Tap Tap Tap

Dearest Family,

So many things happened this week! Let´s see…..

First of all I don't think I've told you much about my companion!!! I have to introduce him to everyone so it feels like I've already told you but I really haven't. My last companion in the mission's name is Elder ORTIZ!!! He's from Tarija, Bolivia, the same place that Elder Garnica's from. He's soo cool. His dad passed away when he was 12 years old, and left his mom with 8 kids to take care of. His mom isn't a member of the church, but his older brother is less-active. His three little brothers and sisters are all active members. Like I said, he's soo cool.

I did a work visit with our district leader Elder Davila. We set a baptism date in his area with a young man named John who is awesome. He's 22 years old and told us he wants to serve a mission.

In our area we set two more baptism dates this week. One of them has the coolest name EVER!!! She's the cousin of Gerson (or the niece of Walter and Lupe). Her name is Valentina Valentin and guess when her birthday is? That's right…February 14^th . I give her a hard time. Today she's going to a church activity with all the youth, which will be awesome. We're also preparing Eva Sifuentes for baptism. She's the friend and reference of Gerson. Gerson's my best friend. Also we have some other baptism dates and progressing investigators.

When we teach the Sifuentes family something crazy always happens!!!! First of all one time we were teaching in the middle of the lesson a cat jumped through the window with a huge rat in its mouth and they were fighting until we watched the cat slowly kill its prey…. ANOTHER TIME when we were teaching the Sifuentes family in the middle of the lesson we heard some knocks at the door. Tap tap tap…. Tap tap tap…. Until one sister got up and opened the door. It was getting dark out and a little cold, and a mother duck with her 8 ducklings entered followed by a few chickens and a dog….. apart from that every time we go to the house of the Sifuentes their dog tries to kill us. I'm serious. Of all the crazy dogs I've met in Peru, this one would reserve the right to be called the devil; it´s almost killed us a dozen times.

I'm continuing to have lots of experiences here and the zone is done really well. The missionaries are all happy.

I like the scripture in Mosiah 28:3 in the book of Mormon where it says:

Now they were desirous that salvation should be declared to every creature, for they could not bear that any human soul should perish.

I know that we need to desire the same thing for everyone.

Your son and friend

Elder Layton