She Had a Dream of Two White Girls...

Hola familia. It was another busy week. We were knocking doors one day this week and this lady came out. She didn't seem interested at all but she listened to what we had to say. We came back the next morning to talk to her again and she said she had just woke up and didn't really have time to listen. Right when we were about to leave she said we could sit down for a little bit.

Sisters Breitenstien and Layton at the Newport Beach Temple

We taught her lesson one and towards the end she stopped us and said that the night we knocked on her door and this whole time we were teaching she thought we looked so familar but she couldnt figure out from where. But then she said that she just figured it out. As we were teaching she was facing the road and she saw a firetruck and two police cars drive by.

Then she said that she remembered where she saw us. She said that the night before we came she had a dream that two white girls, one a little bit taller and one just a little bit shorter, came to her door and were talking to her. In her dream she remembered  sitting outside with them and watching a firetruck and two police cars drive by. It was kinda weird, but hey, she was way more open after that. We wants us to come back now and teach her more. We will see what happens with it all.

We also had another great lesson with a friend of one of our recent converts. She wants go get baptized but still won't commit to a date. She wants to talk to her husband and see if he wants to learn too. They have four kids and she got excited when we told her about the different classes that we have at church for the kids. I am looking forward to teaching them more.

Zone at the Temple

This week we were able to go to the temple with our zone. It was so great.

Tomorrow we have another sisters meeting, so I am looking forward to that.

My companion is so awesome and I am learning so much from her. I love the people we are working with and I love being out here. I know that the church is true and I feel so blessed to be able to share this knowledge with others.

Bowling Zone Activity

I am so glad that Eric is loving BYU. Mom, hopefully you can go out with the missionaries soon. I love and miss you! Sounds like Sean is doing good. Dad and Curty, you two are Gems. :) Haha.. I love and miss you all so much. Have a great week!

Setting and Meeting Goals

Dad! Happy late fathers day! I hope it was a great one. I wish I could have call home like we did on mothers day.

We have had a very busy week. We had zone conference and they focused a lot on finding new people and sharing the messege of the restoration. I learned a lot and it got me excited to go find more people. One of my teachers in the MTC taught us the importance of setting goals and writing them down and then doing all that you can to accomplish them.

We made a goal this week to share 10 Books of Mormon and figured out what we needed to do each day so that we could meet our goal. I know that when we set goals and work hard, Heavenly Father helps us accomplish them.

Each day in our prayers we have been asking for help with our goal. This week we were able to find 7 new investigators, and shared 18 Books of Mormon. I know that Heavenly Father led us to these people that were willing to listen. We found some families to teach, and I am so excited!

My companion is the best. She helps me out a lot, especially with Spanish. It has been hard because we speak english most of the time except for when we are in lessons. She is so great though and she's always looking for ways to help me!

This week we get to go to the temple with our zone. I can't wait. I loved being able to go every week when I was in Provo. I love the spirit there. Well sorry this is short. That is about everything that happened this week. Love you all. :)

He Answers Our Prayers

Hola familia,

Like always, it has been another great week! I love working with Hermana Breitenstein.

Mom to answer your question, yes we do have some new investigators that we found this week, but they are not progressing yet because we have only met with them once. We have appointments with them this week.

We only have one right now who is progressing. We had an awesome lesson this week with him. He loves reading the Book of Mormon and loves it when we come over but he works on Sundays and he can never come to church. We have invited him to talk to his boss a few times to try and get work off but he kept telling us that when God wanted him to come to church he would give him Sundays off. Well this last week we talked about acting on his faith. We talked about how faith without works is dead and he couldn't just wait for something to happen but he needed to act. He said that he had heard that before. You could tell that everything just clicked when we started talking about it. He got a smile on his face and said he knows that he needs to act on his faith.

This week he talked to his boss. He wasn't able to get off this Sunday but his boss told him that next Sunday he can. He called us and told us that he will be at church next Sunday. We are so excited! I will be praying that he will be able to make it. I know that Heavenly Father answers our prayers.

