The Story (And Baptism) of Zulma Llerena Llerena

(Briana just showed us this picture that Andrea had posted on facebook. What we can't get over is...well, is this really the same kid that went to the Doctor's office and the Nurse asked, "Is he always this pale?")

This week went great. We had one baptism. Remember Zulma? We baptized her son a while back. Well, she finally committed to having an interview on Friday, and I had the chance to baptize her on Saturday and Sunday. (So does that count as two baptisms? We're thinking he baptized her Saturday and confirmed her on Sunday.)

The first time I visited Zulma was with Elder Paz. We visited her because she was in the old investigators section and her daughter was inactive. Ever since then we've been working with them.

The missionaries have visited her for about a year now, so she knows her stuff. She has a huge testimony, but when we committed her to be baptized she turned it down every time, even though she told us she knew the church was true. About a month ago we had a interview with her and she didn't show......so we set a goal for 28 de Feb and didn't visit her for almost a month. After that we came back, asked if she was ready to get baptized, and there we go. The story of Zulma Llerena Llerena. She's a super mom cause she has two kids and her husband left, and she's going to make a great member.

Her baptism was funny..... we had it with another ward that had four baptisms. We were just about to start and the lights went out. YEAH! So I had a flashlight handy and we found a couple candles. Luckily for us we continued with the baptism by candlelight, and everything was perfect and of course right after the closing prayer the lights went back on....

Yeah, I knew Chelsea was getting married! I received a normal letter from her but she signed it – Chelsea Brynn or something like that. Haha, I was like- is that her middle name or is she engaged? Most the BYU girls fall fast haha, congrats Chels! ;) I have letters from Nathan and Jacob, and I've written one but I'm waiting to write more so I can send them home in one big package cause I have so many people to write.

Everyone, I want to leave a thought with you. I think I've talked about this before but it's something I've been working on for my investigators. Every great person in history started with one thing super important...their thoughts. If we think we can do something, good or bad, we can do it. The Lord wants His children to put all of their mind into his work. Even if we have distractions in our lives. Of course there aren't many distractions in the mission, but outside there are tons. I would invite everyone to put their thoughts in our real purpose. In finding happiness and in what we can accomplish. Like my AP Elder Herschi always says, "Impossible is nothing".

I love you alls!!!

Elder Layton

Faith Is Where We Start and It Grows Until We Know

Dearest Everyone! Hi, how are you? President came on Friday of course we learned a ton. I received all my letters too! Yeah, thanks everyone.

This weeks been a crazy one. We've had a little too much fun but it´s been probably the best time in my mission by far. Numbers don't really matter but this week we had a high of personal goals and lessons for the mission. It's been the best!

Zulma who decided to get baptized on Saturday didn't show to her interview... which was devastating almost, but she´s going to get baptized. We baptized both her kids so she's got to be thinking about her example as a mother haha. She's great and comes to church.

We had a ton of newbies in the church yesterday which was GREAT. A less active I didn't even know existed came with his sister and she wants to be baptized....that was a first, but I'll take the challenge. Really the Lord is blessing us. The lessons have been crazy.

I don't know if I told you about the time a bat flew in during our lesson and tormented the family we were teaching, but it happened again yesterday. And if that wasn't enough we were interrupted during a lesson for the birth of a bunch of baby cats. So yeah, I got to witness the birth of a kitten which was new to me...... cool. I took pictures but I'm thinking about erasing them cause they kind've don't give good feelings. But enough about that.

I've been studying the atonement a lot more. Because everything we teach has to do with our purpose I've been studying faith in the atonement of Jesus Christ. I remember a long time ago in a galaxy far far away I asked my Dad, How can I know that the church is true for sure? Being the dad that he is, of course he showed me Alma 32. Since then I've found that faith is really where we start and it grows until we know. Here in the mission we don't need to convince anyone. We just show them to trust the Lord and have true faith until it leads them to begin making covenants with the Lord. I would love to talk more about that but I'm out of time....ugh.

I love you all, Elder Layton

(A second email followed...)

Oh yeah, Elder Rojas wants to tell you guys to send lots of sweets. that´s what we want in packages anyway. Specifically he says to send Hershey milk chocolate bars....yeah.... also if Andrea was wondering why I haven't sent her letters for a long time it's cause I'm extremely poor, and I'm working harder than ever and not cause I forgot about her. She'll understand. LOVE YOU PADRES!!!! Nana, Eric, Curtis.