They're All My Family and Everything

VOY A IQUITOS!!!

Iquitos is located in the Northern part of Peru in the Amazon Basin. It is the largest city in the world (about 400,000 people) not accessible by roads. Access is limited by plane or boat. Three rivers, including the Amazon, surround the City.

Click Here for some great information on Iquitos or Here to learn more about the Amazon River.

Left - to give a bit of perspective, the Amazon River is well over 1 mile wide at this point. The Amazon is the largest river in the world in terms of flow, and with some controversy(according to Guinness Book of World Records), it is also the longest, even surpassing the Nile.

Iquitos, like Pucallpa, is subject to flooding during the rainy season. Many of the local homes are built on stilts.

Padres!!! Amigos!!!

VOY A IQUITOS!!! I'm excited obviously, but I'm kind've bummed at the same time to leave everything and everyone in Pucallpa. It's my favorite. It's time though, I've been here 4 and a half months.

This week's been the hardest and the best week I've ever had. We ended up marrying 6 couples. Leyder and Romi were baptized right after the wedding. We helped marry Leyder y Romi, Americo y Nilma, Isaac y Aurora, Eduardo y Stephanie, Cesar y Betty Luz, and Sarita y Jose. On Saturday we baptized Prisila y Antoni, the kids of Cesar y Betty. They actually have a family of 9 so the rest of their family will be baptized on 11th of April. It was actually really amazing to meet the goals of the mission. I know I can take what I learned here to Iquitos.

The changes are crazy. Elder Rojas is staying here in our area. I'm grateful for that because he knows everyone. I'm going to miss everyone here a ton. They're all my family and everything.

Elder Hyde is going to Iquitos, but a different Zone than me. Elder Stewart is going to Bolivia. And of course Elder Rich is staying here, holding down Pucallpa.

Everyone, the mission's the best!!!
CHAO,

Elder Layton

(Thanks to Sr. Rich for forwarding us the pictures at the left. They were taken in Pucallpa and sent by her son, standing to the right of Sean in the both pictures, Elder Landon Rich.)

Fishers of Men

Sean and Briana (left) were conquering local fishing spots as soon as we moved to Oregon. Sean was seven years old. Now at twenty, he's still fishing both literally (see last post) and figuratively.

Locos! I never said pday was on Monday. We had to change that one day no mas when President came. haha. Well, I have a ton to tell you and barely any time.

I love the mission. I'm learning so much, and serving the people only gets easier. Everyday I feel more love for them.

Well, I want to tell you about Friday. On Friday Elder Rojas and I both prayed before we left the house to help our couples get married. Finally thanks to our great new Zone Leaders we have a wedding. For real. They were rejected by a couple municipalidades and some other places but we kept trusting in the Lord. Somehow they gave us the best deal ever.

Only DNI (that's like a drivers license) , a birth certificate, and sixty soles (Peruvian currency). If they don't have the birth certificate they can pay and additional 10 soles. THANK U!!! So it turns out we're marrying 4 couples, maybe 5. We are still trying to get all the paper work from the 5th. two of the couples are getting baptized the day after the marriage, and one of the couples are members. Eduardo, the member getting married is one of my best friends in the ward. He always takes us everywhere in his moto taxi.

Remember the funeral/ viewing we spoke at? Three of the non member couples are from there. Leder and Romi were investigators we've been teaching for a while. Isaac and Aurora were a surprise on Friday morning. They had all the papers and money ready for us, we had no clue they wanted to get married, and then they accepted a baptism date. Isaac was a man that basically bashed us in front of all the people in the funeral.....haha, well he announced that God the Father, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost were one person. Somehow he had a change of heart and that was an easy obstacle to get over. I feel so blessed... Americo and Nilma, nonmembers, were also at the funeral. Americo's travelling right now but we're sure they will accept baptism as soon as he returns. The 5th couple we're still working on was a reference of Hermana Zulma. They are a family of 6 and we've been teaching the kids. We have baptismal permission from the parents but the kids decided they didn't want to get baptized unless they were baptized with their parents Cesar and Betty luz. Soo....now we have to marry them, and I think we can pull it off even though the deadline passed a while ago.

