 |
| "This is the mom and son that I started my mission with!!! I was SO happy to see and talk with them! I don't know if you can find the other picture from like a year ago. They are SO nice and I was so happy to see them." |
 |
| Found the pictures of them from June 2012 |
Dear Family,
I guess I can just start off by saying, thank you for telling everyone that I am in need of letters... Haha I was just kidding! And I think that I said that in my other letter too... But hey, no harm no foul right? Nothing wrong with getting 20 letters! They were super fun to read! Glad to know people are still out there and care! I just don't want people to think that I am some charity case because I'm not! So seeing that I won't be able to write everyone back please just tell everyone THANK YOU!! That would be awesome! Haha love you mom :) I told him Happy April Fool’s Day and he said, “You're the one who wrote all those emails...? Wow mom! Haha kidding... But heck yeah it's april fools day! In French it's "poisson d'avril" meaning fish of april... Haha weird.”
 |
| "Me and the new Elders!" |
So yeah, it was pretty
toasty this week! "Hotter
than a mother bear in a rain
storm" for sure! But it's all good. I am starting to get a little more tan! It is weird how
I don't get tan here like I do back at home... I think that it is because of
the meds that we take. You just get red haha. The rainy season is supposed to start really soon. Looking forward
to that a lot! Except for I hear
that our sector gets totally
flooded when it rains. So I better get
my rain boots out! The power has been acting really sketchy
lately because we have been borrowing from Nigeria and Togo. I can walk to Nigeria in about 20
minutes from my sector... Pretty
crazy! Well it sounds like
everyone had a good Easter Sunday! 2nd one on the mission! Whoo! You know what
that means? "I'LL BE HOME FOR CHRISTMAS... JUST YOU WAIT AND SEE!!!!"
Something like that anyways...
This week was a pretty good one. On Saturday I went on a split with an Elder from Wyoming named Elder Merritt. He is in our zone and it was fun to talk to him. He only has one month here in Africa. I just told him to be strong and carry on. It went really well and I was happy to be able to do that with him. I will send a picture with all the new Elders that I met. Today we had a HUGE soccer tourney against the members. I brought the football that dad sent me and most of the Americans were throwing that around. The members "won", because the ref was drunk... and favoring the Africans. Typical racist. It was a good time though and we went to the church after and we all ate. It was good. Other than that, it is really all that happened this week. "A fartin' horse is a workin' horse!" Haha.
So yeah seeing that I don't have much to say, I thought that I would just finish with my testimony. When I stood up to give my farewell talk, I honestly didn't know anything about this gospel... At the start of my mission, I just wanted to go because I had a feeling it was right. And everyone else was doing it. But once I got here, all of that changed. I really have such a strong testimony of this gospel. And I had noticed the blessings of it in my life. I feel so sorry for those who have rejected, or not yet accepted this gospel. I mean, we have the SPIRIT OF GOD with us!! We can have it with us at all time! All we have to do is follow one of the shortest verses in the Bible, "If ye love me, keep my commandments"... I can testify to you that I love Christ more than anyone else on this earth. Unfortunately there are many commandments that I don't follow perfectly. But like Elder Russell M. Nelson said, "perfection doesn't come in this life, but in the life to come." I totally agree with that. And we have to do ALL that we can to prepare ourselves for that. I often think about Matt Miller serving his mission. I ask myself sometimes, "would he do that when he was on his mission?" I can just imagine the work he is doing in the spirit world converting people to this gospel. Now we just have to do our part and do temple work! This gospel is so pure, so perfect, and so full of love. It makes me feel bad for the people that have fallen away because of stuff that has happened in the history of our church, or the hardness of their hearts to humble themselves before God and just ask. I remember a talk that Elder David A. Bednar gave. He was serving in his mission and he asked his mission president, not quoting it exactly... "What would happen to your testimony if one of the apostles or the prophet fell away from the church?" He said that he would never forget the answer he gave. He said that if something happened in the church like that, that wouldn't faze him at all because he has received his OWN testimony of the truth, and nothing could shake that from him. I thought that was awesome! And it is so true... I was reading in a Liahona not too long ago and it was a talk given by Elder Holland. He was talking about our church history. He said something along the lines of something like this, People who fall away from the church, because they heard of some stuff that happened in the early years of the church, does nothing but testify that men are not perfect, and not worthy for where they need to be in this life. Obviously his exact words are more powerful than me scabbing it together. But I can sure testify that this gospel that we have is perfect. That the Book of Mormon really gives us the plenitude of Christ’s gospel. Of course the members of his church aren't perfect, no one is. But I know that the leader of our church, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is perfect. And he loves each and every one of use. He just wants us to be happy... All we have to do is love him back... I love you guys so much, and I hope that you guys had an awesome Easter and I can't wait to hear back from you!
