August 29, 2011

Sorry to miss last week. We went paintballing and ran out of time to write.

Today I got to go to Elder Bowe’s ward so I could hang out with him for a while before he goes home next week. We played soccer in the culture hall for a while, which was way fun, and then we went and played tennis, but it got too hot, so we couldn’t really play that much which was sad because one of the guys there got second in state doubles in Oregon when he was in high school. It was still fun though. It’s just so dry and hot that it’s next to impossible to stay on the courts for very long. In Missouri you are always worried about not drinking enough water and you can play for a long time without going to get a drink, but here you can’t play for more than 5 minutes without going and getting a drink, and you don’t even really need it that bad cuz you don’t sweat that much. It’s just so different. Weird. We had a super good time today though.

Our ward still has its English class, and it’s much bigger now. We aren’t the teachers but we assist usually both Wednesday and Thursday, but sometimes on Wednesday we go in to soccer and talk to all the non-member and less active youth there. We have an English class of around 20 and they call us whenever they have questions, so that’s going well. We're teaching the Gospel to one of the students, and it’s really nice seeing your investigators a few times during the week.

This week’s training in our district meeting was on teaching about the Atonement. There are 3 parts to it. 1. The power over death we receive because of Christ; 2. The ability we have to become clean from sin through Christ; and 3. The personal knowledge Christ has of all of us because he suffered through it . The training was pretty good. A good time

We have a new family we just started teaching. They were a referral from English-speaking elders who were park contacting, and ran into the dad (Luis) and he promised that if they got him a Book of Mormon in Spanish, he'd read it. Luis comes to our English classes as well. Cool guy. Pretty chill. We taught him this week about what the Book of Mormon is. He and his wife have 6 kids, all at home, the oldest is 18 and the youngest is 9. We've only talked to the parents so far and mostly only Luis, but I think we will be able to teach the whole family soon. At our lesson Luis told us about the commitment he had made with the other missionaries to read the Book of Mormon and told us he planned on keeping that commitment. That was way cool to hear. He is excited to learn more, and I really think he feels something that he is looking for.

Let’s see … what have I been cooking? Well, this week I made a pasta with queso fresco, that I sauteed in olive oil with some 100% organic all white meat basil pesto sausage I got from Trader Joe's a little while ago (thanks Tim). That was way solid. I also tried a dish of rice with sausage and vegetables but where I simmer it in some milk with some spices, and that turned out pretty dang good too. This month though i need to try and make papa de la huancaina. We'll see how it turns out. I learned how to take the heat down a bit, so I'll make a mild version. For breakfast Ive just made some omelets and stuff. I’ll probably make a meal for my apartment before Elder Peters goes home.
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As for what we eat when we are invited to Church members’ homes … I don’t think I had talked about Mole yet. Mole negro is way good. It’s kind of a shredded chicken with a thick sauce that is a mix of chile and chocolate, It’s very solid and has given me a better appreciation for Iron Chef, if that’s possible. Now I want to learn to cook sweet with spicy. That’d be awesome. Let’s see, what else...Oh, I don’t think of talked about ceviche. It’s awesome. Mom needs to get some. She'd probably really like it, so take Mom to get some ceviche, Dad. My favorite mexican food is officially sopes, which are sooo good. I love them and am just waiting for the day I get them again.

August 15, 2011

Yes, I am now a District Leader. District Leaders basically have 2 responsibilities: 1. Collect stats Sunday night and add them up. 2. Give District meetings a couple times a month. Then you have to do a couple more things that nobody else has to/wants to do. I also have to go to leadership training meetings. You can see me at one on Sister Black’s blog. My district is me and Elder Kakau, the English elders we live with (Peters and Altamirano), and the other two missionaries in our ward (Andrews and Sandoval). There are 4 districts in the zone. This district is kind of complicated for how much area it covers because 2 of the companionships are spanMs. So if you count that then we cover our whole zone, and about half of red rock. My district is bigger than my zone, hahaha.

