She Could Feel Something Different When We Came to the Door

Hey fam!

It was so great talking to you all on the phone for Christmas! It's still weird that Curtis has such a deep voice... I thought I told him not to grow up while I was gone. 

Christmas was great out here on the mission. Definitely different than being home with the family but it was good.  When we woke up in the morning we opened presents, did all of our studies as usual with a break to call home, and then my companions and I went caroling and visited part member families which was really good. Mom, my companions did like the Oregon Ducks shirts and I think they fit everyone. They say thanks! 

Hmm... what happened this week.. Yesterday was missionary Sunday.  Before I came to the area, the ward mission leader was asking the missionaries who wanted to give a talk and they said that transfers were coming up and so they decided that if a new missionary came into the area, they could be the one to give the talk. Well guess who came in! Yeah, I was the lucky one. They ended up asking one of the other elders too and we talked about missionary work. Did you have missionary Sunday in your ward too? 

Sister Schofield got off of the mission this last transfer and her family all came back to visit so they were at our ward on Sunday and it was so good to see her and to meet her family. She is one of the best missionaries I know and taught me so much out here! 

We did a lot of finding this week again. We are teaching a boy who is 14 and he loves the gospel. He wants to get baptized but his parents won't let him. His parents have listened to the lessons and have testimonies, but are not willing to change right now and they want to wait until their whole family can get baptized together. They are also super busy and we can never sit down with them all together. We talked about temples this week though and the mom lit up and started asking a bunch of questions and it was a really good lesson. We also found a lady _________ when we were knocking doors and she told us that she could feel something was different when we came to the door. We taught her later and the lesson went really well. She left town though and wont be back for a couple of weeks so that's too bad. We have some other good potentials and a lot of appointments set up for the week so I am really looking forward to seeing what happens with those. Well there is really not much more that happened this week love you all! :)

~Hermana Layton

Missing Santa Ana

Merry Christmas!!!! It has been such a great week here in Anaheim!

Yesterday I even got to go back to my ward in Santa Ana because Elizabeth got baptized. It was so amazing to see everyone and be able to be there for her baptism. She has made a lot of changes in her life and has a very strong testimony. I have a picture but I can't send it yet. I would always borrow my companions camera cord before, but now I will have to get on of those soon. 

Anyway, it was SO awesome to be back in my first ward. That ward means so much to me! Church in the Anaheim ward was good too but all throughout relief society they just kept talking about how great and united the Santa Ana 10th ward is, and how they wanted to be more like that. Yeah... I got lucky being in that ward for so long. We had a zone conference this weekend and it was a little different then usual. President surprised us a little.

Just imagine a room full of elders with a huge screen in front and all of the sudden the movie Tangled comes on. Haha! It was so funny and so much fun! We had lunch after that, and then had more of a spiritual meeting. It was great! 

Things here in Anaheim are going well. We had a less active member and we were teaching his 12 and 14 year old kids. They wanted to get baptized and were doing so well. The dad has been coming back to church and really wants the gospel for his kids. Well they didn't show up to church yesterday and so we called them after.

The mom answered and told us not to come back to their house. She said that she wants her kids to come to her church and she doesn't want to hear from us again. We haven't been able to talk to the dad but he lost his job and doesnt have anything to support his kids and so they are with the mom right now. It was really sad and we are really praying for them right now. 

Well, we had a lot of success finding people last week and we made a lot of appointments to come back so I am looking forward to working here. My companions are the greatest.

Mom, to answer your question. No I am not training both of them. Hermana Longoria was behind one week on her training and so we finished it up this week so she is done now, and Hermana Henrie has been here for one transfer and so she has another transfer left of training, so for the rest of this transfer we will be finishing hers up. There is a chance that she will leave to Spain before we finish though. 

Let see what else happened this week... Oh! We were tracting and knocked on a house and a lady opened the door holding a huge butcher knife and with a super creepy voice she said, "What do you want!" She yelled at us and told us to leave so we did. It was an interesting experience. 

Tonight we are planning on going caroling with our district and bringing cookies to people.Mom, I do have Uncle Harold's address and maybe we can carol to him tonight. There are actually a lot of investigators we are planning to go by, so I don't know if we will have time, but that would be awesome!  

