He's Your Savior, The Son of God

Dearest Family and Friends and Anybody else Reading this,

How's it going amigos? I loved hearing from a lot of you. My package absolutely rocked by the way. Thank you Lacey/Costello Family! I think Kelsey's letter won the contest of making me laugh the most. Great STUFF!!! The cookies exploded but everything else came in perfect condition. Thank yous. Andrea, thank you! The ipod came and I'm really happy about it….the only thing is that my charger is in Lima with my other suitcase...poochikana!! Well, today I'm going to go find one after we go to the Zoo!!! I'll take pics.

This week has been good. My new companion Elder Hernandez is awesome, and I'm excited to be working in this area. We had the chance to see all of conference in the church. We had several investigadores that were really impressed by it as well. I just have to say that I liked Jeffery R. Hollands talk the best…. It was really serious, but that´s how all his talks are. He takes his work extremely seriously. I felt the spirit a ton, and enjoyed it the most I think because I've been reading Jesus the Christ. Jesus Christ really is the Savior of the entire world. For the people that don't believe in him...it doesn't matter. He's your Savior, the Son of God, and because of him all mankind is saved. For those that believe, are we really following His commandments?

I really enjoyed the part in Jesus the Christ when Talmage talked about the temptations of Christ. Jesus was able to sin. But every temptation that Satan gave him, he overcame. If we could only have the faith and the strength to overcome every temptation. Some of us overcome sin without realizing it. On the other hand, some of us sin without realizing it. If we really just focus on why we're here it's not impossible to live the gospel.

Yeah…. What happened this week? Our neighbor Mariela gave us suri (picture at left - yes, they're big fat juicy worms, or grubs), just like I asked for. She's great! We're baptizing her on the 11th with her daughter Patricia. But anyway, I ate six of em. I did feel like Timon and Pumba a little…

I really miss all of you. Thank you so much for all the letter!!! Keep 'em coming. Only Elder Griffin's in my Zone. He's doing well….sitting next to me right now, eating sunflower seeds. Thanks to whoever sent those. I've been taking advantage of the gift as well.

Bueno….I'm out of time. Remember read the scriptures every day. Pray always. For those of you who find it hard to believe in Christ, look around, and you'll know God exists. You'll come to understand the reasons Our Heavenly Father had to give us His son Jesus Christ to redeem the sins of the world. I'm more convinced everyday that perfection is not impossible. Impossible is nothing.

Love,

Elder Sean Layton

We Have to Know That He Really Suffered and Lived For Us

Dearest Everyone,

Iquitos is the place to be. Right now I'm sitting next to Elder Ridge. Tambien my papa (trainer), Elder Acevedo's here and I here Elder Griffin's in my Zone. The airplane ride to Iquitos wasn't too exciting. We had some unexpected turbulence and Elder Hyde and I were victims of the scalding hot coffee behind us. Elder Hyde got the worst of it I think.

Iquitos is great. It's sand instead of the dirt in Pucallpa so no more dust in our eyes. I think that was the only real downside of my last change.

Our ward mission leader's the best. His wife's our pension and he has a particularly big interest in the work of the Lord.

I'm way excited to get this place moving. It's kind've been hard to start out cause my compi, Elder Hernandez and I (He's Columbian) are opening an area. Basically we do a lot more contacting and working with all the members… not just the less actives. It's great though!! We have two wards so little time on Sunday to work a lot but it's good.

Iquitos is very clean. Compared to Pucallpa the people here are more accepting to the missionaries. I think if we just keep being obedient and diligent we'll be able to have success. It's amazing to be here. I don't miss Pucallpa that much cause I know I'm supposed to be here, but I do miss the people. They were my family. In April Elder Rojas is going to baptize our family of 8…we baptized two already. Yeah, that's about it for the news.

There's more jungle here and we're next to a big river. Oh yeah….my area is 9 de Octubre and Internacional.

I'm reading Jesus the Christ right now. It's an amazing book, like everyone says. Everyone, I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior. I don't know why in the world we lose sight of that sometimes. We have to know that he really suffered and lived for us. His example was amazing! Every single temptation he overcame. He completed everything his Father sent him to accomplish. We can do the same.

Something I learned in the mission is that we can't do the work of the Lord if we aren't obedient. Maybe it seems impossible to be 100% obedient? It's not. It's hard no mas (It's not hard now). If you want spiritual experiences go out and get them. The Lord wants us to see miracles. The Lord wants us to be closer to his presence. I think that if we completely understood that and only had faith more of us would be progressing a lot faster.

