God Only Gives Us Commandments Because He Loves Us

Wow, I seriously cannot believe I have been out 6 months already! I hit 6 months on Thursday, and we were in San Jose that day. Elder Raimundo bought me ice cream at a place called Grido helado, which is my favorite! And it is actually pretty cheap compared to everything else in Uruguay and Argentina, which is pretty expensive. We also had lunch that day with the Etcheveste family, as they live in San Jose. I brought taco seasoning (thanks for sending that mom :)), and while we were teaching a retention lesson to Carlos, Hermana Etcheveste made up soooooo much stuff for tacos. They we so incredible.

Elders with Cacosso Family

We had a super great lesson this week with an investigator named [...]. We taught her the restoration two weeks ago, but have been having trouble finding her again when she is home. But we finally got another lesson with her and taught about the Book of Mormon. The Spirit was so strong, and she seemed really excited about reading it. It was pretty crazy because a couple times right when I was thinking something, Elder Raimundo said the exact same thing I was thinking. And after the lesson, he said the same thing happened to him when I was talking haha. Pretty crazy how the spirit works! 

We also had a similar lesson with someone named [...] yesterday. We taught the Book or Mormon, and left her with a chapter which she said she was going to read that night! We are also going to have a family home evening with [...] tonight in the Cacosso family{s house :) Both [...] and [...] have baptismal dates for February 11th, and I really hope we can make that goal! Also, Gabriela from my last area in Montevideo got baptized this past Saturday! I am so happy for her, and she is awesome. I think Elder Good is doing well over there in Las Acacias

Today for P-Day, we went to a cool place with the Cacosso family that has a big sign of Colon. I will send some pictures. Marcos and Vivianna (Cacosso) are so cool. They always like doing stuff with us, like family home evenings with investigators. Vivianna was just reactivated to the church a year ago and studies the gospel more than anyone I have ever seen! She is always collecting different books, videos, magazines, etc to study and she is super strong in the church. Marcos, was a convert of just a year ago and helps us visit people all the time. He is also just the coolest dude. We always sing hymns when we go over for lunch and he also plays the guitar (he is super talented). He also makes just about everything with wood in his backyard, including mostly these sweet wooden mate cups. Anyways, just the coolest family.

Sweet Wooden Cups!

I have come to see commandments not as restrictions or limitations, but counsel that helps us be more free and find more happiness. I know that God only gives us commandments because he loves us and wants to protect us. It is kind of sad that some people don't understand that and think that the Mormons can't do this or can't do that. The truth is we can, but we just choose not to. And I am so grateful to be a member of this church, because I don't even have the desires to do all of those things that Heavenly Father has told us to avoid. I trust Him. 

I feel that I really have been blessed a lot with greater desires on my mission to study and learn more about the gospel. whenever I have down time, it is like that is all I want to do haha and even though I like to take my time when I study, I'm grateful for my weaknesses because they have given me a greater desire for improvement. I am so grateful for Heavenly Father´s plan for me!

Yeah, it has been a good week. Less stormy than last week which has been nice :) But soooo hot. I seriously can't even believe the pictures of Bend that I was sent! So snowy haha. Despite the heat, I love being a missionary. I feel so blessed everyday, and I am so grateful for this great opportunity to grow myself and also help others. The Book of Mormon really is so amazing, and we are so blessed to have it in our day. I know it is true, and I know that the church of Jesus Christ of latter day saints is true! Love you all!

Elder Layton

Stormy in Argentina Too!

Hey guys!

Wow, it has been a really stormy week. Tons of rain and booming lightning and thunder. All of the power in Colôn has been shut off twice, including yesterday, right when we started to write in the ciber haha. So the zone leaders gave us permission to write today, on Tuesday. 

It was super stormy last tuesday, but it cleared up that afternoon, so we ended up taking a bus over to San Jose, which is another town we have in our area. We visited a recent convert to start teaching him the retention lessons. He is so awesome. He is already really strong in the church, and despite living far away from our church building, he comes ever week. He gave us a ton of food to, and said he would start thinking of references he could give to us because he knows a lot of people. Super cool guy! 

We are working with a less active. He is 20 years old, and is really awesome. Right now, he is trying to overcome some bad habits. He is looking for a job right now, especially because he needs to support his two younger brothers. He has a ton of friends come over to his house all the time that are a really bad influence on him, so it is a little hard, but we have had a couple really good lessons with him. He wants to get his life cleaned up and even says he hopes to be able to serve a mission! I have a lot of high hopes for him to start making some changes :).