Last week my companion and I made a goal that we would hand out 7 Book of Mormons each week. We prayed each day to have his help to find people who were ready for the message of the restoration and who would be interested in the Book of Mormon. When we had dinner with the members we invited them to pray that as we went out that night to tract that we would find someone we could share this message with. The first night we did that we handed out 4 Book of Mormons, taught two lessons and found two new investigators. We continued doing this each night and were led to people who wanted to listen. By the end of the week we had handed out 14 Book of Mormons and have return appointments with many of them! I know that it was because of the faith and they prayers of the members, and I know that it was only through the help of our Heavenly Father. :)

Dad you asked about the food. We almost always eat Mexican food, but this week we were able to have Salmon at the stake presidents house! It was the best. I really like Mexican food but they always try to feed me way more then I can eat!

I am looking forward to this week. We have zone conference again for my second time. The last one was a lot of fun and the talks were great! Anyway, I need to go write to the President. I love you all sooo soo much!

Hope you have a great week.

Love Hermana Tarde Sobre

Excited For Eric

Hermana Layton in SoCal

Woah Eric I never thought you would go to Guatemala. That is so awesome! Holy cow, I am so excited for you!!!!! You are going to love it so much. I am pretty sure that is where one of my companions from the MTC went. That is seriously so cool!!! :) :)

Eric I am so proud of you and the example you are to our family. The mission will change your life! All of the missionaries around me know where you are going too cause I just got super excited when I read it. :) I know that is exactly where the Lord needs you, and there are people there waiting for you.

That is pretty awesome that you will go to the CCM there. My companion said that when she was in the CCM in Guatemala she couldn't understand anything but learned way faster there then the Provo one becauseshe didn't really have another choice. You should take mission prep at BYU. :)

Anyway, this week has been probably the busiest week of my mission. My new district is awesome! Three of our Elders left and we got three different ones. Two of them are on bikes. :/ I feel bad because the areas are pretty big.

I am so blessed to have Sister Breitenstein back. She is such an amazing companion and is teaching me so much every day. I love working with her.

At Balboa Island

This week we had something pretty cool happen. There was a guy that we were teaching right when I got to the mission and he was wanting to make changes in his life but he had to move because of his job. We'll just this last week we had an appointment with a lady but she wasn't home so we started walking down the street and this same guy rode by on his bike. When he saw us he stopped and was so happy to see us. He had just moved back here because the job hadn't worked out and asked us if we could set up an appointment with him. He wants us to teach him again! We are so excited!

We had baptism date last week for one of our investigators but she can never get to church so we had to move it back. She always tells us that she will come but sadly hasn't been able to yet.

The sister that just got baptized in our ward has been helping us out a lot. She always is giving us names of her friends to teach. She is a great member missionary!

Well, thats about all for this week, not a lot new. I am so excited for Eric's news and know that he is going to be a great missionary!! :D Love you all so much!

I Feel Him Helping Me Each Day of My Mission

Hermanas Layton y Breitenstein

Hola familia!

Today was transfers and has been a crazy day. Sorry if I don't have as much time to write. Hermana Vilches went back to English speaking and I am with Hermana Breitenstein again. I am so excited!
This week we had exchanges. For the first one I stayed in our area and another Spanish speaking sister came with me. I spent another day in Newport Beach in an English speaking area and was able to go to a baptism with her. I love the feeling of watching someone get baptized, it always reminds me of when I was baptized, and makes me want to be so much better. It was at the chapel right by the temple, so afterwards we were able to walk around the temple with one of her investigators. It has been fun to be able to see different areas in the mission, but I am glad that I won't need to do exchanges every week now. They are fun, but can be stressful.

Did you know that missionaries in Cali all drive Mercedes?

Last week our investigator was able to get baptized on Tuesday and confirmed on Sunday. She was the same one that just got married. She is so amazing and such a great example to her family and friends! Her husband still doesn't want anything to do with the missionaries but he likes to come to the ward activities. Their family always helps us out and always bring different friends to the ward activities. They are great!

I am happy to be staying in this area. I just love the people here. I know that this is where I am supposed to be. I know that Heavenly Father knows each person that we are working with individually and He knows me individually as well. I feel Him helping me each day of my mission, and I know that I would not be getting very far without Him. I love the Gospel and love being a missionary! :)

When you're from Oregon, pumping gas is a new experience

That's so cool that Ariel got her mission call. She will do great! That is also awesome that she will be in the MTC with her brother. OK, I am not saying this to take your guess, but I was just telling my companion in the car ride over here that I was going to change my guess to Germany before I read that that is what you were thinking. That's where I think Eric will go. Haha... and for the states... Kentucky?

