Thanks to Heavenly Father We've Been Blessed With Success

Hey what's up?

Things out here in Zapallal 1 of Puente Piedra are doing amazingly. I just got out of the temple. We woke up at 4:30 in the morning.... so of course I feel a little exhausted right now. I think we'll go home and sleep an hour or two before 6pm. We've been busy here working hard.

Thanks to my Heavenly Father we've been blessed with success beyond anything I could have ever hoped for.

13 INCAS! (Investigators in the Church) I was privileged again to be John the Baptist on Saturday! We baptized five people. William, a young man who has a brother in the ward but their parents aren't members. Leidy a young women and reference from the grandmother of Astrid (Astrid the girl we baptized two weeks ago). Claudia, a girl whose mother is less active. Rosa, the best friend of a women in the ward named Adela. Rosa has two little children and a husband but her husband is never home so we haven't had the opportunity to talk with him yet. Rosa had been taught by missionaries for a long time but they never challenged her to baptism. She accepted right away! Also we baptized Rosa's younger brother who's 19 years old!!! (I thought he was 16 before). All of them were confirmed on Sunday and are doing great!!!

I ate chicken feet this week. I would have to lie if I said they were delicious.

We contacted 202 people.

The girl that was baptized on Saturday named Leidy has two sisters Shirley and Giosselyn and a friend that lives with them named Edith. Leidy introduced us to them a while back and they're stoked for their baptism this week. Also a young man named Junior will be getting baptized this week. We've taught him all of the discussions as of last Thursday and a little in Church because it's impossible to find him because of work, but he's committed to come to his interview this week and be baptized on Saturday. Junior's great! He's fifteen years old and he has family that lives in Atlanta, Georgia.

On the 5th of September we'll be baptizing a man named Jesus (he'll really feel like John the Baptist on the 5th) who has been going to church forever but finally made the decision to get baptized. He told me a story about a while back his life was really messed up and he was about to join the Neo Nazis or something, but he has a changed spirit and I feel he's prepared for the 5th. Also a girl named Paola will be getting baptized on the 5th.

The cousins and brothers of Paola need a little more time to prepare. Jhair and Alizon her cousins and Martin her brother have baptism dates for September 19th. The mother would be getting baptized but she's not married. We taught her the law of chastity and we have to verify but I think she'll decide to split up from her boyfriend. The mom's been living with this guy for 20 years or something but he abuses her and I encouraged her that to live the law of chastity one of her options was to split up. She said that she wants to.

We also found a family that have 8 kids, the parents are married. We have an appointment to go back and the mom and 3 of the kids have baptism dates for September 12th. We have permission slips signed and everything so it should all go pretty smoothly.

Also a mom and her daughter came to church. The mom didn't have desires to get baptized but she signed the permission slip of her daughter Merlit and she wants to prepare for September 19th.

All I know is I haven't really done anything but be obedient and work hard. It's been hard being Senior companion but my companion is one of the best examples to me. I feel blessed more than I can explain.

Saturday was so funny. I got to the last baptism and Claudia didn't want to get into the water. She was screaming because the water was freezing cold... hahaha. After about 15 minutes with the help of her aunt and uncle she got into the water, step by step. Also when Rosa (Women with two kids) came up out of the water she made the loudest gasp of air of any baptism I've ever had. Funny stuff. She sounded like an injured animal or something.

That's about it. Hasta luego. The Gospel blesses lives.

I love you all, keep writing people!

Your Elder,

Elder Layton

I'm Learning More About Life From the Mission

(I had decided against using this picture in last week's post. Elder Layton has one of those awkward moment looks on his face. But I looked at it again this morning. Can you see why I decided to include it here?

I served my mission in the Mexico City South Mission. I miss the children more than anything else. They latch onto the missionaries and are so full of love and purity. Those who have served South and Central American missions know exactly what I'm talking about. And even if you didn't serve one of the Celestial missions, just look at the little boy for a minute. You'll get it.

I hope the he got some Cap'n Crunch with what looks to be chocolate milk! That's some genuine Peruvian cuisine right there. We used to eat our cereal out of cups just like those...but I don't ever remember getting the Cap'n. The milk cartons bring back some memories too.)

HOLA!!!

Every day I'm learning more about life from the misión. You have to make it through life. The thing is, we shouldn't focus on getting through it. Only in making it. I'm so happy right now.

Until this point in the change we haven't had a single baptism but it's only been one and one half weeks here in Puente and I stick to what I said in my last letter.

Elder Moreira's from Ecuador. He's an energetic little guy that likes to joke around a lot. We're working hard and finding lots of good people. His goal in life is to learn English so he can marry a gringa (a white girl) so that's kind of funny.

I won't be writing a ton today because we had an emergency this morning. A recent convert in our ward had an accident a couple days ago. Scalding hot water fell on her lap and her upper legs were burned really bad. We went right after church yesterday so see how she was. The family said they didn't have enough money to go to the hospital so this morning Elder Moreira and I hiked up the mountain to give her my Neosporin. Yes, mom, I'll be needing more. Thanks!

We have some great new investigators. We challenged 3 people to baptism yesterday (well, more, but 3 accepted baptism dates). We visited the house of a member where the member's the only member of the church in his house. His brother William accepted to be baptized on the 22nd, his mom signed the permission slip (she's Evangelical, yes, we've talked with her too), and he's excited about going shopping this week for a white shirt and tie!

We challenged a man 24 years old that lives close to William that we contacted about a week ago named Elvis. His hair looks exactly like Elvis Presley. He accepted to be baptized on the 29th. He'll need a lot of help.

We also challenged the mom of Gisela. Gisela's mom just returned from travel and accepted a baptism date for the 29th too. Sunday's are always great days!

That's cool about Nana giving a talk yesterday. I gave one too. But unlike her, I found out 5 minutes beforehand when they announced it to the ward. I always love surprise talks in the mission. That's what our daily study's for.

(From a talk of Daniel Judd)

Examples of the Sons of Mosiah. Mormon describes how they had become valuable instruments in bringing the Lamanites unto repentance. He recorded that the sons of Mosiah:

“Confess[ed] all their sins” (Mosiah 27:35).

“Searched the scriptures diligently, that they might know the word of God” (Alma 17:2).

“Had given themselves to much prayer, and fasting” (Alma 17:3).

“Had the spirit of prophecy, and the spirit of revelation” (Alma 17:3).

Sought for “a portion of [the] Spirit to go with them” (Alma 17:9).

“Taught with power and authority of God” (Alma 17:3).

LOVE,

Elder Layton