We did make it bowling last week. Actually I didn’t do too bad. I got a 136 and a 139. The 139 was a total choke though. I bowled a 3 on the last frame, hahaha. That’s ok. I think we might go again today. It’s pretty cheap and super fun. $3 for shoe rental but only $1.50 a game. Pretty legit.

Teaching, we had a pretty solid week. We made some good progress with some those we’re teaching. We figured out that Celia hasn't gotten an answer yet because she hasn't asked if the things we are teaching are true or not. We told her you can’t get an answer to a question that you don’t ask, but then she told us that God would tell her when it was the right time to ask. I thought that was pretty unlikely, so I asked her what she normally does when she has a question to ask her father in heaven....she said she asks him....so I asked her, is this really any different? She’s planning on asking now (we think, haha) and is committed to follow the answer she gets, so we're excited for her. We talked to her about how faith is not passive waiting, its active waiting, or it requires action. Its not really faith to sit there and believe that my Father in Heaven will help me get a good grade on a test if I didn't study for it, that’s just hopeful wishing, which isn't going to get you anywhere. Now if I studied hard, I'm entitled to a little help when I ask for it. At least to cut the nerves. So we talked about some of that stuff. It was fun as it always is over there. We also taught Fabi and Humberto for the first time, which was good. Elder Kakau just killed it. He was prompted by the spirit to say some things that I never would have thought of that were fantastic and out of nowhere. Afterward I was like, “Dude, you just take a lesson any time you are going like that cuz that was sick!”

This week Maria called us out of the blue (haven't heard from or been able to contact her for a while now). She called to see if we could come by and to see how we were doing. Turns out she was pretty sick with the flu for a while, which is still a little dangerous for her because she isnt super far off from being cleared of cancer. She still has a hard time when she gets sick, but she is doing great now. She came to church on Sunday with her two little grandkids which was awesome. They got to stay all 3 hours and she really like it. Hopefully we will be setting her with a date very soon now that she’s back on track! Exciting time. I learned that sometimes you just need to keep trying with people even when you can’t get ahold of them. You never know what’s going on or how important showing them that you really do care can be.

Still catching up: August 8, 2011

This week was pretty solid overall. We had a pretty solid amount more lessons this week than we have been having over the last couple. Our district is doing pretty well right now. The English elders we live with (Altamirano and Peters) have 6 baptisms set for this month so far. We are hoping to pull off a couple, but it’s going to be tough. We had a lesson with one of the Marias last night and committed her to pray about being baptized this month specifically, so we are hoping that she will finally be baptized on the 27th after 2 years of investigating, but we'll see. Hopefully she gets her answer and listens to it. We also had a great lesson with Celia this week. We taught her about the plan of salvation because she had a lot of questions about it. It’s cool because the plan of salvation answers most questions anybody has. Everything else in reality is contained inside it.

We also got a couple of new investigators this week. A couple named Blanca and Jose Luis, who were an MTC referral, and Mari, who is a member referral. Blanca and Jose Luis are very active in their church but also very interested in learning more about ours. We are going to take a member couple around their age over to the lesson we have with them on Tuesday night. Mari used to take the lessons back in Colorado and her sister got baptized back there, but then she and her family moved here and lost touch with the missionaries. Fortunately one of her best friends has got to be one of the best member missionaries in all of Las Vegas, so we are now teaching her in her friend’s house, which is fantastic. Oh, and the house is also waaay nice. It’s in the Red Rock Country Club neighborhood, which is like a super, super nice neighborhood. There are gates inside of gates. Some of the houses are unbelievable. Hers isn’t massive, but it’s a pretty good size and its super, super nice. Plus it’s just her. Pretty weird for us. Not used to being in a place that nice. Mari is excited to be starting to take the lessons again, so we are pumped for her too. We also picked up a couple more potential investigators just by going to church Wednesday night and hanging out with the youth playing soccer a little bit. A lot of the guys have chick friends and girl friends who aren't members of our church who come and watch and hang out with some of the members, so we just went and hung and talked to a couple of them. Two are super interested and would like us to teach them. That is how youth activities can work. We just talked to them and chilled a little bit and then we started in about what we do as missionaries and then talked about the church. It was sweet. Our youth are the key to so much missionary work because they have such good programs. We already have 4 recent convert young women in the 4 months. Their all super strong too, which means they help with more missionary work. It’s legit. The girls actually want to go out and teach with the missionaries. Pretty cool. It’s good to see youth getting involved. We have a lot of guys who are around missionary age too, so the ward is starting to work on them a little harder. It’s a good time to be in this ward overall. That’s about the week overall.

