Everyday I'm Learning How to Be a Better Child of God

HEYYYY,

How's everyone? This week has been great. We're being very blessed. You remember the Earls right? The gringo couple from Utah in my zone. They're still working on the Spanish. Not completely fluent yet.... but on Wednesday I went out with them all day to help out. I taught them how to do the numbers and everything because it' not like they have a senior companion to teach them everything. We worked on the grammar a bit and taught several families.

They also came with us to an appointment yesterday that was a reference they gave us, and....it's an absolutely great family. They're the Galazar family....and it's a big family. Honestly I felt the spirit incredibly strong during the lesson. We taught the restauration with the help of the Earls. They taught the first principles and everything. What I like about this family is that they were paying a lot of attention. We left a Book of Mormon and everything and invited them to read and pray so we'll see what happen in our return visit.

Peru is getting to feel more like home... I really can't imagine the states anymore. That's weird.

Haha, I can't believe you found my passport! I looked for a week for that thing! About rooming, I can't find the info to Elder Stewart and Cope.....they were in my mission but they went back to their real mission in Bolivia. I'm not sure if they're done or about to get done but they definitely have more time than I do. So....if you can't get a hold of them, the most important is just get a room with Nate. Something cool south of campus is what I'm thinking. My companion will call in a couple of weeks. He's ending his mission the 24th of Feb. What else...

Tell Eileen I say hi. (My voice teacher.) I would do lessons again if I have a little time before school. I'm planning on getting relatively involved there at BYU. I have no clue what yet, but you'll see. Tell Logan I say hi when he comes home. I miss you all very much. Today we're going to go throw water balloons, play soccer, and have a BBQ. Very cool.

I'll just add that I really know the Church of Jesus Christ is true. Everyday I'm learning how to be a better child of God, and through constant prayer and scripture study we can do it better. It's so important to be constant. Like Elder Bednar talked about in one of his conference talks. If you were to ask his kids how were the scripture studies they wouldn't tell you it was exactly spectacular. They fought at times and didn't always learn a ton, but what they would tell you is that they were constant. They never missed a day of family prayer, or a night of scripture study. For that they've been blessed. They did what was necessary to overcome the temptation the rise up every day in our lives.

Have a good day!!!!

Elder Layton

Teaching By Example

Hello!!!

Everything I told you in that letter was true.... believe me I know.

Okay before I forget!!! Hopefully you haven't done it yet. I want to room with Elder Nathan Stewart and Elder Cope (who knows Elder Stewart).... I have the number of Elder Cope....but I forgot it in my room...ahhh. Nathan Rau of course! And also my companion wants to room with us. He's going to apply to BYU soon and he'll get in and everything. His name's Giancarlos Rodriguez. He'll be calling dad in a couple weeks to get into contact. By the time school starts he'll speak English don't worry. (Okay, I know my Spanish is a little rusty, but c'mon.) What's your phone number dad?

Okay....send me what I need to do with all that stuff asap and I'll get permission from President if there's anything I need to do. Thanks!

This week was great!!! We baptized a single mother named Roxana! Her brother got off the mission 2 months ago we call him El Chino so he baptized her. She was honestly really happy. We have other baptism dates and everything so we're still baptizing. Our zone's doing better. We had the only baptism this week here in Independencia but the zone has other dates really soon.

Yesterday we had a lesson with a man named Jose. It was a lesson kind've different than normal. It was a reference from a member of the church but I had heard a lot about him before because we always teach the recent convert next door. I think he's broken about every commandment you can think of ( I won`t go into details). We taught a lesson purely on repentance. I had him read Alma 27-30 and of course we explained it as he read. This is when Alma is calling the people to repentance and tells them some of the things they must do. What is our hope. What our fears are if we don't repent. In the end of the lesson he told us he really wants to change. His daughter doesn't want to get baptized mostly because he told her not to. Now he feels bad cause she's going to parties and everything and he sees his mistake.

I shared with him something that Albert Einstein taught. Example isn't another way to teach. It is the ONLY way to teach. I told him that the only way he can really help his daughter is by showing her what to do by his own example.

Well, I'm still helping my companion not be trunkie. No, joke, he's doing great.

Love,

Elder Layton

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.)

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

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.