We were contacting one day this week and got talking to some lady at her door. When I introduced myself as Elder Layton, she was really surprised because her son was named Layton (although spelled differently) haha. She said she didn't have time at the moment but said we could try another day, so we may go visit her this week. I thought that was pretty funny.

We had an awesome experince with an investigator this week. We found her and taught her the restoration on my second or third day here, and even gave her a baptismal date for February 11th! She is super awesome. She actually was taught a little bit by the missionaries 20ish years ago when she was a kid. Anyways, we were going to go back this past week, but then she texted us saying not to waste time on her because she prayed about our message and everything and didn't feel like she recieved an answer. I was pretty bummed about that, because she is a really solid investigator. We decided we would go back a few days later anyways, and she let us come in and talk. We had another really great lesson with her, and focused specifically on the Book of Mormon, and also helped her to understand that sometimes answers take time. She told us she was feeling better after that, and wants to keep taking the lessons!

One other funny thing that I have discovered here in Argentina is big toads called zapos. I have heard they are in many other the interior zones of Uruguay, but I never saw them in Montevideo. It is super funny because they make these loud crying sounds like ¨WAAAAAAAAAAAA¨. We have heard them a lot lately since there has been so much rain and water everywhere. 

Love ya guys! The church is true! ´Till next week!

Elder Layton

Now Coming to You From Argentina

The Olsen Family, Elders Layton & Good While Still in Uruguay

Hey guys,

Let me just say, Argentina is so awesome and my new companion Elder Raimundo and I are having a ton of fun together! He is from Lima Peru and he has about a year in the mission. He is the district leader here in Argentina, and there is only one district in our whole zone, since there are just 8 or us.

This is his third change here and we are serving in an area called Colón. There used to be another set of hermanas whose area was the other part of Colón, but they were taken out a few months ago and so now we have a huge area.

Anyways, Elder Raimundo and I are having so much fun together. We have kept really busy because he had a bunch of future investigators when I arrived, and we have luckily found and had lessons with many of them. We have gotten a few people with baptismal dates in just the last couple days too! Two of the most promising investigators we have with a date are named [...] and [...]. They were each contacts on the street that Elder Raimundo made before I came and they are both super interested. We have just taught the restoration to both of them so far, but they already seem really prepared, and both said they would be baptized February 11th if they come to know these things are true!

It is really easy to just contact someone on the street and get a lesson with them. We have taught the restoration a ton. We have gotten 5 new fechas in just 3 days and 8 new investigators! Elder Raimundo is a really good contactor and teacher, and he has been teaching me a lot. We also have a lot bigger of an area than I had before. We have our big area as well as the big area the hermanas used to have. A lot of dirt roads too, and most people live in older, poorer houses than Montevideo.

Argentina is really beautiful. It is also quite a bit different than Montevideo. First off, it is soooo hot, even more than was in Montevideo. Second off, our area mostly consists of dirt roads and there are more humble circumstances. Also, the people here are just SO receptive of us. We have already found 8 new investigators in the past 3 days mostly due to street contacting. Another thing I enjoy is the air is fresher. In Montevideo, there was always someone smoking everywhere you could look haha.

But speaking of Montevideo, I really miss Las Acacias too. There were some super awesome members there and a couple progressing investigators I will really miss. It is funny because I didn't fully realize how connected to some of the people I am. It was pretty hard saying bye to everyone. We had lessons with [...] and [...] the day before I left, and they both started crying :/

But the branch here is super awesome as well. I really love it here. One family in particular, family [...] is super awesome. They were converted a year ago, but are super strong in the church. They give us lunch a lot and Marcos, the dad is such an incredible cook! He hooks us up haha. We also sing a lot when we go over there. He is an awesome singer and guitar player, and we always harmonize and stuff haha. The mission is pretty stinkin great :) Love you all.

Argentina Transfer and the Christmas Call

Elders Layton and Good with the Bellotti Family

Hey everyone!

What a week!! To start, I haven´t received my changes yet, so I don't know where I will be or who with next change, so you guys will all have to wait until next week to find out. We should be getting a call tonight about it. 

Anyways, we had a super awesome week! To start, I went on divisions this week to Barrio 6 with Elder Carducci, a B

razilian who has the same time as me. We got a bunch of lessons, and it was really fun. We also got fed so much in just one day haha. We also found a huge spider in their house that night. Elder Carducci freaked out and sprayed it with bug spray for like 15 seconds haha.