Last night I had the privilege to baptize Carlos and Antonino!!! Carlos is 19 and has the hugest desire to serve a mission. I'm pretty sure he has other motives, like the girl he loves is LDS...haha, but he's great. Accepted everything we taught him because he received an answer that the Book of Mormon is true. He's preparing to receive the Priesthood next week.
Other than that we have other various baptism dates for this month. Homero, Leah, and Christian. They're all young men and women with desires.

This really is the work of the Lord. These people were prepared not by us, but by the Lord.

Love,

Elder Layton

I Know Through Faith, Repentance and Keeping Covenants We Can Be Blessed

(Note: It looks like our letters may be coming on Tuesdays for now instead of Mondays. The first paragraph below was actually a quick follow up note he sent after his email.)

Oh yeah mom.....it rained a lot. We walk on small little puentes (bridges) to get to our citas (appointments). The bridges consist of a board, and two other small pieces of wood for legs. All the kids jump out their doors and go swimming in the brown water, and no I haven't fallen in. hopefully that never happens. oh yeah.... one lunch while we ate I went fishing with a stick, a hook, and a piece of bread, and I caught a catfish. I wish I had my camera then. (I should have used the title, "Gone Fishing" for this post.)
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Buenos Dias, I couldn't write you yesterday because we had interviews with president, so of course I got all of your letters!!! Loved 'em. Thank you for the package Grandparents in Vegas!!! The chocolate will last me a long time. No worries though, our pday changed to today. We just got done playing futbol...soccer, in a stadium with the whole zone. Vacan. This week was a big week for us. I was a little bummed earlier this week cause all the photos I had on my camera were erased somehow. Luckily I got the pics my comp had and I made a couple cds before that happened so it's not that bad. I'll be sending em asap.

Everyone, this is the best time in my mission. There's nothing better than serving in the work of the Lord. Really I'm grateful for every one of you... my family, girlfriend, cousins, other friends...my leaders. Really, you've all helped me grow in so many ways. I got a letter from Elder Rau yesterday. He's doing so well. I can tell from his letters that he's striving to be exactly obedient and he's working hard. Same to all the other guys out in the field.

My Zone's doing great. President's happy with the results, but of course, being President, he wants more. It's so hard but I've never felt better. It's something you can't explain unless you've served a full time mission.... I love the work. It only feels right now like we´re straining to get over the next hill. I don't know if I'll be here another change, so of course we have to do everything here we can.

Yeah, my birthday was awesome. My comp invited tons of members and investigators and we watched Joepsh Smith profet of the restauracion. Hermana Lilia Reatagui (We baptized one of her grandkids Cesar, and next week I'm baptizing Antonino, a different one of her grandkids) gave me a hammock for my birthday........yeah. She knew exactly what I wanted haha. After that my comp caked me in the face and we went home happy.

I was thinking a lot about Alma this week. I'm in Helaman now, but it's so so so important. The first time in my mission when I read the BOM in the MTC I cruised through Alma 45 until Helaman....cause it's just war, war, war. But something that's so important is to look at what Moroni did. If everyone were like Capitan Moroni even the gates of hell would shake. We can be like him. These chapters teach us that he fortified his cities, prepared to defend against the Lamanites, and did everything possible to live righteously. But something that really hit me is that it explains his entire life... preparing to defend, until the end of his days. It's not just a few chapters and so what's the point? We have to do it. We can't just sit and do nothing, even if we think nothing bad's coming, or the enemy isn't even close. There was a time when the Lamanites attacked the City of Zarahemla in the middle of all the cities of the Nephites. The Nephites of course didn't expect an attack on the strongest part of their defenses. Because they weren't prepared, they fell. It's the same in our lives. We have to defend, fortify, and prepare always, like Moroni. I know these things are true, and I know through faith, repentance, keeping covenants, and living the commandments, we can be blessed and find more happiness and peace. Our families are so important.

Love you all,

Elder Layton

It Was Great and a Very Spiritual Experience For Me

This week has been the best! I'm grateful for my new comp. He's Columbiano, se llama Elder Rojas, and he's great. He's an awesome missionary. Before the mission he had long hair and played in a metal band. He's a hard worker and teaches well too.

