Monday, July 30, 2012

She Came!


Dearest family,

We had a another great week our here in California! :) We have started teaching a friend of one of our members this week. We love member missionaries! She has problems with depression right now and really wants to change her life around. The hardest commitment that we have with our investigators is getting them to church. We invited her, and she came! We were really excited. We have an appointment with her again tonight, so we will see if she has been keeping her other commitments like reading and praying. 

This weekend was pretty crazy, El Obispo called me Saturday night and asked me to give a talk the next morning since it was the 5th Sunday. Did you have a missionary Sunday in your ward too? Two of the Elders spoke as well. I was nervous when I was preparing because I didn't have a lot of time and it was in Spanish, but it actually went well. He asked me to speak about loving the people who I serve. I talked about the story in the Book of Mormon of Ammon serving the king and how the king had a change of heart. I also talked about our Savior who was the perfect example of loving and serving the people, and I shared some personal experiences. We also got to teach the young women too! We spoke about missionary work and hopefully got them excited to share the gospel with their friends. 

Last Monday night we were tracting and we found this guy who said he had been praying for someone to come tell him what to do with his life. We taught the first lesson about the restoration of the Gospel and he started to tear up. We explained to him that feelings that he was having were the spirit testifying that these things were true. He told us that he was going to read the Book of Mormon in one week and was so excited. He kept saying that this was an answer to his prayers. We are worried though because he doesn't have a lot of time to meet with us at all, and he told us that the people he's living with are very Catholic and do not want him looking into another church. He said he couldn't meet for our last appointment, but rescheduled for this Saturday. We are praying that he will remember this feelings that he had. I know that he felt the spirit, but at the same time I know that Satan is working on him too.  I know that the Gospel will change his life for the better if he lets it. I am so grateful to be out here doing this work. I am so blessed to have the knowledge I do about the Gospel. I love being a missionary!!

Eric, thats awesome that your going to the temple soon! It's the best! Curty, stop getting tan. I am trying to get tanner than you but I don't think its working. And that's sweet that you got to play the bugle, you're a stud. Mom, thanks for the package. I got it last Monday after we emailed so I couldn't thank you for it yet, but it was the best!!! Oh, and I haven't heard about the gang riots. Oh dad, you should get a www.mormon.org profile. It's a good way to share your testimony, help others with questions that they have about the church and be a missionary. Mom you can too if you want. 

Love you all so much! :) 

Bye bye.

Monday, July 23, 2012

New Apartment, No More Roaches


My dearest family,

This week I went on Exchanges again to La Habra. It's was an English speaking area but I was able to do quite a bit of contacting in Spanish which was fun. Spanish is still pretty hard for me but I really do love it. I love the people, and I love their culture. 

Kitchen in the new apartment
(Briana and her companion moved to a new apartment last week. She enjoys not having cockroaches running around everywhere.)

We have three investigators who are progressing right now but there is something that it stopping all of them from making the next step which has been hard. 

One of them has a very strong testimony and he loves it when we come over. He says that he can feel the spirit when he reads from the Book of Mormon and when we are there. He has almost read all the way through Alma! He wants to get baptized and knows that he needs to, but he only works three days a week and Sunday is one of them. We had a lesson with him about sacrifices this week. I know that he will be blessed if he comes to church and I think he is really scared to take Sunday off because it would be a huge sacrifice for his family in Mexico. We are going to see if he will look for another job, but right now he is just not making that next step. 

We are teaching another lady who is so awesome. She has changed her life around so much and really wants to be baptized. She knows that the church is true and is doing everything that she can to be the best she can. But... do you remember me telling you about the lady that we were teaching in jail? She is on probation for like 6 months so she cant get baptized until after she is off. So sad! 

We are teaching another lady who is a friend of one of our recent converts and she loves the lessons. She has four kids and wants them to be able to come to church. Her husband doesn't want anything to do with the church though. She thought he wouldn't let them come. He is the only one that drives in their family but when she talked to him he said that she could come. The problem is that he works during that time. 