Anyways, Thursday was the best day ever. We had a fun Christmas mission conference for most of the day with half of the mission, because it was split into two conferences. I barely missed out on a Michael Jordan jersey. Total bummer haha. But it was still a great conference. Lunch was incredible too. It was funny because after the conference, everyone who was there and had served in the offices got together for a picture. And everyone was in our conference that had been in the offices for the last 5 or 6 changes except for one person- another Elder Layton who is serving up in Artigas. So some people came and got me and had me sub in for the other Elder Layton and we took a big offices picture haha. 

UPDATE: President Olsen just called Elder Good and told him that he is training next change. So that means I am leaving which is kind of a bummer because I really love this area, but I am excited because.... I´M GOING TO ARGENTINA!! Woooooooh! The zone leaders are going to call me later and give me more information like who is my companion and what area I will be in, but I am actually super excited!! There is only one zone in our mission that is in Argentina, and I think it will be so much fun to go there!! Can´t wait. And I know Elder Good will take good care of Las Acacias, so I am really happy for the people here. 

Christmas Call via Skype

Well, anyways the rest of our day on Thursday was sweet. There is a lady named [...], who Elder Rosenhan and I found last week on divisions. I remember we were walking home and I had a feeling to stop and knock on one more door, which was hers. She is super nice and Elder Good and I went there and had such an awesome lesson with her!! She was very accepting of us, believes in Christ, and doesn't belong to any particular religion. She dug out a Book of Mormon that a friend apparently gave her ten years ago and said now that we came by she wanted to read it. She has never spoken to the missionaries before, but the spirit was strong as we taught the restoration, and she understood well. 

Anyways, after that bomb lesson, we were contacting and saw some people playing basketball so went and talked with them. They wanted us to play, so we did some two on two in our church clothes haha. And then a couple more people came over and they were all so interested in who we were. We have ran into one of the kids, [...] the past two days, and gave us his address because he wants us to come over! We are going to head over tonight, and I have a good feeling :)

Elder Layton via Skype - The Christmas Call

We got to stay up really late on Christmas eve to watch all of the fireworks, because Uruguay does NOT disappoint!! It was the most absurd firework show I have ever seen. People on every street around our apartment were shooting them of and it was so incredible. Elder Good and I had a super great view because our house has a nice roof we can get on :)

I think the most amazing part of this week though was talking to the family though! It was amazing seeing everyone, and I am lucky to have the best family ever! The mission rocks and the church is true!! 

Honestly, there is nothing more that I would want than such an amazing and loving family. I love you guys so much. I am so grateful that we are blessed with the gospel which is so focused on the happiness of families and being together forever. It was just so amazing hearing from you all and it seems like you are all doing so well. Thanks for all of your support and love. You guys make the mission easier for me :) I am so grateful to be here on a mission. I really think I have grown a lot this past change. I finished the BOM this morning and I am so grateful to have it.

Elder Layton

Grateful

Hey everyone!

It has been a good week and also an interesting week...

We went on divisions on Tuesday and Elder Rosenhan came to our area with me for the day. We had one retention lesson with [...] about the restoration, and one youth member in the ward said he could come to the lesson with us. We taught them in the church building, and when we got there, there were actually four youth, one named [...] who is not a member. he is really cool, and it was neat because we got to teach him and [...] at once, with some member help.

This Guy Can Cook!

Anyways, was an interesting day. We had a super good zone conference with president Olsen, and he talked a lot about responsibility. We have a really incredible mission president! We had interviews with him too, and he talked to us about our release dates. Mine will be in August, and I didnt even realize this until after when Elder Good talked to me about it, and he extended the both of us an extra change on our missions! Haha, I am totally cool with it and that means I will serve for a change over the two year mark. :) (Mom and dad are not sure if they are cool with it or not.)

Anyways something funny happened on Wednesday- Elder Good and I were on one side of our area booking it to the other side because we had another lesson to get to and were a few minutes late. Then some guy named [...] who we always see in the computer cyber stopped us and told us to come in for a charla. We told him we had another lesson to get to but took out our agendas and told him we could come back the next day.

Apparently he was mad that we couldn't come in at that minute so when we were looking at our agendas, he just grabbed Elder Good´s name tag and ran back into his house, slamming the gate and door behind him. Hahaha. Elder Good and I just kind of stood there, wondering if that really just happened.