(Above - The City of Pucallpa from the air, a city of about 250,000)

So before I tell you about all my investigators I'll talk about the Peru experience yeah? Well, I ate another fish which is HUGE called Doncella. Two dogs bit me this week... they just came out of nowhere. The river by Pucallpa is called the Ucayali. It's big. We have some investigators by the river so we'll be going back. We also went down there the other day and found some less active members we never knew existed. Haha, then we had an appointment with an hermana called Leyla but we couldn't get to her house. It took us forever to get into the area, climbing on whatever floats, but they haven't built bridges yet and the water's not deep enough for canoes. I don´t know if we'll be able to go in the canoes but there's always the puentes.

(The Ucayali River at Pucallpa)

One thing that I've found out that's key for the mission is that you have to love the people, yeah. But you have to take that love and turn it into diligence. It talks about diligence all over the Book of Mormon. I still haven't totally figured it out but I know I can work harder.

So my new Zone is cool. Elder Nathan Stewart is in my Zone. Ha. I was stoked for that. We were friends at BYU and he's from the Bolivia misison. My District leader's Elder Garnica, and it just so happens that his brother, Elder Garnica, is in our district. Haha, weird huh?

When Elder Stewart came he brought my letters from Lima, bless his soul. I want to thank the following: Mis Padres, Grandpadres, the Rau's, Elder Rau, and the Greene girls for great letters!!! Everyone else, I would love to hear from you. Oh and yes i got Bryan´s letter, I still haven't written back. I'll work on that today...

Okay I had the oportunity to baptize Cesar Jr. on Saturday and be part of the confirmation yesterday . He's a great kid, and he want to become a missionary just like me. When we were changing on Saturday I told him a lot of the same stuff Dad told me when I was about to be baptized. It was great and a very spiritual experience for me. His parents want to be married now for sure so we're going to get 'em married and baptized. One big Mormon family.

Also we have the best families. Gonzalo y Luz are getting married. Luz was a little discouraged yesterday because they don't have enough to be able to get married. We explained that they needed to pray with all their faith, and do everything possible. Of course they will. They always pray and always read their scriptures. We talked to Bishop and the ward is going to have an activity to raise some funds for them this week, so they can get married, and get wet on the 24th. We're hoping and praying everything can work out. Please pray for the investigators that need marriages here. It's a huge sacrifice for them, and prayers do make a difference. (Mosiah 27!!!)

I love all of you.

Elder Layton

We Can Choose Who We Want To Be

Man, this week has been busy. I was just thinking about everything that's happened in my mission so far and I can't really believe I have 6 months out already. We found out our changes Saturday night. I'm staying here!!! I was definitely elated, if you could call it that, to hear that I wasn't going to move somewhere else like I've been doing every other change. This area is getting better, mejorando.

We have 4 baptism dates set for January and I'm sure we can manage to get more. My new companion's name is Elder Rojas. There are a lot of Elder Rojas but I've met this one in Lima one time.... no more than a handshake but I know who he is. He's from Columbia, and I'm going to work his little tush off. Elder Paz leaves tomorrow, Tuesday, and Elder Rojas comes tomorrow too. So I´ll just be waiting.

Yeah... I've eaten lots of pretty cool stuff. Mostly fish. The turtle an hermana promised us never happened so I was kind've bummed about that. We ate part of a huge fish called Paiche. I didn't have my camera but it was good. We also ate Yahuarachi. I have pictures of that I'll send you in the future. When we ate it, it still had everything there. The eyes, the head, the tail. You'll see. Yeah.... what else.... My favorite fruit of all time is called copoazu. Barely any of the people here even know about it. I ask everyone where I can find it... Nobody knows except one hermana. Mmmmmmm...

We're baptizing a 10 year old boy this Saturday named Cesar. We're trying to get his parents to get married but so far they say no. No, just means we haven't tried hard enough. Haha, no, they're great and they'll be baptized in the future just watch. Also, we have a golden family, familia de oro, that we're baptizing on the 24th. His name is Gonzalo and her name is Luz. They're going to have a baby any day now, she's past her due date, but they've come to church the past two weeks. They're not married, but we're teaching them and committed them to be married the morning of January 24th and to be baptized that night. Marriages are always a pain cause we have to get tons of paperwork, but it's worth it. They are awesome! We have a appointment with them this Wednesday...if Hermana Luz isn't in the hospital that is.

