Elder Landon Layton: Little by little things are coming!

Elder Layton and His Companion

Dear Family,

Hello! It was good to get a big long letter from you all! It sounds like everything is going really well! I love to hear everything that is going on! Good to hear that everyone is safe and doing well! That's good that you went to Colby's farewell! Did you talk to his parents at all? I'm sure that you would love them. Tim is awesome and Sandra. Poppe is a stud too. If he knows I used his name in this letter he would get all big headed... So try and not to let him find out! Haha just kidding! I miss those guys though!

Everything here is going about the same... Language is the same, food is the same, people are the same. Except for I have a new American living with me named Elder Shumway. He is from Cedar City. He has been out for just over a year. He is awesome. We talk every night for hours. We are going to start working out to get JACKED! AKA ripped.... It's gonna be sweet. I like him a lot. I am starting to get a hang of stuff here more and more every day. I found my way back to the apartment! My companion asked me if I could do it and I totally did... I've just got a good sense of direction I guess! Get it from dad. At first, all the people just looked the same, but now I can remember faces and names which is nice! Little by little things are coming! The language is just coming really really little by little... It's all good though!

We went to the Zoo today! That was pretty awesome! It's no Hogle Zoo, but it's pretty cool! They have two lions there and you are gonna freak when you see the video that I took! It's rad!

They went to the Zoo! *File photo

The guide would rattle this stick at the cage and it would just roar this huge roar and charge the fence and it was sick! And we were right there haha. It was fun. After that we went to the Southam’s house and ate pancakes and fruit and all that good stuff and just hung out. We do stuff like that every second Monday of the week. I guess what we usually do is go to their house and watch a movie in French... Like they watch remember the titans and harry potter and such! I thought that was kind of interesting... But it's cool with me!

I think that I might be having another baptism this Saturday but we are just waiting to see... It's a rule here that the people have to be married before they get baptized so they don't have problems with the law of chastity. Of course that's only for people who are older or have kids already. I thought that was pretty interesting. But yeah the lessons and such go the same... I just bare my testimony at the end. I'm not sure if they understand or not, but I figure it's just like whatever! If they need to then they will....

I got your package!!!! OH MY FREAKING HECK! I loved it!!! The pictures were my favorite :) (I printed some off of FB of his friends) I loved all of them! I loved the food though too! That was a way awesome Idea! The m&m's did good with the heat and are awesome... So you could send some of those again! I love em.

In the next package:

~Tide-To-Go

~Those tooth pick things with the floss that dad uses all the time... I think you know what I'm talking about.

~If you remember my wrist wraps I wore for football, that would be nice to have... It's not bad haha don't worry. It would just be nice to have. Not the brace, but the stretchy one with the velcro... IF not, that's okay! I understand.

~More pictures! I love to look at them. Some of football too. Rice Eccles, East game, etc.

That's about all I can think of right now... I randomly think of stuff and write them down! Thank you so much for them too. That's awesome. Elder Shumway said that he hasn't gotten his package and it's been like 3 months... So it differs a lot. But yeah I love the pictures and the messages were cool too! (This was the "welcome to Africa package"- Thank you to all the people who sent messages to me for Landon. We will do that again. Sounds like he LOVED it!) Tell T. Byington that his message meant a lot to me and I thought that was really cool of him. Let me know where he gets his call when it comes!

I love you guys with all my heart and again, love hearing about what is going on in all your lives! Make sure that you tell the kids hi while they are there and that I love them so much! Have an amazing week and day :) I love you so much!

Questions from home…

1- Have you had any stomach problems?

~No. I have been blessed! I pray that I don't daily!

2- Are you taking your malaria pills daily?

~Of course! I don't want to die.... Malaria sounds like H.E double hockey sticks.

3- How close are you to the mission home?

~We are about a 30 minute walk. Not too far.

4- How about Southam’s?

~I really love the Southam’s!

5- How close are you to the ocean? Can you see it?

~So I guess that we are right next to the ocean, like a 10 minute walk but I can't see it from our apartment. And I still haven't seen it yet! Which is disappointing. Elder Shumway said that he would take me next Monday though!

6- How many miles do you think you walk a day?

~It seems like 234,524. No I’m not sure how much... We walk for about 2 total hours everyday...

7- Are the mtc lbs coming off? We think you look great btw!

~Yeah I have lost about 15-20 pounds... I don't look much different though haha it's weird. I weighed myself at the Southam’s and I weigh about 210.... I haven't weighed that since sophomore year.

8- Dad wants to know if you've used your Leatherman yet? Needed it?

~Yeah I use it every once and awhile! I heard that once I get to Togo I will use is ALL the time. But Yeah it's nice to have a sharp knife with me when I need one.

9- How is your cough? Do you think you need it checked?

~My cough is doing good! It's settled finally... Don't worry :)

10- We LOVED your last cool experience you shared with us...DO you have another one you can share??

~Another experience... Yeah I have one haha. So Elder Shumway and I were on a split to go get some food, and the place where we usually get it is kind of down a sketchy road, so we walk down this road and she wasn't there... So we walked back. We are almost out of this sketchy road and we hear something behind us. We turn around and there is this black man running at us... And we were kinda freaking. I thought he was going to take us out. Elder Shumway put his fists up to fight and I was just standing there like what the heck... And the guy was like no no no sorry, Mama moved her Acheke somewhere else! And he took us to it. IT was so hilarious and scary at the same time. I thought that I was going to have to throw down!

11- What is your daily schedule like?