We are doing to try and find a member who can take her. (Even though our ward mission leader and bishop tell us not to ask members because they said our investigators should make sacrifices to get there.) But that is the only way to get them to church because so many of them don't have a car and live so far away. We were going to get her a ride this week but she just had surgery and she cant leave the house for a month now because of it. She still lets us come in and teach but she cant get out. 

We have a list of other investigators that we have found but it is so hard to find them again. I think some of them hide from us. 

I am loving every minute of the mission. It's not always easy but it's the best! I LOVE BEING A MISSIONARY!!! :) :) :)

Love, Me

Monday, July 16, 2012

It Really Is Life Changing


At a Ward Party

Hola familia!!

This has been such a crazy day and week. I do not have much time to email but I will try to get everything in. We moved into our new apt this Friday and it is in a different complex as before. I feel really spoiled as a missionary because it is very nice. I am happy to be away from the cockroaches! 

We have a gym but are still waiting on permission from the president to see if we can use it. It would be really nice though. They have a computer room, so now we dont have to drive half way accross our area to email.. and they let us print for free! woo! So dad I didnt have time to read your email but I printed it out so that I can read it today! 

We also have a washer and dryer in our appartment which saves us so much time. I love it. But who knows I could easily get transfered soon and have to move again. Haha. 

The first night that we moved into our apt. the fire alarm went off in the compex and we went outside with about 100 other people and just waited and watched firemen run around the building to make sure everything was ok. I think someone might have just pulled the alarm though cause there wasnt a fire. We were thankful that our apt didn't burn down the first day we got there! This Sunday we taught Relief Society. It went well, but it was a very different lesson than the ones we are used to teaching. We talked about missonary work. :) 

Our investigators are doing well but it is so hard getting them to church. We are trying to find out more ways to help them. This week I have started reading Jesus el Cristo. I know that Jesus Christ is the Savior of the world.

Sister Layton with kids in the Ward
He knows absolutely everything we are going through and understands us. It is amazing that we can be forgiven when we make mistakes. I am so grateful for the opportunity to be out here serving my Heavenly Father. There is nothing else I would rather be doing. I am so excited for Eric and all of the cousins who are preparing to go soon, it really is life changing and I love every single minute of it. 

I wish I had time to write more today but we have to go. Next week I should have more time but it might be early in the day. Oh, and tell Curtis that when we went over for a dinner appointment there were a few little kids there and I saw a rubix cube on the couch. I did it and the girl freaked out. I thought of Curtis cause he has been asking me if I have been able to do it to any kids yet. :) I love you all! :) :):) :) :)


~Hermana Layton

Monday, July 9, 2012

Six Month Mark - Already!


Sisters Breitenstein & Layton at a Ward Activity - apparently held in Texas

Hello my dearest family!

We have had a great week. We have been trying to figure out new ideas for finding people so we decided to start teaching English classes. We are planning on doing them 2 days a week starting on the 18th. 

We will start the classes with a prayer and spiritual thought, and then end with a prayer. This Sunday we started inviting the members and asking them to bring friends and we've also been puting flyers all around our area. A couple people have called asking about them, and we have seen people pull our flyers down and take them, or read them and put the number in their phone. Missionaries have done this before and lots of them have had success stories, but others have tried it and it hasn't worked out in their area. We are going to see how many people come for the first few times and see if it is worth our time. We will see what happens though. The sisters from another area sent us their lesson plans that we are planning on using. :) 

My 4th of July was great! It was just like every other day and our exchanges got changed so I wasn't by the Disneyland fireworks for the 4th... but guess what.. the 4th of July was my 6 month mark! Woah, time flies! I really think the time needs to slow down. I just love being out here so much. 

This Saturday I went on exchanges with the sign language sisters. It was so cool watching them communicate. I learned how to pray in sign language, but thats about it. It was a fun day. 

