It Was So Clear to Me Where We Needed to Go

Hey family! 

It was so great talking on the phone for mothers day. I just wish it could have been a little bit longer. I hope you had a good mothers day mom. I am so lucky to have the most amazing mom in the world!! :) You really are the best! 

Well, this week was great! For mothers day we had a ward party and __________ came. It was kinda funny because we got there at 6 when it was supposed to start and no one was there except the guy setting up the food. Ana Lilia came at like 6:10 and felt really bad that she came late, but then she walked in the gym and saw that no one was there. We had told her that it was going to be a really fun mothers day party and we felt so bad when she came in! 

People didn't really come until about 6:30 or 6:45 but when people actually came she had a ton of fun. She made a lot of new friends in the ward. She is still planning on getting baptized next weekend and she's so excited about it. We still have to teach her a few of the commandments this week so hopefully all goes well. We taught her about fasting for a purpose this week and she said that we was going to fast that her children would be open to listening to us. She really wants her family to accept the gospel.

We also are teaching a man named _________. He said he was only going to be here for a few weeks because he is here for work, but he just got asked to stay until October. That means that his wife is coming down too and we will be able to start teaching her. Anyways, he is super smart. He read the restoration pamphlet that we gave him when we met him at the door and remembered everything about it. He really seems to understand everything that we are teaching. 

I know for a fact that Heavenly Father led us to him. I had one of the most amazing experiences of my mission this week when we found him. It was a hard day because many of our appointments fell through and every person we talked to did not want to listen at all. We went to a complex to knock some doors and I was just praying to myself that we would know where we needed to be and who we needed to talk to. We started at one end and knocked a few, but none of them wanted to listen. 

Well after about the third house I had an experience that I will never forget. It was so clear to me where we needed to go. I looked to my companions and pointed to an apartment across the complex and said come on we need to go there. We walked down the stairs, and across the complex and knocked on the door.  That is when we met ________. He was very open and and really wanted to learn more. 

His family is away from him right now for work and he thought that is was amazing that we were away from our families to share this message. Anyways we went back to teach him and it went well. I know for a fact that we were led to him. Whether or not he accepts this message right now, I know that we were supposed to be there. I am so grateful for the guidance of our Heavenly Father in this work because we would not be able to do it without him. I know that Heavenly Father does answer our prayers and wants to lead us to those who are ready for the Gospel.

We had a sisters meeting this week and I am pretty sure it is my last one. President and sister Bowen spoke and also asked me to speak. It was so amazing looking down at all of the new sister missionaries. I am so grateful to have been here to be able to see so many changes in the mission with all of the new sisters coming in and with the age change. There are so many now that we couldn't do the meeting at president's house. We had to do it at a chapel. This work is amazing and is growing so fast! I'm loving it out here! It is such a blessing to share the gospel! :) Well I have to get going. Love you all!! :)

~Hermana Layton

A Woman of Great Faith

Hello everyone!

Things here in Fullerton are great! We are getting to know more of the members and starting to work with some of their friends. We had dinner with one of the members this week and she was so excited to have sisters. She told us that she is our mission mom and will do anything to help us out. I love it when members are so excited to work with the missionaries! Tonight we have an FHE with a family in the ward and they are bringing two non members. Member referrals are the best because then the investigators always have someone there to answer their questions and help them out even when the missionaries are gone. We also got a referral this week from the elders investigator, _______. She wanted us to visit her friend who was in the hospital. We went and sang and then shared a scripture. She started to cry and said that we can come back and share more with her. I am looking forward to teaching her again soon. 

Our investigators are doing well, especially __________. I have never met anyone as prepared as she is for the gospel. We had some great lessons with her this last week. The only problem is that she works on Sundays, so she wasn't able to make it to church this week. She already talked to her boss to change her schedule before we even invited her to. He wouldn't let her get Sundays off this month but said he will when he makes the schedule for next month. 

She is also looking for another job just in case. I think he made an exception for the 19th of May for her baptism day. She told us that her baptism day is very special to her and that if her boss didn't let her get work off she wouldn't go. She told us that God is the one that gave her the job in the first place and that she knows this is what he wants her to do. She is so amazing and has so much faith! She has visited many different churches throughout her life but they never felt right and now she says that she knows this is the church for her and she knows it's true. It is amazing how the spirit can teach our investigators what they need to learn. _________ told us that she has never understood a lot of what she learned in church but now everything is so clear now and feels so right. She has been reading the book of mormon a ton and in our last lesson she explained everything she read and was so excited about it. It has been a blessing to be able to teach her and see her progress. She has been trying to get her daughter listen but she is really shy and doesn't want to yet. Her daughter said she might come to the baptism though and I know that if she does she will be able to feel the spirit there. Also we want to bring someone her age so that she can have a friend in the church and feel more comfortable. 