Also we might play soccer today. I think I convinced people here that soccer is fun so hopefully we will actually get to play. That is one thing I loved about my old zone, that they always played soccer. Anyway, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be out here serving a mission especially during this Christmas time. It is definitely a different experience than being home, but it's a good one. :) Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all so so much!! 

I Had No Idea It Would Be So Hard To Leave My Area

This has been a crazy day and I don't even know where to start.

Saturday was transfer calls and this morning were the changes. I had no idea it would be so hard to leave my area. I love it there so much and it was really hard saying goodbye to the people and the ward. I guess it is just so hard because my whole mission has been there, and everything I know is there.  I am now here in Anaheim with sister Longoria (who was in the MTC with Eric), and also sister Henrie.

Disneyland

Sister Henrie was actually called to Spain and is just here until her visa comes and we don't know when that will be. We are training her until she leaves, and we will only know like a day or two ahead of time. They are both so sweet and I am super excited to work with them.

I know that it will be good to change and it will be good to have new experiences in this area. By the way, Disneyland is in our area.

Wahoo! Well, things were great for my last week in Orange. _______ came to the christmas devotional and brought a friend (different friend than the ones he brought to church) He is an amazing missionary. We also taught _________ who has a lot of problems in his life, but has a sincere desire to change. He accepted a baptism date and seems to be doing really well. I am grateful for the miracles that we were able to see before I left. _________ was able to receive the priesthood on Sunday and he is going really well.  This week all of the Catholics were celebrating the Virgin Maria's birthday and there were huge groups of people marching down the street holding a huge statue of her. It was... quite the experience. There was also a big Virgin Mary party next to _______'s house and there were people who we've taught in there and they brought us tacos and said that we can come back later to pray with them. It was funny. 

Mom I got the packages. Thank you so much! I feel very spoiled and was not expecting that out here on the mission. I'm glad you sent makeup remover because mine is almost out. I was super excited for you homemade hot chocolate, and stuff to make a cheese ball. I will save the presents to open on Christmas... maybe one on Christmas eve cause I can't break the tradition of course. 

Anyway, about the calling on Christmas  I have no idea what time but hopefully I will know next Monday.  What time would work best for you all? They actually gave us permission to Skype this time if we want but I don't remember my account and I don't know the members in my new area, so it all depends if we can find someone who would let us use their computer that day. 

I am excited if I get to room with Alta! What is Brittany Nenneman doing? Thanks for everything. Love you all and I hope I answered all of your questions.

Anyway, sorry this is a really short email but I can't think right now because it has been a crazy day. I love you all! Thanks for all of the Christmas cards! :)

Why Recent Converts are Such Good Missionaries

That is so great that we had so many baptisms in our ward recently. We have had a lot in our ward too, but that's because we have 11 missionaries in one ward right now. That is so awesome that Katie's friend got called to this mission. She will absolutely love it! I can't wait to meet her. 

Mom, to answer your question about transfers, we have them next Monday. I know that I have said this before, but I am pretty sure I will be leaving this area this time. I hope not, but I have a feeling that will happen. So yes there is a good chance that I will be with different sisters for Christmas. I know that whatever happens with be great though.

We have had such an amazing week, and have seen so many miracles in this area. We had a lesson earlier this week with ______ and he was asking us if it was really hard when people don't want to listen to us. We told him that it is hard and sad. As we were talking about this, _________ (an investigator we have been teaching but hard to make appointments with) walked in  and headed toward his bedroom. He looked back at us with a really guilty look on his face because he knew that he was one of those who have been avoiding us a little bit.

Hermana Budge looked at him and said "triste". He looked like he felt so guilty but then he started laughing a little so we all started laughing. He grabbed his Book of Mormon from the room, came over and sat down, and we taught him the Plan of Salvation. The lesson went really well and he could feel the Spirit. We invited him to church and he said he would come which was a miracle because the last time we invited him he said no and then said that the only way he would come is if we came to his church too. He was trying to convince us to come with him. But we were so excited when he said he would come. _____'s friend said that he would come too. Well, they showed up late, but ______ walked into church with ________, and ________  and __________ even brought a friend named __________ too so there were four of them! We are going to teach _________ (__________'s friend) this week which I am really looking forward to. They loved church and were all participating in the classes so it was awesome! 

