It's What the Lord is Asking of Us

Wait. Curtis is 6th grade? I'm confused I thought he was in kindergarten still..

Okay, good morning. Elder Martelo my kid is doing great. (In Peru, trainers are called "fathers". There's a whole patriarchal thing going on with fathers, grandfathers and so on.) Actually he knows more than I do. He's almost 26! He looks young though, so nobody knows his secret haha, his birthday's this transfer so I'll give him a surprise birthday hopefully.

We had 4 baptisms and confirmations this week. Carmen, Brayan, and Angel Apaza, and Elva Barragan. Elva is in her 70's and the great grandma of Astrid, who we baptized a couple weeks back.

Just to tell you a little about the baptism it was hard to baptize a great grandmother. But she was the easiest of the four! Angel was first, but we know the promise of the Lord. The last shall be first and the first shall be last. Angel stood in the water for 20 minutes, then watched his brother and sister and Elva get baptized and still didn't want to go through with it. Hahaha. But, I told him that it was shameful that his brother and sister and an old lady would beat him, so he went through with it. He has a fear of water cause he almost drowned in a pool before I'm thankful he could get over his fear.

Today were going to watch The Pursuit of Happiness with Will Smith (not to be confused with "Man's Search for Happiness" - GRIN).

Elder Rojas, my old companion, is my Zone Leader now!!! It's awesome because we're best friends and I haven't seen him forever.

This transfer I was talking with my new companion. We put the goal to have 30 baptisms this transfer. You can call me crazy but I know we'll do it. It's what the Lord is asking of us. We started out on a good note...4. If we work harder than ever I think we can have 9 next week. For the whole mission, our goal is uno mas!! or one more!!! One more than yesterday, to work a little harder than last week. Please pray that we can complete our goals. More importantly pray for the people to keep commitments, and to come to church, and to get baptized.

We're extremely blessed in this area. We're working hard and being happy.

Love,

Elder Layton

A Missionary's Family

One concern in creating this Blog was that we DO NOT want to create the impression that we somehow feel that our missionary is so unique and special that he needed to have this venue for his experiences to be published for the world to see. We think the world of our son, but realize that he's not any more important to us than another son or daughter is to his/her parents and family. Hopefully this Blog has served a better purpose and will continue to provide a setting where family and friends, who want to do so, can easily follow how things are going for Elder Layton.

That said, we admit...every time we get an email or a letter or pictures or just about anything, we feel just like a kid at Christmas. There is something uniquely peculiar about the way a missionary parent feels on mail day. You have to keep reminding yourself that this isn't the first time that people have sent their son or daughter on a mission. In fact, it's happened hundreds of thousands of times before and the truth is that your son or daughter is a spec in a huge army for the Lord...a spec, but one that is known by the Lord individually. And of course, one that is treasured by his or her family as well.

So when we received a small package with letters and pictures this weekend, it just completely filled us with joy. I'll post some excerpts below and I'll also be updating the pictures link with some of the photos we've received - that haven't been included yet. Much of the letters were personal and won't be posted.

(To Mom) How's it going? I miss you guys lots.I have all the emails I get from you every week. They're the greatest. It's something I look forward to every Monday. Bueno, I'm tired. We have long days and never enough time to sleep - but that's the life of a missionary. It's harder than I ever thought but also better than I thought. I've grown so much - it's more than I can give thanks to Heavenly Father for but I know that I still have mucho more to learn and more importantly people to teach and baptize.

Truthfully, I love the mission. I miss you but I think I'll stay here, perhaps even until the day I die - like Ammon. We'll see if I get permission.

(To Eric and Curtis) There's lots of stories about brothers in the scriptures extremely cool like Nefi and Lehi in the Book of Mormon, Peter and Andrew in the Bible and others, but I'd like to talk a little bit about two brothers that were really good brothers.

Joseph and Hyrum were some of the best brothers. Joseph Smith was called of God and prepared by God and Angels in all the things he needed to know about...the Gospel and the Church, but once the Church was restored, well, actually all his life he was faced with challenges, but especially after. When many people rejected Joseph and the Saints, his brother Hyrum was always right by his side.

Before the Church was organized Hyrum was actually far away but wanted to help out his brother because of the strong testimony he had of the truth of the restoration. Hyrum travelled all the way to Pennsylvania to find his brother and ask what he could do to help...Joseph and Hyrum were best friends. In fact, I don't think there was anyone in Joseph's life than Hyrum...

I'm loving Peru. It's absolutely GREAT out here. There's nothing better than the mission...This weekend we're baptizing 3 people. I'll let you know in my email if it all goes well.