We are also teaching _______ and _________. ________ accepted a baptism date but he has such a hard time understanding the lessons. We try to teach very simply but he still doesn't understand a lot. It is good to have Veronica there because she can help him. _______ said yes to the baptism invite but not a date because she wants more time to learn. We are also still teaching Judy and she accepted a baptism date but has lots of problems with the word of wisdom. She is also getting surgery soon and so won't be able to come to church for a while but hopefully all will go well after her surgery.

Lets see what else... We went on exchanges this week and I was able to go back to my first area in Anaheim so that was fun. I have to do more exchanges now because so many sisters came out. It's great though because I learn a lot from all of the different sisters in the mission. President said that the coordinating sisters responsibilities are changing a bit. I guess they are going to start putting the coordinating sisters in twos like the zone leaders. I kinda hope that happens after I leave because I love training! He said it might start next transfer though so we'll see. Either way will be fine. :)

That is so awesome to hear that Alexa is going into the MTC this week! She will love it! I am super excited for her and am a little jealous that she is just now starting the best year and a half of her life. She will be a great missionary!!! :)

Well thats about it for the week. Love you all so much! :) 

~Hermana Layton

I Am Grateful For the Miracles I Am Able to See Each Day

Anaheim District

Hello everyone!

This week has been great! I already love Fullerton. The ward is really small but the area is great and there are so many amazing people here.

We did a ton of finding and we are looking forward to teaching them this coming week and finding more people.

The elders just found a lady named ________ but she lives in our area so they passed her to us.

She is very ready for the gospel in her life right now. She came to church and loved it! She is super happy to have sisters teaching her because she thinks that her daughter will feel more comfortable now.

She wants her son to learn too. She accepted a baptism date for the 19th of May and seems really excited. Her family is very Catholic but she said that she knows this is where she needs to be. We still have to teach almost all of the lessons so we will be praying that all goes well. 

Well the new missionaries came in on Tuesday. Guess who my companion is! Sister Nnah! Katie Stevens friend. :) (P.S. could you get Katies address and email? Sister Nnah wants it and doesn't have it. Thanks!) She is so cute and fun! 

Sisters Layton, Nnah and Budge

Talking about the new missionaries... I had like three different sisters who are new come up to me and tell me that they read my whole blog because it was the first thing that came up when they typed in Anaheim California in google. How does that even happen!? I don't know whether to think its weird or cool. Haha. 

Anyways, I am loving it here. My companions are so great and this work is amazing. I am grateful for everything I am learning out here and the miracles I am able to see each day. I love my Savior and I love this Gospel. It really does change lives when people allow it to. Well, sorry, I don't have have a lot to say this week. Love you all!

Mom, sister Budges knee is ok now. She tore her ACL and meniscus but had surgery and now its healing. We can't run or anything but she is fine walking on it. She can start running towards the end of June.

Also, I haven't had like any time at all, but hopefully next week I will be able to go through the info that I need for my license. Thanks for everything! Love you :)

~Hermana Layton

Now Serving in Fullerton

Hello everyone!

I have a lot to tell you this week and not a lot of time so I will try to get it all in. Well, I don't know if I told you but transfers were today and there were a lot of changes. I got a call Thursday night to be a trainer again. I am super excited! Saturday we got our transfer calls and I am now in Fullerton! We get to open a new area! They have never had sisters in the ward and we are so excited to be here. Also, sister Budge came back to the mission and she is my companion again so we will be in a trio. 

It's so good to have her back here in the mission. :) It was hard leaving Anaheim because we had a lot of good things going on with our investigators but I know that sister Rollins and Morley will take care of them. They are great missionaries so I'm not worried. I said goodbye to the members on Sunday which was sad, but I am just happy that my mission is so close to home and I know that I will be able to visit. It definitely makes the goodbyes easier. I know Fullerton is where I am supposed to be now and I am so excited to meet the ward and people here!

We went on exchanges this week and I got to go to my old area in the city of Orange. It was so awesome to be back there! We had dinner with one of the members also were able to visit one of the less actives that I worked with while I was there. While we were knocking doors we found a girl who invited us in. She was super nice but is going through a lot of trials right now. We had a very powerful lesson and she is really looking for the gospel in her life right now. She is going to get baptized but we passed her to the singles ward Elders and they are teaching her now. They said that she is really progressing and doing well over there. It was a great experience to be able to teach her and see her desire to change. 