This week was a pretty good one. On Saturday I went on a split with an Elder from Wyoming named Elder Merritt. He is in our zone and it was fun to talk to him. He only has one month here in Africa. I just told him to be strong and carry on. It went really well and I was happy to be able to do that with him. I will send a picture with all the new Elders that I met. Today we had a HUGE soccer tourney against the members. I brought the football that dad sent me and most of the Americans were throwing that around. The members "won", because the ref was drunk... and favoring the Africans. Typical racist. It was a good time though and we went to the church after and we all ate. It was good. Other than that, it is really all that happened this week. "A fartin' horse is a workin' horse!" Haha.
So yeah seeing that I don't have much to say, I thought that I would just finish with my testimony. When I stood up to give my farewell talk, I honestly didn't know anything about this gospel... At the start of my mission, I just wanted to go because I had a feeling it was right. And everyone else was doing it. But once I got here, all of that changed. I really have such a strong testimony of this gospel. And I had noticed the blessings of it in my life. I feel so sorry for those who have rejected, or not yet accepted this gospel. I mean, we have the SPIRIT OF GOD with us!! We can have it with us at all time! All we have to do is follow one of the shortest verses in the Bible, "If ye love me, keep my commandments"... I can testify to you that I love Christ more than anyone else on this earth. Unfortunately there are many commandments that I don't follow perfectly. But like Elder Russell M. Nelson said, "perfection doesn't come in this life, but in the life to come." I totally agree with that. And we have to do ALL that we can to prepare ourselves for that. I often think about Matt Miller serving his mission. I ask myself sometimes, "would he do that when he was on his mission?" I can just imagine the work he is doing in the spirit world converting people to this gospel. Now we just have to do our part and do temple work! This gospel is so pure, so perfect, and so full of love. It makes me feel bad for the people that have fallen away because of stuff that has happened in the history of our church, or the hardness of their hearts to humble themselves before God and just ask. I remember a talk that Elder David A. Bednar gave. He was serving in his mission and he asked his mission president, not quoting it exactly... "What would happen to your testimony if one of the apostles or the prophet fell away from the church?" He said that he would never forget the answer he gave. He said that if something happened in the church like that, that wouldn't faze him at all because he has received his OWN testimony of the truth, and nothing could shake that from him. I thought that was awesome! And it is so true... I was reading in a Liahona not too long ago and it was a talk given by Elder Holland. He was talking about our church history. He said something along the lines of something like this, People who fall away from the church, because they heard of some stuff that happened in the early years of the church, does nothing but testify that men are not perfect, and not worthy for where they need to be in this life. Obviously his exact words are more powerful than me scabbing it together. But I can sure testify that this gospel that we have is perfect. That the Book of Mormon really gives us the plenitude of Christ’s gospel. Of course the members of his church aren't perfect, no one is. But I know that the leader of our church, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is perfect. And he loves each and every one of use. He just wants us to be happy... All we have to do is love him back... I love you guys so much, and I hope that you guys had an awesome Easter and I can't wait to hear back from you!
Love, Elder Layton
 |
| "I can't remember if this is Jaguar that dad really liked and wanted... But still, it is an XJS and it was just sitting in my sector is front of some rich persons house! So sick!" |
-People are still on an Easter high... They are crazy mom. EVERYWHERE!! It is written everywhere, "I am covered with the blood of Christ" on motos and even houses. They have hair salons named, "divin christ" and little shops named, sacrifice of Jesus... They are CRAZY!!!
-You can't even imagine... I kinda want you to come here to pick me up just to see what I have been up to for the past 2 years...
No comments:
Post a Comment