A Prepared People

We had a great past week! To start, we were able to start teaching [...] who we found last week at stake conference. And she is soooo prepared and ready to accept the gospel in her life. 

We went over to her tiny little one-room house and taught her the restoration and it was probably one of the best lessons I have had in my whole mission so far! She has been through a lot in her life, and it sounds like she was mistreated a lot by her husband and some of her family growing up. She has some health problems that is is working through too, but she is just the sweetest lady! And she actually understood what we were teaching really well. Anyway, we had another lesson with her on Friday, and gave her a baptismal date for Janurary 7th!! She is super excited and is so grateful to be learning from us. She is truly a miracle and we have been praying a lot to find more people to teach. She also came to [...]´s baptism on Saturday! And now on to the baptism-

So despite a few complications, [...] did in fact get baptized!! To start, no one from our bishopric ever came, and so we were kind of worried, especially because we had talked to them a couple times about it to make sure someone would be there. So we had to postpone the baptism about 45 minutes while we tried to get a hold of the bishopric and get everything figured out, but apparently they were all at work so no one answered. We ended up calling the zone leaders and they gave us permission to go through with the baptism and have our ward mission leader, Hermano Runco preside. So luckily he was there, because otherwise we would have to postpone the baptism to another day. And actually, sadly the same thing happened to the Elders we live with in Barrio 12 who had a baptism too the same day- no one from their bishopric came and since they don´t even have a ward mission leader, they couldn´t have their baptism :/ Hopefully they can get that figured out.

Anyways, we we were very glad he was able to be baptized. It was funny because there was actually a big struggle in the baptismal font. He is a little afraid of water and so the ordinace had to be done six times, because he was doing everything possible not to go under completely... I think he also didnt like the idea of going backwards and trusting Elder Good to support him. After quite the experience, [...] sat down so his head was just above the water and Elder Good just pushed him under a little haha. But anyways, he finally did it even though he doesnt like water, and he was so happy afterwards!! It was an amazing experience and I feel so happy for him. 

Yesterday was fast and testimony meeting since we had stake conference last week. We sat next to our investigators [...] and [...], and after a few people got up, [...] leaned over and asked me if I was going to say anything. So I told him I would be happy to bear my testimony and got up. And of course, as I was making my way up to the stand I hear something come from where we were sitting- ¨Wooooooo, Laytooooooon! Bien!¨ Haha, we tried explaing to him a little bit about reverence in the church afterwards. 

Anyways, it has been an eventful week and some funny stuff has happened, but we also some really amazing experiences. It is so much fun to be here serving with Elder Good. and it is also a blast living with Elder Pettit and Elder Chudleigh. I have been learning so much everyday and I am so very grateful for this incredible oppurtunity I have to be a missionary. The church is true! I hope you guys are all having an awesome holiday season! Love you all :)

Elder Layton