We are going to go bowling today, which should be pretty dang fun. More next week!

Catching up: Message from August 2

So here's a fairly typical Sunday in Elder Layton's life -- the story of August 1:

Wake up at 6:30 and head to the living room to read Jesus the Christ a little bit (probably fell asleep for a few minutes doing that) then got some breakfast and hopped in the shower. At 8:00 I start studies (though today these involved a little falling asleep too cuz it was rainy and really hard to stay awake). I prepped a bit for a lesson we were going to have later that day. At 9:00 we were heading out the door to go over to the church for leadership meeting in the ward. We go in this ward cuz our ward mission leader works nights and has a really hard time sleeping from 6:00 am when he gets off and getting up at 9:00am when the meeting starts...understandable, obviously. After the meeting we ran home to grab some stuff quickly and got back a little while before church started at 11:00. In sacrament meeting a couple of our recent converts got to bear their testimonies (give little impromptu talks) before the final speaker, who was a missionary who just got home. It was a good meeting and hopefully was inspiring for people to do missionary work. After that we went to our gospel principals class with our investigators and our amazing teacher Hermano Quintana. The man just has a way of captivating his audience and teaching simply while actually still reading from the book. He does an incredible job. From there we had combined men and women for 5th sunday. We learned about the addiction recovery program from addiction recovery missionaries. It was interesting and really good. The program is incredible and if you put in the effort and have a desire to change, you will change. After that we grabben some lunch. I had some rice and Naan. It was pretty dang good. From lunch we rushed over to the Quintana's house to teach their granddaughter Celia. She is 19 and has been here for about 2 months from Nicaragua. Her little sister is Karen who got baptized a couple months ago now. Celia studied with the Jehovah's Witnesses for about 3 years before coming here and had some questions for us. We had a really good lesson with her (her g-pa helped a lot) and she is now very willing to pray and read the book of Mormon to know if its true. She believes that there is a true church, but just is looking for an answer to which one it is because they all say that they are. She committed to read the Book of Mormon and Pray every day this week. We will be texting and visiting to make sure she keeps up on it. That was actually a really long lesson so we ran straight to dinner (pretty late). It was really good. A chicken curry (served with pinnaple and banana) with rice, salad, and vegetables; it was way good. We rushed from there back to the church to help set up for the baptism of our Elders quorum president's little boy (the bishop had asked us if we could). We helped set everything up and then stayed for the baptism because a few people we needed to talk to (including a potential investigator) had shown up. Afterwards we set up some appointments and talked to our WML for a bit, and then it was time to go pick up the english missionaries and call it a day. Solid day overall. Pretty typical Sunday.

Today in Las Vegas

Well, it’s been an interesting week. Covering both areas in the Flamingo Ward was insane. We had basically zero time that wasn’t scheduled out and had lessons until 9:30 every night. I am so tired right now, and actually very sore (we went on a run for the first time in a long time yesterday, so my legs hurt, my knees aren’t doing great, and my back is killing me and is very close to completely going out, haha). Today, though, Elder Andrews and I both have new companions, so we’re back to our usual areas! Yeaaa! I’m with Elder Kakau, who was in the Fallon zone with me for a while. We know each other pretty well. He’s a solid missionary and a chill guy, so we're excited. He is actually full Tongan too. He lived in Utah for a couple years before the mission, but that’s it. The rest of his life he was in Tonga. So we speaks perfect Tongan and English and is getting better and better at Spanish, which is pretty sweet. We are excited to serve together.

