Sr Breitenstein Heads Home

Hello my dearest family!

We had another great week! This week I was able to go on exchanges with sister Breitenstein. She goes home from the mission in a week even though it will be right in the middle of a transfer, because she got an extension. It was fun to be able to work with her again though, but so weird to think that she is leaving. I will be the oldest Spanish sister missionary in the mission now, and I'm training the two youngest! Haha. They are really the greatest though and I am so blessed to be able to work with both of them. We still haven't had any time to get bikes, but we have some time planned today to go find some, so hopefully this week we can leave the car at home. The weather has been so nice this week and I got my first little sunburn. Curtis, I will be tanner than you when I get home. That's my goal anyways. :)

Well our investigators have been doing great. There are so many different people being put in out path. It is amazing to see the hand of the Lord in this work every day. We found three families this week and they have the cutest little kids! Two of the families accepted baptism dates and we are still working with the other one. The hardest thing has been getting investigators to come to church, because they always tell us they are going to come and end up canceling last minute. We find them rides and talk with them about the blessing that come from attending church but it's still hard to get them there. Any ideas that might help? :) 

Well, _______ is still doing great. We taught him the word of wisdom, and he has a problem with everything except for tea. He was so willing to give it up though and when we met with him again he told us how he was about to smoke but then he thought of the word of wisdom and threw his cigarette away. We also talked about baptism again and he didn't understand why he had to wait. He wanted to get baptized yesterday but we have to wait a couple of weeks to make sure he is good with the word of wisdom. Also I don't remember if I already told you about ______, but we passed him to the singles ward because we thought that he would do a lot better there. He went to institute and they said he loved it. He still seemed like he wants to get baptized and I am so excited for him. Also we haven't been able to find _______. I think she is avoiding us, so she wont be getting baptized next week but hopefully we find her soon and see if she still wants to learn. Well, that's about it for the week. Love you all!

So I didn't find my wallet this week. :/ No big deal though. Yes, I am the driver but we have permission for one of my companions to drive until I get the temporary license. They actually just called me today and said that my new missionary card and temporary license came in so I will be getting it tomorrow. Wahoo! Thanks for taking care of all that mom, sorry it was probably such a pain. I still kinda hope my wallet will show us somewhere, but we'll see. Love you all so much!

have a great week!

He Knows Jesus Is Our Savior

My dearest family,

We have had such a great week! Sister Morley came in on Tuesday from the MTC and so now we are in a trio. She is from Utah and just turned 19 in December. It has been crazy, but I love working with both of my companions. 

We taught ______ more this week and he is doing really well. He came to church and even bore his testimony in priesthood about how he knows that Jesus is our Savior and that he is so grateful for this chance to learn about this church. I am so grateful to be able to teach him and for his desire to learn. We are teaching him the word of wisdom tonight and we will see how that goes, because we already know he has problems with it. He has a ton of faith though and I know that he can follow it with the help of Heavenly Father. 

We also are teaching a guy named ________. He is progressing really well and is very smart. In the lessons he always asks really good questions. He accepted a baptismal date this week for the 14th of April, but we are probably going to pass him to the singles ward because we think he will progress better there. He came to church though and really liked it. 

We are still teaching ________ but some of the appointments have fallen through and she can't come to church because she works on Sundays. She still says that she is going to try to get off and we are planning on teaching the Sabbath day soon. She is still planning on getting baptized on the 31st if all goes well. We tried talking with her daughter more and she is not interested at all, but her grandchildren love when we come over. 

Lets see who else... there is a less active in our ward and she is friends with _______'s family. They are having them over for dinner soon and invited us to come which is great! Hopefully we will be able to teach ________ again if her family is OK with it. 

Well, I don't even remember all that happened this week so sorry this is probably a lame email. Everything is great here though. I love my companions, love the area, and love the people so much!!! I am so blessed to be out here!

They are Reading the Book of Mormon and Praying Every Day!

Hello everyone!

So we've had a great week but it has been super crazy here. So today we had transfers. I am staying in my same area and am still training sister Rollins, but tomorrow a new sister comes in from the MTC and I will be training her too. I have no idea how I am going to do that especially since they will be at different spots in the training program, but I'm sure it will be great. I am looking forward to meeting her tomorrow! Also I have had a lot of questions in letters about being the coordinating sister. Basically I go to a few different meetings and then I go on a few exchanges to different areas each transfer. I pretty much just spend the day and night with a different sister and make sure everything is going well in their area. If they are having a hard time I can plan more exchanges to help them out. That's about it though. It's fun getting to know the sisters more and spend time in different areas.

