Attitude Changes Everything

Dear Family,

     It was super good to hear from you this week!! It sounds like everyone is just doing great! It's fun to hear all the things that you are up to and also see pictures of everyone! Kenzie looks like she is getting older and older! That was pretty crazy to see! She is growing up to be quite the lady for sure! Make sure the boys stay away from her though... That goes for all my cousins and Shelby. No dating till I get back, so I can interview each boy that wants to date them! And anyone who still wants to after they've talked with me... Is acceptable. Haha so yeah. Make sure to tell her happy birthday! And anyone else that is celebrating their birth.... I kinda misplaced that card you gave me with all the birthdays on it! So I will have to look for that. I think I have an idea on where it's at! 

     So a solar eclipse happened while I was away huh? Yeah I don't think it was visible here. It's not like we would have been able to watch the news and find out either! Haha. I bet everyone was making a huge deal out of it in Bountiful just like everything else that happens out of the ordinary... That actually seems like it would have been pretty cool though! I bet it was fun to go up rompin' and look at it in the Mountains, which I miss seeing by the way. I wanna see some mountains! There aren't any here. But when you say nothing has changed and that it's a good thing, I agree! No change is good! Unless of course it was bad in the first place and it was a change for the good. There is my wisdom for the week :)

     This week literally seemed like I blinked while I was sitting in front of this computer, then when I opened my eyes, a week went past and here I am again writing you! Crazy how that works. It went by really quick, but it was really good! We had our Zone Conference this past Tuesday and that was really nice! It was kind of depressing to see the missionaries bare their testimonies who were leaving home before the next Zone Conference. It was nice to understand the things we were talking about as well! I remember last Zone Conference, about 3 weeks after I got here, I didn't really understand a word that was said! It's crazy to look back and see my progress. Or I guess I should say the blessings that the Lord has blessed me with! I know I’ve said it so many times before, but the gift of tongues really is the real deal! Vraiment un don de Dieu ;) Really a gift from God... Like I kinda speak French so I can translate that for you... Hahaha just kidding! 

      Elder Shumway and I have plans to go to Utah State when we get back, and we will talk French in front of everyone and think we are all cool because they can't understand us and go on double dates and talk about the girls in front of them! It's kinda something we talk about a lot! Pretty funny. Since it's entered into the rainy season, it rains a lot, obviously. But my point is, when it rains, people don't leave their houses, and the streets get flooded. So we don't leave the apartment unless we have to! So we spend a lot of time playing chess and reading the Book of Mormon indoors! The people here are super funny about the rain! After it rains, and we call our amis to fix a lesson, they say they can't because it rained... But the rain had been stopped for awhile by then and it's just funny! They use the rain for excesses all the time. I don't even know if it's because they don't want to meet with us, or because they really think it's impossible to talk after it's rained haha. It all works out though.

*Thanks Elder Caycho for the Photo 

      Today we went to Gamvia! AKA the city on water! We went with the Southams! It was a really super cool experience! The guy was saying that people moved out into the water in the year of 1775 to get away from slavery and war. Ever since then people have stayed out there! It's pretty crazy. It's literally a city on water! Shacks on stilts and hut. There was even a Hotel! I took a video of it and said that this is where I am going to take my future wife on our honey moon! Haha just wait to see what it looks like! I've got a lot of pictures and a ton of Videos that I will hopefully get to you eventually! It was really fun to hang out with everyone though. Towards the end it started to pour while we were in the boat on the way back. I was lucky enough to have brought my rain coat and little cover for my bag! 

So everyone was giving me their cameras and stuff to put in my bag so that they didn't get wet! I felt kinda bad though because everyone was soaking wet, and I was sitting there dry... But in the end I was like.... sorry..?? Haha nah it was all good! 

Everyone had a good time! Funny story. So there is a guy who sells a bunch of stuff there and him and I were arguing and trying to bargain prices. After, no joke, about 15 minutes of discussing and talking. I finally got the price that I wanted. I went to go get my money and I forgot that I left it in my apartment. Hahaha so he was pretty mad about that and I just looked at him and started laughing because after all the hard work we both did to get a price to work, nothing came of it. He kinda laughed a little bit too.. But he was upset in the end. I told him I was sorry and that I would come back another day to buy some stuff. So hopefully one day I will end up there haha. It was a riot though!

