Something to be Excited For and Something to Miss

This week has been awesome. Alejandra continues to progress well, and we discovered that her 10 year old son Ramyro (who is suuuuper shy) has been kind of listening to the charlas from his room, and meanwhile Alejandra has been teaching him everything we are teaching her. And now Ramyro is starting to sit in on the charlas. We did a few little visual demonstrations as part of the lessons, and now Alejandra says that he talks about us all day at home and to his friends haha. Now that we know him, he isn`t shy with us at all, so that is sweet. We taught them the Word of Wisdom this week, and Alejandra who really likes coffee dropped it without a second thought after she learned about it. She is so prepared, and is really excited for her baptism the 10th!

Elder Layton, Fabricio and Elder Weed

This week we also recieved a brief visit from Preisident Olsen who was here in Artigas and he came with us to a lesson with Fabricio, who also is doing AWESOME! His baptism is planned for the 25th as well. It was nice having President in the lesson because he uses really good examples. Also. Fabricio has been having some awesome inspired questions each lesson, and now after we talked about baptisms for the dead, he set a goal to make it to to temple to do baptisms with the ward in September!! Such a stud!

Elder Layton, President Olsen, Fabricio, Elder Weed

I cannot really express in words how grateful I am to have served these last two years. I have learned to love the mission,love these Uruguayans, and to love the Lord. I know I will never regret these two years. They are the best two years!! 

Elder Weed, Fabricio, Elder Layton

I am grateful for all of the many tender mercies I have been given from Heavenly Father, and I know that the service that I have given will change the rest of my life. I am excited for what lies ahead, but I am definitely going to miss being a missionary. It is a blessing. BUT- I still have got a week to enjoy it! 

President Olsen with Investigators and in Artigas

I love you guys, thanks to everyone who has helped me make it to the point. This is the true church of Jesus Christ, and it is so important that we cling to what the old and modern day prophets have taught us. What a privilege to be a member of this church! Don`t forget it! I was studying this week in Helaman 5, and found it of great importance how many times Helaman tells his son Nephi ( o Nefi) to remember. It really is!!

Elder Layton

Daylight in Artigas

Well, Artigas is totally AWESOME! Opening an area here is super fun. I don`t know how many members have already played jokes on us though, acting like they were investigators hahaha. Good ol`Uruguayians haha. Anyways, Alejandra is doing awesome. She is reading and praying about the BOM, and feels it is true! She came to a ward activity this week, and loved it. She also accepted a baptismal invitation for July 28th, and committed to coming to church, but she didn`t actually make it, so we have to see what happened there. Also, this week we found a guy named Jorge who was apparently listening to the missionaries 7 years ago, going to church and was going to be baptized, but then his job moved him to Montevideo and he lost contact. Well, since then he has moved back to Artigas, and said he wants to get baptized! He was out of town this weekend, but is going to try to make it for this next weekend.

This week we were contacting late at night and some guy named Bruno let us in. He has apparently listened to the missionaries before but told us that he wasn`t interesting in going to any church. But at the end of the charla, I complemented the awesome rocks he had on the shelf, and so he just said, `yeah, you want one? Just take the one you want.` Well, I kinda felt bad because I didn`t want him to think I was asking for one, but then he just turns around and grabs of the other shelp, the biggest rock he has, and just gives it to me!!!!! Like what? Hahaha, this thing is so cool though. 

This week we had a capilla abierta over in Barrio 3. Elder Weed and I had the baptismal section, and there were about 5-6 people who accepted the invitation to be batpiszed! Super awesome.

Elder Layton

Elder Saylors, Elder Veizaga and Layton 

Archers Uruguay Visit

Elders Peterson Olsen (Presidents son) and Layton

When Uruguay Wins, The Town Goes Wild

Hey everyone!

It has been a super awesome first week here in Artigas!! I`m lovin` the area. It is funny because our are is super tiny, AND we share is with sister missionaries. Our area is the border area with Brazil, and in fact, we can see the border from our apartment building! Also, we pretty much live in front of the church building again haha. Artigas is a really pretty place too, and is is cool, because they have all the super cool crystal rocks here. I`ll have to send pictures later.

Uruguay played Portugal in the world cup on Saturday and it was so funny. Elder Weed and I were just in the street and there was NOBODY to be found. And on a couple of ocasions, the city in one accord just erupted, so we could tell when Uruguay scored a goal haha. And yeah, when Uruguay scored there were fireworks and gunshots involved hahahaha. Close to the end of the game, we Heard people starting to slam doors, and yelling, so we thought that Portugal was winning, but then at the end there was one last eruption, and we were just walking past one of our new investigators this week named Alejandra, so we swung by to ask what happened. She looked at us screaming `GANAMOS, GANAMOS!!!`. Haha, I guess Uruguay was the underdog. So next, they wil play France in the cuarterfinals :D The whole rest of the day, the city was crazy. People didn`t stop celebrating the whole day.... Or all night.

Anyways, Alejandra, who I mentioned is doing really well! We found her on our first day, and she is progressing nicely! We will update you all next week!

Elder Layton

Uruguay Won!

Well, the world cup started this week! So, that has made things interesting this week :) It was funny because Uruguay had their first game on Friday morning, and we were doing our weekly planning that day. A joven in the ward sent us an update when there was only 10 mintues left, saying it was still 0-0 haha. About ten minutes later, all of our neighbors started going balistic, screaming and shooting of fireworks. Elder Bowler and I just looked at eachother, smiled and said, ´Well, it looks like Uruguay won!´ And yeah apprently an Uruguay defensman made a goal in the very last minute orf the game and the won 1-0. Take THAT Egypt!! We´re TOTALLY going all the way. Just you wait and see :) Anyways the futbol world cup will be going on for my last month and a half of the mission :) So we are going to need to get creative in these last few weeks!!