Well this last week our main focus was on Elder Andrews' area because he has a baptism this weekend and next weekend, so we were focusing on them pretty strongly, but of course also doing other stuff. We got them prepared though, and now they are pretty good to go. We should be able to get a few investigators from my area to those baptisms this weekend, which I think will be a huge help. Oh ya, we have been working just a tiny bit with a friend of our recent converts named Crisia, but she is always in and out of town, so we never had a real strong opportunity to teach her. Well, we gave her a Book of Mormon and on her last trip out of town she read a little bit from it almost every night before she went to sleep. Then she came back and we taught part of lesson one and had her watch the restoration with our recent converts, and a few days ago we got a text saying she wants to be baptized! She came to church on Sunday and LOVED it. She said she felt such a strong feeling that she described as nervous and excited but more so indescribable; it was so cool. Unfortunately, we ran into a problem. She leaves again on Thursday for Belize for a week (for an international beauty pageant, haha, she is actually Miss Costa Rica...seriously, ya) and won’t be able to go to church, and then comes back for a week where she will be able to go, but then leaves again, so she won’t be able to get to church 3 times. She wants to be baptized so badly, but she just can't until she meets the requirements. Really this has worked exactly as member missionary work should. We just met her from visiting our recent converts, and then they talked to her about some stuff, and then we gave a Book of Mormon, they talked to her about more stuff, and then encouraged her to follow her feelings, and we are now teaching in their home. If we could get all members to work like this we would have tons of people joining the church here. This family is on fire though. I think Ive mentioned them before...Jonythan and Andriette. They told us that they are going to get every Costa Rican who ever goes to their house to get baptized, hahah! They are great and really want to share the things that have helped them out so much. Its great to have them.

July 18, 2011

Not much this week. I switched companions temporarily; I'm with Elder Andrews, who was with me in the Missionary Training Center. We're handling both areas in the Florida Ward, so there is a lot to do. The photo, taken last week, has (from your left): Elder Andrews, me, Elder Peters, Elder Zegarra (my old comp - I'll miss him!), and Elder Altamarion.

Meanwhile, check out one of my favorite videos.

July 11: Happy Birthday to me!

Well, I’m 21!!! and in Vegas, hahaha! Pues, what do people do when they turn 21? In Vegas, hit the Strip. Toss a few bucks into roulette or blackjack. Maybe hit a 21 and over club to finish out the night...oh the feeling of showing the bouncer that you actually are 21, how nice. That’s an interesting list considering I will be doing absolutely none of it. Even off my mission I wouldn’t do any of it...well maybe get into the club just to say I did, but I mean, I don’t drink, gambling is kind of just a ridiculous waste of money, and the Strip isn't that fantastic in the end. At some point I guess we all realize that there are more important things in life. At times like this I like to think about what on earth I’m doing in Nevada for 2 years. I think about it for about two seconds and then realize that I’m doing some of the most important work of my life. Why would I want to have a crazy 21st? The craziness would last a night and the next day would suck. What I’m doing instead is enjoying life, making it better every day if I can. I get to have some true joy in my life because I get to see other people changing theirs. The reversal from misery to happiness is fantastic but it’s even better to see the change from happiness to having a feeling of fulfillment in life and expanding joy. That’s pretty sweet. A solid way to spend a 21st I would say. Of course I’ll still hang out with my friends here, but I will be back to work tomorrow...without a hangover or regrets. Life’s solid. Thanks for all the birthday wishes I’ve gotten (mom and dad sent me the posts so far from Facebook)! Much love for everyone reading my blog.