I Love Being a Missionary

Amados Hermanos Mios,

Me siento muy alegre poder compartir algunas experiencias con ustedes.

This week turned out ... hmmm.... worse than I thought!!!! At first that might sound extremely un-optimistic to everyone but what I`m trying to say is we had really high goals and low results.

We did have one baptism hallelujah. Nao made it. His mom decided to work, Jefferson’s god-father died, Sandy wants to get baptized in the Catholic Church, Michael wants more time to prepare, and Guian Carlos is studying in his university from 6 in the morning until 10 at night. Basically I probably feel something like Alma felt in Alma 8: 9-11.

9 Now Satan had gotten great ahold upon the hearts of the people of the city of Ammonihah (Zapallal); therefore they would not hearken unto the words of Alma (Los Misioneros.)
10 Nevertheless Alma labored much in the spirit, wrestling with God in mighty prayer, that he would pour out his Spirit upon the people who were in the city; that he would also grant that he might baptize them unto repentance.
11 Nevertheless, they hardened their hearts
Of course we know what happened after this. Amulek helped Alma find tons of people that would listen. I know we need to work better with the members!!!! We’re receiving tons of blessing... we just have to be patient.

PERU:
The People: The people here are wonderful. Humble, simple, hard-working. Well, many of them are very hard working. But sometimes they come to really fast conclusions.

Example. Yesterday, I left the keys in the pension. We got done eating and left to our house up the hill. We had to knock on the door so our land-lord would let us in. We studied until we had to leave but when we tried to leave, we found the door dead-bolted. The landlord had left and locked the door. I had locked the door to our room already, so we were basically prisoners inside our own house. I got up on the wall to call for the neighbors help but he thought I was trying to break into his house or something. Freak. So he started FREAKing out. Yelling shouting, and saying some words missionaries don’t understand. Oh man. We were late for church too. Talk about crazy Peruvians! Luckily our pension passed by the house randomly and threw up the keys.

The Food:
We eat 2 hard breads every morning with American cheese, a thick drink called quacker, and sometimes juice. I miss pancakes and French toast. For Lunch we eat spaghetti sometimes, different soups (delicious), chicken, French fries, etc. and for dinner that’s where we get the surprises because we eat dinner here with the members but it’s normal enough.
I’m sad to say the hamster I was holding in that picture lived only 5 minutes longer. Nooo less. They used a kitchen knife to cut off his head while most of the missionaries took video. I’m proud to say I’ve never eaten cuy (hamster) nor did I watch the horrible scene. I’m not sure if Dad would like the food here. It’s a LOT different than Mexican food.

My life in Peru: Very few people here in Zapallal have a car. Everyone rides in buses. Luckily the bus system is fairly advanced and so it makes it relatively easy to get to wherever you want. It’s almost all sand dunes because we’re so close to the beach, but our area is all paved luckily where the houses are. You can look on google earth to get an idea, but all the houses are stuck together. Almost all the houses are brick. Hmmm what else. I love being a missionary!!!

HAVE A GREAT WEEK!!! See you next week. Send letters. Thank you for everything.

Love,

Elder Layton

I'm Being Very Blessed in Peru

I'm being very blessed down here in Peru. My kid Elder Yaez is doing great. He's from Arequipa Peru MY FIRST PERUVIAN!!! I teach a little more than normal but he helps a lot. I need the help, because I feel a little stressed with having a district and everything. Before our zone was two districts but with the division and the new stakes now Puente Piedra has one zone, one district, and 5 companionships.

I was able to interview about seven different investigators on Thursday and Friday. It was an experience I'll never forget. In an interview the people spill out everything. Some of them told me things I could help them with, others, well, let's just say some things they mentioned were things I really didn't want to hear. One girl I didn't pass for confidential reasons but it comes down to one thing. She didn't want to obey all the commandments. I assured her that she could be baptized later on when she was better prepared and willing to live the normas (standards) of the Gospel.

We were again blessed this weekend to have a baptism. Finally!!! Sister Yesica was baptized. Her kids were very happy Alizon and Jhair. Nelly and Miguel, her friends, came to the baptism too. We also baptized Darlin and her cousin Xiomara. Darlin's uncle and aunt are basically her parents, so her and Xiomara are sisters basically The dad Guillermo didn't want to give Xiomara permission. We taught everything to them the past couple weeks, and xiomara was at the interview for Darlin, so I told the mom of xiomara (Maria) that Xiomara should have her interview just in case Guillermo changed his mind. Saturday in the morning we visited them and changed his mind. They gave us breakfast and when we left the girls were smiling. DURING the baptism service Guillermo left the service to talk with a leader in the church. A sister told me that she heard Guillermo ask what do I need to do to be a member of this church? Guillermo and Maria aren't married but we`re going to help them get married this 14th of November. AWESOME!!!

I'm tired. I was up kind of later than normal learning how to call everyone for the informes (reports), Pday, and helping the district with questions. Today we're going to go play soccer. I'm probably better than Nana now since I play almost every week with the Latins. We'll have a futbol duo when I get back. Well, that's about it. We have 9 more baptism dates set, and 9 INCAs (I have no idea what an INCA is...baptismal challenge and date set? It's some kind of acronym) yesterday. We have to keep working harder like Elder Rich always told me.

That's kind of weird. I guess it's not Elder Rich anymore, it's Landon. I heard his Flaca waited so Landon might change to Mr. Landon here pretty soon too. Bueno. THANKS FOR ALL THE LETTERS!!!!

I'm praying for all of you. Please pray for the investigators. Jose Louis, Anderson, Italo, Guian Carlos, Jefferson, Sandy, Javier, Isabel, and Maycol!