The highlight of this week would be a 19-year old joven we found in the street at 9:20 at night upon returning to the house. His name is Marcelo and he gave us his address to come by another day. We came by this week, had an AWESOME charla, and he accepted a baptismal date for July 14th! He also came to church on Sunday, and said he was coming next week too. So that was a big blessing. Apart from Marcelo, we have been really struggling in finding new people to teach this week though. Gabriel is doing awesome though and is set to be baptized this week!

Funny story that happened this week. Somebody broke into our church building at night from a side window. Well the window they broke into was to the baptismal font, which is locked on the inside, and I guess they couldn´t get back out! So the alarm went off, and the police came to get them hahaha. Pretty funny story though. I just think thyey wanted to get baptized REALLY bad!

Love you guys! Cuidense!

Elder Layton

Time's Flying By Now

This week has gone by in a whizz. Magela has helped us quite a bit with her dad, Jesus, and Valeria, his partner. She comes with us the charlas with them now. They are starting to read the BOM, pray about it, and are looking for an answer.

They are doing well, but they aren't married yet, so can`t quite get baptized. Anyways, Magela is an awesome missionary. She also brought her husband, Geronimo to church with her on Sunday! I gave her the challenge to finish the BOM before I finish my mission, and she is reading a ton each day. Richard and Ramon also got the Priesthood on Sunday. They are doing great! They always ask us like a million questions when we come over haha. Now their little brother decided he wants to get baptized too, and he has been to church 5 times already, and so we should plan his baptism in a few weeks to go with Gabriel`s!

We have started teaching a new family, la familia DeMora. They seem pretty interested, so we are trying to help them now with the BOM as well. Both times we have been over they pulled out a ton of homemade biscochos out of the oven! The mom, Marcela, used to work at a bakery. After a lesson last night, before we left they dumped like 20 biscochos in a bag just for us! Uruguayan biscochos are super good :)

I stayed in Ceibal on Friday on divisions with Elder Shawkey from California. It rained all day, but we still had a few good lessons. We took a picture with flia Echague though for lunch because they love the missionaries haha. and they have pictures of the missionaries all over their house. So we wanted to join the club :) Also they are Italian, so they could basically be my grandparents haha. Love you guys. Have a wonderful week!!

Elder Layton

Baptisms of Ramon, Richard, Augustin and Araseli / Elder Holland Visit

Lets just say I could sum up this week with an edited John 21:25, but regarding the miracles and things that have happened this week. But, I will try to write a few of the miracles and things that have happened....

I will start with the visit  of Elder Holland. It was such a spiritual experience!! We all got to shake Elder Holland`s hand yesterday when we went to Montevideo. We had a few seconds each. After he finished shaking everyone`s hand, he got up and told us that he just got done having a personal interview with EACH ONE OF US!! He said that he interviewed us just when he looked into our eyes. Like whaaaaat...... Haha when I shook his hand, he smiled and gave me a couple of chest pounds with his fist. What a privilege it was just to see a prophet of the Lord up close for a few seconds. He taught us many things in his visit. He said we are involved in the most important thing in the entire universe- The saving of a human soul. Really that man has a talent for speaking. I testify that he really is an Apostle ordained of Jesus Christ. I could feel his love as he spoke, and I know that the mission is the greatest privilege, I have yet had. As he finished he blessed us physically with strength to go on and told us that he were blessing us in the same way as if he had blessed us with consecrated oil each one. Wow. Without words what we felt.

This week Ramon, Richard, Augustin and Araseli were all baptized! President Olsen asked us to make goals back at Christmas for this year, and one that I made was to help ten people be baptized before I finished my mission. Well, with this weekend, the Lord has blessed me with that goal! On Sunday I cannot describe what I felt when I saw all ten of those people there, still going strong, some with callings, others with desires to go on a mission and passing the sacrament, and others inviting and bringing their own family members to church! Wow.


The mission is such a blessing. Also, Mario approached us this week and asked to leave with us to visit people! So this week he will be helping us! Magela and Eduardo are already halfway done with the BOM. Also, this weekend we received nine references from members!!! It is hard to keep up with everything we have to do! I love this work and i know it is true. I wish I could write more this week really, but there just isn't time. Miracles are happening every day!

Elder Layton

The Mission is Changing My Life

Sooooo.... We got our changes today and there were a few surprises haha. Elder Veizaga and I supposed that I would be leaving and he would be staying, but it will be opposite. Elder Veizaga is actually leaving to open an area as the new AP! Actually there are four APs now I guess haha.It has been so awesome being with him though, and he will do an awesome job! Such a stud :)I am staying here in Salto, and am going to be getting yet another missionary from my same group haha! Elder Bowler is coming here, and he is from California.

This week we found some really great new investigators. We found someone named Yamila who was really grateful to here the Planof Salvation, because she has had a lot of trials recently. We came back the next day to share a little more with her but we instead found her mother in law named Blanca,who was really amazing! She understood really clearly the mesage of the Restoration, was really set on seeking out her answer. She was very grateful to be given a BOM,which is cool because she knows a lot about the Bible, but wasn`t closed off to that there can memore scripture. We invited her to read the book and after ask God if it is true. She told us that she would instead ask God before and after reading. She is someone with true intent,and I am excited to do follow-up this week!

Love you guys. I am grateful for the chance to stay here in Salto. Itwas a blessing to be able to talk to my amazing family this week! Thanks for all you do and have done to help me be here. The mission is changing my life. Havea great week!!

