The Power of the Spirit

I loved reading Eric's email. He is going to be an amazing missionary!

That is cool that Brother Snyder is one of his teachers. Brother Snyder would come in our class a lot and help us out. He is an amazing teacher. Eric is lucky to have him! I can't believe that my little brother is on his mission. I am so excited for everything that he will experience! I know that I say this a lot, but the mission is life changing and there is no where I would rather be. I am glad that Eric seems to be loving it as much as I am. :) 

This week was another great one. We had one of the most amazing lessons that I've had yet on my mission. We talked about the Plan of Salvation with a family and the daughter (18 years old) had really good questions. After the lesson we asked them how they felt, and the mom didn't say much but then the daughter started sharing her testimony. She talked about how she knew that the Book of Mormon was true and was so grateful that we were sharing this with her. She told us that she had the feeling and that she knew it was the spirit because she felt really warm and peaceful. She said she knew that it was an answer to her prayers. Before we left we invited them to church and the mom said she didn't know if they could come but then the daughter said, "no mom, I have a feeling that we need to go."

Her prayer at the end of the lesson was also very powerful. The spirit was really strong in the room and the daughter recognized it. The mom and dad didn't want to take her on Sunday and so we found a ride for her and she came to church! We haven't had the chance to talk with her much about it after but we have an appointment with her tomorrow.  

We had another investigator come to church who is also 18. We are teaching her and her mom, but her mom never comes to church because she works Sundays. She stayed after to watch a baptism and she told me that she thought it was neat. She says that she likes coming to this church because it's different then any other church shes been to. She says that she feels different here. It so cool to watch people change as they accept the gospel in their lives. 

This week we had zone conference and this coming week we have another sisters meeting. I'm looking forward to it. :) Also, our recent convert just had her baby!!! It's her 4th boy. We are going to go visit her tonight and see the little baby! :)

OK, I made it up. Curtis is definitely tanner than me. I can't get tan! Ha ha. I don't burn either it's weird.  Last week we found out that the bike ride was 14 miles. It was such a good work out. The Elders rode their bikes back so they went twice as long as we did. We got spoiled and had members drive us home. :) 

Love you all so much! :)

El Dia de Hispanidad

Today has been crazy so I don't have a lot of time. We left at 8 this morning and went on a bike ride with our zone. We rode to Newport beach! It took a long time and was a good work out. It was a ton of fun, but I am going to be really sore tomorrow! 

We stopped for lunch and I met a lady whose daughter is in Italy on her mission. That is so awesome that Dallin got called there! He is going to do great. I can wait to hear where Michael goes! I can't believe that Eric is leaving so soon. I know he is going to do so awesome! 

This week there was a huge stake activity called el Dia de Hispanidad. They do it every year and a ton of people come. They had food, activities, and dancing. It was really cool to see the Mexican culture! I love the people here. We brought investigators and the members brought friends. We set up a missionary booth and just went around talking to people all day. It was really weird not having our usual missionary day. 

Tomorrow is zone conference. We are going to have a big service activity in the morning painting fences and then going to a church building for the conference. I always look forward to the zone conferences. As for our investigators, they are doing well. We are passing some of them to the singles ward Elders soon and this week we are really going to focus on finding more people to teach. Our mission leader has some really good plans to help us out, and get the ward more involved. 

Our area is like 3 times the size of the Elders, and they have been planning on splitting it up and bringing two more missionaries in our area. That would help us out a lot so that we would be spending less time driving across our area to appointments. 

I don't have much time left, but I am so grateful to be out here serving a mission. It is a life changing experience and I really love every minute of it. I am learning so much from the people and from my companion. There are hard days when no one wants to talk to us, or days when I have a hard time with the language, but I have really never been happier and wouldn't change this experience for anything. 

I know that the Church of Jesus Christ has been restored to the earth and that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. I know that we have a living prophet today to guide us. I have seen so many blessings in my life and in the lives of those who accept the Gospel and am so grateful to share it with others. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and that through him we can be forgiven of the mistakes we have made in this life. I love the gospel, and I love being a missionary! Thanks for all of the support from everyone. I love you all! :)

!El Poder de Su Mensaje!

There were a lot of changes this week. We have a new Ward Mission Leader. He seems really excited about the work and has a good plan to help the members be more involved in finding people for the missionaries to teach. He said that it is the members responsibility to find people, and the missionaries job to teach. When the members are finding people there is so much more success. I have seen that a lot so far in my mission. People are a lot more willing to listen when they have a friend who is a member. 

Our area has been picking up a lot, but we had a singles group in our ward for a while and just this last Sunday we found out that they are not doing it anymore. The five top progressing investigators right now are between the age of 18 and 25 which means that we might need to send them all to the singles ward missionaries. We will see what happens though. I guess it doesn't matter which missionaries are teaching them as long as they get to hear the Gospel from someone. We would definitely miss teaching them though. I haven't been able to work with very many young single adults so these last few weeks have been fun. 

