An Amazing Blessing From An Apostle of the Lord

I think every day in this area gets crazier and crazier. I really don't know where to start. I guess I´ll try to start from the beginning of the week. I´m not sure if I mentioned to you guys or not but the Apostle Elder Cook came and gave us a visit! All 750 of us got to shake his hand too. Three missions went to see him and we got an amazing message and he promised us a lot of blessings. One specifically was that everyone we know at this time is being blessed because of our service. He directed himself to all those who had a family member who has strayed from the path of the Lord and said they will be softened by the service we are giving and they are also being greatly blessed. In ways that they may not recognize. Truly one of the coolest conferences I've been too. He said so many more things too but I have so much to say and so little time. So yes that happened the 22nd.

Let´s see what else happened this week. To help a couple of missionaries in our zone get excited about the work we got up really early and went to their house. (Remember that the areas here are quite far away from each other). So yeah we broke into their houses to surprise them. It was quite interesting actually. But it was really fun. After we helped clean their houses because they were horrible and then talked with them a bit. It definitely worked well and the Assistentes laughed really hard when we told them. Talking about the Assistentes I have divisions with them. It´s weird though because their area is within 5 minutes walking from my last area. I could easily see people I know. Apparently my last area too is having a TON of success. A lot of the people I taught are finally taking the decisions to get baptized. Cool right?

Ok Mom you have some homework this week. We had interviews with the President and I made a decision. I have decided that I want to stay till the end of my mission. (He was considering asking to be released 2 weeks early in order to make the Fall term at BYU.) So I'm scheduled to go home the 16th or 18th of September...Not really sure which. President Stay told me that he thinks fall term starts the 8th not the 2nd so maybe it would be possible to still make it even though I would start a bit late. President Stay´s dad actually founded BYU´s AFROTC so he knows a lot about it. Weird right? Apparently they should work with me. Can you just figure out with BYU what I can possibly do?

Ok last thing Saturday we had a lesson with Celeste one of our investigators. It went good. We left and 5 minutes later she called us and said she had had an impression and wanted to get baptized...tomorrow. So yes. SURPRISE we had a baptism yesterday. It was soooo cool and she was really ready. Also we are getting close with the rest of the family to be baptized. Sorry something is weird about these computers and I can never send pictures so maybe I will never be able to send any...Sorry.

Well no time. Hope you guys have a good week and see you in just over 7 months.... 

Working Like Crazy and Having Success

Man time is going so fast here. Easily the fastest week of my mission so far. We are working like crazy and having some success. We had 18 new investigators this week which is more than I think we had in my last area for 6 months.....ok just kidding but it is a lot. Alright I guess I`ll start out by answering all of your questions.

As Zone Leader we`re just in charge of all the missionaries here in these areas.  We have to do divisions with them but we also have to do divisions with the assistants. We are in charge of the zone meeting that we do every month and ever Monday we have to call the President to let him know how everything is going in the zone. There are a lot of Stake Meetings too that we have to attend so we travel a lot for that cause we`re actually 1 hour and a half away from the Stake Center. My area literally is perfect right now. It`s not the hot part of the season so it`s actually pretty nice. During the day it get a little bit hot but there`s always a nice breeze to help out. At night it`s actually cold. But I should be here for the hot part of the year. Also I forgot to take pictures of the chapel so well......sorry. 

My toe is totally fine now so yeah all good there. We always walk here....everywhere. Unless we`re late to an appointment we go in Tuc-Tuc which is a tiny little three wheeled car that they use as taxis here. But almost always we`re walking. Hope all that answers your questions.

Sounds like you guys had a good week and good job Curtis with your Eagle Scout thing. Like we would say here ¡Que Pilas! Haha. Also I hope you have fun reffing. People never told me how good I did they just always got made at me because for them I guess there is nothing more important in the world than 3rd graders playing basketball. But you should have fun doing that. Hey maybe if you save up enough money you can buy yourself a tablet!! .....Oh wait a sec....     

Ok so just now I have been trying to put pictures on but I`m having a hard time so maybe this week you guys won`t get pictures either...Sorry. But really we`ve been working so hard here and we should have success. The members are cool and they always help us. the only problem is is that there are not a lot of members...We`ll have to change that I guess. So yeah that`s the week. Maybe I can give you guys more details next week about people we are teaching just cause the problem is everyone is new! But soon we should see some progress in this area.