Last night we had an amazing experience. ________ doesn't have a phone so it is hard to find him, but he is over at _______'s house a lot so we decided to stop by last night to see if they were there. We walked in and ___________ was sitting on his side of the table with his gallon of juice and _______ was sitting on the other side with beer. We had planned to teach Samuel 1 Nephi Ch. 8 because his friends have been giving him a hard time about meeting with us, but we ended up talking about the word of wisdom instead. The lesson went really well, and afterwards _______ stood up, took the bottles of beer, and poured them all down the sink.

He said that he is not going to drink anymore. He is so awesome, and has so much faith! It was really cool to see how willing he was to follow the commandments when he knew that is what the Lord wanted him to do. I am very grateful to be teaching him. 

______  (the recent convert) is the best missionary in the ever. He tells everyone to come to his house and listen to us because he knows how much the Gospel has blessed his life. Recent converts have such an amazing desire to share the gospel, because they really understand what they have, and they have been able to see how their life was before and how it is now. I wish every member would have that same understanding and desire to share the Gospel. I know that this is the work of the Lord and that He wants every single one of his children to receive the blessings that come from the Gospel. I know that the church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and through him, our weaknesses can become strengths. I love this Gospel, and I love being a part of this work!

Oh one more thing... ________ always makes us eat when we come to his house, even if we tell him that we just had dinner... well this week he made us eat cow stomach... OK I didn't think I was a picky eater, but that was gross. Haha! But hey, it was a good experience I guess...

OK that's all. Bye!

Filling Up on Sin Tacos

My dearest family,

Last week we played soccer for the zone activity which was a ton of fun!! My companion ended up hurting her knee though and hasn't been able to walk a lot this week. She is doing a lot better now. We went on an exchange and had a sister from another trio come stay with Sister Budge while sister Poulson and I went out to our lessons. 

I don't know if I have mentioned this, but Sister Poulson is the new coordinating sister, so we go on a lot of exchanges again like I did when I first got here. This week I had one of the craziest exchanges of my mission. Sister Poulson left, and two sisters came with Sister Budge and I, so there were four of us. All three of them are being trained, which made it a very interesting day. They were all at different parts in the training program so it was kind of crazy. 

Eric, Sister Longoria was one of the sisters that came with us. (She was in the MTC with Eric) She told me to tell you hi. Anyway, setting up the Christmas tree last week at the Bowens was a lot of fun. They fed us dinner and shared a message for family home evening. It was a nice relaxing evening. Brother ______ got confirmed on Sunday. He is doing so well!

We are still teaching his friend but he didn't come to church again like he said he was going to. He had us send missionaries to his family in Mexico which was awesome. ______ has also been inviting his other friends to listen to us. He is the best missionary! 

We had a couple of lessons with him this week and every time we go over there he tries to feed us. Well we had just eaten before we went over there and we kept telling him that, but he made us food anyway. He asked us what we ate before, and a accidentally said tacos de pecado (sin), when I meant to say tacos de pescado (fish)... He thought that was so funny. Oops. I was sooo full after his meal though! We have decided that we shouldn't eat too much before we go over to his house now, because he always feeds us more.

We went to the Christmas devotional last night which was good. I'm grateful to be out here and love it! Thanks Aunt Angie and Uncle Byron for the package. You didn't need to do that! I love and miss you all so much!

Mom, I don't really have a pic. Sorry. Plus it's super rainy here right now and doesn't really look like California.I could try to get one though but you probably need it this week..? I don't know.

Mom, that cute little jacket is perfect and it fits really well! If it was any bigger it would be too big, You did a really good job! I love it so much! Thank youuu!!! :) You didn't have to get me that. Thanks so much!!!!! :) I will have to send you a picture soon with it. :) Love you!!!

Ok, so there has been something on my mind a lot lately. I keep thinking about how I need to do something with Spanish after my mission. I was wondering if I could major in child development and minor in Spanish and still get my associates. I don't really know how that all works or it could even do that, but I keep having the thought like I need to do something in school with Spanish. Well let me know what you think or if you know how that could even work. It's just something that I keep thinking about.

Love you all so much. Thanks for the Birthday letters and package.

Talk to you in 22 days! :D