Elder Layton

Baptisms of Magela and Gonzalo

Well, this week I have eaten Mondongo (cow stomach) twice. Ehh. First, we went to Bella Union last P-day and afterwards stayed for divisions. For lunch on Tuesday there was a big ward party there they made a huge pot of Mondongo-Chorizo stew. Well, to be honest it looked good, but in reality the mondongo just overpowered everything. One big pot though.... And today, for P-day we got together again with Eduardo and Maria Godoy and made another stew. Well, it had mondongo again but it was cooked enough so it was pretty solid.

Anyways, last P-day in Bella Union was so aweome! They are an area in our zone that is kind of far out, so I had never been out before. They actually have a little piece of Brazil in their area and so we crossed the border and bought a ton of stuff over there, because in comparision to Uruguay, Brazil is suuuuuper cheap. And it has a lot of stuff that Uruguay doesn`t have like Peanut Butter, Nutella, and BBQ sauce! Nosotros aprovechamos!! After buying stuff, we took a taxi back over to Uruguay, and the Elders through me in front to talk to the Brazilian hahaha. Well, he did't know any spanish, just portuguese. Luckily the two languages are kind of similar, so I was able to get by with some really bad Portuñol, but in the end, we got his contact information and we passed it over to other Elders! Haha pretty funny though. Muito bom!!

I spent to day of divisions with Elder Saylors who is a stud. We saw some amazing miracles and really fast answers to our prayers when we pulled over. Elder Saylors had a great idea since we didn`t have any set lesons. Before saying a prayer, we decided what kind of houses we would knock (gates open/ wooden doors etc) and thought of what Heavenly Father could bless us to find (parent and kid/ brothers etc). Then we specifically prayed for those things and promised we would knock such houses. The first time we did, we found a prepared mother and daughter who had never listened to the missionaries, and they accepted to be baptized in three weeks! The second time we did the prayer test, we found two brothers and their mom upon knocking the very first door! The mom was a less active member for many years, and the kids never met the missionaries. That family apprently went to church on Sunday! Prayer is really amazing!

Well the BEST part of this week was that Magela and Gonzalo were both baptized!!! They are both so stinkin` incredible. Gonzalo is only ten BUT this kid is a future missionary!  Every time wecome over, he prays for Heavenly Father to help him become a missionary. Also, he studies the Gospel a ton in his own time! This week we were going over the history of the BOM, and I said that a few years after Jospeh Smith had the first vision, he was directed to find the plates. Well, he corrected me and being more exact, said, `actually wasn`t that in 1823?` Ummmmm so yeah, he is really special. Haha when he said that we both went speechless :)

Magela is also so amazing. She has been progressing a TON. She wants to start helping us work with other investigators now. She reads the BOM every day and every charla is so excited to learn. She always has new questions for us. She already has a really special testimony of the Gospel. Apprarently she has already seen the hour long story of Joseph Smith four time now, and has been studying the history of the church. Also, yesterday we started helping her with family history, and she is really excited to do it. She has the goal to go to the temple!! On Sunday, both Magela and Gonzalo got up to bear their testimonies, and they are so awesome. Magela told us this week that when she first saw us in the street walking by the day we talked to her that she felt something special and before we came, she prayed that we could come talk to her. And then we did. I think it was more her faith than ours that helped us find eachother!

So yeah, we are loving with incredible work. There is none other that beats it! We had to change the baptismal date for the familia Villegas because they couldn`t make it to church this Sunday. They are still doing really well though! Love you guys!!

Elder Layton

Thank You For Finding Me

Mi querida familia!

Most of our investigators this week have been progressing pretty well! Magela is already so prepared so we changed her date to a week earlier, so that she can be baptized with Gonzalo, who we are teaching separetly on the other side of our area, but it turns out they are cousins! They are planned to be baptized this weekend. The flia Villegas came to church again, so they are progressing to their date May 12th! Honestly, we have quite a few people we are currently teaching and so we havent had all that much time this week for finding.

I had a meaningful experience this week! So three months ago we had something called a `choca de fuerza` where a bunch of missionaries all go to work in one area. I remember that I went with Elder Donati out to contact in Barrio Artigas. Well, we found someone named Anthony, and for the last three months, he has been listening to the missionaries there. Well, I went back over there for divisions this week with Elder Ellis. Well, we met with Anthony, and he told us about a miracle answer that he had to his prayers, and how he knew Jospeh Smith was really a prophet of God. So he decided he wanted to get baptized, even though he has been a member of another church his whole life. We had his baptismal interview with him right then, and he was seriously so happy. After the interview, he gave me a big hug, held on, and told me,`Thank you so much for finding me`

Anyways, the mission is amazing. Miracles occur every day. Love you guys so much!!!

Elder Layton

The Worst Thing I Ever Ate

Hey everyone!

Wow, the work is hastening!! I don´t know how, but this week we have been led to find various families to teach!! It has been amazing.

We played futbol last P-day with the Elders from Bella Union after writing because we saw some jovenes and asked if they wanted to play against us. There was some intense play haha. I made the game winning goal when we were tied 4-4. I am kinda getting the hang of this whole futbol thing :) Elder Veizaga is training me up haha. Also we had another awesome experience this week regarding futbol. So we were out looking for people to teach Wednesday night and an 11 year old kid named Eduardo came and started walking with us, asking us who we were. Well we explained we were searching to help people and he just kept walking with us. So, then we told him he should pick a house that we should contact. Well, on the second house he picked, a guy named Jose let us in, as well as Eduardo haha. We had an awesome lesson. After that, we had Edaurdo take us over to his house to meet his parents and to ask permission if he could come with us to futbol that night. Well, they gave us permission and in fact his other four brothers and sisters wanted to come along. So we went to futbol with an army of jovenes, formed our own team and wrecked :) Now we are teaching that family, ´la familia Villegas´! Eduardo is the little kid next to me in the picture.

