Be of Good Cheer and Do Not Fear

Hola!!! How is everyone? The misión is great!!!! Last night we finally committed someone to be baptized here in Ventanilla. It was slow up to this point because there wasn't that much to work with when we got here so we've been contacting like crazy and getting to know all the members.

Oh yeah, before I forget.... my favorite scripture is Doctrine and Covenants 68: 6 (Wherefore, be of good cheer, and do not fear, for I the Lord am with you, and will stand by you; and ye shall bear record of me, even Jesus Christ, that I am the Son of the living God, that I was, that I am, and that I am to come.) Since I've been out I think D&C 84 is my favorite but that one is the best. And my all time favorite song is Abide With Me, Tis Eventide. I played that in Sacrament yesterday.

One of my companions, Elder Zepeda is from Guatemala, and my other companion Elder Evangelista is from Peru. (Note from dad - I just realized that this brings the mission companions up to 7, which equals the total that I had for my entire mission.)

I know I shouldn´t be all worried about my extended family but i just love them. Its hard to do anything on pdays like writing because I'm with my zone all day.

I've finally started eating some really weird foods. Of course I have rice, chicken and potataoes every day.... but we went to a members house that fed us this stuff called pataska.... inside it has mondongo and mote.... which is something like stomach lining. I had stomach in Arizona...but this was weird...and it tasted weird. We also had pachamanka which is a dish with chicken and orange potatoes with a weird taste. They told me that the way they get the orange color is that they put a special rock over the ground the potatoes are growing on. Cool huh? Oh yeah i also like the yuka thing...its like a long potato.

My testimony´s growing a lot. This week has been the hardest week of the mission so far, but that only makes me have to trust the Lord and pray for the people so much more. I feel like I'm finally beginning to understand the Spirit. It was so hard for me before to pinpoint when I was, when I wasn´t. Sometimes I'll get little promptings or thoughts to do something and it turns out thats exactly what I needed to do.

I played piano for the primary yesterday and Sacrament of course. I´m helping another lady here learn music. She conducts in Sacrament and she didn't really know how to lead haha.... but she´s a leading fiend now.

The girl that is getting baptized came over to her house last night and that's where we taught the message of the Restoration. She said she believed everything. My companions almost always let me do the Joseph Smith story which I love. I feel the truth of the restoration evry time I start saying the first vision.

Love,

Elder Layton

Ps I´m good friends with my Zone leader Elder Andrew Little. I think he may have a blog. (which can be seen here - http://servinginperu.blogspot.com/ ) We´re going to hang after the mission.