Happy Birthday to Andrea, Nathan, Gabe, ….and all the other March birthdays I can't remember right now! (Elder Layton's birthday was on March 6th)

I love you guys and pray for all of you. Pray for my investigators!

Elder Layton

Experiencing Conference Talks First Hand!!!

How is everything. I´m missing you a lot but I finally feel like I´m getting lost in the work. Really though... for a long time everything was so stressful and busy and new that I went through withdrawls pretty much more or less. I can´t explain it now but I´m having the best time of my life.

The people are amazing. Yesterday was one of the best days ever. We baptized Hermana Angelica. She was the last in her family to be baptized. She´s my age and she´s great. It was the first chance I had to help someone from the very beginning to hear our message all the way through, make commitments, and be baptized. It was my second baptism here, and we have more dates too. That´s exciting. I didn´t do the baptism prayer but I was able to bear my testimony and it felt great. We did the baptism and confirmation yesterday during conference because of the saturday sessions. President Perez gave us all permission to watch all the sessions, cool beans.

I play the piano in Sacrament, and I direct a lot because nobody knows music here. I´m teaching my pension, Hermana Silvia, to play piano, so we´ve been doing a little theory during meals and stuff. Hermana Silvia´s the best ever. She´s very involved in the ward so I love her for that.

Oh…about conference. That was sweet. In the Sunday afternoon session that Area Seventy (Elder Eduardo Gavarret) that talked spoke about my exact area! Puente Piedra. I just talked with the Stake President he talked about just yesterday. Also the man that spoke right after him was in our area two weeks before, and the closing prayer was given by President Nash who just came and talked with us because he´s over our mission. He told me that he came to Bend when he was an Area Authority there several years ago. (And that answers the question that I posed in the last post.)

Anyway, I´m talking a lot about me. The people here are so chill. Most of the time they just stare at me after I go off in Spanish because of how gringo I am. They have a good sense of humor though. Some are humble… others aren´t. People are basically the same everywhere… except for the crazy people we saw last night. We were just leaving our apartment and this chic was beating up her boyfriend and he just took it…crazy….I probably shouldn´t have told you that but it was pretty bad. (more on this below). They´re normal for the most part. I love you all. Let me know what´s going on. I´m glad eric and briana went to Prom. Hopefully they had a fun time.

Nothing Elder Layton has brought up has really concerned us. But his first companion, Elder Griffin, who is also serving in the Lima Peru North Mission, ( he has a blog found at http://taylorlimaperu.blogspot.com/) recently had an interesting post . (This is a picture of Elder Griffin at the right.)

I actually had a gun experience this week. DONT FREAK OUT I AM STILL ALIVE...but it scared the .... out of me. All 4 of us were on the bus, I was in the back and this guy sat next to me a normal looking guy. I started talking to him about the church, when he started saying stuff that I didn’t understand. I said NO entiende -I don’t understand. He pulled out a hand gun out of his jacket secretly and said entiende esto- understand this...I said ya. He put his finger over his mouth not to say anything...I thought I was going to get robbed and shot. Once more he asked me if I understood what it was but this time he did the action of death the finger and the neck thing....I honestly thought I was dead. He asked who I was with and I said the two other gringos and my companion. He said yo su amigo-I am your friend. I didn’t understand because one second he had a gun pointed at me and the next he is saying he is my friend he pulled out a badge (secret police) and smiled..

I still don’t know if he was an actual police man or what but I know that the lord protects us every single day and that every single day is a blessing because I did not know if I had another day. I pray for protection every single prayer and I am alive. That was a good testimony builder. AGAIN I AM ALIVE DONT FREAK.

So, Peru looks like it will hold a few challenges along the way. But he's doing the work of the Lord and we are not really very worried.

The Mission is So Much Fun - I Love Every Minute!

Okay I have a lot to tell you and not that much time. I'll make this fast. HOLA!!! how is everything. Peru is so amazing. The reason I didn't email yesterday was because I was at the offices. I'm in a trio with Elder Acevedo and Cairampoma. Elder Acevedo is from Nicaragua and Elder Cai is from here, Peru.

When I flew in we were above the clouds and it was like a carpet of clouds everywhere you looked. When we went below the clouds everything fogged up and stayed that way until we touched the ground. In the Miami airport I met up with all the missionaries heading to the MTC here. I was the only one going into the campo (field). I talked with two Peruvians and left a Book of Mormon with one and I gave another lady some Sunchips I had. It turned out when we got on the plane the lady I gave the Book of Mormon to was right in front of me and the lady I gave the Sunchips to was right next to me....it was a big plane - go figure.

