I'm Mitt Romney and I Approve This Message

Yeah I´m not counting down or anything but I have only ten days left in the MTC until I find out my first area and companion! I can't wait but I do really like it here still. It´s weird cause yesterday we got our ninth week schedule and there is all of our field workshop's on it.

I can't wait to leave and actually start teaching real people! We get to go contacting again on tuesday but this time with no Latino companions. I will just be with my normal companion the whole time and we´ll just have to try to stumble our way through messages. 

I´m not sure what area we'll go to this time. Apparently there´s places here a lot poorer than the last one so maybe we'll go there. 

That´s cool you guys had a good halloween. Here we went pretty much as crazy as you could go as missionaries. I wore a orange tie and Elder Steed wore a black tie. Yeah I know nuts right? 

This week nothing really special happened besides being the AP. The president is really cool. He is from the States and oh yeah haha this is funny he lived in Bend for a long time and knows some people like Max Williams, the Larsons and some others I can't remember. Every interview with him I find out someone new. It´s pretty funny. 

Hmmm what else. I´m glad Briana is doing good. That´s too bad that guy hasn't come to church. I bet that´s pretty hard. But that´s also cool about the lady who stopped you. I can't wait to be in the field and do stuff like that. Also I'm glad Romney is still doing good. 

I heard about the hurricane. That crazy. It hit New York right? I wonder if I'll ever be in a hurricane here. That would be awesome but at the same time terrible. 

But I can't stop thinking about the election! It´s this week! My next letter the first thing better be the winner. Unless it´s Obama then just forget it cause our lives are over anyway. 

Ok I seriously don't have very much to write about because this week was basically all classes. On letters I've started putting the address for my mission home cause they say it takes about 12 days to get here so any sent from this point on should go there. Crazy right? 

(,,,in response to Brenda's letter...) Hmmm for Christmas what do I want? I thought about asking you to send me some new English Scriptures. I really should've got new ones before cause they're pretty old but I don't think so. I doubt you would be able to anyways and hopefully I'll get to the point when I'm mostly reading Spanish anyway. But I just definitely need candy. Hmmm what else, yeah I don't really need anything so it´s hard to think of stuff. Well I guess surprise me because I can't think. That´s weird you have to send it so early. People have gotten packages here in like two weeks or less. 

I'll have a lot to say in my next email probably. I hope your jobs are going well. Is Curtis enjoying High School and Band? He better be. That´s weird he didn't go trick or treating. Oh well as long as he had fun. Oh I just realized what I want for Christmas!! My cell phone! Don't worry I won't tell anyone. Ha ok just kidding but I got to be honest I kinda miss it.

Ok well I got to go. Give Romney my best wishes and all the luck I have haha. He better win or I might stay here after my mission. I actually bet that would help us get in some doors. Hmmmm actually maybe not here people might not know about him. Alright bye

Our Modern Day J Golden Kimball

A lifted picture from another mishy blog of the Guatemalan MTC

So here´s the the thing. Our Pdays are today so I´m usually going to write Saturdays. I guess they just let us email on Monday last week cause we didn´t have a pday thanks to General Conference. So yeah thanks for writing me! Nah just kidding, esta bien.

This past week was crazy fast. I´ve almost been here for two weeks. Crazy right?! This next Tuesday they let us out of the MTC to go out into the city. I will go on splits with a Latino and we have to place Book of Mormons! It is going to be awesome. We get to go tracting and stuff too for like four hours I think. Definitely couldn´t do that in Provo. It´s going to be hard but at least I´ll have a Latino with me to help out. Without one I think I would die. Next time we go it will just be me and Elder Steed though. That should be interesting. 

Well what happened this week?...Hmmm oh yeah I accidentally cussed in a lesson yesterday! It was a really good lesson and I tried to say something but I left off the first two letters and apparently in Guatemala it´s a really bad word. Ha oops guess I won´t make that mistake again. You should´ve seen my teachers face. I was sooo confused why she looked so surprised but afterwards she told us haha. Other then that nothing special happened since Monday. At least nothing I can remember. 