*Thanks Elder Caycho for the Photo

     So I've really figured something out here on the mission. The most cliché phrase in the world I've proved it true. "Attitude changes everything". One of the days this week, I can't remember when, I was getting really bugged by my companion because he wasn't communicating with me and telling me what was really going on. I chose to get really frustrated and argued with him for about 2 hours about how it's important to talk to me and let me know what the plan is for everything. I don't really remember what else went on. I just chose to let it bug me and really just rub me the wrong way. The rest of the day I was in a bad mood. At the end of the day when I went to pray, I kind of felt guilty I guess you could say, for letting some little thing affect me for the rest of that whole day. It probably, more likely than not, made me less efficient for that day. I actually know that it did. Then I started thinking about Christ’s Atonement, and all that he did for us, and all that he went through for all of us here on this earth. I remember something that Brother Musgrave said while we were teaching our primary class. He said something along the lines of how he likes to imagine Christ carrying a backpack, or in other words carrying our sins and every time we sin, it puts another brick in his bag and it makes it heavier for him to carry. In the end he was saying that he didn't want to make Christ have to carry more than he had to. I've thought about that a lot out here in the mission field and how I don't want to put a heavier load on Christ than he has to carry. I truly have a testimony of all that Jesus Christ did for us, and the things that we can accomplish through his sacrifice and atonement. Yeah we can have temporally happiness and have this phone and that car, but how long does that buzz last for? It makes me feel so at peace that we have a way that we can have SPIRITUAL and ETERNAL happiness through the Gospel of Jesus Christ. That's the only way. There isn't any other path that we can achieve that! Faith, Repentance, Baptism, Receiving The Gift of The Holy Ghost, and Enduring To The End. If we do those things, we can have that true happiness that everyone is looking for. Yeah times get tough, you get upset, and maybe a little mad at times but if we just think about Christ, and all that he did for us, we can shrug those things off and really focus of the things that matter in life. It shocks me when I talk to people here, who have close to nothing, and when I ask them the question, "How can we have true happiness?" They don't say money, cars, or material things. They answer by, "La Parole De Dieu". Yeah the culture is different from American culture, and there are always those people here and there who will answer that happiness is material things. I think that we can all learn something from these people here that don't have anything and just want to know the truth. My testimony has grown so much these past couple weeks witnessing this Gospel bless the lives of the members here in this branch. I gave my first priesthood blessing to a recent convert Eloi who was really sick for two weeks on Saturday, and he showed up to church in a white shirt and tie looking more healthy than ever. The faith of these people here is truly shocking and I have learned so much from them!

     Okay I think that I have rambled on enough... I loved hearing from you guys and can't wait to hear back from you again! Have an awesome week!! Always remember how much that I love all of you! You're the best :)

                                       -Elder Landon Dean Layton

1- How is the new apartment?
     - Going very well! The Southams came and inspected it again and I'm pretty sure we took first! When we first moved in, there was a HUGE picture of a naked chick in our hallways... We all thought that was pretty funny. It's long gone now.... Hahaha. But it's going really good! Feels like home!

2- How is your companion doing?
     - The Shionster is going really good! He is kinda quiet, but he is good! We get a long well! Better than I have seen some of the other companionships... 

3- If people from here wanted to send anything to the Africans could they? Is there a need for anything? I understand that that question is kind of stupid because of the obvious but really.....
     - Haha nah that's a good question! I guess you could just send it to the mission address and address it to the Leavitts and leave a message in the package for what you wanted them to do with it. I'm not sure what you would send though... Anything would be great! They are always happy to get anything!

4- When does the Southam granddaughter come home? 
     - She went home sometime earlier this week...

5- Were you able to send anything with her?
     - I did send a memory card home! So you should be getting that within a couple weeks!

6- Is there anything we can do for you? We do pray for you each day!
     - You guys do so much for me already! The prayers are always a super big boost that's for sure! Just keep being the best family that I know and it'll be all good :)

7- Have you met any of the new missionaries yet?
     - Not yet... They all went to Togo! I see Elder Christensen a lot. I know one of them went home which is a bummer.... He said he just didn't want to serve here. I wish I could have talked to him because I felt that way the first couple weeks I was here haha. I hope he'll find his way back out here! Oh yeah and Flores left to...... 

8- Those adorable children in the pictures from last week...Are any of them members? What can you tell us about them? They are so precious!!!!
     - None of them are members... yet! Haha they are little kids of some investigators we have. They are always fun to talk to and take pictures with of course! I'll have to get some pictures with the primary! I did give some of those cards to the primary! They loved them! I told them that there were from my mom in America and they though that was AMAZING! Haha so they say thank you :)