I went on a split with Elder Kunz! That was really fun!

"This is Beatrice… My African 2^nd mom. Obviously can’t touch my number one mom over all… Who is you mommy :) But, she does cook and clean for me, so that is cool ! She is too nice to me!"

Dear Family,

Look at that... This letter is the 12th to the last letter that I am ever going to send to you on the mission... I received an "unofficial" release date. I will most likely be sent home, or leave Africa on the 13th of December, 1 day before my official 2 year mark. Haha so yeah. At least we know though! I mean I don't have any flight plans yet or anything, but President pretty much gave me a spitball estimate on when I will be home. The 13th is a Friday, so I will be home sometimes Saturday morning or so. I know you have been waiting for some word, so there it is... In the words of Elder ne-Kindinga, "WORD".  He always used to say that. But yeah anyways, thank you for your email! Haha you were kinda like me, except every week! I sit in front of my computer for a good 5 minutes with my cursor blinking trying to think about what I am going to write to you... Then I just start typing and usually come up with some sort of a letter. It sounds like it was a good week nevertheless!

Kylee's birthday sounded like it was fun! Gotta love pedicures! I have never gotten one... Even though I plan on getting one before I go home. There are people who walk around with scissors and little tools used to cut peoples toe nails.. So I will probably drop 100fcfa on that to be looking fly off the plane. Haha I am obviously kidding as well... If I want AIDS, I will for sure hit up one of those people. They walk around hitting a wooden box with a stick, or they jingle their scissors telling people that she is there. Kinda like an ice-cream man plays his music from the top of his truck, they whack boxes and jingle their little tools. Ask any missionary that has walked the streets of Benin or Togo, and they will tell you how much they hate the sound of Fan Milk horns, yelling ladies selling pate on top of their heads, and, people hitting their boxes. They will tell you how annoying it is. 

This week has been okay... Pretty mundane to be honest. Not much happened. We have been working in the other area that was left to us with Elder ne-Kindinga and his companion gone. We will be working in 2 areas until the next transfer in about 4 weeks. They left us with about 2 people with baptism dates, and a couple progressing amis... So that was pretty tight! We will be having a lot of baptisms this month and next. Which brings me to Fofo... He left for his village last Friday, and came back late Sunday night... We went there on Thursday, and he told us that he didn't get his papers... I was so mad. Not really mad, but I was just like, "What did you do then go on a little vacation!?" Turns out that one of his brother in-laws tried to get his marriage papers signed by his mother in-law, who is the same mother as Fofo's wife. But he couldn't do it because the mother in-law does Voodoo, so once she found out that he wanted to do it for church reasons, she refused. And I guess when voodoo mama's refuse, no is no... So he didn't even try. But then he started talking to his cousin who said that he would try and talk to the mom and make it work. So Fofo left without his papers signed... That is really confusing when I put it in writing haha. We hope that he will get it all taken care of with a little more time. He probably won't be getting baptized this month though... Let's cross our fingers for October!

Eric didn't come to church yesterday. He said that he had spiritual and temporal problems... He is kind of a funny kid.  He's super deep and always talks about really deep stuff. I dunno. I have to try not to laugh though sometimes from the things he says. Like the other day he was telling us how he had a dream that he was naked and it was raining in his room, then he looked at his phone and he had a missed call from "les missionnries"... He said that he interpreted that as meaning that our message was true. I mean, I aint baggin' on him, whatever works for him works for him.... Right? We will see where he goes in the near future.

Ma Fille received a calling! She is a branch missionary. She thought that that meant that she would have to leave in another country like us, but we told her that that was a full time missionary, and she could relax a little bit.. Haha she is really smart though and she has done a really good job! Mimi received a calling as well as the young women president. She was really shocked about it, but I couldn't have imagined a better calling for her! She is really loving growing and learning about the gospel. All the recent converts are doing well! Anfamé is by far the best branch that I have ever served in. President Marius is a stud! Always on top of things. 

On Thursday, I went on a split with Elder Kunz! That was really fun! Wednesday afternoon turned into hanging out with the assistants and all the elders being transferred.. Haha they came by our apartment around 2 o'clock to get something from our apartment, and they said that they were all going to sleep at Baguida, the new district in our zone. And that is where Kunz was, so we decided just to catch a ride with them in the mission van. It was fun to be with Elder Poll. So yeah then we went and got Elder Kunz and we had to find a taxi to get back to Anfamé. It was easier than I thought it would be to be honest. Sometimes it’s hard, especially when it is dark. But we had a good time together and worked hard. It was fun working with a newer Elder. He totally reminds me of how I was at 10 Months on the mission... French is still rocky, and still not 100 percent comfortable with everything. It let me reflect on how much better the mission gets with time. He is a stud though and doing well. We talked a little bit about his sister as well. He is doing really well about everything. He said he really liked listening to the talks at her funeral. He is just a good kid all in all! 

Well that is pretty much my week right there family... Not really too much going on. Just missionary work! Preaching that word to everyone. Oh yeah and I still have problems with wanting to punch these little kids that hang out in our cyber with nothing else better to do. There are 6 kids crowding around the same computer next to me screeching in their African language. I am forced to practice some extreme patience right now... The kid next to me smells so horrible!  

Alright well I love all you guys and hope that you have a good week! Don't forget to pray!! Love ya'll.

                           Love yo boi,

                                        Elder "L-Twice" Landon Layton 

"L-Twice" I asked him. Turns out it's some rapper name he and his friends made up. Ha!

"Voodoo chef in his «temple»… I visited this guy almost 15 month earlier when I was on a split with Elder Cellan here… He invited us in his room and we ate their weird herb things that were supposed to give us good luck! I don’t really recall anything lucky happening after though..  So that was kind of a disappointment."

"Note to self, the next time you think that you can put athletic tape on bare skin, where there is hair, surrounding a cut, turn your brain on, and don’t be stupid… This took me at least 45 minutes to get off my knee.. Taking, as you see, a couple of my hairs. Just a couple though, so we’re good. I didn't have anything to cut it with, so I unscrewed the razor off of my pencil sharpener and used that. I went MacGyver on my knee… Or just American missionary in Africa on my knee." 

(From the soccer game 2 weeks ago, eek!)

"It hurts worse than it looks okay… And wearing long pants and sweating stings ! This was taken a week ago, so it is pretty much gone now. You would have been proud of me though… I took care of that thing like a champ."