(To Briana) You appear like a princess in your graduation pictures. You are beautiful and have changed a TON! I won't be showing them to any more missionaries. Elder **** from *** already saw them when I was opening your letter and he started drooling. That's not appropriate, is it?

Honestly, I can't believe you graduated. It's weird. Listen - I know you're going to BYU - I (by the way, the "I" stands for illiterate (Briana says it stands for intellectual) - no, I think it's a good school) BUT you are hereby restricted from having a boyfriend until I come home and until I release the suspension.

PSS - Kelsey Costello writes me a ton. We're BFFs for sure.

(To Dad) You know - sooner than you think, you'll be a grandpa. (Not if Briana believes him about the boyfriend restriction.) Weird. Sorry to make you feel older than you really are. So rumor has it that I'm leaving Independencia - but who knows, it's what the hermanas told my zone today. They were at the office and I think they saw the changes. Whatever, not important. I've really learned to follow the advice of President Uchtdorf to Lift Where You Stand. It doesn't matter the calling - the area - the situation - we lift where we are.

(The following was written in Spanish - and is the English translation)

I don't know why I'm writing in English. Dad, I'm working the best that I can. There's no way I can express my love and appreciation for the Lord and you and my President...

Well - you told me that I should find recipes of the food that I like...well - truthfully, after two years I don't really want to eat this food again, but I'll look. Tell mom that everything's good. I don't need anything. Only candy and toothpaste. I truly love you and miss you.

I Make Weak Things Become Strong Unto Them

(At left, Elder Layton's apartment in Independencia. Pretty nice, huh? On Mother's Day he had this to say about his apartment." Our apartment is great. There's only 2 things. We have a cement floor and there's no hot water. In the jungle that doesn't matter, but in Lima, it's cold in the mornings. There is no hot or cold water. There's only water. You have to buy it.")

Hola Papas!

(The picture below is another picture of his apartment.)

Como estan? Mama, you asked about my companion. Elder Soto's a funny guy. He's always happy and ready to work too...that's good. Only one Zone at a time goes to the temple.

I received the package. THANKS! I loved the chocolate even though it wasn't enough… we ate it all in a minute. My packages always come good. There's not really that much risk in sending things here.

Everything gets here without damage, etc. Thanks for all the letters and pictures. Briana, Eric, and Curty have all changed a bunch. Crazy! I especially loved the performance gel insoles. "Outrageous Comfort” I'm wearing them right now actually. Also, I sent you a package. It's a little unorganized. I had to take things out at the post office cause it was over weight, but I sent pictures and letters. I hope you like them. I sent copies for the C5. I was thinking maybe you could put a picture in the letters with some things from the blog in their letters.

The area is doing really well. Honestly it's a hard place to be a missionary compared to other places (in Peru), but where's there an easy place in this world? Only 4 of our muchos investigadores came to church yesterday (I'm sure you can understand my spanglish).

I'm really stressing out about finding more families before the change is over. It's really the goal I have to be helping complete families. We do have several individuals that are progressing. Alberto's in the hospital again for complications he had with his foot…. We have to wait for him to leave before we can start visiting him again.

It does feel a little discouraging when people aren't in the house for their appointments, which happens just about every day, but I feel so much hope when people are waiting for us to come to their house (which happens much less often) Most of the adults, including the members here have jobs that run their lives, so we usually find youth and older people in their houses during the day. You can probably imagine that the nights are always crazy cause that's when we can visit families.

A man named Marcos came to church for the second time yesterday, so we're helping him prepare for one of these next Saturdays to be baptized. He hasn't accepted a baptism date but continues progressing so we´ll keep on visiting!

Hmmm… we contacted 145 people this week. Of 145 maybe 15 were really interested. We'll be visiting them through the week and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure we'll have success with some of them. We haven't had baptisms for the last couple weeks...so of course I feel like I need to repent and do something better. The question is always where to start. I love the scripture (in Ether 12:27) that's always in my head "y se humillan ante mi, y tienen fe en mi, y hare que las cosas debiles sean fuertes para ellos." That's my job right now.

(Shown below - Elder Layton burns a shirt in recognition of having served for 12 months.)

Today we're going with the whole Zone to watch Ice Age 3 in the Church! Chevere. I haven't seen a movie for a while… and the Elders told me this one has dinosaurs! Peru Lima Norte I love you.

Estoy trabajando, gracias por entender si no les escribo. Despues. (I'm working, thanks for understanding if I don't write. Later.)