The work has been going well for the most part. It was sad though because _______ was doing so well and then her parents got really mad. They said that she is not allowed to talk to us anymore because they are in a different religion. Her friend thinks that she just needs a little bit of time for her family to calm down and then hopefully we can come back and teach. I really want to teach her family because I think it would make things a lot easier for her, but for now we are going to have to take a break. 

I don't know if I have already told you about _________, but he is so amazing and accepted a baptism date but he has started to have a few doubts so we are a little bit worried about him, but are praying that we we be able to teach to his needs and help him out. We are also still teaching _________ but we changed her baptism date to the 31st of march because she needs a little bit more time. She is great and is progressing but the problem is that she has to work on Sundays, so she can never come to church. She is trying to get next Sunday off though so hopefully she will be able to! Her grandchildren are so cute!! They are reading the Book of Mormon and marking verses that they like. They are also praying every day and love to pray at the end of our lessons. I love being able to teach them and see how excited they are to learn. :)

Anyways, mom to answer your questions, we have not been on bikes yet. I have a bike that I am borrowing from one of the elders but we haven't had any time to get a bike for my companion yet because our days have been crazy. We are going to see if our new companion wants to get a bike too so hopefully we will be able to soon. :) Also, you asked about my companion. She is great! Yes we still have to do language study together every day. She learned how to write in Spanish but never really had to learn to speak in school. She is doing really well with the language though. We have so much in common and I love working with her. She is a hard worker which I love! 

About the weather, it has warmed up a lot! California weather is so great! :) Well I think that I answered all of your questions. Thanks for all of the letters and emails. By the way we are allowed to email friends now. The first presidency wrote a letter about it. They give us extra time to email though so that we still have the same amount of time to write our families. 

ERIC I GOT YOUR LETTER AND IT WAS THE HIGHLIGHT OF MY WEEK! THANKS FOR WRITING ME LIL BRO. l LOVE AND MISS YOU TONS. I WILL BE WRITING YOU BACK SOON. Also, Elder Brooks says hi. He is in my zone so I see him quite a bit. He thinks you are a really cool guy.

Must Be Teaching the Pope

Hola!!!

Well the computer room has been full all day and there was just one computer so my companion just finished but I only have a few min. So sorry but this is going to be a really short email this week.. 

Ahh so much happened this week though! We have had so many amazing people put in our path and this week. I was in one of the most powerful lessons of my mission. It is amazing to be able to see the hand of the Lord in this work and see the miracles each day! I am so grateful for these experiences. This week we taught a girl named ________ and the spirit was so strong in the lesson! At the end she was crying and said she wants to be a member of this church. She didn't accept a date because she is really worried about her family. They are very catholic and they weren't super happy when they found out that she was talking to us.

She really wants to share what she has learned and felt with her family and see if they will listen to us. Also her best friend is a member and she sat in the lesson with us. It was really powerful when she bore her testimony. I know that members are so important in this work and I am so grateful when they are willing to help. 

We have also been working more with __________. She accepted a baptism date for the 17th of March and is doing really well. I was able to go on a couple of exchanges this week. Some of the sisters have been pretty stressed out so I hope that the exchanges helped them a little bit. I love working with all of these sisters and learning from them! I really want the time to slow down out here. 

We had president interviews this week. I asked him if I could extend my mission and he said that it depends. If I do I will only be able to stay out three extra weeks, but it would be in the middle of a transfer and so it might be better if I didn't. Anyways I guess I just really have to make the best out of the time I have left! 

Anyways, funny story from this week... so we were teaching this guy but it was at his friends house. He accepted a baptism date and we were super excited for him. Well at the end out his lesson he gave us his address. A couple of days later we went to find him and when we were looking for his address we drove up to a huge catholic church. Yeah I think he was trying to tell us that he wasn't interested... that was just a really funny way to tell us.

Haha!! Anyways sorry this is so short. Love you all so much!!! Have a great week! :)

~Sister Layton