Baptisms on the Horizon

Well, it has been a super solid week here in Tacuarembó Barrio 6! We are starting to see a lot of progress and potential here and Heavenly Father has been putting a lot of great opportunities in our path! 

First off, [...] is doing really well. He is a stud and this morning he committed to being baptized on December 9th! Elder Peterson has been teaching him guitar too, because [...] got one for his B-day but doesn't know how to play. Also, this week, a guy named [...] called us over (right when a charla fell through too) and said he wanted to receive the charlas again. 

Apparently he listened to the missionaries a few years ago but just a few months ago, he began to really clean a lot of things up in his life. We had a wonderful lesson and he almost committed to be baptized, but said he needs to read the BOM first. We also found an old lady upon the first door we knocked on Saturday morning, who was apparently one of the first converts in T-Bo many years ago. She was with her great granddaughter [...], who is nine, not baptized, and wants to go to church. Now we just need to coordinate with the parents. We also found a lady named [...] from a reference this week who has her parents and a lot of extended family who are members, but she never went since a little girl. She isn't married to her partner but was so incredible and even had the BOM and missionary lessons already from her parents which she has been reading before we came. She has never listened to the missionaries before but said baptism was something she would like to get to, because so many of her family are members of the church! And on top of that. there is a girl who has gone to church a few times in Barrio 5 with her friend, but lives in our area, so we are going tomorrow. I guess she wants to baptized tambien... Wow, how has so much happened in one week.....

And here is the best part... We had a real miracle on Sunday! So, we were a little bummed out at first because on two investigators came, when a lot more had committed for this Sunday. But then, 10 minutes to Sacrament meeting, a lady named [...] walked in with her little great granddaughter. We got to know her more in Gospel Principles, but she is SO amazing. She told us that she has gone to many churches in her lifetime, but has always felt that she couldn't ever find the true church of Jesus Christ. She told us that she has been praying all week that the Lord would guide her to His church, and that on Sunday morning before leaving the house, she specifically asked in prayer that she would be led to His church as she walked around. Well, she said she saw this one and felt to go in. Then after Gospel Principles, she told us that she knew this was the true church of Jesus Christ and that she wanted to be baptized!!! She told us that this is what she has been looking for all her life. WOW! How incredible!! Also, apparently in Relief Society, the President afterwards told me that Gladys had volunteered to come clean the church this week! We have a lesson with her tomorrow. So excited :). She is a miracle.

I am so grateful to my Padre Celestial for hastening His work! He truly has been blessing us with many opportunities recently. I love being a missionary. There is no greater work than this! And it brings so much happiness seeing God´s children progress in His Gospel!! I love you guys. Have a wonderful week! We sure will :)

Elder Layton

Update on Investigators

Hey everyone! Como estan??

I hope that all is well back at home. Things here are heating up, but Elder Peterson and I are starting to get so real solid tan lines :) Anyways, we have been working with a couple named [...] and [...], but this week they told us they weren't interested anymore. Well we asked if we could continue teaching their 12-year old son [...], who had sat down in the last lesson and seemed really interested. Luckily they gave us permission. 

We came back this week to see him, and he is doing really great. We left him with Alma 37:35-37, but he ended up reading the whole chapter, as well as various others! He said he prayed about it too! And then we came by on Sunday and brought him to three hours of church with us. And despite not having any jovenes his age, he seemed to like it so that was pretty awesome! 

Also, while we were walking him to church, we came across some guy named [...] who we met last week at a community service project we went to. He told us he was baptized as a little boy. but hasn't gone since. We hadn't been able to find him for a charla yet, but upon running into him again in the street, we invited him to church, and he actually ended up coming! 

On Wednesday, the two missions in Uruguay went to Montevideo for a big conference with Bishop Dean Davies from the General Bishopric of the church. He is a really amazing and humble guy. After his talk, it was super cool because he and his wife sand a duet of ´Amad a otros´ and the the two missions joined in to sing a second verse. The Spirit there was really strong.

After the conference, the new missionaries (Elder Peterson) and the finishing missionaries all got to go to the temple and so returned to their areas a day later. Meanwhile, I was on divisions here in T-Bo with Elder Ribeiro and Elder Bowler. I was a fun day. We went to a recent convert in Barrio 5 for a lesson but he wasn´t home, so we instead ended up teaching this convert´s great-grandma who was aactually super cool. She accepted fecha in the first lesson, and came to church on Sunday (for Barrio 5). We also visited another one of their investigators named Gladys who has fecha for this week as well. And she is SO funny! She kept shouting ´HALLELUIAH´ in the middle of the lesson because she couldn´t contain her excitment to get baptized hahaha. I love Uruguayans, they are the funniest people.

Les quiero a todos tambien. Gracias por ayudarme estar aqui. La mision es una gran bendicion la verdad! Siento muy agredecido por tener un Padre Celestial que me conoce y tambien una familia tan especial. Yo amo el Evangelio de Jesucristo!! Sé que esta es su iglesia! Es una bendicion ser parte de ella. Espero que todos estan leyendo el Libro de Mormón!! Just do it! Que tengan una buena semana!! Chau chau!

Elder Layton

Crazy Weather in Uruguay

The Rambla´

Hey everyone! It sounds like it has been a solid week back at home for everyone! Thanks to everyone who has written to me! Anyway
, we have had some overly rainy days this week- nothing new. On Tuesday a little before we left the apartment it started to rain and the river behind our house or ´la rambla´ as it is called filled up in about 10-15 minutes. Then we left, and about five minutes later due to to the strong winds with the rain, my fourth umbrella on the mission got destroyed hahaha. And then I couldn't stop laughing because Elder Peterson was having the same battle with his umbrella and it is just really funny to watch as we walk around. 

So what happens here is when it is raining, there is usually a lot of wind involved, so if you try holding it above you body to protect against the rain, the wind immediately catches it, either turning it inside out, or causing it to catch like a sail. So what you kind of have to do is position the umbrella more downwards to prevent catching the wind. Well that makes the umbrella sorta useless because then most your body gets soaked since the umbrella isn't positioned directly above.

Umbrella Fail

Anyways, this week we saw our nine year old investigator [...] who we have fecha for this month (he's on schedule for baptism) and we came to the charla planning to give him a Libro de Mormon. Well when we got there he already had a ´O Livro de Mormon´ (Portugese). Haha interesting. Apprarently he had gone to Brazil this week with his parents and the missionaries there happened to come upon them. They gave him a Potugese BOM, so that was pretty cool :) Anyways, he is a real stud. He sometimes gets shy with us, but reads suuuper well, like better than me haha. We have been trying to incorporate some fun, creative lessons too to help him enjoy them.

We also found another english professor this week named [...]. She was really nice and wants us to come help her teach English this week. But it was awesome because she allowed us to have a charla as well, even though it was really late when we contacted her. She first off told us that she believed in God, but not in churches. After teaching the Restoration, we asked her what it would mean to her if God answered her and she came to know that Joseph Smith really saw God and Jesus Christ. Well, luckily she answered perfectly, and said it would mean that our church is actually true, and that one should follow the guidance that was given to Joseph Smith. Awesome! Her husabnd seemed really nice too, but he was too busy watching fútbol... Uruguayans :) Gotta love ´em. They sure love their Maté. fútbol, greasy food and overly loud motorcycles hahaha. Love you guys. Have a great week!!

Elder Layton