Well here it is... My letter of the week! Seems more like letter of the day because it seems like just then that I emailed you all last! I swear something has been spinning the clocks faster here... Which I am fine with. No complaints haha. I was super happy to read your letter as well!! It seems like Shelby had an awesome senior prom!! That means that she is just about done with school!! How crazy is that!? I still remember walking to Tolman Elementary together! Precious moments... And she looked absolutely gorgeous!!! Ma petite sœur est en train de grandir!!! Elle est toute simplement, belle. (Translation: My little sister is growing up! It's all simply, beautiful. Something like that anyway.)
Looks like the spitting image of Taylor took her to prom! Haha how awesome is that!? There is no doubt in my mind that Erin Perkins was an answer to your prayers mom... Simply an amazing woman! Who will be welcoming Taylor home SO SOON!! Haha can't even imagine.
It sounds like the Waterfield's house progress is going nicely! I am so happy for them! For the first time in their house experience, they will have a basement! I don't know if that is a big deal or not, but still, something to think about! I have been talking to Sam and he told me that you guys, the "guys", are trying to book somewhere to stay in Moab and go to the car show. I wish you guys good luck! Get the trailer ready for me ya know what I mean! Not meaning that I am wanting to live in it when I get back...
As for my week, it has been a pretty eventful one! Had a fun little chat with the assistants, which is always a treat. Gotta love Poll and Owusu! Really good Elders. We have yet to set any baptism dates with any of our amis yet... We have this couple we are teaching though, and their story is pretty good. The husband’s name is Gabriel, and the wife's name is Felitienne. The husband is SUPER ready to be baptized... But the wife is still having some attachment issues at the church that she is at now. Just one of the 243,654,654,756 churches that are here in Benin. She says that she knows our church is true, but has too many friends where she is, and she can't leave her responsibilities...
At the beginning of this week, we found out that Gabriel had an accident on his moto and had to stay in the house until it was better. He just jacked up his foot pretty bad, and totally cracked his helmet up... He kept saying that he was inspired to wear it that day because it was hot and wasn't going to wear it. Something told him that he should... He is doing totally fine now. We gave him a blessing after teaching him a little about the priesthood and consecrated oil. (Which I found out I was calling CONCENTRATED oil in French for the longest time... Embarrassing.) He was totally up for it and loved the blessing. He is just getting his mobility back now. It was pretty cool to see all of the African remedies that people kept telling him to do. One day we went by, (being at home with his injury allowed us to teach him a lot during the week, which we loved), he was putting this really yellow water stuff on it and he said that it helped with the swelling... I was too scared to ask what it was so I didn't... Didn't want to hear goat pee as an answer or something like that and another day he had it propped up on other chair with something wrapped around it... Haha in my head I was just like... What the heck!? Ice and ibuprofen.. That is all you need! Hahaha.
So yeah on Thursday, we stopped by and taught him about the word of wisdom. He was really into it at the beginning but towards the end he became really quite and different... We asked him what was wrong and he told us to
As for my week, it has been a pretty eventful one! Had a fun little chat with the assistants, which is always a treat. Gotta love Poll and Owusu! Really good Elders. We have yet to set any baptism dates with any of our amis yet... We have this couple we are teaching though, and their story is pretty good. The husband’s name is Gabriel, and the wife's name is Felitienne. The husband is SUPER ready to be baptized... But the wife is still having some attachment issues at the church that she is at now. Just one of the 243,654,654,756 churches that are here in Benin. She says that she knows our church is true, but has too many friends where she is, and she can't leave her responsibilities...
At the beginning of this week, we found out that Gabriel had an accident on his moto and had to stay in the house until it was better. He just jacked up his foot pretty bad, and totally cracked his helmet up... He kept saying that he was inspired to wear it that day because it was hot and wasn't going to wear it. Something told him that he should... He is doing totally fine now. We gave him a blessing after teaching him a little about the priesthood and consecrated oil. (Which I found out I was calling CONCENTRATED oil in French for the longest time... Embarrassing.) He was totally up for it and loved the blessing. He is just getting his mobility back now. It was pretty cool to see all of the African remedies that people kept telling him to do. One day we went by, (being at home with his injury allowed us to teach him a lot during the week, which we loved), he was putting this really yellow water stuff on it and he said that it helped with the swelling... I was too scared to ask what it was so I didn't... Didn't want to hear goat pee as an answer or something like that and another day he had it propped up on other chair with something wrapped around it... Haha in my head I was just like... What the heck!? Ice and ibuprofen.. That is all you need! Hahaha.
So yeah on Thursday, we stopped by and taught him about the word of wisdom. He was really into it at the beginning but towards the end he became really quite and different... We asked him what was wrong and he told us to
open up to 1 Corinthians 3: 17 where it says, "If any man defile the temple of God, him shall God destroy; for the temple of God is holy, which temple ye are." He asked us if God was really going to destroy him because he didn't respect this commandment. We explained to him the meaning of the scripture, and that God wasn't going to throw a lightning bolt at him and strike him down.. He seemed to understand a little bit. He said that he wanted to close with the prayer. This is the first time I have ever seen an African cry... In the middle of his prayer, he just started bawling and asking God to forgive him of his sins and not to destroy him... Among other things as well, but that was the majority of his 5 minute prayer. When he said amen, I was inspired to leave Alma chapter 36 with him where it talks about Helaman being a bandit, but then how he repented and, "what joy, and what marvelous light [he] did behold; yea, [his] soul was filled with joy as exceeding as was [his] pain!" I am excited to see him tomorrow and see what he thought about it! I have been praying that he will be touched and comforted by that. Knowing that we can be forgiven of our past mistakes is an amazing feeling and gift from the Atonement of Christ.
Well I think that I am going to let you all go now... I really do appreciate the support and love that you give me always! You guys are my greatest fans.
Love,
Elder Landon Dean Layton
PS:
I forgot to tell you that I got my package last week!!! NEW RECORD!!! 2 weeks it took to get here! I so, so surprised!!!
*He said that there were a lot of kids playing soccer games on the computers today and he had to wait for one and he was getting really mad!
*Also that he didn't take any pictures last week. I told him I would forgive him THIS time but he better get snapping!
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