Mucho amor,

Elder Sean Ryan Layton

Missionaries + Members + Mushroom Cloud = Service Opportunity

(At left, about one month ago, the missionaries from Pucallpa staged a skit based on the Plates of Laban. Everything was authentic, down to the cotton T-Shirts and the tie-headbands. We "borrowed" this and other pictures of the event from Sister Rich (thanks!), whose son is also serving in Peru.)

Hola, This was one of the best changes ever! Well…. 2 weeks of a change. Don't worry about anything. An emergency change just means you get changed in the middle of the change. I'll tell you about it on Mother's Day.

I'm happy everyone's doing so well. Nana, congrats on getting your braces off. I'm sure you have a fabulous smile. Eric and Curtis, good luck on scouts and school and stuff. Yes Nana, I did get your letter.

The last couple weeks with Elder Gomez has been a good experience. He has a lot of time and was in the offices as personal secretary before Elder Rich, so he knows a lot about the mission and I've learned a lot from him. I found out my new change just 10 minutes ago. I'm going to Independencia with an Elder in my Zone named Elder Chan from Guatemala and he has 15 months in the mission or something. I'm stoked to get working in the new area.

I was glad to get all your letters and packages. Thanks for the easter candy.

I thought that was awesome Ricky's teacher is Dane Brock. He was always my example growing up. I even went and listened to his band several times while I was at BYU and it rocked btw. Elder Pullan should be doing good by the way so don't worry about not being able to talk to him Uncle Rick and Aunt Michelle. I miss him and sure he's going to be one of the best.

I had a kind of scary experience this week. Yesterday actually. I was in church finishing up some paperwork with my companion when there was a huge explosion. I literally felt air and I could see the plastic windows bend in. We ran outside and I saw a mushroom cloud. The hospital's right next to the church. The ambulances left, and we followed because one of the hermanas jokingly said that Doctor Espichan's house was probably part of the explosion cause there was a Propane gas station right across from his office and house.

We were only 3 or 4 blocks away. As we were getting closer I could see all of the windows of every house were broken. Even some doors were thrown in and broken down. Honestly I was just scared for Brother Espichan cause he's an old friend of mine and he'd already left church. Nothing happened to him or his family thankfully. 13 people were injured from the bomb's explosion. We changed into our street clothes and called all our appointments to reschedule and just helped them all yesterday clean up. Doctor Espichan's office and house was full of huge glass windows, and glass containers for the medicine. Because of the bomb it was broken all over the floor and counters.

The greatest thing I saw though was that more than 20 members all helping out yesterday. The inspectors and city cleaning crew asked me who everybody was helping out. I told him our religion helps, serves, and blesses the people. I know it's true. I saw so much love from all the members yesterday. These people were really just serving God. Someone told me they saw us on tv so that's cool, and I saw BOMBA (bomb or explosion) on the front cover of the newspapers this morning on the bus. The craziest thing though is most the missionaries in my Zone all heard it from their areas.

I love you all. Keep writing and everything. I'm excited for our goal of 505 this month of may. That's 505 baptisms in the month of may for our mission. 505 baby! Work's hard. Love, Elder Layton

Letters From a Missionary

So our other children received letters from their brother today. They were dated April 13, 2009, so that's not too bad. Here are a few exceprts.

To Curtis:
The mission is fun. I've learned that studying the scriptures is actually one of the best pastimes ever. You'll learn how to read better too when you read the scriptures. That's how I learned Spanish.

We have an investigator named Sintia. one day when I was on divisions we went to her house and I felt impressed to sing "Praise to the Man". We sang it normally...we were about to start the lesson. She asked, "what's the song that talks about the pajaritas?" (little birds) I remembered Joseph Smith's first prayer, and knew that's what she was thinking about. We began to sing it, and she started bawling! Curtis, I know the church is true. She's getting baptized on April 25th after she's known about the Church forever, almost her whole life.

Keep choosing the right. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. The Book of Mormon is true. We're children of God. Remember, give Eric the monkey claw if he tries to beat you up.

To Briana:
We are busy busy. Everything goes just right when we're obedient. Briana, I've had so many experiences I can't even say them all, even if I had an entire day. My last change in Pucallpa we left our Pension, Hermana Rubi. It was sad because she's one of my favorite people in the world. Yeah, that's right. I even left my monkey.

Jesus Christ didn't want to suffer for us when He felt the pains of His INFINITE atonement, but He submitted to the Father, and completed His Messianic mission, and made it possible to overcome death, both physical and spiritual. Nana, we're blessed. Always be obedient.

To Eric:
Iquitos is great! You would ove it. It's different than you think. There aren't monkeys running around or animals everywhere. All the houses are made of cement or wood and generally in the more populated places the houses are all together. There's not really anything called a yard.

