We used to go to Johnny's concerts all of the time growing up!!!

HA! Another funny thing, we are given a monthly budget, right? Well, the missionaries usually save enough so that after District meeting, we can all go out to eat together. Wellll, since no one had any money this week, we decided to have a potluck picnic in the church kitchen! (waaay too hot outside) It was so much fun! I brought some celery and carrots haha. It was neat to have us all come together and share our meal; it was quite the spread! Hey, have I mentioned that I love bein' a missionary? So many blessings!!

I was given time to watch some Mormon Messages this week. Fam, look up the one "Gabe Reid." He is a former BYU/NFL player, and has an incredible story (http://youtu.be/RetZZpXdWgk). Also there is one on an Australian professional rugby player who left his career to currently serve a mission in Brisbane; I bawled through the whole thing. Such incredible faith!!! LOOK THEM UP! ( http://youtu.be/tAheGUPJI8Y)

TWO HUGE TENDER MERCIES/MIRACLES/AMAZING EXPERIENCES!!!

If you can't kiss boys ...

Last Friday we got to go with the youth in our ward to do baptisms. The Baton Rouge temple is beautiful. When we approached the temple, it was surrounded with this steam coming off the pavement. It looked like it was floating on a cloud! Crazy cool, right? Also, there are no basements in LA so that means no font in the basement where they usually are located. It's a tiny temple, but the spirit was incredible. A couple of the stake president's grandchildren came. One is named K and she is my Louisiana-girl version of Llama, I love her so much. She's like my little sister. She has a little brother named R who went to the temple for his first time this weekend. After the baptisms, they were hugging each other and all of the sudden I just burst out bawling!!! I miss my brothers! Boo hoo Sister Lloyd! How embarrassing. Just know I love you so much family and you're always in my prayers.  

She obviously hasn't seen a gator yet or she wouldn't be standing there!

I also got a chance to play TWO musical numbers yesterday! I was asked to come out to a small branch in a nearby city and I got to play on a keyboard! Bless it! Playing and performing has never been about me and it was so incredible to be able to share my talent with people who appreciate and enjoy it. If I can touch someone through my music... well, that's all I ever want. The stake president also got up and announced that the visas for Australia have been put hold for the next 18 months (He was KIDDING!) He is the most incredible man and I love him and his wife and his family so much. BTW, based on my lacking visa, maybe he wasn’t kidding! :D

Last night, I got to play at a musical fireside. It was an awesome experience and I know that music can touch people sometimes when words and other things cannot. So many musical blessings this week. 

Here's something to think about this week as I must go now. We were listening to a talk by John Bytheway in which he said, "notice that there is not, or never will be, a PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD on friends!" It is THE PROCLAMATION TO THE WORLD ON FAMILIES!!!  FAMILY IS CENTRAL TO EVERYTHING IN OUR LIVES AND IN THE GOSPEL! Everything that Satan does is with the intent to rip apart the eternal family. We should be doing everything we can to love and serve and strengthen our families.  I am so grateful for you family, and for the love that we have for each other. 

I love y'all more than the gators in the swamps! Keep praying for the missionaries and those we are teaching or have yet to teach!

Huge hugs and kisses to all!

Sister Lloyd

One more thing:  G.R.I.T.S. = Girls Raised in the South – doesn’t get any better than that!

Indoor Picnic

For Whitney!

Best Friend!