_______ is doing well. (Note: Section edited out due to personal content.)

When we went to see him we talked about what he needs to do to get ready for baptism and he seemed like he really wanted to do it this time. The sisters want to make sure he really has a testimony, and they still have a few things to teach but hopefully all goes well. 

They are also still teaching ________. We had a pretty cool lesson with her this week. We asked her how she felt when she came to church and she said that she felt an amazing peace and felt like she was out of this world. She said that she felt very calm. Well we also met her husband this week but he doesn't like us. He wasn't happy that _________ and the boys want to come to our church and he didn't want to listen to us. Hopefully ________ will still want to come with the boys but we'll see what happens.

Saturday we had a big service project and we did all kinds of things, We painted, dusted, raked, picked up leaves, and pulled a bunch of weeds. It was actually tons of fun! I was able to see a lot of members from Orange and other missionaries that I haven't seen in awhile  The mission is so great!! I love it!!! Ok, I have to go before the computer kicks me off. 

Love you all! BYE!

Progress

Hello fam!

This morning we got to go to the temple and it was amazing! Last night right before bed I realized that since I lost my wallet I didn't have my temple recommend  and our session was at 8:00 this morning. Well, I talked with President and we figured it all out so that I could go.

I learn so much each time I go, and I love the way it feels being inside the house of the Lord. I am grateful that we are able to go every once in awhile.  Afterward we went to the Calls for a zone lunch and it was so goood! I forgot what real food tastes like! Haha... I really like Mexican food but we just eat it every day so the change was nice.

This week was great. On Monday we went Lazer tagging and mini golfing with the zone. The Lazer tagging was really weird because we had to stay with our companions the whole time and since we were in a trio it was really easy for people to see us. We had a blast though and it was a great zone activity.

Our investigators are doing well. ________ came to church again but left early because he was so tired. He worked nights, but just got his schedule changed so he has earlier shifts now. Hopefully that will help him so that he won't be so tired during church. 

________ is doing really well. We were able to meet with her "husband" this week. We just found out that they are not married but they want to get married and have been trying to. I guess the problem is that _____________________. I don't really understand it completely but it has something to do with that. We have some ideas to try help them out but we will see what happens.

Their kids still love when we come over and are so cute! This Sunday they couldn't come to church because the baby has bronchitis and looked so sick. They wanted to come though and are planning on it once she is feeling better. They are progressing really well. We are going to have to move their baptism date, but hopefully their boy can still get baptized soon even if they have to wait a little bit. 

This week we went over to _________ to see if there was anything that we could do for her. She let us fold laundry and help the kids with homework which was awesome because the people here hardly ever let us serve them. Afterwards she taught us how to make tortillas which was way cool! She has opened up a lot since we've started teaching her. The members have really welcomed her into the ward. We love working with her and watching that changes in her life.

I know I say this all of the time, but, the mission is the best. There is nothing better than being out here doing the Lords work. I love being a missionary. I am just so grateful for the opportunities I've had and for the people I have met. I love this gospel more than anything. Well I hope y'all have a great week!

Sister Layton

Help From the Neighborhood Kids

Hello my dearest family,

This week has been so crazy. To start the week off we had our zone training which was great! Tuesday we had zone meeting where the zone leaders teach the same outline that was taught in the training.

Usually I just get to sit there both days and listen but they asked me to teach part of it this time since I was in the training. I still don't love to talk in front of big groups but hey it has definitely gotten easier since I've been out here. I just talked about the story of the brother of Jared and it turned out ok. 

Anyways, thursday night something sooo funny happened. We spend a lot of time in this complex and have made friends with a lot of the kids there. Every time we come to the area the kids  run up to us to get suckers or stickers and then they follow us around everywhere we go. Well, Thursday night we were talking to a lady at the door and talking about how important her family and her children are to our Heavenly Father. Right then about 20 kids ran up to us and surrounded us in the middle of our contact. They started hugging us and asking for stickers and candy. It was pretty funny but we were able to make a return appointment with her.

Some of the Neighborhood Kids

We have a few pics with all of the kids. If I have time I will try to send some today. They are so cute! 

Lets see what else... A few days ago we laid down for about 20 min during our lunch hour and set the alarm on the microwave to wake us up. Well the power went out when we were sleeping and the alarm didn't go off. Lets just say I got a nice nap... we woke up like an hour later. I felt bad that we slept so long but it was sooo nice!! Well the power came back on, but that night it went out again. This time we had our phone alarm so we woke up on time but our apartment was pitch black and so we got ready in the dark with a little flashlight. Then we realized that our food in the fridge was all warm cause it had been out all night. It was back on when we came home later though which was good. 

