I've been out for about 9 months now...

Good day ladies and gents!

Glad to hear nobody got blown away by the insidious hurricane Matthew.  The news made it sound like a doozy, so  thankful it was the opposite!

Man it has been a week.. but a good one!!! It started with us packing and saying our goodbyes to everyone in Denver... super hard.  I didn't realize how settled I felt till I was uprooted :( But the worst was saying goodbye to all of our investigators and seeing their reaction to us leaving. They all were upset, but we taught them that this is a good thing and will help us all- and we'll be back if they get baptized (a little extra incentive never hurt ;)).  Anyway, I packed everything up with no room to spare, and headed off to Parker and oh boy do I love it already.

We live with a member- the Kings- and the house is gorgeous! Its about an 8 mile drive from town to their house and it looks   I wake up in the mornings and threes usually a as if were driving up into the mountains! (p.s. whenever I say the mountains to people, I have to clarify that I'm talking about the Tennessee Smoky mountains.. lol).  Parker is VERY hilly and has lots of land for horses and cows and mansions

family of deer outside our window, and its a rare occasion when we dint see deer at least once a day! The Kings are so sweet, but my favorite part about living with them... they have a gym downstairs!!!! With equipment and everything! I don't know if I'm allowed to use any of it.. but its nice to at least have a space to work out! So Sister Sherwood and I have been going HAM every morning to get our "pre-mission" bodies back. lol We love it!

Sister Sherwood, my new companion, is just amazing i love her so much! She is such a hard worker and inspires me to be and do better everyday! We started off our week trying to meet everyone the sisters before us were working with.  There were many miracles that helped us to do that and we were off to a good start!

Later this week we had MLCs (monthly leadership council) with president, the APs, and all the zone leaders and STLs in the mission.  This council is to help see the strengths and weaknesses in the mission and figure out how we can help our zones to be better.  This meeting tends to be an all day thing, so they call it the Monthly Lunch club because they make us lunch :) I enjoyed that part <3 Anyway, the meeting was so great and uplifting and now, based upon what happened there, we bring it back and teach it to our zone! So i will be giving two trainings in our upcoming zone meetings this week and mine is all about Pres. Uchtdorf's talk Fourth Floor Last Door aka the best talk at conference... no pressure.

Saturday we went to a place for service called Palimino Pals which is a horse therapy place.  We got to brush the horses, saddle them up, and take disabled children around the course that helps them learn! It was the sweetest and coolest experience.  I'm going to want to come home and buy a horse by the time I'm done here...

Church  on Sundaywas great and the members are very welcoming and loving! My opening line for my testimony: "Hi my name is Sister Loyd.  I've been out for about 9 months now.  I'm from Florida so I'm pretty happy to be here right now..". Everyone laughed so hopefully that means they like me... lol

Sister Sherwood and I have been doing a lot of knocking doors to try and find people to teach.  Yesterday we decided to knock an apartment complex. We knocked on the last door on the first floor and nobody answered... We started walking away but then the door opened up. It was a young girl named Reyna. We used the survey approach on her and she answered all the "golden" questions. We then taught her the Plan of Salvation and she loved it! We invited her to be baptized on November 12and she accepted!! Not only that.. but we found out she's been coming to mutual for awhile now every Wednesday with a member friend from school! Talk about miracles! So we'll be in touch with her and hopefully we'll get in touch with the rest of her family too!

Yesterday was our first Pday and we're already doing STL things.  We took some sisters our to lunch and to get their car from the dealership.  On the way home there was a Halloween store and I said "WE HAVE TO GO." So we did. :) It was marvelous. President actually gave us the OK to dress up at our wards trunk or treat event, so I'm thinking ill just be Rapunzel or Elsa or something- something I can still wear a dress for and that isn't too distracting from my tag either :) Send me ideas if y'all think of any better ones!!!

Anyways, I feel so blessed to be here and have everything the way it is! The Lord truly is merciful and loving.  One of the things I learned from elder Uchtdorfs talk is the to have enduring faith, we must have trust! Trust in God and His wisdom, but also in His love for us.  Everything in this life is for our eternal benefit- that includes the struggles.  We go through hard times to help us come closer to Him, to learn a lesson, or to even help others one day through your experience! Whatever the reason, it is out of love and will always help!


Family and friends, don't lose faith.  Its not enough just to believe anymore, we must apply and strengthen our faith! It is only through application and repetition that a principle is learned, and the same thing goes for faith.  No matter what, DO NOT GIVE UP.  Giving up gets you know where, but its when you press forward that you go somewhere.  Pray for faith, ask for the opportunities to strengthen it, and look for ways to apply it. I Promise that as we do this we will feel a greater sense of peace and fulfillment in life as well as a better relationship with our Father in Heaven and His Son Jesus Christ. There's nothing else in the world more important than that.

Well I hope you all have a fantastic week!! Keep me updated on everything!
Love you all so much!!!!!
Sister Loyd