I Make Weak Things Become Strong Unto Them

(At left, Elder Layton's apartment in Independencia. Pretty nice, huh? On Mother's Day he had this to say about his apartment." Our apartment is great. There's only 2 things. We have a cement floor and there's no hot water. In the jungle that doesn't matter, but in Lima, it's cold in the mornings. There is no hot or cold water. There's only water. You have to buy it.")

Hola Papas!

(The picture below is another picture of his apartment.)

Como estan? Mama, you asked about my companion. Elder Soto's a funny guy. He's always happy and ready to work too...that's good. Only one Zone at a time goes to the temple.

I received the package. THANKS! I loved the chocolate even though it wasn't enough… we ate it all in a minute. My packages always come good. There's not really that much risk in sending things here.

Everything gets here without damage, etc. Thanks for all the letters and pictures. Briana, Eric, and Curty have all changed a bunch. Crazy! I especially loved the performance gel insoles. "Outrageous Comfort” I'm wearing them right now actually. Also, I sent you a package. It's a little unorganized. I had to take things out at the post office cause it was over weight, but I sent pictures and letters. I hope you like them. I sent copies for the C5. I was thinking maybe you could put a picture in the letters with some things from the blog in their letters.

The area is doing really well. Honestly it's a hard place to be a missionary compared to other places (in Peru), but where's there an easy place in this world? Only 4 of our muchos investigadores came to church yesterday (I'm sure you can understand my spanglish).

I'm really stressing out about finding more families before the change is over. It's really the goal I have to be helping complete families. We do have several individuals that are progressing. Alberto's in the hospital again for complications he had with his foot…. We have to wait for him to leave before we can start visiting him again.

It does feel a little discouraging when people aren't in the house for their appointments, which happens just about every day, but I feel so much hope when people are waiting for us to come to their house (which happens much less often) Most of the adults, including the members here have jobs that run their lives, so we usually find youth and older people in their houses during the day. You can probably imagine that the nights are always crazy cause that's when we can visit families.

A man named Marcos came to church for the second time yesterday, so we're helping him prepare for one of these next Saturdays to be baptized. He hasn't accepted a baptism date but continues progressing so we´ll keep on visiting!

Hmmm… we contacted 145 people this week. Of 145 maybe 15 were really interested. We'll be visiting them through the week and I'll let you know how it goes. I'm sure we'll have success with some of them. We haven't had baptisms for the last couple weeks...so of course I feel like I need to repent and do something better. The question is always where to start. I love the scripture (in Ether 12:27) that's always in my head "y se humillan ante mi, y tienen fe en mi, y hare que las cosas debiles sean fuertes para ellos." That's my job right now.

(Shown below - Elder Layton burns a shirt in recognition of having served for 12 months.)

Today we're going with the whole Zone to watch Ice Age 3 in the Church! Chevere. I haven't seen a movie for a while… and the Elders told me this one has dinosaurs! Peru Lima Norte I love you.

Estoy trabajando, gracias por entender si no les escribo. Despues. (I'm working, thanks for understanding if I don't write. Later.)

Mucho amor,

Elder Sean Ryan Layton

We Don't Do the Work of the Lord Without Revelation

Buenos Dias!

Estoy muy agradacido por esta semana. I really had a ton of experiences. I can't really go into detail too much because there were a lot of personal things that happened to investigators but I learned a lot.

We contacted 3 people who were in a personal crisis. Yesterday we got caught up in the middle of a divorce. Every single problem we were faced with we helped the people come to the atonement of Jesus Christ our Savior. We know from the Book of Mormon and from the Bible that he suffered for our sins, afflictions, temptations, and sicknesses. Thanks dad for teaching me that.

So, we've been helping people make and keep commitments. We had so many baptism dates set but some fell yesterday.... We visited something like 10 investigators before church but only one could come. My comp and I thought we did everything possible in the morning.... so of course the Lord blessed us with 5 different investigators in the church.

We're finally figuring out what we have to do in our companero studies. The unity in teaching is key. Really. The thing about Pucallpa is the people have problems understanding the lessons. But we try to teach as clearly as possible.

Also my companion has the best ideas that I'm going to carry out for the rest of my mission. Yesterday we brought chocolate to all the sisters in the ward to gain their love. It was that easy. I read a Proverb about how women are the best and they loved it. So, we got some references. (I had suggested 1 Corinthians 14:34-35, but it appears he found one that worked better.)

You guys.....I absolutely love the kids. This is against the rules but I think I'm in love with a girl. No worries she's only 6 hahaa, but to start our lesson with a ton of investigators (the family who had a death in their family) she said the most beautiful prayer I've ever heard. Her name's Elva and she's only 6 but her prayers are 10x better than mine....... Our bishop's the best too. We asked him to pray for a list of 10 less active families we can visit. I know if he does this we'll be blessed. If President Perez taught me one thing it's the importance of revelation in the work of the Lord. We don't do the work of the Lord without revelation.

President Perez of the Peru Lima North Mission

I would challenge anyone reading my blog to start saying prayers more from the heart. This is a huge problem I see in our world. Here since the people are so humble if we can just get them to pray they know what we say is true, and they receive a witness from our Heavenly Father. If they don't pray, of course they don't receive their answers.

Well....... what more? Elder Rich is definitely a big deal, and a great Zone Leader. I think it's freakin' awesome he came here, because he's my example. Nothing extremely exciting happened this week, and by that I mean we didn't baptize anyone. Rosalio wasn't ready but he still has a desire. I was bit by a perro for the 3rd time. The kids here in February (carnival) throw water balloon at us........and they have good aims.

Yeah, the Church is true. Have a good attitude, our lives are determined by our minds.

Love,

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.