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.

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

Iquitos Video

Elder Layton is probably on his way to Iquitos right now. I found this video online that appears to give us a fairly good idea of what it is like there. Make sure you pause the music on the right sidebar (under Blog Playlist) before playing the video. Also, if you hit the little rectangle at the bottom part of the video, it will increase the size to full screen.

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.)