Mormon Helping Hands at Grand Marché in Lomé

Helping Hands Service Project in Togo

Dear Family,

     Well it sounds like you guys had a fun and eventful week! Road trip, camping, football games, family time, everything! That is what I like to hear! I'm sure you just forgot the part when you guys read your Books of Mormon around the camp fire right? Right. I'll want to hear all about that the next camping trip you guys take! Haha just kidding. But seriously. It sounds like you guys had a blast though! I am super jealous! Just shows, you guys were "camping" and you still had more stuff than I do out here! Wi-Fi, showers, which I am sure had hot water, and a swimming pool! You were all spoiled! I loved the picture of dad watching Sam drive his RC! Brought back some memories. About the pictures too, you can send as many pictures as your heart desires! The computers aren't THAT bad ;) As in slow... But yeah I love the pictures! And I thank you for taking time to take them during the week to send them too me! It means a lot! 

Baptism for Mathieu!

As for my week, it was pretty eventful! On Saturday, we had a baptism for a kid that we have been teaching for only a couple weeks time. His name is Matheiu and is the little brother on an inactive member. After a long dry spell I finally got a little relief! The service went well and everything went smooth. The last baptism I saw here was a little frustrating... We had to wait for the font to fill up, and they didn't have any towels. But this time it went really well! I was happy with it. He was confirmed the following day, Sunday, and we are going to start teaching him about the priesthood so he can prepare to receive that. I really hope that he still keeps coming to church! Seems to be a problem... not sticking with things to long... But we will make him haha.

All dressed in white!

Everyone getting ready to start working!
At 6:00 in the morning...

        We had a service project last Saturday morning and that turned out REALLY good! It was the "Mormon Helping Hands" thing that we did. It was with all of the branches in Lomé and was a really good turn out! There were a lot of members and even investigators that showed up! All of the missionaries were there too of course and it was fun to see all of them again so soon after we saw each other at the football (soccer) tournament. The service project was at the big super market of Lomé. We had three groups. One group swept (the Relief Society), one group were the painters (mix of everyone), and the other group was the shovelers (the Elders Quorum). It all just kinda turned out that everyone was sweeping and picking up garbage haha. It wasn't too organized but I was impressed for how organized it actually was! Everyone was eager to help and pitch in. Everyone thought that we were the Jehovah's Witnesses and we had to keep saying that we were the LDS Church! The people that were there were really thankful though and kept saying "Akpe Kaka" which means thank you in their native language. It was fun! But at the end it started POURING rain and we were all huddled under a tree. Well not all of us but those that could fit were. And then the others went other places so the picture doesn't do us justice! There were a lot of us! I will attach some pictures in another email. But yeah that is about it for that! It was a good turn out!

All the dust that we kicked up!
It was really windy...
But I thought it was a cool picture!

Elder Haycock and I at the service project.
He isn't that much taller than me...
he was standing on a rock. FYI

And I guess I can help out while I'm at it too!

Everyone under the tree! Taking shelter from the rain!
We were wet and freezing!

       We received a contact from a member in our branch whose name is Jaques. We have taught him only twice but he is really interested in our message and can't wait to learn more! We have a lot of lessons already set up with him and are excited to progress him! We will try and fix a date for his baptism this week. I will keep updating you on his status as we move along! We have also found some others like I said one Wednesday who are still progressing well and hopefully we will be fixing some other baptism dates here soon! The work is starting to move forward here in Ablogamé! It has been so much easier to teach and communicate like I have said in last letters, that I have been progressing in French. But now I find myself catching all of the little things, and am so particular about every little thing! I just want to speak perfect French already! It's just like I was so helpless towards the start of my mission with French, just like little gremlins are in football. But now that I am like into my sophomore year of my mission, I start to understand the techniques and little things that make huge differences! It is a good and bad thing haha. I just have to keep studying and eventually I won't make those little mistakes anymore! But hey, even NFL players make mistakes am I right?

     Well that is about all that went down during my week here in Africa... Good, productive week! Like I said, the work is starting to move forward here and I am so excited for that! Just shows that after so much hard work, you are bound to have success sometime! Let it be in a couple weeks, a few months, or even later on in your life. I have sort of come to the conclusion that if you work hard, and do what is right, literally nothing can go wrong. Yeah, maybe you might run into bumps here and there, and not get something that you want right then and there. But if you are doing what you are supposed to be doing, and trying your hardest, everything will work out eventually. 

     Thank you for all the support that I get from you all! It really does drive me to do better in all that I do. I pray for you all and wish you all an amazing week! Never forget that we are all spirit children of our loving Father in heaven, and that Jesus Christ is our savior and redeemer, who has set a perfect example for us to follow. And nothing in the whole entire world, even anything outside of this world can change that. And for that, I am so grateful!! Again thank you for being awesome, and I can't wait to hear back from you this next Monday! I love you all :)  Oh yeah and FYI  I got my hamburger and fries today! Mmmmm! 

                                                         -Elder Landon Dean Layton

PS: Defending 5A State champs Lonepeak couldn't hold a torch to the boys from Bountiful... Very proud!

PICTURES: 1- Me just doing what I do best... Looking good of course.
2- Baptism for Mathieu!
3- All dressed in white!

4- Everyone getting ready to start working! At 6:00 in the morning...

5- All the dust that we kicked up! It was really windy... But I thought it was a cool picture!6- Elder Haycock and I at the service project. He isn't that much taller than me... he was standing on a rock. FYI
7- And I guess I can help out while I'm at it too!

8- Everyone under the tree taking shelter from the rain! We were wet and freezing!

NEWS STORY —  14 SEPTEMBER 2012

Mormon Helping Hands Busy in Africa

SALT LAKE CITY — 

Thousands of Mormon Helping Hands volunteers throughout Africa were busy on a Saturday in August cleaning, digging, weeding, filling potholes and mowing lawns — and that’s not all.

The annual day of service in Africa involved members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormon) and their neighbors who spent the day cleaning inside and outside of hospitals, police stations and radio stations, performing erosion control, clearing a path for people to get water, trimming flowers and removing cobwebs.

Service to many African communities meant shoveling out gutters filled with all sorts of garbage and waste. In fact, as Latter-day Saints were working, passers-by saw the success of the monumental effort and joined in to help.