Missing Santa Ana

Merry Christmas!!!! It has been such a great week here in Anaheim!

Yesterday I even got to go back to my ward in Santa Ana because Elizabeth got baptized. It was so amazing to see everyone and be able to be there for her baptism. She has made a lot of changes in her life and has a very strong testimony. I have a picture but I can't send it yet. I would always borrow my companions camera cord before, but now I will have to get on of those soon. 

Anyway, it was SO awesome to be back in my first ward. That ward means so much to me! Church in the Anaheim ward was good too but all throughout relief society they just kept talking about how great and united the Santa Ana 10th ward is, and how they wanted to be more like that. Yeah... I got lucky being in that ward for so long. We had a zone conference this weekend and it was a little different then usual. President surprised us a little.

Just imagine a room full of elders with a huge screen in front and all of the sudden the movie Tangled comes on. Haha! It was so funny and so much fun! We had lunch after that, and then had more of a spiritual meeting. It was great! 

Things here in Anaheim are going well. We had a less active member and we were teaching his 12 and 14 year old kids. They wanted to get baptized and were doing so well. The dad has been coming back to church and really wants the gospel for his kids. Well they didn't show up to church yesterday and so we called them after.

The mom answered and told us not to come back to their house. She said that she wants her kids to come to her church and she doesn't want to hear from us again. We haven't been able to talk to the dad but he lost his job and doesnt have anything to support his kids and so they are with the mom right now. It was really sad and we are really praying for them right now. 

Well, we had a lot of success finding people last week and we made a lot of appointments to come back so I am looking forward to working here. My companions are the greatest.

Mom, to answer your question. No I am not training both of them. Hermana Longoria was behind one week on her training and so we finished it up this week so she is done now, and Hermana Henrie has been here for one transfer and so she has another transfer left of training, so for the rest of this transfer we will be finishing hers up. There is a chance that she will leave to Spain before we finish though. 

Let see what else happened this week... Oh! We were tracting and knocked on a house and a lady opened the door holding a huge butcher knife and with a super creepy voice she said, "What do you want!" She yelled at us and told us to leave so we did. It was an interesting experience. 

Tonight we are planning on going caroling with our district and bringing cookies to people.Mom, I do have Uncle Harold's address and maybe we can carol to him tonight. There are actually a lot of investigators we are planning to go by, so I don't know if we will have time, but that would be awesome!  

Also we might play soccer today. I think I convinced people here that soccer is fun so hopefully we will actually get to play. That is one thing I loved about my old zone, that they always played soccer. Anyway, I am so grateful for the opportunity to be out here serving a mission especially during this Christmas time. It is definitely a different experience than being home, but it's a good one. :) Merry Christmas everyone! I love you all so so much!! 

The Call

Right around 3:00 PM today, Briana opened her mission call. Mom and dad, Eric and Curtis were seated along with her in the living room when she opened the envelope. She read:

"Dear Sister Layton:

You are hereby called to serve as a missionary of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. You are assigned to labor in the California Anaheim Mission. It is anticipated that you will serve for a period of 18 months.

You should report to the Provo Missionary Training Center on Wednesday, January 4, 2012. You will prepare to preach the gospel in the Spanish language."

We're all so excited for Briana and know that this will be a wonderful experience for her. She will have 4 months to practice her Spanish and finish preparing for her mission.

The Chiechi side of the family has some ties to Anaheim. Briana's great-great-uncle, Harold Bastrup, was the Police Chief of Anaheim while Disneyland was still in it's infancy. He knew Walt Disney well and served as Chief of Police for many years there. He ended up with so many stories about his time on the Police force that he wrote a book about it. Both he and his wife are still living there today.

There is a tie on the Layton side as well. Briana's grandmother, Coleen Layton, lived in the Burbank area as a child. Burbank is only about 35 miles from Anaheim.

Not a direct hit but Briana's cousin, Chris, recently returned from the San Diego, California Mission. I believe San Diego is only about one hour away from Anaheim.
Here are a few facts about the mission.

• In 1966 the Church was preparing to divide the California Los Angeles Mission. Elder LeGrande Richards was assigned to select the Mission Home and Office. He looked for several days, but was unable to find a suitable home until he had lunch with the current Mission President. Elder Richards said "Brother Thomsen your home would make a great mission home." Since Brother Thomsen owned the lot next door, it was decided that he would build an identical floor plan next door, but with a difference facade. The Church would then select the home that they wanted. They chose the new home at 1427 West Janeen Way, which still serves as the Mission Home for the California Anaheim Mission.
• In the first 3 years after the mission opened, they experienced over 8100 baptisms in 3 years.
• On August 1, 1974, the California South Mission was once again divided. The California San Diego Mission was created and the California South Mission was renamed the California Anaheim Mission.
• The mission was divided again in 1976, 1993 and finally in 1998.
• In terms of size, the California Anaheim Mission is now the 4th smallest mission in the Church. Only Temple Square, the California Long Beach and the MTC are smaller.
• One of the Stakes in the Mission is exclusively Spanish speaking. It is the second oldest Spanish speaking Stake in the United States.

We're so excited for Briana and are confident that she will serve with all of her heart, might, mind and strength.