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