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| "My Togo flag that this man made for me! Thought I would snag a picture too." |
MERRY CHRISTMAS!! Man... Reading that letter that I wrote you for last Christmas was quite the flashback for sure! That really does seem like only a couple months ago that I sent that to you! But it’s been a whole year. Freakin' me out am I right? Sheesh! It was so good to hear from you and about the things that you have been doing for this Christmas. I loved all the pictures and especially the one of Jordan "photo bombing" hahaha.
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| Elder Layton's sister Jordan "Photo Bombing" |
I laughed out loud sitting here in my cyber. Guess it is safe to say that she hasn't changed at all. Which is of course a good thing! Is there still no snow there yet? That is going to be rough if there isn't snow there or ANOTHER Christmas. If I remember correctly last Christmas there wasn't any snow. I guess snow is just a bonus though about what we really celebrate Christmas for now isn't it?
The reason that we took our p-day on Thursday, today, is because on Monday we had one of the members of the Quorum of the seventy, Elder LeGrand R. Curtis, come and talk to all of the missionaries in the morning! So we worked that night as well and chose today. I will talk about that later. As well before I forget, I will talk about Christmas calls too. Like you said, it would be a good idea to have calling cards there to call me. I think all you have to do is call our phone with your card. I dunno I have never done it... I asked the cyber lady here today if it would be possible to do Skype with video and she said ya but it would be verrrry slow. So I guess we can try it out and if the picture is too lagged we can just do audio. And I think that the audio works good. I can be here at the cyber really anytime on Christmas... And I will be able to talk to you again on Monday before the 25th. So we can confirm plans then. But yeah like I said, I can be here anytime. Well anytime between 6 am to 8 pm my time haha. After that I gotta be back in the apartment. Seeing that the Southams aren't here to help us out, there isn't really a set plan... So whenever is good for all of you guys to be together will work for me! 9 o'clock your time or later... Sometime between 9am and 12pm I will be here at the Cyber... So just let me know what works best for you guys and that is what we will do!
So now that that is taken care of.. Kinda haha. I can continue with my letter. This week has been a looooong week! Literally haha because we didn't have our regular p-day, so the week has felt like it has just been dragging on... But I guess if I think about it, next Monday is going to come really fast and that will seem like the shortest week every! Then the next day, Christmas, I will be able to talk to you guys! Whoo! This Sunday in our Branch of Ablogamé, we got to have Elder Curtis come and preside over our sacrament with his wife. All of the members were really stoked to have him there and they thought it was cool to have him, as did I! I didn't get a chance to talk to him on Sunday, but I did talk to his Wife for a little bit and she was a very nice lady! She said that they have been living in Ghana for a year and a half and have been loving it. I was trying to not be awkward by saying weird things because whenever I talk to adults or even the couple it is hard not to sound dumb! I just don't know what to say. Okay I guess I know what to say I just want to say it in French! Haha it is pretty interesting how that happens. Nevertheless it was fun to talk to her. That Sunday night we have a fireside with all of the members and missionaries and we got to hear from President Weed and Sister Weed along with Sister Curtis and Elder Curtis. They gave talks about Christ’s birth and it was fun to hear from them. The old district president, I forgot his name, translated for them. He was the first member here in Togo and was the one to bring the church over here. His story is a pretty cool one, a pioneer here for sure.
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| Elder LeGrand R. Curtis Jr. First Quorum of the Seventy |
The following Monday we had sort of a zone conference with all of the missionaries, but Elder Curtis talked to us for the majority of the time. It was really amazing to hear what he had to say. Elder Caycho translated for him. He talked about the Spirit and the things we need to do, and vise versa, the things that we cannot do, if we want to have the spirit with us. One of the things that he stated was repentance. And he gave an amazing story to go along with it. It was a long story so I will just give you the short version... When we was serving as a Stake President him and his counselors were praying to know what they needed to do with a man in their ward that was being accused of something that he had done. The man denied it all and some of the people thought that he did it and others thought different. So they prayed to know what they needed to do with him. He said that they prayed and they prayed but the answer never came. One of his counselors said that they needed to leave him alone. He said as he started to pray for an answer by himself, he heard a voice call him by name and tell him that he needed to repent before he could get an answer. He said that he was very shocked by the answer and couldn't even think of anything that he needed to repent of. After thinking for awhile he started repenting of all of the little sins and things that he could think of. After he did that, he said that he got his answer as clear as day that he needed to excommunicate the man that was on trial for the thing that he did. He continued telling us how it was these tiny little sins, that he didn't even remember now, that were keeping him from receiving that divine revelation. That really go me thinking about how much revelation I miss out on, and spiritual gifts fly past me because of the little things that I don't repent of, or just get brushed aside. That also reminded me of a talk that President Hinckley gave about how he repented everyday of his life... Just kinda opened my eyes about how important repentance REALLY is! And how we need to apply the Atonement in our lives, every single day!
Following Elder Curtis' arrival and departure here in Togo, the week was a pretty good one! Like I said, long but good nevertheless. Jacqeuline is still doing awesome! We passed by her house about twice a week. I think that she is going to get a calling in the primary! That would be perfect for her! Seeing that she has 3 little kids and she always tells us how she loved children. So that would be good! We should be as well having a baptism for Fabrice this next Saturday the 29th. I don't know if I haven’t talked about him at all... He is a really smart kid, about 25 years old. He knows the Bible from cover the cover. We were teaching his friend Marco and Marco invited Fabrice to come and "prove us wrong" in our teachings. Fabrice himself told us this the other day. But as the lessons when one, he never had anything to say against us, nothing to battle or nothing that was false in his head. Needless to say that Marco fell by the wayside and his friend that he invited to prove us wrong is now being baptized!! Whoo! He is best friends with Augustine. Fabrice was telling us thank you for what we did to change the life of Augustine. We told him that no thanks was necessary and that it was all thanks to Jesus Christ.
Well family, the mission is going great, and I am looking forward to spend this holiday season here in africa! It will be a good, fun experience for sure! I look forward too to talk with you on the 25th!! And as well again next monday... I love you all so much and wish you a very merry Christmas!!! Love you :)
-Elder Landon Dean Layton
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| "Me and two new Elders... Elder Woodland from Boise and Elder Welch from Alpine." |
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| "Me and my two trainers... They were all so shocked when they heard me speak french! Haha" |
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