Drive By Shooting

My dearest family,

So today we had transfers. I really thought that I was going to be staying in Anaheim with sister Longoria but she got transfered out.

Sister Minert is my new companion  and she came out the same time as hermana Longoria. Eric did you ever meet her in the MTC? Sister Henrie got her visa on Wednesday and is on her way to Spain right now. 

This week was great and super busy. Our area just grew a lot because the borders changed and I guess we have many of the Elders investigators now. We have been teaching the _______ family and they are doing really well. The dad really wants his whole family to listen to us and always has them come in when we come over. We have been very blessed to be able to teach a lot of families recently. 

This week we had zone meeting which was so good!  The assistants basically just talked about how we can help the missionaries and this mission. They also focused a lot on teaching families and working with the members in the ward. I am excited for this transfer and for the exchanges that I will get to go on with the sisters. We didn't have any new Spanish sisters come in this transfer but there were a bunch of English ones. It is so cool that so many sisters are coming out now! 

Well this week we had a ward activity that the missionaries were in charge of. The Elders did the lesson and we did the activity. We couldn't think of anything to do and didn't have much time at all and somehow we decided to play balloon volleyball with the families. I was worried that it wouldn't turn out, but they ended up loving it. It was sooo funny to watch! We had about 10 balloons and all of the members were really getting into it. I wish I got it on video because it was so funny!! 

Last night we went to a street that most of our investigators live on, and I guess right before we got there, someone drove by and was shooting at the apartments. There were a bunch of kids and teens outside, but luckily I don't think anyone ended up getting hurt. There were police everywhere and everyone told us to get out of there because they thought the guys might come back. As we were driving away we heard some more shots which was scary but I really hope everyone was OK  That's the street that all the interesting crazy stuff happens on... too bad we are teaching so many people there...haha! But no worries we are safe!  I love being here and know that this is the Lords work. I know that Jesus Christ is our Savior and am so grateful for the Atonement in my life. Thanks for everything, love you all! :)

That is soooo amazing to hear that Kelsey is going on a mission!!!!! I can't stop smiling because I am so happy for her. It is such a life changing experience and she is absolutely going to love it! She will make an amazing missionary too. I can't wait to hear where she is going!! :) Also, Christina and Erica Marley are going too!! That is so awesome!!!! That's pretty cool that Christy and her husband are moving into our ward. They are going to love Bend! :) Mom, fast tract sounds good. I think that would be smart to do. I bet I could get a little job there too and work before I go. Also that's funny that you got Just Dance. We are totally doing that together when I get home. :) You are going to be my companion and I am going to follow you everywhere. I hope that's OK with you. :) Sister Poulson is staying with us tonight and she leaves the mission to go home tomorrow morning. Sister Breitenstein is here on more transfer and she is companions with a 65 year old lady this transfer who only speaks Spanish  Cool huh? They didn't want to close the area because there are so many sisters coming next transfer so they just had her come in for a little bit. Well, that's about all the news this week! Love you! :)

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

Staying in Orange!

Sister Layton with a young man who clearly has exceptional taste

Hello my dearest family,

Sorry to hear that Obama won. That is too bad. Eric, your letters make me laugh!! 

Well, ready to hear where I am going for transfers?! I am staying here in the City of Orange again!! Wahoo! :) That will make it at least 9 months here. 

Sister Poulson and I are training the new sister together. Her name is sister Budge and she comes in tomorrow. We will be picking her up at Four. I am really excited! 

We went to the training meeting this week at Presidents house and learned a lot about how we can be good trainers. We will be starting the 12 week program with her which means two hours of companionship study instead of one. I think she is from Utah somewhere near Salt Lake City. I am looking forward to getting to know her this week. 

Well, funny thing that happened this week. Remember how I told you guys I'm never going to get pulled over? Well, I didn't know you could get pulled over on foot. Haha! We were on a street where the crosswalk was far down and so we waited until there weren't any cars and ran across. Then I looked over and this motorcycle cop comes around the corner and put his lights on, he said, "Stop right there girls!" Then he said you girls don't speak Spanish so you don't have an excuse for not reading the signs. I should have started speaking Spanish and acted like I didn't understand him, but I didn't think of that until after. Oh well. I guess we wont be J-walking anymore. 

Well this week we had zone conference and Elder Kopischke from the Seventy spoke. It was about 6 hours long but it was so great! President and Sister Bowen spoke as well. :) 

As for [Brother X], he told us that he was going to come to church no matter what again this week and didn't show up. :( We even called him before and he said that he coming. We still haven't talked to him about why he didn't come but it was so sad! 

The District on P Day

Last night we knocked into a former investigator and he told us to come in and talk to both him and his daughter. We made a return appointment and he said that he was going to have his wife and son come as well. He has been to church before and said he liked it.

It is always hard to find a whole family to teach here so I am excited to come back and teach them. 