 

We also saw a miracle with Magela this week!! We had already invited her to be baptized after she came to Mario´s, but she was still unsure. Well, she has been reading and praying a lot about the BOM and about baptism, and she told us on Friday about the answer she recieved! So, after praying one night, she went to bed. She said that she had a dream, and that in her dream she saw a filled baptismal font! She told us that she looked though the glass window of the font, and could see a refelction of herself dressed in white!! So wow... She told US that she had made the decision to be baptized! She is on date for May 12th!! Also, she came to stake conference on Sunday with her husband Geronimo!!

For stake conference with weekend, President Olsen wasn´t able to attend, so Elder Veizaga and I were assigned to speak haha. I spoke in the leadership conference on Wednesday. Well they had told me it was just a 10 minute talk on missionary work, but when we started, they gave me a tie microphone and told me I had 15 minutes, and I was supposed to lead a leadership discussion hahaha. So yeah, I did my best, and kind of used some points of my talk but also had to change it up a bit. 

Today for P-day, the 6 of us Elders went to familia Godoy, the recent converts in our ward, and made an Asado! It was soooo awesome because to be honest, I am pretty bored of eating ´fideos con tuco´ and ´milanesas´ todos los dias. Well mostly awesome. Lets just say that Eduardo got us good... So Elder Carducci bought all of the meat, but Edaurdo put something extra on the grill. Well he had us all eat it before telling us what it was. i thought it was intenstines because I had eaten that beofre, and it looked similar, buuuuuut.... Well lets just say we ate the private part of the cow. Hahaha. I am still alive :)

Love you guys! Have an awesome week!

Elder Layton

Mario's Baptism

Well, we have lost a lot of sleep due to many changes in the zone this week haha. But it has been super awesome. This week a lot of stud missionaries have come to Salto, and all the missionaries have been telling us about all of the miracles they have been living in just the first few days of the change! It has been so awesome, and this is going to be a very special change!

This weekend Mario was baptized! He was seriously so prepared and there was so much support for him in the baptism. Really amazing! His brother in law, Manuel baptized him, and after Mario was just shining with the light of Christ. He was super happy and has a really great testimony already! Lourdes decided to extend her baptism to the 21st because next week is stake conference and she didn`t want to rush to do it this week. She is doing very well though and is excited as well for baptism!

This week, there was a joven named Gonzalo who went to church with his grandma. He is only ten, but got up to bear his testimony, and so we figured he was a member. Well, later in the day after church, we were looking for a couple of contacts we had made way out in the corner of our area, and saw Gonzalo, so decided just to say hi. We told him it was awesome to hear him bear his testimony, and he straight up told us, `Hey I`m not baptized, I want to get baptized!` Wow. So he led us over to his house kind of out in the middle of nowhere, where we met his grandparents whom he lives with. The grandma is a less active, but I guess had taught Gonzalo everything about the church already! It was amazing. So he already knew about the Restoration and how to pray and everything. So now, his baptism is planned for May 5th.

Elder Veizaga and I have a lot of great goals for this change. We are expecting miracles la verdad. I feel like since general conference something seriously just clicked in the work! The Lord is hastening His work. This church is so amazing, and I know it is truly led and guided by our Saviour Jesus Christ. What a blessing we have in our lives!! Love you guys :) Que apresuren la obra!!

Elder Layton

Yoguel's Baptism

This week Yoguel was baptized! He was super happy and so were his parents, Ricardo and Alejandra who came. His parents want to start coming to church but they work on Sundays, so that is a current obtacle. Yoguel has a ton of support from the jovenes though and loves church and the activities! It was also a miracle because 9 of our investigators showed up to the baptism!!

This week we had interviews with President Olsen. The interviews were going really long, and we were last so then President drove us over to get pizza before taking us home. Well thanks Preident.... Pretty much killed me the next day hahaha. But yeah I felt horrible the next day and threw up four times on the side of the street. We were on divisions too, but the day ended up being really productive. Elder Smith and I found three new people and one of them accepted the invitation to be baptism in the first charla for April 27th! His name is Jose and his wife is a less active member. he recieved the missionaries a few years ago and anted to get baptized but they werent married.... But NOW they are married! Woooo!

It was also funny because on divisions Elder Smith and I woke up to a HUGE cricket invasion in our house. Usually our house has a lot of crickets and coakroaches, but this paricular morning, we killed about 40 of them in about 10 minutes. 

We had a cool contact last night. e actually contacted somebody who lives in the United States. Her name was Adrianna and was visiting some family here but has lived in New Jersey for 20 years now and said she has never even seen missionaries beofre but wanted to learn more. It was fun contacting someone in english :)

We have found a ton of new investigators this week, and a few of them went to church too! We are seeing a lot of good things in this area, and I am really hoping I can stay for next change haha :) Last P-day we went fishing with Eduardo and his family, and today, we went to a zoo. Super awesome! It was funny though because there were some really nice monkeys that we were shaking hands with, but then out of no where, one grabbed my watch and pulled really hard!! It broke it.... Hahaha maybe I shouldn´t play with the animals :) Have a great week!