His mom came out and said that he threw it somewhere, and so we really don't think we are getting that back. Anyways, as we were walking away, this huge dog they have came from behind me and bit me in the leg. It really caught me off guard, and when i turned around it got me in the hand too... So it tried lunging at me a third time and I just kicked it in the face because it was going crazy. Luckily, it backed off after that though. And I am also glad it didnt break any skin of anything, so i think I´m good :)

The Guerrero Family

It was Elder Good´s birthday on Friday. We threw him a little party in the house that night, made a cake, and bought tons of ice cream :) Also, on Sunday we went over to family Guerrero´s house and they gave us the BEST FOOD I HAVE HAD IN URUGUAY! Fernando made the most incredible asado grill and afterwards, they had a cake for Elder Good too. They are such an awesome family.

Happy Birthday Elder Good!

A couple other things that happened this week- [...] is progressing super well and she is definitely on track to be baptized on January 7th. She is already so excited!

The Zone in Their New T Shirts

Also, we had a weekly correlation with our ward mission leader, Hermano Runco this week and I got a picture with him, because he had on a Los Angeles Lakers shirt haha. The worst team ever! Also, today we had a zone  forP-Day. We did a white elephant exchange, and also got some cool zone shirts we paid for a few weeks ago. I am having a lot of fun here in Flores, and I am so grateful to be a missionary.

Hermano Runco, Great Guy, Poor Taste in Teams

I hope you al have a Merry Christmas!!

Elder Layton

A Prepared People

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

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

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

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

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

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

Elder Layton

A Really Great Week

Hey everyone!!

Well I am sure you guys will all be enjoying a white Christmas, but here it is HOT. We still got the Christmas spirit going though as we bought a small tree for the house haha. Also, the four of us Elders who live together bought Rubix cubes because we can all solve them. Haha we're all a bunch of nerds. Anyways, it was a really great past week! To start, we had a lesson with [...] on Tuesday and afterwards he took us out and bought us some food- that was super nice and he was really insisting! And just the other day, he had his baptismal interview with our district leader Elder Rosenhan, and.....passed!! Woooooooh!! So we each are going to have our first baptism this Saturday! We are both super excited, as is [...].

Sunrise in Flores

Elder Good hit his 6 month mark this week and so we went out to get ice cream. It was awesome, and I am so grateful they have really good ice cream here because I loooooove ice cream haha. 

Elder Good

We had a great day on Thursday. We got a lesson that morning with someone we contacted on the street named [...]. Her son isn't interested and she is very catholic but she enjoyed our message and wants us to come back another day. We also had a lesson with a less active named [...], and we were hoping to get the lesson to be with her husband too, but he hadn't gotten back from work yet. So we had a lesson anyways and it was really awesome! And even better, her husband [...] got back from work near the end of our lesson and sat in. He is really nice and afterwards he said he had to go back out again so he could take us where we needed to go. So he drove us to our house and we got ready to go to a mutual activity that we were invited to. We got there like ten minutes late and only one person was there. So we waited a couple minutes and all of the sudden someone in the ward named [...] (who just got off off a mission) pulled up in a van and like a dozen jovenes piled out. Four of them were non members and two were less actives. We played soccer in the gym for like two hours (we had to leave after two hours, but they were still playing haha) and it was super fun. And we even set up a lesson with one of them this weekend, so we are hoping to get to know some of the others better if they keep coming to activities!

We had stake conference this weekend and we heard from President Olsen, some local authorities, and members of the stake presidency. Also, our investigators came both to the adult session on Saturday and to the conference on Sunday!! 

Flores Cathedral

I read JSH 1:1-35 in my personal study this morning and the spirit bore witness unto me again about the truthfulness of that history. And we talked a lot about the restoration in our zone conference today. We also watched a video about Joseph Smith and the first vision which I have seen a few times but I can always feel the spirit when that first vision music starts and watch the experience. The spirit is clearly a witness unto me of the truthfulness of the BOM and Joseph Smith, but even more is that so many people went through so much just to disprove a boy who they thought was crazy anyways. Satan worked hard. I also think of the scripture that basically says if we build our foundation on Christ we cannot and will not fall even if the mouth of hell gapes open after us. 

I love being a missionary. It sure is hard work, but we really do see miracles and I am so grateful to be able to feel the spirit so often. Although I have read them before, a few vesus really stuck out to me in my studies this week- Moroni 7:45-48. They speak of charity and as I read them slowly and thought about them, they taught me a lot. Amazing verses. 

Anyways, happy holidays to everyone, and I love you all!!

Elder Layton