This week we had dinner with all of the Elders in our district at a member in the wards house. One of the Elders in our distract was giving the message and he was having a really hard time with the Spanish and saying what he wanted to. He was super nervous. Right when he finished talking, the room started shaking (There was an earthquake) Everyone was silent so then I said, wow, el poder de su mensaje! (the power of his message!) Everyone started laughing because the timing of the earthquake was so perfect. 

This week we went on exchanges. Sister Barlow came with me to our area for the day. We taught a few lessons together early in the day but that night we were street contacting and knocking doors. We started talking to these two guys sitting outside, then shared the message of the restoration with them. Before we left I asked if we could leave them with a prayer.

They asked how long it would take and my companion thought that they asked how long we are missionaries for. She told them that we do it for a year and a half. Then the guys eyes got all big and they thought we wanted to pray for a year and a half so then they said no. It was so funny. Then I told them that it would just be a couple of minutes. They all started laughing. It was so funny! I love trying to learn Spanish. We make mistakes all of the time but definitely learn from them. It is still hard for me to speak but I still have half of my mission to work on it. :) 

This week we found a girl about 18 years old who invited us in her house. She loved the message and invited us to come back the next day. We went the next day and she invited us back again the day after. When we came the third day her mom and dad were there. Her mom was really open to the message but her dad was very Catholic and didn't want to listen to us. He sat in on the lesson with his Bible in his hand trying to convince us that there is no more scripture then the Bible. When we were talking he would listen which was good, but really only was there to prove us wrong. Then we invited them to pray at the end of the lesson and in the dads prayer he asked to bless my companion and I that everyone in the world would listen to our message. We were so confused. Haha. 

Anyway, I am so grateful to be a missionary. I am so excited for Eric to leave on his mission soon. Just remember that when it gets hard, it will always be so worth it!! :)

Making Progress

Great week! My new companion is a really good missionary and I am learning so much from her. She has been out for a while now and goes home on Christmas or the day before. What a great Christmas present for her family! :) 

A lot has happened this week. Four different investigators accepted a baptismal date which was a miracle. Our investigator Tomas who has been working on the word of wisdom didn't drink coffee last week at all! He still wouldn't accept a baptism date yet though. Well, we were walking to our car after a long day and there was a door open to a little house. I remembered talking to someone in the street a few weeks ago who said she lived there so we stopped by to see if she was home. The man said that she didn't live there and so we just started talking to him instead. We taught him the restoration and then randomly our investigator Tomas came out from the hallway. He got excited and started telling the man about the Book of Mormon. We invited the man to be baptized and he said he wanted to learn more first. And then we looked at Tomas and invited him again. He never accepts a date, but this time he said, "Claro que si!" (Of course!) What!? We were so happy! Hopefully he can find a way to get to church soon.

He has talked to his boss and is looking for another job. We are praying for him, and I know that Heavenly Father will help him get there if he really has the desire to come. 

There weren't anymore earthquakes this week but we had a little excitement last night. The fire alarm went off again. It has gone off so many times since I have been here that I didn't think it was anything. We stayed inside for a little bit but it kept going for a while so we finally decided to go outside. When we got to the bottom of the stairs there was a ton of smoke and firefighters running around. The garbage room was on fire. I don't know how that happened. We sat outside for an hour and just did planning for the next day until the alarm went off. We went to bed and then in the middle of the night the fire alarm went of again. I just put my pillow over my head though so that I could go back to sleep.

Anyway, that's about all that happened this week. I love being out here! My companion is the best and I am so grateful for all that I am learning from her. :)

New Companion

I loved hearing about your trip to Las Vegas. Sounds like a lot of fun! 

Today is transfer day. We thought that we were going to stay together because that is what President said he was planning on doing, but they made some last minute changes and sister Breitenstein got moved to a ward in Anaheim. I am still here in my first area and I love it, so I'm glad I don't have to leave yet. I already miss my companion so much but I am sure my new companion will be great too.

Her name is sister Schofield and she is from Utah. She goes to Utah State  and is going into music. I have been on exchanges with her a couple of times so I have gotten to know her a little bit. She is a very good missionary and I am excited to work with her. 

That is so cool that Eric went through the temple this week. I loved the picture with all of the family in white. We are going to the temple again this transfer and I can't wait! When does Eric leave for his mission again?

I can't wait until we are both missionaries at the same time. Have him send all of his emails when he gets out, and I will do the same when I get his email address. He is going to do so great and help so many people. Tell him to look for Hermana Andreason when he gets to Guatemala, even though there are a ton of missionaries out there.