Elder Layton

Mission Conference and Investigator Progress

Comps

Such an awesome week here in Ceibal as always! This week we have made some really great progress with some of our current investigators. On Tuesday, it was Elder Veizaga`s birthday and we were able to get a lot of lessons. In the morning, we had a retention lesson with the familia Godoy. Lourdes, Eduardo`s niece who recently moved here to live with them,has kind of been listening from the side of a couple of lessons, and in this lesson she seemed to even chirp a couple of answers in here and there. So we felt to ask he if she has thought at all about baptism. And she said that she has! So we gave her an invitation to be baptized on April 13th and she accepted! Later, in the night we visted Mario, and had such an amazing lesson! Mario told us that he had come to an answer that the BOM and the church is true! We all shared our testimonies at the end, and Mario also accepted to be baptized! We also went to Yoguel, who has a baptism goal for this week and his parents said they bought him church shoes but they were too small on Yoguel, so they gave them to Elder Veizaga, and they fit him perfectly! Haha it was funny because Elder Veizaga is 24 now and Yoguel is 12 :)

Reunion with Elder Peterson

This week we also went to Montevideo for mission conference with Elder Bragg from the seventy! He is truly a spiritual giant! I love listening to and being around righteous people because it motivates me to be better and I can always feel the Spirit when I do so. I know that Heavenly Father guides and chooses special people to lead his church! Also, I was able to see Elder Peterson again, which was super awesome. His Spanish has grown a lot :) 

This weekend Elder Veizaga and I also found two knew families to teach! We are excited to see how they progress! Love you guys, and thanks for all of your letters! Have an awesome week! and don`t forget to read your Book of Mormon TODOS LOS DIAS!! :)

Elder Layton

The Lord Can Prosper Us, Even When We Make Mistakes

Salto is great, and the companionship rocks. Elder Veizaga is really consecrated. 

Anyways, Eduardo got the Priesthood last week and was called a a young men's counselor! This week he blessed the sacrament, and he was a little nervous but he did such a great job. It is amazing, he has really changed his life around so much. Now he is helping us with investigators, and contributed a lot in Gospel Principles. Mario is doing really well too and wants to get baptized! He has a lot of member friends now and is even going to seminary!

We went on divisions twice this week. I stayed in our area for both. Our day on Thursday was so awesome with Elder Santos. He is a brand new missionary, but is a stud. He was born and lived 11 years in the states, but then moved to Brazil, and so I had some Portuguese language study with him haha. We found a lot of really amazing people that day too who we have a return date with! 

One of those was actually due to an error on my part haha. So I had a contact in my agenda, but wrote the address down incorrectly. I couldn't really remember exactly where the house was so we asked a couple of people if they knew the person. No one did, but we met an amazing lady named Yaqueline who accepted to listen to our message. She is Evangelical, but absolutely loved the message of the Restoration. She even began to cry at the end and promised us she would read the BOM and truly pray to know if it was true. After the last prayer, she thanked us for coming and said that she loved how we dedicated ourselves to helping people. So, we asked her for references, and she referred us to all her kids haha. We visited a few, who were really nice, and we are going to return this week. I thought this was a cool experience because it resulted out of a mistake I had made in writing down a contact haha. Really the Lord can work in misterious ways, even despite our weaknesses! Also, if I wouldnt have been on divisions, Elder Veizaga would have just told me the correct address of that contact, and we would never have run into Yaqueline, or her family.

Anyways, the work in marching forward. This week we have found a bunch or really great people. It was an answer to our fast last week to find new people who could progress. I love the mission. This work is true! Have a great week!!

Elder Layton

Reunion in Montevideo

At Montevideo Leadership Conference

This week has been pretty tranquilo. We have been working more with the members in our area, and it is showing effective. What we have been doing is visit the members for 10 minutes in less effective proselyting times, but not to ask them for references or anything, because to be honest, that never works here in Uruguay haha. So we have been telling them about a progressing investigator we are working with and asking for their opinion about what they think we can do to help this person.

The good thing about doing this is it has been helping the members to offer to help out. For example we visited a recently married couple named Manuel and Diyana this week to see their opinion on how we couple help a few investigators out. Well, not only they offered to visit some of these investigators in their own time, Diyana even surprised us in church by bringing her brother Mario, who isnt a member and now wants to investigate the church!! Also, Manuel gave a really strong testimony in church and testified about sharing the Gospel.

Leadership Conference Photo

This week has been pretty tranquilo. We have been working more with the members in our area, and it is showing effective. What we have been doing is visit the members for 10 minutes in less effective proselyting times, but not to ask them for references or anything, because to be honest, that never works here in Uruguay haha. So we have been telling them about a progressing investigator we are working with and asking for their opinion about what they think we can do to help this person. The good thing about doing this is it has been helping the members to offer to help out. For example we visited a recently married couple named Manuel and Diyana this week to see their opinion on how we couple help a few investigators out. Well, not only they offered to visit some of these invesigators in their own time, Diyana even surprised us in church by bringing her brother Mario, who isnt a member and now wants to investigate the church!! Also, Manuel gave a really strong testimony in church and testified about sharing the Gospel.

Another couple who is willing to help us out is Eduardo and Maria who were recently married and baptized. We are going through the retention charlas with them, and asked their opinion about how we could help Silvia and Diego, who are progressing well right now. Well, now Eduardo and Maria are helping them out, which is really awesome, because, they just recently went though the same process as Silvia and Diego. So the members are starting to get more involved! I think the important thing for a member to support missionary work is that they feel a sincere desire to help rather than feeling obligated to always help us out.

Companions?

Yoguel is still a stud and is doing well. He came to church again and likes it. He is making friedns witht he youth as well. We also invited him to fùtbol this week and he came with three of his nonmember friends! His baptismal date is for March 23rd and his parents are supportive as well.

