Who is This Man and What Happened to the Kid We Sent Out?

Dearest People I Love so much,

Mother, I haven't received the package yet. We've been at the Temple and at Papa Johns. I'm sure I'll get it tomorrow.

14 Million members in the church. I wouldn't be surprised if the profets (Spanish for prophets is profetas) know something about huge growth in the Church. It's kind of obvious when in two years the Church Grew a million. We had a stake conference and President Uchtdorf and Elder Holland spoke to us live on satellite. Instead of two stakes in this area, the area split into FOUR!

First of all, a Seventy spoke about sending missionaries to China, Israel, and all the Hindu countries. After that Elder Holland starting out speaking in horrible Spanish for about three or four minutes. It made me want to laugh until he said it would be better if someone translated and somebody then began translating. He told us he loved us five times in Spanish. He thanked the members for the love, for every commandment kept, for every tear, and every smile. He talked about how love in the home was found less in the world and would get worse, but the love in the homes of church members would get stronger.

President Uckdorf talked about how his mission blessed his life. In his ward as a boy, a new girl came to his church with dark eyes and long hair. He said that the missionaries there in his ward were doing a great job. He said we need to focus on two questions.

What can I do to increase my faith?

What can I do to help my family and marriage?

Since I'm not married yet I would take out the latter, but then again President Snow of the presidencia of the Seventy spoke a while ago and promised us that the harder we work here in the mission the more beautiful my wife will be. I believe in the words of President Snow and intend to keep on working hard.

This week has been crazy. I really don't know what to say. Were having success. The nine didn't get baptized all of them. Only six. I baptized Alizon, Jhair, Deibi, Martin, Miguel and Bishop baptized Nelly. Six baptisms and confirmations! The three that didn't get baptized are the Zorrilla Family. Three GREAT youth that have huge desires to be baptized. The day of the baptism on Saturday the dad came back from more than a month of travel in Pucallpa and told his kids no to the baptism. We tried to convince him Saturday night but yeah nada. Then we visited the Zorrilla Family the next day and now the dad, his wife, and the three kids of baptism dates! The Lord is so big, and the blessings were receiving are enormous.

Our baptism dates are these:

26 de Sept.
Paola Andrade
Javier Zorrilla
Jhon Zorrilla
Dalma Zorrilla
Oliver Apaza

3 Oct.
Carlos Acosta
Lesli Segura
Edwin Pablo

10 Oct.
Sheyla Javier
Joyce Rubio
Diana Rubio
Soledad Abarca
Peter Neda
Beatriz Gomez
Javier Zorrilla
Ugenia Teran
Narcisa Vasquez
Jazmin Pardo
Raul Caballero
Maria
Katy Bances

Ive never had so many baptism dates in my whole life and right now encouraging all of them at the same time seems impossible but I know the Lord will help us. Please pray for them all, we're working hard. Being a dad in the mission's hard and everything but that's the least of my worries right now. Elder Martelo's great. He learns fast and everything.

I love very much. Hopefully you could get something out of what the apostles taught me.

Love,

Your Elder, Elder Layton

I'm Just Really Happy

HEYYY!!!Buenos Dias!!!

I'm happier than ever! We finally were able to help our investigators get into the church yesterday. 12 of them came. Most were youth but we also had a couple families.

Honestly I don't have that much to say this week other than I'm just really happy. We're having the baptism of Milagros (18 anos) and Mabel, who I mentioned last week - she is being baptized this Saturday. Hopefully everything goes well. We're encouraging Milagros the best we can because she just got baptized in another Church right before we found her. She feels like she can't take things like baptism lightly but knows what we've taught her is true so she has mixed feelings right now. She came to church again, and she's doing great.

We visited the Mitma Family and they're going through some crazy stuff. Hermano Mitma had a drinking problem and it was really affecting everything in his family. We taught him the Word of Wisdom and he stopped but then he started getting huge pains in his lower stomach that he's never experienced. He was on the ground for a day almost I guess and had to go to the hospital. With this and their daughter falling from a second story window they're suffering financially, and plus they're trying to get the papers all ready for the wedding. All they need is DNI, birth certificate, and 50 soles. It seems to them impossible but we've assured them it's not. Sister Carmen (the Wife of Brother Mitma) is working like crazy and the kids all help too. The wedding's on the 20th and we need everything in a week so I'm kind of getting nervous a little, especially with all the crazy stuff that's happened. I know it´s only a test for them. It's crazy how all of this happens right before they make a life decision to change. I know if they trust the Lord they can do it. Brother Mitma has to travel to another city to get his birth certificate. Please pray for them.

Umm… what else. Today we're playing soccer at the Church. Elder Chan's doing great as my companion. The more time I have in the mission, the easier it is to work alongside companions and work together. I've never had problem companions, but you know what I mean.

The majority of the missionaries out here all want to work hard. If you just keep helping each other its just a constant work…never stops, but it's the best.

I knew Gabe would pull through, he's the greatest. Keep it up Gabers.

NANA!!! You graduated?! Holy moly pacholy I remember when you were a baby and mom and dad bought me a (toy) truck. Congrats. You're amazing and keep up the good work. You can definitely give me the PSP (Briana won a PSP and some cash at her graduation party) for a present when I return, but only if you want to. I told Elder Hudson sitting next to me (he's from Utah) and he said he won a car for his grad party. That's a little better but good job.

There's nothing better than the mission. Always help others. It will make you happy.

Love,

Elder Layton

I'm Happier Than Ever

Dearest Familia,

This week was awesome. Yeah, I'm blessed to have a great companion and a bunch of investigadores de oro (golden investigators). Really there are so many people that are ready to hear the message of the Restored Gospel.