Sister Breitenstein and I get to be companions again this transfer. I am so excited! She is the driver this time though. They made a new Spanish zone, so we have 3 zones now instead of 2. Ours is really small now. Our President asked for some more Spanish speaking missionaries so it will grow eventually. 


The other good news is that we have 2 more sisters in out zone now! Wooo! Growing up with all brothers, I always wanted sisters... and being around so many Elders all the time, has really made me want sisters even more! Haha! 

We are changing apartments this Friday. I am so happy. The Cockroaches are nasty. I was sitting on the couch and a big one crawled accross me. I screamed so loud and think I really scared my companion. Haha! But lets just say I am so grateful that we are moving. We are going to have washers and dryers in the new apt! Wahoo! :) Anyways, thanks everyone for the letters. Love you all. Thank you Nennemans for the cookies! :)

Also, dad I just have to tell you, everyone loved that "Biggest piece of Sacrament bread" pic that you sent me. Too funny. :) Oh, and just one question... How is Ginger? :) Haha... Love you all so much! :)

Monday, July 2, 2012

The Gospel Can Change Lives For the Better


Sister Layton at a Ward Party
Hola familia!
The sisters activity this week was a lot of fun. It is nice to hang out with sisters sometimes since our zone and distrect is all Elders.

We did a lot of tracting this week because so many of our appointments fell through. We had 17 set appointments this week with some pretty awesome people, and all of them fell through except for two. It makes me sad because these people don't know what they are missing out on.

The gospel can change lives for the better and so many people dont understand how great is is until they try living it. We changed the appointments for some of them and the others just weren't home when we went. Mom, you asked about the lady who had a dream about us. We went back this week to visit her but she was walking out as we got there. We are planning on going back soon but we haven't taught her again since then. 
Sisters Activity
We were planing on going by Sunday to try to get her to come to church but we got a phone call of an old lady who wanted us to come talk to her friend. She said that her friend was asking her about the Book of Mormon and wanted to know more about it. We happened to be right around the corner when she called so we told her we could stop by right then. We thought it was going to be a house and that she was talking about her neighbor but it was a rehabilitation center, and this elderly lady was talking about her nurse. The nurse had asked her about the Book of Mormon when she was reading it so she wanted to call us. When we got there we gave her nurse a Book of Mormon but she didn't really want anything to do with it so she walked out and the old lady started talking to us. We couldn't get out because she was talking so much and we didn't want to be rude. I have to figure out how to just tell people when we have to go though because we ended up not having time to get any of our investigators before church which was really sad.

My companion and I have like 4 old ladies in their 80's that we are teaching right now and we dont really know what do do about it because they just agree with everything that we say but I dont think they really understand much at all. I think they just like having people there to talk to them.

Sister Layton With Local Children
This week I am going on exchanges with the sign language sisters. They cover the entire mission, and I have heard that it is a completely different experience than working in the spanish areas. I'm excited for that. I wont be with my companion for the 4th of July, but I will be pretty close to the Disneyland fireworks which will be fun.
Mom to answer your questions, it is really hot here but I am not complaining. You know how I love the heat. :) You asked if you think I will be with Hermana Breitenstein for a while.. we have no idea whats going to happen but hopefully we will be together for a while. We have one week until transfers so we will find out soon if we are going to be together for another one. Hopefully we will though. And yes, training has been over for a while now. It is nice just having one hour of companion study instead of two.

It sounds like Curtis had a great birthday. Mom, way to beat the guys at bowling. We did that for our zone activity a couple of weeks ago, it was pretty fun. We usually still play soccer for the activities. I love it so much!

I heard that that Olympics are starting soon. Are you going to watch them? Oh and also, there are cockroaches all over my appartment. It's nasty. Haha. We have had the bug guys come spray our appartment but both times the cockroaches doubles in amount and trippled in size. Ewww! Haha! Oh and mom, I made banana bread this week. Yum. Good bye my dearest family. :)

Love, Hermana Tarde Sobre