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