A local "taxi" in Pucallpa

The green jungle of the Amazon - this just outside of Pucallpa

Saturday and Sunday were kind of crazy. Two different people in our ward died, so Elder Rojas and I had a full weekend. Actually, one of the people that passed away was one of my investigators who had a baptism date and everything. It was a good thing though because he was suffering. We gave him several blessings last change and this change.

Last night and the night before at the viewings, there were tons of people and we had the opportunity to share the plan of salvation with them. It was crazy. We had to yell almost so everyone could hear. We sang too (Families can be eternas). There were tons of investigators there and in the church, so everyone that believed in what we taught we're going to visit. The plan of redemption is something amazing. It wasn't a very sad weekend, because we knew exactly what happened thanks to the plan our Heavenly Father has given us.

A Small Farm on the Banks of the Ucayali River

To correct my email a couple weeks ago thank you Angelique and Nana for the letter too, and also we're not marrying 9 people. 9 Families. Cool huh? I don't know exactly when now because it's been postponed.....dang.... but were waiting and teaching patiently. Plus it gives us a little more time to get all the paper work from everyone and make sure everythings perfect.

I love my mission more than anything..... I can't even describe it, but I'm happier than ever. I love you all.

Nos Vemos,

Elder Layton

Beder's Baptism

Dearest Famila,

We baptized a boy named Beder (8 years old) on Saturday. Awesome!!! It could have gone better. We started late because we didn´t have another witness....but other than that it was great. We sang and I bore my testimony at the end to Beder´s parents, both non-members, that the Church was true and that Beder´s decision would change his life. We´re going to baptize his parents now.

Elders Layton and Hoton. I lifted the pictures from this post from Elder Rhoton's family site. Hopefully, they won't want them back. They fit right in here.

A Beautiful Peruvian sunset in Pucallpa.
This week has been crazy. The Zone Leaders are preparing a wedding for the 31st now because they missed a appt. With the municipalidad. Yeah.....so people not married here is a problem so my comp and I are working right now to marry 9 people.

It´s crazy how the Lord´s helping us too. A couple days ago the stake president told us we can get financial help for the people to get married, which has always been the main problem for the people. They need to get a physical from a doctor and go to a notary. The great thing is our stake president told us members in the stake can help us out with those two things too. !!!!!!!

Btw, Those boots aren´t boots here because they´re not up to my knees. Yesterday....funny story, we were running between appointments, and it was dark out, dogs were chasing us, and I didn´t see a mud hole. The first step from foot came out of my shoe, the second step the other, so I was standing there in the mud in my socks...... people were laughing, but we got two great contacts out of it.

One of the streets of Pucallpa.

We randomly contacted an older couple the other day, bore our testimony´s and they came to church!!!! Oh man, I was so excited. That almost never happens. The Lord is really helping us.

LOVE,

Elder Layton

We Can Choose Who We Want To Be

Man, this week has been busy. I was just thinking about everything that's happened in my mission so far and I can't really believe I have 6 months out already. We found out our changes Saturday night. I'm staying here!!! I was definitely elated, if you could call it that, to hear that I wasn't going to move somewhere else like I've been doing every other change. This area is getting better, mejorando.

We have 4 baptism dates set for January and I'm sure we can manage to get more. My new companion's name is Elder Rojas. There are a lot of Elder Rojas but I've met this one in Lima one time.... no more than a handshake but I know who he is. He's from Columbia, and I'm going to work his little tush off. Elder Paz leaves tomorrow, Tuesday, and Elder Rojas comes tomorrow too. So I´ll just be waiting.

Yeah... I've eaten lots of pretty cool stuff. Mostly fish. The turtle an hermana promised us never happened so I was kind've bummed about that. We ate part of a huge fish called Paiche. I didn't have my camera but it was good. We also ate Yahuarachi. I have pictures of that I'll send you in the future. When we ate it, it still had everything there. The eyes, the head, the tail. You'll see. Yeah.... what else.... My favorite fruit of all time is called copoazu. Barely any of the people here even know about it. I ask everyone where I can find it... Nobody knows except one hermana. Mmmmmmm...

We're baptizing a 10 year old boy this Saturday named Cesar. We're trying to get his parents to get married but so far they say no. No, just means we haven't tried hard enough. Haha, no, they're great and they'll be baptized in the future just watch. Also, we have a golden family, familia de oro, that we're baptizing on the 24th. His name is Gonzalo and her name is Luz. They're going to have a baby any day now, she's past her due date, but they've come to church the past two weeks. They're not married, but we're teaching them and committed them to be married the morning of January 24th and to be baptized that night. Marriages are always a pain cause we have to get tons of paperwork, but it's worth it. They are awesome! We have a appointment with them this Wednesday...if Hermana Luz isn't in the hospital that is.

Other than that we have two really great girls, Daisy y Cecilia, ready to get baptized but are scared of their parents. We gave them the permission slips so we'll see what happens. I really want to talk with the parents but they're never at home. Luckily they get a lot of help from a young man in the ward....who happens to be their cousin. I told you about Juan Carlos yeah? Yeah he's great. The assistant to the president right now, Elder Herschi, baptized him. Elder Herschi's basically my model missionary. He´s an example to all of us, and when he came with me and my companion to teach a couple weeks ago I learned a ton!

2 Nefi 2:27-29 – We can choose who we want to be and who we follow. Always choose the right. The Church has all the truth we need in this life. Joseph Smith was a prophet of God, and The Book of Mormon was written by prophets other than Joseph Smith. Thomas S. Monson is our living prophet, along with his counselors and the twelve apostles. I know Christ lives.

I love you all, and for the C5 specifically always remember: We live together, we die together, bad boys for life. Tienen un buen dia!

Elder Layton