At Leadership Conference in Montevideo

This week we went to Montevideo for our leaderdship conference. This change the district leaders were invited too, so I saw almost all of my companions I have had on the mission. The only ones not there were Elder Neislen and Elder Raimundo who already finsihed their mission and Elder Peterson who is still pretty new. The conference was really amazing too. It was funny because I thought we were headed to Carrazco where we always go, but we actually went to Estaca Flores, in my first area Las Acacias! Haha to be honest that was forever ago. I got some pictures with the homies.

Anyways, I love the mission. I am grateful to be a part of this work and I testify that it is truly led by nuestro Salvador Jesucristo. Hope you all have a fantastic week!

Elder Layton

Changes

So this week we had changes. Elder Romero went off happily, I am sure he was just so relieved he could get away from me after one whole change together haha. But really, it was great to be with him, and we had a lot of fun! 

It was actually pretty funny because when he left, we had a little incident. So in the terminal, right before he left, I had the phone and the keys and all, but he asked me for the phone to call a member while we were waiting for the bus. Well I don´t know how we spaced it but he apparently threw the phone in his own pocket, and then got on the bus... So yeah right when I was walking out of the terminal with Elder Smith and Elder Flores, I realized I didn't have the phone and he had taken it. I immediately called him with the other elders phone, and when he answers, he just said, ´No puede ser!! No puede ser!!´ Haha so yeah, Elder Veizaga and I had to spend the first couple of days together without a phone, which surprisingly was pretty tricky, especially as a zone leader haha. But it was all good because Elder Romero sent it to Salto, and the other elders were able to coordinate with him to get it back :)

Anyways, the first few days with Elder Veizaga have been awesome! He is a real stud, and is a very great contacter and teacher. So I have been learning a lot from him already. Late Friday night, we had about 10 minutes before time to go home, and contacted one more house. A nice lady named Beatriz let us in, and we had an awesome little charla. She just moved here after living her whole life in the country and even accepted a baptismal date for March 23th! We will be hoping and praying that this week she can make it to church. 

Diego and Silvia also finally came to church this week!!! Man, they are so amazing! We had a super great charla Saturday night, and the spirit was present, to the point that Silvia pointed it out. The got there really early and brought their 3 little girls with them too, who loved the primary and nursury. It is awesome because after our charla on Saturday, they told us they also want to get married now, because Silvia wants to get baptized (Diego was baptized when he was 8)!! So this week, we are going to start working more on that. Yoguel, a 12 year old joven we are teaching also came with us to church this week, and seemed to make some good friends.

Funny experience: I found my old car this week! We got talking to some guy and turns out he spoke english because he lived in New Jersey for over 40 years. He said he was Catholic and there was no way we could convice him to change, but he was really cool, and said he even brought his car with him he had in the states. He showed us and I said, ´Hey! that´s my car!!!´ Haha yeah he had the my exact 1999 gray honda accord and everything! Super funny :)

This week we playe fútbol with the zone. I got a picture with Elder Carducci and Augusto (a joven who is preparing for a misson! Stud :) Anyways love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Layton

Welcome Elder Veizaga

Road Trip with Emiliano

Hey everyone!

So this week I haven`t really been in my area because we had an emergency change with a couple of elders in our zone. Also, Elder Romero sadly is going to get changed out this Wednesday to go to Quarai, Brazil. We were pretty suprised becasue we thought we definately had another change together. Anyways, he is super excited to learn Portugese haha. It was definately bummer though because we haven`t been able to spend the last week of the change together.

My new companion will be Elder Veizaga ANOTHER Boliviano hahaha. This will be the first time he is a zone leader. He only has a year on the mission though, and I have heard really good things about him.

Anyways, about that Ricardo guy we found last week during that alarm incident, he isn`t too interested, but we started teaching his son Joel, and I wasn`t here, but Joel came to church this week! Some of our other investigators we are working with are started to progress really well too, and are reading and praying between each visit. 

That is about it for the week. Todo tranquilo other than the changes :) Love you guys!!

Elder Layton

Great Week in Salto

Well, here in Salto, it has been a great week! If fact, the whole zone has been `volando!`

Eduardo and Maria passed their baptismal interviews this week, and their marriage and baptism is planned for Friday! They are such anamazing couple. Eduardo has changed soooo much. He used to basically live in the streets and had a lot of word of wisdom problems before, but now he hasn`t smoked for 3 weeks, and they have been coming to church every single week! They are what we call `capos`.

Also, Silvia and Diego are making a lot of progress! Silvia said she has been praying every day to really know which is the true church. When we went on Thursday, she told us an interesting experience she had this week. She said she has been having horrible dreams the whole week and the night before she had had one particularly bad one, where she couldn`t find her little kids, and there were a bunch of robbers outside their house trying to break in. She said it was the worst one she has had but then in her dream, we appeared.She said the robbers went away, we found her kids, and she felt protected. Wow! She said that she is taking it as a sign that our message may be true. They committed to coming to church on Sunday but didn`t make it. We`ll get them next week though. :)

Ramon and Rosario area also making progress. They read and pray between every visit we make, and are still looking for some answers. Last time we came to a charla after leaving them with Alma 36. They read it and LOVED it! Seriously, they were telling us all about what they learned and how they feel they need to endure in prayer like Alma`s father, in order to help their own kids find the chosen path. They are doing super awesome! 

Anyways, I love the mission. It is amazing. I am grateful to be building my own testimony each and every day. I love the scriptures so much. I know that they are true. I know that we can receive a daily light given from Christ by reading from them TODOS LOS DIAS!! Espero que lo esten haciendo!! Love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Layton

Working Hard

This week was kind of all over the place. Elder Romero and I have been working hard and it has all kind of caught up to us. We have just been sooooo tired like 24/7 haha. 