And to answer Grandma's question, we get letters on Mondays after we email, during our zone activity. And actually anytime we see our zone leaders they can give us our mail. They are in our district so we see them quite a bit. Wednesdays are district meetings so we get mail those days for sure too.
Mom and dad, thank you so much for the package. I got home from an exchange after a long week and when I saw it, it just made my day. Mom I love the outfit of course. :) Curtis always has the best letters. Love him so much. I pray for you always. Eric, the mission is the best thing that has ever happened to me and you are going to love it! :)

The Mission is Changing My Life

That is awesome that Eric's papers are going to be in. I am going to guess Brazil. Even though I kinda have a feeling he might go to some weird crazy place. I know he doesnt want to learn Spanish as much, but I'm kinda hoping he goes Spanish speaking. :) 

Newport Beach Temple

We have a new rule in the mission that temple days are no longer on P days! Wahoo! That means that I probably shouldn't ever have a problem emailing home on P days. At least I hope anyway. Transfers get crazy, but I will try to make sure that email is at the top of the list. :)
The Hallmans and the Adams sent me a package. I loved it, and the letters from the kids made me want to cry. They were so sweet! I miss them!

It's been a crazy week, but so good. We changed the dates for our investigators baptisms. One of them just got married this weekend and is getting baptized tomorrow night! We are so excited for her. Her husband and boys are going to come. The husband hasn't wanted anything to do with the missionaries, but has opened up a lot lately. He has been talking to us now and even coming to some of the ward activities.

Our other investigator still hasn't been able to come to church and is not keeping all of her commitments so we need to move her date back. We are meeting with her today, and hopefully she will be able to come to the baptism tomorrow. We had another temple tour this last week.

Our recent convert came with us and he loved it! We haven't had a lesson with him yet about temples so it was good for him to go on the tour.

Next Monday is the end of transfers so there is a chance that I will have a different companion then, and like I said before, I have heard rumors that Hna. Breitenstein is coming back! :)
Grandma and Grandpa Layton asked a question about our lessons... When we are teaching men, we have to have a member come with us unless there is a woman at home. We can teach women with just the two of us though. That's what was nice when I had two companions, we were able to teach anyone. It's always good to have members with us though because they can be friends with those we are teaching and it helps a lot and makes them feel more comfortable at church.

Well time is up, but I know that the church is true. The mission is changing my life. I love this gospel! :)

We Give Them a Chance to Exercise Agency

It was so great being able to talk to you yesterday! I wish the call could have been longer. Feliz dia de las madres to the best mom in the world! :)

I don't remember if I told you about the church tour that we did at the end of the ward activity. A member from our ward brought a family with them and we gave them a tour of the building. They really seemed to enjoy it and said that we can come teach them. It's the best when the members help with the missionary work. We started teaching member missionary lessons to help the members in our ward be more comfortable sharing the Gospel with their friends. Here is a quote from the lesson plan that I really like. "God did not give the free agency of other people to us, he gave it to them. When we decide not to share the Gospel with others, we are depriving them of their agency to choose. When we give them the opportunity to understand the Gospel of Jesus Christ more deeply, we give them a chance to exercise the agency that God gave to them. It is our responsibility to invite, and their responsibility to accept." If we do our part by inviting them then we are a successful missionary. Then it is up to them to use their agency to accept the message or not.

This week on Tuesday we have the sisters meeting again with all of the sisters in the mission. My companion and I are in charge of it, so we have been planning the lesson and activities. It's hard to find time though so I hope it turns out OK. I will be going on more exchanges these next couple of weeks before transfers.

I am so excited for Hermana Breitenstein to come back to our area next transfer! We have two baptismal dates right before transfers are over, one on the 26th and one on the 27th. We are praying that they both will happen, but are not sure because we can't get one of them to come to church. She usually leaves Sundays to visit her mom.

I told you about the other one on the phone. We are so excited that her boyfriend finally agreed to get married! We have been fasting and praying for her every month and I know that fasting and prayer work. She has a son that is also at the age where he could get baptized and he likes to come to church every Sunday with his mom. :)

I know there were a lot of Vegas Birthdays this month. HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ALL OF YOU! Love you all so much!

Eric, you are a stud for having two dates to prom. Mom... I don't think you sent an email... but I will check again. We emailed at the library today instead of the family history center so we started earlier. Maybe you just wrote one cause it says one in my inbox now.. sweet. LOVE YOU ALL! BYE!