Fish Dinner With Eyeballs

Last night I ate one of the most interesting meals of my mission. It was fish and shrimp but they had eyes and our food was looking at us which was kinda weird. It tasted good though.Conferences were great but I missed a lot of it sadly. We went on Saturday and my companion ended up getting really sick and so we had to leave. She was feeling better the next day so we were able to go on Sunday but we still missed a lot of it.

Our investigator Edith and her cute little kids wanted to come and watch but when we went to their house in the morning they weren't answering the door and so we thought that they weren't going to come. Well they called us after the first talk and said that they were ready and that they were in the back room so they didn't hear us knock on their door. We grabbed a member to go pick them up and they came. We walked into conferences right as President Monson was speaking which was cool. 

They had a lunch with the ward between sessions and Edith fit in with a lot of the sisters really well. She felt really welcome. I was excited to watch the second session but her two little boys sat by us and were kinda distracting. That, and the fact that it was in spanish made it hard to pay attention but from what I did hear it was great! :) Her baptism date is for next week but we might move it a week back to have time to teach everything. Last night there was a baptism and we were inviting our investigators. Two of them, Aldo and Anastacio were able to make it and they definitely felt the spirit. Jorge is still doing well. It has just been really hard to meet with him because his schedule is crazy. Keep him in your prayers! Great things are happening in our area right now and like I have said before I am so grateful for the hand of the Lord in this work! We wouldn't be able to do it without his help.

Sister Layton Knocked on the Door of Aunt Elsie a Few Weeks Ago!!!

Dad, Saturday we went to McDonalds and there was a famous basketball player there but I don't know which one, but I'm convinced that he is one... I think he might have been from the lakers. Your favorite team.

Hehe. Just thought you might want to know.

Mom, no I didn't see Kelsey. And I have not had a lot of time to email friends because the library computers kick us off after an hour. But I try sometimes. :)

Hello there!

So much has happened this week, I don't even know where to start. On Tuesday we had the sisters meeting and it was great! President and sister Bowen said that the church is giving us some news about more changes with the sister missionaries. They didn't have all of the information from Salt lake yet but told us that it most likely has something to do with leadership positions for sisters. Well on Wednesday we had district meeting and the zone leaders asked all of the sisters to meet, and said that they had a letter from Salt Lake.

Since our mission is the smallest proselyting mission and since we had 9 different languages, they want us to be a test group of sisters to serve two year missions. They said that we have the option to stay two years or not, and I have thought about it a lot. Well, I have decided to stay here on the mission! I will be coming home the 7th of January 2014. It's crazy they sisters are able to do that now. 

Ok, april fools. I'm still coming home July 16th. Haha.. I had to do something for april fools day right? That would have been sweet though. Well, they did say that they have information for sisters but haven't told us what yet. We should be finding out soon. The sisters meeting was so much fun. I use to know all of the sister in the mission, but there are so many new ones now, and a bunch more coming in soon. It's pretty awesome to see how many new sister are coming out and how excited they are about the work.

This week was super busy. _______ is still doing alright with the word of wisdom. He isn't drinking at all anymore and he has gone from 1 pack of cigarettes every few days to just one a week. He has a desire to quit completely so hopefully soon he can stop. We found a lot of new people again this week and some more great potentials. We are still teaching _______ and she is doing well. She wasn't able to come to church on Sunday but she has been meeting with us almost every day and seems really interested. We talked more about her baptism and she seems to be looking forward to it. We had such an awkward moment with her though. She brought her little baby over and tried to have us hold her but we said we couldn't because we had rules. I guess we didn't explain ourselves very well because the next time we came back she asked us why our religion doesn't let us hold children when Jesus Christ brought all of the children to him and held them and loved them. We felt so bad. She thought that we didn't like kids or something. We explained it to her and the rules that we have as missionaries then told her how much we love children. She understood after that and was herself again. Her two little sons always sit in on the lessons and love reading the book of mormon with us. I love teaching them! :)

Lets see what else... a couple of nights ago our fire alarm went off. It has happened before and usually its nothing so we weren't to worried about it. Well we went outside and there was smoke so we hurried downstairs. It was super close to our apartment and we talked to a lady who was right under it and she said that there was a huge explosion. There were about 8 fire trucks and police cars everywhere.

We were outside for a while and finally we found out that the fire was out even though the alarms were going off. We asked if we could just go back to our room because it was getting pretty late. They made a fireman escort us to our room to make sure everything was ok. Well to make a long story short there was an explosion and then a drug bust. Yeah it was crazy but we are all alive and the fire didn't do anything to our apartment. The fire was on the top floor, and I guess the water went down to all of the apartments under it and it was a pretty big mess but luckily we were a couple over. Anyways, thats my exciting story for the week. 

Love you all! :)

~Sister Layton