We also went on divisions a couple of times this week with missionaries in our zone. On Tuesday, I went with Elder Donati who is actually from Uruguay, and on Friday I spent the day with Elder Smith, who is a marine. With Elder Smith, we found a super awesome young couple named Carlos and Jessica who told us the Restoration made a lot of sense and they would like to know if it was true. And for the rest of the day, lets just say we did our fair share of walking :) Their area is just tons of open country haha.

 

We found and are working with a lady named Ana and even had one lesson with here friend Mikaela and both are super interested. Ana already led the pamphlet we left her with upon contacting her, and after explaining the Restoration, she said she believed it was true. For now, she said she would like to hear more about our message and is reading the BOM.

Yesterday, we contacted some old guy named Alcides, and it was really funny because when he opened the door and I started introducing ourselves, I first said something like, `Buenas tardes hermano!` and he started shouting at us saying ` We`re not brothers!!! I am black and you are white, so don`t you dare call me one of your brothers!` Haha well, we shortly realized he was pulling our leg when he started cracking up. Really cool guy though. He wasn`t too interested in our message but he let us in for a few minutes anyways, and his wife started serving us food haha. 

Anyways, that seems to be about it for this week. Eduardo and Maria are doing amazing and are exctied for there baptism in a couple of weeks!! Miss you guys. We are priveliged to be members of the church of Jesus Christ! 

Elder Layton

Pretty Much the Best

Romero and Layton

Well Salto es pretty much lo mejor :) It has been a fun week.

First off, it is amazing to have a new prophet. Preisdent Nelson is so inredible. What a great servant. And no, I hadnt heard of the story of Monson, that is incredible. About Nelson, I heard that he has been shoving the driveways of his neighborhood, and keeps getting up earlier to beat out the members that want to do it for him hahaha. What an inredible person. Also, it is cool, because his grandson is in our mission. He has like 5 months i think. But then again President Nelson has so many grandkids and great grandkids, that I am sure there are enough for one to be in each mission in the world hahaha jk.

Elder Romero and have focused a ton this first full week on finding and we have found a ton of people. Elder Romero teaches really well too, so it has been fun, and I am learning a lot. A couple of those people we have found are a couple named Rosario and Ramon. They are super awesome, and they have that `verdadera intencion` that is so important when wanting to know the truth. They have never met with the missionaries before and actually just started going to a church a few months ago, which is the first time in their lives they have done so. They feel a little bad they are starting to learn about God so late in their lives because their kids are all teenagers and don`t really care now, but they are really interested in the lessons and especially the Book of Mormon. Rosario told us that she always saw the missionaries walking by, walking to one neibor, and then the other, but that they had never made it to their house. Also, Bishop came with us to a charla yesterday we had with him and he helped a ton. Obispo Conti is a stud! He knows his stuff. He wants to leave with us every weekend now as well!

The Dog That Scares Romero

We were able to watch the conference presenting the new first presidency. I know that President Nelson is the man that God has chosen to help us follow our Savior in these last days. I am grateful for his example and service to the church. I am grateful to have a living prophet on the earth today. The Gospel is so incredible.

Elder Romero has been teaching me a little beatboxing haha. He is pretty much professional, it is crazy. He apparently got third in a national competition in Peru and almost got to go to the states to compete. Super awesome. As soon as I get a new camera, I will try to send some videos if I can :) Right now, I am learning something called `throat bass`. It is pretty cool. Look it up if you don`t know what it is. Sounds like a robot haha.

A few investigators we are teaching came ot church on Sunday! A couple named Eduardo and Maria came, and they have a marriage date and a baptismal date for Feburary 9th!! We also had a fairly new investigator named Estefani come. She apparently really liked it, and said she would like to bring her partner next week, who was camping with friends this time.

Salto is hoooooooot...... but the best :)

Love you guys! Have a great week!

Elder Layton

S-A-L-T-O

Well this week we have been busy traveling a lot. On Wednesday, I went to Paysandu, waited there the whole day and then left to Salto. And then we left Thursday night to go to Montevideo all day Friday for something called ´consejo de la mision´. It was a super awesome conference. It was funny too because I happened to run into the whole relief society from Tacuarembo, a bunch of people I had said bye to last Sunday haha. They were on another temple trip apparently.

Anyways, it was a great last couple of days with Elder Peterson before I left. We were able to meet with Silvana and Micah before I left and they commited to coming to church. Anyways, Elder Peterson was excited to go with a latino compnion. His companion Elder Yañez is from Bolivia.

Salto has been so incredible since I have been here! It is funny too because Ceibal is apparently where Hermana Olsen, President´s wife, served 20 years ago! Super awesome place! Also, we have a brand new ward mission leader, hermano Gimenes who seems very excited to help us out and get the work moving here! Also, it is funny because our Bishop is 30, but he looks like 18-20 years old :) Really great guy though!

As of now, we don´t have a ton of investigators, but Elder Romero and I have been contacting a ton in just the couple of days we have had here to work, and everyone has seemed so willing to meet with us! The Lord led us to 8 new people in just two days to teach! Elder Romero is a stud, and it is going to be a super awesome change together! Falto muuuuucho que aprender :) Love you guys! Have an awesome week! Nos vemos!!

Elder Layton

Me Voy a Salto!

Service with the Caceres Family

Well, it has been an AWESOME week! Elder Peterson and I have had a few investigators drop us this week that we thought would progress, BUT we have been finding a lot of jovenes. It is really cool too because some of the youth we have found also know Sebastian, and his cousin Santiago, who has a baptismal date for the 27th. So we have some hope in building a solid youth group here, because there aren´t many of them in Barrio 6 right now haha. We organized basketball with some of them too this week, because 3 or 4 had mentioned they liked Basketball better than soccer. Such homies :).