Well, not much more happened this week. I love you all! Have a great week! :) Oh one more thing, HAPPY ANNIVERSARY MOM AND DAD! :) Oh yeah, and I taught my companion how to do the rubix cube and so we are probably doing it in the talent show for the ward party this week.

Curtis that is awesome that you got to go shooting! You look different and older. :'( Remember I said not to change.

(We no sooner received Briana's letter than we got another quick note from Eric, who is leaving the Guatemalan MTC tomorrow morning. He said this:

Hmmmm well good job getting pulled over Briana. That´s pretty great. Did you get a ticket or anything or just a warning? Apparently all the cops here are corrupt and they don´t ever pay attention to stuff like that so I should be safe. I probably jay walk all I want! Pretty cool. Well I don´t even know if they have crosswalks here. Well it´s great here with or without crosswalks. Oh yeah apparently pedestrians here have no rights like in the states so You just have to hope you aren´t hit by a truck or something. That wouldn´t be very fun at all.) 

(Later in the day, we got a second email.)

You get two emails today, Happy anniversary!!!

Well, my companions computer wasn't working earlier and so she didn't get to email. So here we are again. I forgot to tell you about those pictures that I sent earlier. We went to a huge trampoline gym for our P day activity last week. They had a big foam pool that you could jump into from the trampolines and other random stuff. The last picture was the P day before when we carved pumpkins and played soccer. As you can see, I wasn't in the picture. It was because I was out playing soccer.

It was so fun! We always have the best zone activities. Today we went to the Book store because my companion needed something there. We had gift cards from a member for a restaurant right next to it. We thought that we would go use them since we were in the area. Well, before we got inside this guy ran out of the restaurant and said "Hey sisters!

My boss wants to buy you lunch." We went in there are they were having a big business meeting. It turns out that most of them were LDS except for a couple and then they were all trying to convince the others to listen to us. He bought us lunch and then they had to go. One of the guys there said that his brother is in Eric's mission but I forgot to ask his name. There was also a guy who's girlfriend lives in Bend but the name wasn't familiar. When I was in the Bookstore the girl working there said that she just got home from her mission in Arizona and it was the same mission as my friend. Well it turns out that she knew him and was in his same district for a transfer. Such a small world! Hmm..

I don't know what else happened this week. Have any of the cousins put in their mission papers yet? When will Michael and Dallin leave again?

LOVE YOU ALL. :)

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! :)

Off to Jail

Hola familia! We had exchanges on Saturday. One of the girls from Anaheim came with me for the day and my companion went there. She speaks Spanish so that helped a lot.
Guess what I did for the first time ever... I went to jail!! We had an investigator we were teaching and when she was coming back from Mexico she didn't have her passport. She was about to get baptized before she left for Mexico. They have this place where you can visit them through the wall with a little phone. We taught her a lesson and sang a hymn for her. She has changed so much and said that she is getting baptized once she is out. I think she just has about a month left.

Sister Layton in Front of the Newport Beach Temple

Mom you asked what a typical day is here for me. Usually we wake up and get ready for the day and then do personal study for an hour. Then we have two hours of companionship study. When my training is over it will just be an hour. After that we have an hour of language study and then lunch. The rest of the day we go out and either teach people or try to find more people to teach. We are working with the members in the ward and trying to get as many contacts from them as we can.

Dad in your last letter you talked about working with the members. The best way to find people to teach is definitely through them. We do go tracting a lot as well. We met this guy while we were knocking doors who was baptized when he was eight and remembered passing the sacrament when he was twelve but he said he lived at least three hours away from a church so he never went. He started singing the hymns that he remembered and we are trying to get him to come back to church.

I am excited for this week. We have some families that we found street contacting who seemed like they really wanted to know more. We have appointments with them this week. I love the people here. I am so grateful to be serving in this mission!

Sister Layton and an Elder from the District

Mom, you also asked how often I speak Spanish (with her companions). I need to speak it more with my companion. Usually we speak English. It has been a goal that I have had lately to speak more.

Oh also there was a little earthquake today. I was wondering if I would ever feel one while I was here. I was just standing in our living room getting ready to leave and we just started shaking. At first I thought that someone was jumping on the roof. It was funny.

Well, I hope you know how grateful I am for all of your examples. I know that this church is true. The Gospel is so amazing and I feel so blessed for the knowledge that I have. I know that Jesus Christ lives and that through Him we can change and be better. I love being a missionary!!!

Sister Layton and District Elder

I sent Kelsey a Birthday card to BYU but if she is in London then she probably didn't get it. Could you wish her a happy birthday for me? Even though it was a while ago now. Eric you are going to love college. Make sure you work hard though. It might be fun, but it's not always easy. Good job with your talk. Curtis that is so cool that you are doing a survivor challenge!! You should tell me more about it. Stop growing. Mom you ROCK! Dad I am writing you today!! You all are the best. LOVE YOU ALL SOOO MUCH! :) Mothers day is coming up woo! Then we can talk on the phone.

OK. byeeeee.