Other than that we have two really great girls, Daisy y Cecilia, ready to get baptized but are scared of their parents. We gave them the permission slips so we'll see what happens. I really want to talk with the parents but they're never at home. Luckily they get a lot of help from a young man in the ward....who happens to be their cousin. I told you about Juan Carlos yeah? Yeah he's great. The assistant to the president right now, Elder Herschi, baptized him. Elder Herschi's basically my model missionary. He´s an example to all of us, and when he came with me and my companion to teach a couple weeks ago I learned a ton!

2 Nefi 2:27-29 – We can choose who we want to be and who we follow. Always choose the right. The Church has all the truth we need in this life. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and The Book of Mormon was written by prophets other than Joseph Smith. Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet, along with his counselors and the twelve apostles. I know Christ lives.

I love you all, and for the C5 specifically always remember: We live together, we die together, bad boys for life. Tienen un buen dia!

Elder Layton

He Answered Our Prayers

Queridos Familias y Amigos Mios,

It was so great to hear from my family!!!!! I hope you know I was sick when I called so that's maybe why I didn't sound my best. Actually my companion was sick all Christmas day. Pretty much Christmas was just great though!

Thanks for everything!!!
Right now we're getting close to some new baptisms which I'm very excited about. We had 6 investigators come to church again and 3 of our investigators have dates set for January. It shouldn't be very hard if we just keep doing what we're supposed to be doing.

President mildy rebuked us in his Christmas letter and really told us that the lack of baptisms in the month of December (honestly I don't know how they went, but we didn't have any) was because of the small things we need to overcome like obedience with exactness, trusting the Lord, teaching effectively. We can always do better as missionaries every day.

One of the kids we're baptizing is named Cesar Jr. He's ten. His sister is a member and his parents can't be baptized yet because we're helping them get married. We just got a permission slip from him on Saturday and he has more than 6 asistencias (he's attended Church more than 6 times) so he's set. I was so grateful on Saturday when we taught him. Always when we tried to teach him before he honestly couldn't concentrate, and told his parents he didn't want to be baptized. But then for some reason he completely changed. He sat there, understood, listened, and told us that he was ready to be baptized. YES! Really, the Lord answered our prayers. It´s been hard for me to go through this entire month without helping someone make their first covenant.

The monkey's doing good. A rat bit it's tail while he was sleeping so he has rabies but no worries, our pensions daughter is its mom and she took Andy in right away to get all its vaccs. Haha. It has an official vaccination tag with his name on it and everything.

Today we're playing futbol. Too bad I waste all the Natives. No, just kidding. They're all way good cause it's the thing to do down here. My companion's really awesome. He's quiet and doesn't like to pay for stuff but hey, I'm sure it´s hard to live with a gringo. I'm his first gringo companion so he's holding out really well. When he bears his testimony I can feel the spirit. That's what's most important to me. He has a great conversion story too from a strong Catholic family so that definitely helps out cause I'd say 50% of our investigators are Catholic.

Honestly I don't want to leave this area. Just saying that is probably going to get me sent off somewhere different, but whatever. We find out next Monday our change. There's nothing better than the mission. Thanks for all the love this Christmas, really, from everyone. It felt like home. Man... I really need to write everyone. I think I'm going to wait until I'm out of the jungle because it's so expensive.

(It costs a significant portion of his entire monthly budget just to get one letter out of the jungle. He's mentioned several times how he feels terrible about ignoring everyone. So if you've written him and haven't heard back - that's why. He'll get to you - thanks for the letters and understanding.)

Padre, usted puede enviar sus cartas a mi en espanol, debido a porque estoy fluido en esta idioma. Yo quiero ver como esta su espanol, para que puedo ver quien es major en en el espanol. No se precupe. No voy a rub it in your face. Probalamente usted es major. Gracias padre por todas sus cartas espirituales. Me encantan esas mas que todas. Estoy leyendo del Libro de Mormon en Espanol en voz alta.

Funny - I knew this day would come. I just didn't think it would be this soon. He's basically challenging me to write to him in Spanish so he can see who's Spanish is better - his or mine. I don't think he'll have too much difficulty winning that battle six months from now, but I think I've still got him. He does say (in half English, half Spanish) not to worry - he's not going to rub it in my face. He also says that he's been reading the Book of Mormon out loud.

Your Missionary,

Elder Layton