The average person working hard here could make $325 a month. That's just an estimate from listening to people. The average person here in Peru has a T.V. and good speakers, a couple tables, pictures, beds, the occasional hammock.

The average cement house is cement, including the floor. Once in a while someone will have a computer. Only the richest homes have glass in the windows. Normally it's rebar with blinds made from sheets.

It Was One of the Best Baptisms Ever

HOLA!!!

We had a busy week. We live in a small house that's divided into two parts. Mariela, Alan, Oscar, and Patricia live on the other side of the wall. I think I told you a little about them. Hermana Mariela always invites us to eat something after the lessons… she's like our mom. We've been teaching them almost the entire time I've been here and we had the chance to baptize them on Saturday. Well, Hermano Alan passed his interview and went to the baptism but didn't want to get baptized. We're going to challenge him for this Saturday and if all goes well, we'll be able to complete the happy family.

The baptism was great. Our Mission Leader planned and did everything. That was a first for me…. And I consider myself blessed. It was one of the best baptisms ever. Yesterday we helped enroll Oscar and Patricia in Seminary and got permission to accompany them at 4:30 this morning. They're great and ready to start a new life. This week we helped them sand all the paint off in their living room. I almost died.

Last Monday we went to a place called Quistococha.. It's a Zoo. Elder Ridge and I were witnesses to a family of monkeys escaping for their cage. Cool… there was a dolphin and a bunch of other stuff. I'll send you the picture of the snake I got to hold for 30 cents.

Bueno…yesterday I gave a talk… on the Atonement. I can't help talking about it. It's really the center of everything we teach. I never really understood that before.



Good news, I'm not as skinny as before. I'm not going to say I'm anywhere near being fat, but I'm growing. Hope that makes you happy mom. Today we're going to the big stadium to play soccer with the two zones here in Iquitos. Fun fun.

Easter here was great. Everyone was in the house watching movies about Jeramias, or Moses, or Jesus. Something else I observed this week is that the kids here have the same obsession with High School Musical 3 in English as the kids in United States.

Oye. I feel bad for not sending letters for a while. Every Monday we've had service projects and no time for anything else. If someone can pass these messages on, it'd be great!

Nathan - I love you man and I hope you're doing well in Argentina, having tons of success. I miss all the good times and everything but I know these experiences that we're having right now are the best we've ever had. I love my mission more than anything. The people are amazing. Peru is probably better than Argentina, but I have respect for every Child of God. Thank you for working hard and loving the people.

Andrea – Thanks for everything. My Mission Leader is sending a letter for you and my parents today. I hope everything's just great and you're doing well in school. Keep doing your best, I always love to hear from you.

Briana – Beautiful Sister, I know you're doing well. I just was thinking about you today and wanted to say you should keep up with soccer and everything…. And good luck in school. I don't really know what´s going on with you, but I hope you got the easter egg with the 5 dollars.

Eric – You're the best. Always work the very hardest you can with everything you got! I know video games are cool….but, really, they're not that cool. Stay in school. Read the scriptures and pray everyday. That´s something we can all do better on. The scriptures will help you with everything.

Curtis – Thank you for finding and being a friend to a member of the Church. That's great. You should talk to all your friends about the church. Tell them that they can go with you and mom or dad will pick them up. I know it's kind of crazy, but it´s the right thing to do. Don't be afraid about choosing the right.

Listo. Everyone else I love you guys. Keep sending the letters. I'm always grateful for everything. Especially candy and ties.

Love, Elder Layton

Lima Peru North Mission Still Awaits Pending the Visa Approval

Yes, he's still in the MTC and no, we still don't know exactly when he will be sent to Peru. Elder Layton is still studying the gospel, the missionary discussions and Spanish. He is learning the articles of faith in Spanish right now.

Elder Layton had mentioned a couple of weeks back that he hadn't been feeling well. At the time, we didn't think much of it. Well, the rumor has it that he has bronchitis and didn't want us to worry. He's been to the doctor - or so the rumor goes. Great, so now when everything really is good, we'll worry, wondering what it is that he isn't telling us. Of course, when he actually gets to the Peruvian jungle, we should have nothing to worry about.

Last week the kids all got letters from their brother. Most of them were rather personal, but I would like to include a couple of brief comments he made, the first to Eric (in the picture at the right at the MTC with Elder Layton), and the second to Curtis (shown above, also with Elder Layton).

I want to tell you that I know how true the Church is. Do everything new to prepare... I really do miss you.

Curtis, you'll love the mission.

Short, sweet but very typical Elder Layton. We really are grateful for the example he is setting for his younger brothers.