What a quick week am I right!? Dang.... It went by so fast! C'est passée très vite ;) I am just about to my official 3 months left mark, and I don't really understand how I have gotten here. It honestly seems like just yesterday that I was at my year mark in Ablogamé, that I was being trained in Benin, that I was in the MTC with good ole Burkhart, who I did a split with on Thursday... I will probably talk about that later. But yeah my week went really well. And it sounds like yours did as well! Buying a new car eh!? That is awesome! I know that you have been sitting on nails for awhile to be able to do that! It looks like a pretty good looking ride! I mean I am not going to lie, I will miss our good old Burb, but a Lexus is pretty tight too! (A used older model) Smaller than the Suburban... But I guess your days of taking kids to the pool, going on little trips with all the little ones, and living with your children in general is pretty much over! How does it feel to be that old..? No I'm just kidding. You guys are still young! I don't know how many other moms address their sons by... "Howdy! Hello! Hi! Bonjour! Howdy-do! Hey! Hi-ya! How goes it! What's up!". Haha you're such a goon mom :) And I love you to death! I love you all to death!
I did hear about Elder Kunz's sister. President Weed called us on Wednesday night and let us know. I called him that next night, because I was in Souza with Burkhart. He is doing really well with all of it. I know that he will take it really well. I told him that with all of the prayers coming from his ward, friends at home, and the missionaries here, not to worry about his family. He is a stud though and is doing solid. I am happy to hear that he got to listen to the speakers at her funeral. We are so blessed to have such an amazing understanding of the Plan of Salvation! All starts with the restoration... I am happy to hear that everyone is happy and doing well though! Tell Will happy late birthday for me!! I hope that he had a good one!
I did hear about Elder Kunz's sister. President Weed called us on Wednesday night and let us know. I called him that next night, because I was in Souza with Burkhart. He is doing really well with all of it. I know that he will take it really well. I told him that with all of the prayers coming from his ward, friends at home, and the missionaries here, not to worry about his family. He is a stud though and is doing solid. I am happy to hear that he got to listen to the speakers at her funeral. We are so blessed to have such an amazing understanding of the Plan of Salvation! All starts with the restoration... I am happy to hear that everyone is happy and doing well though! Tell Will happy late birthday for me!! I hope that he had a good one!
For me, as I said, the week has passed very quickly. This week was just full of lessons and teachings... To be honest we are having like 15 lessons with recent converts lately.. That is a lot. And our "other lessons" have taken kind of a hit. But this week we have received around 3 or 4 contacts from members, so we are hoping that they will progress! Fofo left on Saturday night to go to his village to see his parents and some of his children that have stayed there. He left to go get his marriage papers signed and finalized! How awesome is that!? He is so devoted to do all that he has to in order to be able to be baptized! He is a stud for sure! His wife is so sweet too. She doesn't speak a lick of french, but that doesn't stop her from attending ever lessons with a smile on her face, and attentively listening in Sacrament meeting to words that she doesn't even understand. I am certain that she feels the spirit either way. That is sure!
In our last zone leader training, President Weed talked a little about preparing ourselves for sacrament meeting. He said that if we spiritually prepare ourselves, we will be able to feel the spirit during the sacrament and receive revelation. But if we don't do anything to prepare ourselves for it, then it will be just like eating bread and drinking water, and afterwards we will still be hungry and thirsty... I thought that that was really interesting. So these past couple weeks I have been focusing on preparing myself for sacrament meeting, and there has been a HUGE difference! Before, I used to just check myself out because there is always so much noise being in a concrete building it is like an echo stadium, and the sound system is next to nothing so it is really hard to hear, and I have to make sure that my amis are okay and that they have a hymn book and so on and so forth. But in preparing myself for it spiritually, it has been a total opposite experience! Approaching with prayer has been the key for me... I had been having some trouble with some little temptations here and there for the last little while, but when I really focused of the sacrament and what it is there for, and the promises that I get in taking it worthily, and it was a night and day difference. At the end of the week, I was looking back and doing kind of a self evaluation, and I realized that certain temptations were simply non-existent during the week! The power of prayer is amazing. And the promise that the Lord gives us in 1 Corinthians 10: 13 is definitely true.
In our last zone leader training, President Weed talked a little about preparing ourselves for sacrament meeting. He said that if we spiritually prepare ourselves, we will be able to feel the spirit during the sacrament and receive revelation. But if we don't do anything to prepare ourselves for it, then it will be just like eating bread and drinking water, and afterwards we will still be hungry and thirsty... I thought that that was really interesting. So these past couple weeks I have been focusing on preparing myself for sacrament meeting, and there has been a HUGE difference! Before, I used to just check myself out because there is always so much noise being in a concrete building it is like an echo stadium, and the sound system is next to nothing so it is really hard to hear, and I have to make sure that my amis are okay and that they have a hymn book and so on and so forth. But in preparing myself for it spiritually, it has been a total opposite experience! Approaching with prayer has been the key for me... I had been having some trouble with some little temptations here and there for the last little while, but when I really focused of the sacrament and what it is there for, and the promises that I get in taking it worthily, and it was a night and day difference. At the end of the week, I was looking back and doing kind of a self evaluation, and I realized that certain temptations were simply non-existent during the week! The power of prayer is amazing. And the promise that the Lord gives us in 1 Corinthians 10: 13 is definitely true.
All our amis are going well. We have one whose name is Eric. The way we found him was pretty crazy! So my companion and I just walked out of a parcel of someone we were SUPPOSED to teach, but wasn't there. So we walked to the end of this road and looked at each other and said, "So what are we going to do now?" So I proposed the idea of us staying put and having people come to us! Haha so Eric was the first person I stopped, and needless to say, he is progressing and have come to church, and we are going to fix a baptismal date with him! Talk about being in the right place at the right time! I know for a fact though that it wasn't by coincidence that that idea just popped into my head, or that Eric just happened to be the first person I stopped. The Lord really does prepare the way for us, and puts people in our path to teach and baptize! The work is going really well here in the area of Anfamé I! And now II as well! We picked up the other sector or Elder ne-Kindinga. There won't be any missionaries in their area for the next transfer because we lost A LOT of missionaries going home this last transfer. So my comp and I will be working two sectors. Along with another district in our zone. But we will be getting those areas back within the next transfer. No huge changes really to tell you... Still in Anfamé! I am gonna finish here! I am convinced of that.
Like I said above, I went on a split with Elder Burkhart (they were mtc companions). That went really well! It was fun to get to talk to him a little bit. Haha nothing has changed! Except the fact that we both speak french now... That was a trip! When we closed our eyes to pray after daily planning, I was surprised to see that I wasn't in the MTC again! I mean I am so grateful that I wasn't, but it was a real trip! It was fun to see how much we both have grown and learned! Like I have said before, I love the learning aspect of companion exchanges! There was a little scandal in our zone this last week with a missionary and girls... That posed a couple problems for me and my companion in our sector wise... We had to talk to him and then the assistants got involved, and then President Weed ended up finishing it all. The missionary will be sent back to Benin this week. Thank goodness to... I don't like having to babysit anymore than I have to. Other than that, the zone is great, the mission is great, and I am overall doing great!
I love all of you very much, and wish you a happy week!! Always remember to keep praying and choosing the right! I challenge you all as well to focus a little more on preparing for sacrament meeting rather than just running in with your head down! I promise that you will see the difference! Have a good one :)
Love, Elder Layton
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