We also got our changes this week. It is crazy how incredibly fast these two changes with Elder Peterson hve flown by!! The mission just seems to keep getting better. Anyways, I m leaving Tacuarembó to be a zone leader in a zone called Salto! My companion will be Elder Romero, from Peru, and I have heard that he is a really awesome missionary, so I am excited :) Some things I have heard about Salto- Everyone says it is a lot hotter than Tacuarembo... great! Haha Tacuarembo is pretty hot, but I still think Argentina last year was a lot worse. Maybe Salto is more like that. It borders Argentina in fact. The bummer though is I don´t think the house there has air conditioning :0.... Anyways, I also heard Salto has hot springs and geysers outside of the city which are cool, so maybe I will be able to check those out one P-day! Everyone also calls Salto ´la tierra de las naranjas´. Sweet!

Diego

We found a ladys this week named Silvana who was with her daughter Micah, and they accepted a baptismal invitation in the first lesson for Feburary 3rd! They were really awesome, and are actually a family of 6, but we just haven´t met the family yet. 

One of the youth that we found was named Peter, and he wants to get baptized, even though we haven´t really had a lesson yet. We contacted him on the street on Saturday, and he said his parents work all day so he lives with his grandma. We told him we would be swinging by to pick up a couple other kids for church on Sunday, and we could pick him up if it was ok with his parents. Well we weren´t able to get in contact with his parents, but when we showed up to church some lady named Eva was there, which was apparently his grandma haha. I guess she was a member, and when Peter told her we had come by, she felt she should go to church! So Peter wants to get baptized, Santiago is going to get baptized, and now we are just looking for a ´Juan´ to get baptized :) (Mom, in spanish Sanitago is ´James´ and Juan is ´John´).

I will really miss Tacuarembó, I feel I have learned a lot here. Anyways, I am really excited to be headed to Salto! Love you guys!

Elder Layton

- Service with flia Caceres

- Finished mate cup, all three sides

- Pizza with hermano and hermana Di Franco. Btw there was a lot more pizza than this too.....

Feliz Ano Nuevo

Caroling in Tacuarembo 2017 Christmas

Hey everyone! Happy new year for 2018!

To be honest this week has been pretty tranquilo. Not a ton of new stuff has happened. It has been pretty hard to find new investigators because everyone has been ´so busy´ for the holidays haha. Anyways, we did find one awesome new investigator named Santiago. He is actually a reference from Sebastian (his cousin) but we just started teaching him and he accepted a baptismal invitation for Janurary 27th. He also came with us and Sebastian to church on Sunday!

We have a new 80 year old investigator we are teaching who is super catholic and has been for all her life. But she is very fascinated by the BOM and has already read nearly all of first Nephi! She wasn´t able to make it on Sunday because she was out of town, but she said she wants to come check it out because I guess she gets bored in the catholic church. Hahaha that really made me laugh :)

Sebastian is doing super well now that he was baptized last week. Now that I just completed the BOM again before Christmas and am starting over, I made a challenge with him to see who could read it first. He is convinced he is going to win but we will see about that :) Loser buys the other person ice cream at Grido hahaha.

Rainbow in Tacuarembo

New Years was awesome. We witnessed some bomb fireworks again. It was incredible!! Anyways, that is about it for this week. I am super happy after being about to skype with everyone last week for Christmas! I have got the best family ever! 

Sorry, I actually don´t have a ton of time because we had to take like a 45 minute survey today during our writing time. I´ll just try to make it quick. Sebastian, our recent convert is such a stud, he is doing really well. He loves the missionaries haha. He has been reading the BOM quite a bit now too. And at just 12 years old! He is fun to teach because literally every time he sees us he gets suuuper happy. I think he just really looks up to us because we are older. Haha to be honest we have quite a few little kids we are teaching right now, and I am so bad at teaching them haha. It is hard, because I´m not too creative. But it is all good. 

Changes are next week. I kinda get the feeling I am leaving but we will see. I really like this area a lot. This past week or two has been pretty hard though because not many people want to receive us since everyone is busy for the holidays. Hopefully the last week in this change, we will be able to find more people to teach. I'm glad that the ward at home is doing well. :D Love you guys all!

Elder Layton

Awesome Week in Barrio 6

Awesome week here in Barrio 6. Sebastian is doing really well, and has his baptismal date for the 23rd. He is really excited! On Tuesday, we had a really busy afternoon planned. On of our set lessons fell through, because an investigator told us he wasn´t interested anymore, so we started to contact. As we were walking, I saw someone wave to us from an open door on the other side of the street. I thought I saw Lucia, so we went to go say hi, but when I kinda looked again I realized it wasn´t her. When we came up to the door, and it turns out there lived a couple of Lucia´s sisters and their mom, who all live in another house. We didnt have a lot of time, but got to know that and they seemed really interested. One of her sisters Martina also said that since Lucia got baptized, she has been happier than she has ever seen her! So cool. The gift of the Holy Ghost is so very real!

Gladys was able to go to the temple on Friday to do baptisms! We weren´t actually able to go with her, but we saw her the next day, and she was SO happy. She was able to prepare the names for her husband and her mother. And she has a ton more names now that she wants to prepare when she can go back. 

Yesterday, we had a capilla abierta, and it was super awesome! Elder Peterson and I had the part of explaining baptism and confirmation. It was a really awesome day because even not too many people came through, the people who did were super awesome! In fact, we started extending some baptismal invitations then and there, and there were four people who accepted!! Too bad none of them live in the Barrio 6 boundries haha.

Anyways, super excited about Chirstmas. We have our Christmas conference tomorrow for the mission. That is about it for this week though. Love you all! CHAU!!

Elder Layton