Anyway, the other day we were tracting and there were about 30 Jehovah Witness missionaries in the same area. As we were walking we tried talking to the JW's because we talk to everyone, but they didn't like us very much. They had already knocked on a bunch of the houses so every time we went to the door people thought we were Jehovah Witnesses. We didn't end up staying in that area for too long. 

Our investigators are doing well but we are still having a hard time getting them to come to church. I am so blessed to be out here and grateful for this opportunity to be a missionary. I know that this church is true and love seeing the gospel change lives for the better.

Nicole that is so awesome that your sister get called to Lima Peru North mission. My brother went to that same mission. I am so happy for her. She is going to be such a great missionary!

I love you all so much! Thanks for everything!

Sister Layton :)

Shaking Things Up

My dearest family,

I bet you are loving the Las Vegas heat right now. This week in California it has been in the high 90s and in the 100s. Good thing I love the heat right?

We spent a lot of time outside. Tuesday in the middle of the night my companion and I woke up to an earthquake which we found out the next day was a 4.4. That was fun. The next morning there was another small one and little while after that we were in our living room doing our studies and there was another one that was a 4.5. That was a fun start to our week. :)

This week we taught a friend of one of our members. She has been to church a lot with her friend and had really good questions for us. She accepted a baptism date for the 26th of this month! Right now the hardest thing for her is her job. She works a lot on Sundays and can only make it to church about half of the time. She is looking for another job so we hope that she can find something where she can have Sundays off.

This week while we were tracting we found a lady who said she had tried just about every church there is, but she hasn't found one that feels right for her. We taught her the restoration on the doorstep and she accepted the invitation to be baptized. She said that she was really looking forward to coming to church with us on Sunday. We went by her apartment Sunday Morning and she was leaving with a bunch of cleaning supplies. She said that she is going to clean a house right now because she hasn't had work all week. She said that when someone asked her to clean, she had to take it so that she could make a little bit of money for her family. She couldn't come to church this Sunday, but she still wants to come hopefully next time.

Last night my companion and I had an appointment with a family that we had just met a couple of days before. They are really nice and welcoming but there was this one lady there (We think it was their neighbor) who was a evangelical Christan preacher. She had gone to school and been trained to speak over people. Every time we started talking she would stand up and start preaching. I tried distracting her while my companion talked to the family and it worked for a little bit but but then
she started talking even louder. We decided that we would come back when we could teach with the spirit there. We made another appointment with them for this week so hopefully they wont invite any preachers this time. It was definitely a funny experience though.
Well I have to get going. We are going on a hike today with our zone! Love you all and you are in my prayers. :)
great time in Vegas!

Abusing the Zone

Hola familia,

This week was great. Monday we were playing soccer with a huge exercise ball and I kicked it and accidentally hit my companion in the face. She was wearing her sunglasses so there was a bruise across her forehead where her sunglasses were. It's almost gone now though. I felt so bad!!! Then I accidentally hit two elders in the face too. Oops. Then one of the Elders hit me in the face,  and it was just really  funny. Besides my companion, no one got hurt cause the ball was really soft. I'm just glad that presidents interviews are next week instead of last week. He would have wondered what I was doing to my companion. 

My companion is doing great! I am hoping we will be together again next transfer in this area. We will see what happens though. It is her birthday on Thursday! 

Our investigators are doing great. The guy who had a problem with the Word of Wisdom is doing so well. We had another appointment with him this week and he went from drinking two cups of coffee a day to just one. He says he feels a lot better too. He also talked to his wife in Mexico and she is going to stop drinking coffee too. We are trying to see if we can send missionaries to his wife so that they can be learning at the same time. 

He loves reading in the Book of Mormon and read all the way through Alma the first time, but then wanted to start over so that he could understand it better. He is already almost through 2 Nefi. He is so great! He asked us if it is okay that he is reading the Book of Mormon with his friends and telling them about what we teach. Of course it's okay!! Haha! He such a good missionary and has a very strong testimony. He is the one that can't come to church until he finds another job. 

We didn't have anyone come to church this week which was really sad because we had a group of people say that they were going to. Hopefully next week. Mom, to answer your question, there are two companionship's of elders in our ward and then my companion and I. It is our whole district. They are all so awesome!

Today we are having a BBQ for the zone activity. Something a little less dangerous. :) And for your question about the Spanish, I can understand almost everything when we are teaching the lessons or when we are talking about church topics, but when people start talking about other things it is hard for me to understand. I can speak but I have to say everything very simply and it is still hard because I don't always feel like I can say everything I want to. I am so grateful to be learning another language though even when it's hard. I definitely  wouldn't know what I do without the help of my Heavenly Father. 

I don't have much time left. Thanks to everyone for the letters it means a lot as a missionary. I love being out here. I love the people. I love my companion. I LOVE being a missionary!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :) Please give the Vegas family hugs for me. :) Dad I wrote you a letter in Spanish. It's on its way to you! :)

Anyways love you fam muchisimo!