So I talked to them, and found out that the lady who I had given Sunchips to was a Jehovah's Witness, that she lived in both the United States and Peru (she spoke some English) and had been starving from her long trip so she thanked me very much for the food. The other lady I talked to mostly in the airport. She didn't speak English but I gave her the first lesson, and I think the Spirit touched her enough because it made me feel good - she wants to come to church. I got both their addresses. Tight huh? thats just proof to me that God is leading me, even when i don´t know it.

Peru is so awesome. The second day here I saw Elder Griffin (Elder Griffin was Elder Layton's first companion in the MTC - shown here on the right) at his zone conference (the office Elders took me to meet the President - I'm not in his zone) and he told me that right before he came there some guy on a bus pulled out a gun on him (Wow! Elder Griffin must really be preachin' with power if he got someone that upset - and his first week too!).... crazy stuff... haha, we played piano together just like old times. I've missed that Elder. Also there I saw my friend, Elder Nathan Stewart from BYU. He's a Bolivian Elder, but of course they're all coming here. It was random...but so good to see another familiar face. He actually looks a lot different. Way skinnier haha. He'll get more food here. We eat a lot here. Too much honestly. I always have to fight the food down. Don't get me wrong, it's all amazing. Mucho rice...corn, soup, chicken, you know, all the good stuff. The drinks are really good. We usually don't just have water. We have hot chocolate milk...herbal teas, a drink that tastes like black licorice, a lot of Inca Cola, and other stuff.

There are dogs everywhere. I'm bent at the waist in buses usually, they all drive like crazy people. Lanes dont mean nada (nothing). Freak. Everyone honks. There's party music all night too... it's not the best atmosphere to teach people, but we do what we can. I love the people. My very first night with my companions after the zone conference we had a baptism for familia Coral. Husband and wife. They're really great people. I have pictures so I'll have to send them. We're not allowed to send them over email, but maybe I'll be able to slip in an sd card.

Hmm, what else? We have several people with dates... the people are so receptive. I love it. My companions work very hard. I love it. The Mission President's my favorite. This missions my favorite. Its so great. I'm already great friends with the whole district. We have a lot more unity here with zones and districts for some reason than we did in Arizona. I like it.

It's way expensive to send one letter.... 2 bucks each. Also... you CAN'T send beef, cheese (pretty much food), clothing, anything expensive like cameras, ipods, money, basically nothing of value, ties, etc.... I guess the airport here opens everything thats sent and if its any of these things will either take it or make the recipient pay a tax on it which can be up to $200... and the Church won't pay for it...so basically dont send those things.

The work is good. I'll probably email mostly because I only have $25 a week, but don't worry. I'll try to send letters when i can. I love you guys. The mission is so much fun - I love every minute. I just hope I can do my best.

Update on Visa Status, Change of Companions

This morning (Wednesday July 16, 2008) we did a companion exchange. My companion, Elder Griffin, left this morning and Elder Ridge's companion, Elder Briggs, left with Elder Griffin to Peru as well, so we were left with each other. Elder Ridge is way cool and outgoing so that's going to be good for me. We are both about on the same spanish speaking level, so I'm excited to start teaching lessons with him. He's from Utah but he grew up in Rocklin California, Elder Talyor Griffin was from South Jordan Utah (I can't remember if I already said that or not in my last email)

Just so everybody knows, the chica in the travel office said that our Visa's are in Salt Lake, so it's an in-country problem. We're not the first Peruvian missionaries to have this problem. Several missionaries just left last week to Trujillo, Peru after they had been delayed a week. It looks like it's just a spur-of-the-moment thing. Basically we'll get called down to the travel office the night before we leave so we won't really know when that is, but we have high hopes for next Wednesday! In the meantime we're here, still working hard.

It's way hard to write while I'm in the MTC because our days are so set, we do the same things pretty much every day so it's not like I have a bunch of new stories. I'm learning tons of new things of course about the gospel, and I love it. The church is true.

Hanging on Every Word...

We received a letter from Elder Layton today. Here's some of what he had to say:

Do you remember that first family we met when you dropped me off? Well, that Elder turned out to be my companion. His name's Elder Griffin. He's...strong in the Church, and he likes to talk with everyone. (Note that this is the Elder who's family is in the picture under the post, "Greenest Greenies in the Field".) The letter continues detailing things that he and his companion have in common (both love to play the piano and write songs).

The second missionary I met was named Elder Leonard and he's from England, but six months ago he moved to Mesa, Arizona (another favorable Mesa connection!!!).

I see Elder Rau every once in awhile but not often, he seems to be doing great.

The MTC is tough but I enjoy it. I don't think I've wasted a single minute since I've been here. We're always working. Basiccally it's like finals week at BYU, all the time.