Desayuno Chapin

We taught a bunch of lessons and ate a bunch of weird food and that´s about it. Oh yeah one thing I do have to say. Good thing I´m here cause  Mom you might be tempted to come find, and kill me. I can´t send pictures from here. I have no idea why. They took all of our cameras and we´re not even allowed to have them except the day before we leave. Yeah kinda weird but I guess it´s for safety so they don´t get stolen by the people that work here. At least that´s what they said. So sorry Mom but I´ll definitely send some as soon as I get out...in 4 and a half weeks. 

I hope everything is going ok at home. Yesterday I got both of dads letters cause even Dear Elders take awhile to get here. So thanks for that they were awesome. I can´t believe you took Curtis to a Oregon game though!!!!!!! Not only that you skipped General Conference to do it! I am disappointed in you. (We ended up staying home, watching conference and we still got to watch the game that night. Eric can stop being disappointed.) Mostly because I wasn´t there to go...but for the conference thing too. I hope it was a good game cause Conference was awesome. I guess you saw it anyways though. A lot of people in my zone now have sisters who are going to go on a mission.

It´s so cool! Some people in my zone by the time they leave will have three people out from their family at the same time! Crazy Utah people and all their kids I guess. Oh yeah there was another thing I wanted to say before I ran out of time. I haven´t had time to write them back but Grandma and Grandpa wrote me awesome letter and just wanted to thank them. I re read them yesterday and I have the most awesome grandparents ever haha. Ok well without a letter to respond to I don´t really know anything else to say. 

But here is this places address in case you didn´t find it already. [Bulevar Vista Hermosa 23-71] [Vista Hermosa 1, Zona 15] [01015 Guatemala City] [Guatemala, C.A.] They say letters take about twelve days to get here so yeah....Ok out of time.

Hope you are all doing well and the house hasn´t fallen apart without me. Good luck Briana and I hope you are enjoying it there. Look for an Elder Brooks and Hermana Longoria. They were in my Provo zone and they left a couple weeks ago for your mission. Ok Got to go bye!

Report From the Provo MTC

Well hey family!

The MTC so far has been crazy! My head hurts but They say once you make it past your first Sunday it gets easier. The past few days have been non-stop with language and devotionals. On Friday I had to teach my first lesson all in Spanish!! Luckily my companion (Elder Steed from Canada) kinda knew what he was doing. We taught him the first lesson but it turned out pretty bad. Oh well the next time we saw him was much better. We actually got him to promise to be baptized! Well I think...I couldn't really understand anything. Oh yeah and the first day here I met Gordon B. Hinkley's son. The problem was I didn't know it was him till later. He just came into our class to talk to our teacher and once he left Brother Snyder told us who it was. That was kinda lame but still cool.

Mom the food here is good but I can see how it would get old after awhile. It's basically just cafeteria food. Nothing special. I'm so happy Curtis went to Pep Band! That's hilarious. So he met Gonzo (Taylor) and Jane. They were pretty good friends but apparently they're blind if they think Curtis looks like me! I hope he likes it. He should just cause band is awesome. As for the BYU game I heard. That's soooo lame! Most people in my District were pretty happy cause I'm the only one who goes to BYU. They go to Utah State and Utah. Other then that though my District is awesome. 

I'm already getting Spanish and English mixed up sometimes just because all I do it seems is study it. Sometimes I'll be saying my prayers and slip into Spanish without realizing it just cause I've practiced the Spanish prayer so many times. I really don't know much but I'm getting better. Oh and yes I got your package. Oops (he forgot his alarm clock).

Dad that's crazy about the volcano! Elder Steed saw the picture too and we freaked out! That's so close to where we'll be going. Too bad we didn't start in the Guatemalan MTC cause we would've seen it maybe. 

Nothing like that has happened here but we have had some amazing devotionals. Last night was awesome! We had a fireside by Brother W. Tracy Watson. He talked about the Book of Mormon and how it applies to us. It was awesome! After that we watched a talk by Elder Bednar called the Character of Christ. It probably is now my favorite talk I have ever heard. It was a talk he gave in the MTC last Christmas about how we become converted. Being in the MTC is crazy but it's really amazing.

I'm so happy I'm here and know I did the right thing by coming. I can't wait to get out into the field and start teaching but I still love it here. They have a saying that the days feel like weeks and the weeks feel like days. It's so true! I've already been here almost a week. Whoa. Only two more to go!

Well time's almost up so I better go. I miss you guys and hope you're doing well! Tell Curtis to practice trumpet.

Love,

Elder Layton