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

The Gospel Really Changes Lives

(This picture of Elder Soto was kindly sent to us by Sister Rich.)

Hola De Peru Lima Norte,

Another great week. Elder Soto's crazy, I'll just put it that way. Well, he's just a funny guy. I've learned fast to have a ton of patience with him. He has 16 months in the mission. We're doing just great.

On Saturday we had the baptism of Milagros and Alexandra. Everything went as planned, and it was a baptism service I'll never forget. Bishop Marcos Polo (I say Marcos, my companion says Polo) baptized Alexandra because she's his niece. Both of Alexandra's nonmember parents came to the baptism too! After that, I baptized Milagros. We had the welcomes and testimonies and then the closing hymn, but before we could say the closing hymn Alexandra's dad Sebastian, who isn't a member of the church, who's never been inside the church before, asked me if he could say a few words.

Just to back up a little bit. Sebastian was very Catholic. Part of the reason for splitting up with his wife was because his daughter Alexandra wanted to be baptized. Her mother said it was the decision of Alexandra, but Sebastian said she was to be Catholic just like her dad, her dad's dad, etc. This whole thing happened a long time ago, but we taught Sebastian lesson 1 and he opened up. The second time we visited him we asked him to sign the permission slip for Alexandra to be baptized. He signed it.

Now a month later, Sebastian was bearing his testimony at the end of our baptism service in front of the members, about how the gospel really changes lives and how he is grateful that his daughter made the decision to be baptized. He asked Alexandra more than one time if she really wanted to do it. Of course she made very clear her position to her father and now Alexandra is a member of the Church of Jesus Christ. We're going to visit Sebastian this week.

Other than that Lima's the best! I'll be able to go to the temple all of my mission! I can't think of anything better than that. Voy a jugar futbol. (I'm going to play soccer.)

Chau,

Elder Layton