Hope you guys all have an awesome week in Oregon without me oh and in Salt Lake taking care of troubled kids haha. I`ll keep working here as the Lord needs me to.

Love you guys,

Elder Layton

New Area, New Companion, New Assignment and a Plastic Chapel

Progreso Jutiapa

Man this has easily been the craziest week of my mission. First off I should let you guys know where I am. Once again they sent me outside of the Capital!! I'm in a place called Progreso Jutiapa. The entire city is just for us including a lot of outlying aldeas (small towns or villages). It is a little branch of about 50 people and the chapel is made of plastic. Next week I`ll send a picture of it. It's actually pretty nice though. 

My companion´s name is Elder Guman from Ecuador and he has 20 months in the mission. So basically what happened is we are both new in the area. We are opening it up as Zone Leaders. So yeah that was definitely a surprise. 

Being Zone Leader is definitely pretty stressful. Especially outside of the city because we have to travel a ton. We have already gone back to the city 2 times which was interesting so we've actually had barely any time to work in the area so far. But from what I've seen it is really a great area. The people are really receptive and I think we are going to have a lot of success here.

So let`s go through the days here.

Tuesday- The change meeting and we were sent here. We traveled all day and got to the area late.

Wednesday- We woke up at 4:30 to go back to the city. We had to go to the offices to get our phone and also I had an appointment with the Doctor to cut off an ingrown toenail....Then once again traveling the rest of the day.

Thursday- The doctor said I wasn't allowed to leave the house or walk so in the house.

Friday- We once again woke up at 4:30 to go back to the city to have the mission council which we have to go to. Once again travelling all day.

Saturday- First real day to work in the area. Also President Stay and his wife came to work with us. He let us know on Friday that he was going to come work with us for a couple hours. (Coolest experience ever).

Sunday- President Stay came to our branch and my companion and I had to speak. After he came to Gospel Principles and we had to give the class.

Today

So yeah as I said the craziest week of my mission. But really on Saturday we went to an appointment with the President and it was the first time we had ever met this person. Really he ended up being the most closed off person that I have ever met in my life. So we didn't make any progress with him but I did get to see President Stay debate with him!!!!! SSOOOOOO COOOLLLL Haha but needless to say we won't be going back to this person.

Awww man I`ve really got no more time. That has been the week though. I´m working hard and enjoying the new challenge that the Lord has given me. Tomorrow we have the Zone Meeting so that should be fun. I hope you guys all have an awesome week and enjoy the cold for me because my new area is definitely not cold...

Love you guys!!

Bye

Lots Of Success Pending, But...

What a week.....

Hey Mom first off I should start by saying that the companion I sent a picture of isn`t new. We've been together for 3 months now. His name is Elder Peña and he`s from Mexico. I told you guys that on the phone. I guess I just haven't sent a lot of pictures of us together but I think I'll send a couple more today. But yeah so we have 3 months together but I should mention that last night I was told that I have changes. Tomorrow I have to leave and I`ll find out where I'm going. I`ll let you guys know where I am and what happens to me next week. 

So let`s see. This week was pretty good. The zoo was definitely fun. The animals were great. I almost got eaten by a llama which was funny. They also had white tigers and stuff so that was cool. Afterwards we went to Dominos and ate a bunch of pizza. 

So yeah that`s pretty much it about the zoo. As for new years we didn`t have permission to be outside so we were stuck in our beds. It was impossible to sleep though because it was so loud outside at 12:00. So I heard all the fireworks. Other than that the week was pretty normal.

We've been working pretty hard with a couple people. We're thinking in this change that`s coming the area should have 8 baptisms. Actually almost all of them are pretty sure. The Bishop called us one day and told us the grandkids of a member want to be baptized so that will be 2 baptisms in February. And of course I won't be here to see everything that`s going to happen. I told Elder Peña to keep me up to date with what happens though so I`ll let you guys know.

Well I hope you guys all had an awesome New Years and hope you enjoy this year. That`s crazy that all of 2013 I've`ve been here in Guatemala. Time is so fast..... Well sorry I never write very good e-mails. One hour just never is enough and I always get distracted. But really that`s what`s been happening. I hope you guys all have a great week and year and I`ll let you guys know what happens. See you guys later.

Adios