The Worth of Souls Is Great In the Sight of God

(In the last post I referenced a letter about two Elders in Brazil - one was Jacob (Elder Simpson) and the other was Elder Layton's friend and Home Teaching companion at BYU. The reference below has to do with that letter.)

Hola!!!!Coma Esta!? I loved the emails from you guys including papa Rau´s (Elder Nate Rau's father) and the letter from Jacob. Me and Elder Davidson were Home Teaching companions at BYU together and we home taught Andrea, plus we hung out a bunch in the summer.

This week has been very good and not so good at the same time.

I baptized my very first person Saturday. I don't know if I told you, but there's this lady in our ward that´s amazing. She truly knows the purpose of life. She tells everyone about the church and introduces all of her friends to the missionaries. Because of her we are teaching seven different people and four of them have baptismal dates. One of them was the girl I baptized. Her name's Ibis Alessandra Moron Troncos... that was fun to say in the baptismal font. She's great. She has friends in young women's, and reads the scriptures everyday. We always have such a difficult time here helping people keep their commitments, but Ibis went through everything she needed to do to prepare for baptism in two weeks easy. I felt the spirit so strong during the baptism. We were kind've stressed out because we had to wait a while until a priesthood holder come be there to be a witness, but everything turned out great.

Elder Rich was right, one of the hardest things in this mission is the problem with the law of chastity. One of the first things we find out from people is if they're married or not. We've found that mostly people don´t get married because of inconvenience and money, but we found a free marriage on the 6th of December so we tell everyone about it and commit them to get married. There are so many people that believe what we say and the only thing that holds them back is that they don´t want to get married.... dumb.

Last Wednesday Elder Evangelista left to Bolivia, which was his actual mission, he was just waiting to be able to get into the country. So it´s just Elder Zepeda y yo. He´s a hard worker and I love him. It's nice to have a little extra time in the morning for showers.

The not so good part of this week was yesterday. Every week we basically work up until Sunday, because we kind've base if a person is progressing or not if they come to Church, keeping commitment, etc. Sunday morning is the craziest. We get up a half hour earlier and visit as many people as we can that have baptismal dates to try and get them out of bed, and to the capilla (chapel). Yesterday was so discouraging... So many people committed to attend church, our investigators and less actives, but we only had 2 investigators in the Church. I mean, that´s great, it´s just sad when people don´t keep their commitments.

Anyway, it was so good to hear from you. Dad, Mom, Briana, Eric, Curtis....Andrea, I love you guys!

Love, Elder Layton Oh yeah, I got the Halloween package on Wednesday so just in time for Halloween. Oh my freak!!! I didn't know what I was missing. I suddenly realized that I have a huge craving for candy bars, ginger snaps, and parental care.

Elder Layton's Brazilian Home Teaching/Missionary Connection

Tonight I received an email from the family of a close friend of Elder Layton's (another one of the aforementioned C-5). Elder Jacob Simpson has a blog, which can be viewed by clicking the appropriate link on the sidebar, but here is a portion of his letter.

"We got a new american in our District, its actually really cool, he asked where I was from, and of course I said Alaska, no really I said Oregon, then Bend. Then he thought for a moment, and asked "wait, do you know Sean Layton or Nathan Rau?" On the back of my triple combination in portugese I have a picture of all the nieces and Nephews, a picture of Felicia and Savanna and a picture of the five of us. So I didnt say anything to his question just pulled out my scriptures and gave it to him. As it turns out he was the home teaching companion of Sean back at BYU. Elder Davidson. I look forward to when we go on divisions together."

The really interesting thing is that we have had quite a few connections like this. With over 60,000 missionaries out in the world, you'd think there would be just a little insulation from random encounters like this, but that's not the case.

If you have a moment, check out the latest video on the right sidebar. If you double click the video, it will open up a new window and take you to the website where you can watch it in full screen if you wish. The video relates the story of Elder Heber C. Kimball and the sacrifices that he and others made as they accepted calls to serve missions. What an amazing man of God!

Anticipation

There are rumors of several missionaries who are waiting on visas for Peru. Word is that quite a few were approved recently. We're planning on checking with the travel office on Monday, and will let you know (via the blog of course) as soon as we do. Of course, Monday is also when we expect to hear from Elder Layton.

So, the anticipation continues, at least for a couple more days...

In the meantime, did anyone else see that BYU-UCLA football game? BYU beat 'em 59-0!!! In fact, it was UCLAs worst loss since 1929. Is UCLA really that bad, or is BYU really that good? UCLA just beat Tennessee! A bit off topic, I know, but I can tie it in (if I really try) since Elder Layton was at BYU recently as a student - AND we have pics of him as a missionary with LaVell Edwards stadium in the background. That qualifies this observation as "blog worthy".