It's the Other "Other Side of Heaven"

Elder Layton with Elder Zepeda and Ibis Alessandra Moron Troncos (see post of Monday, November 3, 2008) at his recent area at the time of her baptism.

The picture behind Elder Zepeda is similar to the one that hangs in my parent's home. There's a great story behind that picture in the Layton family, but I digress.

Elder Layton wrote this on the back of this picture to the left:

Pizza party con (with) Elders Layton and Zepeda. It really doesn't taste the same and it's way more expensive than other food, but it's so worth it. Don't take food for granted American Glory...OH American- How I MISS THEE!

Andrea, who sent these pictures wrote a note, "Yes, he's still goofy." I don't know why she would think that. He seems perfectly normal to me.

Here's the letter we received today.

Yeah…it´s going to be kind've hard to type because I just smashed my pointer finger in the door on the way over here…. There was blood everywhere but don´t worry. I had my first aid kit right there.

So check it! The selva (jungle) is great. My companion's awesome too. His name's Elder Paz. He's from Bolivia. A little shy but hardworking so it's good. Man I don´t even know where to start…. We have a lot of good investigators.

The jungle is better than I thought. Just imagine the sound of frogs, crickets, and a bunch of other bugs that I have no idea what to call singing in unison the whole night. And there's mango trees everywhere...and green everywhere. And we hit coconuts down from the trees at lunch and get to the inside using a machete. It's true. There aren't that many cars either just a bunch of mototaxis and motorcycles. There's a lot of streams, canals, and little bridges everywhere, and the houses are raised up because when it rains everything floods. Right now there's no connection to internet so hopefully I can send this.

We started teaching a older man here named Fructuoso. He's single and lives with his kids, and he is one of the greatest investigators I've ever had. Just for a start we didn't even have to worry Sunday morning if he was going to attend church or not. We already knew he would. He's been studying to be a pastor for 6 years and he said that he's been to most of the Evangelist and Christian churches here in Pucallpa throughout his whole life and it wasn't until we started teaching him about the Restored Church of Jesus Christ that he knew it was right. Every visit we ask how his reading went and usually he teaches us more than we teach him. He's so awesome and we're baptizing him on the 6th. Things like this strengthen my testimony so much it's not even funny!